Winemaking Journal: February 10, 2021 - Flow Chart

Entry #3 February 10, 2021

For me, the experience of tasting a wine is usually about pleasure and poetry. I look for things to love: flavors that delight me, textures that surprise me. I treasure wines that feel whole and balanced as they flow across my palate. I lose it over wines that feel spontaneous and alive, as if they had burst fully formed from the mind of a magical wine goddess in the sky (some examples below).

No, when I taste a wine, I am usually not thinking about vineyard sampling protocols, trucking logistics, or the cost of packaging per bottle, per cork, and per label. I don’t think about it even though I know full-well from years of working in wine production that the mundane details like these, and many more, occupy a significant amount of the time and effort required to bring a bottle of wine to life. My transitory experience of tasting a wine - whether it lasts for hours or days - is only possible because of months - or more likely years - of thoughtful planning and effort. I’m reminded somehow of the art of feng shui. Every piece is arranged so intentionally and carefully that the experience of the room feels perfectly natural and harmonious.

So, it starts with the idea, but then there has to be a plan. Where will the fruit come from? What does the contract look like? Who will monitor it’s progress over the growing season? How will it get picked, weighed, delivered? What fermentation vessels and storage vessels do we need based on our estimated vineyard and press yields? Etc. etc. etc.

Step 1, for me, a visual learner, an organizer, and a planner is to try to envision the flow. What actually transpires will undoubtedly look quite differently than the flow chart pictured above, but as we engage in this new endeavor - to bring a wine to life - this is my first attempt to sketch out and understand the timeline as well as some of the expenses, the challenges, and the decision points.

*Not pictured: the sketch continues onto the back of the page because sparkling wine, in particular, takes a long time to get from the vineyard to the shelf.

(BK)

some wines that feel like magic…

Click on each wine for more detail.