Candice’s Wine Production Class and Harvest at Chemeketa

We had several snafus with permitting and licensing again this year, so we were not able to make wine at our place. But Candice made wine with her cohort at Chemeketa Community College, where she had the time of her life.

From Candice:

The vineyard in mid-September when classes started was just beautiful.

The term starts two weeks earlier than regular classes because the harvest usually starts around mid-September. But this year, our first harvest wasn’t until 9/25. The first couple of classes, we did sampling of the grapes and had a guest speaker come talk to us about yeast and other additions.

The class was four hours on Wednesday and five hours on Saturday, and that’s still not enough time to do everything ourselves. So the only actual picking of grapes we did was for the Gamay we used to make our Nouveau wine. We processed 10 grape varieties. In order: Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, Pinot Noir, Zweigelt, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Gamay, Vermentino, and Riesling. Everything came from Chemeketa’s own vineyard, except for the Cab and Malbec, which came from Yakima Valley, Washington.

I learned so much, made lifelong friends, had a wonderful time, and was surrounded by the changing seasonal beauty of the vineyard every time I was there.

In the final classes, we got all our wines ready to sit for a while, bottled our Nouveau wine, cleaned up the winery, had a paella party, and hosted and poured at Chemeketa Winery’s annual Nouveau Fête. Nouveau Fête is a Beaujolais tradition in which new wines are opened and drank in excess at the end of harvest. The wines are typically made from Gamay, and they are made using carbonic maceration, which produces fruity, candy-like aromas and flavors.

I loved my time in the production class at Chemeketa. I wish I could do it again and again and again. But alas, now everyone moves on to where we are going to be making wine in the future.