Harvest Continues at Merryvale

Even with this week's high temperatures, harvest continues steadily, but not frantically, at Merryvale and Starmont. By tomorrow, we will have finished harvesting Sauvignon Blanc, and on Thursday we completed harvesting our Pinot noir, all from the Stanly Ranch in Carneros. We started harvesting Chardonnay, and Chardonnay will be the main focus for the next two weeks. Today we harvested some Hyde Chardonnay from an enticing block of mixed clones that exhibit exotic floral flavors.

We have begun harvesting some Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon from earlier ripening sites, but we anticipate continuing to harvest Cabernet throughout the rest of this month and into October. Attached is a picture of us harvesting one of our earliest Cabernet lots from this morning at our Estate in the foothills overlooking St. Helena.

We are really excited about the early flavor development, and are finding developed and concentrated flavors, the disappearance of green flavors, resolved tannins, and brown seeds at lower Brix than recent years.

Cheers!
Remi

Chappellet Chenin & More!

We just brought in our first Chenin Blanc in 5 years from our newly replanted vineyard! The Chappellet Chenin Blanc is a fabulous wine – crisp & lively with lots of citrus and stone fruit – look forward to trying it in a few months. We’ll be playing with the fermentation a little – using a Nomblot Egg (concrete egg) to experiment with.

We’ll pull some Chardonnay from our Oak Knoll vineyard next week. Pritchard Hill reds are coming along, with maybe some Malbec and Merlot by late next week, or early the following. Cabernet is still at least a few weeks out. The Cabernet crop is about average for Pritchard Hill but quality looks really, really good right now. Last of the hot weather for awhile today, with maybe a little rain next week…wouldn’t be harvest if we didn’t have to worry about something!

The vibe at the winery has certainly changed and it’s formally ‘game on’. This is a great time to visit wine country and experience it for yourself!
Over and out!

Steve Tamburelli
General Manager

Illuminating the 2009 Harvest

Harvest at the Quintessa estate officially started last Friday when we picked our Illumination Bench block of Sauvignon Blanc from the Quintessa property.

This small Sauvignon Blanc vineyard sits right on the famous Rutherford Bench, in a cool spot next to the Napa River. The fruit came in beautifully, with a small crop and really good intensity. After we pressed the grapes, it went into two of our concrete egg fermenters and a few neutral oak barrels for fermentation with aromatic yeasts. Right now it is humming along nicely.

We will see more Sauvignon Blanc tomorrow from a vineyard in South Napa, Semillon from Calistoga in a week or so and some from our own Faust Vineyard the week after next. I plan to use a combination of stainless steel, concrete and barrel fermentations and both native and more aromatic yeasts.

Next week, possibly as early as Tuesday depending on how the next two days of warm weather push flavors along, we expect to see the first Merlot from Quintessa's Silverdale South block. Merlot yields would be a bit below average but it's a bit early to tell with Cabernet. More updates to follow!

Cheers - Charles Thomas, Winemaker

Still Waiting on Spring Mountain

I feel like the rabbit out of Alice in Wonderland, the one with the pocket watch running up and down yelling “we’re late, we’re late”, because that’s what we are this year. We usually are harvesting Sauvignon Blanc no later than the first of September, but it looks like the 15^th this year. No panic, but I am wasting a lot of energy running up and down the mountain and not picking anything.

This photo is of our La Perla Sauvignon Blanc vineyard ~ two things to notice ~ the vine training is an ancient method called ‘vertical gobelet’ . Head trained, each vine has its own stake and the canes are tied into a goblet shape. This lets us control the canopy on all sides of the vine, removing leaves to expose clusters to morning sun and shading clusters from harsh afternoon rays. Since vines struggle on our steep hillsides with shallow soils, we make sure gobelet vines stay compact and only carry about 3 pounds of fruit per vine. (Of the 225 total planted acres on the Spring Mountain estate, 90 are trained to gobelet ).

Also notice the enormous Grandmother fig tree in the background. Its branches stretch wide and touch the ground. Even the figs are late this year!

I hope to have some news about grapes by the next update, so stay tuned.

Jac Cole, Winemaker
Spring Mountain Vineyard

Mountain Fruit Getting Close

Yesterday I caught our cellar assistant, Maurilio Camarillo "red-handed" with bags of berries for sugar sampling and pH tests (our lab is adjacent to the winery office).

