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What is Veraison? is a post from Goosecross Cellars. Copyright © 2011 Goosecross Cellars, All Rights Reserved.

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How Long Do Grape Vines Live? is a post from Goosecross Cellars. Copyright © 2011 Goosecross Cellars, All Rights Reserved.

So, how’s it going? Of course, you expect me to say it’s going great, so I’ll be pleased to oblige! After the roller coaster that was 2008, this has been a beautiful growing season.

Number one, flavors are right where I want them. Beautiful balance, great flavor intensity.

Number two, yields are nice and normal. In some cases, like our Cabernet Franc, even generous! That’s a relief, although not surprising. When the vines pull back one year they often pour it on in the next.

As we reported, at the end of August, we started our harvest significantly later than we did in 2008. Aside from a few heat blasts along the way, this has been a decidedly cool growing season. Some wineries are still quite a bit behind schedule, but we’ve caught up nicely, thanks to that warm September. Early isn’t the best, in most cases, because it may mean inadequate “hang time” in terms of flavor maturity, unless the whole season was early. Late is a little scary because we can run into rain. A little rain doesn’t much matter, but heavy rainfall can cause rot, mildew, dilution…  Some varieties are more susceptible than others.

So, we’ve got Petit Verdot – all three rows of it coming in Sunday and Syrah, probably, next week and we’re home free! Let’s hope Mother Nature continues to smile on us! Cheers!

Harvest Update from Goosecross is a post from Goosecross Cellars. Copyright © 2011 Goosecross Cellars, All Rights Reserved.

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The grapes are changing color! 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.

Geoff Gorsuch shows how and why shoots are thinned in the vineyard.

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Goosecross: Springtime Shoot Thinning is a post from Goosecross Cellars. Copyright © 2011 Goosecross Cellars, All Rights Reserved.

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Cluster Thinning 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.

They say that if Cabernet Sauvignon is the thinking man’s wine, Pinot Noir is pure pleasure. But, it’s viewed as a problem child in both the vineyard and the winery, and perhaps the only reason it’s survived over the centuries is that when it comes together just right, it makes some of the silkiest, most sensual of wines.

This is perhaps the oldest variety we know and researchers believe it’s probably a selection from wild vines made by the Romans perhaps as long as 2000 years ago. It appears that Pinot Noir was called Morillon Noir in the Burgundy region of France in the 4th century AD, and by the 14th century it was still known by several names, including Pinot Noir. It was grown in different parts of France, but the Burgundy region made it famous and it was and is a key player in the Champagne region.

If you’ve noticed some variability among the Pinot Noirs you’ve tried, one likely explanation is the difficulty of cultivation. It buds early in the spring, exposing it to frost damage and flowers early, too, increasing the risk of poor pollination. It’s best confined to the coolest wine-growing regions or it loses aromatics and acidity. The yields must be kept low and it has to be handled with kid gloves in the winery, too, or the results don’t justify the effort.

Another reason for variability is that it’s an unstable variety, and tends to mutate more readily than other varieties. It’s not uncommon to find one or more vines in a section with a single shoot that has characteristics that differ from the others on the same plant. If you took cuttings from several different vines from and old Pinot vineyard to start another, you’d probably end up with a number of slightly different representations of Pinot Noir, and some of them better than others. It’s only been relatively recently that we’ve realized that we need to make careful and controlled clonal selections if we want to grow top notch fruit.

This is an early-maturing variety that needs to ripen slowly, which explains why it found a happy home in Burgundy and Champagne. It grows all over eastern France and you can also find it in Germany, Switzerland and parts of northern Italy. Pinot Noir from the new world didn’t make much of an impression until relatively recently. Here in California, for the most part, it made dull, light-bodied red wine until about the 1980s when we began to get smart about clones and where to plant it. The breezy marine influence of the Carneros region is our home for Pinot in the Napa Valley and it does very well in other cool spots in California, notably the Russian River Valley, Sonoma Coast, Santa Maria and Santa Rita Hills AVA. Oregon came on strong about the same time we geared up here in California and there’s a lot of excitement about the Pinot coming out of New Zealand.

