Hitching Post Pinot Noir Cargasacchi Vineyard 2009
Peter Cargasacchi announced to the world (through the Wine Spectator's Harvest Blog) that Hitching Post had decided that Sept. 30th was the day to pick his Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir. I, Frank Ostini, decided to join the blog with daily entries following this one lot of Hitching Post Pinot Noir. I will copy Peter's original post here, and then follow with my daily posts describing the fermentation process at Terravant Winery.
2009 harvest winemakers' blog
Pinot Noir Harvest Starts Tomorrow
The Hitching Post's 2009 Cargasacchi Pinot Noir is ready to be picked
Posted: Sep 28, 2009 11:00am ET
By Peter Cargasacchi
With seeds crunchy, dark and having lost their pulp, it looks like its time to pull the metaphorical trigger. This past weekend, Frank Ostini and Gray Hartley, the winemakers/proprietors of Hartley-Ostini Hitching Post (H.O.), with much machination, rumination, sample pondering, hair pulling and seed spitting, decided that tomorrow, Tuesday, Sept. 29, is the day to harvest their 2009 Sta. Rita Hills Cargasacchi Pinot Noir.
It's time. Veraison began here during the first days of August and ended with complete berry coloration throughout the vineyards during the third week of August. During that third week of the eighth month, we went through and dropped the last 10 percent of fruit that had not fully colored yet. This "green drop" eliminates the clusters that were late to pollinate and is very important for uniformity of flavors in the wine.
The two H.O. blocks, each an acre in size, are on soils that are less than 20 inches deep, laying over calcareous shale bedrock, and are among the earliest sections of the vineyard to ripen for me. This fruit is coming off six weeks after completing veraison with numbers of slightly over 24 Brix and 3.28 pH, after the sample was crushed and allowed to cold soak for 24 hours.
More important, the flavors are dark, rich and luscious with no astringence or grippiness left in the seeds after they are chewed. Chewing the fruit and seeds helps us look behind the sugars that can mask green flavors and hide unripe tannins.
The picking decision is all-important because after fermentation it is too late to adjust flavors. Especially regarding the seeds, because toward the end of fermentation, the seed husks become susceptible to dissolving in the presence of alcohol and seed tannins become part of the wine's flavor profile. In fruit hanging on the vine, green character can be masked by sugars if one does not look behind the sweetness, but after fermentation, when all the sugars have been converted to alcohol, any herbaceous or bitter flavors can come to the forefront.
The rest of today will be spent going over checklists and making sure everything is ready to go, including headlamps for night picking. I am about to head off to the winery where I make my own wine and store my picking bins. The bins have been scrubbed and put away clean. Though we may differ in winemaking philosophy and whether we include leopard prints in our wardrobes, one of the things my fellow bloggers and I have in common is the knowledge of how important winemaking sanitation is. Sanitation starts in the vineyard. Though basically clean enough to eat off of, the harvest bins will get another rinse with ozone water and then be allowed to dry.
Looking down the road into the next week, I think we are about to see some hurrying and scurrying across California as Mother Nature starts to show what a fickle mistress she can be. Long-range weather forecasts are suggesting that the cooler weather this week might be followed by rain next week. This is not surprising given the El Niño conditions.
That loud beating sound you hear is my heart as the pace quickens!
2009 harvest winemakers' blog
Pinot Noir Harvest Starts Tomorrow
The Hitching Post's 2009 Cargasacchi Pinot Noir is ready to be picked
Posted: Sep 28, 2009 11:00am ET
By Peter Cargasacchi
With seeds crunchy, dark and having lost their pulp, it looks like its time to pull the metaphorical trigger. This past weekend, Frank Ostini and Gray Hartley, the winemakers/proprietors of Hartley-Ostini Hitching Post (H.O.), with much machination, rumination, sample pondering, hair pulling and seed spitting, decided that tomorrow, Tuesday, Sept. 29, is the day to harvest their 2009 Sta. Rita Hills Cargasacchi Pinot Noir.
It's time. Veraison began here during the first days of August and ended with complete berry coloration throughout the vineyards during the third week of August. During that third week of the eighth month, we went through and dropped the last 10 percent of fruit that had not fully colored yet. This "green drop" eliminates the clusters that were late to pollinate and is very important for uniformity of flavors in the wine.
The two H.O. blocks, each an acre in size, are on soils that are less than 20 inches deep, laying over calcareous shale bedrock, and are among the earliest sections of the vineyard to ripen for me. This fruit is coming off six weeks after completing veraison with numbers of slightly over 24 Brix and 3.28 pH, after the sample was crushed and allowed to cold soak for 24 hours.
More important, the flavors are dark, rich and luscious with no astringence or grippiness left in the seeds after they are chewed. Chewing the fruit and seeds helps us look behind the sugars that can mask green flavors and hide unripe tannins.
