Vine to Bottle
Mount Adams, viewed from a hilltop at Red Willow Vineyard, Fall 2010.
All 'Vine to Bottle' photographs by Alan D. Robertson.
Majestic Cabernet Sauvignon at Red Willow Vineyard.
Sampling at Red Willow.
Yakima River, viewed from a knoll at the edge of Artz Vineyard on Red Mountain.
Looking toward Grandview from the vineyards of Boushey, Fall 2010.
Young tempranillo, planted specially for Fall Line at Boushey Vineyard.
The first few ferments of the season, Fall 2010.
An active fermentation, just punched down.
A final step before press, rinsing the freshly hydrated barrels.
Still retaining a bounty of juice, a fermentor half-full of pomace after the free run has been pumped to barrel.
After the free run is pumped, the back-straining work begins: shoveling the pomace from fermentor to press basket.
Into the press basket the still-juicy pomace goes.
Press begins, as the carefully aligned plate starts its journey into the stainless steel cylinder.
As the plate presses onward, the pomace gives up its remaining bounty.
And a steady flow of new wine is gently pumped to barrel.
Marking the end of a phase, the newly fermented wine finds home in French oak barrique.
From fall to spring, now, one of several bottling days, Spring 2011.
A view of the morning crew (and wine to be bottled), from preparation of the empties to packing of the newly filled.
A closer look at the empties, flushed with nitrogen, as they approach the filling carousel.
And now from the other side, the corking and finishing stations.
Newly filled bottles, stacked and awaiting the next and final phase.
The final phase: capsuling, labeling, and packing.
The skill station: spinning the capsules.
The thrill station: applying the labels.
The final touch.
The Process
In mid- to late-August, Fall Line's winemaker/owner Tim Sorenson starts racking up the miles. A typical day-trip to the vineyards begins around 5:30 a.m. Coffee in tow, it's into car, over the Cascades, through Cle Elum and Ellensburg, up the Manastash Ridge and over the Umtanum Ridge, and into Yakima Valley.
From there the circuit varies from trip to trip, but a stop at each vineyard is always on the schedule. By early evening or so when Tim arrives at the winery back in Seattle, he has typically logged about 500 miles. All in the pursuit of 'perfect fruit,' Tim makes this trip every week, and sometimes more often, from late-August through the end of the harvest season.
As is standard in working with Washington's premier vineyards, the winemaker decides when to pick the fruit. Seeking to craft well-balanced wines that are enjoyable on their own and with fine food, Fall Line aims to harvest when the fruit is physiologically ripe but without excessive sugar accumulation. It is an annual balancing act—achieving phenolic ripeness without too-high potential alcohol—that challenges even the most dedicated and experienced winemakers.
Meanwhile back at the winery, as the fruit matures on the vine, preparations for crush begin in earnest. Equipment is inspected and sanitized. Water filters are installed anew. Floors and drains are given their final pre-crush scrubs. And volunteers are called to the fore.
As soon as it is harvested, the fruit is loaded onto a refrigerated truck and transported to the winery by a commercial trucking company. Typically spending the night in a 40-degree container, the fruit arrives early the following morning, and crush commences!
All fruit is hand sorted and fed into the winery's de-stemmer/crusher, where it is first de-stemmed and then gently crushed. There is no pumping at this stage: the fruit falls directly into small, open-top fermentors. The must is cold-soaked for a brief period, then each fermentor is inoculated with a selected yeast strain. Primary fermentations take place over a period of about two weeks. Caps are punched down by hand multiple times daily over the duration of the fermentations. Upon completion of primary fermentation, free-run juice is transferred into a mix of new and used 225-liter French oak barrels, and the pomace is gently pressed using a stainless steel basket press. The wine completes a secondary, malolactic, fermentation in barrel.
Fall Line ages its wines exclusively in premium-quality French oak barrels for approximately 18 months. The wines are racked periodically over their period of élevage, and blends are prepared about two-thirds of the way through the aging regime.
Preparations for bottling, which takes place in April, begin in January. Bottle, capsule, and closure requirements need to be estimated; and orders need to be submitted to ensure timely delivery. 
Label modifications are determined at this time, any design changes are made, label approval applications are prepared, and printing runs are scheduled.
And then, come April, bottling...and labeling...and labeling...and labeling. Once again, the winery calls on its invaluable corps of volunteers for session after session of packaging activities. Owning its own bottling, capsuling, and labeling equipment, Fall Line exercises complete control over the packaging process. Bottling generally takes place over three or four weekends of Saturday-Sunday multiple shifts of six crew members. During these sessions the wines find their final resting place in bottles secured by natural cork closures of the highest grade. Once all the bottling sessions are completed, the bottled wines are capsuled and labeled over the ensuing few weeks.
Stay up to date with Fall Line production activities (and other seasonal events) at the Fall Line Facebook page.