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The Winemaking
Begins
Last month we raved about
the fun we have harvesting grapes after the
growers finish their part in getting the wine
grapes to the winemaker. Now it’s time for the
winemakers to do their own part in getting the
wine to the consumer. Here we are in the middle
of November, just a turkey feather away from
pressed and barreled. Foothill vintners in the
last few years have seen the winemaking side of
the process extend further and further into the
last months of the year. Blame the cool summers
(More days to drink beer, though!).
Fruit takes longer to ripen on the vine and
subsequently takes longer to get to the
winemaker. Cooler temperatures also slow
fermentation. Those little yeast guys are no
fools. They drag their little white feet when
it’s too cold. But, I’m getting ahead of
myself.
What exactly happens once
the fruit is delivered to the winery, you ask?
Well, let’s take a peek at the Frog’s Tooth
winery. Sleep, sleep: remember last month…fruit
was just delivered to the winery in ½ ton macro
bins. Watch us unload the fruit from the
trailer with a forklift. See us scoot over to
our 5, 000 lbs. floor scale (printer
attached). Note the bin tare weight
(unloaded) at 93-97 lbs. Subtract this from the
gross weight and create a weigh bill ("Why,
daddy?") 1.) Give the grower an accurate
amount to bill, and 2.) Give the winemaker a
weight to record for the State of California
and the Federal Government and to calculate the
correct amount of any required additions.
Weigh the bins:
winemaking begins. For white wine or a rose,
vintners may pass the grapes through a
destemmer/crusher to separate the grapes from
the stems and crush the berries. Many wineries,
us included, skip the destemmer/crusher for
white wines and roses and put the fruit
directly into the wine press. No crushing
equals less contact between grape skin and
juice which equals less color in the wine. The
press gently squeezes the juice from the grapes
(Sigh, sounds cozy). Then we pump this
juice into a container to ferment. Depending on
the de-sired style of wine, we use a stainless
steel tank, a barrel or a poly tank. We test
the juice for pH, tartaric acid, and brix (the
amount of sugar in the juice). (Yes,
children, there will be a comprehension test
later.) Based on these readings we may add
water or tartaric acid. We also may add
commercial yeast or use the native yeast
resident on the grapes. The yeast converts
sugar into alcohol. Sometimes the yeast needs
help so yeast food is added, too (Available
in chocolate flavor?).
Red wine fruit is usually
run through the destemmer/crusher to separate
the stems, crush the berries slightly, and ease
fermentation. While no color is desirable in
white wines, color, caused by the juice’s
contact with the grape skins and seeds, is very
important in red wines. So, we crush the red
grapes and put them into some sort of
fermentation vessel/container. We, like many
smaller boutique wineries, use clean ½ ton
macro bins for our fermentation vessel. The
crushed grapes stay in the bin for a week or
longer to ferment. Again, we test pH, TA and
brix to determine any necessary additions. We
add more yeast and yeast food and fermentation
continues. Unlike white or rose wines, red
wines
require they must to be "punched down" 2-3
times per day during the initial fermentation
process. If Pilates isn’t your thing then try
punch-downs – guaranteed to build muscles and
make you sweat.
Once the red grapes
reach the desired level of fermentation we dump
the must into the press and gently squeeze the
juice out, into either a stainless steel
container, a poly tank or a barrel. The juice
settles for a day or so and is then put into
barrels for long term fermentation and aging.
Periodically, we take the wine out of the tank
or barrel. Then we do a rub a dub-dub on the
containers to clean them and pump the wine back
in. We call this "racking". Racking removes the
sediment that collects at the bottom of the
tank/barrel and helps prevent unwanted flavors
and aromas in the wine (Ugh, sounds nasty!).
When next we meet we’ll fast forward a year or
so and see what happens to the aging (gracefully)
wine.
Have a very Happy
Thanksgiving! Enjoy your family, friends and a
good glass of wine. Until next time, Gary
and Sue
Drop us a line and let
us know what’s on your mind;
fromthevine@pacbell.net or to Editor, PO
Box 897, Sutter Creek, CA 95685
If food is the body of
good living, wine is its soul. - Clifton
Fadiman
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Picking Grapes
Darkness lingers
tentatively in the vineyard. Bands of first
light as tenuous as angel hair slide over the
nearby hillocks. The almost imperceptible
swoosh of bat wings that beat the predawn air
announce the fading of night and herald
approaching sunrise. The smell of native
ironweed competes with the heady aromas of
Grenache and Tempranillo berries already
fermenting in the half ton bins (macro bins).
The yeasts in these containers are working,
breaking down sugars and leaving hints of
berry, cherry, spicy pepper and, of course,
alcohol.
The yellow jackets that
are addicted to the fragrances and that tiptoe
around everything on their miniscule insect
feet are sleeping now. Grape harvesters,
however, are not. Over the hill and down the
road in a caravan they come. Cutting head lamps
dance; tractors throb; tools glisten; muscles
flex; greetings and jibes fly. Welcome to grape
harvest.
So what do you need to
have and to do and to know to bring in your
grape crop? As you might expect the answers
vary greatly depending on the size of your
vineyard. Twenty plants need at least two
people (one to cut off the grape clusters
and one to pour the beer). Three or four or
five good size buckets will hold your crop
nicely, depending on Mother Nature’s bounty and
your own vineyard management expertise. If you
have a slightly larger planting you add to the
number of pickers exponentially and you still
need at least one person to pour the beer.
We’ve talked about
harvesting before but the more one does it the
more one learns. For ex-ample, from last year
we learned that it is no fun to harvest in the
rain. It’s wet, cold, miserable, and water gets
into the grape bins. Great if you are selling
the fruit by weight but not so great for the
quality of the fruit after it sits for a while.
We also learned that if you intend to pick in
the dark (which we have done several times.
Why? Because the pickers would prefer to be
done with picking before the heat of the
afternoon zaps all of their energy.) It’s
best to use head lamps and start with the red
fruit. It’s easier to see. Otherwise, daylight
reveals the missed clusters and additional time
is spent re-picking the vine rows.
Picking in the dark is
also good if you have an abundance of yellow
jackets in the vine-yard. You can get in and
out before they wake up. Of course, they get a
little peeved when they find out all of their
fruit is gone and aggressively seek out its new
locale.
Unfortunately that means the macro bins in
which it is now sitting. Most winemakers can
attest to the tenacity of a yellow jacket and
can spin tales of the many stings, bites,
swollen hands and other body parts as they
compete -- mano y insect.
At Frog’s Tooth, we
have about 9.5 acres, too much for one person
(or two people - the beer guy or gal) to
harvest alone. We use a labor crew that comes
up from Lodi to help us harvest. We have used
this same crew since 2004. They are very
efficient and know our vine-yard. We start at
4am or 5am. Most, if not all, of the vineyards
in the foothills are harvested by hand. The
terrain is such that mechanical harvesting is
not an option. If you’ve never experienced a
grape harvest you should put that on your
bucket list. It’s quite amazing-ok, maybe not
as amazing as climbing Mt Everest, or seeing
the Taj Mahal, but interesting anyway.
Harvesting our vineyard
goes something like this; a group of 6-8 guys
(sometimes more and sometimes there may be a
few gals, too) show up pre-dawn, around O dark
thirty. With 40-pound picking lugs in hand,
they don their head lamps, sterilize their
clippers and head for the designated picking
area. One person per row, they work their way
down the line on
the hunt for their illusive quarry. The grapes
are cut and deposited into the picking lug that
they slide down the row with their foot. A
tractor with a bin trailer carrying 2 one-half
ton macro bins slowly moves down the center of
the vineyard between the pickers.
As the
lugs fill up they are passed under the vines
toward the center to the awaiting tractor. The
bins are received and dump-ed into the macro
bins and the empty bin is passed back to the
picker. Several individuals are assigned to
pick out leaves, un-desirable grapes and other
foreign objects from the macro bins as the
tractor moves slowly down the line keeping pace
with the pickers.
