September 22, 2010

Dairy of a cellar rat: Wine class

This harvest continues to surprise me. I’m not really sure when it’s going to start in earnest. I mean we’re working 10, 12 hour days six days a week, but the winery doesn’t have that true, chaotic feeling of crush yet. The cool weather has just slowed everything down to an amazing degree. Today I took my dog CoCo on a run and I could not believe how much Sauvignon Blanc is still hanging and we’re almost in October. Sauv B is usually the done by the start of September.

Not really a bad thing I guess as this fall I’m taking a class at the Napa community college in the fundamentals of oenology. The class is interesting but the best part is that as we discuss the art of winemaking I spend most of my days doing the exact same operations that are the focus of the class.

For example, my most recent class dealt with yeasts, fermentation, inoculating grape juice and the fermentation/yeast cycle. Prior to the lecture, I spent the day at the winery preparing yeast, inoculating must and monitoring fermentations.

It’s a wonderful combination of work and life as well as a little ironic when you’re taking a vocabulary quiz on such terms as yeast, starter solution and must (the unfermented mixture of grapes, grape skins, seeds, juice and other material) and your pants are covered in yeast, yeast starter and must.

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September 21, 2010

Drinking Jungle Juice in Harlem?

A man known as Kool-Aid mixing multiple alcohols and juice at his home in Harlem to make a drink called nutcracker. He said he could make $700 in profit on every $200 to $300 in supplies. (Jennifer S. Altman for The New York Times)

Summertime, sitting on the stoop in the heat of Harlem sipping on an icy Nutcracker.

Not how I spent my August, but according to this great article in the New York Times, many folks in Harlem are doing just that. The Nutcracker is a heady mix of different liquors mixed with fruit juice and sold for $5 a pop by neighborhood bootleggers.

The Nutcrackers reminded me of the Jungle Juice I drank at many a party during my college days at UO. The “Juice” could be a ruinous cocktail for naive young undergrads.

Myself and my friends Dex, Ken and Sarah threw a party one time and fixed up two 10 gallon coolers of the drink and mixed in fresh fruit. The fruit soaks up the booze and it was truly the brave who “ate the fruit.”

I think our recipe went something like this:

1 bottle of 151 grain alcohol like Everclear or 151 rum

1, 750 ml of citrus vodka

1, 750 ml. vodka

1 750 ml. gin

1 bottle each of pineapple juice, orange juice and cranberry juice.

Ice and water to top as well as fresh fruit.

I can’t remember if the recipe was split into both coolers or if was four bottles of liquor for each cooler, probably the latter.

Well I ever throw a Jungle Juice party again? Perhaps not, but it could be kind of fun to make a small batch for sentimental reasons.

Who knows, maybe I could make a little money on the side selling cups of Carneros Nutcracker out at the marina.

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September 14, 2010

Beer tour on the North Coast

A tall frosty pint of Lost Coast Pale Ale, a welcome start to a North Coast brew tour.

If Portland, Ore. is the undisputed capital of America’s brew culture, than I have to say California’s North Coast is its sleepy, oft-ignored younger brother. The North Coast, which includes Humboldt County and its two largest cities Arcata and Eureka, may be best known as a pot grower’s paradise but the region is also home to some of the finest small breweries in the nation.

I recently got a chance to skip out of Napa for a quick weekend to savor the last bit of my summer freedom before the onslaught of harvest begins at the winery. My tour guide for the weekend was my good friend Brendan who has lived in the Arcata area for almost a decade. He’s a fellow Sonoman and was the best man at my wedding. He’s usually hunting on fall weekends, but decided to put down his bow and arrow to show me the brew scene in his neck of the woods.

I arrived late on Friday night, and after a night of reminiscing and talking about how country music lost its way, Brendan and I woke up early in the morning for a quick round of golf at the Eureka municipal course. Golf is a fickle pursuit. I try to play about every two weeks so I was feeling confident. Brendan plays about once or twice a year and he beat me by seven strokes. It was one of those days out on the links when about anything that could go bad did, and when something went good I was just making ground back from the last mistake.

