Welcome back to “Wednesdays with the Winemaker”. The goal of “Wednesdays with the Winemaker” is to cover a variety of popular questions asked during tours at Chatham Hill, including the history of the winery, and to keep you abreast of the latest happenings in the winery. Today’s blog, “The Baby Tank”, takes us back to 1997 when Marek moved his wine experimentation from the bathroom (if you are confused by this, please read the first blog) to the basement of a friend’s house. Now, before he shared this story with me, Marek felt the need to explain that “many of the things that happened at the winery” occurred in his absence, but since no one is around to corroborate his story, I think we should take his disclaimer with a grain of salt, no? In the very early days of the winery Marek and his two partners were determining the feasibility of Marek producing wine on a large scale. During these experimental years, they set up their “first winery” in the basement of house in Chapel Hill. This house sits on a golf course in Chapel Hill. Their “winery” held one oak barrel; one stainless steel, 50 gallon tank; a mechanical grape destemmer; and a cider press (which they used for pressing grapes of course!).
In September of 1997, Marek and his partners had their first harvest at the winery. After destemming and pressing the grapes, they had to discard the solid waste (stems, skins, seeds). Today, the solid waste is picked up by a farmer in Apex who uses our waste as compost material, but in 1997, no such arrangement had been made. The partners decided the best place to discard the solid waste was in the backyard of the winery (the backyard that is set just off the green of the golf course). Keep in mind the waste included grape seeds…we will get back to this soon…although, I am sure you see where this story is heading.
As you can see in the pictures, the 50 gallon tank, which I refer to as the "baby tank", has a hose connection that is almost level to the bottom of the tank. In order to attach a hose to the baby tank, the partners decided to prop the tank up on a pair of cinder blocks. As you can imagine, the cinder blocks did not make a sturdy base. The baby tank eventually fell over and flooded the basement with wine and permeated the house with a very unpleasant odor. Needless to say, the partner’s wife kicked the men—and their winery—out of her basement!
While transporting the tank to the new “winery” location, the tank was, once again, perched in a precarious position. The partners were sure the tank would be safe in the back of a pick-up, but during transport, the tank fell out of the back of the truck. The damage that occurred during this transport is noticeable in the pictures. Instead of trashing the tank and buying a new one, Marek decided to continue to use the tank. Since it is variable capacity, or floating lid tank, Marek is able to adjust the amount of wine kept in the tank, and the baby tank is still in use today!
Let’s step back a moment. Remember the solid waste Marek and his partners dumped in the backyard of the winery? The following spring the seeds actually began to grow! Marek is a winemaker, not a grape producer (plus, I’m fairly certain the Chapel Hill golf course would have frowned upon grapes on their course), so the partners took them down; however, this story segues nicely into next week’s blog titled: “Where are your grapes?” Which also happens to be the most commonly asked question of guests of the winery!
Have a question you must know the answer to? Leave it in the comments section below, and Marek will address it in an upcoming blog.
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