Fall Offer Letters

Stefania has been busy all afternoon in the home office, printing and preparing the fall offer letter. Her and I have signed all 400+ copies and the last step will be to stuff envelopes.

We're sending the letters out again in waves. The first group of '1000+ pointers' will go out tomorrow. I think there are 79 of those in total. The other 350 or so letters will go out next week, and the week after in two waves.

We'll be releasing our 2006 Uvas Creek Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. This was a very popular wine last year and we sold out very quickly. This time around we have a total of 121 cases. We'll also be letting people order 3 packs of our 2006 Eaglepoint Ranch Syrah. We had some cases left after we decided not to do a few events this summer and they will be available on a first come, first serve basis.

Look for your letter to arrive in the next few weeks

The Haut Tubee

The base for the Haut Tubee is now in bin and should start fermenting soon.

We crushed about 450 pounds this morning. That means we just have about 49500 more pounds to pick! I tested myself this year on the home grapes, I never took any readings. I wanted to see how good I could do just picking on taste. Well Stefania took all the lab readings after the wine was in bin, and it was at exactly 25 BRIX. Dead perfect for this wine!

We added a little superfood to help the native yeasts get started in fermenting the must. It should be just a day or two and it will be burbling away. The must is pretty dark compared to the last couple of years and the flavors seemed pretty intense.

The best news is that all the equipment worked and we seem to have our procedures down pat. We wrapped up the crush activity by noon, then spent the rest of the day racking the 2007 Chaine d' Or Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2007 Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet Sauvignon, and the 2007 Haut Tubee.

Tomorrow will be an off day. This time of year that just means no heavy lifting. We'll be sampling the Crimson Clover vineyard and the Woodruff Family vineyard. Then Stefania and Kathy will be stuffing offer letters. The first wave goes out Monday. I get to watch football while they stuff. My hands are so big, and I stuff so slow, they'd rather just have me out of the way!

First Pick, the Haut Tubee

We started at 7:30 this morning, harvesting the grapes around our house. We usually just get about 200lbs, and this year was no different. It's a great chance to try out all the equipment and procedures on a small scale. The grapes will go on to become the base for our Haut Tubee wine, of which we'll make 50-100 cases.




The first cut of the season. On a Mourvedre cluster. We're going to plant more Mourvedre next year, it does really well here.

The Hot Tub, and Syrah vines in the back yard.

Bins starting to fill up

Why do I hate bird netting? This is my hand after just 50 plants. Imagine removing acres of the stuff.

Next off to the Ottigurr Vineyard for 300lb's or so of Syrah and Zinfandel.

Cleaning Day

Today Stef, Jerry and I spent the day at Chaine d'Or getting everything cleaned and ready for harvest. From this point out, we're going to try really hard to have a blog entry every day. I thought I could do that last harvest season and it was very difficult to get one a week out.

I think though the blogs will be short, and pictures may not have narratives with them. We'll just throw up what content we have and get it out there.

The pictures below show some of the goings on as we scrubbed and cleaned everything today.

Schedule coming together.

We're starting to narrow in on some picking windows for the start of harvest. I've heard that in Napa and Sonoma things are well under way, but we're still waiting here.

Friday we'll do our annual clean at the winery. Once a year everything gets a good scrub down to get anything we may have missed during routine cleaning during the year. We'll also prep, clean and test all the equipment. De-stemmer, pump, press, and the big tanks. Jerry already cleaned and prepped all the plastic bins on Monday.

Saturday will be the first pick. We'll harvest the Syrah, Zinfandel and some of the Grenache (a couple plants need another 7-10 days) at home for the Haut Tubee blend. Friday night we'll also test the Syrah and Zinfandel at the OttiGurr home vineyard and pick that Saturday as well.

The Crimson vineyard is close to ready. We may pick that next week. We need to check on flavors first. Those grapes will go to Big Basin Vineyards and we'll make the wine there.

