Sit back and enjoy a glass of wine while Nancy Hawks Miller, our Director of Education, tells you about this roller coaster of a vintage and what you can expect from it.

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For more wine education:

• Visit goosecross.com where we have over 80 carefully researched educational articles available for you
• Our video library offers a show and tell on wine production and enjoyment
• Visit Colleen’s Kitchen for delicious recipes, paired with wine

NVWR® 112 – 2010 Harvest Recap is a post from Goosecross Cellars. Copyright © 2011 Goosecross Cellars, All Rights Reserved.

Stock up for the Holidays on your favorite Goosecross wines including:

• Sauvignon Blanc
• Chardonnay
• Viognier
• Chenin Blanc (dry) – new!
• Chenin Blanc (semi-sweet)
• Muscat Canelli (sweet)
• Pinot Noir – new!
• Merlot
• Cabernet Franc
• Tempranillo – new!
• Syrah
• Napa Cabernet
• Howell Mountain Cabernet
• Petit Verdot – new!

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Harvest the Savings from Goosecross! is a post from Goosecross Cellars. Copyright © 2011 Goosecross Cellars, All Rights Reserved.

Sit back and enjoy a glass of wine while I tell you about this, seemingly, text-book growing season that threw us a curve ball at the end.

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NVWR® 95 – Harvest Recap 2009 is a post from Goosecross Cellars. Copyright © 2011 Goosecross Cellars, All Rights Reserved.

Spring

The vines came out of their winter sleep just about on time, in the third week of March, and we were off to a beautiful start. The weather was gorgeous – late March and early April brought us daytime temperatures in the 70s with lows in the 40s at night. The word frost was barely part of our vocabulary last spring, which was a delightful contrast to the spring of 2008. These mild conditions seemed to set the tone for the whole season – it was very comfortable for both the vines and the people!

By April, Geoff Gorsuch, our Winemaker, began the usual shoot thinning, essentially correcting the pruning work he did in the winter. The winter pruning is an attempt to determine the number of shoots and clusters that will appear in the spring but, as Geoff says, the vines don’t read the textbook and some thinning is inevitable to prevent crowding and over-cropping. See our video of springtime shoot thinning

That initial thinning was just the beginning. The vines seemed to thrive on the mild growing conditions and between the beautiful weather and a good soaking of rain in early May they grew like gangbusters. Geoff couldn’t remember a season when he’s done so much shoot thinning.

It’s important to keep the vines balanced – carrying the right number of shoots and potential crop for the site and spacing – and also to keep the ratio of leafy growth to clusters in line. Otherwise we risk vegetal characteristics in the wine. The thinning also increases ventilation which helps keep mildew in check.

The vines flowered around middle of May, right on time again, and the weather continued to cooperate nicely. Too much heat can burn the flowers and heavy rain may knock them off, resulting in crop loss, or “shatter”. We lucked out and Geoff saw fairly uniform fruit set and nicely formed clusters.

When pollination is complete, it’s time to make cluster counts and this was the first indication that we’d have a nice, average-sized crop. Geoff did a little cluster thinning at that point to ensure good flavor intensity down the road – quantity and quality don’t necessarily go together in the world of wine.

Exceptionally mild weather continued through June and July, punctuated by a couple of heat waves. By the time the grapes here at the winery began to change color, the third week of July, many of the local growers reported being significantly behind schedule, most likely due to the cool conditions. An early or late harvest is neither good nor bad – it depends upon what happens between fruit set and harvest. The grapes need enough time to develop flavor maturity, which is why you hear talk of “hangtime” on the early years. On the late years we worry about running into rain.

Summer

The color change, when the grapes turn from green to yellow-green or purple, is such a significant event there’s a name for it: veraison (see video). It signals that the shoots have stopped growing and the vine’s energy has shifted into fruit ripening. At this point, Geoff did more shoot and leaf thinning. If there’s too much leafy growth, aside from encouraging vegetal character the grapes may get sweet faster than the flavors mature.

Veraison is also a good time to re-evaluate the crop load. Geoff walks the vineyard repeatedly to see if the clusters are coloring up nicely. Dropping unripe fruit on the ground isn’t something he likes to do, but if some of the clusters are lagging behind, they’ll add green, unripe flavor to the wine. So – off they come – it’s called a “green harvest” (see video). He also needs to make sure that the vines aren’t carrying more fruit than they can ripen with a high degree of flavor intensity – sometimes thinning is the answer.

Once the fruit is nicely colored up, it’s time to begin field sampling (see video), which is gathering grape samples for tasting and analysis (see video). Geoff knows the end point he wants to reach in terms of numbers and, more importantly, flavors for each variety and site. The sugar level or brix, is important because it determines the alcohol. The acidity gives the wine freshness and makes it food friendly. The pH is related to the health and stability of the wine. Flavor is the over-riding consideration, so he samples with increasing frequency until he finally decides it’s time to harvest!

When the numbers fall nicely into place at the same time the flavors are at peak it’s called a good year! Most winemakers will tell you that the most important decision they make on an annual basis is when to pick each section of grapes because that’s their best chance to make beautifully balanced wine that’s packed with flavor.

Harvest

The sparkling wine producers began bringing in their Pinot Noir and Chardonnay the third week of August. A few Sauvignon Blanc vineyards came in about that time, too.

The Chenin Blanc was the first to arrive on our crush pad, over Labor Day weekend, nearly two weeks later than the start date for 2008 (see video of crushing). Surprisingly, the Estate Merlot was ready on the 7th. We think of Merlot as a mid-season variety. Perhaps it was because of the light crop in that part of the vineyard. The very sparse crop from Howell Mountain was next and we were off to the races!

September was the warmest month of the season, by far. If you check our harvest calendar, you’ll see that the fruit was coming in fast and furious at the end of September and the beginning of October. It meant very long hours for Geoff and his crew.

