We began harvest this week by picking Merlot, Malbec and Pinot noir for our Hanna Rose. At around 20% sugar the fruit is perfect for our Provencal style Rose. The Rose fruit is typically picked a week before anything else, allowing us to spoil it into perfection before harvest becomes more like a grapey ,chaste version of Hiroshii Teshigahara's classic black and white film , "Woman of the Dunes".
But lest you get the wrong idea; I borrow from another director's film (this one now a winery owner) : " God how I love it so".
On friday we tasted 14 Sauvignon Blanc juice samples from fruit Marti and Gery had picked Thursday. Tasting fruit at this stage immaturity is a challenge . The juices are almost too tart to taste. At this point, around 16% sugar, the concentration of the compounds responsible for the green flavor notes in SB are at their highest. The passion fruit, lime and stone fruit aromas wiil start to develop now. We found almost no bell pepper or Jalapeno aromas in the juices. This is a good sign! We will follow up in week.
Our Hanna Chardonnay has begun to ripen. The reward for critters who would be eating the soon to be ripe fruit, is sugar. The allure is aroma, which is developing now behind a still searing acidity The crop is good, and the weather has been great so far. We like to pick this block on the ripe side. It will be on the vine another two months before reaching perfect maturity.
After a small crop of Zinfandel last year our Bismark Mountain Ranch in the Mayacamas Mountains is loaded with fruit. Bismark's thin volcanic soiils won't support a crop this size and furthermore Zinfandel is almost as sensitive as Pinot noir to overcropping. In order to make the typical rich, ripe Hanna Bismark Zinfandel we needed to drop a lot the green fruit on the ground. Less is more baby!
