Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Cerro Prieto the beautiful: Post Westside Paso Harvest and a time for reflection

4:45 a.m. and the bright 2/3 moon has long since set. Last evening even with the moon straight above at bedtime, Orion, the hunter with sword and shield was also directly overhead as was Gemini, the Twins, directly above Orion. The long, snakey Hydra was barely visible to the west, disappearing into the western horizon. Looking northwards, the Big Dipper and Ursa Major are readily visible, much farther south than they have been in months. Little Dipper and the North star are hidden by the massive oak forests to our north.  Memo: Cold and crisp outside, if I don't wrap house well, vineyard well, and house pipes today, we are going to be without water tomorrow.

5 a.m. and first lite appears, that time in the morning when the early Nile River dhow sailors could hold up their hand to the darkness and actually see individual fingers. That fact remains important to duck hunters in states, or countries(Mexico) where shooting begins at first light. Usually at that time of morning, the hunter can only hear the ducks whistling by overhead...but can see none.

5:15 and the first smudge of  daybreak can be seen to the SE, a blue grey smudge with a hint of orange...faint, but visible. The orange is beginning to creep west and north now, and by 5:30 the entire visible horizon to the south/ SE has a lovely thin line of orange, highlighting the southern mountains of the Templeton Gap, and the foothills of the Santa Lucias extending northward. First light, daybreak, the truly divine colors of early morn are a sense of renewal in this otherwise rather dreary, cold, damp first attempt at winter. Mornings fill the soul with joy, and those who miss them, are missing the one best part of each day. 7 a.m. now, and the sun is just up with the passionate oranges and pinks giving way to a halo of beautiful yellow-orange, warmth giving light.

Most mornings start this way in winter, but this day began a bit earlier as I was laying in bed trying to organize thots for this tardy 2 and 1/2 month blogpost. Altho we have but seven official followers, this blog is read by hundreds of folks, evidenced by the emails I receive. So it is catch up time, from the last post in Sept., when  we were still evaluating what the vineyard would produce...or not. To call this harvest a nailbiter would be a gross understatement. Since last writing, we had a two inch hard rain with 20 knot winds, smack dab in the middle of harvest. We saw temperatures hover at 60 degree highs(not much photosynthesis goes on in grapevines below that) , and lows each nite in the mid 30s down in our Very Cold Valley Vineyard. In short, we got cheated on both light and heat days, a combination of which is required to ripen grapes. As many of you know, there is a formula for the total of heat and light days each yr, which calculates where ripening is at any point in time. This yr we actually fell behind by more than 2 months of heat/light days. To be honest I quit counting, as the results were not favorable.

Cerro Prieto is harvested on basis of flavor...not ripeness of grapes, nor pH, TA(total acidity) and Brix
(sugar content). In Bordeaux, harvest dates are decided by the government (how odd), and many harvests may match up intersections of pH, TA, and Brix, but frankly, many of those grapes are still unripened, green, or bitter/ tannic. Simply put, we here in the Willow Creek area( a future proposed sub appellation of Paso Robles AVA) are smack dab in the heart of the heart of the world's one best place to grow and ripen red winegrapes. And Cerro Prieto is in the exact heart of that grapegrowing mecca. Add that to our intentionally low yields of 2.5 tons/acre for the 95% of grapes we sell, and the 1 ton/acre grapes we use for our wines, if anyone is going to ripen, it should be us. But ripening is just the easy part. Harvesting on flavor is what we do, insuring the most flavorful, well ripened fruit for world class wines. This yr? Unnh, we just said the beads, prayed for heat, no fog or rain and lots of sunlight. Essentially we got very little of what we normally have.

We did well to ripen this yr, let alone harvest on flavor. Based on decr cluster weights as well as fewer clusters, we had only 50% of our normal Cabernet crop. Merlot was down, but it struggled to ripen, going thru verasion 2 months late. Syrah was decreased in cluster size, but had a normal number of clusters. Our Very Cold Valley Vineyard did the best, both Sauv Blanc and Pinot, but even they got way less sun and heat than needed. For contracts of Cab we were 50% light, for Merlot 25% light, and Syrah was 14% light. The fact that everything ripened was amazing given the frigid, dark, wet conditions. As for flavor, well we had some, but nowhere near what this vineyard can do given a warmer, drier, year. Our one wine this yr will be Pinot, which in barrel right now is doing well. How it turns out will be anyone's guess, but with extra barrel time, I suspect it will do well. Sauv Blanc should be about the same, but the Cab, Syrah and Merlot we are famous for, got hit pretty hard.

No complaints here, however, as many neighbors, both near and far, lost anywhere from 20% to 90% of their crop, and that includes our neighbors from Napa/Sonoma to Santa Barbara, all the way down to Temecula. Everybody was acutely aware of the Big Dark Wet Cold of 2011. Climate change? yup. Global warming? Nah, not here. It was just frigging cold...and wet. Good riddance, and please don't come back. Unfortunately, '11 was a progression of '10, which also was the yr of the Big, Cold, Dark, Wet. Difference was, '11 was way, way worse. Our best Syrah ever came off in 2010, and will be our best wine ever. This yr I am betting on Pinot, but that is just a guess. The 2010 Syrah will be nationally known, no question about it.

