Do You Really Want to Know...WARNING, geeks only. Part 1

I mentioned earlier that I would go into the details of what I do in an actual day of intern work. (CellarRat. Grunt) These next few episodes will only interest someone contemplating applying for an internship. Do not feel bad if you tune out on these chapters.


First off, if you are thinking glamour and the romance of the vine, you need not apply. 
So much time is spent on sanitizing to start the day and hours, yes hours, spent cleaning up at the end of the shift. You get wrinkled fingers and you girls - forget about your manicures.

In case you missed it, I am at Ramey Cellars in Healdsburg, CA.  We (do i get to say 'we' after only 1 week?) make Chardonnays and Napa Valley Cabs and a small amount of incredible Syrah. We are located at two facilities that resemble warehouses more than your typical image of a winery. 25 Healdsburg is the newer of the two. The Haydon St. location used to be a Clos du Bois facility if I understood correctly. They are only about 5 minutes apart. Ramey is not surrounded by vineyards. We have some nice palm trees and fir trees lining Healdsburg Ave though. There are some long-term leases with vineyards in Sonoma and Napa Valley. According to Denise, the veteran of us grunts, it is also a bonus that we get to work indoors. Many wineries, including Ramey back in the day, do much of the barreling and tank work outside under canopies. It's not Texas heat but it can get hot later in the day.


You have to apply for an internship earlier in the year. I would say January to May. I started applying in late November, 2008, probably not necessary. By the time we are all here there should be 5 interns. Apollene arrived in August. That's early. But, something to do with her school requirements. You don't even want to know all the hoops and paperwork she went through to get here from France. She spent a whole lot of time cleaning and painting and topping up barrels of wine. She did get some valuable experience in the lab with our enologist Lydia. I started on September 1, as did Denise (she's worked several harvests). Sam, from Boston arrived today and one more will join us later. Sam's family owns Federal Wine & Spirits in Boston. A chance dinner with David Ramey and his father landed him this gig. The guy already sounds like a wiz in the art of brewing. Yes beer!  Apo leaves in mid-October. I'm scheduled till the end of November and some will be here till mid-December. I believe you can negotiate start and end dates but I didn't ask. I'm here for as long as they need me (or till they ask me to get the hell out).


So, where to start?  There usually isn't just one process going on in a cellar. Generally you have multiple tasks going on at once. Remember there are at least 3 vintages being worked on, more if you they are aging a wine for longer than usual. After only 9 days, I see that we are working on 2007s, 2008s and the 2009 grapes that are arriving now....


Check back soon. Chardonnays arrive first