As the year drew to a close, I reminisced on the 2009 harvest. And it isn’t romantic.  The recent memory of harvest in my mind is actually one stressful blur after another.  This is not exactly what most people expect to hear.

In fact, every harvest every year is like that.  Any commercial winemaker who feels differently is probably lying. See, there is a stark, cold reality behind the romance of processing winegrapes. Winemakers give up about 12 weeks of their lives between August and November because Mother Nature can’t be told when it’s time to harvest. SHE tells US when fruit is ready and not the other way around. And when grapes are ready, they arrive and it’s constant crushing and pressing until the stuff stops coming for about 12 weeks. Sorting is messy. Crushing is noisy. Additions can be forgotten. Equipment breaks down. Fermentation space can come up short. Equipment takes longer to clean and sanitize than it actually takes to crush. Picking crews can be slow. We lose sleep. The list goes on and on…

For this final posting of the year, I have decided to ask a couple of winemakers one question:
“Every year when harvest comes around, is it difficult for you? If so, what was most difficult for you for the 2009  harvest?”

According to Steve Eaton, an associate winemaker and Cellar Master here at Winterhawk,  he very simply answered with a boyish grin that he “dislikes the fruitflies.” But then on a  more contemplative note, he says the most difficult thing at harvest is figuring out where to move wines in tank in order to accommodate a new batch of fruit coming in. He says he wakes up in the middle of the night thinking about the complexity of perfectly timed tank-to-tank wine movement.

For me, making sure that the wine gets made exactly the way the owner or winemaker wants it to be made is the most difficult part of harvest. Written protocols provided or not, in custom crush we pride ourselves on providing the tools and services needed to accomplish specific winemaking goals. It is ironic that no matter what the shape or condition is of the fruit when it arrives to the crushpad, the winegrower expects it to be world class wine.

For Iain Boltin of Eight Arms Cellars, finding the time to drive out from his home in Berkeley everyday to check sugars and monitor his fermentations was the most difficult challenge. He really doesn’t focus on the” difficulty of harvest” because he enjoys the wine so much.  “Do I find crush difficult? Hmm, I don’t really look at it that way because it is my favorite time of year as a winemaker. I love working with the grapes and the challenges involved in transforming them into great wine. The most difficult thing for me this year, was that I had a lot of other things going on, so it never felt like I had enough time to get everything done. I have to admit, that I am thankful for the help of Martha, Steve and all the crew at Rio Vista, who were able to help me out when I needed it the most. They helped make crush go really smoothly and the end result is that 2009 will be an exceptional vintage for Eight Arms Cellars.”

Winterhawk Winery is hosting its first ever crush celebration! On Saturday, September 19th, at 11:00, we will be processing  5 tons of chardonnay so you can see how white wine grapes get harvested and vinified into wine at our facility. I will be giving a guided talk about the crushing process while Steve, our Cellar Master and Magana, our Production assistant, will be loading the press full of freshly harvested fruit. Perfect for the winelover that has always wanted to know how white wine is made! At 1:00 Pork barbeque will be served with all the fixings and a glass of wine for $20! Live Blue Grass music with Katy and Dell will start at 2:00 PM.  See you there!

At small premium wineries, sales and marketing are a big (yet often times unspoken) part of a winemaker’s job. While we know that our wine is unique and quality driven because of our chosen winemaking processes, the northern California marketplace is saturated with wineries claiming the same things, making the market extremely competitive. It is simply not enough to create great wine. The harder part of the job requires that we constantly think of new ways to sell our wine, communicate our story, and find ways to have an edge on marketing our wines.  As a result, we have redesigned the Winterhawk label in order to establish a more branded image and name. The introduction of the new Winterhawk label will be made at our  2008 Sauvignon blanc release party at Winterhawk Winery on Saturday July 18, 2009. I look forward to everyone’s comments regarding the new package and our pioneering efforts in applying the Fish Friendly Farming certification on the back label. It’s a first not only for Winterhawk, but for the wine industry in California!

J&J Bottling, the mobile bottling rig of choice at Winterhawk Winery was here last Friday for a bottling of close to 700 cases. J&J stands for John and Jenny, a super hero wife-and-husband team that get the job done. They’re alot of fun to work with, flexible, and totally organized. They are winemakers themselves and know the bottling industry like the back of their hands.  With a crew of five guys, J&J helped us bottle our Petite Sirah,  reserve Meritage, and some other private label blends that will be released sometime in July. 

making labels adhere properly takes talent!

Matt Smith, our sleep-deprived winemaker, oversees bottling calmly

 We’ve had a lot  of events here at the winery since Spring started. In addition to our $5 WBTG and free pizza Saturdays,  The first Annual Suisun Valley Passport Sunday was held on April 19th. With a sold-out crowd of 360, all seven wineries (some not normally open to the public) opened their doors to Passport holders. Food pairings were provided by local restaurants at each location. Great weather,  great wine– a great time was had by all.

Passport travelers enjoying Winterhawk's crushpad atmosphere

Rancho Solano's catering staff serving up vineyard-side gourmet food pairings

 Winterhawk winery hosted a special educational event on Monday. Our vineyard manager Jim Parr and the Suisun Wildlife Center came out and gave a talk about sustainable agriculture here on our grape and olive ranches and how predatory wildlife is an important part of vineyard management. Quality of life is a driving force of why Jim farms the way he does. He believes the way he farms has a huge impact on alot of people and animals  in a much larger area.   

“ I am Martha Rueca-Gustafsson, the assistant winemaker at Winterhawk Winery. I came aboard in August 2008 from Lost Canyon Winery in Oakland. I received
my BA from Mills College in 1996 and received a Winemaker’s Certificate from UC Davis in 2008. I am a blogging virgin, so please be patient with me for my very first time.

Martha Rueca-Gustafsson

Award winning wines could not exist without a winemaking team. Our team includes Matt Smith (head winemaker,) Steve Eaton (cellar master,) and me.  Our vineyard
manager and operations director for the farming operations is Jim Parr. The purpose of this blog is to keep you up-to-date in the winemaking at
Winterhawk Winery so you’ll see pictures of these guys quite often.

Today, Steve is in the middle of a racking project. Racking is the action of cleaning and homogenizing a wine by gently moving it away from it’s lees at the bottom of the
barrel and into tank. You then wash out the barrel of all the junk and put the wine back in it. After primary and malolactic fermentation racking helps to produce brilliance and clarity in wine among other things.

Here’s a picture of the “Mercedes” that cleans our wine

My focus this week is preparing wines for bottling next week. Before we bottle wine, we cross flow filter it so that unwanted microbes that produce off flavors and off aromas in a wine cannot proliferate in the bottle.

Next week, we’ll have pictures of the J&J bottling rig up on the blog. While it’s a small rig, It can bottle up to 700 cases of wine in an 8 hour day!”