Jerry is out taking samples today at the Woodruff Family Vineyard. It looks like we'll be picking all the Chardonnay next week, and some of the Pinot Noir. I may take a ton or so at the same time for us, but right now the plan is to get next weeks pick to Hobo Wines and Stores. Following that we'll pick for Pax Mahle, then finally Big Basin and ourselves. I may take a little at the same time we pick for Pax, so I can judge picking at different times.

So, off we go.........

New Link

I've added a new link to the blog for 'Friends of the Winemakers'. FOW for short, is a group Stef and I joined originally as supporting members. Then we converted to a member winery when we started making wine.

The mission of the organization is to preserve the history and support the efforts of winemaking in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Santa Clara Valley. They also have a really, really good time doing it. Stef and I don't get to go on nearly as many events as we'd like to with the group since the parties and trips are usually on Saturday's when we're busy working. If you have free time though, this is a great group to check out.

We also host an annual event for FOW members. Each November we prepare a special dinner and pair our wines with that dinner. I talk about each wine and the food pairing we've put together. The cost is under $50 and includes a 4-5 course meal and a sampling of all our wines. It's really a very fun event.

This year for instance for the main course we're planing on smalll portion of:

Lamb chop with mint jelly and lentils d' provance.
St Andre's bison chesse burger with Stefania's Blackberry BBQ sauce.
Filet Mignon with pepper/port reduction sauce.

The three will be served on one tasting plate and paired with our 2006 Syrah Eaglepoint Ranch, 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Uvas Creek Vineyard, and a special sneak preview of our un-released 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Santa Cruz Mountains. The idea is to be able to sample each wine, with each meat and see what makes the best combo!

So do give FOW a look, it's a great group of people and we enjoy our annual event with them!

Remembering New Orleans

I originally published this on the Wine Spectator Forum in a thread about hurricane Gustav:

I just wanted to indulge myself in a little story.

It was March of 2006. Seven months after Katrina. Stef and I were in a little bar on Bourbon Street. There were maybe 20 people there. Aid workers mostly and construction people.

A few locals, there really were not a lot of people who had returned yet. It was weird to hear the locals talk. The conversation was always the same.

Where did you go to?
When did you come back?
Where did your family go?
Do you know where they all are?
Have any of them come back?

This was friend talking to friend and neighbor. It was shocking really, in that it was so common.

"Do you know where your family is?" Seven months after the storm and it was a common question to ask people if they had found all their family.

The Times-Picayune still was filled with obits. Died 8/29/05. Pages of them, or "Died last week, never recovered". That was common too.

Stef had brought me to New Orleans the first time in 2001 for my birthday. If you've seen Spike Lee's movie, there is a scene where one French Quarter resident says he knew within 6 hours of arriving in the city the first time, he wanted to stay, and he'd been there 40 years.

Six hours after we arrived I stood at Bourbon and Esplanade and said "I want to come back here every year." And we have, every year but 2005. We were married in Jackson Square in 2003.

That first trip back after the storm, we were the first real 'tourists' people had seen. Aid workers, volunteers, students, construction works, but no tourists. People cried when we told them we just came back because we loved the city. The waitress at Louisiana Bistro hugged us and broke down sobbing. Thank you we heard over and over again.

That night in the bar, the guitar player played a song. 'Katrina Blues'. Lost families, blue tarps, FEMA, it hit every person in the room.

I'd heard the blues before then, but that was the first time I ever understood them.

In the middle of harvest this year, I'll stop, turn things over to Millie and Jerry, and Stef and I will go back to New Orleans for a few days for my birthday. We'll see old friends, and make new ones, and I'll be thankful they've made it through another storm season, and hope every one's family makes it home.

"These are the times that try men's souls"

I've actually read The Crisis by Thomas Paine. The class was 'American Political Thought". The reading list was extensive; Notes on the State of Virginia, The Federalist Papers, The entire Lincoln Douglas Debates, Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Fortunately as tough as the professor was, he also had a weakness for good food and beer, and he would always take a small group of us out to dinner after class. I learned perhaps more from the debates we'd have at those dinners, than even the reading list.

We learned to sharpen our arguments, and organize our facts in those Socratic, beer inspired debates. We also learned a great deal about intellectual strength. Sticking to what you know to be right in the face of popular pressure.

