Here is an update on the Eagle Hill Wines and Vineyards harvest and crush.
At 9:30 AM Saturday September 26, 2009, 11 people arrived at Eagle Hill to help with the harvest. We had 7 in 2008. In 2008 for Block 1, planted in 2006 and which has 246 vines of Cabernet Sauvignon, the first harvest resulted in 150 pounds. We believed we would have 300 pounds in 2009 but instead we ended up with 528 pounds not including the lugs' weights. In 2009, we started at 10 AM and worked for 3 hours, finishing at 1 PM, in very hot weather. Next year it may be better to start at 8 AM so we work in cooler weather. Next year our winemaker at Captain Vineyards believes we may have 1100 pounds from Block 1 if we don't lose any to raccoons (we estimate we lost around 20% to them until we realized what was happening and put two of our German Shepherds dogs down there at night). The dogs just need to be there when the grapes are starting to get sweeter, probably the last 2 or 3 weeks before harvest. In 2010 the Block 1 vines will be starting to reach their maturity as to pounds produced. In any case, we are sorry that we totally miss-calculated the work involved. Next year, when Block 2, planted in 2008, will be producing a fair amount of grapes (only about 20 pounds this year), that Block's 200 vines (Cabernet Franc and Sangiovese) will be adding to the time involved. Accordingly, it seems to us that to keep the time involved to a more manageable 1.5 to 2 hours, we should attempt to have around 30 people doing the harvesting. Thus, please keep your eyes out for wine enthusiasts who would like to participate next year and share our web page and blog address with them. We received a very good suggestion that a small group should go through first with poles to more easily put the bird nets up to the top.
Before the harvest, we had breakfast at Eagle Hill and after the harvest we had a long lunch at Eagle Hill. We had it inside this year as it was so hot outside. During lunch we sampled 3 different wines from grapes grown in the Lamorinda area, with a concluding sip of Limoncello!
After keeping the grapes in a cool area of the house overnight, on Sunday, September 27, 2009 Peter took the grapes to our wine maker, Captain Vineyards, a bonded winery in Moraga, CA. Steve and Jane met him there and assisted in the crush and destemming. We also helped Salah and Susan Captain crush/destem grapes from two other vineyards.
If the people who took photos send us email files of them I will add them to the photos I have and then send everyone an email with the photos attached.
Once again, thank you to all who assisted this year.
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