The Sagrantino Adventure in Pictorial

Thanks to the new FLIP, (sorry, I have not mastered the art of the edit) I was able to quasi document the adventure --traveling to California to help winemaker Kevin Hamel birth of what might be the only Sagrantino in America, belonging to olive oil meister, Ridgely Evers in Sonoma. While not actually making the wine, let's just say I had a hand and foot in the project. In the first video that's winemaker Kevin Hamel, drenched in morning sun, talking to vineyard owner and Ridgely. They used knives, I used secateurs. Alice being chased after by a killer picker. The 3.5 acres took no time to pick and truthfully, I barely picked two buckets full. I am distracted from my stomp duties by talking to the camera. This was the first time I got into the tank and there was a bed of almost immovable grapes under foot. So I really only sunk in an inch or two. Three days after picking, the grapes were tucked in between the larger fermenting tanks in the Pellegrini Winery. Kevin was taking the video when a winery visitor, saw me and wanted to come closer to take a look, as if I were a Panda. Note the pooling, a sure sign that those yeasts hadn't even considered fermenting yet. This last video was taken on Friday afternoon, on the day before I left. At the time I thought It was my last day in the pot. But before I left on Saturday, I tried to punch it down because I was enroute to the airport and really didn't want to be sticky for the next 14 hours. I didn't have enough force to push the punch down tool through the massive force of energy keeping the cap together. I could have copped out to wimphood and asked Kevin do it, or roll up my pants to thigh high and get in. Which I did, pulling myself around on the edge of the bin so as not to soak in the juice which had risen quite a bit. This is terrific for the triceps and biceps. The experience was perfect illumination that the human footed pigeage is the easiest way to get the job done. My foot pierced the cap like a bullet going through a cloud.