pasodocwine

Cerro Prieto the beautiful: Post Westside Paso Harvest and a time for reflection

2011-12-06T08:49:00.000-08:00

4:45 a.m. and the bright 2/3 moon has long since set. Last evening even with the moon straight above at bedtime, Orion, the hunter with sword and shield was also directly overhead as was Gemini, the Twins, directly above Orion. The long, snakey Hydra was barely visible to the west, disappearing into the western horizon. Looking northwards, the Big Dipper and Ursa Major are readily visible, much farther south than they have been in months. Little Dipper and the North star are hidden by the massive oak forests to our north. Memo: Cold and crisp outside, if I don't wrap house well, vineyard well, and house pipes today, we are going to be without water tomorrow.

5 a.m. and first lite appears, that time in the morning when the early Nile River dhow sailors could hold up their hand to the darkness and actually see individual fingers. That fact remains important to duck hunters in states, or countries(Mexico) where shooting begins at first light. Usually at that time of morning, the hunter can only hear the ducks whistling by overhead...but can see none.

5:15 and the first smudge of daybreak can be seen to the SE, a blue grey smudge with a hint of orange...faint, but visible. The orange is beginning to creep west and north now, and by 5:30 the entire visible horizon to the south/ SE has a lovely thin line of orange, highlighting the southern mountains of the Templeton Gap, and the foothills of the Santa Lucias extending northward. First light, daybreak, the truly divine colors of early morn are a sense of renewal in this otherwise rather dreary, cold, damp first attempt at winter. Mornings fill the soul with joy, and those who miss them, are missing the one best part of each day. 7 a.m. now, and the sun is just up with the passionate oranges and pinks giving way to a halo of beautiful yellow-orange, warmth giving light.

Most mornings start this way in winter, but this day began a bit earlier as I was laying in bed trying to organize thots for this tardy 2 and 1/2 month blogpost. Altho we have but seven official followers, this blog is read by hundreds of folks, evidenced by the emails I receive. So it is catch up time, from the last post in Sept., when we were still evaluating what the vineyard would produce...or not. To call this harvest a nailbiter would be a gross understatement. Since last writing, we had a two inch hard rain with 20 knot winds, smack dab in the middle of harvest. We saw temperatures hover at 60 degree highs(not much photosynthesis goes on in grapevines below that) , and lows each nite in the mid 30s down in our Very Cold Valley Vineyard. In short, we got cheated on both light and heat days, a combination of which is required to ripen grapes. As many of you know, there is a formula for the total of heat and light days each yr, which calculates where ripening is at any point in time. This yr we actually fell behind by more than 2 months of heat/light days. To be honest I quit counting, as the results were not favorable.

Cerro Prieto is harvested on basis of flavor...not ripeness of grapes, nor pH, TA(total acidity) and Brix
(sugar content). In Bordeaux, harvest dates are decided by the government (how odd), and many harvests may match up intersections of pH, TA, and Brix, but frankly, many of those grapes are still unripened, green, or bitter/ tannic. Simply put, we here in the Willow Creek area( a future proposed sub appellation of Paso Robles AVA) are smack dab in the heart of the heart of the world's one best place to grow and ripen red winegrapes. And Cerro Prieto is in the exact heart of that grapegrowing mecca. Add that to our intentionally low yields of 2.5 tons/acre for the 95% of grapes we sell, and the 1 ton/acre grapes we use for our wines, if anyone is going to ripen, it should be us. But ripening is just the easy part. Harvesting on flavor is what we do, insuring the most flavorful, well ripened fruit for world class wines. This yr? Unnh, we just said the beads, prayed for heat, no fog or rain and lots of sunlight. Essentially we got very little of what we normally have.

We did well to ripen this yr, let alone harvest on flavor. Based on decr cluster weights as well as fewer clusters, we had only 50% of our normal Cabernet crop. Merlot was down, but it struggled to ripen, going thru verasion 2 months late. Syrah was decreased in cluster size, but had a normal number of clusters. Our Very Cold Valley Vineyard did the best, both Sauv Blanc and Pinot, but even they got way less sun and heat than needed. For contracts of Cab we were 50% light, for Merlot 25% light, and Syrah was 14% light. The fact that everything ripened was amazing given the frigid, dark, wet conditions. As for flavor, well we had some, but nowhere near what this vineyard can do given a warmer, drier, year. Our one wine this yr will be Pinot, which in barrel right now is doing well. How it turns out will be anyone's guess, but with extra barrel time, I suspect it will do well. Sauv Blanc should be about the same, but the Cab, Syrah and Merlot we are famous for, got hit pretty hard.

No complaints here, however, as many neighbors, both near and far, lost anywhere from 20% to 90% of their crop, and that includes our neighbors from Napa/Sonoma to Santa Barbara, all the way down to Temecula. Everybody was acutely aware of the Big Dark Wet Cold of 2011. Climate change? yup. Global warming? Nah, not here. It was just frigging cold...and wet. Good riddance, and please don't come back. Unfortunately, '11 was a progression of '10, which also was the yr of the Big, Cold, Dark, Wet. Difference was, '11 was way, way worse. Our best Syrah ever came off in 2010, and will be our best wine ever. This yr I am betting on Pinot, but that is just a guess. The 2010 Syrah will be nationally known, no question about it.

Just a summary for those who have asked, 2005 was a cold, wet yr. '06,'07, '08, '09 were all hot drought yrs, and each and every vintage seems better than the one before. 2010 was our Syrah yr. 2011 is going to be disappointing up and down California, where we had a Bordeaux like harvest, but worse. If you can barely ripen, and not harvest on our internationally known flavors, expect the wine quality to take a dive. This is a yr where the really world class winemakers can shine, with 3 or 4 generations of winemaking experience in their resumes. Even for them, this will be a tough yr. Take it for what it is worth, but '06s to '09s, and spectacular '10 Syrah is where you want to be buying. '11 is going to be a less than stellar yr for you wine aficionados and collectors out there. That goes for all of California, too, not just here. Grower friends up and down the state have said the same to me.

Which is why I began this blog with the beauty of the dawn...beauty amongst mayhem is a way to even out the soul of a wine grapegrower. So I shall tell you why even with a tough yr, this is indeed, an enchanting and beautiful life. Grape growing and winemaking are traditionally thought to be the idyllic life. Well, maybe so at times, but right now we are putting out seed and hay on several vertical bare and denuded rows, mowing , disking, working on tractors, discs, erosion control, fertilizing and flushing irrigation lines, wrapping pipes, and putting away netting and bird distress call boxes. That's the nuts and bolts of post harvest.

The upside is as uplifting as the downside is drudgery. Just last morning, my wife, Teresa, and I watched motionless as a pair of hunting Red Foxes stealthily glided below our bedroom French doors. Nervous as a man with hives, the pair continuously rotated their heads, looking for danger, but obviously hunting the 150 some Merriam and Rio Grande turkeys that surround our deer fenced vineyard. Also the quail hatch has been phenomenal, with half a dozen coveys of 40 birds or more. The foxes made a pass by the garage, looking for a quick snack our our brave and wary cat, Sneakers. The turkey vultures, two of which were born just 100 feet below our home in a vacated wood rat nest, sail silently thru the trees, coming within feet of us sitting on the back porch. They are wild, but know that when I shoot a deer inside our deer fence, or coyote too close to the house, that they will eat well. When they fly by so closely, they are letting me know they are hungry. I routinely pick up roadkill, squirrels, raccoons, hawks, turkeys, and place them in the valley 400 feet below. The turkey vultures can smell decomposing meat at heights of up to 10,000 feet, and no sooner do I put some delicacy on the ground for them, they are there within minutes. They know. We are friends, sharing this beauty together.

While in Orange County last weekend we missed the assault of the Santa Anas, strong winds from the east that roar down ravines, mountains and valleys. We had some recorded gusts to 60 knots, so when we arrived home, we had half a dozen of our some 10,000 Live Oak trees on the ground, and Spanish moss plus downed branches were everywhere. Yesterday on a mission to begin cleanup, I encoutered a first on Cerro Prieto...my very first Chantrelle mushrooms. The distinctive yellow/orange color with the gills extending up to the inverted caps were sticking thru several inches of dirt growing out of the bases of oak tree roots. To my great sorrow, I was a few days late in finding them, but because of the extraordinary amount of rains, (some 6 inches since harvest), followed by several summer like days in Nov, I know there will be more Chantrelles where those came from. Sure, the leaves are all gone from the vines now, it is as plain as can be here at Cerro Prieto, but we have wild mushrooms to pick in the forests, Red Foxes, Lynx, Bobcats, Turkeys, Vultures, Quail, and the occasional visiting Mountain Lion to see. To date, I have identified some 30 different mushrooms here, most unedible, but not all, and cannot wait to go mushroom hunting today. Of course, that will have to wait for moving the barrels for blending, buying insulation for pipes, and collecting new potential bottles for our bottling.

Life of a vintner/ grapegrower can superficially appear glamorous. Closer to the truth, it is hard work, but enjoyable, and living in a paradise makes it all the moreso. Many of you have visited us over the last 3 yrs, and have done private tastings with the vintner, gone on vineyard eco tours, or occasionally, done barrel sampling with me. To all of you who have visited us this past two yrs we say hello and send our season's greetings. We also are incredibly grateful for the many kind things you, as well as wine scribes, magazines, and international competitions have said about our wines. For most of you, the national and international recognition we have received, plus your generous comments, make it all not only worthwhile, but a thrill to able to do something so well that is appreciated by all who have been here. Most of our sales, incidentally, are by email or phone call from those many folks and fans who have visited with us at one time or another. As most of you know, we only do private tastings, by appointment only, or by way of our now almost filled up wine club members. For those who have not visited us, go to our website and you can get information on how to do so.

We close this yr with an incredible first two bottlings, noted below.

2006 Merlot Intl Gold Medal San Diego Intl (3300 entries), and Intl Gold medal Critics Challenge Intl
          (2900 entries).    Price: $129/ blt   SOLD OUT
2006 Paso Bordo(85% Cab/15% Syrah)   92 pts Wine Enthusiast    $89 Less than 2 cases remain
2007 Merlot (6% Cab/ 4% Syrah/90% Merlot)    91 pts Wine Enthusiast   $39     20 cases remain
2007 Paso Bordo(85 Cab/15 Syrah)    Intl Gold medal LA Intl and 91 pts  $69  Less than 4 cases left
2008 Cab Sauvignon (86% Cab/4% Merlot/ 10% Syrah    Mouth watering blackberry, cherry, cocoa,
         Chocolate, with a hint of strawberry at edges, soft modulated tannins.    Out for review , currently my favorite wine
2008 Merlot (90% Merlot/10 Syrah)  sumptous cherry, with hint of plum, smoke, smooth finish. Out
          for review.

As a note, blendings of 09 Cab, Syrah, Merlot almost completed, and I believe all will equal and surpass our best wines to date. Better yet our 2010 Syrah will be our single best wine, but in barrel another yr.

That is it from here folks, friends, and wine club members. We wish you a happy and joyous holidays, hopefully with family and friends, and you might think of sharing one of your Cerro Prieto wines with them. A last comment and this is for the folks considering Cerro Prieto wines for gifts or just to stock up: We will take orders only until Dec 15th, as beyond that, we cannot guarantee any kind of meaningful delivery date. Also we will be closed for the holidays. Call for specifics if you are in town. For phone #s, emails, orders, please visit our website, http://www.cerroprietovineyard.com/.

Best regards to all,

Larry and Teresa/ Cerro Prieto

Cerro Prieto and Paso Robles Westside vineyards: bouncing back from horrid weather

2011-09-02T11:22:00.000-07:00

Well, last post was 2 months ago, but it isn't as if I have been dawdling. There has been more work this yr than virtually any in the past, almost all the result of the bizarre weather we have had to endure. Much of this has to do with increased mowing, thinning, hedging of canes and weed control, all due to the incredible 52" of rain we racked up which makes weeds as well as vines overgrow. Last post I mentioned "bomb damage assessment" but had no real feel for what we would actually end up with in the vineyard. Believe it or not, it has taken most of last 2 mos. to actually get a feel for where we are, yieldwise as well as quality wise. First off, I would be fibbing if I told you that I, as well as a bunch of other grower/vintners have not been holding our collective breaths over this year's crop. You all recall we had winter finally end in June, we essentially skipped Spring, and then we prayed for some heat and light in "summer".

Without consulting my log books, I can tell you for certain that we have had at least ten hot days of summer with light from 6 a.m. until dark. Yup, that has been our summer, following a nuclear winter and spring. We have had an inordinate amount of fog, and as one vineyard manager stated, "You can't find stylet oil or Kalligreen anywhere in the county, nor the state". Translation: we have had the worst set up for fog of any of the 34 yrs I have lived in Paso's North County. Our unprecedented fog, which has required extremely strict attention being paid to doing mildew sprays every 20 days, has caught some growers by surprise, in that most yrs if you miss a mildew spray by a week or two , it really doesn't matter. We at Cerro Prieto have been meticulous about this since our inception, and this yr it really paid off. Sure I can go thru all 20 miles of vines (that is equivalent of 20 acres with a 5'x 10' spacing) and find an occasional early mildew cluster, which I just remove along with several clusters on either side of the mildewed one. But we do not have acres of mildew just covering virtually all vines, as I have seen in some vineyards. I hate to think what those poor "greenies", or all organic grape farmers are doing. Fog has not been just a problem in Paso, it has been a problem everywhere. The organic guys can't use much more than stylet oil and one or two other modalities for mildew control. Altho I know of no all organic vineyards personally, I would not like to be in their shoes at the present.

So it is now September, early fall, and Cerro Prieto's temps have made for wonderful living climate...but not so bueno for wine grape growing. If temperatures don't get much above 60 degrees, not much photosynthesis takes place. Also on the heat/light chart we were some 3-4 weeks behind 2 months ago when we entered a cool summer. Frequently, the fog lifts at noon, sometimes later. I don't even want to see how far behind we are now, but that isn't necessary when we ended up going thru bloom a month late and then verasion 6 weeks late(in Merlot and some Cab) especially. Here on Paso's westside, there have been many vineyards that have virtually no Cab clusters, or very little , and same goes for Pinot, Merlot, Syrah. The old investor's saying, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket" was really brought to the fore this year, as some vineyards lost almost all their Pinot Noir(ours is spectacular). Others lost all their Merlot or Syrah, or as noted above Cab. Of our 5 varietals, Pinot noir and Sauv blanc fared best (down in our cold valley vineyard), Syrah came pretty close to being a normal yield, and Cab fared the worst. More on that in a moment. The verdict on Cerro Prieto's Merlot is still out, as it is just now going thru verasion...something it should have done 4 to 5 weeks ago. Normally our Merlot goes thru verasion mid July, yet here we are on Sept 2nd, and we are just starting. Whether the Merlot ripens before frost is going to be either very close or not at all. We just have to wait on this one. Back to the "all eggs in one basket" adage, this is a good yr to not have all your vines be of one variety.

Okay, now to specifics, about which people have been pestering me with questions over and over.

Left to right, are clusters of Cab Sauv, Syrah, Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Sauv Blanc. Here are the numbers:

Cab 4 oz (normal = 5 oz)                    clusters/vine 14 ( normal = 22)
Syrah 5.8 oz (normal =6.4 oz)             clusters/vine 14 (normal = 20
Merlot  5 oz (normal= 6 oz)               clusters/vine 16 (normal= 22)
Pinot Noir 3.0 oz (normal= 3.0 oz)    clusters/vine 10 (normal= 12)
Sauv Blanc 4.8 oz (normal= 4.8 oz)    clusters/vine 18 (normal= 18)

In summary, Cab production should be down about 1/3. Bad news is that many of those clusters may have as many as half the grapes in "shot berry" form, due to incomplete pollination, or an "event" such as a pair of frosts during bloom, plus 1 rain during bloom, plus 2 hails during bloom. The weight of the cluster I picked at random above does not represent some 40-50% of those Cab grapes with half a cluster of non usable, bitter, tannic shot berries).You hope they come off in the destemmer attached to the rachus(stem), but frequently they do not, and hence can adveresely affect the flavor and character of the wine itself. Mistral tables(vibrating sorting tables) can help out here but Cab looks to be a really tough grape to destem without having a bunch of shot berries in the mix. (This means lots more time spent on sorting tables, among other things). Put this all together and I am guessing our Cab crop to be down as much as 50%.

