20 Something

I wanted to let everyone know that we will be pouring at the Washington Wine Commission's 20Something event in Fremont on the 20th of November, come out and say hi! There will be lots of great wineries there, it is sure to be worth the ticket.

Racking 2010 Reds

No pictures for this post...I didn't really want to post a picture of our pump, I thought that would be a little lame. BUT, I did want to update the status of our up and coming 2010 Reds! We finished racking the '10s into barrels this weekend. Everything went really well with that. So just to go over where things are...

We are all finished with Primary Fermentation (this is the fermentation where the yeast turns sugar into alcohol and CO2).

We have pressed all the wine off of the grape skins (must).

We have allowed all the wine to settle in tanks and then carefully pumped this off into barrels.

The wine has been and still is in the process of Malolactic Fermentation (a bacterial fermentation that, among other things, changes the acidity of the wine).

So there you have it, things are really beginning to settle down for us. As soon as we are finished with Malolactic Fermentation we will move the barrel to the barrel room and start the aging process.

Neil

Last Day of 2010 Crush

Crushed the last of our fruit today. Had a bit less than a ton of Petit Verdot to do. It went pretty smoothly which was a nice way to end things after our last round (which saw some mechanical headaches). So now all we are left with are a few more bins of fruit heading into Malolactic Fermentation to handle and get into barrels. It is great to see the season winding down. Had a gorgeous sunset to finish the day off with. This afternoon kind of summed up the season as far as weather was concerned. We had a nice warm blast of sunshine to take the chill off in the late afternoon, then it started raining, got cold again and the sun set on a typically undecided 2010 day. Hopefully next season's weather will be a little more straightforward. It would sure make it easier to grow stuff. -Neil

Punchdown of Grapes

We "punchdown" the grapes to mix them up during fermentation.  The wine is picking up color and tanins from the skins of the grapes.  Neil is punching down the Malbec here, which is getting close to being ready to press.

Anke's guests from Germany

Anke, the winemaker at Steppe Cellars, brought some of her guests from Germany by during our Federweisser weekend.

Malbec...Crushed

We picked up and crushed our 2010 Malbec today. It was nice looking fruit and the day went really smoothly. This wine will be going into our 2010 bordeaux blend and our 2010 Malbec varietal. Our Merlot and Grenache are fermenting nicely.

Fermentation!

Just a quick update on the two batches of fruit that we have received so far. Anke has warmed both lots of grapes and added yeast to them so we are off and fermenting! So far everything has been going very smoothly with both the Merlot and the Grenache. We should be getting some more fruit in the next few days...possibly some Cab Sauv. -Neil

2010 Grenache

Finished up the 2010 Grenache today. Everything went pretty well. The berries were a little bit larger so we had to make some machinery adjustments in order to keep the berries intact. Doing that meant a few more jack (piece of the stem) in the crushed fruit. Overall though it was a great day at the winery. Looks like we will probably be moving on to the Cab Sauv in the next week or so depending on the weather.
Neil

International Best of Class, Sommelier Challenge 2010

We just received the news that our 2007 Artemisia won Best of Class (Bordeaux Style Reds) in the 2010 Sommelier Challenge International Wine Competition! This is a great competition judged exclusively by Sommeliers. The winning wines in this competition came from all over the world from Spain to Australia and everywhere in between.

We are very proud of all our wines. Anke puts a lot of time and effort into her all the blends and this wine shows it. This is the third international honor that our 2007 Artemisia has won in 2010. This wine has won Gold in its class at the Women's Wine Maker International Competition, Gold at the Long Beach Grand Cru International Competition and now Best of Class at that Sommelier Challenge.

We still have a few more competitions that we are entered in before the year is over, a couple closer to home. We will keep things updated as the year comes to a close.

The link for the Sommelier challenge results page can be found here.

Crushing our 2010 Merlot

We just finished crushing our 2010 Merlot from Stone Tree Vineyard. This will be the Merlot that goes into our Artemisia blend. The fruit looked and tasted wonderful! Many thanks to Stone Tree for delivering such great fruit in such a challenging year.









Anke, Tom, Maria and Martha are all hard at work sorting jacks in the photo on the left. It is a little hard to see, but the fruit was nice and small and stayed pretty well intact throughout the de-stemming and crushing processes. Anke, made SO2 additions throughout the day.







