Two Great Reds Released

Those partial to the signature flavors of our Dry Creek Valley reds have two new reasons to taste and toast with the release of the 2005 Maple Vineyard Zinfandel and the October 7 debut of the 2004 Reserve Cabernet.

	Maple Vineyard

The 2005 Maple Zin began with a September harvest of seven tons of fruit at 24.5 degrees brix, eight percent of which was Petit Sirah. Pressed off after two weeks, it was immediately barreled for malolactic fermentation in cooperage with a medium toast from Francois Freres in St. Romain, France, racked once, and returned to the barrel in January 2006 for continued aging. The result is a smooth and plummy Zin with an unusual cherry-berry quality (versus the typical blackberry/raspberry fruits), subtle white pepper and smoke, and lovely toasted oak in its long finish.

Harvested in the prior September at 25 degrees brix, the fruit for our Reserve Cabernet went into 13 barrels after maceration: eight new thin-staved barrels in the Taransaud Chateau style that had been air dried for three years and produced in the Cognac cooperage, and five neutral thin-staved barrels. Racked twice barrel-to-barrel during a two-year aging regimen, this powerful but refined Cabernet has forward cassis and blackberry fruits, subtle notes of tobacco and leather, and full, round flavors and mouthfeel. Layers of toasted oak complexity, vanillin and nutmeg give it a long finish to savor.

Next time you’re here in Dry Creek Valley, come by and sample these two wonderful releases, each perfectly suited to fall and winter gatherings with family and friends. Better yet, add them to your personal Passalacqua collection! The 2005 Maple Zin is now available for order, and you can claim your allotment of the 2004 Reserve Cab at 877-825-5547 or online.

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The Phantom Returns to the Vineyard with Hollywood Classics

	Franc D'Ambrosio shared Broadway favorites and blockbuster hits with fans and friends in early September.

September 1 marked Phantom Of The Opera star Franc D’Ambrosio’s third-annual visit to the winery for a magical, musical evening. A versatile performer who played the Phantom for over six years on tour and in San Francisco, Franc transported a very lucky audience to Hollywood’s golden age and the classic performances of Fred Astaire, such beloved movie musicals as Singin’ In The Rain and South Pacific, and the silver screen trail of the singing cowboy. Signature numbers from Franc’s appearances in The Godfather III and Phantom were also on the bill.

If you weren’t with us for this sold-out event, call us to get on the ticket reservation list for Franc’s concert appearance here next summer — a very special evening that begins with wine and hors d’oeuvres on the veranda, followed by the performance and an opportunity to meet the artist at a lively post-concert reception. Meanwhile, as Franc is busy bringing his talent and wit to other venues around the country, learn about his latest projects and listen to his beautiful music at www.francdambrosio.com.

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Postcard to Passalacqua

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Winemaker’s Notes: An inside look at harvest and bottling with Margaret Davenport

	Checking the brix levels in our estate Zinfandel vineyard.

Making wine is only one aspect of the wine business, and harvest is probably the most enjoyable time in the winemaking process. It begins as summer winds down, the kids go back to school, and I start trekking through vineyards with my trusty refractometer to check the brix (sugar) levels of ripening grapes. Oh, yes — I also have many clean white buckets, several towels, lots of water and a sharp pruning clipper. It’s hot, sticky, dusty work that’s best done early in the day. A lot of grape eating is involved, some spitting and examining of seeds, and careful skin chewing and sniffing.

The grapes ripen in an orderly progression of varietals, from Sauvignon Blanc to Chardonnay, then the Zins and Cabernet at the very end of the season. Picking begins slowly, but within weeks the winery is full of fermenting juice and the wonderful aromas of wine being made.

A winemaker’s most stressful duty is certainly bottling, as it’s the last chance to directly influence how a wine will “turn out.” Will I do some last-minute fining to balance tannins or protect against oxidation? Will I filter, and if so, how? These are the final winemaking questions.

One thing that makes bottling such a challenge is calculating and ordering all of the packaging supplies months in advance so that they’ll all be in-house and counted before the actual bottling date: labels which need government approval each year, even if only the vintage date and alcohol content change; corks and foils shipped from Spain and Portugal; and the most expensive supply of all, the glass. Did you know that it’s as illegal to overfill a bottle as it is to underfill one?

But once the cork is in the bottle and the wine is protected, I can sigh with relief. During August, we’ve been bottling most of the 2006 vintage and the 2005 vintage Cabernets; only the Cabernet Sauvignon from 2006 will remain in the barrel to age for another year. The 2005 vintage was cooler than 2003 or 2004, and that shows in the elegance, balance, and aging potential of all the wines of 2005, especially the Cabernet. The 2006 vintage, with its very wet spring, foggy summer and longer growing season, was more of a challenge. Growers had to guard against rot by spraying regularly, leafing and crop-thinning. Winemakers were faced with grapes that had a very long hang time. Flavor intensities were more pronounced but the skins were more delicate, arguing against long macerations or skin contact time during red fermentations.

