Brewette Does Wine

Although dipping into the wine world might seem like a slight departure from the norm for this Brewette, my love affair with wine has been a long and winding road.  Almost a decade ago, I would spend my weekends talking to sippers and gulpers at the Silver Lake Winery tasting room in Woodinville, WA.  I had my share of intellectual conversations over one ounce pours of vino.  While I still make my way to a tasting room every now and then to imbibe, I haven't ever been behind the scenes of wine making....until last Saturday at Two Mountain Winery.

  

Two Mountain Winery, located in Zillah, WA, is a 10 year old estate winery owned by Matt and Patrick Rawn: two brothers with a passion to keep the family farm land profitable.  Being classified as an estate winery means that they grow all their own grapes for the wines that they produce.  They also sell their grapes to several wineries in Woodinville, California, and even some on the East Coast.  

The first half of the day was spent with Matt, the winemaker.  He let us see all the equipment and helped us understand exactly what goes into winemaking.  We were able to taste fresh pressed juice, newly fermented wine (which ironically tasted like beer), and wine that had been punched that morning and was still in the fermentation process.  The basic ingredients start the fermentating process with wine as is with beer:  potential sugars, yeast, yeast nutrient, and oxygen.  The potential sugar in wine is measured as Brix, instead of Plato.  Conversionally speaking, the difference between Plato and Brix is 0.1%.  While Plato measures the potential fermentable sugars from extract or grain, Brix measures the dissolved sugar to water ratio in a solution.  Much like brewing, winemakers measure the sugars prior to fermentation as well as after in order to determine the alcohol content.  Matt had a few hydrometers and graduated cylinders to show us how it was done.  A few more samples of wine in process, and then it was our turn to go out into the fields.

The second half of the day was spent with Patrick in the vineyard.  After a quick ride out to Copeland Vineyards, we found ourselves amongst 40+ acres of grapes.  While Patrick talked with us about the family legacy of farming in the Yakima Valley, I began to inhale all the ripe Merlot grapes around me.  Although some varietals had already been harvested, there were still plenty to snack on.  Patrick gave us a plastic bag and set us loose.  Our task: to pick grapes from all regions of the vine.  We were to get a cross section of the Merlot grapes in order to determine whether they were ripe for picking.  While Matt used hydrometers during the wine making process to measure the Brix, Patrick used a Refractometer to gauge the sugars of the fruit straight off the vine.  A  Refractometer measures the density of a solution based off how sunlight refracts through the liquid.  We squished up our selection of grapes and then put a bit of the juice into the refractometer.  According to our tastes and the actual sugars in the grapes, we all agreed  it would be prime time to harvest.

While we didn't get to actually make wine, the day spent behind the scenes of this winery made their wine taste even better.  Matt made sure to note that a lot of good beer goes into making great wine.  Well, this Brewette would have to agree.  Two Mountain wines are top notch...and I've got beer to thank for that!


Two Mountain Winery
www.twomountainwinery.com
2151 Cheyne Road, Zillah, WA