Jackie stomps the grapes (to the tune of Hank Williams) which allows us to juice the grapes resulting in more concentration and texture in the wine…

When I was a kid, I remember my Dad and Uncle biting into fresh, vine-ripe tomatoes at lunch time and discussing what they liked about one varietal over another. They were “truck farmers” and tomatoes were their money crop. At the time, I didn’t get it……

Now I spend my pre-harvest days walking vineyard blocks, tasting grapes and discussing what flavor profiles different clones can bring to a wine. For our Kick Ranch Syrah I have firmly settled on three clones, 470, Hermitage, and 877.

Clone 470….Screaming Blueberry: Every year when I walk our blocks of fruit, I love the bright blueberry flavor I taste in these grapes. The flavor seems to pop out when the brix level hits 25 degrees and the pH climbs above 3.50. But we normally wait a few days for the flavor to become more intense. This intensity of flavor is normally accompanied by some dimpling of the individual berries and a soft velvety feel of the cluster. This relationship has been so consistent over time that I now know some winemakers who use this observed condition to be a primary determining factor in their decision of when to pick.

Over the last few years, I have realized this added “hangtime” for the grapes in pursuit of more intense flavors also resulted in a loss of that bright blueberry component and the introduction of a dark, slightly jammy blackberry flavor. Oh…..and a higher alcohol for the wine.

Trust me, I love dark rich blackberry and I don’t care if the alcohol in the wine is elevated if the balance is on target but I really want to see that blueberry component I taste in the vineyard make it all the way through to the bottle. So, this year I picked earlier. Slightly lower sugar levels, slightly higher acid levels, and that bright blueberry flavor profile.

Hermitage Clone…..Smoky Bacon Fat

Another childhood memory, dipping my bacon in the blueberry syrup on my pancakes. Come on….you know it sounds great unless you are a vegan or vegetarian.

The Hermitage Clone is the bacon I can dip into my blueberry compote provided by Clone 470. Certainly Hermitage produces some delightfull fruit flavors, but that smoky, bacon fat is what I crave. This year, we picked and fermented the Hermitage Clone with Clone 470. Now, I am not trying to back up from the rich and lush flavors of our previous vintages, just hoping to bring out some of the uniqueness of these clones on this site.

Clone 877: The Backbone:

This clone is the most demanding on a vigneron’s patience. The flavor during our tasting in the vineyard is subdued and the grape follows it up with muted flavors in the winery. But when this clone finishes malolactic fermentation it wakes up and gives you rich dark fruit, integrated tannins, and depth. In other words, Clone 877 provides the structure or framework of the wine that allows the other clones to show off their beauty and (let’s just go ahead and say it) their sexiness and seductiveness.

Will I achieve these flavors in the 2009 Kick Ranch Syrah. Who knows? But I am having fun trying.

Kick Ranch Syrah grapes on the sorting table