The picking decision is all-important because after fermentation it is too late to adjust flavors. Especially regarding the seeds, because toward the end of fermentation, the seed husks become susceptible to dissolving in the presence of alcohol and seed tannins become part of the wine's flavor profile. In fruit hanging on the vine, green character can be masked by sugars if one does not look behind the sweetness, but after fermentation, when all the sugars have been converted to alcohol, any herbaceous or bitter flavors can come to the forefront.
The rest of today will be spent going over checklists and making sure everything is ready to go, including headlamps for night picking. I am about to head off to the winery where I make my own wine and store my picking bins. The bins have been scrubbed and put away clean. Though we may differ in winemaking philosophy and whether we include leopard prints in our wardrobes, one of the things my fellow bloggers and I have in common is the knowledge of how important winemaking sanitation is. Sanitation starts in the vineyard. Though basically clean enough to eat off of, the harvest bins will get another rinse with ozone water and then be allowed to dry.
Looking down the road into the next week, I think we are about to see some hurrying and scurrying across California as Mother Nature starts to show what a fickle mistress she can be. Long-range weather forecasts are suggesting that the cooler weather this week might be followed by rain next week. This is not surprising given the El Niño conditions.
That loud beating sound you hear is my heart as the pace quickens!
OMG - It's Sept. 25, 2010
Where did this past year go?
Life is as busy as ever, and I guess I forgot about this chronicle, until blogger Alexis White (WorldSulfiteTour.com) reminded me that I did this. So above, Peter Cargasacchi announced we were picking his vineyard in 2009. Below, I give a day by day account of receiving his grapes into Terravasnt Winery for Hitching Post Wines, and fermenting those grapes into wine. My last entry leads you to just before pressing and putting the fresh wine into barrels.
Well, we did press the 2009 Cargasacchi Pinot Noir back in Oct. 2009, and today it is still aging gracefully in barrels in the 60 degree temperature controled, 85% humidity maintained barrel room at Terravant. On another day I will recap details of this wines young life, but today we are checking fermentations of 2010, as we have picked Julia's Vineyard and our first of two picks from Bien Nacido Vineyard.
Our main focus today is to pack our BBQ gear, food, and our newly released wines from 2007, drive 2.5 hours south to Universal Studios, and celebrate food and wine at the American Wine and Food Festival with America's best vintners and chefs tonight.
More on Cargasacchi Pinot 2009 later. Thanks for reading this.
Well, we did press the 2009 Cargasacchi Pinot Noir back in Oct. 2009, and today it is still aging gracefully in barrels in the 60 degree temperature controled, 85% humidity maintained barrel room at Terravant. On another day I will recap details of this wines young life, but today we are checking fermentations of 2010, as we have picked Julia's Vineyard and our first of two picks from Bien Nacido Vineyard.
Our main focus today is to pack our BBQ gear, food, and our newly released wines from 2007, drive 2.5 hours south to Universal Studios, and celebrate food and wine at the American Wine and Food Festival with America's best vintners and chefs tonight.
More on Cargasacchi Pinot 2009 later. Thanks for reading this.
Frank Ostini - Sept. 28, 2009
Hitching Post's rational for Making Cargasacchi Pinot
Wow, first time we've ever called a pick and had it announced to the world. Peter is a great wine grower and maker, but he can't tell you how we decide to pick his grapes. We did have a recent conversation that gives insight into how significant this call to pick is for Hartley Ostini Wines. Peter said, the flavors are there but every time we pick less than 25 brix, the wines are hard in their youth. My response: Peter, our first Cargasacchi Vineyard in 2002 was picked at 24 and yes, it was restrained and poised and slightly ackward in its youth, but at middle age (now), it is delicious and youthful, and I so wish we had more to enjoy as it has many years of graceful aging potential. We are very proud of that wine and wish to make one like it in 2009.
So Gray pulled vineyard samples on Saturday. The stems were hardening up and not green. The seeds were hard and brown, if you are one that believes that is important. We destemed and crushed the berries. We drew a juice sample to check brix and pH, and tasted it, although this taste doesn't mean much to me (these tastes are always green and don't represent the potential wine as all the flavor & color is in the skins). We returned the juice to the skins, cover the container with CO2, and left it to soak overnight. On Sunday we again looked at the juice and saw a dark color and ripe flavors with no hint of green or harshness. This sample more truly represents the potential wine from these grapes. It is upon this taste that we base our picking decisions. We hope to pick our fruit with ripe character at the lowest sugar level.
Of course all of us winemakers have a different opinion of ripeness, and a different idea of the wine we wish to make. Hartley Ostini shoots for poise and balance that matches well with food, and we are willing to accept a 5 point deduction to make wines we are proud of. Meanwhile, my hat (pith helmet) goes off to Peter and our other growers, who deliver us such wonderful fruit that we feel privledged to make into wine.
So Gray pulled vineyard samples on Saturday. The stems were hardening up and not green. The seeds were hard and brown, if you are one that believes that is important. We destemed and crushed the berries. We drew a juice sample to check brix and pH, and tasted it, although this taste doesn't mean much to me (these tastes are always green and don't represent the potential wine as all the flavor & color is in the skins). We returned the juice to the skins, cover the container with CO2, and left it to soak overnight. On Sunday we again looked at the juice and saw a dark color and ripe flavors with no hint of green or harshness. This sample more truly represents the potential wine from these grapes. It is upon this taste that we base our picking decisions. We hope to pick our fruit with ripe character at the lowest sugar level.
