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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.