Barrels and More Barrels

This week at Pepper Bridge we are in the midst of final preparations for harvest. We are just about 3 weeks away from bringing in fruit, depending on what mother nature has in store for us here in Walla Walla. We have been receiving new barrels on an almost daily basis. Our wine making team has been busy in the cave prepping barrels for the new vintage. Assistant Wine Maker, Tim Kerrigan has been receiving and unwrapping new oak barrels all week. All of our barrels are made in France and this year we have about 90 new barrels from 6 different coopers. Tim will be labeling and numbering all of the new barrels, adding them to the list of barrels that he will be filling soon with wine. There is a master plan for what wine goes in what barrels, so Tim keeps careful track of all the barrels. Cellar Master, Horacio Enriquez has been busy cleaning our used barrels, rinsing them with hot water and treating them with sulphur. About 50% of the 2009 vintage will be aged in used barrels. For us, a used barrel means that it has been used for one prior vintage. We age our wines in barrel anywhere from 18 to 24 months. So when we get a new barrel it will hold wine for about two years, when the wine is removed, that barrel is considered used. We will then use that barrel for one more vintage. After that, we will either sell the barrel to another winery or to locals that have creative uses for wine barrels, i.e. planters, furniture, wood for grilling. By the end of the week all the barrels should be clean, on racks, stacked, and ready to hold wine.