Cerro Prieto 2012 Harvest...the long wait

4 a.m. this morning at the thermometer by the vineyard well: 42 degrees...and this is in the Very Cold Valley Vineyard, located at the foot of the mountain where it gets...really cold...perfect for Pinot and Sauv Blanc, even tho the Paso AVA is known for its heat and high temperatures. Our adjacent Mountain Vineyard temps were 60 degrees, an 18 degree differential that remains constant thruout the growing season.

But a  not so subtle change has occurred this yr, in which is our daily 60-70 degree temperature split day/nite has disappeared...First time...ever. What we have had for the past 37 days and counting, has been temps in the 103-112 range, with a few 115s thrown in, which drop to 65-70 degrees at nite. On the days when it got to only 100, it was 60 that nite. To some that sounds amazing, but to us, we have come to expect that 5:30 p.m. fog that routinely blows in from the coast, via the Templeton Gap. We are currently getting only 40 degree temp swings, but when you normally have 60-70 degree swings, it has made for some hair curling times. Stressing grapes with 60-70 degree temp swings brings out the best in moutain grape flavors, and is notable in our wines. With daytime temps well over 100, a mere 40 degree temp swing does not cool off the pulp temperatures in grapes. At 10 p.m., core temps of grapes remains in the 90s. With the severe heat beginning in mid morning, the grapes once again heat up, never attaining the cooling we normally expect.

The heat here has actually been worse than in the Central Valley which produces primarily table grapes, and for those, the hotter the better. Valley heat never really "cools off" in the evenings. With premium redwine grapes, the issue of scorching, or "burning up" grapes has been a daily concern. For the last 6 years we have essentially dry farmed, except on days exceding 105, when we put 3 gallons of water on each vine. To not do so risks the health of the vine, not to mention "cooking off" the grapes. Since our 3 mountain vineyards are planted in solid limestone, when it is 105 degrees outside, in the middle of the vineyard it is 10 degrees hotter, due to reflected heat from the limestone. And when it is 112 outside...well you do the math on inside the vineyard. It is unbearably hot...hence the need for nightime cooling.

In any event, the long wait for harvest has been seemingly much longer than times past. Our Pinot went thru veraison 2 months ago, and has been looking ready to harvest since August. Grapes are tasty, dark purple, but still have not attained the flavors we normally achieve. There have been signs of ripening:
  
    Lignification---the canes going from green fiber to a beautiful dark red-brown mahogany wood

 

 

 

 

 

    Leaf changes---with leaves turning from green to yellow and red-orange in basilar leaves

    Seed changes---seeds go from green to dark mahogany brown; these need more time

    Sauv Blanc---green grapes change to subtle greenish-brown; birds got the brown ones

Flavor, the ultimate goal before harvest, does not appear until the above changes have been noted. Pinot is virtually there, and Sauv Blanc the same. That is great timing in that it should freeze tomorrow, the 16th of September.

5 a.m., and the magnificent Orion the Hunter constellation is so bright I can find my way back up the mountain without lights. Gemini, the twins, is just above Orion, is not as bright, but  equally spectacular on this moonless night. Checking a few temps in the la Teresa bloc of Cabernet, shows temps exactly 60 degrees, the normal 18 degree differential from the Cold Valley Vineyard. Done with early morning chores, it is so beautiful out that I linger for first light and then the spectacular early morning dawn breaking over la Teresa bloc.

Yes, it is scene worthy of a canvas, but I am content to just sit here and just absorb it as the entire eastern sky goes thru its retinue of magical wondrous colors. It gives me time to think about the agony nature puts us through, waiting on ripening, hoping that:

no early hard frost comes to the Cold Valley Vineyard

rains stay away until harvest is over

winter freezes don't materialize early in mountain vineyards

birds and other pests don't steal our crop

There are many other lesser worries, but I shan't bore you with those. What generally takes 2 months to happen, once grapes turn purple (veraison), seems like endless time to those wishing ripeness to come, and flavor to be even better than last year. Based on numbers, TA, pH, and Brix(sugar content), we could have harvested some time ago. But we harvest on flavor, and for that one waits...painfully...but one waits. Growing grapes is one thing. Harvesting premium redwine grapes on flavor is entirely different. For that a grower/vintner has to have tons of patience, above average tolerance for hoping no interceding disasters befall the crop, and needs to taste thousands of grapes daily to know when the grapes are finally perfect for harvest. Thousands of tons of grapes will be harvested by the time we harvest. That is the way with mountain vineyards. But the payoff in flavor and quality is well worth it. It is, however, the long wait.


