In which Wes works to grow the best pinot on the planet, has an excellent adventure in San Francisco, has a great tour with a wine geek, drives to LAX to pick up Cousin Ben, and makes some Fleur de Sel on the stove..recipe included!

Cluster of Pinot Noir Filling In Nicely.

Note:  The blogging software was updated this week and changed what I can do with photos.  Until it's fixed or I get smarter, I can't put captions on photos when you mouse over.

The vineyard’s weather has been perfect for June into July—warm but not hot, foggy in the mornings, sunny in the late morning with winds blowing off the Pacific each afternoon.  Why it matters:  Consistent weather in Spring and Summer without a lot of heat spikes moves the vines through the various stages of growth slowly and with minimal variability.  Our high temperatures over the last five weeks have been between 72 and 85 with cooling winds every afternoon and fog almost every morning.  These temperatures are also optimum for mildew growth, so we’ve been very careful to observe the vineyard and keep our fungicide sprays on schedule. 

At our weekly meeting this morning, Cathy Pepe (AKA ‘Mom’) said the vineyard has never looked better.  It’s always good to have the ‘boss’ on your side.  The level of vigor and growth is indeed optimum for this time in the growing season, and I expect we’ll see a very good ratio of leaves to clusters when we finish our section-by-section counts.  Twelve to fifteen leaves per cluster is optimal.  At the same meeting we also discussed using the fruit we plan to drop (we cut off about 10% of the total crop—the last clusters to start changing colors) for a product the French call ‘verjus’  (pronounced vehr’-zhoo), which is the unfermented and wildly sour juice 9of unripe grapes.  This product was used in French cuisine before the introduction of lemon juice, and would look righteously appropriate in the same bottle we use for our olive oil.

And speaking of olive oil, the crop looks a little smaller this year.  Quality should be as good or better than previous years, and the trees seem to be in balance and pretty happy when they’re not being attacked by hungry sheep.  Clos Pepe Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil is available on the Clos Pepe website: www.clospepe.com .  I promised my mom I would plug it this week.  Only about 150 bottles  left, and there’s no reason to age it!  

Canopy, Week 14.  Fruit is exposed to morning sun and wind to keep mildew down.  Clone 115 Pinot Noir, Clos Pepe Vineyards

The crew is busy this week and next finishing the lion’s share of the canopy management work in the lower hillside sections of the pinot noir.  There’s 10 different producers at Clos Pepe including the Estate wines.  We’ve finished the upper hillside (Loring, Estate, Brewer-Clifton, Ken Brown, Arcadian, Siduri), as well as the Dijon 76 block of Chardonnay (Tyler, Estate), and the lower section of AP Vin, Siduri, Loring pinot noir and are approaching the final sections:  Estate, Tyler and Roessler pinot noir, and then finally the Roessler, Estate and Diatom sections of Wente clone Chardonnay.  We hope to have the whole vineyard shoot positioned and leaf-pulled by the end of next week, at which time we will do a fine-tuning pass, then hedge the high shoots so all shoots are of an equal length (for consistent ripening), and then toss the nets on.  Why it matters:  Each winemaker client requires slightly different canopy management, so we do our best to get all sections finished to their liking a bit early so we have time to address specific requests after they walk their rows.  Some producers like more or less leaves pulled, some prefer less or more irrigation, etc.  The idea is that we custom farm each section of Clos Pepe to our producers’ specifications.  The fruit here is quite expensive, and in this economy it’s important that they feel they are getting pinot fruit that’s worth the heavy purse.

 

Weeds and grasses:  We borrowed our neighbor’s tractor-mounted mower this morning (thanks Dan from Kessler-Haak Vineyard for being so cool), and are currently mowing the front of the property for fire-abatement, the lower field for a private camping event that’s happening at the end of the month (a gathering of service dog teams from all over the country), and then we’ll get the mower into the vineyard and knock down the native plants that have grown since the ground was cultivated in the early Spring.  Why it matters:  a little weed growth is fine in between the rows, but once the weeds get over knee-height, I like to knock them down so they don’t shade any vines or fruit.  Mowing them down also adds green manure to the soil, making it healthier naturally.  Tall plants can also hide gophers and squirrels from hawks and owls, so we like to keep those pests honest and afraid.

