Racking

The racking of our 2007 reds is in full swing. Between bottlings (our 2006 Chardonnays go to glass at the end of next week) we are getting to the first round of our aerating rackings (see photos). After pumping the clear wine off the gross lees, we splash the young wine though a rough screen and then on to tank. The screen removes and solids (skins or seeds) and also aerates the wine. This splashing allows some oxygen to interact with the young wine and really helps to build structure and mouthfeel in varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot.



Above is some 2007 Camel Hill Cabernet Franc from a newer planting. The special clone we planted seems to be doing phenomenally well as it was our favorite of all the Camel Hill Franc lots (we had 5 before some blending).

We also racked the three lots of Camel Hill Cabernet Sauvignon (2 from older plantings and some new clone 337 on the lower vineyard). These lots all had loads of red fruits, fine tannins and notes of currant and cassis.

Before racking the wines to tank Ryan and I taste each bbl, make some preliminary blends based on quality and style and then pump the wines to tank. Tomorrow the barrels will get washed and I'll run some analysis on the lots. We'll adjust the SO2 and then return the wines to barrel on Thursday. We try and rack our Bordeaux reds 3-4 times a year, using aeration each time in the first year, and then on a cases by case basis during year two of elevage.

Tasting the racked wines in tank gives us an even better idea of the quality of wines we have from 2007: so far things look spectacular!

Trade Tasting and Unified Symposium

Finally back in the office after another week away.

Tuesday I helped Anne pour our wines at the Santa Cruz Mountains Trade Tasting at Farallon Restaurant in San Francisco. Farallon is an institution in SF and Peter Palmer,wine director at Farallon, is a true class act and one of the really good guys in the wine business. It was a nice event and a great way to get our wines in front of a number of wine buyers from restaurants and retail shops from all over the city. We poured our '06 Gewurztrmainer, '05 Chardonnay SCM, '06 Pinot Noir SCM, '04 Merlot SCM and the '03 Lexington Meritage. All were well received and someone even commented that this was the strongest lineup of Fogarty wines they had tasted in a while!

After the trade tasting it was up to Sacramento for the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium. This is the industries biggest trade show and also features a number of talks and presentations on all aspects of the wine biz. It also serves as a great chance to catch up with friends and old classmates.

The highlight of the show, outside of the numerous parties (the Scheid Vineyards after hours party is legendary), is the trade show. Vendors with products ranging from mechanical harvesters to corks all present displays showing off their wares. It is overwhelming at first as the Sacramento Convention Center is overflowing with booths, people and noise. Once the initial blast of stimulation wares off one can begin to attempt to get down to business.

I spent most of Wednesday and Thursday morning wandering the aisles, visiting suppliers i know and meeting with new ones. I quickly learned our barrel prices are going to go up, not only because we pay in Euros. The supply of top quality French Oak is limited and demand continues to grow. I was shopping for a new pump, a 2" Diaphragm or "bump pump". They are great for barrel work and an extra pump would come in handy during harvest.

Thursday at 2 Pm the rain began to fall in Sacramento pretty heavily, that was my cue to get on the road as I was meeting Michael and some fellow winemakers for a Friday on the slopes of Northstar, we were halfway to Tahoe after all. The drive was miserable, but Friday was an amazing day on the mountain!

Fogarty has been the subject of some great press lately. Laura Ness recently wrote a really nice article on Michael for Appellation America, check it out.

Wine and Spirits Mag also included Fogarty in their SCM Syrah article in the current issue, and while we only make 200-300 cases of Syrah a year it was great to be included.

SO2 and Camels

The above apparatus is used to run an Aeration/Oxidation test for free sulfur dioxide (SO2), a winemaker's primary tool in fighting oxidation and to a lesser extent microbial spoilage. It looks pretty 'mad-scientist'-like but it's relatively practical chemistry at work.

The pear-shaped flask at the bottom contains the wine and a big dose of acid, which combined with aspiration (pulling some air though the solution with a vacuum pump) liberates the free SO2. The free SO2 essentially travels up through a condenser (cold water) and is trapped in the solution in the top flask. The top flask contains hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and an indicator solution/dye. It begins the test a green color and turns purple in the presence of the SO2. We can then titrate this solution with Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) to calculate the free SO2. Ill spare you the boring details of the chemistry, its pretty easy and fairly accurate; it's downside is that it takes 10 minutes of aspiration to run a test.

