I do love the time of harvest, the making of the wine, the unique semi-rural/agrarian experience that I get to have each Fall. It is a welcome change from the other nine months of the year spent in the middle of Los Angeles slagging around town trying to sell my wares. It is a process in which I get to be in control, making decisions and evaluations each and every day. From when to pick the first grapes at the commencement of harvest, down to deciding when to press the last tank at the end. It feels good to be in control, or at least attempt to be for a few months out of the year. And you know pretty quickly if you have been making the correct decisions during the growing season (mother nature withstanding). Once the wine is in barrel it tends not to lie to you: you know pretty quickly whether you did a good job or not so good a job.

The view from the top, punching down a Syrah tank

Much of the west coast has been dealing with temperatures in the mid to upper 90’s all week. This is the last hurrah of summer here in California. The only problem is if you are a Pinot Noir producer (like us) and your grapes are 7-14 days away from harvest, extreme heat is the last thing you need. Unless your fruit is well shaded you risk sunburn and bleaching of the grape clusters. One also faces a rapid increase in sugar levels without the corresponding “ripening.” You are also often forced to do a tiny bit of irrigation (2-3 gallons per vine), something you really hate to do at the end of the season. In the 2010 vintage we were fortunate enough to be able to pick our Pinot Noir before 4 days of blistering heat in late September. This year the Pinot Noir was hanging out around 20-21 brix before the heat wave so we just have had to wait it out. I hope that the extra leaves that were left around the clusters will protect them from sun damage and shrivel. Hourly checks of the temperature and humidity reports at the nearest weather station is all we can do to soothe our worried minds.

On a separate note: if you ever plan to visit California come in September, it’s the best month: warm, no fog, lots of great summer produce in the markets and restaurant menus and few tourists.

Having just recently returned from 10 days in France visiting wine producers in Burgundy and the Rhone Valley, I have the somewhat unfortunate opportunity of being awake at 4AM due to the 9-hour time change I am now re-adjusting to. 10 days is just enough time to allow your body to be fully adjusted to the 9 zone time shift, only to whip yourself back 6,000 miles in the opposite direction. Even Bubbles, the dog, does not want to get out of bed at this hour. The questionable look I got from my wife at 5AM when she came into the kitchen to see what the early morning noises were was enough to challenge Medusa to a staring contest.
When we say we are going to France for 10 days to visit wineries most people think we will be slurping Cotes De Provence rosé by the gallon and having a picnic surrounded by fields of lavender. What it really turns out to be is 4-5 winery appointments per day, tasting 10-20 wines per appointment. Each day is only broken up by a lunch that leaves you craving for a vegetable and bean filled macrobiotic salad that will never come, instead it is escargots de Bourgogne and Charolais beef and innards followed by cheese AND desert. Ready to whip out the world’s smallest violin and play me song for my troubles?
These trips are previews to taste yet to be released wines that Amy’s employer, Veritas Imports, will bring to California to sell later in the year. Essentially the company must figure how much to purchase of each wine and how to sell them against an ever-weakening US dollar/Euro ratio. You have to be on your game each day and not get lost in the romanticism of tasting some of the greatest Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays in the world (while in a 200 hundred year old cellar).
The invigorating and refreshing part that I love about visiting the cellars of other producers (both in California and abroad) is the feeling of brothers in arms (no, not a Mark Knopfler reference). Attempting to make great wine and trying to operate a profitable business is virtually the same no matter what part of the world you are in. Of course there are regional differences in weather, winemaking styles and AOC laws (or lack there of in California). Ultimately as winemakers we are all facing somewhat similar challenges: growing conditions to get the vines to perform the way we want them to (man vs. nature,) making the wine in the style that you imagine in your head and not screwing it up (man vs. self) and then figuring out how to do it without losing money (man vs. society). This situation reminds me of a scene from the 1966 Bruce Browne surf film Endless Summer in which he says that if you are going to surf in sharky waters it’s best to not do it alone, that way it’s not so scary and if you get bitten it might not hurt so bad. It’s totally insane but remarkably true. There is great pleasure of tasting very good wines in barrel from some else’s cellar. It’s also just nice to know that they are right there beside you, knee deep in the struggle.

344 cases bottled of the Holus Bolus Blanc and I am making some kegs for Lukshon Restaurant in Culver City. All of their by-the-glass wines are pulled from 5 gallon kegs. It is a great way to supply a restaurant with wine, kegs created to order by the winery every few weeks, keeping the wine super fresh. Ecologically it is great: no glass bottles, no corks, no labels! Every little step we can take in the wine industry make a smaller foot print and use less stuff is a step in the right direction!

We also labeled up 3 different new Holus Bolus Syrahs from the 2008 vintage. These wines were bottled last August, but we gave them some time to rest (and develop new labels) in the interim. These are small lots of vineyard designate wine: White Hawk, Watch Hill and Rim Rock. These are all very cool climate sites and unique vineyards which we think are worthy of capturing in bottle. There are only about 75 cases of each of the Syrahs.