A view from the Mountain

I'm taking a break from my normal style of blog posting...no lyrics or movie quotes, no photos, no silly jokes. In fact, most of this post will have not been written by me (blogging made easy!). A few weeks back I participated in the authoring of a press release from the Spring Mountain District Association. Much of it was relevant to the Napa Valley Vintners blog, so, I present to you, with no further ado...

ST. HELENA, Calif.-- Despite concerns expressed by others in the wine industry, high above the fog line on the sunny slopes of the Mayacamas Mountain range, Spring Mountain winegrowers are excited about the prospects for the 2010 vintage. In late, cool growing seasons like this one, many growers fear under ripe grapes which offer green flavors or rain damage. But on the slopes of Spring Mountain on the northwestern border of the Napa Valley, winemakers welcome and celebrate the differences between vintages.

Winemaker Andy Schweiger of Schweiger Vineyards pointed out several reasons for this:

“Mountain grapes have more color and character, with less tendency toward green
characters in all types of growing conditions. Even in a cool late year, we
expect dark color and bright berry aromas in our wines. Mountain grapes have
smaller berries with tougher skins that stand up better to rain. Water drainage
and air circulation is different on the hillsides, and with sunny mornings,
mountain vineyards dry out quickly from a harvest storm. In the mountains,
problems caused by rain are extremely rare.”

Spring Mountain wines are not the only ones that might prosper in a cool year. There are growing regions in California that are often a bit warm for the grape variety that grows there. Warm years are not always their best years. But in unusually cool years, wine quality moves inland away from the fog or rises above it.

Viticulturist Ron Rosenbrand of Spring Mountain Vineyard explained the role altitude plays in his mountain vineyards:

“Whether it is foggy or clear at night, inversion conditions make the mountains
significantly warmer allowing mountain vines to continue to “work” at night. In
the morning, mountain vineyards above the fog line wake up to early sunshine and
continue the work of photosynthesis. Combine that with our warm, shallow soils
and eastern exposure; a cool and late season can work in our favor.”

Beyond obvious weather conditions, a vintage in California is often categorized by the performance of one grape variety, Cabernet Sauvignon. This ignores that California has diverse plantings. Beyond weather and different growing conditions, a vintage is not about a single varietal. Because of its complex terrain, soils, and microclimates, a number of grape varieties excel in the Spring Mountain District.

“We grow Merlot which ripens earlier than Cabernet,” points out Sheldon Richards of Paloma Vineyard. “On the steep slopes and in the stressful soils of Spring Mountain, Merlot welcomes a year that is a bit cooler and wetter. If we get a storm, the strong breezes we get afterwards on the mountain dry things out quickly.”

Steve Pride of Pride Mountain Vineyards echoed the sentiments of many Spring Mountain winegrowers:

“Although the year got off to a late start, up here at 2100’ we have been
enjoying nearly ideal growing and ripening conditions all summer. We managed to
get the shoot growth stopped weeks before veraison and the balance between fruit
and canopy has never looked better. Although the late spring start means our
harvest will be late, we have extremely high hopes of 2010 being an outstanding
vintage.”

Talking with the winemakers on Spring Mountain, it’s hard not to sense their excitement and enthusiasm for the approaching harvest. They know that no matter what Mother Nature brings during the next two months, it will be recorded and savored in their wines. And judging from the past, they expect this year to deliver well-balanced, age-worthy wines.

Spring Mountain, officially established as an American Viticulture Area in 1993, was described 25 years ago by a prominent wine writer as “probably more responsible than any other Napa hillside for creating the mystique of mountain grapes.” The appellation lies above the town of St. Helena on the eastern slopes of the Mayacamas Mountains that separate Napa Valley from Sonoma Valley. Encompassed within its bounds are about 8,600 acres, of which only 1,000 are planted to vineyards. Currently the region has just over 30 vineyard / wineries.

The Blessing of the Grapes at Chateau Montelena

It was turning into a perfect (if a tad bit hot!) day today when I ventured up to Chateau Montelena Winery for one of their harvest traditions - the Blessing of the Grapes. As I walked up the stone staircase that links Jade Lake to the historic Chateau, the sun was just starting to creep behind the winery, offering some welcome shade for the friends and family gathered to participate in this old tradition.

