On busy days when large groups visit the winery, this was a group of 20, Mirella sets up a separate area within the winery for tasting. It provides more room where they can interact among each other and gives them a view of the inside workings of a winery. On a day like today, warm and beautiful, it allows them to wander outside, catch the view and enjoy the sunshine.
The vines are dormant as they shed their leaves. We are planting a cover crop between the vines but other than that not much else will be done until we start pruning at the end of February.
We prune as late as possible – to delay growth and protect the vines from late frost. The dilemma is how long will pruning take and when will budding occur – we have good men working on it.
The picking part of harvest is over but we still have several tanks fermenting. About a dozen are in our ‘warm room’ going through extended maceration. These are small 1 ton bins, about 6′ tall and they are kept in the ‘warm room’ because it gets cold up here in Santa Ynez – today we had frost on the ground.
In the vineyard not much is going on they are wrapping the nets, used for bird defense, around the drip line. This is the best system we have found – once installed it is easy to pull up and cover the fruit zone and easy to roll up.
We are composting all our white wine crushed grapes as well as the stems from both red and white wines. The lines are set up and they will be turned over regularly. It 
looks like a lot but in the end the pile is about 1/3 its original size. It makes very good compost and we use it in the week areas of the field. The pressed red grapes are kept in a separate pile and make great ground cover.
Click images to enlarge:
The harvest is not quite finished at Lafond Winery. There are still over 20 tons of Syrah to pick from our vineyard, and Cabernet Sauvignon from McGinley Vineyard. These are late harvesting varieties, have tougher skins and hang more loosely than other varieties – a protection from early rain.
The barrels in the image are stacked outside where they will be cleaned and then filled with Pinot Noir pressed earlier.
Today Santa Barbara Winery processed Chardonnay and White Grenache grapes, the last of the season. It has been a very late harvest due to an unusually cool spring and summer. The long growing season is producing grapes, and eventually wine, of intense flavor, but to be still picking Chardonnay in the middle of November – is unusual.
We have released a new wine under the SRH imprint. A Riesling, partially fermented in barrels, and dry. The grapes are 100% from our Lafond Vineyard from grapes planted 38 years ago.
The Santa Rita Hills has an ideal climate for Riesling but is little grown here. The wine has an incredible nose, a very nice balance and goes well with many foods.
Click image to enlarge:
Suggested Retail: 20.00
To Order: Lafond Winery
We have finished picking the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay but there are still many grapes to come. Every so often they have to take a day off to press and fill barrels. The barrel cleaner is in the foreground and the press, barely visible, in the background.
Looking for interesting grapes to plant in his Santa Ynez Valley vineyard, Mr. Andrew Joughin purchased the cuttings for this wine from vines originating in Italy. Primitivo is well known as the primary wine from the Puglia region of Italy where it was widely planted starting in the 1850’s.
Interestingly, recent genetic research has confirmed that Primitivo is identical to Zinfandel. Because of the similarities of climate in his Los Olivos area vineyard and the Puglia region, Mr. Joughin thought this would be an interesting selection as well as a very good food wine. In 2008 no Primitivo was produced due to frost, making 2009 the eighth Primitivo crop from Mr.Joughin’s vineyard, with yields filling about 14 barrels.
It considered a moderate sized crop with a very even growing season. “As Andy’s vineyard gains maturity, I am seeing increasing complexity and depth in the finished wine” notes winemaker Bruce McGuire. Small loose clusters in 2009 led to an intensely concentrated wine.
This is a terrific wine to experiment with a wide range of flavors and cheeses, we feel the list of food pairings is rather large with this concentrated Primitivo tilting things to bigger, richerflavors and grilled meats. In the bottle, this wine will continue to evolve through 2012.
Suggested Retail: 28.00/750ml
To Order: Santa Barbara Winery
One by hand and two with mechanical assistance.
