“Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.”  Carl Sagan 

During my early evolution here on this planet we call Earth, I thought I might become lots of things — veterinarian, epidemiologist, world-problem-solver — but it never occurred to me that I would become a winemaker.  When I was younger, all I wanted to do was “get the hell out of Dodge”, or, in my case, Sacramento which was a relatively boring and very suburban small town when I was growing up.  I wanted to travel and make a difference in the world and do something BIG.  Wine at this point figured only into my plans as an occasional libation, nothing more, and it never occurred to me that being a winemaker was an occupation at all. 

Well, I did travel around the world at 20 years old, never having before left the golden bounds of California, only to find myself in exotic cities like Shanghai, Taipei or Madras — exotic, yes, and exciting, and also filled at the time with filth, smog, pestilence of milleniums of human and animal existence — completely different from the environs of my childhood, and which had all the makings for future job opportunities, as I saw it then.  During this trip, my plans were shaping up to study zoonosis (diseases transmitted to humans from animals) and epidemiology.  Wine was far from my plans — I wanted to do BIG things, afterall.

So, what happened?  A lot can happen in college and did when I returned from traveling to finish my degree at UC Davis only to discover that rather than narrowing my focus traveling had instead broadened my interests and my confidence as well.  I started hanging out with the enology and viticulture students, going to their parties, attending a few enology classes, even attending tastings and lectures that I wouldn’t get credit for just to get the experience and knowledge.  For the first time in my life I realized that wine was interesting and it held the potential to include all of my interests:  science, the natural cycles of life, plants, creativity, business, world travel, and the je ne sais quois — the mystery – that can make a certain wine unique and serve to inspire one at the same time.  That and the concept that I could make a living out of it.  This was an epiphany.

OK.  Epiphanies — I will admit – are often encouraged not by romanticism but by necessity, and in my case the reality of no longer cavorting in the warm glow of academia and moving into a cold future of responsibility (aka “Graduation”) helped further things along.  With my science background and a little help from my friends, I was able to secure a harvest-time job at a winery in Sonoma County which went so well it lasted longer than harvest, and, well, the rest is history. I am still here today after 14 harvests and going strong.

Why do I make wine?  I have asked myself this question quite a bit and the answers I’ve come up with seem to change in importance over time and bottle aging, but the one that seems most important to me at this juncture in my life and career is what I like to call “transferrance of intention”.  What that means is that I guess I’ve traded “BIG” things for the more achievable idea that if I’m doing what I enjoy then maybe it will inspire others to seek what they enjoy and maybe that will make the world a better place.  To take it a little further still, that if I and those around me put our best intentions into making our wine, maybe the folks who drink it will be influenced positively in the process.  Crazy?  I just might give you that.  Idealistic?  Certainly.  Cosmically important or simply nonsense?  I don’t know; Carl Sagan is dead.

“Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense.”  Carl Sagan

 

 

Working starts to make you wonder where

the fruits of what I do are going 

He says in love and war all is fair 

But he’s got cards he ain’t showing 

Sunshine come on back another day 

Pretty soon I’ll be singing 

This old world, gonna turn around

Brand new bells will be ringing

—Jonathan Edwards “Sunshine“

We are spoiled here in California compared to other winemaking regions.  Most every year the weather is pretty predictable (dry and relatively warm) and we can usually count on getting ripe grapes with few exceptions.  But any little deviation from our usual weather pattern can make some of us spoiled Californians turn into questioning, complaining brats.  I was one of those “brats” this year and complained quite a bit when our Indian Summer didn’t show at it’s usual time (mid-September thru October) and worried that we wouldn’t have a very good year (“Oh No!”).

In contrast to other regions (like Burgundy, Bordeaux or Oregon) that have to deal often with summer rains and frost during harvest.  Our summer season here tends to be quite moderate — we get lots of fog during the day and at night, especially when the Central Valley is burning up as that weather pattern in the interior seems to pull the cool moisture up and out of the ocean here.  This makes for a relatively cool summer and is what makes this growing region so wonderful for grapes as these cool summers essentially extend and improve flavor development.  But, for those of us who like to see and feel the sun a little and also think that our harvest depends upon our Indian Summer, this was not such a good thing.  But on second thought, maybe that’s not necessarily so……

This harvest has changed my views a little on what is required to ripen our grapes here as our Indian Summer hasn’t appeared until recently, after we have finished with harvest.  We had an incredibly long growing season this year with very few really hot days, and as a result there was, admittedly, more rot in many vineyards, but otherwise there were great flavors….incredible flavors…..that warrant an exclamation of “This is one great winemaking year!”.

And now, today, I awoke to a brilliantly glorious Indian Summer day, on election day no less, after a great harvest, I have to say I’m in a great mood – positive and hopeful, with great expectations of how the wine we are putting into barrels right now will develop and blossom into something just a little different, a little more beautiful and maybe a little more mysterious than last year.                    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Check out this review of our 2004 Cedar Lane Merlot

 And this recent entry at Connoisseur’s Guide to California Wine about our 2004 Chula Vina Chardonnay

Also, the Great Wine Escape is happening here in Monterey next weekend.  We will particpate in a number of events.  If you are looking to do something fun that weekend consider doing this.  Fall is the best time to visit this area, in my humble opinion.

Yes, it is that time for draining tanks, shoveling, filling barrels.  Here are some photos from yesterday’s pressing of Pinot Noir from Chula Vina.  Here’s Will in the tank and James getting the equipment set-up.