Saturday, August 9, 2014

OUR BOTTLING -- 2012 CINSAULT -- AND AN IMPORTANT BIRTHDAY

By December 2013, Eric -- in consultation with our winemaking consultant Etienne Cowper -- decided it was time to bottle our own crush of Cinsault from the 2012 family harvest. For more than one year, it had been aging in at our Tucalota winery (a temperature-controlled converted garage) on site. 




  
Here we see the wine transfer -- from one large oak barrel, and several glass carboys, the wine was transferred to kegs on Etienne's truck, and then to Maurice Carrie -- a local winery -- for bottling. The original one-half ton of grapes produced 23 cases of wine...


Just in time -- the first tasting, for Selma's 95th birthday celebration on December 22, 2013, at Ponte Vineyard.


Selma's brother, Elliot Liff, lifts a glass -- L'Chaim -- to Selma's health and passion for life.



Selma -- in the glow of mid-winter sun -- surrounded by immediate family, (l. to r.): daughters Nora Laiken and Margaret Bach, son Eric, sons-in-law Danilo Bach and Stuart Laiken, brother Elliot Liff and niece Jan Liff. Son Robert and family -- from their home in Germany -- sent greetings!

2013 HARVEST

The 2013 harvest in October yielded a bounty....38.349 tons, to be exact!

Tucalota's varietals are much in demand, purchased by local wineries -- such as Leoness Cellars, Lytton Winery and Vinavanti Winery. The harvest, handled by Stage Ranch Farm Management, takes place at night. Illuminated by portable flood lights, the workers pick the ripe grape clusters by hand. Grapes are weighed on site, and then transported to their various destinations -- the first step in the transformation from grape to wine....