Left Coast Cowboys

It’s been a scary few weeks for grape growers in Sonoma and Napa Counties, what with two long-lasting, drenching and unseasonable storms hitting us at the end of growing season. The problem with late season rain on vineyards is that, just when you are trying to get the grapes to concentrate their flavors (most of us have turned off irrigation for the last month or so), a sudden downpour causes the grapes to swell with water. The best case result: watery, less concentrated juice. Worst case result: the grapes swell so suddenly they burst, inviting mold and insects. Faithful readers will already know that we did a panic harvest of the Grenache and Mourvedre, finishing just hours before the last huge rainstorm hit us. Luckily the Cinsault was already in primary fermentation. The Cabernet was nowhere near ripe enough to harvest. And even with rain threatening, if the grapes aren’t ripe — well picking is useless. But we’ve been advised that Cabernet grapes are tough as old boots. Barring precipitation of Biblical magnitude — we’re talking frogs, toads and bearded prophets throwing burning bushes — Cabernet can take anything. Never willing to accept such things just on a say-so, I went into the vineyards to assess the damage.

Actually, my first step was to bring out the Big Guns. Not that I actually wanted to stop rain. In semi-arid areas like California, where we’ve been known to have seven year droughts, you never pray for rain to stop. But you might want it redirected somewhere else, such as the Sierras, where the snowpack really determines our water situation. So again, the Big Guns. That means the Kachinas. I put them out, faced them to the rain and made my request. Next day the skies cleared. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

Behold the power of the Kachina. This is Eagle Dancer from the Four Corners area of the Southwest.

So out into the vineyards. And yes, there was damage. Not as much as I had expected. And most of it concentrated at the end of the rows.

Here's a bunch with some burst grapes. You can see the wasp already on the job.

Whew! Look at this wasp food fight.

So next step: walk the vineyard, row by row, gathering a berry from almost every vine, and putting them in a ziplock bag.

Grape ripeness can vary so wildly throughout a vineyard, and even throughout a row, that you really need a representative berry from almost every vine to get a real sample.

Then smoosh with the fist.

And mash with the foot.

You need enough juice to do your battery of tests.

So here’s the good news: the pH is at 3.66 which is pretty close to the acceptable level. The Specific Gravity is 1100 which is just about where you want to think about picking the grapes. And the all important BRIX level is 23. Cabernet is typically picked at anywhere between 25 to 29 BRIX. So what our readings tell us is that our Cabernet is just getting ripe enough that, given the current weather report, we should be able to get it dried out and ripened a bit more then picked before the next expected rainstorm. We’re estimating next week around Thursday for the harvest. Given some warmer weather — hopefully at least a few days in the 80s — and we should be able to salvage this.

John the Baptist took a few damaged bunches home to his horticulturist wife. She diagnosed them with a certain kind of mold with a long Latin name. John couldn’t remember what it was. Thanks, John, but it doesn’t matter the name. There is NO mold that is a good thing for wine grapes. The trick is going to be to harvest only the undamaged grapes and let the rest just stay on the vines for the birds and the wasps. Explaining that to the Mexican crews should put a good strain on my first year Spanish.

And in a final positive note, at least from Oscar’s perspective, the rains didn’t wash away the latest baby deer carcass he buried somewhere in the vineyard. In fact, he thinks it improved the flavor.

But just to be safe, Oscar dragged it into the living loft of the barn and hid it under the bed. Nice one, Oscar.

We had a late and unusually cool and wet spring this year, so everyone was worried that it would push out the grape harvest. Compared to last year, the grapes were much further behind in ripeness. Then a sudden heat spell in August seems to have kick started things. But if you aren’t sure, you bring out your wine science experiments. There’s plenty of that associated with winemaking. In fact, we have a little shed adjacent to the wine cave that we call “Dr. Frankenwine’s Lab” which is chock full of science-y type stuff and experiments and measurements just waiting to be conducted. But first, it’s out to the field to gather a representative collection of berries from one of our varietals. Today, it was the Cabernet, our “cash crop”.

You walk down the length of the varietal's rows grabbing a berry here and a berry there. You put your representative berries in a Zip-Lock bag.

Squish up the berries into a pulp, then carefully leak a few drops on the screen of your handy field Refractometer.

Hold the Refactometer up to the light and HEY Presto! You'll find out the Brix level of your varietal.

A quick Science Note: the Brix level (or just “the Brix”) is roughly defined as the specific gravity of the grape juice or the sugar to water ratio. Since the sugar will feed the yeasts that convert the grape juice to wine, we want a certain amount of sugar. But not so much that it has too much sugar at the expense of acid. So you want to harvest your grapes at the point where the sugar content is at the right point for the conversion. In the wine world, about 25 Brix is the point where you want to pick your Cabernet. Our Cabernet seems to be at about 21. With Brix level normally rising about a point a week (depending on the weather, which if warmer means a faster rise, cooler a slower rise), we’ve got a few weeks to go before harvest.

Next, it’s into Dr. Frankenwine’s Lab for some other tests on our baggie of juice. We’ll test the pH of the wine, because, as fruit ripens, the acids drop.

The pH of water is about 7, you want red wine to be about a pH 3.5. Our Cab is 3.16 at this point.

Now we get into some real swirly, testy beaker stuff. We’re measuring the Total Acidity. Which is a little different from pH which shows us the balance of acid to alkaline. By contrast, Total Acidity tells you the exact measure of the all the acids in the wine (most of which will be tartaric acid). There’s a good explanation here, but in brief, acid gives the wine structure and a good acid balance will ensure the wine will age well. Ripe fruit will have a TA of .65. Ours looks to be about .93. We have quite a ways to go. Although we seem to be on track for a good balance of acid to fruit.

So what did Dr. Frankenwine learn in his fancy lab with all this science-y stuff?

Well, we learned about what we already knew from observing the weather this year and talking to old time winemakers in the area: it was a late and wet spring and a cooler, than usual summer. So we thought we’d have a late harvest. But then the sudden week of heat spell put us right back on track.  In fact, a really good winemaker — say an old Italian or Frenchman or old Sonoman — could probably just go out in the field, taste a few berries and tell the acid balance and all that other stuff just with his tongue. No science needed.

Here’s another thing old timers do. Rack the wine out of the barrel and into a steel tank. Add about a half an egg white. It grabs all the impurities and particulates, then sinks to the bottom. Then you rack the wine back into the barrel (so you can clean out the egg white mess) and you’ve got a clarified, more attractive wine.

Our secret clarifying agent. Egg white.

But all this science-y stuff is so much more fun. Plus it allows us to be Nerd Winemakers and build spreadsheets for year by year harvest comparison.

And science or no science, last year's Mourvedre and Cabernet, which are currently resting in oak are now tasting very, very good indeed.

We think, now that the grapes are more mature, next year will be even better.