When
the two macro bins are full, a second tractor
with two new bins slides in behind the first
tractor ready for the next deposit of full
lugs. The first tractor then moves out of the
vineyard to the grape bin drop off point, picks
up two more empty bins and heads back to the
vineyard to keep the cycle going. This goes on
until all of the scheduled fruit is harvested.
Next time we’ll tell you what happens
next…Until next time, Gary and Sue
Drop
us a line and let us know what’s on your mind…
fromthevine@pacbell.net or PO Box 897,
Sutter Creek, CA 95685
"Who
took the cork out of my lunch?" W.C. Fields
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Harvest Time!
Hello, fellow wine
lovers, and welcome to the busiest month of the
vintner’s year. It’s September and it’s HARVEST
TIME! The vineyards and wineries are aflutter
with activity and I am hip deep in picking,
pressing, crushing, etc. (The etc includes
eating bratwurst and drinking beer. It takes a
lot of beer to produce a barrel of wine.)
While composing the following tasty comments (Remember
ladies, with these guys it’s all about the old
tumtum) and remembering last September’s
harvest article I got that feeling of deja vu.
Some of the points from 2007 were so pertinent
that they merited repetition. (Plus, he was so
sated with dogs and suds that his brain was on
pause mode.)
Some of you who have
walked the aisles of your local produce market
and squeezed a few tomatoes may wonder how we
know when it is time to pick the fruit. I’m
tempted to say it’s magic and have you all gaze
at me with slack jawed awe but this is the
season for sharing so I will let you in on
field tests and laboratory tests.
Field tests are
generally begun after the grapes go through
verasion (The official definition of
véraison is "change of color of the grape
berries"). Véraison signifies the change
from berry growth to berry ripe-ning in
grapevines. One of the field tests that are
conducted is to check the brix (sugar level) of
the grape berries. The grower and/or winemaker
walk the vine-yard and randomly select berries
while trying not to focus on any particular
color or size of fruit. All the berries, not
just the juiciest and most brilliantly colored
ones, will wind up in the barrel so a balanced
representation is required.
The chosen berries are dropped into a plastic baggie
and crushed. A few drops of the resulting juice
is placed onto the business end of an
instrument called a refractometer. This handy
device allows the user to look into its
eyepiece (Oh, that sounds decidedly
Transylvanian. Admit it, we all have thought of
Count Dracula as a mildly sexy guy. Something
about that black cape.) which reveals a
scale calibrated in degrees brix. The higher
the number, the more sugar in the juice. As the
berry ripens, the brix level will rise. Another
less technical indicator of ripeness is the
color of the seeds. Less ripened grapes will
have green seeds and ripe grapes will have
brown seeds. (Of course, dear, any
hardworking sparrow could tell you that.)
The most common
laboratory tests revolve around acid (titratable
acidity or TA), and pH (No, that is not
a printer’s error - he is serious about that
lower case "p" and the upper case "H". Don’t
ask him why or he will get sidetracked and
never finish his ripeness dissertation.)
The key to knowing when to harvest is to find
the optimal balance between brix, TA and pH.
One can argue what is optimal but in general,
the optimum brix is around 22, TA 0.60 to 0.80
for reds and 0.65 to 0.85 for whites.
While this might sound
easy, it is very difficult to co-ordinate a
harvest where all three of these elements are
in their optimal positions. It is more common
to find only one or two of these elements at
their prime at one time. This is where the
winemaker’s skills come into play in syncing up
these elements during the winemaking process.
Water may be added to bring down sugar levels,
tartaric acid maybe added to raise acidity and
lower pH. We can talk about the effects sugar,
acid and pH have on the wine another time.
Suffice it to say each has its purpose.
All of these tests are
important but one of the most important tests
is conducted utilizing one of the most complex
instruments ever created. The test is TASTE and
the instrument is your mouth and tongue. Taste
is often "The indicator that best defines the
right time to pick. Until next time, Gary
and Sue
Send us your comments,
favorite recipes, and stories to
fromthevine@pacbell.net or write to us c/o
Gold Country Times, PO Box 897, Sutter Creek,
CA 95685
"Wine had such ill
effects on Noah’s health that it was all he
could do to live 950 years. Show me a total
abstainer that ever lived that long." - Will
Rogers
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Sierra Foothill
Wines
Waaahoooo! Way to go
Sierra Foothill wineries…What a showing at the
2011 California State Fair Wine Competition.
Yes, folks, in case you haven’t heard, the
Sierra Foothill wine producers came away with
an astounding 51 gold or double gold awards in
this year’s wine com-petition! We are often
overlooked as a wine region and overshadowed by
our neighbor regions to the West, Napa and
Sonoma. This year the tables were turned; Napa,
the region with the second most gold or double
gold came away with 26. Of course, those of us
who live in the Sierra Foothill Appellation
have known how great our wines are all along.
For those of you who do
not know, the Sierra Foothill Appellation is
comprised of El Dorado, Amador, Calaveras,
Nevada, Placer, Yuba, Tuolumne and Mariposa,
counties. It is one of the largest AVA’s
(American Viticulture Area) in California It
encompasses over 2,600,000 acres and is home to
over 200 wineries.
So what exactly is an
appellation? An appellation is a legally
defined and protected geographical indication
used to identify where the grapes for wine were
grown. To qualify as an AVA it must be
demonstrated that the wines produced from that
region possess similar characteristics. That
is, the grapes/wines are influenced by soil,
climate, landscape, etc. (also known as terroir)
and produce a style of wine that cannot exactly
be duplicated elsewhere. Wines produced with an
AVA designation must contain a minimum of 85%
of the grapes used in making the wine from that
AVA.
Special congratulations
to all of the Sierra Foothill wineries for a
job well done. It is not possible to list all
of the wineries that medaled in this year’s
wine competition but here are a few that were
recognized with Double Gold, Gold or Best of…
awards; Best of Region awards went to
Windwalker (Double Gold-Shady Lady Primitivo)
and Obscurity Cellars (Double Gold- Alicante
Boushcet Rose); Gold and/or Double Gold went
to: Amador Foothill Winery, Black Sheep Winery,
Borjon Winery, Chatom Vineyards, Convergence
Vineyards, Dillian Wines, Driven Cellars,
Drytown Cellars, Goldhill Vineyard, Jeff
Runquist Wines, Milliare, Renwood Winery, Sobon
Estates, Twisted Oak Winery, Villa Toscano
Winery, and Wilderotter Winery. I am sure I
missed a few, so check at:
www.bigfun.org/competitions-awards. Again,
congratulations to everyone!
Finally, we are going
through verasion in the vine-yard. At least
that’s true for some of us in the lower
elevations. At Frog’s Tooth we are beginning to
see color in our Grenache and Petite Sirah. The
Sauvigon Blanc and Viognier are swelling and
softening up. We may be harvesting Sauvignon
Blanc in another 3-4 weeks. Then let the fun
begin…it will be non-stop for the next 2 months
or maybe more?
Reports from other
vineyards indicate that the crop loads for some
varietals may be lower than expected due to the
late season hail in the upper elevation
vineyards. Others have seen a slight decrease
in crop from last year but overall, quality
looks good. Harvest seems to be running about
two weeks be-hind normal. We’re all keeping our
fingers crossed that Nature doesn’t play
anymore tricks on us until harvest is over.
That means no foul weather or fowls of a
feather, please. Many wineries are finishing up
their bottling of 2009 vintage wines. Tanks are
being emptied; equipment is being cleaned and
serviced in preparation for this year’s crush.
Don’t be surprised if
you start getting solicited to help in the
vineyard or winery. Remember, it’s fun and not
everyone gets to do it…and I have a picket
fence to whitewash, too. As a reminder,
September is Wine Month, so get out there and
drink some wine. Lots and lots of wine; we need
the revenue. Plus, it’s good for you.
Until next time, Gary and Sue
Drop us a line and let us know what’s on
your mind…
fromthevine@pacbell.net or PO Box 897,
Sutter Creek, CA 95685
"Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath
and a glass of good wine."