After a short welcome from Jim & Bo Barrett (which even included a little song and dance!), the two Priests in attendance said both a Catholic and Jewish blessing, followed by a sprinkling of Holy Water on the grapes as well as the attendees - after all, the Blessing of the Grapes not only asks God to watch over the grapes that will form the foundation of this year's vintage, but includes a prayer for the people who will be working many, many long hours over the next few months to turn those grapes into wine!

At the close of the blessing, Placido Hernandez, vineyard foreman and a 26-year veteran of the Chateau Montelena team, broke out his incredible operatic skills to sing a beautiful rendition of Ave Maria. I could not have imagined a more perfect ending to the ceremony.

As Jim Barrett put it, here's to "another opening of another show" - Happy Harvest 2010!

Julie Crafton, Napa Valley Vintners

Chardonnay Progress Update from Ceja Vineyards

With great anticipation, Armando Ceja, Winegrower at Ceja Vineyards, awaits the 2010 Chardonnay harvest on Las Amigas Road in Carneros, Napa Valley. Join him as he shares this year's progress, just a few weeks before harvest.

Berry berry good!

This year, we're slicing and dicing our vineyard blocks even smaller - picking smaller sections of the vineyard separately - which now requires a bit more berry sampling than years past (37 to be exact). I'll give a more detailed report at "Crush Time" about how many individual fermentations we get going. It will definitely beat last year's 22!

Our cozy lab is nothing to write home about, but it gets the job done. Here Alan measures the sugar levels (degrees Brix) in the berries, and also can check pH, TA (titratable acidity), sulfur (free SO2) and the fancy microscope is used so Alan can get a closer look at any bugs to determine if they are harmful pests or beneficials.

For berry sampling, individual grapes (or berries) are collected from different clusters to get a sense of ripeness in one area. The grapes are then stored in little sandwich baggies and lightly pressed to allow the juice to run.

In this photo, Alan was just starting his berry sampling in a few sections, and had nearly a dozen more to go!

Results? Wait, wait, wait. There are a few sections that passed the "taste test" and are reaching phenolic ripeness. For many other sections of our mountain vineyard we're close, but no cigar.

Sincerely,

Janet Viader, sales & marketing at VIADER

Interns or Indentured Servants?

There’s nothing better than two fresh-faced and enthusiastic young folks coming into the winery for harvest, eager to learn about grape growing and winemaking. They’re a shot in the arm for the whole winery, adding great energy and good spirits, but the best part is they will do all kinds of monotonous and arduous jobs that come along. Everything we ask them to do - from bottling to grape sampling and scrubbing tanks - it’s all a learning opportunity for them, full of the joy of new experience. For me, it’s getting loads of tedious work done. (For our cellar crew, I suspect it’s more like hazing freshmen).

For this harvest, our two interns are Katie Rabago, a student in the winemaking program at Cal Poly SLO, and Alan Daly, a biochemist from Ireland. It is a great learning experience for them both, but we do work the heck out of them. The basic deal is: we give them invaluable experience, and in return, we work them like indentured servants, working ten to twelve hours a day, six and seven days a week when we get to the middle of harvest.

Since harvest is a bit tardy this year, we’re getting all our bottling done right now. And as you might guess, we’ve got them building boxes, working the line, and sneaking in lab analysis during the off moments. The crazy thing is, they’re still smiling! Yep, it’s the best of worlds for the winery; they work their butts off, and then say thanks for letting them do it. God, I love interns!

Stay tuned for the further adventures of Katie and Alan to see what wonderful grunt work we find for them next, all in the name of education. I believe shovels and rubber boots are definitely in their future.

Jac Cole, Spring Mountain Vineyard

Chardonnay coming off the vine at Trefethen!

