Calling Budbreak — Finally

12 Apr 2013 at 19:13

John M. Kelly

Journal, Random, Vineyard, Weather, Winemaking, Winery

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PN 96, 4/12/2013 Everything has broken bud at the Estate vineyard, at last–even the late-breaking Counoise. That’s young, cane-pruned Pinot 96 in the image above, where shoots are already out about two inches.

We finally managed to get a little rainfall accumulation last week, nearly an inch last Thursday. You can also see in the image above that this has really helped push the cover crop, which is topping 2 ft. in some areas and is no less than 6″ anywhere. The bromes are setting good seed, and I’m seeing more rye and clover than I did last year. And the mix with turnip, marigold, and the many other annuals and perennials in our mix, is gorgeous.

PN 943 April 12, 2013 I just like this picture. What you can’t see from this particular angle is that a very large fraction of the buds in the Pinot are pushing two shoots, and most of them are sporting two clusters. This means we are in for a lot of work to manage canopy density and crop load this vintage. Traditionally we call and end to frost season in the middle of April, but the weather pattern has changed enough that I won’t stop worrying about frost until at least the start of May and more likely the middle of May. Jet and geese I snapped the pic above just before leaving the vineyard this morning: a small flock of geese with a low-altitude jet still throwing a contrail.

It’s been nearly six weeks since my last post, but then there has been a lot going on. First, my assistant (and friend) Justin Moulton moved on to a new job early in the year (he’s now managing the spirits program for Bounty Hunter in Napa). It took me a while but I eventually succeeded in bringing Kyle Altomare on board. Here’s a pic of the new guy: Kyle Altomare Kyle came to Westwood from Gary Farrell Vineyards & Winery, where he managed their wine club (which is substantially larger than ours). Kyle hopes to rapidly expand his knowledge of the industry through participating in all aspects of production, sales and marketing with me.

The other thing that has been occupying my attention is preparation for bottling. We did a pretty big day on Friday, April 5th: Bottling, April 5, 2013 We had originally scheduled the bottling for Thursday, but could not guarantee we would have all our labels in time. That turned out to be a blessing, as nearly an inch of rain fell (as I mentioned at the start of the post). Friday was supposed to be clear, but we ended up with an hour rain delay after we started on the day. Wasn’t too much of an issue, but I was very glad when it stopped.

I’m really happy to have got one of the best rosés I have ever made in the bottle. We also did a bottling for custom crush client, Marcel Petard—a white blend of 80% Roussanne and 20% Viognier. Marcel bought the juice from the grapes we pressed off for us to use the skins and seeds in our Syrah ferments. I thought Enkidu, Bedrock, or Tricycle would buy the juice, but this guy showed up at the right place at the right time with cash in hand. Don’t know a lot more about him or his brand, but we will be selling the wine for him out of our Tasting Salon. 2013 New Wines

Sailing Into The Seas of Spring

02 Mar 2013 at 16:46

John M. Kelly

Journal, Vineyard, Weather

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Grenache, Mar 02, 2013I can’t believe it is already March. February came and went and I barely noticed it. My lack of attention was due in part to having a recurring respiratory infection (didn’t I have that same thing the first couple of months of 2005 or 2006?) and then the flu. But really, very little has actually happened.

The shot of the Grenache above shows that the crew has completed pruning the vineyard. That’s about it, so far as real work goes. Wines are still asleep. My healthy hours have been spent catching up on business financials, interviewing potential new hires, and selling wine at the shop when people are around. January and February have been pretty quiet, sales wise.

