Wine Stained Hands

The 07 Vintage is in the Bottle!

2009-08-27T15:47:00.000-07:00

Last week I bottled the 2007 vintage. A mobile bottling truck came to the winery and set up on the crush pad. It takes about 9 people to bottle the wine. One to empty the bottles out of the cases, one to place them on the sparger, one to fill them, one to cork them, one to place the capsules on the bottles, one to seal the capsules, one to monitor the labels going on correctly and 2 people to put the bottles back into the boxes and stack them on the pallet! I spent my time putting the capsules on all 4,056 bottles! Just like last year there will be Syrah from Stagecoach Vineyard in Napa Valley (274 cases) and also the first vintage of The Octopod — a Syrah from the Furlong Estates Vineyard in the Alexander Valley. I was expecting to get 75 cases of it, but ended up with only 64 cases, so it’s going to be a hot commodity that I’m sure will sell out fast. (Look for a pre-release offer next month). Both wines are suffering from a slight case of bottle shock at the moment but with a little bit of bottle age they’ll be tasting exceptionally well by the Fall.

Taking The wine Out of Barrel to Get it Ready For Bottling

Pallets of Bottles Waiting For Wine

The Bottling Line Waiting for the Days Work to Begin

Unused Corks Swimming in a Pool of Overflow Wine (not as much as it looks!)

Taste The Wines Amongst The Vines

2009-05-29T12:34:00.000-07:00

I will be co-hosting a wine tasting at the Furlong Estates Vineyard on Saturday June 13th. See flyer below (you can click on it to see it larger) or click here for more information.

Winemaker Interview

2009-05-21T13:39:00.000-07:00

I was recently interviewed by Sagi at OpenBottles. Click on the link below to read it.

OpenBottles Interview

Wine Update

2009-05-06T08:45:00.000-07:00

This time of year things start to pick up in the winery. Once the coolness of the winter months come to an end, and the weather starts to warm up, the wines also start to "wake up". When I barreled my 2008's last fall, a lot of them had not finished there fermentations. Now they have and over the past month or so I have been busy racking the wine. Racking is the term used when wine is taken out of the barrel, the barrels are cleaned and then wine is put back into the barrel. After fermentation is over, all the dead yeast cells and other "muck" settles to the bottom of the barrel. So when the wine is removed, all of this "muck" (also known as lees) is taken out of the barrels. It's a really beautiful color (as you can see in the photos), but leaving the wine sitting on the lees for too long can sometimes lead to spoilage. I usueally just do this only once unless the wine starts to smell a little funky, then I would rack again. So now that racking is over, it's time to start choosing and ordering this years barrels and get ready for bottling of the 2007's. As for the 2008 wines, they are tasting pretty good. More about that in a future post.

Drink Wine and Help Raise Money For The Victorian Bushfire Appeal

2009-02-17T12:23:00.000-08:00

Many of you have probably heard of the horrible bushfires that took place in Australia last week. As an Australian, from Victoria, it was very devastating to read the news and hear the reports. One of the town's that was totally wiped out (Marysville) was a place where we use to spend time vacationing at when I was a child. Fortunately no one I know lost ther lives or their homes, but a lot of people did. If you are interested in donating some money to aid in the relief, you can donate directly to the Australian Red Cross, or you could attend one of the fundraising events listed below:

VICTORIAN BUSHFIRE FUNDRAISER

Crushpad in conjunction with the Australian Trade Commission, the State Government of Victoria, Advance, the Australian American Chamber of Commerce and The Jug Shop, invite you to support the Australian Red Cross by attending a wine tasting of Victorian Wines to raise funds for the Victorian Bushfire Appeal.

Friday 20 February, 2009
6.30 p.m. to 8.30 p.m.
Crushpad
2573 Third Street
San Francisco CA 94107
Cost $30 (all proceeds go directly to the Appeal)

Registration deadline is Thursday 19-Feb-09 6:30 PM. Click here to register.

SOUTH FOOD AND WINE BAR VICTORIAN BUSHFIRE FUNDRAISER

Please join Chef Luke Mangan at his San Francisco restaurant South for a special meal to benefit the victims of the Victorian bushfires in Australia. Luke will be leading a live auction on the night. Proceeds will be donated to the Australian Red Cross Bushfire Relief Fund. Your ticket includes a special four course meal by Luke with wines chosen by South sommelier Gerard O'Bryan.

Tuesday 24 February, 2009,
7.00 p.m.
South Food and Wine Bar
330 Townsend Street
San Francisco CA 94107
Cost $125

RSVP ESSENTIAL
info@southfwb.com / (415) 974 5599.

Space is limited and a credit card will be required to hold your place. The menu and auction items will be on http://www.southfwb.com/ soon.

88 for Eight Arms

2009-02-17T09:51:00.001-08:00

Last September I sent bottles of my 2006 Eight Arms Syrah off to several wine reviewers. Over the months since then, I would periodically check their websites to see if my wine had been reviewed (OK to be honest - I would check them on a weekly basis). As the months passed by, I really wasn't sure if any reviews would be forthcoming, but I kept checking anyway. Well, I finally have my first review and it is from the Wine Spectator. It scored 88 points which is very exciting. A friend in the know was telling me that for a first release from an unknown label made by an unknown winemaker, 88 is probably the highest score the magazine would have given me. So, I'm pretty excited about it. Here is what they had to say:

2006 Eight Arms Syrah, Napa Valley, Stagecoach Vineyard
88 Points
Offers a supple mix of spice, loamy earth and dried berry
flavors that are medium-bodied, with hints of blackberry and
cranberry fruit. Drink now through 2014. 290 cases made. –JL

If you are interested in reading some other reviews, the following were posted on the Open Bottles web site.

