• First we select our grapes these can be either hand picked or purchased in bulk.

•  After getting your fruit, if it is a red wine we crush the grapes to break the grape skins and separate them from the stems.  After crushing we put the juice and the skins in a primary fermentation tank (we use a 20 gallon food grade plastic container) and stir in a sulfate solution to sterilize the must.

• From here we transfer our fermenters to the winery (8x8 Costco shed real hi-tech I know) where we have to wait 24hrs before adding the yeasts.  We use Lavalin 212 for the Pinot and Redstar Pasture Red for the Syrah.  While we are waiting we do all kinds of lab tests on the juice, we test the P.H., Acid Levels, Specific Gravity, Sugar Content (Brix), and the estimated alcohol content.  We also add some yeast nutrient to give the yeats plenty of pep, and peptic enzyme to help extract better color and character.

• In about 24 hrs after adding the yeast they have really started to do their jobs and the must is alive with activity.  The CO₂ being produced causes the grape skins to rise to the top forming a cap that need to be pressed down at least twice a day.  Pressing the cap down keeps the skins wet and allows for better extraction.  3 days into fermentation we add Malolactic cultures, these little guys eat Malolactic Acid that is produced naturally and turn it into Lactic Acid.  Lactic Acid will give the wine a smoother feel and gives it a buttery hint, basically everyone says to do it so I do. :)

• During fermentation we watch the specific gravity of the juice and when it reaches 1.000 most of the sugar is gone and it is time to press the wine.  Pressing involves taking the must and using a big ratcheting wooden press to press all the juice out of the grape skins.  This is almost as much work as picking the grapes.

• After the wine is pressed and siphoned into carboys, the wine is left to finish secondary fermentation and malolactic fermentation.

• Well we waited a little longer than 2 months but hey that happens sometimes. :)  We moved so the wine has a new home, hopefully we will be building a new wine room sometime this summer.  The racking involves siphoning the wine from one carboy to another.  We do this because when the wine is first put in the carboy it has a lot of yeast in the liquid.  As it sits and finishes it's fermentation the yeast hulls fall to the bottom and the wine clears.  This leaves a mud like layer on the bottom of the carboy.  We siphon the wine from on top of that layer so it can continue to settle without getting any of the old yeast taste.  We will let it sit here for about another 3 months or until after spring Chinook season, then we will rack again and put oak in the carboys and bottle this fall.

• Time has passed and the wine is ready for it's last racking.  This should have been done a couple of months ago but hey it's been a busy summer.  This racking has the wine going on oak.  We aren't setup for wine barrels so we do it the easy way and use oak chips.  The oak we chose was American Classic, American Light Toast, French Light Toast, and French Medium Plus.  We used a combination of each with a total of 2 oz/carboy except for Bob's grapes which got 3 oz/carboy before we realized that the oak was going to run out.  Each carboy also received 1/4 tsp of sulfate.  We tried something a little different this time, when the fresh carboy was about 2/3 full we dropped a few chips of dry ice in to create a pure CO2 environment.  My thinking is this will purge all the O2 out and help with shelf life, plus it looked cool.  The next phase will be either to bottle or rack for storage, we will bottle if enough bottles can be found.  If you have bottles and want wine I will trade you 1 full bottle for 3 empty.  More to come in a few months.

 The bottling process:  On 11/25/06  the diehard wine enthusiasts gathered to bottle the latest offing from DustyBridge.  We received an unimaginable amount of help from people who gave up a day to come together and make a wine to be shared with everyone.  We had Pinot from 3 different vineyards that were blended to create the 2005 DustyBridge Pinot Noir.  When the bottling was finished there were 600 bottles of wine.  This could not have been accomplished without the help from friends.  With the bottling of the wine we are done for a year.  During the next year we will start the "Real World Wine Reviews" portion of the website, if you have a wine you would like to write a review on or a wine you would like us to review please click on the "contact us" tab and submit an email.  Once again THANK YOU to everyone who made today a great success