As local growers and winemakers began to talk about the vintage the most common themes were good flavor maturity at relatively low brix (sugar levels) – that’s no surprise given the cool weather – and very good news in terms of balance. Most winemakers seemed to agree that the reds had excellent color – a good indicator for flavor intensity. Opinions were all over the board regarding yields, so it appeared to be a question of location. The yields in our home vineyard, here in Yountville, were quite good while the crop up at Howell Mountain resembled that of 2008 – very sparse.

The upside of the rapid-fire pace is that Geoff and his fatigued crush crew could begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The advantage we didn’t anticipate was that almost all of our grapes were harvested in advance of a major, winter-style rainstorm on October 13th. We measured over three inches in 24 hours here in Yountville!

A little sprinkle doesn’t much matter but this kind of rain is a real worry – it brings down the sugar and can cause dilution and rot!

The good news for local growers was that Cabernet Sauvignon was the main grape still hanging. It’s fairly rot resistant, thanks to its thick skin and loose cluster formation. After rain we pray for wind to dry things out and with Cab, there’s a good chance it will all turn out fine. Many growers and winemakers thinned leaves to improve ventilation.

The only variety we had yet to harvest, at that point, was the Carneros Syrah – fortunately another tough-skinned grape. Geoff gave it a few days hoping things would dry out and, with some trepidation, went down to check things out. Much to his relief, it looked clean and the sugar was on a par with 2008. With more rain predicted in another few days he went ahead and brought it in the next day at 24% sugar – just about perfect – and the color was remarkably deep! It turned out to be a good call because we got another good soaking the next day. And, so ended the Goosecross harvest on October 18th.

For the Napa Valley as a whole, a number of growers had grapes out until the end of October but, with more rain predicted for the first week of November, there was a rush to finish harvesting by Halloween. There was some warm, windy weather along the way, which is ideal for drying things out and bringing up the sugar. But, the linchpin for any review of the 2009 harvest will center on what was harvest before, vs. after, the rainstorm.

Our first releases from the 2009 vintage will be the fruity whites: Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier and Chenin Blanc. They’re best when they’re young and we’ll bottle them in December, anticipating a springtime release.

After a beautiful growing season of mild, sunny days and cool, foggy nights, we were reminded not to count our chickens before they’re hatched! Geoff is grateful to have escaped the rain-related challenges, for the most part, and pleased with the flavor concentration and excellent balance of the 2009 vintage as he moves into getting the new wines barrelled up and blended. Now, on to 2010!

Goosecross: 2009 Vintage Recap is a post from Goosecross Cellars. Copyright © 2011 Goosecross Cellars, All Rights Reserved.

A mere four days after that post we got three+ inches of torrential rainfall in 24 hours here in Yountville. My rain gage at home in St. Helena showed over five inches. SHOCKING!  WE DON’T ALLOW RAIN DURING HARVEST!!

What’s the beef? A little sprinkle is nothing to worry about. But, big-time rain causes rot and dilution – some varieties are more susceptible than others.

Lucky for us, a couple of days before the rain hit we got our three rows of Petit Verdot in looking very nice, thank you very much. That just left the Syrah.

After the rain stopped, Geoff gave it a few days, then went down to the Carneros , where our Syrah is grown, with trepidation. He saw some sad looking Chardonnay and Zin there but,fortunately, the Syrah looked clean and the sugar was just where it was for last year’s crush. So, not wishing to push his luck, we brought it in the next day. Thus, our harvest ended. Next day? More heavy rain. Good call, Geoff!!

As for our Napa Valley neighbors, things could be a lot worse. If you could choose which grape get hits by the rain it would be good-old Cabernet Sauvignon, which is about the only thing still hanging. It’s tough skinned, like the Syrah, and forms a loose cluster. The air circulation helps prevent rot. Plus, last weekend was very warm and somewhat windy, which really helps dry things out. Folks are harvesting at a frentic pace to finish up in case Mother Nature gets peevish again.

From valley-wide reports, just about everything will be in by Halloween. The most common response to rain damage is to be extremely careful about sorting the fruit when it gets to the winery. Most winemakers are quite optimistic about quality, in spite of the rain.

The theme for this harvest, aside from the game-changing rain, is that flavor maturity has been quite good at lower sugar levels, which translates to slightly lower alcohols. We’re absolutely OK with that!

So, all that’s left is to finish pressing, get the wines barreled up and call it a vintage. Cheers!

Goosecross: Harvest Ends with a Bang! is a post from Goosecross Cellars. Copyright © 2011 Goosecross Cellars, All Rights Reserved.

Saturday, September 26, 2009 from 4:00-7:00pm at our Yountville winery

Dinner at 5:00 p.m.
Price: $100 per person

Enjoy a delicious catered meal, featuring the seasonal flavors of Napa Valley

• Sip on fabulous Goosecross wines
• Dine in our intimate garden overlooking the vineyards
• Relax to the soothing sounds of live Jazz music
• Tank and barrel sampling with Winemaker, Geoff Gorsuch
• Tour the grounds with Director of Education, Nancy Hawks Miller
• Exclusive Goosecross wine offerings
• Share your thoughts and viewpoints on Goosecross with its owners
• And…if nature permits, you’ll see harvest in action

Reservations will be limited to 60 guests
Make your reservation today!

Click here for directions to Goosecross
Click here to RSVP to the party
Click here to access our concierge service

We hope to see you here.
We’re looking forward to seeing you soon!

Join Us For Our Annual Harvest Party is a post from Goosecross Cellars. Copyright © 2011 Goosecross Cellars, All Rights Reserved.

After planting and training a new vineyard over a period of three to four years the grower is rewarded with his first small harvest. Once the vineyard is established, keeping the vines healthy is a year-round project. Surprisingly, the weather experienced in winter can have an influence on the timing, quantity and quality of the harvest to follow.

Winter

Grapevines are like roses in some respects. Once we have some frost in November they drop all of their leaves and go dormant for the winter. This rest is very important to vineyard health and performance in the following season. Like roses, the vines require severe winter pruning which will help to determine how many shoots and clusters will appear in the spring. Almost all of the growth from the previous season is pruned off, so that the vines will bear a small, intensely flavored crop.

