Tuesday, October 31, 2006


And after 7-10 days, its WINE !!!!

its the science, the magic, the art of fermentation. it never ceases to amaze me that after almost 8-9 months of growing in the vineyard, 7-10 days after harvest, we have essentially baby wine.

The sugars have converted to alcohol, the skins have macerated and we squeeze the juice with the Press Machine. If its white wine, pressing of grapes is done in unfermented must so as to minimize skin contact. If for red wine, pressing is done after skins have macerated, sugars have dissolved and fermentation is complete.

The juice or wine that is pressed out with minimal pressure is called FREE-RUN. Most of our wines are good majority % of Free run, from 40% - 50% free. this is the purest cleanest state of the juice or wine. When pressed, this is called PRESS-RUN, though I personally like the phenolic structure and aromatics that pressing to up to 0.8bars for red wines and up to 1.8bars for white wines can achieve. Its a matter of taste, tannins and structure that we try to optimize for. And I hope our San Sakana fans will enjoy.

Its been a very busy 10 days for us with grapes getting harvested and crushed from all of our vineyards. We have barreled the 1st wine, our 2006 Catie's Corner Viognier, we have pressed the 1st Red, our 2006 Alta Mesa Mourvedre and this weekend we are elbows deep into sorting & crushing our Syrah fruit from Las Madres Vineyard from Carneros and the White Hawk Syrah from Santa Barbara.

Hopefully we'll have pictures of the 3 Fishes, foot stomping to share with you soon

Yes, its just like Lucy....

Q's, commetns - please email me at bettina@sansakana.com

Monday, October 23, 2006

Cool Sweet Viognier



Well the first viognier is now officially wine and slumbering (still burping) away in its cool dark steel jacket. Fermentation took 3 weeks, with the brix leveling out at -2.7.



Young wine usually tastes raw, bitter; a bit like apple cider with grapefruit juice added in. The Catie's Corner, though, already shows the honeysuckle and citrus that made last year's wine such a hit. The aging should take about 5 or 6 months, meaning late spring release -- can't wait? There is still VERY LITTLE of the 2005 Catie's available.


Wondering about the rest of the harvest? As you have probably heard, the fall has been cool with spotted rains, pushing harvests late. This week begins the flood, and most vineyards will be in full swing for the next 2 or 3 weeks trying to get all the fruit off the vine before the real frosts hit.

For Late Harvest fans, watch out: this is an excellent year for Botrytis in California and you should expect some spectacular productions out of the year's harvest!

Sunday, October 15, 2006


Trucking from Santa Maria

So here I am, into my 8th hour of driving after a very long day trucking from San Fran down to Santa Maria and back. Sunset over the Santa Lucia mountains with the rain pelting the highway. The trip was long and tiring, more so because of the 4 hour delays in the fruit showing up from the vineyard, and our surprise at being told to hand-transfer the fruit from one bin to the next. Yields down at Alta Mesa were half of what was expected, which sucks for us because the production will be half as well, but will be great for our customers as this low yield means concentrated fruits and complex flavors.

We finished with crush at midnight, 18 hours after starting the day. On the way we stopped at Paso to visit Martin Weyrich and Eberle vineyards and see how things were doing. Scattered rains continue to run through the valleys, with clouds that keep the temperature cold. Luckily we got our Alta Mesa harvested last week, as the outlook is for continued cold in the coming days. I expect harvests continuing deep into November ...

Friday, October 06, 2006


Harvest Update, 10/6

Well if you live in northern California, you know what the weather's been like of late. We were initiated to the start of our RAINY FALL season this week. The rain has caused some concern with ripening pinot grapes up & down the coast, but not for our Viognier or Syrah grapes. thank god....

Picture above is of the BROKEN LEG VINEYARD up in Philo in Anderson Valley. Rain on our Viognier grapes needs to dry but if weather forecast holds we should be harvesting soon. The vineyard is on an unreal 60degree slope, it should make picking an adventure.

With the delays caused by the recent cool wet weather, we will be in crunch mode with all of the picks and crush for all of our grapes. Should be a crazy next few weeks, if you don't see any new blogs its cause we're knee deep in juice.

Can't wait to share more stories and pics with you all soon.

Bettina

Wednesday, October 04, 2006


Harvest Update, 10/4

We wait and wait and wait .... Mother Nature sure reminds us that she's way more powerful then any spreadsheet or models or plans we can put in place.

The 2006 growing season is certainly different. We had the rains & cold weather that marked our Spring, this cause late fruit and bloom. And then we had the CRAZY HOT MANY LONG days in the 100's in August and September which really got veraison and sugars going.

But now, with the fog and the cool Autumn weather suddenly upon us, sugars have stopped and harvest up and down California is delayed.

So we wait.

We are hoping that our Alta Mesa Mourvedre grapes will be ready to be picked and crushed next week, if not, yours truly will be all alone driving a 16 foot flat bed truck to Santa Maria. Anyone out there want to drive down with me? if so, please email me soon.

Thanks, Bettina