One of my goals as a winemaker after each crush is to get the winery buttoned up before Thanksgiving. The wines should be fully topped in barrel and prepped to go through malolactic fermentation (secondary bacterial fermentation converting malic acid, found in apples, to the softer lactic acid, found in milk). The winery should be in a winter “safety zone” so that I’m comfortable leaving for vacation.

During harvest, everything stacks up. Business and personal bills go unpaid and there are piles of unopened mail. But by Thanksgiving, there is time to re-cap the vintage and evaluate aspects of it while they are still fresh in my mind. I think about changes we can make, equipment we should purchase.

I try not to taste the wine until it completes malolactic. … More…