Cima Collina

Archive for the ‘Winemaking’ Category

 

“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

 

• Posted in Stories, Uncategorized, Winemaking
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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.                    

 

 

 

 

 

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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. 

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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!

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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…..

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To recap what has happened recently:

Our Sauvignon Blanc is fermenting away and smells great.

We brought in Chula Vina Chardonnay on Sunday.  Wonderful year for Chardonnay.  We pressed it all on Sunday and it went down to barrel yesterday.  It is clean and very tasty and will be inoculated with yeast today.

We have been harvesting and destemming Pinot and Pinot Gris from our own estate ranch in Carmel Valley, Hilltop Ranch.  It is beautiful!  Tastes incredible and is very, very clean.  See photos below:

 

This is our second year of harvesting from the ranch and so far this Pinot is proving to be an interesting fruit to work with.  It almost “acts” like Syrah when fermenting:  it is very dark and somewhat tannic (for pinot) and it requires a lot more air when fermenting than Pinot should.  It has a great deal of blueberry flavors, something I attribute to the soil, see photo below:

This soil is a calcareous sedimentary rock, and is what most of the vineyard is planted on.  It has taken quite awhile to get the plants established in this soil, and so we waited until the 5th year to take our first crop off of this vineyard.  Appolonio, our vineyard manager, does almost everything by hand, as this is an organic vineyard, and, I have found, he knows the characteristics of practically every vine.  We are still working to gain balance in this vineyard as the site is very hilly and rocky, but every year it looks better.

More Reviews!!

Here’s the latest review of our 2004 Chardonnay from Connoisseur’s Guide to California Wine:

 

“Deep, dense and extracted in the nose with plentiful apple-like fruit sitting beneath its broad sweep of sweet oak, this bottling fully lives up to its promise on the palate with rich and expansive flavors that precisely mirror its expressive aromas.  Its long and very flavorful finish shows a slight bit of hardness just now, but this one will shine with the likes of roast duck or salmon in rich sauces, and those with the patience to set it aside for another year will find a lavish and luxurious wine waiting that will have come into its own.”

Thanks Charles Olken.  I’m glad you like it.  This wine is available only at:

Village Fish House, Carmel Valley

Passionfish, Pacific Grove

Star Market, Salinas

Sierra Mar at the Post Ranch, Big Sur

• Posted in Harvest, Winemaking
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We pressed Sauvignon Blanc on Friday and Saturday.  Here are some photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dick and Tanya are sorting grapes; James is cleaning up and here is a future cellar master directing all the operations.  We fill the presses by hand and sort grapes as we go.  It is a slow process but fun and we were all excited to be started with harvest.  I liked the flavors of the juice, and it is now fermenting happily away.

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….from the grasp of “bottling” and all the time, energy, deadlines and nerves it takes to prepare and get through it.  I had luck holding my right hand and work tugging on the other, which left me without a free hand with which to type.  But now, I’m back.  Whew!  No matter how much one plans and prepares for blending, finishing and bottling wine, there are always fires to put out — well, not literally, thank goodness  — but at the very least, there usually seems to be machines breaking down, mistakes, snafus, misjudgements, oversights.  The thing is, even with all of that stuff happening, everyone works together, the job gets done and everything works out well.  Go figure.  Here are some photos: 

 

Harvest Update

As I posted a few weeks ago, I will start a harvest diary-type of blog as soon as harvest starts.  It looks like a later start to harvest this year, so stay-tuned for that.

Cima Collina Folks

It is about high time I started highlighting all of the people around here who keep it all clean, make it run, and fix it when it breaks, and will do that soon, as well.  We are also looking forward the the arrival of our harvest intern — Tanya — from Paul Cluver Winery in South Africa.  Yes, South Africa.  So, we will have a little international spice coming to this little winery which should be good fun.

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Yes, it has been awhile since I last posted, but this is the busiest time of the year in production at the winery.  I have been in the winery planning, racking, blending, tasting and analyzing last year’s wine, getting rid of old barrels and putting new barrels away – with the help of Doug and James.  I’ve also been getting bottling supplies together and making sure everything we need is at the winery in time for the bottling truck, which is scheduled to arrive at the end of the month.  Additionally, I’ve been out in the vineyard checking to see how the heat affected the crop, talking with the vineyard guys about how much fruit/leaves to take off, etc.  So, all of that leaves little time for posting, but, hopefully, it means we will have more great wine to follow-up our successful 2004 debut vintage…..

Great things to come!

 I will soon change this blog (temporarily) into a day-to-day production diary so that everyone can get an idea of what it is like being at Cima Collina from August through November.  Highlights to come: blending and bottling (oh, woes and successes!); a discussion of each of the vineyards as they are harvested and how we process the fruit; the folks in our harvest crew (including an intern from South Africa who will assist us this year); the challenges and tribulations of non-stop harvest work; and lots of photos of all the action.

 Events in which we will (and won’t) participate

This Saturday, August 12 is an event I enjoy:  the Winemaker’s Celebration in the Custom House Plaza in beautiful Monterey.  It is a great opportunity to taste what is being made in Monterey all in one stop, and also to meet the folks behind the wines. 

 We have chosen not to participate in two events this year:  the Family Winemakers of California tasting in San Francisco this month and the Pinot on the River event in October.  We had planned to go to both, but our current releases have become tightly allocated and we won’t have enough to pour (unfortunately).  If you were looking forward to seeing us at either event — we apologize.  Our door is always open, however, to folks interested in trying our wine.  Just give us a call or email us at  to make an appointment (831-384-7806), and we would be happy accomodate you.

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• Carmel Valley, CA 93924
• 831.620.0645