Chapter 20

Taking some wine samples to Rodrigo in Mount Sterling was going to be very important for me and my family. If he liked the wine that we made, it would give us an outlet for it and a reason to continue rebuilding and expanding our vineyards to make more wine. I decided to use some of the bottles we had collected to display the wine.

I had almost begged for wine bottles at the market. To do this, I had put a sign up that asked for empty wine bottles and received a large variety. I was able to get several that were the same type, but in different colors, and scrubbed the labels off of them.

I used a different color for each of the wines I had. I didn't load a barrel or multiple gallons of wine as Rodrigo could be blowing smoke up my rear end. If he liked what we offered, I could then deliver it in either gallon jugs or barrels. This reminded me that I needed to order more barrels and to build more barrel racks in the storage cave. After looking at the volume of grapes I was going to have, I figured I might be able to fill as many as fifty barrels of wine. This was going to be a lot of work, but I figured that I could enlist the help of the Latino women and some of the extra men that always seemed to be around, eagerly looking for work. The big problem was that the "optimum time" to pick one bunch of grapes on a vine might be a few days different from the optimum time to pick another a few inches away. Also, pruning in the late spring to reduce the total number of bunches of grapes so that the ones that were left would be as juicy and flavorful as possible would be time consuming.

I siphoned some wine from the barrels I was interested in selling, sealed the bottles with corks that I had purchased in large quantities, inventoried the quantities of each wine I had, and took off for Mount Sterling. I had made a neat little carrier that held four bottles, so I looked pretty professional except that I was dressed in my usual getup of BDUs and boots. It was something I didn't even think about. When I arrived at the restaurant, the workers warily looked at me. I suppose the larger the community, the less tolerant people are.

Rodrigo welcomed me and we went to a table near the kitchen door. There he had glasses brought to him. I poured what I thought was the so-so Zinfandel, and let him taste it. His eyes lit up. I had him put the glass next to that bottle. Next, I gave him a glass of the Merlot and he liked that as well. The next one was my experiment with a white Chardonnay that he really liked. The last one was my special Barbera that I really liked, and would probably not sell much more of what I had left.

"This is exquisite. All of your wines are excellent, and I would be proud to serve them here. I understand you don't have much of the Barbera and Chardonnay, but how much of the Zinfandel and Merlot could you sell me and at what price?"

I showed him my inventory and said that I should keep at least one barrel for local customers and one barrel for aging. He agreed and said, "That leaves six barrels of Zinfandel and three of Merlot. What size barrels do you have? Are they the old style 59 or 60 gallon, or the new 79 gallon style?"

"Mine are all sixty gallon barrels. It's easier to get that size oak barrel around here, as that is how whiskey is stored. All of my barrels are nearly full and each has at least fifty-five gallons. I've tasted each of the barrels every month to make sure the wine remains good. Are you sure you can use over three hundred gallons of Zinfandel and a hundred and sixty-five gallons of Merlot? That's a lot of wine and a hell of a lot of money."

I quoted him a price per gallon that was about thirty percent higher than I had been selling the wine for at the market. I knew my wine was superior to what he had served the night before. "Oh," I added, "that price is based on your returning the barrels to me. They are extremely expensive and can be reused. I'll have to charge you for any barrels that are not returned."

"You're right, Mike, that's a lot of wine and a lot of money, but we are doing a good business right now and it looks like it will continue. We will be back into the restaurant season again soon. When it turns cold, our business flourishes. Let me figure this out."

Rodrigo scribbled numbers on a pad for a couple of minutes, picked up the glass of Zinfandel, took a sip, and then tried the Merlot again. He smiled and shook his head as if in disbelief before speaking.

"Mike, your price is more than fair and considering I use about seventy gallons a week right now, you only have about five weeks of Zinfandel remaining. If I combine the Merlot with that you have seven weeks supply. That will give me enough time to hunt for another good wine. A California vineyard is coming next week to show me what they have. My problem is being able to make large quantity purchases at wholesale prices. I don't think they can sell it to me much cheaper than you, but I need about," he looked down at his notes, "Nearly seventy barrels a year. I wouldn't buy it all at once and would prefer to have delivery weekly, or at the most, monthly. Another problem is that space is at a premium and a barrel is big. Of course, I will return your barrels to you."

I rubbed my chin, thinking about a regular income for the next seven weeks. It would be a pain in the ass to make a weekly trip up here with a couple of barrels of wine, but I could do it if I combined the trip with a meal and the Wal-Mart shopping that is always needed.

