Thursday, December 16, 2010

Gadzooks. What on earth is happening in Paso Robles?


Something’s happening here,
What it is ain’t exactly clear,
There’s a man with a gun over there,
Sayin’ “Stop, you gotta beware,
Singing, Stop, hey what’s that sound,
Everybody look what’s goin’ down.


Well, that pretty well summarizes the last few weeks here in Paso, which when I moved here some 33 yrs ago was said to be the “next Napa”. It wasn’t. But times changed, and the old timers, Hoffman Mountain Ranch with the mad Russian winemaker’s Pinot Noirs, and old standbys Pesenti and York Mountain , gave way to Justin Winery beginning as far back as 1982, Wildhorse, then Meridian, and finally a whole host of others. Gary Eberle the founding father of local Rhones, Justin and his Isosceles, Wildhorse’s Ken Volk and his Pinots became well known and the wine rush was on. There were mergers and acquisitions, lots of buying of local grapeland by foreigners from Napa( who were buying as much as 60% of Paso’s grapes at one time), and hundreds upon hundreds of new vineyards put in. Wineries followed the vineyards, and today we have some 220 wineries just here locally in Paso Robles. And that doesn’t include hundreds of acres in south county San Luis Obispo, home of well known GSMs, whites and Pinots.

And then came two weeks ago. Justin Smith, winemaker for Saxum got Wine Spectator’s #1 wine in the world, which followed a 100 pts for his wine a short time before. Within a week Justin Baldwin sold his winery to a billionaire with huge Central Valley holdings of pomegranates, nuts, and stone fruit. In the last 10 yrs, Constellation bought up Wildhorse for a reported $37million, recently Four Vines sold for a reported $17 million(with a virtual vineyard and winery), and now Justin has sold for a very large sum (unknown at present). Paso Robles has become the new Napa. Whether you look at new acreage plantings, number of new wineries in last 10 years, the amazing sums well known wineries have sold for recently, or the very simple fact that truly remarkable wines are coming out of our Paso AVA… like the above song says, “something is definitely happening here”.

It is abundantly clear, however, what it is. Paso Robles, with its multitude of different microclimates and terroirs, has blossomed into the “in” place to have a winery. Long associated with lesser fruit, vastly lesser caliber winemakers, and essentially no cachet, that has all now changed. There is no longer any question about the caliber of wines coming out of Paso. Not all wines, but the wines from fine vineyards, immaculately farmed, beautifully framed amongst the massive oak forests, some like ours straight up and straight down, and a growing reputation for , robust, balanced, and beautifully made wines…those wines are now getting not just attention nationally and internationally, but they are getting it often. There is a radius of less than a mile surrounding our vineyard/cellars, Cerro Prieto, called by some the heart of the heart of Paso’s wines. To the SW is Jack Creek with Doug Kruse’s Pinots and Chards, to the S is Matt Trevisan’s Linne Calodo and his Rhones, East is Booker, East NE is Stefan Asseo’s Bordeauxs, to our NW over two hills is Saxum… and Cerro Prieto is fortunate to be surrounded and central to all those mentioned. What is happening…what has happened, is that Paso, which had such tremendous potential 33 years ago, has now realized it. We are here. We have arrived. We still maintain the friendly atmosphere of years ago, a winemaker can actually be chatted up by a wine buyer… and we have entered the contest, so to speak, with the brite light on the hill, Napa.

Where to from here? A good question because the one vintner who has had greatest impact on the area in last fifteen years has just sold his vineyard/winery operation. True, Justin is staying on, but his winery has now sold. He single-handedly got the local wine alliance, PRWCA, to institute national wine tasting tours for Paso wines, whereby all 50 states now have access, altho limited in some cases, to Paso wines. Our biggest proponent, our biggest marketer, has now sold. New and better winemakers have come on the scene, wines have skyrocketed in quality, but we don’t have another Justin Baldwin out there, tooting our horn, making our case. Undoubtedly someone will step up, but we will miss Justin and his extraordinary marketing skills. Paso Robles will be less well off because of Justin’s sale. The push probably will come from some of the young turks, tho I don’t see another Justin on the horizon. Justin got the nation’s attention. It is now up to the young winemakers to step up and keep the spotlight fixed brightly on Paso Robles, not with Justin’s innovative marketing, but with plain old fashioned superb wines. The new Justin, Saxum’s Justin Smith is but one of those probable leaders. Others will come from the short list mentioned above, and we still have Steve Lohr, Gary Eberle, and other stalwarts to help lead us.

Napa is on notice. The sleepy town of Paso Robles from 4 decades ago is no more. The small town friendly atmosphere remains, but make no mistake about it: Paso Robles IS wine country.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Paso Robles Westside Redwine Jailbreak. Zowie!

 
The genie is out of the bottle, the secret is out. The beans are spilled, the horse is out of the barn. News from Wine Spectator just last week has just put Paso Robles, particularly the mountainousWestside, on the world’s wine map…indelibly, permanently, forever, and always. Justin Smith, Paso’s winemaker extraordinaire, was just awarded the Best Wine of the Year (that’s international & worldwide, folks), from his James Berry Vineyard, for his GSM (Grenache/Syrah/Mourvedre) blend. That is in no small measure, an achievement 99.9% of Napa wineries strive for year after year…and never attain. Matter of fact, all the wineries of the world strive for that.

Earlier, Saxum had earned a 100 pt. rating in WS, one of only 4 awarded worldwide. Napa had one, Saxum had theirs, and Bordeaux had two. Now Justin’s Saxum has the #1 wine in the world…and here in our former one horse town, El Paso de Robles. Well, no more. No more Napa, Sonoma, Bordeaux, Rhone River, looking down their noses at Paso Robles. Tablas Creek’s Rhone, Chateau d’ Castel came in with a 94 pt Rhone, and just for good measure, our south county neighbor, John Alban’s Edna Valley Syrah earned 97 pts.

Ready for it or not, Paso Robles has arrived on the wine scene, and the above list is just a hint of that. In past several years, Stefan Asseo’s L’Aventure landed a half dozen 94s to 98s in WS, Matt Trevisan’s Linne Calodo routinely has wines in the mid 90s, Eric Jensen’s Booker Vineyard is in the 90’s and Jack Creek Cellars has Pinots, Chardonnays, and Syrahs in 90+ range. What is significant about these wineries for Cerro Prieto is that virtually all those wineries are within a one mile radius of our steep mountain vineyard. Saxum a mile NW(just 2 hills over), Linne Calodo a mile south, Jack Creek a mile SW, Booker and L’Aventure a mile East. In other words we are surrounded not just by world acclaimed vintners, we are dead center in the heart of vineyards with world class terroir.

It is no accident that wines from these vineyards all are receiving world acclaim. We are located in the best place anywhere to consistently produce world class wines. In just two short years of producing only 400 cases/ yr, Cerro Prieto has garnered 2 International Gold Medals( amongst 3300 and 2700 international entries), a 92 point Wine Enthusiast wine( Paso Bordo, our Cab/ Syrah), another Merlot that is one of Chef Magazine’s 10 Marvelous Merlots(sandwiched between Cakebread and Duckhorn), and yet another accolade of one of the best 12 wines under $50 in 805 Living magazine(Nov 2010). The fruit doesn’t fall too far from the tree, and world class vineyards do not grow far from one another. Point in fact: we are all within a very tight radius of one another. If you haven’t been here, and you love wine…great wine, you need to come.

Traditionally, for years, wines from the Paso Robles region were shipped up north to the Napa wineries, who early on recognized the potential for Paso's red wine grapes, and could get them at half to one third the price of similar quality Napa grapes. Why wouldn't they buy from Paso? Now that is changing and fewer and fewer grapes still make the trip to Napa. Sure, grape farmers who hang 8 tons/acre, and maybe even 10 tons/acre still ship their winegrapes elsewhere. But the high yields are coming down, the overall grapes being produced here are of distinctly better quality (overall) than even 5 yrs ago. The mantra, "Less is more" is starting to get a foothold , even with the most dyed in the wool farmer.

And then there are the vintners who have been low yield devotees all along...the names all mentioned above. They are not alone, but they are certainly in the vanguard of low yield plus world class terroir equals world class wines. Justin Smith and others mentioned above are all part of that "Paso equals world class wines" group. We, as fellow vintners, have much to be thankful for hard working, savvy guys like Justin. He, and they, have finally broken through often enough, high enough, to cement Paso's claim to one of the places to go for world's best wines. We are a mere 3 or 4 decades old, and the new Paso vintners are but a handful of yrs old. Bordeaux is 400 yrs old, and yet, we are catching them. We have caught them...and not just Bordeaux, but Napa too. That is why Napa as well as others have been down here buying up Paso wineries as well as grapes.

We are blessed with the God given terroir. We now have a cadre of winemakers who are aware great wines start in the vineyard, and have maximized that fact, in addition to using their superior talents as vintners. Napa may have the cachet... but Paso has the bright shining future. For us the future is now. It is here. It has been so acclaimed by Wine Spectator, not to mention Wine Enthusiast, who was ahead of the curve of WS. If planning a wine tasting/ buying trip, you should come here. Anybody that does is not disappointed.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Harvest 2010: Year of the Big, Cold, Dark, Wet

No, I didn't leave a word off the end of the title. It describes this year to a tee. To say it was a tough yr to ripen fruit, is a monumental understatement. As of this writing, Nov. 12, there is still some westside Paso fruit being picked. In many areas it has weathered the storm, literally, or truly, TWO storms...the first was a 60 hour rain, or more properly a London drizzle that left 3 inches of rain. Then the fog descended, the heat evaporated, and within ten days, another good soaking rain. Yes, it warmed up a bit, but here in the mountains on Paso's westside, our cold valley lows were in the high 30's every day this summer, except for a brief five day spell of 110- 112 degree wilters. Those days the valley vineyard hovered in the mid 40's at nite. So, looking at the title, let's review the year's highpoints.

