Crushed AND destemmed.

Last harvest in Vinoland.  The Cabernet sauvignon grapes are picked and processed: crushed and destemmed.  

I cannot for the life of me understand the obsession of late with whole-cluster fermentation (WCF).  I have watched a lot of webinars during the pandemic and I would bet my life savings on the certainty that someone on a panel (usually a sommelier) will feverishly ask whilst tasting a featured wine, "Is this whole-cluster fermentation."  WCF is the current ideé fixe amongst those who just drink wine.

Wine, winemaking and wine-drinking continually go through trends, fashions and fads and WCF seems to be the latest craze.  WCF is just one technique available to a winemaker.  The fact that people have to ask if a wine was produced using this particular technique may suggest that they really can't tell if, indeed, it was.  Or not.  

WCF has its place in winemaking, but I don't necessarily think that place is in the production of Cabernet Sauvignon.  Just sayin'.

My spectacular Syrah.

This morning, starting at the crack of dawn, was harvest-day for Vinoland's Syrah (SY).  And, wow, the fruit looked fabulous and (now that the grapes have been processed) it tastes terrific.  Vital statistics are; 23.6 °Brix, pH 3.63 and TA 4.40 - all in a good range.  To celebrate I opened a bottle of our 2015 SY with dinner - delightful. 

I love farming SY, it is such an easy grapevine to get along with.  Sadly, that's all my SY interaction done with for 2020.  I am going to wait a while before I begin to even think about starting to prune in early 2021.  Besides, I still have to get the Cabernet sauvignon picked.  

Now it's time for Vinomaker to work his magic. 

Vendemmia: 2020.

I spent a lot of yesterday pulling leaves in the Pinot grigio (PG) block, as harvest was scheduled for today.  It was still dark at 6.30 a.m., a bit too dark to harvest (due to marine fog mixed with wildfire smoke), so I had to time to eat breakfast before the morning's viticultural-proceedings began.  The Orange muscat grapes were also picked.  I love the feeling of being up early for harvest, I find it exciting.

Fruit looks fantastic, tastes great.  Perhaps a little less than last year (according to Vinomaker), not surprising seeing as my hungry hens have been helping themselves to the ripening berries for weeks now.  Sugar came in at 26 °Brix - a little high, but one would expect a spike in sugar due to the 107/108 °F temps we had on Sunday and Monday.  

My job is done.  Now it's up to Vinomaker to work his magic.

Getting lighter.

Up a little earlier than is the norm, to deal with the chicklets who have been evicted from the house because they were starting to get a bit whiffy, I saw that Far Niente (FN) were harvesting Chardonnay from the Berlenbach Vineyards.  The morning was dark; the air was cool, foggy and smoky.  It was pleasing to me to witness some floodlit grape-activity in the neighbourhood.  A touch of normality.
I can't remember if they picked this vineyard last year (I missed the entire 2019 harvest in Napa), so this may be the first harvest for these young vines.  Generally, harvest in the valley began a tad early this year, as it has been a nice, steady growing season.  I'm wondering if FN decided to get the fruit in a little earlier because of smoke from the wildfires still burning a little to the north.  I heard that a Merlot vineyard, halfway up the valley on the eastern side, was picked on Monday at 21/22 °Brix.  Seems a little premature, but perhaps the owners/growers panicked a bit.  Stay calm folks, there will be light at the end of 2020.

Commercial harvest.

Harvest 2019 began at TWWIAGE today.  Thirty-odd tons of one of our growers' best Sauvignon blanc (SB) grapes showed up, first thing this morning, to kick off the 2019 vintage.  After a quick blessing of the grapes, it was into the presses for processing; a two hour procedure that gently squeezes out the sweet, juicy-deliciousness that is destined to be a glass of something chilled and refreshing in my hand, oh, in about April 2020.  Love SB harvest.

Just a quick Cab drive away.

The Cabernet sauvignon (CS) fruit looks good this year, but it's not the best I've ever seen it.  (That distinction belongs to the 2010 crop.)  The CS fruit definitely doesn't look as good as the Pinot grigio, or the Syrah.  A quick sugar reading today showed that the CS is at 24° Brix.  The weather has cooled down considerably, and even though there is warmer than average temperatures forecast for this weekend, the fruit is as mature as it is going to get.  It's time to get the CS in.  Taxi!