We began picking our estate-grown Chardonnay this morning at Trefethen Family Vineyards. The vineyard and winery team was joined by members of the Trefethen family as the first few grapes came off the vines. This same vineyard block was the first to be picked last year as well - probably because of the clonal selection and because the vines are among our youngest. This particular clone is a field selection of old Wente with a strong floral muscat character. As we walked the block earlier this week, the grapes were practically singing with flavor. Crafting a complex Chardonnay from our estate vineyard depends on having a diverse mix of clones. We actually have 12 different clones of Chardonnay and adding even small amounts of this Wente clone to a blend can have an amazing effect.

Each picking crew has a mascot - note the "tecolote" or owl on the flag in the photo. The tractor flags help the crew leaders follow each crew in the field and this approach has certainly increased the competitive banter during picking!

In 2009, we picked this block on September 8th, just one day earlier than this year. So, although we expect a gradual ramp-up in harvest over the next couple weeks, the timing is well within our historical range. And we continue to be excited about the prospect of fantastic quality.

Cheers to vintage 2010!

Jon Ruel

Director of Viticulture & Winemaking

Trefethen Family Vineyards

Harvest in Full Swing - Let the Good Times Roll

Today was the official start of harvest at Saintsbury! We brought in our first lot of Pinot noir from Beckstoffer Vineyards in Carneros which came in at a ‘whopping’ 2.36 tons per acre despite the tight spacing in the vineyard! Although the yield was light, we are very enthusiastic about the lot because the berries and clusters were tiny and the flavors were fantastic.

The grapes arrived at the winery around 10:30 this morning, and we had the entire crew, interns and all, rotate on the sorting table so everyone had a chance to contribute to the first Pinot noir of the season.

We will be harvesting more Pinot noir at the end of the week, from other vineyards that have a low yield. We are about ten days behind average for most of our blocks, although some of these lower yielding blocks have matured rapidly in last week’s heat. The cool weather in the forecast will allow harvest to take a nice mellow pace, at least for the short term. We anticipate the start of our Chardonnay harvest by the middle or the end of next week.

Each morning, winemakers Jerome Chery and Chris Kajani join me in walking blocks and tasting fruit. We are looking forward to starting our Brown Ranch harvest next week!

Cheers!

Schramsberg Harvest Dress Report # 1

Welcome to our second week of Harvest 2010! We have processed slightly more than 200 tons of Pinot Noir from the Napa Carneros, Sonoma Carneros and Anderson Valley. Also received a bit of Napa Carneros Chardonnay. The fruit is coming in at a steady pace. Fortunately, it hasn't been too chaotic yet. The great advantage is we have been given time to get the kinks out of the system before we have to start running round the clock. Yes! That’s going to change real soon.

As we tasted through tanks tonight, we were pleased to see that the first juices are starting to ferment. Having had all the vineyard samplings and tasting of grapes and juices over the past several weeks, it's a nice change to taste the young wines. The aromas and the flavors are so wonderful. It’s truly an exciting time and one that I look forward to every year.

As promised, I’ve attached some pictures of the first recipients of the harvest dress. I’ll admit, the crew was a little timid at first. They didn't want to incriminate their co-workers, but, with a little persuasion, I was able to get them to spill the beans on who was making the mistakes. Now that we've had a few people sport the dress, the gloves are ‘on!’ and the information is free flowing into my office. The good news is that the mistakes have been minimal and they are learning from them.We've only just started our second week and we have a long way to go! However, I think those that wear the harvest dress ‘Mumu’ early are the lucky ones, as the harvest dress definitely takes on a personality (read: stench) of its’ own as harvest progresses.








Dan knocked some bins over, and Julian racked a tank from the wrong valve.


















Dan doing a little shopping at the Puerto Valarta Market















Mario, took the press lock out key home with him, it’s a good thing we have bolt cutters.











Jeff was incognito and the crew didn't know what tank they were pressing into. Julian, we decided just likes the dress. Actually, some can receive a lighter sentence of a 1/2 day wear if they report their own mistakes. Hence, Jeff and Dan split the dress for a day.









The fun continues!!!

