Harvest may be over but the Stomping has just begun!

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Every year, Willamette Valley Vineyard (WVV) hosts a grape stomp which is a qualifying competition for the World Grape Stomping competition in Santa Rosa. Wende Bennette of WVV explains the ins and outs of this competition. I hope you enjoy the video as much as we enjoyed our time there.

The ladies of the Stomp: Anna of Stomptastic Chicas, Ashleigh and Heather of So Juicy

Special thanks to WVV for sharing their great wines and experiences with the two amazing grape stomping teams that included Anna, Heather, and Ashleigh aka So Juicy and the Stompstastic Chicas!

In this video, the pros show you how you really should do it in order to extract the maximum amount of juice from the berries.

Join us next year. For more information, visit Willamette Valley Vineyards at http://wvv.com/ or come in for a visit: http://wvv.com/visit/tasting_room/

Check out their Willamette Valley Vineyards 2009 Estate Pinot Noir which was rated 95 points by Portland Monthly this past month!

Washington #Merlot being processed at Hawks View

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A quick video of the Washington Merlot we processed on Monday, October 1st at Hawks View Cellars. We processed 22,000 lbs or 11 tons of grapes this day. What you see here are the grapes coming in, which have been hand picked. We then hand process them by removing any leaves or bad grapes- such as dried grapes of grapes that are not in good shape- then it is destemmed with the machine. The grapes are separated from the stem and the stem leaves from the top part and the grapes, the size of blueberries leave through the side shoot.

Photo: 11 tons of dime-sized Washington Merlot passed through these hands today! I'm exhausted!

The merlot we processed was smaller than a dime!

La Vendimia 2011- The 2011 Harvest at Juan Carlos Sancha Winery in La Rioja, Spain

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In preparation for this year’s harvest, I thought I would show you what I did last year as part of my masters program at University of La Rioja in Logroño, Spain. I had a chance to work with Juan Carlos Sancha at his Ad Libitum Winery in Baños de Río Tobía, La Rioja, Spain. We participated in the 2011 harvest, analysis and watched as the fermentation process began at this artisan winery.

For more information on Juan Carlos Sancha’s wines visit: http://www.juancarlossancha.com

Bet yet…visit them in La Rioja, Spain! Juan Carlos and Marian will take incredible care of you!