Sleepy Time

Stars are scattered, twinking across the black dome up there.  My breath makes the only clouds tonight.  Just a single light shines from up the valley.  Even the coyotes have gone to sleep.  I have to linger, 'til the chill makes me shudder.  The snapshot is saved inside me and I can go to sleep.

Walla Walla Winter

How can the sun be shining brightly and it still be so cold? Sunny winter days must be meant for riding bikes and hot chocolate. The Blues are white, the wine is red, the nights are long. Board games. Puttering and being pleased not to get too much accomplished. Bringing out stationary and writing an actual letter or two. Phoning old friends. My cheeks get instantly chilled from going outside, then so deliciously warm coming in again. It is nesting time. Soon enough, nature will be inviting again.

Barrel tasting the '09s

Yipee! It's far too early to be sure, with the syrah especially, but my oh my. Right now, the two-yeast cab is my favorite, with so many elements and power to spare. Surprising that it is not overwhelming, just BIG on flavor. Hope the mouth feel will be matching up...no glyceral piece yet, but still mid-malolactic so that may come around soon. As much as I am enjoying these youngsters, it does seem wrong somehow to be doing this as an amateur. This deserves professional focus under the tutelage of a master. I have so much to learn. There really are no short-cuts; the vines need to grow, the wine needs to age, the wine maker has to learn how to listen to the grapes and the wine. Endless possible combinations, constant response to each growing season, experiments that succeed and more that fail. I will not be surprised to get dazzling wines, but I will not deserve much praise should we be so fortunate. Unknowns have won the World Series of Poker plenty of times, but they don't win twice.

Tasting Walla Walla syrahs-

Dinner with Stephen and Ann & friends on Sunday night. Three syrahs. K Vintners 2003 Lucky 7, 2002 Morrison Lane, and 2001 Cayuse Coccinelle. Lucky 7 was dark and brooding, still tight and young. Morrison Lane was brighter with more fruit...much more ready, although Lucky 7 was the better wine. And then there was the Coccinelle. Talk about a lesson in barnyard funk! Smelled like silage and pickle vinegar. Flavor across the map, from dark liquor to sour cherries and pencil lead. This was wine for the daring-do, not for the faint of heart.

I keep reading about the new trend away from the huge Parker wines toward higher acids and lower alcohol; more subtle and sophisticated flavors that are less fruit-driven and more nuanced. Wine has fashion trends, too.

Learning Curves

Will anyone enjoy reading about the vicissitudes of starting a vineyard and making wine? (I promise not to use that word again.)

Nothing that I read prepared me for this journey of picking clones and fighting gophers and birds and deer, let alone understanding scale issues and the realities of handling gallons upon gallons of fermenting wine. I do not concede that this is only for rich people using consultants! But wow, this is not for the faint of heart. I did my first full-on malolactic testing yesterday on the syrah. Started at 10AM and saw the results at 7AM today. Still in malolactic "secondary" fermentation with a good two weeks or more to go. It is so tempting to think about planting a much bigger vineyard so that we can have commercial scale in five years. But that is so much work! Does the world really need more wine?

I tasted four carboys with what should be the same syrah in three and an un-oaked sample in the fourth. One tasted unpleasant, one was asleep at the wheel and inaccessible, the un-oaked one was fruity and frivolous, and one was purely magnificent. Last year I learned to expect variation across weeks. I had not expected variation across carboys!

Racking is nerve wracking!

Must get some help with racking. Man...too tough. I thought the new pump would be the saving grace, but I cannot seem to get it to work right. Racked 21 gallons in two fermentations of cab, with a nice head of malolactic fermentation already bubbling away. Will test to see if malolactic is complete on the syrah and then rack off these carboys before setting up for one more racking in 5 weeks and then the long push for aging. If the cab follows in a three week malo cycle, I should have everything pretty well settled ahead of Thanksgiving. Looks like a shy 20 cases ahead. I'll sneak some tastes of the syrah during the testing tomorrow.

The Little Vineyard will run at 40 cases when it is in full crush mode. Hopefully, I will have the cab and syrah pretty well understood ahead of the merlot and cab franc coming on. On Bank at a time...

Uriah, coming out of our neighbor, Spring Valley, has had some wonderful Right Bank results. A baby Cheval Blanc. But the rap that I hear is that these are not aging worth a damn. I'm opening some '99 and '00 this weekend to assess. Tough job, but somebody has to do it.

Temptations

It is so easy to see how amateur winemakers go pro. So tempting! Our scale is all wrong, selling the wine goes right back to the main hustler elements that I loathe in my current industry, 80% of which I truly enjoy day after day. But nurturing the vines and taking the fruit and turning it into something fine and pleasing to the senses...how compelling that has become! I just want to dance little jigs! We pressed the 09 cab today. My goodness, but this is wonderful. The boys came home, Liliana was here, too, and Sue and I were working the press together. My fingers are purple again and I am a happy man.