Of course all of us winemakers have a different opinion of ripeness, and a different idea of the wine we wish to make. Hartley Ostini shoots for poise and balance that matches well with food, and we are willing to accept a 5 point deduction to make wines we are proud of. Meanwhile, my hat (pith helmet) goes off to Peter and our other growers, who deliver us such wonderful fruit that we feel privledged to make into wine.
Sept. 29 - Picking Day!
Peter delivers his Pinot to Terravant Winery
It's 8:45 pm, and I've had a bite to eat after a long day that started at 5:30 am, much later than growers Peter Cargasacchi (4:30am) and Kathy Joseph (Fiddlestix Vineyard - 3 am). Today we bring in our last fields of Pinot Noir. It's been a great harvest: cool summer with several heat waves at harvest time that has brought us ripe fruit in very sound condition. Today we press one of our 4 picks from Rio Vista Vineyard, and it smells great! They have all smelled wonderful. Maybe we are intoxicated by the ethanol fumes (actually Terravant, where we make our wine, has a giant ethanol scrubber to take out that greenhouse gas).
Today Peter thinks we have 5 tons in our 2 acres of his vineyard. The first word from the picking is a call to Gray Hartley, and Peter says he picked 2.75 tons from his upper block, and expects the same from the lower section. He is sending his lovely wife Julia to deliver this first load, a 45 minute drive from the vineyard. As we are unloading her, Father Chuck Stacy, the iconic retired pastor of St. Mark's of the Valley who blessed my marriage to Jami in 1991, drives by looking for Santa Ynez Glass. I don't know where that is, but I ask if he can bless our grapes (I've seen him bless many first harvests and wineries). He says he already has but obliges me with another. Two Blessings - Good Start! I'm one of those situational believers, like on my wedding day. Today I wanted some help from above as we were the first to pick in one of the Sta. Rita Hills' best vineyards.
Next word from Peter is a text: Four tons from the bottom - too much to haul in one load. Gray hooks up his trailer and heads out to help with the haul in. As we wait for the rest of Cargasacchi Pinot, we crush 10 tons of Fiddlestix clone 777 and Pommard (not blessed by looks great anyway), and 10 tons of Merlot and Cabernet Franc from Alisos and McGinley (we love this blend as it represents one of our best valued wines). The Merlot is very dehydrated from last weekend's heat, and is so dry it plugs the destemmer 3 times. Each incident takes a half hour to fix. At this point the crew has already processed 50 tons of fruit, and they look weary.
Peter and Gray arrive with the Pinot, and it is time to destem the Cargasacchi. We are going into a wonderful 5 to 8 ton open top stainless steel temperature controlled fermentor. After 1 ton is in, it is noticed that the bottom door is leaking badly from its gasket. Our blessed fruit is dripping towards the floor. We quickly place a bucket under to catch the drip. We must remove the fruit through the bottom valve, and then open the door to drop the must into picking bins, in order to reset the door gasket. This is the first time we've seen a leaky fermentor at this winery. I took this incident as devine intervention.
I think God is suggesting the need to draw off juice (a technique to concentrate flavors) to help achieve the 90+ score that the blessing is supposed to guarantee. Will I follow His advice? We'll see if I'm still a believer tomorrow. I kind of think the correct balance was achieved by Peter's growing of the 3.25 tons/acre picked, and the loss of the few drops today. Meanwhile, we smother the precious juice with carbon dioxide and cover the tank, allowing it to cold soak until morning, and head home.
Today Peter thinks we have 5 tons in our 2 acres of his vineyard. The first word from the picking is a call to Gray Hartley, and Peter says he picked 2.75 tons from his upper block, and expects the same from the lower section. He is sending his lovely wife Julia to deliver this first load, a 45 minute drive from the vineyard. As we are unloading her, Father Chuck Stacy, the iconic retired pastor of St. Mark's of the Valley who blessed my marriage to Jami in 1991, drives by looking for Santa Ynez Glass. I don't know where that is, but I ask if he can bless our grapes (I've seen him bless many first harvests and wineries). He says he already has but obliges me with another. Two Blessings - Good Start! I'm one of those situational believers, like on my wedding day. Today I wanted some help from above as we were the first to pick in one of the Sta. Rita Hills' best vineyards.
Next word from Peter is a text: Four tons from the bottom - too much to haul in one load. Gray hooks up his trailer and heads out to help with the haul in. As we wait for the rest of Cargasacchi Pinot, we crush 10 tons of Fiddlestix clone 777 and Pommard (not blessed by looks great anyway), and 10 tons of Merlot and Cabernet Franc from Alisos and McGinley (we love this blend as it represents one of our best valued wines). The Merlot is very dehydrated from last weekend's heat, and is so dry it plugs the destemmer 3 times. Each incident takes a half hour to fix. At this point the crew has already processed 50 tons of fruit, and they look weary.
