Zinfandel- Teldeschi Has Arrived!
My second of three wines, Teldeschi Zinfandel, has now been picked.
I drove the 14 ft. Ford flatbed truck from East Bay Ford rentals up to Healdsburg. This truck is awesome-- it has A/C; a decent stereo, and had only 21,000 miles on it.
Initially, I planned to be up at Ray Teldeschi's ranch at 10 am. When I called him at 10:10, to say I was going to be a little late, he said not to hurry. They had just broke a hydrolic pump that squirt 5 gallons of oil out. He recommended I grab luch.
Around 12:30, I arrived at the Ray's Teldeschi's place. Ray had protected my 3 bins in the shed from the scorching heat. The recent heat wave pushed temperatures over 102 degrees in Dry Creek. I'm glad we picked my grapes off before the heat wave. Here some photos of the grapes in the bins:
Ray, his helper, and I worked his crusher destemmer. Ray drove the tractor with the grapes and slowly dropped the grapes in the crusher/destemmer. His helper guided the grapes as I held the must pump hose. Check out some of these pictures and video:
Around 3 pm, I arrived at the winery. Tom helped me unloading the bins off of truck. The lift gate was smaller than usual so it was very precarious. I had to sit on the bin's edge to counterbalance so the bin won't tip over.
At the winery, I checked the must temperature. In spite of the 100+ degree temperatures, the must was only 68 degrees.
At 4:30 pm, Tom and I left quickly to drop off the truck before they closed. When we arrived, Bob Cruse, the manager, mentioned that the lift gate cover was missing. He said, "It could cost you some money" Tom and I have no idea how it disappeared. I hope it isn't too expensive.
From 5-6 pm, I took the final Brix and pH numbers.
BRIX - A scale used to indicate soluble solids content. It is basically the percentage of sugar in a solution. Brix = grams of sugar per 100 grams of liquid at 68F.
Usually, red grapes are picked between 23-26 Brix. The greater the Brix, the higher the alcohol content will be. A rough estimate is multiplying the Brix by 0.55 to get estimated alcohol. For example, 25 Brix X 0.55= 13.75 % alcohol.
Initial impressions:
- Excellent fruit quality- little to no bunch rot or raisins.
- Has typical Teldeschi fruit profile.
- Will make a big, big zin. Should "soak up" to about 27 Brix.
- Dark brown and crunchy seeds sign of physiological ripeness.
- Very glad that the grapes were picked before this major heat wave.
- Better color than last year.
- Ray's crusher/destemmer mashed the grapes. Not worried because Zinfandel is a sturdy grape and Teldeschi's fruit can handle it.