2006 thru 2009, we had increasingly drier years, going from 20 inches in 2006 to barely 10 inches in 2009. 2010 was a huge year for rains, and altho some folks hinted we might be having an el Nino year, nobody ever stated so for certain. Well, they should have and we did...have an el Nino. It rained, it was cold, and it was a bitter winter. It paid off this yr to have had 110 bales of hay hand strewn on our exceedingly steep hillsides in blocs 2 and 5...both Cab Sauv blocs. Rain cascaded down our steep slopes and headed toward the Salinas River...happily, it did not carry much, if any Cerro Prieto topsoil. The downside of this is that we had put out hay every yr before, and it was wasted in the dry yrs of 2006 thru 2009. Put another way, we planned for a big wet yr, and got a drought. No big deal, except it costs $1000 for the hay, and another $2500 to put it out by hand on colossally steep slopes. 2010 hay paid us all back, I suppose. Had we not had the soil retention measures in place we would have easily lost hundreds of feet of vineyard rows...all washed down river(actually northwards into Monterey Bay). So we done good...at least that's what my old time farming friends from yr's back would have said.

Okay, so it rained. Then came the cold...surprising, too, in that on Jan 3- 15, we had high 80 degree weather off our back deck, overlooking the vineyard. But that was ephmeral. Winter returned with a vengenance, and with dark forbidding days, lite rains followed by blowing, billowing fog, this place looked like downtown London, many days with less than 100 feet of visibility. Fog attended much of that cold, and it stayed and then stayed some more. First day of spring came, and our vines were still mostly asleep. It was cold, dark, wet and miserable. Bud break got delayed 2-3 weeks, (depending on elevation in vineyard), and then we followed that up with a late bloom, closer to 3 weeks later than normal. By June, we had had maybe a couple nice days of spring, but that was tops. Most days were blowing fog, no sun, big blowing winds, and a coldness that soaked not only us, but also our vines to the core.

About that time I began thinking of no spring, a cold summer had started, and we were way behind maturation-wise, maybe as much as a month...or more. Whereas we are an extremely low yield vineyard, 2-2.5 tons/ acre, it is that way intentionally, from severe pruning at the get-go. But the absence of any summer bothered me enough, that we went out and took off another half ton of clusters/ acre. And then, miraculously, summer appeared in mid June, beautiful 100 degree days that made us all come alive...vines, too. And suddenly I wondered if I had pulled the trigger on that fruit drop just a mite early. Which was followed 6 days later by an eternal winter...which this time really stayed. Sure we got some sunshine, but it was cold, virtually all June, save that one 5 day spell. Remainder of summer I don't recall, because it was fall, and we were still waiting for summer.

To summarize, cold wet winter, cold wet spring, no summer except for a handful of days, and then fall. Finally we got 3 weeks of lovely sun and warmth, but by now we were some 32+ days behind on the heat/light calendar. All of a sudden, I began thinking, "did I drop enough fruit to ripen in these arctic-like conditions?" Well, fall provided enough heat and light to get an ultra low yield vineyard like us over the hump, but it was certain to be Bordeaux like harvest...ie, in the 22 to 24 Brix range for grape sugars---this in an area famous for its high sugar grapes/high alcohol wines. This year was going thru the motions just as if we actually were in Bordeaux. When we finally harvested, our fruit developed flavors of blueberry, plum, raspberry, some strawberry, and dark cherry. Not surprisingly, the wines once thru primary fermentation, had all the characteristics that we had tasted in the field.

In summary, the yr of the big, dark, cold, wet, was a tough one to grow and ripen grapes...especially if you harvested on flavor. But harvest on flavor we did, and for us, this may very well be a signature yr...in a yr when all growers up and down the coast struggled to ripen most varietals. Low yield. Low yield. Sure we got terroir galore, but in the end, it was our ultra low yields that allowed us to have such a remarkably high quality crop. Whether others did the same as we did, remains to be seen. But talking with growers up and down the California coast, it is apparent that many (maybe even most) growers got caught with more grapes on the vine than they could ripen. I got caught like that in 2005, another wet, cold, dank, year...and I was hanging only 3.5 tons/ acre. Problem was, in weather like Bordeaux, you have to plan for a Bordeaux harvest. And the only way to do that is to cut your crop load to the bone. I am afraid I have many friends here and both north and south of us who did not do that, and paid a severe price quality-wise for it.

If I had to guess on the majority of California grapes and wines this year, I would guess they will be substandard. Low yields saved our bacon. Again. I hope I am wrong in this, but I am afraid California wines are going to struggle in 2010. Except for Syrah, that is. For our Syrah, it was a golden year, and many others noted the same. But for Bordeaux varietals, unh unh. A vintner never knows that what goes in isn't necessarily what is coming out. But my fear is most vintners are fearful of a very subpar yr, quality wise. If you find that to be the case at your favorite wineries some two and a half yrs down the road, stop by Cerro Prieto. We will have some dandy wines for you to try. Good news is, they match up with our '06s, '07's, '08s, and our '09s.

Location, location, location. Terroir, terroir, terroir. But unquestionably, biggest factor this yr for us was guessing right in June, dropping fruit early on, and planning for a Bordeaux harvest...which we all got. For us...low yield guys...it was perfect.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Paso's Westside harvest at Cerro Prieto ...almost done

Two weeks ago it was the Savor event, the million dollar plus event sponsored by Sunset magazine. This week that is only a faded memory. What lingers are the mouth watering taste of our Pinot Noir and Sauv Blanc two weeks ago, and our Cab, Merlot and Syrah which came off this week. Tuesday, our first pick of Bordeaux/ Rhone grapes, was a corker. At 5:30 a.m. we had 23 guys (and ladies) here to pick a probable 16 tons of Cab. By 6:15 a.m. we were down to 16 pickers, and by 6:30 we were down to 9. Only later did I find out that two 7 man crews had been asked to help harvest by another labor contractor, and there either was a dispute over some back pay...not paid...or there was disagreement over whether they picked by the ton or by the hour. In any event, we had gone from being well to over-prepared, to being a lot of pickers short.

In a panic I called on our housekeeper, Alicia, who dropped what she was doing and immediately came over with her son, mother, and sister in law, all of whom Alicia had told to drop everything and come help us. With one friend like that, a person is truly blessed. Ten minutes after the call, Alicia et al arrived, and a bit later two other friends showed up. With the foreman and me we had 16 pickers, which turned out just great...11 hours later. While picking I treated one lady for heat stroke...picked a shady spot, monitored her vital signs, and poured the Gatorade until she could drink no more. Undeterred, she was up 30 minutes later, picking away. Several other mishaps included our bothering the hornets while cutting off clusters, with three folks getting stung, which some hi- potency cortisone cream, ice, rest, and shade took care of. Wildhorse, the winery we were picking for, was incredibly kind and allowed us to bring grapes in 2 hours later than we had expected.

The next day while checking to see how our Cab was doing( Brix, pH, TA), they gave me some 2008 Wildhorse Unbridled Cabernet Sauvignon...Cerro Prieto Vineyard designated. They had discussed doing a vineyard designation, but until Tuesday, I didn't know for sure. It is phenomenal, and if you get a chance to buy a bottle at the winery in Templeton, do so. You won't regret it. Our lab numbers came out fine, and for one day everything went well. Picking days are big days for vineyards, as well as wineries, and the delicate dance of organizing when which grapes come in for processing is ticklish indeed.

Following day we picked for Justin's Isosceles program, and that was essentially a smooth harvest. Next came our Syrah, and yesterday 6 people picked 2 acres of grapes in a baking oven and only one row at a time. Why? Because the Syrah was planted into a steep limestone mountainside with terraced rows 10-15 feet apart, due to the odd contour of the virtually vertical mountain. Normally pickers pick 2 rows on each side of the tractor pulling the grape bins. To have done so here would have meant handing up 40 lb bins 10 feet or more, or lowering down 10 feet. Either way was unmanageable, so all pickers lined up behind the tractor. As for the baking heat, the mountain is entirely composed of limestone, and the sun's reflection off mountainsides above and below, gives a baking effect when the temperature was 101 degrees to begin with. Two acres was truly as much as anyone wanted to pick.

And the Syrah? Magnificent. Truly magnificent. Purple black tapered clusters had been ripe since Oct 1st, but we had been waiting for the flavors to come in, which they did...in spades. This will be our finest Syrah ever, and we have produced some spectacular Syrah before. This one takes the cake, with prominent plum, but also tones of blueberry, blackberry, and for the first time ever, strawberry. While waiting and tasting the past two weeks, the strawberry flavor had never been present, but it sure was on Thursday. To say we picked on exactly the right day would be an understatement. It was perfect. Perfect terroir, loving care and attention, and the perfect day for flavors. This will be a memorable year for Cerro Prieto's grapes, and same for our wines.

Yes, we had the cold summer, preceded by the wet winter, but because of our exacting pruning, our low yields, 2.5T/acre, resulted in some absolutely fantabulous fruit. It is now in ferment tanks doing... well... fermenting. The winery aromas are exactly what we had noted while picking and tasting fruit...all the flavors noted above, plus a tad of blackberry. RULE: if you can taste the flavor in the fruit you will taste it in the wine...spectacularly so. Contrary is also true if you are pruned to high yields, ie, high yields dilute out many flavors and bouquet and taste are vastly decreased. This is why our vineyard continues to crank out world class fruit for world class wines. Still have 3 acres to go, 1 of Merlot and 2 of Cab. Cold, billowing fog just moved in and I wonder if the folks buying those wines may have missed...or are about to miss the flavor picking window. I would have taken those grapes on Thursday, but each winery we sell to calls their own harvest dates, based on lab values and especially flavor. Time will tell who was correct.