Post script: Sept. 17, and the Very Cold Valley Vineyard was 32 degrees at 4 a.m. Mother Nature is right on track. Full of magnificent flavors, both Pinot and Sauv Blanc are ready for harvest.

Confirmation that 2012 will be huge quality year.

Okay, last time we looked at a few grape clusters,  made a few comments on a big year (quality, but not quantity unless  one should desire it...the two are mutually exclusive, however). Early on, I am going to slip in a couple pics that help me evaluate the harvest looming in 2 short months for Pinot and Whites, and 3 months for the Big Reds, Bordeauxs and Rhones.

So what do we see here? Basically, it is mid July when I took this and the poison oak is virtually 90% red, something we generally see when deciduous trees change color...say in late October, perhaps a touch earlier. Okay, let's look at one more just for grins.

This is just a few hundred yards from the top picture, and shows virtually all poison oak(Rhus) denuded of leaves. So what gives? Those many of you who have visited us are aware that altho we are only at 1250 feet elevation, we have a mountain climate, much like that seen in Vail, Colorado...ie hot as hades in daytime and you need coats at nite. Our daytime temp today was 105 degrees, and tonite it will be 39 degrees...maybe even 35. Point is we have humongous temp swings, which is typical of mountain climates in summer. Of interest is a point I have made before about the wildflower we have growing here, Pedicularis, found in the lily family, with brite fuschia stems (much like the SW Indian Paintbrushes), except those are orange and these are fuschia. Accordingly, looking up Pedicularis in the Mountain Wildflower book, it states that Pedicularis is seen only between 5000 ft to 7500 ft elevation. In essence, we have mountain climate but at only 1250 ft elevation.

Most of you who have visited here are aware of the whys. We are the southern tip of the hot Paso AVA, yet we are the North face of the Templeton Gap, the marine air layer that rolls in about 5:30 each nite, much like in Burlingame, up in the Bay area. It is the mountain ridge of Cerro Prieto that holds that cold air mass in the Templeton Gap. It also, however, subjects our Cab, Merlot and Syrah to massive day/nite temp shifts, the average being 60-70 degrees, day to nite.

So that explains our temp swings, but how does this relate to the Rhus toxicondron pictured above. Well, 2006 thru 2009 were hot dry yrs, basically drought, with rainfall of 12, 10, 9, and 8 inches, respectively. But 2006 was immediately preceded by a mammoth wet year, 2005, year of the big , cold, dark, wet. In 2006 thru 2009, we had a similar situation with poison oak, turning color 2 months early and losing leaves about the same time. Well, we are back to that scenario. 2010 was the year of the big , cold, dark, wet. Rainfall 52 inches at Cerro Prieto. Our Syrah (and most everyone else's who were pruned to low yields, 2.5 tons/acre or less)....did exceptionally well. We didn't even make Cab, or Merlot that yr, as it was just too damn cold. Fast forward to 2011, the year of the colder, darker , bigger wet. For most of that year, we had temps in the mid to low 60s, as our highs. Under 60 degrees, not a whole lot of photosynthesis goes on. Put it on your calendar, 2011 was a dog season for Cab, Merlot, and Syrah. Not to put too fine point on it, but we didn't even bother to make Cab, Merlot or Syrah in 2011.

Worse, yet, we lost half our vineyard to 2 hailstorms, during bloom, plus one 70 knot wind (also during bloom), and a 2"  rainstorm, again in the midst of bloom. Our grapes eventually ripened, but were completely without the flavor we are so well known for. Oddly, our crummy grapes sold at a premium to many of the wineries that had NO GRAPES, due to their loss of entire crops because of severe mildew. Only thing making it harder was the fact that during that time, availability of mildew sprays were either sold out or backlogged so far, it didn't matter. Enter our vineyard manager, who also just so happens to sell vineyard chemical. Needless to say, we were well protected for the half a crop we had left. They just weren't grapes I had any intention attempting to make wine from.