Peter and Gray arrive with the Pinot, and it is time to destem the Cargasacchi. We are going into a wonderful 5 to 8 ton open top stainless steel temperature controlled fermentor. After 1 ton is in, it is noticed that the bottom door is leaking badly from its gasket. Our blessed fruit is dripping towards the floor. We quickly place a bucket under to catch the drip. We must remove the fruit through the bottom valve, and then open the door to drop the must into picking bins, in order to reset the door gasket. This is the first time we've seen a leaky fermentor at this winery. I took this incident as devine intervention.
I think God is suggesting the need to draw off juice (a technique to concentrate flavors) to help achieve the 90+ score that the blessing is supposed to guarantee. Will I follow His advice? We'll see if I'm still a believer tomorrow. I kind of think the correct balance was achieved by Peter's growing of the 3.25 tons/acre picked, and the loss of the few drops today. Meanwhile, we smother the precious juice with carbon dioxide and cover the tank, allowing it to cold soak until morning, and head home.
Sept. 30 - Terravant Winery, Buellton, CA
The day after crushing, the grapes are cold soaking in Tank 5002
Sept. 30 - The first day for a few weeks that I wasn't at the winery at 6 am, as we have no fermentations in the dynamic heat producing stage, that require vigilant attention. Four are in the cold soak pre-fermentation stage, 1 tank is just starting to ferment, having been inoculated yesterday, and 1 has just 3% sugar left. But these notes are to follow Peter Cargasacchi's Pinot Noir that Hartley Ostini Hitching Post is making at Terravant Wine Company in Buellton.
The grapes were destemmed yesterday, and now sit inside refrigerated tank jackets at 55 degrees. We did a two hour juice only, non-aeration pumpover to mix the tank and coax some extraction without breaking the berries left whole by destemming, thereby protecting the seeds left inside those berries until they are macerated later in the ferment. (I learned this from Jim Clendenen at Au Bon Climat, who has been doing these pumpovers for years, having learned the method from Jayer and other Burgundians) The juice already has a great color, and the brix has measured at 24.8 by densitometer. This instrument reads slightly higher than a refractometer, and these differences spawn much debate in the lab of Terravant Head of Enology Darren Michaels, one of the assets that encouraged us to move to this winery.
This brix reading is slightly higher than we thought, and will make more alcohol than we prefer, if we let it. But 24.8 won't set makers into a picking panic like it did 15 years ago. Growers used to call the winemakers and say the grapes are at 24, and winemakers called for the pick to occur. 26 is the new 24, now growers must say the grapes are at 26 to get many winemakers interested in picking, and some makers just go back to polishing their equipment while waiting for 28 or 30 brix. (There is a considerable group of us that pick our Pinots in the 24 brix range.)
Now Peter has gotten way more sophisticated in his campaign to get makers to pick. He induces jealousy by announcing to the world his first pick on this blog. He also sends an e-mail to all his clients about impending bad weather that has showed up in long range forecasts. You see, Peter is not just a grower, he claims to have personal relationships with several of NOAA's weather forecasters that concur with his guesses, and is always expounding upon long range projections: Like six weeks ago when Peter proclaimed that we were done with summer, no more warm weather, and the rains were a coming. OK, he's not always right, but neither are the TV weathermen.
The grapes were destemmed yesterday, and now sit inside refrigerated tank jackets at 55 degrees. We did a two hour juice only, non-aeration pumpover to mix the tank and coax some extraction without breaking the berries left whole by destemming, thereby protecting the seeds left inside those berries until they are macerated later in the ferment. (I learned this from Jim Clendenen at Au Bon Climat, who has been doing these pumpovers for years, having learned the method from Jayer and other Burgundians) The juice already has a great color, and the brix has measured at 24.8 by densitometer. This instrument reads slightly higher than a refractometer, and these differences spawn much debate in the lab of Terravant Head of Enology Darren Michaels, one of the assets that encouraged us to move to this winery.
This brix reading is slightly higher than we thought, and will make more alcohol than we prefer, if we let it. But 24.8 won't set makers into a picking panic like it did 15 years ago. Growers used to call the winemakers and say the grapes are at 24, and winemakers called for the pick to occur. 26 is the new 24, now growers must say the grapes are at 26 to get many winemakers interested in picking, and some makers just go back to polishing their equipment while waiting for 28 or 30 brix. (There is a considerable group of us that pick our Pinots in the 24 brix range.)
Now Peter has gotten way more sophisticated in his campaign to get makers to pick. He induces jealousy by announcing to the world his first pick on this blog. He also sends an e-mail to all his clients about impending bad weather that has showed up in long range forecasts. You see, Peter is not just a grower, he claims to have personal relationships with several of NOAA's weather forecasters that concur with his guesses, and is always expounding upon long range projections: Like six weeks ago when Peter proclaimed that we were done with summer, no more warm weather, and the rains were a coming. OK, he's not always right, but neither are the TV weathermen.