Pinot Noir prefers to fly solo, in most cases, rather than being blended and tends to reflect its environment more than having a dominant, unmistakable flavor profile. In fact it’s been said that the Burgundians view Pinot Noir as a vehicle for expressing the local terroir more than a showcase for their efforts. The most common descriptors are those of red fruit, like strawberries and raspberries and often a sense of gaminess or earthiness. It’s a thin-skinned grape so the wine is usually very soft on the palate. You can find ones with tremendous color concentration and big tannins but Pinot Noir is more often a subtle, graceful red.

The silky texture makes Pinot Noir easy to enjoy when it’s young and very versatile at the table. It’s a favorite with salmon, but it can run the gamut from grilled Ahi, to the Thanksgiving turkey to roast lamb or a good steak. The soft tannins also make Pinot Noir an easier match with cheese than other reds so it’s a great one to include in your wine and cheese party with cheeses that range from semi-soft to quite firm. You can find delicious recipes to pair with Pinot Noir or any other variety if you go to Colleen’s Kitchen.

Pinot Noir is a post from Goosecross Cellars. Copyright © 2011 Goosecross Cellars, All Rights Reserved.

The glassy-winged sharpshooter is actually an insect, about one half-inch long. It feeds on the water-conducting tissue of over 35 different kinds of plants and crops, including table grapes and wine grapes.

The feeding itself isn’t the problem. The problem occurs when the insect carries harmful bacteria, Xylella fastidiosa, that causes diseases in plants, including almonds, oleander and alfalfa among others. Certain strains of Xylella can also seriously affect citrus and stone fruits, but we haven’t seen them in California so far. For grapes it means Pierce’s Disease, an extremely serious problem.

Here’s how it works: The sharpshooter feeds on an infected plant, and then transmits the bacteria when it feeds on the next plant. The bacteria get into the grapevine and multiply, spreading throughout the plant’s system, blocking the movement of water, nutrients and minerals. Growth is stunted, the leaves dry and turn yellow and the fruit colors prematurely. Eventually, as the vine becomes weaker, the grapes won’t ripen.

Worst of all, there’s no known cure for Pierce’s Disease – the only solution is to rip up infected vines and replant. So avoiding Pierce’s in the first place is paramount to growers which means fighting the glassy-winged sharpshooter.

Not a new battle, but one with a new seriousness…

Pierce’s Disease has actually been around for quite a while. Back in the 1880s, it wiped out 40,000 acres of grapevines in Southern California. And grape growers throughout the state have been suffering its consequences ever since.

The disease is known in all the southern grape-growing states, from Florida to California and down through Central America and the northern-most parts of South America.

Until recently, Pierce’s Disease was known to be carried by blue-green, green, and red-headed sharpshooters. But with the arrival of the glassy-winged sharpshooter, things got substantially more serious because the glassy-winged sharpshooter has the ability to spread Pierce’s faster than ever.

A stronger opponent…

It used to be that Pierce’s generally affected the perimeters of vineyards. But the glassy-winged sharpshooter changed all that, because it flies farther, faster and deeper into vineyards than its relatives. It flies in greater numbers, wreaking far greater havoc than other sharpshooters ever could. It’s also thought that, since this bug feeds lower on the plant, it could enable vine-to-vine spread of infection – something growers haven’t had to deal with before. If this occurs, they can expect the problem to increase exponentially.

Where did this new army come from?

Most believe the glassy-winged sharpshooter was accidentally introduced to Southern California as eggs on nursery stock. It was first noted in Ventura County in 1990. The growing region of Temecula, in northern San Diego County, noticed a problem back in 1996. By 1997, the damage was spreading like wildfire, and by August of 2000, between $12 and $14 billion of Temecula grapevines had been wiped out. From Temecula, the glassy-winged sharpshooter has worked its way north through several counties and has been sited In Solano County, just over the Vaca range from Napa County. A little too close for comfort.