The weather has been very mild. Recently, daytime temperatures have warmed up out of the high-30s-low-60s range into the mid-70s but it has not been enough to push budbreak yet. It has also been extraordinarily dry. I recorded less rainfall in January and February 2013 than I have since we started keeping records at the vineyard in 1998. People paying attention are starting to talk about drought, but I think (hope) that worry is premature. Our November and December were relatively wet, so our season-to-date accumulation for the 2013 vintage is still ahead of 2001, 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2012. Grenache close-upEven with the warmer temperatures recently, there is very little bud push visible in the vineyard. In fact there is very little sap bleeding from pruning cuts yet—perhaps a function of the dry soil. I did find a little bit of sap in the cane-pruned Pinot, and the bare beginnings of bud swell: Sap on large pruing cut in PN 943There are a lot of trivial things going on in the industry that I will not be writing about, among them: the implosion of the Wine Advocate, balance in Pinot Noir, hipster wines (high acid, obscure varieties, orange, etc.) and the continued delusion in some circles that social media have changed everything and that Millennial wine drinkers are fundamentally different from older generations. *yawn*

Dead Of Winter

24 Jan 2013 at 12:38

John M. Kelly

Journal, Vineyard, Weather

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Grenache Jan 23, 2013. Click for larger image.Yesterday marked the first day since early January that we have had any rain here in Sonoma Valley. So far, with less than an inch of accumulated precipitation, this month is the driest January at our vineyard since I started keeping records in 1998. Only 2007 even comes close.

As in 2007, we also have had an extended period of dry, cold weather. In 2007 the stretch was about a week long. This year we had almost 20 days of freezing nighttime temperatures—in the high 20s to the low 30s. I can’t recall such a long period of cold weather in 27 years spent here (which is one of the reasons I started keeping this blog—to help my recall). So this is probably the coldest January yet at our vineyard as well.

The cold temperatures mean nothing is happening with the vines. It will be at least a month before the sap rises. The crew pruned two rows of Syrah on Tuesday before the rain started. Unless we get an extended heat spell—and there is nothing in the long term pattern to suggest we will—we’ll have plenty of time to finish pruning before the vines wake up.

The cold and lack of rain have stunted the growth of the cover crop we drilled into the soil of the young blocks after harvest. It remains to be seen if the cover will grow enough to set seed before we have to mow to get into the rows to work this year. Ah, farming.

The cold also means the malolactic ferments that weren’t complete have stalled. We have a few stalled lots with relatively high pH that keep me up at night. I’m struggling with the decision to add a little SO2 to some of them to try to avoid spoilage, but always worry that the ML could be inhibited further as well. Ah, winemaking.

Chez Kelly have been dealing with a persistent respiratory bug since before Christmas. It’s sounded like a tuberculosis ward around here, and since everyone was sick we did very little for the holidays: it was restful, but not much of a vacation.

Prostrated exhaustion from illness is only part of the reason I have not posted here since mid-November. I’ve been experiencing social media fatigue (Facebook! Twitter! Tumblr! Instagram! Interest forums! Yelp! Trip Advisor! even SMS – all demanding immediate and constant attention) so I took a break.

Plus I just haven’t felt much like writing. I had nearly finished a snappy little rebuttal to Mark Bittman’s latest misleading screed on pesticides in agriculture when the tragedy in Newtown, CT kicked me in the gut (we have two elementary-school aged children—I suppose that’s why my reaction to the slaughter of those little kids is wrenchingly visceral to this day). So Mark got a pass. Besides, I already posted a similar rebuttal to the notion that “pesticide” use is increasing back in 2011.

I never got to my customary post-harvest review, as harvest ended so late in 2012. I’ve got a post nearly done on the tension created when wines are ideologically labeled that I may complete. And I just checked my editor to find that I have a dozen other posts in draft (schnikes!) that I need to finish or round-file.

Anyway, I’m starting to feel that the fires have been banked long enough. My urge to write is tied to my overall productivity, and it is about time for me to get my act together and rise from the dead of winter.

Clone vs. Site: Which Is More Important?

12 Nov 2012 at 15:01

John M. Kelly

Topical

38 Comments


Yesterday my friend Daniel Dycus recounted a conversation he had the other day with a certified sommelier. Daniel told this fellow he thought grape clone was at least as important as site in determining the characteristics of a wine. The somm told Daniel that he would “sound like an idiot if he said that to someone who knows anything about wine.” Well, Daniel was not sounding like an idiot, because this somm doesn’t know diddly about clones, at the very least.