Needless to say by the last hole I was ready to start the brew tour. Our first stop was Lost Coast brewery, probably the best known and most celebrated of the North Coast brews. This brewery is located in downtown Eureka and serves a wide selection of ales that includes their well-known Downtown Brown and Great White. The brown is a wonderful example of the classic Brown Ale variety that packs a subtle hop punch in the finish. The Great White is ostensibly a Belgian white but it has less aromatics and coriander spice taste with more German hoppiness. The Great White can fluctuate in quality but on the whole it generally is a crowd pleaser. I couldn’t believe the number of folks who joined us at the crowded Lost Coast bar and when deciding what to drink asked if the brewery had “anything light?” I don’t know why you would got to a brewery and inquire to drink something light. I guess they just wanted to try something new, but didn’t want to get to far out of their comfort zone. Most of them seemed to be making road trips on 101 and actually most of them seemed like they were from southern California. Probably Dodgers fans. And they probably prefer lite beer. Bastards.

Downtown Eureka is home to the Lost Coast brewery, one of the best and best known beermakers in the area.

Our next stop was Humboldt Brewing, but we quickly learned they no longer make their own beer, but do offer about 30 beers on tap. We had a quick pint and got to talking about the strangle hold pot growers have on the economy and society in Humboldt. It’s a shame that a small group of ponytailed oligarchs are holding the region back, but Prop. 215 may change all that.

The next stop was Mad River Brewing. This brewery is located in the small community of Blue Lake just outside of Arcata near the 101 intersection with 299. This turned out to be my favorite spot of the day. The brewery is located in a small industrial park situated near a pulp mill. It seemed truly emblematic of the North Coast to be sitting in a beer garden with a bunch of college kids almost in the shadow of a mill drinking craft beer. Mad River is a hop head’s type of brewery. They have a wonderful selection of IPA’s that all exhibit the full range of hop flavor from grit your teeth bitterness to wonderful notes of citrus. They have a limited distribution but if you can find a 22 ounce or six pack in your store give it a try.

Another great brewery in the area is Six Rivers. Brendan and I visited this joint during a hunting trip last year so it wasn’t on our itinerary this time around but on my most recent visit I was able to try their porter and found it to be delightful. Most porters can be just a little too much smoky malt and little hops. Six River’s porter had a wonderful balance and a really crisp finish.

The view from a hillside a few miles outside of Blue Lake in Humboldt County.

But a trip to Humboldt wouldn’t be complete without heading up into the mountains. Brendan is a field biologist for a resource company in the area and took me out to a remote area where he’s conducting a study on spotted owls. We had a box of mice in the back of the truck and I was all jazzed for some great photos of me feeding a wild, Humboldt spotted owl, but after about 20 minutes of hooting, screeching, whistling and whooping on Brendan’s part to call in the owls we had no luck.

After the brew tour, Brendan and I went to downtown Arcata for a great dinner at the Plaza Grill. I had a huge platter of ribs and he had the sensible, heart-healthy seared tuna served over wild rice. As we made our way around the plaza, I was able to talk him into a quick drink at Everett’s. Well, a “quick drink” is never really that quick and after I had started on the Jameson’s and bought him a shirt, I tried to get him to go for a visit to the Tip Top club, but it was to no avail. I guess that’s why they call me full throttle.

They've got big trees up there dude. No really, like totally huge bro.

The next day I woke up to find the fog breaking up early, at around 9 a.m. Usually the coastal towns can stay socked in until 3 p.m. I took the opportunity for a quick five mile run to savor the fresh air and ocean breeze. The pleasant and clear weather made for a wonderful drive back down through the Redwoods on 101.

I always love visiting the North Coast. It’s definitely not part of the Bay and it’s not really pure Northern California — like Redding, Chico or Red Bluff — and it’s also got a much different vibe than Southern Oregon. I’m not sure if I’d love it that much if I lived there year round, the politics and marijuana growers would get old, but it sure is nice to visit. A big part of making those visits pleasurable is the vibrant and creative brewing scene.

(Update, Sept. 21, 2010, correction that’s Prop 19, not Prop 215. I do recall voting from Prop. 215 back in the day, actually it may have been my first election. I also voted for Dennis Peron too.

Also, the Tip Top Club reference was a joke. The place has always been a joke every since I first started visiting the North Coast. Unfortunately, my wife didn’t get the joke. Evidenced by the fact that after she read this post she sent me a text that started with “Your a pig!!!” and didn’t get any nicer. Women just don’t get jokes sometimes.)