I had this wine at the Eight Arms Cellars release party. They released this wine and offered barrel samples from the 2007 Stagecoach Vineyard and also from another 2007 syrah. I thought that the winemaker did a great job on all three wines and that there was a consistency of style. In a yelp review, I described the wine as "clean and dense." A better way to say what I meant is that I thought that the winemaker did a fine job in bringing out the good qualities of the fruit and then getting totally out of the way. The wine was excellent but not eccentric in any way. Tasted November 16, 2008.

Eight Arms' winemaker Iain sent me a bottle of this wine to taste. Naturally, I opened it up with some friends - a mini tasting if you will. This is Eight Arms' first release, and judging from this wine, I expect many great things to come. The wine is a deep, rich purple. It stains the glass and the teeth. The wine is still young, but is showing great balance and structure. It has firm tannins so it will age well. I decanted the wine for about 45 minutes, and it definitely opened up nicely as the night went on. The nose was a little shy, but as the wine was exposed to air it released great aromas of dark fruit, primarily black cherry. The wine itself is rich and complex. It is still young, but is already showing great potential. The wine is spicy with hints of oak and pepper. Very nice finish. Great wine for food. I think I will buy another bottle and hold it for another 2 - 3 years to see how it develops over time. Great first release from Eight Arms! Tasted Dec 6, 2008.

This wine is deep purple in color and while the wine is a bit tight right now it displays a core of dark smokey fruit, excellent balance and a nice lingering finish with firm tannins. I look forward to trying this wine again in a year or two to see how it develops. Tasted 12-6-08.

This wine was a little young but we were very excited to taste it. We used a decanter and that helped rather than right out of the bottle. Great aromas and strong flavors of berry. Nice aftertaste with just the right amount of oak flavors. There was some spiciness to the taste, which I really liked. I think this wine is really great, especially for the first vintage produced- I can't wait to see what is going to come out next from this winemaker under his own label!! Tasted 12/6/08.

So there it is. I'm sure more reviews will be forthcoming. In the mean time, head over to eightarmscellars.com and pick up few bottles before they are all gone!

Eight Arms Syrah Hits The Shelves!

2008-12-16T21:01:00.000-08:00

I’m proud to announce that the 2006 Eight Arms Syrah is now in the stores! Well, one store anyway. If you live in Marin, you can now go over to Woodlands Market in Kentfield and pick up a bottle of our wine. My mother in law, Lillian was there on the weekend and was kind enough to snap this picture. It’s definitely exciting to see one’s wine on the shelf in a store and I’ll keep you posted as it appears in more stores and on restaurant lists.

Review Eight Arms Wine on OpenBottles and Receive a Free Tasting Journal!

2008-12-07T20:06:00.001-08:00

I'm excited to announce a partnership between Eight Arms Cellars and OpenBottles—the social network for people who like wine. Along with meeting other people who like wine, OpenBottles members share wine reviews, join groups, participate in discussions and much more.

To celebrate our new partnership, OpenBottles will give the first 50 people who review our wine a free tasting journal. These pocket-sized journals are perfect for taking notes at wine tastings or other wine events.

To get your journal, sign up for a free account at www.openbottles.com (use the promo code "EIGHTARMS") or click on the button below, then post your review of our 2006 Eight Arms Syrah. Someone from OpenBottles will contact you to get your mailing information. If you're already a member, just send OpenBottles an email after you post your reviews and they'll send you the journal.

I look forward to reading your reviews.

I know I'm a few days late, but I just wanted to raise a glass to the 75th anniversay of the end of Prohibition. Now if only the shipping laws in the US would change to make it easier to ship wine, then we'd all be happy!!

110% Brand Comittment

2008-11-29T11:16:00.000-08:00

First of all I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and survived the craziness of Black Friday. As you can see from the above picture, I am now completely branded. My tattoo that was started in August now has color in it and has almost completely healed. I guess this is what you call 110% brand commitment. If anyone else wants to get branded, just let me know, and I’ll send you an octopus temporary tattoo!

It’s been a quiet week at the winery. With all the wine in barrel, there is not a lot to do. I was up there yesterday checking on this year’s wine. Stagecoach went into barrel two weeks ago and after a quick check, it looks like it is still fermenting away. With the weather turning cooler, it will probably take awhile for it to finish. Also once, the grape juice turns to alcohol, the yeast has a harder time converting the remaining sugar because they do not particularly like a high alcohol environment.

Last Saturday we had an open house up at the winery. Winterhawk Winery (the winery I rent space in) hosted the event. Winterhawk, Blacksmith and Eight Arms all poured our wines. The turnout was great with almost 200 people attending. My Syrah was really well received and I got a lot of great comments about it. Here are a few pictures from the event.

Always lots of schwag!

It's nice to have help from my assistant winemaker!

Magnum anyone?

