(Another) Year in the Vineyard with Wes Hagen, Clos Pepe

Week #25: August 27^th – September 2^nd, 2010

“September Morn: We Picked Until the Night Became a Brand New Day”

From a viticultural and winemaking perspective, it has thus far been an exceptional year in more ways than we have expected or predicted. Blame it on climate change, El Niño, or star alignment, but many are faced with pre-harvest weather extremes in many parts of North America from downpours to scorching heat and high humidity causing all kinds of challenges in the home winery.

I have already started receiving messages from distraught winemakers asking how to rescue their stuck fermentation, how to deal with mold, or what’s with the fermentation off-odors—the result of grapes starting to ferment prematurely.

If you have not harvested yet and expect heavy or prolonged rainy periods, you should consider harvesting before the rain; you can always adjust sugar and acidity in the winery. Heavy rainfall can cause berries to start splitting, to grow mildew, and possibly indigenous yeasts to kick-start the fermentation resulting in off odors and flavors and quite possibly spoilage.

(Another) Year in the Vineyard

Week #24: August 20-26, 2010

With Wes Hagen, Clos Pepe

Year in the Vineyard

Week #23: August 12-1, 2010

With Wes Hagen, Clos Pepe Vineyards and Estate Wines

The Face of Sanity

Who's that guy? Harold McGee, a personal hero of mine, and the author of On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. His approach to cooking, with it's rigorous scientific method and open approach makes for a fascinating read, and when I got it more than a decade ago it changed the way I thought about cooking completely--and this after spending five years as a professional cook in a French brigade kitchen.

Harold had an interesting article in the NY Times last month, To Enhance Flavor, Just Add Water. In a nutshell, he talks about water as a flavour enhancer, particularly in wine. This is pretty counter-intuitive, but he raises an important point: 

Aroma molecules are also more chemically similar to alcohol molecules than they are to water, so they tend to cling to alcohol, and are quicker to evaporate out of a drink when there’s less alcohol to cling to.

(Another) Year in the Vineyard, Week #22

August 6-12, 2010

With Wes Hagen, VM/WM Clos Pepe

One of my friends commented the other day about my Winemaker Magazine blog. He told me that for a blogger, I sure didn’t blog very much. I have plenty of excuses: busy times, other deadlines, multiple blogs to keep up and sites that I admin and moderate on, but at the end of the day there’s really only one person to blame.

Wes Hagen.

Love the man. Have you met him? He’s a peach, honestly, really respect his winemaking skills and he’s even got a cute little doggie, but dang, he had the Winemaker magazine software so constipated that I was gritting my teeth every time I posted here. It’s a long story, but through the magic of computers, Wes somehow arranged it that every time I tried to use the blogging software I have to download the entire Clos Pepe server of his hotlinked pictures—and there are thousands of them! It’s enough to make me hide my head under the covers and drink right from the bottle of (Clos Pepe) Pinot Noir some days. Seriously, you can’t tell reading this but a previous attempt to post this blog crashed my laptop so bad that I couldn’t do anything except yank the battery out of it to shut it off. Sigh.

(Another) Year in the Vineyard

Week #21, July 30-August 5, 2010

With Wes Hagen, Clos Pepe

We’re already into August, andthat can only mean one thing—time to start thinking about and planning for the upcoming winemaking season.

Ah yes! It’s been a wonderful growing season thus far—at least here in the Niagara region—and, before youknow it, grapes or juice will soon be ready for delivery to your home winery. Veraison in many areas has already started, confirmed by black clouds of hungry starlings invading vineyards in search of luscious sweet grapes.

Another Year in the Vineyard, Week #20

July 23-29, 2010

With Wes Hagen, VM/WM Clos Pepe