Well, here we are again, 2012, a 12" rain yr(qualifies as drought...normal = 24" here at Cerro Prieto), with an extremely mild winter, mild spring (if one can ignore a pair of hailstorms, one brief, one not so), and beautiful weather for going thru bloom unmolested. Only our Merlot got hailed on during bloom and I showed pictures of that last blog. Summer has been delightful, days in the 100s, and nites in the mid 30s. Perfect weather for mountain Cab, mountain Syrah, mountain Merlot. The days have lengthened, giving us massive heat and light for optimal grape growing conditions. We did get touched up a bit 2 weeks ago, with a 109 degrees(each vine got 3 gallons of water), 112 degrees next day(same water schedule) and 119 degrees (REALLY) the following day in the vineyard, which demanded antother 8 gals of water. Since then we have been hunky dory, grapes and vines growing like crazy. According to my reems of notes, 2012 is a carbon copy of 2006, which followed the year 2005,  a previous big , cold, dark, wet.

The roots of all vines were flushed out like crazy in both 2010 and 2011, removing any impurities or buildup of saline or whatever else might be lurking in our soil. So when 2012 rolled around, there had been 2 solid yrs of massive rainfall(52 and 54"), and way more cold and dark than we wanted. 2012 is going to be very close to 2006, a fantastic, premium yr for low yield high quality red winegrapes, grown in solid limestone soil, with 70 degree day/nite temp swings. In summary, we are sitting on an astonishingly fantastic harvest (quality I speak of), altho some will unfortunately use this for a massive quantity harvest...but those won't be the kind of wines people reading this blog will want to drink.

The incredibly early leaf drop in the poison oak surrounding our vineyard, the balmy days, the relative drought, the mild winter and spring, and now the hot-hot days plus the cold nites...folks, buy 2012, but avoid 2011 wines(Big Reds). Virtually all surrounding wineries here had terrific Syrah harvests in 2010, so buy those. But Cab and Merlots from 2010 as well as 2011 will almost surely be not to your liking.

Finally, a last photo of what a difference two weeks makes. The June 30 blog showed what the late hail storm during bloom did to our poor Merlot. Once again I will show you Cab, Merlot and Syrah...just 2 weeks later. Cab to the left, Syrah in center, and Merlot to the right. Now go back and look at what the Merlot looked like a mere 15 days ago. It is remarkable how even with a crop dinged by hail, which looked anemic to the point of death, can rebound so quickly...or actually, just rebound at all. Yet, that is what it does. If you compare the pictures, you will swear I doctored them...but I assure you I didn't. One thing to note. The Merlot will go thru veraison last, will ripen last, but will ripen beautifully.

Hopefully I made a coherent case for a banner year harvest, with those wineries like Cerro Prieto being pruned to 2.5 to 1.0 tons/acre. Add to that the world class terroir (southern facing, huge temp swings, and limestone soil), we at Cerro Prieto and nearby wineries, are looking down the barrel of  a spectacular harvest.

Not mentioned, but our Very Cold Valley Vineyard has produced some spectacular really cold weather Pinot and Sauv Blanc during those two dark, cold, wet yrs of 2010 and 2011. But if you are looking for a great Cab, Merlot or Syrah from 2011...fuggedaboudit. The Syrah from 2010 is going to be spectacular however, and we plan to bottle ours within the next few weeks. Our 2010 Syrahs will  undoubtedly be the best wines(one is a 7 % Cab blend from a barrel of '09 Cab I held back from 2009, the other is a straight up Syrah) I have ever made. Having to walk by these barrels daily absolutely requires daily tasting. Hopefully we will manage to get some of it in barrel for you all to enjoy also.

That's it from here, except for a note for our wine club members. Our spectacular 2010 Sauv Blanc which sells for $30/btl(it is that good), sells by the case for $300. Our lovely 2009 Pinot Noir(clones 777, 115, and Pomard 4/5) sells for $35/btl, but cases sell for $300. If interested, email or phone me.

I hope you all are as excited about this upcoming harvest as we are. It plans to be a beaut.

Cerro Prieto 2012 Forecast: Cluster morphology and la Brisa

4:48 a.m. and the fog is silently oozing thru the open windows. It has a barely perceptible smell, perhaps, just perhaps, a smell of the salt ocean. You know the smell when you get near the ocean...well, that is a bit of what I sense here. I have given up my early morn chores, as the fog is so intense and thick that I couldn't see behind our 6X6 ATV well enough to back out of the garage.

5:10 a.m. and the fog has somehow managed to get thicker. First light is approaching and it is literally impossible for me to see our back deck,  just 3 feet away. Normally the westerly winds come up at daybreak and the fog begins a rolling motion, typically blown inland. Not this morning. This is impenetrable dense sightless fog. There's London fog, there's California Central Valley Tule fog, and then there is this Cerro Prieto fog.

