Larkmead Vineyards Harvest 2008

posted by Dan in Snooth, Wine, Guest Bloggers

Larkmead Vineyards Harvest 2008

Harvesting Hot

On August 15 Larkmead Vineyards commenced its 125th harvest.  And it was not the only three digits we reached on this day.  Temperatures topped 105 degrees on the Vineyard. Some say that good things come in threes – this year at Larkmead, most major wine activity took place on days that temperatures eclipsed 100 degrees.  On May 15 and 16 when bottling 2007 Sauvignon Blanc and 2006 Firebelle, temperatures reached 102 degrees both days.  On July 8, while bottling 2006 Cabernet, temp topped 108 causing us to postpone the next two days of bottling.  And with the start of Harvest 2008, as noted above, another scorcher.  There are other ‘F’ words I could use to describe this penchant for pyromania.  Far. From. Frigid.  (And you thought….)  Anticipating the heat this harvest day, we began picking just before 6 a.m. when temperatures hadn’t yet reached 60 degrees.  This is not only good for the workers, but also the fruit that is hydrated from a chilly night and early morning fog.

Chasing Harvest

Each year in <insert wine region of choice>, harvest brings a buzz of activity in the vineyard and wineries can be found working around the clock.  Since harvest is our most intense time, where days bleed into nights and weekdays into weekends for months on end, we need extra help in the cellar to start the winemaking process.  Coupled with the migrant farm workers manning the vines, you’ll see a number of International interns stomping around the cellar and singing the praises of winemaking in many different languages.  This year at Larkmead we have the help of two young winemaking-wannabes.  One joins us from South Africa (right) where he is Assistant Cellarmaster for Jordan winery and the other from the East Coast who recently worked harvest 2007 at a winery in Virginia.

Pressing

All grape juice is clear (or a translucent color of sort).  Red wine gets its color from the juice’s contact with its skin during the extended extraction of fermentation.  White wine gets pressed off the skins immediately to allow the juice to ferment on its own.  For our Sauvignon Blanc we used a two-hour press cycle that gradually builds pressure to squeeze flavor from the grape.  When the grape juice drops into the press pan its immediate contact with air (i.e. oxygen) causes a browning effect.  Not much different from leaving a cut up apple on a cheese plate for too long.  This is where that demon sulfur comes into play.  Sulfur binds with dissolved oxygen in grape (or fruit) juice and basically eliminates it.  We’ll sulfur the juice to kick-start the clarifying process and then let fermentation take over the rest.

Fermenting

Over the past couple of years, we’ve tried different vinification methods to gain complexity in our Sauvignon Blanc.  Traditionally you’ll ferment Sauvignon Blanc in Stainless Steel tanks. We’ve employed this method along with fermenting in barrel to allow the juice closer contact with its lees (the rich, textured, paint like substance that settles out of a wine during fermentation).  This year with our Sauvignon Blanc we are using a small percentage of New French Oak (10%) and Stainless Steel barrels (15%) along with the remainder in older, ‘neutral,’ French barrels.  Each vessel will have an impact on the flavors and texture of the wine.  When blended the wine will offer a more diverse set of characteristics than your standard, steely, racy Sauvignon Blanc.  Our goal is to create a wine with aromatic intensity (fruit) on the front end while maintaining a similar preponderance in the mouth (oak) and freshness (steel) on the finish.

Dan Petroski is Assistant Winemaker at Larkmead Vineyards in Napa Valley. Dan has an MBA from New York University and worked as an Ad Exec in New York for several years, before switching it up and trading his suit for a move out west.