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September 7, 2010

Wine reading

Two great articles on the wine industry, or really two people in the wine industry, in the Sunday Chronicle.

The first I’ll mention concerns architect Howard Backen who has earned himself quite a reputation designing some of Napa’s most exclusive and top-tier wineries. Backen’s style is described as being more influenced by the North Bay’s agricultural heritage than the great estates of Old Wine World Europe. I know little of architecture, but I do know that I prefer the wineries in Napa and California to actually look like they belong in California and aren’t trying to be an estate in Bordeux or Tuscany. It’s a little ridiculous to think of how hard early California vintners had to fight to gain recognition in the global market for California wines and then to see rich people build themselves European castles that represent an image or a desire to evoke Europe. This undermines the successful reputation California has built for its own wines. Napa wines aren’t as good as European wines — they are better — and the wineries should have their own unique design that is emblematic of California.

And speaking of the global wine world, the other article I liked was a profile of Lee Hi-Sang. Lee is a fantastically succesful businessman who owns a winery in Napa and seems to be single-handedly trying to encourage the rest of his native Korea to embrace wine. The article mentions how many Koreans have never tasted wine and most don’t know what to do with a corkscrew. When you live in Napa, it’s hard to imagine that one of the world’s most populous nations knows little of wine and is a reminder that despite how globalized our society has come the world is still a very big place.

I think the Chronicle offers some of the best wine coverage in the area. While the Lee profile was a Bloomberg piece, the Chronicle’s own wine coverage is largely unbiased, lively and they actually break news. You get used to seeing the same trend pieces in wine media. For example, how many “Albarino is the hottest white” articles have you read lately? And while the Chronicle sometimes falls victim to this, on the most part every Sunday offers a fresh and insightful wine section.

It’s also far better than the insipid trade press that produces journalism that serves only to frame advertising. Buy a full page ad and get a 90 point score or a puff piece profile — it’s just terrible.

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September 1, 2010

Harvest 2010 is here

Today at 9:36 a.m. my colleague Diego, using a forklift, tipped a bin loaded with Sauvignon Blanc grapes into one of the presses at Starmont and harvest had commenced.

It’s been a bit of a slow burning fire this year. A cooler than normal summer has pushed us a few weeks behind a “normal” harvest schedule. A lack of a good long heat spell has also meant there doesn’t seem like there will be an onrush of early ripening fruit. Instead, it seems like a measured march into what could be very busy October and November. (There’s even some talk that we won’t get Thanksgiving off.)

I’ll be working in the lab and the cellar this harvest and I’m looking forward to not only seeing the production side again, but to see more of the analytical processes involved with harvest.

The start of harvest is always a fun, although bit tense time. While we’re all looking forward to the overtime and extra money the grueling hours and stress are not fun. Simple traditions, however, help keep you excited. This morning, us cellar guys gathered around with the winemakers, vineyard managers, lab staff and folks from the administrative office to toast another vintage with a glass of sparkling wine. It’s a nice tradition, practiced at many wineries, although some break out champagne to toast the last load of grapes for that harvest.

This harvest could well go deep into late November and perhaps even December depending on weather.

In the weeks leading up to today, many of my coworkers in the cellar would joke around with each other asking if “you’re ready for harvest?”

As our cellarmaster reminded us this morning: “It doesn’t matter if you’re ready or not. Harvest is here.”

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August 13, 2010

Out in the cuts

Here in Carneros I enjoy living close to the country. As I write this, I look out of my bedroom window and watch a covey of young quail peck their way through a field looking for food.

It sometimes seems I can’t walk anywhere without flushing a jack rabbit from the bushes. I’ve run into several snakes, even catching one, and one of my favorite parts of sitting out on the patio as night falls is watching the owls come swooping out of their roosts while making their haunting and weird calls.

One night last week I was up late. I had had a cup of coffee late in the day and the result was I couldn’t sleep. I was up at around 3 a.m. watching a Sherlock Holmes show on PBS, and kinda dozing off when I was snapped awake by a blood-chilling series of howls and shrieks. A pack of coyotes was running past our house letting lose a cacophony of snarls, yelps and vicious sounding growls. I jumped out of my chair and grabbed a spotlight, but when I flashed the field with the light all the noise stopped.

