I Am Blaming It On The Coyotes:

I haven’t blogged in a while. Sheer exhaustion. The realities of harvest have set in……little sleep, edgy winemakers and vineyard owners, rain, and now Coyotes.

One of the critical activities leading up to the actual day of harvest is irrigation management. It is the main tool we use to try and influence sugar levels, PH, and other grape chemistry. It isn’t a great tool for accomplishing our goals, but it is the best one we have.

Harvest related irrigation decisions are made during a vineyard walk through and usually implemented immediately. Sometimes implementation is critical. Recently I did a morning vineyard walk through and decided we had to irrigate that night. Because we were doing partial blocks it was a manual opertion. At 7:00 I turned on the system and begin a loop around the 20 plus acres to look and listen for leaks.

When you are tired and looking forward to the end of a 16 hour day, seeing numerous geysers in your vineyard is not a welcome sight. Leaks were spewing furiously at multiple locations. The culprit…..those mangy coyotes. Now the flea bitten bums could have walked all the way down the hillside to the reservoir and drank their fill, but that would be too easy. Instead they chew on the plastic irrigation drip lines and get their water that way. More work for the coyote and more work for me. Two hours later and the leaks were fixed.

Barreling Down…

Monday was a big day at Sanglier Cellars:

Viognier: We started at 2 AM picking Viognier from…..you guessed it, the Coyote Vineyard. We have had some really warm Indian summer days and I wanted the fruit harvested before the pH climbed any higher. The decision to pick is a complex one but I was happy with the flavor, the level of “sun toasting” on the clusters, and the acid levels. So we harvested.

The great thing about farming your own grapes that are made into your wine is the control you have over the process. We picked exactly when we wanted to in the ripening process, picked early in the morning to insure the grapes arrived at the winery cold, and got them to the winery early enough to insure we had unfettered access to the equipment we wanted to use.

I have commented on free run grape juice previously and viognier is one of the more delicious varietals. Sweet and pretty. No doubt about it. Our viognier will be 50% barrel fermented in neutral French oak and 50% in stainless steel. We plan to do a partial malolactic fermentation. Our goal: let the fruit shine, a richer feel in the mouth, but with a clean finish. We will let you know how we did in a year of so.

Pinot Noir: Our fermentation of the Russian River Pinot Noir was nearly complete yesterday so we decided to go to barrel. We like to finish the fermentation in the barrel (yes, we like the richer texture we get from this process) so we “barrel down” around 2 or 3 degrees brix. The wine finishes the process in the French Oak and achieves total dryness.

The Best Job in the Winery is monitoring the juice as it flows to the barrels and we always have volunteers to do this job. Numerous glasses are continually placed under the endless flow of newly fermented wine to assess and judge the qualities of this year’s vintage. Our 2009 is combination of clone 777 and Pommard and we do keep them separate until final blending approximately one year from now. But these tasting notes during the barrel down are worthwhile…at least that is my story.

Highlghts: The 777 has a rich chocolate component to its core of dark red fruit. The Pommard has an earthy (if you like mushrooms, think of mushrooms…if you don’t go with forest floor) to its very dark core fruit.

Prognosis: If we don’t screw it up this pinot will be awesome.

Still to Come: We shoud begin harvesting syrah by the weekend and the grenache, mourvedre, counoise, and cinsault to follow.

Chelsea, Glenn, Dave and Amos at Kick Ranch

Farming decisions in a high end vineyard focused on quality wines are difficult to make. There are so many non-controllable variables. Will we have a warm or cold spring, a late spring frost, no spring rain, a lot of spring rain, will the summer be hot, cool……who knows.

We do approach the growing season with a plan, believe it or not, a written farm plan. We make projections of grape tonnage, state the planned vine architecture, and define all the expected farm activities such as mowing, excess shoot removal, vine training, canopy management (we actually position the grape clusters relative to the sunlight through the adjustment of canes, selective leaf removal, and selective lateral removal), nutrition additions, irrigations, and disease control.

