Satarvo Bianco - 2006 Vintage on its way!

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Satarvo Bianco is a very rare variety of wine only produced by a single winemaker in the foothills of the mountains west of the Hawkesbury. Our 2006 vintage is now in production, read on for the rivetting details ...

Cleaning & Bargaining

Saturday morning, Rob was up at 6am to prepare the equipment for our white wine making. With everything washed and steralised, he then set off to meet the truck coming from South Australia with our grapes. It was scheduled to arrive at 8am, but grape picking, the weather and long distance road transport logistics delayed the grapes arrival until midday. The truck driver looked happy to finally make it after 13 hours on the road.

So, Rob and his father, Peter, met the truck and the entire Farillo family who are involved in the growing, picking and transportation project. Joe who is the head of the family was delayed even longer than the truck, so the business of selecting our grapes and arriving at a price had to wait until his arrival. We joined all the other expectant winemakers inspecting the boxes of grapes, tasting, judging the sugar levels and discussing the quality of the grapes.

Finally, at about 1pm, Joe arrives and we get to select our boxes of grapes. Then, the slow process of arriving at a price begins. We discuss the weather, Italian politics, the ingredients of the herbal remedy Joe’s wife concocted to cure the flu he had last week, the football results, rising fuel prices and back to the weather again. I am the only non-Italian standing in the yard and feel a little nervous as Joe has an animated discussion with a group of men in some southern Italian dialect. I catch a few words, but fail to follow exactly what is going on.

Then finally, Joe says “how does 60 cents a kilo sound”. Naturally, I am astounded, I get out my refractometer, test the sugar level in the grapes again, pretend to be disappointed, and then offer “30 cents sounds more like it to me”. A heated discussion in the Southern Italian dialect ensues with the male family members and then Joe says “make it 50 cents”. I then offer “35 cents and we can shake hands”. Joe protests and we finally agree on 38 cents a kilo. So, our 200 kilos of grapes ends up costing $76. They are loaded in the car and we are away.

Destemming, Crushing, Pressing

Back at “Vallée des Fleurs” winemaking headquarters, we unload and get stuck into the destemming of the grapes. Our friends Fay, Russell and their son Josh lend a hand in the process. We all get to caress almost every single grape as we strip them from the stems. This may sound romantic, but believe us when we tell you it is a slow and very sticky process. We agree that after 4 boxes we can open a bottle of our last years Riesling to help ease the boredom of the task. A glass lifts our spirits and reminds us why this effort is so worthwhile.

With every grape now caressed and happily dumped in bins to be crushed we reward them by splitting them all open ready to be pressed. By this stage our arms, all the way to our elbows are sticky with sugar. Rob then adds some secret enzymes to the bins so the grapes will yield as much juice as possible in the press. Then starts the wonderful winding of the ratchet handle, click, wind, click, wind, click, and wind for the next few hours as we slowly entice that wonderful juice from the grapes. We have a taste of the free run juice and imagine how it will be once in the bottle. As we continue to wind the press we polish off our second bottle of the previous vintage.

The whole process is complete at about 8pm, when Rob adds some other secret additive to drive off any wild yeast or bacteria that is lurking in our juice. The grin on Rob’s face tells us that all has gone well, even if Fay did almost go overboard teasing Rob about his ears and how they glow in the dark.

Dinner & Fiddel Music

Once we have packed up what we can in the dark, we head down to Fay and Russell’s place for dinner. Lorenza had already put the huge pork roast in the oven before we started work, so we took the meat down the road and then added the vegetables. All this washed down with more of Rob’s previous vintage.

After dinner we were joined by two fiddel players and Russell with his squeeze box thingy (small version of a piano accordion) and they ran through some Irish music tunes outside by the fire. Naturally, the songs were washed down with more of Rob’s wine.

Clean Up & Chemstry Experiments

Sunday was spent cleaning up, grape skins were squashed and stuck to almost every flat surface. All the bins were washed and scrubbed. The stems and pressed skins were taken to the local green waste station. The juice was then transferred from the over night open fermenters, into airtight primary fermenters. Rob conducted some chemistry type experiments with the juice using coloured strips of paper, some kind of floating gauge and a bit of guess work to add some further mystic powders and odd substances to the juice. Then all was complete for the time being.

Stay tuned for further news on our “Satarvo Bianco” 2006 vintage.

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Photos

Fay destemming
Rob and Lorenza set up the crusher in the background, while Fay continues destemming

A tough life
Our dogs, Gus and Ella, all very excited about the whole process. They love eating grapes and sneak off with any that escape the bins.

More destemming
Josh and Russell getting to know each grape by name.

Is it time for a change of job?
Josh looks almost like he is enjoying himself.

Comments

[Anthony]

“Satarvo Bianco” 2006
Save a bottle for me :)

[Rob_n_Lorenza]

No problem, there should be plenty to share!