You know what the funny thing about weather is? Trick question. There is no funny thing about weather, especially when it does one thing for an entire summer, then turns around 180° and does the exact opposite--and feels that hot, too.
As I've mentioned in previous posts, this has been the coolest summer here in nearly half a century. Which has been okay. Sure, the fruit has taken forever to ripen. But at least it's been ripening! Sure, the vineyard managers had to trim the leaves back super-far on the vines. But it's made up for the lack of warmth on the bunches! Sure, we winery workers have been bored on our asses for a while. But we've made do! Now what's happened? A heat spike. A nasty fuckin' heat spike. How bad? Well, I was taken into a neighboring winery's vineyard on Saturday, after the 100° day, and was shown some severe raisining on their vines. Whole bunches had turned from fat-and-juicy to lean-and-dry in a matter of hours. Hot, dry hours. But such is farming, I suppose. Feast or famine.
Figure 1. Raisined grapes.
Some of our vineyards made out similarly. Some of them were less severely affected. Some of them were hardly affected at all, and their fruit still looks great. It's a mixed bag. What this means for the winemakers is, in a nutshell, grief. And some painful decisions. What do you do in a situation like this? Do you pick? Do you hope for the best and leave the fruit on the vines?
As you can probably guess, it's complicated.
For the vineyards that looks healthy enough to continue ripening on the vines, they will do so. Unless we are threatened with another heat spike; then we will pick them, regardless of how underripe they may be. For the vineyards who are suffering from raisining, we will determine whether or not they can be risked leaving on the vines. If they can hold out, great; we will just employ liberal sorting practices when the fruit comes into winery, disposing of sunburned berries/bunches, leaving whatever good fruit is left to become wine. For the vineyards whose fruit is really suffering, we'll pick them early. The sugars will be a little lower than desired, and the acids will be slightly higher, but we'll manage.
If there's one thing I'd like to say about all this, it's: "quantity will suffer before quality will." Williams Selyem puts the quality of their wines above all else, especially profits. Not to sound like a [limited liability] corporate parrot here, but they understand the importance of putting long-term reputation above short-term income in the priority rankings. So they'll just do the best they can this year and suck it up. Rather, we'll just do the best we can this year, and suck it up. That said, the wines will be good. Some of them will likely be very good. Hell, the Chardonnays are coming along nicely, sunburns be damned. But I doubt anything will be stellar. Hopefully, I'm wrong there. We won't know until the wines have been in barrel for a while. At this point, it's still just speculation.
Anyway, moving on to happier things! For example, look what I can play!
Figure 2. Cricket: the most boring, most thrilling, most confusing game
that I've learned how to play since Magic: the Gathering.
Apparently, at Williams Selyem, the lunch breaks go something like this: eat your food quickly, then assemble teams and play cricket for the duration of lunch hour. And, boy, is that a hell of a lunch hour. Today's teams were divided accordingly: Americans (we down-home chumps) v. Foreigners (all representing former British Empire nations). Who do you think trounced who?
Seriously, though. Have you ever played cricket? Have you ever watched cricket? The came is utterly insane. How many innings are there? Two. Two?! Yes, two. How long do games usually run? Well, it depends. If it's a sound and swift beating, it could only last an hour. If it's evenly matched, or if one team is dominating so unrelentingly that their batters never get out, then the games could last for days. For days. Also, you have to pitch the ball with your arm completely straight. Absolutely zero bending at the elbow is allowed. Seriously. It really fucks with your rotator cuff. And, if you're batting, you can apparently hit the ball in any which direction you like. I don't know if the Aussies were just screwing with my head on that rule, but they claim that it's totally legal to hit the ball in whatever direction you so please--including backwards. Hey, you know what game cricket kinda reminds me of?
Figure 3. Whackbat, from The Fantastic Mr. Fox. If you haven't seen it,
I highly recommend that you do so. It was really incredible, and hilarious.
I realize that this is backward, since whackbat is just Roald Dahl's way of poking fun at cricket, but his pokes struck right on the mark. There were several moments today where the opposing team would cheer and rejoice, and I had to turn to somebody for an explanation--not just unaware of what had just happened, but unaware that anything had happened. Cripes, what a weird game.
After lunch and whackbat, I helped maintain the malolactic yeast culture that we have going (and will continue to have going throughout the harvest). This means checking its temperature (should be around 70°F), checking its sugar and acid levels, and pouring in nutrients. This is where you have to be careful, though. Fermentation produces a lot of CO2. When you open a take filled with fermenting juice, a lot of it escapes, and it displaces a lot of oxygen in the immediate area. Really, all you have to do is turn your head away, take a deep breath, and hold it in while working with the tank. If you were clumsy (and I do mean clumsy) enough to fall into the tank, or into an empty tank that was just drained of fermenting juice, then you'd likely be totally boned. That is, dead. Quickly. From asphyxiation.
Oh, and if you're curious about what I did over my 5-day weekend, courtesy of a late-starting harvest, here's a very abbreviated list of things that were on my itinerary: a seminar-style tasting at Joseph Phelps Vineyards (where I tasted 2006 Insignia, 2007 Insignia, and 2007 Backus, among others), a tour/tasting at Hendry, a tour/tasting at Chasseur (at which I picked up a few bottles; viva la industry discount!), and a great day at Taste of Sonoma (at which I met up with some old friends, and made some new ones!).
The holiday weekend is over, though (finally), and now it's back to the wine mines. I'm slated to work all weekend, with Monday off (I think?). But that suits me just fine. I've got no better place to be. And that's saying a lot, considering the paradise that surrounds me.
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