September 12
What a difference a week makes. Our beloved marine layer is back and the temperatures have allowed us to swallow the fruit that’s come in and give us some time to reflect on it.
Even though it’s been a fast early vintage (all the Merlot is in) we are very happy with what we’re seeing in the tanks. The Merlot is slowly going dry and will soon go into extended maceration phase to develop tannin. The aromatics are lovely with lots of black fruit and chocolate aromas and the palate is rich, concentrated and intense.
The team at Twomey Calistoga is finally catching their breath and getting ready for pressing off. Due to the coolness of the weather the sugars on the Cabernet Francs have receded allowing us to leave them on the vine a little longer. Depending on the weather they will probably come in next week giving those Frankenstein tannins time to soften.
Over at Twomey Healdsburg the Pinot Noirs look gorgeous. Ben and his team are working their meticulous magic. It seems to be a good year for color over there. The new punch down equipment is a big help with the extraction. They have pressed off the first lot of Pinot from WestPin today and will be crushing their first lot from Santa Barbara County tomorrow. All the Sonoma Coast fruit came in this week looking nicely ripe. The sorting table was running 10 hours a day it seems so that any raisins were removed. We also received all of the Anderson Valley fruit. Though earlier than expected it’s nicely ripe, with soft tannins and beautifully sound.
We’ll keep you posted.
~Daniel Baron