Crush Weekend in the Era of COVID

Tomorrow, I’ll drive to Gino Pinto’s and pick up the Malbec grapes. I‘ve received my yeasts and nutrients in the mail and am doing a once over for measurements. I have my list ready to go for a successful crush Saturday! 

Since we are in COVID quarantine, I will not be able to go into Gino Pinto’s to shop around. I will be picking up my grapes in my 1970 VW bus at curbside (an adventure in itself), driving them home and parking my bus in the garage so that the grapes can warm up before crushing them on Saturday morning. To help the warming process along, I’ll take the plastic wrap off the lugs to let some of the chill off the grapes. They are kept refrigerated from the time they are received at Pinto’s until you pick them up. 

It’s supposed to be a chilly day on Saturday but that will keep the bees away. Since I am only doing 30 gallons, I’ll wait to clean equipment until Saturday morning. I was so hoping for warmer weather so that I won’t have to worry about the temperature in my garage. Fermentation does generate its own heat, but the must has to be 60F or over to pitch the yeast. I will most likely use a small heater in the garage to help the must warm up. 

Because of social distancing, I don’t have much help on Saturday. There will only be three of us in the crush crew. Lunch will be light, no big party but there will be wine to drink. I can’t even get grappa for the shot, so I won’t be enforcing all the ceremonial festivities and fun that occur during fall crush.  It’s probably good that the grapes came in 18-pound lugs instead of 36-pound lugs. They have to be lifted above the shoulders to get them into the crusher, and my COVID Crush Crew of 2 are both older than I am.  

I’ve bottled the wine I had in one of my 30-gallon barrels downstairs to make room for the Malbec. My video equipment is basically nonexistent, so I was unable to capture anything meaningful to share. I’ll burn a sulphur disc in the barrel to make sure no bacteria grows prior to adding the new wine. 

I have developed a booklet to keep track of the life of my 2020 Malbec. The booklet starts with ordering grapes and goes all the way through to bottling. It has the measurements, ingredients, process and the timeline of which to use them. It also has a place to document the record keeping necessary throughout fermentation, press, punch down, up to bottling. The Malbec will be the test to see how well the booklet works. (Be sure to subscribe to this blog and I’ll let you know how to get the booklet soon.)

There are a few things I have left to do today to prepare for the drive tomorrow and I should get them done before opening this bottle of wine. My camera is ready for the drive and I will have pictures of the Malbec grapes when I get back home tomorrow. Also, tomorrow brings with it better video equipment, so I am looking forward to playing with newer technology tomorrow evening after the grape arrival. Be sure to check out my YouTube channel for the latest videos from Vintner’s Canvas! 

 Tchin-Tchin!