9-27-01

syrah west 23 90%

mourvedre east 24 80%

mourvedre west 23 70%

tiny amount of shriveling in mourvedre. more in syrah. very dry conditions from mild high pressure system. always intensified on sw slope of this mountain

brix 9-22-11

syrah west 22 90%

mourvedre east 23 80%

mourvedre west 23 70%

picked eastern syrah and all counoise

on sunday the 18th. looked very nice. they are co-fermenting. unheard of.

Syrah-Counoise co-fermentation is now co-fermenting

The Syrah and Counoise that we picked Saturday now show signs of active fermentation.  Look and smell good.  Already quite dark.

Grenache fermentation is slowing down.  May have to press Saturday.

9/15/11

syrah east 23 80%

syrah west 21.5 70%

mourvedre east 22 50%

mourvedre west 21.5 60%

counoise 23 80%

brix september 11 2011

syrah east 21.5 75%

syrah west 20.5 75%

mourvedre east 22 65%

mourvedre west 21.5 60%

counoise 21 70%

tablas creek grenache vertical

http://tablascreek.typepad.com/

a year ago today

these were the syrah and mourvedre readings from a year ago

lower mourvedre 19 50%

upper mourvedre 19 50%

lower syrah 20 90%

upper syrah 20 90%

brix 9/9/2011

syrah east 20.5 60%

syrah west 21 60%

mourvedre east 21 40%

mourvedre west 21.5 40%

counoise 21.5 70%

surprised to see the highest readings from counoise and mourvedre.

testing every day now

Grenache blast off! Tuesday September 6, 2011

Good smelling, good looking, evident fermentation has begun in the garage Grenache.  This time we partially crushed by hand and will punch down twice per day instead of once, except when I'm lazy.  Call it 1.5 times per day.

monday 9-4

ramona vineyard ten days away says grower. we have overcast skies 84 degrees and 48% humidity. feels much hotter. rain last night. also watered saturday night. i think syrah harvest possible perhaps sunday/monday

syrah brix september 1/2-2011

big sample lower rows 19/30%
small sample top row (west) 20/30%

grenache harvested 9/1/2011

fruit was lovely. northside block harvested for first time.

2011 aldeaquemada vineyard grenache harvest 9/1/2011

fruit looks very nice. harvest tomorrow early

brix data 31/8/2011

grenache 23 degrees 80% brown pips

lower mourvedre 20 degrees 30% brown pips

upper mourvedre 19 degrees 30% brown pips

2011 pre vintage

good rain over the winter 2010-11. two good snows. pruned later than ever mid march. some very severe pruning especially in syrah sprawl. very cool spring but everything went well. everything but syrah cluster thinned. there was frost in late may just a few hundred feet higher in the mountains. we missed it but vineyards up there had damage.

lots of attention to green drop and suckering in the grenache, mourvedre and counoise. syrah is still wild wild west. bit of a ghetto. we will get fruit from the 4 year old grenache, particularly north side. only token contribution from south side which has been slow to take hold.

franc de pied plants survived summer so far. the new grenache plantation had about ten percent loss. lots of work remains, terracing stone walls and especially getting a cover crop in before rains come. daunting.

today will be the first brix measure. installation of wasp traps

Mourvedre STILL fermenting

The must is truly delicious.

syrah counoise

we left some syrah behind last week because our bins were full.

syrah - 20 70%

counoise 20 60%

we had two days of rain then partly cloudy and humid. today heavy fog all day. brix in syrah has dropped over four degrees.

mourvedre syrah

we harvested these two on tuesday September 28th under cloudy skies. after an almost ideal september the moderate temperatures came to end. 105 in alpine over the week-end. i watered before and during with the plan being to let the plants recover from shutting down.

we got the following readings monday night and decided to harvest tuesday morning -

mourvedre 24.5 70%
syrah 24 90%

by thursday tropical air moved into the county and we had two days of rain.

Zoom! Fermentation starts in Mourvedre & Syrah

Fermeting and already full of color.