5:15 a.m. first light is well underway, and the fog has now just become a grey white mass. No early vineyard work today. By 10 a.m. it will be bright and sunny, maybe 70 degrees, en route to a beautiful day into the high 90s and maybe will top 100. Such have been the days for much of the last month of Spring, and now into summer. Last yr at this time we were in the midst of the Cold, Dark, Wet. It was a bummer yr for red winegrapes, with mildew wiping out hundreds of vineyards, statewide. Altho we were spared that by paying close attention to early mildew spraying, we were not spared the loss of half our crop to hail, late June freezes, and mighty windstorms in the midst of bloom. The average temps of last yr in mid summer were in the low 60s. We had a brief 8 days of temps in the 90s in late May, followed by 2 hailstorms, 2 June rains, and lows in the 30s each nite. It was in a word, catastrophic.

Fast forward to June 19th, 2012, and the weather and climate the Templeton Gap is known for has returned. We are blessed with hot, hot days from the Paso highs and low, low temps from the westerly Templeton Gap breezes. Which brings us to "la brisa", roughly translated as "marine air". In early spring, March thru April, we had the early morning fog disappear and in its place la brisa came in. Essentially it is wet, damp, air that literally hangs over the hills, valleys, and beyond, keeping the temperature in the mid 60s on a brite sunny day. It is what gives the Templeton Gap the cold component to match the extremely hot Paso Robles days. In effect, it is like growing grapes in Denver, or Vail. Hot, hot days, and cold, cold nites.

Terroir is used to describe the climate, soil, and southern facing of a vineyard. The southern facing is easy. The soil here is easier...solid limestone mountains into which we have planted  our big Reds...both Rhones and Bordeauxs. The climate is that found in very few places on Earth, and certainly none I have ever visited. Even though we live here, it is still hard to believe that our 100 degree days can be followed by 33 degree nites. Right here at Cerro Prieto, our temp swings are frequently 70 to 75 degrees, day to nite. It is exquisite for growing premium red winegrapes. And that is what we have as a backdrop to our nationally and internationally known wines. It is the why of big flavorful Reds, altho choosing to have an extremely low crop load is essential also. Summing up the yr so far, we are on course for a record in quality of harvest. Below are the clusters of our 5 varietals:

Syrah in the center, Cab to the left, a sketchy Merlot to the right, Sauv Blanc in the lower left and Pinot Noir in the lower right.


Syrah is 6" in length, long tapered, with elongated grapes, and the largest of all grapes. At veraison, when green grapes turn to red, the Syrah cluster will be 9" long and weigh .4 to .5 lbs.

Cabernet Sauvignon, the king of grapes(for all the different flavors it can give ....blackberry, cherry, plum, raspberry, blueberry, strawberry to name a few)....will be another 2" in length, or about 6-7 ", and will have an elongate triangle shape. It will weigh in at .31 lbs/cluster

Merlot, looking like it has been hit by dump truck, shows "aces and spaces", ie, more than half the flowers of bloom were knocked off by a late May hailstorm, which I witnessed while 3 feet from the vines. Beautiful day, nice and warm, and suddenly a dark shadow fell over the bloc and temps dropped 40 degrees in less than a minute. A few sprinkles of rain, and a hailstorm bounced pencil eraser sized pieces of ice off my head....and into the Merlot flowers in bloom. It was brutally cold, and soon the darkness covered the entire vineyard. Fortunately the Merlot was the last to go thru bloom, so only it was affected. All 4 other varietals had already set their fruit. I was some 400 yards from the ATV so ducked under the vines for protection. Twenty minutes later it was still hailing. Watching flowers getting pounded by ice balls hurtling down at 40 mph, was a fascinating...but horrifying experience. Sheltered by the vine I had no choice but to wait it out in shorts and no shirt. Hat was in the ATV. Twenty minutes later it was over...literally for the Merlot. It is amazing that as many grapes set as is. Still and all, when the cluster fills in, those Merlot grapes that had completed bloom will still turn into a fine cluster, albeit only 50% of its normal weight. Cluster length will be 7-8", perhaps a bit more, but number of grapes will be half of normal. Those that made it had completed bloom BEFORE the hailstorm. Average bloom takes 10-14 days, so about half of blooms were already done. With so few grapes/cluster you can bank on one thing: those that remain will be massive in flavor and bouquet(yes, our grapes DO have a bouquet for a brief day or two, which is when we harvest on flavor.).

