Up here at Chateau Montelena we like to think that we know a good idea when we see one, even if it sometimes takes us awhile to get on board. So in what is proudly a blatant rip-off of the Schramsberg "Harvest Dress" we present to you the "Harvest Hat!" A real gem that I found in Chinatown and just couldn't pass up - who doesn't love a fuzzy white pig? The rules are the same as for the dress - wearer must have done something to deserve it. In this instance one of our interns (Matt Johnson) in a case of bad judgment failed to hang the "man in press" sign on the outside of the press while cleaning it, so now gets to wear the hat as a reminder to himself and the rest of the staff to follow the rules for their own safety. Goes nicely with his outfit don't you think?
On the more serious side, today was our 3rd day of fruit this year, and we've got just shy of 60 tons in so far. All white grapes to this point (Chardonnay and Sauv Blanc), but we're looking at potentially harvesting the first few tons of Estate Cabernet Sauvignon tomorrow. Today's hot weather is moving everything along quite nicely, and should help push several blocks into pickable condition. Rain next week? That's the next big question...
The launch codes have been given and the pad prepared, we are T-minus 21 hours to the start of our 40th crush! The new cellar is finished, the headlamps are cleaned and checked, the crews are rested and ready for tomorrow (early) morning when we will begin Harvest 2011. The first fruit across the scale this year will be about 10 tons of night harvested Sauvignon Blanc from our Takahashi Ranch in the Oak Knoll District of Napa Vallley.
A long standing tradition on the first day of harvest here at Montelena is the Blessing of the Grapes. Tomorrow mid-day before we begin pressing the Sauvignon Blanc, we will invite our friends and neighbors to join all of Team Montelena for an invocation and blessing of this year's crop, the new cellar, and all of us working with them. Two priests will be on hand to help us out, followed by a few toasts, and lunch by Jade Lake. A fine way to start what is bound to be an interesting and intense Harvest 2011.
Having just barely broken into August and only just now feeling like it is summertime, it is difficult to really start thinking about harvest (unless you're making bubbly), especially in this later than normal year. In any case, harvest preparations look fairly similar wherever you may be - lots of cleaning, purchasing supplies, stocking the beer fridge, etc. - but for us here at Chateau Montelena "preparing for harvest" this year means something else entirely.
Not long after I was promoted to winemaker in 2008 I was tasked with the (then theoretical) task of redesigning the fermentation cellar inside our historic Chateau (see photo above left). Over the intervening time that design was refined, tweaked, and eventually finalized. This past February construction began on a complete cellar retrofit and seismic upgrade. So while we are busy ordering in yeast and sanitation chemicals for harvest just like everyone else, we are also neck deep in construction. With no tanks in the cellar currently, it is hard to start thinking about fruit... Thankfully everything is on schedule with no major surprises (we hope). So stay tuned for more updates on the progress of our construction and on our first harvest in the new cellar (see current status photo below)! There are also more details and images on our blog if you're interested.
One of the fun things about the holiday season is all the traditions that have sprung up along the way - some unique, some common, some just plain odd. These traditions bring us comfort as they are known, constant, and enduring - some just bring heartburn and make us question our better judgment.
Here at Chateau Montelena, one of the more entertaining holiday traditions is a pre-Christmas employee social gathering known as the Monk's Visit. Started some time ago, it is now an annual ritual were we all get together, snack on Dave Vella's (our vrd. mgr.) famous game sausage, pretzels, and other simple foods, exchange stories, chat about holiday plans, relax, and enjoy the presence of the monks. Never the same group of Monks, though there are always a few old favorites, some years there are few, other years many, but it is always a good time.
Hopefully your Holidays too are full of great traditions, and may Chateau Montelena or any Napa Valley wine be among them.
Cheers! Until next year,
Cameron Parry Winemaker Chateau Montelena
Oh - I almost forgot - the Monks in question are the Belgian Trappist variety, this years group is pictured above right.
