Arizona Zinfandel is fabulous, the problem is that it's a bugger to grow it in this state. Oddly for an arid part of the world, the summer rains (monsoons and hurricanes from Mexico) come at exactly the wrong time - harvest, when the thin skinned and tightly packed Zinfandel just plain old rots before it ripens. "Once in every 8 years", that's the local lore about Zinfandel Harvests. 2009 was a dry year and one of those once in 8 years. Peter Lechtenbohmer of what was then Sweet Sunrise Vineyards (now Sand Reckoner) delivered a load of Zinfandel that has become absolutely delicious. It got bottled this past weekend by one of our experienced bunch of volunteers.
Brian perfects the role of "Philip"- the bottle filler.
Laura and Amber are "Corkey" and "Topper" - operating the corking machine and the heat shrinker for the capsules respectively.
Amber steps in as "Topper" and Kaitlyn has mastered "Sticky" - applying labels at the new labeling machine.
Casey excels as "Crew Boss" and Joan loads the finished product.
It was a very successful day. A human bottling line rivaling the reputation of any respectable monoblock (the name of a fully automatic, industrial bottling line). The wine needs to rest for a bit and will ready around New Year 2012.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment