Vino In My Dino

Harvesting an Icon

August 31, 2016 12:17

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Our 89th harvest began two weeks ago. Today the vineyard crew picked several blocks on the home ranch. For us harvest doesn't really begin until our Mother Clone Zinfandel is brought in to the winery. Our flagship varietal, planted here in the early 1900s, is our iconic wine, the star of each vintage. Sourced from what is now second generation vineyard, the vines are nearly 40 years old and planted on the hillsides around the winery. A toast in my Dino with a splash of Zinfandel!

Here is a glimpse into the action. You get the idea going from vine to vine how intensive it is to pick grapes. Each bucket is run back to the gondola waiting at the end of the row.

First stop for the gondola is at the weigh station and for a sugar sample. Manuel Diaz, vineyard foreman, takes the sample to winemaker Montse for testing.

A cup of beautiful Zinfandel juice, ready for analysis.

The results are in! Manuel guessed 25 degrees Brix-the sugar level of the sample and he was right.

A short trip from the scale to the crushpad, 2016 Mother Clone is destemmed and sent to fermentation tank. This is when I wish we had smell-o-vision, the ripe fruit is so tantalizing.

The beginning of fermentation. We'll follow tank #102 as it begins its' wine journey.

Tags: Pedroncelli, Zinfandel, Mother Clone
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First Crush: Harvest Memories

August 25, 2016 12:31

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My uncle John was winemaker for nearly 60 years. His first crush, 1948, was captured in the oral history J. Pedroncelli Winery: An Ongoing Family Tradition about that first year on the job as winemaker. He had just completed his World War II service and attended Santa Rosa Junior College. He was ready for his first harvest.

“Well it was (a monster crush) for three people. We crushed maybe 800 plus tons of grapes with the three of us, and the good part about it was that we had only one red variety to do. We didn’t have to separate any varieties. Now we need to separate all these different varieties and it takes a lot more work. So we got the grapes crushed that year and probably sold it in bulk to someone. We were selling a lot of bulk to Italian Swiss Colony, Petri and Gallo was on the scene. We weren’t making a lot of money doing that, probably got about forty-two cents a gallon for it. I don’t remember what the price of grapes was at the time.”

Brother Jim filled in the pricing: “I think grapes peaked out at $120 a ton during the war, then they dropped down to $40 or $50 a ton. I remember that one batch of wine I think we sold for about thirty-two cents a gallon.”

John continued, “The cooperage was all redwood tanks. In future years, 1955 or 1956, we got our stainless steel tanks. But in the forties everything was redwood including the fermentation tanks.

Winemaking used the standard old-style method, adding yeast. I had a helper from Fessler Laboratories who tested all our wines for us. He took the sugar and alcohol, which are things I didn’t do at the time. I had the poor guy do every fermenter, which was up and beyond the call of necessity.”

A toast to John with some Zinfandel-which comprised the ‘red variety’ he refers to in the oral history.

Here John is standing in the cellar with his father Giovanni. The redwood tank to his left was one of many that lined the cellar. This photo is circa early 1950s.

Tags: Pedroncelli, Zinfandel, generations, generational
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Harvest 2016 Begins

August 17, 2016 12:39

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We began our 89th harvest with Sauvignon Blanc from our East Side Vineyards located a mile west of the winery. We started harvest on the same date one year ago!

Here are some snapshots from the big event:

Winemaker Montse testing for Brix at the harvest lab. Measured 23.5-nice and ripe.

Next stop is the crush pad for destemming.

From the destemmer into the press-the rice hulls you see are part of the process to make sure we get all the juice from the skins (and the hulls are inert and add no flavor to the wine).

The 2016 vintage of our Sauvignon Blanc has been pressed, the juice flowing into the sump and on its' way to the fermentation tank. Let the vintage begin!

Tags: Pedroncelli, Sauvignon Blanc, Harvest
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Harvest Memories: The Winemaking Team

August 16, 2016 12:47

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Cellar Master Hipolito Cano

His first harvest was 1990 having spent the previous two years out in the vineyard. He says it was a ‘pressure cooker’ situation because he had to learn as he went along. Going from tanks to presses to crushpad he did his best to keep up with everyone too busy to stop and explain. He became a quick study.

John Pedroncelli always advocated the team effort. He noted the cellar crew is great and it is a plus having a team that has a few years of experience behind them. It is like a well-oiled machine and they are motivated to get the task done and lend a hand when needed. He compared harvest time to being a singer and having stage fright right before going on stage-the happy day is coming and once it is here you begin to sing and everything is in tune. You find the melody and keep singing.

It doesn’t matter how prepared you are, harvest always takes us by surprise. Each year is a new challenge but I’m eager to take on the challenge.

Vineyard Manager Lance Blakeley

From early to late harvests it’s the best part of the year. There is more of a laser focus because you are doing one thing at harvest-picking grapes when at other times of the year you are multitasking. Harvest focuses the efforts on one thing: grapes which are the foundation of wine.

He noted there are lots of characters when it comes to our history of grape growers and cellar workers who have been part of our harvests. One grower brought their grapes in an old truck bed on top of their pick up-a challenge when it came time to empty the grapes into the crusher. We were often the first place growers sold their grapes to and some have stayed and others moved along to other wineries or even started their own winery.

He remembers the first time we received machine harvested grapes and reminisced that John Pedroncelli didn’t like the quality in the fruit. He noted machine harvesting has come a long way in preserving quality but back then it was pretty rough and created lots of juice and fermentation happening before the must went into the tank. He also feels that white wine varietals can handle being machine harvested while red wine varietals seem to keep better quality when hand-picked. Every vintage brings different challenges (weather, low or high production, rain, heat) and is expressed in our wines and is due in large part to hand picking our vineyards.

Winemaker Montse Reece

It was 1993 and her first harvest experience was while studying winemaking at university. It took place at a small wine cooperative in the Penedés. She had one other cellar guy working with her and the winemaker was 100 kilometers away-but she had his phone number! She learned a lot by her experience there bringing in white and red wine grapes and making all the decisions about fermentation. She called the winemaker many times for guidance and ultimately the wines were guided by her hand.

She is married to Ferrari-Carano Winery's maintenance manager Pat Reece so harvest is a time to balance their lives-they have a seven year old daughter Marion who needs time with Mom and Dad. Sometimes she comes to work on Saturdays and experiences a work day with mom.

The first year she worked with John Pedroncelli they were talking about when to bring in the grapes from a particular vineyard. It looked like Sunday would be the best time to harvest them but John advised Montse: “People are first.” He felt giving them a day off, after working so hard, would be best. “The grapes will be fine-we’ll harvest on Monday.” She says he was revolutionary because he didn’t push people over their limits and this concept is very unusual during the busy harvest time.

A toast to our winemaking crew-with some Sauvignon Blanc in my Dino-since this is the first varietal we pick each harvest.

Here is a throwback photo since John was an integral part of putting the team together. Here he is amidst his 'crew': Hipolito, John, Montse and Lance.

Tags: Pedroncelli, Sauvignon Blanc
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Harvest Memories Part 2

August 10, 2016 12:55

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My family and I grew up in the middle of things, literally, since our home was ‘wine central’ to the vineyards and winery. While there were many activities throughout the year I think harvest was the most exciting. It is the culmination of hard work getting the vineyard ready and sitting on pins and needles while watching the weather throughout and always hoping the rain stayed away until after the last grape was picked.

My mom Phyllis remembers weighing in the trucks during the first harvest after they had moved into the family home. At that time grapes were picked into wooden boxes that came stacked high on truck beds. When my sister Joanna was born in 1966 mom recalls taking her in her infant seat to weigh the grapes, watching from her perch nearby. Many of the Italian growers brought more than grapes and the chestnuts, mushrooms and other fall crops were left for the family to enjoy. The names rolled off her tongue like it was yesterday: Capucci, Zini, Buchignani, Teldeschi, Pedroni and Glaser (the German in the bunch).

My sister Lisa remembers the sweetness in the air of juice just before fermentation followed by the pervasive smell of fermenting grapes which is quite pungent. Also the constant noise of the equipment running nearly around the clock. The gruff Italian growers would visit the tasting room once their grapes were weighed in and on the crushpad. Lisa would pour them a standard tasting sample and they’d tell her it was a drink they were after not a taste, so fill it up! We both recalled when we’d take grapes up to the house and ‘make wine’ by squeezing them into our plastic wine glasses from our plastic dinner ware set. Pretty certain we left a sticky mess on the table. Sorry mom!

Cousin Richard, who also grew up on the family property, recounts the bees, the heat, sweat, stickiness, blood, thirst and all-around hard work of being a go-fer in the vineyard and cellar. He remembered when some growers would throw the sweetest grapes on top and objected when he took the sample from the whole load. They wanted their sugar sample to be high-back then they were paid on how ripe the grapes were. I think he says it best here “The smell of must will stay with me for the rest of my life.”

I'll toast to another round of memories with a splash of Cabernet in my Dino.

Here is the typical grape box Phyllis Pedroncelli remembers, this one from our own stash. Imagine 30 or 40 of these being emptied one at a time into the crusher-back breaking work!

