Vino In My Dino

Taking the Cellar's Temperature

February 4, 2016 17:47

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If it is February then it must be barrel time. This is one of the busiest months in our barrel room for the cellar crew. Led by Hipolito Cano, our cellar master, the 2014 wines that have aged for one year are being emptied to make room for the new vintage of 2015. An important aspect of our barrel room is its’ temperature especially while aging 2000 barrels.

Rule of thumb for cellar temperature is more or less 55 degrees Fahrenheit. This is used for keeping barrels at the right temperature for slowly aging the wine during its 12 month stint. For bottled wines you’d like to cellar this is also the rule. In the case of barrel aging, if the temperature is higher-let’s say by 5 or 10 degrees, the wine would age faster than if kept at a lower temperature. Too low and it will slow it down even more but not give those microorganisms that age the wine the right temperature. The same can be said for that bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon you’ve been aging.

If you have followed me for a while you’ll know I reference Bern’s Steakhouse in Tampa Florida. If you are a wine lover make this part of your bucket list. Some of the wines on their list go back to the 1800s and they are in great condition. The reason? The cellar is kept at a very low temperature-40 degrees. They give you a tour too-take a parka! So we’ll keep our cellar at just the right temperature. Now for a splash of Cabernet in my Dino, cellar temperature of course!

Today's temperature-taken after barrel work. The temperature will go down as the evening sets in with vents opening to the night air, capturing natural air conditioning.

Tags: Pedroncelli, Barrel aging, Barrel
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Terrific Terroir

February 3, 2016 17:52

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I attended a two day event in Chicago this week. One was a consumer focused tasting held as a benefit for a local charity. I enjoyed talking to all the attendees but one particular taster had a question about what exactly ‘terroir’ is when you taste a wine. I even joked with the gentleman about the pronunciation-rhymes with Pinot Noir-which I happened to be pouring.

Last month I talked about the climate and micro climates and wrote about how important these were to the character of our wines. Terroir is one step beyond micro climates. You may be familiar with the word ‘umami’ which is a category of taste in the food world (besides sweet, salty, bitter and sour). Terroir is the umami of the wine world. We have soil, we have sun, we have fog and then this French term for character or the taste of place, a very specific place. It has the roots of the word earth (terra) so is tied to how soil and place affect the vines are firmly ensconced in the word.

I have read of people visiting vineyards where they will taste the soil or rocks. I haven’t tasted any rocks or soil lately and I am not sure I’d be able to identify the ‘terroir’ of our land in a glass of our wine. Taken in the context of ‘je ne sais quoi’ I’d say there is a certain something which defines our wines and sometimes you can’t put your finger on exactly the difference. I say "vive le terroir" and enjoy a splash of Zinfandel in my Dino!

Terroir in our Mother Clone vineyard-the steep hillside, gnarly vines and Dry Creek Valley rocks make a delicious Zinfandel.

Tags: Pedroncelli, Mother Clone
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Degree Days

January 29, 2016 17:55

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My posts for the month of January have been devoted to our winegrowing climate. Today I will focus on degree days. They are important to growing grapes because they determine how the climate of a particular place is in sync with what will grow well there. Wikipedia says, “A degree day is a measure of heating or cooling. Total degree days from an appropriate starting date are used to plan the planting of crops and management of pests and pest control timing.”

Dry Creek Valley is ranked as a Region II. This means there are between 2501 to 3000 growing-degree days. This is the way wine growing regions are classified and was developed by A. J. Winkler and M. Amerine in 1944 at UC Davis (go Aggies). How they defined the method was by taking the sum of degree days over 50 degrees Fahrenheit from April 1 until October 31. This is how Regions 1-V were born.

As quoted from their definition, "It is believed that Region I and II are the best for most varietals as they produce the best dry table wines with light to medium body and good balance." When looking at Region V, which has the highest heat over the time period, this would not be considered the best for wine grapes at over 4000 degree days. I’ll wrap up with a toast to my grandparents for finding this hospitable corner of Dry Creek Valley 88 years ago.

Region II in Dry Creek Valley-a summertime view of our Cabernet Sauvignon.

Tags: Pedroncelli, Cabernet Sauvignon, Dry Creek Valley
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Fog Blog

January 27, 2016 17:58

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Fog makes up a significant part of climate here in wine country. It is what makes summer nights into cool evenings. The ripening grapes benefit from the marine fog intrusion by cooling down the vineyard. The temperatures, typically in the 90s during the day at the hottest point, quickly cool down to 50 degrees or so because of the fog.

Today I’ll be talking about the two types of fog we have here in California: radiation fog and advection fog. The first type comes in the wintertime and the second in the summer. In fact it is the cooling down of the vineyards from the advection fog in thanks to the marine influence just 30 or so miles to our west combined with a deep crevice along our Sonoma Coast making the water even colder hence creation of this type of summer morning and evening fog.