Just a summary for those who have asked, 2005 was a cold, wet yr. '06,'07, '08, '09 were all hot drought yrs, and each and every vintage seems better than the one before. 2010 was our Syrah yr. 2011 is going to be disappointing up and down California, where we had a Bordeaux like harvest, but worse. If you can barely ripen, and not harvest on our internationally known flavors, expect the wine quality to take a dive. This is a yr where the really world class winemakers can shine, with 3 or 4 generations of winemaking experience in their resumes. Even for them, this will be a tough yr. Take it for what it is worth, but '06s to '09s, and spectacular '10 Syrah is where you want to be buying. '11 is going to be a less than stellar yr for you wine aficionados and collectors out there. That goes for all of California, too, not just here. Grower friends up and down the state have said the same to me.

Which is why I began this blog with the beauty of the dawn...beauty amongst mayhem is a way to even out the soul of a wine grapegrower. So I shall tell you why even with a tough yr, this is indeed, an enchanting and beautiful life. Grape growing and winemaking are traditionally thought to be the idyllic life. Well, maybe so at times, but right now we are putting out seed and hay on several vertical bare and denuded rows, mowing , disking, working on tractors, discs, erosion control, fertilizing and flushing irrigation lines, wrapping pipes, and putting away netting and bird distress call boxes. That's the nuts and bolts of post harvest.

The upside is as uplifting as the downside is drudgery. Just last morning, my wife, Teresa, and I watched motionless as a pair of hunting Red Foxes stealthily glided below our bedroom French doors. Nervous as a man with hives, the pair continuously rotated their heads, looking for danger, but obviously hunting the 150 some Merriam and Rio Grande turkeys that surround our deer fenced vineyard. Also the quail hatch has been phenomenal, with half a dozen coveys of 40 birds or more. The foxes made a pass by the garage, looking for a quick snack our our brave and wary cat, Sneakers. The turkey vultures, two of which were born just 100 feet below our home in a vacated wood rat nest, sail silently thru the trees, coming within feet of us sitting on the back porch. They are wild, but know that when I shoot a deer inside our deer fence, or coyote too close to the house, that they will eat well. When they fly by so closely, they are letting me know they are hungry. I routinely pick up roadkill, squirrels, raccoons, hawks, turkeys, and place them in the valley 400 feet below. The turkey vultures can smell decomposing meat at heights of up to 10,000 feet, and no sooner do I put some delicacy on the ground for them, they are there within minutes. They know. We are friends, sharing this beauty together.

While in Orange County last weekend we missed the assault of the Santa Anas, strong winds from the east that roar down ravines, mountains and valleys. We had some recorded gusts to 60 knots, so when we arrived home, we had half a dozen of our some 10,000 Live Oak trees on the ground, and Spanish moss plus downed branches were everywhere. Yesterday on a mission to begin cleanup, I encoutered a first on Cerro Prieto...my very first Chantrelle mushrooms. The distinctive yellow/orange color with the gills extending up to the inverted caps were sticking thru several inches of dirt growing out of the bases of oak tree roots. To my great sorrow, I was a few days late in finding them, but because of the extraordinary amount of rains, (some 6 inches since harvest), followed by several summer like days in Nov, I know there will be more Chantrelles where those came from. Sure, the leaves are all gone from the vines now, it is as plain as can be here at Cerro Prieto, but we have wild mushrooms to pick in the forests, Red Foxes, Lynx, Bobcats, Turkeys, Vultures, Quail, and the occasional visiting Mountain Lion to see. To date, I have identified some 30 different mushrooms here, most unedible, but not all, and cannot wait to go mushroom hunting today. Of course, that will have to wait for moving the barrels for blending, buying insulation for pipes, and collecting new potential bottles for our bottling.

Life of a vintner/ grapegrower can superficially appear glamorous. Closer to the truth, it is hard work, but enjoyable, and living in a paradise makes it all the moreso. Many of you have visited us over the last 3 yrs, and have done private tastings with the vintner, gone on vineyard eco tours, or occasionally, done barrel sampling with me. To all of you who have visited us this past two yrs we say hello and send our season's greetings. We also are incredibly grateful for the many kind things you, as well as wine scribes, magazines, and international competitions have said about our wines. For most of you, the national and international recognition we have received, plus your generous comments, make it all not only worthwhile, but a thrill to able to do something so well that is appreciated by all who have been here. Most of our sales, incidentally, are by email or phone call from those many folks and fans who have visited with us at one time or another. As most of you know, we only do private tastings, by appointment only, or by way of our now almost filled up wine club members. For those who have not visited us, go to our website and you can get information on how to do so.

We close this yr with an incredible first two bottlings, noted below.