Tags: Pedroncelli, Cabernet Sauvignon
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Harvest Memories

August 2, 2016 12:59

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Growing up in the middle of the vineyards and winery has imprinted many sights, sounds, and smells over the years. The earliest memory of harvest I have is the smell of fermenting wine. It is hard to miss when you live right next to the cellar and the pungent aromas have been woven into my life for over 50 years. My family moved to our home at the winery in 1965 after my grandparents had built their retirement home just a hop and a few skips from the winery-in the middle of our Mother Clone Zinfandel vineyard in fact.

Our estate vineyard is all hand-picked so there is usually a small army of 15-25 grape pickers going through as quickly as possible and the speed at which they would move from vine to vine made the whole vineyard come alive. When I was younger I tried my hand at ‘harvest’ by going out and picking second crop Zinfandel with my sisters-we used wheelbarrows and buckets to bring in the bunches and proudly stopped at the weigh station to find out how many pounds we had picked-I think is was around 15 pounds-if that. We were so happy to be a part of what my dad and uncle did.

I also remember just after I first began working for the family business, in the tasting room, wanting to learn more about the winemaking process. So during the 1987 harvest I weighed and tested grapes as they arrived at the weigh station. I would listen and watch for gondolas of grapes from my office and meet the tractors to begin the process. I learned quite a bit by being at the start of grape crush, from weighing the grapes (which is serious business because the government watches this closely) to testing juice samples from the particular load of grapes checking for sugar with a refractometer as well as total acidity and pH, two other indicators of quality of a load of grapes.

More recollections to come as we make our way towards the 2016 harvest. A toast to memories with a bit of Zinfandel in my Dino!

The sampling process from last year-the bucket with the crushed Sauvignon Blanc and the juice sample representing the load of grapes-ready to be tested.

Tags: Pedroncelli, Harvest, Sauvignon Blanc, Zinfandel
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Blackberry Ramble

July 8, 2016 13:07

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Blackberries are THE fruit of summertime for me! When I was growing up here at the winery we used to make blackberry jam by the pint, usually helping my grandmother by seeding the berries before they became jam in a huge colander. Our home was infused by the sweet smell of berry jam bubbling on the stove. In later years the blackberry component in Zinfandel was always easily recognizable to me, easy to pick out in the aromas and flavors of this grape and I attribute this to my experience picking the ripe berries and making them into jam in our kitchen.

One Christmas my aunt and uncle gave our son Joe the book Blackberry Ramble. I will be bringing this book to read to our grandsons while we vacation in Truckee this month. Coincidentally blackberries were a theme at Joe and Ashley's July wedding a few years ago as it was part of the message delivered by Ed when he presided over their marriage.

Earlier this week Ed and I took our own ramble to the blackberry patch along Canyon Road. It is the simple things in life like berries with which we celebrate birthdays (Ed) anniversaries (Joe and Ashley) and a first triathlon (Adrienne). I look forward to our time away so with some Zinfandel in my Dino, I’ll toast summertime and vacation-may we all relax and count our blessings!

Freshly picked blackberries-the smell was heavenly and brought me back to my childhood. Destined for Blackberry Crisp and blackberry ice cream!

Tags: Pedroncelli, Recipe
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Feeling the Heat

July 6, 2016 13:21

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Red wine in the summertime? Some say it is too hot but here are my ideas to make it more enjoyable.

In the early years of representing our winery at public events I was pouring at an outdoor wine tasting in mid-July. It was a HOT summer afternoon. I recall it was a focused event on Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon hence the inclusion of red wine on a hot afternoon. The sun was glaring off of our tables and bottles as we poured and visited with the attendees, making our Cabernet too warm. One of the attendees said “be a Boy Scout, come prepared” and told me to ice down the Cab. I proceeded to cool it down-even though a part of me was shocked at ‘chilling’ red wine.

The effects of a warm red wine are not pleasant in the glass. Any of the alcohol will start to throw off unpleasant aromas as you swirl your glass. Aroma is our introduction to the wine and when too warm won’t give us the best side of the wine and doesn’t taste good either. Our goal, as wine imbibers, is to make sure all aspects of wine service are covered. No matter whether you are on a picnic, at a backyard BBQ, dining in a restaurant or sitting on your front porch if it is a warm day be that Boy Scout and come prepared.

