Category: General

Paul and the crew worked Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Woodruff Vineyard in Corralitos this past weekend. I was able to help on Saturday and we rounded up a few more volunteers to whom we are greatly appreciative.

Huge Thanks to Kathy, Wes, and Dave!

The rest of the crew, Daniel, Jerry, and Millie kicked some serious butt over the weekend and are almost done – just a few more rows this week and we can cross that off the list as “Done”.

I took some time out Saturday to capture the site and the crew working – the photos are uploaded here: http://www.bubbleshare.com/album/316611

The next round of blogs and updates will probably include the bottling schedule (early March for the Syrah and Haut Tubee) and whatever random musings cross our minds.

Again, a huge round of applause and kudos to our volunteer pruners, you guys are awesome!!!!
(and we secretly wonder if you’ll be back…)

S&P

http://www.bubbleshare.com/album/312203

I captured the vineyard before we pruned, and took a bunch of pictures yesterday with it all done and cleaned up. I even got Sophie to sit still for me long enough for a photo. Inside the winery Paul and I racked almost all of the barrels. He trained me on using the equipment and had me working alongside him both days.

Though I meant to take photos of another vineyard we were contracted to prune, it was raining way too hard and I was soaking wet from a quick survey of the site. The wind chill was brutal as the actual temperature outside was somewhere around 46 degrees. Bone chilling and wet.

For certain I enjoyed the challenges and technical aspects of the winery tasks from the weekend and it’s always a great day at work when there is a sample of wine to taste and talk about.

We barrel tasted everything and there were some amazing highlights that I’ll let Paul blog about further. One barrel had this heady aroma of cinnamon and spice, another had the most beautiful aroma of flowers; purple and white flowers. When we took samples and tasted them, they were both full bodied and fulfilling even though the nose was sexy and wispy on the flowery one. (I left varietal and vineyard specifics off on purpose).

We got home in time to catch the 2nd half of the SuperBowl though mostly I think it was on for noise in the background while we sat still and tried not to think about our sore muscles. I’ll be glad when winemaking is full time on-site and not something we cram into every weekend minute we have available – it’s a lifestyle change for the better, but a smoother transition from sitting on my posterior during the week to full days on my feet would be nice.

Oh yes, snow! Have I taken any photos yet? No, but I’ve been waiting for the clouds to lift high enough to get a good shot. It’s just about the same as the photo on our main page of the website, so you get the idea.

Anyway, we were up at Chaine d’Or last Saturday and Sunday pruning. I’m still passionate about this part of grapegrowing and call tell you for certain that pruning these old boys was much different than young vines. (I’ll leave out the part about wearing a wrist brace all week and the blisters — shhh, you’re ruining the romance).

It was interesting to go through each plant, see where it was doing very well and where it needed to be retrained or cut so as to inspire new growth. Overall I would say we did great in the ten hours that we put in.

On Saturday we had morning fog which was nice because it can get very hot when you’re out there with full exposure and little shade. The sun peeked out around 11:30, then by noon I was cursing it for being so hot and then glad toward the end of the afternoon when we made the lower section and got some shade.

Sunday morning, when we got up, I begged the weather gods for lingering fog so that we weren’t working in the heat of the day again at noon with the sun on us. I even dressed in fewer layers anticipating another warm day (no thanks to yahoo or the newspaper on the weather forecast by the way). We got up there and it was foggy alright, but it was also misting, and cold, and a biting wind that kept whipping up the rows.

The sun peeked out for a scant total of about ten minutes over the course of the five hour day, barely enough to warm the surface layer of my thin fleece pullover. It must have been right around 3:15 when I finally yelled at the boss and said we have to stop, it’s just too cold to be out here any longer. The wind was whipping up even harder and it was sprinkling on us off and on.

I kept saying it felt and smelled like snow. Like when you’re on the lift at the ski resort and the next storm is about to hit, you can smell it. The air has that crisp edge to it. I felt it, in my bones.

On Monday we headed “over the hill” to Boulder Creek and got bits of hail and heavy downpours of rain. By the time we got to Highway 9 it was a full snow storm at the summit. I knew it!

We got home, Paul got a roaring toasty fire going for us and we spent some time chatting about the next round of vines to prune. I’ll be sure to dress more appropriately and keep my mouth shut since I’m certain now the weather gods were listening.

-SR

My favorite job in the vineyard happens but once per year – pruning. And let me tell you what, with the new vineyards we’ve agreed to manage this year, I’m up to my eyeballs in pruning. I may have to reassess how I really feel about pruning after this January.