New armor being developed…

The California Department of Food and Agriculture established a task force and research is underway in coordination with other state agencies, state universities and agricultural organizations to find effective weapons against the glassy-winged sharpshooter. One study, for example, is working to see if altering the nutrition of the grapevine will make it more resistant to Pierce’s.

At the minimum, grape growers maintain a vigilant lookout for the glassy-winged sharpshooter. In fact, citizens all over Northern California have been educated about the pest, through the distribution of pamphlets and brochures with photos and information. Growers are also monitoring their vineyards with sticky traps, and inspecting plants for the bugs and their eggs.

While pesticides are being used in large agricultural areas, biological controls are being studied where pesticide usage isn’t feasible or desirable. Goosecross Cellars, among many other growers in the Napa Valley, prefers to farm naturally and so chemicals aren’t considered an acceptable solution. Other potential solutions being studied include physical barriers, injecting vines with antibiotics and genetic engineering.
In the area of biological controls, we’ve seen great promise with the introduction of a tiny, stingerless wasp – a natural enemy of the glassy-winged sharpshooter. It was imported from Mexico, and has been released in various infested counties throughout California. The wasp parasitizes the sharpshooter by laying its eggs inside those of the sharpshooter. The newborn wasps eventually eat their way out. This has proven to reduce the glassy-winged sharpshooter population without introducing new problems. The hope is that they will reproduce successfully, find the glassy-winged sharpshooter larvae and will become permanent populations. Other parasitic beneficial insects are being tested and appear to be our best hope.
Wisely, Napa County has become a quarantined area, and any plant material entering the county is inspected for the glassy-winged sharpshooter. Residents of Napa County are strongly encouraged to purchase plants from nurseries within the county.

Make no mistake about it, for California’s $2.8 billion wine, raisin and table grape industry, this is war and it looks to be a long one. Those of us on the sidelines should keep our fingers crossed – and keep an eye out for the enemy, the glassy-winged sharpshooter.

For a color copy of the official University of California’s Pierce’s Disease Research And Emergency Task Force Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter Brochure, click here.

The Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter… It’s War! is a post from Goosecross Cellars. Copyright © 2011 Goosecross Cellars, All Rights Reserved.

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Regarding the smoke, some local growers are hypothesizing that the smoky haze that hung around at the end of June and early July might have actually provided some protection, when we had a few days of extreme heat, by keeping the temperature down. In some regions, such as Mendocino, there were concerns that the heavy smoke they experienced would slow down photosynthesis and possibly even cause smoke taint. We were very fortunate that our haze was relatively light and we don’t necessarily view delayed ripening as a negative, unless it’s taken to the extreme.

Veraison, the time when the grapes begin to change color, began right on time, around the middle of July. Veraison is the vine’s way of telling the grower that its energy has shifted from shoot development into fruit ripening. Shortly after veraison is complete, it’s time to being gathering grape samples to monitor fruit maturity. Geoff walks the vine rows, collecting grapes from each section of our vineyard, then measures the average sugar, acid and pH. Once the section has reached an average of 20% sugar, he’ll begin tasting, which is the over-riding consideration in deciding when to harvest.

We were surprised when many local growers began harvesting their Sauvignon Blanc the second week of August and in tandem with the sparkling wine growers. In a year of many quirks, this is just another odd twist. Normally the grapes for sparkling wine come in earlier than table-wine grapes because they need to be picked at lower sugars (usually around 18-20% for sparkling wine and about 21% and up for table wine). But, the first reported harvest, here in the valley, began with Sauvignon Blanc on August 7 – about three weeks ahead of normal according to that grower. Following that announcement, quite a few other Sauvignon Blanc producers jumped into the pool. Geoff predicted that our Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc wouldn’t be ready until pretty close to Labor Day, but he took the precaution of getting the cellar all shipshape and sanitized by middle of August, just in case. As of this moment, he plans to bring in the Chenin Blanc on August 27, just very slightly early.

