Since this is a brand new vineyard (3’rd year vines) I’ll be spending a significant amount of time discussing and observing viticultural techniques with the owner.  The soil is sand and granite with excellent drainage.  With close attention to quality and low yields, this may very well end up being one of the top sites for high elevation Spanish varietals in the state.

As many of you know, my vineyard site’s well ran dry a few years ago.  We didn’t know at the time how that would affect the vineyard or if there would still even be a vineyard. There has been a learning curve in ways to handle the water issue. We built cistern to collect runoff and rain water. We upgraded to fanjet drip emitters to reduce water waste and where once we got 3-4 total yield per acre which we now grow in the 2 ton range. Ultimately we may change over to sub-surface drip irrigation to conserve even more water. I can say now that the vineyard is, if not actually thriving, it is at least healthy.

This year, in part due to the uncharacteristically cool weather, the yield will be cut back (a process called cluster thinning) by roughly half– partly to accelerate ripening and to assure that I’ll still get the quality that I’m hoping to attain.  We are looking at it from the point of view of long term vineyard sustainability.

Right now the clusters are still uniformly green.  That means that veraison has not yet begun.  The term refers to two processes in the final stages of grape development.  First, at least in red wines, the green berries get their color (turning red) and second, the berries (both red and white) soften.  After veraison the grapes rapidly increase in sweetness. Generally one can figure that harvest will occur about 6-7 weeks after the color change.  One of the cool things this year is that we can now electronically monitor soil water density right at root depth (called the rootzone) at approximately 30-36 inches.  This is exciting because it allows us to precisely quantify the amount of irrigation necessary to stress the vine to improve flavor development and concentration in the berries while making sure that the vine has enough water to remain healthy.  Until these were installed we could only make educated guesses.  Sometimes with less than desirable results…

 
Stew “That vine looks kinda spindly”
Dave “Maybe we should’ve put more water on it”
Stew “Oops”

 
Anyway, not that bad really but you get the point.

Here I am LIVE on KJWL radio (right click and open in new window or tab)

But I have a new love called Verdelho that’s makin’ its way to a store shelf near you.  Now I can already hear y’all ask “What the *#$@ is Verdelho?  Well its a white wine from- you guessed it- Spain and its sorta like an exotic Sauvignon Blanc without the grass.  Think mangos and melons and tart acidity.  Molydooker of The Boxer fame makes one called the Violinist and Scholium Project’s Naucratis is quite possibly one of the most intriguing wines to cross my lips this year.

Me:      ”Hey guys, this wine has aromas of lychee nut and warm wet
               gravel”
Them:  “Sure Stew, whatyever you say.”
Me:       “I swear I’m serious and Ill prove it to you– just give me a
               moment to heat up some water and get some gravel out of
                the goldfish bowl…”

All kidding aside,  I’m looking forward to getting this weekly tasting program under way.  I hope you are too.

It look like our grape crush will be over today.  The great weather we’ve been having for the last week has really paid off with the rest of our Tempranillo and Cabernet ripening with rich flavors and good acidity. .. a real relief after the uncertainty cause by the rainstorm earlier this month.  The first batch of wine was pressed Wednesday and will racked to barrels in about a week or two after the gross lees settle out.  I’ve been tasting the Tempranillo samples here in the lab and I’m stoked about how much blackberry and minerality notes have been picked up by the fruit this year… its  gonna make a hell of a wine!

Hiya folks, it been an eventful week plus since my last update so here goes… Right after the storm of october 13 the first batch of Tempranillo ambled into the winery (we got it off the vines before it got wet but it sat a day under a pole barn while I searched for a trucking company who could haul on short notice). Although a little less ripe than I had hoped for the grape flavor leaned heavily to red berry/raspberry the fruit was clean and chemistry in balance. We did a 4 day cold soak (yay!) and innoculated the wine with D254 yeast which is great for maximizing mid palate fruit expression. A coulple days ago it was at 4 brix.  Looks like fermentation will be done just in time for the next batch to arrive probably on Wednesday or Thursday.  I looked at the vineyard and the fruit on the vines has matured and the pH is up where it should be so I have high hopes for Vintage 2009.  The Cabernet is currently (as of Monday)  at 23.5 brix with a pH of 3.4 so it will be coming off the vines I expect Friday morning.  Since the clone 337 cab tends torward granite and cherry notes I picked up a couple beautiful barrels from Tonnellierie d’Aquitaine which will really help frame in that fruit.
On another note, beginning in December, when Crush 2009 is over, I will getting back to the real purpose of this blog and that is to TryTempranillo. So I will be purchasing and tasting a new bottle of Tempranillo each week and posting tasting notes as well as where you can find the wines. The wine could come from Spain, Australia, Chile, here in the U.S. or anywhere else Tempranillo is made.

