Monthly Archive for September, 2008

Cameron on the 2008 Harvest at Santa Barbara Winery

Published
by
Pierre
on September 29, 2008
in Cameron Bendetsen, Harvest, Santa Barbara Winery and Sauvignon Blanc
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Thursday the 25th of September the urban harvest crew received the largest tonnage of grapes for the season. The grapes were Sauvignon Blanc from the Jack Mcginley vineyard, formerly called the Westerly vineyard. Ryan Ralston, the assistant winemaker for Santa Barbara Winery and Lafond Winery wines has a pension for creating Sauvignon Blanc with balanced, rounded tropical fruit flavors, little astringency and crisp finish.
“The key to having great California Sauvignon Blanc is allowing mother nature to exude its full effects on the grape. To do so the winemaker and vineyard manager must have some faith in the sometimes fickle California climate and let the grapes hang until peak ripeness is achieved.”

Anything less would be uncivilized and add bitter, grassy and sometimes harsh poly phenols and phenolics to the wine.

Photo above shows whole-cluster grapes dropping into the press from the conveyor. The stems provide channels for the juice during the press cycle. The grapes enter the press undamaged.

The bottom photo is of juice being extracted through the press. The press has a large bladder which on being expanded by air, like a giant balloon, gently pushes the grapes against the wall of the press and its screen.

Cameron Bendetsen, Sata Barbara Winery

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Pinot Noir and Cheese Pairings

Published
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joanie
on September 26, 2008
in Joanie Hudson, Pinot Noir and Wine and Food Pairing
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Another day, another wine dinner in Santa Barbara… Spiritland Bistro’s Wednesday Wine and Dine featured Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir as their designated varietal this week. If you have missed my previous postings about this event, each month a four course meal is paired with a designated varietal of which each guest brings their own bottle. Between each course an expert on the varietal speaks about its characteristics and food pairings.

Lafond was the most popular label of the night, I think there were about 7 bottles of Lafond brought in the mix of 35 wines. I brought two bottles: 2006 Lafond Martin Ray Clone Pinot Noir and 2007 Santa Barbara Winery Pinot Noir. These dinners provide an amazing opportunity to learn about specific areas of wine, particularly pairings of food and wine. It is great to be able to taste wines from the same appellation against each other and see why the wine works with the menu and cheeses.

Food was delicious - delicate mushroom tart to start followed by baked salmon and potatoes au gratin. Dessert was a delicious berry crumble. The stand up cheese course featured three cheeses that matched perfectly with the wine - Cabra al Romero, St. George, and Brie de Nangis. There is always an effort here to collect an assortment of diverse cheeses from around the world while still keeping their flavor profiles in line to complement the pairings.

Cabra al Romero is a pasteurized Spanish gourmet goat cheese from La Mancha. This is an area in central Spain where you can also find the famed Manchego cheese. It is coated with rosemary, which seeps through the outer walls to produce a fragrantly subtle herbal nose. This quality makes it a really nice match with pinot. Its texture is dense and firm with a slightly fruity finish.

St. George is a richly textured, semi-hard, full flavored cow’s milk cheese from Northern California. It is based on a Portuguese recipe, but retains a distinctly American spin. It has a depth of flavor that effortlessly works with pinot and is fantastic when melted in polenta.

Brie de Nangis (bree duh nahn-ZHEE) yields from France and is firmer in texture than its relative Brie de Meaux. It is milder than other Brie cheeses with a hint of earthiness. It is soft ripened (bloomy rind), which gives it a creamy and smooth texture.

Joanie Hudson, Assistant Tasting Room Manager, Santa Barbara Winery

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Ode to Harvest

Published
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Pierre
on September 25, 2008
in Articles on Wine and Vineyards, Harvest and Rose Moradian
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Ode to Harvest by Rose Moradian

Too much is never enough, I suppose. The golden light, the green to yellow, the purple heliotrope peeping thru the white picket fence at the end of the day. The noble faces of the sunflowers nod downwards to the soil to where they sink the seeds, to be revived or eaten by the birds, either way, it is all a part of the cycle. This is everlasting, this cycle. This is where life begins and ends, every day, year, and decade.

The heart shaped leaves, the triumvirate cross harvesting the opal grapes, deliciously sweetening with every drop of the suns ray. The shadows grow long; the silken stalks of Indian corn braid and the hulls shrivel to a silhouette, the lily ponds erupt in a blue explosion of lotuses, the birds spend their vacations south.

The rolls of hay and oats bounce with the anticipation of the October quarter, yet it is all very calm as the tadpoles snatch at the mosquitoes, the frogs rival one another in a chorus of madness and the owls march along the rows deftly enjoying the buffet of rodents.

The ponds pebbles slathered with ancient algae, dried and bleached like a horses tail, hides a haven of salamanders and the sandstone boulders that have built heat all day slowly release the diurnal fixation
into the ever clear soft and sweet night.

Never has a rosé tasted or smelled so dry and vernal as today, with solar fusion cascading thru the glass as it is held to the sunset sky, the beading of moist pearls like fog appearing with the onset of the suns good bye, golden red and begging to be drunk right now. This is it, this is the moment, and this is the finest hour before the harvest begins.

The scythes and coronas all working together, brass and brown, snip of this and a snap of that, falling to the ground in a surrender to the soil, and sacrifice to the grape. The work of the terrain is done, it is all heaven from here, acceptance of the holy heated sun soaring high like the buzzards that eat the remains of the dead, casting a shadow of elsewhere on the adobe known as the growing grounds.