Syrah is coming along fine with superb flavor, slightly smaller clusters, and decr # of clusters looks to decr tonnage by 1/3.

Merlot could also be down by 1/3, but verasion is the real question. Will these beauties even ripen?

Pinot looks to be down by 20%, based on cluster count. Cluster size appears normal, and flavor is a world beater. Also Pinot got thru bloom with only a few clusters lost/vine.

Sauvignon Blanc, our most recent addition did best, with both cluster size and count and size same as last yr. Altho we have netted and used bird distress calls, birds really like our Sauv Blanc which looks to be most productive of all blocks. The quality is spectacular, and birds know it.

From the above, it is appears best to not have had all "eggs in one basket". Growers with all Pinot or all Cab or all Merlot, really got lumped up. Of course, it does matter where exactly one's vineyard is on the westside, as adjacent vineyards may have entirely different varietals that did well. Altho this blog post is more technical than most I write, it has taken until virtually Fall to tell what we actually have. Those fewer grapes we do have will be chock full of flavor. How many we actually ripen?...well, that's another matter. Meanwhile our 91 pt '07 Merlot is tasting fantastically well, and the 91 pt '07 Paso Bordo(Cab/syrah) is tasting better yet. Our '08 Cab and '08 Merlot both have a shot at being even better than our current wines. Make an apptmt, come by and try them out.

We all look forward to seeing you during harvest fest and to seeing how our wines have matured over the past year. You will not be disappointed.

There's Gold in Them There Hills/ Bomb damage assessment

2011-07-01T16:25:00.000-07:00

No doubt about it, the title is an odd juxtaposition...but, that being said, here is a quick catch-up since last blog of "Colder, coldest, Most awfulest coldest". Just a few days ago we were awarded the Los Angeles Intl Gold Medal for our 2007 Cabernet (Paso Bordo), at the LA Intl Wine competition. We also were awarded 91 pts for the Cab. With that preface, I would like to summarize our 4 wines produced to date:

2006 Merlot   Intl Gold medal San Diego Intl Wine Comp/ Intl Gold medal Critics Challenge Intl
                      ( first competition was 3300 entries, and second was 2900)
2006 Paso Bordo (Cab/Syrah)    92 pts Wine Enthusiast

2007 Merlot   91 pts Wine Enthusiast

2007 Cabernet (Paso Bordo)   LA Intl Gold Medal and 91 pts.

To summarize, of our 4 wines produced to date, all have either been rated 91/92 pts , Intl Gold medals, or both. I don't keep track of other wineries' track records, but I have a feeling this is probably a pretty good start for Cerro Prieto. I emphasize Cerro Prieto, because whereas I would like to be one of the premier winemakers, I am truly just very middling. The vineyard, however, is another story. It is truly a world class vineyard, given love and care, thought and hardwork, and most important of all, some of the best terroir in the entire world for growing grapes. For those who may be recent readers, or maybe some have forgotten, terroir is the sum of the climate (we have 60-70 degree temp swings day/nite), the southern exposure, and most importantly, solid limestone soil, and much of it is mountainous. That is the terroir, that other vineyards and wineries would desperately love to have. All the above are what go into world class premium wines. There is one last factor, tho, and that is a low yield mentality, which means going for low yields on the grapevine, and concentrating flavors that produce room filling bouquets...both of which Cerro Prieto wines are famous for. Lower yields mean more air and sunlight around each grape cluster, less chance for mildew or molds, and overall a more thorough and complete ripening of each and every grape. Put that all together, don't mess up in the winery( the secret to pollution is dilution...ie, cleanliness is next to Godliness.), and with the world's best grapes, it should not be surprising that Cerro Prieto has continued to put out world class wines. Obviously when it comes to blending, that is a trait to be learned, maybe inheirited, but if you have a good nose for wine and can be discerning re: what is missing... or in abundance... or not quite right....and then be able to alter or correct them, then you can make superb wines. As I have said many times before: Our wines are made in the vineyard...and we have a truly great one. There IS gold in them there hills.

Okay, enough of the Gold business...so what is the bomb damage about? Well, in a nutshell, it is an array of mishaps, misfortunes and in some cases disasters that can befall a vineyard, even one managed to perfection. After last blog's reference to the coldness we experienced, we then managed to complicate matters with more weather disasters of epic proportion. Keep in mind here, with all the tornado, fire, hurricane, and tsunami natural disasters, when speaking of disasters in the vineyard we are speaking of disasters of much less exponential severity than those that have ravaged the US and the world as of late. In the vineyard, a disaster is a rain, a heavy rain, falling on grapes in bloom. Usually, that is the kiss of death for those grapes if they get rained on during bloom. When that occurs, the vineyard loses its crop. It happened to a number of Pinot vineyards, both here and elsewhere, and it all depended on exactly where the grapes were in bloom...were they in mid bloom, had they just entered bloom, or was the rain just post bloom. Obviously, mid bloom is the worst, and a number of Pinot growers up and down California had this happen...here, too. But here exactly, in Cerro Prieto, it was a slightly different story.

We usually have 13 major microclimates, and the mountainous blocs have 2 or even 3 sub microclimates within the majors. Consequently, we had vastly different temperatures within various blocs, and this caused delaying of bloom in some blocs, and acceleration in others. Regardless of what happened, the result was that we do have a lesser tonnage of crop in our Cab and Syrah blocs, but we will have a spectacular harvest nonetheless. Merlot, which is part mountain, part hillside, still has yet to finish bloom...some 2 mos. late. Wow! The cold valley vineyard was obviously put on hold by the weather, and severe as the cold was, the bloom was just delayed thru 3 rains and 2 hailstorms in May and into June...both are incredibly bizarre, and fit no previous weather data. The longer canes got hit with severe frost, died back, but the new growth is healthy and we miraculoulsly got thru bloom with a very nice fruit set. Same for Sauv Blanc, but it may have gotten touched up a bit more. In summary, not only do we have world class terroir, we have world class luck. How we could have survived all these potentially crop killing insults is a mystery. If anything I would attribute it to our mountains, and secondly, to our multiple microclimates, and all that entails... I would not rule out a bit of divine intervention also, but then again, who knows?

While bomb damage assessment is hyperbole, at this time one month ago, I was so despondent that I couldn't even go out and assess the damage. As luck would have it, we escaped the worst springtime happenings ever w/r/to bloom and fruit set...and just keep on ticking. Yes, it is a less heavy crop, but that is our mantra anyway...low yields. So, if you were concerned about Cerro Prieto and no fruit this yr, rest assured we have plenty...and it will be top notch. During the last 3 days I have taken a careful inventory and am delighted to find we came thru so well. Believe me, it certainly could have been different, and frankly, I just couldn't bring myself to go thru the vineyard until we had 3 days in the 100s. Incredible. Just incredible. And extremely lucky. Now it is on to adjusting our N, P, and K
(Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium) based on the leaf petiole analyses that we have just completed. Not to be unexpected, we are very low in N, primarily due to 52 inches of rain(Normal = 22"). The P and K are mostly within range, except in one bloc, and all will be given the appropriate amount of N, P, K that are needed...some none at all.

Summer is here, the vines are growing 3-6 inches/day, and the vineyard is in great shape. Yes, crop load will be less this yr, but that which is there will be fantasmagorical. Am I excited? Bet your life I am. All is well at Cerro Prieto, but just until the last 3 days when I finally felt I could look, I feared for the worst...and got the best.

Photo Key:

Dark Before the Storm
Lots of Rain = lots of flowers
A rainbow truly was shining on us
World quality vineyard = world quality wines

Coldest, Most Coldest, and Most Awfulest Coldest

2011-05-17T15:23:00.000-07:00

True, my 4th grade grammar teacher wouldn't think much of the title, but it fits to a tee. It is cold...and currently raining...an icy cold, miserable, bone chilling rain. Looking back on my last 3 blogs, it seems as if I am stuck on the weather, but quite frankly, since my last post 10 weeks ago( I know, cardinal sin of bloggers is to not write routinely, but more on that in a minute), weather is all that I have had on my mind...and the title tells why. Just when I was preparing to sit down and write a blog 5 weeks ago, the above title occurred. I was out on the back deck getting ready to grill a nice ribeye and got a little cold as the sun dropped into the western Santa Lucias. The fire was started so I went to retrieve a warm windbreaker; by the time I came back out, the temp had dropped at least 25 degrees, and it became unbearably cold. I shut down the fire, came back inside and grilled the steak under the broiler. It was at least 40 degrees warmer inside than out, so for grins I checked our outside thermometer. The reading said 38 which was hard to believe, in that it had been a glorious day, somewhere in the high 80s not more than two hours before.

Normally our temperature drops at sunset, but not 40 degrees. Most of our really biting cold comes about 4:30 each morning, when we typically drop down to just above freezing. Oh, one other thing and that is our house is 250 feet above our very cold valley vineyard, and the temp differential is typically 18 degrees warmer up here than down there. Concerned, I checked the thermometer readings just before bed at 10 p.m. on Friday, April 8th, and it read 28... and that is not what you want to see just after you have finished pruning...okay, it was worse than that. We had finished pruning 3 weeks before, and were now expectantly awaiting bud break, already delayed 3 weeks and counting. By rights, that 28 up here should have been 10 degrees down below. Honestly, I just didn't have the heart to go down below and check our thermometer at 4:30. If it froze(and I had no doubt it did), I just didn't want to know by how much. As they say "frozen is frozen"...except a damaging frost depends on HOW cold and HOW LONG cold. If it stays cold for hours, then we have lost not only our crop but our vines. That happened on another 3 valley acres that froze to death in 2001. In that instance, we had 14 days of 14 degrees, and the frost never left the ground...for three weeks. It was an expensive but valuable lesson. We did not replant that 3 acres, even tho it has never frozen since.

Just to recount for a moment, Cerro Prieto typically is the dead last vineyard to prune, and typically we are pruning just ahead of bud break. Why is that important? Because if you delay pruning you go into bud break( just like it sounds, the buds break forth from their positions on the cordon), and if you are caught pruning late with buds already out , invariably many buds will get broken off in the pruning process. Hence, you virtually have to prune before bud break. In our case, we do it at the last possible moment with the full intent of preventing bud break as long as possible. If one were to visit the fine vineyards of Paso's westside, you would have no trouble identifying us. We would be the ones not pruned yet, with the vineyard looking shaggy and unkempt...until late March, that is. As an aside, some folks prune dry farmed vines beginning in mid December, and seem to get away with it. What we have proven beyond any doubt, however, is that at Cerro Prieto to prune early is to court disaster with a hard late spring freeze...and we have had so many this spring that I can't count them all.

Often times at 4:30 in the morning we are awakened to the sound of the large propeller wind machines cranking up and moving the cold air around or out of the vineyard. The green French machines, which require a movable skirt around the vineyard (to pump low lying cold air out of the skirted area), are heard cranking also. Either of these machines, or even water misting on the vines, can protect vines 3, 4 or even 5 or 6 degrees in time of frost. We have NO wind machines, in that we aren't concerned about 3-6 degree temp drops...we are concerned about temps down in the low teens, and nothing helps that....except, perhaps, prayer. Given no options, I started some 6 yrs ago trying to hold back bud break,( when freezing temps can freeze off new formed buds) by pushing our pruning farther and farther back. Now we routinely prune as late as possible , but just before bud break actually occurs. Does it work? Well, definitely yes, but it usually will not protect a small % of vines that get an extraordinary jolt of cold. On the whole, we have salvaged a previously unprotectable vineyard
(the Very Cold Valley Vineyard), merely by changing when we prune. Sounds simple maybe, but carrying it out always is an uncomfortable time.

Mentioned above, I am way too late in getting this post out, but due to long, hard, soaking rains, sleet, and snows, we have had enough water to leave us with weeds 6 feet high or higher around the sides of the vineyard or on the valleys contiguous with the vineyard. Problem with that is, when once dried out, the weeds present a fire hazard, which can wipe a vineyard out in a matter of minutes. Hence we not only have to weed the vineyard we have to care for some 35 other acres that present a fire hazard. And that is why I have not written a blog...all available time was devoted to fire protecting our vineyard, valleys, arroyos, and mountain tops.

Now we are awaiting new bearings for our flail mower, which struck a large sub-surface rock, the size of my truck, and broke belts, shafts and bearings. Never a dull moment in the vineyard. A full 16 acres needs to be weedeated, and that includes areas where no tractor could go, virtually straight up and down. In the meantime it gives me timeout to write this long overdue blog, and to examine what will be this years potential crop. First off, cluster size looks to be on the high side of large, but until a successful bloom and fruit set we won't know anything for certain. Secondly, we are in the midst of a nuclear winter, and it is a month into spring. Bloom cannot be far behind, as the little clusters that our guests mistakenly take for grapes are clusters of flowers about to bloom. Only after bloom and fruit set will we have a good idea of the size of the crop. Remember, we are pruned to only 2.5 tons/acre or less, which can increase in size if clusters are overly big...and they appear that way early on.

The day has been gray, rainy, cold and inhospitable. In 4 days will begin the annual Paso Robles Wine Festival...which two yrs ago to the day, was 117 degrees downtown in the Paso Robles park. This year will be pleasant to cold...just right for tasting big red wines and their blends....two things we do to perfection. Stop by and see us at the Meritage downtown or come by the vineyard to say hello. We look forward to seeing you all, and wish you a safe and enjoyable Wine Festival weekend.

Photo Key:

Top: Buds are just breaking and some have already leafed out.

Mid: Note long massive rachus with large clusters of...grapes? Nope, these are clusters of buds about to bloom. If fruit sets, then blooms turn into grapes.

Lower: Poor Caza...all that snow and no gophers to dig up.

Time for pruning...oops, it just snowed

2011-03-05T09:08:00.000-08:00

Many are now well familiar with Paso's Westside famous vineyards and wines. Many of you have been here for our eco vineyard tours, and most have tasted our 90+ point wines. Some may have seen the beginnings of early pruning, and others have been here just shortly thereafter. But no one has seen this place, well into pruning, and in the midst of a snowstorm. A day after the snow fell, we still had it on all our upper elevations, in our top blocs of Cab and Syrah. The above picture captures two things: first is the neatly stacked rows of prunings awaiting the flail mower. Second is the 2 inches of snow sitting on top of the prunings. We pointedly wait as long as possible to prune, which in turn delays our bud break as well as our bloom. Since we are a mountain vineyard, the cold mountain valleys are setups for late frosts, sometimes well into May. If we happen to be in the midst of bud break, or bloom, for that matter, the last thing we want is to see a hard spring frost. Hence, we are usually the very last vineyard to prune, but as you can see from the picture above, it looks like that didn't make much difference... it snowed anyway. Whatever, no harm done in that we are still a long way from bud break and much farther away from bloom. But to look out and see our entire vineyard covered in snow for two days...well, I will have to admit, it did take my breath away.

Global warming has come to Paso's Westside vineyards...the heart of the heart of wine country. But rather than warming it has gotten colder, both in degree, and in length of time it stays cold. El Nino, which visited us once again this year, brought with it the moisture, only this time in addition to rain and icy fog, we also got snow...lots of it. Last year was a record for the north county of San Luis Obispo, in that we set an all time low for heat/light days. Put simply that means that we had less heat and sun to ripen with and significantly less time in which to do it. Many days last year had nasty bone chilling fogs lifting by noon, only to return some two hours later. If ever there were a year to have vines pruned to low yields, this was it. Those folks who had 4, 5, maybe as much as 8-10 tons/ acre, got rammycackled...their grapes just flat out didn't ripen. Virtually all the well known vineyards surrounding us hang anywhere from 1.0 to 2.5 tons/ acre, and subsequently, virtually everyone nearby ripened...the flavors came in, but at a much lower brix(sugar content) than we usually have. Normally, by Oct 1st we have ripe grapes, but they are virtually without flavor. Only with patient waiting, and sampling of thousands of grapes do we see our flavors come in much later in October, typically between the 21st and 30th. This yr our flavors came in as per usual, later in October, but at a much, much lower brix; it was a Bordeaux harvest, at 24.5 brix. Compare that to virtually all our other harvests in last 5 yrs, which were at 27.8 to 28.5 brix before their flavors came in. Having the ability to wait on flavors in a mountain vineyard is a luxury. In our cold valley vineyard, the Pinot and Sauv Blanc came off with full flavors at 24.5, but on Sept 20th,, almost a month before the Cab, Syrah, and Merlot.

