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Monthly Archives: October 2008
October 27, 2008 – 9:51 am
Oct 26, 2008
The Late Harvest is in, the Tempranillo is fermenting, The Caldwell Syrah and all the Ventana Grenache and Syrah are on the verge of starting to ferment. All is well in the world of JC cellars. All my fermentation locks are bubbling away, finishing primary fermentation and some going through malolatic. All of my employees are starting to wear thin and Dan and I are just tired of being tired. In two weeks it should slow down enough that we both may be able to take a weekend off. I can see the light at the end of …
October 21, 2008 – 5:56 pm
Fess Parker was just pressed off after only 10 days! Fermentation went very fast and hot. Lots of great extraction, but too many whole berries and clusters still left over. So a light pressing of these delicious morsels also was added to the free run. This will give us both depth and structure. To be honest, it just made it a complete wine. Although still not completely dry, we like to finish fermentation in the barrel. We feel this actually allows the wine to integrate,almost like melting into the barrels.
The Ventana Syrah, Grenache and Tempranillo are arriving today and this …
October 17, 2008 – 4:46 pm
As a child, oh heck, even as an adult we want to hang out with the cool kids. In the case of grapes, this would be Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre, Roussanne, Marsanne and Viognier just to name a few.
Many years ago I had the opportunity to work with a grape that seemed to lack respect, a blender, a wallflower and all honestly, not a very popular cool kid. This grape would be Carignane. I used to love to make this wine and drink it, but it just seemed to get blended away, never to see its name on a label …
October 14, 2008 – 3:12 pm
The end looks darn close! We have old vine carignane and grenache coming in this week, even after a chill of 32 degrees. The fruit still looks great. Caldwell is just hanging around, waiting for the perfect moment and the Ventana keeps creeping along, slowly achieving the flavor profile that this vineyard has become so famous for. Oh yeah, the late harvest viognier is happy as can be, sitting in the warmth of the Lodi sun!
In the winery, we have been barreling down wines and watching them slowly tick through primary fermentation, begging to go through malolatic. Patience is a …
October 10, 2008 – 4:29 pm
Bbbrrrrrrrrrr,
It was cold as hell this morning, by the way, what kind of saying is that anyway? I mean I thought hell was hot. Well, that’s another thought for another time, let’s get on to what really matters at hand. That would be the cold weather and what this means to me as a wine maker and what is happening in the vineyard. The answer to both is that it’s really cold at the winery and that it really is time to bring the last of the red grapes in. Late harvest Viognier seems to be hanging in there.
This …
October 7, 2008 – 2:41 pm
As I write this I know I have 38 tons of fruit hanging on the vines with unpredictable weather in the near future, sunny in the south and cooler with more of a chance of rain in the north. All the reds are getting so close. But we all know, close only counts in horse shoes. Ah, I sometimes feel that it is so close yet so far away……didn’t someone sing about that? Having to wait for fruit is a bit nerve racking, but also allows us to finish other fermentations that are going on. Truth be known, we …
October 3, 2008 – 9:09 am
Harvest so far has gone very well. The only casualties that we have had have been the loss of a water gun and a broken hose until just a bit ago; I decided that twisting my ankle and wacking my knee would add some complexity to the game plan. In all seriousness, everything has been great. We have received so far Musci Syrah, Eagle Point Petite, all the Rockpile sections (including the Petite Syrah), Stagecoach Syrah (half of the normal production, but oh my, does it taste good), Iron Hill Zin, Florence Petite Syrah and also all the Marsanne from …
October 1, 2008 – 10:11 am
Welcome to JC Cellars blog network!
I am your host and winemaker Jeff (Rhones-in-his-Bones-Cohn). To begin with, I will state the obvious. It is harvest time! At JC Cellars this involves being very patient and waiting for just the right moment to pick. At times this can be a game of cat and mouse with the weather going from hot to cold, then warm again and then back to cooling down. This seems to be the price I pay for having cool climate fruit.
I am very excited by this harvest, the fruit looks great and we have some new vineyards we …
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