Keith

In Napa Valley - Brix Has Nothing to Do With Masonry

Visit us online
Cuvaison Estate Wines here
Brandlin Vineyard here

Facebook
Cuvaison Estate Wines
Brandlin Vineyard

Twitter
Cuvaison Estate Wines
Brandlin Vineyard

Roll Out the Barrels

There’s been a lot of talk about the cool year we’re having in Napa Valley (what’s wrong with being “cool” man?) and that we won’t be harvesting until December, but that doesn’t mean we don’t get ready for harvest, no matter when we see our first grapes. And one of the biggest parts of getting ready is getting our new barrels in and prep’d, so roll out the barrels cause here comes harvest.

Well really it's roll in the barrels, and I must say I get a lot more excited seeing all those beauties rolling off the truck than my poor cellar crew, they get stuck doing all the rolling. We just received 200 new Taransaud Bordeaux barrels and they look just beautiful, and it smells even better, like wood shop on a good day. When I see the barrels all lined up so pretty it makes my heart swell, our controller just sees our bank account shrink, but to me it’s the first sign of the start of a great vintage. What Cabernet in its right mind wouldn’t want to live in such a pretty barrel for the next two years?

So we have our first shipment in with more to follow and a lot of excitement building to when we can put these babies to use, and it won’t be so long now. Veraison is well on its way and we’ll be bringing Sauvignon Blanc in sometime in September. So no worries, the grapes are ripening and they’ll come in when they’re ready and we’ll be ready for them because we’ve already “rolled in the barrels” (think oomph band playing in the background when you say that).

Thanks all, and I'll be talking to you soon.

Jac

Farming in "real-time" at Trefethen Family Vineyards

Harvest 2010 has officially begun at Trefethen Family Vineyards! At 6:20 this morning, as the sun rose over the Vaca mountains to the east, taking the chill out of the 45-degree air, we picked our first Pinot Noir grapes of the year. Growing more than we need for our estate winery, we sell about 1/3 of the grapes from our estate vineyards to other local wineries. And, as always, this first harvest is for one of our sparkling winery partners because they depend on grapes with lower sugars and higher acids.

Note the blurry hands as Eleuterio "Teo" Gonzalez cuts each Pinot cluster off with lightening speed. Eleuterio, a Trefethen team member since 1996, has always been one of our fastest pickers. And that's saying something. This morning, I checked our pick rate after a couple hours. Across the three crews, we averaged 600 pounds per picker, per hour. Considering that these clusters weigh about 0.20 lbs each, that's an incredible 3,000 clusters per hour or 50 per minute! And Eleuterio is going faster than average!?! Now, I should probably add that we can't keep this rate up during hot weather or in vineyard blocks that have fewer clusters per vine. Furthermore, keeping the pickers picking requires a strong support staff that, among other tasks, makes sure an empty box is always within reach (and offers some cool drinking water to boot). Nonetheless, I think you'll agree those numbers are quite impressive.

We expect to continue picking Pinot for sparkling wine over the next few days and then enjoy a brief break before we get into Chardonnay and Pinot Noir for still wines. Looking at the sample numbers from this morning, Malbec is already reaching 20 degrees brix and may be coming in with those other early varieties. As has been widely reported, this has been a relatively cool vintage with the notable exceptions of last week's heat spell and a nice warm forecast for this week. Here at Trefethen, we took action early in the season to accelerate ripening after seeing some delay as early as April and May. These steps, such as leaving cover crop growing, severely limiting irrigation and thinning both earlier and more aggressively than usual, have helped the vines progress nicely.

The Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are running around 10-14 days late and the Cabernet, thanks to our "intervention", is only expected to be 7-10 days late. That said, I always cringe when asked if a season is early or late or if we got more or less than our average rainfall. On my office wall, I have weather data for our estate going back to 1968 when the Trefethen family purchased the property. You know what? In 42 years of winegrowing, we've never had an "average" year. Of course not. It's always wetter or drier, warmer or cooler.. such is the nature of the beast. And, because of that, we never farm for an "average" year. Instead, we farm in real-time, constantly adjusting to the weather at hand - and that's how great wine is crafted, year in and year out. Okay, time for me to get off my soapbox and back into the vineyard.. Cheers to vintage 2010!