St. Thomas Aquinas
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HOW
I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATION…An Alaskan
cruise, no; a trip to Mexico, no; a trip to
Europe for a leisurely wine cruise or tour; not
even close…maybe you’re thinking a day trip or
two to the lake or mountains for some much
deserved R&R; uh, no. As luck would have it, my
summer vacation has, so far, been spent working
in the vineyard. I know, some would say what a
GREAT way to spend the summer.
Yes, some WOULD say
that! However, as much as I like working in the
vineyard it would be nice to get some time away
to relax and do nothing. But as Sue constantly
reminds me, "That’s farming". (Ironically,
one of the things that attracted me to Gary
back when we were barely out of diapers was
that he had steady employment. The other thing,
besides the Ford Mustang, of course, was that
he wasn’t a farmer!) So what have I been
doing in the vineyard? I’m doing many of the
same things that a lot of you are doing or
should be doing (Yes, daddy dearest).
Earlier in the year we dealt with pruning and
shoot selection. Of course, we had an
"unseasonable" rain, although I’m not sure we
can call it unseasonable anymore since it’s
happened for the last couple of years.
But, because of the
rain, another pass through the vineyard with
sulfur spray was dictated. Along with the
sulfur sprays, now is the time to treat the
vines for mites, whitefly and other "sucking"
pests. (Do the IRS and State Board of
Equalization fit into that category? OOPS, are
they listening?) I may have mentioned in
previous articles that our vineyard is located
in the Salt Spring Valley just outside of
Copperopolis. I mention this because we
generally get a breeze that develops around
10:00 am every day. To keep drift to a minimum,
we start spraying at daylight and stop around
10pm. It usually takes a couple of days to
complete the spraying.
My routine is to get up
at 4 am, get to the vineyard 5 am, don my
hooded spray suit, rubber boots, respirator,
goggles, and rubber gloves, mix the chemicals
in the 50 gallon Pak-Blast sprayer and fly
through the vineyard at a blazing 1.5 mph. This
year, of course, we had the rain and then 100+
temperatures. Oh, did I mention the spray
outfit adds about 10 degrees to the outside
temperature? So, when it got up to 100 degrees,
it was 110 degrees in the spray suit. As the
temperature in the suit rises, you realize that
you are sitting in a sauna with sweat filling
up your boots and fogging your goggles. Nothing
but fun! (Complain, complain. Do you know
how much tourists in Sweden pay to hunker down
on wooden benches bristling with ill placed
slivers while huddling congenially around
steaming rocks? Then they clamor out the door
and roll around in the snow like giddy
penguins. Cowboy-up there, pardner!).
We have experienced a
booming grasshopper population again this year
and we are treating with NoLo bait. This is
interesting bait. (Only a farmer would say
that.) It is made from flaky wheat bran
sprayed with protozoan. The protozoa affect the
grasshopper’s digestive system so they don’t
eat and become lethargic. Eventually, the
grasshoppers will die. The protozoa, however,
live on and because grasshoppers are
cannibalistic, the others feed on the dead ones
and become infected too. (Creepy: Stephen
King, are you listening?)
Now we are tucking,
suckering and moving wires as the vines have
started their spurt of rapid shoot growth. (Perhaps
we should consider that technique for our
grandson, Gio, who is 13 years old now and
stands about 5 feet, 9 inches.) Berry set
has occurred in our area. We want to get the
berries acclimated to the sunshine so we will
be doing some leaf pulling around the clusters.
We are also experimenting with a different
canopy management style known as "ballerina".
We are on a VSP (vertical shoot position)
trellis. Normally this trellising style keeps
most of the vine growth in a vertical position
inside the wires.
The ballerina style
allows for some shoot growth to hang outside of
the wires and into the vineyard rows to provide
for some additional shade. (Sounds like but
farmers can’t say, "Tutu".) Our vineyard is
going to be part of the annual Calaveras
Winegrape Alliance Vineyard tour later this
month, so a final mowing and some
under-the-vine weed eating is in order. Lest I
forget, we continue to monitor the vineyard for
irrigation repairs and it’s now time for a post
bloom fertigation application. A month or so
from now, we should begin harvesting our
Sauvignon Blanc grapes. And then the fun really
begins!
Until next time, Gary and Sue
Send us your comments,
favorite recipes and stories to
fromthevine@pacbell.net or write to us c/o
Gold Country Times, PO Box 897, Sutter Creek,
CA 95685.
"Wine makes daily
living easier, less hurried, with fewer
tensions and more tolerance."
-- Benjamin Franklin
Back to Top
Rose Expose June 2011
Greetings to one and
all from summer central. The thermometer topped
out at 104 today in the vineyard and the grapes
are ecstatic. Irrigation is a must now to keep
the vines stretching skyward and the fruit
sucking up moisture like dromedaries in the
Sahara.
It’s time to finally
tuck away the winter togs and strut around in
our tank tops and shorts. However, don’t forget
the sun block or you will find yourself pinking
up from too much sun exposure. (After the
interminable winter and a peek-a-boo spring
that teased us unmercifully with its on-again,
off-again flirtations can one really imagine
too much sun?) Yes, one can. Just ask those
mothers chasing flush faced toddlers and wives
dogging the heels of lackadaisical husbands.
Speaking of pinking up, let’s get down and
dirty and dish up what we here snidely call the
"Rose Expose". What is the real story behind
those naughty "blushing" pink wines? What were
those berries doing out there behind the winery
that compromised their pristine white clarity?
Or more pertinent what were those vintners
doing to their grape juices?
Like so many seemingly
easy questions, we need to step back in time
for the complete answer. (Oh, no, here he
goes again on a side trip that might drag us
off into deepest outer space. Black hole, here
we come.) In the late 1970’s once popular
Portuguese pink wines like Mateus and Lancers (groovy
bottles) were going out of fashion. Rose,
it seemed, semisweet though it might have been
was leaving a sour taste in wine purchaser’s
mouths. Red wines made from Zinfandel were also
losing their appeal. (Oh, darling, that wine
is just so, so pedestrian, don’t you think?)
Fortunately for Zinfandel lovers, not to
mention nervous Zinfandel grape growers who
were staring at hundreds of acres of producing
vines, as well as the loyalists who still
wanted to think pink, Sutter Home winery
created a market for rose Zinfandel.
For some reason the
wine-makers called it "white". Bacchus only
knows why. (Could have been an error during
the labeling process.) So, how did the
winemakers create that softer pink tint that is
characteristic of a rose? Good question? The
way rose is produced is very similar to the
method for making red wine. As you recall from
earlier articles red wine becomes red because
the juice ferments while staying in contact
with the red grape skins. The juice draws the
color from the skins. Yeast is added and the
grapes are stirred or pumped around the tank
during fermentation to encourage redness of
color, flavor, and tannin. To create a rose,
the winemaker will leave the juice in contact
with the skins for only 12 to 24 hours. The
color that develops is lighter, pinker, and
daintier. (I have been waiting for months to
wordsmith in that ladylike delicacy: daintier.
Big, tough guys would be laughed out of the
vineyard for employing such a sissy adjective.)
Another difference
between the production of rose and red wines
happens later in the process. Once fermentation
has been completed, the red wine juice is drawn
off. This is known as free-run juice or
free-run wine. The winemaker who wants more
tannin or color in the red wine can press the
leftovers and combine this "press wine" with
the other liquid. For a rose wine the maker
would not normally blend this "press wine" back
into the juice that was first drawn off.
Instead the winemaker can either decide to
allow it to ferment only a little longer before
stopping the process and bottling the wine as a
semisweet pink wine or perhaps decide to allow
the fermentation to complete as though it were
to become a dry white wine.
Whatever the decision,
the rose is unlikely to go into a new oak
barrel. (No, no, don’t throw my precious
baby into anything that astringent or harsh!
Remember, she is too delicate for that.)
