I'm sensing a theme

Racking the Cabernet Sauvignon that we pressed yesterday into a barrel.

Getting a little more wine out of the tank, very carefully.

Topping off the barrel.

Two full barrels = heavy.

The wand in a bin of Cabernet Franc.

The pump is on, and the level is going down...

and down...

...and the tank is filling up.

This is looking a lot like yesterday.

Jamie wants to press out the last drop.

It's looking a little surreal.

Grape cake.

Pressed

Yesterday, we pressed Cabernet Sauvignon. Tom had already started when I arrived with the requested additional containers for the surplus wine.

Wine making involves a lot of cleaning.

Cranking the press.

The pressed grapes glisten through the basket slats.

Pressed juice rushing into the bucket.

A beautiful grape cake. It looks almost like some richly embroidered fabric.

A good shot of the grape cake.

The next step was to dig into that cake and load it all into bags for later composting. It's fun to break off big chunks and try to load them without spilling skins all over the ground (messy). And, that mass is warm. After our second press, I was doing this in the dark, I had cold water inside my gloves, and my feet were numb. I really looked forward to getting into the warm center of that mass of grape skins.

Inviting your reader to the poem

A while back, VioletWrites made a comment about how when she sits down to write, her muse always joins her. That made me wonder whether I ever invite my muse to a writing session. Do I? Do you?

I hope she'll show up, but do I consciously inviter her? I don't think so.

Recently I've been rereading Lynda Hull, and I've noticed that not only do her poems often move from a present observation to a past experience, but that she often if not always has another person in the poem.

She is speaking to someone, whether it's a someone from her past or an undefined You or a clearly defined You as the reader. It's a part of her voice, a part of the way she comes to writing and sorting through the various truths. And that You, no matter who it is, helps invite me as a reader into the poem.

It's given me something to think about.

Catching up

Busy doings chez nous. Tom has been leaving early and staying late to punch down the wine. Last Tuesday and Wednesday, I made it out of the house with him.

Yes, this is in the morning.

Carbon dioxide escapes as part of the fermentation process, and bubbles up. (Sorry you can't see the bubbling action.)

Two barrels of fermenting Chardonnay.

One big bucket of fermenting Chardonnay. It has just started (and it doesn't look like wine, but it does look like fermentation).

Using the high-tech setup to pull out some Merlot for brix measurements.

Measuring the brix.

The next day, that Chardonnay is really cooking. And the shop does smell like bread rising. It's all about the yeast (for now).

This past Saturday, we crushed two more tons of grapes, a ton of Cabernet Franc and a ton of Cabernet Sauvignon. The grapes were pretty, and pretty sticky, and we were all pretty tired by the end of it. I don't have pictures because I was putting all my energy into getting it done. But maybe tomorrow I can make it to that early morning punch-down.

Itchy

Do you ever start to feel itchy when you haven't had a chance to write?

Get the lead(ing) out

The line-spacing in Word 2007 is not friendly for poets. By default, Word adds extra space between each line, and even more space whenever you press ENTER.

The new Writer's Guide video shows how you can fix or avoid this.

Better yet, we shot the video at a letterpress studio. Type everywhere! Way too much fun!

Take a look, let me know whether it helps, and feel free to pass the link along.

If you want to see some of the other episodes in the series, they're listed over on the right side of this blog. If you have topics you'd like me to cover, please send them my way.

And mind your p's and q's.

Crushed

A ton of Merlot grapes looks like this. That was Saturday's work.

On Sunday, we tackled half a ton of Chardonnay.

Jamie feeding the crusher.

Chardonnay juice pouring out of the press.

Need a couple new blocks for the press? Having a woodshop right there is handy, especially when the winemaker knows how to use the tools.

Grape cake.

Big Basin #1 is almost full.