Author: Paul

Map of Fire

The Llama Vineyard is on Country Estates, just off of Bonny Doon Rd, about 1/2 mile from the fire lines.

There is another small Chardonnay vineyard also on Country Estates which is closer to the fire. McHenry and Beauregard are both up Bonny Doon Road at the junction of Pine Flat and a little farther from the fire.

This is a very very rugged area with much denser forest that the Summit Road area fire. There are also more paved roads though and it should be easier for the fire crews to move around. THe weather is hot, but the wind is not strong. The area around Martin Road is actually pretty cleared at ground level, at least around Ice Cream Grade and it looks like the fire is moving away from the vineyards.

Cal Fire’s link for information.

Featuring our Intern Rajiv!

Daniel and Gerardo (Jerry), the veterans tucking and suckering.

Rows they’ve completed.

Look close, there’s Rajiv!

We’re off in a few minutes for our first public event at Chaine d’Or. Anne and Jerry opened the winery every year for the Vintners Festival and wanted to do that again this year.

We’re really not sure what to expect, and how many people might come by. We sent out postcards to everyone on the Chaine d’Or mailing list but didn’t really do much in the way of advertising to our mailing list.

We’ll largely be featuring Chaine d’Or wines, 04 Cabernet and 06 Chardonnay, but I held back some of our 06 Syrah for this event and a small amount of 06 Haut Tubee. We’re really not sure at all how much is going to sell, and what we might have left after the weekend. It’s likely to be a long day on my feet and talking with people so I’ll try hard to keep water in me and not loose my voice.

I’ll try and do an update tonight or tomorrow.

I’ve written before about the important role the Gopher plays in every winegrowers life. How it dominates our conversations and we keep counts of our ‘kills’. If you check this picture I think you’ll agree that the gopher has a long history. It’s clear the giant animal in the center of the hunt is the dreaded Gopher.

Saturday night we were invited to an impromptu party with Tracy and Emory Epperson. We planted just over an acre of Cabernet Sauvignon for them this year on 20 acres of land that’s been in Tracy’s family for decades. It’s a fantastic site in the Coyote Valley and Tracy and Emory should be producing some amazing grapes in a few years. They are talking about expanding the vineyard a little each year and eventually putting a winery on the site.

We had been calling this project ‘butterfly’, but Tracy and Emory are leaning to the name Sesson for the vineyard, which Stef and I both love.

We settled in for a few snacks and opened some wine and relaxed after a long day in the winery. Soon Emory was sharing with us his exciting news of the week. Not only had he killed his first gopher, and done it with the most honorable of gopher whacking tools, a shovel, but he’d also added two ground squirrels!

Emory had officially entered the world of ‘Grapegrower’!

So how to celebrate?

Well with no forethought, or deliberate planning, we fell quickly into a 30,000 year old ritual. A huge roaring fire was built outside and stoked with long logs of wood. The fire roared into the night sky and Emory hung a small grill over the flames to roast a beautiful chunk of meat. Tri Tip, thankfully roasting your kill is NOT a tradition. We opened bottle after bottle of wine and toasted away the evening telling stories of past gopher hunts.

It’s very primitive, but people still enjoy a roaring fire on a clear night, friends, food, wine and good stories. I think we should all try and capture that more often. Celebrate life’s little triumphs with big parties. Celebrate the little things. Worship the Cult of the Gopher with a bottle of wine, an open fire, a chunk of non-gopher meat, and friends you love.

I hate my cell phone. Well not just mine, it’s not personal. I hate all cell phones. Phones in general in fact. As Miss Manner’s has said; “The phone is the rudest invention ever.”

One goal in life for me is to not have to have one. To me that’s a sign of success. Really if you are very important, people just can’t call you when ever they feel like it. Obama is not standing at the podium and going; ” We’re coming together because we believe in what…hold on, that’s mine, just a second, yeah, no, the pancake mix is in the bottom drawer.”