OK, so the grapes are picked, the crush gear is clean and stored for the season, and the fermentations are finished (mostly), so what's going on in the winery now? Is everybody just sitting around staring at the barrels and biding their time until the holiday break?
Not a chance.
We're still very busy here in the winery getting the red wines through malolactic fermentation (the conversion of malic acid to lactic acid carried out by the bacterium Oenococcus oeni), waiting for a few Chardonnay and Riesling ferments to finish, and performing lots of rackings. Racking is the term we use for decanting (pumping) the clear wine off of any solids (lees) that have settled to the bottom of the tanks. These lees are largely comprised of dead yeast and bacterial cells along with some grape solids. Each of the red wines we make is normally racked 3-4 times before it goes to barrel for ageing, and each time we save those lees, so what happens to all the purple glop? Well, there is still wine mixed in with the lees, so we call in a filtration company and we have them use a Rotary Drum Vacuum filter to filter (see above pictures) out the solids and recover the wine from the lees. This recovered wine isn't of sufficient quality to be included in our products, so we sell it to other wineries or negociants that will blend it with other bulk lots to create other brands. Waste not want not, right?
So as of 10:30 this morning our trusty Picovale weather station out in G-block here at Montelena had recorded 1.99" of rain, the station at our Chardonnay vineyard just north of Napa showed 2.03", and it is still dumping out there. We all saw this comming and were part of that great scramble that Molly Lippit spoke of in her most recent post. This past Saturday we harvested all 44 tons of our remaining Zinfandel and Primativo in anticipation of today's storm. Here at Montelena we're all about taking our time and waiting for optimal ripeness, but sometimes the correct course of action is to go go like crazy and get the fruit in. The other consequence of this is that the winery is now full, at capacity, and we're having to put wines to barrel as soon as they go dry in order to empty tanks just so that we have that volume to press into. This space crunch isn't surprising though as we are on track to set a record for the largest harvest in the modern history of Chateau Montelena. We were expecting a slightly above average size harvest... Just goes to show that you never know what you're going to get until it is in the tank.
My recommendation for a grey day like today is a warm fire, a good book, a close friend, and a bottle of Chateau Montelena Zin!
Well we've been crushing everyday since the 8th of September, and we're about 77% percent complete with 585 tons processed so far this season out of an expected 760. That's a lot of long days, as Daniel has attested to in his postings, with the crew working 6 days and about 80 hours a week. The days are full of repetition, thousands of grapes going past eyeballs on the shaker table (your eyes just start to wiggle along with them after awhile), never ending early morning pump-overs and late nights cleaning the crush pit in the dark. With all this hard work and long days, the mood in the cellar tends to get a bit serious and solemn , so we like to mix it up a bit - enter Formal Day. If the office staff has casual Friday, shouldn't we have Formal Saturday? Yes it is goofy and silly, and just plain fun for everyone, the crew, the staff, and the tourists alike. This tradition goes back many years here at Montelena and is just the ticket as a mid-harvest mood breaker. Who knows, next weekend you might find us all in grass skirts and floral prints or ten-gallon hats and wranglers. You'll have to stop in to see, or at least check back for next week's blog. In the mean time, have a look at our Facebook page for more photos of our sharp dressed cellar crew in action.
OK, I know it doesn’t rhyme and isn’t as much fun as what the blues standard refers to, but it sure makes good wine. Night harvesting the chardonnay ensures that we receive cool and plump fruit. The cool temperature is important for minimizing extraction of any bitter flavors, helps the settling process, and means that we use less energy chilling the juice. The more humid night air allows the grapes to recover from any dehydration the previous day, and the firm berries transport better than hot mushy ones – they don’t breakdown as much in the bins, which gets back to the extraction point above.
The other important and too often overlooked aspect of night harvesting is that the conditions are much better for the people doing the harvesting. I know that if I had to run up and down the rows 50 times in long sleeves and pants while carrying a 40 pound box of grapes on my head, I’d much rather do it in the cool morning air rather than the mid-day heat.
