Between The Vines

Our vineyards are so full of life right now that you might expect we’d be spending all of our time out among the vines.  That’s not the case, however, as spring is the season when our winemaking team’s focus shifts to the cellar – specifically, the bottling line.

In general, we bottle our wines four or five months out of the year, beginning in April and wrapping up in September, just before the harvest overtakes us.  To be perfectly honest, bottling is my least favorite part of the whole winemaking process.  Not only is it extremely hectic but, because it entails so many different details and highly specialized equipment, it can be frustrating when one glitch causes delays down the line. Fortunately, our bottling supervisor, Sandra Salomon, thrives on coordinating all the last-minute details of the bottling process, much like a calm and accomplished hostess single-handedly pulling off a multi-course dinner party. Thanks to Sandra’s expertise, we rarely encounter delays, and on a good day, we are able to bottle about 2,500 cases of wine.

In between all the bottling, we still take time to check our vineyards.  As we walk among the vines this month and next, we’ll review the canopy of each vine and begin to get a feel for this year’s crop load. It’s critically important for the size of the canopy (shoots and leaves) to be in balance with the crop load so that each grapevine’s energy is directed to the fruit, not the shoots.  Proper balance results in grapes with more concentrated and complex flavors.  Next month, veraison begins, the time of year when the grape clusters begin to change color (and eager photographers occasionally seem to outnumber grapes in Napa Valley vineyards).  Our goal is to ensure that veraison is uniform – meaning that grape clusters change color in an even fashion – for proper ripeness and best flavors.

As I stroll through the vineyards each day accompanied by Lulu, my chubby short-haired Pointer-Lab mix, I also check the vines for signs of rot or mildew and I double-check our irrigation to make sure that the vines are receiving just the right amount of water. I’ve learned over the years that regularly walking each vineyard is the only way to really understand the differences among the different sites so that we can accommodate the needs of those particular vines.

What’s new for 2008? We experimented with cane pruning of some vines this year in both our estate and Mount George vineyards, so it’ll be interesting to see how those vines develop throughout the year. And, as I mentioned in the last newsletter, we recently purchased two new small fermentation tanks that will allow us to do smaller scale fermentation of our Cabernets.

Overall, we’re looking forward to a great spring and summer, followed by an abundant harvest. We hope you’ll be able to stop by and enjoy the beauty of Silverado Vineyards soon.

Cheers!

Did you know?
Fourteen leaves are required to ripen one cluster of grapes

P.S. You may find LuLu (and her other friends) in the Wine Dogs - USA Edition - book in our Visitors Center. Call 800-997-1770 to order.  $35.00