Phones are rude, and no invention in the history of mankind has transmitted more useless information to more people, wasting more time, than the phone. Once standing at the airport in the security line I heard this conversation; “I’m in the line at the airport, it’s a long line.”

I thought; “Who cares”? I’m in the line, and I don’t care that I’m standing there. Who in the world would care that you are standing in line? Is their life so boring and pitiful that you standing in line at the airport is interesting? If it is, you should text them links to a park or a movie, or a good book, not update them on your line status.

So as part of my rebellion against this phone culture we live in I owned a phone that was at least 8 years old. It’s main feature was that I could drop it and not care. No Mr Spock in the ear headsets, cameras, or Benny Lava video for me. And belt strap ons? I made Stefania pledge that if I ever strapped a six shooter phone to my belt, she should hit me in the back of the head with a shovel.

I had lots of little pledges like that. I made Jaye, our favorite bartender at Chevy’s, pledge that if I ever sat at her bar and made her wait to take my order, she a live person in front of me, so I could talk to someone on the phone, she should pick up a fork and jam it into my forehead.

I loved that phone, because it was an outward symbol of hating phones. My sign to the world that I wasn’t going to participate in that silliness. Some people have bumper stickers, I had a ratty old cell phone.

Well, it’s dead now. Lost in the vineyard and presumed run over by the tractor. A fitting end. It was sacrificed to the gods of wine. It’s terroir now, for ever more part of the 2008 vintage. Probably the finest contribution a phone has ever made to society in my opinion. We’ll toast it tonight with a glass of wine. Actually we’d have the glass of wine no matter what, but any excuse works in a pinch.

I think I’ll get one of those new iPhones 🙂

Oh yeah if you call the winery and I don’t pick up, it’s because I ran over the phone with a tractor. Give me a couple days to get a new one.

The weekend is the annual Santa Cruz Mountains Vintner’s Festival.

http://www.scmwa.com/VintnersFestival.htm

We’ll have the winery at Chaine d’Or open for visitors.

http://www.chainedor.com/directions.html

The cost of the event is $30 in advance or $35 at the door, but we will not be charging our mailing list members or their guests for any activities at the winery. If you want to visit other wineries that are participating you’ll need a ticket, but your stop at Chaine d’Or is free.

We’ll be pouring the 2006 Chaine d’Or Chardonnay, 2004 Chaine d’Or Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006 Stefania Haut Tubee, and 2006 Stefania Eaglepoint Ranch Syrah. In addition I’ll be clearing out the very, very last 2005 Uvas Creek Cabernet Sauvignon for $45/bottle. There are only about 18 bottles left that I had held on to for restaurant reorders, but we’re going to let those go.

There will be food and snacks for everyone and every hour I’ll give a short 10 minute tour of the vineyard and talk about our farming practices and how they effect the final wine. We’ll also have some of our 2006 and 2007 barrels available to taste. There is room for a picnic as well on the small hill by the crushpad. It can get chilly though so bring an extra layer if you plan on spending some time outside.

We spent a long day yesterday racking our two Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet Sauvignons.

Racking is the process of removing a wine from barrel, cleaning the barrel, then returning the wine back to barrel. We do this for three reasons. First it lets us get the ‘gunk’ out of the bottom of the barrel. The fine lees that have settled into the bottom of the barrel. These lees can develop amino acids called Mercaptans, that create off flavors, so best to remove them.

Second, and especially true with Cabernet Sauvignon, it’s a chance to expose the wine to some oxygen. This helps with the softening of tannins, and makes the wine rounder and more enjoyable.

Finally, we use racking as an opportunity to make any sulfur additions that are needed. Sulfur acts as a preservative for wine and kills any bacteria. Some people add sulfur directly into the barrel, but this can cause problems. Sulfur doesn’t really travel well, so if you add it to barrel, it tends to just sit in one place. By doing it when we rack we have a chance to stir it up and expose all the wine to it.