In a perfect world, we approach veraison with the crop load in balance relative to the volume of leaves, the fruit is growing in exactly the right position, the fruit is uniformly ripening, and the weather consists of warm days and cool nights. I don’t know about you guys, but my relationship with God is not so good to insure all those things align.

Hard Spot 1:

Fruit Thinning is a must in a high quality vineyard. I am not one of those people who equate low yields to high quality. However, I do equate quality with balance. Each grape cluster must have its own space…..no touching! That decision is easy. But when we make this fruit drop, that is when a lot of vineyard owners become somewhat surly. They see big money on the ground. And to add insult to injury, they paid me good money to put it on the ground.

This year, we did not have to do much thinning because of “balance”. Mother nature took care of that during May when a somewhat abnormal late season rain washed the bloom off the grapes resulting in shatter (fruit cluster that failed to develop normal grapes).

But we did have to make a pass through the vineyard and drop the fruit that was ripening late compared to the majority of clusters. Even ripeness is a non negotiable issue for the top winemakers. It wasn’t fun explaining to the vineyard owner why we must take his already small crop and make it smaller. I really don’t remember a management skill related to this type of counter intuitive customer discussion being taught in graduate business school.

Hard Spot 2:

“The sugars are high but the pH is low” is the first almost universal winemaker comment I hear when the time to pick is nigh. Although sugar levels are only one part of the quality assessment of grapes (taste, tannins, acidity, have to be right also or the grapes will not make great wine) grape contracts are normally defined by sugar levels. The vineyard owner has completed his part of the bargain and met the contract requirements……but the winemaker will not pick.

Our job now becomes one of mediator, magician, and I guess, “whipping post”. The vineyard owner, who pays us, wants the maximum tonnage he can get and still obtain the desired quality. The winemaker, who holds our reputation in his hands, wants the optimum quality. We are in the middle.

In fairness, nearly all of the wineries we are dealing with are paying prices per ton of grapes that are significantly above county averages. They pay the premium so they can request more time to let the grapes hang on the vine after they have achieved “contract ripeness”.

The hard part for us is the management of irrigation that can help preserve fruit volume and weight (growers likes this) and the management of irrigation that promotes flavor. (winemakers like this one). You guessed it, these two irrigation approaches are not remotely similar. If I am a successful magician, this works out great. If I am successful as mediator everyone is satisfied but not ecstatic. If I am not a good magician or mediator, I am……the whipping post.

(Now if you have been following the blog and taking note of how well I eat you will now realize there is more to the story. When you find yourself in the whipping post situation there is a distinct advantage to being the largest person in the discussion)

Hard Spot 3:

It is harvest season and it is raining. Our biggest fear has manifested into reality. We still have hundred of tons of wine grapes worth millions of dollars and they are drenched. Some varietals can handle some rain and come through OK, others are now at risk of rotting in the vineyard.

Every winemaker and grower wants me to tell them exactly what the options are and exactly what the outcome will be. Do we risk the crop for a chance at great wine? Do we pick early to preserve the crop and risk a mediocre wine? This is a situation when I want to give that lawyer like answer, and leave the decision in the hands of the client.

So, I try the lawyerly approach and lay out the options, explain the risks associated with all the options, and wait for my vineyard owner and winemaker to respond. Then I get the question I already knew was coming, “If it was your vineyard or your wine, what would you do?”

I love this job, just not today.

SANGLIER CELLARS OCTOBER RELEASE

Releasing new wines is an exciting time, but also slightly troubling, if like me, you have tendencies toward paranoia and obsessive compulsion disorder. Not that these traits flare up often, but when you compress the pressures of harvesting for some of the best winemakers in the world, making your own wine, and releasing your current wines to the market place all at the same time, it is safe to say the brain is full of what ifs, and scary scenarios. Throw in a little rain like we had Saturday morning and the threat of rain for tonight (excessive rain has the potential to ruin a grape crop) and I believe you can understand how the mind races.

