Fog Crest Vineyard | Russian River Valley | Sonoma County, CA

Second Pinot Press…Just as Nice!!

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

Recounted by harvest intern Jared Leopold…

Today’s post is pretty brief since it’s round 2 of the pinot press–just thought I’d post a few new pictures and let you know that punchdowns are finished–woo hoo!!

The fermenters from the Lower Estate (picked 9/18) have completed primary fermentation–let’s get it into barrels!

Siphoning the free run into new French oak barrels

Winemaker Daniel transferring the skins from the fermenter to a macro bin

Dumping the skins from the macro bin into the bag press

It’s amazing how much easier/quicker this goes once you’ve been through it once before–that’s right, this intern is now a veteran of barreling pinot noir!

Until next time…

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It’s Friday–CalTran Orange Shirt Day, and Time to Press the Pinot!!

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Recounted by harvest intern Jared Leopold…

Today is a big day for this intern! In addition to gaining one more new harvest experience and finding a new reason to wear the color orange (Daniel’s longstanding tradition from his days at Lynmar), its a day that marks the number of fermenters I need to punchdown is cut in half–whew!

Primary fermentation for half our fermenters (those picked on September 10) has completed. For the past few days the brix levels have bottomed out at nearly -2.0, and the temperature has held steady at around 70 degrees. The consistency has changed from a thick berry must, to a separation of wine and dried/shriveled skins, and the color has changed from a translucent indigo to dark ruby shades. It’s time to transfer this wine to barrels! We’ll do this in two parts; first extracting the wine currently in the fermenters (referred to as ‘free run’) and second, pressing any remaining juice from the skins. We’ll keep the wines from each of these processes in different barrels. Generally the wine from the free run is better quality as it won’t have any of the solids from the skins and seeds inherent in the pressed wine.

Free Run Juice: This is really pretty simple. After rinsing out our barrels (~70% new French oak, ~30% 1-2 year old French oak), we insert a mesh basket connected to a suction hose into the bottom of the fermenter. The mesh basket allows us to siphon off the wine, without pulling out the seeds and skins. This wine is transferred directly into our barrels. Once full, pop a bung in the bunghole and move onto the next barrel, repeat until all fermenters are drained.

Siphon tube to extract the free run juice

Nearly finished siphoning off the free run juice–notice the drop in the level of the grapes

Filling one of our new French oak barrels

Moving from one barrel to the next…

Press Juice: Even though we’ve siphoned all the free run juice out of the fermenters, there’s still juice trapped in the skins, and we’re going to get our hands on it–it’s too good to let go to waste!! You may remember the bag press from our previous post (Bringing in the Estate Chardonnay). We’re going to repeat the same process with the remaining pinot noir skins, but we’ll use different settings on the press–in short, we won’t press the skins as much as the full chardonnay grapes straight from the vineyard. The more you press, the drier the resulting style of the wine due to the increased particles extracted from the seeds and skins. For our pinot, we like the fruit flavors to be prominent in the wine, so we follow a pretty light press cycle. The juice collected from the pressed skins is collected in a container below the press, which we transfer directly to the remaining barrels.

Filling the bag press with the pinot skins

Once all the barrels are cleaned up and stacked neatly it’s into the cellar, and guess what?!?! Cleanup time!! The only thing I’ll mention about tonight’s cleanup is that I learned that using really hot water to clean the inside of the bag press recreates the feeling of a steam room. Who needs a fancy club to relax and unwind? Crank up the hot water, jump in the bag press, and PRESTO–instant steam room!

I think I need some sleep…:)

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Primary Fermentation: Chemistry 101 and Punchdowns

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Fermentation is the process by which yeast transform sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Fermentation ceases when the temperature is too high or too low, when the sugar runs out, or when the alcohol level attains about 15% (Source: The Italian Wine Connection).

Recounted by harvest intern Jared Leopold…

I’m going to digress for one moment before getting into today’s post. Have I told you how beautiful this place is? I’ve been crashing in a small ‘rustic’ cabin on the vineyard. Each morning my aching body wakes to this beautiful sunrise overlooking the Russian River Valley–makes all the hard work worth it!!

Morning sunrise view from Fog Crest Vineyard

All right, back to business! Over the past several days we’ve been keeping an eye on our barrels of chardonnay and fermenters of pinot noir. Sound boring looking at an inanimate object? “What are we watching?” you ask. For both wines, we’re monitoring the natural process of fermentation. Think high school chemistry class–beakers, thermometers and hydrometers, NOT the bunsen burners, goggles or lab coats! The chemical reaction is similar for both red and white wines, but our role is different given the chardonnay has already been separated from the skins and is in barrels, whereas the pinot noir must is hanging out in a fermenter.

