Well, we have brought in almost all of our Pinot.  We will bring in the last 5 tons on Monday from Chula Vina, and that will be it for Pinot.  We will have a little Merlot and Syrah coming in the next 10 days, and that will be it for 2006.

We destemmed Tondre Grapefield Pinot today.  It came in a little short in tonnage than I had hoped, but tastes really good and has great color.

I’ve been driving through the Salinas Valley and there is still quite a bit of fruit hanging out there, so I’m not sure what other wineries are going through right now.  It got quite cold last night, and yesterday and today were quite warm, and if the weather keeps up it would be a very good thing.  Some vineyards have had a bad problem with botrytis this year due to the weather, but we have largely escaped having to deal with any rot at all, luckily enough.

I am very happy with this vintage, and in some ways even happier with this year than last.  I have been able to pick when I thought I needed to based on what I tasted in the vineyard, and am very happy with the results.  We are getting good color and tannin development in the Pinots, and wonderful, heavenly aromas and flavors in the whites.  Overall and great if not excellent year for these wines!

When I worked in Napa, it was pretty easy to come by good food during harvest.  One had only to go into town and go to Vallergas to get a pretty decent sandwich and there are some great Mexican restaurants in Napa Valley if one had a hankering for a burrito.  Some folks even delivered home-made food to wineries and their hungry workers and some wineries supplied catered meals during the crush also.  But, alas,  the epicurean landscape here in Marina is mighty different of that in the great wine land to the north.  There is a fantastic Thai restaurant here and a pretty good deli, and an alright Mexican place.  But — by and large– this is fast food heaven, which isn’t so good if one isn’t a fast food gourmand. 

 What to do?  How do you feed a bunch of wine workers who’ve been working for 8 hours and have at least 8 more to go?   For a few harvests we tried take-out, but that only lasts for so long before everyone gets tired of the same old stuff day after day.  Finally this year I decided enough suffering(!) and that I would do the cooking for the crew this year.  So, we got a hot plate and dishes and silverware and Voila! we were good to go.  I’ve been cooking up stews and soups and will soon do a pot roast, and everyone says this is a good thing.  We are all able to take a break during crush, sit down together with a beer and a hot meal and have a good time.  So, this is how to feed a harvest crew…..after all the crew is making the wine, and the happier and healthier we all are, the better the wine will be!

What is so interesting about going through wine country here in Monterey is that there is so much else going on besides grapegrowing.  I’ve learned a great deal about row crop agriculture from driving by every field and seeing what they are doing.  How many times do folks get the opportunity to witness a sea of asparagus in glorious feather-like leaf in the fall, or broccoli growing in gray-green brilliance?  How about romaine lettuce emerging just next to a pinot noir vineyard?  Seeing these things makes me appreciate the diversity of this area and reminds me that although the majority people in the world think of California as a hip, palm tree-covered, fast-moving, metropolitan-centered state, this is really what California is all about…..agriculture and all of the hard work that goes along with it.

Tondre Grapefield

I visited Tondre Grapefield in the Santa Lucia Highlands, and here are some photos.  We will pick this pinot noir on Monday, and it is tasting very good.

 

The vineyard is owned by the Alarid family who has farmed this land for quite a long time.  They grow broccoli, lettuce, beans, and lemons, to name just a few crops.  As the story goes, they never really knew what to do with the land that the vineyard is now planted on as it wasn’t a whole lot good for anything else.  Then one day, Tondre, the father of Joe Alarid, the vineyard manager, had a heart attack.  While recovering at home — and after hearing about the health benefits of red wine — he decided to plant a vineyard, and took advice from neighbors on how to do it.  Today, Tondre is healthy and doing well, and Joe does a great job of managing not only the winegrapes, but all the other crops they grow as well.  They named the vineyard “Tondre Grapefield” to honor both Tondre and their farming heritage.

Watch Out for Grape-eating Wild Dogs!

OK, maybe not so wild in the conventional sense.  This is Sweetie, and she is a Rat Terrier and premier grape sampler on-the-job.  She also does well keeping the floors in the winery free from grapes, as well. 

 

We’ve been busy destemming Pinot Noir, which means lots of late nights and punchdowns to do on a daily basis.  We brought in 10 tens of Pinot from Chula Vina on Sunday and have 15 more to go soon.  Tondre Grapefield, in the Santa Lucia Highlands has yet to come in as well.

 The Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc are fermenting away nicely; the Pinot Gris just started yesterday.  All of those smell and taste great…..we stirred and topped Chardonnay today.

The winery is full of wonderful aromas wafting through the air……no sulfides yet, but there are usually one or two stinkers every year, so I am always on the “sniff-out” for those.

I am busy rearranging the barrel cellar and taking out any cull barrels I will not need this year.  Getting rid of old barrels is kind of a pain in the you-know-what, but there is a guy who has been buying barrels from us who is making tables out of them. He came by on Sunday to purchase some more and showed me photos of what he has done so far. They are very attractive and he is making them is many differents heights so that they can be used as bar tables, end tables, etc.  Very cool idea…..

 I haven’t had a whole lot of time to write lately and I apologize for that.  If you haven’t read through the archives for this blog, now may be a good time to look through it.  Try reading back through March – there are a variety of posts in that month, for some reason, that could be of interest to some.  Also, if you haven’t seen it yet, take a look at the interview Laurie Daniel did with me on Appellation America.

I will visit the vineyards tomorrow and will take more photos then.  TTFN and will post again soon…..