Winemaking with Cheryl and Jackson

One of our pre-planned stops was to see Cheryl and Jackson in Texas.  They have lived in the Dallas area for 20 years and unforgivably, this is the first time that we have made time to come see them in Texas.  We have followed their efforts in buying land for a vineyard, planting grapes, learning how and getting certified to make wine, building a winery with tasting room, and finally opening the winery.  The operation is impressive.  And we got to help bottle wine.

Cheryl and Jackson Anderson, both Halifax County natives, in front of their winery sign.



The winery and tasting room and barn in the same building.  





The fermentation and chilling tanks:



Alan and I helped to bottle the wine.  I enjoyed the sipping while making sure that the PH was correct.  After bottling 1,000 bottles of wine, we looked forward to our own glass of wine with dinner.  We ate at 10 pm and to bed by 11.



We learned way more about wine than we can retain.  Here is Alan looking at the tartar crystals left in the tank so that the crystals do not fall out in wine once bottled.



We spent lots of time on sanitation.  Everything is rinsed several with regular and then filtered water, then sanitized with citrus chemical water ....  Our hands are dipped in sanitation water whenever we touch anything which might touch the wine.  



The fun part for some of us is the tasting.  Jackson tells his customers lots about of the chemistry and physics of wine making.  Right next they are not charging for wine tasting but soon will.  They have numerous wines that are fermenting so their inventory will soon be much fuller.  









It is wonderful to catch-up with Cheryl and Jackson and fun to learn about something we enjoy drinking.

Tomorrow we hope to get our sun roof repaired and then head for home.  One more stop in Asheville and our retirement expedition will be over.  Fortunately, work is not waiting for us but we are feeling some eagerness for those post-retirement activities that we have in store.

Comments

  1. Jessica KreitzerOctober 23, 2017 at 3:52 AM

    Not sure you were dressed appropriately for working in the winery. : )
    Did you talk to Jackson about the pictures he took at Grandma's funeral? Even though we didn't have all of us there, he probably got some good pictures.

    ReplyDelete

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