Harvest Update from St. Supery Estate

Geoff Gatto, Director of Vineyard Operations for St. Supéry  Estate Vineyards & Winery, took a few minutes out of his very busy and rather sleepless schedule to give a quick update on how Harvest is progressing in the St. Supéry  estate vineyards. 

Geoff and his team officially kicked off harvest at St. Supéry’s Dollarhide Estate Vineyard at 10:00 PM on August 27th. Most of our harvesting is done at night and in the cool morning hours here in Napa Valley. Our vineyard team gets to sleep in the mid afternoon (sometimes) and starts again that evening. It’s a busy (understatement) time of year for them and they are  looking forward to November when they can catch up on their Zzzzs.

Here’s what Geoff has to say: “We are bringing in last of the Dollarhide Moscato fruit this Saturday morning, which will complete the white wine grape harvest of 2012 for St. Supéry Estate. Sauvignon Blanc finished earlier this week. Moderate weather led to even, balanced ripening and very good flavors in our white wine fruit. 

We picked the first parcels of Cabernet Sauvignon at Dollarhide on Wednesday, September 26. We will start picking Merlot at our Rutherford Estate Vineyard the first week of October. Continued optimal weather conditions promise great flavors from the reds as well.”

Vintage 2012 looks stellar so far! Stop by our newly renovated winery to catch all the Crush and winemaking in action.

-St. Supéry Estate

Oh the Glory of It All!

St. Supery's cellar is in full swing as we are bringing in the last trucks of our white grapes: Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Semillon and Muscat Canelli.

Our grapes started coming in the beginning of August and the scent of fermenting juice permeates the cellar (and the office, too!). We all know what happens to the juice but what about all the other stuff? Stems, seeds, pulp, skins and goo (collectively known as pomace) that is collected in the large dump bins situated outside the winery?

On a busy day in the vineyard, our crew can pick enough grapes to fill four bins with pomace. Each black "bin" contains about 40 tons of pomace.

What do we do with it? Because St. Supery practices sustainable farming, we try to reduce and reuse everything we take out of the vineyard. These black boxes are trucked back to our family-owned estate vineyard and its contents emptied into our compost 'mini-mountain'. On an average year's harvest, we can turn almost 800 tons of pomace into compost. It takes about 10 months to fully decompose the waste into nutrient-rich compost that is tilled back into the vineyard.

This past year, our vineyard manager, Josh Anstey, brought 2 bins to our adopted school, Valley Oak, to replenish their learning garden. Valley Oak, a continuing education high school is part of the NVV sponsored 'Adopt-a-School' program.

Onward and upward! Looks like some of our Dollarhide Cabernet Sauvignon is coming in early tomorrow morning. More pomace!

Tina Cao, PR/Marketing Manager
St. Supery Vineyards & Winery