SPRING 2006
After a winter of exceptionally
high rainfall, the grapevines in our area were very happy. The root
zones were flushed of harmful salts, so the vines grew vigorously,
producing lots of flower clusters. To obtain good quality in 2005,
a lot of money had to be spent in the vineyards during the spring
and summer to control growth--carefully training and trimming the
vines to avoid excessive shading. Also, the large crop of fruit had
to be thinned.
With grapes,
there is an inverse relationship between quantity and quality. A vine
with a large crop has difficulty ripening the fruit, so it tends to
produce unevenly ripened clusters, which compromises quality. A vine
seems to have only so much flavor it can impart to the grapes it bears.
So, when faced with a large crop, one must eliminate the excess clusters
to concentrate the flavor into the remaining ones. This year it was
essential to thin severely. For example, with the chardonnay at Bien
Nacido Vineyard, we removed three quarters of the clusters during
the summer, and, later when it looked as though there was still a
big crop, we went back and trimmed again, removing the shoulders to
reduce the cluster size. Had we not thinned, the quality would have
been marginal; as it was, we still ended up with a generous, yet excellent
quality crop.
The fall was
mercifully benign-we had great weather for the harvest, rewarding
those that did a good job in the vineyard with first-rate grapes.
In this newsletter, we offer two wines that we think are indicative
of the high quality achieved with this vintage, a sauvignon blanc
and a rosé. The red wines offered here are all from the 2003 vintage,
which might be considered 2005's polar opposite, as the crop was tiny.
However, the 2003 vintage had its own problems, but once again, detailed
attention in the vineyard made the difference between success and
failure.
Adam
Tolmach