Oh deer!

This evening I joined my TWWIAGE co-workers for some Christmas festiveness.  Gathering to dine up in St. Helena, the rainy night did not dampen anybody's spirits: everyone was filled with holiday cheer.  And Schramsberg bubbles.
Continuing what has been a bit of a deer theme for me this Yuletide, Mrs TWWIAGE (in her usual, inimitable and whimsical style) had picked deer-adorned, hot chocolate-mix filled mugs.  I know what I'll be drinking on Christmas Eve.

A pressing moment.

This afternoon, Vinomaker and I pressed off the Cabernet franc (CF) that we picked October 6th.  It seems like an age since we harvested those grapes.  The entire week of October 9th-15th is a complete blur: being in a constant state of emergency can have that effect, I suppose.
Vinomaker had decided to co-ferment the CF with a a batch of Cabernet Sauvignon (CS) from a vineyard on Zinfandel Lane, St. Helena.  It turned out to be a great fermentation - steady and very aromatic.  The taste of the young blend did not disappoint.  Throughout pressing, it's a good idea to sample the wine periodically to ensure that squishing the skins, seeds and stems does not negatively impact the finished wine, i.e., elevating astringency or bitterness.  (The different levels of pressing are called fractions.)  When possible, Vinomaker keeps the free-run and the pressed juice separate, affording him blending opportunities in the future.  The free-run and the pressed juice from this wine both tasted wonderfully full, rounded and supple.  And very cherry.  It's a pity that it will be about 2 years until I get to drink this wine again.  Roll on 2019!

Cindy's.

I'm stuffed!
Whilst the Far Niente vineyard crew were pre-pruning their neighbourhood, Coombsville vineyard this morning (a little later than is usual for them, but then we have been having a lot of rain lately), I was getting ready to go to a luncheon with all my female co-workers...and TWWIAGE's controller who absolutely insists on treating all the girls to a nice lunch every Christmas.  It is difficult for me to eat, and drink, so much at lunch, but it is hard not to when one dines at Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen in St. Helena.  I now feel like a sloth, but a bit of work outside this afternoon will hopefully prepare me for my second round of festiveness this evening (also TWWIAGE related).  It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.

Pressing business.

Vinomaker and I pressed off a lot of wine this afternoon.  A lot!  (Two batches of St. Helena Cabernet sauvignon and Vinoland's Syrah.)  As usual, Vinomaker had slightly underestimated how juicy the Syrah grapes were and so there was a bit of a scramble to find another container to transport the wine from the crush pad up to Vinoland's modest barrel chai.  It was a busy day.
But not before I had taken a quick jaunt up to Oakville to join my co-workers at TWWIAGE in celebrating the end of Harvest 2016.  The vineyard crew at TWWIAGE had harvested the last grapes back on October 8th.  (TWWIAGE's last tank of Cabernet Sauvignon was pressed off on October 17th and was commemorated with a sparkling wine toast.) Those vineyard lads definitely know how to throw a harvest party: it is by far my favourite celebration of the season. Actually, it will be my only harvest party this year, as I won't be able to make it to the other two that I have been invited to.  I have other pressing engagements.

The St. Helena AVA.

Just above the Rutherford AVA is the St. Helena AVA.  Named after the town of St. Helena, this AVA covers approximately 9,000 acres.  Besides being the home of my dear friends The St. Helena Sots, this storied AVA is home to many notable names/wineries such as; Corison Winery, Dancing Hares Vineyard, Flora Springs Winery and Vineyards, Louis M. Martini Winery, Pride Mountain Winery, Smith-Madrone Vineyards and Winery and Salvestrin Winery - a lot of wineries that mostly produce Bordeaux varietals.  Of course, in my humble opinion, it is getting a little too toasty for the production of Bordeaux varietals up in St. Helena: it is just a tad too far north to benefit from the cooling influence of the San Francisco Bay fog.  But that is just my opinion.

St. Helena is also notable as the home of the first winery in the entire state of California to be founded and run by a woman, Josephine Marlin Tychson, c. 1886, (the winery is now Freemark Abbey). Josephine Tychson is a much more interesting St. Helena story, but that's just my opinion.

