On the Contrary

Chateau Lightner from the Upper Vineyard

Vine:   Fall is rapidly approaching and the vineyard is a bit ahead of schedule.  Everything is now a deep purple and I am trying to adjust my irrigation schedule so that it is not too close to harvest.  I measured the brix (measure of sugar in grapes) in the Syrah and it ranged from 22°-24° and we harvest around 26°-28°.  So it is not long off.  If the acid gets low it can be added during fermentation, but most wine makers prefer to intercede as little as possible.

9-5-2008 September in the Sun

A little primer on “ripe” grapes:  When I first started this adventure in the vineyard, I would taste the grapes and as they got nice and sweet I would jump up and down shouting “time to harvest, time to harvest”.  More experienced hands like the wine makers I work with would come up and taste and look at me like I had a screw loose.  You are looking for really three things:  a balance of sugar and acid at about the right levels, and ripe tannins.  Sugar and acid you can taste, but most growers use a laboratory to get an exact measurement.  For sugar I use a temperature-compensating refractometer in the field where you put a drop or two of grape juice on the view plate and you can read the sugar brix directly.

Well Balanced Mourvedre Slowly Ripening

It just gives you a ballpark figure so you can start paying attention when you get in the ball park.  The tannins are tasted in the pips (seeds) and the skins.  Mature tannins have lost that bitterness and the seeds are nutty and crunch like a nut in your mouth.  That is the only test for them in our present state of scientific advance, but as most growers and wine makers will tell you, your mouth is a very sensitive instrument.

The pips in the Syrah have definitely started to ripen, losing that green color and have a nice nutty flavor to them.  The skins are definitely not bitter.  So on the Syrah front I would say two weeks.  I just finished watering my lower vineyard Syrah and just started my upper vineyard Syrah so that they will have a chance to dry out a little before we harvest.  Grapes soak up water right after irrigation and you don’t want to dilute the flavoids.  Viognier is in the same shape and as true of all Rhone Syrahs, will be harvested and processed with the Syrah.

On the other hand the Grenache has a way to go being at about 20°-21°  brix along with the Mourvedre.  The pips are quite green and the skins are quite bitter yet.  I would say early to mid October for their harvest, once again all depending on weather.

Grenache with Heavy Foilage

Right now we are experiencing mid to upper 90’s each day which is going to ripen them faster than I would like.  Tannins ripen slower than the rest of the grape so if you can slow down the sugar production by cool weather until the tannins catch up, you get a superior grape.  Problem is I have not figured out how to control Mother Nature and we just have to accept what is served up.

Wine:   For our anniversary we took some good friends to the Wine Konnection for dinner.  This is really a fun place for tasting wine and good food.  Here is my recommendation:  In a party of four, everyone buy a flight of tasters, Rhones, blends, Pinot Noirs, Cabs, whatever.  Then pass them around and comment on them.  You would be amazed how much fun that is, how much you will learn from your friends on what they are tasting, and will force you to try wines you may not have ordered to discover something new.  Here are the entrees we had:
Prawn risotto – $15.00
ARUGULA, HEIRLOOM TOMATOES, CORN, VELLA DRY JACK
(SANTA MARGHERITA; PINOT GRIGIO, VALDADIGE,
ITALY ‘07 $8)
Vanilla braised beef short ribs – $18.00
MAC & CHEESE, GREEN BEANS
(LA PLAYA; CARMENERE, COLCHAUGA VALLY, CHILE ‘05 $7)
Kobe beef sirloin steak – $15.00
HEIRLOOM TOMATOES, MASHED POTATOES
(BEAULIEU VINEYARDS; TAPESTRY, NAPA, CALIFORNIA ‘04 $13)
Sautéed halibut – $16.00
CORN SUCCOTASH, ARUGULA, COCONUT& PASSIONFRUIT MOUSSE
(PERRIER JOUET “GRAND BRUT” CHAMPAGNE, FRANCE NV $14)

Notice the very reasonable cost.  We spent our money on good wine and had a bottle of 2006 Siduri Keefer Ranch Vineyard Pinot Noir.  It was delightful.

