Glunz Family Winery & Cellars

The Cellars

My name is Joe Glunz, Jr. and I will show you around the GFW&C Cellar. During the end of Winter & throughout the Spring, we are letting the wines relax and age slowly in the oak barrels. There they can soak up some soft creamy oak flavors while they react slowly with the oxygen, causing the aging process of these fortified wines.

Fortified means that the wine's juice had been very slightly fermented then quickly halted with the addition of high-proof grape brandy. This process increases the alcohol dramatically, keeping the active yeast from eating any more of the sugar. The result is a dessert (sweet) wine with alcohol around 17-20%.

	Here is Ciprioano, our Cellarmaster. He is doing some testing of the different barrels. He does this by first drawing a sample from the barrel to be tested.
Before going to the Lab Cip will do a few analytical tests: Cip is now looking to see how dark the Angelica is getting from aging. He is also looking for clarity in the wine. After analyzing the sight of the wine he will check the smell or Aroma & Bouquet. The aroma is carmelness.
	Then finally, the toughest of all the tests, tasting the wine. He would be looking for any "off" characteristics as well as looking to taste the marrying of the wine with the brandy. At the early stages in the aging of fortified wines, they have very distinct, un-married flavors.
Like good soup the day or two after, the flavors combined to produce very soft and rich flavors. Wow! Well, at this point Cip starts the lab tests and it gets really boring so we will call it a tour here
	I hope you have some questions for me to answer? Click here to Ask (I usually get answers to questions back to you with in a day or two.) Come on back for another different tour soon. We should be filtering and bottling some things in the next few weeks. Enjoy your glass of port today!
CHEERS! Joe Glunz, Jr. - Winemaker and Webguy Cipriano Luvieanos - Cellarmaster

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