Tolosa Winery

Harvest Update; It's raining

The storm that blew in this morning will drop about an inch of rain on us. It's a bit on the early side for a major winter storm, but after three years of drought rain is welcome. We have all of our Chardonnay and Pinot Noir harvested. These two varietals are the ones that are susceptible to damage from rot caused by wet conditions. Syrah and Grenache are the only two varietals left for us to pick and I'm not very worried about them. They tend to be pretty resistant to rot, especially the Syrah. We'll wait a few days for the ground to dry out and then start sampling again. I expect we'll finish up in another 10 days or so.
Larry Brooks

Harvest Update: Summer to Fall

Mellow weekend here. I was out of the winery by noon both days and had time on Sunday to cook the cellar crew breakfast, chilliquiles with fresh salsa. There is no more appreciative audience for a late breakfast than a crew that has been working since 5:00 am. Sunday, when we typically don't bring any fruit in is the only day when it's practical to cook breakfast as there are only 8-10 folks working including the lab staff. This weekend was for me the break between summer and fall. While the equinox may have been two weeks ago, fall really began this weekend with the first cold nights and cool windy days. The ripening will now slow dramatically as the vines are getting the signal from the cold nights that it's time to pack it in. The only fruit still on the vine are the Syrah and Grenache blocks. I'll probably bring in the fruit for rose a bit earlier than the red wine picks.
All of the Pinot is down to barrel. It looks very nice - a bit like '06 looked at this stage with dark colors and above average tannins. The first barrels of Chardonnay are dry and are being topped up. The later Chardonnay both barrel and tank are still fermenting. It looks good so far. The only wine that is truly done at this point is Pinot Gris. I've racked it off its fermentation lees and added some SO2. It's pale as platinum and very tasty.
The next week or two will be fairly easy, some vineyard sampling and fermentation monitoring and then there'll be another couple weeks of fermenting the Syrah and another vintage will be "in the barn"
-Larry

Harvesting the Sauvignon Blanc

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

The First Relief of the 2009 Harvest...

Things have settled into a smooth enough groove now to talk about the early part of this harvest. It started off with a bang. That's for sure. Six of the eight days beginning August 27th were unseasonably hot with a few of them record breakers. This pushed all of the Pinot to high sugars as well as quite a few of the Chardonnay blocks. We began getting the Pinots off on Sept. 2nd when we saw that the sugars were not going back down again and the dehydration of the berries was in danger of pushing them towards raisins. There is always a nerve racking period between when the fruit comes in and when you taste the first new wine. This is because the decision to harvest and the choice of fermentation technique is irreversible, yet you don't know if your choices were correct until you can taste the first wine 8-10 days later.  Until you get your first completed fermentation you don't really know for sure if the decisions you've made are correct. This year was doubly unnerving because such a high percentage of the fruit had to come in very quickly. In a normal vintage the earliest picks will be small and a week to two ahead of the main picking so you get a little preview as it were. This vintage was more of an all or nothing situation. Last night and this morning we drained the new wine off the earliest picks and it is with some relief that I found the wines to be dark, flavorful and well extracted with tannin. It was not what I expected from this vintage, but I am happy at the result.
More than half of the Chardonnay has come in as well. It has been pressed settled and moved to respective barrels and tanks for its fermentation. It's very hard to tell much about Chardonnay quality at this early point. You can tell if it's bad, which this year is not. But, you can't really tell how good it is until sometime much later. January- February at the earliest and sometimes not until you've got it bottled. Chardonnay is far more coy than red wine, which reveals itself much earlier for better or worse.

Cheers and we'll be in touch through the next stages of Harvest 2009...
-Larry Brooks
 

Night Harvesting Pinot Noir

Here is a slide show of the night crew harvesting our 2009 Pinot Noir from Block 596 located in our Edna Ranch East Vineyards. This was the second night of harvesting, which is done at night because it's much cooler and helps keep the sugars from rising after being harvested.  There are also some sunrise shots of the vineyards of Edna Ranch and the sun coming up over our beautiful Edna Valley! It's definitely going to be another hot day here, which is unusual so its a good thing we have the ability to pick at night. Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Veraison in progress...

Veraison, the time of the year when the red wine grapes turn from green to red is a crucial period and it is the beginning of the time when vineyard work occupies the majority of my attention. You have to watch it carefully for any number of reasons. It tells you how even the ripening will be and gives you an idea of the length of the ripening window. It is a good opportunity to do a final hand thinning of fruit that is significantly behind the average in coloring or if things look a bit crowded in the fruit zone. You have a very narrow window to get the crew in and thin when the grapes are 80-90% colored. This window is only a few days wide so with our many blocks I really have to stay on top of it. You also have to get the right crews to do the work. Some of the guys just don't "get it" when it comes to thinning and some really understand it. It's something you have to have a feel for. This year looks pretty god so far - no real problems, yet. - LB
Here are a few pictures of our Pinot Noir blocks near the Tasting Room:
 

Blooming Lavendar

It's always so refreshing to have new photos of the winery taken! We recently had local photographer Deborah Denkertake a few new shots of the winery, while our extensive lavender is in full bloom. It's a beautiful time of year here in the Edna Valley and I think these pictures definitely capture that feeling.

Spring is in the air

Spring is in the air.  I snapped some photos of one of our Pinot Noir blocks on Wednesday morning as I was driving through our main entrance to the tasting room. Having endured hot and cold, wet and dry weather conditions over the past month, our vines have emerged from post-bud break to the flowering stage.  Grape flowers are unique in that depending on the individual vine, flowers might be female, male, or hermaphroditic (also known as the "perfect flower", which means that each flower contains both male and female structures). Most cultivated varieties are hermaphroditic. Hermaphroditic vines are preferred because they are capable of fertilizing themselves Thus every vine planted is capable of bearing fruit.  Soon, fruit set will begin and the shoots bearing flowers will develop into tiny berries.  Come visit Tolosa Winery and see for yourself! 

Cheers,
Brittney Blete

 

Wind in the Vines

It's that time of the year when my focus starts to shift from cellar to vineyard. My mind is always on the weather and the growing season, but it's now the time of year when I need to put my hands on the vines as well as my mental attention. This week I'm looking at some of the earliest Pinot blocks to see if they need shoot thinning, and if they do need it, how many shoots need to be removed. Not all shoots are strong enough to ripen a cluster, and it's best to get these very weak shoots out of the way now. Also there are certain buds that will throw a double or even triple shoots so the extras need to be removed. The goal is 24-26 strong shoots per vine, and some vines can have double this number naturally. This time of year when the shoots are 4-12 inches long is the easiest and the best time to balance the vines as far as shoot count. Though the way the wind is howling right at the moment I wouldn't be surprised if we get some random shoot thinning courtesy of mother nature this afternoon.
-LB

Spring has awakened the Vines

Well,
It is officially Spring out there. The vines budded out on the late side of normal, but it is always wonderful to see them start growing again. There is something simultaneously comforting and exciting to see another vintage begin with the light green tender shoots coming out from the canes. This is such a beautiful time of year in SLO - there's no fog - the days are cool and breezy - the hills are green for at least another couple weeks and all the wildflowers are out especially on the hilltops. Just south of us on Lake Lopez Rd there are orange groves and these are flowering right now! If you have never smelled a citrus grove in bloom, you have missed one of the aroma sensations of the world, and should correct that deficiency as soon as possible. If you miss it this year you'll have to wait another 12 months. It is truly celestial - like being inside the world’s most wonderful natural perfume.
Best,
LB