Pinot Blanc

Pinot Blanc Harvest 2008

My alarm was supposed to go off at 4:30am. It didn’t. I knew I was going to be late for the first day of harvest. Just as I was getting up, our National Sales Manager Jayme Moffi (who was staying at the estate and had a flight to catch) shot me a text…”FYI, the power is off at the winery.” What?! I’m late and no power once I get there. Argh! This is not shaping up the way I had envisioned it.

I arrived at the East Pinot Blanc just before sunrise. It was beautiful outside. About 52 degrees with clear skies and a crew that was so positive and happy that I quickly forgot about the late start and the lack of electricity issue. The grapes were delicious…cool and snappy with tons of west dry creek goodness. We had one quick chat about fruit quality standards and the crew of 5 men and 5 women took off to pick this small block of Pinot Blanc. The crew must have been training for this moment because it was an Olympic best. The hammered out 5 tons in an hour and a half. One of our Italian tractors decided it needed a rest in the middle of the row with two full bins…it just wouldn’t start. No big drama. Adolfo and Javier Sr. were all over it. Within 5 minutes the tractor was on its way to the winery. Sr. and I joked about the way the morning was starting and how fun it is to face these challenges right off the bat. Ha ha. Ha ha ha. Just then Javier’s phone rings. It’s Juan. He’s at the winery and the electric forklift is dead. Argh! We get the other forklift out and get the bins off the tractor and on to the scale. The fruit looks wonderful. No burn, no mildew, no bugs. Just greenish/yellow clusters stacked one on top of the other. Hand picked by people who care. Grown by the vineyardists who want to grow the very best fruit they can. Once it’s in the bin you can see all of this. And then you taste it…my god! Glorious!

The cellar crew was poised as was Wendy (because she gets there at 8am…nice Wendy!). Wendy rang the mission bell and we toasted the harvest with some sparkling and donuts that Tony had brought for the crew (Thanks Nature Boy). It was at this point that I realized that all these trials were just little speed bumps and that this crew (best ever?) can handle anything. We looked around and the electricity was back on…nice!

At the end of a busy Saturday of pouring wine for our guests, we like to sit around the kitchen snacking on cheeses and whatever’s fresh from the Estate garden.  We have a couple of glasses of wine and rehash the day. A lot of times working in a winery is like working in a restaurant and our hosts are passionate about providing an excellent and entertaining experience.  We have busy times during the day and then time at the end to reflect.  Our role here is to make sure you have a nice time, enjoy our wines, and hopefully take some with you to remember us by.  I think our GM coined the phrase “edutainment” and I like it.  We are at a winery afterall. You’re expecting things to be nice, elegant but also a little casual and down home.  If you want, we can tell you quite a bit our wines, how they are made,  the history of the Estate, our winegrowing philosphy and what sets us apart.  We can also just hang back and let you enjoy the place. Play some Petanque if like.  At the end of everyday sitting around the kitchen table, we come together as a group and ask ourselves three questions: 

Did every single guest have a good experience while visiting the Estate?     
How can we be better?
Isn’t there just one more bottle of Pinot Blanc?  Anywhere?

Pre-Bottled Pinot Blanc

I just got back from grape sampling and guess what?  The grapes from our Dry Creek Valley Benchland Estate are getting sweet. The weather was warm (90+ for the past week) but has cooled off (~70) and is expected to stay this way for a few more days.  I’m excited to say that I’m sure we’ll be harvesting by the end of the week.

The Pinot Blanc is fresh and tart with the seeds just starting to turn brown (a sign of physiological ripeness).

The grapes are still snappy and the vines are still green. This cool weather is exactly what the Dr. ordered. Which Dr. you ask? I’ve always been much more a fan of Dr. J than Trapper John, MD,

so let’s go with Julius Erving on this one. In all seriousness though, the vintage is poised to be a great one with light crop levels and distinguished parcel flavors driving the boat.   Javier Sr. and the crew are pacing as they wait for the starting gun (Olympic year reference). If any of you are going to be around these parts in the next few weeks, you should cruise by and check out the fun. 

Stay tuned…

I’m just finishing up downloading some pictures from our recent Tomales Bay hike and Hog Island Oyster Picnic.  I realized while doing so-that we were all having so much fun we only remembered to take a few!  We could not have asked for a better day on the Coast-warm, sunny, clear, and with a nice light bay breeze providing just that little bit of relief we craved while we exerted ourselves in anticipation of lunch.  Our group was great, a bunch of about 18 people: wineclub members, customers, and 3 students from Missouri who found us on our local Chamber of Commerce events page. (thanks Elizabeth!) 

I caught snips of Mike and Tony’s conversations with those on our hike;  Mike getting into his archeological speak with one of our guests from Novato and Tony was fully embracing his naturalist side with talk about the flora and fauna on the trail as well as our little garden back ‘home’ at the winery.  Some of our resident wine club members, the Mitchells and the Covellos provided great company and it was so nice for us all to join up outside the winery and in such an intoxicating setting (We’ll see you on the boat cruise next month-Barbara!)

Lunch was much harder work than most people imagined with ’shucking’ proving to be quite a dangerous sport (I’ll save the picture of my bandaged hand) but everyone pitched in the attempt to get us all fed.  Let’s see, we had Tatiana with a bread knife (glass of pinot blanc in hand) and a cutting board alongside Bertie (who flew all the way in from Florida!), and then we had Bertie’s husband, who I believe shucked more than his fair share of oysters, and also made sure we all had enough sunscreen (this may have been in response to the changing shades of pink on a few of our shoulders……….).  I threw myelf into making a cheese plate, and then a rustic mignonette (wine vinegar and shallots thrown into a recyclable plastic cup) for our oysters.  Mike and one of the Moser girls (who were celebrating their mom Norene’s 70th birthday!) engaged in a shucking contest of which, I’m sure Mike would be ashamed to admit:  He lost (see below picture of his handshake of shame). 

Tony cranked up the BBQ and threw some of the oysters on there for the folks who liked their oysters a little toasty-there were plenty of these babies to go around.  Pinot Noir went wonderfully with the bbq guys and the cowgirl creamery cheese-the chard and the pinot blanc were great with the kumamoto and sweetwater oysters.  By the end of the day we were down to 50 oysters left on ice-and believe it or not everyone had had their fill (of oysters-I should specify….not of wine)!  Except for Mike and I that is……….we polished off at least another dozen each.  Waste not want not-right?

Bliss!

Coming up next:  Fri. Night music with Joe DiOrio and Co (8/1) and next month a Bay Cruise from Sausalito……  Tough job but some us here have to do it