For our wines, harvest is now over, and everything is either in barrel, bin, or tank. The Pinot will be outstanding, the Sauv Blanc is exactly the way I wanted it, and the Syrah will be world class. That for me is one heckuva harvest, especially when 3 weeks ago, everyone was wondering if fruit would even get ripe...let alone acquire flavors. So altho we can put a cap on our wines, 3 acres of our grapes still need to be picked. For the two wineries involved, I sure hope they guessed right and will get some more flavors with more time hanging. Problem is fog off back deck is impenetrable. And cold is in the forecast. For Cerro Prieto Vineyard and Cellars, harvest is over. Our 2010 vintages will all be spectacular, and I am already tasting fermenting bins, with flavors that are truly indescribable. You should have been here.

This was the Paso Robles Westside red grape harvest at its very best. These wines will stand right up there with our other International gold medal and 92 point wines. It was a good harvest. It was a crazy season. But it was another fantastic year for Cerro Prieto wines. Stop by our tasting room in downtown Paso Robles, across from the park, at the Meritage Tasting Room...and give them a try.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Cerro Prieto at Sunset's Savor winepouring event.

Well, it has been a week since last blog, when we were tearing our hair out waiting for the Paso Robles Westside boutique vineyard red wine grapes to ripen. Day after the post, we got hit with an incredible run of not Indian summer, but of Houston- hot, insufferably humid weather. I took a brix reading on our Pinot Noir a week ago, and by this Tuesday it had gone from a stuck 21 Brix to 24.5, with pH(desired 3.4-3.6) at 3.5 and TA(total acidity desired .6 to .8) at .8 on the dot. Flavors came in next day, with a delightful light cherry, some delicate strawberry, and a hint of blueberry. It has been since 2004 when we last made our own Pinot, and we have sold those grapes ever since. The 2004 Pinot we barrelled and then laid down until 2009, when we began drinking it. Truly amazing how good an old Pinot can be, and we just drank the living daylights out of it. Can't really afford to lay down our wines that long anymore, but they can do special things if of low yield and made with loving care.

Anyway we finally harvested our Pinot on Tues, 3 days ago, and it is stellar. I look for it to be of our 2004 caliber. Also took our first harvest of Sauv Blanc, and it went from 21.5 Brix to 25 Brix in 4 days. Wow. It was, however, hotter than Hades, and we had 6 days in the 103 range and 2 days at 108. We were really glad to have taken both cold weather grapes off before that heat spell took over. Now we are awaiting flavors to come in  the best Syrah we have ever had, but have to be careful to titrate Brix with pH and TA. Right now flavors are coming in way below where we had to wait last yr, at 27.5 Brix. Right now at 24.5, flavors are beginning to show, with plum the easiest to detect. That means we will be picking syrah soon. Merlot and Cab, both stuck at 21 Brix for 2-3 weeks, took off during the heat spell, but when we go over 105 degrees, we add 1-3 gallons of water to each vine. We are in a good range for ripening now, something I thought wasn't going to happen one measly week ago.

On the winery front, Cerro Prieto is pouring at the Sunset Savor event at Santa Margarita Ranch, just 12 miles south of Paso. They have spent some $1.4 million on this extravaganza, with everything from abalone farm tours, live bands, cooking demonstrations, to wine and food pairing, to farming displays in a 2 acre garden, to just plan wine tasting at one of several hundred wineries from Monterey County to Ventura County. It is a shebango not to miss, and if you want to come, call 805 438- 5200 for ticket availability. The setup is something I have never witnessed before, and we at Cerro Prieto are fiercely proud to be part of it. The weather is going to have to cooperate tho, or there is going to be mighty little red wine pouring with high 90s and lots of humidity. We are hoping for a slight cooling.

That's it from the nite before the big Sunset production, in cooperation with the SLO visitors and convention bureau. Hope to see you there, and if you do come, please come by for a Cerro Prieto wine tasting. Note: don't be fooled by the miniscule tents we are pouring from. Two wineries share a 7 foot by 8 foot tent, each with a tiny serving table that accomodates one person, two at most. Good news is the wines are worth waiting for, and the multiple restaurants next door are all excellent. Wine and food pairing. How could you beat that?

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Paso's Westside Red Winegrapes still waiting

"Waiting for what?",one might ask. Well, how about some heat and grape sugar(Brix), for starters. Wineries we sell the 95% of our grapes to all ask the same question and all wonder "what in the heck is going on?". Obviously we are all somewhere between 2-3 weeks behind in ripening, but an interesting phenomenon is occuring... at least here on Paso Robles' Westside, and in particular, in our vineyard. Usually our red grapes ripen, and then hang...and hang...and then hang somemore. Last year our Cab Sauv was ready to pick, along with Merlot and Syrah at or near Oct 1st. But, since we, like most other high end wineries don't pick on Brix, but rather on flavor, we waited...and waited, and waited for the flavors to come in. Having ripe grapes on Oct 1st meant we could harvest anytime, but our grapes were just completely, totally without flavor.

So what is going on this yr? Well, we actually had flavor come into our Pinot the first of Sept, but it is now Sept 23, 8 days past every other yr when our Pinot ripened and was picked. Grapes, seeds...all ripe. Brix? How about a strong 22.8. Our best Pinot(remember we are picking on flavor, but follow the Brix, nonetheless) always ripened first, and then, magically on Sept 15 the flavors came in...luscious cherry, a touch of blueberry, some strawberry, cassis...but this yr, flavors have been drifting in, appearing slowly, not en masse, but the Brix has lagged way, way behind. Normal Pinot here is 23.5 to 24.5 when we pick, but a week past normal harvest, we still are only at 22.8 Brix, but with some lovely early flavors. This may be like a Bordeaux yr, where they frequently end up harvesting at lower Brix, 23.5, maybe 24.5, and that is for Bordeauxs, not Pinot(Burgundy). I am almost forced to begin to think the wonderful flavors we have been so blessed with may actually precede the ripened grapes.

Surely that is the case in our Merlot(20 Brix) , Cab (21 Brix), and Syrah(20 Brix). Looking at the berries, which are starting to shrivel, and based on color...deep inky purple black...we should be ripe, and probably at 23, maybe 24 Brix right now, but no...we are sitting at 20-21 Brix. The long cold summer following the long, first warm, then cold, wet winter has obviously upset the apple cart...er, make that the grape cart. It is apparent that the grapes are confused at present, and aren't sure whether to, ahem..."either go to the bathroom", or get off the pot. Frankly, I think our grapes are as confused as we are. One other minor...okay, major problem we have, is that it always freezes in our valley vineyard on Sept 15, and then that is followed by 3+ weeks of Indian summer, which we are encouterning now. This Sept 15, however, we only had lows of 34 degrees, followed by a 95 degree day, and that has been our coldest day yet, for the lows. We are set and ready to pick the valley Pinot and Sauv Blanc, but with no frost yet(knock on wood) we don't have to pick...soooo...I am guessing we harvest Pinot this coming Mon or Tues(assuming no frost first).

A couple wineries I know started harvest 10 days ago, then abruptly stopped after first day when it became apparent the Pinot just wasn't ready. Meanwhile, we all sit here, singing intonations and incantations, with fingers crossed, prayers on lips, and the Gods of grapes are looking down, laughing at us. I have to admit it isn't funny ha-ha, but it is funny weird. Never a day goes by when I don't learn something brand new, fascinating, and exhilarating. Well, I am over fascinated and exhilarated at present. This teasing deal is getting old. Please, let's get on with the harvest. To do that, a fair number of westside grapes are going to have to ripen first.

My prediction? Syrah, Cab, and Merlot, which we waited some 3 weeks on last yr as the Brix went up and up, and then up some more, somewhere around 26.8 to 27.5(port, anyone)...well, that Brix with flavor is going to be somewhere around the 23.5 to 24.5 Brix this yr, much like vineyards near my aunt's bakery, in Bordeaux. I really see this as a low Brix yr, with flavors dragging in, instead of ripe grapes waiting for the flavor to come in , as happened last yr...as well as most previous yrs. I honestly believe that our Brixes will all top out at no more than 24.5, but that is within keeping of the appearance of the saggy grapes, and the extremely early flavors...that we usually have to wait for.

Stay tuned. One thing for certain...the high alcohol of many of Paso's finest vineyards, are not going to be a concern this yr. Every Nov 1st since I first owned this property in 1984, it has frozen from top to bottom. If that happens this yr, people with heavily cropped vines are going to be harvesting after the first really hard frost. Oh for the joys of the low yield vineyard. We still worry tho.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Cerro Prieto & Paso Robles' Westside Red Wines...watchful, worrying, waiting

I obviously cannot speak for other Westside producers, but I can sure speak for Cerro Prieto. We actually had to water just before and during Labor Day weekend, when temps rose to 105 degrees and northwards. Each vine got 3 gallons of agua prior to the heat wave. Then, 2 beautiful days in the 80s to 90s, followed by the "brisa" last nite, and this evening we watched the fog roll in...massive fog that encompasses everything. Today was a typical fall day, beautiful in the 60s and 70s here, but it really cooled off when the fog bank rolled in. Forecast is for more of the same, which means, with barely any summer, we are now in Fall. I missed 12 days in August when I had back surgery #12, and reportedly, we had 7 hot days during that time. That means if I were to go back and count the number of hot summer days we have had here at Cerro Prieto this yr, we still would not have had one entire month of our standard Paso hot days/ cold nites.

Maybe I am getting the wrong impression, but during a drive down Vine Street in Paso today, I saw a magnificent Chinese Pistache tree...in 85% full orange plume. Oregon Plum trees(ornamental) and Chinese Pistache tend to go off together, the former in red and the latter in orange...but never on Sept 7th. It usually is much later in October that these two harbingers of Fall go thru their magnificent color change. Another piece to the weather puzzle is that all our poison oak is either in full red or has already lost all its leaves...something that happens usually late, late in Fall. So there are signs out there...ominous ones, that portend an early Fall, and more importantly, an early frost. For us that would mean Pinot Noir and Sauv Blanc, but we have harvested Pinot on Sept 15 every yr since 2001. Two weeks ago, we roared thru a very late veraison in Pinot, and the very next week our grapes had seeds starting to get brown and crispy. In a usual yr, that all happens slowly, methodically, over time. This yr is just like a jailbreak with veraison being 3-4 weeks behind, and then rapidly catching up. Grapes are already sweet, but not yet ready for Brixing. Probably most are at 20 to 21 Brix.