If we have a long, cold winter, the vines “sleep in”, and come out of dormancy late. If the winter is mild, they’re likely to wake up (we call it “bud break”) early. Bud break is usually in the middle of March, but we’d much prefer that it be late than early. Early bud break increases the risk of frost damage. A beautiful, clear day in the late winter/early spring can turn into a freezing, cold night. The newly exposed, tender buds will be damaged if the temperature drops below 32° F. The risk lasts through about mid-May. This can lead to many nights of poor sleep for growers all over the valley. Geoff Gorsuch, our Winemaker, may have to get up in the middle of the night several times during these months, to protect the vines from frost using wind machines⁴ and smudge pots⁵. The upside of early bud-break is that it can translate into an early harvest and reduce our risk of rain damage on the other end. It all depends on the weather that follows.

Spring

Early spring brings the period we call “great growth” in the vineyard, because the new shoots grow like gang-busters. We sometimes imagine we can see them grow! This great growth creates a lot of work, including weed cultivation and suckering⁶ or shoot thinning. The suckering is done by hand, and is like a post-pruning. We prune during dormancy with the idea that we’ll get certain results, but inevitably, the vines do as they please, and require more of our attention. Once the shoots are a few inches long, Geoff can begin walking the vine rows to make sure they’re developing well and also to look for signs of disease or nutrient deficiencies. This continues throughout the growing season.

The buds flower and form clusters around mid-to-late May. We are fortunate that the flowers are self-pollinating, so we don’t have to worry about bees or wind to carry the pollen. We only worry about the weather. Too much rain, high winds or excess heat can impair pollination. Again, we are fortunate because most years we go for months without rain after the end of April. The weather is blessedly boring and predictable most years, and generally leads to good “fruit set.”⁷ Once the crop is set, we count the clusters. Of course, there’s nothing we can do about too few, but if we count more clusters than we believe the vines can ripen well, we drop the excess on the ground right then and there.

Summer

When the grapes first form, regardless of the variety, they look like tiny green beads. They’re not recommended for tasting at that point because they’re highly acidic. They plump and develop amazingly quickly. Usually, by mid-to-late July, they’re 2/3 their full size, and the dark varieties begin to soften and change color (we call this veraison). White varieties like Chardonnay go through a much more subtle color change, going from a bright, spring green to more of a yellow-green as they soften.

During this time, Geoff continues to walk the vineyard to make sure it’s healthy, and he monitors the leaf canopy and clusters to see if we need to do further shoot, leaf or crop thinning. He takes leaf samples to do a “petiole (the leaf stem) analysis”, which just means he’s checking for nutrient deficiencies.

Irrigation may be necessary a few times during the long, dry season, but Geoff prefers to keep it to the minimum. Too much irrigation or fertilization may take away from flavor intensity. He can test the vines in different parts of the vineyard to see if they’re becoming water-stressed and respond accordingly.

Late Summer and Harvest

Veraison is the signal that the vine’s energy has shifted from vegetative growth into fruit ripening: the grapes are beginning to get sweet, and the acid is decreasing. It means that soon it will be time to begin “field sampling.” Geoff takes samples from all over the vineyard to monitor the sugar, acid and pH. Repeated monitoring of these numbers over the weeks gives him a ball-park idea of when the vineyard will be ready for harvest. He makes the final decision to harvest by tasting. He’s looking for flavors that are intense and fully developed. He bites into the seed to make sure it’s crunchy and mature. If the seeds are still green, they can impart some very bitter tannins to the wine.

Once the vineyard is ready, we’ve got to be quick! The sugar changes a little every day, and if the weather’s hot, it goes up frighteningly quickly. We pick everything by hand. Our goal is to deliver grapes as perfectly ripe as nature allows, free of leaves, raisins or mold. This is a lot to ask, so each year we hire the same well-trained men who are paid above the industry standard to be selective. The wine can’t be any better than the grapes that make it. The crew begins as soon as it’s light enough to see, and finishes around lunch-time, getting themselves and the grapes in, before it gets too hot.

If we’ve had a “normal” year, we begin to pick early-ripening varieties like Sauvignon Blanc around Labor Day. Warm years may mean an earlier harvest and cool years can cause delays. Usually, by mid to late September the harvest is in full swing and we often finish with Cabernet Sauvignon sometime in October, again, depending on the weather. In 2005 some local vineyards were harvested as late as mid-November. The later the harvest, the greater risk of rain damage, but as it happens, 2005 turned out to be an exceptionally fine vintage!

By the end of October we begin to expect rain and the nights become cooler and cooler. Once harvest is over, we hope for frost because the sooner we have some good, hard frost the sooner the vines will go dormant and we can start our pruning again, completing the annual cycle. Click here for the GCU Napa Valley Vintage Recap to check the quality and characteristics of recent vintages.

Footnotes:

1. Meso-climate: The climate of a vineyard site, hillside or valley. The term “micro-climate” is used in its place extremely often. Micro-climate correctly refers to the climate immediately surrounding the individual vine canopy (or green growth) and clusters. Vineyard and canopy management will strongly influence the micro-climate, but not the meso-climate.
2. Clone: A clone is a sub-variety within a grape variety, such as Chardonnay, that has been replicated because of specific attributes such as flavor, productivity and adaptability to growing conditions
3. Rootstock hybrid: Vines of European origin, called vitis vinifera, cannot be grown on their own roots in most parts of the world due to lack of resistance to certain soil pests. They are grafted onto various rootstock hybrids that are resistant to the pests. Additionally, the hybrids are chosen for other beneficial traits, such as low or high vigor, drought resistance, etc.
4. Wind machines: Wind machines are powerful fans placed in the vineyard for frost protection. They mix warmer air above, with the colder air settling on the vineyard to prevent damage.
5. Smudge pots: Also called “vineyard heaters,” they look like stove pipes surrounding the vineyard and burn diesel fuel or oil to warm the vines.
6. Suckering: Removing unwanted young shoots to keep the vine and crop in balance.
7. Fruit set (also called cluster set): The overall formation of the grape cluster following flowering. Normal clusters will be fully formed, with very few “shot berries” (missing grapes) and uniform grape size, depending on the variety or clone.