Release Party Photos

2008-11-18T22:49:00.000-08:00

The Release Party was last Sunday and it still feels like a bit of a blur. It was a really amazing event. As soon as the doors opened at 1 p.m. it seemed like people started flooding in. I was expecting around 80 or so guests and we ended up with around 175 people attending. It was a lot of fun and the wine was well received. Besides the great wine, the food was also delicious. Riva Cucina did a fabulous job with all the appetizers but I would have to say that the octopus and potato salad really rocked (not that I’m biased!). I had also had some octopus temporary tattoos printed up and they were also a big hit. So here are some photos from the event.

A nice surprise was that that someone had posted a review of the wines on my Yelp page. Click here if you would like to read it (and feel free to add your own review!!!)

Finally, I would like to thank all the wonderful people who helped to make the release party a huge success. Everyone helped make the event go off without a hitch. You guys are the best! So here goes:
Stacey, Lillian, Heather, Steve, Darlene, Wanda, John, Chris, Philip, Sue, Brittani, Ryan, Anna, Myra, Matt, Dave, Mila and Jennifer & Massi and all the wonderful crew at Riva Cucina.

The Party Is Here and Eight Arms Haikus

2008-11-15T19:35:00.000-08:00

It’s almost 7 p.m. and I just finished getting everything ready for tomorrow’s release party. This is a really exciting moment for me. The idea of becoming a winemaker took seed in my mind about 6 years ago and it still amazes me that it has become a reality. All the hard work I have put in has finally come to fruition and it will be great to enjoy the party and share my wine with everyone. Looks like we are going to have some unseasonably warm weather tomorrow (it was 80º in Berkeley today!), so it’s good that Riva Cucina has an outside patio. I’ll post some photos of the event some time next week.

Yesterday I finished up crush at the winery. Stagecoach Syrah is now in barrel and it looked beautiful and smelled great. I think it’s going to be another great year from Stagecoach. It really is a wonderful vineyard and I feel fortunate that I’m able to get grapes from there.

Stagecoach Syrah free run wine getting ready to go into barrel

As I mentioned in my last post, SFist had a Haiku contest. They got a pretty good response. Here are some of them with the winning Haiku being the last one. (Click here to read them all)

aye taste buds yearning 
green berries smoke pepper
wine swirl sniff sip savor

wine's got bouquet, nose  
fuck's all that supposed to mean? 
who cares; good with green.

Green Octopus Wine 
Who in their right mind wants it 
it's figurative

late autumn's sweet wine 
a toast drunk to crumbling leaves 
once green with vigor

Leaves no longer green. 
Moonrise east; wine grapes, now sweet, 
will fall by next moon.

Landscapes green with vines 
Lush fruit transformed into wine 
Playground for the senses

Blue-state green red? Huh? 
Wine flows too fast when poured by 
eight-armed sommeliers.

black ink and green wine 
i need seven more glasses 
beak gets in the way

up from the green depths 
wine colored arms come seeking 
to preserve the seas

The grapes are most green 
In the state that is bluest 
Where most prefer red

Eight Tons Fermented and One Octopus

2008-11-13T21:37:00.001-08:00

Checking the level of sugars during fermentation

It looks like this will be the last week of crush. After two plus months and eight tons of grapes, things are starting to wind down. How appropriate that Eight Arms crushed eight tons of grapes this year! Stagecoach is almost finished fermenting. In fact, tomorrow I’ll press it and let it complete it’s fermentation in the barrel. This helps to better integrate the oak and leads to a more balanced wine. So, it’s always nice to come to the end of harvest and to have successfully fermented all of my grapes into wine, but it’s also sad, because now I have to wait another 10 months until harvest rolls round again.

This is a big weekend for me. The release party for my first vintage is on Sunday and I think it’s going to be huge! So far it looks like there will be 70–100 people attending. Plus I managed to get some good press for the event. Today it was listed in Daily Candy’s Weekend Guide. Not a small feat. I spoke to them yesterday and asked how many people get the email. The woman I spoke to said she didn’t know the exact numbers but estimated it to be in the tens of thousands. Yikes! This tasting could get big really quickly. We’ll just have to wait and see. It was also mentioned in Tablehopper's weekly email (scroll way down near the bottom) and SFist had a post about it today. In fact, if you are interested in trying to win a bottle of wine, then check out the post, write a Haiku and submit it before 3 pm tomorrow (check out the comments section of the post to see some of the submitted Haikus).

As for the one Octopus, I was at Riva Cucina today working out the final details of the party. They have a wonderful menu of appetizers planned and to top if all of, it wouldn’t be an Eight Arms event if we didn’t serve Octopus. So Chef Massi showed me the first of the Octopuses he is preparing and it was this wonderfully huge red Octopus that filled an entire dinner plate. Yum! (sorry, didn’t have my camera with me, so no pictures!)

Corks and Yma Sumac

2008-11-04T09:47:00.001-08:00

Have you ever wondered what to so with all those left over corks from your wine bottles? Instead of throwing them away or turning them into a corkboard craft project, you can know recycle them at your local Whole Foods. Here is an excerpt from a press release from ReCORK America:

“ReCORK America announced today the start of a recycling program to reclaim a small portion of the estimated 13 billion natural cork wine stoppers sold into the world market each year. The six-month trial will involve 25 Northern California Whole Foods Market stores, including Reno. Each store will have a convenient collection box situated in the wine department. Customers will be encouraged to add wine corks to their list of recyclable packaging.

Unlike plastic or metal screwcap closures, recycled cork can be turned into flooring tile, building insulation, shoe soles, fishing rod handles, bulletin boards, and even soil conditioner. Natural cork is biodegradable, sustainable and a valuable source for carbon retention.”