The crushed fruit is in the cellar tonight getting a cold soak (chilled down to about 55 degrees Fahrenheit). Anke will slowly warm it and inoculate it with yeast soon so it can begin the fermentation process. -Neil

A Case of the Blues

We hope to see many of you at Yakima's - "A Case of the Blues and All that Jazz." The weather looks like it will be great. This is always a fun event with wonderful food, music and of course wine! For more information check out their website: http://www.yakimagreenway.org/blues

Getting Ready to Bottle

Neil and Anke spent the day blending and getting the wine ready for bottling. We are really excited about the 2008 reds! They worked on the Artemisia today.
They took the quantity of each varietal from the barrels that was needed for a particular blend and pumped that from the barrel into the tank. We have some of the red blends all ready and in the tanks. Next we will filter it all before bottling.



While they were getting ready with bottling Tom was taking care of some of the chores around the farm. The pictures show a little of how we stack the hay.





Some happy horses and our view of Mt. Rainier tonight!

Beautiful Evening

Beautiful evening last night with the crescent moon setting over Mt. Adams and Venus just above it.

August 7

This weekend we will have another "Grown to Greatness" weekend. These are educational weekends put on by some of the wineries within the Wine Yakima Valley Association. We will be taking a closer look at Riesling wines. Tom and Neil will be giving vineyard tours, and we will do a vertical tasting looking at some of the characteristics of Riesling wine. Guests will be able to sample our dry 2006, our medium sweet 2008 and they will get a sneak peek at our dry 2009.

In addition our wine club members will have the option of participating in our first summer "pick up and picnic." They will be able to pick up their 3rd shipment of the year along with a picnic in the orchard. Anke, our winemaker, will be at the winery to discuss the wines that are going out with this quarter's shipment. The picnic is being catered by VegHead ED Cafe.

Project Hope

Gabrielle - one of the partners - is once again working with Project Hope- a medical service organization. This time she is in Indonesia on the USNS ship Mercy. Here is a link to their blog:

http://projecthopeinthefield.blogspot.com

If you click all the way back to the posting for July 8, you can follow what they have been doing. This is a great organization that brings medical support all over the world. We are really proud of Gabrielle and the work she has done with this.

Summer is flying by!!!

Wheww -this has been a busy past couple of months!!! I have been remiss in adding on. - So first off a little catching up on what has been going on around the farm and winery. The eggs from the picture on the last post hatched and have flown.



The cherries have all been harvested. The triticale - one of the feed crops we raise, was also harvested and we planted corn in after that. Alfalfa has been cut for hay twice, and the wine grapes are doing well. We will try to get more pictures up of the grapes as they progress.

Signs of spring

Had a great time visiting with everyone who stopped by the winery this weekend! Can't believe we are into May and wearing sweaters & light jackets. We're supposed to have strong winds through the first part of the week and then we are hoping for some more spring weather by the weekend. The signs of spring are coming on strong even if the spring weather has been on and off.




Am posting pictures again of what is going on around Steppe Cellars. The picture of the eggs are from a magpie's nest in a big sagebrush right by our Riesling vineyard . The cherries have finished blooming and the ovaries that have been pollinated are growing.

The apples are in bloom. One of the things that is interesting with the way they set fruit is that in the center of the cluster is the "king bloom" which is surrounded by other smaller blooms. You want the king bloom to be the one that to be pollinated and set to make the fruit, because it will set the biggest fruit. But there are usually somewhere around 5 other smaller blooms surrounding the king bloom, so just in case that one doesn't set there are 5 other chances for the tree to produce fruit from that cluster.

The alfalfa and triticale have been growing -- quite a change from the previous pictures. We will actually be harvesting fairly soon.

AND---- the wine grapes are leafing out!!

Spring Barrel Tasting Weekend at Steppe Cellars

It should be a beautiful weekend in the Yakima Valley for Spring Barrel Tasting Weekend. Temperatures should be in the upper 60's with mostly sunny skies. The fruit trees are all in bloom and the valley looks beautiful.
At Steppe Cellars we will be tasting our Barbera wine from the barrel. This is a wine we will use as a component in one of our red blends. It will also be a future limited bottling for wine club members. This year we will have a reserved barrel tasting / vertical tasting of our Tempranillo/ Granache / Mouvedre. There is a $5 fee for this, which is waived for our wine club members as well as those who have purchased the Premier Pass. (Our reserved tasting fee is always waived with your purchase of Steppe wine.)

Lunch at the Winery Spring Barrel Weekend

Aaron from Guerra's Gourmet & Deli is preparing some great lunches for the spring barrel weekend. He has changed the menu a little this year adding a few more choices to the popular grilled asparagus. Here is what he has planned.

