Vine/Wine Friday
The Mourvedre is the Block with the Changing Leaves
Vine: Well its over for another year. The Mourvedre was picked last Saturday, and the pictures tell the whole story. This year it looks like I harvested about 4.9 tons, down from 5.2 tons last year. I actually increased the Syrah production, but both the Mourvedre and Grenache were down, the Mourvedre down almost .5 tons. I will have to look at the pictures from last year, but I don’t get it. Maybe the numbers were off last year. This is a beautiful time in the vineyard and as you can see from the picture the Mourvedre has already change color and will soon be dropping its leaves. Meanwhile the Grenache and to a less extent the Syrah is staying green. I think much of this is that we have not had any freezing weather yet and instead is in the 80’s every day. Global warming anyone?
The Harvest
In a way, and I know this is a little strange, but I miss my grapes. You spend seven months, pruning, weeding, watering, thinning, training, managing canopy, dropping fruit, and then finally when they are truly beautiful, they are gone. Kind of like children. But unlike children, there will be a new batch next year (unless they come through with some grandchildren and that does not look promising). I did enjoy savoring their flavor with each walk through the vineyard, and watching them reach the peak of their maturity. Now all I can do is enjoy the color and watch the leaves fall. Everything but the Mourvedre is crushed, fermented, pressed, and stored away in oak barrels. The Mourvedre is fermenting as we speak, and is about a week away from its rest in neutral oak. So with all that said I won’t be saying much more about the vineyard this year until spring when we start again.
Fall Bounty
Wine: The pictures pretty much tell the story of the harvest and their beginning trip to Holly’s Hill Classique Mourvedre, but I will give you a layman’s tour. The grapes are picked into half ton wood containers. They were picked by 9 a.m. and trucked (after weighing) directly to the winery with crushing starting at 10 a.m. The grapes are destemmed and lightly crushed (not pressed, just breaking the skins) with a rubber drum. They are then (juice, skins, seeds) pumped into another half ton container (continuous process) where they will be inoculated with about 50 parts per million of sulfites to prevent unwanted yeasts and bacteria and then they will be rested over night.
Josh Delivering the Grapes to the Crusher/Destemmer
In the morning, Carrie or Josh will test the brix, TA, and pH, adjust acid if warranted, and then add the yeast for fermentation. Now this is somewhat of an over simplification, but that is the general process. They may add an enhancer to kickstart the fermentation (just high-octane food to get them going). Adjusting acid is always tricky because many of us have high TA and high pH. Think of it this way: You are trying to establish the very best environment to ferment your wine, prevent infections of bad things, extracting all the wonderful flavors, and getting the right balance of flavors, tannins, acid, and alcohol in the final wine. This means a balance in the chemistry in the must. I won’t bore you with the numbers, but the adjustments are to create that perfect chemistry if
Carrie Adding Sulfites, Isa, Marin, and Carrie's Father Tom Cooper - Its a Family Affair - Holly, Carrie's Mother was busy Tending Esme
possible. As a grower you are always hoping your grapes come in with the magic numbers, but they rarely do so it is left to the magic of the vintners. But it gets tricky. For the situation where the TA and the pH are both high, adding acid will lower the pH to the appropriate levels, but raises the TA to levels higher than are optimal. Some vintners cold soak their wine later in the process to hopefully drop TA crystals out of the wine. Some just live with it and add a flittle more sulfite to protect a low pH wine from infection. Okay enough already.
Red wines ferment on their skins (to extract tannins and color) and their seeds. When the process is complete, Carrie will taste to see if during the fermentation process they have extracted enough tannins, and if not leave them in their macerated state to extract a little more and then they will be pressed off (juices extracted leaving behind the seeds and skins) and then possibly have their sulfite levels adjusted to prevent unwanted infections
Let's not Forget Ron who Planted my Grapes, Advises me Every Step of the Way, Harvests them, and Gets them to the Winery
in the new wine and then its off to neutral oak for about 9 – 12 months. Once again, a gross oversimplification, but you get the drift. I will leave the pictures to tell the tale, but note that the whole family works in this process and it is hard work. But up in the tasting room is the fruit and bounty of their labors which Ron Mansfield and I did excused ourselves to after delivering my babies and watching them start their journey to fine wine. Carpe Diem.