2006 Merlot  Intl Gold Medal San Diego Intl (3300 entries), and Intl Gold medal Critics Challenge Intl
          (2900 entries).    Price: $129/ blt   SOLD OUT
2006 Paso Bordo(85% Cab/15% Syrah)   92 pts Wine Enthusiast    $89  Less than 2 cases remain
2007 Merlot (6% Cab/ 4% Syrah/90% Merlot)    91 pts Wine Enthusiast   $39      20 cases remain  
2007 Paso Bordo(85 Cab/15 Syrah)    Intl Gold medal LA Intl and 91 pts  $69  Less than 4 cases left
2008 Cab Sauvignon (86% Cab/4% Merlot/ 10% Syrah    Mouth watering blackberry, cherry, cocoa,
         Chocolate, with a hint of strawberry at edges, soft modulated tannins.    Out for review ,  currently my favorite wine
2008 Merlot (90% Merlot/10 Syrah)  sumptous cherry, with hint of plum, smoke, smooth finish. Out
          for review.

As a note, blendings of 09 Cab, Syrah, Merlot almost completed, and I believe all will equal and surpass our best wines to date. Better yet our 2010 Syrah will be our single best wine, but in barrel another yr.

That is it from here folks, friends, and wine club members. We wish you a happy and joyous holidays, hopefully with family and friends, and you might think of sharing one of your Cerro Prieto wines with them. A last comment and this is for the folks considering Cerro Prieto wines for gifts or just to stock up: We will take orders only until Dec 15th, as beyond that, we cannot guarantee any kind of meaningful delivery date. Also we will be closed for the holidays. Call for specifics if you are in town. For phone #s, emails, orders, please visit our website, http://www.cerroprietovineyard.com/.

Best regards to all,

Larry and Teresa/ Cerro Prieto

Friday, September 2, 2011

Cerro Prieto and Paso Robles Westside vineyards: bouncing back from horrid weather

Well, last post was 2 months ago, but it isn't as if I have been dawdling. There has been more work this yr than virtually any in the past, almost all the result of the bizarre weather we have had to endure. Much of this has to do with increased mowing, thinning, hedging of canes and weed control, all due to the incredible 52" of rain we racked up which makes weeds as well as vines overgrow. Last post I mentioned "bomb damage assessment" but had no real feel for what we would actually end up with in the vineyard. Believe it or not, it has taken most of last 2 mos. to actually get a feel for where we are, yieldwise as well as quality wise. First off, I would be fibbing if I told you that I, as well as a bunch of other grower/vintners have not been  holding our collective breaths over this year's crop. You all recall we had winter finally end in June, we essentially skipped Spring, and then we prayed for some heat and light in "summer".

Without consulting my log books, I can tell you for certain that we have had at least  ten hot days of summer with light from 6 a.m. until dark. Yup, that has been our summer, following a nuclear winter and spring. We have had an inordinate amount of fog, and as one vineyard manager stated, "You can't find stylet oil or Kalligreen anywhere in the county, nor the state".  Translation: we have had the worst set up for fog of any of the 34 yrs I have lived in Paso's North County. Our unprecedented fog, which has required extremely strict attention being paid to doing mildew sprays every 20 days, has caught some growers by surprise, in that most yrs if you miss a mildew spray by a week or two , it really doesn't matter. We at Cerro Prieto have been meticulous about this since our inception, and this yr it really paid off. Sure I can go thru all 20 miles of vines (that is equivalent of 20 acres with a 5'x 10' spacing) and find an occasional early mildew cluster, which I just remove along with several clusters on either side of the mildewed one. But we do not have acres of mildew just covering virtually all vines, as I have seen in some vineyards.  I hate to think what those poor "greenies", or all organic grape farmers are doing. Fog has not been just a problem in Paso, it has been a problem everywhere. The organic guys can't use much more than stylet oil and one or two other modalities for mildew control. Altho I know of no all organic vineyards personally, I would not like to be in their shoes at the present.

So it is now September, early fall, and Cerro Prieto's temps have made for wonderful living climate...but not so bueno for wine grape growing. If temperatures don't get much above 60 degrees, not much photosynthesis takes place. Also on the heat/light chart we were some 3-4 weeks behind 2 months ago when we entered a cool summer. Frequently, the fog lifts at noon, sometimes later.  I don't even want to see how far behind we are now, but that isn't necessary when we ended up going thru bloom a month late and then verasion 6 weeks late(in Merlot and some Cab) especially. Here on Paso's westside, there have been many vineyards that have virtually no Cab clusters, or very little , and same goes for Pinot, Merlot, Syrah. The old investor's saying, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket" was really brought to the fore this year, as some vineyards lost almost all their Pinot Noir(ours is spectacular). Others lost all their Merlot or Syrah, or as noted above Cab. Of our 5 varietals, Pinot noir and Sauv blanc fared best (down in our cold valley vineyard), Syrah came pretty close to being a normal yield, and Cab fared the worst. More on that in a moment. The verdict on Cerro Prieto's Merlot is still out, as it is just now going thru verasion...something it should have done 4 to 5 weeks ago. Normally our Merlot goes thru verasion mid July, yet here we are on Sept 2nd, and we are just starting. Whether the Merlot ripens before frost is going to be either very close or not at all. We just have to wait on this one. Back to the "all eggs in one basket" adage, this is a good yr to not have all your vines be of one variety.

Okay, now to specifics, about which people have been pestering me with questions over and over.


