Yes! The 2008 harvest is finished! We brought in the last of our Cabernet Sauvignon Thursday. The vineyard crew was very excited knowing that they had finished bringing in the grapes that they had worked on all year.
It’s a great feeling.
As we do every year, we had our Harvest Party the following day. So, on Friday we did our punchdowns/pumpovers, barreled down one lot of Carmenere and pressed one load of Merlot and off we went to Javier Acevedo Sr.’s house for a evening of unbelievable food, fun, camaraderie and of course a bit of futbol.
Oh yeah, we also drank some beers.
Just shortly after we had finished our early dinner (right around the time retired folks normally eat) we had a surprise visitor. Ziggy the Wine Galshowed up with four tequilas and lead us a through a quick (but effective) tequila tasting. We tasted one silver, two reposados and one anejo. Each tequila had a distinct flavor and sense of place. The silver was way too quaffable (reads dangerous). The reposados were interesting with one tasting a bit like cheese rind (in a good way). And the anejo was as beautifully structured and elegant as a nice cognac (yum). As quickly as she showed up, Ziggy (and her one woman “entourage” Susanna) had left the building and we continued with our party. As we do at all these harvest celebrations, we reminisced about the years challenges. Like the time Juan slipped on the wet permanent cover crop (tumbling down the hillside). Or the day that the cellar crew actually beat the vineyard crew in soccer (once in a lifetime). Or the beauty of all the fruit that is now in the cellar. And of course all the other happenings from the vintage that I dare not go into here on this blog. It’s a great way to spend an afternoon and evening. We played some pool, listened to some music that made us dance, hugged each other and drank some more beers. It’s days like these that make us all appreciate what we have here at Michel-Schlumberger…one big family.
