We woke up Saturday morning to another sunny day in
California with no cloud in the sky (which is typical). Mom and Dad decided that today would be the perfect day to visit a winery. I was not invited since I am not of drinking age.
They went to the 4
th largest winery in the WORLD. After partaking in a little wine tasting, they went on a tour.
These grapes are going to be ready to be harvested next week.
They saw grape vines after grape vines. The tour guide said that it only takes 10 gallons of water for an acre of grape vines per year. I guess that's why vineyards thrive in California.
After the grapes are harvested, which takes place at night because of the cooler temperatures, they are crushed and stored in these huge holding tanks to ferment.
When this winery was first established in 1930s, they used these containers wrapped in redwoods to store the crushed grapes for the fermentation process.
The tour guide said that when it was time to clean these storage containers, a retired jockey would squeeze into this opening in order to hose down the inside of these holding tanks.
Bikes are the primary mode of transportation at the winery because it does not stir up the dust in the vineyards. Mom and Dad said that the bikes looked out of place amongst all of the other high tech machinery.
Then they went into this warehouse, which is kept at a cool 50 degree temperature, filled with 57,000 barrels of wine for the aging process.
Each barrel hold 59 gallons and is made of oak. The barrels cost in the range of $600 to $2,000 and are only used once because that is where the wine gets most of its flavor. Then, they are sold off for about 20 bucks. Talk about depreciation!
Mom and Dad stayed in this warehouse for quite some time because it was nice and cool after being outside in the heat.
Then, they went to see a cork tree.
The bark is where cork comes from for the wine bottles. Only approximately 20% of the bark is usable though.
Sounds like Mom and Dad had a good time and learned a lot about the wine making process. I bet they will sleep well tonight but Mom says that she still does not care for the taste of wine. It reminds her of the cough syrup that her grandmother used to make her take a teaspoon of whenever she had any kind of ailment.
We woke up Saturday morning to another sunny day in California with no cloud in the sky (which is typical). Mom and Dad decided that today would be the perfect day to visit a winery. I was not invited since I am not of drinking age.
They went to the 4th largest winery in the WORLD. After partaking in a little wine tasting, they went on a tour.
These grapes are going to be ready to be harvested next week.
They saw grape vines after grape vines. The tour guide said that it only takes 10 gallons of water for an acre of grape vines per year. I guess that's why vineyards thrive in California.
After the grapes are harvested, which takes place at night because of the cooler temperatures, they are crushed and stored in these huge holding tanks to ferment.
When this winery was first established in 1930s, they used these containers wrapped in redwoods to store the crushed grapes for the fermentation process.
The tour guide said that when it was time to clean these storage containers, a retired jockey would squeeze into this opening in order to hose down the inside of these holding tanks.
Bikes are the primary mode of transportation at the winery because it does not stir up the dust in the vineyards. Mom and Dad said that the bikes looked out of place amongst all of the other high tech machinery.
Then they went into this warehouse, which is kept at a cool 50 degree temperature, filled with 57,000 barrels of wine for the aging process.
Each barrel hold 59 gallons and is made of oak. The barrels cost in the range of $600 to $2,000 and are only used once because that is where the wine gets most of its flavor. Then, they are sold off for about 20 bucks. Talk about depreciation!
Mom and Dad stayed in this warehouse for quite some time because it was nice and cool after being outside in the heat.
Then, they went to see a cork tree.
The bark is where cork comes from for the wine bottles. Only approximately 20% of the bark is usable though.
Sounds like Mom and Dad had a good time and learned a lot about the wine making process. I bet they will sleep well tonight but Mom says that she still does not care for the taste of wine. It reminds her of the cough syrup that her grandmother used to make her take a teaspoon of whenever she had any kind of ailment.
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