This week we tasted the 2008 vintage wines. Most of the usual suspects were present on our little tasting panel – Dr. Phil Freese and Zelma Long, Kenneth and I, plus John Harley, our newly appointed assistant winemaker.

At first glance, everyone commented that the wines have great color. Phil suggested that I summarize the vintage and comment on the difficulties. Well, we had a little of everything – from frost, heat and drought to fire and smoke.

When the heat came in early September, we were still at fairly low sugar levels and we rode it out. As soon as temperatures dropped, the fruit relaxed and sugars dipped as well. A month of hang time ensued, with very slow (almost imperceptible) ripening, certainly not the normal curve. Something a little different occurred. We let our fruit hang into October until it was pretty clear it wasn’t likely to progress much further … More…

If you ever wonder what winemakers do early in the calendar year besides hosting dinners, well, one major responsibility is blending. For me it’s a two-month season that begins in late January and continues through March. There’s a personal timeline I must adhere to – I’m in a rush to get all the blends done before allergy season kicks in.

I will taste all of the components at least twice, and I’ll taste them blind; that is, I will know that I’m tasting various lots of our 2007 Pinot Noir, for example, but I won’t know which lot is which. It’s just a way of eliminating any prejudices and expectations, conscious or not, I may have about a given lot of wine. During this period, I’ll do the … More…

It’s Valentine’s Day, and we’ve received a wonderful valentine – over a week of beautiful weather, with highs reaching 70 and lows in the 30s.

Heavy rains have brought us close to 20 inches for the season, very near normal, which is slightly less than 22 through this month. By comparison, last year we had just over 11 inches to date.

I have been sidelined with the flu, which has seemed ironic during this past week of warm, sunny days. Nabor has been busy in the vineyard, and with dry weather forecast, he should finish pruning our home ranch, The Donum Estate, and nearby Ferguson Block by early next week. Then we start tying.

I’m on the mend, so we’ll head up to Nugent Vineyards next Saturday and start there. … More…

KJ: I didn’t see the quality coming with the 2006 vintage. It was a really late vintage, almost a month, and everything went slowly. I think the July heat may have lowered the nutrient content in the must (unfermented or fermenting crushed grapes). The malolactic fermentations (conversion of stronger malic acid, found in apples, to weaker lactic acid, found in milk) went slowly as well. It was like a typical Pinot Noir vintage in Burgundy, where everything takes time to come around.

Now the wines have really rounded out and bulked up in barrel. The fruit is more to the red end of the spectrum than to the black.

AMR: The lateness of the year also may have prevented the vines from storing as many nutrients before dormancy. I’m noticing more yellowing on the leaf margins this spring than normal. We just plowed in a nice cover crop and some green … More…

Weather really determines a vintage. Each year we are fortunate to work with the same team on the same soil and plant material, although the vines are a year more mature. But the amount and timing of rainfall and the temperature really determine what we do, because our vineyard practices are tools to equalize or mitigate the effects of weather with the goal of the wine we want to make in mind.

Last month, January 2007, brought the lowest rainfall in three decades. As a result, our pruning progressed very rapidly this year. Productivity was up from a normal rate of 35 to 40 vines per pruner each hour to about 55 vines. While the sunshine may have created positive attitudes, the absence of a pound of muddy clay on each … More…