The image shows the bottle as it passes the corker. The Rosé of Syrah and the Riesling are the first to be bottled. The wines are not barrel aged and are ready for bottling once they have settled and become cold stable. Cold stabilization is done by chilling the wine to about 30F and waiting for the tartrates to drop out. The process of cold stabilization will take from two to three weeks.
Wikipedia has very good article on tartaric acid and, surprisingly, although mostly found in grapes, it is also in bananas.
Our first bottling since harvest. We bottled two Rieslings, one with 1.7 percent residual sugar and the other with 7.4 percent. The sweetness is arrived, not by sweetening, but by stopping fermentation by dropping the temperature to 30F. This is not so difficult as the wines are fermented at 45F.
In addition to these two Rieslings we are aging in barrels a small lot of Riesling to be completely dry. This wine will be bottled this coming summer.
http://www.sbwinery.com/ssp_director/albums/album-20/lg/bottling-riesling-500x280.flv
Today it felt like Spring. After several weeks of rain the Sky was clear and the day was warm. We should see budding in the Pinot Noir by late February. We had a very small harvest in 2007 due to an early frost which damaged the vines. With the ample rain we have had this winter we would normally be expecting a better than normal harvest this year.
The problem is that this years clusters were formed last spring and they may have been damaged by that frost. David Lafond, who is our bean counter — our cluster counter – predicts fewer clusters but larger than normal. The vines attempt to balance production and vigor.
We saw the first Poppy of the year which is always a good sign that Spring is not far behind. Here is a view of the vineyard today — still bleak — but the hills are green.
Today was a rainy day. Our average rainfall is about 18 inches a year and the last few years have been well below that. Winter rains are like a cleanser they leach the salts that build up during the dry years. This year we are fortunate in that already we have had more rain than all of last year.
The photo was taken today from the Picnic area overlooking our Pinot Noir. The vineyard has been pruned and looks very bare but we like the combination of mist, mountains and view. This is how a vineyard looks in the winter.
This Saturday, January 26th we are having an Open House to officially introduce our 2006 SRH Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah — rain or shine it should be a great event.
Click the image to enlarge.
Open House
Saturday January 26, 2008
From 10:00-5:00
2006 SRH Wines
This is an opportunity to try all three 2006 SRH wines — Pinot Noir, Syrah and Chardonnay — together. All these wines come from vineyards in the Santa Rita Hills district (thus SRH) and the majority from our own Lafond Vineyard. The wines are still young and will continue to develop with aging but with six months in the bottle we think they are already fabulous.
Manager Mirella Valdez, as always, will provide cheese, bread and some desserts to accompany the wines. With the recent rains the hills are green, the air is crisp and it should be a great day.
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We are expecting rain this weekend, and if the forecasters are correct, lots of it. Our concern are the two blocks, which total over 15 acres, that we are re-planting. The bulldozer has finished clearing the old vines, ripping and grading the ground and now it is susceptible to erosion — especially if the forecast of three large storms is correct.
The workers are busy seeding the blocks and erecting catch fences which allow the water to go through while retaining the soil. The rest of our vineyard has been seeded sometime ago and there is already some growth. If the rains are too heavy the danger is that the seeds will wash away. We are optimistic that they will be light enough to permit the soil to absorb this very much needed rain.
Meanwhile, pruning continues. The image is of grenache vines. They are cordon pruned with two permanent canes extended on both sides and 4 or 5 spurs on each side which will grow the new fruit canes. Not all our vines are pruned this way — each variety is pruned slightly differently.
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Barack Obama’s speech after winning the Iowa Democratic Caucus. Regardless of ones politics this is a very moving speech delivered by an exceptionally gifted speaker.
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