Jon Ruel
Director of Viticulture and Winemaking
Trefethen Family Vineyards

Barreling into Harvest at Miner Family

Man, even empty, these barrels are HEAVY! They weigh in at about 100lbs each, and they’re a definite sign of things to come: aside from seeing those yellow bins standing at the ready outside Mumm, or anticipating the first grape samples to land in the lab, nothing tells us that harvest is around the corner quite like a loading dock full of our new barrels.

Miner will receive about 580 new barrels this year. Seem like a lot? Well, when we’re unloading the truck and getting them situated, it seems like a lot to us, too! But each year, our new barrels constitute just under 50% of all the barrels we’ll use.

Barrels are important – really important. Barrels offer an exchange of oxygen, time for the wine to come together, evolve, decide what it’s going to be. There’s a texture component to barrel aging as well as countless flavor components.
How do we choose barrels? There are so many ways, but it basically comes down to experience, trials, and good note-taking. Many wineries conduct barrel trials every year – testing out a couple of barrels from a new cooper or new styles from familiar coopers, and tasting/analyzing them periodically to see if they might want to incorporate these barrels into future harvests.

All barrels are not created equal! One barrel might taste delicious with our Garys’ Vineyard Pinot Noir, but may not cut the mustard for our Stagecoach Cabernet Sauvignon. How do we know? Again, experience and tasting - and of course, personal preference. Winemakers know what they can expect from a brand new Gillet barrel, for example, and from there they can determine if it’ll be a good match for their grapes. A good winemaker never ceases to search for new ways to make better wine. Every year offers another opportunity to tweak your technique using information learned from previous years. The longer you work with a specific lot of grapes, the better you know what those grapes need and – more importantly – what they don’t need. This is how we’ll determine, among many things, how much new oak to use on a wine.

So next time you pick up a glass, think beyond the butter, the “wood”. Think of the mouthfeel or texture of the wine, the possible presence of vanilla, pepper, spice – these can all come from the right oak used on the right wine.

We’ll get back to heaving these puppies onto racks and stowing them safely away in our cave. It IS the end of August, after all – we’re rolling right into harvest!

~Dianne Norton, Enologist, Miner Family

Sabers, Tiny Feet and the 'Harvest Dress:' Kicking off Harvest, Schramsberg Style

The sun was just starting to break through the fog this morning at 10:30 when I made it up to the crushpad at Schramsberg Vineyards for their official toast to the start of Harvest 2010. Keith Hock, the sparking winemaker, had recommended that I stop by and check out their unveiling of this year's 'Harvest Dress' - a long-standing tradition whereby cellar crew (Hugh Davies, winery owner included!) is required to wear a lovely, vintage frock (read: Mumu) when a mistake is made. Just a friendly (and embarrassing-photo-opportunity-laden) way to keep everyone on their toes!

With Schramsberg being a sparkling wine house, of course the morning had to start with a little bubbly. Hugh Davies, Keith Hock and two other members of the Schramsberg crew showed off their saber skills in opening bottles to share - and I must say I was impressed! All four bottle necks broke open as if on perfect queue. (Something tells me these guys have had a little practice...) Of course, no harvest toast would be complete without a little grape stomping as well - the age 10 and under crew did a spectacular job of getting things rolling with a little old fashioned footwork.

Cheers to a great Harvest!

Julie Crafton - posting for the Napa Valley Vintners

Napa Valley Harvest 2010 Begins!

Despite temperatures that reached beyond 100 degrees (the hottest day of the year thus far!), Napa Valley Vintners braved the heat and gathered on Tuesday night at the beautiful and historic Beaulieu Gardens in Napa Valley to celebrate harvest. The timing could not have been better - we learned from our friends at Mumm Napa Valley that Tuesday officially kicked off the start of their harvest, the first grapes picked in the Napa Valley! The word on the street is that the other sparkling wine houses are not far behind - this Friday Schramsberg plans to pick their first grapes and throw their annual harvest kick-off party, and we'll be on site to capture the festivities.