Left to right, are clusters of Cab Sauv, Syrah, Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Sauv Blanc. Here are the numbers:

Cab  4 oz (normal = 5 oz)                    clusters/vine 14 ( normal = 22)
Syrah 5.8 oz (normal =6.4 oz)             clusters/vine 14 (normal = 20
Merlot  5 oz  (normal= 6 oz)               clusters/vine  16 (normal= 22)
Pinot Noir  3.0 oz (normal= 3.0 oz)    clusters/vine 10 (normal= 12)
Sauv Blanc 4.8 oz (normal= 4.8 oz)    clusters/vine 18 (normal= 18)

In summary, Cab production should be down about 1/3. Bad news is that many of those clusters may have as many as half the grapes in "shot berry" form, due to incomplete pollination, or an "event" such as a pair of frosts during bloom, plus 1 rain during bloom, plus 2 hails during bloom. The weight of the cluster I picked at random above does not represent some 40-50% of those Cab grapes with half a cluster of non usable, bitter, tannic shot berries).You hope they come off in the destemmer attached to the rachus(stem), but frequently they do not, and hence can adveresely affect the flavor and character of the wine itself. Mistral tables(vibrating sorting tables) can help out here but Cab looks to be a really tough grape to destem without having a bunch of shot berries in the mix. (This means lots more time spent on sorting tables, among other things). Put this all together and I am guessing our Cab crop to be down as much as 50%.

Syrah is coming along fine with superb flavor, slightly smaller clusters, and decr # of clusters looks to decr tonnage by 1/3.

Merlot could also be down by 1/3, but verasion is the real question. Will these beauties even ripen?

Pinot looks to be down by 20%, based on cluster count. Cluster size appears normal, and flavor is a world beater. Also Pinot got thru bloom with only a few clusters lost/vine.

Sauvignon Blanc, our most recent addition did best, with both cluster size and count and size same as last yr. Altho we have netted and used bird distress calls, birds really like our Sauv Blanc which looks to be most productive of all blocks. The quality is spectacular, and birds know it.

From the above, it is appears best to not have had all "eggs in one basket". Growers with all Pinot or all Cab or all Merlot, really got lumped up. Of course, it does matter where exactly one's vineyard is on the westside, as adjacent vineyards may have entirely different varietals that did well. Altho this blog post is more technical than most I write, it has taken until virtually Fall to tell what we actually have. Those fewer grapes we do have will be chock full of flavor. How many we actually ripen?...well, that's another matter. Meanwhile our 91 pt '07 Merlot is tasting fantastically well, and the 91 pt  '07 Paso Bordo(Cab/syrah) is tasting better yet. Our '08 Cab and '08 Merlot both have a shot at being even better than our current wines. Make an apptmt, come by and try them out.

We all look forward to seeing you during harvest fest and to seeing how our wines have matured over the past year. You will not be disappointed.

Friday, July 1, 2011

There's Gold in Them There Hills/ Bomb damage assessment


No doubt about it, the title is an odd juxtaposition...but, that being said, here is a quick catch-up since last blog of "Colder, coldest, Most awfulest coldest". Just a few days ago we were awarded the Los Angeles Intl Gold Medal for our 2007 Cabernet (Paso Bordo), at the LA Intl Wine competition. We also were awarded 91 pts for the Cab. With that preface, I would like to summarize our 4 wines produced to date:

2006 Merlot   Intl Gold medal San Diego Intl Wine Comp/ Intl Gold medal Critics Challenge Intl
                      ( first competition was 3300 entries, and second was 2900)
2006 Paso Bordo (Cab/Syrah)    92 pts Wine Enthusiast

2007 Merlot   91 pts  Wine Enthusiast

2007 Cabernet (Paso Bordo)   LA Intl Gold Medal and 91 pts.

To summarize, of our 4 wines produced to date, all have either been rated 91/92 pts , Intl Gold medals, or both. I don't keep track of other wineries' track records, but I have a feeling this is probably a pretty good start for Cerro Prieto. I emphasize Cerro Prieto, because whereas I would like to be one of the premier winemakers, I am truly just very middling. The vineyard, however, is another story. It is truly a world class vineyard, given love and care, thought and hardwork, and most important of all, some of the best terroir in the entire world for growing grapes. For those who may be recent readers, or maybe some have forgotten, terroir is the sum of the climate (we have 60-70 degree temp swings day/nite), the southern exposure, and most importantly, solid limestone soil, and much of it is mountainous. That is the terroir, that other vineyards and wineries would desperately love to have. All the above are what go into world class premium wines. There is one last factor, tho, and that is a low yield mentality, which means going for low yields on the grapevine, and concentrating flavors that produce room filling bouquets...both of which Cerro Prieto wines are famous for. Lower yields mean more air and sunlight around each grape cluster, less chance for mildew or molds, and overall a more thorough and complete ripening of each and every grape. Put that all together, don't mess up in the winery( the secret to pollution is dilution...ie, cleanliness is next to Godliness.), and with the world's best grapes, it should not be surprising that Cerro Prieto has continued to put out world class wines. Obviously when it comes to blending, that is a trait to be learned, maybe inheirited, but if you have a good nose for wine and can be discerning re: what is missing... or in abundance... or not quite right....and then be able to alter or correct them, then you can make superb wines. As I have said many times before: Our wines are made in the vineyard...and we have a truly great one. There IS gold in them there hills.

