Wine Festival day 2

My first morning in Daniela's house was wonderful. Being an early riser, I was up and about around 8...I grabbed the guitar I saw in the rec room and brought it onto the patio. I haven't played in weeks so it felt really good to find something to strum. I'm not very good, so it was hard for me to tune it by ear. Plus half of the strings on the classical guitar were steel which was odd. I guess Hillary heard me at some point in the morning because she snapped this great photo from her window above. It was such an incredible feeling to be sitting there in the morning sun looking at the surrounding hillsides. This is the view from Daniela's house: Simply amazing. Just waking up to this alone was breathtaking. Add in strumming the guitar, and I am in heaven. It got pretty warm though so eventually I moved inside.

Giovanni made us a tasty fresh lunch that consisted of a tomato and bell pepper salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar served with piccorino cheese, fresh buffalo mozzarella, and bread. It was tasty! We kept the day pretty chill. Just walked around a bit, came back for naps, and headed out again. Lisa and Giovanni went to a special wine tasting. We didn't go because it was all in Italian and super technical. Here is a video of the tasting, Corrado starts talking about a minute into it. SO GREAT. You can see Lisa at 5:06 and Giovanni at 5:23! While I would've loved to observe the tasting, it sounded way above my head. Got some more stuffed olives... Valeria, Hillary and I walked around and waited for Lisa and Giovanni over some wine. Eventually they finally got out, and we enjoyed some tasty dinner at the seafood stand! I got the seafood pasta. Prawns, mussels, and tastiness! Giovanni got the seafood soup. Which was amazing. It was a tomato based soup and had fish, clams, mussels, prawns, everything. Valeria got the fish salad which was not as fishy as I thought it would be. It was actually pretty tasty. Tasted more like scallops with a light vinegar sauce to me. The concert this time was a little more enjoyable. Some sort of alternative reggae sort of group. They were fun for about 2 or 3 songs. Then it got kind of old in my opinion. But they had some great energy and the crowd loved them. As you can see in this video I found taken that night. I think the highlight for me was watching the crowd. People don't raise glasses here. They raise their bottles. It was hilarious.

Day 16: Bottling

I finally felt like I was coming around when we started bottling today. We harvested, we pressed, we analyzed, we moved wine, we bottled, labeled, boxed, and shipped the wine out! The only thing I felt like I was missing was pruning the vines and weeding! But there's always a chance I could come back in the spring for that... :)
It was an easier day than our other days, but the highlight for me was watching Corrado at work. He produces about 12,000 a year, and he actually sits there and bottles them himself! I cleaned the bottles, he bottled the wine, Lisa corked the bottles, and Hillary and Giovanni stored the bottles away. Here is a photo courtesy of Hillary of us working:We were definitely in a groove once Corrado brought out his ancient Mac computer. The thing had kid pix on it! I just had to take a photo.

Talk about adding the personal touch, he literally touches every bottle of his wine!

Day 5: End of my first work week

Well it's certainly been a busy week here. I've made some journal entries for myself to remind me of everything I am experiencing, but I'll sum it up for you here:

I've been starting my work days at 7 a.m. here. Each sunrise is just as breath taking as the last. As much as I love seeing the Olympic Mountains each morning back home in Seattle, Cupramontana has a unique beauty to it as well. This is the view from the cellar my first morning:
Turns out the cellar is about a 10ish minute drive away from the home. And the vinyards are spread out in different areas. Sometimes we harvest from the vines in front of the cellar, other times we harvest from vineyards further away.

I have been joined by two other WWOOFers, Hillary and Lisa. Hillary is straight out of high school and a pretty level headed chick. I am so amazed that she is able to experience something like this at such a young age. She is WWOOFing for the next 8 months all over Europe, and this was her first stop. Lisa is older although I only guessed barely in her thirties. I was so wrong. Let's say she looks crazy amazing for her age. She used to be a sommelier in New York and had experience selling wine from La Distesa. She orignally came in the spring to tend to the vineyards so now she is here to harvest. She is a free spirit a hard worker and very sweet.

