The 2013 harvest began in Sierra Madre vineyard with the picking of Pinot Noir Clone 667 on September 4. Woohoo! As usual, Lane Tanner (winemaker and co-owner) was the first to pick in the area – it’s her style, and what you get is a wine that is naturally lower in alcohol but beautiful, graceful, and downright delicious! Nonetheless, harvest came very early this year.
Clone 777 quickly followed the 667, and both are now fermenting along smoothly at the winery. Chardonnay just came in this week – on September 9 – with the Robert Young clone. It is already showing such beautiful fruit flavor – this will make extraordinary wine.
The Chardonnay is now fermenting in oak barrels, and the Pinot Noir in open-top fermenters. Will Henry (co-owner, pictured below) is managing the punch downs in the shortest shorts he can find – ostensibly to scare away VA bugs.
When Pinot Noir ferments, the CO2 rising from the liquid pushes the skins to the surface and forms a cap of grapes and skins. Punch downs are where you break the cap on the open top fermenters, and mix the skins in with the fermenting juice.
More news later as harvest progresses!
Is wine good for you? The pendulum always swings when it comes to what foods and beverages are good for your health. I remember in the 70’s we were told that fat was bad, and along with that came cheese, avocados, butter, and bacon. Oh, the horror. People switched to margarine. I remember tubs of […]
2024 will be known as the year of the snail. If you didn’t notice the rows of vines as you approached our vineyards this year, you would be convinced that you had happened upon a snail farm. At picking time, it was inevitable that hundreds of them wound up in the picking bins, and we […]
In this episode of The Reluctant Somm, Will Henry of Lumen Wines shares his full-circle journey through the wine world. He discusses his innovative approach to natural wines with sulfite alternatives, his and his wife’s restaurant, Pico, in Los Alamos, and his collaboration with the esteemed Lane Tanner. Tune in to hear about the unique […]
The 2021 harvest was near. I called my winemaking partner, Lane Tanner, and asked her to find as many neutral oak barrels as we could gather – we had to accommodate extra fruit coming in. The quality in this new, mysterious vineyard was just too good to pass up. I dubbed the vineyard ‘The Wild King,’ […]