This kind of ties in to the initial romance of being winemakers and grapegrowers. Picture if you will a quiet tranquil morning, walking row after row of vines across from the love of your life, chattering all along the way, discussing each plant and how to shape it for optimal fruiting, all at a leisurely pace. Then you stop for lunch, a picnic in the vineyard, with nothing but the birds chirping and a light breeze rustling the tree branches overhead. That was Year One.

Fast forward to last weekend: Crazy madness, six of us this time, no leisurely walks through the rows, no chatter or banter or lingering over the plants. It’s quick faced paced decision making because this is just one acre and there are 13 more to go, all before the end of the month. Oh yeah, and that picnic, a thing of the past, it was more like burgers and fries horked down well past lunchtime because we were so hungry!

Regardless of the pace and the fact that I no longer get to greet each plant anymore, I’m still very much enamored with this part of being a grapegrower.

I’m taking the camera with us this weekend and will get some photos posted up shortly.

Vineyards that we’ve already pruned:
Crimson Clover (cabernet in Morgan Hill)
Harrison (syrah Los Altos)
Elandrich (various, Portola Valley)

Upcoming vineyards:
Chaine d’Or (chardonnay and cabernet, Woodside)
Woodruff (chardonnay and pinot noir, Corralitos)
Llama Vnyd (merlot, Bonny Doon)
Ottigurr (various, Santa Clara County)

I read an interesting little quote in Rolling Stone. A scientist was asked the question: “How many hours do you work?” His answer: “All of them”.

I’ve stolen that quote and I’m using it now when people ask how we get everything done we need to get done. Even working ‘all of them’ I get behind in things I need to do. Documents that need to get written, updates to our website, and writing blogs.

I was really encouraged though this past weekend in getting caught up a bit more. Daniel and Jerry who have proven so helpful in the vineyards and winery, got their first exposure to pruning this past weekend. They did an amazing job, and we’re now a week ahead of schedule. I feel like I’ve got a top flight crew now, and their growing experience in the vineyards should make it easier to shift some of those work hours to other work tasks.

Not that Stefania and I didn’t spend many hours pruning vines this weekend, we did. And I replaced broken trellis and made repairs, but we don’t have to spend all the working time doing that. There should be more time for other tasks now.

From the “Twist” newsletter.

Last place to find our 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Uvas Creek Vineyard for sale, and it’s also available by the glass:

D’s new Wine Picks of December (available from December 1) ..

This selection became something that my regular guest are looking for each month now for their dinner or just when they stop for a glass of wine at the bar. Can you imagine that last month after 3 weeks we had to change 3 wines already! This month I decide to keep the Madiran because I really would like to promote that area of France more and more.The two new white wines are both Chardonnay from California. One is from a veryyyyyyy small winery in the Santa Cruz Mountain and the other one is owned by the Hyde Family (Hyde Vineyard) and De Vilaine Family (Romanee Conti) oh yeah, I wrote Romanee Conti now you can imagine the result.A new Cabernet Sauvignon from my close friends at “Stefania Wines”, a French Syrah from the Northern Rhone Valley and a Cabernet Franc from “Vinum Winery” a must taste wine !!!Sante 😉

For the second year in a row I planned to do a good job providing regular blog updates, and again, the actual work of harvesting just was too much to get daily blogs done. But, here is where we are at as of Monday night:

We’re DONE picking and crushing grapes. 20 tons total picked and 14+ tons crushed. We sold the Chardonnay from Chaine d’Or so that was not crushed by us.

Things really got going nuts last Tuesday when we cleaned the winery and got ready to go for the big load coming in.

Wednesday Millie went off to Eaglepoint Ranch to pick up 3+ tons of Syrah and I headed south to round up 350 pounds of dry ice. We were worried that the fruit would come in too warm to cold soak and I needed to get the dry ice to cool the fruit down. Millie had a really tough day with the trailer but made it back to Big Basin at 5PM We sorted fruit under the lights until after 8PM. (The day started at 3:30 for her, 5:30 for me).

It was a tough, long, tiring day and I really banged up my ring finger pretty bad. The grapes were a bit ripper than I’d have liked, but not bad at all considering the drama of the weather up north. We added a little water to one vat to get the BRIX under 28 and some acid (2 g per liter). The pH was 3.8, but Malo was low and the finished pH would have been over 4.0, with the addition we should finish around 3.6.