Oct. 1 - Chiller On and Bath Time
Oct. 1 - Terravant Wine Company, Buellton, CA - A slow day at Tank 5002T, home to Peter's Pinot Noir picked for Gray Hartley and Frank Ostini. While it stays at Terravant in the fermentation tank, and later in barrels, it is called 09HPPN12CV - code for 2009 Hitching Post Pinot Noir Lot 12 (our 12th batch of Pinot this harvest) Cargasacchi Vineyard. It is sitting cold at 50 F, and covered with carbon dioxide gas..
The pumpover was like a cold bath for the grapes, gently persuading the skins to give up their color. Later, in the early stages of dynamic fermentation, when the cap forms, we'll get more aggressive with punchdowns to encourage further extraction..
The lab ran a juice panel analysis and the numbers look very good: 24.8 brix, 5.7g/l total acidity, 3.48 pH, 1.8g/l malic, 240 yeast available nitrogen (YAN). Tomorrow we'll give it a small dose of ½ gram/l of tartaric, and a bit of water to account for the raisins we wouldn't let Peter drop. The raisins will add sugar later in the fermentation.
The day before picking, Peter was willing to go through the vineyard and drop some fruit from the exposed morning side that had baked during some hot days and made part of the clusters shrivel. We wouldn't let him drop it to the ground, as half of each affected cluster was normal and with plump berries. The dry raisins didn't taste bad, so we let them stay in. We like our wines to relfect the vintage and the vineyard, and this shrivel will tell part of the story of this season at Cargasacchi Vineyard, a tale we think will drink well for many years.
The pumpover was like a cold bath for the grapes, gently persuading the skins to give up their color. Later, in the early stages of dynamic fermentation, when the cap forms, we'll get more aggressive with punchdowns to encourage further extraction..
The lab ran a juice panel analysis and the numbers look very good: 24.8 brix, 5.7g/l total acidity, 3.48 pH, 1.8g/l malic, 240 yeast available nitrogen (YAN). Tomorrow we'll give it a small dose of ½ gram/l of tartaric, and a bit of water to account for the raisins we wouldn't let Peter drop. The raisins will add sugar later in the fermentation.
The day before picking, Peter was willing to go through the vineyard and drop some fruit from the exposed morning side that had baked during some hot days and made part of the clusters shrivel. We wouldn't let him drop it to the ground, as half of each affected cluster was normal and with plump berries. The dry raisins didn't taste bad, so we let them stay in. We like our wines to relfect the vintage and the vineyard, and this shrivel will tell part of the story of this season at Cargasacchi Vineyard, a tale we think will drink well for many years.
Oct. 2 - Adjusting for Balance
Setting up to leave.
Oct. 2 - Continuing to chill tank 5002T. Another gentle pumpover after a minor acid and water add (less than 2%). The daily brix measure has moved from 24.8 to 23.8. This will make 14% alcohol, just what we are looking for. Tomorrow we leave early to drive to Universal Studios for the Wolfgang Puck Meals on Wheels charity event that we attend every year. I morph into a chef/winemaker for a night of cooking and serving of food and wine, with the top chefs and winemakers of America. Truly a great honor.
In our absence, the Terravant staff will handle every detail of Tank 5002's activity for Saturday and Sunday, along with tanks 5001, 5007, 6004, 6006 and 9003, and our lone small bin ferment, a Sangiovese from our friends Anne and Donald Petroni in Happy Canyon. This being the second vintage for this very new winery, it is amazing to see the improvements in communication, attention to detail, and winemaking expertise being shown by the cellar management and floor staff. These people are truly carrying out our orders to a tee, and we have total confidence in them. Having done most of the winemaking work on our wines for 30 years now, it is a little weird to have a host winery staff doing most all the work on our wines. But we feel they are an extension of us, as if they were our very own staff. And we have much respect for their proficiency and abilities to carry out our orders. It is a special relationship that we cherish and appreciate, and hope to foster for many years.
So tomorrow, after a pumpover, we will heat Peter's Pinot Noir fruit to 65 or 70 F, and then inoculate with Assmanshausen yeast, a strain that we have used for many years that is known for its aromatics and complexity with Pinot Noirs. This begins the magical conversion of juice to wine. Every fermentation we feel so lucky to be able to work with such great fruit, and that people actually like the product we make. And the fun begins%u2026
In our absence, the Terravant staff will handle every detail of Tank 5002's activity for Saturday and Sunday, along with tanks 5001, 5007, 6004, 6006 and 9003, and our lone small bin ferment, a Sangiovese from our friends Anne and Donald Petroni in Happy Canyon. This being the second vintage for this very new winery, it is amazing to see the improvements in communication, attention to detail, and winemaking expertise being shown by the cellar management and floor staff. These people are truly carrying out our orders to a tee, and we have total confidence in them. Having done most of the winemaking work on our wines for 30 years now, it is a little weird to have a host winery staff doing most all the work on our wines. But we feel they are an extension of us, as if they were our very own staff. And we have much respect for their proficiency and abilities to carry out our orders. It is a special relationship that we cherish and appreciate, and hope to foster for many years.