With 28 distinct vineyard "blocks" or sections in just under 27 acres - we're doing a lot of berry sampling around the estate vineyard. Alan Viader, winemaker and director of operations, told me this morning that the estate Syrah will be the first variety picked. Skins are dark purple with huge flavor, rich tannins, great texture and the seeds are ripe and brown... We should be picking this Monday!

On our estate vineyard on lower Howell Mountain, we cultivate Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, a tiny bit of Petit Verdot, Syrah and an even tinier bit of Malbec. In addition, we also bring in limited fruit from other Napa vineyards for varietal wines in our "DARE by Viader" line, like the DARE Tempranillo.

This year, we're even taking a stab at something completely new for VIADER -- Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. Trough friends, Alan discovered a block of Sauvignon Blanc off the Silverado Trail, and the Pinot is from the Sonoma Coast AVA. Our first white wine ever will be harvested tonight! Stay tuned...

Warmly,

Janet Viader

sales & marketing at VIADER

I Think I'm Tired Now

So I wait and I wait and finally it's almost here. I know I sound redundant, but the sugars are still too low and the fruit isn't showing the maturity we want. Maybe today's 90 degree heat will help, but I still think we're a couple of weeks off.

In the meantime, I had my first, pre-6am day. Let me precede this by saying I didn't get to sleep until 2am last night - I had a kitten problem that pushed last night's plan to much later, and then I couldn't sleep. I had to drive this morning to walk a vineyard and deliver bins: stop at the vineyard manager's, then the vineyard, then the warehouse - I had traveled about 75 miles before most of my friends got their first cup of coffee at the office. I sometimes long for those days!

I'll take sugars again this Saturday and see what the week's done for us. I'm anxiously planning to travel to sell wine next week - and there's a rumor flying that we might see some rain next week - yes, it's harvest. So all I can do is include a picture of the offending kitty - her name is Dusk and she's on restriction - no more late night tree climbing for this miniature cat!

We’re daredevils at Martin Estate!

Why would we decide to install beautiful custom made concrete tanks and a new chiller just weeks before harvest? Because we’re daredevils here at Martin Estate!

Or, we’re just completely mad.

Happily, the winery has not erupted into utter chaos. Instead, we seem to be breezing through the installations. And, while we’re hauling and sweating indoors, the Cabernet Sauvignon on our eight-acre Puerta Dorada Vineyard is just buoyant with great juice. The heat spike some folks were worried about have (at present) turned into beautiful, consistently warm days with pleasantly chilly mornings, and the moderate temperatures should lead to seamlessly integrated sugars, acids and tannins in our fruit at harvest time. When our full-time winemaker Frederic Delivert walked the vineyard this morning - something he’s taken to doing on a daily basis now – he was beyond pleased with the healthy canopy and small but concentrated yield.

The fruits of our labor are tasting mighty good this year!

Brooke Cheshire
Martin Estate

They're here....

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 38^th 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.

Cameron Parry – Winemaker

Chateau Montelena Winery

First Day of Harvest 9/8/09

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!

Best from Montelena.

Life is clean. Life is beautiful. Life is pure.

Cheers,

Daniel Orrison

You know it's harvest when....

...you're out in a vineyard tasting your Petite Sirah at dusk, want to take some pictures, grab your camera, and realize it's sticky from pulling leaves and taking pictures of this mornings pick of Chardonnay at sunrise.

So here is basically how the day went. To really start, I have to begin with drinking some Pinot Noir in front of the TV late last night, because someone asked me to evaluate it for a future project. That led to falling asleep in place, only to have the wife reach over several times with a sort of loving touch/smack and the kind words of "Go To Bed". Begrudgingly, I crawled myself upstairs, barely got the teeth brushed, and remembered the ever important set the alarm for tomorrow's pick. The next thing I remember is thinking that can't be the alarm, hitting snooze, and lying there half asleep and half awake waiting for the next reminder that I won't be able to fall back asleep anyway. A few more snooze's and off we go.