Six down, ten to go.

Lug this!

The St. Helena Cabernet Sauvignon (clone 7), appeared in Vinoland this morning; in 1/2 ton picking bins; in 30lb lug bins; in 32 gallon Rubbermaid trash cans (that can hold up to about 220 lbs). In fact, the fruit showed up in anything that could transport the larger than expected crop to Vinoland for processing.
It makes sense that the 2013 crop is a tad more bountiful than last year.  Although the actual growing season was a smidgen better in 2012, the perfect conditions that existed last spring (when this years buds were formed, a textbook April and May 2012), made for very fruitful-buds this vintage.  The grapevine is always thinking about the next vintage.  More reds, please...

Corks gone wild.

No, there aren't any angry corks marauding around Vinoland - just an over zealous human-corker perhaps.  Accidents happen.  Besides, this particular bottle might simply have had a weak spot on it's neck or shoulder.  Such a flaw in the glass would cause the bottle to break when pressure was applied from the hand-corker.  But rest assured, no wine-drinkers, or Vinodogs, were hurt during the bottling of the 2011, St. Helena Cabernet Sauvignon (clone 7).
A leisurely lunch followed; corks were pulled from miscellaneous bottles and after a while the broken bottle was forgotten. 
Job's a good 'un.

Napa Valley Can't-Get-To-See-A-Film Festival.

Today, I decided to do something a little bit out of my normal routine:  I tried to attend a showing of a film at the Napa Valley Film Festival.  A new documentary, SOMM - the story of four men trying to pass the prestigious Master Sommelier exam - was having it's premier at the festival and I thought I might eventually like to see it given my interest in wine etc.  And could there be a better venue for the premier of a wine industry related film than the Napa Valley?  I arranged to go with a friend who'd purchased a pass to the entire 5 day long festival.  He was going to do some research for me;  find out the film's schedule, the price of a one-off ticket, meet me at the cinema - The Cameo, in St. Helena - save me a seat etc. That was the plan. Today was the day. The best made plans of...
The Cameo Cinema is a very small cinema, just some 140 seats, and I assumed this would be a popular film.  Pass holders queued to one side, the folks for rush tickets, Vinogirl included, to the other.  I was about 6 people back, so it was looking promising. My friend came from the pass holder queue to say a quick hello before being admitted into the cinema.  Not even 5 minutes later, he reappeared and informed me and my queue-mates that today was not going to be our lucky day.  Apparently, three rows of the tiny cinema had been reserved for some big wig and there simply weren't enough seats for everybody else. Day Pass holders with their $50, red laminated passes - now a badge of shame, like some modern day Scarlet Letter - who initially had been admitted were now being unceremoniously ushered back out on to Main Street, persona non grata-like.  These types of goings-on are a perfect example of why I don't normally attempt to do stuff like this. The Festival organisers can have all the private showings they desire, but I personally don't think they should treat pass holders this way. These type of events are definitely not intended for the average person, like me, who is only interested in seeing one film. I won't bother again.
Like the Master Sommelier exam, an exam with one of the lowest pass rates in the world, SOMM is turning out to be one of the most difficult films for wine industry folks to get to see.

A rosy occupation.

Today, the second bottling event of Vinoland's 2012 bottling season was successfully executed.  The St. Helena Cabernet Sauvignon (clone 7) and the Stags Leap District Cabernet Franc (unknown clone) are now resting in antique green Bordeaux bottles, whilst snuggling up to a natural cork.  The grapegrowers departed Vinoland well pleased with their vinous plunder-laden pickups.
Also bottled was a delightful saignée of the aforementioned Cabernet Sauvignon.  A perfectly balanced, deeply hued, expression of a Cabernet Sauvignon rosé.
Job well done, Vinomaker.

Spotted recently in...

