Cima Collina

Archive for the ‘Harvest’ Category

Hello All — I’ve taken a little break here, at least somewhat. We hosted our annual harvest party at Hilltop Ranch this past Saturday. The weather was wonderful, the band — “The Furry Chaps” — a fun, local bluegrass band kept us all entertained; all in all, quite good fun. We brought in the last load of grapes on October 10 — a mix of Bordeaux varietals (Cabernet Franc, Petite Verdot, Malbec, Merlot) from Lockwood Oaks. I kept the Malbec separate for a possible small bottling next year, but all the others are a “field blend” in one of our bigger tanks and all of it is just now coming into the homestretch — in other words finishing primary fermentation. We have drained and pressed a few tanks of Pinot so far — as soon as I’m done with this entry, I will drain a tank — but will dedicate ourselves more to that task next week……

Winemaker’s Dinner: Friday, November 7 at 7pm.

Yes, We’ve made a Port (all of 25 cases). I’ve had so many people ask for one, and I have played around with different varietals (traditional port varietals are difficult to come by here in Monterey — as they should be) and came up with this. I got the brandy for the fortification part of it from Germain-Robin up in Redwood Valley. Personally I do not like or drink sweet wines, and admit I had a difficult time separating my personal and professional judgements on this one, so this is neither as sweet nor as alcoholic as a traditional port. I have poured it at a few events recently and people seem to really like it — even those like myself who don’t like sweet wines. So, I’m getting a label created for it and it will go on sale in our tasting room sometime mid-November.

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It’s sweatin’ time here again. We brought in the rest of our Pinot Noir last week, and processed about 35 tons in 3 days. We got through that, certainly, but then the monster that rears it’s head as a result is a *@!#-load of punchdowns….needless to say, I’m not very popular around here at the moment.

Maybe we should go back to doing it the old-fashioned way as it seems like it might’ve been more fun than modern times….at least the old-timers could drink some wine and hike up their skirts while mixing-up their fermenting must!

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Vern Fisher of the Monterey County Herald came by one day and photographed us as we processed Chardonnay and Pinot Noir on the same day. Click here to see and hear the slideshow he put together. By the way — I’d have to get my arm twisted to do both whites and reds simultaneously here, because, well, you’ll see why…..but sometimes I’m reminded that Mother Nature is stronger than me, hee hee. Anyway, I’ve long admired Vern’s photographs in the paper, and I think he was able to capture what we do here on a very busy day.

The slideshow starts out at Chula Vina….the first photo is Henry Carrasco, owner of Chula Vina…the crew is shown harvesting the Chardonnay and Pinot that we subsequently are shown processing. Chula Vina is in Chualar Canyon, BTW, and it is one of my favorite beautiful places. Enjoy…

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We are pushing to get all of the Pinot in and destemmed. Chula Vina and Hilltop Ranch have been harvested. Palisades will be tomorrow. Holly, Hummux and I are working the night shift. There’s nothing like being sticky, tired, wet and cold after midnight….

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We are pretty tired here. We brought in Chula Vina Chardonnay, some Chula Vina Pinot Noir, and the remaining Tondre Pinot Noir last week, so we’ve been doing punchdowns and dealing with Chardonnay barrels foaming over and making a mess. During this time, everything gets sticky and dirty. We work in a small, compact space, so we work hard during the off-time to get everything clean. It simply is easier to work when your feet aren’t sticking to the floor.
This week will be the last push for receiving fruit. I’ve decided to bring everything in that is still hanging as I just don’t see much benefit to letting grapes stay on the vine any longer. It has been a strange year — could’ve been a pretty good year — but we just didn’t get the weather in the end to push the tannins and flavors into ripening just a bit more. I’m not sure I’ve seen a harvest like this before when we’ve had weeks of beautiful weather that didn’t go much over 85 degrees in some areas, but really cold nights. As a result, sugars didn’t increase much, tannins didn’t “ripen”, everything stood still. Anyway, we will spend a few long, cold nights destemming Pinot…..our last load will come in Saturday night.