But I digress. Releasing new wines requires writing new tasting notes. Writing new tasting notes requires some trusted friends to lend their opinion. Their opinion must be given in the environment we hope the wines will be drunk…at the dinner table (or if you insist, I can assure you we are OK with lunch time drinking). And yes there is the side benefit of drinking your wine, truly enjoying what you have made, and achieving a evening of bliss during a time of intense work activities.

These wines will officially release on October 1.

JimCowan (aka Florida Jim on many websites and blogs) and his wife Diane
Perry Rankin, owner of Thirty Four North Wine Merchant in Healdsburg
Brian Check, Tasting Room Manager at Gary Farrell
Chelsea Alexander, General Manager at Sanglier
Glenn & Melissa Alexander

2008 Kick Ranch Viognier

Tuna Tartare with Mango, Avocado, Mango Vinaigrette and Micro Greens

2008 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir

Puffed Pastry filled with Duck Confit, Mushrooms & Balsamic Creme Sauce

2007 Kick Ranch and Kemp Vineyard Syrahs

CK Lamb Chops Grilled over a Fire of Grapevines and Francois Ferrer Barrel Staves
Eggplant Custard, Oven Roasted Potatoes with Garlic & Rosemary

Dessert

Almond Tart with Homegrown Strawberries

2008 Kick Ranch Viognier On the nose: Gardenia’s, peach skin, cassava melon, kumquat and a hint of vanilla
On the palate: Lime citrus and orange blossom, roasted almonds, spice, and a wonderful mouth-feel…

2008 Russian River Pinot Noir: This is a velvety Pinot that fills up the mouth with richness. Hints of bacon fat, brown sugar, forest floor, chocolate covered dark cherries, rhubarb and pipe tobacco
On the palate: Smoky black cherry slightly laced with dark chocolate. It is a powerful pinot with concentrated, pretty red fruit.

2007 Kemp Vineyard Syrah: This Syrah has gripping texture, but with a cleanness…Cocoa, white chocolate and big black fruit fill the nose.
On the palate: toasted spices, cocoa powder and chocolaty laced blackberry and plum screamed to pair up with lamb!

2007 Kick Ranch Syrah: As Jim put it, “Tastes like one continuous integrated Syrah…”.
Dusty red fruit on the nose. The palate brings cinnamon, coffee with a finish that is long and clean. A crowd favorite of the night…

RAIN AND THE CHANCE OF RAIN

A little rain just washed the dust off…..that is a comforting comment that covers the fear all winegrowers have during harvest. A serious rain is a real threat to the crop, especially for Chandonnay, Zinfandel, Grenache, Petite Sirah and other thin skinnned varietals. So we all sleep lightly during nights of forecasted moisture and hope we can harvest the fruit prior to botrytis setting in. We do have some preventative tools to combat this risk, but they only work if you did a good job with your farming back in May when the botrytis spores develop and settle in, just waiting for some late season moisture to encourage their growth. We are ready and prepared, but the fact is, sleep will be hard to come by until this front passes.

Wednesday was busy, but not stupid busy. Of course Dave, Armando, Paco and a few others might disagree since they pulled most of the load that day. But for me, things almost seemed normal.

So what happens when you get a normal work day in the middle of silly season? You eat and drink of course.

I am not going to bore you with breakfast or lunch comments. Instead, I will go straight to the dinner menu and hope you enjoy the expanded coverage.

Dinner:
The reason for the dinner was a pre-harvest run down and review with one of our vineyard and winery clients…Captûre. It was a wonderful reason for slowing down and enjoying a nice meal.

Melissa’s Kitchen

Melissa’s title at Sanglier Cellars is Culinary Director. How many small family wineries have a Culinary Director? Don’t know of anyone else, but then again they don’t have a Melissa.

I hope you enjoy the pictures and reading the menu. Then slowly let it sink in…….we get to eat like this three or four nights a week!

