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Notes from the Vineyard



Past "Notes from the Vineyard"


Handmade wines since 1983.

 

Notes from the Vineyard

FALL 2002

Perhaps because I'm about to embark upon my twentieth harvest here at The Ojai Vineyard, I have been spending some time reflecting on my work. Coincidentally, I've recently been asked by a couple of people whether I still like what I do--and, I have to say, yes. When I first started in the wine business, I had a hard time imagining doing anything in particular for five years, let alone twenty. But there is something alluring in a craft that presents innumerable variables together with a rather long timeline during which many changes occur. The work is endlessly confounding and fascinating. I still have so much more to learn about wine.

In this quest there are a few ojectives I have pursued to help focus my energies. First, I have consciously approached my work as a craft and not as a business because, as soon as you get worked up about the cost of a cork or a cluster of grapes, quality seems to take a back seat to expediency and monetary concerns. While it is nerve-wracking to invest heavily in something without really knowing what the return will be, I have had success taking a no-compromise approach to wine quality. Most people are sick of the McDonaldization of every product and have been receptive to our attempts to make the genuine article: hand-made wine.

My intent has always been to make the best, but over the years I have either become more fanatical, or have learned enough to realize that the devil is in the details and that one must focus on these with utmost attention. In the vineyards we went from gently nudging the growers to insisting that they make radical reductions of yields and adhere to vineyard practices that might seem crazy to some-but the aim has been to do everything and anything that might improve quality. And in the winery, we went from the fringes of conventionality to the absolute extreme as far as the making and handling of the wines is concerned. I regularly freak out my more conventional winemaker friends when I tell them how little sulfur dioxide I add to my wines and how little and how late I rack (decant) them.

Another aspect that has kept this work fun for me has been to keep this winery small. As a born empire-builder, I have had to fight my natural instincts to expand, but in order to continue to focus on making better and better wine, I can't be bothered with the logistics required to make and sell more and more. And making better and not more is the essence of what I am trying to do here. When I was at a wine tasting recently someone asked me if I was planning on expanding the winery. I told him I was planning just the opposite. That got me a round of laughter, because that is not what entrepreneurs do. But we do make plenty of wine now, and as I age I plan not to retire, but to make less and less-until I get to the point of doing just a few barrels a year. If I don't keep this thing rewarding and interesting, what is the point?

Adam Tolmach