We expect to see the Sauvignon Blanc very soon after we crush the Chenin Blanc and then it will be non-stop until, most likely, mid October. It all depends on the weather!

Be sure to check our Harvest Calendar, frequently, to experience “crush” along with us! For the July 1 update, click here.

1. Shatter: This term is used to describe crop loss due to impaired pollination. Normally this will mean missing grapes from within the cluster rather than the loss of the whole cluster. The most common cause of shatter is heavy rain, hail, strong wind or extreme heat.

2008 Vintage Update, Part 2 is a post from Goosecross Cellars. Copyright © 2011 Goosecross Cellars, All Rights Reserved.

So, what do we do about it? As they say, 80% of success is just showing up and Geoff, our winemaker/vineyard manager, soon lost track of how many nights he showed up, driving around the vineyard checking temperatures. Damage starts when the temperature drops below 32F. and, if it’s getting close, he turns on the wind machine, which looks like a giant fan. It simply moves the air so the coldest won’t settle down on the vineyard. Some growers use smudge pots, which burn oil or diesel, to warm the vines, and others use overhead sprinklers to keep the new growth insulated right at 32. There are growers who take a calculated risk and don’t have any frost protection and many of those growers paid the price this year. And, some vineyard managers reported crop loss in spite of showing up and doing the work. We count ourselves very lucky to have come through such a challenging situation unscathed.

Daytime temperatures were fine and the new shoots grew like crazy, as they always do, in the early spring. We spend time in April and May refining the work we did at pruning time. It’s very common to see more shoots than we anticipated and suckers that don’t belong, so we thin them out and also tuck the remaining ones up into the trellis wires as they lengthen.

May was cooler than normal, for the most part, until it suddenly heated up just as the vines began to flower, mid month. We had temperatures around 100F. for about four days, which can burn the flowers and cause crop loss. About a week later we saw significant rainfall, which is another way to impair pollination.

A blessed oddity of the grape flower is that it’s self pollinating. This means we don’t have to concern ourselves about bees or wind – just the weather.

After making his cluster counts, Geoff, again, counted his blessings because while he saw some loss in the Cabernet Franc it wasn’t severe and the clusters generally appear to be well formed. In fact, there was cluster thinning to do in almost all sections of the vineyard, especially the irrepressible Petit Verdot. The winter pruning is the greatest tool we have to determine crop size but, ultimately the vine calls the shots. Of course, when the counts show a deficit, there’s nothing to be done. More often, in our very favorable climate, we see more than we anticipated and thinning is essential to promote flavor intensity later on. He will continue to evaluate the crop level as the season progresses.

Shoot development looks good and Geoff has continued removing shoots and leaves, strategically, to improve light exposure, which heightens fruitiness. The thinning also improves air flow, and helps keep the risk of mold or mildew to the minimum. As soon as the shoot growth tapers off he’ll hedge the tips. Hedging the shoots keeps the leaf canopy in balance with the crop which prevents excess shading and plays down potential green character.

The grapes look like small peas, right now, and aren’t recommended for tasting! They’ll continue to plump to the size of small blueberries and should start turning color later this month. We’ll be back a little later with another update. Keep your fingers crossed for a mild summer!

2008 Vintage Update, Part 1 is a post from Goosecross Cellars. Copyright © 2011 Goosecross Cellars, All Rights Reserved.

In this episode, Nancy Hawks Miller, our Director of Education, will tell you a little about how they’re identified and what kind of influence they have on the finished wine.

As always, especially for our listeners, we are pleased to offer a 10% discount on all Goosecross wines (with free shipping for case purchases). Please call us toll-free at (800) 276-9210 and mention code: PC48. Cheers!

NVWR® 48 – Why do Clones Matter? is a post from Goosecross Cellars. Copyright © 2011 Goosecross Cellars, All Rights Reserved.