Filtering at BookCliff

Hi all,

Hope you're enjoying this transition into Fall as much as I am. Not only do I love the cooler temperatures and changing colors, but it's harvest and crush time at the vineyards and the wineries. In order to make room in the winery for the new wines, we must bottle some of the wines that are ready to head out. Just a few days ago I filtered our 2006 Chardonnay. We will be bottling it next week so it's time to take the last few steps in the wine making process. We aged our '06 Chardonnay in new French and American oak for about six months. During this process we left the wine on the lees, which are just the dead yeast cells. I know it sounds gross but it really gives the wine a soft creaminess and balance when mixed with the oak flavors. We stirred the wine in the barrels a couple times a week, every week, just to mix up the lees. To remove the lees we filter the wine into a large stainless steel tank. This filtering is what you see in the picture. I can't wait for you all to try this new vintage of BookCliff Vineyards Chardonnay!

It's That Time of Year.

That's right Colorado Mountain Winefest is back. This weekend head up to Palisade to experience the largest Colorado wine festival of the year! What a great time: live music, bike tours through the vineyards, winemaker dinners, and of course wine tasting. Check out the website here for all the info you'll need. As always stop by and say hi. If you can't make it up to Palisade this weekend stop by and see me at the tasting room on 15th St. between Pearl and Walnut.

As for winery stuff we're bottling like crazy to make some room as we will start crush probably next week. Some of the grapes are ready and others are so close to ready that I can taste 'em. The white grapes usually are picked first, that means Chardonnay and Viognier. This year we'll also have our first vintage of Riesling and a couple other varietals, how exciting! What a busy time for us.