Now, I’ve been talking an awful lot about Chardonnay in these last few posts and I don’t want you to get the wrong impression, so you’ll be happy to know that in the last week we brought in the first Cabernet Sauvignon from here on the Estate. We’ve got three little tanks full of some of the blackest Cabernet I’ve ever gotten my hands into. Tremendous color and plenty of great ripe berry flavor to go with it. The first full crop of our Takahashi Ranch Merlot – a blending component for our Napa Valley Cabernet – also came in this week, and it also is showing fantastic color along with some of the best flavor that we’ve seen from Merlot here at CM. If these first few tanks are any indication, this will be a fantastic vintage.
This week we will continue bringing in Cabernet from our Estate vineyards as well as from our Napa Cab growers, and we should be finishing up the Chardonnay within the next 10 days. The first of the Estate Zinfandel is on deck today, so come on by and have a look!
Until next week – Cheers and may you “be with the one you love.”
Legs, back, arms, mind… tired.Hands, shirts, shoes, socks… stained.Harvest is officially in full swing.Grapes are coming at a faster pace than ever expected while the room for storage is quickly running thin.But away from specifics and onto experience…
I meet a man on my day off (first in 7 days), who took one look at my hands and asked first, ‘how’s harvest going?’ and second, ‘dead yet?’.I laughed at the later part of the question and replied with a modest but accurate… ‘almost’.He then went on to tell a story from his first harvest (he has now worked over 20), and it went something like this:He was young, out of college, ready to take the wine world by storm (sound familiar?), and his boss at the time said “son… this line of work is not pretty, you won’t be tasting wine all day, meeting women or having fun.You will be working, on call, always.Every part of you will hurt at one point and you will wish you were dead, this I promise, especially here.”
Quite a first conversation with your boss if you ask me… Cameron’s first words were much more welcoming.
The boss then said: “Because son, I’ve seen kids like you come and go, and here’s how it’s going to work.After the first week you will think you are tired.After the second, exhausted.And by the third… dead.”I can now honestly say this is a very accurate description of the harvest lifestyle.Days run together, the workload seems impossible, and the word tired takes on new meaning.
However, I feel the old man’s boss forgot a few parts of this story.He forgot to say how much fun you will have along the way (the laughs and memories), how rewarding it is to look back on everything you accomplish each day, how special it is to be a part of a tradition much larger than yourself, and how educational the experience is for anyone who loves wine.Sure, at points we’re tired, but in my eye that’s what makes it so great! The understanding that everyone is tried, everyone’s hands hurt, everyone could use a day off… but still, day after day, year after year, people all over the world wake up to celebrate the ups and downs of harvest.For instance, he didn’t mention that at 10pm, while cleaning presses in the pouring rain, listening to your cellar master, Gilberto, sing ‘life is beautiful’ you will laugh harder than you ever have.He left out how wonderful a feeling it is to put your feet up on a couch after working an 18-hour harvest day (something you can only understand after doing).Or how calming the feeling that surrounds a winery at midnight can be.The small joys, the subtle moments, and the silent “thank you” wine constantly offers its maker that reminds us of how worthwhile what we are doing is. This area, he most certainly forgot to mention.Because harvest, simply and unexplained, is about truth, hard work, discipline and tradition.These words are not to be thrown around, but respected.And while some days may be hard, tough and stressful the final product is worth every scrape… this, exactly, is what makes it so great.It’s not easy and because of this its rewards are not plain -- but amazing, incredible, and transcending (think 1973 Montelena Chardonnay). Or, in my eyes, what makes the industry move round.What excites us each morning to wake up and work hard.
Tasting on my day off.Life is good.Respect the small stuff.
