In fact, every harvest every year is like that.  Any commercial winemaker who feels differently is probably lying. See, there is a stark, cold reality behind the romance of processing winegrapes. Winemakers give up about 12 weeks of their lives between August and November because Mother Nature can’t be told when it’s time to harvest. SHE tells US when fruit is ready and not the other way around. And when grapes are ready, they arrive and it’s constant crushing and pressing until the stuff stops coming for about 12 weeks. Sorting is messy. Crushing is noisy. Additions can be forgotten. Equipment breaks down. Fermentation space can come up short. Equipment takes longer to clean and sanitize than it actually takes to crush. Picking crews can be slow. We lose sleep. The list goes on and on…

For this final posting of the year, I have decided to ask a couple of winemakers one question:
“Every year when harvest comes around, is it difficult for you? If so, what was most difficult for you for the 2009  harvest?”

According to Steve Eaton, an associate winemaker and Cellar Master here at Winterhawk,  he very simply answered with a boyish grin that he “dislikes the fruitflies.” But then on a  more contemplative note, he says the most difficult thing at harvest is figuring out where to move wines in tank in order to accommodate a new batch of fruit coming in. He says he wakes up in the middle of the night thinking about the complexity of perfectly timed tank-to-tank wine movement.

For me, making sure that the wine gets made exactly the way the owner or winemaker wants it to be made is the most difficult part of harvest. Written protocols provided or not, in custom crush we pride ourselves on providing the tools and services needed to accomplish specific winemaking goals. It is ironic that no matter what the shape or condition is of the fruit when it arrives to the crushpad, the winegrower expects it to be world class wine.

For Iain Boltin of Eight Arms Cellars, finding the time to drive out from his home in Berkeley everyday to check sugars and monitor his fermentations was the most difficult challenge. He really doesn’t focus on the” difficulty of harvest” because he enjoys the wine so much.  “Do I find crush difficult? Hmm, I don’t really look at it that way because it is my favorite time of year as a winemaker. I love working with the grapes and the challenges involved in transforming them into great wine. The most difficult thing for me this year, was that I had a lot of other things going on, so it never felt like I had enough time to get everything done. I have to admit, that I am thankful for the help of Martha, Steve and all the crew at Rio Vista, who were able to help me out when I needed it the most. They helped make crush go really smoothly and the end result is that 2009 will be an exceptional vintage for Eight Arms Cellars.”

making labels adhere properly takes talent!

Matt Smith, our sleep-deprived winemaker, oversees bottling calmly

 We’ve had a lot  of events here at the winery since Spring started. In addition to our $5 WBTG and free pizza Saturdays,  The first Annual Suisun Valley Passport Sunday was held on April 19th. With a sold-out crowd of 360, all seven wineries (some not normally open to the public) opened their doors to Passport holders. Food pairings were provided by local restaurants at each location. Great weather,  great wine– a great time was had by all.

Passport travelers enjoying Winterhawk's crushpad atmosphere

Rancho Solano's catering staff serving up vineyard-side gourmet food pairings

 Winterhawk winery hosted a special educational event on Monday. Our vineyard manager Jim Parr and the Suisun Wildlife Center came out and gave a talk about sustainable agriculture here on our grape and olive ranches and how predatory wildlife is an important part of vineyard management. Quality of life is a driving force of why Jim farms the way he does. He believes the way he farms has a huge impact on alot of people and animals  in a much larger area.   

Martha Rueca-Gustafsson

Award winning wines could not exist without a winemaking team. Our team includes Matt Smith (head winemaker,) Steve Eaton (cellar master,) and me.  Our vineyard
manager and operations director for the farming operations is Jim Parr. The purpose of this blog is to keep you up-to-date in the winemaking at
Winterhawk Winery so you’ll see pictures of these guys quite often.

Today, Steve is in the middle of a racking project. Racking is the action of cleaning and homogenizing a wine by gently moving it away from it’s lees at the bottom of the
barrel and into tank. You then wash out the barrel of all the junk and put the wine back in it. After primary and malolactic fermentation racking helps to produce brilliance and clarity in wine among other things.