Clients and wine club members frequently ask, "So what does the low brix harvest mean? Will there be less flavor, more tannins, or what?" The answer is simply that our alcohols will be notably less than normal 12.5 to 13.5% vs. our usual 15.9 to 16.9%. As for flavors, again, had we harvested on the day we hit 24.5 brix, we would have had a virtually flavorless wine. By waiting out the eventual arrival of flavors we have a wine that will guaranteed to be full of cherry, blackberry, plum, with maybe a bit of blueberry or strawberry in two of our Cab blocs. It just won't be as high an alcohol, something some wine critics...and a few wine aficionados...don't like. In every sense of the word, this harvest was as close to a Bordeaux harvest as we will get. Oops, maybe it's better not to say that in that we are starting off cold again this year. We will hope that we have the summer heat, the warm sunny days, but if not...well, we just proved that we can take the cold weather and still make a great wine. Given a choice, however, I would prefer the hotter, drier conditions.

Whatever the temperature, whatever the weather, it is still a great time to stop by our tasting room downtown at the Meritage Tasting Room and enjoy our 91 and 92 pt. wines. For those not familiar with our nationally known wines...rain or snow, sunshine or not, our Cab/Syrah, and Merlot are always a treat for the true wine aficionados, or the newest of beginners. We invite you to come visit and wine taste with us.

Oh Lordy, it rained...and then rained somemore

2011-01-18T23:28:00.000-08:00

Typically we get a generous inch, maybe two, of rain between end of harvest (Oct 31st) and the new year....just enough to set the seed on the steep hillsides and get a root system going before the downpour that follows between February and April. The purpose of germinating hillside seeds before the big rains is to S.O.T....save our topsoil. If the big rains come and seeds have not germinated setting early root systems, then the severe slopes of many of our mountainside vineyards gets washed away. Looking at a road cut between two of our Cabernet blocs, it is readily apparent that our entire steeply sloped vineyard has barely a foot of topsoil covering a solid limestone mountain. Loss of any of our precious soil is an invitation for disastrous erosion, most of which flows down our slopes, and then flowing on down via rivulets and ditches to the Salinas River. The Salinas, swiftly flowing and strong in midst of big rains, usually dries up in the hot summers, yet remains one of the biggest northerly flowing underground rivers in the U.S., ultimately emptying into Monterey Bay some 130 miles away. If one wanted to merely find some of the Paso's best topsoil, he would have to go no further than the Salinas River, a mere 4 miles from here.

In the early years here we lightly disked the steepest slopes and then used a seed drill to plant cover crop. Early on, after a particularly heavy winter rain, the wisdom of light disking and seed drilling was abruptly challenged when we noticed that any disturbance of the sparse topsoil, (eg, with a seed drill or disc), enabled the heavy rains to literally wash entire hillsides away, leaving incredibly eroded rows, some 8 feet deep. Rebuild of a steep row costs around $5000 per 100 feet, and an entire row lost can be horrendously expensive. Hence, in the last 9 yrs (one yr after I bought a new disc), we stopped using it. Now we seed by hand on hillsides steeper than 70 degrees, and then immediately put out dozens of bales of hay, broken apart and spread by hand over the entire seeded area. Expensive? Yeah. Time consuming? Yup. Necessary? Unquestionably. Now our erosion losses are kept to a bare minimum, but this yr, immediately post harvest, it began raining and darn near never quit. Not torrential rains, but just steady, London-fog-type-blowing mists, light, but seemingly lasting forever. After Thanksgiving we had a 60 hour rain, never letting up but just doing barely more than misting. During that 2 and a half day period, we got 6 inches of rain, and I never saw a drop...just massive, grey, blowing mists. How it could possibly have dumped 6 inches of rain is beyond me, but it was in the true sense of the word, a farmer's rain...enough to germinate seeds, but not cause erosion. The problem? Well, it never stopped raining long enough to get the seeds hand casted, nor the hay spread out on top of it.

Finally, sometime after we hit the 10 inch mark, we got a 4 day respite, during which time we hand seeded and spread out 12 dozen bales of protective straw. Normally we use a bale per twenty vines, or 100 feet. This year we put it on heavier, in that even with the misty rains we already had the start of erosion in 4 of our steepest rows. We were ready for it, but the prolonged rains kept us off the hillsides until after some initial erosion had already occurred. Good news is that it was superficial, but bad news is we still will have some row rebuilds to do. Cost? On blocs of 3 and 3.3 acres we put out $1000 of straw and racked up some $1400 of labor to spread the straw. Expensive, yes, but without having done that we would have lost massive amounts of topsoil in the torrential rains that followed. Moral of story? Simple. Spend a little money to save a lot. Also, as good stewards of the land, it is the thing anyone who cares about the land wants to do...be a good shepard...or in this case, be a good caretaker of the magical land which grows such spectacular grapes.

How silly to devote so many words to so simple a subject, some may say. In truth, this is but one of the many unseen things that goes into that great wine of which wine drinkers notice only the subtle cherry, blackberry, cassis, strawberry and plum flavors. I mention this to remind you wine aficionados that the next glass of wine you taste is not just the beautiful flavors in wine this favored land produces, but that there is much, much more to the story. Another way of saying this is that altho mundane, it is a rite of winter to block up the flail mower and replace dull or worn blades. With as much limestone as we have, we go thru hundreds of dollars of blades in a single yr. And winter is the one time we have time to do this bothersome task. Other off season jobs are tuning tractors, ATVs (all 6 wheel drive), redoing brake linings on all vehicles, and , of course, an early start on oil change, spark plugs, and filters. Obviously we do this during the year, but winter is a good time to check for loose treads on the crawler tractor as well as lost bolts, screws, handles, springs, or any other thing that might be lost during the ongoing vibration of continuous tractor use.

Exciting? Thought provoking? Enjoyable? Nah, to any of the former. But they all are essential to having good, dependable machinery to carry out the growing season's chores. So next time you raise a glass, go ahead and appreciate the bouquet. Enjoy the magnificent flavors imparted to our grapes by our world class soils. But also remember the "other " things that went into this wine...drudgery, painstaking, nit-picking, and yes, boring chores that are essential...but not very glamorous...when one thinks of the wonderful life a grape farmer and vintner leads. Yes there are those highs when some magazine rates our wines in the 90+ category. But there are also the other times, chronicled above that go into the growing and making of that fabulous wine. In the cold, gloomy, and dank months of winter, grape growers are keenly aware of the
"other side" of winegrape growing and wine making. It is like everything else in life. Sure there are the glamorous, rewarding, and fun times. But that is counterbalanced by the small, unseen, but oh-so-necessary mundane things that go into winemaking.

Someone...no, many someones, have asked me where we make our wines. The answer is in the vineyard where all wines start and are grown. But if one takes short cuts in the pre-winemaking stages, one can expect a product of inferior, or at the very least, of lesser quality. Cerro Prieto's wines start and come from the vineyard... the nuts and boring bolts of which are described above. There's a thought for you the next time you pour a glass of our signature Paso Bordo(Cab/Syrah), or of our 91 point Merlot. That didn't just happen. It was well thought out and prepared for in cold barns changing out flail mower blades, or during the hand seeding of steep slopes while broadcasting seed in the cold winter...or in the simple but back-breaking work of putting out dozens of bales of hay on steep slippery slopes. All that goes into the quest for the perfect wine. We feel we have produced the perfect grape. Now we seek the perfect wine. In the meantime you will just have to be satisfied with our 91 and 92 point wines...not perfect, but dang close.

Gadzooks. What on earth is happening in Paso Robles?

2010-12-16T13:45:00.000-08:00

Something’s happening here,
What it is ain’t exactly clear,
There’s a man with a gun over there,
Sayin’ “Stop, you gotta beware,
Singing, Stop, hey what’s that sound,
Everybody look what’s goin’ down.

Well, that pretty well summarizes the last few weeks here in Paso, which when I moved here some 33 yrs ago was said to be the “next Napa”. It wasn’t. But times changed, and the old timers, Hoffman Mountain Ranch with the mad Russian winemaker’s Pinot Noirs, and old standbys Pesenti and York Mountain , gave way to Justin Winery beginning as far back as 1982, Wildhorse, then Meridian, and finally a whole host of others. Gary Eberle the founding father of local Rhones, Justin and his Isosceles, Wildhorse’s Ken Volk and his Pinots became well known and the wine rush was on. There were mergers and acquisitions, lots of buying of local grapeland by foreigners from Napa( who were buying as much as 60% of Paso’s grapes at one time), and hundreds upon hundreds of new vineyards put in. Wineries followed the vineyards, and today we have some 220 wineries just here locally in Paso Robles. And that doesn’t include hundreds of acres in south county San Luis Obispo, home of well known GSMs, whites and Pinots.

And then came two weeks ago. Justin Smith, winemaker for Saxum got Wine Spectator’s #1 wine in the world, which followed a 100 pts for his wine a short time before. Within a week Justin Baldwin sold his winery to a billionaire with huge Central Valley holdings of pomegranates, nuts, and stone fruit. In the last 10 yrs, Constellation bought up Wildhorse for a reported $37million, recently Four Vines sold for a reported $17 million(with a virtual vineyard and winery), and now Justin has sold for a very large sum (unknown at present). Paso Robles has become the new Napa. Whether you look at new acreage plantings, number of new wineries in last 10 years, the amazing sums well known wineries have sold for recently, or the very simple fact that truly remarkable wines are coming out of our Paso AVA… like the above song says, “something is definitely happening here”.

It is abundantly clear, however, what it is. Paso Robles, with its multitude of different microclimates and terroirs, has blossomed into the “in” place to have a winery. Long associated with lesser fruit, vastly lesser caliber winemakers, and essentially no cachet, that has all now changed. There is no longer any question about the caliber of wines coming out of Paso. Not all wines, but the wines from fine vineyards, immaculately farmed, beautifully framed amongst the massive oak forests, some like ours straight up and straight down, and a growing reputation for , robust, balanced, and beautifully made wines…those wines are now getting not just attention nationally and internationally, but they are getting it often. There is a radius of less than a mile surrounding our vineyard/cellars, Cerro Prieto, called by some the heart of the heart of Paso’s wines. To the SW is Jack Creek with Doug Kruse’s Pinots and Chards, to the S is Matt Trevisan’s Linne Calodo and his Rhones, East is Booker, East NE is Stefan Asseo’s Bordeauxs, to our NW over two hills is Saxum… and Cerro Prieto is fortunate to be surrounded and central to all those mentioned. What is happening…what has happened, is that Paso, which had such tremendous potential 33 years ago, has now realized it. We are here. We have arrived. We still maintain the friendly atmosphere of years ago, a winemaker can actually be chatted up by a wine buyer… and we have entered the contest, so to speak, with the brite light on the hill, Napa.

Where to from here? A good question because the one vintner who has had greatest impact on the area in last fifteen years has just sold his vineyard/winery operation. True, Justin is staying on, but his winery has now sold. He single-handedly got the local wine alliance, PRWCA, to institute national wine tasting tours for Paso wines, whereby all 50 states now have access, altho limited in some cases, to Paso wines. Our biggest proponent, our biggest marketer, has now sold. New and better winemakers have come on the scene, wines have skyrocketed in quality, but we don’t have another Justin Baldwin out there, tooting our horn, making our case. Undoubtedly someone will step up, but we will miss Justin and his extraordinary marketing skills. Paso Robles will be less well off because of Justin’s sale. The push probably will come from some of the young turks, tho I don’t see another Justin on the horizon. Justin got the nation’s attention. It is now up to the young winemakers to step up and keep the spotlight fixed brightly on Paso Robles, not with Justin’s innovative marketing, but with plain old fashioned superb wines. The new Justin, Saxum’s Justin Smith is but one of those probable leaders. Others will come from the short list mentioned above, and we still have Steve Lohr, Gary Eberle, and other stalwarts to help lead us.

Napa is on notice. The sleepy town of Paso Robles from 4 decades ago is no more. The small town friendly atmosphere remains, but make no mistake about it: Paso Robles IS wine country.

Paso Robles Westside Redwine Jailbreak. Zowie!

2010-12-08T09:37:00.000-08:00

The genie is out of the bottle, the secret is out. The beans are spilled, the horse is out of the barn. News from Wine Spectator just last week has just put Paso Robles, particularly the mountainousWestside, on the world’s wine map…indelibly, permanently, forever, and always. Justin Smith, Paso’s winemaker extraordinaire, was just awarded the Best Wine of the Year (that’s international & worldwide, folks), from his James Berry Vineyard, for his GSM (Grenache/Syrah/Mourvedre) blend. That is in no small measure, an achievement 99.9% of Napa wineries strive for year after year…and never attain. Matter of fact, all the wineries of the world strive for that.

Earlier, Saxum had earned a 100 pt. rating in WS, one of only 4 awarded worldwide. Napa had one, Saxum had theirs, and Bordeaux had two. Now Justin’s Saxum has the #1 wine in the world…and here in our former one horse town, El Paso de Robles. Well, no more. No more Napa, Sonoma, Bordeaux, Rhone River, looking down their noses at Paso Robles. Tablas Creek’s Rhone, Chateau d’ Castel came in with a 94 pt Rhone, and just for good measure, our south county neighbor, John Alban’s Edna Valley Syrah earned 97 pts.

Ready for it or not, Paso Robles has arrived on the wine scene, and the above list is just a hint of that. In past several years, Stefan Asseo’s L’Aventure landed a half dozen 94s to 98s in WS, Matt Trevisan’s Linne Calodo routinely has wines in the mid 90s, Eric Jensen’s Booker Vineyard is in the 90’s and Jack Creek Cellars has Pinots, Chardonnays, and Syrahs in 90+ range. What is significant about these wineries for Cerro Prieto is that virtually all those wineries are within a one mile radius of our steep mountain vineyard. Saxum a mile NW(just 2 hills over), Linne Calodo a mile south, Jack Creek a mile SW, Booker and L’Aventure a mile East. In other words we are surrounded not just by world acclaimed vintners, we are dead center in the heart of vineyards with world class terroir.

It is no accident that wines from these vineyards all are receiving world acclaim. We are located in the best place anywhere to consistently produce world class wines. In just two short years of producing only 400 cases/ yr, Cerro Prieto has garnered 2 International Gold Medals( amongst 3300 and 2700 international entries), a 92 point Wine Enthusiast wine( Paso Bordo, our Cab/ Syrah), another Merlot that is one of Chef Magazine’s 10 Marvelous Merlots(sandwiched between Cakebread and Duckhorn), and yet another accolade of one of the best 12 wines under $50 in 805 Living magazine(Nov 2010). The fruit doesn’t fall too far from the tree, and world class vineyards do not grow far from one another. Point in fact: we are all within a very tight radius of one another. If you haven’t been here, and you love wine…great wine, you need to come.

Traditionally, for years, wines from the Paso Robles region were shipped up north to the Napa wineries, who early on recognized the potential for Paso's red wine grapes, and could get them at half to one third the price of similar quality Napa grapes. Why wouldn't they buy from Paso? Now that is changing and fewer and fewer grapes still make the trip to Napa. Sure, grape farmers who hang 8 tons/acre, and maybe even 10 tons/acre still ship their winegrapes elsewhere. But the high yields are coming down, the overall grapes being produced here are of distinctly better quality (overall) than even 5 yrs ago. The mantra, "Less is more" is starting to get a foothold , even with the most dyed in the wool farmer.

And then there are the vintners who have been low yield devotees all along...the names all mentioned above. They are not alone, but they are certainly in the vanguard of low yield plus world class terroir equals world class wines. Justin Smith and others mentioned above are all part of that "Paso equals world class wines" group. We, as fellow vintners, have much to be thankful for hard working, savvy guys like Justin. He, and they, have finally broken through often enough, high enough, to cement Paso's claim to one of the places to go for world's best wines. We are a mere 3 or 4 decades old, and the new Paso vintners are but a handful of yrs old. Bordeaux is 400 yrs old, and yet, we are catching them. We have caught them...and not just Bordeaux, but Napa too. That is why Napa as well as others have been down here buying up Paso wineries as well as grapes.

We are blessed with the God given terroir. We now have a cadre of winemakers who are aware great wines start in the vineyard, and have maximized that fact, in addition to using their superior talents as vintners. Napa may have the cachet... but Paso has the bright shining future. For us the future is now. It is here. It has been so acclaimed by Wine Spectator, not to mention Wine Enthusiast, who was ahead of the curve of WS. If planning a wine tasting/ buying trip, you should come here. Anybody that does is not disappointed.