It has been a busy week here at Chateau Montelena since the last post. As of yesterday we have processed 160 tons of Napa Valley Chardonnay! If it sounds like a lot, it is (for us). The numbers are pretty revealing – last year (2008) we harvested 162 tons of Chardonnay in a total of 11 days, so far this year we have picked 160 tons in 7 days, and we still have 6 of the 12 blocks let to pick! Now, to be fair, it is not just that yields are high this year (they are), but rather that yields were down last year across the north coast due to unfavorable weather conditions last spring. That’s farming for ya! Good news is that we’ll have plenty of great Chardonnay for sale in 2011, bad news is that we all have bags under our eyes from the long days – and it is just the beginning.
The past week wasn’t without its challenges either. We had a mechanical failure on our whole cluster press, which took it out of service for about 2 days while we were figuring out where to get the parts, which then had to be overnighted from Ohio. On a brighter note, we received our brand new custom built post-destemmer-sorter (otherwise known as a MOG separator - follow this link to see a video of it in action), designed to ensure that only grapes (no raisins or stem chips) make it into the tank or press. It is working well, but required a lot of fine tuning to get it just right – Chardonnay can be kinda tricky since it is a thin skinned grape.
The crew is holding up well and really coming together as a team – the great harvest lunches this year have definitely helped. The photo at top right is our pre-season weigh in – 2260 pounds of grape crushing force – a veritable ton of fun! We’re going to get a post season weight as well, so we’ll see just how good the crush lunches really are.
Our intern Daniel Orrison will have his post ready for tomorrow, so check back then.
BTW - Daniel is third from the left in the front row and I'm in the back with the spectacles.
They’re here….Chardonnay grapes that is, not the poltergeist of Alfred Tubbs (he’s always here).
The delivery of 17 tons of Chardonnay from one of our growers in the Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley marked the official start of the 2009 Harvest for us here at Chateau Montelena.This is the 38th consecutive harvest under the current ownership, but there is a much longer history, dating back to the first harvest in 1882 under the direction of the above mentioned Alfred Tubbs – the founder of Chateau Montelena.But enough with the history lesson; that was 127 years ago…So, yesterday’s grapes were both Dijon clones of Chardonnay, clones 809 and 96 to be precise, and this is the first time that we’ve worked with them here at Montelena.So far we’re quite excited about them – we saw great early flavor development without high sugars, which means lower final alcohol, something that we work hard to achieve every year.Yields were very good - about 3.25 tons per acre – especially considering that these vines were T-budded over from Merlot only 2 years ago.The juice tastes great in the tank, so we’ll see how the flavors change during fermentation and aging, but it won’t be until we pull everything out of barrel before bottling next August that we really find out how these new clones fit (or don’t).
The next round of fruit will come in tomorrow – another Dijon clone (76) – so if you’re in the area, stop by in the morning to watch us load the presses.Get here early though, as all of our Chardonnay is harvested at night in order to assure that we receive cool firm fruit – this preserves the delicate flavors, helps prevent damage or unwanted microbial growth in the picking bins, and reduces the amount of energy needed to cool the juice during the initial settling.After that, we should be off and running, with fruit coming in every day from that point on.I expect we’ll be picking the first Estate Cabernet Sauvignon grapes sometime next week….
Until next week, Happy Harvesting and Cheers from the top of the Napa Valley!
Keep reading to see what our Intern Daniel Orrison had to say about the past week.
The last few weeks have been relatively calm around the winery… cleaning tanks, racking wine, sanitizing (everything you can imagine), cleaning more tanks, and for the interns, trying slow but sure to learn the ins-and-outs of Montelena-- an area I’ve found comes far more from experience than anything else.Fortunately however, experience, is something Montelena does very well.Certain members of the cellar staff have worked at the winery for over 20 years!They may not be able to offer you the book definition of malolactic fermentation, or the theory behind volatile acidity, though, working with them daily I have learned more about wine than I could have ever imagined.For example, the importance of hard work, responsibility, care, dedication to trade, and professionalism (even in the most mundane and simple tasks) that must take place daily for any wine to be successful.In this area alone I have grown as a person and my appreciation for wine and its process has been heightened without the sign of a single grape!
