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Skipping Ahead...

10/28/2010

2 Comments

 
As some may know... The memory of my computer, holding all of our pictures, has been erased (thanks apple). Thanks to the blog, we have most moments documented, except for our eventful trip to pick up 6000 lbs (3 tons) of Frontenac grapes in Decorah, IA, our delivery of Chambourcin grapes from Illinois, and the processing of both. We are going to send it in to see if anything can be recovered, but as for now, we must go on. ;o) 

10.6.10

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The building has been growing quite quickly this month. It is exciting to see the design all coming together in real life, vs. on drawings or a computer.
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With an interesting site comes and interesting road. Able Boulevard (where the winery is), has never really had ditches. So, when it rained --- huge gullies would form on the sides of the road. Not the safest road to travel... The county came in and dug ditches, made the road wider, and raised it a bit. Ready for traffic.
We have accepted that the post pounding will never end... We finally began pounding posts on the Frontenac Gris vineyard located on the North end. The vines started hardening off right on schedule, from a tender green shoot-to a hardened cinnamon colored cane. Bring on the Frost!

10.7.10

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The drywall, taping, and mudding was completed in the production area, and we were on duty to paint. Thankfully, Dad had a paint sprayer. That made the job a whole lot easier and quicker with 12 ft side walls and 16 ft in the center. It took 3 coats of paint-Will spraying and me rolling to make it even.

We are still waiting for some of the duct work to be completed for the cellar, lab, utility room, and barrel room. So, the whole process in those rooms has been put on hold...

Our 1/2 acre of Frontenac Gris has been deficient in care the past month... The vines grew, and without anything to hold on to, their growth covered the row middles, making it difficult to mow, so, it felt good to get started on the post pounding.

10.8.10 | Great night for a fire...

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10.9.10 | More work in the Frontenac Gris Vineyard 

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10.10.10 | Delivery!

Bound to be a day of luck, our 5 ton glycol chiller and barrel racks arrive. The glycol chiller will circulate chilled glycol through the "jackets" that surround the tanks to allow us to perform cool fermentations (fruitier wines), cold stabilization, and other fermentation procedures... 

10.12.10 | Tanks! Finally!

We had been waiting for our tanks for weeks... From one salesperson to the next, it was hard to get a straight story of when the tanks would be coming, and where they actually were during transport. By the time we received them, we were just happy to see they existed.
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10.14.10 - Tanks in production with bubble wrap.

10.13.10 | Building Progress.

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10.16.10 | Tastes of Autumn Event | Women's Club of Larchwood

We had a great time in Larchwood at this event! Click HERE to see story and photos.

10.19.10 | Prepping for Concrete.

RC Concrete Construction back to begin the prep work for the event area on the West side of the building. Once this is poured, it can be framed and we will be one step closer to being ready for the snow to fly... 

10.21.10 | Setting it Up.

Will working on the tanks... Here he is working on the lid of the variable capacity tanks. These are made so that the lid can be adjusted to the level of the wine, then the gasket around the lid is pumped with air to make it air tight and there is less room for oxygen to touch the wine reducing the risk of oxidation. 
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10.22.10 | Staining the Siding. | Outside.

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This might take a while... 

10.23.10 | Staining the Siding. | Semi-indoors as the temps. decrease and rain is in the forecast.

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10.26.10 | BURR!

 The vineyard is looking quite a bit thinner these days after our severe winds and inevitable freezing temps.  The vines were ready for it, however, and the shoots had hardened off.

10.27.10 | Staining the Siding. | Inside a semi-insulated building as the snow falls and wind blows.

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Snow falls when your having fun... Time to get that concrete poured!

2 Comments

Some of September.

10/6/2010

1 Comment

 
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We have been busy! In a good way. From growing vines, to delicious wines, and a building to make it all come together, things are going well.
9.3.10
Putting up the first walls of production! This is facing the South.
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Up with the trusses on the production building! This is the cellar/storage portion they are working on in this picture.
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The wall between the tasting room and production.
9.4.10
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Labor Day Weekend

What better way to celebrate Labor Day Weekend, than to labor??? Our friends from Chicago took a break from the windy city to step onto the Iowa soil and get dirty. We accomplished much in the vineyard; finishing the end posts, and tying up the vines.
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Honda and Penny Lane basking in the sun.
9.5.10
Punching down the cap of the Frontenac!
As the CO2 is released from fermentation, solids float to the top, forming a "cap". Will is "punching down" the cap to mix the skins back in to the must for extraction of color and flavor.
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9.6.10
A toast to all that was accomplished!

Delivery! 9.7.10

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Our Flexible Impeller Pump! Variable speed, can be used to gently transfer wine and must, (grape skins, and juice or wine). This is what is going to make our lives livable. And, thus far, it has worked amazingly.
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Punching down again. 9.7.10
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View from Highway 18 heading West.
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Dad in the vines at sunset.
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Frontenac and Marquette pressed. 9.8.10

As we gradually moved from processing in the back of the refer trailer to our concrete processing pad, things got better and better... This was the first time we were able to use our pump, which we call the "Viking King". This was a small batch, 50 gals, we picked up much more Frontenac in the weeks following...
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FRONTENAC

MARQUETTE
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Punching down the Marqutte before we press.
Raindrops are falling on my head... As we began our prep work for pressing the Marquette, it began to rain... We did get a tent up to protect everything while we were processing, but our documentation stops here.

Inoculation 9.9.10-9.10.10

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Will working on his fermentation plan.
We had left our crushed and pressed white juices in stainless steel tanks to cold settle in the refer trailer... It was time to inoculate with yeast, so we moved the Viking King (our pump), back to the other end of the plywood path.
FRONTENAC GRIS
Testing the Brix (percent sugar) of the Frontenac Gris juice. At 22 Brix it should ferment out to 11% alcohol after fermented to dryness.
The water was warmed and yeast added for it to be rehydrated. Will gradually added juice (incremental juice additions) to the yeast to not sugar shock to yeast, and to not cool the yeast down too much before adding it all into the tank.

LA CRESCENT
We went through the same process for the La Crescent. Racking the juice off of it's sediment into a new tank, then testing the brix, gradually adding the juice to the yeast, and adding it all to the tank.

Men at Work.

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Stouwies Construction Crew putting it all together.

Decisions, decisions...

 We went with the "Burnt Sienna" shingles shown in the picture on the right.
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Stains we are considering for the cedar siding. "Honey Gold" for the trim, and "Cedar Naturaltone" for the siding.

9.12.10


9.14.10

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Floor plan.
Discussing some minor changes to the design...
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Wendall with the solution. We now have an angled corner wall to expand the vista in the tasting room. So happy we decided to make that change, and that is was able to be done!

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Frontenac vines all tied up and ready for fall!

More of September to come, had to send the computer that has all of the pictures on it in to get it fixed...
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Calico Skies Vineyard and Winery Inc. 2368 Able Blvd. Inwood, IA 51240 712.753.2110 info@calicoskieswine.com