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
2008 Harvest
Due to circumstances created by mother nature leading up to the 2008 grape harvest, we at the winery searched far and wide to find quality grapes to fill our barrels. One such find was Orange Muscat.
Tuesday September 16th the first batch of Orange Muscat arrived from the Karry/Mosby vineyard in Santa Ynez. We received 4.16 tons of this curiously delicious grape varietal. Upon sampling the fruit, I was immediately taken back by the layers of sweetness unleashing on my palate. Ryan Ralston the assistant winemaker noted that the “candy” had arrived.
The flavor profile of the grape ranges from grilled pineapple covered in brown sugar to sweet peaches. The pressed juice was similar to a sugar fortified sweet tea. The Orange Muscats destiny is still yet to be determined; it could become an off-dry wine for warm summer nights or it could undergo full fermentation in ordered to process out all of the residual sugars and become yet one more delicious dry white wine in the Santa Barbara Winery line-up.
To find out….Keep reading and drink up!
Cameron Bendetsen, Santa Barbara Winery
Racking Sauvignon Blanc
Racking is the process in which a wine maker removes the settled solids from the clean juice or wine. The idea behind racking is to clean up the wine by removing settled particulates from the bulk of the wine.
With our Sauvignon Blanc, racking is done after cold settling. This is much like chilling orange juice is your fridge until the pulp settles to the bottom and then pouring off the top liquid. The result is a visually and chemically cleaner product.
Camereon Bendetsen, Santa Barbara Winery
Camereon Bendetsen on the harvest
Saturday September 6th marked the beginning of the 2008 Santa Barbara Winery urban harvest. The inaugural fruit came from the Grassini Vineyard located in the Happy Canyon area in the eastern most section of Santa Ynez. This soon to be appellation is on average ten degrees warmer than the rest of the Santa Ynez Valley.
The warm weather, coupled with little ocean influence makes the vineyards of Happy Canyon ideal for growing Bordeaux varietals like Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Malbec. The Fruit came down on a flatbed goose-neck trailer in eight food grade picking bins pulled by a one-ton diesel truck down the 101 south. The 154 can be a bit treacherous with a large payload and spilling grapes on the freeway is not an option.
Typically, eight picking bins will yield approximately four tons. This year however, we received 2.75 tons. The small yield was primarily due to an uncharacteristic frost at the beginning of fruit set. The tonnage per acre worked out to about 1.5 tons/acre, which is very low especially for a vineyard planted with 6′x3′ spacing. The upside to a low yield is high quality.
When the vineyard is packed full of grapes uniform ripening throughout the vines can become compromised. This compromise is due to layers of grapes shading the rest of the vine. Consequently, low yields will ensure that all fruit clusters are exposed to the proper amount of sunlight essential for ripening and the Grassini Sauvignon Blanc was no exception.
With a few shifts of the forklift, the gapes rode up the sorting belt and into our press. The urban harvest had begun. The Brix came in at 24.9 with a 3.3 pH; perfect for the non-grassy, slightly tropical Sauvignon Blanc that assistant winemaker Ryan Ralston strives to create. Head Winemaker, Bruce McGuire felt that the Grassini Sauvignon Blanc will play an essential role in the overall flavor profile and balance of the 2008 Santa Barbara Winery Sauvignon Blanc and will continue to be a vineyard that will play a key role for years to come.
Camereon Bendetsen, Cellar Production Technician, Santa Barbara Winery.
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.
Anything less would be uncivilized and add bitter, grassy and sometimes harsh poly phenols and phenolics to the wine.
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