It was another lovely cool morning with a blue sky that turned into another warm day, beautiful weather. I cannot wait to receive the Touriga Franca tomorrow – it should just perfect!
We removed the silicon toes from the lagar for a thorough cleaning
Fernando and Tiago putting the toes back into place, ready to tread again
At 07:15 we fortified our last lagar of Touriga Nacional and Amarela and spent the rest of the morning cleaning up – the lagar’s silicon feet got a good scrub between the toes and we were generally getting ready for tomorrow.
The “feet” of the lagar are panels set with rectangular food-grade silicon “toes”, which exert the same pressure as human feet do, as they tread the grapes. The toes also have a texture, firm but with a little bit of give, very like the soles of your feet. Fernando and Tiago did a very thorough job of it.
I gave the team the afternoon off as there was nothing else to be done and they went off for a rest and change or air. Juca went home and Fonseca, Tiago, João, Paulo and Fernando went to Warre’s Quinta da Cavadinha for a visit to see Tiago’s father, António Fonseca (brother of our Armando Fonseca!) who is working there for the Vintage.
The team and the winery will all be refreshed, cleaned up and ready to go Monday morning!
Always nice to have a wee bit of a break during harvest!