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

Processes & Anticipation

From 8.9.11

They’re coming. Ripe grapes. Ripe, delicious wine grapes, which as soon as they’re picked from the vine will begin on their process of becoming wine. The process-rich nature of winegrowing and winemaking is what draws so many of us to wine.  You can’t fake it. You can’t rush it. You can’t fully control it. You witness it. While the vine and the soil and the weather each exist and change and co-exist and interact, you watch carefully, ready to jump in at any point if human intervention might prove beneficial. You wait for the grapes to grow into themselves, to grow into all they can be, to achieve a dynamic harmony between acids and sugars and skin to pulp ratio and a million other aspects/indicators of optimum maturity that we in many cases don’t have a better way of testing for (yet?) than with our amazingly evolved but little understood palate.

It can be a multi-million dollar betting game to make the decision of when to pick. The myriad different indicators of ripeness will never all be exactly where you want them at exactly the same time, and you never know what the weather will bring if you wait. Some years betting against time and weather is trickier than others.  This year has shown us a long, steady, gradual ripening and a smaller-than-usual yield due to rains late into spring. The winemakers seem highly optimistic about this year’s fruit, which is pretty exciting. When you hear prominent winemakers in the Valley saying things like, “This year might deliver the best crop of fruit in a long time,” it’s easy to get caught up in the hopefulness of what might be to come. What will happen this harvest?! Will the fruit continue to ripen gradually, making possible the creation of stunningly complex, elegant, balanced wines? Or will the weather take some unexpected turn to the detriment of the crop? Or will it be a moderately exciting harvest with minor issues and no particularly noteworthy circumstances, leaving us somewhat underwhelmed and disappointed after the build-up of pre-Harvest fantasizing and curiosity? Is this even possible? Can’t wait for the tale to begin to unfold… What will I be writing over the next few days, weeks and months? Only time will tell…

britt.