Roses are generally bottled within a few months
of the harvest. It is generally better to drink
rose's as soon as they are bought because the
majority of roses do not improve noticeably
with age. Don’t wait. Why not pair a dry rose
for your first summer cook-out with charbroiled
swordfish and a fresh green salad topped with a
simple citrus dressing. The meaty swordfish
needs a bit of red fruit in a wine to bring out
the flavor. Until next time, Gary and Sue
Drop us a line and let
us know what’s on your mind…
fromthevine@pacbell.net or PO Box 897,
Sutter Creek, CA 95685
"Compromises are for relationships, not wine."
- Sir Robert Scott Caywood
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Sweet Wines
May 2011
Mother Nature is
belting out a riotous vineyard two step now:
mow me; spray me; mow me; spray me. The
winemaker, Gary, and the winemaker’s pup, Rascal,
are holding hands and paws and dancing between
rows of Grenache and Viognier. Both man and dog
swear on a stack of Wine Spectator magazines
that they are working, but we know better,
don’t we? I occasionally hear the roar of the
Kubota tractor or the bark of the four-legged,
many-fanged squirrel bane. However, the ominous
periods of quiet guaranties that beer is being
guzzled and ears are being scratched.
Hopefully, the taller
and, theoretically, more mature of the pair is
imbibing while the shorter one looks on with
wistful, hero worshipping eyes and dreams of
the day when he can metamorphosis into his own
real boy skin with be-fingered paws capable of
clutching a bottle between his very own
opposable thumb and forefinger.
While they are
distracted, let’s sneak in a few comments about
my favorite and the taller one’s least favorite
subject: sweet wines. The wine industry and the
aforementioned tall tractor driver have
generally pushed sweet wines to the back of the
burner to make more room for dry and ultra-dry
wines. But, historically, people have enjoyed
drinking sweet wines with their meals. In
addition, late harvest sweet wines pair well
with popular Pan-Asian and California cuisine.
So, why bridle your sweet tooth and limit your
sweet wine pairing to cheeses and desserts
only?
Take the bit into your
mouth and run a little wild. You will discover
that sweet wines can also complement meats, sea
foods, and soups. The chef only needs to ensure
the sauce being served is not sweeter than the
wine. (Or in Gary and Rascal’s case, the
corn dog dip and the kibble juices should not
be sweeter than the accompanying wine.) So,
you may wonder, just what is a late harvest
wine?
Glad you asked! Here in
the higher elevations of the foothills harvest
generally happens in September. However, our
vineyard, Frog’s Tooth in Salt Springs Valley,
ranges from only 900 to 1200 feet so we can
start harvest earlier on in the later weeks of
August. A late harvest wine grape can be picked
three, four, or even eight weeks later. Timing
is critical. The grape grower wants the sugars
in the fruit to be as high as possible (Can
you say 35 brix?) while still being
balanced by good numbers in acid and ph. (Not
to mention the unpredictability of fall weather
patterns and the unenviable possibility of
harvesting during thunder and lightning or
falling snowflakes.)
Delayed harvesting with
the need for more vigilant monitoring of the
fruit and additional labor costs for the
returning labor crews translate into higher
production costs so don’t be unduly surprised
when the price for a sweet wine is higher than
the typical price for a dry wine. Another
technique for creating sweet wine involves the
manipulation of Botrytis cinera a.k.a. the
Noble Rot. (Dare I say this while dedicated
grape growers everywhere strap jet sprayers to
their backs-actually to their tractors but that
is a mundane visual-and march up and down their
grape rows 24 hours a day fighting fungi?)
Botrytis spores are present in vineyards all
over the world but the main condition to make
them sprout is high humidity.
Most growers will drag
out the spraying rigs, especially after rain,
and apply chemicals to their grape buds to
prevent the growth of unwanted mildew and
fungus and rot (whether noble or as common
as a stable boy). The unbridled spores
penetrate the grape skin without breaking it
and evaporate the water out of the grape. The
grape clusters shrivel and are left without
nearly 60 percent of the juice they started
with but have greater concentrations of sugar
and glycerin per ounce. Savvy fungi
wranglers/vintners celebrate this lack of
juice. Grape growers howl in agony because less
juice equals lower weight equals less money in
their pockets because, remember, they are being
paid for their grapes by the tonnage they bring
to market.
Oops, just when we are
getting to the finger licking, super sticky
section of the sweet wine story, the winemaker
and the spigot licker are returning. Let’s hit
the SAVE button and corral this edition before
our own glucose levels shoot into the danger
zone.
Until next time, Gary and Sue
Back to Top
Spring Chores
April 2011
In the spring every
young man’s fancy turns to thoughts
of…pre-emergent spraying, mowing, shoot
thinning, pruning, and bud break. (I agree
with you, readers, those thoughts should have
turned to love, but the thoughts of farmers,
like those of Nascar drivers, tend to spin
around a central core of horsepower, torque,
and gear ratios) Valley grape growers
already have grape shoots of four to five
inches while here in the foothills most grape
varieties are just showing the first signs of
bud break. (Crikies, man, what do you
expect? Last week it was snowing here in
Murphys!)
Good news for local
growers-we finally started seeing the sun. The
bad news for local growers is that winter
stomped back in with hail storms and dropping
temperatures. So, we say our prayers, get our
sulphur ready (using air blast
sprayers-thinking Nascar still?), and
busying ourselves with other chores such as
topping, blending, and preparing to bottle
those wines that are ready to graduate from the
barrel.
You may be wondering
what topping is. To learn about that you need
to know that once wine is put into barrels for
aging, not all the wine stays there. Some of it
evaporates through the sides of the barrels.
This wispy runaway wine is commonly referred to
as "the angel’s share". (Now that is lovely
and almost romantic.) During much of the
wine-making process, air is the enemy. A
winemaker wants to keep his or her barrels full
so that little or no air comes in contact with
the wine living inside. So, periodically, the
winemaker will pull the bung, the oversize plug
on the top of the barrel, (remember, though,
the barrels are lying on their sides, so that
would be the top of whatever side is pointing
toward the sky) Well, aren’t you observant.
Anyway, the bung is pulled and more wine is
added to fill the barrel to the top again.
At various times during
the winemaking process, nitrogen or argon may
be used by the winemaker to protect the wine.
Because these gases are heavier than air, they
can be pumped into the wine vessel (barrel,
stainless steel tank, or other container)
to form a protective seal between the wine and
the air. (No, Dorothy, now climb off that
barrel, put down that helium tank, and slip
your ruby red slippers back on. Helium is only
good for dirigibles and testosterone overloaded
Munchkins.)
A second fun chore for
this time of the year is blending. As the name
implies this technique involves combining two
or more wines into a combination that pleases
the wine-maker and all the friends who accepted
their invitations to the blending party. (King
Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
thought they were living large while gathered
together in a smoke filled castle planning
manly pre four stroke engine war campaigns.
Their mead might have been rousing but those
epidermis grabbing chain-mail suits probably
raised more merry old rashes than goblets
raised by knights.) So, why blend wines?
Like mad scientists,
winemakers are always looking for ways to "make
it better". Blending grapes with grapes that
have different characteristics, perhaps from
different vineyard sites or different clones or
varietals gives the winemaker tools to create a
wine that is "greater than the sum of its
parts". As an example, we make a Meritage. It
is a blend of different Bordeaux varietals.
Varietals, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Verdot,
Malbec and Merlot in our blend contribute
different color, aroma and flavor components
that when melded together create a wine that is
more interesting and complex than the "sum of
its parts". Bottling is yet another activity
that is taking place in many wineries this time
of year. As many of you may know, this is not
especially one of my favorite things to do.
It accounts for long
days of standing and lifting with few breaks. I
do enjoy the camaraderie but let’s face it; I
would rather be out in the vineyard or
"creating" in the winery. It’s a necessary part
of the process and it does bring a feeling of
satisfaction when the wine is finally bottled
and labeled, ready for the tasting room and our
customers.
Until next time, Gary and Sue
Drop us a line and let
us know what’s on your mind:
fromthevine@pacbell.net or PO Box 897,
Sutter Creek, CA 95685
Wine is constant proof
that God loves us and loves to see us happy. -
Benjamin Franklin
Work in the Vineyard March 2011
Rain, Snow, Power
outages… ENOUGH ALREADY! We don’t know about
the rest of you but we’re ready for winter to
get the "heck" out of Dodge… There’s work to be
done in the vineyard and this weather is
keeping me from my appointed tasks. (Yes,
and it’s keeping him home and in my hair!)