It is on the honor of the earth that we bring upon ourselves this hard work. It is a necessary region of cerebral activity, the marriage of sweat and history, knowledge and skill, and endless bounties of satisfaction, this work of single-minded artistry labelled enology. This sweet perspiration is in anticipation of the calling of the sugars, the tannins of taste, the skins of inebriation, the stems of legs.

This harmony of nature echoes in joy, the readiness of a virgin at the wedding altar for her beloved these grapes to be picked with tender tactility, the firm pluck of a boy and the kindness of a man, simple in nature, profound in duty with the acceptance of honor, paid in due by the patience of time. Lighted with the efforts of last year’s bounty, lift the chalice high and enjoy the mighty! Written by Rose Keppler~Moradian September Third, 2006.

Rose Keppler-Moradian Gardener/Poet

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Certified Sommelier Exam

Published
by
joanie
on September 24, 2008
in Joanie Hudson and Zach Blair
. 2 Comments

Zach Blair has moved one step closer to becoming a certified Master Sommelier. Zach has worked part time in the tasting room for about three years while working full time in the high end restaurant service industry. He has worked locally for the Wine Cask, Louie’s, and Ruth’s Chris. Most recently, he is working at Pierre Lafond Bistro helping to revamp and manage their new wine list and menu.

This past weekend the Court of Master Sommeliers held the second of four stages to attain the title Master Sommelier, the Certified Sommelier Exam. Zach earned the right to take this test by passing the first Introductory Sommelier Course last year, a two day intensive filled with instruction and a written exam. The most recent challenge was a one day exam with three portions: blind tasting, written exam, and service exam. At the end of the day Zach was among the select participants to receive certification by the American Court of Master Sommeliers. He has only two more very difficult and time consuming steps to become a Master Sommelier.

So what does this mean? The Court of Master Sommeliers was established to encouraged improved standards of beverage service and evaluate knowledge for hotels and restaurants. The first exam was held in the United Kingdom in 1969, while the American Chapter was established in 1977. Only 96 professionals hold the title Master Sommelier in the American chapter: 81 men and 15 women. The lengthy process takes the most committed, skillful and knowledgable professionals through rigorous testing that ranges from basic knowledge of viticulture practice to blind tasting evaluation skills. It is the only internationally recognized certification that a wine and service professional can attain.

For those who are interested in getting a sense of the extensive knowledge that Certified Master Sommeliers must possess, go check out The New Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia and scan through each section. Most likely, any Master Sommelier will be able to answer almost any question out of there if you just opened it, pointed to a sentence and asked them about it. If they don’t, at least they will have the ability to skillfully deflect and talk for an hour about a related area of interest.

Joanie Hudson, Assistant Tasting Room Manager, Santa Barbara Winery

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First Stages of Fermentation at Santa Barbara Winery

Published
by
joanie
on September 21, 2008
in Harvest, Joanie Hudson and Tasting Room
. 0 Comments

We have the fans blowing and doors open at Santa Barbara Winery today now that fermentation has started.  If you have never visited our tasting room, it shares the same building as our production facility where we process all of our white wines (the reds are made up at Lafond Winery & Vineyards).  This means that visitors get a chance to see and smell harvest while tasting through six or seven wines featured on the tasting list. 

Fermentation is the chemical reaction that produces wine from grape juice.  Yeast reacts with the natural sugars found in grapes to produce alcohol and carbon dioxide.  The carbon dioxide is released into the air so we’re really smelling it in the facility.  

We just inoculated the Orange Muscat with yeast strain QA23, which is very aromatic.  The fermenting juice is in stainless steel tanks.  Unlike red wine, white wine needs to be brought down to a cooler temperature in order to ferment (less than 60 degrees is ideal). This first stage of fermentation for the white wines lasts about 10-15 days.

According to Assistant Winemaker Ralston, “We are in a lull right now.  A couple of things have come in [some Sauvignon Blanc and Orange Muscat], but we won’t see more fruit for another week. We are waiting on more Sauvignon Blanc to come in next.”

Joanie Hudson, Assistant Tasting Room Manager, Santa Barbara Winery

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View of Lafond Vineyard in September

Published
by
Pierre
on September 20, 2008
in Lafond Winery and Vineyard
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Photo taken September 19, 2008, before harvest. The vines are beginning to stress as the grapes ripen. Harvest, in this block, will probably begin within the next two weeks. This photo does not include the Martin Ray Pinot Noir block mentioned in the previous blog.

The Lafond Winery is in the distance just below the hills.

Click image to enlarge:

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The Nets are Coming Off the Pinot Noir

Published
by
Pierre
on September 20, 2008
in Harvest, Pinot Noir and Vineyard
. 0 Comments

This is our first picking of Pinot Noir this year. Winemaker, Bruce McGuire, assures me that although late it is not the latest. We once started picking Pinot Noir the first of October.

This is our oldest block of Pinot Noir, planted in the early eighties, on its own rootstock and in 12′ foot rows. The clone is Martin Ray named after one of, if not the pioneer of Pinot Noir in California. We have re-planted most of our old blocks and we will probably do this one as well, eventually, but what saves it, for the time being, is the quality of the fruit. We have an excellent limited production Martin Ray 2006 Pinot Noir in our current listings.

The first photo shows the fruit and you will notice it is on two levels. In our newer planting the fruit is all on one level for better exposure and better control of the canopy. The canopy, through photsynthesis, ripens the fruit.

The second photo is of workers removing the nets. As anyone, who has netted their plants knows, removing nets is much more difficult than applying them.


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