Jump in the truck and haul a.. out to the vineyard thinking that I'm going to be late. Head down the road toward Caffino (the wrong direction from the vineyard) and realize there is actually a Starbucks on the way. Step on the gas to get to the Starbucks, order my double mocha, wonder what other souls must be out at this ungodly hour, and wait and wait and wait for them to fill the order of one medium (they call it Venti) Mocha. Really how long can it take. Haul a.. out to the vineyard to see the Vineyard Manager waiting for the bins and breathe a sigh of relief that I wasn't late. We pick, pull leaves from the bins, and take some photos. This is where the camera gets sticky, but too busy to notice. Once my truck has a full load I head off to the winery. I make several phone calls to the winery to see how the other vineyards are picking, and make the call as to the order of which things might get pressed. Make the call to hold one press for my grapes and start loading the other with the other grapes coming in all while using my speakerphone on my phone and wondering if holding the phone in hand but not up to my ear really means "Hands Free".

I get to the winery to find out that there are more grapes from the first pick then previously thought, and we'll have to add an extra press load to the already max scheduled day. We begin loading the press, squeezing berries, and collecting juice as fast as we can. Anyone who knows winery work, knows that this means hurry up and wait. Loading the grapes takes about half an hour or so, while running the actual press to get the juice takes roughly two hours. So our pace at the winery is hurry, hurry get the press loaded, get everything else done while it's running, clean the press, and start over.

Usually at the winery in the meantime, this means several conversations with other winemakers about custom crush, making sure sales are on track at the winery, consulting with the tasting room, oh yeah the two tour groups that came through the winery, taste all the fermenting wines, check sugars, get the lab analysis, do the additions that need to be done, and finally clean up all equipment the winery that was abused over the day.

By the end of the day, we've cleaned everything up, talked about tomorrow's chaos, and said goodbye for the night. This is the point I head off to check the two Petite Sirah Vineyards, taste the grapes and take some beautiful sunset pictures in the vineyard. I pull the camera from the car, and realize that the thing is super sticky from this mornings pick. Oh well, I take the pictures anyway. After checking the vineyard, I head off to an account to deliver a case of wine, meet up with the wife, have a glass of wine and some food, and head home.

Tomorrow it all begins again.

Bruce Devlin
Winemaker
Three Clicks Wines

Vintage updates from PEJU!

Hi and welcome to our harvest blog! We’ll be giving you the down and dirty on harvest at Peju. Yes, fall in the Valley is romantic and beautiful with the pleasant smells of grapes wafting through the air, but in our world of wine production, things are not always so glamorous. We’ll take you through the process with us every step of the way, good, bad and ugly – all of the things that make the final product even more rewarding. We have a blast along the way and continue to learn new ways of making the absolute best wines we can from our vineyards. So here we go…

In order to ramp up for a busy three months of picking, fermenting and barreling, we recruit the brightest, best and most fun harvest interns from around the world! Every year we draft talent from foreign countries this year we have a South African, named Arno Smith who hold a degree in Enology and Viticulture from Elsenburg and who has done vintage in Australia and South Africa. He is not only super friendly and smart, but more importantly FUN! Luckily he arrived just in time (with only one small Visa snafu) to help us prep the cellar for harvest and finish bottling our 2007 Napa Valley red wines.

We kicked off harvest on August 21 and have since picked all of the Sauvignon Blanc blocks from our Persephone Vineyard in Pope Valley. All was good on the harvesting end, however, once the fruit got to the winery we had a few issues: Day one, the Bin dumper on the Forklift wasn’t working (hydraulic oil leak), Day two, the hose from the Press going to the tank got clogged, Day three, a fuse on the Press went out, Day four the Transformer on the Press went out – and every day since things have been running smoothly (Yikes, I am afraid as I type this that I just might Jinx things)… On the bright side, we are noticing amazing flavors from the fruit and thus far extremely pleased with what we are seeing this vintage! At this point all the SB has gone to tank, yeast has been added and fermentation is in full gear (btw, our cellar has the most marvelous smell).

We also received 60,000 predatory mites via FedEx this week to release in our organically farmed Rutherford vineyard! Spider mites- beware! The microscopic “good mites” arrive on bean plants that we in turn place throughout the vineyard canopy. The good mites make their new home in the vineyard and prey on all the bad bugs that can hurt the vines. It’s a great alternative to pesticides and chemical sprays.