Starters:

A Platter of Crane Melon & Fig

Oven Roasted Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes, Salt Cured Olives,
Laurel Chenel Goat Cheese & Toasted Baguette
Served with Sanglier Cellars 2008 Rosé

First Course

Halibut Tagine with Pasilla Peppers, Tomatoes, Yukon Potatoes, Olives and Cilantro Sauce
Served with Carica 2005 Kick Ranch Sauvignon Blanc & Sanglier Cellars 2008 Kick Ranch Viognier

Main Course

Seven Hour Leg of Lamb
Marrowfat Beans with Garlic, Onions, and Creme Fraiche
A Gratin of Eggplant, Zucchini, Tomato & Onion
Served with Domaine Charbonniere 2004 Chateauneuf du Pape, Domaine Clape 2004 Renaissance and Cutt 2007 Fearless Red

Gravenstein Apple Tart
Homemade Cinnamon Ice Cream

Labor Day….. or for us Grapegrowers Labor “Dazed”

Labor Day seems to be the annual catalyst for moving the harvest season into overdrive and this year is no exception. Sunday was spent planning for a full day in the vineyards “laboring”. At dawn Monday morning, we had three crews on site at Vicini, Cattalini, and (moving away from the Italian theme) Lynmar. The pinot noir we picked was destined for estate wine for Lynmar, Trecini Wines and Patz and Hall.

As soon as we finished picking everyone hustled to other other vineyards to get ready for an all nighter. Trucks, tractors, lights, trailers, and bird netting were moving fast and in all directions. For many of us, the day started at 4 AM and ended when we honestly just couldn’t do anymore…..sometime around 6 PM.

I mumbled something about being too old to work this hard and the indignity of working on a holiday instituted to honor labor and was told by one of our Mexican workers, not to worry, it “wasn’t a holiday in Mexico”.

Did Sunday’s Work Cause my Blue Monday?

Perhaps I was in a blue mood because I had put in full day Sunday working on the dreaded “paperwork”, but I also got out and sampled the fruit in vineyards destined for Sanglier Cellars wines. Chelsea and I met up at Downtown Bakery in Healdsburg for a cup of Flying Goat coffee and then headed to the vineyards with her dog Amos in tow.

Sampling vineyards is great…..paperwork bad. Paperwork won that day.

An All Nighter…..

If you are following the chronology, we finished work around 6 PM, only to start again at 1 AM. We started on two adjacent Russian River vineyards, Copain and Archer. Copain’s fruit goes to Kosta Browne and the grapes from Archer were destined for Patz and Hall, Loxton, and Sanglier Cellars.

As soon as those picks were completed, we packed up and headed to harvest Castaldi Vineyard for Kosta Browne and Barbed Oak Vineyard for their own Estate Wine. Then, on to our normal afternoon routine….moving tractors, lights, trailers, etc.

By now, you are probably wondering where the glamour and excitement of the wine business went. It’s still here. Just check out the “Hi, Let’s Eat” section at the end of the blog.

An Old Goat

Developments of new vineyards always start in the fall with soil preparation and amendments of compost, lime, gypsum, and so forth. We have a small development planned next to Gary Farrell Winery and are ready to get going. And we will, as soon as we get a new shelter and pen built for a goat we are going to displace.

Now some of you may think letting a single goat hold up a construction project is not reasonable, but that is one of the great things about Sonoma County….we respect our food sources.

Crush is Finally Here for Sanglier Cellars

We finished picking fruit for Sanglier around 5 AM. Pinot Noir Pommard clone and clone 777 were delivered to Vinify for an early morning date with the crusher/de-stemmer. Even though the fruit quality was excellent, we put a full line up of “sorters” on the table to look for even the slightest imperfections, pieces of leaves, or the errant earwig. Judging from the taste and the consistency of the clusters, we will make another outstanding pinot noir.

Hi, Let’s Eat

It has been awhile since we updated our food and wine consumption…..

