September 23
The story of this week was heat. Beginning Sunday high temperatures were well above 90 and broke the century mark in a number of locations. While we really needed heat to shift the equilibrium in the grape berries and give maturity a nudge, as often happens in farming, it became too much of a good thing by week’s end. What I mean is that after 6 days of desiccating heat, some vineyards had high sugar without ripe flavors. We have learned not to pick those blocks, but to let the cool weather come and let the roots rehydrate the berries. Then we can wait to get the skins and aromas ripe.
We began our Merlot harvest with some beautiful, dark Merlot from our Soda Canyon vineyard. It is good to have the smell of fermentation in the tank room again.
At Twomey West, we brought in the last of our Sauvignon Blanc from our two estate vineyards located in Calistoga and Healdsburg. The wide range of flavors from guava and pineapple to flinty and citrus is fascinating. This is our first harvest from our Healdsburg site and winemaker Ben Cane and I are excited by the freshness and complexity we are seeing in the fermenters. We also brought in Pinot Noir from our Westpin vineyard in the Russian River Valley, from Crinella in Forestville, Ferrington in Anderson Valley and Gap’s Crown in Cotati. Ben and Brian and the Twomey West team are hard at it and doing a great job.
Daniel Baron
Director of Winemaking