Projects! Projects! Projects!

Overlooking Sonoma Valley

Roughly three weeks ago my boss Dave rang mid-afternoon. I picked up and Dave announced "Tom, I'd like to talk to you about something. Do you have a bit of time?"

'Shit', I thought, 'What did I fuck up now?'

Actually, Dave called to ask if I would be interested in making wine for a potential client that would like to see what they could do with a 70 year old vineyard they had inherited when they purchased their property on Sonoma Mountain. Would I like to make a few barrels of wine and keep a few cases for myself? Hell yeah! As if it was a question at all.

The real question was whether or not we had a place to process the fruit. After consulting my colleague Shaunt and making sure we had an acceptable place to make the wine, I called the owners of the vineyard back and told them we were interested.

Napa Gamay (Valdigue) or Gamay Noir?

This morning, I returned to the vineyard for the second time and meet with the owners, praying a little pray that rot had not hit the hanging clusters. On the up side the fruit appeared healthy and undaunted by the heavy rains. Flipping the coin over, two samples showed the fruit lagging behind at about 18 degrees brix, some 6 degrees lower than our ideal sugar levels.

My reservations lie in the fact that the vineyard has gone feral, or rather has not been given the necessary care during the growing season. After all we don't want to take in grapes from vines that have been overloaded with fruit and make a crappy wine.

Another variable factoring into our decision about when to pick and what kind of wine to make is determining what kind of wine we will make. Dave seems to think that the grape is Gamay Noir, long know as the main grape used in fruity Beaujolais Nouveau. Napa Gamay, or Valdigue, is a grape from the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France that was commonly planted in Northern Califronia in the post-prohibition era.

Needless to say, both grape varieties are create medium bodied, acid driven wines that have not received much respect in the wine world.

Maybe that is why I am so excited about this project. Not too many people are excited about these varieties as their physiological characteristics prevent them from creating deep, rich, heavy extracted reds that wine critics rave about. Perhaps the world needs a renaissance of low alcohol food driven reds perfect for pairing with fish, seafood, white meat and even vegetables! Vegetarians are people too after all.

I'm stoked! O.k. maybe just hope full that the sugars with shoot up a bit with the upcoming heat wave on the way or maybe we might have to get out the clippers and do a bit of thinning.

Updates on the way....

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Pints of Doppel Bock make you strong

This afternoons activities, drinking to Octoberfest and carving pumpkins. Salud!