A wine label must have a good Napa Cab just to play the game and it appears that finally, with over 30 years of winemaking experience in the Napa Valley under our belt, the ship has come in! The perfect storm of empty pockets, a long-cool summer and a typhoon off the coast of Japan converged in wine country. Nature presented a promising vintage without the price tag… finally some room for the small family winery to catch up. The call came in late last night so we spent the morning scrambling for tank space and a flat bed truck, enzymes, yeast, tow straps and picking bins which were lost at 4pm and found again at 445pm… it’s a go! Harvest marches on through the muddy waters. Tomorrow we SWOOP on Rutherford, scarecrows, movie stars and the famed Rutherford Dust. The autumn wind is a Raider. If all one had to do is press a button (or write a check) there just wouldn’t be any good stories to tell once we get there !
Monthly Archive for October, 2009
video management, video solution, video streaming Footage of grape stem and skin removal from the Nouveau press followed by shots of malolactic fermentation (inoculation)… finally lunch at a taco truck on International Blvd in Oakland. Fields of grapevines by day, sales field by night.
The 2009 harvest ”achiever” award goes to VQ Assmanhausen red wine yeast
” Assmanhaus put forth an exemplary harvest performance during the whole cluster fermentation phase of Andrew Lane Nouveau 2009…. paving the way for a whole NOU tradition” -Matt Ahern, Free Run Juice
“Not to be denied VQ Assmanhauser followed up with an impeccable ferment on a portion of Manley Lane Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon Block 7 Clone 7 almost abutting the VJJ Vineyard! Amazing.” – Drew Dickson, Andrew Lane Wines
Harvest 2009 T- shirts available soon
video management, video solution, video streaming In our effort to soften the 2009 Andrew Lane Nouveau and enhance aromatics we designed a chute to funnel six tons of whole grape clusters into a stainless fermentation tank. This proccess prolongs fermentation and with minimal extraction putting forth our signature fresh fruit style with a strawberry finish complimented by floral aromatics that explode from the glass. Over the last 7 days pressure has built in these gamay clusters. Eventually fermenting juice inside each berry will cause a small explosion, slowly releasing natural sugars into the closed tank for yeast to metabolize.
We bailed on the Suisun Merlot and went with a Russian River bench vineyard skirting Chalk Hill. Pulled 10 tons @ 25.4brix, however the fruit came in at 24brix… no matter how much you test, you really never know until the must has cold soaked for a few days. Bottom line: the fruit tastes fantastic.
Teirra Vista Vineyard enjoys a fairly dynamic topography which affects ripening. We harvested from three different sections of the vineyard to showcase the full extent of this terroir. Each section enjoys a different degree of ripening (measured in brix) based on the stress level of the vines… as ripeness varies, so does flavor profile. The array of topography will translate to a wider breadth of flavor for the 2009 vintage Andrew Lane Merlot.
Overall, small production wineries showcase terrior much more vividly than larger houses because of the scrutiny applied to small swaths of land. In a large house these nuances could be lost; simply becoming an afterthought pumped into a 20,000 gallon tank.
The 2009 vintage from Teirra Vista Vineyard will not become “just another statistic”. In a few years we hope a bottle or two will grace your dinner table, enhance your meal and heighten your sense of community at the family dinner table. Cheers!
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