So tomorrow, after a pumpover, we will heat Peter's Pinot Noir fruit to 65 or 70 F, and then inoculate with Assmanshausen yeast, a strain that we have used for many years that is known for its aromatics and complexity with Pinot Noirs. This begins the magical conversion of juice to wine. Every fermentation we feel so lucky to be able to work with such great fruit, and that people actually like the product we make. And the fun begins%u2026
Oct 6 - Let's get this baby going
Oct. 6 - It's been several days since posting about Terravant Tank 5002-Hitching Post Cargasacchi Pinot Noir 2009, 6 days old this morning. Gray and I, and a pose of Ostinis and HP crew went to Universal Studios Saturday evening for Wolfgang Puck"s American Food and Wine Festival. We hobnobbed with Lee Hefter, Thomas Keller, Joachim Spichal, Nabu Matsuhisai, and about 30 other great American chefs and 60 winemakers.
I was able to leave the winery, having left detailed instructions for tank warming and yeasting with able bodied cellarmaster Jared McClintock (Jared looks like he's been lifting weights since last year, having really grown into his job of commanding the crew of 10 to 20 that work the floor in two shifts per day).
The event went very well, and I bedded early (1 am - the after party went on until 2:30) with full confidence that everything at the winery was fine. I was hoping to sneak in my first "sleeping in" in weeks, but instead woke suddenly at 5 am, thinking about a tank temperature command I had given, and worried that it might be overheating our tank.
You see, the temperature probes are very low in the tank, and when you heat these grapes with the glycol jacketed walls, the heat tends to rise and the bottom can stay cool. I've been watching our tanks closely to make sure the tops heat to only 70 F, to provide a nice temp as the yeast are introduced. I've been using about 6 hours of heating. Saturday's instructions called for 70 heat for 6 hours, then set the warming to 60 F. I was worried that if the bottom stayed cool, the top might heat to 90 or 100, and the yeast would race into dynamic fermentation faster than we wanted, and the ensuing heat might damage the fruit of this delicate Pinot.
We were back by noon to find this tank sitting very cool, as the heating function (for this one tank only) had failed. I counted my blessings (remember? - they were two from Father Stacy) and waited until Monday to report the malfunction to resident Terravant genius in all things IT and Mechanical, Tom Hoke. He fixes everything. Monday he was so busy with details of a final inspection of Terravant's new Avant Tapas and Wine (opening this weekend), that by 4 pm he hadn't fixed my problem.
This reminded me of last year, (the 1st for this new high-tech winery), when all this new equipment had issues, and Tom spent 3 months running from one problem to another. He fixed them all, in due time. With so many wires, tubes and controls going into several computer systems, there are bound to be some problems each vintage. And Tom has fixed his share this year. As I stated earlier, everything is running about 1000% better this harvest, thanks to Tom and the dedicated cellar staff.
Back to Tank 5002 - still at 52 F and my Assmanshausen yeast is sitting and not fermenting (it is very, very fickle as far as temperature: too cold and it won't start: too hot and it dies easily- but that's another story for another day). I feel like a hospital patient advocate, and ask Tom to check on my child in 5002. Tom takes a break from the Avant opening details and fixes the wiring problem. On my way to Santa Barbara to pour for the VIP party for our new Whole Foods Market, Jared calls with the news that 5002 is warming. I stop by and check it at 10 pm - 70 F on the top, give it a good night kiss and turn the warming off so the yeast can gently take over to warm the ferment with its own metabolic activity. At 6 am I will make my morning rounds to check Baby Peter and our five others youngsters in fermentors at Terravant: Baby Kathy (Fiddlestix Pinot), Baby Uncle Donald (La Tarantella Sangiovese), Baby Loren (Cab Franc/Merlot), and our twin Baby Hanks (Valdiguie red and rose).
I was able to leave the winery, having left detailed instructions for tank warming and yeasting with able bodied cellarmaster Jared McClintock (Jared looks like he's been lifting weights since last year, having really grown into his job of commanding the crew of 10 to 20 that work the floor in two shifts per day).
The event went very well, and I bedded early (1 am - the after party went on until 2:30) with full confidence that everything at the winery was fine. I was hoping to sneak in my first "sleeping in" in weeks, but instead woke suddenly at 5 am, thinking about a tank temperature command I had given, and worried that it might be overheating our tank.
You see, the temperature probes are very low in the tank, and when you heat these grapes with the glycol jacketed walls, the heat tends to rise and the bottom can stay cool. I've been watching our tanks closely to make sure the tops heat to only 70 F, to provide a nice temp as the yeast are introduced. I've been using about 6 hours of heating. Saturday's instructions called for 70 heat for 6 hours, then set the warming to 60 F. I was worried that if the bottom stayed cool, the top might heat to 90 or 100, and the yeast would race into dynamic fermentation faster than we wanted, and the ensuing heat might damage the fruit of this delicate Pinot.