The Whole Foods Markets in Northern California that are participating in the program are: Berkeley, Campbell, Cupertino, Fresno, Los Altos, Mill Valley, Monterey, Napa, Oakland, Palo Alto, Petaluma, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Mateo, San Rafael, San Ramon, Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, Sonoma and Walnut Creek.

ReCORK America is a recycling program sponsored by Amorim, and Portocork America. For more information about ReCORK America, visit their Web site at www.recorkamerica.com

If you don’t want to collect them and take them to Whole Foods, you can always put them in your green bin or a compost pile.

On another topic, Yma Sumac died over the weekend. If you don’t know who she is, then click here to listen to the NPR story on her yesterday. She really was a one-of-a-kind performer whose unique vocal style will surely be missed.

Here is a little video about her.

And don’t forget to vote today!

Stagecoach Harvested Just In Time!

2008-11-01T23:47:00.000-07:00

Freshly Picked Stagecoach Vineyard Syrah

The rain has really been coming down hard today, so it was a real relief to have harvested Stagecoach last Wednesday. There is always the danger with grapes that take a long time to ripen that you won’t get them into the winery before the weather turns bad. But Mother Nature was smiling on us this year and the quality of the fruit is excellent with wonderful flavors. We only got 2.5 tons, so a little less then expected. After putting a layer of whole clusters into the bottom of the half-ton bins, the rest of the grapes were destemmed and they have been cold soaking for several days now. I’ll check them on Monday and kick of the fermentation early next week.

De-stemmed grapes in a half-ton fermentation bin

Only 2 weeks to go until the Release Party and I’m working like crazy to get everything ready. I’m very excited about the event and I think it’s going to turn out great. If anyone wants to volunteer to help out on the day, let me know.

Went over to some friends house tonight and we cracked a couple of bottles of the 2006 Eight Arms Syrah. If I must say so myself, it’s tasting amazing. Lots of fruit and spice with a lovely long finish!

And if you were wondering, Oscar, was dressed as Spiderman for Halloween.

The Home Stretch

2008-10-28T14:39:00.000-07:00

Fall Colors at Stagecoach Vineyards

When crush started in the first week of September this year, I honestly thought it would all be over by early October. But there really is no way to predict how harvest will go. Furlong Estates Vineyard ended up being picked in two separate lots, 2 weeks apart. St. Mark’s Vineyard was picked in early October and as for Stagecoach — well, the grapes are still hanging on the vines. The leaves are all changing color, the nights are getting cooler and the grapes are just finishing up their ripening. My block of Syrah happens to be in one of the cooler spots of the vineyard and the grapes always like to take there time to ripen. This is the third year I've harvested grapes from Stagecoach and I am finally starting to see a pattern. Sugar levels in the grapes tends to rise fairly quickly in early September and then stop for a few weeks. The grapes seem to just hang out there picking up flavors but not getting any sweeter. Finally something changes around mid-October and the vines kick into gear again and the sugar begins to rise.

The Grapes Are Almost Ready

So, here we are, the last week in October and I am finally picking Stagecoach on Wednesday. I delivered the picking bins yesterday and it was another glorious day up there. I know most people say size doesn’t matter, but when I see the size of the rocks that have come out of the ground to make way for the grape vines, it is a truly impressive site. There are piles of very large boulders scattered around the edge of the vineyard as a reminder to what the ground is like up there. The one I am standing next to is probably one of the biggest, and it sure is impressive. When I walk the vineyard, I always have to watch out for large rocks that litter the ground. With so little soil, the grapes really have to struggle to produce their fruit. But this leads to some wonderfully flavored grapes and incredible wine.

Size matters??

The grapes will be harvested early in the morning. It usually takes about 45 minutes to pick the block (compared to the 3 hours it took us to pick the same amount from St. Mark’s Vineyard). Below is a video from last years harvest showing how quickly the crew works. Please note, that I have not sped up the video!

It’s Nice To Have Help

2008-10-15T16:27:00.000-07:00

As a one-person operation, I sometimes need some extra arms (like eight of them) to get everything done. So it’s nice to be in a winery where there are other people around to help out especially on the days when I am crushing grapes or pressing wine. However on Monday I was lucky enough to get some help from my winemaking assistant – Oscar. Oscar had the day off from school, so he came with me to the winery where he was able to help me with the punch downs. Here he is punching down the St. Mark's Vineyard Syrah that we picked on the 4th (see previous post).

He then helped me sample the fermenting must so that we could check on the sugars and see how the fermentations where doing.

Finally, it was nice to have his help when I performed a sensory evaluation of the fermenting wine.

Please note, Oscar didn’t actually taste the wine, but he did smell it. And, his verdict? “Dad it smells like raspberries. I think you should bottled it already!” Well, maybe not so soon – it still has to finish it’s fermentation and barrel age for quite some time before it’s bottled, but at least it has Oscar’s seal of approval!

