Kinkead Ridge Vineyard and an Estate Winery Weblog

Brittany Shears. Riesling Ups and Downs. The Picking Sheet.

It is fun to have a new picker; for Viognier and Roussanne, we had the pleasure of the very upbeat Miss Brittany Bramel of Ripley. Her nickname (since we use picking shears for the grapes) turned quickly from Brittany Picks to Brittany Shears! And guess what! She works in a hair salon! We told her she needs to open her own salon and call it Brittany Shears! And we had Jenny Feltner, who wants to plant her own vineyard.

Riesling. Well, two days ago Ron said this is the best Riesling we will have ever made. Today, after picking 8565 pounds of it, he says it's overcropped. Maybe I will get some juice to make jelly rather than him pouring some down the drain. Tank capacity in a small winery is always a huge issue. Fruit set this year has been nuts; I should have realized the extent of it from my peach tree. So we have two possibilities: mediocre Riesling; or the best Riesling we have ever made and lots of it. My bet is on Ron. He is a fantastic winegrower and pulls things out.

Here he is loading the last set of bins.

Here's the crew for the 2008 Riesling, minus Geraldine who had to leave at 3.15, and Judy's husband Eddie. Judy, Gretchen, Nancy, Jenny and Brittany.

The picking sheet! I published this a few years ago, but here it is for new readers. As I weigh the grapes, I write down the pounds, then they are totalled for Ron at the winery so he can compute the number of press loads and we can compute how much people are paid, as they are paid by the pound. The ticks to the left are half pounds. I add them horizontally and vertically. I added the horizontals twice, so am confident in that number of 8565 pounds, I must have made a 30 pound mistake in the verticals.

Your tired wine blogger
But not as tired as Ron, who will be up all night again pressing grapes until 10 a.m. this morning.
Nancy
Owner/Managing Partner
Kinkead Ridge Winery

Good times.... and worse times.

I had the great pleasure of attending a dinner at the Vista Ranch; a local farm in New Richmond, Ohio that raises bison. The buffalo tenderloins were cooked "sous vide" for four hours at 120 degrees by http://www.aforkablefeast.com, and then seared on the grill and they were fantastic; served with heirloom tomatos stuffed with swiss chard, yellow and red beets, and fingerling potatos. Our red Revelation blend was served with this course. These are the good times.

Worse times... yesterday we picked over 8000 pounds of Viognier. It came off the hill around 4.00 p.m. This meant about 7 press loads, that took all night. Ron came home at 4 a.m. to dump pomice, then went back; He got home at 10 a.m., slept for four hours, then went out to drop crop in the 12 rows of Riesling. It's pretty brutal. Also vineyard mechanics meant washing all the picking bins and bringing them home and distributing them for tomorrow's pick of Riesling.

Thursday.... Roussanne. Reds to come. They look fabulous.

Your friendly blogger,
Nancy
Owner/Managing Partner

Grapes and Butterflies

We picked 3996 pounds of Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Chardonnay today. As I write this at midnight, having just attended a wine event in New Richmond, Ron and Judy are still pressing grapes. It will probably take until 2 or 3 a.m. Some rot in the fruit, some of it noble rot! We're looking at several weeks of great ripening weather.

The grapes were quite interesting to bees, hornets, horseflies and a blue butterfly today; here's a lovely shot. Horseflies are very nasty, and can give you a very bad bite.
Here's Ron shortly before driving the grapes to the winery...
And here's Ron hauling grapes down the row; Judy, our cellarmaster picked all day, and then went on to crush all night.
Picking Sauvignon Blanc today was bittersweet as we mourn the loss of Didier Daguenau, who died at 52 piloting his ultralight. I always felt Didier Daguenau and Ron were soul mates... perhaps they'll meet in another life.

"Didier Dagueneau is the world's greatest producer of Sauvignon Blanc wine--and by quite a long way. He is rebellious, perfectionistic, meticulous, competitive and very much given to criticising his neighbours for sloppy workmanship and over-production. ... If you ever need proof that Sauvignon can make great wine, this is the place to come." (Clive Coates, The Wines & Domaines of France)

Here's what Didier has to say about his wine to Jancis Robinson:

"What do you think of the wines of  New Zealand?"
The ones I've tasted are from big businesses... industries. They are proper wines, but they have no soul. Technically well made, but which could be made in California or anywhere else. They have no terroir, no identity, no heart. They're consumer products, but I think wine is more than a drink. When you're thirsty you drink water, when you want pleasure you drink wine.

