la gramiere: Two Big Weeks!

Here's the big news coming up next week: Monday, they are printing our labels. I have to go over to approve the final colors as they are printing them. I can't wait to see them actually printed out on the right paper and everything. The same day they are also delivering the bottles. Hmm that will be interesting since Matt is going to Shanghai for two weeks. Who will be here to meet the receive the bottle delivery? I'll have to work that one out. Oh wait, my sister, Molly, is coming to help out, so she can take the bottle delivery.

Tuesday is the biggest day of all! We will be bottling our rosé! Taaa Daaah! How exiciting is that? Finally, a real bottle of wine from our very own vineyards with a label, cork and capsule (providing they all are delivered in time!). 800 bottles, that's not so bad. It's just that we (meaning myself, my sister, Molly, and hopefully some very very good friends) have to then put the bottles in boxes, tape them up and transfer them to our garage which will become our storage facility.... It's going to be a fair amount of work, but not as much work as when we bottle 12,000 bottles of red. Oh, did I explain the bottling truck? There's a nifty service here in France for wineries that aren't big enough to have their own bottling lines. They take a semi and install a bottling line on the back of it, then they go around from winery to winery (there are lots here) and bottle the wine at the "domaine".

Then, that afternoon, is the biggest event of all...

Kermit Lynch is coming to taste our wines!!!! I am so excited, and so nervous at the same time! Kermit, for those of you who don't recognize the name, is my former employer, and the person responsible for a very large part of my wine education. Working at his retail store in Berkeley, was the best wine education anyone could ever hope for. He's the kind of person who loves to taste wine with his staff, so when he was in town we did it often. What an amazing job. Anyway...he's coming, here, to my house, to taste our first vintage. I debated on whether to announce it on the blog, in the event that he doesn't decide to buy any, but in the end I've been sharing everything else with you so I might as well share this too. I tasted the red again yesterday and you can tell that the malo-lactic fermentation is almost finished. It's tasting better and better. I think he'll like it, but who knows....we'll just have to wait until Tuesday to find out.

(Photo from the recent SF Chronicle article about Kermit.)

Comments

Amy,
I have been reading your blog and keeping up with your progress. I know that you are getting very excited! I hope that your bottling goes smoothly and that your mentor enjoys your wine as much as we did!
Best regards,
Marianne Levenson
Conway, SC

Posted by: Marianne Levenson | June 09, 2006 at 02:45 AM