Sunday Night’s Dinner was bone in rib eyes, oven roasted potatoes, and fresh sliced heirloom tomatoes from the garden, accompanied by a 1996 Silver Oak Alexander Valley Cabernet.

Monday’s Night Dinner was a real treat.

Mediterranean Salad with roasted peppers and chick peas

Chateau La Gatte, a Bordeaux rosé did the job with this dish

Rabbit Stew (Devil’s Gulch Rabbits) with porcini mushrooms, tomatoes, white wine and brandy
Baked Polenta with Parmesan and Gruyere
Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream (yes we grow the strawberries)

The wines for this dinner came from way back in the cellar…..Ridge 1997 Lytton Estate Grenache and Ridge 2001 Sonoma Station.

If you are wondering about 1st and 2nd breakfast, I am still on the ham sandwich and Flying Goat Coffee bandwagon.

Expressing a Sense of Place……Terroir for you Francophiles

Many of our winemakers, no let’s be blunt, all of our winemakers think their grapes are the most important and we are supposed to harvest them exactly when they request and deliver them to the winery within their time parameters. It is not an unfair request. We are working with the elite fruit of Sonoma County and charging a price reflective of the quality. Timing of the harvest is critical to capturing the flavors, grape phenolics, and ripeness that truly refect the vineyard’s sum of relationships with the soil, climate, and our farming techniques. A successful harvest allows us to give the winemaker fruit that has a Sense of Place, or as the French say, Terroir.

What Does that Mean To Me

There are well crafted wines that taste really good, but always seem to taste the same year after year. They are consistent. So consistent you must come to the conclustion they are changing the composition of the wines through significant “intervention” in the winemaking process. I am not condeming this approach. In its most successful form, non-vintage champagne, the results are wonderful.

But if you are seeking intellectual stimulation, romance, uniqueness, the joy of a pleasant surprise, find wines and winemakers who work diligently to allow the vineyard to speak through the wines. The satisfaction we get from farming at Bacchus and winemaking at Sanglier is rooted in this philosophy.

Saturday’s Harvest
On Saturday we were able to let our managers and three of our crews have a day off. They had just completed two fourteen hour days and deserved the break. For Eugenio and I, we were on site at Lynmar’s Quail Hill Estate Vineyard at the break of day to begin harvesting pinot noir. We picked two areas from Block 10 clone 777. Three areas from block 9 of a proprietary pinot clone, the 2A clonal selection from block 9, the Mt Eden from block 7, and the 2A and Pommard from block 3. Some of these picks were partial rows, some were specific rows only. Why you might ask? The answer is simple, the Lynmar winemaking team led by Hugh Chappelle believes fervently in capturing that elusive “Sense of Place”.

Wine Tasting

I was able to take a break and meet up with a couple from Houston who were in the area looking for a vineayard to purchase and tasting wines. We met at Vinify and spent an hour and half tasting through (and having a great discussion on wines, vineyards, and University of Texas Football) our Sanglier Cellar wines. The line up was our 2008 Rose, and our soon to release 2008 Kick Ranch Viognier, 2008 Russian River Pinot, 2007 Kick Ranch Syrah, and 2007 Kemp Vineyard Syrah. It was a welcome respite from the demands of harvest and fun to relax with some fellow Texans and just enjoy the wine.

If you think Sunday is a Day of Rest

Then you don’t farm grapes. Sonoma County is forecast for some warm weather toward the end of the week so we have been inundated with calls to pick, pick, pick. Heat pushes the ripening process at a much more rapid rate and……you know, those winemakers expect their fruit to come in exactly like they want it. So, we are spending the day moving tractors, harvest equipment, and trucks in anticipation of very intense, long work days each and every day of next week.

Coffee of the Day Flying Goat’s Montes de Oro from Costa Rica. Another great coffee from this local purveyor.

Hi Let’s Eat

I saw the above phrase painted on the side of small town coffee shop in Central California…I have decided to co-opt it.