A Year In The Vineyard is a post from Goosecross Cellars. Copyright © 2011 Goosecross Cellars, All Rights Reserved.

After almost 25 years, we had a chance to take a fresh look at our property and re-evaluate what belongs here. It’s a process! We hired three different consultants to take soil samples and check the meso-climate¹ throughout the site. Much to our comfort and delight, the three consultants came back with almost identical recommendations: Plant red Bordeaux varieties².

What Is Meritage Wine?

With that decision made, Geoff Gorsuch, our Winemaker, immediately thought about making a Meritage wine. A Meritage (pronounced like “heritage”) is a blend of Bordeaux varieties and so the wines are usually Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot- based (there are white Meritage wines, too, but they’re less common). Since varietal wines had been the standard of excellence here in America, the Meritage Association was created to distinguish hand-crafted, high-quality blends from simple red or white table wines or generic, so-called “jug” wines. Geoff wanted the freedom to blend the varieties together in the way he most prefers, regardless of varietal percentage. He takes the best our property has to give, and blends it into a beautiful expression of our vineyard site to make a single- vineyard, estate grown, Meritage blend.

Planting The Vineyard

We hand-planted lots of Cabernet Sauvignon, some Merlot, and small amounts of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Our consultants helped us select the various clones³ and rootstock hybrids⁴ to match the variability of the soil throughout the 9.5 acres. The vine spacing also varies, depending on the anticipated vine vigor, or lack of it, in different parts of the property. Before planting we re-graded, installed drain-tile and brought down the acidity of the soil a bit.

The vineyard is on the valley floor between the old Rector Creek and the Napa River-Conn Creek junction. Small as it is, the vineyard has been divided into 11 different sections according to variety, clone, rootstock, spacing and other variables. These sections are monitored separately regarding water, nutrients, canopy management⁵, and of course, harvest date. It’s a lot for Geoff to juggle, but it’s the only way to get the kind of results we’re looking for.

From planting the rootstock or benchgrafts⁶, it is 3-4 years to the first small crop. We think of the vineyard as mature when it is 6 or 7 years old, and hope that it will be with us for decades.

A Year In The Vineyard

Winter

Once the vineyard is established, keeping the vines healthy is a year-round project. Surprisingly, the weather experienced in winter can have an influence on the timing, quantity and quality of the harvest to follow.

Grapevines are like roses in many respects. They drop all of their leaves and go dormant in the winter. This rest is very important to vineyard health and performance in the following season. Like roses, the vines require severe winter pruning to determine how many shoots and clusters will appear in the spring. Almost all of the growth from the previous season is pruned off, so that the vine will bear a small, intensely flavored crop.

If we have a long, cold winter, the vines “sleep in”, and come out of dormancy late. If the winter is mild, they’re likely to wake up (we call it “bud-break”) early. Bud-break is usually in the middle of March, but we’d much rather that it be late than early. Early bud-break means the increased risk of frost damage. A beautiful, clear day in the late winter/early spring can turn into a freezing, cold night. The newly exposed, tender buds will be damaged if the temperature drops below 32° F. The risk lasts through mid-May. This can lead to many nights of poor sleep for growers all over the valley. Geoff and Rosario, his assistant, may have to get up in the middle of the nights several times during these months to protect the vines from frost using wind machines⁷ and smudge pots⁸. The upside of early bud-break is that it can translate into an early harvest and reduces our risk of rain damage on the other end. It all depends on the weather that follows.

Spring

Early spring is a period we call “great growth,” because the new shoots grow like gang-busters. We sometimes imagine we can see them grow! This great growth creates a lot of work, including weed cultivation, suckering⁹ and thinning. The suckering is done by hand, and is like a post-pruning. We prune with the idea that we’ll get certain results, but inevitably, the vines do as they please and require more of our attention. Once the shoots are a few inches long, Geoff can begin walking the vine rows to make sure they’re developing well and also to look for signs of disease or nutrient deficiencies. This continues throughout the growing season.

The vines usually flower and set the crop around mid-May. We are fortunate that the flowers are self-pollinating, so we don’t have to worry about bees or wind. We only worry about the weather. Too much rain or excess heat can impair pollination and lead to crop damage (also called “shatter”). Again, we are fortunate because, normally, we don’t see rain for several months after the end of April. The weather is blessedly boring and predictable most years and generally leads to good “fruit set”¹⁰. Once the crop is set, we count the clusters. Of course, there’s nothing we can do about too few, but if we count more clusters than we expect the vines can ripen well, we drop the excess on the ground right then and there.

Summer

When the grapes first form, regardless of the variety, they look like tiny green beads. They’re not recommended for tasting at that point because they’re highly acidic. They plump and develop amazingly quickly. Usually by mid-July, they’re full size, and the dark varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon begin to soften and change color (we call this veraison).

During this time, Geoff continues to walk the vineyard to make sure it’s healthy, and he monitors the leaf canopy and clusters to see if we need to do further shoot, leaf or crop thinning.

Young vines have shallow roots and require more irrigation than they will when they’re mature. Geoff just keeps checking the vineyard for water stress, which varies by section. He prefers to keep the irrigation to the minimum. Too much irrigation at an early age will “spoil” the young vines and prevent them from reaching down into the soil in search of water. He has the same attitude toward fertilization. Too much pampering, and the grapes and wine may lack character and lose flavor intensity.

