I am prepping for harvest 2010, which means trying to find macro-bins, finalize fruit, and, for the first time, getting a harvest intern to help me out!  After posting on winejobs.com and receiving close to 150 resume’s– some certainly better than others– I realized that I simply did not trust a stranger with Bedrock juice, even if well-qualified.  So, while on the Rogue River Food and Wine Rafting Trip, acting under the influence of a likely case of sunstroke and excessive seratonin, I invited Carson Leh to join Bedrock for harvest.  Now, Carson has zero experience in cellar, however, I have known him since he was 12, he rowed the Grand Canyon solo (probably because all sane people were too terrifed to get in the boat with him) at 13, and has a general understanding of how things work.  Winemaking is 50% cleaning, 40% moving shit around, 6% drinking beer, and 4% actually doing some.  I am sure I can handle the 4% :-).  On top of this, he is a professional photographer, so hopefully will be able to capture some killer shots of harvest for folks to look at.

To get a sneak peek at the genius of Carson take a look at this video taken after their rig broke down in the Oregon mountains after our river trip.  Does he fret?  Nope, he grabs a leftover bottle of Hudson Syrah and starts swigging from the bottle.  Genius!!!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/profile.php?id=100001013003978&ref=ts

I am looking forward to having him down.  Let’s just hope he knows what he is getting into!

It has been a while, so it is rather hard to recall even what things were like back in August when Brosseau Chardonnay came in.  What is easy to recall, each time I visit a barrel, is how great the 2009 vintage is going to be.  95% of fruit was in before the deluging rains in the second week of October– however, even that fruit that came in after (Wildcat Mountain Syrah and Monte Rosso late-harvest Semillon, the latter of which is still unpicked) has shown excellence in fermenter.

Across the board, the moderate, downright cool, vintage conditions have meant long hang-times, great flavor development, freshness, and generally moderate alcohols.  This is especially so for the Bedrock Vineyard and Lorenzo’s Vineyard Heirloom Wines, both of which will most likely be bottled at less than 14.5% alcohol despite hanging two and a half weeks longer than is typical.  The inaugural vintage of a more friendly priced Sonoma Valley Zinfandel, a blend of seven different small lots, carries enormous promise.  The two heavyweights of the vintage will be the much later ripening Stellwagen Vineyard in Sonoma Valley and Dolinsek Ranch in Russian River Valley.  The Stellwagen carries classic, dark, Zin components, while the Dolinsek is showing the perfumey, blue-fruit, elements one would expect from great Russian River Valley Zin.  Both will crest 15.5%, and perhaps even 16%.

Across the board, Syrah’s are absolutely stunning– Hudson T-Block and Griffin’s Lair will most certainly compete for the best Syrah to emanate from the Bedrock Wine Co. cellars.  The Old Lakeville, Kick Ranch, and Wildcat Mountain Syrah’s are in close pursuit.  And this does not take into account the inaugural vintage of 120 year old vine Syrah from Bedrock Vineyard, which is like nothing else.

Red wines might be just a smidge stronger than whites, though the elements of Cuvee Caritas and the inaugural vintage of my project with Michael Havens, Abrente Albarino, are stunning.  The Brosseau Chardonnay is also great– it is fermenting in all neutral barrels and is smells so distinctly of fresh grapefruit that my father is afraid it will interfere with his Statin!

The 2007, from an old vine vineyard called Von Weidlich, on the ridge above Occidental (yes, cool, cool, climate), is absolutely jaw-dropping.  It is nervy, precise, elegant, dense, and downright sexy.  It shows a rare, perfect, equilibrium between ripeness, verve, brightness, and oak.  I could drink too much of this too easily, and it should have a remarkably long life for California Zin.  I served a perhaps too youthful bottle with butter-poached prime-rib, horseradish creme fraiche, yam puree, and pan roasted brussel sprouts, on Friday for my mom’s birthday, and it was a marvel.

The 2007 is unfortunately the last year Eric Sussman will get the fruit, but it certainly is the exclamation point on what has been a remarkable run of great wines from a great vineyard.

