Winemaking – Stefania Wine

March 6, 2015

New Releases

We have a new release coming out this week. Letters are in the mail. If you don’t get one let us know. We have three wines we’re releasing.

2012 Stefania Cabernet Sauvignon, Crimson Clover Vineyard, Santa Clara Valley

Release Price: $45 per bottle.
Total production: 108 cases

We harvested on 9/22 and sorted it in the field before transport to the winery. The grapes were 100% destemmed and crushed into 2 bins for fermentation on native yeast. The bins were moved inside the winery and punched down twice per day. We followed our normal pressing and settling routine and the wine aged in 2/3 new oak for 21 months.

The wine is typical Crimson Clover Vineyard with expressive black and plum fruit framed with spice and floral notes. There are notes of mocha and blackberry on the finish and round tannins. We expect this wine to age very well. Alcohol 13.7%

2012 Stefania Mourvedre, ‘Restitutor Orbis’, Spur Ranch, San Benito County

Release Price: $32 per bottle
Total production: 101 cases

Our second year of Mourvedre fruit from Spur Ranch. Paul had so much fun with the Latin quote on our first Mourvedre that he had to keep the tradition up. This one is about a 3rd century emperor. We had the chance to use whole berries in the fermentation process in 2012 and combined that with 40% new oak for a very round and flavorful Mourvedre.

The wine has everything someone who could defeat the Alamanni, Goths, Vandals, Juthungi, Sarmatians, and Carpi could want. There’s plenty of dark wild fruit to power you on to crush the Palmyrene Empire and Gallic Empire as well. Alcohol 14.4%

2013 Stefania Chardonnay, Chaine d’Or Vineyard, Santa Cruz Mountains

Release Price: $25 per bottle
Total production: 95 cases

We continued retraining to the Guyot method in the vineyard based on the experiments we had done in 2012. The results were excellent and on 9/14 we harvested 143 bins or 4290 pounds and pressed the must whole cluster in one pressing. The must was transferred to a chilled tank for settling off the gross lees. Brix was 23 with pH 3.36 and TA .82. On 9/15 the wine was transferred off its gross lees into a chilled tank inside and inoculated with QA-23 yeast and yeast food. We maintained temperatures under 65 degrees during tank fermentation but did not super chill the must before transfer.

On 9/22 the wine was transferred to 7 barrels which were filled 2/3 full to finish fermentation. On 10/5 the wine was showing as completed primary fermentation and was reduced down to 5 full barrels + one keg. Lees were stirred at that time. The wine went through Malo with no issues and for the first time since 2008 we did not have to haul the barrels out into the sun in the Spring to finish fermentation.

The wine showed excellent chemistry and we decided to bottle with out fining or filtration. The wine will appear slightly cloudy in glass but is full of ripe fruit and wonderful crispness. Stefania loves this Chardonnay and it’s her favorite we’ve made. There is just 20% new oak and the stone fruit flavors really shine in this wine. Alcohol 13.7%

Anything that does not sell out in from the mailer we will add to the website in mid-April.

September 22, 2014

More Grape Picking and Creature Pics.

It was another busy weekend for us. Saturday we picked the two largest vineyards that make up our Haut Tubee base wine. We did the actual picking of 600 pounds of Cabernet and Syrah at Roxie Vineyard near Crimson Clover. We just had to pick up and sort the 800 pounds of Syrah from the Harrison vineyard in Los Altos Hills. Most of the day seems like it’s driving at 60 MPH towing a trailer, and it is. We were out of our old house on Canton before the grapes were ready for wine but one of our neighbors came down and harvested about 200 pounds of grapes to make jam. No Mourvedre in the Haut Tubee blend yet, but we will have Mourvedre Jam in the new tasting room this Spring.

Sunday we were up early and did what is now a really long 55 mile drive to Chaine d’Or. Our trusted ‘A Team’ picking crew was there and had already removed the nets when we drove in at 7:30. We picked just about 3200 pounds of Chardonnay. The picture below is Jerry walking out the picking bins. In the lower section we bring the bins up on the tractor but in this upper section the three of us who can drive the tractor, Millie, Jerry and I all prefer to carry the bins out rather than mess with getting the tractor all the way up and down the long rows and around the two sharp turns.

