Author Archive for Pierre

Pruning is in full swing now. Some of the younger vines in our Burning Creek block that are just coming out of the growth tubes need to be tied by hand. They don’t look like much in the photo but they will be growing vertical canes and will form spurs from which more canes will grow. Even this year these pre-pubescent vines will bear some fruit.

Once all these young vines are tied then the pre-pruning machine can come into play. The machine goes down each row, very slowly, leaving about 12 inches of the vertical canes which will be further pruned, by hand, to two growing buds. The machine chops up the canes into 2 inch segments which can be easily tilled back into the soil.

The big advantage is that the work can be done much more quickly and with a much smaller crew. The work is also less arduous, cutting and pulling canes out of the jungle of attached and intertwined canes is really hard. The other advantage is that pruning late can delay bud break and the perils of early frost, but you can’t always count on good weather, so if you start late and it rains in February and March you can’t always get into the field so that the ability to do it quickly is important.
Click images to enlarge:

These events have become very popular. We had over 250 who responded that they wished to attend. It is an opportunity to sample some of our newer releases as well as some excellent cheese selected by Suzanne. It was a very windy day coming after a somewhat inadequate rainstorm. We are hoping for more rain but it is getting late in the season.

Rain in the vineyard leaches out the salts that may have built up during the summer. last year at this time we had had a good deal of rain even to the point of overflowing the river bank and causing some inundation which dumped debris on the parts of the vineyard but caused no harm.
Click images to enlarge:

This is the largest bottle we have. 18 liters, the equivalent of two cases, and approximately 80 pounds. Not a convenient easy to pour bottle – we still have not determined the best way of doing that. I think it is only the second time that we have filled a bottle this large.

The wine is our 2000 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon bottled in 2002 and aged in our climate controlled cellar. The price is 1000. and it includes the stand which should make pouring easier. The bottle next to it is a mere 5 liters.
Click image to enlarge:

America’s fascination with pairing fine wine and the classic American hamburger spiked dramatically after the Oscar nomination of the independent film Sideways, which tantalized the curiosity of a new strata of American wine enthusiast. At the end of the film, the pitiful anti-hero protagonist Miles scarfs a cheeseburger under the florescent lighting of a greasy fast food joint and washes it down with his prize-possession Château Cheval Blanc, a world-class Bordeaux red which he keeps hidden under the table and drinks from a styrofoam cup.

This scene is allegedly the inspiration behind such sensational gimmicks as the Six Thousand Dollar Burger at the Palms Casino of Las Vegas, which paired the Six Dollar Burger from Carl’s Jr. with a vintage bottle of another world-class red from Bordeaux, Château Petrus. (Ironically, Cheval Blanc and Petrus are both composed mostly of Merlot, a grape which Miles shuns in an infamous scene earlier in the film causing devastating real-world effects on California’s Merlot market).

That said, I myself have long awaited an opportunity to pair a great wine with a great burger. The occasion befell me last night in the form of Santa Barbara Winery’s 2008 Joughin Vineyard Lagrein and the Classic Grilled Angus Burger of the Plow & Angel at the San Ysidro Ranch in Montecito. And the two complimented each other harmoniously.

Lagrein is a little known grape from Bolzano in the Alto Adige region of northeastern Italy. The earliest written records of Lagrein come from the Muri Benedictine monastery near Bolzano and date back to the 1600′s. Lagrein is believed to have originated in the Lagarina Valley just south of Bolzano between Lago di Garda and Trento.

Today in Italy there are only about 800 acres of Lagrein, nearly all of which are planted in Bolzano’s growing region. Outside of Italy Lagrein is increasing in popularity though New World producers are scarce.

I often refer to Lagrein as Merlot’s big brother and it remains firmly seated as my absolute favorite under the roof at Santa Barbara Winery. Ounce upon a time Lagrein was culpable of producing heavy, rugged, so harshly tannic reds that they required ages in the bottle before they were approachable (more like Merlot on steroids).

With a new winemaking trend toward shorter maceration periods and the use of barriques (Bordeaux style barrels) for aging, Lagrein now produces a big, full-bodied, voluptuous red wine, so dark you can’t even see through it, with soft velvety tannins and a long savory finish that make it a supreme companion for juicy, grilled angus. Our 2008 vintage paired perfectly with my burger as it did with the Valrhona Guanaja chocolate cake I had for dessert. Mm mm, good.