Harvest 2010: Year of the Big, Cold, Dark, Wet

2010-11-12T23:34:00.000-08:00

No, I didn't leave a word off the end of the title. It describes this year to a tee. To say it was a tough yr to ripen fruit, is a monumental understatement. As of this writing, Nov. 12, there is still some westside Paso fruit being picked. In many areas it has weathered the storm, literally, or truly, TWO storms...the first was a 60 hour rain, or more properly a London drizzle that left 3 inches of rain. Then the fog descended, the heat evaporated, and within ten days, another good soaking rain. Yes, it warmed up a bit, but here in the mountains on Paso's westside, our cold valley lows were in the high 30's every day this summer, except for a brief five day spell of 110- 112 degree wilters. Those days the valley vineyard hovered in the mid 40's at nite. So, looking at the title, let's review the year's highpoints.

2006 thru 2009, we had increasingly drier years, going from 20 inches in 2006 to barely 10 inches in 2009. 2010 was a huge year for rains, and altho some folks hinted we might be having an el Nino year, nobody ever stated so for certain. Well, they should have and we did...have an el Nino. It rained, it was cold, and it was a bitter winter. It paid off this yr to have had 110 bales of hay hand strewn on our exceedingly steep hillsides in blocs 2 and 5...both Cab Sauv blocs. Rain cascaded down our steep slopes and headed toward the Salinas River...happily, it did not carry much, if any Cerro Prieto topsoil. The downside of this is that we had put out hay every yr before, and it was wasted in the dry yrs of 2006 thru 2009. Put another way, we planned for a big wet yr, and got a drought. No big deal, except it costs $1000 for the hay, and another $2500 to put it out by hand on colossally steep slopes. 2010 hay paid us all back, I suppose. Had we not had the soil retention measures in place we would have easily lost hundreds of feet of vineyard rows...all washed down river(actually northwards into Monterey Bay). So we done good...at least that's what my old time farming friends from yr's back would have said.

Okay, so it rained. Then came the cold...surprising, too, in that on Jan 3- 15, we had high 80 degree weather off our back deck, overlooking the vineyard. But that was ephmeral. Winter returned with a vengenance, and with dark forbidding days, lite rains followed by blowing, billowing fog, this place looked like downtown London, many days with less than 100 feet of visibility. Fog attended much of that cold, and it stayed and then stayed some more. First day of spring came, and our vines were still mostly asleep. It was cold, dark, wet and miserable. Bud break got delayed 2-3 weeks, (depending on elevation in vineyard), and then we followed that up with a late bloom, closer to 3 weeks later than normal. By June, we had had maybe a couple nice days of spring, but that was tops. Most days were blowing fog, no sun, big blowing winds, and a coldness that soaked not only us, but also our vines to the core.

About that time I began thinking of no spring, a cold summer had started, and we were way behind maturation-wise, maybe as much as a month...or more. Whereas we are an extremely low yield vineyard, 2-2.5 tons/ acre, it is that way intentionally, from severe pruning at the get-go. But the absence of any summer bothered me enough, that we went out and took off another half ton of clusters/ acre. And then, miraculously, summer appeared in mid June, beautiful 100 degree days that made us all come alive...vines, too. And suddenly I wondered if I had pulled the trigger on that fruit drop just a mite early. Which was followed 6 days later by an eternal winter...which this time really stayed. Sure we got some sunshine, but it was cold, virtually all June, save that one 5 day spell. Remainder of summer I don't recall, because it was fall, and we were still waiting for summer.

To summarize, cold wet winter, cold wet spring, no summer except for a handful of days, and then fall. Finally we got 3 weeks of lovely sun and warmth, but by now we were some 32+ days behind on the heat/light calendar. All of a sudden, I began thinking, "did I drop enough fruit to ripen in these arctic-like conditions?" Well, fall provided enough heat and light to get an ultra low yield vineyard like us over the hump, but it was certain to be Bordeaux like harvest...ie, in the 22 to 24 Brix range for grape sugars---this in an area famous for its high sugar grapes/high alcohol wines. This year was going thru the motions just as if we actually were in Bordeaux. When we finally harvested, our fruit developed flavors of blueberry, plum, raspberry, some strawberry, and dark cherry. Not surprisingly, the wines once thru primary fermentation, had all the characteristics that we had tasted in the field.

In summary, the yr of the big, dark, cold, wet, was a tough one to grow and ripen grapes...especially if you harvested on flavor. But harvest on flavor we did, and for us, this may very well be a signature yr...in a yr when all growers up and down the coast struggled to ripen most varietals. Low yield. Low yield. Sure we got terroir galore, but in the end, it was our ultra low yields that allowed us to have such a remarkably high quality crop. Whether others did the same as we did, remains to be seen. But talking with growers up and down the California coast, it is apparent that many (maybe even most) growers got caught with more grapes on the vine than they could ripen. I got caught like that in 2005, another wet, cold, dank, year...and I was hanging only 3.5 tons/ acre. Problem was, in weather like Bordeaux, you have to plan for a Bordeaux harvest. And the only way to do that is to cut your crop load to the bone. I am afraid I have many friends here and both north and south of us who did not do that, and paid a severe price quality-wise for it.

If I had to guess on the majority of California grapes and wines this year, I would guess they will be substandard. Low yields saved our bacon. Again. I hope I am wrong in this, but I am afraid California wines are going to struggle in 2010. Except for Syrah, that is. For our Syrah, it was a golden year, and many others noted the same. But for Bordeaux varietals, unh unh. A vintner never knows that what goes in isn't necessarily what is coming out. But my fear is most vintners are fearful of a very subpar yr, quality wise. If you find that to be the case at your favorite wineries some two and a half yrs down the road, stop by Cerro Prieto. We will have some dandy wines for you to try. Good news is, they match up with our '06s, '07's, '08s, and our '09s.

Location, location, location. Terroir, terroir, terroir. But unquestionably, biggest factor this yr for us was guessing right in June, dropping fruit early on, and planning for a Bordeaux harvest...which we all got. For us...low yield guys...it was perfect.

Paso's Westside harvest at Cerro Prieto ...almost done

2010-10-15T21:16:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago it was the Savor event, the million dollar plus event sponsored by Sunset magazine. This week that is only a faded memory. What lingers are the mouth watering taste of our Pinot Noir and Sauv Blanc two weeks ago, and our Cab, Merlot and Syrah which came off this week. Tuesday, our first pick of Bordeaux/ Rhone grapes, was a corker. At 5:30 a.m. we had 23 guys (and ladies) here to pick a probable 16 tons of Cab. By 6:15 a.m. we were down to 16 pickers, and by 6:30 we were down to 9. Only later did I find out that two 7 man crews had been asked to help harvest by another labor contractor, and there either was a dispute over some back pay...not paid...or there was disagreement over whether they picked by the ton or by the hour. In any event, we had gone from being well to over-prepared, to being a lot of pickers short.

In a panic I called on our housekeeper, Alicia, who dropped what she was doing and immediately came over with her son, mother, and sister in law, all of whom Alicia had told to drop everything and come help us. With one friend like that, a person is truly blessed. Ten minutes after the call, Alicia et al arrived, and a bit later two other friends showed up. With the foreman and me we had 16 pickers, which turned out just great...11 hours later. While picking I treated one lady for heat stroke...picked a shady spot, monitored her vital signs, and poured the Gatorade until she could drink no more. Undeterred, she was up 30 minutes later, picking away. Several other mishaps included our bothering the hornets while cutting off clusters, with three folks getting stung, which some hi- potency cortisone cream, ice, rest, and shade took care of. Wildhorse, the winery we were picking for, was incredibly kind and allowed us to bring grapes in 2 hours later than we had expected.

The next day while checking to see how our Cab was doing( Brix, pH, TA), they gave me some 2008 Wildhorse Unbridled Cabernet Sauvignon...Cerro Prieto Vineyard designated. They had discussed doing a vineyard designation, but until Tuesday, I didn't know for sure. It is phenomenal, and if you get a chance to buy a bottle at the winery in Templeton, do so. You won't regret it. Our lab numbers came out fine, and for one day everything went well. Picking days are big days for vineyards, as well as wineries, and the delicate dance of organizing when which grapes come in for processing is ticklish indeed.

Following day we picked for Justin's Isosceles program, and that was essentially a smooth harvest. Next came our Syrah, and yesterday 6 people picked 2 acres of grapes in a baking oven and only one row at a time. Why? Because the Syrah was planted into a steep limestone mountainside with terraced rows 10-15 feet apart, due to the odd contour of the virtually vertical mountain. Normally pickers pick 2 rows on each side of the tractor pulling the grape bins. To have done so here would have meant handing up 40 lb bins 10 feet or more, or lowering down 10 feet. Either way was unmanageable, so all pickers lined up behind the tractor. As for the baking heat, the mountain is entirely composed of limestone, and the sun's reflection off mountainsides above and below, gives a baking effect when the temperature was 101 degrees to begin with. Two acres was truly as much as anyone wanted to pick.

And the Syrah? Magnificent. Truly magnificent. Purple black tapered clusters had been ripe since Oct 1st, but we had been waiting for the flavors to come in, which they did...in spades. This will be our finest Syrah ever, and we have produced some spectacular Syrah before. This one takes the cake, with prominent plum, but also tones of blueberry, blackberry, and for the first time ever, strawberry. While waiting and tasting the past two weeks, the strawberry flavor had never been present, but it sure was on Thursday. To say we picked on exactly the right day would be an understatement. It was perfect. Perfect terroir, loving care and attention, and the perfect day for flavors. This will be a memorable year for Cerro Prieto's grapes, and same for our wines.

Yes, we had the cold summer, preceded by the wet winter, but because of our exacting pruning, our low yields, 2.5T/acre, resulted in some absolutely fantabulous fruit. It is now in ferment tanks doing... well... fermenting. The winery aromas are exactly what we had noted while picking and tasting fruit...all the flavors noted above, plus a tad of blackberry. RULE: if you can taste the flavor in the fruit you will taste it in the wine...spectacularly so. Contrary is also true if you are pruned to high yields, ie, high yields dilute out many flavors and bouquet and taste are vastly decreased. This is why our vineyard continues to crank out world class fruit for world class wines. Still have 3 acres to go, 1 of Merlot and 2 of Cab. Cold, billowing fog just moved in and I wonder if the folks buying those wines may have missed...or are about to miss the flavor picking window. I would have taken those grapes on Thursday, but each winery we sell to calls their own harvest dates, based on lab values and especially flavor. Time will tell who was correct.

For our wines, harvest is now over, and everything is either in barrel, bin, or tank. The Pinot will be outstanding, the Sauv Blanc is exactly the way I wanted it, and the Syrah will be world class. That for me is one heckuva harvest, especially when 3 weeks ago, everyone was wondering if fruit would even get ripe...let alone acquire flavors. So altho we can put a cap on our wines, 3 acres of our grapes still need to be picked. For the two wineries involved, I sure hope they guessed right and will get some more flavors with more time hanging. Problem is fog off back deck is impenetrable. And cold is in the forecast. For Cerro Prieto Vineyard and Cellars, harvest is over. Our 2010 vintages will all be spectacular, and I am already tasting fermenting bins, with flavors that are truly indescribable. You should have been here.

This was the Paso Robles Westside red grape harvest at its very best. These wines will stand right up there with our other International gold medal and 92 point wines. It was a good harvest. It was a crazy season. But it was another fantastic year for Cerro Prieto wines. Stop by our tasting room in downtown Paso Robles, across from the park, at the Meritage Tasting Room...and give them a try.

Cerro Prieto at Sunset's Savor winepouring event.

2010-10-01T22:18:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a week since last blog, when we were tearing our hair out waiting for the Paso Robles Westside boutique vineyard red wine grapes to ripen. Day after the post, we got hit with an incredible run of not Indian summer, but of Houston- hot, insufferably humid weather. I took a brix reading on our Pinot Noir a week ago, and by this Tuesday it had gone from a stuck 21 Brix to 24.5, with pH(desired 3.4-3.6) at 3.5 and TA(total acidity desired .6 to .8) at .8 on the dot. Flavors came in next day, with a delightful light cherry, some delicate strawberry, and a hint of blueberry. It has been since 2004 when we last made our own Pinot, and we have sold those grapes ever since. The 2004 Pinot we barrelled and then laid down until 2009, when we began drinking it. Truly amazing how good an old Pinot can be, and we just drank the living daylights out of it. Can't really afford to lay down our wines that long anymore, but they can do special things if of low yield and made with loving care.

Anyway we finally harvested our Pinot on Tues, 3 days ago, and it is stellar. I look for it to be of our 2004 caliber. Also took our first harvest of Sauv Blanc, and it went from 21.5 Brix to 25 Brix in 4 days. Wow. It was, however, hotter than Hades, and we had 6 days in the 103 range and 2 days at 108. We were really glad to have taken both cold weather grapes off before that heat spell took over. Now we are awaiting flavors to come in the best Syrah we have ever had, but have to be careful to titrate Brix with pH and TA. Right now flavors are coming in way below where we had to wait last yr, at 27.5 Brix. Right now at 24.5, flavors are beginning to show, with plum the easiest to detect. That means we will be picking syrah soon. Merlot and Cab, both stuck at 21 Brix for 2-3 weeks, took off during the heat spell, but when we go over 105 degrees, we add 1-3 gallons of water to each vine. We are in a good range for ripening now, something I thought wasn't going to happen one measly week ago.

On the winery front, Cerro Prieto is pouring at the Sunset Savor event at Santa Margarita Ranch, just 12 miles south of Paso. They have spent some $1.4 million on this extravaganza, with everything from abalone farm tours, live bands, cooking demonstrations, to wine and food pairing, to farming displays in a 2 acre garden, to just plan wine tasting at one of several hundred wineries from Monterey County to Ventura County. It is a shebango not to miss, and if you want to come, call 805 438- 5200 for ticket availability. The setup is something I have never witnessed before, and we at Cerro Prieto are fiercely proud to be part of it. The weather is going to have to cooperate tho, or there is going to be mighty little red wine pouring with high 90s and lots of humidity. We are hoping for a slight cooling.

That's it from the nite before the big Sunset production, in cooperation with the SLO visitors and convention bureau. Hope to see you there, and if you do come, please come by for a Cerro Prieto wine tasting. Note: don't be fooled by the miniscule tents we are pouring from. Two wineries share a 7 foot by 8 foot tent, each with a tiny serving table that accomodates one person, two at most. Good news is the wines are worth waiting for, and the multiple restaurants next door are all excellent. Wine and food pairing. How could you beat that?

Paso's Westside Red Winegrapes still waiting

2010-09-23T17:25:00.000-07:00

"Waiting for what?",one might ask. Well, how about some heat and grape sugar(Brix), for starters. Wineries we sell the 95% of our grapes to all ask the same question and all wonder "what in the heck is going on?". Obviously we are all somewhere between 2-3 weeks behind in ripening, but an interesting phenomenon is occuring... at least here on Paso Robles' Westside, and in particular, in our vineyard. Usually our red grapes ripen, and then hang...and hang...and then hang somemore. Last year our Cab Sauv was ready to pick, along with Merlot and Syrah at or near Oct 1st. But, since we, like most other high end wineries don't pick on Brix, but rather on flavor, we waited...and waited, and waited for the flavors to come in. Having ripe grapes on Oct 1st meant we could harvest anytime, but our grapes were just completely, totally without flavor.

So what is going on this yr? Well, we actually had flavor come into our Pinot the first of Sept, but it is now Sept 23, 8 days past every other yr when our Pinot ripened and was picked. Grapes, seeds...all ripe. Brix? How about a strong 22.8. Our best Pinot(remember we are picking on flavor, but follow the Brix, nonetheless) always ripened first, and then, magically on Sept 15 the flavors came in...luscious cherry, a touch of blueberry, some strawberry, cassis...but this yr, flavors have been drifting in, appearing slowly, not en masse, but the Brix has lagged way, way behind. Normal Pinot here is 23.5 to 24.5 when we pick, but a week past normal harvest, we still are only at 22.8 Brix, but with some lovely early flavors. This may be like a Bordeaux yr, where they frequently end up harvesting at lower Brix, 23.5, maybe 24.5, and that is for Bordeauxs, not Pinot(Burgundy). I am almost forced to begin to think the wonderful flavors we have been so blessed with may actually precede the ripened grapes.