We work with Corrado (who turns out I was so wrong he and Valeria are in their early 40's. They just look amazing for their age!), and his wingman, Giovanni, who I think is about 30. I love Giovanni's name. I can't stop saying it. Saying it out loud gives it a special ring. He might possibly be one of the hardest working men I have ever met. The man is non stop go go go. And on top of that, incredibly sweet and a complete gentleman. He speaks english pretty well and has a great sense of humor. Ironically he learned english while in Ireland and in school. I fully expect at this point my friends are thinking that I might runaway and marry this man and never come back. But don't be too silly you guys. :) Giovanni has a great winemaking background after studying it in college and working at other vinyards including one in Sicily. Oh Sicily...

We usually harvest twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. We usually take a 3-4 hour break in the afternoon because it is too hot to work. So what do we do? We go back to the house and swim and take naps of course! The pool has natural water and there is definitely something to be said for swimming in a pool on your lunch break surrounded by the valley. Here is a photo of Hillary in her usual nap spot:
Yeah...life is rough for us.

Corrado's mother, Daniela, is an amazing woman. She is very Italian and has been teaching me some great Italian. I am so much more motivated to learn Italian now so I can come back and speak more with the family. She learned English 50 years ago in Africa of all places. Turns out she has friends in Bellevue and was just here in the winter. She is quite the character and makes us an amazing home cooked lunch every day at the cellar. We've had so many types of pasta I've already lost track, but one thing in particular that she served that I loved was this tomatoes dish. It was halved roma tomatoes with olive oil and hard boiled eggs. It was pretty refreshing. We've also had risotto, pancetta, all sorts of goodies. Daniela said she would teach me how to make gnocchi sometime so I am really excited for that.

Here's a funny side story: After we got back from harvesting I was really craving some water. So when we got back Corrado's mother brought out a couple glasses and a plain wine bottle of what I THOUGHT was water. It was definitely wine. So imagine my surprise when I started chugging it. They really drink their wine like water here. That's all. :)

Harvesting is A LOT of work. I knew it would be, but holy cow. I have never sweated so much so many days in a row since drill practice in high school! We're constantly walking up and down rows and it is HOT out (it starts out in the upper 60's maybe low 70's and today we harvested int eh unusual heat because we were short some grapes and wanted to get the day over with. it had to be in the 90's). I am always burying myself in the shade of the vines while I'm working. On top of harvesting the grapes we immediately have to press them for the juice. And washing and tending to the other batches in the making. Our days are very full. By the time we finish our second shift it's practically dark and we only have time to shower, eat and tuck ourselves in for the night. Corrado has been an amazing host and teacher. The photos above show us pressing red grapes with our feet! He answers any questions I ask about wine making and has a great sense of humor. He really does fit the perfect stereotype of an Italian winemaker. When I get a good photos that emcompasses that, I'll post it. He is tall, thin, long brown curly Italian hair, wears these boots with his shirt tucked in a great fedora/sun hat. With his clippers, Lisa describes him as a prince. And he really does look like an Italian one haha. I love our lunch hours because we chat and joke and it's so great. Lisa actually speaks some Italian s so it's been really interesting and fun to watch them all interact. I LOVE listening to them speak Italian. It's such a beautiful language. I'm actually picking up a lot of things a lot more quickly than I thought. Just imagine how I would be if I was here for a few months more!

Speaking of which, each day I am here, the more I see myself being able to live out here. I love my home in Seattle because I love my friends and the life I've created for myself there...but there is something about living in the country in Italy that I am really loving. It's peaceful. I've never worked to actually create a product before and I'm beginning to understand how enriching it is to be able to build a product with your own hands. It's definitely fulfilling a great part of my life and I am enjoying every sweaty glorious moment of it. I have not started practicing my harmonica yet, but maybe when we go to the sea tomorrow on our first day off I'll give it a whirl. :)

Being out in the fields has given me a lot of time to think (when I'm not bugging Giovanni with questions about his life out here). It's been an amazing experience, I really can't express how happy I am out here. Working hard, making wine, enjoying the surrounding views. Everything I ever thought about Italians have been true with my experience so far. They value family, are incredibly hard workers, and love food and wine. They live to love - which has always been my motto. And to work hard and play hard. I am incredibly thankful that I have had this opportunity because my work is allowing me to be gone for so long. And even more so, thankful that my time off is paid time off because I've been saving it all for so long. I can't think of a better way to spend my time off than here.

But I'm off to bed now, so I can enjoy my first day off. Ciao!