Harvest At St. Mark's Vineyard

2008-10-05T15:56:00.001-07:00

This has been a weekend full of new experiences. On Friday I rented a 16-foot long flatbed truck and drove it to the winery to collect some picking bins. This is the first time I’ve driven such a big truck and it was actually pretty easy to drive. I drove it home and parked it in front of our house for the night (Oscar was very excited to see it and to explore the inside of the cab). At 6:30 Saturday morning, my friend Steve came over and we drove the truck up to St. Marks Vineyard in the Russian River Valley to harvest the grapes. Mark and Ginny Weston, invite their friends and family over to help with the harvest. It had rained the night before so the vineyard was a little wet, but by the time we started picking at around 8:30, the sun was starting to peek out from behind all the clouds. With buckets and clipping shears in hand, we entered the vineyard and starting harvesting. It was a fun time and seemed to go pretty quickly. I have never actually harvested grapes before and it was nice to be involved in the process knowing that he grapes I was picking will soon become Eight Arms Syrah. By 11:30 we (there were about 20 of us) had finished harvesting the two blocks and had picked around 3 tons of grapes. Not bad for a bunch of novices. In comparison, a professional crew can pick about the same amount of fruit in under an hour. But I’m sure they don’t have as much fun! We followed the pick with lunch on Mark and Ginny’s porch and drank a few bottles of the 2006 Eight Arms Syrah to celebrate the occasion. The wine tastes great and is finally coming out of bottle shock. It’s very fruity with a balanced mouth feel. Once the truck was loaded it we drove the one and a half hours back to the winery. We unloaded the grapes, hand-sorted and destemmed them into a couple of half-ton fermentation bins. This morning I went back up to the winery to check the sugar and acid levels. The grapes looked pretty good but the sugar levels were a little bit lower then expected. This will not be a powerful Syrah but more of a refined Northern Rhone style. I’ll keep you posted. Thanks to everyone for there help yesterday. Enjoy the pictures.

The Truck

Hard At Work Picking Grapes

Sue

John

Nelson

Mark Weston (Owner Of St. Mark's Vineyard)

Rob & Yoshi

Yujin

Ellyn

Freshly Picked Syrah Grapes

A Relieved Crew At The End Of Harvest

Hand-Sorting The Grapes

Hand-Sorting The Grapes

Freshly Crushed Syrah Grapes

Sometimes Beauty Is All Around Us

2008-09-30T19:52:00.000-07:00

This time of year, I do a lot of driving between the vineyards and the winery. Sometimes it feels like it just becomes routine. Every Saturday morning I’m up early and off to the Russian River to take samples from St. Mark’s Vineyard and every Monday it’s up to Stagecoach Vineyard in Napa. It’s the little things that tend to jolt me back to the reality of how lucky I am. The vineyards are always so peaceful and wonderful places to take a walk in. Last Saturday as I was driving (rushing?) up to St. Mark’s I looked up and saw all these hot air balloons descending into the surrounding vineyards and quickly grabbed my cell phone and snapped off a couple of pictures. Not the best thing to do at 45mph, but it did remind me of the beauty of the moment and I thought it would be a good picture to post on my blog. Well, the quality isn’t that great, but hopefully it conveys the feeling of the moment.

Then, as I was sampling grapes from the vineyard, I came across an abandoned birds nest with a bunch of Syrah grapes nestled nicely in the space where the eggs should be. So here is a picture of that little moment in time.

Last Friday I pressed my first lot of 2008 Syrah (Furlong Estates) into barrel. It’s still fermenting but I like to get the wine into the oak barrels before fermentation has finished. Doing the last bit of fermentation in the barrels helps to integrate the oak into the wine. The wine tastes great, very full and fruit forward.

Today I received another 2 tons of Furlong Syrah and on Saturday we will be picking the St. Mark’s Syrah, followed by the Stagecoach grapes probably towards the end of next week. By the end of next week, all my grapes should be harvested. It looks like it will be close to 10 tons this year!

Another Fun Day At The Winery

2008-09-24T19:17:00.000-07:00

Whoever said making wine is romantic, has never spent time in a winery. Here’s a rundown of what I did today. Dropped Oscar off at school and then drove 40 minutes up to the winery. When I got there it was time to do the morning punch downs of the Furlong Estate Vineyard Syrah that is currently fermenting. Then it was time to check the amount of sugar left in the must and see what temperature it was at. The thermometer read 102°F! Yikes, that’s way too hot for fermentation. I dove my hand into the must and it sure didn’t feel that hot. It smelt OK (At that temperature you would expect to start to smell some off odors). I check all my fermentation bins and they all had the same temperature. Heat spikes during fermentation is normal, but this seemed pretty late in the fermentation to be getting so hot. So, I found another thermometer and rechecked the temperature: 78°F. Phew, crisis averted, the wine was fine. Time to taste the wine. Mmm, delicious – lots of fruity aromas and nice round tannins! After cleaning and sanitizing the sides of my fermentation bins, I then had to work out which barrels to press the Furlong Syrah into on Friday. So, into the cellar I went to look at my empty barrels (and then climb up stacks of barrels to mark the ones I want to use). After that it was time to spend a couple of hours with a rag, some solvent and a razor blade. What has this got to do with winemaking you may ask? Well, when I bottled my wine last June, there were about two-dozen bottles that where used to help calibrate the labeling machine when we started bottling. All those labels were crooked, so I had to scrape them off, remove the glue left on the bottles and clean them before hand-applying new labels. Next it was time to move bins around, have some lunch and then back to more punch downs. After all that, who would want to work in a winery? Well, I do. I love what I am doing and I’m doing what I love. Maybe tonight, I’ll even drink a glass of wine!

Avast Ye Scurvy Dogs – It Be Time To Make Grog!