As we enter into this incredibly exciting and energizing (not to mention exhausting!) time of year, we invite you to keep tuned to our UNFILTERED blog for the most comprehensive, “fly-on-the-wall” harvest updates that you will find in the Napa Valley. With over thirty “Harvest Reporters” that range the gamut from winemakers to first-time harvest interns, winery owners to front line hospitality staff, our goal is for UNFILTERED to tell the complex, collective story of a Napa Valley harvest. Follow us along as we embark on Harvest 2010 – your comments and questions are encouraged!

Fresh off the Vine: Harvest News from Martin Estate Winemaker Frederic Delivert

Although he's waist deep in harvest preparations, Winemaker Frederic Delivert took a few early AM moments to go over the “state of the vineyard” at the Rutherford, Napa Valley property.

“I did my first grape sampling of the year last week,” Frederic said, “and we are only two weeks behind last year, which is a good place to be considering the cool weather we’ve had so far. Like 1998, 2010 will be one of the two coolest years to hit the Napa Valley in the past two decades.”

Because Frederic made some early viticultural decisions and took precautionary steps as early in the year as January, veraison has finished throughout the 7.5-acre vineyard, with the exception of a couple of Cabernet Sauvignon Clone 6 blocks (which consistently finish last every year). “We pruned very early in order to achieve an early bud break. We trimmed late, and even though it looks like hell not to have a nicely disked vineyard, our decision not to destroy the cover crop helped us remove extra moisture from the soil,” Frederic says.

“In fact, with the temperature rising into the 100s today,” Frederic continues, “we are doing the very first irrigation of the year. That speaks volumes about how much water was in our soil due to the late spring rains.”

Frederic hopes that this will be one of very few heat waves warming the Napa Valley. He would much prefer to continue the long stretch of mild days all the way into October, rather than have a succession of temperature spikes combined with early rain. But, he has a game plan for either outcome, and he’s exceptionally confident with the quality he sees right now in his Puerta Dorada Vineyard. After all, the r eal adventures in winemaking come from rising to the challenges nature throws before you.

In the winery, things c o ntinue to move slowly. Harvest preparations continue – equipment is being cleaned an d sanitized, and new French oak barrels are coming in. “My goal,” Frederic says, “is to be ready for September 10th. Then, if we have extra time, we’ll jump onto extra aesthetical projects like staining our new Taransaud barrels.”

Winemaker Steven Rogstad & Facebook Fan Talk About this Year's Vintage

We try to engage our Facebook fans whenever possible - and last week we offered our fans an opportunity to ask any questions they like. We think this particular conversation between Larry (fan) and Steven Rogstad (our Winemaker) is worth sharing and hope you learn something new!

** We realize the resolution of this image isn't the greatest, but we didn't want to compromise its "realness" by simply typing it out.

Visit us online
Cuvaison Estate Wines here
Brandlin Vineyard here

Facebook
Cuvaison Estate Wines
Brandlin Vineyard

Twitter
Cuvaison Estate Wines
Brandlin Vineyard

"Let the Fun Begin"

I'm excited to report that we will begin Harvest 2010 on Friday Aug 27th with Hudson Vineyards Carneros Pinot Noir. We are starting about a week later than we did in 2009. The grapes are tasting fantastic with delicious flavors and generous acidities.

The fun began last night with the annual Napa Valley Vintners Harvest Kickoff party - we celebrated in the heat!!! of the night at Beaulieu Vineyards’ gardens, with wonderful food, tasty older vintage wines, catching up with old friends and making new ones. Bruce Cakebread said it best, "when we get up in the morning we have to pinch ourselves because we are so fortunate to live and work in such a wonderful place."

The winery has been meticulously prepared. Our interns, some seasoned and some getting ready to experience their first harvest, have been anxiously waiting for this moment. The energy and excitement for harvest is such a rush!!!! I have been in the vineyards each morning for the last few weeks and it looks like Pinot Noir will continue to creep in over the next week to 10 days with us picking up steam after Labor day. We're not sure what we will do with ourselves if we aren't overwhelmed with fruit on Labor day, as our motto around Schramsberg is that Labor Day is a day for laboring.

