One of our new projects this year is to make our own wine. Or really, to ask Eric Humphrey of San Pasqual Winery to make wine exclusively for us, while letting us tag along to learn about the process. It’s an idea we kind of stole from Chez Panisse, which releases its own Noveau Beajoulais every year (or at least they used to).
Harvest time is coming up (the Guadalupe Valley already had their wine harvest festival, in fact), so we started the process by visiting our grapes in the vineyard with Erik and with Frank Bons of Sunfresh Vineyards. Frank, who is also the owner of Twin Oaks Valley Winery in San Marcos, manages many vineyards in San Diego and also will sell grapes on behalf of the vineyard owners.
“Our” grapes are growing in a small block at Melrose Ranch in the Old Guejito Valley, properly in the city of Escondido. The property was originally owned by a Scottish nobleman, and is being restored, vineyards and all, by a Dutch couple.
On the property, Frank is growing Viognier, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Syrah. We are buying most of the grapes from the Syrah block.
Currently our grapes are at about 21% sugar (aka Brix). Every winemaker has a preferred level of sugar at harvest, due to how alcoholic they want their wine to be (more sugar = more for the yeast to ferment = more alcohol). Oftentimes that’s around 22 to 23 Brix. However, there’s more to consider than just sugar — in addition to the sugars developing in the late stage of the fruit, flavor is also developing and the acid levels are changing. The grape grower and the winemaker are looking for the moment when the flavors are fully developed, the acid is just right, and the Brix is in the preferred range.
Note in the first picture that the grapes are covered in netting to keep the birds from eating them. Frank said birds are the number one threat to the grower. Interestingly, while the coyotes will eat the grapes too, Frank just puts bowls of water out for them to drink and that pretty much satisfies them and keeps them out of the fruit.
Even though birds are the enemy, everyone still has a heart. This baby didn’t understand how nets work and ended up tangled up in it (not what is supposed to happen). Frank and Eric cut him/her free to get in trouble again later.
Because these grapes had recently hit 21 Brix, Frank is testing them every couple days now. In addition to doing a straight Brix test, we crushed the grapes by hand and tasted the juice to get a sense of what the wine would taste like, in terms of flavor and acid. Let me tell you, juice from high quality wine grapes that’s over 20% sugar, on a hot day, is quite a treat.
Depending on the weather, we expect to harvest next week sometime. Frank was hoping for some cool nights to really get the quality up before the sugar gets too high in the grapes.
Our plan is, when we harvest, to take some of the juice and make a rosado or clarete — a light red where the wine stays on the skins only a short time — which won’t require much aging and we can drink and serve next spring. We’ll take the rest of the juice and make a Syrah which will be ready about a year later.
If we’re lucky, we’ll get one of these longhorns to serve with the Syrah!