Surely that is the case in our Merlot(20 Brix) , Cab (21 Brix), and Syrah(20 Brix). Looking at the berries, which are starting to shrivel, and based on color...deep inky purple black...we should be ripe, and probably at 23, maybe 24 Brix right now, but no...we are sitting at 20-21 Brix. The long cold summer following the long, first warm, then cold, wet winter has obviously upset the apple cart...er, make that the grape cart. It is apparent that the grapes are confused at present, and aren't sure whether to, ahem..."either go to the bathroom", or get off the pot. Frankly, I think our grapes are as confused as we are. One other minor...okay, major problem we have, is that it always freezes in our valley vineyard on Sept 15, and then that is followed by 3+ weeks of Indian summer, which we are encouterning now. This Sept 15, however, we only had lows of 34 degrees, followed by a 95 degree day, and that has been our coldest day yet, for the lows. We are set and ready to pick the valley Pinot and Sauv Blanc, but with no frost yet(knock on wood) we don't have to pick...soooo...I am guessing we harvest Pinot this coming Mon or Tues(assuming no frost first).

A couple wineries I know started harvest 10 days ago, then abruptly stopped after first day when it became apparent the Pinot just wasn't ready. Meanwhile, we all sit here, singing intonations and incantations, with fingers crossed, prayers on lips, and the Gods of grapes are looking down, laughing at us. I have to admit it isn't funny ha-ha, but it is funny weird. Never a day goes by when I don't learn something brand new, fascinating, and exhilarating. Well, I am over fascinated and exhilarated at present. This teasing deal is getting old. Please, let's get on with the harvest. To do that, a fair number of westside grapes are going to have to ripen first.

My prediction? Syrah, Cab, and Merlot, which we waited some 3 weeks on last yr as the Brix went up and up, and then up some more, somewhere around 26.8 to 27.5(port, anyone)...well, that Brix with flavor is going to be somewhere around the 23.5 to 24.5 Brix this yr, much like vineyards near my aunt's bakery, in Bordeaux. I really see this as a low Brix yr, with flavors dragging in, instead of ripe grapes waiting for the flavor to come in , as happened last yr...as well as most previous yrs. I honestly believe that our Brixes will all top out at no more than 24.5, but that is within keeping of the appearance of the saggy grapes, and the extremely early flavors...that we usually have to wait for.

Stay tuned. One thing for certain...the high alcohol of many of Paso's finest vineyards, are not going to be a concern this yr. Every Nov 1st since I first owned this property in 1984, it has frozen from top to bottom. If that happens this yr, people with heavily cropped vines are going to be harvesting after the first really hard frost. Oh for the joys of the low yield vineyard. We still worry tho.

Cerro Prieto & Paso Robles' Westside Red Wines...watchful, worrying, waiting

2010-09-07T22:37:00.000-07:00

I obviously cannot speak for other Westside producers, but I can sure speak for Cerro Prieto. We actually had to water just before and during Labor Day weekend, when temps rose to 105 degrees and northwards. Each vine got 3 gallons of agua prior to the heat wave. Then, 2 beautiful days in the 80s to 90s, followed by the "brisa" last nite, and this evening we watched the fog roll in...massive fog that encompasses everything. Today was a typical fall day, beautiful in the 60s and 70s here, but it really cooled off when the fog bank rolled in. Forecast is for more of the same, which means, with barely any summer, we are now in Fall. I missed 12 days in August when I had back surgery #12, and reportedly, we had 7 hot days during that time. That means if I were to go back and count the number of hot summer days we have had here at Cerro Prieto this yr, we still would not have had one entire month of our standard Paso hot days/ cold nites.

Maybe I am getting the wrong impression, but during a drive down Vine Street in Paso today, I saw a magnificent Chinese Pistache tree...in 85% full orange plume. Oregon Plum trees(ornamental) and Chinese Pistache tend to go off together, the former in red and the latter in orange...but never on Sept 7th. It usually is much later in October that these two harbingers of Fall go thru their magnificent color change. Another piece to the weather puzzle is that all our poison oak is either in full red or has already lost all its leaves...something that happens usually late, late in Fall. So there are signs out there...ominous ones, that portend an early Fall, and more importantly, an early frost. For us that would mean Pinot Noir and Sauv Blanc, but we have harvested Pinot on Sept 15 every yr since 2001. Two weeks ago, we roared thru a very late veraison in Pinot, and the very next week our grapes had seeds starting to get brown and crispy. In a usual yr, that all happens slowly, methodically, over time. This yr is just like a jailbreak with veraison being 3-4 weeks behind, and then rapidly catching up. Grapes are already sweet, but not yet ready for Brixing. Probably most are at 20 to 21 Brix.

So, during my 33 yrs here in Paso, I have never seen the likes of this, nor has the East Coast seen the likes of their heat wave. No matter where you look, everyone, everywhere has different weather than they have had in yrs. Meanwhile, we here at Cerro Prieto watch, wait...and yes, do worry about what the next 3-4 weeks will bring. With our crop load pruned to 2.5 T/acre (or less in some blocs), if anyone ripens here, we should. But as everyone knows, "would have" and "should have" are not too very far apart, but yield vastly different outcomes for grapes. Our higher blocs are pretty much immune, but the cold of the inland valleys is a concern. Right now, I am looking at Sept 15 again for our Pinot, but it could drag on a week longer. With flavor already in the tiny beries, I like our chances for some outstanding Pinot. Sauv Blanc will be the suprise, in that this is our first harvest, altho it will be no more than half ton/acre.

I tried valiantly to get our '08 Pinot, Cab, Merlot and Syrah in bottle before surgery, but failed...so it probably won't get bottled until sometime past harvest. That's a shame, because I am really excited about all those wines, especially the Syrah, about which one well known winemaking consultant said, "Wow, that's a big wine." No kidding, Dick Tracy. Even tho our '07s are probably going to be better than our '06 International Gold medal and 92 point wines, it looks like our '08s are going to be better yet. Man, talk about excited...well, yes, actually, I am. We really need to get those '08s into bottles so they can lay down for six months. They are ready to drink right now, which is great news for all our wine club members, as well as friends and family. For 2010 we are holding our breath...but I sense something great on those vines. Nature just has to let it ripen a bit more first. My guess? It will.

Paso's Westside, Wild, Wet, Windy, Wacky, Weird, Weather

2010-08-17T13:19:00.000-07:00

I should have guessed something was up when the second week in January was summer in winter. Off our back deck the temperatures were in the mid to high 80s for 13 straight days. Believe me, I was checking the vines for bud swelling daily towards the end of the month. Not only the days were balmy, but so were the nights. Coldest it got at our home overlooking Paso's westside Cerro Prieto Vineyard was in the high 40s. For Paso, that qualifies as weird. The vines definitely looked like they were trying to swell their buds, but never got to the point of bud break. No question I was worried about the summer weather we were having, but as long as it didn't precipitate bud break, I felt we were okay.

Then came February(plus last two days of January). Winter returned with a vengeance, and our lows registered mid to high 20s in the colder valley vineyard. Winter here at Cerro Prieto dragged on well into Spring, when suddenly, one day winter fled and summer arrived. Well after March 21st we had our first day of not spring, but summer. Once again we were basking in 80-90 degree weather, without the intervening Spring. This time we did get bud swelling, and not long after, bud break. It was late, but out buds came. The only way we knew it was Spring was because of the monster winds that visited during what was nominally called "Spring". The first winds registered in the high 60+ mph, and evidence of their presence were huge piles of 50 and 60 foot live oak trees, knocked down en masse, with one pile numbering 12 trees piled up like a bunch of big splinters. We had a second such event just below our house, but it was composed of only 6 trees worth of splinters.

2005 was a big year for us with rain totalling some 42". In 2006,2007,and 2008, we had 16", 12", and 9", respectively. It is no secret that 2009-2010 was a huge rain year, and we registered 41", which ran clear into April. Here in Paso Robles, for every mile west of the 101 Freeway, the rain is roughly 1" more/yr for every mile west you go. So there were some folks 15 miles east of town who got 15-20" of rain, whereas normally they only got 7" or so. The wacky part was the late rains, which tried their best to sabotage grape farmers by raining hard, every time we mowed, weedeated, macheted, or hoed. In all we did all four tasks up to five times each. Part of that is my fault, as I had refused to use pre-emergents(that can contaminate the ground water). But next year, we use pre-emergents, because each trip thru the vineyard with hoes or machetes, costs out at $4000. That's right. It is expensive...especially the way all this came down.

The weird part was during bloom, which although absolutely perfect at outset, was submarined by gods of wrath bringing not only heavy late rains, but 2 monstrous wind storms...neither of which a grower wants during bloom. The first I already alluded to. The second, some 3 weeks later, and still during bloom(but near the end), again was in the 60+ mph range, with gusts strong enough to knock down more trees...this time the biggest pile of live oaks numbered sixteen. From a distance it truly looked like a tepee made of broken sticks, but up close it looked like a giant mass of snapped 20" diameter trees that had been broken in anger by some monster from the sky. The Weber Grill ended up in the pool, despite being well anchored down. During that windstorm I turned the outside spotlights on near midnite, and was amazed to see massive oaks being blown into near horizontal position...and not just several. They were all virtually at 90 degrees to their normal upright position.

Wind aside, the weird and wacky continued when once thru bloom it appeared that only the Merlot had been hard hit by the late rains and winds. The fruit set resulted in many clusters looking like banana clusters, not grapes. Instead of one long rachus there were 4 or 5, each half to a third the length of normal. There were "aces and spaces" among the odd looking rachi, with early estimates at Merlot fruit set somewhere at only 1/3 normal. Instead of .33 lbs/cluster, we looked to have maybe only .15 lbs or less. As it turned out, the rachi filled in, and we ended up with .25 lbs/ cluster, but as yet, we have nary a berry that has started to go thru veraison.

Matter of fact, we started veraison July 3rd in 2009, but had not one berry veraising by August 3rd this year. August 4th we had 3 berries of Pinot Noir beginning color change, and just a week later, all Pinot and most Syrah is pretty well thru veraison. This was not a long protracted veraison as we have had the last 3drought years...this was veraison in hyper-speed. The rest of the story is the Cab Sauv, which needed only a week from start to finish in some blocks, whereas other blocs have yet to move. This is definitely due to cold, as our lower Cab has yet to turn and our higher elevation Cab is finished.

As I write this today, it reached 89 degrees and was a beautiful day for grapes. Unfortunately the fog didn't lift until well past 10 a.m., so we didn't get near the heat and light we so desperately needed. One old salt said that he didn't even keep his heat/light days' data this year because we couldn't possibly catch up. That may have been so, but there is no question that with the rain, the cold weather staying around until the last two days, veraison has been way speedier than the last 3 years. Of further note, the springtime that we got cheated out of in March and April turned into 7-10 days of blistering summer, followed by a return of cold spring weather for the last 5-6 weeks.

I have lived here for 33 seasons now, and can say that without a doubt, this year is one for the record books. The high pressure system on the East Coast is making the midwest, south and east coast all insufferably hot. The low pressure system we have had here for the last 6 weeks is doing the reverse to us as on the east coast. There is a definite La Nina current offshore the Central California Coast, with water temps running 10 degrees cooler than normal. The Bay Area and Napa are similarly situated, with record cold days virtually daily. Altho I do not have first hand knowledge , I have heard Napa is about 3 weeks behind, vineyard maturation-wise, which is what half our vineyard looks like, too.

With super cold days, the marine air hanging around all day (La brisa in Spanish), and fog every morning, it has been essential to maintain good mildew spraying routines, with Westside mildew a real problem for those that missed spraying dates. Anyone who is going totally organic is bound to have mildew problem this year, when it has been a setup for mildew for almost two months now. If we can get more days like today...good and hot...then we may be okay, especially if the rest of our Cab and Merlot go thru veraison. Additionally, those vineyards with low crop yields
(2-2.5T/acre)will have less chance of mildew than those with heavier crop loads.
Also we have been hedging and leaf pulling on the shaded side of vines to help airflow and sunlight get to grapes and leaves. An added benefit of these two tasks is that sprays, when used, are much more effective.

Overheard a buyer and grower's rep discussing the wacky weather and they agreed, "This ought to be a great year for Syrah". The unsaid thing was this could be really tough year for Cab. A lot of Westside Cab is way behind...but as we have seen here at Cerro Prieto, once it gets kick started, it races thru veraison. We just need to get it going. Also, it would be nice to see summer before we are thru autumn. The way this year is going, however, no one has a clue as to what lies ahead. I have advocated for low crop yields for a number of years now, because weird weather such as this favors a low yield vineyard such as Cerro Prieto. Those folks hanging 5 T/acre of fruit...or more...are in for a rude surprise. In times of wacky, weird, wild, wet , and windy weather, low yields are also going to make the difference between ripening grapes vs not.It is no secret that if a vineyard has world class terroir,and we do,then low yields will translate into truly great wines.

Postscript, 2 days later: Last two days have been pure summer...barnburners. BUT, the most recent news is for that accursed low pressure to return to sitting on the coast. Whew! I sincerely hope they got the facts wrong on the low pressure issue, but I have already noticed the cold air blowing in from the west. Ouch.

Bordeaux comes to Cerro Prieto

2010-08-03T09:01:00.000-07:00

Obviously, that is physically impossible, but two of its nicest and loveliest residents did come for a 4 day stay...my Aunt Jackie and cousin Josieane. Both were in the US to visit the Stanton family, strung out from Fort Worth to Austin, then Sacramento, and finally Paso Robles. The visit reminded me of my delightfully memorable first trip to Bordeaux, when our Bordeaux family hosted a fascinating trip throughout the entire heart of France's wine country. That was 30 yrs ago, and at the time, I merely liked wine, but had nowhere near the appreciation for it that I do now. The Rochard's live in a chateaux/bakery, which was built in the late 1700's, and was idyllic. Dinners of standard French fare were served which equated to the best 7 meals in my life. Wines, fine wines, were served at lunch and dinner, and altho I had trouble distinguishing labels of what we drank, the wines were...well, fabulous. The chateaux itself had walls 22 inches thick, which in warm months kept the interior comfortably cool. The wines actually were brought home in a 20 liter bottle, which had been siphoned from barrels in one of the many nearby underground caves. I was amazed to realize that many of the local citizenry routinely obtained their wines that way.

My aunt and grandma took me on tours of all the famous nearby chateaux, and I was privileged to meet some of Bordeaux's many superb winemakers, most of whom were family friends of Jackie, Robert, and grandma. At the time it was a spectacular trip, but, I was going full bore in my medical practice, and was vastly undereducated for such a fascinating experience. Now, that sounds like a trip of a lifetime, and my wife and I have been invited to do it all over again, this time experiencing it from the eyes of someone in the grape and wine business. We do many things at Cerro Prieto that are similar in France, namely utilize world class terroir, low yields for our grapes, and loving, hand care of the vines. One thing in particular stood out as different in the two countries, and that is how much the government interjects itself into the wine business. Here we irrigate; there they don't, but they also do get summer rains. They typically make wines with lower alcohol content, whereas in our vineyard, if we do that we miss out on all the wonderful flavors that come with ultra long hang times. Granted the alcohol level creeps up as we wait for flavors to come in, but if we were able to get the magnificent flavors early on, our wines would be of lower alcohol also.

Both Jackie and Josiane liked our wines, especially the blend of Paso Bordo, which would not be found in France within a Bordeaux domaine. Why? Because our 92 point 2006 Paso Bordo(85% Cab/15% Syrah), is a Bordeaux/Rhone, and that is a no-no in France, both in the Rhone River valley as well as in Bordeaux. This is no secret, but the American winemakers have essentially all the latitude we need to mix and match not only Cab with Syrah, but Syrah with Pinot Noir, Merlot with Syrah, as well as the traditional Cab/Merlot/Cab Franc/ Petit Verdot. Paso Robles has been noted by wine critic Steve Heimoff (Oct, 2009, Wine Entusiast) as home of the big, bold, red blends, and both Jackie and Josiane liked the blends we served. It seems strange that the government would restrict what French winemakers can do re: blending as well as certain viticultural practices, but France has been making great wines for centuries, and their rules and regulations go back at least several hundred years. I wouldn't be surprised to see that change one day, but no time in the foreseeable future.