The fun around Schramsberg never ends and the 2010 Harvest Dress will be revealed on Friday as we ‘toast’ the beginning of harvest. For those of you that don't know, the harvest dress is awarded to someone that makes a mistake, and they have to wear it all day at work for all to see (think Scarlet Letter). The goal is to have as few mistakes as possible, but nobody’s perfect and we all make mistakes. It could even be me that wears the dress. However, I'll do my best to avoid it. The individual that wears the dress the most is proudly rewarded by claiming ownership of the dress (and all the mistakes attached with it) and getting to take the Harvest Dress home as a trophy of their experience at Schramsberg. I'll be posting pictures of the harvest dress recipients throughout harvest so be sure to check back.

Here's to a great Harvest 2010 . It's all in good fun!!!

Keith

(Photo Credit: http://www.hudsonia.com)

Crop Thinning 101 with James!

We were able to steal a moment of our busy Vineyard Manager's time and ask him to give us "Crop Thinning 101." We now invite you to meet James and learn a quick lesson on crop thinning.



Visit us online
Cuvaison Estate Wines here
Brandlin Vineyard here

Facebook
Cuvaison Estate Wines
Brandlin Vineyard

Twitter
Cuvaison Estate Wines
Brandlin Vineyard

Summer Growth at Round Pond

Last week we reached véraison in our vineyards, which can be one of the most beautiful times of year to look at the clusters on the vines. Véraison is the time of year when the tiny green berries begin to turn color and start to fill up with juice. It is from this point that they officially start to ripen. For the vineyard crew, this is an important time to make sure the grapevines are properly pruned so the fruit is well exposed to sunlight and air. Our vineyard manager Chris Pedemonte says one of the important things to look for when you are walking through the vineyard rows is "speckling". This is when the sunlight breaks through the leaves and hits the ground. It can be a great indication of how the vines are growing and if the grapes are getting too much, or not enough sun exposure. If you see patches that are too shaded on the ground, you know the fruit needs more light. This is also important for things like air movement which can prevent things like mildew, mold, and certain pests.

While we are happy to see that we have reached veraison in most of our vineyard blocks, it has been a challenging year so far for the grapes as a whole. We have had a fairly cool summer out here in Napa, and temperature highs of 75-80 degrees have left the grapes a couple weeks behind in their ripening stages. What this means for us right now is a later harvest than normal, most likely not starting until after Labor Day. We are hoping (begging) for a late Summer heat wave to kick in any time now, and bring us up to speed. So while the rest of the country is experiencing record high temperatures, that is definitely not the case here!
As for a quick update on what's going on in the winery, the cellar crew is hard at work getting the barrel chai ready for the 2010 vintage.

They need to make space for the new wine that will come in, so this year you will see our barrels stacked 4 high instead of 2 high. It's quite a balancing act to see in action, and the crew has to be very careful that everything is level and in line, otherwise it could all topple over with one foul move! In the process of moving all these barrels, the 2009 vintage wine is being racked. This is the process of moving the wine from barrel to tank, cleaning out the barrels and removing any dead yeast sediment that has formed, then refilling the barrels with the wine for further aging. It can be a lengthy job, but it's sure easier moving empty barrels around rather than full ones!
Stay tuned as we get closer to harvest... one of the most exciting times of the year in wine country!

Clinking, Clanking, Rocking & Rolling!

This month we're bottling everything from the 2008 vintage, starting with the DARE by Viader Cabernet Franc, made from 100% estate cabernet franc. Our small bottling line can do over 650 cases (close to 8,000 bottles) a day, but today they're only doing a half-day.

Here's a shot of the boys - Maurilio, Efrain and Alan (in order of appearance). The music choice is Alan's.

We're making room for our 2010 vintage! It's ideal to have our bottling completed well before harvest when things really start getting busy. We are going to be getting a labeling machine, but until then our Quality Control manager, Blanca, will delicately hand-label each and every bottle with the cellar crew.

Teamwork makes the dream work!

Best,

Janet Viader, sales & marketing at VIADER