So, during my 33 yrs here in Paso, I have never seen the likes of this, nor has the East Coast seen the likes of their heat wave. No matter where you look, everyone, everywhere has different weather than they have had in yrs. Meanwhile, we here at Cerro Prieto watch, wait...and yes, do worry about what the next 3-4 weeks will bring. With our crop load pruned to 2.5 T/acre (or less in some blocs), if anyone ripens here, we should. But as everyone knows, "would have" and "should have" are not too very far apart, but yield vastly different outcomes for grapes. Our higher blocs are pretty much immune, but the cold of the inland valleys is a concern. Right now, I am looking at Sept 15 again for our Pinot, but it could drag on a week longer. With flavor already in the tiny beries, I like our chances for some outstanding Pinot. Sauv Blanc will be the suprise, in that this is our first harvest, altho it will be no more than half ton/acre.

I tried valiantly to get our '08 Pinot, Cab, Merlot and Syrah in bottle before surgery, but failed...so it probably won't get bottled until sometime past harvest. That's a shame, because I am really excited about all those wines, especially the Syrah, about which one well known winemaking consultant said, "Wow, that's a big wine." No kidding, Dick Tracy. Even tho our '07s are probably going to be better than our '06  International Gold medal and 92 point wines, it looks like our '08s are going to be better yet.  Man, talk about excited...well, yes, actually, I am. We really need to get those '08s into bottles so they can lay down for six months. They are ready to drink right now, which is great news for all our wine club members, as well as friends and family. For 2010 we are holding our breath...but I sense something great on those vines. Nature just has to let it ripen a bit more first. My guess? It will.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Paso's Westside, Wild, Wet, Windy, Wacky, Weird, Weather

I should have guessed something was up when the second week in January was summer in winter. Off our back deck the temperatures were in the mid to high 80s for 13 straight days. Believe me, I was checking the vines for bud swelling daily towards the end of the month. Not only the days were balmy, but so were the nights. Coldest it got at our home overlooking Paso's westside Cerro Prieto Vineyard was in the high 40s. For Paso, that qualifies as weird. The vines definitely looked like they were trying to swell their buds, but never got to the point of bud break. No question I was worried about the summer weather we were having, but as long as it didn't precipitate bud break, I felt we were okay.

Then came February(plus last two days of January). Winter returned with a vengeance, and our lows registered mid to high 20s in the colder valley vineyard. Winter here at Cerro Prieto dragged on well into Spring, when suddenly, one day winter fled and summer arrived. Well after March 21st we had our first day of not spring, but summer. Once again we were basking in 80-90 degree weather, without the intervening Spring. This time we did get bud swelling, and not long after, bud break. It was late, but out buds came. The only way we knew it was Spring was because of the monster winds that visited during what was nominally called "Spring". The first winds registered in the high 60+ mph, and evidence of their presence were huge piles of 50 and 60 foot live oak trees, knocked down en masse, with one pile numbering 12 trees piled up like a bunch of big splinters. We had a second such event just below our house, but it was composed of only 6 trees worth of splinters.

2005 was a big year for us with rain totalling some 42". In 2006,2007,and 2008, we had 16", 12", and 9", respectively. It is no secret that 2009-2010 was a huge rain year, and we registered 41", which ran clear into April. Here in Paso Robles, for every mile west of the 101 Freeway, the rain is roughly 1" more/yr for every mile west you go. So there were some folks 15 miles east of town who got 15-20" of rain, whereas normally they only got 7" or so. The wacky part was the late rains, which tried their best to sabotage grape farmers by raining hard, every time we mowed, weedeated, macheted, or hoed. In all we did all four tasks up to five times each. Part of that is my fault, as I had refused to use pre-emergents(that can contaminate the ground water). But next year, we use pre-emergents, because each trip thru the vineyard with hoes or machetes, costs out at $4000. That's right. It is expensive...especially the way all this came down.

The weird part was during bloom, which although absolutely perfect at outset, was submarined by gods of wrath bringing not only heavy late rains, but 2 monstrous wind storms...neither of which a grower wants during bloom. The first I already alluded to. The second, some 3 weeks later, and still during bloom(but near the end), again was in the 60+ mph range, with gusts strong enough to knock down more trees...this time the biggest pile of live oaks numbered sixteen. From a distance it truly looked like a tepee made of broken sticks, but up close it looked like a giant mass of snapped 20" diameter trees that had been broken in anger by some monster from the sky. The Weber Grill ended up in the pool, despite being well anchored down. During that windstorm I turned the outside spotlights on near midnite, and was amazed to see massive oaks being blown into near horizontal position...and not just several. They were all virtually at 90 degrees to their normal upright position.

Wind aside, the weird and wacky continued when once thru bloom it appeared that only the Merlot had been hard hit by the late rains and winds. The fruit set resulted in many clusters looking like banana clusters, not grapes. Instead of one long rachus there were 4 or 5, each half to a third the length of normal. There were "aces and spaces" among the odd looking rachi, with early estimates at Merlot fruit set somewhere at only 1/3 normal. Instead of .33 lbs/cluster, we looked to have maybe only .15 lbs or less. As it turned out, the rachi filled in, and we ended up with .25 lbs/ cluster, but as yet, we have nary a berry that has started to go thru veraison.

Matter of fact, we started veraison July 3rd in 2009, but had not one berry veraising by August 3rd this year. August 4th we had 3 berries of Pinot Noir beginning color change, and just a week later, all Pinot and most Syrah is pretty well thru veraison. This was not a long protracted veraison as we have had the last 3drought years...this was veraison in hyper-speed. The rest of the story is the Cab Sauv, which needed only a week from start to finish in some blocks, whereas other blocs have yet to move. This is definitely due to cold, as our lower Cab has yet to turn and our higher elevation Cab is finished.

As I write this today, it reached 89 degrees and was a beautiful day for grapes. Unfortunately the fog didn't lift until well past 10 a.m., so we didn't get near the heat and light we so desperately needed. One old salt said that he didn't even keep his heat/light days' data this year because we couldn't possibly catch up. That may have been so, but there is no question that with the rain, the cold weather staying around until the last two days, veraison has been way speedier than the last 3 years. Of further note, the springtime that we got cheated out of in March and April turned into 7-10 days of blistering summer, followed by a return of cold spring weather for the last 5-6 weeks.

I have lived here for 33 seasons now, and can say that without a doubt, this year is one for the record books. The high pressure system on the East Coast is making the midwest, south and east coast all insufferably hot. The low pressure system we have had here for the last 6 weeks is doing the reverse to us as on the east coast. There is a definite La Nina current offshore the Central California Coast, with water temps running 10 degrees cooler than normal. The Bay Area and Napa are similarly situated, with record cold days virtually daily. Altho I do not have first hand knowledge , I have heard Napa is about 3 weeks behind, vineyard maturation-wise, which is what half our vineyard looks like, too.

With super cold days, the marine air hanging around all day (La brisa in Spanish), and fog every morning, it has been essential to maintain good mildew spraying routines, with Westside mildew a real problem for those that missed spraying dates. Anyone who is going totally organic is bound to have mildew problem this year, when it has been a setup for mildew for almost two months now. If we can get more days like today...good and hot...then we may be okay, especially if the rest of our Cab and Merlot go thru veraison. Additionally, those vineyards with low crop yields
(2-2.5T/acre)will have less chance of mildew than those with heavier crop loads.
Also we have been hedging and leaf pulling on the shaded side of vines to help airflow and sunlight get to grapes and leaves. An added benefit of these two tasks is that sprays, when used, are much more effective.

Overheard a buyer and grower's rep discussing the wacky weather and they agreed, "This ought to be a great year for Syrah". The unsaid thing was this could be really tough year for Cab. A lot of Westside Cab is way behind...but as we have seen here at Cerro Prieto, once it gets kick started, it races thru veraison. We just need to get it going. Also, it would be nice to see summer before we are thru autumn. The way this year is going, however, no one has a clue as to what lies ahead. I have advocated for low crop yields for a number of years now, because weird weather such as this favors a low yield vineyard such as Cerro Prieto. Those folks hanging 5 T/acre of fruit...or more...are in for a rude surprise. In times of wacky, weird, wild, wet , and windy weather, low yields are also going to make the difference between ripening grapes vs not.It is no secret that if a vineyard has world class terroir,and we do,then low yields will translate into truly great wines.

Postscript, 2 days later: Last two days have been pure summer...barnburners. BUT, the most recent news is for that accursed low pressure to return to sitting on the coast. Whew! I sincerely hope they got the facts wrong on the low pressure issue, but I have already noticed the cold air blowing in from the west. Ouch.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Bordeaux comes to Cerro Prieto



Obviously, that is physically impossible, but two of its nicest and loveliest residents did come for a 4 day stay...my Aunt Jackie and cousin Josieane. Both were in the US to visit the Stanton family, strung out from Fort Worth to Austin, then Sacramento, and finally Paso Robles. The visit reminded me of my delightfully memorable first trip to Bordeaux, when our Bordeaux family hosted a fascinating trip throughout the entire heart of France's wine country. That was 30 yrs ago, and at the time, I merely liked wine, but had nowhere near the appreciation for it that I do now. The Rochard's live in a chateaux/bakery, which was built in the late 1700's, and was idyllic. Dinners of standard French fare were served which equated to the best 7 meals in my life. Wines, fine wines, were served at lunch and dinner, and altho I had trouble distinguishing labels of what we drank, the wines were...well, fabulous. The chateaux itself had walls 22 inches thick, which in warm months kept the interior comfortably cool. The wines actually were brought home in a 20 liter bottle, which had been siphoned from barrels in one of the many nearby underground caves. I was amazed to realize that many of the local citizenry routinely obtained their wines that way.