Every year in September we go through trying times as grape growers. Without fail we will have a heat wave in September every year. All around us panic starts to break out. People worry about rising sugars, and the pressure builds to harvest early.

It is a trying time. You have to stick to what you know is right, and let the grapes hang through the heat. Even as you read about harvest starting, and picking beginning, you know the grapes really are not ready. You have to have the guts and intellectual strength to stick with what you know is right.

It's very hard. A mistake and the resulting wines can have too much alcohol or burnt flavors. What if the heat doesn't end is always a concern? It gets worse as more people start to pick, and they always justify their panic with all the reasons they think it's the right thing to do, and how wrong it is to not pick.

We've got to stick that out. Hold on, do what we know will be right; "Simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense...divest yourself of prejudice and prepossession, and enlarge your views beyond the present day." Or for a more modern view: "We've got to hold on to what we've got...We'll give it a shot. We're half way there"

Which I would bet is the only time you've ever seen Thomas Paine and Jon Bon Jovi quoted in the same blog.

Training Update

We're two weeks in and doing well. Good thing we started early too, because harvest looks like it will be 2-3 weeks early this year from the past few years.

The Expresso.net bike says I'm over 56 miles in two weeks and the scale says I've dropped 8 pounds. I'm really focusing on the things we'll need for harvest; leg strength, endurance and lifting 30-40 pounds over and over again. I'll also have to watch out for the hand problems that come with harvest. Scrapes, hangnails, cuts and sore hands all come with harvest time. I've got to start now with using moisturizers and remember to wear gloves as much as possible.

There are a lot of people who work at wineries who say harvest doesn't official start until you bleed. Once you have a cut on your hand that requires a bandage, harvest has really started. The sting on your hands from 3.5pH juice in open cuts is one of the little parts of harvest that isn't very glamorous.

I thnk both Stef and I are feeling we're doing well right now. We're getting to the gym every other day or so and getting good workouts done. We should be ready once things get going.

BRIX Readings

We've started to take BRIX (percentage of sugar to juice) readings in our vineyards. I like to harvest grapes at between 23.5 and 25.0 BRIX. It depends on the vineyard and other factors exactly when we pick, but those are the 'numbers' I look for.

We also look for 'secondary' signs of ripeness. The pips or seeds should become brown and crisp. The petiole, where the cluster connects to the vine, should harden and turn brown. The skin should start to dimple on the grapes, and when you eat a grape the flesh should tear with your teeth and the pulp should separate easily from the seeds.

I also check for flavor development. Grapes change flavors as they get ripe. Syrah starts of very citrus like, with pineapple, and tropical fruit. It then gets very peppery with raspberry and cherry fruit. Next it starts to develop deep cherry and berry fruit, the pepper gets more like black pepper and finally you get fruit flavors like wild berries and dark plums. If you leave it on the vine long enough, you'll get prunes, dates and raisin flavors.

I like to pick when the flavors are in the middle area, with still a hint of red fruit, but moving into the dark fruit flavors and before the prune flavors show up. In our vineyards that usually happens right around 24-25 BRIX.

Right now most of the vineyards are right below 20 BRIX in the 'warmer' vineyards, and 18 in the cooler ones. That means we are still 3-4 weeks away in the warmer ones and 6-8 in the cooler ones. Secondary signs are just starting to show, and flavors actually seem a little ahead of the BRIX. We'll probably pick the grapes around our home, the Haut Tubee, in about two weeks. That is always our first pick of the season.

Shatter

There's been talk and reports this year about a lot of 'shatter' in vineyards. What the heck is shatter? Basically it's the result or outcome of some problem at flowering that prevents individual grapes on a cluster from being pollinated. The end result is a stringy cluster with empty spots where there should be grapes.

The picture below is of a cluster at the Crimson Clover vineyard in Morgan Hill that has shatter. You can see that the cluster looks like it has missing spaces where there should be grapes.