Stefania usually avoids the camera when I’m taking pictures but I thought she was exceptionally pretty Sunday morning and got in this shot. That’s her usual place and job at harvest time. As we dump in the 30 pound picking bins she sorts through the grapes and removes, leafs, bugs, twigs, bad grapes, secondaries, water bottles, gloves, twisty tie, clippers and anything else that have found their way into the bins. We do always laugh when someone says they have hand made wine and wonder if they really touched every cluster with their own hands like Stefania does. Probably not.

Back at home we’re getting used to the new routines and sights and sounds. This little guy comes by every day. I think I’ve seen small bumps for antlers but Stef hasn’t so we’re not sure of its sex. It is really small so I think it was likely born this past Spring. I just spent some time on Google and the proper term is ‘Fawn Buck’.

September 19, 2014

Picking Grapes, Picking Up Grapes and Finally Moving

We’ve been very busy since our last update. There were significant delays in getting everything closed on our new home and we ended up in a hotel for 5 days. We finally got the keys on Tuesday afternoon and are getting things set up there. Stefania and I are really glad to put the process behind us and in getting our home together.

Grapes don’t stop and wait though and we had to carry on with harvest. It’s been warm and sunny this September and the vineyards are pushing ahead early like last year. Last Saturday we harvested the Crimson Clover Vineyard’s Cabernet Sauvignon. I had my regular job of hauling out bins and Stefania sorted everything as I dumped it into the 1/2 ton bins.

We used a small crew of our regulars and a couple of family members, my Mom and cousin Matt. We had everything picked and were mobile to the winery by 11 AM.

Earlier in the week I had picked up 3000 pounds of Malbec. We’ll use some for blending but also likely have a Malbec release in the future. 3000 pounds is my preferred amount to buy. It produces about 4 barrels or 100 cases. It also is the max payload for the U-haul trailers I rent. The FJ Cruiser can actually tow much more but I’d need a trailer rated for more weight. We thought of buying one in the past but we had no where to store it. Now we will have space to store it so a purchase before next year is likely.

The first picture I took from the new house. Wild Turkeys that come visit every day. They come right up to the front and back doors. Can’t wait to see the first time that happens with the cats looking out the door.

September 6, 2014

Big News – Part Four!

Our first harvest was in 2005 and we took our grapes to Crushpad which was then in San Francisco. I worked there too as a volunteer a few days a week in addition to doing our own winemaking. Probably my biggest contribution was spending an entire Saturday cleaning and organizing the loading dock. I also volunteered that year at Chaine d’ Or. Crushpad was just too chaotic for us so the next year we moved our production to a facility in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I volunteered again at Chaine d’Or.

That 2006 harvest was ok but Stefania and I were still interested in finding a better fit for us and our winemaking. By pure chance I got a call from Bradley Brown at Big Basin Vineyards. He was checking to see if I had any Grenache or Mourvedre to sell. As we talked I told him I was looking for a new space in 2007 and he said he was looking for a new tenant. We met and decided we’d move into Big Basin that year. We were all set to move in September when we got the call that August to take over operations at Chaine d’Or. I still kept the deal with Bradley and we made about 1/2 our 2007 and 2008 wines at Big Basin.

That’s where we met Ian Brand. Ian was the assistant winemaker then at Big Basin. He’s started at Bonny Doon and he had glamorous tasks at Big Basin like sorting grapes, cleaning bins and all the other things assistant winemakers do. Ian and I spent a lot of time together on the sorting line and while cleaning things around the winery. In 2009 Ian went out on his own to start Ian Brand Family Wines. We stayed in close contact, talking at least once a month. Ian asked for advice on getting started and he shared some grape sources with us (Split Rail and Coastview). We sold Ian our old barrels we were no longer using and spare equipment when we had it.

Sometimes we’d have logistical nightmares of having to pick two vineyards on the same day that where 100 miles apart and Ian would step in and pick up the grapes from one of those vineyards and do the initial crush and fermentation for us. We’d then go down with out barrels and press the wine into our barrels and haul them home. He’s been a great friend and a great help to us over the years.

