One Barrel of Pinot

At the end of Harvest 2008, there were some grapes still on the vine. The Spring's frosts had made it impossible to get even ripening, with whole sections of certain blocks delayed weeks behind the main part of the same blocks. We ended up with crop insurance payments that were higher than what we could get for the picked grapes.

Still, I was disappointed with the prospect of leaving grapes on the vine, so I called together a couple of friends to do a barrel's worth of unbonded Pinot. By the time we harvested, the natural acid had dropped considerably, and the must needed an addition of tartaric acid (the main acid component in grapes). Now several months into barrel-aging, the wine still tastes a little flat. On Wednesday we'll rack the wine and do one more acid adjustment.

Meanwhile, it's about time to move the 2007 wines into the warehouse. I'm toying with the idea that I might do a pre-release tasting of the '07's at the Pinot Days Festival on June 28th at Fort Mason in San Francisco. The '07 Pinots are somewhere between the '04 and '06, in terms of intensity. Fuller than the '06, yet not quite the lush bomb that was the '04.

I'm looking forward to the tasting. Pinot Days has always been a good event: lots of traffic and interest. With a couple hundred Pinot producers, it's the largest event that I've participated in. World of Pinot Noir at Pismo Beach this year set the bar, though. I had my highest one-day sales ever at that one event in March. Hope to get a good response at this one.