Obsessed with Wine Podcast

Working in a winery is one of the most fulfilling jobs for people who are passionate about wine. It's not just the beauty of the vineyards or the satisfaction of working with your hands to make something that people love. One of my favorite aspects of working in a winery is all the great people you get to meet and all the great stories you hear. This reminds me of Mary Ann Turrentine, the Director of Sales and Hospitality at the great Paradigm Winery in Oakville. I interviewed Mary Ann for episode #3 of the Obsessed with Wine Podcast and she told her story of pursuing a job and getting hired at Paradigm. It’s a great story so I figured this would be perfect to share on a Friday.

Mary Ann Turrentine Interview clip here:

Those who are fortunate to work in wine and make a living all have great stories like this. If you want to hear my great interview with the talented Mary Ann Turrentine, listen to episode #3 of the podcast on the show website or anywhere you get your podcasts.

Don’t forget to Listen to episode #15 of the Obsessed with Wine Podcast this Saturday June 4th when I interview Kim Myers, owner of the NW Wine Shuttle in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. She was fantastic!

Thank you very much! I’ll see you Monday for another Daily Taste, Have a great weekend. Cheers!

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Listen to past episodes of the podcast here:

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1610813329https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1610813329

Listen on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/6GUNTZsivMlyTySnSbDwfT?si=3c1df2968aba4338

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#obsessedwithwine #winepodcast #winelovers #winetasting #winetrends #winestories #winerylife #winetime #winenews #wineeducation #wineculture #winemakers #wineindustry #wineinfluencers #podcastannouncement #season2 #newepisodes #uncorked #cheers

Once white wine grapes have reached the winery, they are usually pressed right away to extract the juice to prepare for fermentation. The juice is then pumped into the fermentation vessel of choice (usually a stainless-steel tank) This is a pretty awesome experience. The type of press we used for white wines was a pneumatic bladder press. These presses get their name from the balloon like apparatus inside the press that inflates to put pressure on the grapes and help extract the juice. The bladder press is a long steel tube looking machine with two doors on top that slide open and closed. This press has a touch screen panel that allows the winemaking team to control how long they want to press the grapes and with how much force. The winemaker decides on the sweet spot of enough pressure to extract most of the juice but not too much pressure that the stems and seeds get squeezed and release unwanted bitterness to the juice. The first step of pressing is loading the press with grapes from the MACRO bins delivered that morning from the vineyard. For especially thick-skinned grapes, the winemaking team may add dried rice hulls to the macro bins prior to dumping them into the press to help with the extraction. Loading the press takes a skilled forklift driver to pick up the bins full of grapes and dump them into the press. It is important that the grapes get into the press and not all over the ground as grapes on the ground are rarely put into the press to avoid contamination. Once the press is full, the winemaker selects a press cycle and inputs it into the touch screen telling the press how long to press the grapes and how much pressure to use. The press starts by rotating a few times and allowing the pre-pressed juice called the free run to pour into a sump where it is transferred to the fermentation vessel using a special pump. Once the free run has been drained, the press inflates the inner bladder delicately pressing the fruit against the inner walls of the tank, extracting the juice. These pressings are meant to be gentle, so our press cycles were three hours each. During pressing the extracted juice flows into a sump where it is pumped into a tank for fermentation. Free run and pressed juice are not always fermented together as the winemaker may want to do something special with the free run like make a reserve wine. After the press cycle is done, the winemaker looks inside the press to see if he got all of the juice he wanted or if he wants to run another cycle. If there are a lot of uncrushed berries the winemaker will press again so no juice is wasted. Once it has been determined that pressing has completed, the press rotates allowing the stems, seeds, and grape skins to fall into Macro Bins where they are loaded onto a truck and used for composting.