The Chardonnay: This is pretty straight forward. Remove the bung (rubber plug for the hole of the barrel, ie bung hole–I’ll try to be mature here–whoops, too late!). Insert wine thief (long glass tube to extract a wine sample from a barrel). Suck up some wine. Measure the brix and temperature. Repeat daily. The tricky part (which requires expertise beyond this intern’s current knowledge) is knowing exactly what to do over time as the brix falls and temperature increases.

The wine came into barrels at 57 degrees and around 24 brix. Throughout this period of primary fermentation (around 2 weeks), the temperature will rise to the upper 80’s, and the brix will fall to zero (or slightly below zero). As the natural yeasts consume the sugars in the wine, the brix level falls, releasing heat and carbon dioxide, causing the temperature to increase and the wine to foam slightly. We’ll add back water, acid and important nutrients consumed in the process in an effort to achieve a particular balance in the wine–but these details are the secrets of the winemaker! Primary fermentation is complete once the sugar levels are depleted. Next step for the chardonnay is batonnage and consolidation–more on that another day!

Extracting a sample of chardonnay to measure the brix

The Pinot Noir–bring on the punchdowns: Primary fermentation for reds is a completely different beast, involving a lot more physical effort! Following the cold soak, the must will begin to ferment, either naturally or through the addition of yeast, though we prefer natural fermentations! As noted above, as the wine begins to ferment, sugar is consumed by the yeast, the heat rises and carbon dioxide (“CO2″) is released. This release of CO2 pushes the grape skins to the top of the fermenter creating a solid “cap” of grape skins above the wine. Its our job to push the skins back into the wine (referred to as a “punchdown”) to make sure we get the most color and flavor extraction from the skins during fermentation. We also need to punchdown the cap to prevent bacteria from developing–which can happen if the cap dries out. The traditional method for a punchdown is called “pigeage” and involves stomping down the grapes with your feet! Remember Lucille Ball??

So, I mentioned physical effort. No joke, punchdowns take a lot out of you! Imagine trying to push a floating iceberg under water (easy for a guy who lived in Minneapolis for awhile), and getting a fiery burst of heat released (fire and ice probably not the best reference to describe this effectively–sorry) on each submersion. You face a similar level of resistance, which you have to repeat 4-5 times per day at the peak of fermentation, across 8 different fermenters in what feels like a sauna–I lost 10 pounds in two weeks of harvest and attribute this almost entirely to punchdowns!!

Consistent with our description for the chardonnay above, we measure the brix and temperature daily, and add back a secret mixture of water, acid and nutrients throughout the fermentation. Next step for the pinot noir is barreling the ‘free run’ wine and pressing the juice from the remaining skins–a future post…

Intern busy at work punching down the cap on the Upper Estate fermenter

A thick cap of grape skins and foam from the CO2 released during fermentation

Fermenters lined up in the cellar following a round of punchdowns!

It’s time to rehydrate myself!! I think a trip to The Underwood (a Graton favorite) is in order!

Until next time…

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Time to Rack and Barrel the Chardonnay…

Saturday, September 19th, 2009

Recounted by harvest intern Jared Leopold…

So, it’s been 4 days since we picked and pressed the estate chardonnay grapes. The juice has been chilling out (literally, at a cool 57 degrees) in a 2,500 gallon stainless steel storage tank. Now that it’s settled, it’s time to transfer the juice to barrels for the natural fermentation process to begin. The process is pretty straightforward–rack the wine, clean the barrels, fill ‘em with wine and move ‘em to the cellar!

Rack: Here’s a quick definition (courtesy of The New Wine Lover’s Companion)…

Racking [rak-ing]: The process of siphoning off the clear juice from the sediment that has fallen to the bottom of the container either naturally or with the help of fining agents. During the winemaking process, racking can occur three or four times before the wine is clear. After racking, some wines are also filtered prior to bottling to remove any remaining miniscule particles.

To get started, we hook up a transfer hose to the racking valve of the stainless steel storage tank. This is connected to a pump, which is connected to another hose that feeds into another stainless steel storage tank. We’re basically just transferring the juice from one tank to another, leaving the solids that have settled to the bottom of the first tank behind. The racking valve sits about 3 feet above the bottom of the tank. So, pulling the juice out at this level allows you to leave the heavy stuff below the racking valve behind.

Rinse: We’ve selected a mix of new and 1-2 year old French oak barrels. We use a mix of three different barrel coopers (Mercurey, Alain Fouquet and Louis Latour), each of which has a different toast level. The toast level refers to how dark (from fire-roasting) the inside of the barrel is–the darker the toast, the more intense the flavor of the oak on the finished wine.