Hiya folks, its time to find the tylenol, TUMS, and valium- aka, winemakers’ best friends during harvest. Crush ’09 started yesterday kinda urgently– Ya see, last Friday I went out to our see how our tempranillo vineyard was doing with an eye to choosing a harvest date. The fruit was at about 24-25 brix and already displaying lots of darker berry characteristics and
about a week off from harvest. Unfortunately there was only a few days to get it off the vine since there was a big storm coming in that was projected to drop several inches of rain. So in order to deal with the rain my grower and I decided to harvest roughly half the Tempranillo fruit yesterday. We are going to let the soil dry for a week or so then take the rest with, hopefully a tad more sugar. The couple tons that have come in will be cold soaked for 3-4 days then I’ll start pulling samples to get “the numbers” i.e. pH, TA, and actual brix. With any luck, by the time fermentation is done, my barrel order will have arrived.

On an entirely unrelated note, while pouring last week at the Monterey wine festival, the folks next to me were serving samples of a gorgeous sangiovese. Rich fruit, huge spice and just plain yummy… undoubtedly the finest example of the grape I’ve tried from California. The wine is made by the legendary Chuck Ortman and his son. Check out Ortman Family Vineyards 2007 Sangiovese at roughly $25 its well worth the price of admission.

Hello and welcome to TryTempranillo!, the Sunfire Winery blog. I’m Stew Epstein, the winemaker at Sunfire.

I’ll be posting here updates about Sunfire Winery’s harvest, crush, bottling and production notes, but mostly this is a blog about my favorite grape: Tempranillo.  Sometimes I will be sharing my personal ruminations on the subject and sometimes I’ll be talking about wines I’ve been tasting, a bit about where Tempranillo comes from and the kinds of food you can pair it with.  Sometimes, there will even be guest bloggers.  I’ll also try to answer any questions that you send my way.

Why Tempranillo in the land of Cabernet?  For one thing it just plain tastes great and you really don’t need to know a thing about wine tasting to enjoy it… since very few folks know what it is, its hard to be intimidated by it.  In fact, if you bring Tempranillo to a party or pour it for friends at dinner, you’ll probably know more about it than they do- especially if you read this blog. It’s unusual in this county and that’s a pity since it makes a wine that’s very easy to pair with an enormous variety of foods and it frequently is approachable to drink whether just bottled or well aged.  Oh yeah, let’s not forget that since it lacks the popularity and “prestige” of Cabernet, there are a ton of killer wines available for great prices.

So what does Tempranillo taste like? Well, at its best think of Pinot on steroids but with more earth and more intense berries.  In a lighter style its often bright cherries with a touch of dusty tannin.  Easy to drink with whatever happens to be on your dinner plate right now.   Tempranillo is originally from Spain where it goes by the name Rioja; it has only recently received any attention in the U.S.  What that means for you, the consumer, is that there are plenty of opportunities to try traditional Spanish styles wines and that there will soon be more wineries in California bringing new styles to this classic grape.  I’ve been making Tempranillo for Sunfire Winery since 2003 and though I can certainly appreciate tradition, this is California, so I gave our Tempranillo a uniquely CA twist… more fruit + more fun = a more interesting wine.

On another note, I’ll be pouring the 2006 Sunfire Cabernet and 2006 Sunfire Tempranillo this week at the Monterey Wine Festival on October 1-2.  Stop by to say hi and try the wines.  I’m looking forward to meeting you.

See ya next week.