Don't get mad.

I don't think I can blog about work anymore. I think my blog may be jinxed. I talked about two possible mentors who no longer are my mentors here anymore. I feel if I talk about my co-workers, that something might happen to them and then they won't work with me anymore. And, you guys, I really like my co-workers. I don't want them to get sick or stupid or anything. I am sorry for being so vague but all I can say is that I still love what I am doing and I really can't imagine doing anything else. Even though things are super busy at the moment. I worked 7 days this week, long hours each day except for today, which will be a 6 hour day or something like that.

We crush, we press, I do a lot of lab work (which is one of my favorite things to do at work), we clean, we move wine, we rack wine (which is the same thing as moving wine except you are taking the clear juice/wine off of the lees [which are the heavy solids that settle out after you crush and press] and moving the clear juice/wine to another tank), we clean, we do pump-overs, we clean.

Have I already given you some definitions? No? Ok, well here are some and these definitions are in my own words, so I hope I am right. I will be fact checking as I go along (did I mention my boss knows about my blog [Hi Big D$$!] so I hope I don't make an ass of myself and tell you that one word actually means something completely different, although I doubt BD$$ actually reads my blog but just in case he does: My boss rocks!)

Racking: removing juice/wine from the settled out solids, lees or sediment

Pump-overs:a procedure which gets the cap back in contact with juice/wine during fermentation so that the wine can get more skin contact which in turns helps with tannin structure and color extraction

Cap: the skins and seeds of red grapes(the must)that forms in the tank during fermentation

Topping off: using one batch (either the same or a different one) to fill a barrel completely so there is no air space in the barrel. Over time, the air space in a barrel will increase as barrels are not air tight. Also, winemakers will extract small amounts of the wines aging in barrels to run quality control tests on them.

Crush: a machine or process which, usually, de-stems the grapes and gently crushes them to release juice, which is called free-run juice.

Press: In whites, this happens immediately after crushing. The free-run juice goes into a separate tank while the pomace is pumped to the press (ie: the modern-day grape stomper). There are different kind of presses, the main ones being the bladder press and the basket press. The bladder press is a large cylinder on its side with a delated bag on the inside. During the press, either manually or on a program, the bladder will slowly inflate and push the pomace to the sides of the cylinder where there are slits to allow the juice to flow through and down into a press pan. From the pan, the pressed juice can go into another tank or the same as the free-run juice depending on what the winemaker wants.

With reds, this usually happens after fermentation is complete or when the wine is dry. The juice is drained out of the tank and the pomace is taken out of the tank and transferred to the press. The press cycle begins and the pressed wine is usually put with back with the same wine.

That's all I can think of right now. As I said, I worked 7 days this week but I do have tomorrow off. But right now, must...take...nap before heading back to the winery to do evening pump-overs!