Article: So what do you do outside of vintage?

So what do you do outside of vintage?
When winemakers resurface from the hard toils of the vintage period, friends inevitably pose the same question: “what the hell do you guys do for the rest of the year?”
Firstly, we don’t just sit around tasting wine all day (that job’s for sommeliers). Wine needs a lot of help to get into a state ready for bottling which requires a lot of attention and work.
Here’s the insider low-down on what really happens:
- White wines need to be made cold and heat stable (so nasty ‘floaties’ don’t appear in your bottles);
- Barrels have to stirred and topped;
- Wines are racked off their ‘gross’ lees;
- Lab analysis has to be undertaken to determine appropriate acid and sulphur adjustments;
- Blending trials/operations;
- Fining trials/ operations;
- Filtration;
- Bottling and packaging;
- Cellar preparation for the next vintage (clearing and scrubbing the decks);
And finally…….
- Trade events, wine shows and sales/promotion
Sorry to dispel any myths you may have heard about winemakers lying around playing ping-pong just waiting for wines to “mature”, no time for that!