Late Summer and Harvest

Veraison is the signal that the grapes are beginning to get sweet, and the acid is decreasing. It means it’s time to begin “field sampling.” Geoff and Rosario take samples from all over the vineyard to monitor the sugar, acid and pH. Repeated monitoring of these numbers over the weeks gives them a ballpark idea of when each section of the vineyard will be ready for harvest. The final decision to harvest a given section is made by tasting. Geoff tastes, looking for flavors that are fully developed. He bites into the seed to make sure it’s crunchy and mature. If the seeds are still green, they can impart some very bitter tannins to the wine. He takes a good look at the vineyard. Vineyards have a certain look when they’re finished for the season. If the shoots are still growing vigorously, it’s not a good sign. The wine may have some “green” character that we don’t find attractive if the vineyard’s not ready to wind down for the year. That greenness and general lack of character and body are the risks of picking to soon.

Once the vineyard is ready, we’ve got to be quick! The sugar changes a little every day, and if the weather’s hot, it goes up frighteningly quickly. If we wait too long we risk high-alcohol wine with raisiny or pruney character.

We pick everything by hand. Our goal is to deliver grapes as perfectly ripe as nature allows, free of leaves, raisins or mold. This is a lot to ask, and so each year we hire the same well-trained men who are paid above the industry standard to be selective. The wine can’t be any better than the grapes that make it! The crew begins as soon as it’s light enough to see, and finishes around lunch-time, getting themselves and the grapes in, before it gets too hot.

Unfortunately, fresh grapes don’t improve with age, and so we get them to the winery as quickly as possible once they’re picked.

The Crush

You’d think that Geoff has enough to do just taking care of the vineyards, but he also has to get the winery ready before the first box of grapes arrives. He and Rosario sanitize all of the equipment, and make sure it’s in good working order. They re-sanitize long empty fermentation tanks and barrels to be sure they are immaculately clean. “Dirty wineries make funky wine!” (Un-attributed quote).

Each section of the vineyard is monitored separately, and may well ripen on different days or weeks. He’ll keep the varieties separate and even different sections of the same variety separate, depending on when they ripen, and grape flavors. The goal is to make as many batches as possible to see what each one will contribute to the eventual blend.

When the grapes arrive, they’re fed into the Crusher/Stemmer. As the name implies, the grapes are separated from their stems and broken open. The term “crushing” can be misleading, because it sounds violent. In fact the grapes are broken open by very soft, rubber rollers. Rough handling in the beginning will be repaid with bitter flavors later! After being crushed and de-stemmed, the “must” as we call it (crushed grapes), goes right into a temperature controlled stainless steel tank, skins seeds and all. The skins contribute all of the color, most of the tannin and much of the flavor to a red wine.

Fermentation

Geoff prefers to use wide tanks to ferment the Bordeaux varieties because when the skins rise during fermentation, it maximizes the skin to juice ratio and gives us a lot of flavor! He may choose to add the yeast immediately or let the juice and skins soak for a few days first, depending on the flavor impressions. Once the yeast is added, the fermentation kicks in soon after. The yeast consumes the sugar in the juice, converting it to heat, CO2 and alcohol. This is a completely natural process that has been going on since the beginning of time. He ferments the reds at relatively high temperatures (mid-70s F), because the warmth heat draws color and flavor out of the skins. The heat also encourages the yeast to work quickly, and it’s common to have a complete conversion of juice to wine within a week or 10 days. When all of the sugar is used up, we say the wine is dry, and the fermentation is over.

Because the wine ferments so quickly, Geoff must taste and analyze it at least every day. The term “cap management” comes from the fact that the skins keep rising to the top of the tank, forming a thick layer we call the cap, and it can’t be allowed to stay there. He must keep it all mixed up, or he won’t get much flavor from the skins. The mixing also helps dissipate excess heat that builds in the cap and can threaten the yeast. Several times a day, he either circulates wine from the bottom over the top (pumping over) or manually pushes the skins back down into the tank with a stainless steel instrument that looks like a big potato masher (punching down).

Once the fermentation is complete and he’s satisfied that he’s gotten what he wants from the skins, he drains the wine out of the tank. This leaves a big pile of skins and seeds holding lots of delicious wine at the bottom of that tank. Geoff and Rosario flip to see which lucky guy gets to crawl into there and shovel out the skins and seeds. It’s all glamor!

The skins and seeds (pomace) are transferred to the press. We have named our press Lucy, affectionately, for Lucille Ball. She was pressing the old fashioned way in that hilarious episode! The press is like a large strainer. After the skins are loaded into the press, gentle pressure is applied, and the wine runs off, leaving the skins and seeds behind, trapped by a screen. The wine that was pressed is kept separate from the wine that was drained from the tank until Geoff has time to taste and evaluate how much, if any, press wine to blend back into the “free run” (the drained wine).

Aging

Next, he transfers the new wine to 60 gallon (300 bottles) French oak aging barrels. Barrel aging does two things:

1. It allows the wine to evaporate slowly, causing an evolution of color, flavor and aroma.
2. If the barrel is relatively new, it will contribute oak flavor (which, besides oak, can come across as vanilla, spice, or toasty and nutty aromas) to the wine.

Geoff selects barrels from a number of different producers, and oak from different forests in order to match the wine to the barrel stylistically. He may take one variety, such as the Merlot, and put it into a few different barrel types for a certain effect. Eventually, he will blend the different varieties together as one wine, and put that wine back into barrels for further maturation.

Blending To Make A Meritage Wine

The four varieties we grow on our estate are managed similarly in reference to the general procedures described above, but the individual batches of wine will vary in regard to Geoff’s choice of yeast, cap management, cold soak¹¹ or extended maceration¹². These are decisions he has to make by tasting each individual lot and calling upon his experience and judgment to make the call.

When he has a sense of what each batch has to offer, he makes up a number of trial blends. He will continue to taste and modify the trial blends until he finally has just the right balance and character. This is done over a period of months, beginning in the winter following harvest. Eventually, he makes a final blend, and puts it back into barrels, giving it some time to knit itself together in oak before bottling.