Next up – Chardonnay and Syrah! We’ll tell you all about it in next week’s adventures…

Cheers, Salute, Prost, Gesondheid!

Sara Fowler
Winemaker
PEJU Winery
www.peju.com

Chardonnay at Trefethen Family Vineyards

We brought in our first Chardonnay of the season this morning at Trefethen Family Vineyards in the Oak Knoll District. The vineyard crew began picking the 1.26 acre block of Wente clone Chardonnay in the chilly morning hours. This particular clone has a lot of muscat character and had just reached the point where the berries were singing with flavor!

When the fruit arrived on the crushpad, the Trefethen family joined the crew in celebrating the start of the 2009 Harvest. Nothing like popping the cork on a bottle of sparkling wine at 8:30 in the morning! None for the forklift drivers, of course....

After loading the press with grapes, we headed back out to the vineyard to taste grapes and discuss harvest plans for the rest of the week. We have another Wente clone selection that is nearly ready. This one is called "Hens and Chicks" for its tendency to produce large and small berries on each cluster. We're also looking at some Dijon clone Chardonnay as well as some Pinot Noir for later this week.

Happy Harvest!

Jon Ruel

Trefethen Family Vineyards

Who needs a Refractometer when you've got Winery Dogs?

Going on his 10th harvest, Kodiak doesn't need to measure the Brix (or sugar) level, he can just smell it!

Delia Viader, who is the owner/winemaker at VIADER (and also my mother) was the one who discovered Kody proudly showing off his fresh catch of the day -- a ripe cluster of Cabernet Sauvignon -- during last year's 2008 harvest.

Half-way up Howell Mountain in Deer Park, our estate fruit is rapidly approaching full maturity. So quickly in fact, that my brother Alan, our vineyard manager and winemaker, had to cut his recent travel plans short and will be returning this Wednesday and expects to start picking first thing Thursday. He and his wife Mariela are currently in Utah representing our private bottling of "Robert Redford Reserve" Cabernet Sauvignon that we bottled specially for Sundance.

Hopefully Alan can get to the grapes before Kody does!

Warmly,

Janet Viader

sales & marketing at VIADER

Almost, Not Quite Yet In Calistoga

I want to be informative and tell you all about our harvesting, but, we aren't doing it yet!!! The bins are clean and being moved to the vineyards from which I purchase, the equipment is all prepped except for the final cleaning. The generator and forklift are primed and ready. I'm standing around like a 9 1/2 month pregnant woman waiting for the dang delivery....such is the life of a winemaker.

In the meantime, I continue to walk the vineyards, test the fruit, watch the weather, sell wine, hmm... all the things we do to keep busy while the grapes ripen.

I thought I'd share an integral part of my operation - Zoe, the wine dog. She meets and greets, leads folks up to the tasting room, has her own method of checking the grapes (not MY favorite method) and generally keeps me laughing.

To my brethren in this business - busy harvesting Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir - sleep is now allusive, I'll just rest until MY harvest starts!!!!!

Until next time, Laura

Musings From the Mountain

I’m sitting in my home office looking out my window at our 5-acre vineyard here on Diamond Mountain (see photo) and I admit I am having a hard time focusing on this harvest report. There is not a cloud to be found in the endless blue sky and the temperature is a perfect 85 degrees out. Did I also mention it is Friday and the start of the long Labor Day weekend? But I promised Joel, the Communications Manager for the Napa Valley Vintners, that I would get this blog done today. I feel like a school kid sitting in class rushing to finish my assignment as I watch the seconds tick by on the clock until the bell rings and the weekend begins.

You may be wondering where this is all going and why I haven’t mentioned harvest much yet. Here at Diamond Terrace we make Cabernet Sauvignon from our Diamond Mountain and Howell Mountain vineyards. Most of the mountain appellations in the Napa Valley harvest several weeks to even a month behind the vineyards on the valley floor. Our fruit has gone through veraison, the technical term for the fruit changing color from green to dark red, but we are far from harvesting. In the past it has not been unusual for the fruit to hang well into October and based on the health of our vine canopy and the mild summer weather we are having (see paragraph 1) it looks like we are headed in that direction again this year.