Advection provides us with Tule Fog-famous in Sonoma County in my younger days for blanketing the stretch between Healdsburg and Windsor, the town to the south. I haven't seen much of it in the last decade or so in this area although while out on my walk at 6am today there was quite a layer-obliterating the waning moon. You find it mostly situated in and around San Francisco. I found a video of it for you here by our local ABC news station. The vines don’t need much cooling in the winter but the beauty of it is indeed striking.

Remember Carl Sandburg’s poem Fog?

The fog comes

on little cat feet.

It sits looking

over harbor and city

on silent haunches

and then moves on.

I think this is the perfect image of winter fog. A toast to our unique California climate and all that it brings to our wines!

The photo below captures the winter fog as the vineyard crew prepares for erosion control measures.

Tags: Pedroncelli, weather
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Winter and Erosion

January 22, 2016 18:02

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As I walk around the vineyards during the rainy season one concern on my mind is erosion. I keep my eyes on the hills and vineyard rows as does the vineyard crew. We’ve had slippage in years past. Erosion is a fact of life during any winter season. As rain accumulates either in a large storm or over a number of days once in a while you have a hill slip or a vineyard row collapse. When I was 10 years old or so my sisters and I watched as the hill beside our home split in the middle-a big event because we thought the mud was going to reach our house. It didn't and the hillside has been planted to zinfandel for many years, helping to bring stability there.

To mitigate these from happening we do a number of things in the vineyard. Most important is the cover crop that actually helps hold the ground together. Straw mulch will also protect the vineyard by applying before the rains. When I write about a vineyard crew’s work is never done this is why it is a year round project. Once the grapes have been picked it is time to stabilize the vineyard by planting cover crop and if needed adding straw on some of the roads or rows. We even have employed the use of grape stems on some of the vineyard roads to help provide important coverage. All in all is boils down to being good stewards of the land at all times. A splash of vino in my dino to the rain and all it brings.

The top of the hill looking over the home ranch. You can see the cover crop is doing its' job.

Tags: Pedroncelli, weather
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Weathering storms & media reports

January 20, 2016 18:06

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Climate and other aspects of weather remain the focus of my posts with El Niño in my sights today. When you are a weather watcher like me, with vineyards hanging in the balance during our four years of drought and as we hope and pray for more rain, the conflicting reports about whether El Niño weather is going to stay strong or fizzle out are frustrating. Just last week a headline declared the end of El Niño and this week the media is back at it, trumpeting the amount of rain dumped on Northern California, indicating the pattern is here to stay through March. Hmmm. Once I did a bit of digging around for more information it all made sense, thanks to two websites I visited: WattsUpWithThat.com and GGweather.com (Golden Gate Weather Services). While there is definitely an El Niño pattern it may not be the strongest. And for heaven’s sake don’t call it a storm because the definition of El Niño is our overall climate is affected by the warming of the waters near the equator outside of Peru which in turn influences the storm patterns over our region. I also read where we have received the most rain in this month, which has 10 more days left to record the amount, than we have in the last 6 Januarys (!).

The world of meteorology has changed quite a bit since the largest (97/98) and second largest (82/83) El Niños were recorded. Back then the media reported on the storms but nothing like the technology we have currently. Recalling predictions over the last couple of years they contain almost to-the-minute, accurate target areas, and length of storm information and are correct 99 out of 100 times. One thing is for certain though, this winter will not make up for the years of drought but it is more than a drop in the state’s bucket. I'll splash a drop of Zin in my Dino to El Niño!

One of the things we do at our vineyard is spread straw to help with the erosion that comes with the storms.

Tags: Pedroncelli, weather, climate
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Micro Climates

January 15, 2016 18:10

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Following the Wednesday post about climate, which here in Dry Creek Valley gives us great weather to grow everything from Chardonnay to Zinfandel, today’s topic is micro-climates found within each area of our vineyard.

Climate brings to the weather plate the following: fog, sunshine and a number of degree days for the growing season (Dry Creek Valley being ranked a Region II which makes a warm but not hot growing area), and rain. Climate affects all areas of agriculture or even your own backyard.

A micro climate encompasses a certain vineyard or even vineyard block. We have three specific ranches with a variety of varietals planted. While the climate influences what we plant, the micro climate of a hillside dictates to us (with 88 years of grape growing experience) that Zinfandel, for example, is a good fit because the conditions are just right. The combination of the sun, fog and soil makes the best Zinfandel in our opinion with support of the micro-climate.

We have planted other wine grapes on different areas of our vineyards and have learned the conditions weren’t quite right. We planted Chardonnay in the northern warmer end of Dry Creek Valley and learned Cabernet Sauvignon was the better choice and now thrives there. We depend on our growers in the southern cooler end of the valley to grow our Chardonnay now. Micro-climates are varietals’ best friend bringing out the great qualities in our grapes. Cheers with a splash of Chardonnay in my Dino.

