Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The Garage

Our goal is still to find a crush facility and winemaker who is willing to let us get dirty, learn a lot, but still step in and help us out. No easy task.

After constant rejection from almost every custom crush facility within a 2-hour drive we are seriously considering moving our operation to Dan's garage. Why not? Aaron is making top notch Syrah at his parents pad in Olympia, WA. It's not just a numbers game, it's about having control. Giving up our parking spot for a few weeks wouldn't be so bad. Neighbors and friends could supply sorting labor. We could build an insulated room that could keep our wine cool during the cold soak and heat up during fermentation. Right?

Here's hoping/praying that a crush facility reads this blog and takes pity on us.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

So let me suggest you consider taking this little hobby of yours one step further.

Well the way I figure it, I could plant nearly an .66+ acres of grapes on an open, south facing hillside of LAH.

The yield, with a bit of luck, could be in the 1 ton range. Now granted it's a few years out... But then again, we're still optimistically looking for Dan's first barrel to arrive and we've haven't had a problem in being patient for it.

From a post I read elsewhere (and I am sure you already know): "With Pinot Noir, 2 tons of fruit per acre is a good number for quality wine. From each ton, expect 165 gallons. Each case is about 2.38 gallons. So 138 cases per acre (328 gallons per acre) is good. Given about 1100 vines per acre is average, about 1/3 gallons (about 1.5 bottles) per vine is a good estimate."

Anyone up for planting the hillside? I know not where to begin other than I have a tractor, a 1-1/2" water meter, and I have yet to be late with the water bill.

BT