Simply put, in my experience, clone often trumps site—especially when it comes to Pinot Noir. For example we recently had the experience of moving cuttings from a vineyard in Napa Valley (near Coombsville) to our vineyard in Sonoma Valley (near Santa Rosa). Different soil, different climate, different rootstock, different vine spacing, different trellising, different farming—and yet the wine we have made from this block is recognizably more similar to the wine we made from the older Coombsville site than it is to the wine we make from the Dijon clones of Pinot grown at our site. For that matter, there are reproducible differences between the wines we make from the Dijon clones we grow at our site, differences that I recognize in wines made from the same clones grown at other sites.

That Daniel’s somm friend gets it so wrong is emblematic of a larger issue: a total misconstruction by the supposed cognoscenti of what is meant by terroir. This somm along with scads and scads of other “experts” has been taught that terroir is all about location, location, location. It’s not, and never has been, even in Burgundy.

Finishing Our 2012 Harvest

31 Oct 2012 at 09:29

John M. Kelly

Harvest, Journal, Vineyard, Weather, Winemaking, Winery

4 Comments

End Of Harvest October 31, 2012
We are picking our last grapes of the season this morning: Grenache and Counoise. It is supposed to start raining this afternoon—probably about an inch, locally. For those that need to wait it out, the grapes can probably handle it. But our stuff is ready and ripe. I take a certain satisfaction in picking our last fruit right up against a storm.

We have been bringing in fruit for six weeks, just a few days longer than average but twice as long as last year and nearly 2 weeks less than our record 8-week long 2007 harvest. At this point Justin and I are working at half speed for safety, but still making a few physically painful mistakes. Winemaking is hard work—as I posted on Facebook the other day I feel like I lost a fight with a bunch of bikers.

The quantities of fruit we have brought in have been huge—and it’s not been just us. Pretty much every winery I have been in contact with has been full to capacity since the second week of harvest. The heavy yields drove spot prices for every variety down to a third of pre-harvest contract prices. This abundance may lead to some temporary softness in the local bulk market, but consumers should not expect to see lower wine prices in a year or two. The dismally tiny 2012 harvest in Europe will even out the global wine supply.

I am so thankful that the quality of the wines we are producing this year is just amazing! This is not 2007—the acid levels in the fruit were nowhere near as high—but the concentration is there, as is the tannic structure. The 2012 wines are going to be more elegant than the 2007s but no less powerful and long-lived. And there are going to be very few low-alcohol grands vins from our area this year—in general, ripeness happened at relatively high sugar levels across the board.

Harvest may be over today, but vintage is not done yet, for me or for anyone else. We have a shortage of barrels here in the North Coast. I’m getting a couple of calls and emails a day from people looking for anything to store in. We are even seeing random strangers walking into the winery asking if we have any barrels for sale. I’m going to be OK if I can find tank space to put wine that is currently in barrel but it is going to be tight.

We have another month of work before we can put the wines to bed. I have a bottling to do as well. I may be able to poke my head up by Christmas. But I’m relieved that our fruit is safely in the barn. Today is a good day.

End Of The “Perfect” 2012 Harvest

20 Oct 2012 at 09:25

John M. Kelly

Harvest, Journal, Vineyard, Weather, Winery

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Cabernet at the Estate, Oct 16, 2012
The next couple of days are the last time this season that the fruit at our Estate will look this good. Monday it will start raining, with another rainy front forecast for Wednesday and another for Friday (thought the latest forecast update suggests these later two storms may slide to the north of us).

A week of rain is not a good thing for grapes hanging on the vine, as we demonstrated in 2009, 2010 and 2011. After the last three difficult vintages we were all excited about the potential for 2012 to be the “perfect” growing season, but it is shaping up to be just another year where we have wines made “before the rain” and stuff we made “after the rain.”

