Most visitors to Bennett Lane that tour the cellar oooh and ahhh over all of the fantastic machinery that we have.  Presses from Italy, spectacular rotary drum fermenters and our small open top fermenters that are all jacketed for cooling are all some of our favorite tools to use in making some of the finest wine in the Napa Valley.  Mixed in the middle of the fermentation room this week we had a not so high tech piece of equipment, a small old fashioned basket press that uses good old elbow grease to keep it running.

As one of our favorite lots of Cabernet Sauvignon churned through our bladder press on the crush pad, we had another lot ready for pressing that wouldn't come close to filling that press.  Our petting vineyard port lot, coming in at less than a half a ton, was ready to be pressed and then have the brandy added to stop the fermentation and fortify the wine.  So, out came the basket press.  As Rob turned the large crank, out of the spout came the fantastic aromas from this small lot of our dessert wine.  Once the pressing was finished the one year aged brandy spirit was added to this wine that still held half of its natural sugar from harvest and voila.......fortified dessert wine, or as we used to call it in the US, port.  We harvested our small "petting vineyard" out front of the winery for this blend.  Harvest is almost over, with just a few lots of our grapes still waiting to be picked.  Stop by soon before it is over!