In the Santa Rita Hills, yesterday was the first day that actually felt like winter. Temperatures overnight dropped below freezing and although it does warm up during the day, it is cold enough for the vines to go dormant.
This is good news. And Monday we start pruning. The 2007 harvest season will start when the pruners start their work. Pruning will go on for about three months. We start with the oldest and easiest vines gradually working our way up the difficulty ladder.
Each variety requires a slightly different technique. The newer plantings, because of closer spacing and advanced canopy management, test the pruners.
More later…
It took a little while to learn the necessary Flash technology but now we can post videos on the Blog. We will be posting them permanently in the Videos tab above. For those who have not visited during harvest and are curious about the process, a video is worth a thousand words.
You need to have the Flash Player, which if you don’t already have, takes seconds to download from Adobe.com. If what you see on your screen is totally black - you need to install it.
The Video shows the ‘Triage’ technology for removing MOG, material other than grape, in processing red grapes. Additional explanation, as well as the video, can be found by clicking the Harvest tab at the top.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.lafondwinery.com/movies-flash/triage/triage.swf" width="500" height="400"/]
Santa Barbara County and Santa Rita Hills are names synonymous with quality Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Bronco Wine forever linked with Two Buck Chuck will also now be known for its Five Buck Napa River and Santa Barbara Landing.
I suppose it is flattering - they even use our font for their name, a font, incidentally, fairly difficult to find. This may turn out to be a single instance event as the price of Santa Barbara County Chardonnay grapes continues to rise. It appears that the wine is from a winery group that has encountered financial difficulties and is trying to come out of bankruptcy.
Bronco Wine is a giant wine company that has succesfully exploited name recognition, Napa, Sonoma and now Santa Barbara. These wines need to have 75% of their grapes from the region named, for the other 25% it doesn’t matter.
Why even mention it? Well we like to see ourselves as David struggling against Goliath.
Enrique, our vineyard manager roto tilling, really shows the narrowness of the rows. As a driver it requires your full attention and one of the advantages of being in a bowl, surrounded by hills, is that there is no cell phone access, one thing less to distract. The noise, of course, of the tractor and machinery make conversation impossible. But you do have to focus and it is easy to get lost in thought.
Only one of our narrow gauge tractors has a cabin and we use it for this kind of dust creating work.
The photo is typical of the vineyard in winter - the colors especially - the browns, the lack of vibrant colors.
A poem written by David Lafond celebrating the end of harvest.
Diligent hands and heedless toil
Produce this wealth from the soil
Lofty mirth and endless chatter
Ease the back and strain that gather
Sow the seed and plow again
To prune and place for sun and rain
Up to heaven the vines do grow
To spread their leaves and fruit bestow
The patient wait of husbandry
The worried thoughts of tragedy
Give way to speculations true
Have we escaped the frost the bugs mildew?
Has every insect filled their full
And left us with this miracle
Or something else to take its place
And leave our vines in all disgrace
Ah yes mother natures wise
And settles things to all surprise
But see it now in autumn’s time
The orbs of life the fruit of vine
Respectful will has brought this here
Sweat and strain good will and cheer
A thousand thanks to all that plan
To pull from stem and sort by hand
As well the powers beyond command
That direct the heavens and encourage man
Life is good and to all that hear
A humble amen and a hearty cheer.
David Lafond
Today was our last day of harvest. We picked our last block of Syrah early this morning beginning at 4:00 am and we finished processing at noon - just in time for a tri-tip BBQ for all involved. Bert and his crew from Santa Barbara Winery, who finished their white wine harvest two weeks ago, were also on hand. We have been blessed with fantastic harvest weather and today was no exception. Sunny, warm with a light breeze.
The last boxes of stems, Enrique Vineyard Manager, and the last load of grapes being hoisted into the fermenter.
The BBQ celebration and David, our poet laureate, reading the poem he wrote for the occasion. We will include his poem in a blog as soon as he Emails us a copy. Mirella, our Tasting Room Manager, said it brought tears to her eyes.
We are releasing two new wines - The 2004 Lafond Vineyard Syrah and the 2004 Santa Barbara Winery Grenache.
Both wines are from our own vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills. The Syrah is from a selected block that has been consistently producing exceptional wines. Our cool weather Syrah is deep in flavor, intense might be a better description, robust but at the same time very drinkable. We made less than 200 cases. The price is 38.00. To purchase
The Grenache is from a new block we planted a few years ago. Winemaker, Bruce McGuire, wanted some Grenache to blend with our Syrah in the traditional Rhone manner. We are doing that - but we found the Grenache, by itself, to be so good that we decided to bottle some of it seperately. The price is 20.00. To purchase
We have bottled a blend of Syrah and Grenache - in fact two different blends. The Lafond Winery will be predominantly Syrah while the Santa Barbara Winery blend will be predominantly Grenache. Two very different blends and two very interesting wines. These should be released in early 2007.
To facilitate cross-purchasing between Lafond Winery and Santa Barbara Winery, with a simple click, you can include wines from both without placing a separate order.
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