Sweet Sexy Summer Hangs On

Since I last updated the vintage about two weeks ago we've enjoyed some very solid weather with temperatures regularily approaching the 30 C mark from Osoyoos to Summerland.
Overnights have been as low as 5 C and this big swing is prolonging the ripening process to the advantage of the winemaker.

We're getting some great readings from our vineyard samples and we should be close to harvesting our whites very soon.

It's the kind of late summer we've been hoping for: dry, warm and consistent.

LATE NEWS:

We're starting with a small block of Chard on Sunday followed by 17 tons on Monday and Tuesday of the same.

Game on!

Winery Owner Exercise: Grow Some Tomatoes

The public asks a lot of questions about the vineyards. Some of the simplest queries have answers that are potentially the most profound.

"Why do you grow the vines like that?"

One of the answers is : "Because the last guy did it like that".

Truth is that a number of cultural practices are in play to achieve a common goal: control. This precept is applicable to the greater farming community and the wine business as well.

Left to their own devices, the average grape vine would simply sprawl across the ground in a haphazard way. Occasionally it would train up a tree trunk or other fixed vertical support but for the most part the vine is content to simply spread to the area of least resistance.

For somebody who needs to harvest high quality grapes this kind of vine behaviour would be a chaotic disaster. Planting a lot of vines and then being unable to tend them would result in wildly varied bunch quality and an almost impossible harvest routine.

Good vineyard management is an analogy for a good winery business. It's about good planning, research, decision making and follow through. There's no point in creating a mountain of grapes if the processing or sales contracts haven't been planned. At some point there's going to be trouble if the planning is not in place.

Let's digress and talk about tomatoes. My family and I love vine-ripened tomatoes. We also love the unusual varieties. So my son and I planned to grow a plot of tomatoes this year. We decided to begin with greenhouse starters. On our trip to the nursery I had 20 separate plants before I started to ponder the number of tomatoes that would potentially yield.

Who was going to look after these tomatoes (farmer)? Who is going to eat these tomatoes (market)? Which tomatoes will be more popular (PR)?

After some sober thought, I planted only eight different plants and we're getting just about what we want. We can manage the tomatoes we have without running around and giving them away (developing new markets) or processing them into sauce (new products) at the spur of the moment. Frankly, my time is worth more than either of those activities so the end result would be $$ out and a questionable return. Best of all, a high percentage of our tomatoes are going to be consumed fresh and not left to rot (productivity?).

Currently, there are a number of winery operations in BC experiencing growth difficulties that could probably been overcome with good planning. There is a market for quality BC-made wine but it doesn't sell itself. Failure to perform at every key stage will result in downstream problems that will either require substantial effort ($$) to correct or ultimately decide the fate of the operation.

So when you plant that vine, know what you expect, understand the steps to get there, control the growth. Try it with tomatoes in your backyard if you'd like.

Harvest Predictions for 2007

It's difficult to predict exactly how things will go when we start picking grapes but I am getting a few indications of what direction things will go.
I'm going to go out on a limb, or a vine, here and make a couple of rash statements.
Down on the coast they've had a whack of rain and cooler temperatures. There have been some brief warm spells of high 20's and low 30's but not enough to create any climate anomalies that would push this vintage up the scale any higher than fair. At Township 7 in Langley we're hoping to get the fruit off by the end of October. Given the development I saw yesterday, we need an extended fair and dry September at the coast to even get that. Good thing we grow for sparkling white wine in Langley and don't need

• colour or
• high brix

The Okanagan experienced some odd weather patterns with a dry April and May, a good warm June and July and now rain and cooler temperatures in August. We could use some temps back in the 30's and some warmer nights. Night temperatures are consistently dropping down to 15 or less and that slows the ripening process. We're going to have an old-fashioned Okanagan vintage with ripeness racing against the oncoming rains of fall. Two weeks of superlative warm weather NOW will change all that. Otherwise, temperatures traditionally tank after September 20 so if we're going to make a charge we have to do it now. Look for some late varieties to be still hanging in November unless we get the good stuff now.

Dunham & Froese Winery has a blog

It's called backlabel, which is very appropriate.
Informative and anecdotal. Take a look.

Naramata Bench Tailgate Party

The wineries of the Bench put on one good party of this size every year. Great food and great new wine releases are the hallmarks.

Check out the details and get your tickets at:
http://www.naramatabench.com/

It sells out so don't delay. If you can't make the valley wide fall festival then this is a good event to sneak in a month before that event gets going.

See you there.

Amelia Oil

It never hurts to repeat a truism when it acts as a kind of constant guide.

I rarely tire of the message: Good wine is best with good food.

Combining exquisite culinary creations with a special bottle of wine is one of the basic pleasures of life. It's an experience that can be relived time after time and each occasion is as novel and rewarding as the last.

