"Twas the Night Before Crush - 10.7.24
I so wanted to write about the stress of crush weekend and describe my crazy dream about the cat with human ears and the wonderfully warm and kind man with the crooked finger, but that’s not exactly where my thoughts are leaning right now. For those of you who know of my dabbling in blending tequila – no, that did not cause the dream.
I miss Joe. Joe is my grape delivery guy, and he is absolutely the best. In fact, tonight as we were cleaning up glass from the pallet of bottles that fell off the gate of the delivery truck, I mentioned to the current delivery guy that I missed Joe. I said it gently and carefully, so I didn’t hurt his feelings, especially since there were 5 pallets of grapes that were still in the truck.
Flashbacks of a delivery past, where the delivery guy took out the five mailboxes at the end of my driveway, ran through my mind as I listened to him backing out my driveway. Just then, the phone rang. It was my neighbor — the same neighbor that let me know about the delivery truck stuck at the end of the driveway last time. She called to tell me the mailboxes were intact, but the delivery guy who took 11 hours for a 4-hour drive, turned the wrong way after turning out of HER driveway. I’m not sure how he landed in her driveway, but I do know that the size of that truck is going to have a difficult time at the bottom of our tiny little dirt road.
The good news is that although he knocked my garage door opener off, I was able to fix it, and the grapes are safe from animals looking for food at night. Also, it’s interesting to note that I learned something from the wonderfully warm and kind man with the crooked finger in my dream. When the delivery guy told me that I missed some glass over by the truck, just after I tried to help him reload the bottles onto the pallet and clean up a bit, I remained warm and kind. I was however, internally a little fired up.
Crush the following day was great! We had beautiful weather, a great group of friends helping, and we were finished in no time. There is 160 gallons of Sauvignon Blanc, we only got about 50 gallons of Sangiovese Rosé, but it will be amazing! Along with the normal Barbera, a Cab/Merlot blend, and Sangiovese, we did a small batch of Pinot Noir for my experiment for this year. Tomorrow night we pitch yeast and fermentation should begin by Wednesday or Thursday.
Skol!
Sharon