But who wants to talk about topics that don’t involve grapes (especially on a day that will go down in books as the official start of my FIRST harvest)?We received over 13 tons of two different chardonnay clones.They came in early, and if I may, left very late…The day lasted around 13 hours, from 7am to 8pm, which, I’ve been told is relatively tame for any harvest day.Though for me it was the perfect start… I got to marvel at the sheer quantity and quality of fruit brought to the property.I got absolutely soaked, several times I should note, in juice, water, sweat, and more juice throughout the day.I ate my first freshly picked chardonnay grape and took part in my first, ‘famous’ Montelena Harvest lunch.(It lived up to all the hype, fantastic actually… lasagna, salad, garlic bread, fresh fruit, and a dangerously tasty fudge brownie.All consumed in about 15 minutes.They say you are supposed to lose weight during harvest, but at this rate, I’m not so sure… 167 and counting.)The day however seemed to move at a feverish pace, for as quickly as it started, looking back, the ending was quite similar (bike ride through the vineyards to our lovely home on Old Toll).Tomorrow is another day.Can’t wait!
Well, it’s that time of year again…the decking has come off the crush pit, and we’ve dusted off the destemmers. The presses have rolled out of the warehouse and the shaker table is all bolted in place. The new barrels have all arrived and the grapes are getting sweeter by the day. Now how do all these puzzle pieces fit again? We’ll figure it out - not without a few surprises along the way I’m sure, but it’s the challenges that keep it interesting, right?
The crush season is upon us and the interns are in full force (see testimonial below) cleaning everything and anything they can get their scrubbies on – we wouldn’t have it any other way. Everything’s got to be bright an clean before the first grape hits the scale. Speaking of the grapes, they’re looking great! We’re expecting another excellent vintage and with more tonnage than last year. The Chardonnay crop should be about 115% of normal and the guestimates from the Estate suggest that we’ll have about 180 tons of Napa’s finest to work with this season, including the much anticipated first crop off of the replanted J-block. While we're on replants, we’ve got about 13 acres off-line this year that are in various stages of replant, and the second half of C-block is slated to come out after this harvest. What’s it all mean you say, well, it is all part of our master plan to produce the best possible grapes from this extraordinary vineyard, so as the production from the older plantings (1973 and 1974) declines we are gradually replanting those blocks to ensure that we have sufficient grape tonnage to ensure consistent production levels. But remember folks, this is farming, so check back to see what we actually get…
We expect to receive our first grapes – Chardonnay – in about 7 days, but that all depends on mother nature and what she has in store for the next week or so – any prognostications? The conditions down in the Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley where we grow most of our Chardonnay have been very good this season – a bit cooler than normal, but that’s good for Chard. No new growers this year, but we will have a few new (to us) clones to play with courtesy of an existing grower that T-budded over some Merlot to Chardonnay Dijon clones last year.
Aside from new Chardonnay clones, there is actually quite a bit of “new” here at the old Chateau. We have 9 new tanks in the cellar this year, a new basket press, and a few more new pieces of grape handling equipment. What’s with all the new you ask, well, what it boils down to is that all this new stuff is designed to do one or both of these two things: either make the wine better or make the job easier. This simple philosophy has deep roots here at Montelena and is in line with our growing philosophy as well: the right grape in the right place. All that to say that we are continuing to tweak and improve all aspects of what we do here in order to not just maintain, but improve upon the excellence expected from Chateau Montelena.
Check back in to see how everything plays out here at the top of the Napa Valley! One of our interns and I will be posting updates once a week (maybe more) as we progress through this harvest.
Now here's an entry from Daniel Orrison - one of this year's interns here at Chateau Montelena:
Summer Harvest:Entry 19/1/2009
Montelena Monday:
My name is Daniel Orrison, though these days I more appropriately go by Intern, or Harvest Intern, Intern who almost flips the forklift four days into the job, etc.Yes, that is correct, I am one of the harvest interns at Chateau Montelena (or how I refer when meeting a young lady in the small city of Calistoga… “I am an apprentice to the winemaker at Montelena”).Jokes aside, this is a dream position.There is not a winery in the world I would rather work and a staff I would prefer to learn from.