Sake ‘O for dinner (A great Healdsburg Sushi and Japanese Eatery)

Figs & Pears from our trees

Multiple Bacon Sandwiches with fresh heirloom tomatoes from the garden

Rumors of a Rabbit Stew for tonight!

Glenn

Christina, Glenn, and Brian enjoying dinner on the patio

Yesterday we started picking at 2 AM, we were still moving equipment at 7PM and we started picking again at 2 AM this morning. Not much time to write a daily blog, (these two days are combined) but a great need for caffeine.

Currently I am drinking Flying Goat’s Gatina Kenya Coffee. So far, my favorite of the harvest season. It paired great with my favorite choice for first breakfast……a ham sandwich.

Pinot Noir and Night Harvest

Yesterday we picked 13 tons of beautiful Russian River Valley fruit for Benziger. I was concerned our first night pick of the season would hit a snag and I was right. One of the light towers went down as soon as the crews started. Originally, I was going to sleep in until 4:30 or so, but this malfunction ended that small luxury.

Today we completed night picks at Archer Family Vineyards and Wren Hop Vineyards. The Archer fruit went to Gary Farrell, Ancien, August Briggs, and Loxton. The Wren Hop fruit will be made into an estate wine.

Why do we pick pinot at night? The Russian River Valley grapes we grow and manage all go into ultra premium wines. Normally the wineries want to cold soak pinot and want to manage the fermentation process closely. Grapes can begin fermentation early if they are warm. By picking at night we get the grapes into the bins at a temperature of 52 to 58 degrees. The thermal mass tends to hold the coldness in really well and we then deliver the fruit as quickly as possible. Result: The winemaker gets nice cold fruit that will not start fermentation early providing the time needed for cold soaking and other winemaking techniques.

By 10 AM we have delivered pinot noir to five wineries located in Sonoma and Napa Counties. Our first major test utilizing our maximum resources has ended well!

Hammocks and Naps and Thoughts of BBQ

Yesterday I will fully admit I turned my phone off and grabbed a quick nap after lunch. I woke up after an hour or so and turned my phone on and immediately recieved a text from my brother-in-law back in Texas. It read “In my hammock, waiting for my wife to bring me my Crown & Coke”. Now Kelly knows full well we are busting our humps out here, but I was happy to reply, “just woke up from my nap…what’s up”.

There is a problem though. I can’t communicate with Kelly without thinking about his smoked brisket. He is Da Vinci with a smoker. Now I have to go through the day wishing I had some of his BBQ, knowing full well it won’t happen for a couple of months.

We were so busy yesterday I don’t even remember lunch, but Melissa certainly made a dinner to remember. Our friend Brian from Gary Farrell and Christina from Ridge joined us for:

Fresh Picked Cherry Tomato Bruschetta with Parmesan
Grilled Flank Steak with Roasted Potatoes & Salsa Verde served over Arugula
Local Gravenstein Apple and Dried Cherry Crisp with Vanilla Ice Cream

If you are wondering what we drank:

2008 Sanglier Cellars Rosé
2001 David Arthur Napa Valley Cabernet

Melissa can make a long hard day disappear pretty darn quickly.

A Philosophy to Harvest By

I have decided to make every effort during the harvest season to enjoy coffee with real flavor, eat great food when possible, and drink the best wines. If you are wondering how this is different than the rest of my year, it isn’t.

2nd Breakfast

Several comments on the blog have referenced my fondness of 2nd breakfast. Admittedly I have been a fan of 1st and 2nd breakfast since I read Tolkien’s works in 1972. If it were up to me I would vote for “elevenses” also, but Melissa thinks that might be too much.

In keeping with the spirit of things I started my day with another great brew of Peet’s Major Dickason’s Blend and a Cliff Bar. Now I understand a Cliff Bar is not gourmet food, but at 5 AM it is sure easier than firing up the kitchen. Did you know the owners of Cliff Bar own a winery? I have had their white wine blend…..Cliff Hanger, and it is a really nice wine.

