Fermentation, Picking, and Sleep

Picking Sunday and yesterday went very well. Four of us on each day took our time searching for only the ripest fruit and the results have been great. The sugars are strong, the color is deep and the flavors beautiful.

The pace has allowed for good nights sleep so far, but the middle of the night punch downs start today.

We'll pick again tomorrow and Saturday (and enjoying a taco party with my folks in town) and take a break allowing the fruit to continue down the path of ripening fully. I'll use this time to catch-up on the winemaking, and press the Carignane just before picking again next weekend (out of towner sleep-over weekend).

I'm really slammed for space this year with extra barrels, and bins filling with must - I've had to kick out tables, bottles and anything else that took floor space.

Toucan Wines Zin Harvest

Harvest began here on the Toucan farm this past Sunday. The first Zinfandel fruit came into the winery looking great and the sugars and flavors are terrific.

This week we'll be harvesting nearly everyday to get the vineyard picked at the perfect ripeness.

24 Hours of Carignane

12:30am Friday, Sept. 5th starts the 24 hour Carignane road trip. Two guys, one truck and trailer and 5,ooo lb of old vine Carignane.

Little sleep, XM radio and hundreds of miles to drive - it's the middle of night towing a flat bed and driving in Bob's Luxury-Truck. We arrive in Oakley at 5:30 in the morning and weigh in at the local scale and grab a quick bite and coffee at the only place open - micky-d's.

Picking starts on time but our picking slot is delayed, so I use the time to clean bins while Bob snaps a few shots of the old vines in the Evangelho vineyard. The fruit finally comes out of the field and it looks great. Once loaded and the 6 bins are tied down - were maybe an hour and a half behind my schedule. In route back toward 101 south we cleverly use the delay to our favor and stop in Dublin for BBQ at an old favorite of mine Armadillo Willies. We arrive just as they open.

Back on the road and after a few miles we do a driver switch. Now I'm behind the wheel of the Lux-Truck pulling the fruit to make the next Toucan Wines Carignane. Looking back I notice what seems to be grapes flying off the trailer. Turned out to be what was left of a trailer tire. I pull over, fortunate that the other tire held the weight on this loaded 9000 lb trailer, facing another delay at getting these grapes safely in the winery.

On the side of the road in Gilroy, 100 degrees outside, and after a run-around from a local towing service we hook-up with Bruce's Tire who get to us in 10 minutes, replaces the tire, checks the pressure all around - putting us back on the road. Of course it didn't hurt that Bob had high-speed Internet access and a computer in the Lux-Truck to find the right resource.

Bob's back behind the wheel, XM Radio, and we're jamming to get to the nearest dry-ice store before closing. Arriving back at the Toucan farm we unload the bins and noticed one of the other tires on the trailer was starting to separate and had gone flat. That was our second lucky break.

We crushed the fruit (with the kind help of neighbor Paul and Terrie of course), and cleaned up the mess of leafs, fruit pieces, and bins.

Once finished for the night and a beer in my hand I was able to look back at one of the craziest 24 hours in recent memory.

A big thank you to Bob for joining me on wine-train trip, his Lux-Truck, trailer, Internet from the road, and a successful 24 hours of Carignane.

Also thank you to Paul for hanging with us way into the evening to get the crush finished.

These pictures taken by Bob are 120 year old Zinfandel vines in the Evangelho vineyard.

September: Harvest Time

Harvest season is here and the picking has started all over the central coast. Our weather has been perfect for ripening grapes over the last week. We're dry and very warm and the fruit is nearly ready for harvest.

We're working on the last minute prep as harvest is nearly here. Terrie is recoating the press with a food grade epoxy, I tore apart the destemmer and cleaned it top to bottom, all the bins, and tools have been cleaned. The new barrels, yeasts, nutrients are all here waiting and I think we're ready to go.

Yesterday the rails for our barrel hoist system arrived and today we'll power spray those and paint them before installation. This hoist will enable a three barrel height in our barrel room - necessary as we leave our wines longer in barrel.

