...in which Wes and the crew finish some Rose' and start getting ready for the onslaught of harvest next week.  Oh yeah, and the puppy, can't forget the puppy...

Year in the Vineyard with Wes Hagen, Clos Pepe Vineyards

Week #24

September 4-10, 2009

The Rose’ is Done, But When Can We Make Some Red Wine?

My wife and I were married here at Clos Pepe on September 9^th, 2000.  We thought it was a pretty good day to get married, if you’re totally nuts.  Our honeymoon was picking and making the 2000 Estate vintage for Clos Pepe—which was great and all, but not exactly relaxing.  Our ninth Anniversary was yesterday, 9 years on 9/9/09---woooo spoooky---and after the Anniversary has come and  gone, I know that it’s time to get down to the brass tacks of making pinot noir.

The weather this year has been extraordinarily cool with periods of short heat waves.  The last few periods of hot weather really got the sugars rising in the berries, but the pH has sort of stuck in a very low (high acid) manner.  We’re finally seeing pH in many sections creeping up to perfect levels for an early pick, and I’ve decided (about 5 minutes ago), to pull the trigger Saturday/Sunday on our first hillside section of 115 Clone Pinot Noir.

Here’s my harvesting secret for the Estate program:  I like to pick everything in three stages.  First stage is usually in the 23 Brix, 3.3 pH range which will produce a wine in the mid 13% alcohol range.  The second pick is the major bulk of our picking and a little riper—in the 14% range.  Then we balance the early pick with a bit of riper stuff, around 15% potential.  This way we get the acid and structure from the early pick, a lovely core of ripe fruit from the second, and a hint of ripe and high toned fruit from a later pick.  All that and we’ll still bring the wine in around 14% alcohol for elegance and cellar-worthiness.  In my world, a great pinot noir should improve in the cellar for at least 5-7 years, and optimally 9-12.  Clos Pepe has the chops to age beautifully, and I like to encourage patience with my wine making style as well as my drinking window suggestions I send out with our wine shipments.

So harvest is poised to begin after a warm Friday and Saturday.  I’ve emptied our irrigation pond to reset the fruit so it’s not dimpling too bad, and we’ve seen Brix levels actually drop over the last 10 days since the serious heat wave.  Now the small warm period today and tomorrow will concentrate the flavors just enough to really begin snipping and filling bins next week.  Roessler in Sonoma and Ken Brown, locally, are both looking at an early-next-week picking date.

On the cellar front, we will be in the winery today racking and topping up our 2009 Rose’, which is dry, and basically finished.  No really, I’m done with 100 cases of 2009 wine already.  As of this evening, we could filter and bottle it, BAM!  The wine is slightly more pink than last year—but still more salmon than bright pink, will boast less than 12% alcohol, about .7% residual sugar, and should be a great addition to our new legacy of bracing and refreshing sipping rose’.  The wine is sitting on its gross lees (sediment), which we will dispose of after siphoning off the clean wine and topping the barrels up to full.  Once this is complete we will prepare the cellar for wine this weekend—bring in some fermenters, clean the crusher, test the equipment, get some food grade dry ice.  It’s all pretty exciting after being on pins and needles for the last two weeks waiting.

Vineyard:  We’ve been watering and weeding.  The water will slow down the sugar accumulation while the acidity settles and respires to bring the fruit into perfect balance for winemaking.  We’ve also been knocking weeds out of the vine row to make picking easier and tidier.  Starting tomorrow we’ll also start removing nets for the next morning’s pick so we can start right at the crack of dawn to get the fruit in nice and cold.

Other:  I was down at the L.A. County Fair last weekend teaching wine classes, which is always a blast.  I have to admit, though, I’ve seen enough puffy, sunburned tattooed flesh for at least another year.  And I also got enough food-on-a-stick until next year too!

That’s it for now, a short one!  There will be lots to talk about next Thursday with fruit in the fermenters and snips a-clipping!

Wine of the Week:  2007 Prodigal Pinot Noir, Santa Rita Hills.  Steve and Mary Russell hit a homerun on this wine...a beautiful expression of SRH delicacy and restraint.  Bright cherry, boysenberry and huge baking spices in the nose--aromas that you can spend minutes appreciating.  Fresh and vibrant in the mouth with hints of SRH profundity, delicious now but will flesh out in the near term cellaring, and will last 5-7 with little problem.  Well done!