Last night we were up in Napa pressing the last of our wine for the year.  Hayley turned out extraordinarily delicate.  The free-run and press wine had a brilliant ultraviolet color and I think it’s going to turn out to be very light colored.   Initial measurements showed we had the same pH as La Encantada (3.39), but alcohol levels only at 12.92 %.  The alcohol level will go up  a bit as the wine ages as some evaporation occurs, but it’s definitely an indication that 2010 is going to be all about finesse.

The vineyard is farmed organic, which means they don’t use copper sprays, and this resulted in a tiny hint of H2S when tasting the free-run.  A little oxygenation blew it off quickly revealing light, bright raspberry and strawberry aromas, but with a lovely earthy undertone.

Both the La Encantada and Hayley are in 1-year old barrels, so oak influence is going to be very restrained which will allow these young wines to really shine.

Cheers!  ~Brian

La Encantada is now in barrel! Alcohol was measured at 14.1% & pH at 3.39, so it’s a racy lightweight. The wine still needs to go through malolactic conversion to mellow out, but the wine we pressed into barrel is already quite nice. Bright raspberry flavors and aromas, zesty acid, but with a really nice dark & earthy quality to it already.

We’re really looking forward to seeing how this one evolves and matures, since we’re using a different predominant clone this year.  Tomorrow night we’re back up in Napa pressing Hayley, which will conclude the main hectic mayhem of the 2010 winemaking season for us.

Driving to Napa every few days while still working full time is tiring, but now comes the truly hard part — patiently waiting and tasting every few months to watch and see what these wines want to be when they grow up.

Cheers!  ~Brian

La Encantada’s out of cold soak already and fermenting. We started out with 24.6 brix at 69F two days ago, and given the vigor of the fermentation, the temperature is up to 86F and the brix has dropped by more than half to 10 degrees. Things should slow down a tad as the yeast attempt to eat through the last bit of sugar, but at this rate we could be dry and pressing within a week.

Hayley’s still in the fridge.

Cheers!  ~Brian

We just got back from the winery in Napa. Sorting grapes outside under a beautiful first quarter moon isn’t such a bad way to end the day. The fruit from Hayley is awesome. Incredibly clean, delicate, low sugar, brilliant acidity without any acid-bombs, almost zero raisining and very little botrytis. I’m really excited to see how this one turns out. More updates from the winery once fermentation kicks off…

Cheers!  ~Brian

Our fruit from Hayley in Anderson Valley is coming in tomorrow. Car issues are behind us and we will be up in Napa tomorrow night sorting fruit. It’s supposed to be incredible stuff.

Cheers!  ~Brian

A storm is in the offing down in Mexico, so the decision to harvest has been made. All of La Encantada is going to get picked and sorted on Thursday to ensure we don’t get hit by the storm. In addition, there’s so much other fruit coming in at once this week that things are in an above normal state of harvest chaos at the winery. The countdown has begun!

Cheers!  ~Brian