Notes From The Winemaker

2006 Harvest Debrief

Well, first of all it was BIG. After 2005 – which was a huge harvest for California – we were justified in expecting the vines to be a little tired this year, and to set smaller crops. Maybe it was the warm (but not hot) Spring weather and the very heavy late rains – we had over 50" of rain this year (nearly 200% of normal), most of it came in March-April, and we got jungle vines as a result – but whatever the cause we were all surprised by how heavy the crop ended up being in 2006.

In most cases, we would expect a heavy crop – especially the second consecutive year of heavy crop – to give us wines that (ahem!) lack concentration, or at least that certain je ne sais quoi. This is not the case at all. On the contrary, I think the wines we have made this year may turn out to have more stuffing than the 2005's – indeed they seem at this point to be somewhere between where the 2003's and 2004's were at this early stage in their developments. (EDIT: by harvest 2007 it is clear the 2006 wines are forward and pretty like 2004, not massive and closed like 2005 and 2007.)

I will freely own up that I screwed the pooch this year when it came to crop estimation. I knew that my vineyard crew had not thinned as heavily as I had wanted, and I knew that the crop was heavier than I was predicting, and I knew that the error was probably 10-15%.

Doh! What do I know!? Man, it is humbling to be off by 50% to 150% in your estimates. What's worse, this underestimating created more than one serious logistical headache – not enough tanks, not enough barrels, not enough market to absorb the inventory. Call the "waaa"mbulance.

On the up side – I got to do some really cool things this year. First, the new wood fermenters were a hit. They wanted to get too hot, but I was ready for this eventuality and avoided most of the potential problems that could arise from an overheated ferment. I absolutely love what the new wood contributed to the aromas and textures of the wines fermented in these tanks.

Second, after observing something interesting happening outside our neighbor Kamen Estate winery last year, and talking with their consultant (and my long-time friend) Mark Herold about it this year, I dried stems collected from the crush and returned them to the fermenter – for a Syrah lot, our Tannat and our Mourvedre. I will have a lot more to say about this in a future post.

Third, I made a bunch of pink wine this year. After the phenomenal reception we had for the one barrel of pink Grenache that I made last year I went ahead and made seven barrels this year – same quality, same "barrel-fermented-white-wine" approach to the process, but in 2006 we will have a blend of Grenache with Syrah, Mourvedre and Counoise. I'm excited about it.

Finally – mostly, the facilities-sharing went well this vintage. I think everyone felt a real sense of camaraderie that was lacking last year. I'm happier that we are in our current location than I expected to be, and I think that the end of the vintage and the coming year shape up to be even more collaborative than has been the case to date. This is a good thing, and bodes well for enhancing the quality of our wines.

posted 11/11/2006 06:47:00 PM