Second Leaf

This time of year is crazy for me and my winemaking endeavors. I cannot imagine what it’s like for people actually trying to make a living at it!

Here’s a quick update on where things stand with my humble efforts for 2007.

The season started off with our first pick out at Hidden Acres Vineyard. This is our adopted 1/2 acre 20+ year old vineyard. The wine from that pick is undergoing a “secondary fermentation” (Malolatic transformation) where the harsher malic acid is being transformed into softer lactic acid. We are planning at least one more pick out there this season. Since the weather has cooled, we’re in a holding pattern.

Meanwhile, I have also harvested Syrah from Acorn Hill Vineyard in El Dorado County (detailed blog post forthcoming). These grapes went through a cold soak for a few days, have completed primary fermentation, and are currently in the ML phase. I have high hopes for this wine.

This coming Sunday I will be picking Barbera and perhaps Grenache. These grapes will also come from Acorn Hill Vineyard. The last fruit that I will pick from Acorn Hill will be Mourvedre and that should be ready in the next couple weeks. My plan as of now is to create a blended wine of Syrah, Grenache, and Mourvedre and perhaps have enough Syrah left over for a Syrah-only bottling.

Earlier this week I got a call about some Cabernet Sauvignon fruit that became  available from the Harmon vineyard (also in El Dorado County). Since I have heard great things about the Cab from this location, I picked up some fruit from there too! The Cab is moving along nicely in its primary fermentation and is down to 8° Brix. I started the ML tonight.

So that makes 1 mystery wine from Hidden Acres and 5 other varieties for 2007! This has seriously ratcheted up my little operation and will hopefully result in some fantastic wines.

If that wasn’t enough, I’ve also joined a cooperative effort started by Tim at Winecast to create a barrel of User-Generated Roussanne at Crushpad. The idea is to have several folks join in on the decision-making process for taking a Roussanne from harvest to bottling. In the end, we’ll all get a case of the finished product. So far it’s been fun to bat around the topics of style, alcohol, and acidity with members chiming in on what they’d like to see in the finished product. I can’t wait to see where this project goes!

Since things wouldn’t be complete without looking back at 2006, I also topped up and tasted my 2006 wines. I have two lots of 2006 Zinfandel from the same vineyard, one aging in American oak and another in French oak. The French lot tastes awesome and the American tastes great too. Lots of great raspberry and spice with a soft mouthfeel. I’m very excited about this wine.

The 2006 Barbera also tasted very nice but still has a lot of natural acidity. I’m considering putting this wine through some cold stabilization to naturally drop out some of the acids. This wine really wants to be blended with just a bit of something else, like Petite Sirah, to take the edge off. A work in progress.

A lot has happened over the last couple weeks since my last report on Hidden Acres. First, we picked about 140 pounds of the ripest red fruit on August 28th. This amount is a fraction of what this vineyard would produce if it was in better health and wasn’t preyed upon by critters. We hope to solve both of those problems over time but for this year we’re going to take what we can get.

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Last week we tested the grapes at Hidden Acres. Although this vineyard is 20+ years old, it will be our first harvest here. We know there is some red and white vinifera planted in the vineyard as well as 1/2 row of table grapes. However, we didn’t know exactly where the red and white vines were planted. We would have to wait for varasion (when grapes from reds turn red and whites stay white) to know for sure. All part of the mystery that makes this vineyard fun.

The grapes went through varasion several days ago and the planting pattern that emerged is a bit more random than we were hoping: a few reds, then a white, a few more reds, several whites… you get the idea. We still think the whites are Chenin Blanc but the reds appear to be a mixed bag of Bordeaux varieties (probably Merlot & maybe Cabernet Sauvignon) and some Zinfandel.

As of last week the whites were ripe, the Bordeaux vines were very close (just over 24 brix), and the Zin wasn’t quite ready (22.6 brix). We’ll be harvesting the Bordeaux plants this afternoon. Since we’ll be going plant to plant, tasting grapes for ripeness as we go, we’re not sure how much fruit will get. Also, since we’re not setup to make white wine yet, the fruit from the whites will be dropped. The Zin will need more time before they’re ripe and will probably be picked next week.

I’ll post some photos from today’s pick.

With pruning behind us, bud break was to be our formal introduction to the vines at Hidden Acres. As expected, the annual warming trend in the weather triggered the awakening of these old gnarly vines.

After years of toiling on their own with minimal human intervention, we had hacked and sawed them back to something resembling a wine grape vineyard. You see, our goal for this year was simply to restore some order to this once prized place and gradually bring it back to its former glory. 

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Hidden Acres was probably planted in 1987 or 1988 by Dr. Townsend and his wife. I hope to get an exact season in the near future. This does seem to be a reasonable timeframe as the vineyard produced multiple vintages and three years are needed to begin producing grapes in any quantity. 

Varieties planted included Zinfandel, Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay. Table grapes are also planted but we’re interested in the wine so this may be the last time they are mentioned. From my hastily written notes while on the phone with the Townsends the rows starting from the tennis court side are:

• Half row table grapes including Thompson (Hey look… already mentioned them again)
• Two rows Zinfandel
• The final row is Chenin Blanc
• A row somewhere in between is Chardonnay
• The rest of the rows are a mix of Chenin Blanc and Zinfandel

I’m sure we’ll be able to figure out what’s what as the grapes enter varaison. I’d almost bet there will be a schematic posted showing the the layout, variety and possibly production of each vine. Sometimes a hobby can be taken to far. (nah)

On average a ton of grapes were harvested per year. Netting was put over the vines early in September as the brix came up to 19. This is apparently the point where the grapes become very attractive to birds. There is no deer fencing leading me to think that they weren’t a major threat to the vines (and grapes).

There were several vintages before the couple moved out of state in 1992. At least one vintage took a medal in a local competition. The final crush involved several couples competing in an old fashioned stomp with the victor taking home a Hidden Acres t-shirt.

I’ll be back with more history and news as it becomes available.

It’s been quite a while since I last posted but I can assure that plenty of wine has been sampled in my absence. No excuses other than I’ve been busy with work and other projects. But this post is not about my hiatus from Second Leaf. Instead I’d like to introduce you to one of my latest projects.

Hidden Acres is a 1/2 acre vineyard that I, along with some friends (whom you’ll be hearing more from in future posts), have recently adopted. Our task is to rehabilitate an 18year old (or at least that’s how old we think it is) collection of vines that is in desperate need of some TLC.

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