Still I’m jazzed at what we have accomplished so far. We started this harvest a month ago and the fruit we have brought in has been outstanding. By comparison, in 2011 we didn’t pick our first fruit until October 19th—ten days after a huge storm that dropped 5″ of rain across the region.

This weather has the potential to hurt us, but probably won’t do much more than knock down the dust. The upside is that the break will give us a chance to catch our breath in the winery—we still have a lot of stuff we need to press and get put down to barrels.

2012 Harvest: Halftime

10 Oct 2012 at 14:12

John M. Kelly

Harvest, Journal, Vineyard, Weather, Winemaking, Winery

5 Comments

Welcome to the 2012 Harvest Halftime Show…

Full Tanks Oct 01, 2012Yes, that’s right—it’s the second week of October and I think we are about halfway through the harvest. So far I have brought in 32 tons of Pinot Noir from our Estate vineyard, and drips and dabs of a few other varieties, mostly for customers. By comparison, this is at the tonnage (or more) than I brought in for all varieties in every vintage since 2007. Partly this is due to seven acres of young vines that we cropped for the first time this year, but the big news of the 2012 vintage is that, across the North Coast, for all varieties brought in so far, nearly without exception, the crop load is unexpectedly heavy.

Forthwith, here’s some bullet points on what I believe will define 2012:

  • Grapes are coming in at 50% over estimates. Anybody who tells you different is lying. The culprit here is mother nature, not “greedy growers.” Nobody planned to hang this kind of tonnage. We thinned to set cluster counts per vine as we always do, and for whatever reason the cluster weights just blew up.
  • Despite the heavier-than-expected crop loads, quality is outstanding—the best I’ve seen since 2007: excellent physiological ripeness, thick deeply-colored skins, high seed content, and intense flavors.
  • The weather has been as perfect as the weather can be. It has been dry, cool, warm when we needed it, and dry. Did I mention that it’s been dry? Dry is good. Unlike 2009, 2010 and 2011 we have absolutely zero rot. So far. (But it’s only halftime, so “shhhhhhh.”)
  • The cool, dry weather has meant long hang time. This has led to moderately low acids (unlike the high acids in 2003 and 2007) but with better tartaric/malic balance than in recent years, relatively low potassium levels and decent pH levels—all amenable to judicious adjustment.
  • The heavy crop correlates with lower than average juice nutrient levels: there’s only so much nitrogen to go around, and when the crop comes in heavy the levels of ammonia and assimilable nitrogen are lower. Winemakers that are not feeding their ferments are going to run into trouble, especially if they are relying on feral yeasts to do the job.
  • The heavy crop correlates with other things—logistical things. First we ran into labor shortages. The industry relies on migrant labor. The poor economy has meant fewer migrants, which means we have to rely on the smaller pool of skilled permanent residents to manage a larger harvest. Add to this gas prices north of $4.50/gallon and it’s no surprise that the crews are going for the picks where the biggest money is. Several times so far this harvest I have had to delay bringing in fruit because my crew decided they would rather jump on a 20-ton pick before my 8-ton pick. The driver for the decision on when to pick went from “are the grapes ready?” to “is there a crew and equipment available?”
  • The labor situation has turned around a little since the start of harvest. The heavy crop has meant that growers have been delivering well over contracted tonnages, unless the wineries have been adamant about only taking the contracted amounts. And ripening has been bunched up: for example, Chardonnay and Cabernet are both coming in right now, which is unusual. What this has led to is no empty fermenters in either valley for the time being. Many of us, myself included, have grapes ready to pick but no place to put them.
  • And these delays in picking mean that the fruit that is going to be coming in over the next couple weeks, as we free up fermenter space, is going to have higher sugars than we might prefer. Remember how all the cool kids were blathering on for the last couple of years about how “alcohol levels are coming down”? Well, they are going back up.

And that’s about it from the trenches.