Okay, enough of the Gold business...so what is the bomb damage about? Well, in a nutshell, it is an array of mishaps, misfortunes and in some cases disasters that can befall a vineyard, even one managed to perfection. After last blog's reference to the coldness we experienced, we then managed to complicate matters with more weather disasters of epic proportion. Keep in mind here, with all the tornado, fire, hurricane, and tsunami natural disasters, when speaking of disasters in the vineyard we are speaking of disasters of much less exponential severity than those that have ravaged the US and the world as of late. In the vineyard, a disaster is a rain, a heavy rain, falling on grapes in bloom. Usually, that is the kiss of death for those grapes if they get rained on during bloom. When that occurs, the vineyard loses its crop. It happened to a number of Pinot vineyards, both here and elsewhere, and it all depended on exactly where the grapes were in bloom...were they in mid bloom, had they just entered bloom, or was the rain just post bloom. Obviously, mid bloom is the worst, and a number of Pinot growers up and down California had this happen...here, too. But here exactly, in Cerro Prieto, it was a slightly different story.

We usually have 13 major microclimates, and the mountainous blocs have 2 or even 3 sub microclimates within the majors. Consequently, we had vastly different temperatures within various blocs, and this caused delaying of bloom in some blocs, and acceleration in others. Regardless of what happened, the result was that we do have a lesser tonnage of crop in our Cab and Syrah blocs, but we will have a spectacular harvest nonetheless. Merlot, which is part mountain, part hillside, still has yet to finish bloom...some 2 mos. late. Wow! The cold valley vineyard was obviously put on hold by the weather, and severe as the cold was, the bloom was just delayed thru 3 rains and 2 hailstorms in May and into June...both are incredibly bizarre, and fit no previous weather data. The longer canes got hit with severe frost, died back, but the new growth is healthy and we miraculoulsly got thru bloom with a very nice fruit set. Same for Sauv Blanc, but it may have gotten touched up a bit more. In summary, not only do we have world class terroir, we have world class luck. How we could have survived all these potentially crop killing insults is a mystery. If anything I would attribute it to our mountains, and secondly, to our multiple microclimates, and all that entails... I would not rule out a bit of divine intervention also, but then again, who knows?

While bomb damage assessment is hyperbole, at this time one month ago, I was so despondent that I couldn't even go out and assess the damage. As luck would have it, we escaped the worst springtime happenings ever w/r/to bloom and fruit set...and just keep on ticking. Yes, it is a less heavy crop, but that is our mantra anyway...low yields. So, if you were concerned about Cerro Prieto and no fruit this yr, rest assured we have plenty...and it will be top notch. During the last 3 days I have taken a careful inventory and am delighted to find we came thru so well. Believe me, it certainly could have been different, and frankly, I just couldn't bring myself to go thru the vineyard until we had 3 days in the 100s. Incredible. Just incredible. And extremely lucky. Now it is on to adjusting our N, P, and K
(Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium) based on the leaf petiole analyses that we have just completed. Not to be unexpected, we are very low in N, primarily due to 52 inches of rain(Normal = 22"). The P and K are mostly within range, except in one bloc, and all will be given the appropriate amount of N, P, K that are needed...some none at all.

Summer is here, the vines are growing 3-6 inches/day, and the vineyard is in great shape. Yes, crop load will be less this yr, but that which is there will be fantasmagorical. Am I excited? Bet your life I am. All is well at Cerro Prieto, but just until the last 3 days when I finally felt I could look, I feared for the worst...and got the best.

Photo Key:

Dark Before the Storm
Lots of Rain = lots of flowers
A rainbow truly was shining on us
World quality vineyard = world quality wines

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Coldest, Most Coldest, and Most Awfulest Coldest

True, my 4th grade grammar teacher wouldn't think much of the title, but it fits to a tee. It is cold...and currently raining...an icy cold, miserable, bone chilling  rain. Looking back on my last 3 blogs,  it seems as if I am stuck on the weather, but quite frankly, since my last post 10 weeks ago( I know, cardinal sin of bloggers is to not write routinely, but more on that in a minute), weather is all that I have had on my mind...and the title tells why. Just when I was preparing to sit down and write a blog 5 weeks ago, the above title occurred. I was out on the back deck getting ready to grill a nice ribeye and got a little cold as the sun  dropped into the western Santa Lucias. The fire was started  so I went to retrieve a warm windbreaker; by the time I came back out, the temp had dropped at least 25 degrees, and it became unbearably cold. I shut down the fire, came back inside and grilled the steak under the broiler. It was at least 40 degrees warmer inside than out, so for grins I checked our outside thermometer. The reading said 38 which was hard to believe, in that it had been a glorious day, somewhere in the high 80s not more than two hours before.

