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Harvest

  • Vintage Report 2007
    An early bud break meant an early harvest; we were finished by mid-October. Sadly, it also meant several days of 80 degree weather, shoots four inches long, and then an Easter freeze which plunged the vineyard to 28 degrees. All the white wine was affected, to a tragic degree. There will be very little Viognier/Roussanne, little Riesling, and it may not even be worth bottling the Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon blend. Syrah was also heavily affected. The good news is the long dry ripening season was outstanding for Cabernet; small berries, high sugars. These wines will be reminiscent of Calistoga, higher in alcohol than our general practice.
  • Vintage Report 2006
    As this is written (January 2007), I've had the opportunity to both reflect on the vintage past and taste the wines as they have begun to develop. Going into harvest season, the vineyard was in excellent condition. Crop load and canopy management was on target. Weather deteriorated in mid-September and some of the harvest conditions were as difficult as I've ever experienced. October in particular was troublesome as cold temperatures and excessive rainfall limited maturities. Despite the above, white wines are turning out surprisingly well. Red wines, however, are questionable and many may end up as second label when released in 2008. So far we have had a mild winter and I look forward to a spring with little winter damage and overall good growing conditions in 2007.
  • Vintage Report 2005
    2005 in the vineyard was a vintage of extremes. Unlike 2004 where moisture, heat and humidity were well distributed, it seemed like the heat and humidity would never end. Rainfall came either not at all or in a deluge. Fortunately, harvest turned out mostly dry with only the Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot caught by rain at the end of October. In the winery, most of the fruit came in low in acid and high in sugar. Adjustments were made and fermentations, though quirky, finished well. Overall, the wines show good promise, and for some, 2005 may prove to be the best vintage yet.

Photo Album

  • View from the farmhome

« January 2008 | Main | March 2008 »

Decisions, decisions...

It's the time of year to start thinking about wine labels and packaging. Some of you may know we have a second label, called River Village Cellars, for what we call "everyday" rather than ultra-premium wines. So this afternoon, Ron and I sat down with the reds from 2006. We always need to decide whether a wine is first or second label, and whether it's blended or not. 2006 was a difficult vintage, rainy and cold. The decisions this year are:

1. Syrah on its own, 2nd label; or Syrah blended with Cab Franc; 2nd label.
2. Cabernet Sauvignon 100% or Cabernet Sauvignon blended with Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot
3. Petit Verdot on its own or not
4. Cabernet Franc 100% or Cabernet Franc blended with Cabernet Sauvignon.

Here's what the tasting table looked like...
Winetasting
These are our first and second labels:

Wvr_2

Finalww It's also the time of year we can get out of Dodge; we joined the winemaker of LaVigna for a visit to the Unified Symposium winery trade show in Sacramento; and then spent several days in Arizona and New Mexico. We tasted some really nice Riesling there! The scenery was glorious. We had lunch with Dick Erath (Erath Winery) and were happy to run into Mike and Jackie Etzel (Beaux Freres).

We were considering those glass stoppers in lieu of corks; one person at the show told us that to stop these from pushing the capsule off in certain situations, a dab of glue needs to be added to the bottle to keep the capsule in place. That's the last thing we need, is someone with a glue gun and another process on our little bottling line!

February 12, 2008 | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)