"Who do you make wine for, for what purpose?"
I make wine to give people pleasure. I sell happiness. It's a good job to be in. I want my wine to be a good moment in people's lives. It's like good food, beautiful music, a beautiful painting. I think that wine should be considered as art in the same way as painting or music. Unfortunately there are not many who think like that. Often they've inherited their vineyard. It's not a trade they have chosen, or if they have chosen it, it's because they think they can make a lot of money. In my opinion, 80% of growers are thick. Of the 20% that are left are the people that work because they to achieve something good... something well made to please people. Often these people are loners because they upset others because they do something different. But they are the ones that are close to the truth".

Harvest Begins!

We will be picking Sauvignon Blanc on Monday. Here's my solution to the dilemma of grapes being at a very awkward height; you are either kneeling or stooping. A five gallon bucket with a cushion cover is just perfect to kick along to sit on to harvest!

Due to the impact of the hurricane, we cancelled the tasting at Rue Dumaine in Dayton. Hopefully everyone in Columbus and Dayton is on the mend as far as electricity goes, it was a lot worse up north than here. We lost a gutter off the house and lots of apples off the tree, which the deer were happy to scoop up.

Your friendly wine blogger,
Nancy Bentley
Owner/Managing Partner, Kinkead Ridge estate winery.

Baby on board. Ron's shoe. Nancy on the road again. State of the estate.

Well, tonight I picked up a bag of tartaric acid, which I dutifully strapped into the front seat of the car, so it wouldn't get wet, as it was raining. While waiting for the bag, I perused the list of chemicals that are in this vendor's building. It is scary! It includes Explosives, Very Insensitive Explosives, Extremely Insensitive Explosives, Flammable Gases, Non Toxic Non Flammable Gases, Poisonous Gas, Zone A, Poisonous Gas Zone B, Flammable Liquids, Flammable Solids, Spontaneously Combustible, Dangerous when wet materials, Poisonous Liquids, Radioactive Materials and Corrosive Liquids. Scaree! This is the Hazardous Materials Load and Segregtion Chart that tells truckers what they can have on the truck. Happily, not just any old terrorist can buy stuff here. I was vetted by a gate guard and had to have an appointment to pick up the tartaric acid. It's strapped into the front seat of my car in a plastic bag, because it gets clumpy if it gets wet.

 

Here's the Tartaric Acid baby on board....

Ron needs new shoes. But he is too busy to go shopping. The solution... duct tape.

As for me. I have put over 1000 miles on the car in 3 days... Cleveland, Akron and Cincinnati. Tasting and delivering wine. This is not an optimal situation because when you deliver 12 cases of wine you are then all sweaty going to a tasting appointment! Distributor reps have the luxury of someone else delivering the wine, but I am it. Kinkead Ridge R Us. Happily the 2006 reds have been wildly successful. They won't last long. And when I finally arrive home, and look at my garden, here is a photo.

It's a happy sight.

Professsional photographer Dave Liggett took this photo of the grapes this week:

Your friendly wine blogger
Nancy
Owner, Kinkead Ridge Winery

Dog Days of Summer

I just love it when dogs visit the winery (we always give them cheese and Bremners wine  crackers). Today we had a beagle puppy, Monsieur Louis Cointreau Lafayette, and a Bouvier (American Kennel Club description: Bouvier de Flandres... steady, resolute and fearless!).  A very little dog, and a very big dog. I mused about how these dogs compared to the 2006 and 2007 vintages. The 2007 cabernets in barrel are very big, high alcohol, California style cabs, due to the long hot ripening season in 2007 (the Bouvier!). The 2006s are charming and lighter (the beagle puppy!) Due to the frosts that affected the grapes in Easter of 2007, after much deliberation, we decided to second label the 2006 Cabernet Franc and 2006 Syrah; and did a Bordeaux blend, red Revelation. This Bordeaux blend of 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Cabernet Franc, and 14% Petit Verdot is developing into a stunning wine. At $14.95, it's an absolute steal... it will just continue to get better and  better.

Harvest is close... possibly next week for the Riesling. Bird pressure is heavy. My summer holiday is over. I spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in the car, 12 hours a day, tasting customers in Cincinnati and Dayton. Everyone ordered wine. Next week... Cleveland, Akron... the week after that, Columbus.

With over 100 wholesale customers, who only taste wine pretty much Tuesday to Friday between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., it takes a long time to see everyone. We finally delegated some deliveries to our cellarmaster, Judy... she set out in the car today with 41 cases for Cincinnati and Dayton.

Here are the dogs! Pet photography is hard... neither of them wanted to sit!