Normally our temperature drops at sunset, but not 40 degrees. Most of our really biting cold comes about 4:30 each morning, when we typically drop down to just above freezing. Oh, one other thing and that is our house is  250 feet above our very cold valley vineyard, and the temp differential is typically 18 degrees warmer up here than down there. Concerned, I checked the thermometer readings just before bed at 10 p.m. on Friday, April 8th, and it read 28... and that is not what you want to see just after you have finished pruning...okay, it was worse than that. We had finished pruning 3 weeks before, and were now expectantly awaiting  bud break, already delayed 3 weeks and counting. By rights, that 28 up here should have been 10 degrees down below. Honestly, I just didn't have the heart to go down below and check our thermometer at 4:30. If it froze(and I had no doubt it did), I just didn't want to know by how much. As they say "frozen is frozen"...except a damaging frost depends on HOW cold and HOW LONG cold. If it stays cold for hours, then we have lost not only our crop but our vines. That happened on another 3 valley acres that froze to death in 2001. In that instance, we had 14 days of 14 degrees, and the frost never left the ground...for three weeks. It was an expensive  but valuable lesson. We did not replant that 3 acres, even tho it has never frozen since.

Just to recount for a moment, Cerro Prieto typically is the dead last vineyard to prune, and typically we are pruning just ahead of bud break. Why is that important? Because if you delay pruning you go into bud break( just like it sounds, the buds break forth from their positions on the cordon), and if you are caught pruning late with buds already out , invariably many buds will get broken off in the pruning process. Hence, you virtually have to prune before bud break. In our case, we do it at the last possible moment with the full intent of preventing bud break as long as possible. If one were to visit the fine vineyards of Paso's westside, you would have no trouble identifying us. We would be the ones not pruned yet, with the vineyard looking shaggy and unkempt...until late March, that is. As an aside, some folks prune dry farmed vines beginning in mid December, and seem to get away with it. What we have proven beyond any doubt, however, is that at Cerro Prieto to prune early is to court disaster with a hard late spring freeze...and we have had so many this spring that I can't count them all.

Often times at 4:30 in the morning we are awakened to the sound of the large propeller wind machines cranking up and moving the cold air around or out of the vineyard. The green French machines, which require a movable skirt around the vineyard (to pump low lying cold air out of the skirted area), are heard cranking also. Either of these machines, or even water misting on the vines, can protect vines 3, 4 or even 5 or 6 degrees in time of frost. We have NO wind machines, in that we aren't concerned about 3-6 degree temp drops...we are concerned about temps down in the low teens, and nothing helps that....except, perhaps, prayer. Given no options, I started some 6 yrs ago trying to hold back bud break,( when freezing temps can freeze off new formed buds) by pushing our pruning farther and farther back. Now we routinely prune as late as possible , but just before bud break actually occurs. Does it work? Well, definitely yes, but it usually will not protect a small % of vines that get an extraordinary jolt of cold. On the whole, we have salvaged a previously unprotectable vineyard
(the Very Cold Valley Vineyard), merely by changing when we prune. Sounds simple maybe, but carrying it out always is an uncomfortable time.

Mentioned above, I am way too late in getting this post out, but due to long, hard, soaking rains, sleet, and snows, we have had enough water to leave us with weeds 6 feet high or higher around the sides of the vineyard or on the valleys contiguous with the vineyard. Problem with that is, when once dried out, the weeds present a fire hazard, which can wipe a vineyard out in a matter of minutes. Hence we not only have to weed the vineyard we have to care for some 35 other acres that present a fire hazard. And that is why I have not written a blog...all available time was devoted to fire protecting our vineyard, valleys, arroyos, and mountain tops.

 Now we are awaiting new bearings for our flail mower, which struck a large sub-surface rock, the size of my truck, and broke belts, shafts and bearings. Never a dull moment in the vineyard. A full 16 acres needs to be weedeated, and that includes areas where no tractor could go, virtually straight up and down. In the meantime it gives me timeout to write this long overdue blog, and to examine what will be this years potential crop. First off, cluster size looks to be on the high side of large, but until a successful bloom and fruit set we won't know anything for certain. Secondly, we are in the midst of a nuclear winter, and it is a month into spring. Bloom cannot be far behind, as the little clusters that our guests mistakenly take for grapes are clusters of flowers about to bloom. Only after bloom and fruit set will we have a good idea of the size of the crop. Remember, we are pruned to only 2.5 tons/acre or less, which can increase in size if clusters are overly big...and they appear that way early on.

The day has been gray, rainy, cold and inhospitable. In 4 days will begin the annual Paso Robles Wine Festival...which two yrs ago to the day, was 117 degrees downtown in the Paso Robles park. This year will be pleasant to cold...just right for tasting big red wines and their blends....two things we do to perfection. Stop by and see us at the Meritage downtown or come by the vineyard to say hello. We look forward to seeing you all, and wish you a safe and enjoyable Wine Festival weekend.

Photo Key:

Top: Buds are just breaking and some have already leafed out.

Mid: Note long massive rachus with large clusters of...grapes? Nope, these are clusters of buds about to bloom. If fruit sets, then blooms turn into grapes.