We had a rather complicated set of blending we were doing at the same time, and ended up using four tanks. The final result was seven barrels of Chaine d’ Or Cabernet Sauvignon. Six barrels of Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet Sauvignon, which contains fruit from the Harvest Moon Vineyard, Elandrich Vineyard and Chaine d’Or Vineyard. That blend is also about 10% Merlot, which has added some really nice cherry notes. Finally we ended up with one barrel of Haut Tubee. We’ll combine this with 1-2 barrels of Syrah we have at Big Basin later and end up bottling about 75 total cases of Haut Tubee for 2007.

Sorry to everyone in New York, New Jersey and Michigan who received a message this morning that your order shipped. You probably thought, “Is he insane shipping on a Saturday?”

It’s a software error at the shipping company. I sent those orders in weeks ago and they are processed and then lined up for shipment. They had a hold on them though as we were still waiting for label clearance from those states.

When the shipper removes the hold from the computer, the “Your Order Has Shipped” email goes out automatically. I complained about this last fall, and they told me they had fixed it, but it looks like the software glitch has remained.

Bottom line though is the boxes are still sitting in the climate controlled warehouse in Napa, waiting for pick up next week by Fed Ex.

Sorry for the confusion, I’ll speak to the shipper about it again on Monday.

From 5/26

Woodruff Family Vineyard – Corralitos, Santa Cruz Mountains AVA

Needs suckering, the old Freedom rootstock is prone to throwing suckers. Mid flowering, overall excellent shape. Should yield 8-9 tons of very high quality Pinot Noir.

Llama Vineyard – Bonny Doon, Santa Cruz Mountains AVA

Needs water for 3-4 weeks, drip system has not been on at all and new plants have not had bud break. Turned on water system for owner. Needs a spraying and some suckering. Should yield 800 pounds or so if we net it, vineyard in very good shape.

Arastradero Vineyard – Los Altos Hills, San Francisco Bay AVA

Water needs to go OFF ASAP. Over vigor and throwing laterals from too much water. Needs thinning and a spray of Stylet oil. This was the only vineyard I’m not happy with, I didn’t know they had the water on so much. Yields look small, the vines are putting all their energy into growth. Crew needs to spend 4-5 days fixing this vineyard.

Harrison Vineyard – Los Altos Hills, San Francisco Bay AVA

Looks awesome, plants are at wire and have recovered fully from the frost. Need to go out in 3-4 weeks and get the grow tubes off and start training the plants. I’ll do this personally so that the it’s done right as it’s critical for future growth of the plants.

Elandrich Vineyard – Portola Valley, Santa Cruz Mountains AVA

Overall looks good, with good potential yield. Some plants suffering from mites which a sulfur spray will get rid of but no long term damage to the plants or crop. Other plants show 2,4d damage, probably from a weed and feed applied around the vineyard in error. We’ll have to watch after that and do some replacements. Bummer, but it happens in suburban vineyards with lots of neighbors and lots of gardeners in the area. Expect we’ll get about 1500 pounds of fruit.

Crimsom Vineyard – Morgan Hill, Santa Clara Valley AVA

Vineyard looks great! Much higher yield than expected, in fact we’ll have to drop fruit for sure. This looks like it will be the replacement for Uvas Creek we’ll need. Very excited to have this come on line a year ahead of schedule, this could become a top site.

Sesson Vineyard – Coyote Valley, Santa Clara Valley AVA

Some frost damage, but most plants re-pushed, others unaffected. Time to mow between the rows. This vineyard looks great. Suspect we’ll have very healthy plants here. It’s nice to work in these vineyards we’ve installed rather than rehabs. No problems to correct.

Haut Tubee – San Jose, Santa Clara Valley AVA

Flowering finishing up, which makes sense. The home vineyard is like a little lab for the other vineyards, it’s always 2 weeks ahead of the other locations. Clusters look large and loose with larger berries than last year, and a lower chance of bunch rot. Yields look lower, which should help the plants get riper flavors even though the berries are bigger. Things are looking pretty good so far.