Fermentation and Facebook and Financials (Oh My!)
In her post on Monday, Kerith did a great job of guiding you through the basics of fermentation. If you haven't already read her post, I highly recommend that you click here. As you read this, our Doctor's Vineyard pinot noir is in the throes of fermentation. The graph below shows the most recent fermentation readings (as of 9/18). As we would expect, the Brix (in blue) is falling as the yeast converts the sugar to alcohol. At the same time the temperature (in red) is rising from the heat of the exothermic reaction. Over the next couple of days, we expect to see the Brix drop all the way to zero, but the temperature should cap out at about it's current level of 32-34 degrees celcius (90-93 degrees fahrenheit). We're anticipating that fermentation will be complete sometime on Saturday, and then we'll press the young wine on Sunday and transfer it to barrel for aging. Please contact us if you want to join us at CrushPad on Sunday for pressing.
If you can't see the graph or if you'd like to follow the fermentation process in real time, you can click here.
A couple of our younger (and younger at heart) Brigade members have asked whether we have a Facebook page set up. The answer is a muted yes. If you're on Facebook, you can access it by clicking here. I'm admitedly not a Facebook person so the page is a little sparse. I set it up so that our blog posts update regularly and added a photo album of Bridade pictures. Sadly, we only have three friends right now. So, if you are a Facebook regular, you can boost my self-esteem by being my friend. If we get enough friends, we may consider doing some special Facebook-only content. And if you're a real Facebook pro and want to recommend some things to make our page a little more spiffy, please drop me a line.
After a real tough week in the market, it is hard to find much to smile about. But, I was taking a break from the CNBC we have playing on every TV in the office to watch a bit of the Manchester United vs. Villarreal match Thursday afternoon. The announcer led off the broadcast with a statement roughly as follows (and you have to imagine this in a really thick British accent): "..Manchester is sponsored by AIG. Aren't they having some sort of problem in the States?" If you've never seen a Manchester game, you can click here to see the very direct connection with AIG. I guess it goes to show that, as much as those of us who work in finance believe otherwise, the whole world really doesn't revolve around Wall Street.
Let's hope that next week is better than this one. Certainly getting that first taste of Bruliam pinot on Sunday afternoon should help - I'm hoping that it'll be so good that I'll forget all about this week (or, if nothing else, maybe I'll drink enough to sleep right through the open on Monday).
Important Note: Have you ever had a question you wanted to ask a sommelier but were afraid to ask? We're scheduled to interview one of the top sommeliers in the country in a couple of weeks to discuss wine and wine-food pairing. Please feel free to send us any questions, no matter how silly, and we'll try to work them in.