We began another round of racking in the cellar this week. Ryan racked our 2006 wines from the Camel Hill Vineyard(Merlot, Cab Sauv, Cab Franc and our Lexington Meritage (so far 68% Cab Sauv/20% Cab Franc/12% Merlot)) to tank yesterday. While he was washing the empty barrels i ran analysis (Free SO2, VA (Volatile Acidity), pH and TA) on the wine in tank. We are going to do a little blending, correct the SO2 and return the wines to barrel.

I feel like I have a pretty good gauge on where these wines are going at this point in their life. 2006 is a much more classically styled vintage, especially when compared to 2005. The 05's needed ever day of the almost 2 year we gave them in barrel, while the 06's should be ready for bottling in another 4-5 months. The are much more suave and nuanced; the 05's are much more structured.

The Lexington and Cab Franc have darker and denser flavors- think blackberry and coffee. We only have a single barrel of Camel Hill Cab Sauv and it is getting blended into the remaining Camel Hill Merlot. It added a little more heft to the Merlot and filled in the mid-palate nicely.

I am headed up to Tahoe early tomorrow for a little snowboarding action; got a new board last week and am super excited to try it out.

More soon....

New Year, new tasks

Ryan Teeter, Cellar Master, finishes topping our 2007 reds

Back from a long (and hopefully much-deserved) break and we are back into it up here on the mountain. The cellar crew finished barreling down and topping right before the holidays, this ensured everyone was able to get away for a spell.

The New Year brings new tasks and a definite switch in mind-set. No longer are we in “post-harvest” mode; the next range of tasks involve lots of racking and getting ready for our bottling in February. We had originally planned to bottle in the beginning of the month, but we were unable to secure our Stelvin “screw-caps” for our aromatic white wines (Gewurz, Pinot Gris and Riesling). Kind of a bummer, but these things happen. We re-scheduled for later in the month. We are using Bay Area Bottling for the first time. Our friends at Clos La Chance in San Martin recently purchased the line and we are excited to have a local mobile bottling option.

My last post was right before our ‘assessment’ of the ’07 vintage, I was unable to get my thoughts down before my vacation but definitely want to get them down at this time.

Without a doubt, 2007 has the potential to be the finest vintage yet, across the board, in my four harvests here.

Our first flight consisted of three wines: 2007 Monterey Gewurztraminer and Riesling, and our Estate Pinot Gris from Gist Ranch. The wines were already aromatic and showing great definition. The Gewurz has great balance and texture and should prove to be a worthy successor to the fabulous 2006 that is in the marketplace now.

The second flight featured four different lots of Pinot Noir (We skipped tasting the Chardonnays as they are in the throes of Malolactic Fermentation and are difficult to asses at this time). We upped the percentage of whole-clusters we used in our fermentations to about %25 this year and this, combined with great fruit has yielded some pretty awesome Pinot. They have great structure and texture, yet they are not heavy or cloying. I am super-stoked on the Pinots this year and can’t wait to see what they are like in bottle a year from now!

Our third flight was a combination of Merlot and Cab Franc, our ‘Right Bank’ flight if you will. The Cab Francs were very aromatic and pure, particularly the Gist Ranch. However, unquestionably the showstopper of the tasting was the Merlot samples. Huge tannins, dense fruit, but definitely not over the top. These are classic mountain wines that should prove to be long lived. It is gong to be very interesting to see the Camel Hill and Gist Ranch lots progress over time.

The fourth flight was a horizontal of Cabernet Sauvignon. Cab is notoriously tough to taste when so young but all the wines showed great character- dark fruits mixed with spice and mouth-coating tannins. The Gist Ranch and Raines Cabs seemed to be the strongest lots.

The final flight included two lots of Fat Buck Ridge Syrah (one 50% whole cluster with 30+ days of skin contact, the other %50 whole cluster with about three weeks of skin time) and our 2.5 barrel lot of Malbec. All three were impenetrably dark with complete saturation of color. The Syrah lots were quite different, the longer skin time lot (Lot #1) was much spicier and austere, while the shorter maceration lot (#2) was fruitier and lusher. The blend should prove interesting, and may make our best Fat Buck Ridge yet.

Malbec is a grape we have struggled with in the past. We decided to let the crop hang this year and the resulting hang time seems to have worked in our favor. This is certainly one of our more exotic lots, it is brimming with black fruit and wild exotic flavors. Too bad we only have 150 gallons!

As you may have guessed we are quite pleased with the vintage. Certainly feels good to justify all the hard work!