My very first day on the job began with a beautiful misty morning.
This is a big and very important part of a Cellar Rat's job.
Every part of the winery needs to be clean for harvest. Yes. Even the ceiling. I got soaked doing this!
Racking is the process of moving the wine into a different barrel to improve quality.
Close-up of the nozzle used for pumping wine out of the barrel. The window is so you can check to see if sediment is being pumped.
Metal kegs are used for wine that doesn't fit into a barrel properly because barrels need to be filled completely to prevent oxygen contamination. Whereas kegs can be filled with inert gases and sealed.
The wine is being pumped back into the barrel after spending the night in the tank.
Barrels are washed before they are discarded or steamed.
I'm delivering this 2006 Syrah sample to the lab for a variety of tests.
This necessary piece of equipment has lots of nooks and crannies that make cleaning it difficult.
Using the pressure washer and a forklift to get to those hard-to-reach places.
This semi pulled into the drive way too far. So after several unsuccessful attempts at turning the driver used a forklift to swing the back around.
We have lunch at this table everyday but it broke! It was my grandpa's and it was purchased in 1949. I decided that it must be saved and a couple of screws later it was like new.
Working with Cruz is always fun. He's also (grudgingly) taken on the job of my Spanish tutor.
Our lab tech Amanda caught on camera doing an important analysis.
I returned the favor by teaching Cruz to skateboard at lunch time.
Thousands of glass bottles arrive in anticipation of next weeks bottling.
At Deerfield we hand clean every single bung.
This device is used to filter out all of the solids in the wine to give it a beautiful clean and clear look, among other things.
Close-up of the crossflow filtration machine's filter.
I've got my swim trunks on because I know that once I get in the press I'm going to get soaked to the bone.
Here's where the Battle Of The Bee took place. The picture doesn't really capture how confined the space feels...
This is the back of the bottling truck. It's where it all starts....and ends. The finished cases come flying down that ramp.
For a brief moment there was enough time to pose for a picture. Then back to work.
I'm sure that there's a more technical name, but this unit fills the bottles. It can be calibrated to any amount.
A good view of the truck. I took this from on top of a 25 foot tall tank.
The bottling line must be reconfigured for every different bottle shape. A magnum is two bottles of wine in one!
These bottles are in queue at the start of the line.
A shiner is a bottle that has no label. I got to take one home at the end of the day! It was delicious!
This was a particullarly spectacular morning. It's been so nice and overcast when I get up.
This picture says it all. A bottle before the line and after. We turned about 60 of these out a minute.
The winemaker jumps on the line with her crew when we had to re-foil the magnums.
Robert jumps in to help uncork the magnums that had been filled too high.
This was a tricky operation. The wheels are motorized but the motor is broken and jury-rigging a solution wasn't simple.
I should have snapped a picture when the tent was still on. Oh well...
Here she is in all her frigid glory...
The ever dapper Robert is prepping the Chiller for the move.
After a little bit of thought we figured out the best way to rig up the Chiller to be lifted.
That's the word.
The Chiller didn't have a very long voyage.
The Chiller got lifted over the wall and set in the space on the right. That area was originally intended to be a terrace garden.
The barrel gets filled all the way to the brim.
It's ten times harder to get to the barrels on top but I guess that's why they invented ladders.
I get right up there to scrub those barrels. Bacteria beware!
These are the first grapes we handled of 2009! Pinot Noir.
Looking sci-fi with my gasmask and headphones. That mask is absolutely crucial.
It's a gas! (The joke's so bad, it's good...right?)
Spongebob is using his squarepants to keep the sulphur dioxide in the barrel.
I had to get a profile. This is going to be high fashion in 2033. I'm a visionary...
Robert rigged this genius contraption to keep oxygen away from the wine as the bottles are poured out so we can adjust the wine.
This time we had to uncork bottles for an entirely different reason: The alcohol content wasn't the same as the label implied.
This little steam cleaner is seldom used but it's a good thing we had it that day.
This cityscape obfuscates the beautiful backdrop of the winery for most of the harvest. It's too bad but having those bins handy is key.
Because 9 months of grime isn't a flavor that adds to the wine.
The bins were stored in the vineyard which in next to our protected wetland, home to hundreds of these cool tree frogs.
I reorganized all of the bins so we won't be scrambling at harvet.
A barrel does two things: Acts as a filter and adds flavor. Sometimes the flavor's used up but the filter isn't so we soak oak staves like this in the wine.
A very misty morning. This is the first thing I see when I set foot outside my tent.