So it is with great pleasure that I share with you one of my latest discoveries.

Amelia Oil is a tiny producer of olive oil. Oil that is pressed with nothing less than the kind of love one usually reserves for family.

That's probably because it is family. A family from West Vancouver and a family from Umbria in Italy have joined to produce, package and export an olive oil that really has no equal on this side of the pond when it comes to freshness and integrity.

There's lots to read on their website so I won't repeat a lot of what is there. Safe to say there's a fair amount of false representation among the huge oil producers and one way to protect your buying standards is to seek out a direct link from producer to your table. That's what Amelia Oil is all about.

What's it taste like?

It all comes down to taste. It certainly is fresh. I didn't know how stale my store bought oils were until I got my Amelia Oil a couple weeks ago. I was floored by the strength of the palate. I'm now using a little less oil in my preparations but with great flavour results.
The bouquet is very floral with a hint of candy and nut, the palate is full of vegetal green and grassy flavours, toasted grains and nut in the finish. I've used it in various incarnations but my favourites are:
1.BBQ grilled Tilapia drizzled with Amelia oil and sprinkled with basil from my garden.
2.In a pesto for a crust on ahi tuna
3.With some rustic, grain-festooned bread and Poplar Grove cheeses.

The price is, as to be expected, a tad more than the bargain basement oil you can get in the supermarkets. There is something to be said for an oil you can consume and lubrcate your car's engine with but that's not Amelia oil. If you care about what you put in your body then check out their website and blog.
Amelia Oil

Amelia Oil blog

By the way, they're now taking orders for the 2008 oilage.

Gewurztraminer July 25, 2007

Gewurztraminer July 25, 2007, originally uploaded by Dexwriter.

Small Wine Movies

Alright it's not sideways, but a fellow in Edmonton has made a couple short, entertaining and informative movies.

Check the sidebar and just click on the video player to watch.

or here
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/724199/open_a_bottle_of_wine_without_corkscrew/

I get around

Since January, whenever I see the "wine maker needed" flashed on a cloud by a powerful search beam, I respond in the Cruiser.

Days of Wine & Roses Part Two - Keep it Simple Stupid

After determining your winery is a wreck and you'll need umpteen repairs and thousands of litres of new cooperage, there is a way to make your life simpler.

Design a spreadsheet that hinges on tonnage.

If I can do it, you can too.

Create a spreadsheet that automatically calculates all your requirements based on grape tonnage received. This will allow you to see at a glance what your requirements are using accepted industry rates of addition.

How much yeast for the Joe Blow Vineyards Cabernet? Tonnage X average litre yield per ton X grams per hecolitre. That should do it.

Almost all of your factors are available in the catalogs put out by the suppliers around this time of the year.

If this is still trouble for you, drop me an email. I work internationally.

Winery Help Wanted

Township 7 Okanagan is looking for a harvest intern to assist with the crush.
Details at:
http://winevinebc.wordpress.com/

Days of Wine & Roses... and Planning. Part One in a series about preparing for the harvest.

• Hard to believe but our neighbours to the south (California, Texas, other warm climate regions) will be picking grapes for wine sometime next month.
  Here in the north we're not quite that rushed. But by mid-September some early varieties and those destinied for sparkling wine will be starting to come off and make their way to the crush pad.
  If you're a BC winery owner or operator, your vintage plan should be shaped-up by now. You should know where your grapes are coming from, how many tons you can expect, what yeasts and other fermentation aids you'll be using and who will be on your pad this fall. Needless to say, coopers in various parts of the world are putting the finishing touches on your barrels before packing them in containers for the long trip to BC.
  
  Of course, in the real world, things don't line up quite so neatly.
  
  A quick message to consumers and other members of the public: The wine makers of the province are trying to enjoy the summer days in a leisurely fashion but it's not all a bucolic paradise of long hours by the water's edge. There's lots of planning to do.

Best to start by having a pre-vintage meeting with your crew. Hopefully some of them were around the previous year and remember what went right and what turned out wrong. From this brainstorming session you can make adjustments as required. Everything from the way fruit is accepted at the winery to how the equipment can be better delegated can be included. This is also an excellent time to address any glaring repair jobs that somehow missed out getting done during the winter and spring.

From your meeting you can begin a list and prioritize as you go. Using as fresh eyes as possible, walk around your production area and note additional items that will require attention.

Think back to the blur that was the last vintage. Where were the bottlenecks? What didn't make it onto the paperwork train? How can you make things faster, safer and better?

Your employees will tell you what is needed. If they can't do it, bring in another winemaker friend that you trust (like me) for a beer and yak about what works for them. A fresh perspective sometimes solves a problem in minutes that kept you perplexed for weeks.