Lower: Poor Caza...all that snow and no gophers to dig up.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Time for pruning...oops, it just snowed

Many are now well familiar with Paso's Westside famous vineyards and wines. Many of you have been here for our eco vineyard tours, and most have tasted our 90+ point wines. Some may have seen the beginnings of early pruning, and others have been here just shortly thereafter. But no one has seen this place, well into pruning, and in the midst of a snowstorm. A day after the snow fell, we still had it on all our upper elevations, in our top blocs of Cab and Syrah. The above picture captures two things: first is the neatly stacked rows of prunings awaiting the flail mower. Second is the 2 inches of snow sitting on top of the prunings. We pointedly wait as long as possible to prune, which in turn delays our bud break as well as our bloom. Since we are a mountain vineyard, the cold mountain valleys are setups for late frosts, sometimes well into May. If we happen to be in the midst of bud break, or bloom, for that matter, the last thing we want is to see a hard spring frost. Hence, we are usually the very last vineyard to prune, but as you can see from the picture above, it looks like that didn't make much difference... it snowed anyway. Whatever, no harm done in that we are still a long way from bud break and much farther away from bloom. But to look out and see our entire vineyard covered in snow for two days...well,  I will have to admit, it did take my breath away.

Global warming has come to Paso's Westside vineyards...the heart of the heart of wine country. But rather than warming it has gotten colder, both in degree, and in length of time it stays cold. El Nino, which visited us once again this year, brought with it the moisture, only this time in addition to rain and icy fog, we also got snow...lots of it. Last year was a record for the north county of San Luis Obispo, in that we set an all time low for heat/light days. Put simply that means that we had less heat and sun to ripen with and significantly less time in which to do it. Many days last year had nasty bone chilling fogs lifting by noon, only to return some two hours later. If ever there were a year to have vines pruned to low yields, this was it. Those folks who had 4, 5, maybe as much as 8-10 tons/ acre, got rammycackled...their grapes just flat out didn't ripen. Virtually all the well known vineyards surrounding us hang anywhere from 1.0 to 2.5 tons/ acre, and subsequently, virtually everyone nearby ripened...the flavors came in, but at a much lower brix(sugar content) than we usually have. Normally, by Oct 1st we have ripe grapes, but they are virtually without flavor. Only with patient waiting, and sampling of thousands of grapes do we see our flavors come in much later in October, typically between the 21st and 30th. This yr our flavors came in as per usual, later in October, but at a much, much lower brix; it was a Bordeaux harvest, at 24.5 brix. Compare that to virtually all our other harvests in last 5 yrs, which were at 27.8 to 28.5 brix before their flavors came in. Having the ability to wait on flavors in a mountain vineyard is a luxury. In our cold valley vineyard, the Pinot and Sauv Blanc came off with full flavors at 24.5, but on Sept 20th,, almost a month before the Cab, Syrah, and Merlot.

Clients and wine club members frequently ask, "So what does the low brix harvest mean? Will there be less flavor, more tannins, or what?" The answer is simply that our alcohols will be notably less than normal  12.5 to 13.5% vs. our usual 15.9 to 16.9%. As for flavors, again, had we harvested on the day we hit 24.5 brix, we would have had a virtually flavorless wine. By waiting out the eventual arrival of flavors we have a  wine that will guaranteed to be full of cherry, blackberry, plum, with maybe a bit of blueberry or strawberry in two of our Cab blocs. It just won't be as high an alcohol, something some wine critics...and a few wine aficionados...don't like. In every sense of the word, this harvest was as close to a Bordeaux harvest as we will get. Oops, maybe it's better not to say that in that we are starting off cold again this year. We will hope that we have the summer heat, the warm sunny days, but if not...well, we just proved that we can take the cold weather and still make a great wine. Given a choice, however, I would prefer the hotter, drier conditions.

Whatever the temperature, whatever the weather, it is still a great time to stop by our tasting room downtown at the Meritage Tasting Room and enjoy our 91 and 92 pt. wines. For those not familiar with our nationally known wines...rain or snow, sunshine or not, our Cab/Syrah, and Merlot are always a treat for the true wine aficionados, or the newest of beginners. We invite you to come visit and wine taste with us.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Oh Lordy, it rained...and then rained somemore

Typically we get a generous inch, maybe two, of rain between end of harvest (Oct 31st) and the new year....just enough to set the seed on the steep hillsides and get a root system going before the downpour that follows between February and April. The purpose of germinating hillside seeds before the big rains is to S.O.T....save our topsoil. If the big rains come and seeds have not germinated setting early root systems, then the severe slopes of many of our mountainside vineyards gets washed away. Looking at a road cut between two of our Cabernet blocs, it is readily apparent that our entire steeply sloped vineyard has barely a foot of topsoil covering a solid limestone mountain. Loss of any of our precious soil is an invitation for disastrous erosion, most of which flows down our slopes, and then flowing on down via rivulets and ditches to the Salinas River. The Salinas, swiftly flowing and strong in midst of big rains, usually dries up in the hot summers, yet remains one of the biggest northerly flowing underground rivers in the U.S.,  ultimately emptying into Monterey Bay some 130 miles away. If one wanted to merely find some of the Paso's best topsoil, he would have to go no further than the Salinas River, a mere 4 miles from here.