We were back by noon to find this tank sitting very cool, as the heating function (for this one tank only) had failed. I counted my blessings (remember? - they were two from Father Stacy) and waited until Monday to report the malfunction to resident Terravant genius in all things IT and Mechanical, Tom Hoke. He fixes everything. Monday he was so busy with details of a final inspection of Terravant's new Avant Tapas and Wine (opening this weekend), that by 4 pm he hadn't fixed my problem.
This reminded me of last year, (the 1st for this new high-tech winery), when all this new equipment had issues, and Tom spent 3 months running from one problem to another. He fixed them all, in due time. With so many wires, tubes and controls going into several computer systems, there are bound to be some problems each vintage. And Tom has fixed his share this year. As I stated earlier, everything is running about 1000% better this harvest, thanks to Tom and the dedicated cellar staff.
Back to Tank 5002 - still at 52 F and my Assmanshausen yeast is sitting and not fermenting (it is very, very fickle as far as temperature: too cold and it won't start: too hot and it dies easily- but that's another story for another day). I feel like a hospital patient advocate, and ask Tom to check on my child in 5002. Tom takes a break from the Avant opening details and fixes the wiring problem. On my way to Santa Barbara to pour for the VIP party for our new Whole Foods Market, Jared calls with the news that 5002 is warming. I stop by and check it at 10 pm - 70 F on the top, give it a good night kiss and turn the warming off so the yeast can gently take over to warm the ferment with its own metabolic activity. At 6 am I will make my morning rounds to check Baby Peter and our five others youngsters in fermentors at Terravant: Baby Kathy (Fiddlestix Pinot), Baby Uncle Donald (La Tarantella Sangiovese), Baby Loren (Cab Franc/Merlot), and our twin Baby Hanks (Valdiguie red and rose).
Oct. 7 - We've Got Liftoff!
The Yeast have started in Terravant Tank 5002
Oct. 7 - 9:30 am and I've already been to the winery at six for morning rounds. All is well in Tank 5002. Haven't written since yesterday morning, when I entered the winery to the sweet smell of fermentation. Terravant has 1000 tons in so far this season, and 20% of that is Hitching Post. When it's all said and done, we will be 12% of the harvest here. Upon opening the plastic cover of 5002, I was greeted with the wonderful first smells of fermentation - like bread cooking in the oven and sweet jam on the stove. I was so relieved to have this yeast starting their work. This was a longer cold soak than planned, and is a throw back to our techniques with bins before we had temperature controls.
Which reminds me of why I've always liked this Assmanshausen yeast: It starts very slowly, especially at cool temperatures (tech term: long lag phase), where it takes time to build its population to a level where it can eat sugar for the alcoholic conversion. In this time it would still produce CO2 gas, protecting the precious juice from oxidation. This made for a very long cold soak, and a long time to get extraction and color that is stable, and will stay with it throughout its barrel and bottle aging time.
Now Darren Michaels, our lab guru, suggests that this log lag time, at between 50 and 70 F, is a dangerous time for other organisms to grow, that might be detrimental to our wine. On the other hand, he speaks of other ideas suggesting that cold soaks do little to increase extraction, but allow clecera and other wild bugs to grow, thereby increasing the complexity of the wine. One persons considers these spoilage organisms, others say they add complexity. Who knows?
So our newest protocol has been to keep the juice colder longer, then warm it to 70 for yeasting. These Assmanhaussen yeasts seem to start very fast that way. Except with Tank 5002, the heater malfunctioned so we yeasted the cold juice and had to anxiously wait for it to start.
So it's getting 3 punchdowns per day in this early stage of fermentation, to extract as much as we can from the grape while the juice is low alcohol. The brix was still over 23 yesterday, we'll see the numbers later today. I think it's a beautiful wine in the making!
Which reminds me of why I've always liked this Assmanshausen yeast: It starts very slowly, especially at cool temperatures (tech term: long lag phase), where it takes time to build its population to a level where it can eat sugar for the alcoholic conversion. In this time it would still produce CO2 gas, protecting the precious juice from oxidation. This made for a very long cold soak, and a long time to get extraction and color that is stable, and will stay with it throughout its barrel and bottle aging time.
Now Darren Michaels, our lab guru, suggests that this log lag time, at between 50 and 70 F, is a dangerous time for other organisms to grow, that might be detrimental to our wine. On the other hand, he speaks of other ideas suggesting that cold soaks do little to increase extraction, but allow clecera and other wild bugs to grow, thereby increasing the complexity of the wine. One persons considers these spoilage organisms, others say they add complexity. Who knows?
So our newest protocol has been to keep the juice colder longer, then warm it to 70 for yeasting. These Assmanhaussen yeasts seem to start very fast that way. Except with Tank 5002, the heater malfunctioned so we yeasted the cold juice and had to anxiously wait for it to start.
So it's getting 3 punchdowns per day in this early stage of fermentation, to extract as much as we can from the grape while the juice is low alcohol. The brix was still over 23 yesterday, we'll see the numbers later today. I think it's a beautiful wine in the making!