As for the vineyard, currently we are at August 3rd, and still no sign of verasion...which last year was well underway by JULY 3rd. That is bizarre, but is certainly in keeping with our lovely spring days of mid to high 70's and lows in the low 40's. Unfortunately we are rapidly approaching fall, and to have spring weather now is blatantly weird. Oh, that isn't quite true...last nite I saw 3 berries beginning verasion in our cold valley Pinot and Sauv Blanc. This is either going to be a late harvest, hopefully not too late, or we are going to race thru verasion like a race horse. There are mumbles of worry from many neighbors, all of us wondering when is the hot weather coming. Since we are both in the southern end of the Paso AVA and also the north face of the Templeton Gap, the coastal marine air (known to Mexican workers as "brisa"), we are some 18-20 degrees cooler than downtown Paso Robles which is just 4 miles west-north-west of us. Nonetheless, while the days are perfect to enjoy the great outdoors, for ripening grapes...it be cold... truly, unseasonably cold. As producers of low yield grapes, 2-2.5 Tons/acre, we are well positioned to ripen our grapes, as opposed to higher yielding vineyards, with yields 5 Tons/ acre...or more. Still and all, we growers are beginning to worry, altho there still is plenty of time. We do need for verasion to get in gear, however.

As for all the "behinder" vineyard chores mentioned in the last blog, those are now done, only to be replaced by yet another list, in which we are once again 3-4 weeks behind. One thing of note, and this is ugly. We have had to net our early ripening grapes because the small songbirds, (finches, juncos), wrens, sparrows, Robins, Mountain Blue Jays, Western Blue Jays, plus the grape stealing kings, grackles, have started eating bitterly green grapes, with a voracious appetite. Normally we would just use bird distress calls, kites, and windmills to scare away birds, but not this year. When the Cab and Merlot start to ripen there will be hundreds of other acres nearby where they can eat. Right now, anyone who has grapes beginning or in verasion, definitely has a bird problem... unusual, because generally grape eaters wait for grapes to develop sugar. As they say, just another day in the vineyard...or paradise, if you will, but we all are starting to have some concerns re: our spring in summer.

As a postscript, writer and blogger Randy Fuller of Now and Zin, wrote a very nice article about Cerro Prieto last week, and I would highly recommend it to all who follow our blog. (http://www.blog.nowandzin.com/)

Behinder: The Mistress

2010-07-08T10:40:00.000-07:00

We've all been there before...the harder I work, the behinder I get. It's the darned mistress, again, like a siren calling the ships onto the rocks. Her name? Well, we all know her by different names, but most have to do with work...lots of work, all the time, 7 days a week, never relenting. In my case her name is Cerro Prieto, our vineyard, all encompassing in time, thought, care, emergencies, devotion, dislike, love...she is the reason I need a clone to do the other half of the work I can't get done. Do I love her? Yes. Can I live without her? Definitely yes. Do I wish she would be less demanding, require less of my time, and yes, function without me? Yes, yes, and certainly yes. Would I miss her were I to go away on a year long cruise? Yup. Can I do other things, fun things, simultaneously, without having to think about her? Yes again. Sounds like some conflicting thoughts here...but that's the way it is in the vineyard. In truth, 18 of our 20 acres are pristine, require little care other than pruning, thinning, leafing, canopy management, fertilizing, harvesting, and finally, making the carefully tended grapes into fine wines. Truth be told, some 90% of my time is spent on just 10% of our vines. How on earth could that be?

All of us have something that is a cocklebur under our saddles, and everyone has something in their jobs or everyday lives that is just a continuous pain in the rear. In my case, it is 2 acres of Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc, both grafted and replanted some three times now, over the course of the past 4 years. One year it was late...really late...spring cold spell, that fried our 2 above varietals just after planting and grafting. Next year, we had a similar situation, but that time the frost came the 3rd week in June(no kidding). Heck, we were 2 days short of summer, and our cold valley vineyard dipped into the low 20s. Last year we had summer in January, followed by a cold snap, then once again, it became warm. So warm, in fact, that on May 21st, San Jacinto Day in Texas, that our cold valley vineyard reached 117 degrees.

We had been pouring wine at the Paso Robles Wine Fest that day, and upon returning home, we were greeted by 2 acres of Pinot and Sauv Blanc that appeared as if someone had taken a blow-torch to them, neatly beginning at the fruit wire and working upwards. It honestly looked as if someone had put a running brown paper bag from one end of each block to the other, with a decidedly brown strip running from the fruit wire upwards, and running the entire length of both blocks. Hot air rises and cold air sinks...at least there was a tiny bit of cold available to keep each entire vine from cooking up. We managed to save most vines, but did have to re-graft and replant almost 12oo vines. For someone seeking perfection in the vineyard, it is painful to have some vines just misbehave over and over...and yet over again. Yet that is the way it goes, and everyone knows whereof I speak. One little thing is enough to make an otherwise

pleasurable job very unpleasant at one time or another. I like to think of this kind of event as "negative work", in that it takes a lot of time, thought and energy to "get it right", only to have one's hopes dashed by some event...in this case something as simple as bad breaks in the weather. The remaining vines can withstand these climatic insults because they are well established, inured to pain...er, really cold spells, or more recently really hot ones.

This is the time when it is good to remember the glass scenario: is it half full or is it half empty. We all would like to be positive, glass half full types, and mostly we are. It is just that persistent cocklebur, if you will, that can make life more...well, challenging, for lack of a better word. Some in the grape biz say they have "issues", but we all know that to mean that there is a problem...to lesser or greater degree. Whatever, I would be delighted to airmail those two acres to anyone nearby who might want them. Yet I know that isn't in the cards, so I will just have to persist, be even more diligent, put more time in, and hopefully, one day actually get the entire 20 acres to behave. Until then, I guess I will continue to get more behinder the harder I work, and just remember it is a privilege to be able to work in the fields, in the cellar, and sometimes in the parks for big holiday pourings. When you get right down to it, 90% perfect ain't all that bad. Matter of fact, the tiny 2 acres that have caused all the problems are more than counterbalanced by the 18 acres that require little more than the usual care and maintainence. Like the saying goes, "Nobody's perfect"...but it sure is nice to be almost perfect.

Our orginal goal was to grow the perfect grape. Then it was to make the perfect wine. Well, they may not have been perfect, but , by golly, they sure came darn close. The 2006 Cerro Prieto Merlot won 2 International Gold Medals, both the San Diego International wine competition, and the Critics Challenge International Wine Competition; our signature wine, the 2006 Paso Bordo(85% Cab/ 12% Syrah)received 92 points in the Wine Enthusiast...and this was our first bottling. Aside from being very proud, we were also a bit humbled by what we had achieved. That's why the mistress, that time demanding, worry wart of a vineyard, is really not so bad after all. She has brought us fulfillment and fame...the worry and hard work are just the price of admission...nothing more, nothing less. Being able to live life and work outdoors at something I truly love, worry warts and all, is really, truly, just a matter of being blessed. Someone, a client, once said, "Being able to live here is like living in a tree house , and the vineyard is incredibly beautiful". What could I say to that? Sure I thought of the mistress, but when all is said and done, our visitor had it right: it is beautiful and it is sheer pleasure to work here...outdoors, in sunlight, living a dream that not many have the chance to experience. Mistresses, schmistresses. We are incredibly fortunate to live our dream, and if there are some cockleburs, or bumps in the road, that is a small price to pay for the spectacular life we have been able to live.

Behinder? Ah, heck...begone. Oh, and if you happen to drop by, don't forget to try our newly released 2007 Merlot with a dab of Cab and a touch of Syrah in it. The '07 Paso Bordo is not quite ready yet, but will be at the end of September. Meanwhile, we still have 60 cases of the '06 Paso Bordo, and I can attest, it goes down fine. Come see us and give both a try. Cheers.

As for the picture above...that is my real mistress...my lovely wife, Teresa

Winter, then summer, and only a hint of spring.

2010-06-10T16:46:00.000-07:00

Man oh man, how can 3 weeks go by so fast? Last blog everything was in bloom, then we got a late rain, then we got summer. Now the days are cooling with fog coming in at nite. In the vineyard, weeds and gophers continue to bedevil us. We have mowed, weedeaten, and macheted now 5 times, albeit that this time there was a lot less to do. Not using pre-emergent in a big rain year, going green or not, was a huge error. Additionally we currently are in bloom, the two sets of movable catch wires have been raised around each vine, and the canes are easily 3, sometimes 4 feet in length. It is incredible how fast this vineyard took off. Just got our 2nd mildew spray in prior to bloom, so that when fog comes in at nite, any mildew that wants to form is inhibited from doing so. Each spray is good for 21 days or thereabouts, and is unnecessary once verasion is done.

We just cleared the trail that parallels the cold valley Pinot below and the mountain Cab above. It is a straight up and down side hill that has one trail cut thru it, and is traversible on our 6 wheel drive ATVs. Between poison oak, huge bull thistles, and 4, yes four downed trees, it was quite a task. Once done, however, it gives guests here for vineyard tours a chance to go thru an enchanted forest, 20 degrees cooler than anything else around, and that is all year long. It is completely forested, with the tree canopy not allowing any light to pass thru. The entire mountainside is covered in magnificent ferns which is quite different from the rich dark soil of the valley below in full sun, and the mountain above, in full sun and set in solid limestone. The main reason for reopening this trail is so that visitors can go along the trail and see the 5 nests of redtail hawks, the two nests of grey squirrels, and the 3 nests of horned owls in the white oak canopy, high above.

From here on out, we have some more positions to set for the now 2 y/o grafts of Sauv Blanc. Additionally, with the 60 knot winds we got some two weeks ago, we have had to cut the gangly, and unsupported canes that extend high above the catch wires. Failure to do so makes the entire graft cane whip about and break off when the winds go over 20-30 mph...and that has happened thrice in the last 2 weeks.

We, like others, have seen the traffic in these parts fall off substantially from last year, when it was slow. The economy is hurting most folks, and many of those drink fine wines. Ask anyone at the local wine shop, and they will say this is a buyer's market. Problem is there just aren't anywhere near enough buyers of shoes, cars, homes, clothes, dinners out, movies, etc. Wine is not being picked on here, the entire country is. It is heartbreaking to have so many friends in construction...well, no longer so. Paso has at least 25 to 40% of its income related to construction and everything that emanates therefrom. Builders are getting walloped, and many have just frankly pulled up and quit. With business in general way off, everyone is affected, from school teacher layoffs to the local auto mechanics. Fine wines stay good for long periods of time, and if kept around will be even better in years down the road. You can't say that about many things, but you sure can about wine. Today's vineyard tour guests are 3 hours late as of this blog, so guess they aren't coming. C'est la vi. Good news is, the Cornish game hens were put in the oven with lemon, lemon pepper, salt and paprika, some 2 hours ago...so it is time to feast. I will leave you with that thought, and as always, say a prayer tonite that the belching black cloud at the bottom of the Gulf, just off New Orleans, will somehow, miraculously be capped tomorrow. We've been hearing that for 52 days now, so probably, that is a forlorn hope. We need a miracle down there. I sure hope it is forthcoming...soon.

Paso Robles Wine Festival and Cerro Prieto

2010-05-21T07:34:00.000-07:00

We look forward to meeting many new friends this weekend, and revisiting with old ones. We will not be pouring at the downtown Wine Fest, however, but will be here at the vineyard doing eco tours, taking photographic tours, enjoying the beauty of spring, and doing wine/cheese pairings. What a difference a year makes. One year ago when we poured at the Wine Fest, the temperature under our awning in the park reached 119 degrees. That spoiled 10 cases of our wines which even with huge ice chests and ice, we could not keep ahead of the phenomenal heat. Turned out the rubberized awnings actually acted as heat absorbers, and made the temps 4-5 degrees hotter.

Looking out the windows early this morning, I was treated to a spectacular sunrise, with hillsides of vines as far as the eye could see. The early morning light highlighted the newly mown rows of hay in fields far below and several miles away. The geometry of these mowed fields is in itself a thing of beauty. Looking at the sun glistening off leaves of our fully leafed out vineyard it was hard to imagine a place, or sight more lovely. Lupine are still in bloom, poppies are showing off their yellow and orange everywhere, and all remaining wildflowers are giving it their last gasp prior to storing energy for next year. Sometimes nature has to be allowed to take precedence over our vines. So it is in our top bloc of Syrah, where a lupine bush has taken up residence between two vines. The blue purple color is dazzling, but the size of the bush is no less remarkable. Yesterday it measured some 12 feet in diameter, competing with not 2 but 3 vines for food, water, and sunshine. When you see something like that, it is very easy to let it grow, even though it is compromising several vines' growth. It is unique and you should see it. We do have one other lupine bush, but it is growing on an otherwise barren hillside.

Whereas we will miss not pouring in the park tomorrow, we will be looking forward to seeing many of our friends here at the vineyard. The vineyard at present is about as beautiful as it can get in the spring, and we already have two photographers out and about taking rolls of film. For those interested we have multiple stages of vine growth on display, with potted dormant Sauv Blanc just peeking thru the 6" of dirt piled on top of it. We have half an acre of Pinot just secured to wire yesterday, plus all other vines are fully leafed out. The rain was a Godsend this year, when we got as much as we received the last 3 years combined. Wild turkeys are in abundance(altho you have to be up at first light to see them), some red foxes have actually been hunting gophers in our yard, not 30 feet from our house, coyotes are ever present, and then there are the birds.

Last nite we watched a Stellar bluejay's nest fall from under a beam of our house. It had initially been a finch's nest, which the jays destroyed, including the eggs. Then the jays wove a nest made completely of tiny 3" twigs, right where the finches had been. A pair of perigrine falcons then did the job on the jay's nest and eggs. Survival of the fittest...

Immediately below the house we have a pair of "sopolotes", or turkey vultures sitting on a nest(it is half of an abandoned wood rat nest), and during daytime, the sopolotes take turns flying directly between the trees and within 15 feet of our back deck. This pair was born here some 10 years ago, just below our home, and they have adopted us. Normally one cannot get within 50 yards of turkey vultures, but these guys know that we leave dead gophers and coyotes out in the fields below, for them to feast upon. Watching all this "nature" is doubly enjoyable while sipping our wines which are paired up with Stilton, dry Monterey jack, and French cheddar cheeses. If after visiting the wine fest (or before) you wish to come join us, we would be delighted to share any and all the above with you. Cerro Prieto is truly beautiful, and at certain times is much moreso than others. This is one of those times.

The amazing spring rush crush

2010-05-19T07:34:00.000-07:00

No, that does not mean we are crushing grapes in May, but it does mean that there has been a massive amount of work done since my last blog, now a full month ago. To loyal readers, my apologies, but the vineyard has been all consuming to the extreme. Since a month ago, the gopher population has gone crazy, with more gophers than we have ever seen in the past 11 years. Controlling these pests takes an inordinate amount of time...to many, myself included, this is negative work; ie, we are working like mad, but are not going forward. We are, in military parlance, building and holding. We are not progressing.

Since last month, you might be interested to know what the nuts and bolts of running a vineyard encompasses. First gopher control; then there is the irrigation of our cold valley potted dormant Pinot and Sauvignon Blanc replants. Now, 3 weeks later, we have to put shelters around all those dormant vines we buried under 3 inches of soil. As the new leaves sprout, we dig away the dirt they were buried under, and carefully place cardboard shelters around them. Next is once again tractor repairs. The broken crawler tread has held up, but the PTO cable broke, requiring a virtual dismantling of the tractor to replace one lousy cable.

Next was spray rig, which required a new bearing, replacing a mysteriously lost fan belt, and finally replacing worn out nozzles. Unfortunately our spray rig is no longer made, parts are scarce, and many have to be hand manufactured. Ugh. The Bush Hog, a 42" mower pulled behind our 6X6 ATV, has now been completely rebuilt, yet continues to cause problems with breakdowns with each and every use. Sounds like farming, doesn't it? In our 3 year old Syrah, which is growing out of pure limestone rock, we have had to put up a second set of catch wires, in that heavy winds of spring snap off 2 foot long shoots as if they were nothing. Two days ago I encountered 53 broken shoots just on our top row of Syrah alone. The catch wires will alleviate most of that problem. My dependable work truck, a Ford F150, had a compressor go bad and required replacing, plus the new fan belt that drives it.

