Wines I'm Drinking: 2010 Windsor Oaks Vineyards Russian River Valley Rosé of Pinot Noir

I opened a bottle of the 2010 Windsor Oaks Vineyards Russian River Valley Rosé of Pinot Noir tonight and was pleasantly surprised--not that I had any reason to expect this wine wouldn't be good. I was surprised simply because I like rosé and I'm always happy to find interesting ones, and many are dull. Brief tasting notes follow.

A very pretty wine--as a rosé should be. A beautiful brandy-tinged pink. Very attractive in the glass. Scents of strawberries and watermelon with a hint of caramel in the background. On the palate, very much as suggested by the nose--a sweet, fruity impression at first, suggestive of watermelon and strawberries, but also with a slightly caramelized or brandied flavor as well. Hints of cherries and almonds on a fairly extended finish. Good balancing acidity. The label calls this wine "refreshing, but NOT SWEET" (emphasis theirs), but this seems quite sweet to me. Although the label says the winemaker has modeled the wine after the very dry rosés of Europe, I would call this an off-dry rosé, not a rosé that's been fermented completely dry. Despite that, I enjoyed it. It has character--although my taste in rosé is for significantly drier wines. Retail price about $16.

(I have no financial connection with any producer or retailer of wine.)

Wines I'm Making: 2010 Sangiovese Rosé Bottling (Second Batch)

Yesterday I bottled the second batch of 2010 rosé I made from our Sangiovese grapes. This second batch was something of an experiment, but, apparently, an at least moderately successful one. The summer of 2010 was very cool, but punctuated by a couple of intense heat spells that ruined a lot of grapes (many growers pulled leaves to increase sun exposure, hoping to encourage what had been very slow ripening caused by the otherwise cool weather, only to see their crop then hit by sudden heat that destroyed the exposed berries). The fruit that survived the short hot spells often ripened poorly. Our Sangiovese, a case in point, came in with very low sugar and less-than-optimally developed flavors.

I made rosé from the grapes using my usual method (about 19 hours on the skins), and that produced a pleasant, but very light wine that lacks the interest of the excellent, flavorful rosé I made with our 2009 grapes. As usual, I hated to throw away the pressed skins from the initial batch, which seemed to have a great deal of pulp and juice still attached. I therefore tried a second-run fermentation. That is, I added water and sugar back into the pressings to ferment a second wine--not expecting much success from it (I've made some dismal red wine this way). I left the mixture to soak for more than two days, partly because I wasn't especially interested in it, but that proved to be a good thing. This second-run wine that I've just bottled (and sampled for the first time) is quite acceptable--better than I'd hoped for. Having said that, it's not great. I think the lesson here is not that making second-run wine (which seems like cheating) is a good thing, but rather that in very lean years, like 2010, it pays to give rosé a much longer maceration than would normally be appropriate. Having said that, I'm not going to sneeze at the additional 25 bottles of wine my experiment yielded.

Birds I'm Watching: Sonoma Valley Christmas Bird Count (2010)

I participated in the 2010 Sonoma Valley Christmas Bird Count today. This was the 111th year of Christmas bird counts in the United States. I helped count in seven different locales in the Sonoma Valley, most in the hills above Hwy. 12 in the Glen Ellen area, many of them ordinarily closed to the public (private preserves and ranches) but including three places open to the public--Quarryhill Botanical Garden, the grounds of Imagery Estate winery, and Cavedale Rd. In total, we saw over a thousand birds of 55 species: Canada goose, Bufflehead, Hooded merganser, Common merganser, Pied-billed grebe, Double-crested cormorant, Great blue heron, Great egret, Turkey vulture, White-tailed kite, Cooper's hawk, Red-shouldered hawk, Red-tailed hawk, Kestrel, Merlin, Killdeer (pictured), Wilson's snipe, Mourning dove, Anna's hummingbird, Belted kingfisher, Acorn woodpecker, Red-breasted sapsucker, Hairy woodpecker, Northern flicker, Black phoebe, Steller's jay, Scrub jay, Crow, Raven, Chestnut-backed chickadee, Oak titmouse, Bushtit, White-breasted nuthatch, Bewick's wren, Ruby-crowned kinglet, Western bluebird, Hermit thrush, Robin, Wrentit, Mockingbird, Starling, Cedar waxwing, Yellow-rumped warbler, Townsend's warbler, Spotted towhee, California towhee, Song sparrow, White-crowned sparrow, Golden-crowned sparrow, Dark-eyed junco, Red-winged blackbird, Purple finch, House finch, Lesser goldfinch, and American goldfinch. A very cold but entertaining day.

