2011 - Day Twenty-four

well we did it. we drove across the state. picked up our grapes. drove back across the state. dropped off our grapes. unloaded a crusher. crushed our grapes. and did it all in a day without going crazy or dying from exhaustion. for starters, i would say that Xanadu Cellars 2011 is turning top-notch. then again - it will be a while until we are able to determine such things.

tippy and i made the trek this year. it is only fitting really, since last year we were both firmly and squarely out of town and not able to do it (weddings and wine tasting in napa valley really got in the way). and since lori and clay made the trek, did the crush, and all that jazz last year, it worked out well that neither of them were able to make the trek. the universe has a way of balancing itself out. sometimes immediately, sometimes it takes forever. but at Xanadu Cellars - we work fast.








so once again, we arrived at Alexandria Nicole Vineyards, and there is not enough that can be said about the cast and crew at this winery. they are excellent human beings. so nice, so helpful. and considering that we were showing up to buy 1700 lbs (some for Tippy's dad) while other people are showing up to purchase multiple tons to make multiple cases for their multiple wineries, the fact that at Alexandria Nicole they even decide to waste their time with us, we never for one second ever are forgetful of that fact. we are always humbled by how they treat us and hopefully this relationship will be able to continue in the future.

so there we were. our obligatory 12 beers for the folks so far out of civilization that it can still be seen as a gift again. unlike previous years, this year we are doing the barrel, and it is a barrel of one varietal. so those flats that you see completely full of grapes. yeah...one of those was ours. and yeah....we had to transport it somehow. in other words - crap.




as you can see, it is a lot of grapes. it is beyond a lot of grapes. in the industry, they call that a shit ton of grapes. a metric shit ton of grapes. matt (one of the vineyard employees) let us know in the future that we they could just load it up on a flatbed trailer, and then we could drop off the flat after crushing at their woodinville location. prime thought, minus the fact that we do not and will not have a forklift required for such operations. such is the fiasco that is Xanadu Cellars. when you get into the big time, money, and more importantly the machinery, is required. two things we don't have. but what we do have, hard and cheap labor that we don't put a price on. in essence, working ourselves for free. so we transferred 1300 lbs of merlot grapes from Point A Bucket to Point B Bucket. for the next few hours...




after accomplishing this seemingly insurmountable task of moving well over a half ton of grapes, tippy and i hoped back in the jeep with the 1300 lbs of grapes in tow and hauled back ass across the state. for we had a date with destiny, and her name was Crusher/Destemmer. she is a nice, hard working lady that charges 75 dollars for the night, but makes our process oh so much easier. and so we showed up at the brew store like a bunch of jerks at just a few minutes to closing, loaded up the crusher/destemmer, and headed to tippy's to try and unload and crush while we still had the sanity to attempt such things. at this point in the evening, it was safe to say that both of us had already felt like the day had been quite long.

luckily, showing up for the crushing process at tippy's, we not only had our partner in crime lori, but a few other friends to help out in the process. so the 1300 lbs of grapes became about two hours of happy fun time annihilating crush fest 2011. with the added help, we plowed and plowed and plowed 1300 lbs into about 70 gallons of crushed grapes and the best Welch's grape juice you've ever tasted. soon, it will be the best wine you've ever tasted.

2011 - Day Nineteen

Our wine meetings are generally quite hilarious. In this instance, it started out with a text from Tippy asking if we were home. And we're off. The jump start to this one, a call from Jose saying the vineyard is picking grapes, specifically, our varietal of grapes, all this week. It is soon to be game time. Soon to be wine time. Soon to be time for wine.


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and that will be the beautiful drive. Seattle to nearby Paterson, Washington, a mere 220 miles away (approximately). and on the way, three out of the four of us shall be taking pictures, laughing, listening to tunes, enjoying the scenery, and most importantly getting on each others nerves.

then it will be time to come back to town. madly crush. madly clean. madly get everything together for Xanadu Cellars 2011 to all come together.

2011 - Day One

It is quite amazing the amount that goes into the wine planning. And quite amazing about how little we do know, and how much we do know, and how the planning goes into all this stuff that we have no idea how it is going to turn out at all. The arguments, and the discussions are aplenty...and how we will get to this final product - who in god's name knows.

Already we have started out deciding what type of wine we want - and old world Merlot. And it wouldn't be our wine meeting if we haven't began the first problem, the notion of of how we pursue this final goal. Do we start with the characteristics of what we want and try and work our way back to it? Or do we start with what we know how to do, and fine tune it and go with what it eventually pumps out. For the amateur winemaker in all of us, that is the biggest challenge to a certain degree - knowing what we want and not knowing how to get to the end of it. Or more so it is knowing what we want, and having slight limitations in our knowledge and skill that infringe upon our ability to achieve this final product.

But the grape order is there. 1300 pounds of Merlot. Going into a barrel. Pretty much doing what we always do - diving straight in over our heads into an empty pool. A swan dive into a concrete grave. But the previous versions? They turned out all right. So maybe this isn't a swan dive into an empty pool, but more a belly flop with our weight equally spread out, or maybe it ends up being a triple backflip with a corkscrew - flawless tens across the board.

But list of things we need to get so far. Do you think the old world French did it this way? Aquarium heaters, chemicals, plastic tubing, scales, etc etc etc. But welcome to Xanadu Cellars, where we hodgepodge something together in hopes it is alcoholic and delicious. The real thrill of it this year is the introduction of the barrel. Previously we have gone in carboys with oak chips, and in an effort to improve our wine, we have determined collectively that we are upping the ante and going with a barrel. This is maybe a 25-30% increase on our overall volume, and it brings a whole load of extra questions into play. How do we move about a barrel? How do we afford the grapes that eventually will go in there? It is a different game, a more serious game, and it is something that at some point, we will need to do eventually - so why not. Lets dive right in.