All Whites Are In, Reds Begin

Yesterday, we processed the last of our Chardonnay. All of our white grapes, both Sauvignon Blanc and Chard., have now been plucked from their vines and have begun their journey to becoming delicious white wine. 

The last of the Peju Chardonnay waiting to be 'crushed'  (ever-so-gently)

The first bit of Sauvignon Blanc that we picked on September 6 and inoculated on September 9, allowing a few days for the lees to settle out, is dry! (‘Dry’ in winemaking means that all of the sugar in what was once juice has been converted to alcohol in what is now wine. In wines with what we call ‘residual sugar’, not all of the sugar was converted to alcohol, and the wine remains ‘off-dry’ or slightly sweet. There are a number of reasons that this will occur, some intentional, some not…) With much of our Sauv. Blanc dry, this means that technically, we have 2011 wine! 

But it’s not quite finished wine. It’s baby wine. Born and alive, tangible and functional, but so fresh off the boat (out of the womb/off the vine and the lees) that it hasn’t really come into itself yet. Foregoing a discussion (monologue) on nature and nurture, suffice it to say that wine and humans make for amusingly comparable subjects for consideration. The point is that you take what ‘God/Nature/Insert-Name-Here gave you’ and then you take advantage of what Life throws your way. You try to cultivate your best self and you enjoy pondering how you got to be that way. Wine lacks the ability to introspect, of course, so we have to ponder its constitution for it. 

Our 2011 Sauvignon Blanc has been born tasty, bright, and fresh. Soon a small percentage will hang out in neutral oak barrels for complexity, flavor, mouthfeel and structure. Then it will be time for Sara to work her magic, blending from the different tanks of S.B. separated by vineyard blocks and ripeness-levels-at-crush, to create what we are proud to call Peju Sauvignon Blanc. Forgive the shameless self-promotion, but it really is delicious! J

The first Zin to come in (hill-side vineyard block :. less water retention in the soil) 

Oh, and also, we brought in our first red grapes on Friday, which was very exciting, as it has been a long time coming.  The reds still aren’t quite there yet, however, in terms of ripeness. And the rain yesterday and today has everyone feeling a little nervous. As long as we get sun after the rain though, all should be well. Friday, we brought in the little bit of Malbec and Petit Verdot from our Rutherford property. Yesterday, it was Zinfandel grapes from the Persephone Vineyard. Friday, I’ll be working crush with the crew so stay tuned! Can’t wait!

britt.

Pablo, Lony, Juanito & Frankie wave 'Hello!' from the sorting table

Harvest Interns arrive from Chile! and get put straight to work in the lab.

Lony & Pablo Measuring Grape Samples for Ripeness

Our long-awaited harvest interns arrived this week! Lony and Pablo are a young couple from Chile pursuing careers-slash-lives in Winemaking and Agrobusiness at the Universidad de la Frontera in Temuco. Funny how as an American, I automatically assume one’s ‘career’ and one’s ‘life’ are so inseparably connected. I look forward to getting to know Lony and Pablo and to trying to get a sense of how they view the importance of their ‘careers’ in their lives, what they hope to do with winemaking, and what winemaking means to them. Winemaking is such a rich field in which to pursue one’s ‘Career’ because it attracts people from so many different countries and cultures and experiences for some of the same, few, basic reasons.

Anyway, Lony and Pablo have migrated up to the Northern Hemisphere to work their second harvest of the year.  Another reason pursuing winemaking is so awesome is that it allows you (pretty much requires you) to move back and forth between hemispheres while learning the craft so as to maximize your number of harvest experiences in one year.  I’ll have to ask L & P how the 2011 harvest was in Chile this year, and how they feel about Californian wine! So much fun to talk with Wine People (yes, we are a People) of different countries about what they think of Californian wine, how our style differs from their winemaking traditions, and how the two may or may not be converging as with everything else in this globalizing world...

Squished Grape Samples from EVERY Vineyard Block We Have!

So today, they weighed grapes, noted the color of the ‘pips’ for ripeness (pips = the seeds in the grape berry, and they go from light green to brown as the berries ripen), and measured the sugar content, total acidity, and pH of the berries to see how close they are for the pickin’. Not terribly close apparently. But we’re hoping to bring in our first bit of Chardonnay tomorrow, and our first reds next week! Stay tuned!

britt.