Finishing The Wine

During the course of aging, Geoff lets gravity pull the solids to the bottom of the barrel and moves the clear wine off of them periodically. This is called racking, and will be repeated several times over the approximately 18 months the wine spends in the barrel. Racking alone, rarely clarifies the wine adequately, and eventually, the wine is filtered and bottled.

Bottling is a nerve racking event that takes place only a few times a year here at Goosecross. The act of moving the wine from a large container to a small bottle affords many opportunities to expose the wine to air. If the wine picks up too much oxygen during bottling, it can undo all of the hard work that’s been done, leaving us with a wine that has a short shelf-life, and perhaps less character. The bottles are filled with inert nitrogen gas before and after filling with wine, to displace the oxygen. Periodic random samples are pulled from the bottling line for analysis to be sure that healthy wine reaches your hands.

The newly bottled wine looks very tempting, but several weeks must be allowed for it to recover from “bottle shock,” a period of dullness or even off-character that follows bottling. Geoff usually decides to allow more time for it to benefit from some additional bottle aging before we can finally release it to you.

With great pride, we released this first Estate Meritage in March of 2007 as the 2007 ÆROS Meritage. The ultimate reward of our hard work is knowing that it will be enjoyed by you, and your family and friends over the years to come.

Footnotes:

1. Mesoclimate: The climate of a vineyard site, hillside or valley. The term “microclimate” is used in its place extremely often. Microclimate correctly refers to the climate immediately surrounding the individual vine canopy (or green growth) and clusters. Vineyard and canopy management will strongly influence the microclimate, but not the mesoclimate. The mesoclimate belongs solely to Mother Nature.
2. Red Bordeaux varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec. We were advised against planting Malbec, a lesser known variety that is used mainly for color in Bordeaux.
3. Clone: sub-variety within a grape variety, such as Chardonnay, that has been replicated because of specific attributes such as flavor, productivity and adaptability to growing conditions
4. Rootstock hybrid: Vines of European origin, called vitis vinifera, cannot be grown on their own roots, due to lack of resistance to certain soil pests. They are grafted onto various rootstock hybrids that are resistant to the pests. Additionally, the hybrids are chosen for other beneficial traits, such as low or high vigor, drought resistance, etc.
5. Canopy management: Controlling the amount and placement of green growth relative to the clusters, primarily through trellising, and leaf and shoot thinning. Most often, the goal is to improve quality and suppress disease by increasing light and air exposure to the leaf surface and clusters.
6. Bench-grafts: Purchased grafts of the varietal and rootstock hybrid that are grafted by a professional nursery. The alternative is to graft in the field, called “field-budding.” Planting bench-grafts often gets a vineyard into production sooner than field-budding by hand.
7. Wind machines: Wind machines are powerful fans placed in the vineyard for frost control. They mix warmer air above, with the colder air settling on the vineyard to prevent damage.
8. Smudge pots: Also called “vineyard heaters,” smudge pots look like stove pipes surrounding the vineyard and burn diesel fuel or oil to warm the vines.
9. Suckering: Removing unwanted young shoots to keep the vine and crop in balance.
10. Fruit set (also called cluster set): The overall formation of the grape cluster following flowering. Normal clusters will be fully formed, with very few “shot berries” (missing grapes) and uniform grape size, depending on the variety or clone.
11. Cold soak: Allowing the juice and skins a few days of soaking before adding yeast to start the fermentation. The benefit is to extract relatively gentle skin tannin, without extracting harsher seed tannin. Once alcohol is present, it acts as a solvent and extracts tannin from the seeds.
12. Extended maceration: Allowing the wine and skins to soak together after fermentation is complete to extract additional flavor and texture.

How We Make Our Estate Meritage is a post from Goosecross Cellars. Copyright © 2011 Goosecross Cellars, All Rights Reserved.

The real fun and art of winemaking lies in the endless variables that come up along the way. Where and how to plant? When to harvest? How to handle the grapes at the winery? What kind of yeast to add? What kind of fermentation vessel should we use? Which barrels to buy? It goes on and on.

We’re going to focus on the choices that Geoff Gorsuch, our Winemaker, makes along the way to produce Goosecross Chardonnay every year.

Planting A Vineyard

Geoff will tell you that the wine can only be as good as the grapes that make it. There is no way to make a wonderful wine out of mediocre grapes, no matter how skilled the producer. Geoff’s goal is to get his hands on the best possible fruit and then to conserve the beauty of the fruit through attentive, but not intrusive, winemaking.

In our case, as a small, family winery, the winemaker is also the vineyard manager. Geoff is hands-on from the planting of the vines, every step of the way, until the wine is bottled.

You’ve heard the old real estate saw: “location, location, location.” Well, it truly applies in growing grapes for wine. Getting the right variety in the right location is 90% of the battle. We grow our Estate Chardonnay in the coolest region of Napa Valley, known as the Carneros Region. This is an ideal location for Chardonnay, where the grapes ripen slowly in the persistent morning fog, and cool evening breezes. The resulting prolonged “hangtime,” literally means that the Chardonnay has enough time on the vine to develop completely mature flavors and to delight us with a little tropical character. The soil is typical of Carneros, in that there is clay, but it is interspersed with some gravel and sand, improving drainage.

Before planting a vineyard like this, we bring in experts to take soil samples from various parts of the property, and also to measure the specific mesoclimate¹ throughout the vineyard. With this information, we can make good decisions about selecting the optimal clone² and root-stock hybrid³ for the site, and also set up the best spacing and row orientation for eventual wine quality.

For this site, we selected the low-vigor, SO4 rootstock in order to keep the yields down and flavors concentrated. A vertical trellis system⁴ in this location, running east-west, allows for plenty of light exposure to heighten fruitiness with very little risk of sunburn.

With these choices made, we lay out the posts, stakes and wires for the trellis. We dug the holes, planted and trained the vines and attached the trellis wires by hand. A drip irrigation system completes the installation.

