On Hold

Almost 2 weeks into October and harvest is kind of on hold. Rain last week, ripening really slowed down. The cool off is good for the vines to recover from all the heat, though could have done with out the .50 inch of precipitation.
I am pressing our tanks of Thomson Pinot Noir yesterday and tomorrow. The wine is is tasting really nice coming off the press, always a good sign!
The motor for the fan than cools the cellar went out yesterday. Had the AC man look at it this afternoon and he is coming back at 7AM tomorrow to put in a new motor. I truly love the american work ethic and ability to get things done right away.
Syrah is starting to as of this morning, looking very dark and smelling delicious. Some of it is fermenting in stainless steel, some in wood, I’ll be headed back to the winery in an hour or so for the last punchdown of the day.
The above photos is of Bubbles and I checking in on one of our Syrah vineyards yesterday. She would prefer to live in the vineyard.

Pinot Noir at 30 brix!

After the past 7-10 days of of a heat wave here in Southern California it has finally returned to normal with foggy mornings and mild days. It seems that this heat wave really caught a lot people off guard. Many vineyards in Sta. Rita Hills had Pinot Noir that was just about ready to pick before the heat. Some vineyards are just too large to pick in a day or two. Other winemakers though they would just wait out the heat. Needless to stay there are now many stories now circulating the neighborhood of winemakers bringing in de-hydrated Pinot noir in the range of 27-30 brix. This translates to must with a potential alcohol of 16% – 18%, YOWZERS! Hard to believe one can make drinkable wine out of these grapes, even with the help of “watering back” or de-alching the final blend.

It is a great relief that we got our Pinot at 23.5 brix, guess I’d rather be a bit early than late. As of today, 10/04/10 our Pinot has finally started to ferment after a 7 day cold soak.

We also picked 2.5 tons of Syrah from Watch Hill vineyard this past Saturday. The fruit looked really nice, very fresh bright fruit flavors, nice numbers, 23.7 brix, 3.56pH. It is now cold soaking in the cellar, will update as needed.