I hope you all have had an opportunity to get
your under-the-vine weeding programs done.
Whether you use sprays or mechanical weed
control, it’s a good thing to get them done
before spring really sets in and the grasses
take off.
My initial Roundup and
pre-emergent sprays were done a few weeks ago
but this weather is hampering my mowing. Many
vineyards are in the midst of pruning and,
although rain doesn’t prevent the crews from
working in the vineyards, it certainly makes
for a miserable day. (Believe me, I know.
I’ve had to be out there with you on many a
rainy day and to put it bluntly, IT SUCKS!)
You have such a way with words. Getting the
vineyard floor weeded, mowed and generally
spruced up is not only esthetically pleasing
but helps reduce problems in the vineyard later
in the year. Removing or shredding the left
over prunings reduces the chances of pests that
over winter on the canes.
Shredding the prunings
has an added benefit since they then become
compost that works its way back into the soil.
If one is not shredding, then it’s a good idea
to drag a springtooth through the vineyard and
remove the prunings for later disposal. Bud
break in the foothills is just around the
corner. There is a growing concern about the
possibility or more likely probability that
there will be a frost during the onset of bud
break. Frost can have a devastating effect on
young buds and shoots as we experienced a
couple of years ago when many vineyards lost
50% or more of their crops due to an extended
frost.
We’ve talked about some
various methods of frost control before, like
wind machines, smudge pots and overhead
sprinklers. These controls can mitigate the
damage caused from an extended frost but they
can also be expensive; an expense that most
small vine-yards cannot afford. So, like us and
many others we throw the dice and take our
chances that damage from a frost will be
minimal. If you have a vineyard you may have
been or may soon be contacted by your county
agriculture department regarding the placement
of bug traps.
As you know, this is a
key line of defense in our ongoing battle
against several devastating insects such as the
Glassy-wing Sharpshooter and the European
Grapevine Moth. Early detection is paramount,
so please cooperate with them and allow them
access to your vine-yard to set and monitor
traps. It benefits us all.
Out in the winery we
continue to do barrel work and bottling. Not
necessarily the fun stuff for me. (Oh, face
it; you love to be out in the winery no matter
what you’re doing). I guess that’s true but
I have to keep the image up that this is hard
work and not just more time to taste wine and
drink beer. But, we do in fact, do work.
Barrels need to be inspected and topped. Plus
there are always surprises when you haven’t
been there for a few days. It seems a rabbit
got into the winery while I was up there the
last time and was trapped in there for several
days. What a mess! Rabbit pellets everywhere.
It had jumped up on the
lab table and knocked off some of the
equipment, pulled down the curtain over the
window, knocked the stereo off the window
ledge, knocked off several wine glasses onto
the floor-glass everywhere. It wasn’t fun
cleaning up and having to sanitize everything
again. It’s a good thing I don’t eat rabbit.
Until next time, Gary and Sue
Drop us a line and let
us know what’s on your mind,
fromthevine@pacbell.net or PO Box 897,
Sutter Creek, CA 95685.
"Sorrow can be
alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of
good wine."
St. Thomas Aquinas
Back to Top
Sensory
Response to Wine January 2011
Wake up, sleepyheads! Anyone who has ever
shambled through a Northern California winter
without the luxury of island hopping in the
South Pacific knows the monotony of four
interminable months of gun metal gray skies or
cotton batting fog inspired claustrophobia. No
wonder we overeat at Thanksgiving: the apparent
gluttony is a precursor to impending forced
hibernation.
So, what is the remedy? You open hearth and
home to friends and family and bring out
several bottles of that cabernet sauvignon you
squirreled away last fall. With a hearty (some
might say goofy) grin on your face you
await the expected accolades, praise, and
yahoos. But what happens? Someone, most likely
a woman (you will find out why later)
grimaces and complains that the wine is too
harsh or too bitter.
Now, before you get yourself in a pickle by
proclaiming some palates (meaning yours, of
course) are more developed than others,
consider this: according to Liz Thach, Ph.D,
wine business and management professor at
Sonoma State University and Tim Hanni, CEO of
the Napa Seasoning Company and a founding
partner of Wine Quest LLC, studies have shown
that differences in sensory response to wine
can be roughly divided into two categories of
physical and associative diversity.
The first, physical diversity, includes the
number of taste buds on a person’s tongue, his
or her salivary rate flow, the amount of
protein in the person’s saliva, the
individual’s response to hot or cold, and, of
course, whether or not your guest has a raging
head cold, stayed out too late the previous
evening and is now semi-comatose from sleep
deprivation, or perhaps just received a pink
slip from the office manager and is stressing
over the upcoming lease payment on the new
Escalade that Santa Claus delivered but did not
include in his own personal budget.
Associative diversity has to do with a person’s
background and wine experiences. For example,
if one of your guests remembers the dismal
summer spent mowing lawns as a youngster to
raise enough collateral for a Schwinn bicycle
that was later stolen by a less enterprising
but light fingered thief, the grassy aroma of
sauvignon blancs could generate a negative
response. Ditto the guest who is forced to
stock up on antihistamines once the snow melts
and the tips of budding greenery poke up from
the thawing earth. (Achoo, and God bless
you!)
As for wine experiences, consider the
thoroughly enjoyable Tempranillo that one of
your guests raved about when shared with the
loving fiancé but that later tasted flat and
unappetizing as the poor sod sipped while
opening the letter postmarked in Paris that
included a snapshot of the Eiffel Tower, the
returned engagement ring, and the
heartbreaker’s new email address:
mariekisskissclaudeforever@inyourface.com .
Perhaps an obvious exaggeration and hyperbole
but you get the picture.
So what do we learn from all this (Something
less stressful, I hope! My gewürztraminer is
suddenly acquiring bitter overtones.)
People are different. (Duh!) Some people
are hypersensitive tasters. These folks have
more taste buds and react at first to a big
tannin wine with disgust. More taste buds-more
intensity-yuck! About 25% of the population
falls into this category and most of them are
women.
The tolerant tasters have fewer taste buds and
prefer denser, more concentrated wines higher
in tannins and acid. This 25% of the population
is more likely to enjoy big cabernets and red
Bordeaux wines over lighter, more delicate
offerings. Most of these folks are men.
The last group, about 50% of the population (Great
math there, my man), are sensitive tasters
who are fortunate to have been born with the
capability to enjoy both light, delicate and
sweet wines while easily moving on to and
savoring red wines of higher intensity. (Super,
let’s bring magnifying glasses to our next
party and count taste buds on everyone’s
tongues. Then for future gatherings we will be
able to invite only abundant budders to white
wine parties and skimpy budders to red wine
parties. We might also consider ear tagging
each person according to taste bud type, but
some might label that just a tad extreme!)
What does all this mean? (Keep it simple,
man, the philosophy column is on another page.)
Diversity is Mother’s Golden Rule. (It’s
also a vaccination against boredom and an
antidote for malaise.) Keep Mother Nature
happy; live in balance with the cosmos; don’t
mock your fellow wine lovers because he or she
may have been born with less or more taste buds
than you; get on the rainbow colored bus of
God’s living creatures and, lastly, always
bring two bottles of wine to every party: one
red and one white
Until next time, Gary and Sue
Drop us a line and let us know what’s on your
mind.
fromthevine@pacbell.net or PO Box 897,
Sutter Creek, CA 95685
“What is better than to sit at the end of the
day and drink wine with friends, or substitutes
for friends!” - James Joyce
Back to Top
December chores
December 2010
Guess what, it’s
December and another year is just about over.
We used to joke about still crushing and
pressing fruit at Christmas. Believe it or not,
that may be the case at some wineries. Well,
maybe not crushing, but I was talking to a
winemaker friend of mine yesterday and he still
has fruit fermenting. It may not be pressed and
barreled before the end of the year. Like many
of us, he "bin ferments" his red wines.