"Okay, Rodrigo, I'll deliver one barrel this first week to see how fast you go through it. If you run out, call me and I can quickly deliver another barrel. We'll figure that each barrel has fifty-five gallons and you get to taste test each barrel before I unload it from the truck. You pay upon delivery. Does that work for you?"

He looked up at me with a twinkle in his eye, "And?"

"And you feed me and two women when I deliver. We'll obviously come during the day so that we don't disrupt your evening trade, and you can experiment with new dishes with us. How about I deliver all of the Zinfandel first, then use the Merlot up afterward?"

"No, I want a barrel of the Merlot and barrel of the Zinfandel when you deliver the first time. The Merlot will be for those who want to sit around and sip wine for a while, and the Zinfandel will be to serve with meals. Plan on making a lot of wine this year, Mike; you make some good wine."

We wrote down each other's telephone numbers and shook hands over the price per barrel. I had a big smile on my face as I drove back home to load the barrels. I was making the farm pay in many ways. My being a recluse was shot to hell, but I was actually enjoying the enterprise. There would be time for solitude during the winter.

As I drove, I was trying to think how I was going to get a full sixty gallon barrel from the rack to the pickup truck. That's when I remembered the overhead track in the cave that can be used with a block and tackle to lift the barrels onto the racks. There was the funny looking hand truck that I used to haul the barrels full of wine from the pressing area to the storage cave. That was going to work, except I had to lift the barrel up and later take it off the truck. I was going to need a sling that I could use to hoist barrels up on a rack, plus a rack to put the barrel on. I figured out that I could chain hoist the barrel onto the hand truck in the cave, then haul it to the shop bay in the machine shed and chain hoist it into the back of my pickup. That would do as long as we were only transporting a couple of barrels a week.

At home, I went to the wine storage cave with my big flashlight, since I needed to look at the racks, and also to see how much room there was farther back in the cave for the extra space I would need for more barrels.

I could build a rack to hold two barrels easily enough, but I still needed mechanical help to lift the barrel onto the rack, as a full barrel would weigh nearly five hundred pounds. I figured it at eight pounds a gallon, plus the weight of the barrel. This was going to be tough. No wonder wineries bottled their wine.

Rodrigo may have the solution. I called him on the phone. "This is Mike Grayson, Rodrigo. I'm having a difficult time figuring on how to manipulate a five hundred pound barrel of wine at your restaurant. Four guys could lift it, but I didn't see a bunch of men hanging around there, and none of the women looked like weightlifters. My question is, what do you do with all of the big wine bottles you now have?"

Rodrigo laughed, "I was planning on having the cook, the dishwasher, a bus boy, and me pick the barrel up. I've seen it done with ropes. Four men lift together and easily set it on a rack. The tough part is tipping the barrel over without damaging it or making it leak." He paused for a second, "But to answer your question, I probably have a couple of hundred empty gallon wine bottles in cartons in the basement. Do you want to use them? You should probably rinse them out before putting your wine in to make sure there isn't any vinegar wine in there. Come get them and bring me some of your special wine just for me. You are making me envious of your talent."

I drove back to Mount Sterling and filled my pickup bed full of cases of gallon wine bottles. Each case or carton held four bottles, so they were not going to be horribly heavy, about thirty-five pounds each. It would take fifteen cases for each type of wine for the first delivery, and then fifteen to twenty cases a week after that, depending on how fast he used up the Merlot.

Rodrigo was ecstatic that I had brought him a small bottle of my premium wine.

It took me the rest of the day to wash the wine bottles out and begin filling them. When it came to chore time, I marked the carton I was working on and went to take care of the animals. I explained what I had been doing and the deal I made during supper. Millie and Mom were ecstatic, as this was a major win for us. Mom said, "You know, Mike, the Kroger people picked corn again today and hauled off about thirty big containers of vegetables. I think you're making this farm pay the second year you live here. You already sell milk, butter, cream, bacon, hams, lots of vegetables, and now wine. I hope you're keeping track, since you have a profitable farm without selling the first cord of wood."

"Son of a gun, I forgot about all that wood down at Ben's. I'll have to hire a couple of more men to use the splitter so I can sell that oak by the cord. I'll bet the stack of wood is huge. Thank goodness it's my land, so they can't bitch too much. It will get another two men working, too."

Mom said, "We had eight ladies working today. I'm told they can't spare any more right now, as the women they left at home have to tend to the babies and kids. There are a lot more men than women down there, and the single men have built themselves a bunkhouse in the barn addition they made. Rosita said one of their cousins from southern Mexico is coming with her sister. She told me that they were Mayan and looked a little different, but were good workers. She said they had a lot of superstitions and would be interested in the stories of ghosts around the mountains. She also said that both girls spoke English fluently."

