RDR16

This morning I woke up to find it unusally dark out. I thought it was still around 3am but the clock said 5 an dI had to get ready for work. After the scoulding hot shower with my frog friends I stepped outside to find this dramatic sky. A ribbon of bright orange lay low to the ground while huge cloulds pillared to the heavens glowing purple, pink and blue. All I could do is stop and stare, it seemed as if the lighting set the sky on fire, with one crack of thunder the rain came. the rain was so hard we all decided it was best to go back to sleep and wait for it to ease. By 9 am the rain didnt cease and Jiale came to summon us to work. With little ... read more

2-2-12 Thursday The morning started before we did. Although Francisco said 8 am, the trucks were already unloading the grapes into the de-steamer. It was a quick drop off and we were ready to rack the pinot noir into its new tank and finish the testing. After pumping the wine from the tank we had to physically get into the tank and shovel out the skins to the press. It seemed like fun so I gladly volunteered. Into the tank I went along with Thomas to show me how it was done. To my surprise the bottom of the tank was at an angle so as soon as the majority of the grapes were gone you had to hold on to the top of the tank and hold yourself up so you didn’t slip down the ... read more

1-31-12 Tuesday The last day of January, it was a quite day at that. The rain started to settle in today so we finished fairly early. The last pump over was done on the pinot noir, which means that soon it will be moved to barrels. That will be exciting to see. The vineyard is known for the use of gravity to move wine so it will be very interesting to watch the process. Today was another day that proved that this is probably the first time they had four people here at once to work. I am not quite sure of my role here yet. Ben and Max both work on vineyards and know a lot about the day-to-day goings ons at a winery. Ori is here for the chemistry aspect and has a really ... read more

1-28-12 Saturday Today we have five wines to test! After another clarification of the Chardonnay we took a ride to the Brazilian vineyard to test all of the Merlots. Danny drove us around from lot to lot as we sampled three different types of Merlot, the Nunez, Linea, and L. There are so many different kinds of birds here in Uruguay, on the way to a different lot there were these two birds the size of turkeys that they explained to be prehistoric, they definitely looked the part, which led to a fun game that we play with Danny. He says the name of the bird in Spanish and we try to guess what it is in English, and some how everything we guess has the answer “no”. For this one particular bird we guessed turkey, ... read more

1-26-12 Thursday Today the morning started like yesterday, testing all of the wines, now we have three to test, the pinot nior, e. muscot, and the chardonnay. After the testing we were told to set up the machinery for more grapes that were being harvested. Danny said that we wouldn’t harvest today, just to help with the sorting and pressing. It was a relief because today is another really hot day. Today was only 4 trucks of Sauvingon Blanc Frances, a total of 8.9 tons or 6,595 liters it was all pumped into one tank, and while we waited between truck loads we clarified the chardonnay, which is letting the sediment fall to the bottom of the tank and slowly siphoning out the clear liquid into another tank, this will be done for 3 days to ... read more