On a daily basis, we have to clean a massive filter for our irrigation pump due to our extremely hard(basic) water. Mainly it is just time consuming, but again is just negative work. By cleaning it, we don't progress...we just stay neutral. Thus is life in the spring vineyard, but due to heavy winter rains, and then 3 late spring rains, we have had to re-mow and re-weedeat the entire vineyard 3 times. This is easily our busiest spring on record, but finally it is immensely gratifying to see things round up into good shape. As for wines, 2007 is in bottle and will be released June 30th. The 2008 vintages need a topping and the 2009 needs racking, plus chemistries. My gut feeling is that we have improved on our 92 point Paso Bordo, and have got a Merlot blend that is better than our international gold medal 2006 Merlot. Time and tasters will tell, but we are extremely excited about our 2007 releases.

We hope to see all our old friends and new ones, too, here at the vineyard this coming weekend during Wine Festival. Our planned move to open a tasting room across from the downtown park at Meritage Lounge remains in the works, but bureaucratic red tape has delayed things. Please call for information on tasting at 805-226-8448. Our 2006 Paso Bordo has managed to actually improve with age, which makes that 92 point wine truly spectacular. We will make a stand alone Syrah this year, but will not be available until next yr. I cannot wait to get this into bottle.

In closing, there are two pictures of our vineyard in 1999, and then today. You can see the remarkable changes in this, the county's most photographed vineyard (or at least, so I have been told). Vineyard tours are by appointment, but most are already spoken for during Wine Fest weekend. Call to see if there are any cancellations should you be interested. We are foregoing the downtown park pouring this year, as we were much busier at the vineyard last year than we were at the Wine Fest pouring . Look forward to seeing you all again. Also a note to wine club members: you are welcome to pick up your shipments here and save the cost of shipping, should you wish. Enjoy the Wine Fest, and we look forward to seeing you.

The Maccabees of Cerro Prieto

2010-04-18T14:18:00.001-07:00

Oops, that's a typo, in that it should have read "McAbee's". The biblical Maccabees were actually a Jewish rebel army who liberated parts of land of Israel from the rule of the Selucid empire. Also, supposedly "Maccabees" gave rise to the word "hammer", with all its implications. Anyway, right now, we are using the McAbee's gopher traps, setting some 36 or more per day. Doesn't sound like much but first you have to find the little scoundrels, then you have to dig until you find a two-way tunnel, and then you set the traps and insert one in each arm of the tunnel. A good idea is to secure each trap to a length of baling wire and then wrap that around a fluorescent orange painted piece of wood. This is so you can find traps(over 20 acres it is easy to lose them) once you have buried them in the ground. Also, the stakes make it harder for coyotes to dig up the traps(plus gopher) and take the gopher trap and gopher elsewhere for supper. The orange paint makes it a lot easier to find those suckers the next day.

Seems kind of silly to go thru all this hassle for a gopher, but one mature 11 y/o vine has a worth of $450 to replace at current status. Naturally, new vines are only $3 each, but the work to get them to 11 years costs about $450. That's why once we plant them, we go to extraordinary means to keep them alive. Poisons are a possibility, an easy one, but besides from being expensive, some are also secondary killers, ie: Gopher eats poison, dies, and vulture eats dead gopher and dies. The non secondary poisons are essentially grain treated with anticoagulant, and gophers need to feed on the grain at least 3-4 times before dying. For a vineyard "going towards green" we do our best to stay away from anything poisonous, as it is just one more chemical you don't have to put into the soil.

Besides gophers, this is also the time of year for re-doing weed control (machetes, hoes, weedeaters), and getting the vineyard ready for any improvements. In our case this is replacing some vines in our cold valley vineyard that altho grafted two years ago, still are stuggling. Having pulled a number of them out of the ground, the failed ones usually have had a root system chewed up by gophers, and the vine is literally hanging on with only a tap root. These are best replaced, as altho they could survive, they wouldn't thrive. Five days hence we will be planting some potted dormant Pinot Noir vines, burying the entire bareroot vine under ground. After the vine breaks thru the dirt, we will put on cardboard cartons to protect young vines from not only late spring frost, but also our many jackrabbits...which look at young vines as a real treat.

Lastly, this is a time for repairs. Right now it is the flail mower, and 42" Bush Hog mower(pulled behind ATV). Both are being welded, re-wired, and sharpened. Making it thru one season is tough on mowers. Making it thru 11 seasons is asking a lot from these contraptions. They will and do break down. Last week it was the tractor tread. Now welded back on our crawler is once again in service, but it sure looked naked for awhile with one tread extending behind and in front of the track-layer. Amazingly our mechanic was able to jack the 10,000 lb tractor up and move the track so it could be reattached, bolted and welded.

Such is our spring...beautiful, busy, and behind. The saying, "the faster I go, the behinder I get", has special meaning each spring. We do get a lull later, but right now it is action packed. Meanwhile our '07 Merlot and Paso Bordo are 3 weeks post bottling, which means we will be trying them out in a mere 9 more weeks. These both got a full 27 months on 1/3 new French oak barrels... Seguin

Moreau, for those of you interested. The other 2/3 barrels were neutral, ie, 2-3

years old, but they don't impart much, if any oak flavor to the wines.

That's it for now, but if you happen to be driving by and see a 6 wheel ATV out in the vineyard, and someone kneeling on the ground burying gopher traps, honk or just stop by for a visit. I would love to give our many wine club members some hands on time learning how to trap pesky gophers.

(Incidentally, the accompanying picture above is titled, "Lots of flowers, lots of weeds").

It's flower time at Cerro Prieto

2010-03-30T16:32:00.000-07:00

The mowing is done, weedeating is underway (with a large assist from machetes), and the vineyard is once again taking form as it usually does during the early spring. Clusters of California poppies, hillsides of pink, yellow, red, and white wild radishes, massive patches of lupine, a monster 8'X8' purple bush lupine, masses of yellow fireweed, dwarf blue lupine, wild purple vetch, standard blue lupine, a purple/brown/yellow wild sweet pea...the list goes on and on...all are now in their glory, and it is a fascinating time of year here in the vineyard. The weedeating and machetes are used to avoid herbicide sprays. A secondary benefit of not spraying is that we then can appreciate all the magnificent wildflowers mentioned above, plus another several dozen not mentioned.

To see it is to truly understand nature's wonder. Anyone who has visited Cerro Prieto during the spring time will attest to the sheer, overwhelming beauty of the vineyard and its surrounding hillsides. We have prevented any erosion in this, a 30 inch rain year, and we have continued the propagation of fields of magnificent, eye-hurting color...all of which would have been absent had we sprayed herbicide, primarily pre-emergents. Yes, weedeating is an added cost, but if one lives in the country, one should enjoy it to its fullest...and we do. Come see us and enjoy the color show, plus try some nationally recognized wines.

Bottling of '07s is now done, and we have laid the bottled wine down for a 3 month nap. There were no glitches, just premium wines making it into their bottles, where they now will take a brief rest. Quality of our Paso Bordo should match or exceed our 92 point 2006, and the Merlot is not a stand alone, but rather a blend of Merlot with a tiny bit of Syrah, and 12% superb Cabernet. It is difficult to compare our internationally acclaimed Gold Medal Merlot of 2006 with our '07 blend, but I assure you, it will not disappoint.

Next on the calendar is to finish weedeating, and then to control the ongoing gopherama that we continuously have. After that it will be time to evaluate all spur positions on each vine...yes, that is 180,000 spurs to look at...but well positioned spur positions now save a lot of time and heartache later. Also we will remove those spurs that have gotten leggy, again reducing our expected yield per vine. This time consuming task goes on for several months, as one might expect, but is time well spent. It is a time to check each plant, commune with it, and figure out if there are any special needs required. As for nutrients, that is taken care of once vines have leafed out fully, and are well on the way toward full leaf maturation.

There is one threat on the horizon: the Arctic Express is currently blowing through, and we are already leafed out in 90% of our Syrah, our highest bloc. It will stay 25 degrees warmer than our bottom valley vineyard, and hopefully will be spared any late hard frosts. The valley vineyard is still sleeping, with very little in the way of bud bulging, let alone, bud break. Somehow, someway it knows that to swell or break buds too early is to succumb to late spring frosts. Right now, most vineyard owners are "saying the beads" re: no hard hitting frost. If it should happen, well, that is farming, as the saying goes. We hope for the best, yet are prepared for the worst. The big rains of winter have recharged all vines, and we are on track for a great 2010.

As for fauna, the barn owls have already produced one clutch of young, and another is underway. The immense piles of gopher bones in the scat below barn owl boxes is impressive in number of dead skeletons, as well as the assortment of skeletons found. Gophers predominate, but ground squirrels as well as field mice and relatives are in abundance. The red tailed hawks are soaring, many already matched up, and frequently seen in the tallest oak trees overlooking the vineyard, with mouthfuls of weeds, leaves, sticks, and other nest building materials. Occasionally an existing nest gets rebuilt, but most years, large nests succumb to the 60-70 knot winds that blow in winter. Red shouldered hawks continue to do their aerial acrobatics, each male vying for a mate. Perrigrine falcons are likewise entertained, but they don't put on soaring shows like red tails and red shouldered hawks do. As for the songbirds (finches, juncos, nuthatches, titmouses, robins, stellars jays, et al), it is definitely nesting time, as can be noted by the tattered front and back doormats that have been shredded by one or all of the above culprits. Oh yes, the grey squirrels love to make their nests from our doormats also. All in all, it is an immensely busy time here, and sometimes I actually think the animals are working harder than we are. Oddly, the wild turkey, both Merriam and Rio Grande are not paired up yet, probably the result of a false summer the last two weeks, now followed by an Arctic air mass. Such is life at Cerro Prieto today, and we wish you could enjoy it all with us. A phone call or email usually works. We look forward to seeing you here to enjoy nature at her finest.

Getting in gear at Cerro Prieto Vineyard & Cellars/ Going towards Green...again.

2010-03-13T20:09:00.000-08:00

Well, no question we are underway for a new year because we are now officially pruned. To many, that is readily understandable; but to others just getting into wine (and vineyard) appreciation, here's something to chew on: on 20 acres of vines, we have 10 spur positions(one every 6 inches) on each 5 foot cordon (the horizontal portion of the vine). Figure 870 vines/acre (on a 5' X 10' vine spacing) and we have roughly 18,000 vines, which means with 10 spurs/vine there are 180,000 spur positions to prune each and every year. Wow! Prior to growing grapes I had never ever contemplated something as large as 180,000 anythings. Yet, on our small boutique vineyard, that's what we prune every cotton picking year...180,000 individual cuts with the pruning shears. Obviously, I don't do that myself, and in the last several years, have done virtually none due to back surgeries. But still, just thinking about opening and closing a pair of pruning shears 180,000 times... well, it is still an amazing number to try and get your head around.

Just imagine what vineyards of 200 acres are like...or like the Scheid Vineyard, some 50 miles north of us where there are miles and miles of vineyard, neatly butting up to both sides of the highway and extending west to the mountains and east to the foothills. They have dozens of square miles of vineyard, and literally hundreds of thousands of vines. Pruning for those folks must surely be akin to a really bad colonoscopy.

In any event, one must always start somewhere, and with pruned canes on the ground, there is a certain satisfaction once all is done. As of now we are using a flail mower to cut the winter growth of our anti-erosion clovers, broemes, vetch, fescue, rye, filaree, and 26 varieties of wildflowers. Additionally, adhering to a biodynamic philosophy of "going towards green" we are also chopping up 180,000 pruned canes that lay in amongst our grasses, clover, vetch, and flowers. A brief 10 years ago we used a hay rake behind our tractor to remove all cut canes, which we then moved, stacked, and burned. Extremely non-organic. Extremely wasteful and time consuming. By merely buying a good mulching flail mower, we eliminated fouling the air with smoke from 180,000 burning canes, and simultaneously eliminated several costly steps(hay raking and moving the massive amount of pruned vines to burn piles). The additional benefit comes with mulching the canes into biodegradeable size, which ultimately returns nitrogen to the soil, and also helps rebuild any topsoil lost during torrential rains. Going organic doesn't necessarily have to be expensive. Many times, "going towards green" can actually save both time and money, but the biggest winner, hands down, is the environment. Seeing that mass of grasses, flowers, vetch and unruly canes reduced to a fine mulch(we double cut to get the smallest particle size we can)...well, it is a very satisfying feeling to know we are not only saving our environment, but improving it as well.

Next on the agenda is to catch up on gophering, the prize winner for crummy, boring vineyard tasks. On the other hand, I have trapped muskrats, raccoons, rats, possums...to mention but a few...since I was a kid. So while gophering may not be intellectually challenging, there is a warm glow in my gut every time we pull up a trap with gopher in it. Additionally we have been simultaneously dropping our movable catch wires(4 per vine), which we will raise gradually as the shoots start to emerge from each spur position. "Basal plus two" is our pruning motto on established vines, but "basal plus one" is used for young one and two year old vines. Essentially that means that we will have 2 shoots coming from every spur position, with an extra basal bud hidden between the cordon and the base of the spur. This basal bud comes into play if we get hit with a late spring frost and we lose one, or occasionally two shoots to frost. The basal bud is, in effect, our insurance bud. The final job for early spring is to spray, weed eat, hoe, and machete our hillside anti-erosion ground cover, which includes mustard galore, vetch, wild radish in white, pink, yellow and red hues, California poppies, lupine, and not to be forgotten, bull thistle. We do not use pre-emergent sprays which would keep all the above from germinating, but simultaneously, that poison stays in the ground(and hence ground water) for several years. Ecologically, pre-emergents are terrible. Economically, they are a huge benefit. We come down on the side of the environment, and forego the pre-emergents, instead using systemic spray (Roundup, Glyfos), which is taken up by the plant and not the soil. We could have used the systemic spray early on when plants were just germinating, but chose instead to wait til all had gotten a good root base which holds the steeply inclined soil in place. This requires a lot of extra work as wild radish, bull thistle, and vetch are huge and tough to get rid of. But merely by delaying the spray we again are being environmentally conscientious, choosing to prevent erosion rather than to spray tiny plants which later hold soil in place. Needless to say, this spray is on hillsides that surround different blocs thruout our vineyard, and the systemic sprays on hillsides don't affect the vineyard within.

Every vine...really...each and every vine is then inspected by me to be certain there are no apparent diseases, there has been no vine loss due to gophers, and finally to insure all newly trained vines are not carrying too many spur positions, nor crowding adjacent spurs. Any spur that impinges on another is perfunctorily removed, which then decreases the crop produced by that vine by 10%. That in and of itself is one of the hardest things to do...prune a well positioned spur that is too close to another. But in the long run, if left alone, that spur would produce two shoots, each with a grape cluster, and each would be crowding the cluster from an adjacent shoot. This is one of those situations where it is way better to fix a bad spur position earlier rather than later.

Lastly, once all mowing is done, all hillside vegetation is cut or chopped, we move on to the next "must do" job, and that is to cut and mulch all grassland that is surrounding our vineyard, but not technically "adjacent to" the vineyard. We have a number of valleys and draws, steep slopes and rocky outcroppings that are on the remaining part of our 73 acres. We have over 5000 Live Oak trees (plus some Box Elderberry & Valley oaks), but there is also some 15 acres of steep hillside and low valley weeds. Our most prominent is Fireweed, appropriately named because of its oily content...which burns like a match if a fire were to befall us. Without cutting all these weeds we would be a perfect setup for a late summer or early fall fire. Access to our mountainsides, deep valleys, and hillsides is basically not possible for any type of firefighting equipment that rolls on wheels. Any fire here would roar up our steep draws and would be a nightmare to put out. Hence, each and every year we dutifully mow everything we can and weedeat the rest. Any idea of cost to weedeat anything not mowed on Cerro Prieto? Well, last year was two guys for 22 days, at a cost of $5200. Not truly a vineyard expense, but nonetheless an expense we have to swallow, or lead the life of a guy praying for the lottery winner...except in this case we would be praying we didn't have a fire. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure...except in this case it is a $5200 cure.

That's it for this rather lengthy blog, but it pretty well gives one an idea of what is going on in the vineyard at season's onset.

Just a note on the upcoming Zinfandel fest, March 19-21. We had hoped to be in our new tasting room at the Meritage Lounge on the south side of Paso's downtown park. We are still in process at the moment, so any wine club members who wish to pick up their orders... as well as other wine fans who wish to visit and try our 92 point Paso Bordo(Cab/Syrah), come see us at the vineyard this coming weekend, and wine/cheese/food pair with us, while enjoying African art(watercolors), hides, mounts, carvings, rugs...to mention but a few. We hope to see you here.