Here’s a picture of the “Mercedes” that cleans our wine

My focus this week is preparing wines for bottling next week. Before we bottle wine, we cross flow filter it so that unwanted microbes that produce off flavors and off aromas in a wine cannot proliferate in the bottle.

Next week, we’ll have pictures of the J&J bottling rig up on the blog. While it’s a small rig, It can bottle up to 700 cases of wine in an 8 hour day!”

Hello Friends!

We had a great time at our June event featuring John C. Robinson who presented the “Top Ten Secrets to Identifying the Common Birds in Your Back Yard or Local Vineyard”. Presentation included a crowd pleasing interactive period which highlighted John’s bird identification software and its ability to use descriptions to isolate and identify local birds. In addition to some beautiful pictures of the birds in question the software also provides high quality recordings of the individual bird songs. Of course one of the main focuses of the discussion was Winterhawk Winery’s efforts to promote and support a large population of native owls and hawks on the property to control the gopher population in the vineyards. This natural and sustainable approach to managing our vineyards was the root inspiration for the winery’s name “Winterhawk”. Currently Winterhawk has over 40 nesting boxes established on the property most of which are occupied. Great news for us, bad news for the local gophers.

We also spent a few minutes getting an update from Jim, our Vineyard Manager on the current state of the grapes and how the season has been developing. In addition to some personal vineyard tours, Jim fielded questions from the crowd and outlined the changes that will take place over the next two months before harvest. July and August are huge months in the world of growing grapes so if the viticulture side of things intrigues you than be sure to come to the next couple of events to hear more from Jim.

At the conclusion of John Robinson’s presentation we took a few minutes to review some of the guidelines presented at the May event on food pairing which featured Albert Katz. After the review we put theory into practice and adjourned to the crush pad for some libations prepared by Winterhawk’s Elizabeth Vargas. The goal of the tasting was to try a tannic wine first with some savory beef marinated with a little soy (which was an awesome food pairing!) followed by pairing the same wine with beef dipped in a spicy sauce (which was not so awesome, as theorized). In the end we proved our points about tannic wines and how to pair them, but more importantly we got to sneak another peak at the Winterhawk Tempernillo which was once again a huge hit with the crowd. Look for a release on this wine in the Fall.

Be sure to join us in July for an in depth look at oak barrels. Why we use them, and how they differ. We will be smelling brand new barrels as part of this discussion so that you can get a sense of the aromas and flavors that oak brings to wine.

Best,

Matt Smith

Winemaker

Hello Winterhawk Winery Fans!

We had a great time at our May event “A Taste of Summer” on Saturday May 31st. With over 100 people in attendance the event was a terrific success. The food prepared by Albert and Kim Katz was, I think we can all agree, nothing short of spectacular. Many of you purchased olive oil and vinegar from Albert and I hope you are enjoying the unique and special qualities that these hand crafted gourmet items bring to your meals.

We were asked by many folks in attendance if we could offer a summary of some of the guidelines presented for food pairing. The answer was of course “yes” and here they are:

Presentation on Food and Wine Pairing

Good and Bad Rules of Thumb

1) “Drink what you like.” If all you are doing is drinking than this is a good rule. As we pointed out though, the food you pair with the wine can have a dramatic affect and that favorite wine of yours may not taste as good as a result.

2) “White wine with white meat, red wine with red meat.” This is a good rule of thumb, however you need to remember that how the meat is prepared and what is served on or next to it can completely change the wine pairing.

Guidelines

1) Salt reduces bitterness and tannin.

2) Acids need to match with acids.

3) Spice exaggerates tannin and bitterness. Counter spice with sweet wine.

4) Fat reduces tannin and bitterness

5) Cheese dulls the receptors, hides flaws in wine and reduces tannin.

HOW TO PAIR BY WINE TYPE

WHITE WINE TYPES

High Acid-(Sauvignon blanc, Chenin blanc) Match Acid

Fat (low level of acid)-(Chardonnay, Viognier) Match Flavor and Richness

Sweet-(Riesling, Muscat) Balance sweet and spice

EXAMPLES:

Lemon Chicken-Match the acid try a Sauvignon blanc.

Smoked Chicken with Rosemary- Match the flavor try a Chardonnay.

Blackened Chicken- Balance the spice with sweet, try a Riesling.