The final step of the process is cleaning the press! This is the worst part of pressing because someone must climb into

Follow us on Social Media:

https://www.instagram.com/obsessedwithwine/

https://www.facebook.com/obsessedwithwine

https://twitter.com/obsessedwine

For more wine content go to obsessedwithwine.com

Listen to past episodes of the podcast here:

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1610813329https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1610813329

Listen on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/6GUNTZsivMlyTySnSbDwfT?si=3c1df2968aba4338

Email the show @ [email protected]

#obsessedwithwine #winepodcast #winelovers #winetasting #winetrends #winestories #winerylife #winetime #winenews #wineeducation #wineculture #winemakers #wineindustry #wineinfluencers #podcastannouncement #season2 #newepisodes #uncorked #cheers

Hello Wine Enthusiasts Welcome to the Daily Taste for Friday May 6th, 2022

When red wine grapes are harvested, they’re brought inro the winery and most of the time they are put through a machine called a destemmer. The de-stemmer removes the grapes from the stems and separates the grapes from the material other than grapes called MOG for short. In some wineries, the grapes then pass over a conveyer belt where people standing on either side can pick out any remaining stems and leaves and take out any berries that are too green or just don’t look right, this process is called sorting. For some wineries, the grapes may pass through this sorting process more than once to make sure only the best grapes make it into the wine. The sorting process can be an arduous task and is subject to human error. Its inevitable that some green grapes, leaves, and some stems will get past the sorters and into the wine. Companies that make winery equipment were determined to find a better, more efficient way to sort grapes, and they did. One of the most impressive machines I have ever seen in action in a winery is the optical sorter. The optical sorter, is the best and most accurate grape sorting equipment on the market. The optical sorter employs high speed camaras and image processing software to quickly scan and sort destemmed grapes. The high speed cameras shoot at 1000 frames per second with 10 billion pixel resolution and LED lights to illuminate the grapes without heating them up. The biggest of these optical sorters can process up to 15 tons of grapes per hour at a cost of up to $200,000.

The optical sorter is so accurate that it eliminates grapes that are underripe, bird pecked, dehydrated, or have other flaws. It also makes sure that MOG such as leaves and stems are removed to reduce astringency and bitterness. These sorting machines make it possible to make sure that only the best grapes make it into the wine. At this price point, it isn’t realistic for all wineries to have this technology but this is another way that wineries can improve efficiency and the quality of their wines. Some wineries I have worked in are willing to spare no expense to make the best wine they possible can so this machine is a must. Next time you are in a tasting room, aske them if their grapes are sorted with an optical sorter. I also encourage you to visit your favorite winery during the harvest season to see this machine in action. It is very impressive!

Please listen to episode #11 of the obsessed with wine podcast on Saturday May 7th as I talk with certified sommelier and wine school manager Walden Pemantle about falling in love with wine and getting the highest score in his class at the Court of Master Sommelier certified sommelier exam.

Follow us on Social Media:

https://www.instagram.com/obsessedwithwine/

https://www.facebook.com/obsessedwithwine

https://twitter.com/obsessedwine

For more wine content go to obsessedwithwine.com

Listen to past episodes of the podcast here:

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1610813329https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1610813329

Listen on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/6GUNTZsivMlyTySnSbDwfT?si=3c1df2968aba4338

Email the show @ [email protected]

#obsessedwithwine #winepodcast #winelovers #winetasting #winetrends #winestories #winerylife #winetime #winenews #wineeducation #wineculture #winemakers #wineindustry #wineinfluencers #podcastannouncement #season2 #newepisodes #uncorked #cheers

Yesterday we talked about white wine grape pressing because it’s the first step in making most white wines once the grapes arrive from the vineyard. Red wine, as you can imagine has an entirely different process. Since red wine color comes from the grape skins, the grapes need to spend time with the skins to get the color desired for the wine. Typically, red wine grapes arrive at the winery and first go through a destemming process. This is done by a machine called a destemmer which we talked about in an earlier segment. The destemmer gently separates the grapes from the stems and leaves and sends them down a conveyer belt to be sorted. I will post a video to the show website of the destemmer in action. Sorting is important because it allows for stems and leaves that made it through the destemmer to be removed prior to getting into the tank. It’s also a good opportunity to remove any green berries that can impact the finished wine. Some wineries prefer to do their sorting by hand using a team of people to manually sort their grapes. Other wineries use a fabulous machine called an optical sorter. If you want to hear more about the optical sorter, please listen to the Daily Taste Segment from May 6th. I will post a video to the show website with an optical sorter in action if I can find a good one. Once the grapes are sorted, they are pumped into a fermentation vessel which is typically a stainless-steel tank or oak barrel. Of course, there are many other fermentation vessels that are used but these two are the most common for red wine making. The next step in red wine making is to employ a color extraction strategy to make sure the finished wine will have the desired color. The wineries I worked for in the past do pump overs for the first few days before fermentation. A pump over is a gentle extraction method that uses a pump that is hooked up to the bottom of the tank with one hose and another hose is placed over the opening in the top of the tank. The pump then pumps the grapes and juice out of the bottom of the tank and back into the tank through the top. This process allows for the grapes, skins, and juice to be mixed and ensure good color extraction. I will post a video of a pump over in process to the show website. I encourage you watch the video. There are few things as beautiful as a pump over. After a few days of pump overs, the wine is ready to be inoculated with yeast for fermentation. During fermentation, the winemaking team will continue to do pump overs once or twice per day to ensure a good mix and continued color extraction.