My aunt and grandma took me on tours of all the famous nearby chateaux, and I was privileged to meet some of Bordeaux's many superb winemakers, most of whom were family friends of Jackie, Robert, and grandma. At the time it was a spectacular trip, but, I was going full bore in my medical practice, and was vastly undereducated for such a fascinating experience. Now, that sounds like a trip of a lifetime, and my wife and I have been invited to do it all over again, this time experiencing it from the eyes of someone in the grape and wine business. We do many things at Cerro Prieto that are similar in France, namely utilize world class terroir, low yields for our grapes, and loving, hand care of the vines. One thing in particular stood out as different in the two countries, and that is how much the government interjects itself into the wine business. Here we irrigate; there they don't, but they also do get summer rains. They typically make wines with lower alcohol content, whereas in our vineyard, if we do that we miss out on all the wonderful flavors that come with ultra long hang times. Granted the alcohol level creeps up as we wait for flavors to come in, but if we were able to get the magnificent flavors early on, our wines would be of lower alcohol also.

Both Jackie and Josiane liked our wines, especially the blend of Paso Bordo, which would not be found in France within a Bordeaux domaine. Why? Because our 92 point 2006 Paso Bordo(85% Cab/15% Syrah), is a Bordeaux/Rhone, and that is a no-no in France, both in the Rhone River valley as well as in Bordeaux. This is no secret, but the American winemakers have essentially all the latitude we need to mix and match not only Cab with Syrah, but Syrah with Pinot Noir, Merlot with Syrah, as well as the traditional Cab/Merlot/Cab Franc/ Petit Verdot. Paso Robles has been noted by wine critic Steve Heimoff (Oct, 2009, Wine Entusiast) as home of the big, bold, red blends, and both Jackie and Josiane liked the blends we served. It seems strange that the government would restrict what French winemakers can do re: blending as well as certain viticultural practices, but France has been making great wines for centuries, and their rules and regulations go back at least several hundred years. I wouldn't be surprised to see that change one day, but no time in the foreseeable future.

As for the vineyard, currently we are at August 3rd, and still no sign of verasion...which last year was well underway by JULY 3rd. That is bizarre, but is certainly in keeping with our lovely spring days of mid to high 70's and lows in the low 40's. Unfortunately we are rapidly approaching fall, and to have spring weather now is blatantly weird. Oh, that isn't quite true...last nite I saw 3 berries beginning verasion in our cold valley Pinot and Sauv Blanc. This is either going to be a late harvest, hopefully not too late, or we are going to race thru verasion like a race horse. There are mumbles of worry from many neighbors, all of us wondering when is the hot weather coming. Since we are both in the southern end of the Paso AVA and also the north face of the Templeton Gap, the coastal marine air (known to Mexican workers as "brisa"), we are some 18-20 degrees cooler than downtown Paso Robles which is just 4 miles west-north-west of us. Nonetheless, while the days are perfect to enjoy the great outdoors, for ripening grapes...it be cold... truly, unseasonably cold. As producers of low yield grapes, 2-2.5 Tons/acre, we are well positioned to ripen our grapes, as opposed to higher yielding vineyards, with yields 5 Tons/ acre...or more. Still and all, we growers are beginning to worry, altho there still is plenty of time. We do need for verasion to get in gear, however.

As for all the "behinder" vineyard chores mentioned in the last blog, those are now done, only to be replaced by yet another list, in which we are once again 3-4 weeks behind. One thing of note, and this is ugly. We have had to net our early ripening grapes because the small songbirds, (finches, juncos), wrens, sparrows, Robins, Mountain Blue Jays, Western Blue Jays, plus the grape stealing kings, grackles, have started eating bitterly green grapes, with a voracious appetite. Normally we would just use bird distress calls, kites, and windmills to scare away birds, but not this year. When the Cab and Merlot start to ripen there will be hundreds of other acres nearby where they can eat. Right now, anyone who has grapes beginning or in verasion, definitely has a bird problem... unusual, because generally grape eaters wait for grapes to develop sugar. As they say, just another day in the vineyard...or paradise, if you will, but we all are starting to have some concerns re: our spring in summer.

As a postscript, writer and blogger Randy Fuller of Now and Zin, wrote a very nice article about Cerro Prieto last week, and I would highly recommend it to all who follow our blog. (http://www.blog.nowandzin.com/)

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Behinder: The Mistress


We've all been there before...the harder I work, the behinder I get. It's the darned mistress, again, like a siren calling the ships onto the rocks. Her name? Well, we all know her by different names, but most have to do with work...lots of work, all the time, 7 days a week, never relenting. In my case her name is Cerro Prieto, our vineyard, all encompassing in time, thought, care, emergencies, devotion, dislike, love...she is the reason I need a clone to do the other half of the work I can't get done. Do I love her? Yes. Can I live without her? Definitely yes. Do I wish she would be less demanding, require less of my time, and yes, function without me? Yes, yes, and certainly yes. Would I miss her were I to go away on a year long cruise? Yup. Can I do other things, fun things, simultaneously, without having to think about her? Yes again. Sounds like some conflicting thoughts here...but that's the way it is in the vineyard. In truth, 18 of our 20 acres are pristine, require little care other than pruning, thinning, leafing, canopy management, fertilizing, harvesting, and finally, making the carefully tended grapes into fine wines. Truth be told, some 90% of my time is spent on just 10% of our vines. How on earth could that be?

All of us have something that is a cocklebur under our saddles, and everyone has something in their jobs or everyday lives that is just a continuous pain in the rear. In my case, it is 2 acres of Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc, both grafted and replanted some three times now, over the course of the past 4 years. One year it was late...really late...spring cold spell, that fried our 2 above varietals just after planting and grafting. Next year, we had a similar situation, but that time the frost came the 3rd week in June(no kidding). Heck, we were 2 days short of summer, and our cold valley vineyard dipped into the low 20s. Last year we had summer in January, followed by a cold snap, then once again, it became warm. So warm, in fact, that on May 21st, San Jacinto Day in Texas, that our cold valley vineyard reached 117 degrees.

We had been pouring wine at the Paso Robles Wine Fest that day, and upon returning home, we were greeted by 2 acres of Pinot and Sauv Blanc that appeared as if someone had taken a blow-torch to them, neatly beginning at the fruit wire and working upwards. It honestly looked as if someone had put a running brown paper bag from one end of each block to the other, with a decidedly brown strip running from the fruit wire upwards, and running the entire length of both blocks. Hot air rises and cold air sinks...at least there was a tiny bit of cold available to keep each entire vine from cooking up. We managed to save most vines, but did have to re-graft and replant almost 12oo vines. For someone seeking perfection in the vineyard, it is painful to have some vines just misbehave over and over...and yet over again. Yet that is the way it goes, and everyone knows whereof I speak. One little thing is enough to make an otherwise
pleasurable job very unpleasant at one time or another. I like to think of this kind of event as "negative work", in that it takes a lot of time, thought and energy to "get it right", only to have one's hopes dashed by some event...in this case something as simple as bad breaks in the weather. The remaining vines can withstand these climatic insults because they are well established, inured to pain...er, really cold spells, or more recently really hot ones.

This is the time when it is good to remember the glass scenario: is it half full or is it half empty. We all would like to be positive, glass half full types, and mostly we are. It is just that persistent cocklebur, if you will, that can make life more...well, challenging, for lack of a better word. Some in the grape biz say they have "issues", but we all know that to mean that there is a problem...to lesser or greater degree. Whatever, I would be delighted to airmail those two acres to anyone nearby who might want them. Yet I know that isn't in the cards, so I will just have to persist, be even more diligent, put more time in, and hopefully, one day actually get the entire 20 acres to behave. Until then, I guess I will continue to get more behinder the harder I work, and just remember it is a privilege to be able to work in the fields, in the cellar, and sometimes in the parks for big holiday pourings. When you get right down to it, 90% perfect ain't all that bad. Matter of fact, the tiny 2 acres that have caused all the problems are more than counterbalanced by the 18 acres that require little more than the usual care and maintainence. Like the saying goes, "Nobody's perfect"...but it sure is nice to be almost perfect.

Our orginal goal was to grow the perfect grape. Then it was to make the perfect wine. Well, they may not have been perfect, but , by golly, they sure came darn close. The 2006 Cerro Prieto Merlot won 2 International Gold Medals, both the San Diego International wine competition, and the Critics Challenge International Wine Competition; our signature wine, the 2006 Paso Bordo(85% Cab/ 12% Syrah)received 92 points in the Wine Enthusiast...and this was our first bottling. Aside from being very proud, we were also a bit humbled by what we had achieved. That's why the mistress, that time demanding, worry wart of a vineyard, is really not so bad after all. She has brought us fulfillment and fame...the worry and hard work are just the price of admission...nothing more, nothing less. Being able to live life and work outdoors at something I truly love, worry warts and all, is really, truly, just a matter of being blessed. Someone, a client, once said, "Being able to live here is like living in a tree house , and the vineyard is incredibly beautiful". What could I say to that? Sure I thought of the mistress, but when all is said and done, our visitor had it right: it is beautiful and it is sheer pleasure to work here...outdoors, in sunlight, living a dream that not many have the chance to experience. Mistresses, schmistresses. We are incredibly fortunate to live our dream, and if there are some cockleburs, or bumps in the road, that is a small price to pay for the spectacular life we have been able to live.

