I pulled the Sauvignon Blanc in yesterday. While this is a very limited production wine for us, it is a wine that I really like personally, and a wine that responds to both vineyard and winemaker input.
Most of the work in the vineyard that effects flavor in this wine happens early. You have to take almost all of the leaves out of the fruit zone so that you get direct light on the clusters. This lessens the amount of bell pepper character in the fruit. We also had some weak areas in this block due to spring frosts so we had to go through and remove the fruit from the weaker shoots.
Once the vines have been set up it's a matter of constant and careful tasting of the fruit until the flavors peak. I watch the analysis of the fruit for basic ripeness, but the final decision is based almost entirely on walking up and down the vine rows pulling berries off and tasting them. I am looking for a flavor that is quite similar to a ripe green fig. It is fruity, but has a musky element to it as well. I found that flavor in many berries when I was tasting two days ago, so we picked yesterday. We had a light schedule in the cellar so I used a "champagne" style press regime. This is the gentlest form of pressing, but it takes forever so you can only execute it on a slow day. The resulting juice besides having the flavors I was looking for also had perfect numbers in terms of sugar acid and pH. This is a rare and happy confluence when both flavor and sugar ripeness arrive simultaneously. It should make a very nice wine.
-Larry Brooks
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