Living Legacy

These two characters are Fred Nason (on the left) and his son Tom Nason (on the right) (photo courtesy of hummux). Tom and his wife Cara manager Hilltop Ranch, but Tom also hauls our grapes for us every harvest season. The Nason family is well-known in this area as they are descendents of Esselen Indians and, well, have been here longer than anyone else. Tom hauls our grapes for us during harvest. We all get so busy during the year that it is nice to catch-up during harvest. Fred is always entertaining. He has so many interesting stories as he has done a lot of ranching in the area, and has led innumerable horseback riding trips into the Ventana wilderness. He’s in his 80’s and looks great and is going strong. It is a pleasure to know and work with the Nasons and learn about the history of the land from them and is one of the many benefits of my job.

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I will do a winemaker’s dinner at P.F. Chang’s in Monterey tomorrow night. We will pour a variety of wines with an interesting menu, and I will even pour our newest product — our as-yet unreleased Port. Contact Dave at 831-375-0143 for reservations.

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We’ve been busy finishing up and draining & pressing reds.  Here are some photos from the catwalk:

A red tank after draining & shoveling…..

A view from above of a press in action…..

Pretty messy, huh?….

A press pan….

Checking the tank.

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Due to harvest crew constraints, we all finished harvesting Hilltop Ranch Pinot Noir yesterday ourselves. It had rained earlier that morning, but it turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day, and the fruit looked great, as well. Most vineyards we sourced from produced a short crop this year, but Hilltop came in with a good yield & high quality to boot. Here are some photos:

Mark & Kara

“No cauliflower pickers in my vineyard!” Appolonio — da man.

“Here are your assignments…”, says master Luke, and..

…hauling buckets.

Dick….”Now why did we train these cordons so low??”

And me with Sweetie.

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I didn’t have week-long school breaks for no reason, but times have changed and my son is not in school this week, so forced child labor is necessary as it is harvest. “Dad, get me out of this”.

But, it’s not all about cracking the whip here. Case in point (maybe there’s something in the water, or maybe working here is just too damn fun??):

Harvest Update

As of today, we are finishing harvest. We finished picking Pinot Noir at Chula Vina yesterday, and will finish picking at Hilltop Ranch today. Pictures to follow. It has been a short and light harvest season. I barely can fill the tanks in the winery, but quality seems really high across the board.

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Click here to listen to a radio postcard produced Rachel McDonald at our local public radio station, KAZU. The piece features Joe Alarid of Tondre Grapefield in the Santa Lucia Highlands, as well as myself and was recorded while we were destemming Tondre Pinot at the winery.

Also, while we are in the audio mode, check out Grape Radio’s “2007 World of Pinot, Part 2″ piece, which includes Ken Zinns, Dan Tudor and myself.

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Where’s That Wascally Wabbit?
These two are so happy because harvest is almost here. They don’t particularly care about Brix or the quality of tannins in grape skins. I can assure you that only three things are on their mind: riding in the car with me, having the opportunity to find some nasty thing to eat while out and about, and most importantly, the chance that harvest time brings to chase — and catch — jack rabbits in the vineyard. Yes, these two may look unassuming and downright harmless, but together they are sublime jack rabbit chasers and faster than you might think — far more efficient than Elmer Fudd ever was. And much like Mr. Fudd, they don’t know quite what to do once they catch the rabbit, but that’s OK with me and probably with the rabbit, too.

Harvest is almost upon us

It’s a pretty amazing fact that we haven’t started harvest yet. There are some grapes being harvested in Monterey, and I’m seeing (and smelling) onions being harvested, and also lettuce, and broccoli. The artichokes above are past their prime, but I took that photo so you can see the haze of smoke from the fire near San Jose that has been hanging over the Salinas Valley on and off for a week. Not one grape has entered this facility. It’s amazing because most every other area in California is in full picking mode (a friend at Sonoma-Cutrer says they are halfway done already — and it’s not even the middle of September!). We are bottling the remaining 2006 wines tomorrow, and will also bring our first load of Sauvignon Blanc in tomorrow as well — it will be interesting to see how that works out. Crops are definitely small this year, quality is looking great, and it looks like everything will come in at once.

Speaking of Bottling…
James, Mark and I have been finishing our 2006 Pinots and here’s a view of wine that most don’t see…..this photo was taken as we were just emptying our last tank.

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