cropthreash

Notes from the Vineyard


Past "Notes from the Vineyard"


Handmade wines since 1983.

 

Notes from the Vineyard

 

 

FALL 2008

Current focus.

In the spectrum of California wine styles, I like to think ours have always emphasize balance. The few over-the-top monsters we have made turned into big commercial successes, but they didn't represent our aim. The idea has always been to capture the exuberance of fully ripe California fruit and express it with a European sensibility (i.e. making wine that is delicious with food). I don't pretend to have fully achieved that objective, because I see winemaking as a craft, a quest that doesn't end. Complete satisfaction with the job would be tantamount to giving up the struggle.

When I started making wine 25 years ago we picked our grapes a little less ripe; however, we found the flavors of the wines to be a bit too green and vegetal. So we opted for more ripeness and thought the wines were better for it. The down side was they were a tad deficient in acidity and a bit high in alcohol-they seemed clunky. And although these wines have aged well, and with time in the bottle have come into better balance, I felt there was still room for improvement.

Since then great strides in California viticulture have changed the character of the fruit we work with. First, the introduction of drip irrigation allowed more accurate control of vine growth. And second, vertical trellising of the vines allowed for even sun exposure to the clusters. That coupled with our penchant for thinning the crop for lower yields has produced more evenly ripe fruit. So now we are picking a little less ripe again and are really excited with the results. The wines are more fragrant, alive and fresh-and so intriguing they beckon you to take another sip. Other winemakers, in pursuit of what they call phenolic ripeness, are picking not grapes but raisins-and making wines that may have a concentrated texture, yet I find tiring to drink.

My interest in viticulture has not slackened since all these improvements have been made. Now the Holy Grail is organic and biodynamic farming (a self-sufficient, spiritual farming method), whose success requires the grower to pay even more attention to the vineyard. With chemical farming you can more easily ignore the condition of the vine and when disaster is about to strike, simply nuke the problem away. When farming naturally you must better anticipate problems and carefully encourage the vine towards success. And of course, we should avoid using neurotoxins on the things we eat and drink. They're not good for us, and not good for the people who apply them.

In wine we talk about the subtle differences that distinguish the ordinary from the extraordinary, and I believe organic farming is the best way to bring out the intriguing nuances of a vineyard. So, we are pushing our growers toward organic farming. We have begun buying biodynamically grown fruit from Presidio Vineyard, and are working with two of our other growers to get them to go completely organic. Our other vineyard sources are sustainably grown, which means only the safest conventional methods and sprays are used- and with California's benign climate this not difficult.
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Adam Tolmach