For more information about bird watching in Sonoma County, see my Website Sonoma County Birding Spots

Wines I'm Making: A Busy Time of Year (2010)

This is a busy time of year because of all the winemaking going on--a winery in miniature is in operation here. Yesterday I bottled the 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc to make room for the Sangiovese rosé in the only six-gallon containers I have. The rosé appeared to be mostly finished fermenting--on day 18, the longest fermentation I've done so far. But I 'm only the shepherd; the time it takes is the time it takes. Next chore (although a pleasant one) will be to design labels for the 2009 wines--and, before too long, for the 2010 rosé; the rosé should be ready to sample by around Christmas.

The turbid, fermenting rosé was beginning to clear as the action of the yeast slowed, and the wine tasted dry, so I thought it best to limit oxygen exposure by racking the wines into a single big container. I sulfited lightly (four Campden tablets in six gallons plus three fifths, or about 40ppm). Sulfite is supposed to kill any yeast still alive, but I suspect it wasn't enough because the wine continues to send up streams of fine bubbles, and the airlock is still percolating. That's just as well. The new rosé is now protected from oxidation at least to some extent by the sulfites and the lack of air space in the new container, and any ongoing fermentation will make the wine completely dry, the way I like it.

I put the 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon/Franc into 30 bottles but left one uncorked. We tasted it last night for the first time. It was in shock from the bottling and the sulfiting, so not at its best, but it was enough to get a first impression. I'm very pleased. I reserved some overnight in a decanter, helping to blow off sulfites and giving the wine air--it had developed some lovely leathery scents, rose-like scents, and cocoa scents. The palate was broader and more generous too, again marked by leather and cocoa. An excellent effort, if I say so myself. The photo shows toasted oak staves that were in the resting wine for a full year and the siphon filling bottles.

The 2010 Cab is still in the front room undergoing malolactic fermentation. Soon that will be done. It's been 11 days since the wine was inoculated. Activity appears to have slowed, but malolactic fermentations can be hard to judge. I will have to test it. I have every reason to hope the 2010 wine will be better even than the wine just bottled--the vines are a year older, I know what I'm doing now, the vines didn't suffer from mold or critter attacks (raccoons) because I've got the sulfur spraying, netting, summer trimming, and electric fence down to a routine now. As long as the weather cooperates. This year, we made good wine despite difficult weather. Should be ready for anything now--except the unexpected.

Plants I'm Growing--Figs (2010)

A couple of days ago, I posted a photo of the apple tree in the garden. It's blooming in the middle of October, which is somewhat bizarre. The strange weather this year--the wet spring and long, cold, summer followed by a couple of heat spells (we've just finished another one)--all conspired against the fruit trees. We had no pears, very few "Dapple Dandy" pluots, no apples, and very few peaches or nectarines this year. Only the "Flavor King" pluot had an appreciable crop. I had given up on the fig tree as well until the late warm weather that saved the grapes finally got the fruit to start ripening. We have a dwarf variety called "Black Jack." The figs taste and look much like "Mission" figs, but the tree stays small. With minimal pruning, it's remained low enough that I can reach the fruit without a ladder. Suddenly, we've got many, many figs ripening all at once.

I enjoy them best just sliced in half with Trader Joe's Greek Style Honey Yogurt on top--and then drizzled with honey harvested from the beehive. Standing near the tree, you can smell the fruit. That corner of the garden smells like Sardinia.

Wines I'm Making: 2010 Sangiovese Harvest

Harvested the Sangiovese today (October 16). The vines yielded 99lbs of grapes. I don't know if I should have waited longer, but it's supposed to rain tomorrow, it's cold, and the sugars seemed to be going nowhere. The fruit was generally in good shape and this is the first year since we started making wine that we have lost no fruit to raccoons or other critters (using an electric fence and nets outside the fence).The numbers aren't ideal, but not too bad either. The proof will be in the pudding, of course.

The must tested at 17 Brix by refractometer, 1.070 by hydrometer, which works out to a Brix of 17.75 if adjusted for temperature (raised 0.25 Brix). The pH was at 3.46, a trifle high, and the acid was lower than I'd have liked, at 0.66%. I Chaptalized the must to raise the sugar to the equivalent of 20 Brix, which should result in a wine at about 12% alcohol. I sulfited the must very lightly, to about 27 ppm (using five Campden tablets in about 12 gallons of must), which should ultimately yield about 6 gallons of wine, or about 30 bottles. As this will be rosé, I will press the grapes as early in the morning tomorrow as I can. I picked the grapes at about 4:00PM. That will mean about 18 hours on the skins if I get it pressed by 10:00AM--just about right. Below, grapes are in the crusher, ready to go.