The secret is not to chill red wine all the way down. You want what is considered ‘cellar’ temperature which is between 55 and 60 degrees. When it is 95F outside your bottle typically follows suit. Achieving close to cellar temperature is easy-all it takes is a container, water and ice. Water helps distribute the cooling effects of the ice more quickly-and we all want access to our glass of wine fast, right? Even some restaurants store their red wines too close to the hot kitchen so don’t be afraid to ask for the ice bucket and set your bottle there for a few minutes to cool it back down. The key in all cases is a few minutes-more than that will close down the aromas and flavors. You can always put the wine back in for a quick dip if needed. So with that advice, I’ll pour a little Cabernet in my Dino and toast our warm summer nights.

Ice, ice baby. Enjoy a (slightly) chilled bottle tonight!

Tags: Pedroncelli, Cabernet Sauvignon
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Vineyard View: Crop Set

June 30, 2016 13:26

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Bud break is a distant memory, bloom in May was without any problems and now the vineyard crew is catching up on shoot thinning and drip irrigation as summer begins. The push is on as canes grow longer and bunches of grapes get bigger and fill out. Their next stop is veraison, when the berries begin to soften and color up. This is expected to begin in earnest by the first week of July, right on schedule.

“More than we expected” is the general feeling about crop set for this vintage as I visited with vineyard manager Lance Blakeley. With plenty of rain and a slight recovery from the drought period we have an average crop on the vine. There won’t be much thinning of bunches on estate vineyards-just a bit in our Sangiovese, for instance, where bunches are touching. If not addressed now it will lead to bunch rot as the season progresses.

Mother Clone Zinfandel, planted on the home ranch since the early 1900s and now is mostly a second generation vineyard, is showing average crop size which, for this hillside vineyard, is 3-4 tons per acre. Lance Blakeley, vineyard manager, noted the bunches are quite elongated on many of the head pruned vines, something you don't always see on our vines.

Three Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon, planted a mile west of the winery since the 1990s, has set up what is considered an average crop with an expected 5-6 ton per acre. Why the difference in tonnage? Our Cabernet vineyard is planted on a different style of trellising than the head pruned Zinfandel and develops the arms of the vine straight out with more spurs for production. A toast to the season with either our Mother Clone Zinfandel or Three Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon in my Dino. It seems it's a toss up between the two.

Mother Clone Zinfandel with the iconic 'wing' on the right.

Mother Clone Zinfandel with elongated bunches we're seeing this season.

Three Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon crop set 2016. Note the berries have more room than the Zinfandel which is tightly packed.

Tags: Pedroncelli, Mother Clone, Cabernet Sauvignon
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Rosé in 140 Characters

June 22, 2016 13:34

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Thanks to @winestudio and @lusciouslushes I was asked to take part in the Sonoma Rosé Revolution on June 21st. I participated in an hour long tweet-fest with bloggers across the U.S. over the bottle of our 2015 Dry Rosé of Zinfandel each of them had received. What fun it was to type madly trying to answer everyone’s questions. My fingers needed a break an hour later. Thankfully I was able to lift my wine glass for a last sip of Rosé!

Here are some of the questions and answers in 140 characters or less:

“Intentional Rosés: Rosés are what they are-or are they?”

I think Rosés are in a class by themselves-not quite red not quite white but like Goldilocks they are just right.

Our Dry Rosé of Zinfandel is not a mistake and never was. It was our (my grandfathers') intention to introduce a Rosé to our line of wines.

“Do you feel Zin has a bad reputation for Rosé?”

Just a bit-raised eyebrows but then they taste it and know there is a difference.

It ain't your grandmother's White Zin.

“Should there be specific rosé criteria?”

I'd hate to put rules down for rosé. It is in a class by itself and even with Chardonnay you have a full spectrum.

“Any life lessons you’d like to share?”

Patience is a virtue. Wisdom comes from time and experience. Intuition is the guiding hand.

Family, great vineyards and authentic wines. Our way of life is the reason our wines are remarkable.

Some comments from the hundreds of tweets we all shared:

Top takeaways from #winestudio tonight - let #rosé warm a little, #rosé goes with many foods & old zin vines make great #rosé

What a great informative show tonight. Oh and the wine wasn't to shabby either LOL.

Color is key! The color of this wine is gorgeous.

These ripely fruited, fleshy rosés with mouthwatering acidity pair nicely with barbecue fare (and more importantly, thick, sweeter sauces). Yum!

Keeps evolving with subtle nuances. Well made wine. #winestudio

Follow @Pedroncelli you’ll see the whole online discussion. Here’s hoping I get to do this again. In the meantime, a toast to summer and the perfect wine for it: Dry Rosé of Zinfandel.

And now for some photos that were shared throughout the hour:

Rosé of Zin & Carbonara from @ArtPredator

@Fiery01Red tempted us with Lamb Chops

@ToledoWinesandVines grilled up salmon-one of my favorite pairings.

Tags: Pedroncelli, Rosé
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