The grapes can also get a condition called 'Chicken and Egg', or 'Hen and Egg'. I don't really know why it has that name, the name doesn't make sense, but what you end up with are some fully mature pollinated berries (chickens), and little hard un-pollinated green berries (eggs). We haven't really seen that this year, so no pictures of that. Maybe it's because pollinated eggs become chickens, but grapes never look like chickens. I think it's a silly term. There's a French term for the condition also, but I prefer to just say "poor fruit set'.

The next picture shows that this condition is pretty limited for us. You can see a few clusters on this vine have shatter. Most though are fine and healthy.


Basically anything that interrupts the flowering cycle will cause shatter. It can be frost, wind, too much heat, too much cold, shaking the plants, spraying while flowering is happening, or anything that keeps the pollen from hitting the flower.

The culprit in the Crimson Clover vineyard is wind. The vineyard is in a narrow valley in the eastern foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains at about 300 feet. In the morning the fog burns back out of the valley, creating wind in a south eastern direction. In the afternoon the Santa Clara Valley heats up and draws cool wind down this little valley from the Ocean, shifting the wind to the opposite direction.

The final picture shows a vine at the boundary of the vineyard. At the south-eastern edge of the vineyard where this vine is located, the other vines can't break the wind. The result is that shatter is worse on the wind exposed edges of the vineyard. You can see the boundary fence in the background of this picture.

Overall though the impact is small for us. Yields go down a little, but we'll still get about 2-3 tons per acre from this site. The open clusters also help prevent mildew. Since the cluster is open to the air it's harder for mildew to start. It is also easier to get spray on the berries since they are not tightly spaced together. Finally, the lower yield helps concentrate ripeness and means less thinning for us.

Making wine in the Santa Cruz Mountains we expect some shatter every year, as it's usually windy, foggy, hot or cold at flowering. We account for it in our planning each year.

Training Camp

I really like red wine, red meat, and a big piece of sourdough bread covered with butter and olive oil. Combine that with a day job that mostly involves conference calls and emails and its easy to get a little out of breath hiking up the steep vineyard hills on weekends.


Last year before harvest though I knew I wasn't going to be able to do 15 and 16 hour days of hard activity with out a little prep work. Fortunately there is a little gym at work and I spent a lot of time on the Expresso Bike before harvest started. I felt pretty good as we went through harvest. I'd get tired for sure, but never exhausted.

This year I actually decided to start 'training camp' a little earlier, and Stefania joined in. For the next 6 to 8 weeks we'll be visiting the gym 3-4 times a week and trying to get in a long bike ride or hike on Sunday's. Harvest is a lot of work. The long days are all on your feet, and hiking through the vineyards. On a harvest day I may lift the 30 pound picking boxes 300-400 times in a day, including up over my head and into the crusher. It takes a lot of muscle stamina to keep doing that.

So that's what we'll be focusing on. Building stamina, repetitive strength and endurance. The Total time of harvest, from first pick through final pressing, will last about 10 weeks. It's a little bit like a football season. 6-8 weeks of 'camp', then 10-11 weeks of 'season'. There will be bumps and bruises along the way and at the end, we'll need a good rest!

Dropping Fruit

Yesterday started very early. 6 AM we were up and ready to go. It was one of Stefania's new "winery work" days. She's now working 3 days a week at her day job and 3 days at the winery. We try and take Sunday's off, but we do work Saturdays.

Jerry and his wife Estella met us to drive down to the Crimson Clover vineyard in Morgan Hill. Estella is working for us about 30 hours a week now also. I had to get Stefania dropped off and get to work before a 9AM meeting. I needed to go out with them though to show them exactly what fruit I wanted dropped.

The Crimson Clover vineyard is four years old, and not all the plants are at the same maturity level in a young vineyard. That means we have to treat each vine individually and make sure it has the right amount of fruit on the vine. Too much and the fruit won't get ripe and the vine will be stressed. In old vineyards this is much less of a problem as old vines tend to find the right balance on their own over time. That's assuming you prune and care for it properly though.

Above you see our little crew getting started. I prefer to do this kind of detailed work with a small, highly skilled crew. The standard is to bring in a large group for day work, give simple instructions and set them loose. With a small crew though I can give detailed instructions and since they will return over and over to the vineyard, they'll get to learn the detail I'm after as I provide instruction and check on the work.

