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.
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