Debut Posting from Martha
“ I am Martha Rueca-Gustafsson, the assistant winemaker at Winterhawk Winery. I came aboard in August 2008 from Lost Canyon Winery in Oakland. I received
my BA from Mills College in 1996 and received a Winemaker’s Certificate from UC Davis in 2008. I am a blogging virgin, so please be patient with me for my very first time.
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!”
July 5th, 2009 at 10:19 am
Martha,
We’re a group of home-winemakers in San Francisco who are considering purchasing Tempranillo grapes from Jed at Cave City Vyds. Would you mind replying to this question?:
Do you feel that we could craft an early-drinking Tempranillo from Jed’s Tempranillo grapes?
PS: We found ourselves at Winterhawk Winery on Father’s Day weekend last month and really enjoyed the Blues Band, Pizza, the Winterhawk wines and Don Johnson’s hospitality. It was a memorable event!
July 13th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Hi Hank,
I got your vm while I was on vacation, today’s my first day back.
I tried to get Jed’s Tempranillo for the ‘08 harvest but he had none available. I am getting it again this year not only because he has some available, but because I am very happy with the ‘07 bottling, which I will release commercially for my own label in September. I put most of it into a Syrah blend, but produced 25 cases of it as a single vineyard designate. It’s that good.
His Temp is absolutely beautiful. They looked like ball bearings when they came in, the clusters were flawless and BIG! The acids and ph were good too. I took mine in at close to 27 brix in September, date escapes me. It produces higher alcohol that is apparent. Does not hide alcohol well like Syrah and Zin can. There is more structure in this Tempranillo than many others I’ve tasted from Spain. Fruit aromas and color is very good, but for me the mid palate needed an elegant barrel and extra time. I wanted to create something serious and complex. As a young red, this fruit will be fabulous. You’re giving me ideas… (j/k)
Best of luck,
Martha
Early drinking red, you say? A rose?
July 17th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
I find this blog very very interesting because I am increasingly fascinated with wine, both as it tastes and how it is created. I too graduated from UC Davis, but at the time I had little interest in wines, so I didn’t take any viticulture and enology classes. Not sure I can pass them anyway, since chemistry and biochem have always plagued me. What is 27 brix–is that a heat reference? I absolutely LOVE your pinot noir and petite syrah and I’m so curious about how you get that exquisite flavor, while so many other wines miss out. Your wines have such definite distinctive flavors, they are just incomparable. The only other wine I’ve found that I like as well is from Doug’s winery, Sunset 2004 Barbarosa. Just outstanding. I’ll be up one of these weekends to ask questions and learn what I can about my favorite wines. P.S. I too love birds! So WinterHawk just had to be my wine.
Jan
December 8th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Hi Jan,
Sorry this reply to your post is so late. Better late than never!
Brix is a measure of sugar density. 27 is very high brix and will result in a fermentation of around and above 15% alcohol.
Glad you loved our 2007 Pinot noir and our 2007 Petite Sirah, they are quickly becoming trademarks for our winery and the Suisun Valley. You should try our very limited production 2007 Meritage. It’s our super high premium with new packaging. Very handsome bottle and even more beautiful wine. A perfect holiday gift for the wine lover looking to have the best from Suisun Valley. Can’t wait to hear what you think of it!
Martha