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Growing Grapes: Lessons From a Season in the Sun.
Winemaking is a mystery to the unknowing. To many it remains a majestic process where thick red and golden grape juice flows from the faucets of the winery into bottles that appear outrageously priced on the menu of your favorite restaurant. I'll admit I ascribed to this philosophy. If you would have asked me what I knew about vineyard management before June, I would have mumbled, sounding if I had a handful of grapes in my mouth, something about weather. Almost four months later with 340,000 tons of grapes harvested, and no grapes left to slur my speech, I can report enough conversation to fill a bottle of wine. So, let's turn the faucet and explore the education I received these past few months. - Gone are the days when grapes are grown with minimum interference. No longer will you find a winemaker standing in front of a row of grapes turning his head to the heavens, staring at the stars and pondering the phases of the moon in order to coordinate the date that harvest will begin. Today techniques in the vineyard are as meticulously polished as the stainless steel tanks that have replaced hefty wood barrels that have gone gray from 40 years of fermentation. Enthusiasts will still categorize wine as being Old World or New World. "Old" being traditionalists, "New" being modernists. The distinction used to mean whether or not a winemaker used new, oak barriques (barrels) to fortify their wine, now it's about field techniques and vineyard management, the vinification facility and cellar hygiene. Although the techniques may have changed the wine philosophy in the Old World remains the same - when you drink a glass of wine, no matter what you encounter, the winemaker has accomplished his goal if you swallow the last drop wanting another glass. His or her goal is to offer you an easy to drink experience. A wine that is pleasurable, that is pure, that is elegant and balanced. And you want another glass. Intimidated but courageous, knowing you will massacre the name on the elegant label and misplace the wine in its region; you want another glass. The Growing Season - June and July A friend asked another friend if I knew that farming was boring. This was a legitimate question coming from an illustrious graduate of Cornell's College of Agriculture. But with the enthusiasm and excitement of pursuing a new phase in my life, his question didn't deter me from stepping foot on the farm. The first few days upon arrival, we checked for parasites and fungus, compared the structure of bushels from each vine and I learned about the 'equilibrium' of vineyard management. Each vine must produce a balanced amount of fruit in order to grow grapes with good consistency. Without a good grape, good wine is nowhere to be found. The farm is where this philosophy begins. However, as I stared at the vines, tens of thousands of green eyes stared back at me begging me to ask the business school questions about vineyard volume, export percentages, growth opportunities, capital investment for growth, cash flow, marketing and the consumption patterns in America and elsewhere. My questions inflamed debate among the winemakers and each night I returned home with dirt under my nails, caked clay on my shoes, a journal full of notes and more questions for tomorrow, even if they were the same questions, in the Socratic style, hoping the answers would snake though the vines and new ideas would grow from within. In late-June, early July when you finally take your eyes from the baby grapes growing, the first thing you will notice is that the leaves on the vines are growing wildly. In some areas of the vineyard, canopies are forming. And this must be controlled. Two methods are employed to control this growth so that the energy of the growing season reaches the weight of the blooming bunches hanging below. The common method is to wrap the flopping foliage, to braid it, on a wire terrace that tracks from one end of each row to the other. This is will produce visions of a manicured vineyard, visually pleasing yes, but it is important to manage the vines so they don't grow wildly, higher and higher, producing more leaves which will drain energy from the grapes and steal the sun and prevent the wind from drying the morning dew which will produce parasitic mold. The second method is to prune and cut the foliage; however, if done to early in the growing season the plant will steal the nutrients needed to reproduce what was cut. This method typically occurs toward the end of the growing season, before harvest. By mid-July things are progressing as planned. The sun is shining daily, but the proximity to the sea is producing a morning dew. The humidity causes mold when the moisture is exposed to the ultra-hot summer sun. It is decided that a tractor containing a chemical sulfur mix will be sprayed on the grapes. Sulfur is a drying agent and antiseptic that will remove any early build up of mold. August August brings the final month of grape growing. In early August it was determined that the vineyard is producing too many bunches of grapes. If there is a large crop, then the nutrients and sugars will be insubstantially distributed; therefore, it is decided to thin the crops of unripe grapes and limit yield for quality purposes, so to concentrate the resources of the vines into the remaining bunches. In the following weeks, the farms are quiet; most of the manual labor has been done in preparation for this crucial month of maturation. The workers set off on their vacations to replenish their energy and sun burn their bodies on the shores of Sicily, while the vines grow fat with sugary grapes. When we return to the vineyard in the third week of August, the handful of leaves that have fallen into the face of the grapes are cut from the vines. In these final, crucial weeks before harvest it is important that the grapes continue to get as much sun and warm breezes to keep them dry and producing sugar that will eventually turn into alcohol. The vineyard occupies two sides of a hill that creates the valley of Acate. It is evident when we return to farm that the grapes on the terraces on top of the hill have been maturing faster. This is a natural process due to the slight change in altitude - the vines bathe longer in the morning sun and