This is one of the problems we were trying to fix. The plant above is too small to carry all the fruit it has on it. It's healthy, and on track for a four year old vine, but this amount of fruit will not ripen properly, and will stress the vine too much this year, resulting in a weak vine next year.

We go about removing any clusters that are 'behind'. That means they are not all the way complete turning colors yet. We also remove clusters from weak shoots, that aren't at least 24 inches long. On the other shoots, we judge if the shoot is strong enough to carry one cluster or two. If it's only one, we remove the top or second cluster. We just leave the clusters on the ground to add their nutrients back into the soil.

This is the same vine after thinning and dropping fruit. You can see the load is much smaller, and this plant will be able to ripen this amount of fruit.

By the time we complete a row the ground is filled with discarded fruit. This is a hard trade off for many people to make. We're literally leaving money on the ground to rot. The trade off though is much, much higher wine quality. The sight is often shocking to both homeowners, and visitors to see so much fruit on the ground. In the end though we know it makes a better bottle of wine.

Harvest Timing

After a very cool Spring and Early Summer, August has come with a mini-heat wave. It has not been super hot, just steady temps in the 90's for two weeks running.

Right now it looks like not only are we caught up from the cool Spring, we're actually ahead of schedule. That really doesn't mean much though right now. Last year it looked like we were two weeks ahead of schedule and then we had cool weather and some rain come in early October. Some people were worried it would ruin harvest. The grapes were not just ripe yet and if the cool rainy weather stayed, we'd have unripe grapes.

The weather cleared though around the 15th and we had 5 weeks of warm sunshine. We mostly harvested three weeks later, in the last week of October. So an 'early year', became a normal year. Maybe even a week later than normal.

In 2005 we thought we might have an early harvest, but everyone was worried that the plants were behind schedule. That may seem confusing, but what had happened was the grape sugars, were well ahead of flavor development and everyone worried they would have to pick before the grapes got ripe flavors because the sugars would be too high. Then September came and we had 9 weeks of mild, sunny weather. The rush, turned into harvesting at leisure.

This year a lot can still change things. But sitting here in mid August, looking at the grapes and starting to taste them, we may be 2-3 weeks earlier than the past few years. We'll wait and see though, nature has a away of making its own schedule.

More Nets....

Last Friday we finished up netting at the Woodruff Family Vineyard. That's our biggest netting project with 8+ acres to cover. This week we moved on to the Arastradero Vineyard. That vineyard needed some thinning and a little spray. The winemaker getting fruit for it also wanted us to drop every shoot to just one cluster.

It took a day and a half to do the prep work and then two and a half days to do the nets. The vineyard is very steep, so even though it's only about 3/4 of an acre, it takes a long time to work the site compared to the flatter sites.

Monday we'll net at Chaine d'Or. That should only take one day since just the outside of the vineyard gets netted. One thing we've learned about netting is, once you do it, you don't need to do it. After a couple of seasons of netting, the birds seem to lose interest in the site and don't hang around anymore, or they take the route of their migration, since the food is gone. So despite netting only about 10% of Chaine d' Or we loose almost no fruit to the birds.

Later this coming week, we'll prep the Crimson Clover vineyard. Some fruit needs to get dropped. Here we'll take anything that is behind in turning colors and any fruit on plants that look overloaded. I don't personally like going to a one cluster per shoot approach. I know it's much easier to instruct a crew to do that, but I find that if you remove too much fruit from a strong plant, you send the plant back into a growth cycle. Then the plant is putting its energy into growing, instead of getting its fruit ripe. That can also lead to late mildew problems since the new growth is not sprayed.

It's more time consuming, and requires a more skilled crew, but I prefer to remove fruit on a plant by plant assessment. Stefania will be out with Jerry and the crew on Tuesday to teach them exactly how to do this. When they are done, we'll hedge any tall plants, spray any hot spots for mildew, and then net the vineyard. That will be our last one for summer to net.

"Can you spare some wine?"