Italy Adventure: Day 1 - Arrival

Ciao from Italy! Right now I'm relaxing in my little bed listening to crickets and the occasional bell chimes in the distance. It's about 10ish p.m. My apartment has a view of the surrounding valleys and wineries, it's beyond beautiful. I really can't describe how amazing it is to be here (view from both of the windows above). Not sure what that brick building is but I went up the stairs and the top is a patio with a cool looking clay oven then. It's seperate from the house.

So 20 hours after my first take off from Sea-Tac...I made it. Barely. For some reason my last plane cancelled my reservation (pretty wonky considering I checked in 19 hours earlier...). So they weren't going to let me on but after a whole lot of angry Italians a frantic stewardess let me on. I felt pretty cool being shuttled to my small plane where I got to walk up the stairs into the plane. It was almost like my private jet. I can pretend anyway. The above picture is a plane view of Ancona, the coastal city I flew into (about 20 minutes from the winery).

My hosts, Corrado and Valeria, are a beautiful Italian couple I would guess in their late twenties or early thirties. They have two beautiful children, Jackeau (I know I totally butchered that, I'll figure the spelling out later, age 5) and Julia (age 2). I am pretty sure the only thing that seeing those children kind of makes me want to have children. Obviously not now, but 2 little kids with curly sandy blonde hair speaking Italian is seriously the CUTEST thing ever.

So Valeria was so sweet, she picked me up at the airport. We drove home into the sunset...pretty phenomonal. And we pulled into La Distesa. It is exactly how I imagined it would be. Straight out of Under the Tuscan Sun. This gorgeous quirky home is sort of set apart like a duplex. Corrado and Valeria live upstairs towards the back and the apartments for WWOOFers is up another set of stairs facing the entrance of the winery. We have a shared bathroom and kitchen to ourselves. Which by the way, the kitchen is the cutest thing on earth. It has a stone fireplace with a cast iron pot. It basically reminds me of what Cinderella lived in.Turns out this vineyard used to belong to Corrado's parents. He and Valeria moved out here 10 years ago to take care of the place and produce wine. They mostly produce white wine, and some olive groves. I just found out I will probably be able to help with the olive harvesting as well so I am really excited for that. I thought I would miss out on it because it's normally done during the winter months. But apparently it has been unusually warm this year. And Cupramontana, the town we are in is well known for the wines that are produced. I am so excited to learn more.

I learned there will be two more WWOOFers joining me tomorrow, both are also American. Valeria and Corrado speak great english, but I am really excited to start learning some Italian. The children are so precious, the little boy wants to learn English so I am sure we are going to have some good times coming up.

I had my first homemade Italian dinner. It was perfect. I also learned that apparently they eat their meals backwards from us. Sort of. We started with some simple spaghetti noodles with olive olive, peppers and garlic. Then had some sort of sauteed pork with an assortment of veggies which included some kind of mushroom that apparently grows in the wild that you can go forge. Might have to try that before I leave. Then came the salad and then came the dessert (which was a pie crust like thing with a fig like jam on top. We of course had some wine. I laughed with Corrado asked me if I liked wine. It was a delicious white wine that he produced. I'll have to get the name of it....Everything is in Italian so it's hard to remember. I didn't take photos because I didn't want to creep out my hosts right away. But hopefully soon!

I am having a wonderful time already. I can't imagine what is in store for me next!

Here we go...

I'm leaving tomorrow for my first WWOOF adventure. I'm not really sure how I feel. I thought I would be a lot more excited than how I actually feel right now. I think it's because my life has just been so fantastically amazing I feel like I'm just coasting. A smaller part of me thinks something really bad might happen to me since everything has been going so well.

So bear with me foodies, I'll be using this blog as my travel blog as well just because I think the whole purpose of my trip is to learn how to make wine. So instead of starting a new blog, I'm just going to post things here. Not that I think anyone is really reading this and really cares THAT much.

Wish me luck!

Birthday in Portland - Bite of Oregon

So we've finally made it to the end of the week. My bestie Brandon came down for the Handful show the night before along with his charming friends from Bellingham. Brandon and I took the train down to Oregon to enjoy the scenic route. Turns out we met some great Canadians and had a ball. To sum the train ride down, an elderly woman stopped us as we were leaving the train and said, "Whatever it is that you are doing...rock on!" She later told us she was 83. AWESOME.