The cold temperatures
have been playing havoc with fermentations.
Winemakers use come creative ways to warm the
fermenting must so that the yeast can carry on
their job of converting the sugars in the grape
must to alcohol. Covering the bins with tarps,
black plastic, blankets, electric blankets,
heaters, etc. are employed. Wineries that tank
ferment can use heated jackets around the tank.
Whatever the method, it’s a challenge to
complete the fermentation this late into the
season.
Fortunately, our
fermentations have all completed and we will
have everything barreled before Christmas.
Unfortunately we still have racking (the
process of siphoning the wine off the lees into
a clean barrel) to do so it may be the end
of the year before we can take a short break
and enjoy some well deserved time off. During
December we generally begin pre-pruning the
vineyard. Normally the vines have finished
storing up nutrients for next years crop and
have gone dormant. Someone forgot to tell our
vines that its time to sleep. We still have
green leaves on some of the vines. Hopefully
they will cooperate and we can get the pruning
done by years end.
Enough about work…what
are you doing for Christmas? I’m looking
forward to spending some quality time with Sue
and the family. I especially enjoy sitting
around
the fireplace feeling the warmth of the burning
Yule log emanating out into the living room (I
have to use my imagination, since Sue won’t let
me burn any wood in the fireplace) with the
smell of the Christmas tree permeating the air,
and enjoying a hot cup of spiced wine or eggnog
while the kids/grandkids open presents. Here
are a couple of our favorite beverage recipes:
EASY
SPICE WINE
2 Bottles of red wine
2 cups apple juice
1 cup sugar
6 tablespoons of mulling spice
Bring all the ingredients to a boil in a Dutch
oven. Reduce heat, simmer for 15 minutes. Pour
the mixture through a strainer into a pitcher,
and discard mulling pieces. Serve hot, and
enjoy.
EGGNOG
Prep Time: 5 minutes,
Cook Time: 30 minutes; Total Time: 35 minutes.
Ingredients:
6 large eggs, plus 2
yolks
1/2 cup, plus 2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 cups whole milk
1/2 cup brandy, bourbon, or dark rum (see
Notes)
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/4 cup heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks
Additional grated nutmeg for garnish
Combine eggs, egg
yolks, sugar, and salt in a heavy 3- or 4-quart
pan, whisking until well-combined. Continue
whisking while pouring milk in a slow, steady
stream until completely incorporated. Turn on
burner to lowest possible heat setting. Place
pan on burner and stir mixture continuously
until an instant read thermometer reaches 160
degrees F. and the mixture thickens enough to
coat the back of a spoon. Be patient. This
should take about 25 to 30 minutes.
Strain mixture through
a fine sieve into a large bowl to remove any
accidental small cooked bits of egg. Add
brandy, bourbon, or dark rum, plus vanilla
extract and nutmeg. Stir to combine. Pour into
a glass pitcher, decanter, or container and
cover with a lid or plastic wrap. Refrigerate
this egg custard mixture to chill at least 4
hours or up to 3 days before finishing. When
ready to serve, pour heavy cream into a bowl
and whip until it forms soft peaks. Fold
whipped cream into cold custard mixture until
combined. Serve in chilled cups or glasses and
garnish with a sprinkle of nutmeg. Yield: 12 to
16 eggnog servings
Notes: If you
would like more potent eggnog and want to add
more alcohol, you will need to make a minor
adjustment to maintain consistency. Simply
increase the liquor amount to 1 cup and the
heavy cream to 3/4 cup. OR ...
BUY A CARTON OF EGGNOG
AT THE STORE FOR THE KIDS AND POUR YOURSELF A
LARGE GLASS OF BRANDY, BOURBON AND/OR RUM…Happy
Holidays!
Until next time, Gary
and Sue. Send us your comments, favorite
recipes and stories to
fromthevine@pacbell.net or write to us c/o
Gold Country Times, PO Box 897, Sutter Creek,
CA 95685.
"Like a fine wine I'm
not getting older, I'm becoming more complex" -
Anonymous
Back to Top
The First Crush
October/November 2010
Here we are, October is
almost over, Thanksgiving is just around the
corner and, oh yeah, we’re still harvesting
grapes. (You must be kidding, right?!)
No, I’m not kidding; this has been an unusual
year to say the least. In a normal year,
harvest would be over, the year’s fruit would
be in the winery being put up in barrels and
our post-harvest parties would begin. However,
as Sue constantly reminds me, "this is
farming". This year, our summer was mild, we’ve
had some unexpected rain and this has combined
to slow the ripening of grapes. This isn’t
necessarily a bad thing.
The grapes have
benefited from longer "hang times" although
yields have been smaller. Indications are 2010
will be a good year for wines. This has been an
interesting year for Frog’s Tooth Vineyards as
well. Our vineyard, like most others, lagged
behind at least 2-3 weeks from previous years.
Our crops were one third to two thirds less
productive than previous years. Yet the fruit
quality was excellent. Harvest was a challenge.
Because of the location of our vineyard, we
typically harvest ahead of most other vineyards
in the foothills. This means we have not had to
compete for scarce labor resources to harvest
our fruit.
We could pick when we
wanted. This year everyone’s fruit ripened
around the same time plus we had to dodge the
frequent rain showers that seemed to hit at
just the time the grapes were ready for
harvest. Additionally, this was our first year
to physically make our wine at our facility. In
the past, we would pick our grapes, drive them
across the street and use our neighbor’s
equipment. This year we purchased our own
equipment and did our own crush. That in itself
was another challenge. Let me share my first
day of crush with you.
Up at 2:30 am because
the labor crew wants to start picking at 4:30
am. Arrive at the vineyard at 4:00 am, get
tractors and bin trailers ready. We’re picking
Grenache and Petite Sirah this morning. The
labor crew arrives wearing lights on their
heads (did I mention it was pitch black,
cloud cover so no moonlight) so they can
see the grapes. Start picking at 4:30 am, rain
starts at 5:05 am. (Nothing is more
miserable than picking grapes in the rain).
Finished picking 16 tons of fruit by 2:30 pm. (Crew
had a break for lunch). Now the crush part
of my day begins. There are 32 bins of fruit on
the ground ready to crush. Oh, did I mention, I
also had grapes that we purchased from another
vineyard delivered that day, another 3 tons of
fruit (6 bins). Since this is the first
time we are crushing at our facility and this
is all new equipment there’s going to be a
learning curve. I realized that I needed to
figure out the logistics of where the crusher,
bin dumper, wash station, etc. needed to be
located so that we could work efficiently. (I
had someone to help me, fortunately).
Then we needed to
"dial-in" the equipment. At 4:00 pm we started
to crush. Needless to say we had to work out
some "bugs". The crusher was crushing the
grapes too hard, the bin dumper was dumping too
fast, the forklift ran out of propane, and I
was freaking tired. As the sun went down we
turned on the outside pad lights at the winery.
Unfortunately, the side of the building we
decided to crush on only had motion detector
lights. So, besides not putting out a lot of
light, we had to keep moving back and forth to
keep them on. At some point around 8:00 pm, the
bin dumper dropped a full bin (1/2 ton)
of grapes into the hopper. We had to climb into
the hopper and hand scoop the grapes out of the
hopper so that we could remove the bin. At this
point we decide to call it a night, clean up
and start again the next morning when we had
light.
As we began to clean
up, the pump went out and we had no water.
After several attempts to restart the pump we
"packed it in" for the night and at 11:30pm
went home. At this point, I was beginning to
think my first day would be my last day.
Fortunately, the next day went better. And yes,
we got the pump going again. Actually, the pump
guy got it going.
Next time, I’ll share
my experience with my first press load. (Yea,
more fun!) Until next time, Gary and Sue.
Send us your comments, favorite recipes and
favorite stories to
fromthevine@pacbell.net or write to us c/o
Gold Country Times, PO Box 897, Sutter Creek,
CA 95685.
"There can be no
bargain without wine." - Latin saying
Back to Top
Sustainable
Farming August/September 2010
Welcome to the wonderful world of "Wegottadobetter".
