Week #29:

Rain: The Pause That Refreshes

 It rained!  And while that might not be a big deal where you live--we have seen no measurable rainfall since April--6 months ago.  That's a long time to be dry.  Which reminds me, I should get a beer.  OK back.  But yeah, it rained!  A good inch and a half.  I figured out once that an inch of rain saves us about $5000 in electricity from not having to run the irrigation system.  And at the end of the growing season when the vines are going through a rapid period of root growth (after the crop's been harvested), it's a perfect time for a good, long, soaking drink for the vines.  A tiny bit of stress is good for a mature vine around harvest, but this whole notion of abusing vines to make good wine is a French myth that was proven wrong about 20 years ago.  Healthy, balanced vines farmed sustainably is the rage these days.  Maybe we helped tipped the scales, who knows?

The ground got soaked and the water likely reached root level, which may impact the 3 acres of pinot noir that are still hanging, but we're expecting a bit of heat tomorrow which should dry us up and likely get the sugar levels back to where they were before the little storm.  Today I went into the vineyard on the tractor and cultivated down to about six inches, and then poked the dirt around a little to see how deep the soil profile was saturated.  The water's down over a foot and a half already, and still moving.  It was deeper than I expected, and wet enough that I'll hold off on post harvest irrigation for a week or so.

So why do some winemakers seem to freak out when it rains near harvest?  Well, I may be a little more worried if 90% of the fruit was still out there instead of the 10% that is.  Water can spread rot and give it a good nudge to grow.  If there's a little botrytis out there, it will be rampant in about 10 days.  I don't want to spray at this late date, so I see about a 10 day window until that fruit needs to be off the vine.  The producers know this and we're all on the same page.  If inches and inches and inches fall, the grapes will swell and dilute flavor and sugar content.  So really the main two fears of winegrowers relative to rain are dilution and rot pressure.

As I mentioned we still have three acres of pinot noir hanging on the vines, for two producers.  They chose to ride out the storm, wait for some warm weather to get a little more flavor concentration.  And while I may not agree stylistically with their decision, they are my clients and my job is to deliver fruit that is perfect to them.  So they let it hang...?  I get to sleep until 7 am a few more mornings, and the crew has plenty to keep them busy as we tidy up from harvest.

There's little doubt the vineyard will be picked clean before my next blog, and that we will likely finish barreling down our last wines by then as well.  It's an exciting time of harvest, when you feel you're coasting downhill, sleeping a little more, and there's little that could go wrong at this point--2009 appears to be an unqualified success from both a fruit quality standard and how the wines are tasting of the press.  I normally don't run around with press wine at events and ask people to taste week-old wine, but I did that this week because I'm very proud of all my little wine younglings.

 Open House:  Clos Pepe Estate and Axis Mundi Wines had an Open House last Sunday the 11th of October at our new winery digs in Lompoc.  This was the first time we tried an Open House completely on our own...we've always been dependent on neighbors or the Big House on the Clos to draw some customers, but this time we were in the middle of West Side Lompoc with no other wineries within a few miles.  We set up, opened some wine and waited.  Some folks showed up early and by the 11 am start time we were four deep at the bar and the couches were filled.  I did 4 punch down demonstrations and 4 barrel tastings of the 2009's and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.  Even the boss was surprised how much wine we sold and that more than 120 people came by to taste.  It was also gratifying to know that we had some solo cache' and that we can have these type of winery tastings and have a crowd.  The next one will be around Valentine's Day, so please join us!

Winery work is becoming lighter by the day.  We began at 6:30 this morning pressing the last Estate pinot noir to barrel and finished by around noon.  Why start so early?  Because it was forecast to be warm today and I wanted to open up the winery for the forklift and moving bins around.  The fog broke after we loaded and locked the press, so as the sun came out we were insulated from the warmth.  It only topped out today around 73 in Lompoc, so it wasn't much of a threat.  But we did have the afternoon off, so I wrote the outline of this blog and then joined Jackson (the Aussie intern--sorry Bill and Miguel, no pics this week) at La Purisima Golf Course for a lovely 5 mile walk spoiled.  Jackson beat me for the first time in strokes, but I was able to take 10 of 18 skins.  So we both won.  And drank beer.  Win win win.

All that's left in the winery is Axis Mundi Sleepy Hollow Syrah that came in this week and was crushed.  It's sticky and purple and smells really good.  Just think what'll happen when I throw some yeast in!  We'll inoculate it first thing tomorrow with BM45 and BRL 97 yeasts, both of which are Italian yeasts I love for syrah.  They will be actively fermenting by the weekend and will liekly be ready to press by next weekend.  Then we will be finished with a year in the vineyard and a year in the winery.

Next week will be the last blog for the year.  I'll take some pictures.