From planting the rootstock or benchgrafts⁵, it is 3-4 years to the first small crop. We think of the vineyard as mature when it is 6 or 7 years old, and hope that it will be with us for decades.

A Year In The Vineyard

Once the vineyard is established, keeping the vines healthy is a year-round project. Surprisingly, the weather experienced in winter can have an influence on the timing, quantity and quality of the harvest to follow.

Winter

Grapevines are like roses in many respects. They drop all of their leaves and go dormant in the winter. This rest is very important to vineyard health and performance in the following season. Like roses, the vines require severe winter pruning to determine how many shoots and clusters will appear in the spring. Almost all of the growth from the previous season is pruned off, so that the vines will bear a small, intensely flavored crop.

If we have a long, cold winter, the vines “sleep in”, and come out of dormancy late. If the winter is mild, they’re likely to wake up (we call it “bud break”) early. Bud break is usually in the middle of March, but we’d much rather that it be late than early. Early bud break means the increased risk of frost damage. A beautiful, clear day in the late winter/early spring can turn into a freezing, cold night. The newly exposed, tender buds will be damaged if the temperature drops below 32° F. The risk lasts through mid-May. This can lead to many nights of poor sleep for growers all over the valley. Geoff and Rosario, his assistant, may have to get up in the middle of the night several times during these months, to protect the vines from frost using wind machines⁶ and smudge pots⁷. The upside of early bud-break is that it can translate into an early harvest and reduces our risk of rain damage on the other end. It all depends on the weather that follows.

Spring

Early spring is a period we call “great growth” in the vineyard, because the new shoots grow like gang-busters. We sometimes imagine we can see them grow! This great growth creates a lot of work, including weed cultivation, suckering⁸ and thinning. The suckering is done by hand, and is like a post-pruning. We dormant-prune with the idea that we’ll get certain results, but inevitably, the vines do as they please, and require more of our attention. Once the shoots are a few inches long, Geoff can begin walking the vine rows to make sure they’re developing well, and also to look for signs of disease or nutrient deficiencies. This continues throughout the growing season.

The buds flower and form clusters around mid-May. We are fortunate that the flowers are self-pollinating, so we don’t have to worry about bees or wind. We only worry about the weather. Too much rain or excess heat can impair pollination and lead to crop loss (also called “shatter”). Again, we are fortunate because, normally, we don’t see rain for several months after the end of April. The weather is blessedly boring and predictable most years, and generally leads to good “fruit set.”⁹ Once the crop is set, we count the clusters. Of course, there’s nothing we can do about too few, but if we count more clusters than we anticipate the vines can ripen well, we drop the excess on the ground right then and there.

Summer

When the grapes first form, regardless of the variety, they look like tiny green beads. They’re not recommended for tasting at that point because they’re highly acidic. They plump and develop amazingly quickly. Usually, by mid-July, they’re full size, and the dark varieties begin to soften and change color (we call this veraison). White varieties like Chardonnay go through a much more subtle color change, going from a bright, spring green to more of a yellow-green as they soften.

During this time, Geoff continues to walk the vineyard to make sure it’s healthy, and he monitors the leaf canopy and clusters to see if we need to do further shoot, leaf or crop thinning.

Irrigation may be necessary a few times during the long, dry season, but Geoff prefers to keep it to the minimum. Too much irrigation or fertilization may take away from flavor intensity. He can test the vines in different parts of the vineyard to see if they’re becoming water-stressed and respond accordingly.

Late Summer and Harvest

Veraison is the signal that the grapes are beginning to get sweet, and the acid is decreasing. It means it’s time to begin “field sampling.” Geoff and Rosario take samples from all over the vineyard to monitor the sugar, acid and pH. Repeated monitoring of these numbers over the weeks gives them a ballpark idea of when the vineyard will be ready for harvest. Geoff makes the final decision to harvest by tasting. The most important thing is for the flavors to be fully developed. He bites right into the seed to make sure it’s crunchy and mature. If the seeds are still green, they can impart some very bitter tannins to the wine. He takes a good look at the vineyard. Vineyards have a certain look when they’re finished for the season. If the shoots are still growing vigorously, it’s not a good sign. The wine may have some “green” character that we don’t find attractive if the vineyard’s not ready to wind down for the year. That greenness and general lack of character and body are the risks of picking too soon.

Once the vineyard is ready, we’ve got to be quick! The sugar changes a little every day, and if the weather’s hot, it goes up frighteningly quickly. If we wait too long we risk high-alcohol wine with raisiny or pruney character.

We pick everything by hand. Our goal is to deliver grapes as perfectly ripe as nature allows, free of leaves, raisins or mold. This is a lot to ask, so each year we hire the same well-trained men who are paid above the industry standard to be selective. Again, the wine can’t be any better than the grapes that make it! The crew begins as soon as it’s light enough to see, and finishes around lunch-time, getting themselves and the grapes in, before it gets too hot.

Unfortunately, fresh grapes don’t improve with age, and it’s important to get them to the winery as quickly as possible once they’re picked. The commute from the vineyard to the winery is about 20 minutes.

The Crush

You’d think that Geoff has enough to do just taking care of the vineyards, but he also has to get the winery ready before the first box of grapes arrives. He and Rosario sanitize all of the equipment, and make sure it’s in good working order. They re-sanitize long empty fermentation tanks and barrels to be sure they are immaculately clean. “Dirty wineries make funky wine!” (un-attributed quote).

When the grapes arrive, they feed them into the Crusher/Stemmer. As the name implies, the grapes are separated from their stems and broken open. The term “crushing” can be misleading, because it sounds violent. In fact, the grapes are broken open by very soft, rubber rollers. Rough handling in the beginning will be repaid with bitter flavors later! The crushed and de-stemmed grapes (called “must”), are transferred to the press. We have named our press Lucy, affectionately, for Lucille Ball. She was pressing the old fashioned way in that hilarious episode! The press is like a large strainer. After the must is placed in the press, gentle pressure is applied and the juice flows off, leaving the skins and seeds behind, trapped by a screen.

