I’ve worked at Michel-Schlumberger for something like 14 years. It always amazes me to tell that to folks because I’ve always been the type of guy who’s always on the move. I get bored very easily and I love to learn new stuff. Status quo is my biggest turn-off. But I’m not the only one with such an affliction.
Brunson’s the kind of guy who absolutely thrives on trying anything 
new. Here’s a classic example – years ago I began plucking on an electric guitar and I casually remarked (joked) to Mike that he should learn to play drums so we could start a band and become rock stars. Within a few months he saved up and bought a kit, set it up in his garage and began practicing. That was about 10 years ago and now he is a rock star. The guy is crazy like that.
And it’s not just extra-curricular stuff. For all the hours both Mike and I work growing grapes and making wine we spend at least an equal amount of time thinking and pondering and dreaming of cool new stuff we can try out in the vineyard and cellar. One of the reasons this year’s harvest was extra special and fun for us was because of all the experimental stuff we had going on. Here’s one small (but fun) example from Crush 2009, complete with shots of the action!
First, we selected the very best fruit from our very best Cabernet vineyard block – 100% “Jackson Selection” cab from our organically-grown Bradford Mountain vineyard. This is the same stuff that is the base for our stunningly stellar Deux Terres Bordeaux blend.
These days the status quo in wine production is big lots of grapes fermented in huge stainless steel tanks utilizing pumps to mix the must for extraction (”pump-overs”). We decided to take a much more minimalist, old school, and hand-crafted approach to this particular wine.
Cellar Master Ramiro Leon carefully removed the heads from 3 
beautiful French oak barrels and we very gently de-stemmed and crushed our prized cab grapes into the wooden vessels for fermentation. The must was “punched-down” three times daily, entirely by hand. Winemaker Brunson opted for a completely native yeast fermentation in respect for the special grapes and our very special Benchland terroir. Once fermentation was complete we carefully dumped the barrels onto a screen over a sump and Mike, Blair (our good friend and intern from 
Australia) and I HAND PRESSED the must. At about 20 minutes of pressing per barrel it was a lot of hard work but it was also a fine, sunny Sunday and we were having such a blast doing it and the wine tasted KILLER!!! And in the end our 6 hands pressed enough wine to perfectly top a single French oak barrel – how’s that for meant to be?
I don’t mean to be a tease – this wine will likely age in barrel for over
2 years and get another year of bottle age or so on top of that. That means there’ll be no cork popping for almost 4 more years. And if we do decide to release the wine on it’s own there will be only a precious 20 cases or so to go around (yet another reason to join our Wine Bench Club). More importantly, I think projects like these clearly demonstrate Mike’s steadfast commitment not to be steadfast. There’s always something new at Michel-Schlumberger. Bored? Why, no…
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Now, that’s exciting!
Push-Down must be the worst job at a winery, especially when we’re talking about Pinot(dang skins are heavier then they look) thanks for the pictures, the more people see inside of wineries the less they are going to think that wine is really so snobby and out of touch.
I love that Blair is wearing my shirt, “i’d rather be in geyserville” !!
Yeah, very cool — I just heard from good ol’ Blair. He’s back in Australia right now but I know he’d still rather be in Geyserville!
tony