Light at the end of the tunnel

Hello all...... well the harvest season is coming to a hault. It has been non stop at Zenaida scence the end of Augast. Long days and long week are no stranger to me at this point. All in all things look good for the 2008 vintage. Any lots that came off early espeically look good. I'm most exicted about the Zenaida Vinyard syrah, I had the oppurtunity to co-ferment viogner, a good way to enhance color and bring out more fruit flavor in the end product. I also was able to ferment a portion of that a punchone, a barrel double the size. That is a good way to get good oak extraction early so that it will intergrate into the wine while ageing, so in 18 months when it is on you dinner table the oak flavors will be less in your face but present and elegant. Another thing I am stoked to share with you all is the tempernillo. This will more than likely go in to a blend with some syrah and pettie sirah surley going to be be a big dark monster of a wine. The best thing about this harvest is the amount of fun I had and how much I learned. My boss and I joke that wine making years are like dog years. Every year you make wine is like 7. This is because of the harvest season you cram soo much work into such little time and are forced to keep a flow or you can be backed up for months to come. You come out of the fall with 10 times the experiance you had going in to it.....