Ornella of Pelissero Pasquale is preparing to bottled her first sparkling Brut Rose 2011, a blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The first step is to build a starter by adding yeast to a few liters of the still wine.

The wine with the added yeast is then blended into the remaining wine with a little aeration to help along the next fermentation process.

During the bottling the tank of wine is stirred constantly to keep the added yeast in suspension, causing the wine to be very cloudy
To aid in the disgorgement (2 years from now) plastic plugs are added before the temporary metal bottle caps are placed

Leslie using a mallet to help ease in the plugs.

The last step before aging is the installing of the metal caps with a pneumatic press.

placing the bottles in cages before remuage starts.

It's resting place for the next 2 plus years. with a bottle from midway and one from the end of bottling, both fitted with presser gages to track over time how the wine is fermenting (again) on its journey to become sparkling wine, method de champenoise.

On tuesday we travelled to CALUSO a small town north/west of torino to
visit a wine region called ERBAUCE DI CALUSO well known for producing
crisp,acidic,dry whites and fantastic sparklers all made from the local
varietal ERBALUCE also a few reds from nebbiolo,barbara and local varietal
NERRETTO. The passito sweet wines are a must try !! Above is the barrel
ROOM of the CIECK winery where they age there passito for 3 years.

Robert learning how to "Riddle" what fun!

Inspecting dead yeast cells in a bottle of aging sparkling rose yum!!

The full line of CIECK wines

Back home for a BBQ with the langa style boys and a few local
restauranteurs a fun way to sell wine.

Chiaro with her bubble friend milena the other half of LA GANGHIJA
wines