2011 Fermentation

2011 Grape Crush

Fall 2011 Harvest

2011 was, like the two previous harvests, late.  November 3rd. There are times when Mother Nature forces your hand and this was one of them. Winter storms were in the way and even though we wanted more sugar, it was going to be now or perhaps never.  The worst-case scenario would be to wait and have the fruit take on water from the rainstorm and end up with lower sugars than we already had.  

Winemakers like "hang time", the term that they use for the period of flavor development that happens in a season where the grapes develop enough sugar for harvesting but still need the benefit of time on the vine. At this point the winemaker is looking for ripeness in the seed tannins, the absence of "green" flavors and development of flavor complexity.  All these go above and beyond what can be measured by Brix, the numerical value for level of sugar in the grape.  After sugar you need other indicators of ripeness that you can only find out by tasting the grapes.

In a perfect year the winemaker gets to make the call of the optimal time to harvest. Lately Mother Nature makes the call by weather that delays ripeness and threatens to ruin the crop.  

Turkeys in the vineyard

Milagro Vineyard Labels

2010 Harvest at Milagro

The 2010 harvest was completed on November 10th, just ahead of the weather. This harvest was almost a full month later than the preceding year. Late spring rains and cool summer weather put this harvest considerably behind what is considered an average harvest time for Santa Clara Valley vineyards. Getting the grapes to an average Brix of 24 degrees took as much time on the vine as we could muster before the fall rains set in. Eight weeks prior to harvest we took the added measure of thinning the crop by about 1 ton per acre for a total yield of about 5 tons per acre.

Controlling yield, especially for heavy crop producing vines such as Petite Sirah is standard practice for obtaining higher quality grapes. This year we had to thin twice to ensure that the vines could get the maximum ripeness in such a late, cool season. Getting to know the vineyard is one of the tasks that result in getting the most out of a particular site and one of the things that can be controlled by the grower is the yield.

Pressing grapes and making wine

After we crushed and destemmed the grapes, we placed them into the macrobins. The yeast was pitched after it was properly hydrated and tempered with grape juice. We waited a day to start punching down the skins as they formed a cap on the top of the fermenting juice. Fermentation proceeded well perfuming the garage and the house with the yeasty smell of fermenting wine. As the fermentation proceeds, the color extraction from the skins turns the grape must into a deep opaque purple. The transformation of juice to wine seems to take place overnight. As the sugars are consumed by the yeast, the alcohol content and conversion of sugars eventually slows the fermentation. Next the wine has to be removed from the skins and the seeds. We taste the wine as it is pressed off the skins to avoid extracting too many bitter tannins. We use neutral and new barrels to maintain a balance of flavor that comes from the oak and the charred interior of the barrel that gives that wine some vanilla and caramel flavors. There is a sense of relief getting the wine into the barrels. The wine will settle and the next process of racking takes place after a few weeks to remove the wine from the lees that settle from the now still wine. The varietal character of the wine starts to show as the wine settles, and we wonder what this wine will be like after a few months in the barrel.

Crushing Grapes

Harvest Party 2009

Vineyard Blessing 2009

Vineyard Blessing 2008

Photos from the vineyard blessing in the fall of 2008. It rained after but we still had a great blessing - and the live jazz music and tamales were enjoyed by all.

October 2009 Harvest

A week ago Sunday was decision time for growers and wineries in California as they contemplated the approaching storm that was carrying several inches of rain from typhoons that had struck on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. If you could believe the weather report, which in this case was dead on, it was something that you just could not ignore. The decision for me here in Morgan Hill was whether to pick the grapes that I planned to make wine with this year or let them ride out the impending deluge. The 2009 California wine grape crop was still aproximately 20% or more unharvested with varieties like cabernet still getting "hang time" and waiting for the right sugars to form along with the flavors that winemakers hope for to make their wines "complex".

Clos La Chance decided to wait to harvest their contracted portion (80% of our grapes). I decided, after a few phone calls for advice, to get the grapes. The risk of leaving the grapes was twofold. First the grapes would absorb water from the storm and the sugars, that were lower than the previous year would go down. The second risk was from mold. Usually a day of rain isn't fatal, especially if followed by a wind and dry days.

So I decided to pick. Heck, I thought, I didn't want to end up without grapes from my own vineyard to make our first batch of wine which we have been planning for several years. So on Monday we had a small crew bring the grapes in from the south vineyard block. The fruit was ready, according to Mike my winemaker friend who has started Wild Eye winery in San Benito County. The fruit had good flavors, the skins were soft and the seeds were ripe in most areas of the vineyard. As usual there was variation across the vineyard. We both thought the south block was the ripest. They were not, perhaps, as good as last year, which my wife Cathy confirmed, but they were good and ready. The birds thought so too and were taking a small share along with the bees. Nature had aligned to force our hand and we played it. Pick the grapes, Now!

The sugar, however was on the low side at 22.5 Brix. Still high enough to make good wine but it would dictate the style. This would be interesting and perhaps a challenge. Forge ahead. My friend, Lucio, who works with me on the vineyard sometimes and has experience in these things thought they were ready too. He and his brother who works in a nearby winery and I crushed and destemmed on Monday night and by 730 pm the must (a combination of grape juice, seeds, and some stems, called "jacks") from a ton and a half of grapes was all safely inside our garage in three bins ready for innoculation of yeast. After a rest in the bins called a "cold soak" for 24 hours the yeast was pitched. The next day it rained almost five inches in 24 hours. I wondered if I had made the right decision but on Thursday there was a mad scramble all over the central coast to bring in the harvest. Hang time was over for many of the red grapes and even some chardonnay in this part of California's wine country.

A week later we still have balmy and damp weather, perfect for the formation of botrytis mold and bunch rot. The must has almost completed its transformation into wine a practically miraculous process. The color is the beautiful deep violet purple that Petite Sirah is famous for and also, as can be expected from Petite Sirah, the aromas have a nice ripe berry scent. Time will tell. The wine will go into barrels after we press it away from the skins in the next couple days.

The Tom turkeys are back...

...and they're eating the bird seed under the plum tree. We are currently preparing the property for the installation of a small wine making facility in hopes that our winemaker will make a great wine from the 2009 fall harvest. We have begun planting other grape varietals in small quantities on the property in front and back of house. More information will be shared as progress is made. Thank you for following our blog!

Looking Forward 2009

As I write this, the vines are showing the first signs that the '09 growing season is well under way. As the daily temperatures rise the vines begin to bud and the official bud break for this season happened about three days ago for our vineyard. Different varieties of vinifera grapes leaf out at different times. Chardonnay, for instance, is usually earlier than Petite Sirah and many of the growers will prune twice to delay the bud break in areas where there is danger of frost.

Once the new shoots start to grow the main thing we have to hope for is that we don't have a late frost. Last year many vineyards were devastated with the late frost, especially in the north. We got some damage here but it was relatively mild compared to some northern california vineyards that lost much of their harvest. Even with some loss of fruit we still harvested 4.5 tons last year. We had beautiful well ripened fruit in spite of the frost and a hot spell that sunburned many of the clusters just after they were formed.

Our hopes for this year's harvest is to keep the grapes thinned to about 2.5 to 3 tons per acre. Left to their own devices the vines might produce as much as 5 tons per acre, even more. The problem with that is that quality of the fruit would suffer and the vines might be less productive in subsequent years. The vineyard is still young and we are building the vine structure that will serve to support the grapes for years to come so we don't want to push them beyond their capacity. In nature the energy of the plant world goes mainly toward fruit production so we have to hold the vines back some so they will continue to develop strong trunks and cordons (arms).

2008 Harvest