organic viticulture

There are many hidden spots here at Michel-Schlumberger, that have been carved out over the years. One of my favorites is up on Tranquility Hill, which is in a wooded area above the lake that most people just pass by. This spot has a small bench a plaque dedicating it to Jacques and his wife Barbara.  In the wintertime the sheep live on Tranquility Hill.  I like to go up there sometimes after work and just hang out and watch the herons and other bird life around the lake.  Sometimes I go there for lunch. There’s also Sr.’s garden, which competes with our Estate Garden for produce output and has cacti for nopales tacos.  If you can convince Mike, you might get to go out on the roof which overlooks the courtyard and has an awesome view of the vineyard.  Some of the cellar crew have been known to sleep up there during late night harvests.  You can literally see a million stars! 

One of the most scenic spots on the Estate that very few guests have seen is what we call “Bloque Rico.” If you’ve ever gone on a Green Tour here, you’ve tasted just under Bloque Rico, which is one of our reserve blocks and it sits high (well 400 feet above sea level high) above the Estate. To get up there is quite a haul and it can be quite precipitous on the way down as well.  It’s a rocky path and an almost 60 degree incline.  Tony and Mike came up with a great idea called Rico’s Challenge. It consists of hiking to the hill and back to the winery in thirty minutes or less. 

If you’re into something less strenuous and you’re a Wine Bench Member, you can relax on the back patio. This is one of the few picnic spots at the Estate and you can hang here for free as part of your membership.  All we need is 24 hours advance notice and the patio is yours. From 3pm to 5pm, with the sun shining across the vineyard in a golden hue, this has got to be one of the most beautiful sights in all of Dry Creek and for me, one of the most relaxing ways to end a day.

Jay Kell

There have recently been untold columns on which wine to pair with the Thanksgiving feast.  It seemed that immediately after Halloween, all media outlets, from the monthly food magazines to the morning talk shows, began to pick up the story…which by the way, is generally the same story every year.  This is not one of those posts.  I promise.  But just to get it out of the way.  Find a bottle of Michel-Schlumberger Pinot Blanc and a bottle Cabernet, preferably aged.  

Being the resident wine geek, I am naturally chosen to decide which wines to purchase.  If your family is anything like mine, you’ll have to be a bit strategic about how, when and what wine to pour.  You have great uncle Johnny, who will suck down every last drop of the best wine but won’t touch the plonk you bought especially for him. Allow me to introduce Aunt Jane who fills her wine glass straight up to the rim and gingerly sips.  Then there’s cousin Jimbo who doesn’t drink wine except when all other choices are gone and then it becomes his sole mission to cause like effect with the vino.  With these ends, we drink a lot of box wine.  It’s best when slightly chilled so we sometimes keep it outside.  We have terminology to define the stages of volume in the box.  When it’s too low, we must resort to removing the bag from the box and  ”milking the bladder” and when it’s almost gone, desperate times are called for.   ”Piercing the bladder” is the only way to savor that last drop.  I’ve learned the hard way that when the best bottle of the night is finally revealed there is precious little to go around.  Here are a couple of tips to keep everyone happy:

1.  Volume is good.  Bring copious amounts of mediocre wine to keep your less discerning relatives at bay.
2. The upstairs bathroom is the perfect hiding place unless you’ve used it the year before.
3.  Reveal the secret stash only to your wine conscious relations. They will appreciate your discretion.  They too fear cousin Jimbo and great uncle Johnny.
4.  Always have a corkscrew in your coat pocket. 
5.  Imbibe normally and then casually avail yourself to the upstairs bath.
6.  Return to the table and enjoy! 

Now some of you may claim that all at the table will enjoy a taste of the good stuff, which would not be untrue.  So…set aside one bottle and allow all to taste.  Open the bottle with great flair (they’ll be amazed you didn’t have to use the rabbit eared corkscrew), tell them of the vintage, the blend and then share with them the last time you were at the winery and what a nice conversation you had with the winemaker about the influence of organic viticulture on wine quality.  I imagine that by this time they’ll have already had their tiny schluck and will have moved either back to the box or perhaps (and by perhaps I mean always) to something a little stronger. 

Thanksgiving is a time to share, but only in moderation and with good sense.  Looking forward to your Thanksgiving stories!!

Jay Kell

Now that the fog has rolled into Dry Creek Valley, the grapes are finally getting the hang time that they will surely benefit from.    With these cool, wet (we call it frizzle…fog+ drizzle= frizzle) days and nights, the ripening process has slowed considerably and flavors, acids and tannins all seem to be coming together perfectly. 

We picked some clone six cabernet sauvignon off the Bradford Mountain Ranch on Saturday and it came in with beautiful flavors and aromas (not to mention color).   The sugar was right where you’d like to see it and the skins were thinner and more delicate than the block adjacent to it. 

Ah, the physiology of vines, the subtleties of clonal selections and the effects of mother nature.  Cabernet seems to benefit from a little moisture on the skins.  It wasn’t until this marine layer rolled in that we began to see a change in the skins of most of the bordeaux varietals (we grow cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, malbec, petit verdot and carmenere).  Up until a week ago, the skins were tough (a response to the extreme heat?) and the seeds were still attached to the pulp.  Now that we have some cool nights, the grapes are moving towards the latter stages of ripening which includes the maturation of tannins in the skins.  It’s a delicate walk here.  You want to have nice ripe tannins, but you certainly don’t want pHat, flabby tannins either.  One way to achieve this is to taste in the vineyard everyday to get a good idea of the status of each block.   So far the season has been kind and with this cool weather slated for the next few days, it looks like we’ll continue to reap the benefits of mother nature’s air conditioning.  I like the fog.

Mike Brunson Harvest Update

Tony ‘Nature Boy’ Wasowicz

If you take a stroll through the wild forests that border the vineyards at Michel-Schlumberger you won’t see any large outbreaks of powdery mildew on the leaves of the native flora.  Nor will you find big infestations of aphids or mites.  In general, you will see a buncha healthy, green plants as well as birds and bugs and snakes and furry critters of all shapes and sizes.  It’s only when us big-headed humans step in and try to “manage” things by clearing some land and planting our neat rows of tomatoes and grapevines that pests like mildew and mites and weeds can gain the upper hand.  And when we react to these pests with sprays and herbicides and chemical fertilizers we only mess things up worse in the long run.  The underlying philosophy of organic farming, I think, is to respect the fact that Nature takes care of herself, all by herself.  Thus, the closer we work with Nature the better.  This goes way beyond merely substituting fertilizers.  Pouring some fish sludge on your plants and chucking that big container of Roundup into the dumpster may qualify one for organic certification (and the cool little logo sticker that goes with it) but the philosophy of organic farming is much, much more.

It’s all about balance.

It’s about using farm animals in conjunction with the raising of crops – plant waste feeding animals, animal waste feeding plants.  It’s about providing food and cover for the myriad of pollinators and other beneficial insects.  It’s about minimizing soul disturbances to promote happy, healthy soil.  It’s about all sorts of very cool things (many of which we will discuss in more detail in subsequent posts so stay tuned).  Such practices as these were not invented by us fine folks at Michel-Schlumberger, and they are not new or cutting edge.  They are, in fact, very old – the result of the toil of millions of farmers over tens of thousands of years, long before the recent development and reliance upon monoculture and Monsanto.  It’s old school.  And that’s why we’re happy to farm this way.  We believe it’s simply the right thing to do.