"Eight women, do we have that much to do out in the garden?"

"Listen, Mike, when you begin making wine, you're going to need everyone you can get. You are going to be making more than three or four times the amount of wine this year over last year. You need to be prepared with enough people, because this isn't going to be the one man operation you had last year. You used Ben a little last year, but probably only to watch things while you did something else and, my busy son, you will need all of the women, and probably six to eight men,, to pick your pears and apples. At least you won't have to worry about selling it all at the market. Have you looked at those trees? They are loaded. Two years of good fertilizing with manure, trimming, and digging up around the trees and you have a bumper crop. Get ready, Mike, you are really going to be surprised."

Millie wanted to add something; "Next year I'll have our baby to take care of and I won't be able to do as much. I'm going to make one of those carrying things the Indians used, a papoose carrier. The Mexican women also use those for their babies when they are outside. You can carry the baby on your back, or in front so that you can nurse while you work."

Mom rolled her eyes at what Millie was proposing. Was she going to try to do more than she should? Time would tell about what we would do.

The next morning, I had fifteen cases, each with four gallon bottles of my Zinfandel, and fifteen cases of my Merlot, loaded into my truck ready to go to Mount Sterling. To additionally cushion the bottles, I used some of the old blankets I had bought for the ghosts to pad the truck bed. The trip went well without my breaking any of the bottles, as the road crew had made a pass up our road, and even up my driveway, making the drive a lot smoother.

I pulled up to the back of the restaurant right at ten thirty, thinking there may not be much activity at that time. Rodrigo warmly greeted me, and had the busboy and one of the waiters begin to carry the wine to the basement, or as Rodrigo called it, his wine cellar. For each case they took down, they brought up another case of empties. When the delivery was complete and Rodrigo had tasted random bottles of each type of wine, he asked, "Where are your ladies that you were going to bring for me to feed?"

"They are busy in the garden today. Maybe they can come next week. I wanted to tell you that if you begin running out of Zinfandel, call me and I'll bring another load. This will only give you sixty gallons of Zinfandel, so watch your inventory so I can be sure to get it to you in time."

I was loading the empties into the truck when Rodrigo came out with three foam cartons and said, "Here is some of my new recipe for veal Marsala. It will still be good later. Just warm it up in the microwave, but don't cook it for too long. Call me and tell me how you like it."

The trip back was uneventful, and I stopped by where Ezra was working to see how it was going. Jet was using the new Caterpillar bulldozer I had bought and said it was considerably more powerful, but a lot heavier. In his stutter, he told me how he had to watch for the wet spots so he didn't mire down in mud.

Back home, I emptied the cases of empty bottles by the milk house so that I could wash them out. I figured that if Rodrigo was correct, I would need to deliver more wine on Saturday. If I did, I was going to deliver at least thirty cartons, or about a hundred twenty gallons. I would also figure out a way to take the girls up there for a special meal.

I needed to check in with the road crew to see how they were doing, but on the way out of my drive, I went down Ben's driveway to check on the pile of oak and hickory I had stored.

After saying hi to the ladies who stayed at home, and a couple of men who were not working, I looked at the pile of log chunks ready to be split, and was astounded. The oak pile was twenty feet tall, thirty feet deep, and over a hundred feet long. The hickory pile was about a third that size. Splitting this much wood will take a month or more. I needed to train someone soon to get the wood split and stacked in cords to dry.

As I walked back to the truck, I saw the two men who were not working and called to them. They understood English, so I asked if either of them had ever worked with wood and wood cutting equipment. They both said they did that in Mexico, and knew how to use an ax to split with and had used a hydraulic splitter before. I told them to get into the truck and come up to the house to look at my splitter.

They knew how to use what I had, so we hooked it up to the John Deere and I had one of them drive it back to their place. I loaded a couple of axes, files to sharpen them, a sledge hammer, a splitting maul and a couple of wedges. I found some protective glasses and extra gloves, and brought them along.

We discussed how to stack the wood in cords so it would be easy to load up a single cord at a time, and wouldn't have to count it out before loading. They also understood that I wanted the chunks of dead dry wood split and stacked separately. I left them with two five gallon gas cans for the tractor and let them begin. What I needed was a separate motor to drive the splitter instead of having to tie up a tractor. I knew just the guy, so I called the outdoor equipment man. I explained what I wanted and he told me to bring him the splitter and he would install a motor for the machine.