As an agricultural enterprise, we are in synch with our culture’s calendar, developed when the vast majority of people still lived and worked on farms. It’s quiet in the winery and in the vineyards now, so there is time to celebrate the holidays and to reflect both on the past year and the one to come.

Kenneth reports that all of the wines are good and stable, so he can relax. We carefully watched a couple of our Russian River blocks that were hard hit by frost and then ripened quickly with the heat. Something happens when fruit is stressed that increases the chances of getting a stuck fermentation at the end. Because we are very hands-off and gentle, we try to nudge through and we succeeded.

Fruit from other blocks also went through some weather extremes but had enough time to recover and ticked along ripening slowly. That fruit was very … More…

AMR: We are excited about how we “build” tannins in our grapes and wines. Tannins contribute to the texture, flavors and structure of wine. A few days ago we looked at the numerical results of our tannin trials, and then we tasted our 2007 Pinot Noirs made from grapes in those trials.

KJ: In 2006, we started analyzing different grape and wine samples, sending them to the lab to run the values of different types of tannins, like catechins, found in seeds, and anthocyanins, or pigments.

First, we just wanted to establish baseline values – where we were. Our goal was to find out what our personal sweet spots are, in terms of what we consider to be great wine, and determine if there are corresponding tannin sweet spots. So … More…

As we sit here talking at Anne’s, the creek is rising and water is beginning to flow across the road that leads to her home. We need the rain and we have it, about 2.7 inches in less than 24 hours. Downtown Napa looks like it could flood soon. And there have been strong gusts of wind blowing tree limbs off onto the roads.The soil was dry and the water has been soaking in until now, at noon on Friday, it’s running off.

This rain is warm. My sweatshirt got wet, but I didn’t even notice it because I felt no cold. Even in Mexico, around Guadalajara, over the holidays it was quite warm, in the 70′s during the day. We stay awake almost … 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…