Maybe it was "Entourage" that mentioned 'the dailys.' The day-to-day stuff that doesn't always make the final cut.
Not so dramatic here, but maybe some of you might want to know.
The main reason I mentioned "the dailys" is because we (Lydia) take all kinds of samples. Any process we do that changes the wine, there is a sample taken usually before and after that process. Needless to say, Lydia is analyzing the wines constantly during harvest.
For instance, we did egg-white fining trials on our cabernets. Fining, is the ancient process of clarification. It prevents haze and can smooth out the tannins, improving the wine's balance. Without going into all the detail of "Understanding Wine Technology," my handy reference book, the egg-whites are whipped into the barrel or tank, they then attract unstable proteins that can make the wine cloudy after bottling.
Anyways...
Ramey does trials to see what quantity of egg-whites works best: 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 egg-whites per barrel. After analyzing, Lydia sets out small bottles in the Conference room for the winemaking team to sample. We get to taste these samples too. There are new ones daily. David tastes the tanks daily to see how fermentations are progressing. He tastes wine when they go from tank to barrels. There are samples from different types of oak barrels. There are samples taken after separate lots are blended together. And on and on. There is usually a control sample and then the samples after the process.
Daily there is a whole new round of wines to taste comparing different processes. Truly a great learning exercise for an intern.
