Aussie Barbie

It's Good Friday and every shop is closed so the Aussies barbecue. All meat...hot dogs, veal and lamb sausage, pork sausage and black pudding. No shrimp here! It was very authentic and interesting ;) I supplied some cheese from work, The Barossa Cheese Company, for the appetizer aka entree as they call it here: Le Petite Princess (Goat Camembert), Barossa Washington Wash and Barossa Halloumi.

My friend brought the fixings for the hot dogs and served them the signature 'Zeunert' way with cream cheese, onion, bacon and homemade tomato sauce. Sounds weird but tasted so good!

Then I baked chocolate chip cookies using my roommate's recipe, he's a baker!
What a Good Friday...pun intended ;)

Queso Por Favor!

Next week I start an internship at Barossa Valley Cheese Company. Victoria McClurg, the owner, recommended I read Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carroll before I start. It's a great basic knowledge book with great homemade cheese recipes, descriptions of the types of cheese, cooking with cheese recipes and even a small section on wine pairings. Fabulous book! I recommend it to anyone who has the slightest interest in cheese.

Just a block away from my home

Her award winning cheese...I can't wait to taste it!

Good read, great reference book

Jogging With A Soft J

"I believe it's jogging or yogging. It might be a soft j. I'm not sure but apparently you just run for an extended period of time. It's supposed to be wild." - Ron Burgundy

The sunset on my run after work

If you would have told me a year ago that I would be yogging through the vineyards in Barossa Valley I would have called you CRAZY! I can't believe it's true sometimes :)

Two Things...

Two things I look forward to at the end of each night shift:

The sunrise...

And the 'brekkie' special!

In Barossa Valley the wine industry is a big deal especially during vintage time. After a long 12-hour shift most anyone could go for a cold beer and some food. Some local businesses even cater to the vintage casuals. One local pub called the Vine Inn has capitalized on this need and opens it's doors at 7 am to the many thirsty and hungry casuals who just 'knocked off' the night shift. And trust me, it gets packed! They offer an amazing 'brekkie' special for $10, which includes a pint of beer and a bacon and egg 'burger'. Apparently they call it a burger not a sandwich because it's served on a burger roll not sliced bread. Call it what you will but after working 12 grueling hours in the cold weather a beer and a 'burger' is just what's needed to help you pass out in order to do it all over again the next night :)

I'm a Survivor!

I survived my first week of night shift at the winery! Working 12-hour shifts from 7pm-7am isn't so bad. It's changing your sleep cycle and trying to sleep during the day that's the difficult part but I'm adjusting. The only other downside...it's cold at night!!! Other than that, it's actually a nice shift to work because I get see the sunset and sunrise and view the winery in a whole new light...and by light I mean those run by electricity :)

The tank farm at night

Tonight I emptied my first potter! Generally, you just have to open the bottom door and it all falls out but, as luck would have it, my potter was being stubborn and I had to rake it out.

Digging out the potter...difficult and awkward, not the best combination

I thought giving the potter a dirty look would make it cooperate...it didn't work :)

My badge of honor...I earned it!

I also met with the winemaker, Stephanie Dutton, and tasted some wines after pressing. This is where they decide what the end wine will potentially be and then decide where second fermentation should take place. For instance, we tasted a wine that had a strong tannin structure, intense fruit flavors and a rich mouth feel. They believe it will be Bin 389, which will be placed in new American oak for second fermentation. Another wine was lighter in style with pleasant floral and fruity aromas. It smelled 'pretty'. They think it will make St. Henri and will be mature in 50-year-old large, oak vats. Mind you, everything we tasted was an unfinished wine so it tastes very different from the final bottled product. It was all very interesting to see their decision process. It's tough to explain because even I don't understand all the intricacies but I'm learning. 

My reward!

P.S.

I got an inside tip from one of the winemakers that 2012 McLaren Vale fruit is looking exceptional! Not sure what the end product will be but I'll keep you posted!

The Most Interesting Man In The World

Nope, not this guy...

This is the guy...meet Lozza!

Well maybe not 'The Most Interesting Man In The World' but at least 'The Most Interesting Man In The Barossa'...so far! I work with this bloke Lozza. He is an Aborigine with a raging Aussie accent and calls everyone Mate, including me! He is a beekeeper from the nearby Adelaide Plains. Lozza is a small, dare I say petite, dark skinned man with a great wealth of knowledge and he taught me a little about how bees make honey. Now, I’ve always liked honey…on toast and in my tea, but I have never really known how honey is actually made until today. I guess I’ve just never thought about it. Have you? 

Fun facts according to Lozza:

-   - Females are workers, men are drones and drones don’t work

-   - Females collect nectar in their cheeks, fly back to the hive, deposit the nectar in the honeycomb then fan the nectar with their wings to evaporate the water thereby making honey

-   - Bees have wax glands to make honeycomb

-   - The queen bee is bigger and fatter because she is tended to and eats more

-   - Only one male mates with queen, his penis literally falls off in process and he dies…not sure if you would consider him lucky or unlucky?...you know what I mean!?

-   - The hive keeps a few male drones around just in case the current queen dies and the new queen needs a mate

-   - Lazzo only moves the hive at night, while the bees are sleeping, to new locations depending on what’s blooming

-   - Chemical sprays on canola seed decrease honey production

-   - Bees die after stinging and do attack butt first!

And the entire time he was explaining this all, I couldn't help by envision this bee :)

The next day, Lozza brought in some of his honey for everyone to enjoy and it was 'sweet as'! Cheers Lazzo!!!

The Crusher!

The first stop for all grapes at a winery is…dun ta dun...The Crusher! It doesn’t matter if it’s Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, first things first! The winery I work at only processes Penfold’s Premium Red Wines and yes that includes Bin 707 and the infamous Grange!

Grapes come to us in two ways, either in a dump truck or bins. The dump truck is the quickest and pretty self-explanatory. The other are in bins, which are placed in different locations around the vineyards to be filled and then stacked on a flatbed truck to transport. At the winery, the bins are removed from the flatbed with a forklift and emptied individually into the crusher. It's a bit more tedious but still relatively easy and it keeps our forklift drivers busy :)

Once the grapes are dumped into the receival bin, a feeder device called a screw way moves the grapes at a controlled pace to the destemmer. The destemmer does exactly what it sounds like, it removes the stems from the grapes, hence the name! The berries drop into a hopper and the stems continue through the back of the machine, up the elevator and are conveyed to a rubbish bin and then used as compost. This whole process gently squeezes the berries and breaks the skins to start to liberate the contents of the berries. The berries and juice from the hopper are then transferred, to one of the three places: the vinimatics, the potters or the static fermenters. So what is the difference between grapes and berries? And a little fun fact I learned, as a whole or bunch they are called grapes and once separated from the stem they are called berries. 

Time to do work!

The Crusher!

MOG - Materials Other than Grapes: 

Includes anything from leaves to canes to trunks to debris. Each load of grapes is graded on a scale from 0-5 based on the amount of MOG it contains. The higher the number, the more MOG it contains and the lesser the quality of the load, which consequently decreases the amount of money the grower receives for each load. Above would be MOG 2

Inside look at the destemmer: 

'Fingers' above the small slots rotate to remove the larger chunks of stems. Grapes are pulled off the stems and fall through the holes. Some small amounts of stem particles do fall through the slots but are usually desired to be kept with the berries for tannin structure.

Bearded Lizard

Sometimes these guys are found in the loads. Each load is monitored closely while being processed for many reasons, this guy being one of them. It was a chilly morning so he was frozen stiff!

But don't worry...we brought him back to life. Feisty lil fella!!!