First, we set up our yeast starters.  We have 4 cans of must available, so we decided to use 4 different yeasts:  ICV D80, Pasteur Red, ICV D254, and CLOS.  We set up mason jars with about 1/2 cup water at 104 degrees and added about 15 grams of Go-Ferm and 5 grams of yeast in each jar.  We let that sit for about 30 minutes while we went to test the initial brix, pH, and TA of the must.  After 30 minutes we added 1/2 cup of syrah juice that we pulled off of the must to each jar, and let that sit for another 15 minutes.  We could see the signs of life as the jars showed faint signs of foaming.  We then stirred each jar into their respective cans with a stainless steel paddle.

Check out the gorgeous color that is already extracted!

We tested the TA with Accuvin quick tests, which I have found to be very accurate, and quick!

Initial readings before pitching yeast:

#1: brix 24, TA 7, pH 3.46

#2: brix 25*, TA 7.5, pH 3.49

#3: brix 25*, TA 7, pH 3.44

#4: brix 24, TA 6.9, pH 3.44

*initially #2 was 23 brix and #3 25 brix, so we mixed some must back and forth before the yeast was pitched to adjust the brix levels.  It seemed to work!  These readings are pretty much perfect, everything fell in place for this year’s harvest.  Should be an exceptional vintage!

Harvest this year was part of a Hands-on Winemaking class I’m leading at Curds and Wine.  Everyone else in the group started showing up shortly after my arrival, eager and excited for their first wine grape harvest.  After some coffee and muffins, Mike and Tricia Hoffman, the vineyard owners and our hosts for the day, gave a brief overview of harvest then lead the group down to start taking the bird netting off of the vines.

Step one on harvest day: remove and roll up bird netting just before harvest

As we pulled the netting off of the vines, we could hear the birds gathering around us.  It was like they knew the grapes were exposed now,  so we needed to get to work fast to get the grapes before the birds did.  Mike has 140 vines of syrah, clone 877, for us to harvest.  We had about 20 people total, and harvest actually went pretty fast — and no one cut their finger this year!

The grapes looked great this year!  We started in the upper vineyard “Cima Sur,” then Mike hauled the load down to the crushpad with his tractor.

We finished up harvesting the lower vineyard “Este,” then moved the grapes to the crushpad.  The lower vineyard had a lot more raisins than “Cima Sur.”  When we were done, we harvested 1100 pounds!  My group will take 600 pounds for our class.

We fired up the crusher/destemmer and processed the grapes, then put a little Kmeta and dry ice on the must to inhibit spontaneous fermentation.  My group will do a 3-day cold soak before pitching our yeasts, partially because it is a convenient day for us to regroup.

We were done by about 10 am, and we all retired to the patio to toast the 2011 syrah harvest with 2010 vintage Syrah, then have a feast of Italian food.  Luckily we were under some cover, as a pretty heavy rain came out of nowhere just before we started eating!

After a while we packed up the cans and trucked them back down to Curds and Wine.  The must was already warming up a little, so we added a little more dry ice then stirred in pectinase and Opti-Red.

An initial brix check of the must gave an average of about 24 brix, right on the spot!  We didn’t test our pH or TA yet, but Mike reported in that his must was at pH 3.35 and TA 7.5-8.  A perfect harvest this year!  The initial color is a dark fuschia, I expect it to become darker by the time we pitch the yeast in a few days.

Today I took a group of people in my Hands-on Winemaking class at Curds and Wine up to Fallbrook for a preharvest Vineyard Visit. We picked a perfect day (read as sarcasm), as a heat wave recently hit and it was sweltering. But, it’s always a lovely, if not hot, day at the vineyard.

Mike Hoffman, a fellow gold-medal-winning winemaker, gave an overview of his vineyard then we took a walk through the vines to check out the status of our soon-to-be-wine grapes. We pulled a few random grapes from various points and checked out the brix readings on refractometers.

Besides checking the sugar levels with the refractometers, we looked for the physical signs of ripening:  the grapes pulling away cleanly from the pedicel, the seeds turning brown and getting cruchy, and shriveling or puckering of the grapes.

We then headed back to the shade to taste the 2009 vintage syrah and do some lab chemistry on a pool of random samples of the grapes from each block of the vineyard, ‘Este’ the lower vineyard, and ‘Cima Sur’ the upper vineyard.

After Mike demonstrated the proper technique for mashing up the samples, he strained out the juice from the pooled grapes to test the brix with the refractometer, pH with his pH meter, and TA with Accuvin quick tests.  The readings were as follows:

‘Este’: brix = 21.5, pH = 3.17, TA = 10

‘Cima Sur’: brix = 23, pH = 3.27, TA = 9

The numbers are very close to optimal; we are targeting a harvest at 24-25 brix, ph 3.5, TA 7-8.  Mike originally thought harvest would fall on September 11th, but it looks like we’ll be harvesting next weekend!  Time to get everything ready for the syrah crush!

Here is the second year growth of the Deaver clone Zinfandel, not yet starting veraison.  Check out the giant clusters:

And, finally, the baby Petite Sirah vines:

Looking forward to harvest!

We did not have any major heat waves like last year, and the grapes looked and tasted fantastic!  First we pulled off all of the bird netting, which is put on just after veraison starts to keep the birds from feasting on the grapes before we can get to them.  Then, we started clipping the big, juicy clusters off of the vines.