Behinder? Ah, heck...begone. Oh, and if you happen to drop by, don't forget to try our newly released 2007 Merlot with a dab of Cab and a touch of Syrah in it. The '07 Paso Bordo is not quite ready yet, but will be at the end of September. Meanwhile, we still have 60 cases of the '06 Paso Bordo, and I can attest, it goes down fine. Come see us and give both a try. Cheers.
As for the picture above...that is my real mistress...my lovely wife, Teresa

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Winter, then summer, and only a hint of spring.


Man oh man, how can 3 weeks go by so fast? Last blog everything was in bloom, then we got a late rain, then we got summer. Now the days are cooling with fog coming in at nite. In the vineyard, weeds and gophers continue to bedevil us. We have mowed, weedeaten, and macheted now 5 times, albeit that this time there was a lot less to do. Not using pre-emergent in a big rain year, going green or not, was a huge error. Additionally we currently are in bloom, the two sets of movable catch wires have been raised around each vine, and the canes are easily 3, sometimes 4 feet in length. It is incredible how fast this vineyard took off. Just got our 2nd mildew spray in prior to bloom, so that when fog comes in at nite, any mildew that wants to form is inhibited from doing so. Each spray is good for 21 days or thereabouts, and is unnecessary once verasion is done.

We just cleared the trail that parallels the cold valley Pinot below and the mountain Cab above. It is a straight up and down side hill that has one trail cut thru it, and is traversible on our 6 wheel drive ATVs. Between poison oak, huge bull thistles, and 4, yes four downed trees, it was quite a task. Once done, however, it gives guests here for vineyard tours a chance to go thru an enchanted forest, 20 degrees cooler than anything else around, and that is all year long. It is completely forested, with the tree canopy not allowing any light to pass thru. The entire mountainside is covered in magnificent ferns which is quite different from the rich dark soil of the valley below in full sun, and the mountain above, in full sun and set in solid limestone. The main reason for reopening this trail is so that visitors can go along the trail and see the 5 nests of redtail hawks, the two nests of grey squirrels, and the 3 nests of horned owls in the white oak canopy, high above.
From here on out, we have some more positions to set for the now 2 y/o grafts of Sauv Blanc. Additionally, with the 60 knot winds we got some two weeks ago, we have had to cut the gangly, and unsupported canes that extend high above the catch wires. Failure to do so makes the entire graft cane whip about and break off when the winds go over 20-30 mph...and that has happened thrice in the last 2 weeks.

We, like others, have seen the traffic in these parts fall off substantially from last year, when it was slow. The economy is hurting most folks, and many of those drink fine wines. Ask anyone at the local wine shop, and they will say this is a buyer's market. Problem is there just aren't anywhere near enough buyers of shoes, cars, homes, clothes, dinners out, movies, etc. Wine is not being picked on here, the entire country is. It is heartbreaking to have so many friends in construction...well, no longer so. Paso has at least 25 to 40% of its income related to construction and everything that emanates therefrom. Builders are getting walloped, and many have just frankly pulled up and quit. With business in general way off, everyone is affected, from school teacher layoffs to the local auto mechanics. Fine wines stay good for long periods of time, and if kept around will be even better in years down the road. You can't say that about many things, but you sure can about wine. Today's vineyard tour guests are 3 hours late as of this blog, so guess they aren't coming. C'est la vi. Good news is, the Cornish game hens were put in the oven with lemon, lemon pepper, salt and paprika, some 2 hours ago...so it is time to feast. I will leave you with that thought, and as always, say a prayer tonite that the belching black cloud at the bottom of the Gulf, just off New Orleans, will somehow, miraculously be capped tomorrow. We've been hearing that for 52 days now, so probably, that is a forlorn hope. We need a miracle down there. I sure hope it is forthcoming...soon.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Paso Robles Wine Festival and Cerro Prieto


We look forward to meeting many new friends this weekend, and revisiting with old ones. We will not be pouring at the downtown Wine Fest, however, but will be here at the vineyard doing eco tours, taking photographic tours, enjoying the beauty of spring, and doing wine/cheese pairings. What a difference a year makes. One year ago when we poured at the Wine Fest, the temperature under our awning in the park reached 119 degrees. That spoiled 10 cases of our wines which even with huge ice chests and ice, we could not keep ahead of the phenomenal heat. Turned out the rubberized awnings actually acted as heat absorbers, and made the temps 4-5 degrees hotter.
Looking out the windows early this morning, I was treated to a spectacular sunrise, with hillsides of vines as far as the eye could see. The early morning light highlighted the newly mown rows of hay in fields far below and several miles away. The geometry of these mowed fields is in itself a thing of beauty. Looking at the sun glistening off leaves of our fully leafed out vineyard it was hard to imagine a place, or sight more lovely. Lupine are still in bloom, poppies are showing off their yellow and orange everywhere, and all remaining wildflowers are giving it their last gasp prior to storing energy for next year. Sometimes nature has to be allowed to take precedence over our vines. So it is in our top bloc of Syrah, where a lupine bush has taken up residence between two vines. The blue purple color is dazzling, but the size of the bush is no less remarkable. Yesterday it measured some 12 feet in diameter, competing with not 2 but 3 vines for food, water, and sunshine. When you see something like that, it is very easy to let it grow, even though it is compromising several vines' growth. It is unique and you should see it. We do have one other lupine bush, but it is growing on an otherwise barren hillside.

Whereas we will miss not pouring in the park tomorrow, we will be looking forward to seeing many of our friends here at the vineyard. The vineyard at present is about as beautiful as it can get in the spring, and we already have two photographers out and about taking rolls of film. For those interested we have multiple stages of vine growth on display, with potted dormant Sauv Blanc just peeking thru the 6" of dirt piled on top of it. We have half an acre of Pinot just secured to wire yesterday, plus all other vines are fully leafed out. The rain was a Godsend this year, when we got as much as we received the last 3 years combined. Wild turkeys are in abundance(altho you have to be up at first light to see them), some red foxes have actually been hunting gophers in our yard, not 30 feet from our house, coyotes are ever present, and then there are the birds.
Last nite we watched a Stellar bluejay's nest fall from under a beam of our house. It had initially been a finch's nest, which the jays destroyed, including the eggs. Then the jays wove a nest made completely of tiny 3" twigs, right where the finches had been. A pair of perigrine falcons then did the job on the jay's nest and eggs. Survival of the fittest...

Immediately below the house we have a pair of "sopolotes", or turkey vultures sitting on a nest(it is half of an abandoned wood rat nest), and during daytime, the sopolotes take turns flying directly between the trees and within 15 feet of our back deck. This pair was born here some 10 years ago, just below our home, and they have adopted us. Normally one cannot get within 50 yards of turkey vultures, but these guys know that we leave dead gophers and coyotes out in the fields below, for them to feast upon. Watching all this "nature" is doubly enjoyable while sipping our wines which are paired up with Stilton, dry Monterey jack, and French cheddar cheeses. If after visiting the wine fest (or before) you wish to come join us, we would be delighted to share any and all the above with you. Cerro Prieto is truly beautiful, and at certain times is much moreso than others. This is one of those times.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The amazing spring rush crush




No, that does not mean we are crushing grapes in May, but it does mean that there has been a massive amount of work done since my last blog, now a full month ago. To loyal readers, my apologies, but the vineyard has been all consuming to the extreme. Since a month ago, the gopher population has gone crazy, with more gophers than we have ever seen in the past 11 years. Controlling these pests takes an inordinate amount of time...to many, myself included, this is negative work; ie, we are working like mad, but are not going forward. We are, in military parlance, building and holding. We are not progressing.

Since last month, you might be interested to know what the nuts and bolts of running a vineyard encompasses. First gopher control; then there is the irrigation of our cold valley potted dormant Pinot and Sauvignon Blanc replants. Now, 3 weeks later, we have to put shelters around all those dormant vines we buried under 3 inches of soil. As the new leaves sprout, we dig away the dirt they were buried under, and carefully place cardboard shelters around them. Next is once again tractor repairs. The broken crawler tread has held up, but the PTO cable broke, requiring a virtual dismantling of the tractor to replace one lousy cable.

Next was spray rig, which required a new bearing, replacing a mysteriously lost fan belt, and finally replacing worn out nozzles. Unfortunately our spray rig is no longer made, parts are scarce, and many have to be hand manufactured. Ugh. The Bush Hog, a 42" mower pulled behind our 6X6 ATV, has now been completely rebuilt, yet continues to cause problems with breakdowns with each and every use. Sounds like farming, doesn't it? In our 3 year old Syrah, which is growing out of pure limestone rock, we have had to put up a second set of catch wires, in that heavy winds of spring snap off 2 foot long shoots as if they were nothing. Two days ago I encountered 53 broken shoots just on our top row of Syrah alone. The catch wires will alleviate most of that problem. My dependable work truck, a Ford F150, had a compressor go bad and required replacing, plus the new fan belt that drives it.

On a daily basis, we have to clean a massive filter for our irrigation pump due to our extremely hard(basic) water. Mainly it is just time consuming, but again is just negative work. By cleaning it, we don't progress...we just stay neutral. Thus is life in the spring vineyard, but due to heavy winter rains, and then 3 late spring rains, we have had to re-mow and re-weedeat the entire vineyard 3 times. This is easily our busiest spring on record, but finally it is immensely gratifying to see things round up into good shape. As for wines, 2007 is in bottle and will be released June 30th. The 2008 vintages need a topping and the 2009 needs racking, plus chemistries. My gut feeling is that we have improved on our 92 point Paso Bordo, and have got a Merlot blend that is better than our international gold medal 2006 Merlot. Time and tasters will tell, but we are extremely excited about our 2007 releases.

We hope to see all our old friends and new ones, too, here at the vineyard this coming weekend during Wine Festival. Our planned move to open a tasting room across from the downtown park at Meritage Lounge remains in the works, but bureaucratic red tape has delayed things. Please call for information on tasting at 805-226-8448. Our 2006 Paso Bordo has managed to actually improve with age, which makes that 92 point wine truly spectacular. We will make a stand alone Syrah this year, but will not be available until next yr. I cannot wait to get this into bottle.

