Red wine, which ferments on its skin, needs to have its cap, or solids punched down two or three times a day. Punching down pushes the solids, which rise to the top, into the fermenting juice below. Color comes from the skins but that is not the only thing extracted — tanin, flavors and much more – are also part of the receipe.
In our regular Stainless Steel fermenters we use a mechanical punch-down but in these small portable fermenters it is all sweat. These small tanks hold a ton and a half and once filled are placed in our giant cold room to bring the temperature down to 45 degrees and permit cold contact between juice and skin before the start of fermentation.
The worker below, a friend of Winemaker Bruce McGuire, is an MD who frequently drops by and is immediately put to work — a warning to those who intend to ’drop by’. Many of these small lots end up as our vineyard designated wines and are carefully monitored from start to finish. We hope the good doctor, present at the creation, will ’drop by’ for the final evalaluation.
These are images of the pickers early in the morning. They have been picking since 3:00am. The fog has lifted but has not completly rolled back, by 10:00am it should be sunny and warm. This week the weather has been ideal — warm low 80s with a pleasant cooling breeze.
The Pinot Noir harvest is below normal — maybe 25% below — the clusters are small and the grapes are small. Look for dark and intense Pinots this year. We cannot account for the low yields, since other varieties appear normal, but we suspect that an early spring frost might have damaged the vines. The logic here is that Pinot Noir is the first to bud and the other varieties might have still been dormant — even the canopy seems a little sparse with shorter canes than normal.
All the grapes in the Lafond Vineyard are picked at night. Usually beginning at 3:00 or 4:00 am and continuing to 10:00 or 11:00 am. The pickers like it, the winemaker insists on it, and the grapes are received cool. Grapes picked mid-day are warm and more susceptible to damage.
The equipment rigged up by David is very simple, a small trailer, behind the picking boxes, with high lights that extend over several rows (the photo shows the arms folded), a gas compressor and strong lights. The compressor is noisy and the pickers are happy when there is enough light to turn it off — it drowns out the music.
Here a worker readying the equipment for the next day.
At Santa Barbara Winery we are now receiving Sauvignon Blanc grapes but Chardonnay is not far behind.
David Lafond has taken some photos of the Chardonnay in our Lafond Vineyard that show off its golden qualities.
The Santa Rita Hills appellation is known for both its Pinot Noir and Chardonnay although the former is getting all the press lately. Chardonnay will, undoubtedly, begin to receive the same recognition and we would point to our 2005 Lafond, Lafond Vineyard Chardonnay as an example — balanced, fruity and complex with none of its components dominating.
Nets installed only a few weeks ago are removed just prior to picking. Unfortunately they go on a lot easier than they come off. The vines become entangled with the nets and are difficult to pull apart.
The nets in the photo are eight years old so despite some rough handling we get some wear out of them.
First day of Pinot Noir Harvest at Lafond Winery.
Today was a perfect day a relief after the unusual heat of last weekend.
The grapes look great but they are almost smaller than normal which signals very intense and flavorful wine. The harvest forecast is that the Pinot Noir will be much smaller than last year, as much as 25%, and this seems to be true throughout the state.
Both Pablo and David Lafond took pictures and they can be seen on our website lafondwinery.com
Below is a sample of the photos. In our slideshow we try to show the sequence wherever possible. One nice feature is that by clicking the image you can enlarge it and improve the quality of the photo.
The Harvest has started at Santa Barbara Winery — we began receiving Sauvignon Blanc. Estimates are off, in some cases, by 20% — many of the vineyards are experiencing smaller crops. The quality, however, looks to be excellent.
Tomorrow, Thursday, we will begin night picking the Pinot Noir at Lafond Vineyards. We begin with very small blocks that have ripened early due to soil or the fact that they are young vines. Later we will pick on a daily basis as the older vines ripen.
More images are available at our website sbwinery.com.
Recent Comments