On the Contrary

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.

Vine:  Harvest Begins!! Another warm week with average temperatures in the 90’s has fully ripened the Syrah and they were picked today.  It is going to cool off into the low 80’s starting today.  You know they are going to harvest when you see the bins and tractor parked in your vineyard the day before.

A Sure Sign Harvest will Begin in the Morning

Oh, you say, I thought you decided when to pick.  Hardly.  I can taste and measure the brix and tell you when they are close, but the winery makes the decision when they should be delivered to the winery for processing.  This is as it should be.  We growers work hard to bring the fruit to top quality, but the flavors in the fruit change daily at this stage and it is left to the refined palates of the wine makers to decide when the flavors that they are looking for have fully developed.

The harvesting process is fairly straightforward.  The vineyard workers (los hombres) simply go through and cut it bunch by bunch, leaving any damaged bunches or any secondary growth and drop the bunches into buckets.

Steep Slopes and Hard Work - Viva Los Hombres

The buckets are then gently (to prevent damage to the bunches) poured into the bins.  The bins are then transferred to the winery. The harvest and transfer started at about 0545 am and take place in the early morning hours (it takes about 3 hours to havest the Syrah) to keep the grapes cool and to prevent any unwanted fermentation in the grapes from alien yeasts.  These grapes are going to A Donkey and Goat in Berkley, there to be cold soaked for 24 hours, sorted, foot stomped and then fermented in large oak casks.  More about different styles in the winery next week.  It looks like about 2.5 tons, but we will see when I get the weights and numbers from the winery.

I will dump the water to the Syrah now to give them a good drink and a nice rest after working so hard this year.  I really withheld the water until absolutely necessary and we will see what Jared and Tracey from Donkey and Goat think about the quality.

Upper Vineyard Bounty Mixed with the Viognier

I measured about 26° to 27° Brix the day before with a nice fruit, and complex flavors with very nutty seeds and mild skins.  The rest of the vineyard, the Grenache, the Mourvedre, and the Counoise, is sitting at about 22°-23°.  The primary difference is that the Grenache is moving faster on its tannins with the skins only slightly bitter and the seeds browning nicely.  The Mourvedre is still very green in its tannins.  Hello mid-October.

Wine:  Well, last weekend was Tour de Wine up here and it was a lot of fun.  Each winery served food and gave tours/presentations in their barrel rooms and vineyards.  There were 20 wineries involved, for a two-day event, but I was going to spend some quality time at my favorites and I had house guests (Rhyans) who I was cooking for that night, so we went to four and spent quality time.  It is fun when every winery you go to, they know your name (oh no, Steve again!).  Holly’s Hill is always fun and it is great to see the Coopers (owners) and Josh and Carrie (wine makers), and they make first quality Rhones.  They were giving people a chance to do some pressing and taste the juice, and cooking delicious Carne Asada Tacos that went well with the Patriarche Blanc (Roussanne-Viognier blend) and taste some wonderful local olive oil (Winter Hill)

Tomorrow the Journey Begins from Quality Grape to Fine Wine

From there we went to what I think is one of the best up and coming wineries in the area, Miraflores.  They had a wonderful selection of cheeses and small sandwiches, with barrel tasting of last year’s wines.  Victor Alvarez, who is the owner, was there and his passion for his wine was expressed in his willingness to share some of his not yet released wines that he is so proud of, and rightly so.  He has a passion for the terroir and it is expressed in his wine.  I love his Syrahs because they have a vegetative or earthy flavor, sometimes called forest floor.  The 2003 Syrah and the 2005 Methode Ancienne are real treats.

Next up was Narrow Gate Winery which makes delicious Rhones.  Frank and Teena Hildebrand are owners and Frank does all the wine making.  Frank was giving a wonderful presentation on his wine making philosophy and technique.  Frank does whole grape fermentation and focuses on a gentle process of extracting the juices without (he says ) extracting too many tannins.  If you listen to the technique, you would think the wine would lack the complexity of well balance tannins, but you would be wrong.  It was an interesting approach to wine making, and his wines speak for themselves.  You have to try his Rhone blend, Dunimas.

Lower Vineyard Bountry/Sophie Supervising

Finally there was a stop at Madroña and sure enough there was Paul Bush working the tasting.  Paul is making the wine and managing the vineyards.  He is a delightful person to talk to and he loves to share his wines with you.  The Malbec was killer.  We got there after the event was officially over, but that did not slow down Paul.  All of these wineries are making exceptional wines and you cannot beat the value for the quality.  His reserve Syrah is a true delight.

Then it was back to ‘Chateau Lightner’ to sit on the patio and sip a hearty Petite Syrah and cheese while I cooked filet mignon in a heavy wine sauce (garlic, shallots, mustard, heavy cream, and of course red wine, reduced) with haricots verts (sautéed fresh green beans with shallots and lemon) with a nice Patriarche (Holly’s Hill Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre).  Yes it was too much food, too much wine, and I dragged myself around all day Sunday, but worth every minute.  Life is short, seize the day…Carpe Diem.

Nine Bins Total - About 2.5 Tons of Syrah - Ready for Their Journey