The 2014 harvest and the 2014 harvest-party season are well and truly over. And last night I celebrated harvest's end with my co-workers at TWWIAGE. I work with some great people and it's always nice to spend quality party-time with them. For many of the production staff it was the first Saturday that they hadn't had to work since mid-September, so they really let their hair down. And I mean they really let their hair down: the theme of the party was Woodstock so lots of bad, long, shaggy wigs abounded.
Today, Vinomaker and I pressed off three different batches of Cabernet sauvignon. It was a rather painless process this year, but still by the end of the day I was coloured purple from head to toe. Quite psychedelic.
Seeing all the skins reminds me that Vinomaker's friend, Sky King, usually pesters us to make a grappa from the pomace. Too much trouble I say and it couldn't really be legally called grappa if produced in the USA. What would I call it? No matter, it's not going to happen. Besides, I'm not a grappa drinker anyway. The only grappa that I have ever thought half decent was one I purchased in a small caffé in Rome, just over the Ponte Sant'Angelo, which was made from Pinot Nero. I digress. Harvest is done.
8 comments:
VG: Now I'm confused, and it doesn't take much, but what are the details of 3 batches of Cabernet?
Woodstock is one thing, but I'm glad you left the Isle of White out it;)
NHW: Our clone 4 and two different batches of clone 7 (both from St. Helena).
IOW, but of course...There'll Always Be An England :)
Is this anything like Prince's Purple Haze?
Now you have me wondering what to call American produced "grappa".
It's not so hard to make it; just add water and some sugar and let ferment, then go to the local moonshiner and have it distilled...
Tomasso: It crossed my mind that you could come up with a name for a domestic grappa.
No need to bother with a moonshiner, Sears sell a water distiller that I'm told works quite well in the distillation of spirits.
No grappa for me thanks - had a bad night on it once. Of course you're only supposed to have a small glass,but I never adhere to the rules
ALW: Did that myself on Pernod once. Can't stand the smell of it till this day.
In the late 1990s, while writing a story about grappa, I visited Friuli to interview some producers.
At Nonino, one of the fabulous grappa families, I was given a gift. It was grappa produced from the Native American grape. The aroma was immediately recognizable, and it was among the few grappi that I could stand to drink. I'm not much of a fan of the stuff.
Interesting thing: plantings of Native American vines still dot across northern Italy. In Barbaresco, I manged to buy a half kilo of Isabella for table grapes.
Thomas...crappa.
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