All students participate in making at least one red wine, but I got to do something really special. I started our Carmenère with a pied de cuve, which is a natural yeast prepared in the vineyard, from just the yeast found on the skin of the grapes. It involved hand picking, hand crushing, and a week’s worth of visiting the crushed grapes out in the vineyard, where they began their fermentation under the sun and the moon. The fermentation was really strong, and our Carmenère not only went through primary and malolactic fermentation faster than all the other reds, it tasted fantastic too!

I think what impressed me most was the quality of Seven Hills Fruit, especially in 2015.  The warmest year on record in Walla Walla brought a ton of rich, ripe fruit that made big, well-structured wines.  It has been a great learning experience for us as we now compare and contrast 2015 to the much cooler vintages of 2016 and 2017.  You realize what an important role mother nature plays each year in the vineyard and the corresponding impact to the wines you are able to make

I was really excited to be able to work with Keith & the WWCC team on Stoney Vine Mourvèdre as this was a wine we had planned for Alton. Getting to work with the fruit in two different projects simultaneously was a great practical learning experience. It was so valuable for us to see how pick dates and fermentation choices impacted the finished wine. Having these types of hands-on experiences is what makes the WWCC program so valuable in my opinion.