Second Leaf

I can’t believe it’s really been more than 2 months since my last post. Put simply, work has gotten the best of me. That doesn’t mean things haven’t been happening in the vineyards or the winery, though. Far from it, in fact.

In this post I’d like to provide updates on several of my wine projects.

First, both vineyards that I tend, Sorella Ridge and Hidden Acres, were pruned last month. Sorella Ridge was easy enough for me to tackle on my own since it’s just 56 vines. However, we were at risk of missing our pruning window at Hidden Acres this year (again, the aforementioned “work” thing got in the way). So we decided to hire someone to prune Hidden Acres. A one man job and 2 days of work later and the vineyard was looking sharper than ever. That is, at least as sharp as this old 1/2 acre of neglected vines can look in its current state.

More recently, as the photograph below illustrates, bud break has burst onto the scene in my backyard micro-vineyard, Sorella Ridge.

In the “winery” (aka garage), there’s been a lot of activity. First, in January I started construction on a small insulated and air conditioned room inside my garage. At about 60 square feet, this space will serve as my winemaking and wine storage facility. A 5000 BTU air conditioner will keep the room cool during the sweltering summer heat we get here at the base of the Sierra foothills. I expect to have the raised floor complete today and begin erecting the walls. Clearly I’m in a race with Mother Nature to get the room finished before the temperatures outside rise.

The 2007 wines have been coming along nicely too. The first wine to spend time in my new 15 gallon French Oak barrel was the first of two lots of Zinfandel. Since this batch of Zin was a little short of filling the barrel completely, I topped the barrel with some of the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon. This was back in early January.

Earlier this month I racked the Zin/Cab from the barrel into carboys and replaced it with the Rhone blend. The final blend came to 8 gallons of Syrah, 4 gallons of Mourvedre, and 3.5 gallons of Grenache. Unfortunately the blend percentages were dictated by how much of each variety I had on hand and not based on tasting different blends. I had to get to 15 gallons and it took all that I had to fill the barrel.

Other wines racked include the Barbera, Cabernet Sauvignon, and the 2nd lot of Zinfandel (which will get barrel time after the Rhone blend has finished its tour).

Photos from the winery room coming soon.

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.

I have been remiss in introducing you to a key player of my vineyard management team. In fact, he is my most loyal assistant. Always by my side. Alerting me to all threats… both foreign and domestic.

Meet “Chip”! Or more formally known as Chocolate Chip.

Pictured above, Chip is guarding the Petite Sirah plants on the upper terrace (Block R). He is particularly proud of these 6 vines as they have shown great promise so far this year.

Chip is also very excited about the progress shown by the Barbera vines planted in the rest of the vineyard and wanted me to share some photos of them too.

If you look closely you can see several green young fruit clusters.

The photo below shows a nice close-up.

When the Barbera vines at Sorella Ridge emerged from their winter slumber several days ago, they took off with abandon.  Every day when I get home from work and walk the rows many of the shoots have literally grown a few inches in just one day. The first thought that comes to mind when I look out and see all of my vines growing right in front of my eyes is the firefighting phrase “fully involved”^[1]. Like an aggressive fire that is moving in all directions, the vines too are teeming with growth. Life indeed is good in my little vineyard!

The downside of all this activity is that I’ve had to catch up on some of my vineyard duties. The most important task at hand was to install the upper wires on my trellising system. With the new shoots reaching towards the sun, I needed something for them to grab onto. Originally I had planned on just a single wire for both the upper and lower supports. Recently, however, I’ve been rethinking the upper wire and thought that 2 wires would result in a fuller canopy. The idea for the upper support is that the shoots grow vertically inside the top wires, over the wires to either side, and back down towards the ground. Since the fruit zone for the vines is just above the lower wire, the growth from the shoots coming back down from the top wires provides a shade canopy for the clusters.

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Let me introduce you to Sorella Ridge, our humble little residential winery and estate vineyard located in California’s Sierra Foothills.

The name Sorella Ridge represents the terraced hillside where our Barbera vineyard is planted. The vineyard has three long terraces, or blocks, where each is named after one of our daughters: Block J is the bottom terrace, Block M in the middle, and Block R is at the top. Since the word “sorella” means “sister” in Italian and we planted an Italian variety, the name just works. Although my girls are just 4, 7, and 10 years old at this point and still prefer to watch dad tend their vines, my hope is that they will grow to care for their little parcels and get involved in future harvests and the winemaking process. And if along the way I inspire one of my girls to become the next Heidi Barrett, my cellar will be flush with world-class wines for life. Not a bad plan, eh?

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Since our vineyard is just in its second growing season and our vines are still establishing themselves, I never had any intentions of making wine from their fruit this year. However, we have enjoyed snacking on the few clusters of Barbera and Petite Sirah that have shown themselves this summer.

So rather than let the remaining brave scouts of future Sorella Ridge wine go to waste, we decided to make some Barbera jelly with what fruit was left. I headed out into the vineyard with a bucket and shears in hand and harvested several beautiful Barbera and a few Petite Sirah clusters. I pressed the grapes in our kitchen and captured the free-run juice for the jelly. To the juice I added a little fresh lemon juice, some sugar, and a packet of fruit pectin. After a quick spin in the microwave we had piping hot Barbera jelly! Once the bowl was cool enough to handle, I poured the jelly into a jar, sealed it, and put it in the fridge to cool overnight.

This morning we enjoyed the first fruits of our vineyard spread on freshly toasted bread! Let me tell you, I have never tasted anything like it. The flavors were fresh, the consistency smooth, and the jelly had a nice tart aftertaste. Hopefully a precursor to future vintages.

The world of biodynamic farming has taken another step in Napa Valley, CA with the application of an all natural sunscreen to wine grapes to help shield them from the intense summer sun.

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