Sauv Blanc were well thru bloom and the uniform fatter-triangle-than-Cab will be only 5-6" in length, and as seen, will have its full complement of grapes/cluster.

Pinot Noir, also went thru bloom 3 weeks earlier, in cooler weather, but without a hailstorm nor without 60 mph gusts. In your hand they look like little "hand grenades", fitting the closed hand perfectly. Figure weight at .2 lbs/cluster. Once thru bloom, the only other things we worry about are "cooker" days(over 110 degrees) and mildew which can be set up by damp mornings and mild days.

To date we are on track to follow the banner years of 2006-2009....cold nites, hot days. Hence, my forecast for 2012 is for a premium year for big Reds, and an excellent yr for Pinot  and Sauv Blanc in our Very Cold Valley Vineyard. Statewide I would expect the same. Whereas we lost some of our Merlot, others may have lost whatever grape was in bloom when the hailstorm struck. Same would apply to those hit by 60+ mph gusts, or late, late rains. The above clusters were actually pulled some 12 days ago, so by now all are closing in on doubling in weight, rapidly attaining the size they will have when they undergo verasion(except for Sauv Blanc obviously...but they turn to a golden green). It is amazing just how much weight and size these grapes can put on once they get to this size.

10:30 a.m. and it is a brilliant sunny day, no wind(it comes up around 1 p.m.), and the grapes are growing like crazy. Vineyard chores still include finishing up arranging the canes to vertical positions, removing remaining "laterals", and cutting away any weeds near the vines. In some places the vines have grown so vigorously that we have to take down the movable "catch" wires that we use to support the canes, so that we can rearrange the canes that have grown semi-horizontally instead of vertically. In all a wonderful day in the vineyard, and all is well with the world.

A few notes about our wines, about which we frequently get emailed. Our '08 Cab(Paso Bordo Reserve...with the 4% Merlot in it) has become one of our wine tasters favorites. It has just been rated, merely an International Bronze. But what a Bronze, in that their were 5300 entries at the NY Intl Wine Competition. Our other favorite the '09 Syrah, also won the Intl Bronze at the NY Intl Wine Comp, again amongst 5300 entries. Usually we are disappointed with anything less than an Intl Gold. But here with  thousands of entries we feel blessed with our two Intl medals...regardless of color. Our final wine, the '08 Merlot, received the Silver Intl Medal at the Monterey Intl. All in all, a great haul, and for a tiny 300 case/yr winery, we exceeded all expectations.

Many have asked about our 2010 Syrah which I have said will be our best wine to date, regardless of awards or ratings. It is sensational, and I had planned to blend it all, 12 barrels with a barrel of our '09 Cab which I had held back. The '10 Cab was just horrid and I did not make any. Chip Parr, a friend from medical school days, some 45 yrs ago,  visited last week, and turned out to have a wonderful palate. I tried the different blends out on him and blinded, we decided that instead of 6 barrels of 14% Cab in the Syrah and 6 barrels 100% Syrah, the better  blend was 7% Cab in 6 barrels of Syrah and 6 barrels 100%. The surprise was that the '09 Cab was just drop dead superb...so a half barrel of that is going to be made into a stand alone Cab...all 13 cases of it. Yes, it is a pain to put up only 13 cases of a wine, but the remainder is long ago blended with 15%  '09 Syrah in our 2009 Paso Bordo, our signature wine.

So we have some extraordinary wines in the pipeline, and once bottled(hopefully in 6 weeks)---it takes that long to get bottles, corks, foils and labels (approved)---and with luck we will be able to release these beauties before the end of the year.  The wines we have available now, all either Intl rated or 90+ wines, are dwindling by the day. Only the '06 Merlot(3 btls) and the '06 Paso Bordo(2 cases) are almost gone. Everything else we have in sufficient amounts to last the year. I do think our '09 Syrah will be gone by late fall, however. We have a heckuva replacement as it turns out.

 

Cerro Prieto and Springtime Mysteries

There is always something invigorating about Spring, a sense of renewal, a chance to enjoy the warmer days, a time of getting outdoors...and for the vineyardist/vintner, it is a time of evaluation, decision, and expectation. Certain things are constants in Spring, and many of us know them:

April showers bring May flowers.

It never rains in California...except in Jan and Feb.

