It’s that time of year in Wine Country when the grapes are reaching their optimum ripeness, and everyone is buzzing with anticipation for the annual harvest!  While there’s a flurry of activity around the wineries, which have been lying in relative hibernation for the past 9 months, harvest also draws crowds of wine-lovers in pilgrimage to the Motherland.  Two loyal pilgrims happen to be my parents, who nurtured a healthy love of wine in our family a long time ago.  They arrived this past Thursday afternoon, and we spent three glorious days living and playing among the vines.

Our basecamp was at the Fox Barn Estate in the heart of the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County.  Not a shabby place to touch base and occasionally recharge our batteries.

Conveniently, it’s located only minutes away from Fog Crest Vineyard where JP is playing cellar rat for the next few weeks, working ‘round the clock to prepare this season’s Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.  So, after a night of reunion and catching-up over hamburgers in Healdsburg (and a dynamite Rafanelli Zinfandel), we kicked-off our first day with a visit to his work site!

While Fog Crest Vineyard has been around for nearly 10 years, the winery is only in its second vintage.  It’s not huge in size, but it’s boutique wineries like this that allow a winemaker to pay more individualized attention to each wine barrel, which comes through in the end product.  This stop was hands-on, and we got a really good education that I want to share with you…

Winemaking 101

The process of making wine is known as vinification.  While the steps below walk through the high-level process of making red wine, the method for making white wine is very similar, minus the steps where the juice sits with the skins – we’ll get to that…

1. The Pick. As I mentioned before, the grapes are ripening, and the sugar level (measured in Brix) is ready for producing wine.  First, the grapes were handpicked and brought to the winery.

2. Sorting and destemming. Here’s where we come into the process.  The first step is to remove the grapes from the stems.  Fortunately, there’s a machine for this, and it’s super cool!  You start by lifting a big container of grape clusters with a forklift, and then dump them onto a vibrating conveyor table that spreads the grapes apart, revealing any leaves or big items that can be pulled-out by hand.

At the end of the conveyor table is a hopper that the grapes fall into, followed by the actual destemmer that spins and separates the grapes from the stems.

The grapes then fall through a shoot in the bottom, into a clean container.  Not able to picture it?  Just watch the video…

Left-overs

3. Primary fermentation. Once all the grapes are separated from the stems, they’re left in a fermentation container for a few days so that the juice can sit with the skins and seeds to develop flavor and complexity. The skins also impart color into red wine (the juice’s natural color is nearly clear), and the skins’ tannins create that feel in your mouth like a pull on your cheek when you drink it.

Natural yeast on the grape skins begins to consume the sugars in the grapes’ juice, igniting the fermentation process!  This results in a release of carbon dioxide gas, which pushes the grape skins to the top of the juice, called the “cap.”  It’s important to “punch-down” the cap  to mix all the goodness from the skins in with the juice, and to release the heat that’s building up thanks to all the carbon dioxide gas!  We each got to take our turn.

Remember: Sugar + Yeast = Carbon Dioxide.  (There may be a pop-quiz later… 🙂 ).

4. Pressing. After a few days of primary fermentation, the contents of the container are dropped into the bladder press, which gently presses the fruit to break its skin and release any remaining juice.  The juice from the bladder press is directly pumped into the secondary fermentation tanks.  This step is primarily done to finally separate the juice from the skins, seeds and leftover stems and MOG (material other than grapes).

Note: some winemakers take the juice from primary fermentation and reserve it for a “special reserve” wine, with a “special” price tag.  The juice that comes from pressing is then used for the normal wine.

Here’s the bladder press on the right, secondary fermentation tanks on the left.

Here’s a picture looking up into the bladder press.  Once the grapes are dropped into the hopper at the top, that white plastic bladder on the left gradually fills with air, and presses against the grapes.

5. Rack and return. Once in the secondary tanks, the wine is then transferred from one tank to another (in the picture below, from right to left) to further separate the wine from any pesky materials that made it through step 4 and have now settled to the bottom of the first tank.  The wine will be stored here until barreling (don’t worry, they’re a cool 57 degrees Fahrenheit).

6. Barrel aging. The wine, having already started to ferment, and now separated from its stems, seeds and skins, is ready to spend the next 6-18 months in a barrel!  Initially after barreling, the yeast continues to eat the sugars, perpetuating the fermentation process and resulting alcohol content.  Winemakers add an agent that kills the yeast, which stops fermentation.  Then, it’s a patient wait as the wine continues to develop; like the flavors in leftover pasta that taste even better the next day after having time to marinade overnight!

Aging in barrels also allows the wine to extract more flavor/complexity from the wood (usually French or American Oak).  While still gaining in popularity, some winemakers age their wines in concrete, stainless steel, and even glass-lined tanks, depending on the flavor profile they’re trying to create.

7. Filtering. While this step is optional, it’s the last opportunity to remove any dead yeast and other settled materials that may be leftover from the barrel aging, which results in clearer wine.

8. Bottling. Also used to age, bottles are primarily intended for distribution and consumption.  Ask your wine merchant when the ideal time to open it will be.  If you’re like me, you’re probably buying to drink today (I mean tonight), but occasionally it can be fun to lay one down for a while until you want to celebrate with something special!

Armstrong Redwoods Reserve State Park

All this wine stuff is fun and all, but I promised these folks they’d get to see some BIG California Redwoods!  Armstrong Redwoods Reserve is located just minutes outside the town of Guerneville, and has a beautiful grove of redwoods with a few trees that are as big they get.  It’s ok if you’re not a walker because you can drive right to the grove.  If you are a walker, there are plenty of trails that lead out of the park, and toward the ocean.  Thankfully, we were able to add a few extra miles to this loop.

Three fawns

Big enough?

 

Russian River Tasting

This was a great hike, but we were dying to get out and taste some local wines.  I knew the Russian River Valley is known for its extraordinary Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, but I didn’t know that it was such a complicated maze of roads to navigate from one place to another!  Unfortunately, it slowed us down, but we did get to Merry Edwards and Russian Hill.  Again, they produce phenomenal Pinot Noir, but my recommendation is to try them in the bottle because the wineries in RR are not set-up for foot traffic.

The wine educator at Merry Edwards, however, was just that – not someone pouring wines, but someone who took her role as an educator seriously.  One thing she went over was the geography of Sonoma Valley.  If you look at the map below, there’s a coastal mountain range that protects the Dry Creek and Alexander Valleys from the cool air off the Pacific, which makes them hot and great for grapes like Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon.  However, there’s a break in the mountains where the Russian River let’s into the Pacific, which allows that cool air to flow into the Russian River Valley, resulting in perfect conditions for growing Pinot Noir!

Dinner

By the time the tasting rooms closed, we’d already decided to make dinner at home.  And why not?  Did you see this place?!

On the menu:

• Seared ahi tuna with peach salsa
• Fresh corn salad with avocado, tomato and red onions
• Wedge-cut sweet potato fries

And for dessert:

• Grilled peaches with blue cheese and honey

Oh! And who could forget the fruits of our labor – Fog Crest Pinot Noir?!  Well…not our labor, because we had nothing to do with the contents of this bottle, but if what we did today turns out to be anything like this wine, then I’m changing careers!

Phew…now that is a Full day.  I hope tomorrow lives up!

Cheers!