So with not much to report at this time I think it is safe to say my assignment is completed and I’m off to enjoy the start of a fun Labor Day weekend. The weather here is perfect (again see paragraph 1) so if you don’t live far it’s not to late to jump in the car and come for a visit. Most of the grapes are still on the vine and enjoying the perfect weather as well.

Maureen Taylor, Owner
Diamond Terrace

Dutch Henry Ziplocks and Grapes

Dutch Henry Brix Update for 9/4/09:

• Mt. Veeder Pinot Noir: 23.7 brix. Not Ready.
• St. Helena Estate Cabernet Sauvignon: 22.4 brix. Not Ready.
• Estate Tomatoes and Veggies: PERFECT!

Stay Away Thieving Birds

Mountain Harvest at Oakville Ranch Vineyards

chardonnay is ready to go
color of new mowed hay
acids mellow

young cabernet, first crop
sweet and full

tannins
first sampling done on entire ranch
thought we would be late
but the flavors are ahead of last year

tiny berries
cooling in the morning fog
stay away thieving birds

Phil Coturri – Vineyard Manager
Oakville Ranch Vineyard

NVV @ Whole Foods Napa

The Napa Valley Vintners are proud to be partnering with our local Whole Foods market. During alternating months Whole Food's Napa tasting bar will feature an exciting lineup of NVV member wineries.

Rhiannon Bernard, left, and Ann Pepi of Joel Gott Wines poured samples from 5-7PM on Thursday, September 3rd, as the inaugural winery in this new series. A nominal cost of $2 bought patrons a taste of five wines, including Joel Gott's newest wine, "Gott", a 2005 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon by his winemaker wife Sarah Gott.

Tasting Schedule
September 3 & 4th - Joel Gott Wines, 5-7PM, $2
September 10 &11th - Duckhorn Wine Company, 5-7PM, $2
September 17 & 18th - Heitz Cellars, 5-7PM, $2
September 24 & 25th - Newton Vineyard, 5-7PM, $2

Waitin' In the Blocks at Spring Mountain Vineyard

I feel like a sprinter in the blocks dealing with a series of false starts. We thought we’d be off and running on Tuesday, September 1^st. We tasted fruit and 'no go', not ready.

So off we went to taste again for a Thursday start. 'Ready, set and No' once again.

We tasted Sauvignon Blanc again this morning and...you guessed it...'Not ready'. OK starter, put your gun away.

We’re going to kick harvest off next Tuesday when we’re done with Labor Day and the grapes are finally ready to go.

Have a great holiday and we’ll see you early (very early) on Tuesday the 8^th to show you our first day of harvest.

P.S. Left to right in the photo are Ron Rosenbrand, SMV Vineyard Manager, me, and Leigh Meyering, Associate Winemaker

Spring Mountain Vineyard
Jac Cole, Winemaker

Dutch Henry has 09 Sauvignon Blanc in the Barn!

Yes, Dutch Henry has its first mule kicking in the stall. We successfully crushed our Pope Valley S. Blanc last Saturday (8/29/09). It is currently bubbling away in a refrigerated stainless tank. The cellar has been scrubbed and polished, the crusher and press work, and we have one varietal under our belt. Next up: our Estate Syrah in front of the winery. Probably end of next week. 100 F in the shade at the winery yesterday and it RAINED! That was a first for me and I’m a native Northern Californian of 40 something years.

Waiting and Working at Chappellet!

The signs of an upcoming harvest abound at Chappellet, located on Pritchard Hill in the eastern hills of the Napa Valley. Cellar workers are busy bees, cleaning and checking all of the equipment, and ensuring that the winery is ready for the onslaught of grapes that is right around the corner. The vineyard crew is making its final thinning passes, fine tuning the crop to ensure that it reaches the excellent potential that we all see in this 2009 growing year.

We are still at least a week away from bringing in our first varietal, Chenin Blanc (pictured). This will be our first Chenin harvest in five years at Chappellet and we are anxious to see what our newly replanted vineyard will give us. Our Chardonnay (from American Canyon and Oak Knoll) is approximately 2 weeks away, but the current warm weather could move that up a little. Our red grapes on the estate are about a week behind normal due to the cool growing season. Merlot and Malbec may see a September harvest, but the Cabernet is solidly a mid-late October baby this year.

The vineyards look great, the winery is ready to go and the staff is anxious to put another great year in the barrel here at Chappellet.