All I could see, at the furthest limit of the light, was just a row of coyote eyes staring back at me and shining in the night. I thought about grabbing my .22 and taking a few potshots at them, but shooting into the night at a vague target is never really smart. Instead I just watched them as one-by-one the coyotes turned away from the light and walked off into the vineyards.

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August 8, 2010

Diary of a cellar rat: Another harvest here already

A cluster of Pinot Noir undergoing verasion.

It seems so cliché to express surprise at the steady march of time and seasons. Everyone always seems to agree when one exclaims, “July is already over? How did that happen?” I guess that’s human nature.

How does it happen? But it does. The vines that stood barren, just naked stalks and dead tendrils hanging on wires beneath cold, flat February skies have once again turned verdant and full of life. Clusters of grapes that were just small green pebbles a month ago are already changing color or going through the process of verasion.

I remember making copies at the winery office in March and looking at a calendar and thinking to myself of all the time I had until harvest came around once more. Here we are in August, and all that time that has passed seems like a blur.

I am becoming more familiar with my new career and new industry. It feels good to be getting ready for harvest. This is the big time of our profession in the wine industry. It is something that have realized that if I continue in this industry my life will always be in one of three stages: before harvest, during harvest and after harvest.

This year appears to be about a month behind normal. Because of an unseasonably cool summer that has felt as if it’s been early June since, well, early June, the grapes are behind in their ripening. I guess it means I likely will get a full Labor Day weekend, but may not get a Thanksgiving holiday.

I’m looking forward to this year’s harvest. I do love the excitement and the rush. I also am looking forward to working harvest in my new position at the winery and learning much more about winemaking.

Still though, there is always plenty of work in the cellar. Last week I was filling barrels with a few other colleagues when swarms of small midge like insects fell upon the winery. The bugs crawled through out hair, down our shirts and got into our equipment as well as the wine. I’ve now filled barrels in 100 degree heat, in pouring rain, light snow and now hordes of insects.

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July 26, 2010

Hombrew disappointment — It’s all flat!

Two weeks of waiting, followed by a day of chilling in the fridge and then the moment of truth.

Opening the first bottle of homebrew.

I’ll admit, this shouldn’t be such a moment fraught with anxiety. If you’re a competent homebrewer you should have consistent success, you methods should be tested and true. Brewing should be a road to success, not a trip marked by pitfalls and wishful thinking.

But alas, for the humber amateur like myself I can never say I don’t have some trepidation as I put the bottle opener to that first 22 ounce bottle. Will it be skunky? Will it have a weird aroma? Will it be — gasp — flat?

Turns out my last batch was the perhaps the worst, flat as can be. It tastes good, it’s a little darker than I hoped but still doesn’t look bad, it has a nice finish but no bubbles. I’ll blame it on two things, waiting to long to bottle condition, not monitoring my fermentation well enough and also using the tabs of sugar rather than dosing out priming sugar.

I now have two cases of flat beer. Like I said, it tastes OK, but it’s flat. I resolve my next batch will receive my utmost attention and care. It shall receive a correct amount of carbonation sugar and I will ensure I still have healthy yeast to make it to the carbonation finish line.

As with all hobbys, one must not be daunted by failures but rather learn from them to achieve future success.

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July 25, 2010

Enjoying a concert at Mondavi

Prior to the concert, the grass area fills up with people with picnics and wine. You can't bring in your own adult beverages but there is a bountiful supply of Mondavi wines for sale.

Last weekend, Christine and I lucked out when some friends said they had extra tickets for a concert at Robert Mondavi winery.

The Mondavi concert series is a long-standing Napa tradition and the concerts are always a sought after ticket to spend a pleasurable summer evening.

Our friends, Ben and Tracy, work at the local Napa radio station that is one of the sponsors of the concert series. So not only did Christine and I have the privilege of free tickets to a show but we also snagged seats at one of the premium tables where the wine flows free and plate after plate of gourmet food is brought to you. Back when Christine was in her early 20s she used to make extra cash by working as a server for the VIP section. She was thrilled by the chance to enjoy a concert from the other side of the table.

Because of all the free wine (which pours freely, did I mention that?) the crew decided to cab it up valley and back. Without anyone having to worry about driving we were all able to sit back and enjoy the show.

