Merlot In the Door

We finally got all our Merlot picked in between a few days of rain. It rained Friday, September 28 and Sunday, September 30. We finished up with Boushey Vineyard and Conner-Lee Vineyard Merlot on Monday. The quality of the Merlot at least initially seem very nice since we have pressed all our Merlot with the exception of these two vineyards. Very deep red colors as the fruit was being destemmed and crushed. This is usually a good indication of how the grapes will progress in the tank once fermentation starts. Most of the fermentations have been six to seven days in length with pumpovers twice daily. I am not big on cold soaking the fruit before fermentation occurs. I prefer getting things going quickly with inoculation (pitching) of yeast happening shortly after the fruit is crushed into the tank. If we ferment in smaller tanks and we are going to punch the cap down we do this at least twice daily and sometimes three times a day. I believe in short very warm fermentations where much of the extraction of flavors occurs prior to much alcohol being produced. I also like to get the fermenting juice off the skins as soon as I feel we have extracted the color and flavors that we are looking for in the wine. After we press the juice off of the skins we generally go to barrels within twenty four hours. This is my twentieth vintage in Washington and the methods I discuss above are what I feel works for me to make the very best wine possible from Washington's Columbia Valley. Cheers!