Rosé, to me, signals the advent of Spring, and after this year’s Winter rain (almost double our normal rainfall total), we are ready for Rosé. Parke and I discovered Rosé back in 1985 on a trip to Provence, France – it was the perfect apéritif after a long day of touring the French countryside. Today, our family enjoys it as both an apéritif and as a dinner wine. Key to Rosé is both its color and its aroma. That is why we use Malbec for our Rosé – Malbec juice resembles bright pink bubblegum and is fruit-driven with aromas of watermelon, raspberries and violets. 

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It's here! Today marked the first (though unofficial) day of the 2016 Harvest. Each year, the vineyard crew handpicks a small amount of Chardonnay, so that we can create a malolactic “starter”. This is a similar idea to how bakers make sourdough bread. We grow a small batch of malolactic bacteria which will in turn be used to inoculate larger lots. Eventually we will inoculate about 40% of our main Chardonnay and 100% of the Reserve Chardonnay. 

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When asked the question–“What has most influenced my winemaking philosophy/style?”–I would have to answer my internship at Domaine des Comtes Lafon. René Lafon opened my eyes to his traditional techniques that were considered revolutionary in California at the time. Malolactic fermentation is a secondary (bacterial) fermentation that occurs in most all red wines, but in California, in the early 1980’s, it was rare in white wines. In Burgundy, however, all of their Chardonnays undergo malolactic fermentation thanks to one primary reason–their wines would be too acidic without the secondary fermentation.

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As all winemakers know, winemaking starts in the vineyard. Having our winery at the southeast corner of our vineyard (30 feet away!) ensures that I’m out in the vineyard frequently. That, in my opinion, has a great impact on wine quality. Check out a short video of David and the machine harvester picking Malbec right in front of the winery. 

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Late July and early August days are filled with my least favorite job – bottling. It’s both stressful and monotonous. We bottle our Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Next Red (all from our Alexander Valley vineyard) in three extremely long weeks. Using our GoPro, we videoed the Chardonnay bottling. After watching one minute of it, we realized that it would be more interesting (and fun!) to see the process sped up (100x!).

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