What’s in a Name?
September 13th, 2006 by Annette
 So what does Cima Collina mean? How is one supposed to pronounce it? Well, don’t expect to get any help from us on the second question, but I will get back to that later.
“Cima Collina” in Italian (pronounced “Cheema Koleena”) means, essentially, Hilltop. “Cima Colina” (Spanish — pronounced “Seema Koleena”) means, well, Hilltop also. Hilltop Ranch is Dick Lumpkin’s ranch in Carmel Valley (Dick owns Cima Collina as well) (see more about Hilltop Ranch below), and Dick chose the phrase “Cima Collina” because he liked the phrase and because it related to the historical name of his own property. But when asked why we pronounce it “Seema Koleena” (thereby combining the Spanish and Italian pronounciations), he said after some thought, “I really can’t justify it”. I do believe he has both some Italian and Spanish-speaking influences in his family that may have caused this mix-up (He says: “Gail [his wife] lived in Italy after college and was fluent in Italian. My son in law was born in Mexico and my daughter in law is of Puerto Rican heritage..”), and I’ve also heard something about one of his grandchildren pronouncing it “Seema Koleena”, and it kind of stuck…….we are looking into this further and will get back to you on this important topic, but, I suspect Dick is just another victim of American cultural pluralism, which, I don’t think, is a bad thing, right? So, the short answer to the question of pronounciation: Yes, we are pronouncing it incorrectly if one is to go strictly Italian. But, do you like the wine?
Hilltop Ranch, as of this morning
Brix is in the low 20′s and mild weather is expected for the next week. Everything looks and tastes great, and longer hang time can mean better flavors. I have noticed some damage as a result of the one and only big heatwave we had earlier this summer in both the Pinot Gris and the Pinot Noir. There is some uneven ripening — green berries in a cluster of ripe berries, or shriveled berries in an otherwise perfectly good cluster – a bunch here or there with a little sunburn as well, but I’m seeing this in other vineyards as well. We will sort these bunches out when we pick and again at the winery before we destem the grapes. I’ve noticed no botrytis, though, so that is great, considering the clusters are super tight this year, and only very little bird damage here and there. We probably won’t harvest this vineyard for another two weeks, at least.
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