The next day we drove all over, picking up bins, dropping off bins, dropping off trailers, and checking on wine. About 200 miles in the truck and a 12 hour day.

Friday we picked 4 tons of Cabernet from Martin Ranch. 2 tons went to Chaine d’Or and 2 tons to Big Basin, so lots of driving again. We decided to not use the trailer since it had been so difficult on Wednesday. Unfortunately there were no 8 foot bed trucks available so we used Millie’s truck, my Dad’s and a rental. Millie drove hers, I drove the rental and Stef drove mine.

As we filled up one bin we’d load a truck and take off for the winery. As soon as the truck was done at one winery, we’d rush back and pick up another and go to the other winery. It turned into a day that lasted 17 hours. We got to bed about 11:30 PM. The fruit came in good, a little low in TA but Brix was 24.9 and the fruit looked really good. We’re treating each of 4 bins a little different to see what gets the best results for the future.

Saturday morning we were back up at 5:30 am for harvest at Chaine d’Or. We had a great picking crew and great help and were able to bring in a very large harvest of 3+ tons before 11am. Everything went smoothly and the wine came in at 24.2 Brix, .66 TA and 3.38 pH! Anne said the fruit was the best looking ans tasting she’d seen there.

It took us a few hours to clean up and finish up but we only worked 10 hours that day!

Sunday I was able to get to emails and shipping and get caught up on the books. Even though I worked about 7 hours it felt like a day off.

Monday we brought in the last 2 tons from Uvas Creek. We had to run a relay again with two trucks, but got it done by 3:45. Millie and I had to run t Chaine d’Or after that to do a pump over and remove about 200 gallons from the tank so it didn’t over flow.

In the end we got it all in, 14+ tons and it is all doing well. I’m happy with the wines so far, flavors are great, color is really dark and the numbers needed a little help, but we got them under control. Now that the days are back to 8-10 hours of work, I should get regular updates out more often.

Thursday we harvested about 1500 lbs at the Elandrich Vineyard. This was easily a new record for us there, as the vineyard is finally coming back after a long restoration project. The fruit looked and tasted excellent and was 25.9 BRIX in the bin after crushing.

We started about 8AM with the ‘normal crew’; Millie, Daniel, Herrardo and myself, plus some extra help from a few friends and the vineyard owner who was able to come out and help even on a work day. The crew did a great job and we arrived at the crusher at 9:30 AM right on schedule.

We only had one back up with the pump and it quickly was fixed. The crew really has the routine now, and Jerry commented it was the best harvest day he’d ever seen, because all he had to do was remind me to turn the pump on before the crusher and fix the cellar door.

We should end up with 1 1/2 or 2 barrels of wine from this vineyard which will be really cool. We can evaluate it on it’s own for the first time in barrel and get a better idea of what we might be able to do long term with these grapes.

I’ve wanted to write a blog for a few weeks about our company “Vision Statement.” I haven’t had time though to devote to writing it, I think it needs a good explanation to stay away from Dilbertville.

I did come up with one though, I actually thought it was really important to do that. In the still to be written blog about visions statements I’ll explain why. The one I came up with though was : “Make Friends”.

This release has been really satisfying in meeting that vision. I’ve gotten to email and talk with dozens of people all over the country. I have really enjoyed that a great deal. I feel like I’m making new friends all over and it’s great to hear from you about our wine, and our adventure.

I know many winemakers like to avoid dealing with customers, they view it as a time drain, or are really uncomfortable with it. I love it. The last few weeks have been a real blast. The emails from people and phone calls have given us a lot of inspiration during the really long days we are putting in. It’s been nice to take a break every now and then and just chat about wine with people.

I hope this continues and I hope I get to talk to and meet even more people in the months ahead. It’s great to hear from everyone, and each phone call and each email, gets us closer to the vision statement of making friends!

Just a quick note that I released about 20 orders for shipment this morning. Mostly going to the north east, and upper midwest. I was torn about Illinois, but it looks like temps will cool there tomorrow and a went ahead and let those go.

I released some for Northern California, but almost 90% of the California orders choose to pick up at Chaine d’Or (or have Kenny pick them up at Chaine d’ Or 😉 ) so only a few will actually ship. Next week if things continue to cool, I should release another batch of orders.

We also sent out a final offer to the 26 new sign ups we got in the last 3 weeks. That should get us close to selling out. The sending out offer letters in waves worked out well and I think everyone who wanted wine will be able to get wine and there are probably just a few requests for extras that we’ll be able to meet.