JLC Winery News and Events

Our Cab Franc is named for this little roper Byrce Hamilton Tasker

In Walla Walla Valley, the Frontier Days Fair and Rodeo is over and so is the Pendleton Round-Up, which signals the end of the summer and the onset of Harvest. In the vineyard at Spofford Station, we are all busy getting details readied. Veraison has occurred, fruit has been green thinned and less desirable clusters culled to assure that low crop tonnage will create wonderful, complex flavors in the wines. I’ve been sampling the berries….already sweetening. This will be a banner year.

JLC Harvest in Progress We’ve been out with the hydrometer, checking the brix (sugar level for ripening). So have the birds. Here in Walla Walla, we have a precautious population of Starlings and Robins that also love those Vinifera wine grapes like you do. It takes the Spofford crew two full weeks just to put the netting over the vines, but this protects the fruit from the damage that can come from deer and birds. (only the best for you)

Setting the Stage
Last touches, including a final watering in early August and a color thinning of the berries and we now monitor the changes in the chemistry of the berries until the moment comes for the harvest. We cover the vines with bird netting. Birds seem to know when the sugars reach 23 brix. It takes 10 workers 2 weeks to put the nets on.
In the winery we are cleaning and preping the picking bins and fermentors in anticipation of the first fruit arrival.

Spofford Station Estate grapes are harvested by hand. It is a labor intensive, time consuming process but it is the only way to ensure that the fruit is handled with great care. Harvested grapes are delivered to the winery immediately.

Time is of the essence. Before being hand-sorted and destemmed, samples of each lot are taken for analysis in the lab. Destemmed grapes go into a fermentor where the process begins of converting sugars to alcohol and wine. After the juice is wine, the berries are pressed and pumped into barrels where they will spend many months aging. When the flavors are integrated and the perfect balance of acids and tannins has been reached, the wine is bottled.

At the end of 43 days of sleep deprivation winemakers can sleep anywhere.

Working with the Walla Walla Enology Center Walla Community College . James Leigh Cellars has always been a good partner in training. We have worked along with the students at the Community College to build better winemaking. Spofford Station donated fruit to the students to crush and press into their College blends which sell with proceeds going to the institution and to scholarships. Along with that goal, JLC is again a part of the Entwine Fundraising night in which all funds earned from donations sponsors scholarships for students. . We believe that the best education for winemaking is by experience. Furthering this spirit, we are working with the College to provide experiences for students. We have 2 student “employees” that will be learning by doing throughout the course of this crush.