The fog during the growing season is a key factor of climate and micro climate in our Sangiovese vineyard.

Tags: Pedroncelli, climate, Dry Creek Valley, Sangiovese
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Climate Counts

January 12, 2016 18:15

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This month’s posts are about weather and its place in the making of great wine. I sometimes talk about climates and micro-climates but what does this mean?

Grapevines like to grow and they will grow pretty much anywhere except maybe the Sahara Desert. Who knows, maybe someone will come up with a plan in the future-Desert Red or White anyone? Climate is like Goldilocks and the Three Bears: this appellation is too hot for Zinfandel, this appellation is too cold but Dry Creek Valley is just right. When talking about climate we toss around terms like marine influence and degree days, sun and temperature. It all comes down to taking the temperature of a particular region that will give you the degree days (a method developed at UC Davis) and this information will give the grower an idea about how the climate of a particular place will be good for Zinfandel (warm) or Pinot Noir (cool).

Let’s start with California where there are 136 official American Viticulture Areas also known as appellations. Wow this is quite a choice for planting wine grapes. To break it down to bite size: there are 18 appellations from Sonoma County and Dry Creek Valley, one of the 18, was subdivided more than a decade ago with the birth of the sub-appellation Rockpile. Each of these areas are important because there is something distinctive and unique in their climate as well as geography. Dry Creek Valley is classified as a Region II, which makes it a perfect spot for Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and Sauvignon Blanc but it is also great for Rhone and Italian varietals, Chardonnay and even Pinot Noir in the right micro-climate pocket. More on micro-climates in Friday's post. A toast with a splash of vino in my Dino to our fine climate!

Sonoma County and the approved AVAs. Provided by Sonoma County Vintners.

Tags: Pedroncelli, climate, Sonoma County
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Counting Raindrops

January 8, 2016 18:19

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I have become somewhat of a water watcher these days digging around the internet for stories about the drought and reading articles about El Nino. Looking up the archives I see I wrote about the average rainfall for Dry Creek Valley being around 35-40 inches of rain. The last three years of the drought we have seen just above half or in other years even less.

According to a couple of websites I frequent, The Sonoma County Water Agency and University of California Cooperative Extension Sonoma County, I see some good news as El Nino drops this much needed rain. Right now we are within 2 inches of what is considered normal rainfall for this area at this time(SCWA data). Secondly we are far above January totals in the first 7 days than we have been over the last three winters (2013-2015) with the measurement taken from Santa Rosa to the south of us. It is close to 3 inches through today when the most that dropped in the three previous years for the whole month was between .02 inches to .89 inches (UCCE data).

Right now the vineyard soil is becoming saturated-I heard it percolating yesterday during a respite after four days of rain. More is expected in the next week but not to the extent of what we have received so far. As heart breaking as it was to see dusty vineyards for the last three January's this year there is plenty of vegetation and such a relief to see the hills green again. Canyon Creek which flows through our winery on down to our vineyards along Dry Creek itself had enough water to flow all the way to our main water artery to the Russian River and on to the Pacific Ocean itself. A splash of Zinfandel in my Dino as I enjoy the soggy view!

January 2014 our Mother Clone vineyard was as dry as a bone. Once we had some rain it turned our hillsides green.

Tags: Pedroncelli, weather, Mother Clone, Dry Creek Valley, drought
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Rain! (1)

January 6, 2016 18:25

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Rain-it’s in the forecast as an El Nino year. How much so far? We have measured 13.8 inches by the 4th day of January with another 4 as this is written. More is expected as several storms pass over us. The headlines I read keep saying this isn’t the end of the drought-no kidding. Remember the phrase ‘It ain’t over ‘til it’s over’? I’ll be waiting for the next 6 months when the official rainfall is recorded for the year in order to know where we stand.

The ‘Dry Creek’ of Dry Creek Valley ran dry in the years preceding the formation of Warm Springs Dam and Lake Sonoma, the body of water created by the dam and is situated to the north of us. Built in the early 1980s, it was put in place to provide flood control, irrigation and recreation. The recent years of drought created low lake levels which plummeted even more since water is released year ‘round. As of January 4 I am happy to report it is 70% of capacity but below the usual average. I have provided a link in case you are interested in the comparison between this year’s capacity, last year’s total as well as 2005-2014. Like I said earlier, the season isn’t over yet. In fact it has just begun and right now the future looks pretty wet. A toast in my Dino to more rain!

My uncle John standing in flood waters circa 1950s-it isn't this bad yet but Canyon Creek does run through our property all the way down to Dry Creek and sometimes it can overflow its' banks even as recent as two years ago.

Tags: Pedroncelli, weather, drought, Dry Creek Valley
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