Syrah shuffle.

It usually gets a little bit hectic around here as harvest time approaches.  This year seems to be a little more chaotic than usual.  Vinomaker and I had to put our heads together and come up with a date for our Syrah harvest.  And today was the day.  All went smoothly, the weather was perfect and the harvest celebration afterwards was a lot of fun.
The Syrah fruit looked gorgeous and tasted great too.  The yield, as I suspected, was greater than average - about 30% more.  The Syrah's numbers are: 24° Brix, a pH of 3.58 and TA at 7.2.

Diseased!

This morning was Pinot grigio harvest day in Vinoland.  The fruit looked beautiful and the numbers came in at 27° Brix, a pH of 3.55 and TA at 6.75 - all in a good range.
The 2018 fruit may be in Vinomaker's capable hands now, but I am already thinking ahead to next year and some critical vineyard operations that will ensure a 2019 harvest.  Pruning, of course, is next up, but there is also a bit of replanting to be done.
Alas, there is evidence of Pierce's Disease (PD) in some vines (nine, one right after the other, in one row and at least one vine in the row above them).  The PD symptoms first appeared last year, but this year they are more definitely pronounced; foliar scorching, irregular bark maturity and raisining of the fruit, or, (as demonstrated in the above photograph) miniature clusters (a mere 2.4 inches).
Oh well, it'll give me something to do next spring.

Oh, life.

Erm, hello.  As months go, November was a bit of a bust and I am happy it is over.  December is now here, thank goodness.
Time marches on and the Napa Valley is still busy with harvest.  However, it is not grapes that are being harvested right now.  No, it is the other crop, olives.  The olive harvest is in full swing and, at least to my untrained eye, it looks like it is a bumper crop this year.  Harvesting olives doesn't look like much fun, plain tedious if you ask me.  And the rewards are not as plentiful as from the positively-bursting-with-juice grape, although just as delicious.  I was talking to the gentleman whose crew was harvesting the above olives and he told me that he only expected a yield of 15 gallons of oil from each half ton bin.  No wonder good olive oil is so pricey.

The show must go on: Part 2.

I returned to work yesterday after a forced, week long natural disaster furlough.  But it wasn't exactly business as usual.  Nope, it was an all hands on deck situation, or rather all hands on the sorting table.  Yep, I helped sort 40 tones of Cabernet Sauvignon yesterday.  Then today, 12 tons of Cabernet Sauvignon and 28 tons of Merlot.  TWWIAGE's harvest is now finished.
After suffering a little bit of motion sickness - I had no idea that the progress of the moving fruit would have that effect on me - it was simply eyes down and sort out the MOG (material other than grapes).  Leaves, twigs and raisins begone!  It was tedious work, I wouldn't want to do every day, two days was plenty, but I was more than happy to be able to help get the 2017 crop in and sorted.

The show must go on.

Wildfires be damned!  Vinoland's Cabernet Sauvignon (CS) needed to be harvested, but Mother Nature seemed to have other ideas.  Vinomaker and I had planned to harvest our CS this past Friday, the 13th, problem was most of our usual picking crew were unavailable due to voluntary or mandatory evacuations.
Grateful that Vinomaker and I had kept an eye on the neighbourhood in their abscence, many of our neighbours kindly offered to help us harvest (we couldn't have managed it by ourselves).  Our pleasant group of pickers showed up early and prepared to get the crop off the vines.  I had spent the day before pulling leaves, so the fruit was exposed and the pick went smoothly.  Although it was still very smoky nobody complained.
This evening, our cheery little band of harvesters reconvened on Vinoland's deck for a celebratory repast of pizza, beer and, of course, wine.  Happy end of harvest 2017.  Finally!

Good morning, Franc!

It's been several years since Vinomaker has had the chance to make Cabernet franc (CF), his favourite varietal wine to make.  The owner of the Oak Knoll District CF vineyard, from where we sourced the grapes, had decided to replant after suffering years of declining vine health.  So when Vinomaker got the call that there was some fruit available he hopped at the chance.
It was fun to get out early in the morning to harvest the fruit.  The valley is a hive of activity right now and you can't turn in any direction without seeing fruit laden picking bins and gondolas.  Replanted on 101-14 Mgt rootstock, grafted to CF clone 214, there really wasn't much fruit on the young vines.  On arrival in back Vinoland, the fruit was destemmed and became a field blend with a batch of St. Helena Cabernet Sauvignon.
Hopefully, in 2018, the owner of the vineyard will once again let us have some grapes; a lot more grapes, perhaps.  Picking-knives crossed.

