What a great week, making wine! I have purchased Pinot Noir fruit from Dale and Bonnie in the Santa Cruz Mountains for several years and really like the quality of the vineyard and the grapes. The wildfires in California in 2021 didn’t impact Santa Cruz, so the fruit was in pristine condition. The bunches were tight (see photo) with no rot or mildew – just pure fruit.

We made the wine onsite – picked and processed the grapes in one go with no wait time or transportation. So super fresh fruit directly into the barrel. We did minimal sorting, as the quality was excellent, before moving the grapes into our fermentation vessels. The fun part was adding dry ice to the tanks – it was perfect for Halloween pictures. We use dry ice during the cold soak phase of the winemaking process to keep the grape must cold. Cooling down the grapes immediately after picking helps inhibit spontaneous fermentation from wild yeasts. The “cold soaking” also helps us extract color and flavor from the grape skins, which is especially important for Pinot Noir. This is the first year we are using dry ice to cool the grapes. Dry ice is great because it doesn’t melt – it turns straight from a solid to CO2 gas. That means dry ice cools grapes without adding water to the mix; more water means a lower sugar concentration in the grape must.