In the cold, dark days of winter, our grapevines go dormant. The grape vine stops the uptake of water from its roots to keep moisture from freezing and bursting inside the plant cells. Any remaining water inside the vine is transferred to an inter-cellular area where it can safely freeze without causing any damage. All growth is put on hold to conserve energy for the next growing season.
But while our grapevines are slumbering, our wine growers are as busy as ever …
In the Barrel Room
Racking: Last fall, our grapes were picked, crushed, fermented and put into barrels. But there is still much to do before any of the wine goes into a bottle. With fermentation complete, it is time to rack, or siphon, the wine off the thick sediment, or lees (dead yeast cells, grape skins and seed fragments), and into another clean barrel. Racking is usually performed two to four times throughout the winemaking process to clarify and keep the wine free from off-flavors and odors.
Lightheart Cellars co-owner and winemaker Sheldon Haynie recently blogged, “Somewhat sore and stiff after racking today. Helped move 28 empty barrels weighing 120 pounds each, without a forklift.”
In the Vineyard
Pre-pruning: Many wine growers pre-prune their vines in January in anticipation of the major pruning that is done in March or April. Pre-pruning snips the vine back to about an eight- to 12-inch spur, as opposed to the two to three bud (usually two inches long) spur that is left behind during the final pruning.
John Aver of Aver Family Vineyards said, “Pre-pruning clears out all the old canes – the time consuming part of pruning, so that when you do the final pruning later, it will go much faster. You can’t prune all the way now because it would make our vines vulnerable to wood disease.”
Weed Abatement: If you think your little home garden has weeds, you should see how many weeds can grow in the acres surrounding our vineyards. Our winegrowers are mowing, disking and rototilling down weeds so that they don’t steal water and other scarce resources from the vines.
Marketing
As if managing hundreds of barrels of wine and acres of vineyard isn’t enough, our wine makers/growers are also plenty busy with marketing and actually selling their wines.
Wineries of Santa Clara County: Recently, after serving five terms (non-consecutive) as president of the Wineries of Santa Clara Valley, Thomas Kruse, of Thomas Kruse Winery, passed the baton to Haynie to take over the leadership of the group.
A re-vamped task force includes new “chairs”: Greg Richtarek (Guglielmo Winery) for marketing, Mike Sampagnaro (Morgan Hill Cellars) for membership, Vic Vanni (Solis Winery) for Passport Weekend, Alicia Cuadra-Cutler (Sycamore Creek Vineyards) as secretary, Gretchen Blatter (Casa de Fruta) as treasurer, John Aver (Aver Family Vineyards) as director, Tim Slater (Sarah’s Vineyard) as technical chair, George Guglielmo (Guglielmo Winery) for education and Dhruv Khanna (Kirigin Cellars) as heritage chair.
With lightning speed the group has mobilized into a tour de force that has created several exciting first-ever events including Vineyard Day, Barrel Tasting Day and blind-tastings among member wineries using sommeliers and other wine experts to provide constructive feedback. The group is planning a wine event in further north (maybe Campbell) this spring in order to acquaint our near-by-neighbors with our award-winning South Bay wines. Visit www.santaclarawines.com for all kinds of information and event listings.
If you fly American Airlines, you’ll find Jason-Stephen’s 2008 Estate Syrah on the first-class menu. Jason Goelz has also recently partnered with The San Francisco Wine Exchange (SFWE) to represent Jason-Stephens wines to distributors in all 50 states. Goelz said, “There is no slow time for the wine business, work just changes from one aspect to another.”
Winning Medals: At the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, the largest competition of American wines in the world, our wineries took in 47 medals – a certain validation of our superior wine quality.
The wineries have all kinds of fun planned to help us endure the cold, dark days of winter. I hope to see you there – not only showing our support for the wineries but enjoying the beautiful vineyards and the fabulous wines they produce.