Guerra's at Steppe Cellars Spring Barrel Tasting April 24th - 25th:

• Tacos de barbacoa (slow roasted beef) marinated with Steppe Cellars Big Sage Red and Guerra's Gourmet seasoning

• Tacos de pollo (slow roasted chicken breast) marinated with Steppe's Semillon and Guerra's Gourmet seasoning

• Grilled asparagus

Condiments all prepared by Aaron (with a little wine to enhance flavors):

pico de gallo

roasted red salsa

tomatillo salsa

Meal: Choice of 3 tacos of barbacoa(marinated beef) or pollo (marinated chicken)), grilled asparagus, and drink (water/coke/diet coke) $10

Chips and his homemade Salsa $5

Grilled fresh local Asparagus $5/plate

His meals have always been a great hit spring barrel weekend. We hope you come out and join us for a picnic under the cherry trees away from the crowds.

Spring Dinner at the Winery is Sold Out

We are sold out of tickets for our spring dinner at the winery.

Beautiful Week

Spring is here!

Racking the Temprenillo Grenache & Mouvedre

We racked the Tempranillo, Granache & Mouvedre last week.  This means we took the wine out of the barrels, cleaned the barrels & then put the wine back in the barrels. Now a little more time in the barrel!

This week around the farm

Triticale

The grapes are still looking about the same

Apples - center bud (which will become the king bud) showing pink

Cherries are just about in full bloom. There are still some closed blossoms.

Frost control

This is a picture of the cherry blossoms tonight while we were out with frost control - adjusting water ~ so far there is still wind - so no need for wind machines yet.  Beautiful night sky - even if it is a bit chilly.  It's supposed to be a nice day tomorrow. Cherry trees are approaching full bloom.

It's been a cold week!

We have been needing to do a little frost protection. The picture with the ice on the apple tree shows one of the frost protection methods we have been using. When the temperature dips to a critical point for the fruit buds, we turn on the water. Calories are required to freeze water, so as it freezes, it actually releases a little heat. As long as we keep the water on, and making ice, a little heat will be released to the fruit bud. The one picture of the open cherry blossom shows a green ovary - which means it was not damaged by the cold weather. Still not much visible change to the Riesling grapes,but the alfalfa field is getting much more lush.
It was really cold and YUCKY weather for our first open weekend this season! Thank you to all of you who came out & visited! We are glad to have that spring storm behind us.

Closed Easter Sunday - April 4 -Opening Weekend

We will open for the season Friday April 2, and be open Saturday April 3, but will be closed Sunday, April 4. Both Friday and Saturday we will be open from 11:00 to 5:00. The following weekends we will be open Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 11:00 to 5:00 each day.

Guerra's Gourmet lunches Spring Barrel weekend

Aaron is preparing some great lunches for the spring barrel weekend. He has changed the menu a little this year adding a few more choices to the popular grilled asparagus. Here is what he has planned.

Guerra's at Steppe Cellars Spring Barrel Tasting April 24th - 25th:

• Tacos de barbacoa (slow roasted beef) marinated with Steppe Cellars Big Sage Red and Guerra's Gourmet seasoning

• Tacos de pollo (slow roasted chicken breast) marinated with Steppe's Semillon and Guerra's Gourmet seasoning

• Grilled asparagus

Condiments all prepared by Aaron (with a little wine to enhance flavors):

pico de gallo

roasted red salsa

tomatillo salsa

Meal: Choice of 3 tacos of barbacoa(marinated beef) or pollo (marinated chicken)), grilled asparagus, and drink (water/coke/diet coke) $10

Chips and his homemade Salsa $5

Grilled fresh local Asparagus $5/plate

His meals have always been a great hit spring barrel weekend. We hope you come out and join us for a picnic under the cherry trees away from the crowds.

Tasting Room Opening this weekend

We open for the season this weekend! Our hours are 11:00 -5:00 Friday through Sunday. This first weekend we will be open just Friday and Saturday - and close for Easter Sunday (April 4.)

Napa

Tom & I were in the Napa Valley this weekend - (St. Helena) - so no photos from around our farms - but here is a picture of a Cabernet vine there.  It's further along than our Riesling vine.

First weekend of spring!

It was a gorgeous weekend & just felt like spring was arriving.  We saw groupings of robins for the first time.  We've just been seeing them singly prior to this.  Also heard a meadowlark.  The worms were all doing their thing - which explains the number of birds out & about.  The fruit trees are all advancing in their stages of bud development.  The alfalfa is up - and that little shepperd's purse is showing some of the seeds that give it its name.  The field of triticale has filled in so much - it is hard to see the rows now.  The riesling grape plant doesn't show much change yet - which makes it fun to watch a little later.