So the first night we just sort of hung out and wandered around. Here are some notable foods:
Macaroni and cheese with pesto! Got this at Paddy's. We sat in the patio on the street for some GREAT people watching. Didn't get any traditional irish food, but I am pretty sure this mac and cheese was amazing.
These onion rings though...were AMAZING. BEST ONION RINGS EVER. We stopped by Rialto's to shoot some pool and hang out and I smelled these when I walked in. I wanted some. You know how when you have onion rings and you bite into it, the onion part pulls out of the breading and it's all stringy and stuff? Well these onion rings were so well breaded, when you took a bite, the onion part actually stayed inside the breading. I'd be really interested to know how they did that. And by the way these were HUGE. The onion rings were basically the size of my palm. But they were SOOOOO AMAZING.
The next morning we had breakfast at Bijou Cafe. A moderate sized french breakfast place. They serve very strong mimosas, not sure if there was any orange juice at all. I got a french omlette with smoked cheese, bacon and green onions. It came with a baguette and greens. Of course everything was organic, and the place sort of lived up to the Portlandia stereotype. Our server reminded me of the one in this hilarious clip. In fact there were a few stereotypical things I observed in Portland. Including my friend Kai, who lives in Portland and came out with us. He was wearing a shirt with a bird on it. And the bird was designed with little birds on the inside. So hilarious. Again, if you want to see what I mean, watch this.

After breakfast we digested while exploring Powells for a couple hours. Love that place. Then we finally made it over to the Bite of Oregon. The following series of pictures are compliments of my friend Jordan, who basically was my food photographer for the day. Thanks Jordan!
First up, fresh salad rolls. Always a good idea.

So I lie. I totally forgot to tell you the first thing I actually got was a commemorative wine glass that came with a holder for your neck. that way you can eat with both hands! So genius. I loved it. (you can see it in the picture with the shrimp below and when I am holding my pie and ice cream)

Next up, mac and cheese. Which wasn't very good. It tasted like better quality noodles but with velveeta.
Then came the Kaluha Pork. This is quite possibly my favorite thing I got there. The pork was incredibly tender and juicy. It came with rice and macaroni salad.
I shared some of Christina's grilled shrimp with a tequila lime marinade. It was actually a little dissapointing. It was tasty but serve with a sweet chili sauce and I felt like it overpowered the shrimp. I couldn't really taste any lime or tequila on those things.
Then I took a break, but ran into our canadian friends who bought ribs to share so I had that, plus coleslaw and hush puppies...
Finally...I stopped with dessert. White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Ice Cream...and then I topped it with a miniature marionberry pie...definite major food coma/baby.
The whole gang with some wine. Brandon, Christina, Carrla, Alan, Me, and Jordan. Overall I found the Bite of Oregon extremely delightful. I've stopped going to the Bite of Seattle because I feel like you're limited to two foods there. Everything is huge portions and expensive. At Oregon's bite everything is smaller and I feel like I definitely got to taste quite a bit! The best part about the event is that the entire area is a beer garden. Meaning all you had to do was get a wristband showing you were of age and you could bring your drinks anywhere. Being limited to a space for beer gardens has always been frustrating. I find them rather boring. But in Oregon you can bring your drinks with you and explore the music and food!

One more before we bring this to a close. During our last day we stopped by the Saturday Market (even though it's open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). I got some phad see ew for brunch. :) It was a little dissapointing. Kind of dry and flavorless. Brandon had this amazing falafel though. Mmmm...

So all and all...successful trip. I would highly recommend going to the Bite of Oregon. :)

That brings my birthday week to a close....time to exercise everyday for the next month.

How to make wine (Part 2: Secondary Fermentation)

So after a week, we (minus Meghan because she's too busy getting sunburned in New Zealand - plus my friend Sam, who was visiting from Texas) checked the wine to make sure it had reached the correct gravity. Opening the container was an interesting experience...it didn't smell fantastic, but at least we knew the yeast was working!



All we had to do now was transfer the juice into the carboy (giant glass jug). But...that wasn't that easy for me. Sucking the half way fermented juice through a tube wasn't exactly appealing.



Luckily for me, Troy knew what he was doing so he finally got things moving.



Once the jug was filled, we added the bung (basically a large cork with a plastic thin on top that keeps air out). And we'll wait another 10 days. Unfortunately, we seemed to have lost the top that goes to the bung...but we found something that kind of works. So we'll see...