A Barrel of Hard Work

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to get myself an invitation to “barrel out Chardonnay.”

The invitation was from winemaker Regan Kapach at 16 Mile Cellars. (Yes, this is the Chardonnay of my recent love affair. However, lest you think she was playing favourites, I had not told Regan about my affection for her wine until I went there to help out in the cellar, at which point I confessed my love for her Chardonnay and a bit shame-faced admitted how much of it I’d drunk since I bought it a short time ago. Kind soul, she didn’t judge me.)

Barrelling out Chardonnay! My first winemaking experience! I arrived like an excited little bunny first thing in the morning, equipped with rubber boots (cellars are wet) and a cosy sweatshirt (cellars are cold) and with absolutely NO CLUE what I’d be doing. City mouse/sommelier going out to the country to learn – we should wear signs on our backs, although I suspect we don’t need to!

Rather than give you the play-by-play of the day Regan and I spent together, I thought I’d talk about the things I learned that day:

1) Winemaking is NOT a glamorous job, however much the wine industry is steeped in romance and mystique. We picture winemakers at sunset, surveying their glorious vineyards while sipping their latest creations, in peace, harmony and tranquillity. The reality is very different – at least when it comes to cellar work.

(As a quick aside, there are similar misconceptions about being a sommelier. When I worked in restaurants, people would ask me if I drank wine all day, travelled to amazing places and generally seemed bit envious of what appeared to them to be a really cool job. It is cool in many ways. And I loved aspects of it. But it is also a lot of hauling cases of wine around, being on your feet long and late serving guests and managing staff, spending hours in a cellar counting bottles for inventory and a fair bit more math than I find desirable with costing, margins and analyzing sales. That’s not to say being a sommelier isn’t great – just that it is like every other job, replete with the good and the not so good.)

Back to the cellar.

As I was saying, cellar work is not glamorous. It involves a lot of cleaning. Cleaning tanks, cleaning barrels, cleaning hoses, cleaning the things that connect hoses, cleaning floors…you get the idea. Regan is fastidious. Her cellar is impeccable. Given how important a clean operation is for good winemaking, I gained a new appreciation for the amount of effort that goes into maintaining that kind of standard.

There are also many moving parts in winemaking and many things to move around. Tanks and barrels and hoses and canisters of gas that help remove the wine from the barrels. Some of this is done with forklifts (which, probably good for all concerned, I did not get to drive) some done by hand. All of this stuff is heavy and awkward. The two descriptors I’d use for Regan's physical appearance are petite and pretty. After spending the day with her I’d add tough. I imagine it was nice for her having a second set of hands that day to help haul things around, but I also know that she’s entirely capable (and almost always does it) on her own.

2) Winemaking is equal parts science and art. Talking to Regan and listening to her bounce between yeast strains, inert gases, pH levels, and the importance of phenolics to watching her taste straight from barrels of aging Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and comment on its progress is to be witness to the dance between wine chemistry and the magic of a winemaker’s intuition. I am currently immersed in a winemaking course but what I realized that day is there is no way to teach the gut feeling about where a young Pinot is going and what choices you will make along the way to create the best wine possible. If the massive amount of cleaning and hauling equipment is a romance buzz-kill, watching a winemaker taste from barrels is pure Harlequin storytelling.

3) The cellar is a pretty Zen place to hang out. I’m quite sure it doesn’t always feel like that, but at this stage in the winemaking process, at least, it felt quite calm. “Barrelling out” Chardonnay – I feel I should define this for you now if you’ve stuck with me this far –refers to taking the Chardonnay that has been aging in barrel out of the barrels and putting it into tanks to blend before bottling. This process involves all those clean hoses, nitrogen gas to help extract the wine from the barrels  -  a technique referred to as "pressure decanting" (no pumps are used but the nitrogen gas helps move the wine through the hoses into the tanks) - and results in big tanks full of delicious 2014 Rebel Chardonnay and 2014 Civility Chardonnay. It’s an awesome phase to be involved in – kind of like Christmas Eve when you can see the gifts under the tree and know how good it will feel to open them. Seeing the wine in tanks in this close to final stage of production and tasting from tank the bright, young, wonderful wine that will continue to mature and mellow in bottle was a gift for me for sure. The gift to you will be if you can get your hands on some of that wine!

So, my first day in the cellar was a great one. Between Regan’s intelligent commentary and thoughtful answers to my myriad questions, her easy company and choice of Wilco to serenade our work and the satisfaction of having put in a day of work that had a tangible result, it was an experience I would happily repeat. And hopefully I will.

This year’s harvest is well underway. My winemaking course is in full steam – I will be making my own Chardonnay as part of it. 16 Mile Cellar has already picked and crushed Pinot Noir and is doing the same with the 2016 Chardonnay harvest this week. Instead of starting at the end I will be starting at the beginning this season, and will tell you more about all the stages that come before “barrelling out” in the coming months. It will be a fun ride, and I promise it will make you appreciate what’s in your glass even more.

Until next time, enjoy your wine.

Anjana