The Grapes Keep Coming…..
But the Wines Take Different Roads

We continued picking Sauvignon Blanc clones Musque and 317 off the hillside at Kick Ranch. The fruit was delivered to Bedrock and Bevan Cellars. Morgan Peterson, owner and winemaker at Bedrock tends to blend the old world winemaking style with a bit of new world pirate flair. He is making some delightfull wines of elegance, balance and subtle but wonderful flavors. Russell Bevan, by all accounts a real pirate, makes wines of incredible depth, power and lush fruit forward flavors. I am not one of those wine drinkers that falls into a camp that only drinks balanced, medium bodied, lower alcohol wines and excludes the full throttle, ripe delicious fruit wines or vice a versa. For me great wines can be made in both styles. It was interesting, perhaps even oxymoronic we were picking grapes for these two winemakers on the same day from the same block, with the same phenolics, knowing the resulting wines will be so different in style. Anyone up for a side by side tasting in a year of so?

Moving On

We finished picking early enough for me to grab second breakfast at home. Leftovers from last night’s wonderful dinner (check yesterday’s blog for the details).
NOTE: There is some boring work in my job and today was the day for it. Payroll Issues…enough said. When I had enough of the administrative torture imposed by the regulatory agencies of our supposedly representative government I took a break and went down to Vinify where we make Sanglier Cellars wines and where Russell Bevan makes his wines.

Free Run Juice: You Gotta Get Some
Beer: A Winery Requirement

I arrived at Vinify just in time to taste the free run juice from the Kick Ranch Sauvignon Blanc. Never, never, ever pass up the opportunity to drink cold, free run juice from wine grapes. But remember it will affect your opinion of all future juice you consume…

My Vinify visit ended with pizza shared with the cellar crew. They had finished crush for the day and Shad, the cellarmaster announced beer could now be consumed. I don’t know how it works in France and other old world winemaking institutions but in California it is a fact, you can’t make wine without beer. The next keg is on me and I can’t decide if it is Moonlight Brewing’s Reality Czech or Lagunitas’s Czech Style Pilsner

Planning the Future

I spent the afternoon at Lynmar’s Quail Hill Estate Vineyard marking rows for the following day’s dawn harvest. We will be picking Pinot Noir, but only from certain areas of the blocks that are at the target pH, brix, and flavor levels. After walking the vineyard, tasting grapes and comparing sample data collected by Lynmar’s wine making team, we use flagging tape to identify where the crews start and stop on each row. Lynmar does everything possible to harvest the perfect pinot noir cluster.

Final Chore:

Moving tractors and equipment is a job unto itself. We will start a pinot noir night pick at 2 AM for Benziger at their San Remo Vineyard, followed by simultaneous dawn picks at Kick Ranch and Quail Hill. Everything has to be ready and in place because there is no back up tomorrow….everything and everybody is on the line. Fifty two pickers, six tractors and drivers, four bin cleaners, four trucks and drivers, four managers, with Chelsea and Melissa keeping the office going. Oh, and I almost forgot……seven portable toilets and five dogs. It is an unusual show.

Dinner: The Way to End the Day

We may be planning to start work at 2 AM, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a nice dinner and worry about tomorrow later. Melissa and I pulled the cork on another bottle of chilled Mas Champart Rose. It was accompanied by a celebration of summer from her garden and fruit trees. Fresh heirloom tomatoes and mozzarella with balsamic vinegar; A tomato and corn gallette with fresh basil; and baked pears with butter, brown sugar, and cream.

As Emerson, Lake and Palmer once said…..”Ooooh, what a lucky man he was”

Glenn

Another 5 AM morning, but that is an easy start time compared to what is coming with the night picks. My day started with coffee as usual. This morning it is my standby…..Peet’s Major Dickason’s blend. Certainly a darker roast than the Blue Bottle, but it gets me going and I like it.

Breakfast does suffer during harvest but we have a selection of doughnuts on hand at Kick Ranch. Morning sustenance is courtesy of Chelsea (daughter, Sanglier General Manager, and Office Manager for Bacchus) and Dick Keenan, owner of Kick Ranch.

