To the Fields!

Week of May 9^th

This week was spent clearing part of a field of the old vines, posts and wire in preparation for our new vines. It mostly involved repetitious processes which I must applaud Leonard for being quicker than I (Especially when it came to coiling wire).

Part of the reason we are pulling out these vines is because they were planted much too deep.

We first need to cut the vines from the wires, then cut the pegs holding the wire to each post, then cut the branches off, then cut the tightening handles on each end, then roll all the wires up in case we use them again

and finally pull out the posts.

Anyone have any need for rolled wire and posts? Perhaps you fancy a fence?

I found multiple posts with what appear to be worm tracks embedded into them. I found their lack of unity somewhat pleasing.

Needless to say we were happy to see the end of the day.

Not a wordy blog this week I'll grant you but with so many pictures to try and place I felt it would simply get too long.

Cheers,

Alan

(P.S. – Mother Nature seems to have determined that if I am to send my days in the field that I am to have bangs! Not by choice but by wind :)

Bottling...and more bottling...

Week of May 2^nd

To be fair, I shouldn't complain too much, all told we spread 24 hours of bottling over the course of 5 days, with other vineyard work mixed in. It is only the repetitive nature of it which can drain your spirits.

In effect, we were three people doing the work of four to five people, depending on how many stages we wanted to finish. I happily took on the work of two people, the internal cleaning and filling of the bottles, Leeko worked the corker and Leonard, our lead farm hand, the exterior cleaning. In the future we hope to make use of an automatic bottling line, but for the time being, phew, hard work :)

We decided to leave the capping of the bottles for when we labeled them. Each morning I moved as fast as I could to try and back the other fellows up…but I couldn’t catch Leeko :(

Also one can never rush Leonard, who prefers a job done right to one done quickly. That said, by the afternoon I started to slow down considerably.

Still by the end of the week all our varieties of red were tucked away on bottles, so a measurable accomplishment for the week at least (Oh, and this is one of FOUR pallets we finished with!).

Next week, we march to the fields!

Cheers,

Alan

Welcome New Tanks!

I considered writing an outline of who I am, my fellow staff and the winery to start this blog but upon some limited consideration (As I sit with my girlfriend Sara on this cloudy Sunday watching BBC's Pride & Prejudice) I have changed my mind. I think it would be more natural to have persons and places wander by themselves into my posts. So, shall we?

Week of April 25^th

I was on a brief holiday in Cape Breton with Sara received an email from Leeko, the estate winemaker and vineyard manager, saying that our new stainless tanks had arrived. The three tanks, each with a volume of 3000l, increased our tank capacity to 18000l.

We organized a group of family and friends to come by to help tip the tanks to a upright positions, which was achieved with some basic physics (We attached a chain to one joint on their tops, causing a bit a swinging once raised by the tractor), and some minor stubbing of my fingers (Thank you Dad…).

Our first orders of business were to high pressure wash and clean them thoroughly. We then transferred our new Belleisle Red from our 1000l tanks and combined it into one of our new tanks in preparation for bottling the following week. A week which would be quite tiring indeed, which I am clearly not anticipating in this picture.

Since this blog is meant to outline the processes we are going through at the winery and nothing else, I will leave this post here, only to add my thanks to Leeko for these and I am sure many future pictures.

Cheers,

Alan