Kinkead Ridge Vineyard and Estate Winery Weblog

Bud Break, Barrels and Bubbling -- Action on all Fronts

The vineyard, the winery, and the wild violet wine in the kitchen are in full play. The violet wine, now in a carboy, is bubbling away, and the color is gorgeous (this is just for personal use and gifts). 

The warm weather has encouraged bud break; this photo shows our unusual use of a third cane, which is a vigor diversion and crop control technique. It may or may not be trimmed off later in the year. It's an anxiety-producing time, because a late frost at this point could really wreak havoc. This actually occurred in 2002, and we lost 80% of the crop.

The winery is now in full swing. Today, Ron and two of our winery helpers are racking all the 2005 red wine into tank, cleaning the barrels, and the wine was supposed to be pumped back tomorrow... but it will be a long night because the tank holding Syrah is leaking, so that tank at least will need to be re-barreled tonight.

Here you see the barrels being cleaned outside on the crush pad, and with the barrel washer in the winery (there's ALWAYS something to clean up in a winery!)


I'm also juggling three 53 foot trucks today. Because these large trucks can't make the turn into our small winery driveway, a rendezvous must be arranged. I met the truck with our labels at a junction near the vineyard; (well three boxes out of four anyway.... the other one never made it out of California); the corks arrived on another carrier, and a very unhappy driver who was supposed to deliver bottles tomorrow now needs to stay overnight in Ripley because he showed up a day early and the receiving warehouse isn't ready for him.

Next Monday, we start bottling, the 2005 white wines first, the 2004 reds mid-month... over 20,000 bottles, all corked and labelled by hand, and filled four bottles at a time. All this wine will rest until release... the white wines Memorial Day weekend, the red wines Labor Day weekend.

Your friendly correspondent,
Winery Partner Nancy Bentley and Web Mistress, www.KinkeadRidge.com

Here's more than you probably want to know about carboys, from Wikipedia:

A carboy is a glass vessel used in fermenting wine, mead, and beer. Usually it is fitted with a rubber stopper and a fermentation lock to prevent bacteria from entering during the fermentation process.

Carboys come in various volumes ranging from 1 gallon to 6.5 gallons. A 1 gallon carboy is usually called a "jug". A 15 gallon carboy is often called a demijohn. "Demijohn" is an old word that formerly referred to any glass vessel with a large body and small neck, enclosed in wickerwork. The word is said to derive from the name of a Persian town, Damaghan, but this is not supported by any historical evidence. According to OED the word comes from French dame-jeanne, literarily "Dame Jane", as a popular appellation. This is in accordance with the historical evidence at present known, since the word occured initially in French language in the 17th c., and no earlier trace of it has been found elsewhere.

In Southeast U.S. slang, a demijohn jug, of any size, is referered to as a "jimmyjohn".

Wild Violet Wine... and Sturgeon Bladder

Yesterday, Ron and I worked with two very different ingredients. I picked wild violets for my wild violet wine (the simple recipe is at www.KinkeadRidge.com/htm/violet.htm). The photo is of the mixture, which has an incredible aroma.

Meanwhile, Ron mixed up a cheerful little batch of isinglass,"a protein extract made from the swim bladder of certain fish, including sturgeon. It is used in white wine clarification at very low concentrations with excellent results." (Concepts in Wine Chemistry, Margalit).

Vegans prefer not to drink wine which used this fining agent.

Here's maybe more than you want to know about isinglass... From Bruce Stoeklin "Isinglass is principally used in white wine fining to bring out or unmask the fruit character without significant changes in tannin levels. Isinglass is less active toward condensed tannins than either gelatin or casein. Because condensed phenolics are principally responsible for astringency, isinglass has a less dramatic effect on the reduction of both wine astringency and body than most other protein fining agents. It has the added benefit of not requiring extensive counterfining as compared with other proteinaceous fining agents. Many vintners fine with the agent after aging (particularly barrel aging) and before bottling to “round out” background astringency and produce a brilliantly clear white wine without the stripping effect seen by other protein fining agents. Isinglass is also used as a riddling aid in methode champenoise production at levels of 1.5 to 4.0 g/hL (1/81/3 lb/1,000 gal.).

Isinglass has several advantages over gelatin in fining of white wines. The agent is active at lower concentrations, produces enhanced clarification and a more brilliant wine, and is much less temperature dependent than gelatin, which shows enhanced properties at low temperature."

The Winegrower's Desk

Ever wonder what the winegrower does when he's not in the vineyard or winery? Well, lately, Ron has spent evenings cutting corks in half with a little pen-knife (sounds like chalk on a blackboard). The intellectual quest is to determine precisely why our top of the line corks that we purchase from Amorim are better than the next level down. Ron's conversations these past couple of weeks are very simple: "I'm 28% done". "I'm 50% done." "I'm 65% done." "I can see the end of the vineyard." This relates, now that pruning is finished, to tying up this year's selected canes to the fruiting wire.

Your friendly correspondent,
Nancy Bentley, Owner
www.KinkeadRidge.com