Dark days of winter give way to summer's sun.

Those are a few, but there are several that here at the vineyard are of special interest:

Turning leaves of poison oak in July portends a dry year coming up.

When the Easter Broom blooms, budding out is not far away. 

And it is this last one that has me a bit worried about what is coming this year. To recap, 2010 was the year of the BIG, COLD, DARK, WET. It was a miserable year for Bordeaux grapes, and most Rhones. But our 2010 mountaintop Syrah will be our best wine ever.(Still in barrel, but getting close) .
Whereas 2010 was a tough year, 2011 was the year of the BIGGER, COLDER, DARKER, WET. In fact, it was a disastrous year for California with mildew up and down the state, grapes that didn't ripen, and flavors that never materialized. That said, our Pinot was once again extraordinary, liking the cold, dark, wet. Nonetheless, the Pinot grapes never attained flavor, altho the wine did.

Now the mysteries: Our Scotch Broom, is in full bloom as I look out the window into the gardens below. Normally it goes off on Easter, but that was a month ago already. Back then it barely had any buds.  Even more confounding is our massive Lupine Bush(you all know the massive fields of blue lupine flowers...well this is full on purple and 12 feet in diameter, and eight feet high)...which typically blooms just about the time our vines go into bloom, right about now.  Well, that beautiful bush had flowers galore a month ago, when our vines first went into bud break. Now it sits beside our Cabernet in Block 5 bereft of flowers, with only leaves remaining. So does that mean an early summer or does it mean a late summer? I am totally confused with two indicator plants completely out of sync with the vineyard.

One thing we do know and that was this was the mildest winter in memory...and we have been here 37 yrs. Spring, or rather 2 days prior, greeted our buds on the vine with a full on hard rain one day, followed by a hard sleet the next. No real winter, and then it appears 1 day prior to Spring. Somehow it set the Easter Broom behind and started the Lupine Bush early...each by a month. So what does that mean for the vines this yr? Well, that is a good question.

Once Spring started, we had nites in the 30s and days in the 60s. Beautiful weather, but with a really brutal cold start. Right now we are watching as grape blooms are just a few days away, and the low temps have behaved themselves. We heard the wind machines for the 3 days around the hail storm, but not since. Obviously we are most vulnerable to a hard freeze once the bloom comes out. As of today that hasn't happened, but we all have our beads out and fingers crossed.

Just looking at the vineyard from a month ago when there was nothing but spurs poking up along the cordon, right now it is a beautiful spring green, with foliage literally covering the cordons. We are in terminal stages of completing shoot thinning before bloom, and the vineyard looks as orderly as it ever will. Once the shoots come up, they grow any which way, giving the vines an untidy look. Actually with VSP (vertical shoot positioning), virtually most of our shoots point towards heaven, but a few unruly ones don't, and it gives the vines a shaggy look. Syrah is famous for doing that...growing any which way. So right now we look to be right on track, having gone thru bud break about a month ago, and now almost into bloom. What worries me is the contradictory Easter Broom and the Lupine Bush, both completely out of phase. Easter Broom always is a show of yellow at Easter, and comes at the time of bud break. Just not this yr, and the Lupine Bush went off early...about a month, which also has never happened. I know this means something....I just don't know what.

So while chewing on that in the winery, it has been "just awful" to have to go in and barrel taste..both the 2010 Syrah and Pinot and the 2011 Pinot. Just awful because all 3 wines are so good, I want to get in the barrels and swim in them....which won't happen, but in 3 weeks we will bottle the 2010 Pinot. I promise, altho it came from a bad year, it is fantastic. The Syrah is the same, just superb, and getting ready for bottling, probably within next 3 mos. 2011 Pinot, made from flavorless grapes is astoundingly good, fruity, and mellow. Where the flavors came from, well God alone knows. It is rare for a wine from Cerro Prieto not to have incredibly flavorful grapes, but this yr proves that is not necessary, altho we prefer wines from flavor-full-packed grapes.

I guess the thing I am wrestling with at present, is will this be another disaster year or will this be a gentle, warm, dry year that allows us to make our well known big bouquet/big flavor wines. Right now I keep busy making sure ditches are cleared out, cover crop is healthy, thinning is done, and gophers are kept under control. Worrying about the year that is going to unfold is not within the realm of things I can control. So we go about our vineyard chores, check and recheck positions on vines, check thinning results, and continue to wake up to the sounds of Spring...not someone's wind machines kicking off at 4:30 in the morning. That makes for a bad day. So far, so good, and we are all anxiously awaiting early to mid June, at which time all worries of late frosts pretty much disappear.

