For the love of wine

In the tabloids, you might see a sensationalist title like this in order to catch your attention to read a story.  We don’t need to do that here, do we?  Pruning actually is a very interesting and important topic.  After all, wine, it is said, is made in the vineyard.  

Pruning is done while the vines are dormant or sleeping.  Call it the end of the previous growth year cycle, or the beginning of the new one, it is a yearly ritual and it is one of the most important steps in the life of the vine and helps determine the quality of what ends up in the bottle.

During pruning, most of the previous year’s growth is removed in order to develop the parts of the vine that will be responsible for next harvest’s fruit.

Vine before pruning

There are many styles of pruning, I am not going to bore you here with Cordon or Cane vs. Head pruning arguments which, in any case, I have not seen done often in California Pinots, more so in Burgundy, however; or which trellising system is superior.

The objective is always the same, to provide the best possible quality fruit which will result in a better wine.

During pruning, decisions are made on which and how may canes will remain and how long they will be. That will affect the number of buds which grow into shoots and produce grape bunches. That, in turn, affects the tons per acre, or the yield, that the farmer will get.

Vines after pruning

In general, the less tons per acre, the better the quality of wine; 2-4 tons per acre  is what most shoot for.  

This used to be a dilemma for many farmers and winemakers. Most farmers get paid by the ton, so their objective is to maximize tons per acre. Most Pinot winemakers strive for less tons per acre in order to increase the quality of the wine. Conflicting objectives!

How do most quality winemakers resolve this conflict? Pay by the acre instead of by the ton, win win for the most part.

This time of year, during breaks in the rain, everyone feverishly prunes away.  In fact, Sonoma County Growers held their 10th annual pruning competition yesterday. The competition was covered by Inside Sonoma here.

Back to the old saying that wine gets made in the vineyard, well these guys have a lot to do with it. As an old farmer myself, my hat is off to them.

Check out their description: “A lively, action-packed competition with ten top professional vineyard pruners working on five vines each and a large crowd cheering for their favorites. Judged for speed and quality of work.” 

I couldn’t make the competition but surely lots of fun was had by all.

We recently spent a few days in the Anderson Valley (thank you Grammy for keeping the kids) sampling the region’s Pinot Noirs and talking to growers and wine makers.  If you haven’t been there, the area is incredibly beautiful–pastoral and bucolic, almost unreal.  The green hillsides, small vineyards, majestic redwood forests, flocks of sheep, organic cuisine and nice, interesting people make it a fabulous place to visit if you are looking for a quiet place to do wine tasting.  We have stopped there several times in the past on our way to and from Mendocino.  This time we went specifically to spend time in the valley.

top of Raye's Hill

Pinot producer Raye’s Hill has a guesthouse on the hill with amazing views of the valley where we spent 2 nights.  Dan and Raye Sokolow own the winery and a small vineyard and live on the property.   We enjoyed a bottle of their 2003 Pinot Blanc which was lovely and refreshing.  We also enjoyed the silence surrounding the house.  At night, the only sounds were those of raindrops and frogs.

There are essentially two towns in the Anderson Valley along Hwy 128.  One is Philo, which if you blink you’ll miss it.  The other is Boonville which is also tiny but large in comparison–a couple of good restaurants and cafes, a couple of shops, a school and the county fair grounds.  Many residents seem to piece together various part-time jobs to make a living.  One person who greeted us at the organic yarn and spinning store also sat us for dinner that night at the Boonville Hotel.  Another gal I had noticed sitting in the ice cream “shop” earlier in the day, served us dinner that night. 

Our first wine tasting stop was Breggo where owner/winemaker Doug took time from bottling to talk about the wine and the vineyards.  We loved his Anderson Vally PN as well as a single vineyard PN (also from Anderson Valley) he produces. 

Next stop–Toulouse.  The wine maker, Vern, a former fire captain, talked extensively with us even though he was also in the middle of bottling.  We took home some of his acclaimed estate grown Pinot Noir (2006)–very Burgundian in style.

We stopped at Roederer because I have a soft spot for sparkling wine.  We caught them in the process of disgorging and watched them hand-label their magnums.  That was interesting but it seemed so huge and corporate in comparison to the smaller wineries in the area. 

Navarro is also relatively large but is always a pleasant place to visit.  We stopped there to get a bottle of their dry Gewurztraminer and watch the baby doll sheep roam their vineyards as a natural, sustainable form of weed control.

Navarro’s natural weed control

distinct pruning technique

Next day we met with a Pinot grower and wine maker right outside Boonville.  She generously spent an hour walking thru her vineyards with us, discussing her specialized cane pruning methods and lamenting the lack of rain.  She seems to take great care in the pruning of her vines and of her vineyard workers. Her wine was delicious too. 

Despite the fact that it rained while we were there, everyone was concerned about the water shortages they are experiencing. The situation is so dire there that on our last day communities were gathering from all over the valley holding rain dances in Ukiah, Willits, Mendocino and elsewhere.  We missed by an hour the rain dance gathering in Boonville held during lunchbreak of the monthly permaculture meeting.  According to one source, “A lot of pot (was) going to be smoked there.”  The area is known for its quirky, eccentric residents.  Quirky or not, you decide.  What we confirmed is that there are some amazing Pinot Noir, Alsatian varietal and sparkling wine producers there in that beautiful, beautiful place.

After countless revisions we finally have a label designed!

Our name, Stomping Girl, was inspired by my grandmother Esther.  She started the family tradition of winemaking many years ago and used to get my little sister Michal into the bin to stomp the grapes. Now we have 3 more “stomping girls” working on the wine.   A talented designer, Paul Jobson, came up with a logo to represent our name.  He presented us with this:

stomping girl logo winner

a playful depiction of a girl stomping grapes while daydreaming of other activities and we loved it.

Our label designer, Hayley, then worked with us to come up with many label design concepts, incorporating the logo in different ways.  Ever so patient with us, Hayley produced countless iterations.  We tried the girl at the top of the label, on the side of the label, jumping out of the label, in the middle of the label, on the bottom right of the label.  We made the girl black, burgundy and purple.  We had to fit the varietal name, year, appellation and vineyard on a small 4″x 2″ space.  We tried many different fonts; we tried all caps, small caps, no caps, you name it!  And let’s not forget all government mandated warnings that need to fit on there too.  

We tried different types of paper, different sizes of paper; different types of bottles and different color capsules.  We got feedback from graphic designers, friends and relatives. It was more time consuming than one would imagine.  

Ultimately, however, one hopes that what is IN the bottle matters much more than what is ON the bottle.   I agree with one label designer who was quoted as saying it is their job to help sell a customer that first bottle of wine but it is the winemaker’s job to keep that customer coming back for more.  Our 2008 is tasting wonderful right now, and, it’s nice to see a label matching the quality and craftsmanship of what is in the bottle!