Crush Chronicles

Exercise Your Taste Buds

2012-01-06T14:08:00.000-08:00

Winemaker Sara Fowler tasted through sixty different barrel lots of the 2009 and 2010 red wines in our cellar yesterday. She called it "checking in with the wine." What was she checking for? "I'm checking to see how the wine is maturing, how it's progressing, and to see if any of the individual barrels need attention." Sixty glasses of wine lined the Production office. Incredulous, I asked her

May 2012 Be Golden

2011-12-31T16:57:00.000-08:00

Peju Tower by Afshin Atapour, December 2011 A guest took this stunning photo of the Peju tower yesterday and passed it along for our use. Who needs a white winter when you can have a golden one? Production has been shut down between Christmas and New Year's, so there hasn't been much to report from the wine-making side. 2011 Whites are resting quietly in their tanks and barrels until Sara

Good Night Sky

2011-12-19T17:40:00.000-08:00

What do you see? Nature made art in the sky as the sun set over the Napa Valley this evening. Sometimes it's good to stand on your head for a fresh perspective. Or if you're at work and/or wearing a skirt, to flip a photo around so that you force your brain to actively organize what you're seeing as though it's seeing for the first time. And so that you force yourself to look carefully, to

Frosty Was Here

2011-12-13T11:42:00.000-08:00

Another beautiful morning in Napa Valley. By 10 am, the radiant sun in the clear, blue Californian sky has melted away the frost. Late risers would never know it had been there. This is only the second time this year that I've seen frost and this time I caught it! Here it lives in temporary eternity on the internet. On December 13, it's 53 degrees Fahrenheit in Rutherford, CA. What is the

A Harey Vineyard Amble

2011-12-09T14:40:00.000-08:00

The vineyard is spectacular today. On my mid-afternoon, head-clearing stroll, a huge hare appeared about 20 rows away from me. He leapt casually out of a row of vines and paused, staring in my direction with an air of mischief and invitation before bounding away behind the next row. Naturally, I jogged on tip-toe past the rows between us with my camera at head height until I neared where I

No More Monkeying Around in the Cellar for Me

2011-12-07T17:58:00.000-08:00

From Friday: Today, I write to you from my brightly lit desk in the very tame upstairs offices. Actually, ironically, I just heard a cacophony of high-pitched hollers from the other end of the offices. Sounds like a big sale came in, woo-hoo! The holidays are an exciting time for Patti, Jess & Christina who take care of phone sales. Anyway, it is the first Friday in two months that I've had to

Tank Vacancy & Pre-Turkey Day Topping

2011-11-23T18:12:00.000-08:00

The cellar is an eerie place these days. Its spotless, vacant walkways lined with hollow tanks give no indication of the furious activity this very space beheld just a couple of weeks ago. The action is outside now and the crew continues as though nothing much has changed. It’s as though we are all in on this little secret that was the hectic harvest and now we continue at a normal pace as

With All Our Grapes Safely in Tank and Barrel, We Begin Our Descent Into Winter Calm.

2011-11-16T16:06:00.000-08:00

The last of the fruit-carrying bins leave the crush pad That's not quite all folks, but we have brought in the last of our fruit. Friday the 4th marks the end of the 2011 Crush, nearly a month later than 2007's October 11 end date, but sooner than we were thinking it would be a few weeks ago. With the number of work orders diminishing each day, the cellar dance has changed from a swift and

Yellow Vines, Whinnying Winds, Seasons Change. That Was Fast.

2011-11-03T12:23:00.000-07:00

Three days ago I looked around at my cluttered desk and three-page to-do list and decided to take a stroll through the vineyard. Perspective was indeed gained when I stepped outside and into a different season. Wasn't it just last week that the vines were green, that we were in the midst of harvest, and that much to everyone's relief, the midday sun shone hotly on our ever-ripening fruit? With a

It's a Happy Halloween at Peju!

2011-10-31T17:21:00.000-07:00

Every year for Halloween, Peju employees furtively collaborate within their respective departments to vie for the title of Costume Competition Winner at the annual Halloween Family Meal. This year, as has been the case almost every year since Sara has been at Peju, the Production Team garnered the departmental win! Their group effort in a time of such harvest hectic-ness is inspiring.

Peju's Biggest Day Ever!! And Sisters Work Together

2011-10-26T18:27:00.000-07:00

30 tons of red fruit and 20 tons of white came in today. This is completely insane. (For us.) I think on our biggest day last year we brought in 28 tons of fruit. I don’t know how they are going to get through 50 tons today. Oh, and they also received a shipment of new French oak barrels. New Barrels (front), Sorting Red (back left), Pressing White Simultaneously (center back) Jose says, "

Harvesting Cabernet Sauvignon from the HB Vineyard

2011-10-22T17:30:00.000-07:00

Harvest Hustle & Making Chardonnay

2011-10-20T17:26:00.000-07:00

Finally! The cellar is cranking!!! Today is the first day that it feels like harvest is in full gear. Most other times when I’ve skipped over to the Production office to chat Sara up about what’s going on, she is excited to talk to me. She beams and expands willingly on what we’re doing and why we do things the way we do. (Always for superlative quality.) She talks about the grapes with a

Today at Peju: Yeast, Zin in Bins, and Making Rose

2011-10-13T17:48:00.000-07:00

Lots going on at Peju today! Ariana is inoculating the Zinfandel we pressed yesterday. These yeast started out in dormant, powder form. Watch the vid: Frankie pumps small-lot Zinfandel into 1/2-ton bins. And we are in the process of creating what will become our 2011 Rose of Syrah. Here's a sneak peek!