We have our vision statement - "Stop mucking
things up". We have our mission - "Create a
quality product, enjoy the pro-cess, and, if at
all possible, make a little money". We have our
language. It is called "Ecospeak". (Yes, I’m
afraid the man has finally done it. He has
slipped the bonds of normal reality and is tap
dancing into the glittering gate-way of La la
land.) Over the last several years, there
has been a great deal of discussion regarding
organic farming, sustainable farming, and going
"green". So much confusion…what does it all
mean anyway? (Hop aboard the Merry Prankster
bus, friends; get your tickets punched; crank
up the tune machine, and groove!)
I think most of us
understand that conventional farming often
involves using fertilizers to maximize crop
loads and chemical pesticides to protect the
crops from, well, pests (Was he looking my
way just then?) The fertilizers and
pesticides can be natural or synthetic.
Conventional farming may also involve tilling
and amending the soil. Organic farming is the
process of producing food naturally without
using synthetic fertilizers or chemical
pesticides. The goal with organic farming is to
have a negative or "zero impact" on the
environment. The organic farmer wants to
produce safe, healthy food, while protecting
the earth’s resources.
In the United States and
several other countries, there is a
certification program designed to monitor and
control those farms and crops that are deemed
"organic". So, when
you see foods labeled "Certified Organic" there
is some assurance that the foods have met the
required standards.
Sustainable farming/agriculture
is more of a philosophy or a way of life. It is
more difficult to measure. Sustainable farming
is essentially growing food that is healthy for
consumers (Good, waking up in the morning
after a hearty dinner the night before and
seeing an extra nose on my face or glowing hair
coming out of my ears is just too startling),
does not harm the environment, treats workers
fairly and pays them a competitive wage,
respects animals (God’s other little
creatures, thank you) and allows them to go
about their natural behaviors, provides a fair
wage to the farmer, and supports and enhances
rural communities.
Basically, for
sustainable farmers whatever is taken out of
the environment, such as water, soil and air
can be replenished and be available for future
generations. The waste from sustainable farming
stays within the farms ecosystem and does not
pollute. Sustainable farming is also concerned
about reducing transportation costs and fuel
use.
Different plants and
animals are rotated around the field to enrich
soil and help prevent diseases and pests. This
is known as "bio-diversity". Sustainable farms
can use chemical pesticides when necessary;
however, many do not. (I guess everyone
cheats a little sometime.) Going "green" is
about farming in a way to reduce one’s crops
global warming footprint and to minimize the
overall operation’s impact on soil and water
erosion and groundwater degradation. The goal
is to be "carbon neutral". Green farmers manage
their crops by reducing tillage and by reducing
the amount of greenhouse gases (the big 3
being carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane)
through efficient nitrogen use.
We have been infested
with grasshoppers this year. They have devoured
a couple of rows of our grapes. As a
conventional farmer, I would go commando and
bait, spray and do whatever I could to kill the
little buggers without jeopardizing the grapes.
As an organic farmer, I could use any number of
natural or organic pesticides such as cilantro,
liquid garlic or release a flurry of spiders or
robber flies.
In a sustainable
farming environment, I would attack the
grasshoppers with an army of chickens or ducks
and let them go crazy. Then use their excrement
for fertilizer. As a green farmer (just call
me Kermit) I would plant a trap crop or
barrier of crops that repel grasshoppers like
cilantro. A row of zinnias (the little
critters love zinnias) around the outside
of the crop area will attract the grasshoppers
away from the "money crop" and then plant a
second row of cilantro between the zinnias and
the crop.
The choice is yours,
but personally, I like the immediate
gratification of seeing the little beasties
die. That’s it for this month…be conventional,
organic, sustainable or green to your hearts
content. Until next time, Gary and Sue.
"A bottle of wine begs to be shared; I have
never met a miserly wine lover." - Clifton
Fadiman, N. Y. Times, 8 Mar '87. Contact us at:
fromthevine@pacbell.net
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Wine
and a Wine lover's health April 2010
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, as reported
recently in the BBC News (Oh my, how
critical is the actual material that was
reported? We both have, since first being
handed those chubby American Lead pencils on
day one of kindergarten, been grinding our baby
teeth and then our permanent dentition in
anticipation of the day we could actually say
"as reported by the BBC News") scientists
may have discovered the reason why red wine
appears to protect the heart. As part of our
policy to keep our readers alive and well in
addition to mildly amused, we are bouncing up
and down with excitement over the story about
the relationship between wine and wine lover’s
health. (Actually, I’m bouncing. After
bottling wine all day the tall one is slouching
and nodding).
Numerous studies in the
past have explored the relationship between a
moderate consumption of red wine and lowered
rates of heart disease. We remember in the
1960’s (you may admit to personal
recollections from that decade but I
emphatically deny the possibility)
accolades were given to the Mediterranean diet
with its emphasis on fresh fruit and
vegetables, legumes (a.k.a. beans to us
non-nutritionists and home economics teachers),
whole grains, fish, and olive oil.
This diet was typical
in the wine producing and drinking region of
the Mediterranean. In spite of the fact that
medical services were limited in that part of
the world at the time, adult life expectancy
was among the highest in the world and the
rates of diet related diseases such as heart
disease and certain types of cancer were among
the lowest. Even the French who appeared to
prefer a diet high in cheese, butter, and cream
over one of beans and veggies reported less
heart disease. The common denominator seemed to
be the consumption of red wines.
Now (as reported by
the BBC News, giggle, giggle) a team of
scientists from St Bart's and the London School
of Medicine, and the Queen Mary University in
London may have found a mechanism that points
to the benefits of red wine. (Okay, I heard
the work "mechanism" and that scares me. Mental
pictures of Popular Mechanics magazines rise
out of the mists of long forgotten neural paths
and my alpha, beta, and theta brain waves are
all firing at once. Can we please keep this
simple!). A protein called endothelin-1 (ET-1)
has been shown to be involved in the formation
of early signs of artery disease such as the
formation of fatty streaks on the walls of
arteries (Okay, we will label this bad boy
on our diagram as public enemy number
one. You are now encouraged to loudly hiss).
Other chemicals called polyphenols (Hearty
applause-pun intended-is suggested at the
appearance of the heroes) that work against
the bad protein have been shown to reduce the
rate of heart attacks in people who have heart
disease. As reported by the BBC News from a
study published in the journal Nature (Just
doesn’t have the same ring, does it?) after
finding that polyphenols from Cabernet
Sauvignon grapes decreased the manufacture of
ET-1 in bovine artery wall cells the London
team tested extracts from 23 red wines, four
white wines, a rosé wine and one red
non-alcoholic grape juice sample. According to
their study, in the red wines the amount of bad
guys that were inhibited ran parallel to the
amount of good guys they squared off with (Of
course, their result was stated more
scientifically and more mathematically and more
boringly). The white and rose wines had no
similar effect.
Dr Roger Corder, from
the William Harvey Research Institute at St
Bart's, said: "What we are proposing is the
mechanism that could explain why red wine is a
better alcoholic beverage to consume than
others. "If you consume one glass of red wine
and you have a good absorption of the active
principle, then that would be more than
adequate." He said that Cabernet
Sauvignon-derived wines seemed to have the most
impact. I am certain that Dolores and Stu Mast
of Brice Station in Murphys and John and
Barbara MacCready of Sierra Vista Vineyards &
Winery in Placerville, just two of the fine
wineries in the Sierra Foothills that bless us
with their lusty and heart healthy Cabernets,
will appreciate the good doctor’s
recommendation. So, go out and drink some good
health…
Until next time, Gary
and Sue. Send us your comments, favorite
recipes and stories to
fromthevine@pacbell.net or write to us c/o
Gold Country Times, PO Box 897, Sutter Creek,
CA 95685. "I have enjoyed great health at a
great age because everyday since I can remember
I have consumed a bottle of wine except when I
have not felt well. Then I have consumed two
bottles." -A Bishop of Seville Baron
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Wine folklore
Feb-March 2010
Spring has sprung and as daffodils point their
yellow trumpets skyward in praise of the sun,
brown bears and winter weary foothill folk are
clawing their way out of warming caves and
cloistered A-frame cabins. Time to bid adieu to
chilly nights spent huddled around the
fireplace listening to the wind slice through
the pines and recalling tales of unwise
travelers who lost their way and are still
wandering out there somewhere plaintively
echoing the lonely sighs of the wind. The time
is here for frolicking, and imbibing, and
adding new tales of revel to our daily
journals.