When we knew we would need a new home this year I didn’t think of asking anyone else but Ian. I think he said “well I know you’re not an asshole, so no problem”, or something like that. Ian built up a fantastic facility in Salinas. It will be shorter for us to get to from our new home than the old drive was to Chaine d’Or. We’re excited by that of course, but mostly we are really excited to be in the same facility with Ian again. We will work under our own bond in what is called an ‘Alternating Proprietorship’ or AP. That means we’re making the wine and using the equipment. We can hire his crew to do tasks like clean up and maintenance though and that will free up lots of time for us.

Ian makes great wine and if you haven’t tried it, search it out. We’re so excited to be sharing space with him and so grateful for his generosity.

September 4, 2014

First Pick of 2014

I know everyone is waiting for part four of the news but we did have some actual winemaking to do this week. I’ll have Part 4 up soon I promise.

Harvest 2014 started like it does every year for us with getting the picking bins out of storage and cleaned up after a year of sitting outside. We do cover them but dirt creeps in. Millie is driving the tractor in the picture below with two of our bins on the back. I had the pressure washer set up and clean them as they got to the crush pad. Stefania helped out with a disinfecting scrub and I blasted away all the dirt.

While we were on site Stefania also set up the testing lab for the season. We’ll test pH, TA and Brix on all our vineyards over the next couple of months. Those are Chardonnay samples being tested. The testing is pretty redundant for us 10 years in. I walked through the vineyard before the samples were picked and said: “2 maybe three full weeks until these are ready.” Stefania walked down one row and picked about a dozen berries and said: “These are at 19.5 Brix”. The testing results were Brix 19.6 and pH 3.1 which means we are 2-3 weeks out.

With all that done we loaded up the FJ Cruiser with 3 bins to take down to the vineyard for picking the next morning. It’s a pain to have to deal with the u-haul office on the first weekend of the month but it had to be done. When we get into our new place I’ll have room to store a trailer and our rental days should be behind us.

The first grapes of the year came in on Labor Day. We got 3000 pounds of Viognier from Leal Vineyards in San Benito County. The grapes looked great and we were able to confirm with the assistant winemaker at Leal that we should be able to get Viognier from them every year.

It was a pretty easy drive to our new facility, although we did hit some holiday traffic. Here’s a little bit of a sneak preview of Part 4. It’s the Viognier being loaded into the press at our new facility. The crew there was fantastic and even with hanging around and chatting for a little we were in and out in less than an hour. Stefania was SOOOOOOOO happy to not have to clean a press or a tank and have the crew there to do those tasks. The wine is doing well. We’ll raise it half in neutral French oak and half in stainless steel. It will be bottled early and should be available to our mailing list next Spring.

August 22, 2014

Our Big News Part 1.

Stefania and I have a lot of big news to share with everyone about changes we’re making this year and for the future of Stefania Wine. I’ve decided to break the news into four parts. I’m not trying to build suspense but there are so many moving parts that I don’t want to post anything until it’s completely confirmed and locked down.

So, part one of the news. We will be leaving the winery at Chaine d’Or this year. This will be our last year taking care of the vineyard and we will wrap up operations there before Christmas this year. We’re moving our winemaking operations into a facility that will be closer to us. All our 2014 fruit will be processed there and I’ll be moving the existing 2013 wine we have in barrel to that facility over the next few weeks. We’re very excited about the move.

I can’t say where exactly we’re moving yet, that will be part 4 of the big news. We need to get all the government and contractual clearances wrapped up before I do that. I can say that we will be operating in the facility with our own bond and sharing the space with an existing winery and winemaker that we know very well and have worked with for years. We will be able to use the larger crew there to help with a lot of the harder and time consuming work (cleaning equipment, topping barrels, things like that). It should actually make life much easier for Stefania and I and free up a significant amount of time for us.

We enjoyed our time at Chaine d’Or a great deal and we will miss the winery. We moved in in 2007 and it was a huge break for us. We’re grateful for our time there and everything we learned over the years. I know many of you have had enjoyable trips to the winery and we will miss those times up on the mountain. It wasn’t an easy decision but I’m sure as I post the rest of our news for 2014 you’ll be as excited about the changes as we are.