2008-09-19T11:31:00.000-07:00

As today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day, me thinks I be writing th' blog in buccanneer speak! Arrr! Jus' a quick update, th' Furlong Estates Vineyard Syrah finished thar six tide cold soak an' be inoculated wi' yeast on Wensdee. Th' color after th' cold soak be absolutely gorgeous. Very dark an' on accoun' o' all th' whole berries 't looked an' smelt like a very thick berry jam. Th' extended cold soak gave me some time t' get o'er me nasty cold in time t' start th' old punch downs. The fermentation be startn’ an' be progressin' nice an' slow. I like t' start them off slow so that I can get th' maximum amount o' extraction ou' o' th' grapes. Arr, makes for great grog! I so love workin' wi' th' fruit from this here vineyard an' ben fortunate enough t' get a chance at gettin' some more o' 't. As th' top side o' th' hill ripens earlier then th' lower, only 5 tons be picked ou' from th' vineyard last tides (o' which I got 2.5). Next tides they be goin' t' pick me another 2 tons from th' lower part o' th' block, so I’ll end up wi' around 4.5 tons total. Once th' two blocks be blended together after fermentation, 't’s goin' t' be a the type of grog that will shiver me timbers!

The Grog Be Fermenting, Arrr!

Earlier in th' week, I visited St. Marks Vineyards an' Stagecoach Vineyard. Th' weather here has cooled considerably an' th' vines be now slowin' down an' th' grapes be aft t' ripenin' at thar normal pace. This be givin' plenty o' hang time fer th' fruit an' I don’t think either o' these vineyards will now be picked until early Octobree.

Enjoy Talk Like a Swashbuckler Tide. Arrr! (Click here to find out more)

Cap'n Grog

First Grapes of the 2008 Harvest Are Crushed

2008-09-13T17:55:00.000-07:00

My first grapes for the season arrived on Thursday. They are Syrah grapes from the Furlong Estates Vineyard in the Alexander Valley. They arrived at the winery at around one in the afternoon and they looked great. Lots of small bunches with a lot of flavor. I expected about 3 tons and ended up with about 2.75 tons. We crushed them straight away into half-ton macro bins and they then went into the cold room for the next 4–5 days. This cold soak helps to extract color from the skins before the fermentation starts. Its been a long week with a lot of driving between vineyards and picking up of barrels. It sure is good to have the first lot of grapes in and now my hands can start to get wine stained again.

Bins of grapes waiting to be crushed

Adding whole bunches to the fermentation bin

Freshly destemmed grapes being pumped into the fermentation bin

This morning I visited St. Mark’s Vineyard and took samples. The weather has cooled down considerably from last week and the morning fog is back. This is good as the ripening process has slowed back down to its normal pace. After checking the sugar content of the samples, Mark, Ginny and I have decided to give the grapes a little bit more hang time. We originally thought we would pick sometime in the next two weeks but if the weather behaves, we will now most likely wait until the first or second week in October. Everything looks great in the vineyard and I’m sure the grapes can handle the longer amount of time on the vines. This will lead to better color and more intense flavors.

Other news is that our 2006 Eight Arms, Stagecoach Vineyard Syrah is now available for sale at a special pre-release price. To learn more and to purchase some of our wine, please click here.

Vineyards, Racks & Barrels

2008-09-09T22:31:00.001-07:00

Oscar at Furlong Estates Vineyard

Never 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

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.

Only One Week To Crush!

2008-09-04T16:14:00.000-07:00

Things are moving along at lightning speed this year. With all the warm weather we are having and a lighter crop on most of the vineyards, the grapes are definitely ripening faster. I visited Stagecoach Vineyard on Monday and was expecting to see under ripe grapes. What a surprise I had when I got out of my car and started walking the vineyard (see pictures). The crop is a lot less this year (around 3 tons compared to 4.5 tons last year) and the grapes are already at 22.5° Brix! I usually pick them at around 25° Brix and this time of year they are normally only at around 18° Brix. So what doe this mean? Normally the sugar content increases by around 1° Brix per week. So, instead of harvesting in late October (like the last two years), I’ll probably be picking them in about 3 weeks. Not really a problem as the grapes look fantastic with a lot of color and flavor plus the lighter crop will lead to a richer, more concentrated wine. All up, it should be a great vintage this year. I’ll be heading back up to Furlong Vineyard in the Alexander Valley and St. Mark’s Vineyard in the Russian River Valley on Saturday and will probably start harvesting next week. It looks like crush is her and all I can say is: “Bring it on!”

Furlong Estates Vineyard Visit

2008-08-25T14:56:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, I took a trip up to Furlong Estates Vineyard. It was a typical summer day for Sonoma County with a layer of marine fog hanging over the vineyard. However, by the time I finished walking the Syrah block, the fog had burned off and the sun was shining down on the grapes. Furlong Estates is a lovely hillside vineyard. The Syrah block, starts on the base of the hill and rapidly ascends up the side of the slope. When I am sampling grapes, I find it necessary to walk the block so that I can get a good sense of how the vineyard is progressing. What that means is that I was constantly walking up and down the side of the hill, which gave me a good morning’s work out. As for the grapes, they are looking great. They are still at least two weeks away from being harvested. With the long range forecast being for nice sunny days and cool nights the sugar levels will continue to rise and the flavor will continue to develop nicely.

