While Dave and Dan were off on their excellent adventure, picking up the Walla Walla Valley AVA Syrah grapes for our Firebird wine, growers Mike and Julie Slater of Tonnelier Vineyard in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA and Diane Nemarnik of Nemarniki Vineyard in the Chehalem Mountains AVA were busily picking our blocks of Pinot Noir. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to snag any photos at Diane’s place, but Mike and Julie sent us these from their vineyard:
With Dave, Dan and the Syrah safely back, it was time to gather a hoard of fantastic volunteers for an epic day of processing grapes. Among them, wine writer Tamara Belgard of SatiatePDX shared these great photos:
We also got some great photos from Fanfare Club Founding Member Jen, who shared these:
Repeat volunteer, and Fanfare Club Founding Member Mark, shared this great photo:
Finally, after coordinating and cooking lunch, Sara showed up in time to snag a few pictures of her own.
Finally, a little video of what the destemmed grapes look like, dropping into the fermenter.
Thank you so much to our amazing crew of volunteer sorters and photographers who helped us blast through roughly 5 tons of grapes in a record 4 hours. Unbelievable. We couldn’t have done it without Mark, Katie, Nick, Jen, Tamara, David, Doug, Erica, Rick, Mike and Julie.