We are starting to press and barrel down some of the best Pinot we have ever made over the next couple days. The band and cheerleaders are coming off the field, and by next week we will have the team back out there, bringing in grapes as fast as we can manage: Tannat, then Syrah, then Mourvedre, then Grenache, and finishing with Counoise. Wish us luck, and pray for more dry weather.

“Industry” Guests

27 Sep 2012 at 10:11

John M. Kelly

Random, Topical

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Free Tasting Taking a quick break from harvest (HARVEST!!!) to get a little rant off my chest.

Dear “Industry”:

Please don’t come into my tasting room, flash some sort of business card, announce that you are “in the industry” and demand a free tasting for you and your friends.

Not gonna happen.

We don’t give free tastings to anyone anymore, except to our Wine Club members. Our production is tiny. We pour over 25% of our inventory in the tasting room – think about that.

I appreciate that the winery where you have worked for all of two weeks gives free tastings to “industry.” I imagine that the fraction of that winery’s hundred-thousand-case-plus annual production that gets poured off in the tasting room is on the order of a rounding error. Just because some wineries do pour free to “industry” does not mean that you should expect that every one will.

And hey, take your shitty attitude with you when you leave. I will have forgotten about you in a few days, and don’t expect we will cross paths again.

We won’t hesitate to keep referring our guests to the tasting room at the winery where you currently work, because I have known the owner there for decades and he’s a great guy making great wines, and lord knows I have also made hiring mistakes in the past.

Sincerely, and with all due respect,
The owner, winemaker, and dictator of free tasting policy.

Distractedness & Benign Neglect

18 Aug 2012 at 10:34

John M. Kelly

Journal

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New drains at winery, Aug 16, 2012I’ve been distracted. The shot above shows one thing that’s been demanding my attention—I’ve been bird-dogging the construction of new drains at the winery space; drains that have to be done before I can do any bottling or pick any grapes this vintage. This is Critical Path #1: no picking unless the drains are fully functional. Critical Path #2 and another distraction is getting our production licenses and tax bonds transferred to this space. Delay here won’t hold up harvest, but we won’t process any fruit for custom crush clients without it. Critical Path #3 is the vineyard itself. This year I have succumbed to being a foolish farmer; I am emotionally invested in how great this vintage is shaping up to be. I have been spending a lot of time in the vineyard keeping tabs to make sure we have the best chance to bring this beautiful crop to ripeness. Nature has a way of smacking down such aspirations, but after the last 3 years I’ve got to believe that the odds are better than even. Critical Path #4 is bottling; need tank space!

These “distractions” (HA!) have been keeping me away from posting here. There are only so many hours in the day available for writing. And there’s the rub; it’s not just a heavy workload keeping me busy. I’ve been actively engaging in a little benign neglect with respect to regular posting here. Novel idea Yes, I’m trying my hand at something… longer. I’m giving myself a year, devoting most of my prime 9:30pm-1:00am writing slot with a goal of 500 words a day. Posts here will be shorter and come out at more random times (granted it’s pretty random already, but you get my drift).

Necessary Pre-Harvest Shopping

23 Jul 2012 at 17:00

John M. Kelly

Harvest, Journal, Vineyard, Winery

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Macro Plastics macro-bin (front) & T-bin My industry friends will recognize these! The other day my vineyard manager asked “so are you going to buy more Macros for harvest?” Yes. Yes, I am. And more T-bins, too. I find it a little amazing that I have been doing this long enough that the price of a Macro-bin has more than doubled from back in the day.

Out every other morning, wandering the vineyard counting clusters and guessing at what the weights are going to be—I have no doubt in my mind that I am looking at my largest harvest yet off the Estate vineyard. Partly it is that I have 7 acres of young vines coming into production. But mostly it is that I’m seeing the best set of fruit I have ever seen at this property. I need more picking and fermenting capacity.

I’m also in the middle of managing construction in our production space: new water, power, and drains. Need to get this work done before the bottling truck gets here, and bottling needs to get done before I start picking any grapes. Since my last post was about the start of veraison, I’ve got about two months to get ready.

And this year I will be ready.

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