Day Two - "Welcome to the Wine Industry"

In the morning, I received an e-mail saying that work would be pushed back two hours to noon, and this time I should be prepared to work. My work would begin in the way a typical harvest is begun: I had to help the winery prepare for the arrival of grapes. This meant I would do some pretty tedious work. When the grapes arrived, they would have to be removed from the stems and placed into fermentation bins, where they would sit and ferment for almost two weeks. So, I had to clean some fermentation bins!

Because good wine is difficult to produce and easy to screw up (and also because winemakers seem to be quite meticulous), cleaning and preparing the fermenters requires a careful approach. The grapes would sit in this bin for two or three weeks while fermenting. I was given close instruction as to how to wash the bins. First, I was to hose down the bins with cold water. Then, I would fill a bucket with Soda Ash (a high-PH base) and water, and I would scrub the entire bin with this soap-like substance. This would clean the bin of any bacteria that could harm the fermenting wine. After rinsing, the bin would require more work. In order to make sure any high-PH chemicals were not on the bin, I would then have to scrub the bin with a low-PH chemical, Citric Acid, with a little Sulfur Dioxide (SO2). This would offset any of the base left on the bin, while getting rid of any bacteria that could still be on the bins (apparently you can never be too careful when making wine...).

The bins are 4 ft. long, 4 ft. wide, and 4 ft. tall. To give an idea as to how tedious the work is, each bin took about 30-45 minutes to clean. I cleaned seven bins in about 4.5 hours, and finished the work soaking wet and tired. To make matters worse, while cleaning, John and some volunteers were on the sorting line going through grapes they had just received. I badly wanted to be a part of it, but like any "rookie", you have to do some dirty work before you can get to the fun stuff.

These are the grapes they were sorting that day (Pinot Noir). I will go through the sorting process at a later date (hopefully when I get a chance to take part).

After my seven bins, John decided that was enough work for me for the day, and sent me home. The next morning, I was the sorest I had been in a long time. My knees felt as if I had been laying tile, from crawling inside an awkwardly small bin, and scrubbing every wall, floor and ceiling.

Day One - Introduction

When I arrived at the winery in Northwest Portland this morning, ready to work, I was told that, due to unfortunate circumstances, we would not be able to work today. Rather, my boss, John, just gave me a two-hour walk-through of the winery, which is basically a big warehouse in the industrial district.

The picture above is the left side of the winery. The winery is twice the size of this, with a wall dividing it into two rooms. As you can see, this room is heated. The other room is not. So, during winters, all of the barrels are kept in here so that they can be controlled at roughly 62 degrees Fahrenheit. Too much exposure to hot or cold temperatures can shock the wine, keeping the wine from aging properly or even causing undesired flavors to develop.

While walking around, John introduced me to a few jobs, like moving a few barrels around, arranging fermentation bins, and consolidating the storage area where they kept bottles that were ready to be sold (bottom left in the picture above).

After the tour, John asked me if I would like to try his wine. I said, "Definitely!" So he went to the back, and returned with a bottle of red wine. He gave me the wine, and even though I didn't really do anything that morning, he called it my "take-home" pay for the day. I can tell this is going to be a fun place to work.

A bottle of his 2008 Pinot Noir made from grapes out of the Dundee Hills region of Oregon. He sent me home after two and a half hours, telling me to arrive at 10 AM tomorrow and to consider investing in some waterproof boots. Tonight, Izzi and I decided to open the wine in celebration of my dream job. The wine was phenomenally complex and flavorful, which makes me even more excited to be a part of helping him produce his 2011 vintage. 

Landing a Dream Job

In late August, I flew out to Portland, Oregon, for two weeks, to visit my girlfriend, Izzi, and see her hometown. While there, we would do some sightseeing, and travel to the Gorge Amphitheater in Washington for a Dave Matthews Band concert. 

Within the first few days, we ate dinner with her father, where I told him my career hopes. I said that I was hoping to begin a career in wine distribution. He said that he had a few friends that worked in the wine industry, and that he would contact them and see if they would be willing to meet me. One of them, named John, responded saying that he wasn't sure what he could do, but that he would be willing to get together if we had time. He told me he was busy all that week, but to call him the following week.

That weekend, Labor Day Weekend, we drove up to the Gorge for the concert. Therefore, I wouldn't be back in Portland until Monday night, and I was leaving to go back to Memphis on Wednesday. So, I asked if John could meet on Monday night or Tuesday during the day. Unfortunately, he was busy during those times.

I had begun to give up the idea of meeting with him in person, when something crazy happened. On Wednesday, when I got to the airport, the airline employees told me there was a problem with my ticket, and that the company had given up my seat. So, they put me on the next flight out, which would be the following morning, Thursday. When I got the news, I sent an e-mail to John, saying I had an extra day, and that I would love to meet that day if possible. He responded within an hour telling me to come in to his winery in the early afternoon.

When I got to the winery, John quickly showed me around, and asked what my interests were. I told him that I wanted to get into wine distribution, but that the field was difficult to get into. I explained to him the dilemma that every company wants previous experience related to wine, and that I did not have much. Then, I told him that I would love to work for a winery, if he had any friends that could use help during the work-intensive grape harvest. Every year, wineries work around the clock when grapes come in, preparing them for fermentation, watching over fermentation, and transferring the wine into barrels. During these times, wineries often pick up assistants and interns to help with the workload. John said he wasn't sure of anyone that needed help, but that he himself could actually use my help. He warned me that it would be hard and messy work, and that I would have to basically be on-call at any time over the course of a few weeks.

I was not bothered by the work schedule, or the messy manual labor that the job entailed. I was extremely excited to be able to experience and learn, first-hand, what goes in in the production of wine. THese jobs are not easy to find. Many people try to get into wine-making. In fact, some people in California will pay just to go and spend a day working for a winery during harvest.

This was the perfect cap to my trip, and makes me extremely excited to go back to Oregon to begin the priceless experience of making wine. I will leave you all with a picture of the most beautiful concert venue I have ever seen: