Annahala Crush

We had a great time up at CrushPad last Friday sorting our grapes from the Annahala Vineyard in Anderson Valley.  These grapes had about 3.5 more weeks of hang time on the vine then our fruit from Doctor's Vineyard and the difference was clear.  Whereas the Doctor's fruit came in at a really high brix (sugar level) and even rotting in places (don't worry, we sorted those grapes out), this fruit was uniformly ripe, but not over-ripe.  Nice tight clusters, great structure and flavor.  With the fruit so different, it seems clear that we're going to succeed in our goal of creating two very different pinots.  As you read this, the Annahala fruit should just be finishing up it's 5 day cold soak and we'll eagerly await the beginning of fermentation.  Unlike the Doctor's fruit, which we innoculated, we're going native with fermentation on the Annahala grapes.  That means that the timing and speed of fermentation will be much harder to predict.  But, we're guessing that by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week the Annahala fruit will be done with fermentation and ready for pressing.  That'll be our last trip up to CrushPad for this harvest season, so if you've been thinking about coming with us, now's the time!

Enjoy the Annahala Crush video below.  If you can't see the video, please click here.