Oscar at Furlong Estates VineyardNever let a winemaker tell you there life is glamorous. It’s only Tuesday and I think I have already driven over 400 miles since Saturday and I still haven’t crushed a grape. On Saturday my son Oscar and I visited two of the vineyards I am getting grapes from. St. Mark’s Vineyard in the Russian River Valley is looking great and still about 2–3 weeks away until we pick. The vineyard is dry-farmed which means it does not get any irrigation. It was pretty hot up there and Mark (the vineyard owner), Oscar and I walked the vineyard taking grape samples and discussing the upcoming harvest. The vineyard got hit hard with a heavy frost last April and because of that, the crop level is pretty low. I share the vineyard with another winemaker and it looks like I’ll get 2–3 tons of Syrah from it. The bunches are very open (lots of space between the berries) and the grapes are small, so the wine should have a lot of color (due to a higher skin to pulp ratio) with intense flavors. Mark, and his wife Ginny also grow and dry lavender and they were kind enough to give Oscar a few sachets (as well as a turkey feather and a lucky horseshoe from one of their horses).
St. Mark's Vineyard
St. Mark's Vineyard
From there we proceeded up to the Alexander Valley to check on the Furlong Estates Vineyard. With all the heat we had last week (it was 97°F by the time we got there on Saturday), the sugar content of the grapes here really took off. I usually expect to see an increase of around 1° Brix/week. (Brix is a measure of sugar content). But his week the sugar increased by almost 3° Brix. Yikes! These grapes are getting ripe and it they will be the first of the grapes I’ll harvest this year.
Oscar at Furlong Estates Vineyard
Furlong Estates Vineyard
On Sunday I headed down to Livermore to pick up some barrel racks. Racks are what the barrels rest on in the winery and they allow you to move the barrels around with a forklift and also to stack them up to six high. New racks cost around $90, so good fortune smiled on me when I found these used one’s for a mere $20 each. As you can see, fitting ten of them in the back of my pickup made for quite the load.
Today it was off to Stagecoach Vineyard in Napa in the morning. The grapes there look great but are probably still a few weeks away from being harvested. After that I had to pick up some used oak barrels. I managed to find six of them at a winery in Napa. However, I can only get four of them in the back of my truck at one time (see picture below). So that meant two trips: Napa to Fairfield to unload them, back to Napa and then back to the winery in Fairfield.
Tomorrow is a bit of a breather and then the Furlong Estates Vineyard grapes will be picked on Thursday. Finally a chance to make some wine (did I mention I have to pick up some more barrels on Friday!)
On another note, there was a very interesting interview on Fresh Air yesterday with Thomas Friedman whose new book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, is about the need for a green revolution. I’ll definitely be putting it on my fall reading list. Click here to listen to the interview.
St. Mark's Vineyard
St. Mark's VineyardFrom there we proceeded up to the Alexander Valley to check on the Furlong Estates Vineyard. With all the heat we had last week (it was 97°F by the time we got there on Saturday), the sugar content of the grapes here really took off. I usually expect to see an increase of around 1° Brix/week. (Brix is a measure of sugar content). But his week the sugar increased by almost 3° Brix. Yikes! These grapes are getting ripe and it they will be the first of the grapes I’ll harvest this year.
Oscar at Furlong Estates Vineyard
Furlong Estates VineyardOn Sunday I headed down to Livermore to pick up some barrel racks. Racks are what the barrels rest on in the winery and they allow you to move the barrels around with a forklift and also to stack them up to six high. New racks cost around $90, so good fortune smiled on me when I found these used one’s for a mere $20 each. As you can see, fitting ten of them in the back of my pickup made for quite the load.
Today it was off to Stagecoach Vineyard in Napa in the morning. The grapes there look great but are probably still a few weeks away from being harvested. After that I had to pick up some used oak barrels. I managed to find six of them at a winery in Napa. However, I can only get four of them in the back of my truck at one time (see picture below). So that meant two trips: Napa to Fairfield to unload them, back to Napa and then back to the winery in Fairfield.
Tomorrow is a bit of a breather and then the Furlong Estates Vineyard grapes will be picked on Thursday. Finally a chance to make some wine (did I mention I have to pick up some more barrels on Friday!)
On another note, there was a very interesting interview on Fresh Air yesterday with Thomas Friedman whose new book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, is about the need for a green revolution. I’ll definitely be putting it on my fall reading list. Click here to listen to the interview.
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