11:45

Jesus and “The Maestro,” two multi-decade members of our vineyard team, are busy chopping up tomatoes, cilantro, onions and peppers. They’ll leave the four ingredients solo, and also mix them together in various ratios to create three levels of salsa: Gringo, Media, and El Diablo. Like every year, we share a laugh over the names as we get ready for the harvest lunch.

I’ll man the tortilla heater, a big flatiron that will do about 20 at a time. Meanwhile Jesus and perhaps an interested winery guest or two will take charge of two gas grills, firing up strips of lime-marinated chicken, pork and beef. There’s also some freshly made guacamole and a hot pot of refried beans. It’s a simple meal: grab your tortilla and fill as you see fit. The entire field crew is in, plus the office, and the cellar team and even some folks from Texas on a winery tour. About 45 of us are seated for lunch, but I size up the rations and figure I can eat about 10 tacos without depriving anyone else. Plus, there’s ice cream for dessert.

2:00

My niece Sarah is giving a tour to some visitors who’ve never seen the business end of a winery. We always like to put them to work. A woman in her fifties has a stainless steel punch-down implement in her hands, about eight feet long with discs at either end. It’s for sanitarily pushing the skins, seeds and stems back into the juice so that the wine can pick up the polyphenolic material—color, tannins, etc. —locked therein. She’s doing a fine job, after first splashing herself with a pretty good dose of fermenting merlot.

Jon’s got some company with him up on the crusher stand helping him pull grapes into the maw; Sarah’s group has moved to the catwalk and is looking down into the now-full zinfandel tank. It’s about 80 degrees out, there’s a slight breeze starting to pick up and maybe I’m feeling a little of that gemultlichkeit after all.

7:20

The day is wearing on, but the work’s not through. The night crew, consisting of Devon and the new guy whose name I didn’t quite catch, have started cleaning up the mess we’ve made. They’ll also continue the work of barreling down wine in process, round-the-clock punch-downs and temperature monitoring. It’s my turn to play hero, ordering pizzas for all, along with the one item no winemaker can live without—beer. Any winemaker will tell you it takes about one six-pack to make a bottle of wine, or a ratio thereabouts. We’re eating pizza from Mary’s Pizza Shack (our local favorite, plus the only place out here that will deliver) and washing it down with our favorite local beer, Red Rocket from Bear Republic in Healdsburg.

The gang exchanges the news of the day. Greg says the fermentation is already starting in a couple of the zin bins from yesterday, and we’ll have to add more dry ice to slow them down. Jon reported a massive Chardonnay barrel fermentation overflow that needs to be cleaned up in the Southwest part of the cellar. Jason suggests that might help to “cross-pollinate” the wild yeasts working the Pinots over there.

I leaven the shop talk with an email I got from the Sonoma County Wineries Association, citing this crush as “one of the best in decades” —and it’s not even halfway over yet. I thought this would elicit a laugh or two, or perhaps even a sneer. But to my surprise, the reaction is nodding and agreement. “Gotta be one of the best I’ve ever seen,” says Jason, who has been at this for 15 years despite being only 27. “Everything we have in is nothing short of stellar.”

And come to think of it, my dad (he grows the grapes) has been telling me that after two years of long crops (heavier than normal yields) with surprisingly superior quality, this year’s crop was down significantly, which you would expect. Normally (but not always), this also portends exceptional fruit, because each vine can concentrate on fewer bunches. Imagine that. I just thought it was funny because the press office says the same thing every year, or it sure seems that way. Maybe I’m just getting cynical in my middle years.

9:00
I check in at the office, answer a few emails and head home to clean up and crawl in bed. Yeah, these are two-shower days to be sure. Tomorrow will be another full day, and grapes don’t take weekends off, either. Ah, the glamour. And the great part is, I just can’t wait to do it all over again.

Originally published on Beyond Wonderful in September 2007.