The Calm Before the Crush

I went out today to Paul Larson's chardonnay vineyard at the end of Burndale Road in Carneros. The road crosses the railroad tracks and ends at a gate that marks the entrance to a gun club. I didn't need the key that Paul had given me, as the gate was open. I drove on through the club and came to the first of two gates that allow passage through a bull pasture. "Keep Gate Closed", said the cardboard signs on the gates. Indeed. No need to have all of that cattle testosterone running amuck.

Paul told me on Saturday that his sampling had come in at 22.2 degrees Brix. A week earlier, it had been at 20.6 degrees. From his experience, the vineyard usually moved one point per week, so the results might have been skewed by sampling error.

I walked up and down the rows, cutting whole clusters and placing them into a cooler that I had brought along. I alternated taking clusters from the north and south sides of the rows, ending up with about twenty clusters. Paul did his sampling in the form of individual berries - about 200 of 'em. I like to take whole clusters; that way, I'm getting results that represent the grapes on the interior of the cluster as well as those that are accessible on the exterior.

With my little cooler full, I made my way back to the truck. I drove back the way I had come, making sure that the gates were closed behind me. As I approached Highway 121, I stopped at Homewood Winery. Paul had told me that Dave Homewood had purchased fruit from him in the past, and I took it upon myself to drop in for a chat if he happened to be there. He was working on the crushpad while an entourage from a tour van was entering the tasting room.

We talked briefly about the fruit and about the yeasts that he liked to use. "For many years, I really liked Wadenswil, but then they stopped producing it", he offered,"so last year, I went with QA23. They both really bring out the aromatics of the fruit." Just then, the tour driver interrupted to ask if Dave could come to the tasting room to chat with his passengers. "Sorry I can't talk more...", he started. "No problem! In this economy we're fortunate to have such interruptions", I replied, "Was that QA24?" "Question and Answer Twenty Three!" he hollered cheerfully as he turned the corner toward the tasting room. Got it.

I took my grape sample directly to the winery, waited 'til Jared, the house winemaker, returned from lunch, and handed off the clusters to him for testing. Before I left, I took one cluster in hand and squeezed the juice into a bucket. I dunked my refractometer into the sweet liquid. Holding the refractometer up, I peered into the eyepiece. 22.7, it read. I tipped the bucket and poured the juice into my mouth, straining out the seeds with my teeth. It was bursting with cool, refreshing flavors of peach, pineapple and mango!

Later this evening, I spoke with Jared. The readings: pH was 3.23, Titratable Acidity was 8.1, and Brix was 22.8. The grapes are ready as soon as we can get pickers, which will be Tuesday, according to Paul.

I'm excited about the prospects for these grapes. I've got to Google "Wadenswil".