Foggy Sunday

The fog has benevolently decided to enshroud us the last couple of mornings, briefly giving respite from the wave of grape ripening.

We brought in Bedrock Zinfandel and Merlot yesterday. Both are looking good. The Zin, as would be expected for the Sonoma Valley locations has lots of brightness, spice, raspberry, and cherry fruit. I was a little concerned that I brought it in a little early but it has soaked up to 26 brix in the fermenter and has a healthy pH of 3.6. Though this wine will not be the ink-bomb that the Dry Creek Mystery Vineyard has become, I also do not want it to. Wines are supposed to show where they come from and this one looks like it will.

The ton of Merlot came in at 25.2 with a pH of 3.7. So, totally balanced and not in a need of dark winemaking tricks such as watering back, saignee, and all the rest. The berries are miniscule. When working in Bordeaux most Merlot berries came in at around 130-150 mg.. These are closer to 90 mg. In other words super concentrated, lots of color, and a lot of potential flavor. It is clear that the severe reduction of crop– to about 2 tons per acre– has aided in providing better balance this time around.

Yesterday was also a fun harvest day! yes, fun. My lovely Jen and best friend Jimmy were on hand to help pitch-fork grapes into the crusher destemmer, punch-down, and do all the rest of those daily machinations required by a winery at harvest. Today we are escaping for a hike for a couple of hours before we all start pressing the nose to the grindstone again this week.

Also, Bedrock Barbera is gradually rolling along (quite literally since it is on the OXO-line Tonnellerie Baron ferment barrels). Five days into ferment it is gradually gaining temperature and moving along. The color is expectedly good.

Mystery Vineyard is an epic in the making. I have never seen a wine so dark in the fermenter (no doubt the 25% Petite Sirah helps things out). The ferment started screaming last night so Jen and I dumped in about 50 lbs. of dry ice in an attempt to cool things a bit. Right now it is at 17.5 brix and 88 degrees and rolling!

Thats the update! Time to hit the trails at Sugarloaf State Park for a bit!

Until next time…..