The greater flavor concentration is evident in the white grapes from 2006, too. Longer time on the vine allows greater complexity in grape flavors: the Chardonnays exhibit layers of different tropical fruits, from pineapple to lychee, and the Zins show even more exotic pepper, blackberry/raspberry, and deeper coloration. Perhaps the Cabernet benefits most from a longer, more temperate season, being the last varietal to ripen. Only then does the maturation of flavor and tannin occur synchronously to reach full potential, producing powerful but nuanced results: full fruit of cassis and berry, rich mid-palate, chewy mouthfeel, and a long, smooth, spicy finish.

Truly the hardest part of the bottling process is overseeing the bottling line itself. Imagine working along all day at a pace set by a machine. In reality, all the people and the various mechanical marvels that make up a bottling line must keep pace with the slowest machine — the literal bottleneck. The slowest machine is usually the filler, and when ours runs at capacity, which is about 100 bottles per minute, it doesn’t seem slow at all. The goal, of course, is to allow it to keep filling bottles as fast as it can and then successfully get the corks into the bottles. At that point, the wine is protected and I can deal with whatever happens downstream with the foiling machine (notorious for its ability to wrinkle rather than smooth the capsules), or the labeler or case printer.

To get an idea of what it’s like when things go awry, think of Lucy and Ethel working on the candy assembly line or the Keystone Cops rushing to a bank robbery. On the bottling line, the people involved are usually the winemaker, always responsible for quality control, and the hapless bottling line mechanic and cellar master. First of all, we’re always screaming because the machines are noisy, the bottles are clanking along, and there’s always a forklift running and a radio blaring tunes from a Latin AM station. And if a problem arises and the foiler malfunctions, it means we have to scream louder, point at the offending machine, and then run at it brandishing tools and other objects, often razor blades for cutting off wrinkled foil. The first person at the scene flings open the Plexiglas safety doors meant to protect our hair and extremities from the swiftly moving gears and thingamajigs that make up the foiler. The second to arrive pushes the panic button to stop the machine, while the third person turns it back on in order to diagnose the problem. Then the other two are free to dive at the full, corked bottles that are backing up between the corker and the foiler and at risk of falling off onto the wet concrete floor, and grab them off the line and set them down carefully. This is all happening at the speed of 100 bottles per minute and it’s not pretty, especially if the foiler can’t be put right in a matter of seconds.

The other extreme situation on the bottling line occurs when everything runs perfectly. It becomes easy to understand the concept of falling asleep while standing up, watching the endless line of bottles roll by, with smoothly rolled foils and perfectly aligned labels…Something must be wrong somewhere! Maybe it’s time for me to recount all of the supplies and reconcile inventory with case goods coming off of the line. Or I could scrape off damaged labels and send the bottles through the labeler again.

Farmer’s Corner

Tom & Sandi Passalacqua

The 2007 vineyard climate is a viticulturist’s dream — warm days (80 to 90 degrees), cool nights (50 to 56 degrees), and early morning fog that burns off before midday. The current growing conditions provide the optimum hang time formula that allows the farmer to deliver the perfect grape to the winery.

This year, bud break was no different than in the last three years, being even and very early — March 15. Thankfully, there have been no heat spikes. (Remember the 15-day heat spike in July 2006 that resulted in temperatures ranging between 100 and 119 degrees?) The consistent, gradual warming trend since March is resulting in an even grape maturation. The quality of the grape juice should be very high depending on the hang time in August, September, and October. Verasion (color of the fruit) is near completion, and most farmers are now dropping (removing) clusters of grapes that have not developed full bunch colors. Why? To ensure the quality of the fruit. Most farmers drop the initial ten percent of the grapes that color and the last ten to fifteen percent that are not colored. If you don’t drop fruit in the initial and last stages of development, you’ll have fruit in several stages of maturation — from raisins or overripe berries (the initial 10 percent or more) to grapes with low brix (the last 10 to 15 percent) that causes a green, vegetative taste.

When removing fruit to ensure even maturation, the workers are also dropping fruit that may be bunched together, allowing more air circulation around each bunch as well as maximum exposure to sunlight. Another method of maximizing the exposure is pulling more leaves in the fruit zone and/or raising the trellis wire. If Mother Nature set a heavy crop, the ground may be black with all of the red grapes that have been removed. The next time you’re at the winery, look at the area between the rows in the Zinfandel vineyard — Jason dropped approximately two tons per acre there.

The 2007 crop yield is believed to be below average and definitely below the 2005 yields. Blossoms were plentiful but shattered, and berry set was uneven. Experienced old-timers believe the cause for this “bloom shatter” was the sustained, heavy wind that blew through the valley, and as a result, there are loose bunches with some berries that will stay green with off flavors. Viticulturists endeavoring to raise a high-quality grape, inspect each bunch several times from commencement of verasion to harvest, consistently manicuring the hanging fruit.

So now we wait, with high expectations. The early white grapes should kick off the harvest in late August or early September, but if the wet and windy weather patterns predicted for the latter part of August come to fruition, the commencement of harvest will be extended. Remember, 24 or 25 brix does not mean that all of the flavors — ripe cherry, blackberry, spices, etc. — have developed. The 2005 grape-growing season was one of the best in the last 15 years, and the quality of the 2007 harvest may just equal or exceed it.