In closing, there are two pictures of our vineyard in 1999, and then today. You can see the remarkable changes in this, the county's most photographed vineyard (or at least, so I have been told). Vineyard tours are by appointment, but most are already spoken for during Wine Fest weekend. Call to see if there are any cancellations should you be interested. We are foregoing the downtown park pouring this year, as we were much busier at the vineyard last year than we were at the Wine Fest pouring . Look forward to seeing you all again. Also a note to wine club members: you are welcome to pick up your shipments here and save the cost of shipping, should you wish. Enjoy the Wine Fest, and we look forward to seeing you.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

The Maccabees of Cerro Prieto


Oops, that's a typo, in that it should have read "McAbee's". The biblical Maccabees were actually a Jewish rebel army who liberated parts of land of Israel from the rule of the Selucid empire. Also, supposedly "Maccabees" gave rise to the word "hammer", with all its implications. Anyway, right now, we are using the McAbee's gopher traps, setting some 36 or more per day. Doesn't sound like much but first you have to find the little scoundrels, then you have to dig until you find a two-way tunnel, and then you set the traps and insert one in each arm of the tunnel. A good idea is to secure each trap to a length of baling wire and then wrap that around a fluorescent orange painted piece of wood. This is so you can find traps(over 20 acres it is easy to lose them) once you have buried them in the ground. Also, the stakes make it harder for coyotes to dig up the traps(plus gopher) and take the gopher trap and gopher elsewhere for supper. The orange paint makes it a lot easier to find those suckers the next day.

Seems kind of silly to go thru all this hassle for a gopher, but one mature 11 y/o vine has a worth of $450 to replace at current status. Naturally, new vines are only $3 each, but the work to get them to 11 years costs about $450. That's why once we plant them, we go to extraordinary means to keep them alive. Poisons are a possibility, an easy one, but besides from being expensive, some are also secondary killers, ie: Gopher eats poison, dies, and vulture eats dead gopher and dies. The non secondary poisons are essentially grain treated with anticoagulant, and gophers need to feed on the grain at least 3-4 times before dying. For a vineyard "going towards green" we do our best to stay away from anything poisonous, as it is just one more chemical you don't have to put into the soil.

Besides gophers, this is also the time of year for re-doing weed control (machetes, hoes, weedeaters), and getting the vineyard ready for any improvements. In our case this is replacing some vines in our cold valley vineyard that altho grafted two years ago, still are stuggling. Having pulled a number of them out of the ground, the failed ones usually have had a root system chewed up by gophers, and the vine is literally hanging on with only a tap root. These are best replaced, as altho they could survive, they wouldn't thrive. Five days hence we will be planting some potted dormant Pinot Noir vines, burying the entire bareroot vine under ground. After the vine breaks thru the dirt, we will put on cardboard cartons to protect young vines from not only late spring frost, but also our many jackrabbits...which look at young vines as a real treat.
Lastly, this is a time for repairs. Right now it is the flail mower, and 42" Bush Hog mower(pulled behind ATV). Both are being welded, re-wired, and sharpened. Making it thru one season is tough on mowers. Making it thru 11 seasons is asking a lot from these contraptions. They will and do break down. Last week it was the tractor tread. Now welded back on our crawler is once again in service, but it sure looked naked for awhile with one tread extending behind and in front of the track-layer. Amazingly our mechanic was able to jack the 10,000 lb tractor up and move the track so it could be reattached, bolted and welded.

Such is our spring...beautiful, busy, and behind. The saying, "the faster I go, the behinder I get", has special meaning each spring. We do get a lull later, but right now it is action packed. Meanwhile our '07 Merlot and Paso Bordo are 3 weeks post bottling, which means we will be trying them out in a mere 9 more weeks. These both got a full 27 months on 1/3 new French oak barrels... Seguin
Moreau, for those of you interested. The other 2/3 barrels were neutral, ie, 2-3
years old, but they don't impart much, if any oak flavor to the wines.

That's it for now, but if you happen to be driving by and see a 6 wheel ATV out in the vineyard, and someone kneeling on the ground burying gopher traps, honk or just stop by for a visit. I would love to give our many wine club members some hands on time learning how to trap pesky gophers.
(Incidentally, the accompanying picture above is titled, "Lots of flowers, lots of weeds").

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

It's flower time at Cerro Prieto


The mowing is done, weedeating is underway (with a large assist from machetes), and the vineyard is once again taking form as it usually does during the early spring. Clusters of California poppies, hillsides of pink, yellow, red, and white wild radishes, massive patches of lupine, a monster 8'X8' purple bush lupine, masses of yellow fireweed, dwarf blue lupine, wild purple vetch, standard blue lupine, a purple/brown/yellow wild sweet pea...the list goes on and on...all are now in their glory, and it is a fascinating time of year here in the vineyard. The weedeating and machetes are used to avoid herbicide sprays. A secondary benefit of not spraying is that we then can appreciate all the magnificent wildflowers mentioned above, plus another several dozen not mentioned.

To see it is to truly understand nature's wonder. Anyone who has visited Cerro Prieto during the spring time will attest to the sheer, overwhelming beauty of the vineyard and its surrounding hillsides. We have prevented any erosion in this, a 30 inch rain year, and we have continued the propagation of fields of magnificent, eye-hurting color...all of which would have been absent had we sprayed herbicide, primarily pre-emergents. Yes, weedeating is an added cost, but if one lives in the country, one should enjoy it to its fullest...and we do. Come see us and enjoy the color show, plus try some nationally recognized wines.

Bottling of '07s is now done, and we have laid the bottled wine down for a 3 month nap. There were no glitches, just premium wines making it into their bottles, where they now will take a brief rest. Quality of our Paso Bordo should match or exceed our 92 point 2006, and the Merlot is not a stand alone, but rather a blend of Merlot with a tiny bit of Syrah, and 12% superb Cabernet. It is difficult to compare our internationally acclaimed Gold Medal Merlot of 2006 with our '07 blend, but I assure you, it will not disappoint.

Next on the calendar is to finish weedeating, and then to control the ongoing gopherama that we continuously have. After that it will be time to evaluate all spur positions on each vine...yes, that is 180,000 spurs to look at...but well positioned spur positions now save a lot of time and heartache later. Also we will remove those spurs that have gotten leggy, again reducing our expected yield per vine. This time consuming task goes on for several months, as one might expect, but is time well spent. It is a time to check each plant, commune with it, and figure out if there are any special needs required. As for nutrients, that is taken care of once vines have leafed out fully, and are well on the way toward full leaf maturation.

There is one threat on the horizon: the Arctic Express is currently blowing through, and we are already leafed out in 90% of our Syrah, our highest bloc. It will stay 25 degrees warmer than our bottom valley vineyard, and hopefully will be spared any late hard frosts. The valley vineyard is still sleeping, with very little in the way of bud bulging, let alone, bud break. Somehow, someway it knows that to swell or break buds too early is to succumb to late spring frosts. Right now, most vineyard owners are "saying the beads" re: no hard hitting frost. If it should happen, well, that is farming, as the saying goes. We hope for the best, yet are prepared for the worst. The big rains of winter have recharged all vines, and we are on track for a great 2010.

As for fauna, the barn owls have already produced one clutch of young, and another is underway. The immense piles of gopher bones in the scat below barn owl boxes is impressive in number of dead skeletons, as well as the assortment of skeletons found. Gophers predominate, but ground squirrels as well as field mice and relatives are in abundance. The red tailed hawks are soaring, many already matched up, and frequently seen in the tallest oak trees overlooking the vineyard, with mouthfuls of weeds, leaves, sticks, and other nest building materials. Occasionally an existing nest gets rebuilt, but most years, large nests succumb to the 60-70 knot winds that blow in winter. Red shouldered hawks continue to do their aerial acrobatics, each male vying for a mate. Perrigrine falcons are likewise entertained, but they don't put on soaring shows like red tails and red shouldered hawks do. As for the songbirds (finches, juncos, nuthatches, titmouses, robins, stellars jays, et al), it is definitely nesting time, as can be noted by the tattered front and back doormats that have been shredded by one or all of the above culprits. Oh yes, the grey squirrels love to make their nests from our doormats also. All in all, it is an immensely busy time here, and sometimes I actually think the animals are working harder than we are. Oddly, the wild turkey, both Merriam and Rio Grande are not paired up yet, probably the result of a false summer the last two weeks, now followed by an Arctic air mass. Such is life at Cerro Prieto today, and we wish you could enjoy it all with us. A phone call or email usually works. We look forward to seeing you here to enjoy nature at her finest.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Getting in gear at Cerro Prieto Vineyard & Cellars/ Going towards Green...again.


Well, no question we are underway for a new year because we are now officially pruned. To many, that is readily understandable; but to others just getting into wine (and vineyard) appreciation, here's something to chew on: on 20 acres of vines, we have 10 spur positions(one every 6 inches) on each 5 foot cordon (the horizontal portion of the vine). Figure 870 vines/acre (on a 5' X 10' vine spacing) and we have roughly 18,000 vines, which means with 10 spurs/vine there are 180,000 spur positions to prune each and every year. Wow! Prior to growing grapes I had never ever contemplated something as large as 180,000 anythings. Yet, on our small boutique vineyard, that's what we prune every cotton picking year...180,000 individual cuts with the pruning shears. Obviously, I don't do that myself, and in the last several years, have done virtually none due to back surgeries. But still, just thinking about opening and closing a pair of pruning shears 180,000 times... well, it is still an amazing number to try and get your head around.

Just imagine what vineyards of 200 acres are like...or like the Scheid Vineyard, some 50 miles north of us where there are miles and miles of vineyard, neatly butting up to both sides of the highway and extending west to the mountains and east to the foothills. They have dozens of square miles of vineyard, and literally hundreds of thousands of vines. Pruning for those folks must surely be akin to a really bad colonoscopy.