...St. Helena, an out to lunch sign that displays a bit of a sense of humour. Pennaluna doesn't really carry any merchandise that I would particularly want to own, but the shop is entertaining in a mindless-browsing sort of way. I just like the fact that on a busy Friday afternoon the proprietor deemed that perhaps walking the dog was of more import than servicing tourists. I wholeheartedly understand. I always prefer to be walking my Vinodogs over any other activity - followed by drinking wine, counting money, then smelling roses :)

Yet another one for the team.

In my mother's day, school children were expected to know the name of every last piece of fabric in the parish church, from the priest's vestments on down to each and every linen that adorned the altar and the chalice, et cetera. This wasn't the case in my school days, but I did know that the decorative 'tablecloth' on the altar was called the fair linen.

The fair linen that bedecks the altar in the St. Helena Roman Catholic Church is, as one would expect in the Napa Valley, decorated with grapes. Today, as my adorable baby nephew was baptised, I allowed myself the time to reflect upon the loving workmanship that went into embroidering this particular fair linen, and the symbolism that had been captured with every faithful and careful stitch....then it was home for lots of dead cow paired with copious amounts of Vinomaker's wine.

Life is good.

The superior vena vino.

One down, one to go.

The first day, of two successive days, of bottling in Vinoland was a success. The St. Helena crew reported for duty and were immediately charged with the task of getting their 2009 wine into the bottles that Vinomaker had sourced.

The St. Helena, clone 7 Cabernet sauvignon had been blended with a small percentage of Cabernet franc and Merlot, a blend which Vinomaker and I had decided on prior to today's activities. Blending is a fun, even if at times a little exasperating, exercise and one finds that most wines benefit from a little something different thrown in.

Everything went smoothly and after a quick mid-day repast (with wine), some very happy winegrowers left for home with their trucks heavily loaded up with the fermented version of the fruits of their labour.

Shattered.

People unfamiliar with the San Francisco Bay Area's micro-climates find it hard to believe that there is a wide range of diurnal temperatures in the Napa Valley also. A friend, who grows Cabernet sauvignon (Clone 7) up in St. Helena, sent me this photograph last weekend of what he originally thought was a grapevine disease. It turns out that his vineyard, that on any given day can be 5-10 degrees warmer than Vinoland, had just experienced a major hiccup in the transition from flower to berry known as shatter.
Fruit set is the stage of berry development 1 to 3 weeks after bloom when most flowers have fallen and those that remain, about 30-60%, develop into berries. Shatter is the detachment of berries from the cluster at the pedicel base (the dark, necrotic tissue in photograph), after the fruit set stage. It appears that the poor fruit set, in this particular vineyard, was the result of dry conditions and high temperatures at bloom. However, shatter can also be exacerbated by variety (Merlot is particularly susceptible), vine vigour, and disease.
What does all this mean? Well, shatter causes widespread yield losses, which in this instance means a diminished crop from which to make wine at harvest time. The fruit set in Vinoland looks solid so Vinomaker will not be without plenty of grape juice to vinify. But he is mourning the loss of those Clone 7 grapes that fell victim to shatter, especially since the 2009 crop surrendered up the best Cabernet of the vintage.

One more for the team.

Today began with Vinomaker and me crushing and destemming some Cabernet sauvignon from a friend's vineyard; I did a little leaf-pulling in our vineyard, Vinomaker did some punch-downs on ongoing fermentations, and then it was time to get scrubbed up for our baby niece's baptism.
The St. Helena R.C. Church is a small, picturesque stone structure that just underwent six months of earthquake retrofitting...it's all better now and thus was the perfect setting for one of life's rites of passage...if you're Catholic.
It was a beautiful, joyous day filled with close family, well wishes, good food and of course, good wine...which was just as well, seeing as sacramental wine is no longer an option due to the threat of swine flu. I swear to God.

Let it snow.

This was the scene that greeted me this morning as I ran into the post office at Oakville with a couple of Christmas parcels. Straddling two counties at the head of the Napa Valley, Mount Saint Helena, (elevation 4,344 ft), was looking very pretty with a dusting of the white stuff. After two days of clouds it was nice to see the sun again. It was a spectacular December day.
The vines in the foreground? They belong to Opus One.