Fertilization:  Ben, Chanda’s  cousin from Wisconsin, is helping us spot fertilize the vineyard.  Vines that are stunted or have been replanted need a little extra nitrogen and potassium at this point in the season, so we’ve been driving the rows in our badass golf cart, tossing the vines that need it a little extra food.  Why it matters:  vineyards don’t need a lot of fertilizer and we don’t want to overfertilize anything.  Hand fertilizing a few thousand vines out of 42,000 may seem like a tough task…and it is…but this way only the vines that need it get the extra boost, and it saves a lot of wasted fertilizer that would be applied through the irrigation system.  Plus it keeps Ben off Halo 3 for a few hours in the day.  Next week?  I think we’ll send him to Kung Fu camp.  I am proud of him that he conquered Gaviota Peak with me yesterday—the view was stunning at the top—with a sea of foggy clouds stretching from Santa Ynez all the  way out to the Channel Islands.

Irrigation, or lack thereof:  I’m putting the brakes on water for the vines until the heat spikes or I see the beginning of veraison (when the fruit softens and changes color).  Why it matters:  Partial root-zone drying at this juncture keeps the berries small, which will produce wines of intense depth, color and typicity (better known to Clos Pepe insiders as ‘The CloJo’)

Bunch closure:  As you can see in the picture at the top of the blog, the clusters that were just little pinheads surrounded by flowers a few weeks ago are growing up and are now almost full-sized.  The fruit won’t get much bigger than this—about 50-70 grams per bunch as opposed to many regions (such as New Zealand) where clusters can reach 200 grams.  Why it matters:  Small berries with thick skins produce grapes of intense character and mineral flavor.  Of course tiny clusters weigh less, which means a reduction in pounds per plant and tons per acre, but Clos Pepe is committed to losing some weight at harvest if it means the resulting wines are stunning representations of the Santa Rita Hills and Clos Pepe Vineyards.

Chanda and Oliver at Fisherman's Wharf

San Francisco:  Last week Chanda, Oliver and I made a sojourn to San Francisco for an event called Pinot Days.  I was able to promote our wines over the weekend, doing formal tasting seminars on Saturday and pouring for 3000 pinot maniacs on Sunday.  We were chosen as one of the top 4 pinot vineyards in California for one seminar, and a ‘Jewel of the Southern CA AVA’s’ for the other Saturday presentation.  The wines we served (2006, 2007 pinots) went over very well, and I felt the presentations were dramatic and informative.  The ‘Grand Tasting’ on Saturday was one of the best events I’ve ever poured.  The attendees were bright eyed and inquisitive and it’s so nice to have wine drinkers seek us out, where 10 years ago we had to entice people to our table.  The Blog ‘Vinography’  listed all four of the wines we poured at the top of their ratings, with the rose’, the 2005 and 2006 pinots rating 9.5 out of 10!  Not that scores mean everything, but it is nice to see our name at the top of those lists!  It was a warm weekend in San Fran, and we took full advantage with trips to Golden Gate Park, Fisherman’s Wharf, some fantastic restaurants (don’t miss Nettie’s Crab Shack in SOMA), and of course more pinot noir than you can shake a stick at.  I had to drive home after the Sunday tasting, so I didn’t drink much—and good thing as I got a speeding ticket leaving the Bay Area.  Still a very memorable three days!  Thanks to Vida and Dallas Kashuba (and the cherub-baby Maddox) for taking us around the city, as well as fellow service-dog queen Veronica and her hubby Brad for taking Chanda out for a grand adventure on Saturday.

The Dynamic Duo between the Rock and a Hard Place

Wine tours:  On Monday I had the pleasure of hosting Bill and Lindsey Hargrove to the vineyard.  Bill’s a pinot noir and Burgundy nut, and his daughter Lindsey is a very quick study.  Clos Pepe does 10:30 am tours a few days a week by appointment (call a few weeks in advance), and this tasting reminded me of why I love this job so much.  

We sipped rose’ and a few vintages of pinot noir with some nice cheeses and fresh baguettes as we watched the morning turn to afternoon.  Bill and Lindsey were sympathetic  souls and we ended up talking for a long time about trips to Burgundy, wine style, the stupidity of the 100 point rating system, and how big, rich wines tend to fail at table.  They were looking for a place to have dinner locally, so I pointed them towards Root 246 (see previous blogs for raves), and after they purchased a few bottles I gave them a bottle of my first Pinot Noir under the Clos Pepe Estate label to enjoy with dinner.  A morning and afternoon well spent.  I can’t count how many experiences I’ve had like this.  People that are willing to make an appointment at 10:30 am to come out and see the vineyard and taste some wines tend to be very interesting and passionate.  If you fit the bill, please plan to send an email a few weeks before visiting Santa Barbara Wine Country so we can hang out and make new memories.