This time of year is perfect for celebrating harvest and the long year of work in the vineyard. This photo taken by a guest while I talk with our dinner guests about the vineyard and it's progress. Above, the netted vineyard stands out over the back drop of our home. Thanks Morley for the pictures.

Overall the vineyard looks good and the crop is developing nicely. Harvest will be the key, we'll work through the vineyard with several passes to capture only the ripest fruit.

Weird weather, harvest begins on the Central Coast...

I'm on break from shuffling case goods around to make room for more barrels in the barrel room.

The weird weather, over the past couple of weeks, has brought humid days and even a little rain. It's started to feel like fall (and we're still in August), cooler nights and morning fog are the norm these past several nights. The long warm days never materialized with the exception of the two seasonal heat waves. The days have been warm but not hot - just very pleasant. This will extend the growing season and pay us back with high quality.

Our harvest is still on track for late September and October, but earlier this week Edna Valley began harvesting Pinot Noir and later this week Zinfandel will be harvested in Paso Robles.

Winemaking Preparation

Planning is a funny thing, some folks do it at the last minute while others plan the details long in advance - I think I'm somewhere in between.

Winemaking definitely requires some advanced thought. Barrels are often ordered in the spring to capture early order discounts, while specialty yeasts are ordered before they sell out. And other supplies need to be in stock before the grapes are ready. If grapes are purchased that relationship requires plenty of advanced communication.

Fortunately, I have a wonderful barrel connection with Demptos and love their barrels and the first of our barrels have just arrived. Also, today yeasts arrived and next week I'll gather the remaining supplies from a local lab. I'm building great anticipation for this year's harvest and have every hope for a stellar year from our estate vineyard.

Allow me a brief sales note - we've sold out of 2006 Carignane and we're just about sold out of 2006 Petite Sirah, we still have a little of our award-winning 2005 Estate Zinfandel and more of the 2006 Toucan Cuvee. Please look for our wines at these fine restaurants and wine shops, and know that you are always welcome to call me here at the winery for availability info and to

order directly from us.

Our only bottled and unreleased wine, the 2006 Estate Zinfandel (very limited with 123 cases produced) will release later this year. Our 2007 wines will remain in barrel through harvest and estate bottled this winter.

It's all about the wait...

We've done everything we could - we pruned and pulled the cuttings, we treated for wintering spores, we carefully suckered every vine, we mowed and kept the vineyard clean, we sprayed to avoid mildew, leaf pulled, trimmed heavy growth, weeded, and now that we've seen color - we netted.

What a relief, now the hard part - the wait. For the next 6-8 weeks I'll worry, second guess what I could have done different, and what I should do next year. Here's hoping for the best!

Samantha (Sam) - our first farm dog

Samantha 2001-2008

She lived a great dog's life on the farm.

July has us hopping

We spent the first part of July cleaning out weeds from the vineyard, I can really get obsessed with this duty. We just finished three days of leaf removal and thinning, the result of heavy growth on the last few vines in every rows. Today I mowed for the last time this year in preparation for netting.

The weather has been nice, but windy - in the 80's and a little humid (for the California coast). This past weekend we poured at the Central Coast Wine Classic - always a good time. And the 27th of the month we pour at A Taste of Camarillo.

The vineyard is looking good but one section has suffered from shattered clusters. maybe the result will be a light harvest. This was likely the result of several days of frost during spring bloom. Fingers are crossed that the weather holds out and we enjoy another great harvest.

Getting things done in July

We're getting the normal warm weather with a little wind. The closest fire is the Gap fire in Goleta about 90 miles away. We've seen some haze from this fire and we smell some smoke depending on the direction of the wind. Friends in town mentioned they see a little ash on their cars in the morning. We always worry about fire this time of year, in our small canyon we only have one way out and escape could be dangerous. This coming week will bring another heat wave to the central coast - let's hope fire fighters can make progress before then.

The vines are looking good, growth is slowing in the vines and the grasses have mostly gone to straw. July will include some hoeing in the vineyard, a final mowing, and prep for netting in early August. In the winery we'll be working to install a lift system in the barrel room and begin servicing equipment in preparation for harvest in September.