Harvest 2008 Is Just Around The Corner

2008-08-15T09:57:00.000-07:00

Well, after being away for six weeks, I am now just getting back up to speed on how my grapes are doing and am planning to do some vineyard visits over the next couple of weeks. Although there was a late frost in April and some showers and high winds during bloom (when the grape buds start to flower), the summer has been pretty perfect with temperatures in the 80’s helping the grapes to ripen evenly. The Napa Valley Grapegrowers held a press conference yesterday and they are predicting “an exceptional vintage of pristine grapes with lower than average yields in a year marked by extreme growing conditions.” (Click hear to read their full press release) Sounds pretty impressive! I’m sure some of it is marketing hype, but I’m not one to complain. Great grapes make great wine and from what I have already seen, I have to agree that 2008 has the potential to be an excellent vintage. You’ll just have to stay tuned to see how it evolves over the next few months.

I expect my grapes from Furlong Estates Vineyard in the Alexander Valley to be ready for harvest probably around the first week in September whereas the grapes from Stagecoach Vineyard in Napa and St. Mark’s Vineyard in the Russian River Valley probably wont ripen until sometime in mid to late October. I’ll post an update with pictures sometime in the next few weeks.

So, let’s all raise a glass to the start of Harvest 2008.

On another note, my sister Kylie has started blogging for SBS - a multicultural broadcasting service in Australia. If you want to read her post on BritDoc 2008 (a conference on documentary films) then follow this link.

The Wine Is In The Bottle!

2008-06-24T22:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a momentous day for me. After years of planning and waiting, I bottled my first vintage. Woohoo! We bottled 300 cases of the 2006 Eight Arms Syrah, Stagecoach Vineyard, Napa Valley. That’s 3,600 bottles! The mobile bottling unit arrived at the winery at around 7 o'clock in the morning, we started bottling at 8:00 am and were completed by around 1:30. There were nine of us there and the process is pretty simple. Dump the empty bottles out of their boxes, sparge with Nitrogen to get any dust out of the bottles and then place them on the filler. Next the corks are placed into the bottle under a vacuum, the capsules are then attached, the bottles are labeled and then placed back in their boxes ready to be sold. Well, not quite. They will need 4–5 months of bottle aging so that they can recover from bottle shock (what happens to wine when it is bottled – the components tend to fall apart from the harshness of the bottling, but then slowly come back together). Below are some pictures of the bottling.

Empty cases of bottles with the mobile bottling unit in the background

The wine going into the bottles

Labels waiting to go onto the bottles

A finished bottle coming of the line

Cases stacked and ready to go!

The Eight Arms 2006 Syrah Labels Are Printing

2008-06-16T19:31:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday I went up to Petaluma to press check my labels. As you can see from the pictures, the proofs looked great. Once I had approved them, the printing began. It’s hard to believe that it only took them 45 minutes to print 4,000 labels! This week they will foil stamp and die-cut the labels and they will be ready by the end of the week. What perfect timing because I am filtering the wine on Friday so that it can be bottled on Monday! If you are wondering what the actual label looks like, then stay tuned, as I’ll post pictures of them later in the week.

3,600 Bottles and 4,000 Corks

2008-06-10T09:49:00.000-07:00

It looks like I will be bottling my 2006 Syrah in a couple of weeks and everything is finally coming together. My bottles are here and ready to be filled. Seeing the six palettes of them stacked in the corner of the winery is finally making the whole idea of having wine to sell very real (see photo above). I also received my corks and as you can see from the picture they are very cool looking. The octopus printed on the cork looks fantastic and I think they will be a great addition to the final bottle of wine. A nice little surprise when you pull the cork!

The next step will be printing the labels. I can’t print until I get approval from the Feds, but I’m hoping to hear from them today. If all goes well I will be printing labels on Thursday and then bottling on the 23rd of this month.

This Giant Squid Is Awesome!

2008-05-07T09:48:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I know this blog is more about wine and winemaking, but with an octopus as part of my logo and my fascination with eight armed sea creatures, I couldn't help but post the above picture. It comes from the Te Papa museums's blog, This is the place in New Zealand where a colossal squid was dissected last week. It is the largest intact squid ever caught. The eyeballs were as big as oranges! Not only is it an amazing animal, but imagine all the fried calamari you could get from it!

Vineyard Visit

2008-04-18T13:29:00.000-07:00

Exciting news. My liquor license arrived this week! I can now legally sell alcohol. All I need now is some wine to sell and that’s not too far off. If all goes well, I will be bottling the 2006 Syrah, Stagecoach Vineyard, Napa Valley towards the end of May. I’ll let it get some bottle age and then release it in the fall. However, keep your eyes peeled for a future post that will be offering the wine at a special pre-release price. If you want to see a copy of my liquor license then click here.

Last weekend I visited Paul and Vivian Furlong. They own Furlong Estates Vineyard in the Alexander Valley. They have 4 acres of vineyards, primarily Syrah. The vineyard has a wonderful location. It is a steep hillside and the vines produce very small grapes bursting with intense flavor. The vines have just started to bud out and you can already see the flower clusters forming. Last year I managed to get 1.5 tons from them. I went up there so that they could try a barrel sample and also to see how the vineyard is doing. The wine tastes great. It’s a very dark; almost black Syrah with a wonderful bouquet of black fruits and spice (with some ginger notes). Even at this young age, the wine is pretty smooth, with a nice balance between the fruit and the tannin. This is a big meaty/minerally Syrah. I only have 3 barrels of it (about 75 cases), but it will be worth waiting for. The Furlongs really liked it and I should be getting 2–3 tons this year.