In the early years here we lightly disked the steepest slopes and then used a seed drill to plant cover crop. Early on, after a particularly heavy winter rain, the wisdom of light disking and seed drilling was abruptly challenged when we noticed that any disturbance of the sparse topsoil, (eg, with a seed drill or disc), enabled the heavy rains to literally wash entire hillsides away, leaving incredibly eroded rows, some  8 feet deep. Rebuild of a steep row costs around $5000 per 100 feet, and an entire row lost can be horrendously expensive. Hence, in the last 9 yrs (one yr after I bought a new disc), we stopped using it. Now we seed by hand on hillsides steeper than 70 degrees, and then immediately put out dozens of bales of hay, broken apart and spread by hand over the entire seeded area. Expensive? Yeah. Time consuming? Yup. Necessary? Unquestionably. Now our erosion losses are kept to a bare minimum, but this yr, immediately post harvest, it began raining and darn near never quit. Not torrential rains, but just steady, London-fog-type-blowing mists, light, but seemingly lasting forever. After Thanksgiving we had a 60 hour rain, never letting up but just doing barely more than misting. During that 2 and a half day period, we got 6 inches of rain, and I never saw a drop...just massive, grey, blowing mists. How it could possibly have dumped 6 inches of rain is beyond me, but it was in the true sense of the word, a farmer's rain...enough to germinate seeds, but not cause erosion. The problem? Well, it never stopped raining long enough to get the seeds hand casted, nor the hay spread out on top of it.

Finally, sometime after we hit the 10 inch mark, we got a 4 day respite, during which time we hand seeded and spread out 12 dozen bales of protective straw. Normally we use a bale per twenty vines, or 100 feet. This year we put it on heavier, in that even with the misty rains we already had the start of erosion in 4 of our steepest rows. We were ready for it, but the prolonged rains kept us off the hillsides until after some initial erosion had already occurred. Good news is that it was superficial, but bad news is we still will have some row rebuilds to do. Cost? On blocs of 3 and 3.3 acres we put out $1000 of straw and racked up some $1400 of labor to spread the straw. Expensive, yes, but without having done that we would have lost massive amounts of topsoil in the torrential rains that followed. Moral of story? Simple. Spend a little money to save a lot. Also, as good stewards of the land, it is the thing anyone who cares about the land wants to do...be a good shepard...or in this case, be a good caretaker of the magical land which grows such spectacular grapes.

How silly to devote so many words to so simple a subject, some may say. In truth, this is but one of the many unseen things that goes into that great wine of which wine drinkers notice only the subtle cherry, blackberry, cassis, strawberry and plum flavors. I mention this to remind you wine aficionados that the next glass of wine you taste is not just the beautiful flavors in wine this favored land produces, but that there is much, much more to the story. Another way of saying this is that altho mundane, it is a rite of winter to block up the flail mower and replace dull or worn blades. With as much limestone as we have, we go thru hundreds of dollars of blades in a single yr. And winter is the one time we have time to do this bothersome task. Other off season jobs are tuning tractors, ATVs (all 6 wheel drive), redoing brake linings on all vehicles, and , of course, an early start on oil change, spark plugs, and filters. Obviously we do this during the year, but winter is a good time to check for loose treads on the crawler tractor as well as lost bolts, screws, handles, springs, or any other thing that might be lost during the ongoing vibration of continuous tractor use.

Exciting? Thought provoking? Enjoyable? Nah, to any of the former. But they all are essential to having good, dependable machinery to carry out the growing season's chores. So next time you raise a glass, go ahead and appreciate the bouquet. Enjoy the magnificent flavors imparted to our grapes by our world class soils. But also remember the "other " things that went into this wine...drudgery, painstaking, nit-picking, and yes, boring chores that are essential...but not very glamorous...when one thinks of the wonderful life a grape farmer and vintner leads. Yes there are those highs when some magazine rates our wines in the 90+ category. But there are also the other times, chronicled above that go into the growing and making of that fabulous wine. In the cold, gloomy, and dank months of winter, grape growers are keenly aware of the
"other side" of winegrape growing  and wine making. It is like everything else in life. Sure there are the glamorous, rewarding, and fun times. But that is counterbalanced by the small, unseen, but oh-so-necessary mundane things that go into winemaking.

Someone...no, many someones, have asked me where we make our wines. The answer is in the vineyard where all wines start and are grown. But if one takes short cuts in the pre-winemaking stages, one can expect a product of inferior, or at the very least, of lesser quality. Cerro Prieto's wines start and come from the vineyard... the nuts and boring bolts of which are described above. There's a thought for you the next time you pour a glass of our signature Paso Bordo(Cab/Syrah), or of our 91 point Merlot. That didn't just happen. It was well thought out and prepared for in cold barns changing out flail mower blades, or during the hand seeding of steep slopes while broadcasting seed in the cold winter...or in the simple but back-breaking work of putting out dozens of bales of hay on steep slippery slopes. All that goes into the quest for the perfect wine. We feel we have produced the perfect grape. Now we seek the perfect wine. In the meantime you will just have to be satisfied with our 91 and 92 point wines...not perfect, but dang close.