fresh breezes. These grapes will be the first to be harvested in the fall. On the contrast, the vineyards that inhabit the slopes of Mt. Etna will harvest later in the season, because at their altitude (nearly 2,000 feet above sea level) the grapes get a cooler growing season and the maturation process is much slower. Vineyards in the Etna region will start their harvest in early-October. So we follow the lines of workers who cleanse the vines of foliage and taste and test for ripeness and sugar contents. Long gone are the days of harvesting all the grapes in one 'crush.' Today the vines are harvested when ready. The decision as to when the grapes will be ready to begin the vinification process is one part science and two parts sensory. Random selections of grapes are tested and results recorded daily. Sugar contents are confirmed by using a spyglass (i.e. science). You pull a berry from the bunch, rub its juice on the blue glass, close the lid and look. Looking at the liquid under this microscope will present sugar contents in density percentages. In the span of three to four weeks sugar counts will rise from the mid-high teens to around 25%. Twenty-five percent sugar is optimal for producing a wine with about 14% alcohol. After the juice is spread on the spyglass, the grape is placed in the mouth to be tested by the teeth (i.e. sensory #1). You pulverize the skins and seeds in your mouth and test for acidity and the bitter tannins that will provide the structure for an age worthy wine. In delicate grapes like Chardonnay and Merlot, the tannins will be sweet and soft, a reflection of the wine they will produce. The final test is to look at the shoot that holds the weight of the bunch (i.e. sensory #2). As the green on the stalk turns brown like the trunk itself, there are no more nutrients the vine can provide. If the grapes remain on the vines past their desired peak the sugars will continue to multiply and water contents will diminish as the grapes are exposed to too much sun. Over-ripening grapes and drying them out is the preferred technique of dessert wine makers who want high sugar contents in their syrupy wine. Daily notebooks are filled, line by line, and compared to previous year's record. The weather is noted - temperature, sun, wind and rain. This year the weather was warm and the maturation is happening sooner. High sugar counts are showing and we are anticipating a nice balance of alcohol and acidity for big, bold, robust reds and refreshing white wines when released in late 2006 and early 2007. Early September we will begin harvest. September Harvest. With harvest spread out over the course of the month, the heavy lifting doesn't begin until after the international varietals (Chardonnay, Syrah and Merlot) are plucked in the first week. The vineyard thrives on the grapes that are germane to the region, Nero d'Avola, Frappato (reds) and the white grape Insolia, which make up the majority of the vineyard. Nero d'Avola is the cash crop and is said to be a clone of Syrah, the prominent grape of France's Rhone river valley. The production of Nero d'Avola, the "black grape from the city of Avola" due east of the vineyard, was brought to prominence in 1600 when the city of Vittoria was staked on the map by Vittoria Colonna who promised two hectares (five acres) of land to the first 75 settlers with the stipulation that each settler plant a vineyard. The Nero d'Avola grape produces a rich, deep and dark red wine. Scents of woodland blackberries and raspberries with a touch of liquorice and spice are characteristics of this wine. On the palate, the wine is velvety and warm, like melted, bitter chocolate in the mouth. Harvest is an anxious period when you assess the status of ripening grapes and consult daily weather forecasts to decide where to deploy the workers. The work starts at 6 a.m., but harvesting doesn't begin until 9 a.m. During the three early hours the grapes are drying from morning dew and workers will strip leaves from the vines allowing more sun to shine on the grapes in order to expedite the drying process. This is important because you don't want any water on the grapes that will dilute the juice when they are travel to the cantina. Morning to night occupies every effort of the hands that are responsible for cutting, carting and caring for the grapes before we can taste the fruits of this labor. During harvest, the number of workers will grow from the annual eight to 13 skilled with shears. All work is done by hand and it is backbreaking, as the fruit of the vines tends to hang at waist level. The morning work stops around 12:30 and the workers retreat to the broken down farm house where a table is set to relieve them from the sun. Jugs of wine are consumed and meats, cheeses and bread are cut from fresh hunks and roasted vegetables wash it all down. Throughout the day, grapes are picked, placed in a truck, escorted off and weighed in less than an hour of being severed from the vines. There are roughly five thousand plants per hectare and each cartload will carry about fifteen hundred kilos or just over three thousand pounds of grapes. Four cartloads per hectare will come and go in rapid succession. Each hectare will yield about six thousand kilos (13 thousand pounds) of grapes worthy of bottling. It takes two kilos (4.4 pounds) worth of fruit to produce the contents of one bottle. At the cantina, the grapes are weighed while still in the truck, a sample of the juice is taken from a mechanical arm that looms above the tractor and then the grapes are ready to be de-stemmed. The force of three thousand pounds is dumped into a large, steel v-shaped bucket with a circular blade at the bottom. The blade churns the grapes and the skins, stems and juices sift through an open end to be separated. A vacuum sucks the stems out of the collection canister and piles them on the side to whither in the sun. The grapes and their juices flow into the cantina and inside large stainless steel tanks before being pressed and fermented. Harvest ends after thirteen days. The vineyard managers are ecstatic that we had a period of little or no rain to prevent maximizing the quality of the grapes that were transported to the cantina. And now the fun begins - Part 2: Grapes to Wine (coming soon).
Wine Post - October'05 Back to home...
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