There was really a good article in last weeks Chronicle (Reconsidering Sulfites) about using sulfites in wine.  Everyone these days is trending to natural wines and using less pesticides/fertilizers in the vineyard.  This is a good thing to make your vineyard a sustainable ecosystem, but I think extremism in anything is misplaced.  Sulfites are used in wine primarily to fight off bad microbes and prevent bad flavors or spoiled wine.  Most vintners use less than 100 ppm which is all that is required for a organic wine and most are around 30 ppm when bottled.  It is interesting reading and I admire those who are trying new things, but consistency and reliability in your wine may be more important that being trendy.  And most important of all, other than in the winery during fermentation and processing, I have never detected sulfites in the wines I drink.  At these levels, neither will anybody else.  It is a trade off for those who want to be pure.  I personally will let my palate do the informing and so far, sulfites are not an issue.  Carpe Diem.

Vine:   Remember when I told you we would “drop” some fruit.  Well it’s time and it is always painful.  The picture below gives you an idea of some of the damage.

Dropped Fruit

Why do we drop fruit?  Well you have to understand that grapes and humans have two different goals.  Grapes want to be as prolific as possible because each grape contains the seeds of its progeny.  Grapes get red and start pushing their sugar, not because they love us and want to give us the best wines possible, but to attract those winged devils that eat the grapes, fly off and leave deposits here and there with the seeds of the grape’s progeny.  Now birds have the taste buds similar to those who think who think food is grub and wine is red.  They don’t care just give me some.  So the obliging grape pushes out as many grapes as possible.  The fact that all the flavoids have been diluted to grow so many grapes is lost on the dumb birds, but not on the discerning humanoid.  So we go through this time of year and drop fruit to focus the plants efforts on the crop that is left to provide the best possible and tasty grapes.  What you are looking for is two bunches per shoot, assuming the shoot is well developed and well leaved.  Additionally there is a lot of “secondary” growth which are grapes that developed later and are never going to get fully ripe.  So, snip, snip, snip.

Now you think the birds would eat the grapes on the ground, but oh no, let’s focus on the money crop.  Maybe they can discern the good grapes because they know when the brix is about 24° (indication of sugar, we usually pick around 24-28).

Tasty Syrah Just Begging For Bird Attacks

The bastards wait until you have this beautiful crop and then it is binge time.  I will be putting out my Kite-Birds next week. These are kites that fly in the vineyard and look like hawks.  I will post pictures when I get them up.  I have tried streamers and other devices, but the kite-birds seem to do about the best.  The point is that we are in that time of year when you have selected who the crop is going to be and you are left with sitting back and letting nature take its course.  It is an exciting time because the harvest is not far off and the crop is beginning to look really good.  I won’t know for a few more weeks as I taste through the vineyard and see what the sun, the wind, the water, and this wonderful soil have wrought.  Nature is a wondrous thing.

Upper Vineyard from the Front Yard

Wine:   This last weekend I was having a real hankering for roast beast.  I also needed some social interaction.  I have been working on another consulting job and siting up here in a beautiful vineyard, but I needed social contact.  So I got a really good looking rack of pork ribs and an organic chicken.  I called my good friends the Wards and said I am cooking roast beast, come on over.  The Wards are wonderful people to be around and they are one of those rare couples that don’t require high maintenance.  Either they can be there or they can’t, no complications.  They always ask one question:  What can I bring, and I always say nothing, and they always bring a special bottle of wine.

Now cooking both is fairly simple.  I prepared a rub the night before.  You know, the usual suspects, paprika, thyme, cayenne, garlic, salt, pepper, sugar, etc.  Throw in what ever hits your fantasy at the time, rub both the ribs and chicken, wrap well in aluminum foil and put in the refrigerator over night.   I have a deep barrel barbeque so I get the charcoal going, with some mesquite mixed in, with the coals piled up in one end.  Then I put the ribs in about 3 hours before we are going to eat, all the way on the other end where the draft will pull the smoke across as it finds its way out the barrel chimney.  Then about two hours before you are going to eat, put in the chicken on one of those vertical roasters.  I used to use a beer can, but technology has caught up with me, and now there are plenty of stainless steel roasters available.  Fill the cup shoved in the chicken breast with about half a bottle of a good ale (drink the rest to make sure it is not gone bad and then get another just to make sure), add a little rub and put it with the ribs off the direct heat.  Then just take them off at eating time.  People will think you are a genius.

