1st Day of Harvest

It was a beautiful morning... I looked up toward the winery perched atop the hill as I cruised down Ross Station on the Vespa; I couldn't see anything, but I knew that just a few hundred feet away everything was buzzing, I could feel it, as if the buzz was sending transmissions out across the valley. I arrived at the top just in time to see one of the tractors unloading several large crinellas of grapes ready to be weighed before their immanent plunge into the de-stemmer.

I rushed to discard all my baggage, grabbed my camera and headed out. They had started picking on K and I blocks, all Pinot Noir grapes that would be used to make Brut Rose. Of course my batteries died after only two pictures. After replacing the batteries I trudged back out to the vineyards. You couldn't have asked for a more beautiful morning to start making wine; the morning sun was warm and the Mylar streams to keep away birds were glistening in the light while the jovial crew sang and whistled while they worked.

While most winemakers will make a Brut Rose by using their Brut style sparkling wine and adding a pink dosage to give it it's color, winemaker for Iron Horse, David Munksgard makes a full rose wine by doing a seven day cold soak and then starting the 1st fermentation as a rose, and 2nd as well; the result is a big wild, fruity sparkling wine that allows for a variety of food parings, my favorite would have to be a pork tenderloin with a fruit chutney or salsa on top finished with demi-glaze.

Like a kid in a candy store, my buddy Damon and I wandered around the winery immersing ourselves in everything possible. We watched the grapes come in ton after ton and get dropped into the hopper, asking questions and sampling a few along the way. The final crinella of grapes was used for the blessing; everyone, customers included dropped everything to celebrate the beginning of harvest. Everyone received a glass of current vintage Brut Rose, (of course) and David poured in a bottle of the Brut Rose into the grapes as they were dumped into the hopper, and we all yelled yay! A little less romantic as compared to many blessings; we didn't have any religious figure there to bless the grapes, but our gusto I'm sure will produce a beautiful wine in just a few short years.
There's really nothing quite like being around a winery during harvest, especially on the first day. There is just something about all the many things going on that are so fascinating. Everyone is in high spirits and as I said before the buzz can be felt from miles around, even when you walk up to the winery without seeing anything, you just get this tingling feeling that there’s something majestic happening. It is no doubt the most electrifying day for a winery as they look to the future of what these grapes will become, a magnificent wine.

Good food and good wine needs to be talked about.

Something to be said about Pommard Clone Pinot

Being my first ever blog entry I thought it fitting to start with a new love of mine, Pommard Clone Pinot's.

Since Sideways pushed Pinot into the forefront of everyone’s wine mind, I decided that I should start to examine the craze that is Pinot and see if I could jump on board because Pinot just has not been in my repertoire of bottles because I have yet to find one that can knock my socks off. So I've spent the past year or so in search of my style of Pinot and I eventually stumbled across the Pommard Clone... There is definitely something to be said about this difficult and delicate grape; despite being genetically unstable, difficult to grow and ferment and tricky bottle-aging, Pinot's stand out as a diamond transformed from coal. Pinot's can range from being big and bold with dark luscious fruit and earth components, to a lighter, delicate, feminine pinot. Like the Audrey Hepburn of Pinot Noir, the Pommard Clone is something that I have fallen in love with; hints of strawberry, cherry and tea leaves, smooth and velvety, perfectly elegant while still being intensely powerful. If the Pommard Clone was capable of riding a Vespa around Rome, I don't think we could be a better match made in heaven. The Pommard's that I have had have been the oh my god wine's that have made me the wine aficionado that I am. Everyone that has ever become captivated by wine has had that one wine that has just sends them over the edge and separates them from being a wine fan and a wine fanatic. Pommard Pinot's are that wine for me; 2004 Iron Horse "Q" Pinot Noir from Green Valley is fantastic, Pommard and Geisenheimmer clones making a beautiful wine; don't think about going to look for it, it's all gone, as the production is only around 50 cases, but keep you're eye out for the 2005 Vintage to be released sometime this year. But if you're looking for good alternates, Thumbprint Cellars 2005 Pommard Clone Pinot from Russian River Valley is equally extraordinary. Also check out Marimar Estate Pinot's, specifically the Sonoma Coast Pinot, but they blend Pommard into most of their Pinots along with some Dijon, Swan and Cristina clones. There's definitely some good Pommard's coming from Oregon and the Santa Barbara areas, but my next quest is to go directly to the source of Pinot, Burgundy France... (Well not physically, really I'm going to do some research, and go to Bottle Barn and see if I can't find a good French Pommard)

Good food and good wine just needs to be talked about.