We came early to also enjoy free wine and appetizers for VIP guests before the concert. While we sipped chilled Chardonnay and nibbled on snacks we were also able to wander around large oak fermentation tanks and the winery’s modern and impressive barrel room. As a cellar rat, I love to visit other winery’s cellars to look at what type of equipment and layout they have.

I would love, love, to work with barrels that are always laid down one high. At Starmont I often have to scramble up barrels stacked five or six high.

I think because of Mondavi’s long history in the valley and its acquisition by wine behemoth Constellation, people just don’t seem to give the Napa winery the respect it deserves. The wines may not have the hipness or cult following of other Napa wineries but they are all well made and taste great, if not amazing. Although at dinner, we did enjoy a library Cabernet that was very good.

Following the pre-concert reception, we made our way out to banquet style tables adorned with lovely table settings and situated beneath vine covered trellises. Performing that night was Juan De Marco and the Afro-Cuban All Stars. Apparently the lead was a member of the Buena Vista Social Club and the band had the same fast-tempo style jazz. In keeping with the Cuban theme, the night’s menu included several Latin dishes as well as delicious braised Cuban pork. For wines we enjoyed the famous Mondavi Fume Blanc as well as a solid Carneros Pinot Noir and an especially tasty 1999 Reserve Cab.

I’m not going to pretend I’m a huge Jazz fan so I can’t say the music was wonderful or bad, I did enjoy it though. The snazzy beats had most of the folks in the grass area up and dancing and even had Christine dragging me around the table area in an attempt to get me to dance. An attempt though, I’m a terrible dancer.

What I really enjoyed was just lounging in the VIP table area taking in our great view of the stage and performers. It seemed about every 10 minutes a prompt and courteous server was at our elbows asking if we needed more wine or food. And, I’ll be honest, we were grateful and accepting of the generosity.

The concerts at Mondavi have been going on for more than 40 years now, and I can see why. The food is great and there are few better ways to enjoy a spectacular sunset over the vines of Napa Valley than with the accompaniment of skilled musicians. Tickets are pricey (table seats average $200) but the lawn tickets are a bit more reasonable.

More cab Bennie?

A rear view of the performance. I know it's not a great concert shot, but it would have been an impossible to have made my way through the jammed lawn area to reach the front of the stage.

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July 20, 2010

Taking a day at the lake

CoCo on the shore of Lake Berryessa.

One of the best parts of my job at the winery is that when it’s not harvest we work a “four-ten” shift or 10 hours a day, four days a week.

This means I get every Friday off, well at least until harvest. It’s pretty nice having a three day weekend every week. You get a whole extra day to take of all of life’s fun little errands like getting a haircut, going to the bank, the drug store etc. Last Friday, I was getting ready at the house with a long list of stuff to take care of, when I just stopped, looked over at my lab CoCo lounging on his bed and thought maybe I’d just hang out with the dog.

It had been a long time since I’d gone somewhere with CoCo and an even longer time since I’d been up to Lake Berryessa in northern Napa County so I grabbed a cooler, put CoCo in the truck and we were off to the lake.

In the truck and ready to roll.

With the windows down and blaring some country music, CoCo and I made our way up to the lake on the windy back roads. The day was pretty hot, so about 20 minutes before we got to the lake, I decided I better stop and pull over and see if I could get CoCo to drink some water. This resulted in a little bit of a panicked moment when the dog was able to slip off his leash and run out onto the highway but after a little scampering on my part I was able to catch him.

The water at the lake was just perfect. Near the shore, the water had a slight greenish tint, but further off the bank it turned a deep turquoise blue. As it was a Friday afternoon, the lake wasn’t that crowded and CoCo and I were able to find a stretch of beach all to ourselves. Many lakes can still be pretty cold this time of year, but Berryessa was in perfect swimming condition. You could just walk right in to the water that was still refreshing but not icy.

Chugging away, while doing the appropriate style paddle.

CoCo loves to swim and play fetch in the water but he’s still freaked out when I’m swimming with him. Whenever I was hanging out in the lake, he started making a high-pitched, whiny yelping that made him sound like he was being abused. (In fact a boat cruised by us relatively close to shore and I think the people were actually checking to make sure there was no canine abuse going on.)

I’ve come to the conclusion that CoCo just needs to spend a week, or long weekend, at the water to really become familiar with it and with people swimming in it.

But despite CoCo’s little behavioral quirks in the water, it still was a wonderful way to enjoy a Friday.

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