On each release I've set aside a pretty good chunk of the available cases for local events. I thought it was important to help us build a following here in the South Bay that we have wine to do things like trade shows, restaurant, and charity events.

On our first few releases I set aside 10 cases of each wine. On the spring release I set aside 25 cases of wine. It seemed like a lot, but we went through the 10 cases pretty fast last year. I enjoyed many of the events we did, especially a private dinner we cooked and paired wine at for a group called Friends of the Winemakers.

Lately though I've been swamped with requests for wine. The pitch is almost always the same: "This is a great opportunity for you to promote your wine." The thing is though, I'm finding out it's not. The guests at these events are never really there for the wine, and we get far better response when someone on our mailing list brings a bottle to a neighbor than we have from all these events. It's a great event for the restaurant or event to promote itself, and that's about it.

People ask us for a lot of wine. Usually they want us to pour or donate 4-10 bottles. That's $350 out of our pockets. That might not seem huge, but put dozens of those together and it is huge. Combine that with the trade off, $350 is a new bin, or 4 barrel racks, and those things we need right now. We're trying to make this a profitable business, and giving away wine isn't helping. We actually had one group ask us for four cases! $1600 and their offer to us was 'a mention in the event letter '. They were insulted when I told them we couldn't do that.

I guess part of it is people just assume wineries are swimming in money, and winery owners must have money to burn. We sure don't. Every dollar goes back into the winery and vineyards and this is not a profitable business yet. We still are putting our own savings in to cover costs.

Bottom line. I'm more worried about the bottom line now. I'm canceling some events we have scheduled and being much more picky about the ones we attend. I'm going to keep some Syrah for the Friends of the Winemakers event, and we'll keep some to pour at dinners we do with people on our mailing list. We enjoy those events. The other 10 cases we have left I'm going to offer out again on the Fall Release Letter. It makes so much more sense to get the wine to people who enjoy it than saving it for events where people don't care what they are drinking.

Bird Netting Time

The worst, and I mean very worst by a good length, task we have to do every year is bird netting. Each August the grapes start to turn colors and finally add sugar and flavor.


The picture above shows Pinot Noir grapes at the Woodruff Family vineyard. The grapes are starting to turn pink, then red. When this happens, the birds start to feast on the grapes.

The only way to keep the birds out is to net the entire plant. I'm often asked about using noise makers, scarecrows, or the shiny tape people see in vineyards. The thing is, birds are pretty smart. The shiny tape only works on migrating birds. The glitter and color keeps them from landing in the vineyards. For birds who have been hanging around all year, the glittery tape makes a nice colorful addition to their nest building. They will remove it from the plants and use it to build nests.

Noisemakers work for a short time, but the birds soon figure out there is no real threat and learn to ignore it. Usually your neighbors learn to call the local police and complain faster than the birds learn to ignore the noise, but in either event, the results are the same.

Other sight devices like owls and scarecrows have the same effect. They work for a short time, even if you move them daily, but the birds figure it out well before harvest.

So we net. The birds will actually attack the nets trying to figure out a way in, so we have to make sure the nets are sealed up tight, and then we inspect them regularly through harvest. Above you can see Millie pulling the netting as Herrardo (Jerry B.) drives the tractor. The nets sit in a special bucket and a pulley system moves them over the plants. Two people have to then spread the nets over the plants.

There are a lot of reasons we all hate this tasks so much. First of all, most of it has to be done by hand. Even in the vineyards with tractors we have to pull, tie up and secure the nets by hand. This is a terrible dirty job. The nets have sat in storage all year and they are filthy, dirty and grimy. Your hands are black by the end of the day. Add to that, it's August. It's hot, very hot, and you are in the sun all day. You can't really wear good cover, or even much of a hat. Anything with buttons, or oversize will get snagged in the nets, so you have to stick with t-shirts, simple hats and maybe a mask. You need the mask because by August the vineyards are super dusty. All things together, it makes for a tough bunch of days.

Here you get a close up of the process. Millie is taking another batch of nets to load up and Jerry B. is running the net through the pulley. Jerry drives the tractor while Millie and I pull the nets. Stefania then comes along behind us and ties the nets up under the plants. During the week, Jerry's wife does the tie up and his brother helps with the net pulling.