As for my gut feel for this year, I would say cautiously optimistic, but holding my breath. Most things are settting up for a big year, with 11 inches of rain(52 last yr), and a mild winter, except for the surprise Spring hail storm.  Vineyard looks primo...you should see it...wildflowers in abundance, and everything set to make big wines with massive bouquets and flavors. All we have to do now is make it thru the next 30-35 days and you all can expect a great harvest yr. After we all got cheated by 2010 and 2011, we all feel we need one.

For our wine club members, we have only 3 bottles left of our '06 Merlot and 4 cases of the '06 Paso  Bordo, of which I am going to keep 40 bottles. Everything else we have in stock, and is ready to drink. The 09 Merlot and 09 Cab we are not currently pouring , but it is getting better by leaps and bounds. I suspect it will be ready within the next month. Good health to all.

A Cerro Prieto Winter and a hope for Spring.

Well, here we are all battened down for a monster winter, and the  month of January found us barbecueing on the back deck where it got up to mid 80's most days. Nites, however, were a different matter, as we bundled up, wrapped pipes, and built fires in fireplace. Lows in Cold Valley Vineyard 250 feet below have bounced around mid teens to low 20s, but again, it was magnificently warm by mid afternoon. The poor vines are puzzled: do they leaf out now or wait. They are smart enough to have learned that budding out too soon can lead to health problems if a late spring frost drives temps down into the teens, and wipes out any budding vines. As noted before, our vineyard typically looks the most shaggy of any nearby, as we prune especially late, to avoid...or try to avoid the killing late spring frosts that can wipe out the new buds. We have actually looked at frost protection, but decided against it, in that overhead misters, air fans with propellers, are fine...but you only get 2-4 degrees of protection, and our late frosts typically dive into the mid to low teens, way too cold for any frost protectors to work. Like they say, farming can be like a big craps game....and sometimes it is.

To date we have not lost anything to winter kill, in that it  just hasn't been that cold here. We have had mostly 70s and 80s on into mid February, but everyone keeps wondering when is it going to get cold...vine killing cold? The expected el nino has morphed into la nina, which has resulted with much warmer temps, but the ocean, has been colder. We had no rain in Jan, (our wet month) and but 5 inches in Feb. Unfortunately that 5 inches came in 40 minutes. Hence all the preparatory work on erosion devices, dug out trenches, "hay snakes", etc, have been virtually useless. We are well set for a 5" rain, but not over a 40 minute period. I was out then, and we had massive amounts of water cascading down the middle of our roads, and causing actual gashes in the roads themselves. We have repaired the damage, but that falls under the negative work category.

Additionally the winter winds we get have gusted up to 60 mph, and have taken out half a dozen huge oak trees. It seems we just get one cut up and another takes its place. Usually when a huge 20" diameter oak snaps, it takes down half a dozen other trees with it...and that has now has happened twice.

Vineyardwise, we are watching for the buds on vines to begin their pre bud break swelling, looking something akin to popcorn. Oddly our Cold Valley Vineyard has scads of white cottony buds, whereas our mountain vineyard does not. Cold air sinks, at least that's what I have always known, but this year we are seeing an inversion in our lower vineyard, which apparently is warmer than the mountain tops. The why of it has so far escaped me, but of necessity , we are going to have to get the lower vineyard pruned first. How odd. The air is pristine, the puffy white clouds of spring abound, and the massive military dish antenna on Black Mountain some 35 miles to the SE is easily visible with the naked eye. It is really cold in the shade, but will be like summer at 2 p.m., probably again in the 80's off our back porch.

My discovery of Chantrelles this winter has turned out to be a big letdown. My sister, Maureen, chairman of the Dept of Ecology, has led many UCDavis mushroom hunting classes in years past, and as the expert, explained that my Chantrelles are not what I thought, but rather another similar and (bad news)... inedible species. So back to the drawing board. I did put out some steer manure in the shaded forest areas where we traditionally have mushrooms, hoping the nitrogen in the manure will entice some edible forest mushrooms. In the vineyard, we have many "Little Brown mushrooms", Agricola Campestris, Inky Caps, and sometimes the huge Boone's Giant Puffballs , which can be 8-24" in diameter. Get 'em late and they are just huge nasty looking spore balls, but early on are spectacular. Last spring I identified 32 different species of mushrooms here, in the vineyard and forest, and am looking forward to a new record this yr. With the incredible warmth during daytime,  spring explosion of mushrooms is looking promising. We HAVE TO get some rain, as 5" just isn't going to cut it. With the rain and warmth will come the "shrooms".

