Tag Archive for 'tasting'

As summer comes to a close in Santa Barbara, the looming presence of the 2009 Harvest is on everybody’s mind at the winery.  At the downtown Santa Barbara Winery facility, we are busy shuffling things around and bottling Chardonnay to make room for the new fruit and juice coming in.

 Harvest is the busiest time of the year for a winery as winemakers give up a social life and are at the mercy of the grapes.  I was talking to a winemaker at a tasting last week, and when I asked how their fruit was looking, he smiled and said it’s looking great, and then there was a nervous laugh as he dutifully followed with, “Yup, my life is about to be over.”  

Winemakers in Santa Barbara County are very optimistic about the 2009 crop, both in terms of yields and quality.  We were hit hard two years in a row in ‘07 and ‘08 by low yielding vintages due to unfavorable weather conditions.  In 2008, an April frost cut grape yields across the board and also led to uneven ripening that needed to be discarded at the sorting table.  With all of the modern technology in the winery (from revolutionary sorting tables to high speed Internet Twittering), the quality of the grapes are and always will be ultimately left to nature.  

In 2009 there were no late frosts in the spring or sudden heat spells in the summer, and crop size is looking plentiful.  Winemakers spend lots of time in late summer as the grapes are turning color (veraison) dropping fruit (literally cutting off wings and late ripeners).  It all begins in the vineyard as each winemaker controls how the fruit is positioned, how many shoots per vine, and how the sun hits the skins of the grape (canopy).  

Most growers expect the all consuming Harvest to begin the first of second week of September, and lasts until late October and sometimes into November.  White grapes typically come in first, while reds take a bit longer to hit full maturation.  What comes in when depends on what is growing where and the weather in the specific microclimate.  The grape’s tannin, acid, and sugar content determine how ripe the grape actually is.

Once the winemaker deems these components in ripened balance, grapes are cut from the vine by a tremendously hard working and dedicated crew in the cool early (very early) morning.  This assures that the grapes arrive at the winery while they are still cool to the touch.  Then the winemakers get to work on the “crush.” But more on that later…

Harvest and subsequent activities in the winery are literally a culmination of a year in the vineyard.  When you drink your 2009 wines, you can think back to the not so distant past of 2009 weather and how it affected what you are drinking.  This is one of my favorite things about wine and the winemaking process, it changes and is unique every single year.  With all of the repetition that we experience in life, particularly with the products that we consume or use, wine will never be the same from one bottle to the next.

Joanie Hudson, Director National and International Marketing, Santa Barbara Winery / Lafond Winery & Vineyards