If any of you have been wondering what it is like to be a vineyard manager, winemaker, or vigneron (how I would describe my job) for a family run wine venture during harvest, here is your chance to follow along. I will try and blog about my daily routine and the interactions with various winemakers, vineyard owners, and other interested parties.

First, a little history: Bacchus Vineyard Management, our family’s farming company, manages thirty nine vineyards throughout Sonoma County and provides grapes for forty four wineries. Bacchus also grows wine grapes for our family winery, Sanglier Cellars. Working in various appellations in the county gives us a chance to better understand how climate and soils relate to grape varietals, clones and rootstocks. In turn, we use that knowledge to select the vineyards we believe best expresses the style of wines we want to produce at Sanglier Cellars.

This year the growing season has been long and cool and we are harvesting approximately fourteen days later than last year. This slower ripening seems to be leading us toward grapes with developed phenolics at lower sugar levels. In layman’s terms, “we are wine flavor ripe, not just sugar ripe” and we still have nice acidity levels.

And just so you can get some perspective on the various climates, varietals, and the harvest season, we expect to pick our Sanglier Cellars Grenache from Kick Ranch during the first week of November……over two months from now!

Monday, August 31st: Our first day of harvest! At daybreak we began picking Russian River Valley Sauvignon Blanc for Trecini Family Wines. Traditionally this is our first vineyard to ripen and when we get the call to harvest this block, we know we have several weeks of nonstop work and fourteen hour days until all the grapes are in. This two acre block of fruit normally shows nice flavors of lime, grapefruit, and jalapeño. It didn’t disappoint this year either. Yes, my East Texas friends and family, I can taste jalapeño in wine.

At 5 AM the day started with some Blue Bottle Coffee. They are a great micro roaster of wonderful coffee beans and the blend I am having is Bella Donna. If you believe coffee can have layers of flavors like a great wine….then you should try these coffees.

We started the actual pick at 6:20 AM and finished at 9 AM. For all you cork dorks, we harvested a little over 5 tons (2.5 tons an acre) with the brix coming in around 23 degrees. From the taste I would describe the natural acidity as “lively”. It was 55 degrees and overcast when we started picking and the weather did not change at all during the pick.

As soon as we finished I hustled home for second breakfast .My friend Brian will be amazed, but I missed first breakfast……very unusual for me, but I did make up for it. We grilled hamburgers last night using some great organic meat and those burgers were delicious then and as leftovers at 9:30 AM the following morning.

Next stop was Lynmar Estate Winery. We manage their 60 plus acres of vineyards and we met with winemaker Hugh Chappelle and assistant winemaker Bibiana Gonzalez to discuss the irrigation plans for the coming week. Lynmar grows pinot noir and chardonnay and they demand meticulous planning and execution when it comes to farming. We are trying to walk a fine line between supplying enough water for vine health and limiting the water to concentrate flavors. We normally use an instrument known as a pressure chamber to plan irrigation cycles, but today it is old school. I walk the blocks, observe leaf blade angles to the sun, take note of shoot tips, and tendrils, and actually use a shovel and feel the soil by hand to judge moisture content. I don’t finish but it is time to move on…..

I met up with an intern at 11:00 AM to pick up grape samples from Kick Ranch. Sanglier gets a lot of fruit from Kick Ranch, but today I am working with a block of fruit destined for Captŭre, a Bordeaux venture headed by a former winemaker at Latour.

I throw the sample on ice and head to the most important meeting of the day, lunch with my wife at Traverso’s. This family run wine shop and purveyor of fine wines and foods serves up the best Italian meats around. My prosciutto and mozzarella sandwich on a sour roll with a basil aioli combined with a few minutes with my wife does the trick and I am on my way to Healdsburg to drop off the grape samples.

From Healdsburg, I headed back to Lynmar for more personal time with the vines, the dirt, and my shovel. I got the “feel” for everything and head to the winery to share my opinions with the winemaker and to review the grape samples by block. We spent a few minutes discussing Total Acidity, pH, and brix and decide to pick in couple of days or not…..when you are my largest client you get that privilege.

The rest of the afternoon is spent crunching harvest projections and juggling the picking schedule that included picks for three wineries in the next four days when I left that has now morphed into picking grapes for ten wineries in the next four days. How do I deal with it? Simple, I eat again and think about it.

Most of you know I married one of the world’s great cooks. Tonight is no exception. Swordfish a la Siciliana and Gratin de courgettes Amelia. Speaking in my native Texan that would be a Swordfish served with a tomato sauce infused with onions, garlic, olives, raisins, capers and pine nuts. The gratin is, for the lack of a word that translates properly, a casserole, but no ordinary casserole. Fresh zucchini, Gruyere cheese, crème fraîche, and a selection of herbs….If you want to know more, email Melissa at Melissa@sangliercellars.com and she will send you the recipes. I am full and it’s time for bed.

Sorry no wine with dinner tonight…..too tired. But the iced tea was great.

Your questions and comments are appreciated!

Glenn

Tags: harvest