In the following weeks you are going to hear MY story behind the 2009 Montelena harvest.Not your everyday recap, that I can promise, but the REAL side of a Napa wine harvest, from the eyes of 22-year-old kid who is crazy about wine and obsessed with new experience (a little too much some may say).I plan to document the ups and downs, highs and lows, and ins and outs of the entire adventure.Wherever that may take me…
But a little bit more about myself before we get started:I love wine – the style, art, culture, science, and tradition all sown into the subject.This love has taken me across the globe.Tasting in the south of France, sipping in South America, touring in Portugal, Spain, Italy, and has now landed me in the epicenter of the American Wine Trade – the Napa Valley. Which, appropriately, seems to be then most beautiful of all the regions in the world I have had the privilege to visit.
How I wish I could put the beauty of this area into words – the beauty of Napa Valley – the beauty of Calistoga.A place such as this remind you how pure and clean the world can be – how extraordinarily far the pleasures of thought and imagination can take you if you are only willing to dream!It really does seem quite perfect… I’d be willing to argue the only discomfort one experiences when visiting is in the realization of how tragic it is the likes of Van Gough or Monet will never get to the stories of these hills with their brush.That may be the tragic romantic in me… but who’s counting.We’re in wine country, right?
Now onto Chateau Montelena… From the instant you step foot on the property, winding your way down a charming path lined with Eucalyptus (and stumble upon the castle I now call home), a feeling of excitement surrounds you – a feeling of passion – a feeling of care, pride, and tradition.It’s amazing to see the level of excellence that radiates throughout the building.From top to bottom there is not a detail missed and it is because of this that the winery has remained among the World’s elite for so many years.If you could only see how excited I am sitting down to write this post, for it is a reminder of how special I foresee this harvest.Chills are running through me as we speak.Away from myself, though, and back to the quality that is Montelena…an area I feel has a great deal to do with then quality of young staff they employ (the Interns).
I live with two others in an amazing old farmhouse (hidden between rows of vines on Old Toll Road), owned by our boss, Bo Barrett.One is a Portuguese lad by the name of Ricardo.He has worked seven harvests in different places around the world.Him and I are becoming good friends.He has such a passion for wine.It is inspiring to watch him work are care for the grapes for his attention to detail is like nothing I haven ever seen.The other intern is a lovely young girl by the name of Janice.She has recently graduated from Cornell University, where she studied Viticulture and Enology.Another amazing young mind who knows farrrr too much about wine (compliment in these parts).But both are incredible people I look forward to taking this ride with.
So far life as an intern has been easy.Harvest is still a few weeks out as the summer’s temperature has been a bit cooler than usual and the grapes still need a few more weeks to ripen.The quality of fruit though looks to be outstanding.We can’t wait to get started!Until then… I hope this introduction treats you well.Much more to come.Much more to come.
Wine tasting this weekend?See you around the valley.
The Napa Valley Vintners is the non-profit trade association responsible for promoting and protecting the Napa Valley appellation as the premier winegrowing region. From seven founding members in 1944, today the association represents more than 450 Napa Valley wineries and collectively is a leader in the world-wide wine industry.
Up here at Chateau Montelena we like to think that we know a good idea when we see one, even if it sometimes takes us awhile to get on board. So in what is proudly a blatant rip-off of the Schramsberg "Harvest Dress" we present to you the "Harvest Hat!" A real gem that I found in Chinatown and just couldn't pass up - who doesn't love a fuzzy white pig? The rules are the same as for the dress - wearer must have done something to deserve it. In this instance one of our interns (Matt Johnson) in a case of bad judgment failed to hang the "man in press" sign on the outside of the press while cleaning it, so now gets to wear the hat as a reminder to himself and the rest of the staff to follow the rules for their own safety. Goes nicely with his outfit don't you think?
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