Day in the Life of a Winemaker
| 5:00 | Wake up and sneak out of the house, trying not to disturb husband and exhausted guests a.k.a. “wine stained friends”. Rejoice in the lack of frost on the ground. |  Grapes arriving  Volunteers & Joe at work  Sister Eileen doing a punchdown  Cleaning up takes forever |
| 5:50 | Knock on door of Dawson Taylor Coffee Shop and beg coffee guys to serve me 10 minutes before opening. Great coffee and super people…I drive away with a warm mug in hand. | |
| 7:00 | Arrive at winery and begin morning shoulder workout (doing the punch down on the Merlot fermenting in bins) | |
| 7:20 | Tend to barrel that is foaming over from fermentation. | |
| 7:30 | Mop up wine from under foaming barrel (where are my wine stained friends in times like these?) | |
| 7:45 | Taste wine! Four batches of Syrah and two batches of Merlot are in the house. | |
| 8:00 | Start a paper chromatography test to check the progress of the malolactic fermentation in my Syrah barrels. | |
| 9:00 | Drive to Williamson Vineyards to check on progress of the picking crew. 1 Ton of Cabernet Sauvignon being picked for me. | |
| 10:00 | Friends arrive to help with de-stemming and crushing. Friends of the day: Husband — Joe Schnerr, Sister-in-Law — Eileen Schnerr, Friends — Allison and Mike Gillis. | |
| 11:00 | Fruit arrives. Helpers in position: Me — driving the forklift, Mike and Allison — Shoveling grapes into conveyor belt, Joe running belt/destemmer and providing quality control and Eileen — manning the pump and the receiving bin. | |
| 1:00 | All goes well. Grapes in bin, destemmed and lightly crushed. Friends are stained purple. Time for second shoulder workout on fermenting Merlot bins. | |
| 1:30 | Picnic on the lawn. Protect food from Heidi, the winery’s overly intelligent shorthaired pointer who takes great pleasure in stealing your lunch if you turn your back. | |
| 2:30 | Clean up. Power-washer time! Equipment gets clean, everyone else gets wet and dirty. | |
| 3:30 | Taste through the barreled Syrah with today’s helpers. We all get excited as we imagine the wine in bottle. Can’t wait! Say goodbye to some of our friends. | |
| 4:30 | Check brix, pH, TA on new fruit. | |
| 5:30 | Read results of paper chromatography test started earlier. Malolactic fermentation progressing well, first Syrah batch near completion. | |
| 6:30 | Third shoulder workout of the day. Starting to get tired, thinking about entering a muscle contest. | |
| 7:30 | Drive to parent’s house for meal of pork roast, garden fresh tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes and a sampling of my parent’s table grape collection. | |
| 9:30 | Leave family and head back to winery for fourth punch down of the day. | |
| 11:00 | Sleep. Dream of grapes…all in all a successful day. |
