Saturday April 6th we took a little time off to attend a Paella party at Marimar Torres.  She had about 70 people at the winery for Spanish Paella, a tour of her vineyards, wine with lunch and special tastes of her 2012 Pinot Noir just out of the barrel.  It was a wonderful event!  The good news for us is that one of her 2012 Pinot’s that has a lot of Pommard clone, tasted just like ours…and she gets $50+/bottle for it.  So excited.

No, I’m not yet certified organic, although I have been farming that way since the beginning in 2009.   A few days ago I started the process to become a California Certified Organic Farmers” (CCOF) Vineyard.  In Sonoma County only 3% of the approximately 1800 vineyards are organic.  Why?  Two reasons…due to the large change in temperature every 24 hours (which makes for great Pinot noir) we get a lot of Powdery Mildew, and second is the need by many farmers to use round-up to control the grass under the vines.  We feel we can handle both organically and we don’t want to have pesticides in our workplace. I worked in environmental management for many years with IBM and it is better to keep the toxics away as much as possible

What is needed? – Farm organically for 3 years,keep good records and have an organic system plan, which includes:

– California State ID
– Seed and Planting Stock Record
– Organic Farm Input Record
– Equipment Cleaning Log
– Harvest Record
– Activity Log
– Land Use History Affidavit
– County Pesticide Use Report
– Complaints Log
– Neighbor Notification and Drift Prevention Letter

It will take me about 3 weeks to get the documents ready for submission.  In addition, the first year will cost around $750 and each year after between $250-$500. Oh, and I get to be audited each year, what fun.

I’ll update you when I’m successful in about 3 months!
 

Harvest Date – 9/23/2012
34 picking bins estimated at 35 pounds each = 1190 pounds
6 Days cold soak with Lallzyme EX enzyme to enhance color and stabilize the tannins
Inoculated with Assmanshausen Yeast
Added 1.5 g/l tartaric acid on 9.29 and 0.5 g/l tartaric acid on 10/2
9 Days Fermented, pressed on Oct 8, pH 3.73
Pressed 107 gallons Pinot noir, after first racking resulted in 102 gallons
Attributes: Deep Purple, wonderful flavor

As Picked
Brix = 23.0
pH – 3.9
TA = 0.59 g/100ml
Malic Acid = 0.31 g/100ml

Aging in 80 gallon Flextank with Medium Plus Oak Xoakers.  We anticipate 12-18 months aging in “barrel” and then 3-6 months in the bottle.  Release mid-2014.

Detailed Log:

9/23/12 – Harvest, crushed, destemmed, 35ppm sulfur, 40# dry ice
9/25/12 – 30# dry ice, 10g Lallzyme Ex
9/27/12 – 40# dry ice, very viscous liquid
9/29/12 – Added 1.5 g/l (450g) tartaric acid, 80g assmanshausen yeast and 0.3 g/l (90g) GoFerm. GoFerm in 3L hot water, cool to 104F then add yeast, cool to 80F and add to must
10/1/12 – Cap temp = 82, Brix 19.8
10/2/12 – Cap temp = 88, pH 3.84, Brix 12.7, TA 7.6, added 0.5 g/l (150g) tartaric acid
10/3/12 – Cap temp = 90, pH 3.82, Brix 4.5
10/7/12 – Cap fell, pH 3.76, very dark purple liquid
10/8/12 – Press, 80 gal free run, added ML
11/6/12 – pH 3.73
12/7/12 – Racked to 102 gallons, sulfur to 50ppm
1/4/13 – Sulfur @ 15ppm, raised to 45
2/5/13 – Sulfur @ 18ppm, raised to 43
2/26/13 – Raised sulfur 25ppm, added Med + Oak Zoakers at rate of 1 ball per gallon in food grade cloth, estimate 6 months in tanks.
4/2/13 – Sulfur @ 40 ppm…no sulfur added, tasted more complex/tannic with a slight bitter after taste. Normal for this stage.