Party Party Party!!!!

wow what a fun weekend!!!
well after another long, rough week, (feels like i've been working up here for a couple months) ended with the first fruit of the season!!! yea!!! loads more cleaning and helping with this and that for the first part of the week but on thursday we pressed some chenin blanc from washington for our client basket case wines.

here is a link to some pics i took LINK
so far no definite word on when harvest will officially start but it sounds like this week we'll get a little syrah and then slowly more will trickle in but if it rains that means we might get slammed with it all in a week... which is scary to think of.
so this weekend was the preharvest social, and it was a blast!! i carpooled with a few of the other interns and stopped in macminnville and we played a round of disc golf, always fun. then we checked out some new vineyard land the company just bought, some 500 acres. then we headed to where the party was going to be at, the silver falls convention center. started out with a few beers, hacky sack, then some appetizers and wine (so many bottles) then a delicious dinner. followed by a bonfire and chilling out in cabin C. had a great time getting to know everyone just a little better. its seemed like there was endless bottles of wine. not many pictures but heres a link to a few. LINK

heres andrew, dustin and julie!

everyone was moving real slow this morning but we decided to go along with our original plan of hiking the silver falls trail. water was a little low but most of the falls were going. the hike was a little longer than i was expecting but hey its good for me, just wish i didn't sleep through breakfast but had a delicious reubin in silverton on the way back home.

here's betsy, dustin, his gf nell and nate.
posted a few of my fav pics LINK

First Week @ 12th & Maple Done and I'm excited for more!!!

well i finished my first week, worked a full week and an extra 1/2 day yesterday (saturday), and it was great. so there is still loads of construction, too much it seems, guess they will still be working during harvest. we have been setting tanks into position, installing catwalks, sanitizing tank and a general scrub down of the whole place. so far everyone is great, staff is fun, interns are starting to bond and looks like we are going to have a blast. in fact next weekend theres word that we might head off into the woods somewhere for a little employee retreat aka drunk fest to get to know everyone better. some of the interns don't know the first thing about winemaking so i have been helping out the winemakers with training and teaching them different setups and procedures. friday they left me alone to teach 3 of them how to sanitize a tank. stuff like which where to connect the hoses, pumps and which chemicals needed.
as i expected it sounds like i'll be working on the super premium side, which is the larger side, i think i heard 20 ton lots or more. as apposed to the ultra premium side which is the small batch side.

so i took a few pics:
if you click them below you can zoom in


from here you can see almost all the tanks lots of 4000 and 6000 gallon tanks


our "small" tanks 1000 and 2000 gallon tanks


the open top fermentors, back row are 5 ton and the front can hold 10 tons each. basically each ton of grapes produces about 150 to 180 gallons

the ultra premium fermentation cellar, over 100 (i think) 2 ton open top fermentors. oh i can't wait to punch them down....


the giant tanks out back, 32000 gallons (thats over 160000 bottles of wine per tank, and we have 2) on the left, 19000 gallons on the right.


The presses, 3 huge willmes tank presses, odd 2 door design for more even loading, interesting 2 bladder system inside and they unload into a big (3 foot) auger in the floor under them.


and something i think that is wicked awesome, a crossflow filter... super high tech, its so complicated, its amazing. basically it filters out everything including bacteria and it doesn't require a filter medium like a pad or membrane.

picture update

Cape Meares and Tillamook with Parents and Katie (link) -- cheese factory, pics in and around beach house, sunset, clamming and crabbing, llamas, lighthouse, emma seafood...beaches...ya

Road trip to see Megan and Dan then Claire and Brian (link) -- megan's puppy lily, megan's house, megan's new parrotlets, claire and my handywork (pies and lighting install), Brian and Claire's house, the gorge and mountains.

oops bad blogger!

again i must say sorry for not updating lately. and again i have to say i've just been so busy...
lets see if i can remember.....
first thing that comes to mind is i finally said goodbye to EdenVale winery and hello to a brighter future. My last week was like any other week, days and days of endless mind numbing bottling. 04 syrah... not bad but...whatever. Had a nice lunch out with pat and brady friday afternoon. and surprising i didn't see anne all week, including my last day so i didn't get to say goodbye.
Friday night i cam home, drank a big glass of wine and i was going to start packing up my life to move (still no place found at this point)....but that wine made me sleepy so i decided to take a nap...accidentally sleeping till 9:30ish!!! well i was up till about 1am picking though all my stuff decided what i needed, what i wanted and what i should leave behind. it was a lot harder than i thought. but i managed not to fill my car 100% full.
I got up early the next day and starting a week and a half long preharvest solo road trip. First stop was to meet up with my parents and sister for her birthday at the coast, Cape Meares near tillamook. actually met up with them in tillamook and went to the cheesefactory, but it was the weekend and they don't make cheese on the weekends. we stayed at my sister's boyfriend's aunts beach house with his parents too. had a great dinner, watched the sunset and later at low tide (~10pm) we went clamming well we only got about a hand full of calms but we did fill a bag up with red crabs. it was fun. next day morgan and his parents left us alone and we spend the day out and about. saw some llamas, the cape meares lighthouse, clam burger for lunch, playing at the beach with emma, and a grand feast of seafood for dinner. took our time getting up the next morning, had lunch with the fam and heading our separate ways, they went home and i want up north to find a home. made a couple phone calls, first one seemed perfect(great room and roommates) but it fell though, ended up setting on a place close to work with a couple of girls, and a couple cats (perhaps a mistake, we'll see). that night headed up to portland and spent the night at my friend Raechel's place. split a bottle with her and her boyfriend and caught up a little. Had a lazy morning chatting over coffee before i headed up to Megan's new place near seattle. actually went with her to check out a breeding pair of parrotlets (mini parrots), she hopes to get a baby to hand raise.
Next stop was Spokane to Brian and Claire's new house. I-90 all the way, a little boring in the middle but a nice, diverse terrain drive. went out for a couple of beers and back home to catch up with my buddys... i miss those guys. the next day brain was really busy with school so it was a thomas and claire day. we got some coffees and breakfast bagels, caught up with brian at lunch time and got to check out gonzaga, headed over to home depot picked up a light and later installed it, made a couple of pies (mine was extra fancy with a checkered top), claire and brian went for a run later but we all had dinner then back for beers and movies. next day said my goodbyes and headed back to see megan again before heading back to my new home.
well now i'm sitting in my new room, after a long day at my new job, mostly paperwork, safety videos, tours and training. met everyone, most of the names i can't remember, but everyone has a good attitude and looks like this is going to be fun!!!
so now i'm thinking i need to get out and check out the town, heard that a couple people from work were going to meet up at the pub just near work, maybe i'll do that... i'm starved!
ps pics to come soon.