Finally.

I have composing this blog in my head about my internship for a while, usually when I am at the winery, doing some cleaning in the Texas heat (in the shade, though, so that's good).

First off, before the nitty gritty details, the WINERY ROCKS! I clean barrels, tanks, bins, floors, etc...I have also lifted 60 lbs barrels, unloading a truck and putting them onto racks, worked 12 hours a day bottling wine which means dumping cases of empty bottles onto a conveyor belt, loading bottles into cases and lifting the filled cases onto a pallet. I have also run tests on the wine, ranging from the sugar content to the acid content to the amount of SO2 in the wine.

Today I punched down the cap of a fermenting red wine. I didn't literallly punch it down, I used a stainless steel tool that is like a paddle and I push it down on the must (the skins and seeds of the red grapes which we keep with the juice until the end of fermentation and then we press the skins some more to get some more juice...)

Tomorrow we get more grapes in, red and white.

The nitty gritty details: my first day of my internship was a little unusual as there were some changes going on in the heirarchy of the winery which wasn't an expected and it was very surreal as Dave, the assistant winemaker, frantically tried to get records straight, notes in order, wine to be bottled, etc...I spent the first week in the tasting room, which was very frustrating to me. But Dave did an excellent job keeping everything together and done in such a diplomatic way.

The second week I switched from going from the tasting room to the back, where mainly I helped Serafin with his chores and not really understanding what I was doing since I was just following orders.

The third week brought the interim winemaker, Greg H. who is this guy. For the whole first week, though, I just knew he owned a winery in Washington, is originally from New York, and was a winer buyer for about 15 years or so. Read the interview from the link, then you will see my shock after I googled him the weekend after meeting him.

Holy cow.

I even went to a wine tasting he was invited to at a posh wine bar in downtown where I was so intimidated by being with him and other sommeliers that I couldn't even taste the first four wines of the night. Then later on, I proceeded to pour wine all over his hand. Yikes.

But mainly, it's been workworkwork. My body is still adjusting to working physical labor for over 8 hours a day. I have lost weight, mainly inches and not pounds, but I figured out why the pounds aren't coming off...working at a winery is like weight lifting all day. There's no cardio. So I am building muscle but not burning fat at the same rate. Eventually, with more muscles, I will have a higher metabolism because muscles use more energy than fat.

Anyways, in the meantime, Chris has been fabulous. He makes me coffee, breakfast and lunch almost every morning. He cleans house and does laundry. He is also looking for a job, so keep your good thoughts coming this way for that area.

I am glad I finally got to blog. I only get on the internet about three times a week now and when I do, it's email, myspace and facebook...in that order. I barely have time to read poshdeluxe anymore, which makes me sad as her blogs always cheer me up in some way.

Have a great and cool August everyone! For me, August means harvest which means workworkwork.