A new French oak barrel from Alain Fouquet

Rinsing French oak barrels on the crushpad

A look inside a very lightly toasted barrel

Fill ‘em up: We hooked up a transfer hose from the storage tank and let physics take care of the rest! This is referred to as a ‘gravity feed’ where no equipment (eg electric pump) is used to force the transfer of the juice. This method takes a little longer to fill each barrel (~3-5 minutes per barrel), but is gentler on the juice.

Each barrel holds 60 gallons of wine, but we only fill them to about 80-90% to allow room for the wine to expand during fermentation as the natural yeasts consume the sugars and release carbon dioxide. We’ll top them off once the primary fermentation has completed.

What a beautiful smell! The aromas of sweet juice mixed with the slight vanilla from the oak are making me thirsty!!

Filling the first barrel

It’s Cellar Time: Once filled, the barrels are moved into the cellar to let the magic begin–primary fermentation! We’ll keep a close eye on each barrel, measuring the temperature and sugar levels (ie brix) in the wine and adding back important nutrients consumed in the process. But, more on that later…

That’s a wrap for today (I won’t bore you with the details of cleanup)!

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Lower Estate Pinot…Ready to Rock!

Friday, September 18th, 2009

Recounted by harvest intern Jared Leopold…

The chardonnay pick yesterday went really well, and we were hoping for as much luck with the estate pinot noir. And guess what, we got it!!

The steps to process red grapes are different than white grapes. With white wine, the juice is immediately extracted from the grapes, whereas with red wine, the juice stays in contact with the skins and seeds for several days before separation. This step is called ‘extended maceration’ and is important for red wines because the skins add color and tannins to the wine. Before we get too far into the process, let’s start from the beginning of the day with picking.

Pick: Yesterday we told you that we had an early start to our pick. Actually, starting at 7:30 isn’t THAT early. Some wineries pick overnight where the crew will wear headlamps, or they’ll light up the vineyard like a football stadium with big, bright lights setup throughout the vineyard. “Why do they do this?” you ask. A couple reasons. First, even though its fall in California’s North Coast, the daytime heat can be pretty excruciating for the crew. Picking in the cooler, overnight temps is safer for the crews. Second, too much heat can damage the flavor of the grapes and can also lead to rotting and molding.

Another thing we didn’t mention was why we chose to pick when we did. As the grapes begin to ripen we keep tabs on 1) the chemistry of the grapes (ie Brix, acid and pH levels), 2) the appearance of the vines, 3) the weather forecast and 4) the feeling in our ‘gut’. All signs brought us to the conclusion that it was time to pick!

We had a slightly smaller crew this morning because we have fewer acres of pinot noir planted compared to the Chardonnay. Our pinot noir is planted on two different blocks in the vineyard. The ‘upper estate’ is located on the highest point of the property, whereas the ‘lower estate’ is located at the lowest point–yes, we know, very creative! Btw, these grapes are delicious–going to make a really tasty wine!!

Look closely…winery owner, James, getting an early start to put the macro bins in place

Whole Pinot Noir clusters from the lower estate vineyard

Sort/Destem/Pick Jacks:

Once the grapes were picked they were brought up to the crushpad for further processing. Rather than go straight to the bag press, red grapes are sorted to separate any Materials Other than Grapes (a.k.a. “MOG”) and the grapes are removed from their stems. One last quality check involves picking out stem fragments (a.k.a. “jacks”) that slipped past the destemmer. The resulting collection of destemmed grapes is called ‘must’ and is transferred to fermenters for a cold soak.

Winemaker Daniel Moore transferring grapes to sorting table

Our crew of helpers hand-sorting the pinot grapes

Sorted grapes on their way into the destemmer

A look inside the destemmer…

Picking ‘jacks’ from the destemmed grapes–back-breaking work!

By-product of the destemmer

Having trouble picturing the process–check out this video!

Cold Soak/Maceration:

Did you ever wonder why the color or intensity of fruit flavors vary so much from wine-to-wine of the same varietal? There are a number of reasons for this, ie different grape clones, different regions, different winemaking techniques, etc. The ‘cold soak’ is one such winemaking technique that has a big impact on color and flavor. During the cold soak the grapes sit in contact with the skins and seeds in order to develop deeper color and stronger fruit flavors. This is done at cold temperatures (~50-60 degrees) to delay natural fermentation from beginning. Its also critical during this period to create an anaerobic environment (very little/no oxygen) to deter mother nature’s critters from getting into the must. “How do you create an anaerobic environment?” Just add dry ice and make sure the fermentation tank is sealed tightly!

Cold-soaking grape must

With the must transferred to the fermenters its the intern’s favorite part of everyday–cleanup!! The sorting table is easy to clean–not so easy to clean the destemmer!!

Who’s thirsty?!?! That’s a wrap for today!

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