A Winery in Spring —
WLM | taste
STRADDLING 2016 & 2017
by Patrick Zimmerer, Table Mountain Vineyards & Winery
In the winery, a different type of work is happening, but still
just as important. While the outdoors and longer days get all
the attention in spring, it doesn’t stop work in the cellar as the
focus shifts outside. Instead, winemakers get ready for even
longer days and the overtime hours of harvest, by finishing up
last year’s wine harvest.
While fermentation and the loud, exciting parts of
winemaking ended in the fall, most 2016s aren’t finished yet.
As the vines outside hibernated, the 2016 vintage was indoors
developing, going through quiet changes like malolactic
fermentation, oak aging, and acid adjustments which give
wines their complex flavors and unique flavors. Basically,
those wines spent the winter becoming delicious and
preparing for the bottle.
With the start of spring, most rosé and white wines are ready
for their debuts, which means it’s time for winemakers to
blend, filter and bottle. These three tasks not only get great
vino closer to us, but they open up space in the winery for this
year’s juice. It is a never ending cycle of making room, filling
up the cellar, and
Patrick Zimmerer is the Owner/CEO
then working
and Wyo Wine-O at Large of Table
hard to empty it
Mountain Vineyards & Winery. TMV &
all again.
Winery is Wyoming’s first and largest
winery, producing 100% Wyo-grown
wines from Patrick’s farm to your table
in the not-so-big
Huntley, Wyo. Learn
more at wyowine.
com or search
Wyo Wine on your
favorite social
media site.
Blending is the
first challenge
for winemakers
putting together
rosé and white
wines in the new
year. Sometimes,
S
pring is here in Wyoming! After months of snow,
wind, and arctic temperatures, we turn the corner
looking forward to the 2017 growing season! The
vines in Wyoming begin to contemplate waking from a long
winter’s nap, yet the danger of warm spring temperatures and
hard spring freezes are ever present. The season is buzzing
with excitement as each year’s harvest in Wyoming only gets
one shot – once the vines bud, there’s no turning back. The
entire year’s fruit and harvest is out and ready to roll. In
Wyoming this typically happens in mid to late May, but can
vary with warmer temps and budbreak can happen as early as
mid-April. While we await budbreak to come, there is much
to do in the vineyards. Pruning, raking leaves and clippings as
well as repairing broken trellis and driplines are all on the list.
a blend of grapes is fermented together, but often the final
blend of a wine is determined after all the wines have finished
fermenting separately, and spent a few months mellowing
out in tank or barrel. Depending on the winery’s goals —
to produce a summer swigger or a more complex wine for
food — winemakers and their volunteers taste countless
blends and variations of a wine before determining its final
outcome. Because blending involves transferring wines from
one container — a barrel, or tank — to another, which shakes
up the wine, the blends need time to settle. Settling time lets
any sediment fall to the bottom of the tank, and after about a
week they’re ready for the next spring activity: filtering.
Filtering is exactly what it sounds like, but a winery’s
filtration system is a lot more complicated than your water
system or coffee pot. The wine is pumped through a series of
filter pads to remove the tiniest bits of sediment floating in the
wine, down to bacteria-sized pieces that can eventually cause
strange aromas or flavors in the wine. It also helps prevent
refermentation in the bottle. Most folks enjoy filtered wines
over wines that pop their corks over the Laramie summit at
7,000 plus feet. Of course that last example never happened
to me -- it was just a story from a friend. Yeah that’s it … a
story from a friend …
While blending and bottling aren’t particularly exciting, they
serve a crucial purpose in the winery — making room for new
wines! All of these processes clear up space in barrels and
small tanks so they can be cleaned, prepped, and made ready
for the upcoming harvest.
Inside or outside, spring is a busy season in the wine business
and the best part is spring activities bring lots of wines
directly to you. Let’s drink to that.
Until Next Time – Cheers!
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