Sunday, October 11, 2009

WOT A SLOG! October 4th, 2009



(with apologia to Mr. W. Shakespeare's King Henry V Act II Scene III)

Via Vecchia Crush 2009, Act II, Scene III, The Winery Steps

"This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crush 2009 shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered;
We few, we happy few, we band of vintners;
For he today that stomped and carried the grape to the vat with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in Ohio now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That slogged with us upon Crush Day 2009."

Why the dramatis? Well, although 'tis not unusual for something to go wrong and make life a tad more bothersome, Crush 2009 really did itself proud in the "pain" department and it will go down as the slog to end all wine-making slogs. And as is oft the case with adversity involving people pulling together, it will make for good story-telling and thoise who were not there will wish they were. And that made me think of King Henry V's St. Crispin's Day speech to the troops before he gave the French the trouncing at Agincourt (1415).
So what was so pianful this time around? Well, namely we again pushed production to the limits of our heritage wine making method and it was lucky we know how to do it by hand or forget it. ..

1. Grape turn up 2 days late and still cold - oh no, risk of stuck fermentation, boo-hoo, get the lab-coated man-not for us, we can deal with this with no artificial intervention.

2. Merlot won't go through the hopper to the pump and on to the fermenters;

3. Ditto for Cabernet Franc

4. Ditto for Cabernet Sauvignon

5. Ditto for Pinot Noir

2 through 5 thus involves putting a black bin under the crusher to collect juice and skins, then carrying bin down twelve steps to winery (it's underground for temperature reasons), where the grape is again crushed in the bin before being poured into the fermenter. It meant a completely manual process no tknown since 2004 when we did it all by foot for the last time!

Some perspective - the above procedure was repeated @ 330 times with each bin weighing between 50lbs and 70lbs of juice, skin and seeds.

Just as well the Syrah and Sangiovese behaved and we were able to bypass the above hassle and pump juice
and skins to the fermenters.

A rythm was eventually adopted by Paolo, Marty and Joe working this process in the winery where each would work 2 out of 3 trips, rotating on crushing duty. It developed into hour after hour of a play on the Abbot and Costello "who's on first?" sketch, 'cept this time it was "who's on top and who's on bottom?" The bottom referring to who cam down stairs first and therefore was in position to crush again.

Of course, "top and bottom" can mean other things too, which made for a lot of painful laughter and some concern from those at top of stairs doing the initial crushing.

Anyway, as the speech says, I would kick myself if I hadn't taken part even though it was a slog.
[still to come..
our pre-crush event, honour role of thanks for volunteers, pressing update]

Saturday, July 25, 2009

See Us at Whole Foods - Pinot - Oxford YouTube and a Fun Competition

Sat. July 25 , 4 - 6pm.
Whole Foods at Sawmill Parkway (Dublin Store).
Whole Foods are running a meet the local producer event and we'll be there since we're a local producer. Stop by, say, "hello" and wear you Via Vecchia buttons so we know not to bore you with our spiel all over again and can talk about other things.

Pinot Noir.
The Pinot is bottled and now labelled. This will not be released through any retail outlet and not subject to tasting events. It's too precious for that - seriously - the grapes are the most expensive we buy and it has been aged longer and as you know, time is money, especially when you manage your barrels like we do. And it is good. A true Pinot not artificially mellowed out. And we don't use enzymes to bleach the color into the wine from the grape; this is still produced the way we do all our wines with no artificial treatments or interventions, a process no-one else can claim hand-on-heart. This is not cola nor chemical soup.

Angie posted an animation of the Oxford Wine Affair we were invited to at Oxford, late June. We appear twice. A Via Vecchia button to anyone who can spot both appearances and describe the shot accurately enough. This "competition's" open until August 1st 5pm. Send entries via email to viavecchiawinery@yahoo.com and put "I Seeeeee Yooouuu" in the subject line.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Busy, Busy and Busy

We've been quiet 'cos May was busy. Such a lot of activity around bottling and labelling 2007.
We're now in 3 restaurants in Cleveland,
La Campagna (true old school - no menu, no price list, just foods cooked there and then - oh, no website)
and

La Campagna is currently batting 5 - for - 5: 5 mixed cases in 5 weeks. They know how to sell wine.
There's no carbon contribution as the deliveries made to the places above share an existing ride to Cleveland.
We also donated wine to 2 charity events - Dine Originals and Women Attorneys Group.
We're invited to do the wine for the Dean's Dinner @ Miami University
And we will be at Oxford Wine and Art Affair.
There's more we're busting to tell - but can not.
PS - Mike H - got the check!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Tasting Vino Meza, Westerville

Please soak up the historic irony this Saturday with us and our hosts, Vino Meza in Westerville. Yes, wine-tasting in the place where prohibition started.

Vino Meza prides itself on its local focus and we wish for an abundant evening with their guests.

We will be looking out for thoseof you with Via Vecchia buttons and speaking with Vito about recycling grape skins.

Here's their website.

Haven't figured how to get a facebook advert in here, so here are the 'raw" details.

Saturday, May 16, 2009
Time: 4:00pm - 6:00pm
Location:Meza "Wine Rack, Pantry and Kitchen"
48 N State St
Westerville, OH
Phone:6142593101
Email:vinomeza@gmail.com

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Drop-Ins, Bottling and Tasting

What a great day today is. Spring has truly sprung and all's well. So, for those of you worried about the whereabouts of Marty, well, he's back and the foil spinner's appreciating his attention again.
So, today... Jason and Vito dropped by. Fantastic! Jason is co-owner with Tatjana of Meza in Westerville and he took the opportunity to bring Vito by to see the operation. they caught us bottling so they got to bottle and cork. Vito makes his own wine and seems pretty much "old school". We're looking forward to tasting with them at Meza in Westerville, May 16th.
Thanks to Liberty tavern who sold "This Week" on us and we got Chris the Photographer around as well, who did his things with the camera. He forgot his rain hood and we hope the shower of wine didn't ruin the images.
The tasting today with Emily, Nikki, Caleb and Buddy was a blast. We appreciate their support since they came in from Cambridge and Marietta and took away a load of wine. They added to our winery's wall of wisdom with the following;
"Love it!"
and
"Three glasses are better than two!"
These folks sure know their wine.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Labelling 2007 Adamo & Marty

Wednesday evening we'll be labelling the 2007 adamo - that is a blend of sangiovese and cabernet franc - very unique , very right for spring. treat yourself and order before the country clubs snap 'em up for those outdoor buffets.


where is Marty? Does anyone know? Last seen in Colorado. Last spoken to last week, sometime. Last voicemail and text ignored, last Friday. What's up with that? Hello, Marty? You out here?


Picture of Marty, so we can remember what he looks like.

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Clintonville market Saturday 4pm Onwards

1st, 'cos they're great...
We're at Clintonville Community Market, this Saturday, 4pm-9pm.
You'll be able to taste 3 of our 4 wines, but we'll bring the 4th wine for those Jorro-Ma officianados who phone us about its availability - yes, you know who you are.
Michael will cover the entire time.
Paolo will duck out to see Michelle play at espresso Yourself Music cafe, in Powell, @ 6pm, but be back for the 8-9pm piece.
Reg - hope to see you.
Labels.
Our label run for the 2007 wines should be with us tomorrow or early next week. Lots of laborious labelling to look forward to, but we have sucker, err friend in Joe who said he would come up to help.