Our history is made one
day at a time and so is our folklore. Before
giving ourselves over entirely to the new
season, we thought it might be fun to share
some highlights of wine folklore. (She
thought it would be fun! I’m out here dragging
a spray rig up and down 1000 rows of vines
filling the air with pre-emergent and weed
killer.)
Quiet in the ranks,
please; I told you when we started this
enterprise that IT WAS FARM-ING.
Forewarned…Back on subject, did you know that
according to Persian folklore, wine was
invented by a woman? Seems the dear soul was
plagued by headaches and after trying all the
conventional cures to no avail, she quite
daintily sipped fermented juice from a jar used
for grape storage. This "Early Woman" imbibing
so relaxed her that she drifted off into a welcome
nap and – voila – awoke cured of her headache.
That’s one small sip for woman, one giant
panacea for suffering humankind. (I can hear
what you are saying in there, dear, so don’t
forget about what the Greeks said.)
Oh, all right.
According to Greek mythology wine was invented
by Dionysus, the God of Wine, Intoxication, and
Fertility. Most likely, this was an early
example of the lengths to which men will go to
pick up chicks. (Watch It, woman!) OK,
sorry, folks, that sentence about courting
strategies was my invention entirely. I’m sure
a Greek God would need no trickery or
flimflammery to find a girlfriend. I extend an
apology to Dionysus.
More fact based than
fiction, the first recoded drunkenness I could
find in western civilization was in the Bible
in Genesis 9. After the Great Flood, Noah
unpacked the luggage, settled his family in,
got the animals back on the right track to
repopulating Mother Earth, and then planted a
vineyard. The vines grew; the fruit ripened.
Noah crushed his first harvest, fermented his
first wine, and celebrated his first vintage by
overindulging and getting drunk. However, after
being cooped up in a rocking boat full of
smelly animals and retching, seasick relatives,
I say Noah deserved a little down time. Give
the man a break.
As civilization spread
westward, so too did wine folklore. On the
volcanic plains of Campania outside Naples in
Italy a variety of grapes are grown that are
used to create a wine called Lacryma
Christi--the Tears of Christ. How did such a
name come into being? One version of the name’s
origin is that when the Lord cast Lucifer out
of heaven, Lucifer grabbed a piece of heaven
and carried it down to earth. Where Lucifer
fell became the Bay of Naples. When the Lord
noticed that a chunk of heaven was missing, he
wept and his tears fell on the slopes of Mt.
Vesuvius.
The Neapolitans claim
that the Lord’s tears caused the earth’s first
vineyard to then spring up. How that ties in
with subsequent volcanic activity one can only
speculate. Foothill folk who derive from the
Anglo-Saxon culture carry part of their
ancestor’s beliefs around in language, if not
in practice. The honey-based alcoholic beverage
called mead was thought to be a strong
aphrodisiac, a sort of 5th century Viagra.
After wedding vows were exchanged the new bride
was sent off to bed and the groom was toasted
with mead until his so-called friends thought
he was sufficiently snookered.
Then the helpful
wedding revelers would carry the groom to the
marriage bed where, it was believed, the potent
power of the mead would guarantee the birth of
a son nine months later. How effective mead
loading was is debatable, but it is believed
that our present use of the word "honeymoon"
was derived from this wedding ritual. I see our
allotted space is at its end, so…Until next
time, Gary and Sue.
Send us your comments,
favorite recipes and stories to
fromthevine@pacbell.net or write to us c/o
Gold Country Times, PO Box 897, Sutter Creek,
CA 95685.
"To take wine into your
mouth is to savor a droplet of the river of
human history." Clifton Fadiman, N. Y. Times, 8
Mar '87
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Port
Wine in winter Jan 2010
Blustery winter winds entwine their icy fingers
around our doorsteps and tap, tap, tap at our
frosty bedroom windows. "The susurration of the
breeze through the trees reminds us of Mother
Nature’s dual personality: the Yin of sun
kissed summer that empowers exuberant growth
and also of the Yang of tumultuous winter that
dares us to step outside the door so she can
knock us out of our Nikes. So, what’s a home
bound human being to do while "Miss N" is in
the throes of an Arctic storm?
For one thing, lay off
the superfluous literary prose. As you might
have guessed, Gary is working (i.e. drinking
beer and eating red meat) in the winery
while I alone sit at the keyboard, staring at
the cursor and wondering what I can talk about
while his attention is elsewhere. For a second
thing, I can share with you one of the secret
joys of winter: a cozy fireplace, a must-read
best seller, and a 2 ounce glass of port.
Gather round, kiddies, and let’s get started.
The origin of port wine
is also a study in duality: politically a
footnote in "Anglo-Franco history and
economically a response by marketing to
consumer demands. During the 18th century
Britain and France were having one of their
typical spats. This resulted in French wines
being banned on the merry old isle. Thirsty
Brits needed a new source to fill their
decanters so they turned to their long time
ally, Portugal. However, the warm Portuguese
summers contributed to the growth of bacteria
that spoiled the wines before they ever made it
to British market. The clever winemakers solved
this problem and increased their profit margin
by fortifying the wine with alcohol in the form
of brandy. This sweet, strong drink satisfied
the British consumer and they quickly added it
to the favorite’s list.
Now you have passed
Port 101 and are almost ready for your first
field trip. However, before boarding the bus I
have to tell you that a "true port" can only be
produced in the Duomo Valley of Portugal
according to an agreement that was reached by
Portugal, the European Union, and the United
States. "I’s" being dotted and "T’s" being
crossed we now can proceed. Typical Portuguese
ports are blended with a combination of Touriga
Nacion-al, Touriga Francesca, Tinta Roriz,
Tinta Barroca, or Tinto Cao. We rebels in the
New World express our feelings about the
conventional way things are done by creating a
"port" (Just don’t call it that!) from
Zinfandel, Syrah, or what-ever strikes our
fancy.
The addition of brandy,
a process also called fortification, is the
distinguishing feature of a port. The resulting
higher percentage of alcohol will be noted on
the wine
bottle. You can consider two other
characteristics of port wine: the style and the
color. One style of port is vintage. The
production of truly fine port is based on
climate and the optimum conditions only occur
every 3 – 4 years. The vintner usually blends
fruit from the same region during the "vintage"
year to produce a vintage port. The most basic
style is ruby (Sounds like the color-maybe
something was lost in the translation process.)
This is a young, spirited wine that the British
used to drink with lemonade (A precursor to
sangria?)
The next style is
"Vintage Character". That may or may not be as
good as vintage port (Hey, the boys need
something to do during the 2 – 3 years when the
climate isn’t perfect!) This style is
followed by Late Bottle Vintage (LBV). This
wine is bottled later than vintage port in an
attempt to create a softer wine that can be
enjoyed earlier than a traditional port. All of the above named
styles of port are a dark, plumy red. The
second characteristic I mentioned is color.
Tawny ports are another category. Look for an
amber color, and read the label. A tawny that
describes itself as a 10 year old port will be
the genuine item.
Thanks, Sue, for taking
the reins on this article while I was busy
doing my "wine-making" thing. All I need now is
the roaring fire, my glass of port and a good
cigar. Okay, maybe not the cigar. How about a
nice wedge of aged Gouda cheese? Until next
time, Gary and Sue.
Send us your comments,
favorite recipes and stories to
fromthevine@pacbell.net or write to us c/o
Gold Country Times, PO Box 897, Sutter Creek,
CA 95685.
"Wine, one sip of this
will bathe the drooping spirits in delight
beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise and taste."
~ John Milton
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From the Vine 