52 Glasses of Wine in One Day!

2008-04-09T23:01:00.000-07:00

Today I went to a barrel tasting of wines produced from grapes from Stagecoach Vineyard. Stagecoach Vineyard is the first vineyard I contracted with for grapes. I will be bottling my 2006 Stagecoach Vineyard Syrah in about a month from now, but today’s tasting was of wines from the 2007 vintage. Jan Krupp, the owner of Stagecoach hosted the event. Wineries were asked to submit a barrel sample of the wine they made from last year’s grapes. Today we assembled at Coles Chop House in Napa and tried all the non Cabernet Sauvignon varietals. There were about 40 winemakers present and the wines were broken up into seven flights. In all we tried 52 wines, ranging from Chardonnay and Marsanne all the way through to Merlot, Malbec, Petite Verdot and Syrah. This was the first time I have participated in an event like this and it was pretty cool to have my wine tasted by my peers. I have to admit that I was a little nervous; especially when I found out I would have to stand up in front of the group and talk about how I made my Syrah (mine is second from the right in the above photo). But all went well. My wine tasted good and held up nicely to all the other Syrahs. In fact all the wines were pretty good and by the end of it, my teeth and tongue were stained purple. Stagecoach really is a fantastic vineyard and with the dedication of Jan and his crew, they really do grow outstanding grapes. If you want to find out more about Stagecoach, you can visit their website: www.stagecoachvineyard.com

Permits, Permits and More Permits

2008-04-06T19:55:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been busy filling out application forms. Every time I finish filling out one form, there is always another one waiting to be completed. However things are progressing nicely. First I got my Business License from the city of Berkeley, next I managed to get my permit to sell alcohol from the Feds and my Sellers Permit from the State. The last one I am waiting on is my license to sell alcohol from the California Alcohol Beverage Commission. This one takes the longest. It took almost two days to fill out all the forms. After submitting them, I then had to put a huge sign in the front window of our house (as seen in the above photo). This was up for 30 days and fortunately none of our neighbors objected. One was even hopeful that he could buy all is liquor from me instead of walking down to the corner store! However, the permit is just for my business office and the wine will have to be stored elsewhere (in a bonded facility - that's another post for the future). Anyway, I should have my final permit in about a month or so, just in time for bottling (early May).

Bud Break Is Almost Here

2008-03-18T16:20:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, I visited Stagecoach Vineyard so that the owner, Jan Krupp, could taste my 2006 Stagecoach Vineyard Syrah. I need his permission to put the vineyard name on the label. We sat down and tasted the wine, chatted about grape growing, sustainable vineyard practices and winemaking. He really liked the wine and gave me the okay to put the vineyard name on the label. It was a great feeling after working so hard at nurturing the wine over the past 18 months. I'm now one step closer to getting the wine in bottle.

Afterwards, I wandered though my Syrah block to check on how the vines are doing. Stagecoach is a fantastic vineyard high up on Atlas Peak. It’s about 1,700 feet above the Napa Valley floor. The soil is a rich red earth. When driving around the vineyard, you come across piles of boulders that were removed before the vines could be planted. It's truly a remarkable place and the grapes here are outstanding.

This time of year, pruning is finished and the ground is littered with the cuttings. There is also a lot of cover crop between the vines. This helps to prevent soil erosion, retain moisture, and aids in frost protection. The vineyard is all pruned back and I could see the buds starting to form. They should open up in a couple of weeks and out will pop the new shoots for the 2008 growing season. This is what’s called bud break.

Walking through the vineyards, I started to think about how grapes are one of the oldest cultivated plants. I had recently read Dionysus: A Social History of the Wine Vine by Edward Hyams (published in 1964). I think the following quote on his insight into the beginnings of agriculture is a good way to end this post.

“…It was therefore a woman who first came to the help of some favorite fruit shrub, clearing the other plants away from its roots, thus making the first distinction between weeds and economic plants, and doing the first act which can properly be called gardening. There can be very little doubt that it was a woman who, having carelessly thrown away a few grains of wild barley or wheat at the bottom of some vessel, onto a patch of ground trodden into mud by her tribesmen and women, saw seedlings spring up, and conceived the immensely important idea of planting and cultivating such grasses, instead of merely collecting them in the wild…”

And The Winner Is...

2008-02-16T13:36:00.000-08:00

Eight Arms Cellars

Thank you to everyone for taking the time to look at the label designs and casting a vote for your favorite one. There were over 90 votes cast and Eight Arms Cellars has been chosen as the new name. We are busy creating a new look, so please visit my blog on a regular basis for news, updates and information (or better yet, subscribe to the blog and recieve automatic updates by entering your email address in the box to the right).

And here is a little bit of winemaker humor:
What did the grape say when the octopus squished it?
Nothing...it just gave out a little wine!

Vote To Re-Brand Our Winery

2008-02-02T15:50:00.000-08:00

Below are the five options for our re-branding. Take a look at them and when you have made a decision, click on the circle in the grey box to the right for the name you have chosen and then click on the vote button. You can also leave comments at the bottom of this post.

Thanks for your help.

1. BIG TOP CELLARS

2. DIVING BELL CELLARS

3. EIGHT ARMS CELLARS

4. IAIN BOLTIN CELLARS

5. PARCHMENT CELLARS

Don't forget to click on the circle in the grey box to the right for the name you have chosen and then click on the vote button.
Thanks!