The harvest is right around the corner, and Leah and I have been busy getting ready.  We procured 6 kegs for a total capacity of 93 gallons of wine.  We plan on putting the wine in these kegs for the bulk of the year for conditioning. Hopefully, we’ll be able to throw them under my parents house to benefit from the constant cool temperature, but moving a full 15.5 gallon is small crawl spaces is easier said than done.  The kegs were absolutely filthy and covered in beer gunk.  We gave them a very thorough scrubbing this past weekend so they are good to go.

We also purchased a sulfite detector, which was %$#%ing expensive.  Apparently, it’s the best you can get, so I hope to do this for many many years.  We put together a budget for the ingredients (what the club members pay for), which I hope to share soon.

We placed the order for the half ton of grapes.  We put down 50% so we’re committed.  We are going to get them in three 300 pound bins at the end of September.  So we might need some help getting them to our place when they arrive from somebody strong in the Oakland area, (cough cough BEN!!).

…. And speaking of committed, some of you haven’t paid.  If you haven’t paid, please send a check over my way.

First of all, welcome to the club! We have received verbal commitments from all of you, and a couple of you have actually paid. Thank you for your support and willingness to take part in this. Leah and I are really excited.

The first point of business to discuss is what are we going to make? We will use a wine making shop in Berkeley that has sources for grapes. They just provided us their price list for the season. We are thinking about the Zinfandel from Amador.  We will be getting 1000 pounds, so that comes to 95 cents, or $950.  Does anybody have any major objections to this? It will take a lot to change our mind, but let us know.

On a separate note, I am very interested in making a small batch of really really good Napa/Sonoma wine, perhaps Cabernet.  I’d like 100 pounds to make 5 gallons. If anybody has a grape source, let me know. I’m happy to pick it myself, and share some wine or money with the grape grower.  This is just a side project, if you want to be a part of it and can help, let me know.