Wines I'm Making: Harvest Still About a Week Away (2010)

I tested the grapes again yesterday (October 7). We seem to have made some progress in the past week. The Cabernet grapes are now at 22 Brix with a pH of 3.35. The Sangiovese grapes are at 17 Brix (in this case I deliberately excluded pinkish or greenish, obviously unripe grapes on the assumption that those will be eliminated when we de-stem) and a pH of 3.29. Both are still lower than I'd like sugar-wise. The weather is supposed to be good in the coming week. I think a little more patience is is order. I'd like to see the Cabernet at at least 23 and the Sangiovese at 19, if possible, but that may be wishful thinking this year. In other wine-related news, I've been preparing bottles over the past few days, getting ready to bottle last year's wine.

Plants I'm Growing: Evidence of this Summer's Odd Weather (2010)

I doubt anyone living in northern California needs evidence of how strange the weather has been this year, but I was startled a couple of days ago to see what looked like buds on my apple tree. That was at the end of September. Now, in the first week of October, the tree isn't exactly in full bloom, but it is blooming (this is the variety called Pink Lady). In the photo you can see the buds and new flowers and apples in the background--this year's apples (although there were very few and none suitable for eating). Very strange.

Wines I'm Making: Harvest in About a Week? (2010)

I tested a representative sample of the Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese grapes today. This past week of hot weather looks likely to salvage what was looking like a rather dismal harvest this year. There is a minimum of mold on the grapes--despite the long, wet spring and cool early summer (with the last rain in the first week of June, I believe), and, despite the short spells of very hot weather this week and in August (with temperatures spiking well into the 100s for a day or two), not too many berries look withered or sunburned (although the Sangiovese has suffered more in this regard than the Cabernet).

The Cabernet grapes tested at 21.5 brix and a pH of 3.28. A sugar level of about 24-25 brix and a pH of around 3.4 would be ideal. We may get that if the weather holds for another week or so and if it cools down a little bit. The seeds still don't look quite mature--mostly medium brown with a hint of green and with a fair amount of pulp sticking to them.

I've watered the grapes only twice this year (normally three or four times), once for six hours in mid-August and once for three hours on September 24 or so. If I had been here over the summer to water once in July, things would have been better, but I was in Europe.

The Sangiovese grapes tested at only around 16 brix--quite low for this time of year. I suspect these will have more of a problem getting fully ripe than the Cabernet. I'd like them to get to at least 20 before harvesting. Around 22-23 is ideal for rosé. We will be making only rosé from the Sangiovese grapes this year in any case. The seeds look very mixed--some are quite brown, hard, and crunchy, others are quite green, and that about sums up the Sangiovese grapes. I think the low brix level is, as much as anything, because of very uneven ripening. We will have to wait and watch, but the Cabernet may be ready for picking in a week to ten days, the Sangiovese in perhaps two weeks.

In 2009, we harvested both the Cabernet and the Sangiovese on September 29. In 2008, we harvested the Sangiovese on October 4 and the Cabernet on October 7.

Wines I'm Making: 2010 Grape Progress Slow

Since arriving back in the US, the weather has been generally cool, but closer to normal than it appears to have been during my absence--with one exception, a two-day hot spell in the third week of August. That sudden heat spike, following weeks of colder-than-normal weather appears to have hit grape growers hard. Many had picked leaves to expose fruit that was behind schedule, in the hope that more air and sun would speed ripening and avoid mold. The grapes were in many cases still not fully colored, and the strong sun and heat ruined many tender berries. Our Cabernet was better protected and so far has fared well, although the sugar levels are well behind those of last year. The Sangiovese had dropped more leaves than the Cabernet because of water stress (I was hoping to go without watering them at all this year, but gave them six hours on the drip following the heat spike), and some of the Sangiovese berries have suffered, but I still expect to get a reasonable yield.

It the past couple of days, I've been testing random berries here and there. The majority of the vines appear to be at around 17 brix at the moment. At this time last year, the Sangiovese was already at 22 brix. If the rule of thumb about sugar and time (one degree brix a week on average) is correct, that suggests we won't be harvesting for another five weeks or so--or in the second week of November! Last year we harvested on September 29. Our latest harvest to date has been October 7, in 2008. We've picked as early as September 3. The later it gets, the greater the risk of rain and therefore mold--and the more chance raccoons and other animals have to steal fruit. This will be a difficult year unless we have a sustained three weeks or so in the mid-eighties. We'll see.