We will end up netting about 12 of our 18 acres. The birds are pretty reluctant to fly deep into a vineyard with out having trees near by they can retreat too if they spot a snake or a hawk. Those vineyards that don't have a lot of tree cover only get netted around the edges. That's why you don't see nets as much in Napa or Sonoma. Since those areas tend to be much more open and with miles of vineyards, the birds don't have cover to hide in. The Woodruff Vineyard gets 100% netted as there are trees around almost the entire area.

When this finally wraps up, we usually have a good party to celebrate.

Tasting Notes

On the 19th we were in the cellar topping up wine and checking on each barrel.

Here are my notes from the day. These are the summary notes, rather than the individual barrel notes.

2006 Uvas Creek Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Santa Clara Valley (5 barrels @ 125 cases)

Deep red and ruby color. Nose of red Bing cherries, summer berries and ripe plums with a hint of mocha and spice. The wine is layered on the palate, with multiple layers of fruit and spice and an underlay of vanilla and toast. Flavors are well balanced and the tannins are ripe and long, promising a good 8+ years of ageing potential. Finishes fresh, clean and fruity.

To me this is a clear step up from the 2005 with more layers of fruit, depth, and texture while still reflecting the red fruit nose and ripe tannins of the site.

2006 Cabernet Sauvignon, Santa Cruz Mountains. (4 barrels @ 100 cases)

Very dark red to almost purple with complete saturation. Nose of Eucalyptus, mint, summer herbs, fresh berries and ripe plum. The nose is not shy, it's unique, powerful and well defined. The only wine I can compare this to is the Cline Small Berry Mourvedre on the nose. Palate is plush and dense, a 'big boy' style Cabernet, with layered dark berry fruit, currant, cigar box and spices. The mint and Eucalyptus which is so forward on the nose, melds behind the fruit on the palate. Finishes long with great persistence.

This is my personal favorite. I haven't made another wine quite like this. I think this wine can age and evolve for 10+ years. There are a number of friends who had babies in 2006, and I'll be happy to give them bottles that should still show well on their kids 21st birthday.

2007 Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz Mountains (2 barrels @ 50 cases / 25 will be available for sale)

Pale red, clear and bright. Nose of tart cherry, strawberry and raspberry. Some spicy vanilla comes out on the palate, with a little hint of fresh nuts, and that's the only minor clue that this wine has been in 50% new oak. Otherwise it's all cherry and raspberry fruit with some hints of plum and spice. Finish is clean and bright.

I think this wine will shock a lot of people. It looks like a light weight and smells so delicate, but carries a lot of flavor and density on the palate. I'm happy with this wine, I think it reflects the Tierra of the southern Santa Cruz Mountains very well.

2007 Haut Tubee, California (1 barrel, @ 25 cases)

Dark Purple. Nose is spicy, with herbs and red cherry fruit. Cherry, dark fruit and sweet summer plums on the palate. This wine is a bit of a monster right now. Showing a little heat and massive tannins. Finishes hard and massive.

This wine needs a racking to soften the tannins, and will eventually be blended with 2 barrels of Eaglepoint Ranch Syrah to round it out and soften it. Should be a good follow up to the 06.

2007 Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet Sauvignon (6 barrels @ 150 cases / Elandrich vineyard, Harvest Moon vineyard, Chaine d'Or vineyard)

Very dark to purple. Nose of cigar, peppercorn, cherry and fresh plum fruit. Round, juicy and layered on the plate with notes of red and black fruit, spices, pepper, currant and cedar. Tannins are long and in need of racking.

This wine is not as dense as the 06 version due to the higher percentage of the more red fruit dominate Elandrich vineyard. Evolving nicely, this should turn into a well layered, and long lasting classic SCM Cabernet.

2007 Chaine d'Or Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Santa Cruz Mountains (7 barrels @ 175 cases)

Very dark, purple notes, darkest wine I've made at this point. Nose of muted fruit, pepper, spice, cherry and plum, with a floral quality that's surprising given the color. Round, soft with big ripe tannins. Fruit is layered behind those tannins right now, this will need 18 months in barrel. Finishes with spice, berry and mocha. Classic, classic Cabernet Sauvignon.

