As I stepped out of the shower yesterday morning I heard rain on the skylight. Pretty heavy rain — nearly the last thing a winemaker wants to hear on the first day of harvest. Fortunately it was brief. By the time I got to the vineyard to see how the crews were doing on picking [...]
Archive for the ‘Harvest’ Category
2010 Harvest: Finally, Pinot
Sunday, we’re bringing in all the Pinot from our Annadel Estate Vineyard. The past four days we have seen temperatures at the vineyard in excess of 95°F, with near 105°F for two of them. In some ways this was as hard on the vines as the blast furnace of 115+°F we saw back at the [...]
The Newest Greatest Wine Marketing Thingie
Here it is — the hottest ticket to making better wine in the last couple of years. The concrete “egg” fermenter. This year, no fashionable winemaker should be without one! (No, this one is not mine – I’m SO unfashionable.) Seriously though: the temperature is barely getting out of the 70s today, but is supposed [...]
Harvest 2008 Debrief – The Vineyard
Most of the work for the vintage is done. Left to do: just a racking and inoculation for ML on the redFOUR blend. The ML is already done on the Pinot and Tannat — they are ready for SO2 and then some benign neglect. With the vintage behind us, here are some of my observations [...]
Last Press Of 2008
So we pressed off our last lot yesterday, the Mourvedre, after 16 days cuvaison.
Feeling Thankful, And A Bit Smug
It is raining here today. A lot. This is the first big rainstorm of the season after two weak shots that dropped half an inch each Thursday and Friday. I’m thankful we got the last of our grapes in on Wednesday — and to be honest, just a bit smug and self-satisfied. Nobody’s perfect.
2008 Harvest Complete!
Yesterday we brought in the Mourvedre and Counoise — the last of the grapes from the Estate. It is good to have it DONE, especially with rain forecast for this evening, through the weekend and beyond. With the grapes all in, here’s the overview:
Harvest 2008 Winding Down
The Syrah is fermenting merrily along. Tomorrow we pick the Grenache and Wednesday we will finish up harvest 2008 when we bring in the Mourvedre and Counoise. Friday it is supposed to rain. Whether I was prescient or just the beneficiary of dumb luck, the decision to prune the Estate vineyard so late this year [...]
Treading Syrah
In my last post I said that I was planning on doing some of the Syrah this year on stems.
Into The Syrah
Friday we picked Syrah for client wineries. Yields were down about 10% from my estimate – a little better than I did with the Pinot estimate where the fruit came in 20% shy. It was some of the best-looking Syrah I have grown yet – flavors, seeds and skins are fully developed, and the sugar [...]