This was a simple dinner with sliced tomatoes and cucumbers out of the garden, some good bread dipped in olive oil, and some saffron rice.  For wine I chose a nice (turned out to be fabulous)  pinot because it goes good with meat and chicken.  It was a  2006 Migration (Anderson Valley).  It had complexity and depth that was stunning.  For dessert Mike and Fran brought a wonderful 1999 Boeger Pettite Syrah that was served with sliced peaches fresh from the orchard, and double chocolate brownies.  As a finisher we opened a bottle of 2006 Holly’s Hill Tranquille,  So we sat on the patio overlooking the vineyard ate this wonderful food and drank this wonderful wine, watched the sun go down, and laughed the night away.  As Mike always toasts, “It is a good day to be alive” and he ought to know.  Carpe Diem

8-15-2008 Hot Summer Days

Vine:   Veraison is here big time.  Veraison is the turning of the grapes from green to red.  It is almost totally complete in the Syrah with big black berries.

Syrah Going Deep Purple

In the Mourvedre, that latest to turn we have a salt and pepper effect so far.  Grenache has turned, but they do not have that deep dark purple that the Syrah do. No they are not anywhere near ripe and you can always tell because there are no birds yet.  Juicy ripe grapes and birds are nature way of spreading the seed.  I usually lose about 10% of my crop to birds when it happens.

Various States of Veraison in Mourvedre

But it won’t get close for another month.  Assuming we continue fairly mild weather, which by the way is very good, I expect the Syrah to be ready mid to late September, Grenache in early to mid October, and the Mourvedre, in late October or early November.  But if we get a bunch of really hot days that could change.

What we want is some long slow ripening.  The old saw was to get a magical balance between sugar and acid.  As the grape ripens the sugar increases and the acid decreases or the old rule of thumb was a magical right level of the two.  If it gets too hot the sugar gets too high too fast and the other important wild card are the tannins and their ripeness.  When you consider all three, two of which, the sugar and the acid, you can measure, and the tannins which must be tasted, the ideal season is a long slow ripening so that the tannins can catch up with the sugars before the sugars get too high and the acids too low.  By the way if you are not sure of what acid tastes like, taste one of the grapes now.  You will get a mouth full and if you chew the seeds and skins you will get a very unpleasant lesson in green tannins.  More on this is wine.

Wine:    One of the old truths is that a good aged wine (assuming it is an ageable wine) is the best experience in wine tasting.  French wines were famous for their aged Cabs.  They had to age them because they do not have the amazingly warm summers we have here in California and it took a few years to tame the tannins.  What you were looking for was an aged wine that had retained some fruitiness, but the aging had mellowed the tannins and produced a complex and interesting wine.  With modern growing techniques and our focus on higher altitude cooler climate growing, the goal is to pick our grapes with a deep fruitiness, but not too plumy (hanging too long), but with mellow and ripe tannins that add a complexity to a fairly young wine. Note: The really good Syrahs should have about two years on them, almost a year in the barrels (old oak), and about a year in the bottle before release.

Here in California you get two distinct styles in the Syrahs.  The big fruit, hit you in the face, jammy flavors, but no complexity or subtlety in the finish.  These are grapes that have, in my opinion, hung too long in hot weather.  They are characterized by high alcohol contents reflecting their high sugar.  The other style is a much lower alcohol content Syrah that has fruitiness, but does not get jammy, has complex tannins and a long finish.  These are the Rhone style Syrahs that are being produced in many places in California today:  Paso Robles, some vineyards in the North State, and most of us up here in El Dorado County.  If you want to taste what I am talking about, I would suggest a Holly’s Hill East Slope Syrah, Madroña’s Reserve Syrah,  or Mira Flores Methode Ancienne.

The other suggestion I have for you is to look at the Rhone Blends.  If you are a white wine drinker, and who isn’t when the temperature hits 100°, try a Roussanne/Mourvedre blend, or the Grenache Rosé.  Some excellent examples would be A Donkey and Goat’s Isabel’s Curveé Grenache Rosé,  Holly’s Hill Patriarche Blanc.  On the Red side (dark red) I would suggest Holly’s Hill Partriarche (double gold at the State Fair), and a Donkey and Goats Three Thirteen both of which are a blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvedre.  Disclaimer here:  I sell grapes to both, but there is a reason for that.  They make damn good wines.  Carpe Diem.