I've upped the new oak on this a bit with a racking we did and it's now in 4 new barrels and 3 old. I think this fruit needs the new oak to soften and layer. It sure can stand up to it, it's hard at this point to pull any oak flavors out.

I left a sample for Anne and Jerry Anderson who had made the previous vintages since 1990. Here's Jerry's notes:


"Here are my (and Anne’s) thoughts:

Lovely garnet color, still a little purpley which will go away with age. Obvious floral flavors, possibly from the barrel – don’t recall these ever before. Good structure. Typical CdO taste with subtle tobacco, leather, hints of restrained fruit, not excessive, more in the European tradition. Mature vine berry flavor without being pruney, hot weather or over ripe.

Fingers crossed, this wine should be spectacular."

Recent Photos

Stefania & Paul at Black Ridge Vineyards

Sunflower and Squash Blossoms at The Woodruff Vineyard, view of the Gewurztraminer.

Terri and Stefania at Black Ridge Vineyards.

Paul taking a break from wine tasting and enjoying the view.



The Woodruff Vineyard, checking the vines and teaching Jerry the finer points of leaf pulling.

I keep calling this the Epperson Installation, Paul calls it the Butterfly vineyard; we're waiting for the owners to name this site in Coyote Valley.

Tall ships on the bay, Paul and I played hookey on a Wednesday and sailed on the SS Jeremiah O'brien. The rest of the album photos are here: http://olympus.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=tu8n0fw.btma3dcw&x=0&y=-cclxug&localeid=en_US

Terri and I went to Half Moon Bay and saw this outdoor display.

Eric with a big smile, drinking Pinot at Testarossa.

The videographer, Eric, Terri, and the pro skydiver (While Eric and Terri were off in Hollister jumping out of an airplane, Paul and I were in Corralitos checking on the Woodruff Vineyard).

Crimson Clover vineyard in Morgan Hill.

Paul and his sisters.

The moon thru the vines no tripod. Tripod, no flash. Tripod and flash.

Still More Vineyard Updates

Saturday we were at Chaine d'Or topping wine and testing the 07's. Sunday we got out and visited the Crimson and Sesson vineyards. Here's a quick update:

First up was Chaine d'Or. We got a note from Anne Anderson last night, she said the vineyard looks the best it ever has.

This is the Chardonnay section. The plants are healthy, mildew free, and have the right amount of fruit.



We won't need to do any leaf pulling here. There thinning we've already done and the pruning in January has left perfect exposure on the fruit clusters.




Sunday we visited four vineyards. First up was the Crimson-Clover Vineyard in Morgan Hill. This will replace the Uvas Creek Vineyard for us this year, bringing our Santa Clara Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, under our farming control. The vineyard looked great.



Just a little more clean up to do before netting goes on. In about 2 weeks we'll lift the top wire to the final height and trim off any excess growth.



You can see this vineyard also will not need leaf pulling, the fruit is getting the dappled sunlight that makes high quality wine.

Next we headed to the Sesson Vineyard in Coyote Valley. This Spring we installed about 1 1/4 acre of what will eventually be a 10 acre project. The site is planted with three clones of Cabernet Sauvignon and set up for 100% organic farming.



This site is very exciting, and it's great to see the little baby plants start to take off.



Next we headed towards home and stopped at the Catholic church just a few blocks from our house. Last year they installed 20 Cabernet Sauvignon vines, but no one was taking care of them. I called the priest this past Winter and offered to take care of the little plants and see if I couldn't recover the little vineyard.



We pruned, retrained all the plants, cleared the weeds, put in some proper wires, and have been tending the 20 plants.

Finally we arrived home to the Haut Tubee vineyard. The grapes have started to turn red. That means the other vineyards will start in 2-3 weeks.



I took the last picture just to remind everyone that when we say we planted our first 50 plants around our home, it wasn't a huge house out in the country. It's just a small home in the suburbs, and the vines are planted right in the lawn and along the parkway!