In any event, one must always start somewhere, and with pruned canes on the ground, there is a certain satisfaction once all is done. As of now we are using a flail mower to cut the winter growth of our anti-erosion clovers, broemes, vetch, fescue, rye, filaree, and 26 varieties of wildflowers. Additionally, adhering to a biodynamic philosophy of "going towards green" we are also chopping up 180,000 pruned canes that lay in amongst our grasses, clover, vetch, and flowers. A brief 10 years ago we used a hay rake behind our tractor to remove all cut canes, which we then moved, stacked, and burned. Extremely non-organic. Extremely wasteful and time consuming. By merely buying a good mulching flail mower, we eliminated fouling the air with smoke from 180,000 burning canes, and simultaneously eliminated several costly steps(hay raking and moving the massive amount of pruned vines to burn piles). The additional benefit comes with mulching the canes into biodegradeable size, which ultimately returns nitrogen to the soil, and also helps rebuild any topsoil lost during torrential rains. Going organic doesn't necessarily have to be expensive. Many times, "going towards green" can actually save both time and money, but the biggest winner, hands down, is the environment. Seeing that mass of grasses, flowers, vetch and unruly canes reduced to a fine mulch(we double cut to get the smallest particle size we can)...well, it is a very satisfying feeling to know we are not only saving our environment, but improving it as well.

Next on the agenda is to catch up on gophering, the prize winner for crummy, boring vineyard tasks. On the other hand, I have trapped muskrats, raccoons, rats, possums...to mention but a few...since I was a kid. So while gophering may not be intellectually challenging, there is a warm glow in my gut every time we pull up a trap with gopher in it. Additionally we have been simultaneously dropping our movable catch wires(4 per vine), which we will raise gradually as the shoots start to emerge from each spur position. "Basal plus two" is our pruning motto on established vines, but "basal plus one" is used for young one and two year old vines. Essentially that means that we will have 2 shoots coming from every spur position, with an extra basal bud hidden between the cordon and the base of the spur. This basal bud comes into play if we get hit with a late spring frost and we lose one, or occasionally two shoots to frost. The basal bud is, in effect, our insurance bud. The final job for early spring is to spray, weed eat, hoe, and machete our hillside anti-erosion ground cover, which includes mustard galore, vetch, wild radish in white, pink, yellow and red hues, California poppies, lupine, and not to be forgotten, bull thistle. We do not use pre-emergent sprays which would keep all the above from germinating, but simultaneously, that poison stays in the ground(and hence ground water) for several years. Ecologically, pre-emergents are terrible. Economically, they are a huge benefit. We come down on the side of the environment, and forego the pre-emergents, instead using systemic spray (Roundup, Glyfos), which is taken up by the plant and not the soil. We could have used the systemic spray early on when plants were just germinating, but chose instead to wait til all had gotten a good root base which holds the steeply inclined soil in place. This requires a lot of extra work as wild radish, bull thistle, and vetch are huge and tough to get rid of. But merely by delaying the spray we again are being environmentally conscientious, choosing to prevent erosion rather than to spray tiny plants which later hold soil in place. Needless to say, this spray is on hillsides that surround different blocs thruout our vineyard, and the systemic sprays on hillsides don't affect the vineyard within.

Every vine...really...each and every vine is then inspected by me to be certain there are no apparent diseases, there has been no vine loss due to gophers, and finally to insure all newly trained vines are not carrying too many spur positions, nor crowding adjacent spurs. Any spur that impinges on another is perfunctorily removed, which then decreases the crop produced by that vine by 10%. That in and of itself is one of the hardest things to do...prune a well positioned spur that is too close to another. But in the long run, if left alone, that spur would produce two shoots, each with a grape cluster, and each would be crowding the cluster from an adjacent shoot. This is one of those situations where it is way better to fix a bad spur position earlier rather than later.

Lastly, once all mowing is done, all hillside vegetation is cut or chopped, we move on to the next "must do" job, and that is to cut and mulch all grassland that is surrounding our vineyard, but not technically "adjacent to" the vineyard. We have a number of valleys and draws, steep slopes and rocky outcroppings that are on the remaining part of our 73 acres. We have over 5000 Live Oak trees (plus some Box Elderberry & Valley oaks), but there is also some 15 acres of steep hillside and low valley weeds. Our most prominent is Fireweed, appropriately named because of its oily content...which burns like a match if a fire were to befall us. Without cutting all these weeds we would be a perfect setup for a late summer or early fall fire. Access to our mountainsides, deep valleys, and hillsides is basically not possible for any type of firefighting equipment that rolls on wheels. Any fire here would roar up our steep draws and would be a nightmare to put out. Hence, each and every year we dutifully mow everything we can and weedeat the rest. Any idea of cost to weedeat anything not mowed on Cerro Prieto? Well, last year was two guys for 22 days, at a cost of $5200. Not truly a vineyard expense, but nonetheless an expense we have to swallow, or lead the life of a guy praying for the lottery winner...except in this case we would be praying we didn't have a fire. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure...except in this case it is a $5200 cure.

That's it for this rather lengthy blog, but it pretty well gives one an idea of what is going on in the vineyard at season's onset.

Just a note on the upcoming Zinfandel fest, March 19-21. We had hoped to be in our new tasting room at the Meritage Lounge on the south side of Paso's downtown park. We are still in process at the moment, so any wine club members who wish to pick up their orders... as well as other wine fans who wish to visit and try our 92 point Paso Bordo(Cab/Syrah), come see us at the vineyard this coming weekend, and wine/cheese/food pair with us, while enjoying African art(watercolors), hides, mounts, carvings, rugs...to mention but a few. We hope to see you here.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Cerro Prieto: Out goes 2009, in comes 2010/ Ecologic Redux


Yeah, yeah, I know the year changed over some seven plus weeks ago, and we finally put 2009 to bed well before year's end. This spectacular sunset over the vineyard attests to that, but 2010 really never starts for us until a)bottling is done, and b) until pruning starts. Heck, looking around, it looks like we have been asleep at the switch, or lazy even, in that we have weeds everywhere except at the base of vines, which we sprayed with a systemic contactant, Roundup. No pre-emergent herbicide, which stays in the soil and undoubtedly ends up in our water supply, is used here. Result? Well, it looks as if the vineyard is a bit unkempt, a bit shaggy, as it were. Yet in spite of the weeds we know for certain that we still have our topsoil, which would be in the Salinas River at present, were it not for foregoing early pre-emergent herbicides in late December.

So, before the year started we knew we would once again tolerate more weeds, but would also not contribute to polluting our ground water with pre-emergents. We could have sprayed Roundup, (which is absorbed by the weeds, and then kills them systemically), but had we done that early on, el Nino rains would have ruined a substantial amount of our severely steep hillside rows, washing out stretches of 50 to 100 feet or more, per row. I already know the cost of rebuilding a 50 ft. section of eroded row, and at $1000/ 50 feet of destroyed row space, one can burn $10,000 in quick order. Hence the last thing we did before shutting down in 2009 and truly calling it a year, was to seed and place hay over the obvious erosion prone rows, and pray for light, gentle, farmer's rain. For flatlanders, that means steeply inclined hillsides/mountainsides will wash away seeds, even with overlying hay, if we get early gullywashers instead of nice, gentle farmer rains. The farmer rains prevailed, so our susceptible steep sidehills were safe. Interesting, isn't it, how the last thing of one year, and the first thing of the next, both involve ecologic issues: conserving soil and not polluting our groundwater. Those of you who follow my vineyard/wine blog will recognize parts of previous blogs on Cerro Prieto and "going green", or rather, doing our best to see to it that our land, our water, is in better shape when we leave it, than when we first arrived. Also as noted above, there are serious cost concerns, and no one will doubt that failing to protect for erosion can eat up any and all profits a vineyard might generate.

Ecologic considerations aside, we are late bottling(should have been in January), and most other vineyards have already been pruned. The bottling was unavoidable due to yet another two back surgeries(this one will work), and as for pruning, we always are the last to prune, due to the susceptibility of our valley vineyard to freeze late into the spring. Late May the valley vineyard and our Pinot and Sauvignon Blanc can get hit with a late frost, so we have found by experimentation that delayed pruning pushes back our bud break date, and sometimes, a week, maybe even a few days delay can make the difference between frozen buds and living ones. As for bottling, it is scheduled for March 23rd, and I cannot wait.

The 2007 Paso Bordo has a tremendous bouquet, a touch more oak than 2006(altho both were on 1/3 new French oak 27 months), and flavors that bend the mind...not to mention treat the palate. 2007 Cerro Prieto Merlot is different from our 2006 which won two International Gold Medals, but that is because of blending in just a dash of Cab(12%) and a hint of Syrah(6%). I cannot compare the two years of Merlot, because they are of different makeups. What I can say is, that the Merlot which quickly sold out early last year is even better this year. Standing alone the Merlot was superb. With a small addition of our Cab and Syrah, it is amazing how many more wonderful flavors are detected by the palate. Bottling in late March means that we won't be able to sell either wine until June, so our fans are just going to have to settle for our 92 point Paso Bordo, which hopefully will last until June. As we get closer to June, we will probably have to limit the number of '06 bottles we can sell to our fans and wine club members, but that is a problem for another day. Barrel tasting our '07s has really made me wish we had gotten our bottling done, but as the Gaelic saying goes, "Wyrd bio ful aeread"...you can't change fate.
As of this morning we are officially starting to prune, but this is really just the vines that got shellacked last year in the May 21st heatspike which hit 117 degrees...and set roughly an acre of grafts and new vines back about 6 months. Unfortunately, those vines are scattered thruout our valley vineyard, altho I have no idea...zippo...as to why we had skip areas of vine "cookage", when the whole dang "cold" valley was 117. Ah, well, such are the vagaries of farming...grape farming.