Harvest 2008

posted by Dan in Snooth, Wine, Guest Bloggers

I am about one week away from dedicating three months of my life (ten to twelve hour days, seven days a week) to the 2008 Harvest.  My hope in my future Snooth posts is to impart some of what is going on, in words and pictures, during harvest to relay some insight to the ‘crush.’  My first thoughts on harvest are - we don’t crush anything!  The word ‘crush’ in relation to winemaking is one of my wine word pet-peeves.  To ‘crush’ something connotes an act of violence which pulverizes and destroys the entity.  To paraphrase the great Angelo Gaja, anyone can make wine, but only a few can make an elegant wine. So, here and in the future, I promise not to use the word ‘crush,’ again.  (And I hope you don’t either.)

Although our neighbors have been, we haven’t harvested any fruit yet.  Sauvignon Blanc is hanging in the wings with a decision to be made by the time you read these words.  So, to begin the begin, I will give you a short back story to the current vintage year.  But first, I must say that there has been a great deal of hype on the effects of climate change on wine grape growers.  A conference as part of the World Meeting on Climate Change and Wine took place in Sonoma last week.  Sadly, I was unable to attend, but after reading the news reports and the research posted online, the one thing we can deduce for certain is that we don’t have the empirical data to prove anything at the moment.  Earlier this year, the Napa Valley Vintners Association released a statement regarding the issues surrounding the climate threat.  It reads, “The headlines are frightening and frequent and suggest Napa Valley is [being] singled out as the winegrowing region at risk due to global warming.”  Napa vintners are not trying to pass the buck on the issue, but the reality is that Napa’s brand name speaks volumes more than the actual amount of wine produced in the State of California - Napa produces just 4% of all wine from California.  The debate will continue on, for the good of all of us, but thankfully beneath the sheen of travel and tourism and commercial cult wines, the vast amount of Napa wine growers are fiercely loyal to preserving their agricultural wherewithal and those who aren’t have the money to help plot out the ‘road map’ to deal with climatic changes to protect their investments.

So, what’s going on?  What follows is a short history of the roller-coaster ride that Mother Nature, dressed as Al Gore, has been driving the last couple of years in Napa.

2004.  After a cool start to the year, an oppressively hot summer produced a small crop of tight, ripe berries and high-octane wines that received critical acclaim for power and structure.  Most Napa wines from 2004 are still unapproachable in my opinion.

2005.  A long, cool, growing season with record rainfall allowed slow, balanced maturation of grape clusters that produced elegant, nuanced wines that have been drinking decidedly well since release last year.

2006.  Rainfall returned to normal levels, a heat spike in July and temperature drop off during the picking months of September and October left the grapes hanging on the vines a little longer than anticipated causing the creation of intense, concentrated wines with firm, gripping tannins.  Most 2006 wines have just been bottled and their outlook is age-worthy.  Age-worthy being the term for ‘look out for youthful tannins attacking your palate.’

2007. Drought conditions, warmer than average Spring temperatures and a massive heat wave in August threatened the quality of the vintage.  The above factors restricted yields, not necessarily a bad thing, and when cooler temperatures returned during the harvest months, patient wine growers saw grape clusters re-hydrate and come into balance.  From the start of harvest, the quality of the ‘07 wines have been considered exceptional.  The wines are showing intensity offset with elegance; concentration with complexity, power with refinement.  A knock-out vintage.

2008.  Drought conditions continued into Winter ‘08; combined rainfall from the past two years does not even equal the average level of rainfall reached in 2006.  Spring weather has been the coldest in thirty-plus years with a month-long frost that reeked havoc with grape growers.  Consecutive months, starting in May, saw freakish heat spikes during a relatively cool summer.  Vineyards that weren’t hit hard with frost are seeing variable cluster growth and maturation and yields lower than the previous year.  It is too early to forecast the quality of the vintage year because everyone who has been managing vineyards in the Valley for the prior decades have seen nothing like it.  So, stay tuned and I can hopefully share some insights as we move forward with this year’s harvest.

Dan Petroski is Assistant Winemaker at Larkmead Vineyards in Napa Valley. Dan has an MBA from New York University and worked as an Ad Exec in New York for several years, before switching it up and trading his suit for a move out west.