LAX:  Tuesday was spent driving to LAX to pick up Chanda’s 13-year old cousin, Ben.  Ben will be with us for a few weeks and I plan to exploit some child labor in the vineyard, using further hours of Xbox on the 56” HD as a carrot.  I’ve only got a few hours out of him so far, but I was permissive after wrecking him on a six mile hike yesterday.  Next lesson for Ben: knocking suckers off vines and fine tuning some canopy management.  The drive back was fun—we went through Santa Monica and up through Malibu into Ventura, and then La Super Rica in Santa Barbara to meet Chanda for lunch.  LAX was both interesting (is there any better people watching?) and annoying (security to retrieve an unaccompanied minor).  I always feel better as I drive clear of LAX with my sanity and luggage intact.

Making salt:  I’ve been tweeting and posting pics of salt making on Facebook, and I received a lot of requests for my method and ‘recipe’.  Below is a full description of how to make a decent ‘fleur de sel’ salt from clean sea water.

Step 1:  Lugging sea water.  The first thing you need to do is get online and look up pollution reports of your local beaches to check on pollution levels.  Starting with clean water is very important to end up with bright white, clean, edible salt.  Find the cleanest beach you can, and then bring a few clean/sterile 5 gallon buckets with lids down to the water’s edge.  Wade into the surf, rinse the buckets out a few times with seawater, and then go as deep into the surf as you can manage for the collection.  I take one bucket at a time and only fill it about 2/3 the way up so it’s not ridiculously heavy.  Check the quality of the water at the water’s edge before lugging it back (with lids tight) back to the car.  If the water is not transparent and free from floating residue, it’s probably not wise to make salt from that beach.  A bit of sand is inevitable, and will settle out to the bottom of the bucket.

Step 2:  Settling and rough filtering.  Using a large pasta-style pot without any type of non-stick coating (I use standard All-Clad steel pasta pot that has become my salt pot), take the pot to the water with a large funnel stuffed loosely with cheese cloth.  The seawater has already settled overnight in the buckets.  You may need a helper to hold the funnel as you pour the seawater through the cheesecloth and funnel into the boiling pot.  Fill it as high as you can without spilling it on the way back to the stove.  Rinse the cheesecloth before using it again—it can be reused many times.

Step 3:  With a lid on the pot to help get the water to a boil, fire up the pot and when the saltwater is boiling, remove the lid, turn on your exhaust fan and set a timer for about an hour and a half per gallon.  Allow the water to boil away until the water becomes white with salt and is down to the last inch or so in the pot.

Step 4:  At this point, you cannot walk away from the salt.  Use a sturdy plastic or metal spatula and start scraping the salt off the bottom of the pan as it starts to form.  If it won’t come off you waited too long to start the scraping.  You need to be scraping the bottom of the pan constantly—this encourages the salt crystals to form on the surface of the water, which produces finer, flatter crystals called ‘fleur de sel’.  Real fleur de sel is scooped off the top of the surface tension, but using this method it is very difficult.  But if you keep the salt from forming on the bottom of the pan you will make a very good faux-fleur that will be a bright white (if the water was clean) and taste very clean and wonderful.  Keep scraping every 30 seconds or so until the salt emerges in a soupy/crystalline goop.

Step 5:  Don’t walk away!  Keep stirring and scraping until the salt is barely damp and all of the visible moisture is gone.  At that point, use the spatula to break up the salt, scraping still, until little to no steam is rising.  When the contents of the pan appear to be dry salt, scrape one last time and transfer the salt onto a tray lined with wax paper.  Careful, it’s still hot.

Step 6:  Once the moist salt has cooled, chop the salt up with a spatula or a cheese knife and pat it lightly with your hands so it covers the pan evenly.  If it’s warm and dry outside, dry it in direct sunlight for a few hours until crunchy, or in the oven at minimum temp for 30 mins or so.  The salt should now crunch a bit when you pinch it.  If you see any small impurities (very easy to see in white salt), you may need to spend a few minutes picking them out of the salt.  At this point I break the salt up in my hands, pinching and squeezing until it has the desired grain size (the longer you pinch and squeeze, the finer it becomes).  Using the wax paper, dump the finished salt into a container.  I use a quart or 2 quart locking Tupperware box.  You have salt!

Step 7:  If you want to get fancy you can add fresh herbs, citrus zest, truffle essence, or even smoke the finished salt.  Be creative!  My two favorites are lemon zest salt (just zest a lemon into a few ounces and seal in Tupperware), or truffle salt (zest a fresh black truffle into 4-6 ounces of salt, and then drip in about 10 drops of white truffle essence.  Shake the mixture up and let sit a few days for the flavoring to dry out and flavor the salt.  I haven’t tried to smoke salt yet, but I plan to try in the next week or so.

Have fun with it, and if you enjoy salt don’t forget to read Mark Kurlansky’s fabulous book:  Salt, A World History.  Hard to imagine it would be a page turner, but it is!