On the Contrary

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

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