Mutinous Mother Nature

2011-10-12T12:34:00.000-07:00

It’s a real nail-biter, this 2011 harvest. Or as assistant winemaker Joe says, it’s “one year that Mother Nature is not cooperating.” The sun has come out this afternoon, and it’s almost as though the breeze that left with the rain this morning was a collective sigh of relief from winemakers throughout the Valley. It has been raining for over a week with a tease-of-a short, sunny respite this

The Team That Picks Together Stays Together

2011-10-07T12:39:00.000-07:00

We all gained a mega-appreciation for our super-skilled vineyard staff today. It took us 1.5 hours to pick 1.5 tons of grapes. According to Manuel, our Director of Facilities, in 1.5 hours, the vineyard crew of 16 guys will pick 8 tons to our 1.5. And we were 30 strong out there today. We’ll have to get a video of the vineyard crew doing their thing. It’s mesmerizing the way their fingers

All Whites Are In, Reds Begin

2011-10-04T11:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we processed the last of our Chardonnay. All of our white grapes, both Sauvignon Blanc and Chard., have now been plucked from their vines and have begun their journey to becoming delicious white wine. The last of the Peju Chardonnay waiting to be 'crushed' (ever-so-gently) The first bit of Sauvignon Blanc that we picked on September 6 and inoculated on September 9, allowing a few

Harvest Interns arrive from Chile! and get put straight to work in the lab.

2011-09-28T18:14:00.000-07:00

Lony & Pablo Measuring Grape Samples for Ripeness Our long-awaited harvest interns arrived this week! Lony and Pablo are a young couple from Chile pursuing careers-slash-lives in Winemaking and Agrobusiness at the Universidad de la Frontera in Temuco. Funny how as an American, I automatically assume one’s ‘career’ and one’s ‘life’ are so inseparably connected. I look forward to getting to know

Ariana Peju works Harvest 2011!

2011-09-23T18:38:00.001-07:00

Ariana Peju's First Yeast Inoculation! Edit HTML This year, Ariana, youngest of the two Peju daughters and a Proprietor of the company, will be spending two days per week with the Production team working harvest! Last year, it was big sister Lisa who tried her hand at the production side of the business. Now it’s Ariana’s turn to sort grapes, operate pumps, maneuver heavy hoses, sanitize

It’s Gettin’ Hot Out Here, So Take Off All Your...

2011-09-22T15:55:00.000-07:00

...nice clothes, put on your old rags and get ready to get pickin'! It’s been hot for 3 days now. For a long time it was chilly or at least mildly cool in the mornings, hot around noon, and then cool again already by the time work let out in the early evening. For about a week before this current hot spell, it was incontrovertibly cold. A friend and I spoke about how we were suddenly

Good Morning

2011-09-20T10:35:00.000-07:00

Usually it’s the aromatic experience of rich, toasty coffee that invites me to join the rest of the world in morning’s wakeful activity. Today, just now, it was the smell of freshly fermenting Sauvignon Blanc that met me as I shuffled into the office after another night of somewhat un-ideal sleep. Deliciously, delicately pungent, it has got to be one of the most beautiful smells in the world.

Pre-Harvest Buzz, About the Author, and Nature is Awesome

2011-09-20T10:25:00.000-07:00

From 8/12/11 Wine country is about to erupt into hyperactivity. It is hard to appreciate in this pre-Harvest moment of calm, collected normalcy just how much is about to happen in the next three months, especially after such a mild, gradual summer/growing season. This will be my second harvest in the Napa Valley and probably really the second harvest I’ve even known was happening as such

Processes & Anticipation

2011-09-19T17:01:00.000-07:00

From 8.9.11 They’re coming. Ripe grapes. Ripe, delicious wine grapes, which as soon as they’re picked from the vine will begin on their process of becoming wine. The process-rich nature of winegrowing and winemaking is what draws so many of us to wine. You can’t fake it. You can’t rush it. You can’t fully control it. You witness it. While the vine and the soil and the weather each exist and

Day One - The Sauvignon Blanc has arrived.

2011-09-08T17:53:00.000-07:00

The crew was up at 3am this morning at Persephone Vineyard to harvest Sauvignon Blanc from the Athena block on the north side. A total of 8 tons made their way to the crush pad this morning for the first crush of the season. This year, we will be picking almost exclusively "at night" (in the wee hours of the morning), so that the fruit gets processed while it's still cold. Sara Fowler, our

Peju 2011 Harvest Blog!

2011-09-07T18:29:00.000-07:00

This is the beginning of the very first Peju blog! Hi internet, hi world!