Mike Hoffman has two parts of the vineyard, a lower vineyard and a vineyard up on the hill.  It was very interesting that the lower vineyard had a much higher yield, and the grapes in the two vineyards really tasted different; the lower vineyard was more fruit-forward, whereas the upper vineyard was much spicier.

Bringing down the grapes from the upper vineyard for crush

Final harvest, ready to crush

This year it took us about an hour to harvest all of the grapes, and in the end we had about 1000 lbs (half ton).  Paul and I are taking half of the harvest to make at his new place, and the Hoffmans will keep the other half this year — last year we ended up taking all of their beautiful grapes, and none of us wanted that to happen again!

We loaded the grapes into the crusher/destemmer:

We  did mix a little of both vineyards for each of our portions, we decided it would be too complicated to keep them separate.  The grapes were a perfect 24 brix.  When we were finally done and the grapes were safe in their primary fermentors with dry ice and potassium metabisulfite, we feasted!  Of course, we started by tasting the 2009 vintage of the syrah harvested from this vineyard.  I bottled one bottle a month ago in anticipation of this year’s harvest.

2010 Harvest Crew

It was exceptional, a big, bold fruit-forward wine with good spice and full mouthfeel.  Everyone was very impressed with the wine, and we are all looking forward to the 2010 vintage, especially since we’ll have much more — we only harvested 256 lbs last year, with a final volume of 11 gallons of finished wine!

After our picnic with homemade cheeses and yummy pasta, we loaded the grapes into the truck and took it all back to Paul’s new winery.  He will pitch “syrah” strain of yeast into ours, and Mike will be using a new strain, “CLOS”.  We plan to put both through malolactic fermentation, then we will put ours into a Flextank with French oak.  The latter is based on the flavor profile of the 2009 vintage, and since it worked out so well with just French oak we don’t want to change that part of the equation.  We’re definitely looking forward to seeing how this vintage shapes up, but it’s already off to a great start!  Thanks again to everyone that came out to help.

By request, I brought some homemade cheeses to sample paired with their wines. I had some queso fresco, 1-month aged colby, and 3-month aged manchego. The manchego was the sharpest, and went very well with the 2006 Private Reserve Estate Syrah and the 2008 Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. These 2 wines are grown on their own vineyards, whereas other wines may be from San Diego county or other parts of California. We tried several different wines, they were all great, but these two were definitely among our top favorites.

Sam then took us around the winery and gave us a little history. Her family bought the winery in 1927, during prohibition. The winery is surrounded by olive trees, which kept the winery going until it could legally make wine again.  Unfortunately, the olive trees are under attack by a fruit fly, so olive oil production is now on hold.

The original harvesting machinery and winemaking equipment is still on the grounds, which I found very fascinating and intriguing.  Below, the original crush pad.  On the right (now filled with barrel hoops) is the bin where the grapes were placed to be fed up the chute into the crusher destemmer.

The crushed grapes then fell down the shoot below and was carried to the fermentation tanks to the left.

The fermenting grapes were punched down and stirred with a big, heavy metal rod with a kind of rake at the end.

SoCal Wine Diva demonstrates heft of antique punching/stirring tool

Original wine presses

This is not the working crushpad, though, now they have really spiffy modern equipment in another barn.  They have been making wine with the same basic processes for 3 generations!  They will be harvesting several tons of five different varieties of grapes from around San Diego county in the next few weeks, including Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah.  A few weeks after harvest and crush they will press out the wine with their super-cool press.

Stirring syrah must

Uber-cool wine press at Bernardo Winery

Wine being pressed at Bernardo Winery

Behind the original crushpad is the original barrel barn.  Giant redwood tanks are now used to hold port, sherry, and vinegar.  A 65-year-old tawny port will be released soon, and Sam said it is incredible.  That is a long time to wait, for sure!

On the wall of the barn is the ghost portrait, where the original painting has faded into the wall.  Sam said at different times the eyes will be looking in a different direction than you thought it was before.  I had to agree, just from the few minutes we were there!

After our tour, we ate at Cafe Merlot. The food was great, the service entertaining. They make a mean sangria, too.  Then we cruised around the village a little more, checking out the glass blower.

We wandered out to the vineyard to check out the vines there.  Zinfandel and muscat were growing in the back, but most of the grapes used for the Private Reserve estate wines are grown in Ramona and other San Diego county locations.  The fruit hanging on the vines were quite ripe, ready for harvest.

It was a great day all around.  Bernardo Winery is definitely a great place to spend a few hours and taste some great wines.

I got an email today from Mike Hoffman that the syrah started veraison and harvest should be around the first week of September.  Hopefully there won’t be a last-minute heat wave like last year, which raisined a lot of the grapes before we could pick them for wine.

I’ll need to start thinking about what supplies I’ll need for harvest and crush, I should order them soon so that they are here when I need them.  In the meantime, to prepare for harvest day, I bottled one bottle of the 2009 vintage to have when we’re done picking.  I’ll bottle the rest soon, I just need corks.

I took the bottom of a topper bottle to taste, so probably not the best representation of the wine, but it’s still pretty good.  Good oak on the nose, with aromas and flavors candied fruits and light spice.  This sample was not clear, but the wine I pulled off for the bottle was very clear.  Looking forward to the 2010 harvest!