In the spirit of California Wine Month, take a look at these winery fun facts below. Some fun trivia to impress your friends at your next tasting room visit:
One barrel of wine equals approximately 24.6 (12-bottle) cases and 1,180 glasses.
One ton of grapes makes about 780 bottles of wine, or 65 cases.
One vine produces between four and six bottles of wine.
Approximately 2.8 pounds of grapes are used to make one bottle of wine.
Today was warm, in the 80s, exactly what we need to ripen grapes. Winemaker Bruce McGuire was sampling the Pinot Noir.
Bruce commented – it’s not quite there, the flavors are good, the color is good but the seeds are not sufficiently brown and the skin is still too crispy.
The samples show a sugar of over 24 degrees brix and the ph is perfect but we need to hold off a few days until all these factors are in alignment. Bruce is a perfectionist.
A very popular event at Santa Barbara Winery.
To find out more about A Private Tasting
Rising in the middle of the western Santa Ynez Valley, the Santa Rita Hills are the distinguishing feature of our AVA, home of Lafond Vineyard and a wonderful area to grow Pinot Noir.
The long, very cool growing season of this area is exemplified by February bud break and September harvest, a long period for vine physiology that creates wines of intense concentration and balanced acidity.
Winemaker Bruce McGuire chooses very specific sites in the vineyard for each of his Pinot Noir selections. Several different Pinot Noir clones, some planted as early as 1983, add to the palate of flavor and texture from which to craft each Pinot Noir. In 2009, Bruce chose 8 clones from 17 vineyard lots (the majority from Lafond Vineyard and the nearby Arita Hills Vineyard) picked at ripeness over a four week period.
A pleasant growing season yielded an average sized crop. This wine benefits greatly from about an hour of decanting to allow the concentrated aromatic and flavor profiles to fully open up. The complexity of flavor found in Pinot Noir from Lafond Vineyard is a wonderful match with savory foods and a classic with grilled salmon or mushrooms.
Suggested Retail: 27.00
To Order: Lafond Winery
Yesterday harvest started at Lafond Winery, in The Santa Ynez Valley, and today at Santa Barbara Winery, in the heart of the city. Here is where we make all our white wines. The technique is different from red wine and the equipment is different. The whites are pressed before fermentation and the reds after.
The grapes are loaded, stem and all, into the press. A press that is much larger because we include the stems to form channels for the juice to find its way out. The juice is immediately refrigerated to allow all the solids to settle. After a few days the juice is racked and fermentation is begun. The juice is generally kept at 45F during fermentation.
Santa Barbara Winery has a large number of enclosed refrigerated tanks, for red wines you need open tanks to dissipate the heat generated during fermentation.
The images show the grapes being brought in, loaded to the conveyor (pumping would damage the skins and stems) and once the press is loaded begin the press cycle.
Click images to enlarge:
We picked last night Wednesday the 14th. Picking began at 8:00pm, after dark. We pick at night for the coolness, we began this many years ago, an innovation at the time, and today many wineries follow this practice.
What is new this year is our crusher/stemmer which is extremely delicate, removes all non-grape material and in addition is faster 
and requires fewer hands to operate. We were also testing, last night, David Lafond’s ingenious new night lighting system which eliminates the gas generator and replaces it with the tractor’s own torque. This greatly reduces noise pollution and the smell of gasoline in the air.
Everything worked according to plan, the only disappointment is the size of the crop. The berries are extremely small and where on average we would expect close to 3 tons per acre, this first picking, our Martin Ray Clone, we picked a little over 1 ton per acre.
The quality is going to be very high only there wont be as much of it.
Click images to enlarge:
We are still a few weeks away from harvest. This year the the crop is going to be a little light – the bunches are there but the grapes are small. The consolation is that flavors will be more concentrated.
The grapes are behind nets, which protects them from birds but not from wasps. Wasps cause damage but not on the same scale – plus there is no way to keep them out. In the image on the right you can see some of their handiwork – it is minor, affects symmetry, but not quality.
Click images to enlarge:
Recent Comments