Crush

My family makes wine. It's a hobby of ours. To me, fermentation is a familiar and inviting scent. Interning at a winery only heightened my love of winemaking. We planted the vines in 2001 - 350 of them - and prune, net, harvest, crush, press, and bottle it all by hand. So far, our wine has been...interesting. It falls some where between cooking wine and vinegar. Definitely not on Robert Parker's top ten list. Or top 20. But each year we improve. This year we've decided to actually test acidity levels. So far it's drinkable.

Two weeks ago, I went home to help crush the Syrah and Grenache. My clothes are now permanently dyed purple, and my fingers are still stained. At least purple is a pretty color, right? We started malolactic fermentation. It's still drinkable. This is farther than we got last year. Although now we have 332 bottles of Syrah that we refuse to drink.

Great nose, first sip not bad, and then you swallow. No back end. No structure. So we now give it as gifts to people we don't like. Pray you never get a bottle.

Someday, Helen Turley will be knocking down our door for a bottle. Hey, Screaming Eagle started out in a garage. Just like us.