September 26, 2013

Crimson Clover Harvest Pictures

By now this is a really familiar picture. Start of the morning in the FJ Cruiser. I was up at 5:45. Crimson is not far from our home compared to some other sites so leaving at 6:37 we were actually the first ones on site at just after 7AM. Millie had come the day before and removed all the chopsticks from the netting so the first task would be to remove the nets. Normally we’d have Jerry and Gil remove the nets and everyone else would start picking. The weather was drippy and wet though with mist coming down and clouds all around the vineyard. I kept checking the hourly weather update (which showed clear from 8 Am until Noon) and watching the clouds. Everyone pitched in to take the nets off.

There was a little moister on the leafs but the clusters where staying dry. They really looked fantastic. We don’t generally leaf pull. I prefer to get dappled sunlight on to the grapes rather than direct sun.

About 8:45 we got the clearing that we needed in the clouds and I sent the crew out to start picking as fast as they could. Clouds hung around the vineyard all morning but as volunteers arrived on site they all said it was clear to the north of us, the direction any rain would come in from.

The first bin of grapes. I picked about six bins total. Once the bins started to fill up though my job changes to picking up the bins and carrying them to the macro bins for sorting. Stefania calculated that I walked 12 miles in the vineyard, half of that carrying 30 pounds on my shoulder. In all I carried out over 100 bins on Saturday and over 60 on Sunday.

This is Stef’s usual job on picking days. She’s keeping a tally of the bins as they come in and sorting through the grapes removing any bees, spiders, lady bugs, earwigs, leafs, shoots, grass, water bottles or finger tips that come in. We had a good pick this time with no injuries or bee stings.

I thought we might pick heavy this year. Last year we brought in just under three full bins or about 2700 pounds. That’s 1 1/2 tons per acre and pretty normal for this site. I thought we would get 4 bins this year. That’s a little bit of a logistical challenge because the biggest trailer I can rent only hold three bins, and I wouldn’t want to tow much more than the 4000 pounds a fully loaded rig weighs up and down the mountain roads we have to travel. I figured we’d just come back Sunday though and finish up. The third bin though filled up on row 12 of 23. Rows 18-23 are shorter than the rest so we actually came back for 2+ bins on Sunday or just over 5000 pounds.

There was some drama driving back to the winery. The forecast held and at Noon it started raining again. We had covered the bins though and were already on the road when the rain started. When we arrived at the winery we had to weight about 30 minutes for the misting to stop. We then got everything processed and inside in just about 25 minutes, which was perfect because 5 minutes after we finished processing it rained as hard as I’ve ever seen at the winery.

We ended up with three full fermentation bins of must. That’s a thermometer sticking in the must getting a temperature. Brix was 14 and pH 3.80. Reallly perfect for this vineyard.

We were out of the winery in time to get home and take a shower and visit our friend Ingrid’s house for authentic Chinese food. The ‘pearl’ sausage balls were fantastic and there was a pot of ‘blood and guts’ that I really enjoy. We probably drank too much and ate too much and stayed to late given we had to get up Sunday at 5:45 again but it was fun.

Sunday we returned and picked the rest of the vineyard as well as the Cabernet from the Roxy vineyard a block down the road from Crimson Clover. For the first time there looks like enough grapes from Roxy (about 800 pounds so far) to do a barrel on its own. Usually it goes into the Haut Tubee blend. Sunday was one of those really tough days. At 1 PM I had to stop picking and hauling grapes and just sit in the car for about 30 minutes to recover. When we made it to the winery at 4PM with the grapes Millie was not there yet. We’d sent her to pick up some sandwiches so knew we had about 30 minutes before we had to process the grapes. I took my boots off and put them under my head on the cellar floor and fell asleep.

We ended up staying until just about 8PM. The Chardonnay was ready to go into barrel so while Millie and crew cleaned up outside, Stef and I got the barrels ready and all the wine transferred inside. Sunday’s dinner was traditional harvest food – beer and pizza.