Isn't harvest grape?

Today, Vinomaker and I did what we did exactly one year ago today: we picked our white grapes. Yes, harvest has begun in our modest corner of the Napa Valley with the picking of Vinoland's Pinot grigio (PG) and Orange Muscat grapes.
Everything was progressing along nicely, until the destemmer decided to stop working, the capacitor had failed.  Not being able to destem the fruit before placing it into the press slowed things down considerably.  We were left with no option but to whole-cluster press the grapes.  We got it all done in the end, it just took a little longer.
I was going to use a photograph of a PG cluster for this post.  Instead, I decided on an image of the one, solitary honey bee that showed up to sample the PG juice.  I must apologise, I photographed a sugar-supping bee last year also. However, he was just so cute, I couldn't resist a repeat. Anyhow, the buzz on the street is that Mr. Bee thinks the juice is delicious.  He's right, it is.
Whites down, reds to go.

Whites are in.

It's been a long day, but Vinoland's two white grape varieties are now just grape juice and are safely chilling their little bottoms off in the cellar.  The Pinot grigio fruit looked beautiful and came in at 26 °Brix (not sure about the Orange Muscat sugar).  I'm pooped.
This year we experimented with rice hulls as a press aid and they really seemed to help with the extraction of more grape juice.  There was plenty to go around, enough to share with this thirsty honey bee.
Whites down, reds to go.

Pinot grigio harvest 2014.

Vinoland's Pinot grigio was harvested today, whoo hoo!  The fruit looked beautiful.  I was fairly pleased with myself for farming such attractive berries.  Mama loves you little guys!
Finished processing fruit (and cleaning everything up), just in time to enjoy a fabulous harvest party at Black Cat Vineyards: just love Tracey Reichow's rosé of Cabernet franc.  Good friends and great wine.
Long day...

Rain, rain, go away!

My poor grapes!
It rained all day yesterday. Let me qualify that...we just experienced, in the San Francisco Bay Area, the worst October storm since the 1960s. Vinoland looks like a battlefield. Mother Nature has deposited her detritus everywhere, the autumnal colours of which are pretty, but the acorns make walking around extremely difficult. Our creek is full, there are puddles everywhere, the firewood is wet, and the Vinodogs are bored.
Last Sunday I did a quick sugar reading of our Cabernet grapes. They were only up to a rather disappointing 22.8 degrees Brix, nowhere near ready to harvest...and now wet, grey weather.
My poor grapes!

Oktoberfest.

Sunday evening heralded the end of the 2008 harvest at my place of employment. The winery actually received their last Cabernet sauvignon fruit today, harvested overnight under floodlight. If the people that sign my pay cheques want to call the end of harvest a little prematurely, then so be it. Sunday night was the night they wished to celebrate, so Sunday it was. A good time was had by all. For Vinogirl it meant a night off from wine. I imbibed in a pleasing malted beverage called 'Death & Taxes'...dark, lucious and bitter. Wonder what old Ben Franklin would think of the current election season? Dark? Bitter? Prophetic? I hope not.

Now you see them...

...now you don't! Today was our Syrah harvest, (as the above 'before & after' piccy shows). Vinomaker had recruited two reliable 'Wine Slaves' to help us relieve the vines of their crop, but it still took rather a long time. This is probably the earliest Vinomaker can remember harvesting Syrah. The past weeks warm temps had brought the fruit on beautifully; nice ripe, sweet flavours and softened skins...no hint of green beans at all. I must admit I took pride in the crop and I gave myself a well deserved pat on the back for my pruning prowess. Well, I would have if my glove hadn't been stuck to my hand with sugary juice. The grapes are in Vinomaker's capable hands now...mine are too sticky!!!

If life gives you lemons...

...gather them up, throw them away, get yourself some grapes and make wine. Who ever heard of anyone getting vinsane on lemonade anyway? Wine is wonderful, it makes you happy...simple as that. With harvest 2008 upon us, Napa is the happiest place on earth. Move over Walt and make way for Vinogirl and Vinomaker. Fermentation in this magic kingdom is the most fun. Unleash the yeast...and let the festivities begin!!!