Carlos Mascherin, Santa Barbara Winery
Too order wine:  Santa Barbara Winery
Click images to enlarge:

Two months ago, in the middle of harvest, someone pressed the accelerator instead of the brakes in front of the winery. The SUV took out two large columns, the front door, a side bench and a window. This happened at closing time – no one was hurt – unless you count the embarrassment caused to the driver. The driver was a young smart woman picking up her child, she had not been inside the winery.

The front doors were hand fabricated and the columns were from a mill in Montana that specializes in large wooden columns, in this case 12″ in diameter and with a special hand finished look. Gary Adkins, who has done all our cabinet work, was able to trace down the mill, build new doors and yesterday he and David installed the doors and the columns.

I wanted to take pictures and show the before and after but, unfortunately, they did such a good job I took pictures of the wrong columns, also embarrassing.

The picture I am showing is an older image but you get the idea. Click the image to enlarge.

This week in the cellar we paid each barrel of Chardonnay a visit to stir its lees. This practice is known widely in the wine industry by its French name, bâtonnage. Lees are the sediments which gather at the bottom of a barrel or a tank containing fermenting juice or aging wine.

They are composed of various grape fragments, inactive yeasts and compounds that have crystalized, become heavy and sunk to the bottom of the barrel. A bowed wand with a paddle-like end is used to manually stir the lees in barrels and puncheons. Stirring the lees helps wine develop structure and complexity as well as voluptuous flavors and rich aromas.

In addition, stirring up the lees aids in reducing tart acidity and helps prevent offensive odors from developing. It is most commonly performed on white wines that ferment in barrel, though a winemaker may choose to stir the lees of wines made in stainless steel tanks as well if he finds them too tart or fleeting in flavor.
Click image to enlarge:
Carlos Mascherin, Santa Barbara Winery

Not all our wines have been pressed. Several tanks are undergoing 7 to 8 weeks of Extended Maceration – when fermented wine is kept on its skins for an extended period of time until, as described by Bruce, ‘the bitterness moves from the front of the palate to the back’. These wines still have to be punched down every day, as well as, covered with an inert gas to prevent damage from oxygen contact. This is Bruce’s assistant Dan punching down.
Click image to enlarge:

This week in the cellar we’ve been checking barrels and testing samples from various lots of Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and Grenache Blanc for evidence of malolactic fermentation.

Malolactic fermentation is a secondary fermentation, typically performed in the barrel, which converts a grape’s naturally occurring malic acid into lactic acid.

Malic acid gives wine a crisp, bright, tart flavor similar to that of Granny Smith apples whereas lactic acid gives wine a soft, toasty, buttery quality. In fact, diacetyl, a byproduct of malolactic fermentation, is often used in the production of margarine to make it taste more like real butter.

Chardonnay, Marsanne and Roussanne are good examples of white wines that typically undergo malolactic fermentation. Winemakers often avoid malolactic fermentation in wines such as Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio in order to keep them crisp and refreshing.

Carlos Mascherin, Santa Barbara Winery

These photos were taken by Lise Deinhard on a camping trip, Thanksgiving weekend, at the Vineyard. The autumn foliage colors of New England and Colorado, although not evident in our trees, can be seen in our vineyards and often with spectacular results. In the photo – darker blocks are Pinot Noir, they have already shed their leaves, the others are Syrah, Riesling and Chardonnay.
The pictures also give a sense of the surrounding geography. When camping here you get an additional sense of isolation – cell phones don’t work. Click images to enlarge:

These images are of our grape stemmer, both sides, with the hood open. Somehow it gets the job done, gently massaging and removing the grapes from their cluster. Our earlier and more traditional grape stemmer simply whirled the clusters around while beating them with paddles and by centrifugal force throwing the grapes through a grape sized screen.

For those who remember Rube Goldberg it looks like one of his machines, but with the hood down and in working mode it does a great job. We are amazed at how gently it handles the grapes removing the vast majority of even those small pesky jacks which have a tendency to cling to the grape.
Click images to enlarge: