Hilltop Ranch Pinot Gris/This Poor Winemaker?
September 13th, 2008 by Annette
We harvested Hilltop Ranch Pinot Gris yesterday (photos of Holly, Zach & Holly, and of my hands, courtesy of hummux). There were six of us, and it took us much longer than we thought it would to harvest as there was more fruit than we had anticipated. It looked and tasted great, and was a beautiful day — sunny but breezy and not too hot. We got done late and were really tired, so saved the pressing for today. Click here to see a short, rather rough video of how we press white grapes here. It is pretty labor intensive at Cima Collina because for various reasons we didn’t plan to do a whole lot of white wines, so didn’t need a large press. This year we will press close to 15 tons in our little presses, which is a lot of work.
What’s Artisan mean to you?
Sometimes things crack me up. Can’t help it. One of those things is some recent advertising I’ve seen from a few very large wineries in the Central Coast of California that say they are, for instance the “premier artisan winery” or tout their winemaking as using “true artisan techniques”. I know that these wineries are large — they cover at least an acre of ground, some a few acres, have tank farms, and much of their harvest comes on semi-trucks carrying 20 tons at a time. What does artisan mean to you? At the end of a long day, my back, hands and feet know what artisan means, and as you can see from the video, hand-loading 15 tons of grapes into small presses is a lot of care and effort that we put into very little product. You won’t find 3″ or 4″ hoses here in our total 4500 square feet (including casegood and barrel storage). I have nothing against large wineries or the wines they make — quite the opposite. There’s a place for everyone in this business, and I appreciate what they do and how they do it. But there should also be a place for the truth. Sorry boys and girls, hate to spoil the fun, but here’s your task: as wine lovers, it’s your job to discover what the truth really is. So have at it.
“Almost all the noblest things that have been achieved in the world have been achieved by poor men, poor scholars, poor professional men, poor artisans and artists, poor philosophers, poets, and men of genius.” — Albert Pike
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