There is no way you will get through harvest without something of significance going wrong. This year we dodged a bullet on day two. Kick Ranch is a hilly vineyard and the picking crew and I were waiting for the tractor and trailer to make its way to the back block of Sauvignon Blanc. We hear a loud crashing sound and see our Supervisor Eugenio Ortiz hanging on to a Orange Kubota tractor and trailer doing his version of a downhill skiing yard sale. Instead of skis, poles, and gloves, we had picking bins, tools, and water coolers strewn everywhere. Obviously, No brakes. Luckily, Eugenio has been doing this for twenty years and he rode the tractor for a couple of hundred yards down the incline before calmly stepping off and announcing we needed to get another tractor since the brakes weren’t working very good on this one!

Other than that the pick went great. Kick Ranch has gained a reputation as an elite vineyard in many wine circles. The Sauvignon Blanc Clone 317 and Musque we picked for Enkidu were stellar. The 317 provides the backbone, acidity, and depth and the Musque brings delicious “lemon drop candy” flavors. If you haven’t had SB’s from this Vineyard search them out. Bedrock, Carica, and Enkidu have been making SB’s from this vineyard and Capture uses Kick Ranch fruit as a significant part of its blend. This year, Bevan Cellars begins production of SB from the “hillside block”.

Again, for the cork dorks we picked a little over six tons (2.5 tons an acre) at 24 to 25 degrees brix. Cluster size was tiny, ranging from 2.0 to 3.2 ounces. It was 53 degrees when we started picking and very foggy. We finished just after the fog lifted.

When the crew finished picking we had them do a final fruit drop pass in the Syrah Clone 877 (Paul Hobbs, Loxton, Carica, Sanglier Cellars). This year we had a lot of shatter and some of the clusters just didn’t make it through veraison the way we would like to see. Shatter can improve the quality of some clusters but it can be so severe it goes the other way. That is reason we make wines for Sanglier Cellars from Kick. The owner, Dick Keenan, lets us do what we need to in order to grow the best grapes possible. This final pass would not happen in most vineyards, but at Kick it is standard practice and you can taste the results in the wines.

I grab a couple of grape samples for the lab and head to lunch. Chloe’s French Cafe is a rare find. Owned by a couple of brothers from St Tropez with a family history in the pastry business, these guys have opened a casual lunch spot in an office building that serves some great food and desserts. My lunch: Roast Beef and Brie on a baguette with a homemade horseradish sauce. Oh, and of course a dessert…..strawberry tart.

Once lunch is done I drive to Healdsburg to drop off the lab samples before heading home to crash for an hour. I heard the phone ring a few times and managed to ignore the calls, but finally got moving again and headed to Lynmar Estate to review crop load estimates and plan harvest picks for Thursday and Saturday with their winemaking team.

Finally get back to the office around 5:30 and spend some time with Armando preparing irrigation workorders for Kick, Vicini, Quail Hll, and Susanna’s Vineyard before closing the work day reviewing the equipment logistics for the two picks at Kick on Wednesday. But life does get better.

Melissa has a cold bottle of Mas Champart Rosé and some great cheeses waiting. Brian and Chelsea join us for dinner and we polish off a second bottle of French Rosé , Chateau Lascaux. Dinner is a mixed green salad, with beets and Pug’s Leap goat cheese, roast chicken with potatoes and carrots, slow cooked romano beans. We manage to work our way through a bottle of Copain 2001 Hein Vineyard Pinot Noir.

Long days aren’t so bad when you finish well.

Yes, I love dry crisp Rosé wines made in the French sytle. If you love them too, check out the 2008 Sanglier Cellars Rose. Made from a field blend of Grenache, Mourvedre, Cinsault, Counoise, and Syrah, it is bright, refreshing, fun, and a great pairing with appetizers, grilled chicken, salads….you get the idea.

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