The Dynamic Transformation
While Peter continues to pick, his grapes are turning into wine.
Oct. 8 - Hitching Post Cargasacchi Pinot is deep into the dynamic heat producing stage of fermentation, while Peter is out in the vineyard picking for Saduri. I heard he picked for Jenne Bonacorssi earlier this week. What about those other winemakers Peter? Do they pay extra for extra time for ripe fruit to shrink in the vineyard? I think we should get a discount for picking ripe fruit in perfect condition.Back to Tank 5002: The grape skins are being pushed out of the juice into what we call the cap by yeast produced carbon dioxide gas, and that is mechanically pushed (called the punchdown) back into the juice three times per day. Here harvest worker Sal uses the mechanical punchdown tool at Terravant. The sugar has dropped from 24 to 18 brix. The cap started heating yesterday from 60 F in the morning to 80 in the evening. The juice just under the cap has reached 77 F this morning, and the bottom of the tank is at 81 F. We are letting the natural metabolic activity of the yeast do the heating, and we will temper it with glycol cooling as it rises in the 80's. Most systems are set to cool at a certain temperature, but we have a very sophisticated tank temperature control system called VinWizard. It allows us to set a cooling temperature that incrementally can increase or decrease over a set period of time. So in this situation, I set it to cool a little at 84, then again at 85, and again at 86, until it reaches 88. That is the maximum before it starts making the yeast sick and the ferment could stink and slow its finish to dryness.
Like Pinot Noir making in general, this temperature control is a tight wire routine to let the tank heat enough to achieve good extraction, but keep it cool enough to preserve the delicate fruit. Once the temperature peeks, and it starts to lower, we make sure to not chill the tank, so that the natural heat generation can finish the fermentation. The goal is to achieve dryness with healthy yeast. We try to follow the natural temperature dynamics of the yeast, and temper the highs to keep everything in good condition. All of our ferments this season have move to dryness very quickly. That makes us happy.
Every time I witness this process I am amazed. We are turning grapes into a product that will be alive for many years, first in this fermentation tank, then in barrels for aging, and then in bottles where we can enjoy it over many years. It is a lot like canning the fruits of this harvest for future use, and making a beverage that people like and respect. Frank and Gray are just a couple of country boys that make wine, and we consider ourselves very lucky and privileged to be able to work with the great fruit of Santa Barbara County.
Dynamic Extraction Changes To Gentle Nursing
As The Sugar Drops, The Wine Is Made
Oct. 9 - We've finished the most dynamic stage of fermentation, going from 19 brix two days ago, 8.5 brix yesterday, to 3 brix today. The cap temperature reached 90 F, and the juice was as warm as 85 F. The routine of 3 punchdowns per day is changed to 1 per day from here on out. We've extracted as much as we could at lower alcohol, and will now nurse this fermentation to dryness before pressing to remove the new wine from the spent skins. The fermentation has created a 100% carbon dioxide environment, yet the yeast need some oxygen to finish their job of converting sugar to alcohol. Today we gave the yeast a last supplement by pumping air into the juice for 10 minutes. With this last input of air, we are sure we've provided everything for these bugs to finish the fermentation in a few days.
Oct. 10 - The brix reading had crossed into the negative. The hydrometer and densitometer are calibrated to measure sugar in water. When alcohol is created, the instrument reads lower than the actual % of sugar remaining. Depending upon the wine, the readings at dryness can be -1 or even -2 brix.
Oct. 12 - Brix is -0.6, yet the yeast are still making enough CO2 to push up a cap. The new wine is tasting of rich fruit, and a slight sourness that is normal for this stage.
Oct. 13 - Brix is -1.3, and the yeast have slowed so just barely a cap has formed.
Oct. 14 - Brix is -1.3 again. Tomorrow the lab will run a residual sugar test to confirm that we have reached dryness. We have covered our new wine with a plastic tarp so as to keep the protective carbon dioxide gas over it. While the yeast are making very little gas now, we add CO2 to protect the wine from oxidation. It is time to press.
Oct. 10 - The brix reading had crossed into the negative. The hydrometer and densitometer are calibrated to measure sugar in water. When alcohol is created, the instrument reads lower than the actual % of sugar remaining. Depending upon the wine, the readings at dryness can be -1 or even -2 brix.
Oct. 12 - Brix is -0.6, yet the yeast are still making enough CO2 to push up a cap. The new wine is tasting of rich fruit, and a slight sourness that is normal for this stage.
Oct. 13 - Brix is -1.3, and the yeast have slowed so just barely a cap has formed.
Oct. 14 - Brix is -1.3 again. Tomorrow the lab will run a residual sugar test to confirm that we have reached dryness. We have covered our new wine with a plastic tarp so as to keep the protective carbon dioxide gas over it. While the yeast are making very little gas now, we add CO2 to protect the wine from oxidation. It is time to press.
by Hitching_Post_Wines
Hitching_Post_Wines
Owner/Chef of the Hitching Post II Restaurant in Buellton, CA, and co-owner/winemaker of Hitching Post Wines in buellton, CA.
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