RED WINE TYPES

Higher acid with little tannin-(Pinot Noir, Chianti) Match Acid

Fat with medium tannin-(Merlot, Syrah) Match Flavor and Richness

Big tannin-(Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah) Match heavy Fat and Salt

Sweet?-(Rose and some Zinfandels believe it or not)Match the Spice

EXAMPLES

Chicken Parmesan-Match the acid and leanness try a Chianti or Pinot.

Chicken Marsala- Match the flavor and richness try a Merlot.

Chicken Cordon Blue- Match the fat and salt try a big Cabernet Sauvignon.

Barbecued Chicken with sauce- Match the spice, rose will work as will a Zinfandel that is sweet, but be careful, a Zinfandel with lots of tannin will exaggerate the spice and be unpleasant.

Hopefully the chicken examples will help to get you thinking in the right direction. Clearly the “white wine with white meat” rule does not hold up under all conditions.

MIX AND MATCH

Time to think, here are some examples of different ways to prepare pasta. Try to come up with a good wine to match. My choices appear at the end of the posting.

Fettuccini

A) Fettuccini tossed with seafood and lemon.

B) Fettuccini Alfredo.

C) Fettuccini Alfredo with Grilled Chicken or Prawns.

D) Cheese Ravioli with Marinara.

E) Spaghetti with Marinara and Meatballs.

ORDERING WINE IN A RESTAURANT

A big question that always comes up is how to order in a restaurant. Here is my advice:

1- If your food does not match your dining partners than you should try ordering by the glass.

2- Try ordering half bottles. This allows you to change gears half way through the meal. For example you might want the vinagarette dressing on your salad but a steak for your main meal. A half bottle is about 2 ½ glasses of wine.

3- When in doubt avoid the extremes such as Sauvignon blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon. There are several wines that hold the middle ground. If you are getting a bottle to be shared by several people try a Pinot Noir, Chianti, Merlot, Fume blanc, or Chardonnay. It may not be perfect but it will be close.

4- If you are getting multiple bottles remember to move up from lighter to darker.

5- Don’t order it if you don’t know what it is. Do you know what a Barbaresco is? How about a Chinon? Valpolicella? Priorot? Most wines form Europe are labeled by region. If you are not familiar with what the region represents than you are shooting in the dark. This can be fun and you should try new things but if you are trying to impress your date you could really blow it here. Most servers will correct your pronunciation of the wine as well, not good on a first date.

6- REMEMBER THIS AND YOU WILL IMPRESS YOUR SERVER!!!!! When ordering a bottle of wine the server will hand you the cork. DO NOT SMELL IT!! You are supposed to examine the cork to see if the wine ran up the side or if the cork is dry and crumbly. Cork smells like cork and is no indication of weather or not the wine is good. The server will then pour you a small taste. This is when you examine the wine to say that it is good and can be poured. I blame Hollywood for this misconception but your server will be impressed if you do it right.

Hopefully armed with this information you will make better choices when it comes to wine pairing. Try to remember the general guidelines and you should do fine. This month we will be hearing from John Robinson about the role that birds play in our vineyards. We will also revisit the idea of food pairing by looking at the affect red meat and spice have on tannins. We will be “rolling” out a barrel of 2007 Tempernillo for this tasting which was a crowd favorite at our barrel tasting seminar so don’t miss out on this one.

Best,

Matt Smith

Winemaker

My Answers to the pasta quiz.

Fettuccini

A) Fettuccini tossed with seafood and lemon. (Match the acid, Chenin Blanc)

B) Fettuccini Alfredo. (Match the fat, Chardonnay and believe it or not Cabernet Sauvignon)

C) Fettuccini Alfredo with Grilled Chicken or Prawns. (Lean with some fat, Pinot or Chianti)

D) Cheese Ravioli with Marinara. (Fat from the cheese and acid in the sauce, avoid a wine with too much tannin as the acid will exaggerate it. Pinot, Chianti, many Merlots as well)

E) Spaghetti with Meatballs (Beef calls for a hearty wine but the acid from a red sauce makes it tricky. Most Italian reds are higher acid, lower tannin, and sometimes have a hint of sugar. This quality matches well with most of dishes like this. Barbera, Sangiovese, Chianti)