Wine Outlook

The last harvest update from winemaker John Kane left us with fruit from Sonoma and Mendocino and just a portion of the whites. In his next account from 10.13.07, we had received close to 1000 tons of red fruit and white juice from our offsite custom crush facilities. (Sometimes the grapes must be pressed offsite due to distance or weather conditions.) Speaking of the weather, it hasn’t seemed to be able to make up its mind. With the rain coming and going, there has been some cause for concern over the acid levels. What’s happening is that water is being taken into the roots, which dilutes the acid instead of allowing it to convert to sugar, all leading to issues about the ripeness of the grapes. John gave reference to some technical issues over pH and fermentation, but I’ll just sum it up with his take on trying to get yeast to ferment when the pH levels aren’t what they should be: like “washing barrels in the pouring rain– hostile work environment which leads to less production.”

He also talked about some of the white wines that are fermenting. As you may know, white wine is not fermented on skins, as red wine is. The process is quite different between the two. Whites need a much cooler temperature to ferment tghe sugars. For instance, Viognier juice from Fess Parker (in Santa Barbara) was going through fermentation while the viognier from Ripken (in Lodi) was in tanks and cold stabilizing–the process of bringing the juice to right above the freezing point and allowing the soluble solids (juice pulp, proteins, and grape bits) to fall to the bottom of the tank. At Rosenblum, we start the whites fermenting around 60-70*F then chill it down to 45*F. At that temperature, about 1% of sugar ferments a day, which enhances the fruity style of our white Rhones, such as Kathy’s Cuvee.

We should have received the majority of grapes by now. I know they got some in the other day and I haven’t seen any trucks coming in the past few. (Of course, that doesn’t mean they haven’t). I’ll try to see about getting the final word from John soon.

Rosenblum Cellars harvest, harvest update, California 2007 harvest update