Sleepless in Sonoma

[Florida Jim]

Nine days in wine country during crush makes for a full schedule.

I’m pleased to have been able to help prune, de-leaf, pick, sort, de-stem, cold soak, inoculate, punch down, pump over and, of course, taste. Along with lessons about a little chemistry and a great deal of sanitation, I have a lot to think about.

Mix in time spent in vineyards, tasting rooms, labs, great restaurants, friend’s homes, custom crush facilities, airports, and, getting to and from all of the above in north coast traffic, not to mention a bit of jet-lag thrown in; well, sleep is something one does ‘later.’

But here are few comments and brief tasting notes before I nap:

I’d like to spend a lot of time looking over the shoulder of Andy Smith, winemaker for DuMol. He is a sanitation fanatic, very detail oriented and as talented as anyone in the area. And his wines are some of the best domestic wines I have tasted – especially the chardonnay sourced, in part, from both the Ritchie and Dutton vineyards. There are a good number of bottles of Les Clos that don’t come close.

Speaking of chardonnay, Mark Aubert’s, Ritchie Vineyard model was pretty good. Not on par with the DuMol, but a tasty drop (thankfully, someone else was paying).

Cool climate syrah seems to be in ascendancy as a number of existing and new wineries take a shot at making a wine that even I might like. I think that the 2005 vintage will bring a fair number of 13.5%, no new wood wines to retail shelves and mailing lists. I can’t wait to try them; especially after so many 14.5% and up syrahs that have recently arrived in my glass (in the interest of science only, I assure you).

I hear the rents are being tripled on the square in Healdsburg which surely bodes poorly for the diverse shopping and eclectic feel of the place. But Bistro Ralph is still turning out fine food in a nice room with some of the friendliest service in town. Get it while you can; times are changing.

The Fig Café in Glen Ellen is still one of my favorites and the Underwood Bar and Bistro in Graton would likely become my weekly haunt were I a resident of the locale. ‘Finest kind.

I have a new respect for the Latino pickers who handle most harvesting. The one’s I worked with were amazingly quick and have endurance I can only hope for. In addition, there was a friendly competition among them that was contagious. I really enjoyed trying to keep up.

Land is still too expensive for me and I’m not sure I can work that hard on any regular basis, but wine country still keeps calling me back. ‘Very, very nice to have friends there that will accommodate an old man turned dreamer. Sincere thanks to Russell and Victoria, and to all of you who made my trip such a delight.

And now, to bed.

Best, Jim

Edited October 28, 2005 by Florida Jim (log)

[Rebel Rose]

I’m pleased to have been able to help prune, de-leaf, pick, sort, de-stem, cold soak, inoculate, punch down, pump over and, of course, taste. Along with lessons about a little chemistry and a great deal of sanitation, I have a lot to think about.

Mix in time spent in vineyards, tasting rooms, labs, great restaurants, friend’s homes, custom crush facilities, airports, and, getting to and from all of the above in north coast traffic, not to mention a bit of jet-lag thrown in; well, sleep is something one does ‘later.’

I have a new respect for the Latino pickers who handle most harvesting. The one’s I worked with were amazingly quick and have endurance I can only hope for. In addition, there was a friendly competition among them that was contagious. I really enjoyed trying to keep up.

And now, to bed.

Sleep well and deservedly. And then we want details, damn it!

Regarding pruning . . . do you mean 'dropping fruit'? I'm guessing that you are referring to select pick, which means that optimal clusters are harvested, and the rest are 'pruned' off. (There are two reasons for knocking off the inferior fruit. One is to clean the bush so that it's clear as to which vines have been picked, and the second is to relieve the vine of the nutrient requirements of seed production, and defer the last few weeks of the season's vigor into storing nutrients in the roots.)

Please tell us more about your earth-to-the-bottle experience!

[Florida Jim]

Mary,

I'm not sure what else to say.

The vineyard we picked was in Bennett Valley (near Matanzas Creek Winery) and we made two passes. The first pick was for fruit that was dimpled and the second was several days later for the remainder. Intervening was a leaf-pulling and hard raisened fruit drop so that when the final picking time came we would have very little that needed to be sorted.

That worked well as there were only two of us on the sort table and the fruit was about as clean as any I saw in the entire custom crush facility. We wound-up with a couple bins of very clean and perfectly ripe syrah that soaked up to about 25.2 brix.

The winemaker's choice was an all natural yeast ferment preceded by a week's cold soak. If I have done the math correctly, the wine should wind-up at about 13.8% alcohol and will see only old wood.

The pick was done in late October which should give you an idea that the area is cool climate and so, I expect an atypical CA syrah but one that will be more stylistically to my taste.

This same winemaker is making Oakville cabernet sauvignon that will be more in the Harlan mold and will likely be a favorite of certain reviewers. That's probably where he'll make his money.

That's about it; any specific questions?

Best, Jim

[Rebel Rose]

Of course I have more questions!

Who is the winemaker? Is he new or launching a new brand? Is this a rising star we should know about?

Are the bins half-tonners? That means about 50 cases of syrah being produced?

And how did you happen to get involved in this adventure?

What do you consider a "typical" CA syrah? Higher alcohol? Are you sure that's "typical" of all producers?

Thanks for sharing.

[Florida Jim]

Who is the winemaker? Is he new or launching a new brand? Is this a rising star we should know about?

-Bevan Cellars (bevancellars.com), Russell Bevan is winemaker, and yes, it is a new brand. As for stardom, if you like Harlan's cab. you're probably going to like his.

For my tastes, the syrah should be a better match.

Are the bins half-tonners? That means about 50 cases of syrah being produced?

-yep

And how did you happen to get involved in this adventure?

-Russell is an old friend and I have dreams.

What do you consider a "typical" CA syrah? Higher alcohol? Are you sure that's "typical" of all producers?

-Typical to me is big, alcoholic and extracted. Of coursse it doesn't mean that every CA syrah would be so described but, I think its a fair use of the word typical.

As mentioned, I prefer them slimmer and, it appears, that Bevan Cellars '05 edition will be.

Best, Jim