These three excellent, heady 2004 Syrahs are made in an up-front, juicy, immediate gratifying style...

• King Midas was a drunk who loved wine (well maybe)
• Wine residue can be found in pottery chards about 7,000 years old
• The flavor/tannins imparted by Oak are similar to the resin that pine imparts in wine. These resins have antioxidant properties among other things.
  
• Greeks drinked well made wine "neat" and added water to other wines - I know many California wine makers who would argue that it has now reversed but I am not sure they are correct.
  

Recently, a customer stated he liked our Chardonnay but we should limit our use of new oak. We don't use any new oak in our Chardonnay (or any wine for that matter) thus the dilemma. Should we tell him that he is tasting something else? Perhaps he is mistaking the impact of limestone on flavors? Or maybe the acid balance is making the oak taste more precise.

If he were local, I might invite him to barrel taste. He could see the 1, 2 and 3 year old barrels impact on Chardonnay plus we could taste new oak on Chardonnay from a friend's barrel. Tasting is the best way to learn.

When we were learning wine making in France, we were given the task of tasting 6 or so barrels of "Noble Rot", a dessert wine, and saying which one was the sweetest and which had the most acid. It was a very hard task and we didn't get it right the first time but we learned.

For now, the customer is always right and Isabel isn't sure about the flavor of Oak...

"I see your money on the floor, I felt the pocket change
Though all the feelings that broke through that door
Just didn’t seem to be too real
The yard is nothing but a fence, the sun just hurts my eyes
Somewhere it must be time for penitence. gardening at night is never where
gardening at night gardening at night gardening at night"

I can not believe we are already done. It seems like just yesterday it was Labor Day and we were about to pick our Chardonnay. Well that was September 7 and 45 days later, on Saturday October 22, we will bring our 2005 harvest to a close. Our final crushing will feature our our Broken Leg Syrah and Girard Mourvedre. We will have a gaggle of friends, fans and family to help us bid farewell to a most excellent harvest (if you like our 2004 wines just you wait – this year looks to be fabulous!) so if you are local and want to join the fun send me an email at tracey@adonkeyandgoat.com.

I did the modified Anderson Valley loop today (modified b/c McDowell is picked so I only had to sample Vidmar and Broken Leg). As I was getting back on 101-South to head home I picked up a voicemail from Steve Williams, the grower at Broken Leg and Vidmar. Steve's messages are almost always crackly and require a decoder since I only get about every 3 or 4 words (cell phone towers are not too popular in the Anderson Valley) but this time I hear him nearly screaming loud and clear, "Tracey, I hope you get this message before you get to the vineyard because you need to know THERE IS A BEAR IN THE VINEYARD. MAKE A LOT OF NOISE. WHISTLE A TUNE OR SOMETHING. "

So, I nearly careened off the road as I realized that the noises I heard at the perimeter fence where more likely attributed to the BEAR than Steve's sheep.

Funny thing is once I settled down I was more concerned about loosing precious berries in this light vintage than I was about safety and such!

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

More pictures

Making wine by hand

Despite the early hour, I always enjoy working at the winery alone at 5:00 AM. It gives me a chance to taste the fermentations without any distractions.

This morning, I did an early morning punch down on the Fenaughty Syrah. We like to do everything gently so we are carefully monitoring temperature to make sure it stays at the perfect point. It reminded me of a story I heard in France - great Burgundain Vigerons used to often sleep with their foot in fermenting vats in order to wake up if it got too hot. I wonder what that would be like - asleep with a wet foot...

# posted by adonkey @ 8:51 AM 2 comments  

Monday, October 10, 2005

Fenaughty is close to finishing

Our Fenaughty Syrah is getting close to finishing. Fermentation is strong and should finish in the next few days.

You can see our yellow bins in the tractor - Ron has a great crew. The light wasn't very good - but it was early and cold. I think the wine will be great. Of course, we need another 6 months or so to really know.

# posted by adonkey @ 10:01 PM 0 comments  

Sunday, October 09, 2005

Grenache is going strong

Grenache Gris has started

As of yesterday, all of our barrels of Rose and an experimental puncheon of Grenache Noir have started fermenting. Because we ferment naturally (without innoculating) we worry every year about the start of fermentation - it is an act of faith.

Isabel, who our Rose is named for, spends a fair amount of time at the winery. Above, you can see her first effort at foot stomping.