Tomorrow we will discuss inoculation and fermentation of both white and red wines. Don’t forget that today is National Wine Day here in the US. So do yourself a fav or and pull out a special bottle to celebrate. You deserve it! Don’t forget to go to the show website to see videos and pictures regarding today’s topic, you'll be ha

Follow us on Social Media:

https://www.instagram.com/obsessedwithwine/

https://www.facebook.com/obsessedwithwine

https://twitter.com/obsessedwine

For more wine content go to obsessedwithwine.com

Listen to past episodes of the podcast here:

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1610813329https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1610813329

Listen on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/6GUNTZsivMlyTySnSbDwfT?si=3c1df2968aba4338

Email the show @ [email protected]

#obsessedwithwine #winepodcast #winelovers #winetasting #winetrends #winestories #winerylife #winetime #winenews #wineeducation #wineculture #winemakers #wineindustry #wineinfluencers #podcastannouncement #season2 #newepisodes #uncorked #cheers

The casual wine drinker may not appreciate the amount of science that is involved in making wine these days. This is why I have decided to focus this episode on the science of wine and winemaking. Winemaking has become so scientific that winemakers are required to be well versed in aspects of chemistry and biology. This is one of the reasons UC Davis' Viticulture and Enology program is so popular among wine professionals. UC Davis is known for its cutting-edge research in these subjects, so it attracts people from all over the world.
This week's guest, Benjamin Eyer, graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a master's degree in Organic Chemistry. Instead of going to medical school, he decided to follow his passion for wine. Benjamin started his wine career by getting his Winemaking Certificate from UC Davis and traveling to Chile to learn how to work in a winery. Then Benjamin joined Frank Family Vineyards in Napa, CA as an intern before moving to the pacific northwest. In Oregon, Benjamin joined Trisaetum Winery as an intern and eventually A to Z Wineworks as an cellar hand to further his experience and grow as a winemaker. Finally, Benjamin was named winemaker at Landlines Estates / Montinore Vineyards in Forest Grove, Oregon. After making wines for over four years, Benjamin decided to make a career change and joined Admeo Inc. out of Angwin, CA. Admeo Inc. provides wine testing kits and machines that wineries use to analyze their wines starting when the grapes first arrive at the winery after harvest and all the way through fermentation and bottling. These machines allow the wineries who can afford them, to test their wine samples much more efficiently and accurately which allows them to get the results of the analysis much quicker. In this episode, Benjamin and I discuss his wine journey that brought him to Admeo Inc, some tests that winemakers do to fermenting juice and why, and we discuss some wines he is especially proud of making when he was at Montinore Vineyards in Oregon.

Follow us on Social Media:

https://www.instagram.com/obsessedwithwine/

https://www.facebook.com/obsessedwithwine

https://twitter.com/obsessedwine

For more wine content go to obsessedwithwine.com

Listen to past episodes of the podcast here:

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1610813329https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1610813329

Listen on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/6GUNTZsivMlyTySnSbDwfT?si=3c1df2968aba4338

Email the show @ [email protected]

#obsessedwithwine #winepodcast #winelovers #winetasting #winetrends #winestories #winerylife #winetime #winenews #wineeducation #wineculture #winemakers #wineindustry #wineinfluencers #podcastannouncement #season2 #newepisodes #uncorked #cheers