September 25, 2013

Field Testing

Right now we’re doing a lot of testing and sampling. Sometimes we have Millie go out and bring samples back to us at home. When we’re at the winery we gather samples from that vineyard and test there. Most of the time though we go out and get samples and test them right in the field. The back of the FJ Cruiser is a completely odd assortment of gear right now. Both Stef and I have a change of shoes and socks in the car, there’s some dirty shirts, some mostly clean sweatshirts, tie downs, peanuts, apples, bottled water, a trailer hitch, plastic bags (for samples), clippers, and an assortment of test equipment and gear.

When we arrive on site we take out the plastic bags and start walking rows. Usually we walk every row picking berries from both sides. We then meet back up and combine the grapes. Stef smashes them and strains the juice. The first test actually happens as we pick. We’re tasting as we go. We’re also checking for the toughness of the skins. If they are tough, the tannins in the wine will be tough. Once strained we want to see most of the seeds brown and the juice should be reddish. Really unripe grapes will have brown juice. The picture below I would call brick red.

Next we have this handy field temperature and pH meter. The temperature is important because it will effect the other readings. The pH meter is usually + or – .10 degrees from our experience. If in doubt we’ll run a full test in the lab, but usually it gives us a good feel for the acidity.

We like to run a hydrometer and refractometer test. They hydrometer tends to be more accurate. The picture below is actually from the day after we were in the field. We always bring the samples home and let them soak overnight then retest. With not ripe grapes there’s not much of a difference, but grapes over 24 Brix can soak up 2-3 degrees pretty easy. THis reading is right at 20.

Somehow Stef got a picture of the inside of a refractometer. This is from the same sample and shows a slightly lower Brix of 19.1 That’s why we like to do both tests.
$refractometer$

And this is what you do after you’ve driven 112 miles round trip in stop and go traffic to get samples you knew probably were not close to ready but had to anyway because the vineyard owner was ready to pick in two days of you didn’t test.

September 7, 2013

Dim Sum Cellar

Bottling is a particularly busy time of the year. There’s lots of work and it requires lots of hands. We’re lucky to have friends who come out and help on the days we need them to. The days are long and the work is terribly boring. We usually keep everyone doing the same task so it can be 8-10 hours of just sparging bottles with nitrogen and lifting them on to the filler.

We don’t always stop for lunch too if we’re bottling and the line is rolling we’ll just go right through. We might stop for a few minutes for water, and bathroom breaks but as soon as the forklift can move one lot out of the way we’ll usually start on the next lot. If there is time though we will stop and have lunch in the cellar. Usual winery food is to order in pizza, or run out for burritos our sandwiches. The pizza and burritos are not really an option in our location and the sandwich thing gets boring pretty fast. For our last bottling our friend Ingrid fixed that problem by picking up Dim Sum on her way to the winery.

It can be a challenge though, as we don’t have tables and only two chairs so we improvise. Stefania laid some towels over a completed pallet of wine. A few buckets turned upside down worked for chairs. This actually worked out as a great lunch idea. It was filling but not heavy and easy to set up and clean up. There were a few beers cracked, which you can probably see below. Beer fuels winemaking in the Fall, that’s for sure.

September 5, 2013

2013 Harvest Update

A quick update on where we are for 2013 harvest. We brought in our first lot of Pinot Noir on 9/1 which was eight days earlier than 2012 and a month earlier than the very late 2011. Weather has been good and the vineyards look excellent with a decent crop load.

One thing we’ve noticed this year is the grapes look to the eye more mature than the chemistry on them is showing once back in the lab with samples. The Chardonnay at Chaine d’ Or was a good example. It looked as I walked through the vineyard like harvest would be 9/8 or 9/9 but in the lab the Brix was 20.0 and pH 3.05. We’re actually likely to pick on 9/14. When we tested the Mourvedre at home it was the same story. The grapes looked like they would be ready in 2-3 weeks, but Brix tested at 18.2. It will be 4-5 weeks before the grapes are ready.

I’ve not really seen this before. Usually I have a good handle on visual, with taste and chemistry but in 2013 the visual is ahead of the taste and chemistry. That’s ok though just likely going to be different from most years where the chemistry is ok and then we wait a few weeks for flavor to be where we want it. This year I think we’ll be getting flavor at the same time the chemistry is right. Normally we just test until we reach 22 Brix and 3.3 pH then go totally off of taste. This year we’ll have to watch that both are on mark at the same time.