Crushed the Syrah

We were only notified that day and we couldn't find help on such short notice.  Thus only Gary and I delt with the 3 tons.  My but we were tired at the end of the day.  We will press the Syrah  tomorrow but this time 2 of our staff will be able to help.  Thank gookness for friends and great staff.

Sep 24, 2012 at 9:09 AM Permalink

Not all work

Here is our son Tony enjoying some of the product.  As you can see, this job is not all work.

Sep 14, 2012 at 6:57 AM Permalink

Still Waiting

We got back from our family sailing trip ready to get into action.  Lucky for us, the Syrah flavors had not developed yet.  We have a week at least to get better prepared, get the stemmer/crusher ready, put up the canopies to keep the sun off of us and the grapes and read the precedures we have been doing for the last 15 years with some lessons learned.  Even after all this time we keep trying to streamline the process and it is amazing what you can forget in a year.

Sep 13, 2012 at 4:26 PM Permalink

Crush is almost here again

I just got back from sampling grapes in 4 different vineyards.  Fortunately for us, crush is still 3-4 weeks away.  The brix (sugar content) was generally around 18% but needs to be around 26-27.  The flavors are getting there but still needs some time.  That is fortunate since we are going on a family sailing trip to Catalina the week after Labor Day.  I'll sample before we go, see where the grapes are and let you know.

Aug 20, 2012 at 3:50 PM Permalink

Checking out the grapes

I will be going out on August 17th and 27th to sample grapes from Calaveras County and August 31st from Amador County.  I went back through our records and the earliest we picked was the end of August and the latest the end of October.  I'll let you know what I find.  

Aug 15, 2012 at 3:57 PM Permalink

Grape Encounters has us on their show!

Check out this radio show, Grape Encounters, from LA. They came and visited the area and we were featured on the show!

http://grapeencountersradio.com/podcast/media/ep148ge052612podcast.mp3

Jun 25, 2012 at 7:18 AM Permalink

RAVE Conference at UCD

Does filtering wine influence flavors?  Not according to the research done by Dr David Block at UCD.  He tested both white and red wines and filtered them through a variety of different filters; pad, depth and membrane of different sizes.

Using a trained sensory panel of experts, there was no change in flavors between the control and the different filters.  That is good news.  We filter to assure clarity and microbial stability.  That insures that all the bugs are out of the wine and there will be no additional fermentation in the wine after bottling.  You don't want any corks popping out in your cellar, do you?  Now we know that there will be no change in flavors due to the filtration except those flavors that change over time in the cellar (that we all want)  I love good news.

Mar 16, 2012 at 1:50 PM Permalink

What is dry?

I have a number of customers who come into our tasting room tell me that they find some of the wines to be dry. My usual response is “I see, or “oh” because, unless they are referring to our Syrah Port or Tesoro, all of our wines are dry. What I these customers are telling me is that the wines have a drying effect in their mouth. Not wanting to be a wine geek, I don’t go into my lecture of the difference between dryness, a measure of sweetness and astringency, a measure of tannin.

Sweetness is a measure of taste. A dry wine is a wine that has no (or <.5%) residual sugar (RS); an off-dry wine has about 1%, RS; and a sweet wine has >2% RS. Our Syrah Port has about 6% RS.

Astringency is not a measure of taste; it is measure of how the wine feels in the mouth. According to Marian Baldy in the University Wine Course, “…young red wines with high tannin levels are astringent and create a rough sensation: their tannins react with proteins in our saliva and on the surfaces of the cells lining our mouths and on the surfaces of our tongues to dry them out and create a puckery, rough sensation as our now-unlubricated mouth parts chafe against each other. Moderate astringency can nicely offset the richness of a fatty meal, but higher levels make wines unpalatable and call for patience: during bottle aging the astringency will diminish (Baldy, p.25).”

Coffee and tea also have high levels of tannin. That’s why lots of people reduce the tannin effect by adding a bit of milk, that has fat and protein, to their coffee or tea.

____________________________________________________________________

The University Wine Course: A wine appreciation text & self tutorial. (1997). Baldy, M. W. The Wine Appreciation Guild.

Mar 7, 2012 at 2:55 PM Permalink

Talks with the growers

We had lunch and some really informative talks with 2 of our growers recently. Neither had problems with Botrytis (bunch rot) this last harvest although it was a problem in some areas. They thought it was due to location and open canopies that allowed good air circulation. We always have a good breeze where we are that keeps down our incidence of mold. We will talk to a grower in Amador County that has head trained vines with poor air circulation soon. Botrytis was a huge problem for him. I am anxious to hear how he is going to combat it this year.  I'll let you know what he says.

Mar 2, 2012 at 11:25 AM Permalink

Wine legs

We frequently get asked wine quesions in the tasting room and we thought we could share some of the information we know and researched.  First of all, wine "legs" do not mean wine quality or sweetness.  Legs just refer to the alcohol and water in the wine and the vapor pressure of each liquid in the mixture.  Meaning, the water and alcohol evaporate at different rates and flow up the wine glass by capillary action.  They drop back into the wine of their own weight e.g. legs or tears.  The quantity of legs depends on the alcohol content of the wine and may be eliminated by covering the glass and preventing the evaporation.  Was that helpful?

Feb 20, 2012 at 3:09 PM Permalink