With most of the Pinot Noir fruit in, both our 667 and 777 clones of Pinot Noir from Sierra Madre Vineyard have fermented and are now going into barrel! Lane is always the first to pick – which means our wines are also usually the first into barrel. This results in wines that are lower in alcohol and also more age-worthy.
The Pinot Noir spent about 10 days in open-top fermenters. We performed punch-downs three times a day, to mix in all that yummy fruit character. The wines all went through a very slow ferment and went into barrel smelling beautiful.
We did bring in an extra ton of Pinot Noir this week from an undisclosed high-end Pinot Noir vineyard from the Santa Rita Hills, which will go into our final blend and add some extra depth and character. Score! That will represent about 10% of the final wine. It is currently fermenting in an open-top bin.
The rest of the Chardonnay also came in this week – 4 tons from Sierra Madre Vineyard, Clone 15. The Clone 15 took a little longer to ripen, but the juice is gorgeous – and will add a nice spicy note to the Chardonnay. The Robert Young Clone of Chardonnay is now in barrel, having almost completed fermentation, with malolactic bubbling away.
Stay tuned for news on the Grenache – word is that it might be picked next week.
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,’ […]