Also, if you want a good comparison of winemaking styles, try the Von Weidlich from Radio Coteau to that of Ottomino.  It is a good lesson in what a big factor oak choice can be.

 http://bedrockwineco.com/vineyards/

http://www.pinotblogger.com/2009/11/03/its-time-for-a-real-wine-advocate-part-2/

It is well-written, and guaranteed to get you thinking.

You can see the link to the wine here, and also find it at Enkidu’s Kenwood tasting room.

 http://www.enkiduwines.com/enkidu/catalog/view_product.jsp?product_id=1029&cat_id=1

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:5hUCdv_WBTEJ:www.thelittlenell.com/TLN/SiteAssets/files/main/Ajax%2520Wine%252007%252024%252009.pdf+%22Hooker%27s+Shebang!%22&cd=39&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39498641@N07/sets/72157622517165062/detail/

Thanks to Jason and Lindsay both for the photos and their help!

Here is a copy of an email I sent out to friends and family following the magical pick at Brosseau…

Thought y’all might enjoy some pretty pictures of Brosseau Vineyard and its surroundings.  For the wine geeks, I say this– 30 year old, own-rooted, original Wente clone Chardonnay, grown on limestone (some of the only soil in the state the matches Burgundy) and decomposed granite.  For the rest of you, the vineyard lies right under the Pinnacles National Park at 1600-1800 feet overlooking Soledad in the Monterey Valley.  The setting for John Steinbeck’s “Red Pony” was a ranch owned by his uncle about 2 miles as the bird flies in the same Gabilan Range.

As the fine writer wrote later in East of Eden “I remember that the Gabilan Mountains to the east of the valley were light gay mountains full of sun and loveliness and a kind of invitation, so that you wanted to climb into their warm foothills almost as you want to climb into the lap of a beloved mother. There were beckoning mountains with a brown grass love.”

It was of this, and many other excitedly buzzed thoughts, that I reflected on when picking up the first fruit of the harvest for Bedrock Wine Co.. last night.  The birth of a new vintage year is upon us– fecund with thoughts of vinous midwifery and what-not– of the final realization of what has been a blessed growing season.

Mostly though, as the 20 foot bobtail loaded with four, one thousand pound bins of Chardonnay, sweetened to 22.2 brix (low!) and full of flavor, weaved its way down the lonely, single tract road leading from the vineyard high in the mountains at weaning hours of the  dawn, I thought that I, distinctly, might be the luckiest person in the world.

Harvest is here! Harvest is here! And here is to many more!

Got to love a good town-cryer….

Below, a photo of Brosseau Vineyard as sun surrendered last night looking south-east at the Pinnacles, and another taken this morning at dawn looking northwest over Monterey Valley towards the Santa Lucias.

I visited yesterday after receiving a call from Bill Brosseau that the Chardonnay was approaching 20 brix.  Since I am hoping to pick on the low side of 23 brix (13% or so potential alcohol), this means picking will start soon.  What is uncanny about Brosseau is that it defies the general logic of hangtime= quality.  This is for a number of reasons.  First, the Chardonnay was planted in 1981 on its own roots and is classic shot-berry Wente clone– meaning tiny clusters with lots of tiny berries.  Second, the soil is layered limestone and decomposed granite– so essentially a mythical mix of the Cote D’or and the northern Rhone, with very thin topsoil.  The Chalone appellation is warm, but the soil temperatures also tend to be much warmer than most vineyard sites.  This, combined with crops of 1 to 1.5 tons per acre, means that it ripens on the earlier side.  The wines tend to be very minerally and elegant, and I hope to focus this impulse by picking on the earlier side and using no new oak on the wine– it will be made like old-school Chablis.  Even at 19-20 brix yesterday the fruit showed remarkable length, density, and richness.

Check out this cool animation showing where Brosseau Vineyard is:

http://www.brosseauwines.com/flash/brosseau_virtual.swf

It will also be the first fruit coming into Patz and Hall, where I will be making the white wines of Bedrock this year– this Chardonnay, the Portis Heirloom White, Cuvee Caritas, and the first vintage of the Galician white project with Michael Havens for which we are receiving the first block of Albarino planted in the United States.

Only a couple cases are left, go to the online store to order!

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090708/LIFESTYLE/907081001