Fermentation

About half of the juice goes into temperature controlled, stainless steel tanks, and the other half into 60 gallon French oak barrels. It isn’t necessary to do this in two parts, but we find the resulting style very appealing. The juice in the stainless steel tank ferments at low temperatures, and makes Chardonnay that is highly aromatic, and intensely fruity. The juice that ferments in the barrel produces wine that’s a little richer and fuller. Later, Geoff blends the tank and barrel fermented wines together for a beautiful balance of freshness and richness in the finished wine.

After transferring the juice to the tank or barrel, Geoff adds a proprietary yeast strain. The yeast consumes the sugar in the juice, converting it to heat, CO2 and alcohol. This is a completely natural process that has been going on since the beginning of time. When all of the sugar is used up, we say the wine is dry, and the fermentation is over. This may take around 3 weeks.

Aging

When the fermentation is complete, the wine that was fermented in tanks is transferred to aging barrels. The wine that was fermented in barrels, stays there to age “sur lie,” which means aging it on the yeast and grape solids that have settled. The sur lie aging will give the Chardonnay a greater richness and a creamy, fuller mouth feel. Geoff stirs the lees up into the aging wine in each barrel at least weekly to accentuate the effect.

Our signature style for Chardonnay here at Goosecross Cellars is always very fruit-forward, with bright acidity. To accomplish this, aside from the two fermentation techniques described above, Geoff prevents the Chardonnay from undergoing malo-lactic fermentation¹⁰, and the wine stays in the barrels for about four-to-six months. He tastes the wine as it ages in the barrel looking for maturation and integration. He wants these qualities to come through without picking up too much oak flavor along the way. The oak should complement the grape flavors and not mask the beautiful fruit character he worked so hard for out in the vineyard. Geoff always says he likes the grapes to “brag about themselves” in the bottle.

When he has decided that the Chardonnay has had the right amount of barrel time, Geoff begins blending the different barrel lots together and returns the wine to stainless steel tanks for final clarification and bottling.

Finishing The Wine

The wine self-clarifies to a degree as it ages, but it’s rarely clear enough to bottle at the end of barrel aging. In the process of removing the wine from barrels, Geoff is careful to see that the cloudy solids that have settled to the bottom of the barrel are left behind. This is called racking. He racks the wine a few more times before it’s finally filtered and bottled.

Bottling is a nerve racking event that takes place only a few times a year here at Goosecross. The act of moving the wine from a large container to a small bottle affords many opportunities to expose the wine to air. If the wine picks up too much oxygen during bottling, it can undo all of the hard work that’s been done, leaving us with a wine that has a short shelf-life, and perhaps less character. The bottles are filled with inert nitrogen gas before and after filling with wine, to displace the oxygen. Periodic random samples are pulled from the bottling line for analysis, to be sure that healthy wine reaches your hands.

The newly bottled wine looks very tempting, but several weeks must be allowed for it to recover from “bottle shock,” a period of dullness or even off-character that follows bottling. Geoff usually decides to allow more time for it to benefit from some additional bottle aging before we can finally release it to you.

The joy of wine making is in working with nature, and relying on our instincts and experience to create “Bottled Poetry.”¹¹ It’s a long road, but after all of the thought, work and care that went in to taking it from the vine to the bottle, the ultimate reward is knowing that the fruit of our efforts is being enjoyed by you, with your family and friends.

Footnotes:

1. Mesoclimate: The climate of a vineyard site, hillside or valley. The term “microclimate” is used in its place extremely often. Microclimate correctly refers to the climate immediately surrounding the individual vine canopy (or green growth) and clusters. Vineyard and canopy management will strongly influence the microclimate, but not the mesoclimate. The mesoclimate belongs to Mother Nature.
2. Clone: A clone is a sub-variety within a grape variety, such as Chardonnay, that has been replicated because of specific attributes such as flavor, productivity and adaptability to growing conditions
3. Rootstock hybrid: Vines of European origin, called vitis vinifera, cannot be grown on their own roots, due to lack of resistance to certain soil pests. They are grafted onto various rootstock hybrids that are resistant to the pests. Additionally, the hybrids are chosen for other beneficial traits, such as low or high vigor, drought resistance, etc.
4. Vertical trellis system (also called vertical shoot positioning): The vines are trained in such a way that the shoots grow vertically. As they grow longer, the shoots are tucked into trellis wires above them to maintain the vertical direction, providing maximum light exposure to the leaf surface.
5. Bench-grafts: Purchased grafts of the varietal and rootstock hybrid that are grafted by a professional nursery. The alternative is to graft in the field, called “field-budding.” Planting bench-grafts often gets a vineyard into production sooner than field-budding by hand.
6. Wind machines: Wind machines are powerful fans placed in the vineyard for frost protection. They mix warmer air above, with the colder air settling on the vineyard to prevent damage.
7. Smudge pots: Also called “vineyard heaters,” smudge pots look like stove pipes surrounding the vineyard and burn diesel fuel or oil to warm the vines.
8. Suckering: Removing unwanted young shoots to keep the vine and crop in balance.
9. Fruit set (also called cluster set): The overall formation of the grape cluster following flowering. Normal clusters will be fully formed, with very few “shot berries” (missing grapes) and uniform grape size, depending on the variety or clone.
10. Malo-lactic fermentation: Malo-lactic fermentation converts tart malic acid to soft lactic acid, effectively lowering the total acidity of the wine. Virtually all red wines under-go this “secondary fermentation.” For Chardonnay, the diacetyl produced by the Malo-lactic fermentation, makes the wine smell buttery, and gives it a little more weight.
11. Bottled Poetry: Robert Louis Stevenson described the wines of Napa Valley as “bottled poetry” back in the late 1800s, when he lived here briefly.

How We Make Our Estate Chardonnay is a post from Goosecross Cellars. Copyright © 2011 Goosecross Cellars, All Rights Reserved.