# posted by adonkey @ 12:30 PM 1 comments  

 

Saturday, October 08, 2005

Anderson Valley Update

This morning Jared and I did the Anderson Valley loop. This was only our second trip together (this was my 5th loop since August) and such a treat. My parents babysat Isabel and we left the house at 5:20am planning to hit Vidmar, the Boonville Bakery or General Store, Broken Leg and finally McDowell. I do it this way for good reason - the scones in Boonville are simply fantastic and I've not (yet) found a comparable in Hopland. Well if you've not had the pleasure of visiting Boonville you should but be warned - they are on their own time. Saturday morning we roll into town at 8am to find BOTH the bakery and general store closed and not opening until 9am! With our stomaches grumbling and my caffine buzz wearing thin we headed on to Philo and the Broken Leg vineyard...

But I really can't complain because the grapes look perfect. In fact, 2005 may prove to be THE year for us. Across the board we have had an elongated growing season allowing the fruit to develop slowly over a longer period of time but without the sugars spiking and acids dropping. Thus far we have seen more time on the vine with better balance in the berry. And the Anderson and McDowell Valley's are following the same trend. Today we hit Vidmar first. As usual the 877 appears to be slightly behind the Estrella River clone (both Syrah) but only enough to provide complexity - not enough to require separate picks. I love the flavors these vines produce and can simply say, "WOW!" My guess is another 1.5- 2 weeks. Broken Leg has been the source of much anxiety this year. Only 2.5 weeks ago it was difficult to find a berry over 18 brix and none without tough skins and bracing & sour acidity. But with the warm weather these last 2 weeks has made a dramatic difference. Today we saw softening skins, browning seeds and oh man - the flavors in this northern Anderson Valley Syrah Vineyard are promising perfection. I'm still betting early November but I can now say that with confidence rather than with visions of picking after Thanksgiving! McDowell (where we buy our Vieilles Vignes Syrah) is just about ready. There is a marked variance between the front and back of the block so we are going for the back (more balance between sugars and acid) and are going to pick on Thursday. And we've even convinced Bill Crawford to humor us and pick his old vines into our FLYB's. In fact, we picked the Grenache into the 35 lb lugs and it worked quite well. Not only were the berries in pristine condition but the process allowed for a field sort. Anyone who hasn't seen Syrah "au natural" should come check out the critters that arrive at the winery. Spiders, ants, earwigs and an occasional grasshopper. I'm not a huge fan of the bugs and could do without the spiders especially, but it gives me great confidence to see them so alive and well! And the flavorsin these old vines are rich and complex while packing a punch of zippy acidity and structured taninis. I guess in their 85+ years the vines have learned how to dole out components to produce sublime Syrah berries.

That about sums it up. We are just about half way there. For those counting, we have harvested and crushed 6.5 tons between:

• 2.5 tons of Brosseau Chardonnay
• 1 ton of Brosseau Syrah - NEW vineyard
• 1 ton of Fenaughty Syrah - NEW vineyard
• 2 tons of Grenache Gris Rose

We have 5-8 tons to go (depending on yields and whether we pick up one additional Syrah this year).

Anyone want to come sort??

Tracey

# posted by adonkey @ 4:35 PM 0 comments  

 

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

2005 Rose is now in barrel

Well, we had a really big weekend. Thursday night I drove east with my father in-law. Friday morning we picked up a ton of nearly perfect Syrah - the pickers were fastidious. Each cluster was literally placed gently in the bin. (Peach pickers are wonderful!) At the same time, Tracey and Dave drove south and picked up a ton of Brosseau Syrah.

Friday afternoon, we crushed everything into a combination of barrels and puncheons - we like to ferment in wood. Between yesterday and this morning, cold soakes ended and it is now warming up.

Saturday, Dave and I pickeds up 2 tons of old vine grenache gris. With the help of 10+ friends, we processed it Sunday afternoon while celebrating the 2005 harvest. We had homemade peanut butter and jelly cookies from Jen Luan, yummy lentil and goat cheese w/ chive crostini from Heidi Swanson and of course the requisite cheese and bread with A Donkey and Goat wines flowing freely. And best of all - Isabel got a chance to stomp some grapes for her cuvee! This morning (after 36 hours soaking in the cold room) we pressed and barreled down to 3 older oak barrels and one stainless steel barrel. The juice tastes fabulous and we are very excited for the 2005 Rose.

# posted by adonkey @ 2:53 PM 1 comments  

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