Blending of our '09s was finished in mid January, and we have some extraordinary Cab/Syrah(85% Cab/15% Syrah), Merlot, and Syrah/Cab (85% Syrah/15% Cab). The Syrah will be our first released by itself, in that previously we used it only as a blend. 2009 Syrah was outstanding and so is our blend. Additionally, 2010, although a cold yr, still resulted in some mouth watering Syrah...but that was it. Cab, Merlot, Pinot, Whites...2011 is a year to avoid buying, so instead focus on 2006, 2007, 2008, and especially 2009. As mentioned, 2010 was a fantastic yr for Syrah, but not much else. We hope to enclose some of our syrah in our Spring Wine Club shipment, but it depends if it is done with bottle shock or not. As many of you know, we rarely sell a wine that is not ready to drink, in that if you buy a great wine, we feel it should be drinkable when you buy it. That flys in the face of tradition, but is something we adhere to... meaning we hold onto our wines longer than most folks before releasing them. Still haven't made up my mind yet on Spring shipments, but will wait and see what is ready and what isn't.

With the economy in the dumps, we bought our barrels just after harvest, hoping for a price break in the new French oak. Despite the dive in the Euro, the collapse of the EEU, our French oak still remained right about $1000 per barrel. Expensive, but worth it. We generally use 1/3 New French, but with a really big year for our Syrah, we are probably going to 40% New French, maybe even try 50%. If we had made a Cab or Merlot, I would have kept it at 33%, but our 2010 Syrah is so massive that it can easily handle the 40%. Our only other remaining wines are a 2010 Pinot, which has been impressive, after being questionable due to the ridiculously cold weather. 2011 we made a grand total of 1 ton of wine out of our entire vineyard. Pinot noir is the selection, as it seemed closer to being decent grapes than anything else in the vineyard. At most we will have only 50 cases from 2011, the worst winegrape growing year in history. Trust me on this...buy 06s thru 09s, buy 2010 Syrah, and just put a big "do not buy" sign in your wine storage area for the 2011s. I wouldn't have made wine out of anything we sold, and we are pruned as low as anyone. So if a vineyard was going to ripen, it would have been ours. Well, we ripened, but we just missed out on the fabulous flavors we are known for. Long barrelling may help out, but overall, 2011 was a bust year. Anyone who tells you 2011 was a great year...well he probably is telling a tall tale.

Vineyard tours, which we have shelved for the winter, will probably come back into full swing come late spring. So far wildflowers are spectacular, and the wildlife is more abundant than ever. We have had dozens of turkeys trying to get under our deer fence, and some figure it out and just fly over. This yr they cleaned off over 400 vines, and at 1 ton/acre, that means about 1 bottle per vine. That comes out to 400 bottles or roughly 33 cases. At $480/case, well, you can do the math. Needless to say, any turkeys found inside our deer fence this year will be hunted... with malice.

That about finishes our 1st qtr/ 56th blog, and I hope to bring good news about the 2012 harvest next time. Right now we are waiting for the weather to decide if it wants to get really cold again or not. If not, we are going to be making a mad dash to get pruned before bud break...if you prune once bud break starts, virtually everything you prune results in buds being broken off.

Should you stop by and visit us for a glass, we have some new friends. The same two turkey vultures born just below our house sail in and around the house all day, riding the thermals. Same for the red tails, but they don't  venture anywhere near as close. Our new friends are a pair of Peregrine falcons, that in addition to being beautiful are thrilling to watch. Kestrels hover over the vineyard waiting on gophers to come out, and Red Shouldered hawks are nest building in forest in midst of our vineyard. Sometimes this place seems like a huge aviary, if you include the dozens of different songbirds, the flycatchers, and all the many species of finches. Another recent addition is a flock of Bandtail pigeons that was migrating thru, found the acorn pickings and roosts excellent, and decided to stay. If you visit us in Feb, you may still see those, but ultimately they do go back north. Give us a call if you are headed up this way. We are already booked thru May, but we always have time for a Cerro Prieto aficionado...but you must call ahead, and the longer ahead the better. Salud!