Cerro Prieto: Out goes 2009, in comes 2010/ Ecologic Redux

2010-03-05T11:32:00.000-08:00

Yeah, yeah, I know the year changed over some seven plus weeks ago, and we finally put 2009 to bed well before year's end. This spectacular sunset over the vineyard attests to that, but 2010 really never starts for us until a)bottling is done, and b) until pruning starts. Heck, looking around, it looks like we have been asleep at the switch, or lazy even, in that we have weeds everywhere except at the base of vines, which we sprayed with a systemic contactant, Roundup. No pre-emergent herbicide, which stays in the soil and undoubtedly ends up in our water supply, is used here. Result? Well, it looks as if the vineyard is a bit unkempt, a bit shaggy, as it were. Yet in spite of the weeds we know for certain that we still have our topsoil, which would be in the Salinas River at present, were it not for foregoing early pre-emergent herbicides in late December.

So, before the year started we knew we would once again tolerate more weeds, but would also not contribute to polluting our ground water with pre-emergents. We could have sprayed Roundup, (which is absorbed by the weeds, and then kills them systemically), but had we done that early on, el Nino rains would have ruined a substantial amount of our severely steep hillside rows, washing out stretches of 50 to 100 feet or more, per row. I already know the cost of rebuilding a 50 ft. section of eroded row, and at $1000/ 50 feet of destroyed row space, one can burn $10,000 in quick order. Hence the last thing we did before shutting down in 2009 and truly calling it a year, was to seed and place hay over the obvious erosion prone rows, and pray for light, gentle, farmer's rain. For flatlanders, that means steeply inclined hillsides/mountainsides will wash away seeds, even with overlying hay, if we get early gullywashers instead of nice, gentle farmer rains. The farmer rains prevailed, so our susceptible steep sidehills were safe. Interesting, isn't it, how the last thing of one year, and the first thing of the next, both involve ecologic issues: conserving soil and not polluting our groundwater. Those of you who follow my vineyard/wine blog will recognize parts of previous blogs on Cerro Prieto and "going green", or rather, doing our best to see to it that our land, our water, is in better shape when we leave it, than when we first arrived. Also as noted above, there are serious cost concerns, and no one will doubt that failing to protect for erosion can eat up any and all profits a vineyard might generate.

Ecologic considerations aside, we are late bottling(should have been in January), and most other vineyards have already been pruned. The bottling was unavoidable due to yet another two back surgeries(this one will work), and as for pruning, we always are the last to prune, due to the susceptibility of our valley vineyard to freeze late into the spring. Late May the valley vineyard and our Pinot and Sauvignon Blanc can get hit with a late frost, so we have found by experimentation that delayed pruning pushes back our bud break date, and sometimes, a week, maybe even a few days delay can make the difference between frozen buds and living ones. As for bottling, it is scheduled for March 23rd, and I cannot wait.

The 2007 Paso Bordo has a tremendous bouquet, a touch more oak than 2006(altho both were on 1/3 new French oak 27 months), and flavors that bend the mind...not to mention treat the palate. 2007 Cerro Prieto Merlot is different from our 2006 which won two International Gold Medals, but that is because of blending in just a dash of Cab(12%) and a hint of Syrah(6%). I cannot compare the two years of Merlot, because they are of different makeups. What I can say is, that the Merlot which quickly sold out early last year is even better this year. Standing alone the Merlot was superb. With a small addition of our Cab and Syrah, it is amazing how many more wonderful flavors are detected by the palate. Bottling in late March means that we won't be able to sell either wine until June, so our fans are just going to have to settle for our 92 point Paso Bordo, which hopefully will last until June. As we get closer to June, we will probably have to limit the number of '06 bottles we can sell to our fans and wine club members, but that is a problem for another day. Barrel tasting our '07s has really made me wish we had gotten our bottling done, but as the Gaelic saying goes, "Wyrd bio ful aeread"...you can't change fate.

As of this morning we are officially starting to prune, but this is really just the vines that got shellacked last year in the May 21st heatspike which hit 117 degrees...and set roughly an acre of grafts and new vines back about 6 months. Unfortunately, those vines are scattered thruout our valley vineyard, altho I have no idea...zippo...as to why we had skip areas of vine "cookage", when the whole dang "cold" valley was 117. Ah, well, such are the vagaries of farming...grape farming.

Afghanistan

2010-02-14T13:26:00.000-08:00

Okay, so what does Afghanistan have to do with Cerro Prieto Vineyard & Cellars? Well, to make a short story long, it has to do with a reminder for us all… and that is, what are you doing to help support the men and women of the armed services over in Afghanistan, who are doing their best to defeat the Taliban, and keep Islamic whackos from doing us more harm? Several years ago, I became pen pals with General David Petraeus, while he was commanding general of US forces in Iraq. It was sometime around the Fallujah surge, and was tense, hairy, and frankly a bit scarey…especially if things didn’t go well. On a lark, I sent General Petraeus two of my hunting and fishing books on Baja…both humorous in nature. I suggested a short story chapter per nite, just before turning off the light. Turned out he enjoyed both books, and when I asked if he would be interested in my sending a couple boxes of each book to the servicemen and women in Iraq, he said yes.

The big question was once there, how in the world did books get distributed? His answer was simple and once stated, obvious…chaplins. The chaplains also serve double duty as librarians, so in addition to bringing the good word, they also brought along books. I have been told my books were read all the way from Basra in the south to Kirkuk in the north. Some readers were kind enough to write email thank yous, and said how much they appreciated the gesture of sending some light and humorous reading material, especially for the times of monotony sandwiched between the times of chaos. The only glitch was the sending of 200 books, which came to over $400. That is where Cerro Prieto came in and picked up the shipping tab.

Now, several years later, we are starting the offensive in Afghanistan, this time in a faraway place, Marjah. As it turns out, a contingent of marines was sent to Afghanistan a while back, one the son of my best friend…marine Captain Mark Braithwaite. His dad had just forwarded me some pictures from Mark, and one is at the top of this blog. In a land of mud and dust, snow and ice, it seemed like a good idea to send the marines several boxes of Best Stories of Baja, and Arriba! Baja. I have hunted with Mark both in the Argentine, Zambia, and along the Rio Grande. As good a shot as his dad is, Mark is better…much better, and his dad is a crack shot with rifle or shotgun. I don’t know if the books will get distributed in Afghanistan as they did in Iraq, but I do know that some folks will read them and get some good belly laughs from short stories about the Baja outback. It is just a little thing, but is extremely welcomed by our troops over in the middle of nowhere, and was both simple and a pleasure to do. If you really want to do a good deed and bring some joy to some of our troops over there, contact the army and marines and see how you can get a package of joy to our men and women in Afghanistan. Oh, I didn’t mention it, but I have known Mark since he was 1 yr old, and he has become a very fine officer of men, plus he received the Bronze Star for heroism in the 2^nd Iraq war. If only a handful of folks who read this blog do a good deed for our servicemen and women far away from home, then the time spent writing this blog was well spent.

We don’t see the every day goings on in Afghanistan, and small little gifts are really appreciated by those receiving them. Regardless of your political inclination re: the war in Afghanistan, I hope you take the opportunity to make some marine or army soldier happy with a reminder of home. You will be surprised how good it makes you feel once you have taken the time, expense, and effort to do a good deed. As stark as the country is, it is amazing how beautiful the rugs they put down for shuras, or meetings, can be. The picture above is an example of how starkly contrasted the beautiful rug is to the barren landscape. A warm and hearty hello to our folks “over there”, stay safe, and thank you for your service. I would wish that when you all return home you will take the time to come visit us at our vineyard and share a glass of Paso Bordo with us. Best regards, Larry Stanton/ Cerro Prieto Vineyard & Cellars

Note: That's Captain Braithwaite at the far right end of photo...not near the "good" rug.

The Ecology of Cerro Prieto Vineyard Part 4

2010-02-06T20:17:00.000-08:00

By 2007 we were committed to pruning to 2.5 Tons/acre, and usually had only 8 spurs/ 5 feet of vine. Additionally, we generally have only 1 cluster/ shoot, and the result is all clusters hanging independently, no one cluster touching another. Every cluster on every vine in the vineyard has air and light that reaches every part of each cluster, with more uniform ripening and equally important, virtually no mildew forms because of the generous amount of air and sunshine surrounding all clusters. This low yield pruning allowed us to cut back to a mere one or two mildew sprayings per season, because we prune to such low yields that we are eliminating most of the major reasons for mildew formation...to wit, grape clusters packed and jammed around one another, with clusters virtually intertwined resulting in cluster "clumps" the size of cantaloupes. All this resulted from merely drastically decreasing our crop load. To this day it literally breaks to drive by vineyards and see 10, maybe even 12 Tons/acre hanging on the vines. Actually, seeing even 6-8 Tons/acre is unsettling, because I know how inferior those grapes are to ones of substantially lower yields...such as Cerro Prieto's.

As for the huge pile of prunings in early spring, we no longer foul the air by burning them. Now we exclusively use the shredder pulled behind our tractor, thus eliminating thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide and smoke that would otherwise pollute the air. Furthermore, the shredded prunings decompose and result in returning more nitrogen to the soil. The use of Zon guns and cannons to scare away flocks of birds that descend on vines and literally clean the grapes off in minutes, has been replaced not only with bird netting, but also computer driven bird distress calls. Noisemakers are sound polluters, and with our current bird protection program, we have not only eliminated bird damage, we have environmentally friendly bird distress calls and netting...and nothing else. There is no noise pollution. Yes, these are small things, but overall, when added together, one can appreciate just how ecology influences and can be influenced by not only the beneficial animals and birds, but also by man inspired eco friendly actions.

The above vignettes have shown but a few of the multitude of ecological considerations at Cerro Prieto, and how easy it is to do things in an ecologically friendly manner. Best part is that we are keeping our environment cleaner, and at the same time making the ecologic considerations of the vineyard such that although we are not completely organic, we are doing everything and anything we can to see to it that our grapes grow in an atmosphere, water sphere, and soil sphere where they can be produced as organically as humanly possible. My favorite term for how we farm in an ecologically friendly manner, is "Going towards green". No, we are not there yet, but man have we made up some mileage as far as getting there. We bend over backwards and thoughtfully think our way through to see to it that grapes from Cerro Prieto(and therefore our wines) are produced in the most environmentally friendly manner possible. And it is all based on concerns about our vineyard ecology, keeping our vineyard as close to organic as possible, and never missing an opportunity to improve upon what we have already accomplished. From the perfect grape... comes the perfect wine. Our first bottling in 2009 of our 2006 vintage resulted in 2 International Gold Medals for Cerro Prieto Reserve Merlot, and national recognition for our

92 point Cerro Prieto Paso Bordo. That didn't happen by accident...following sound ecologic measures and "going towards green" have resulted in perfect wines being grown in the perfect place. That's not a bad model for making wine...great wine.

The Ecology of Cerro Prieto Vineyard, Part 3 of 4

2010-02-05T22:39:00.000-08:00

Moving along in an ecologically friendly manner, we began 5 years ago to vastly decrease the amount of chemical herbicide we had been using. Pre-emergents were used which could keep an area of ground bare for up to 3-4 years. Without question, these chemicals are applied to and remain in the ground for years. We have now not used any of these pre-emergent herbicides for 4 years. Things don't look any different, but we do know we are not poisoning our water supply for years to come. Fact: one of the known causes of prostate cancer is...herbicide. That alone is enough reason to greatly reduce or completely get rid of pre-emergents. It does, however, allow more weeds to grow, but we hit these with the contactant, Round Up, which doesn't stay in the soil as pre-emergents do. Additionally, we have cut the # of spray nozzles per side of the spray rig to one each, thus cutting 50% more of our remaining herbicide use. Finally, we have cut our concentration of herbicide by half, again greatly decreasing the total amount of contact spray we use. Do the math and you will see we are now using 90-95% less of the herbicide than we formerly used. Yes, we do have a somewhat shaggier vineyard, and yes, more weeds do grow. But it is a small price to pay for being environmentally conscientious and ecologically sound.

There is another spray also used in vineyards, and that is pesticide spray. It is used for fungus, eg., mildew, with which we are all familiar. There can be other organisms that grow on grape leaves, not to mention grapes, but mildew is by far the most common offender. As recently as 5 years ago we were using 6-8 sprays/season, with a 10-20 day interval between sprayings. Fed up with that much spray use, we were looking for ways to either decrease pesticide sprays, or eliminate them entirely. As it turned out, that was the year, 2005, when we made the decision to drastically reduce our crop yields, and to go with 2.5-3.0 Tons/acre, rather than the 4-5 Tons/acre we had previously been pruned to. We had experimented with 5, 4.5, 3.5, 3.0, and 2.5 Tons/acre, and had found our

"sweet spot" to be somewhere in the 2.5-3.25 Tons/acre range. At the lower yields our flavors became markedly more aromatic, more vibrant, and the tastes more remarkable. The lower yields also yielded way less mildew, and pesticide spray was cut by 85-90% of what we had formerly used.

Lower yields don't just affect grapes, incidentally. Look at roses, for example. If you have a bush loaded with rosebuds and then pinch off every other bud, the resultant roses are more aromatic, more intense, richer in color, and larger flowers to boot. Same with a nectarine tree, or any other plant that produces either fruits or flowers. Additionally, we had been losing fruit from some ultra low yielding vines, which were located around the periphery of our Cab, Merlot, and Syrah blocs. This was because the wineries we had been selling to waited until the majority of the bloc was ripe, and then harvested. The fact that several hundred vines around the periphery of each of our 3 acre blocs were severely stressed due to competition with nearby oak trees for not only water, but also nutrients, resulted in those vines ripening 2-3 weeks before the majority of the vines contracted to other wineries were picked. Essentially, in 2006, we for the first time harvested those stressed vines for our own wines, instead of letting them just dry up and go to waste. The resultant wines from those vines yielded only 1 Ton/acre, but holy cow, were those grapes ever aromatic with flavors of blackberry, cherry, raspberry, cassis, occaisonal strawberry, some plum, and, of course, the minerality that our vineyard is known for, because of our chalk rock soil.

Recall that ecology is the branch of biology dealing with living organisms and their environment. Well, if you greatly improve the vine's environment, you likewise improve the vine...and its magnificent fruit. At Cerro Prieto that is our thrust...do everything we can to make the most favorable environment for our vines, and hence...our wines. Continued in Part 4.

The Ecology of Cerro Prieto, Part 2 (of 4)

2010-01-29T09:36:00.000-08:00

I mentioned coyotes, which also roam the vineyard at night, and they too, feed on gophers and ground squirrels(another pest that digs up the vineyard and eats grapevine roots). We have literally hundreds of coyotes that visit the vineyard on a daily/nightly basis, and keeping them out with deer fence just doesn't work. Normally I wouldn't mind the coyotes, but they also eat dogs...and Cazadora and Cartucho have no idea of how dangerous these coyotes are. More than anything our dogs are keenly interested in these animals that truly do look somewhat like dogs, and a careless dog who ventures too far away from his protector is very likely to become dinner for a pack of coyotes that stealthily lies in wait for our dogs to come too close to them.

As big as Cerro Prieto is( 73 acres with over 5000 oak trees) it makes ideal hunting ground for dogs by coyotes. Again this is part of the ecologic system of Cerro Prieto, and whereas it is nice to have the coyotes help to keep the gopher, ground squirrel and raccoon population under control, it is nicer yet to have our great dogs around us as constant companions. Given a chance I will shoot any coyote I see, but the vineyard is surrounded by trees, trees, and more trees, which makes a shot at a coyote almost impossible. Occasionally, however, a deer gets under our deer fence (their front shoulders dislocate and they come thru coyote holes dug under the deer fence). It is then that we get visited by a pair of mountain lions, hell bent on catching a fenced in deer. Yes, this is survival of the fittest, but it is also part and parcel of our ecology.

Should a raccoon, a ground squirrel, a skunk or whatever else die, we have an airborne armada of turkey vultures to clean up the mess. Usually they ride the air currents that flow thru our valleys and mountains, but often they can also be seen circling, sometimes as high as a mile or more, where they can smell the putrid remains of a dead animal. Their olfactory system can sense a rotting animal from heights as great as 5000 to 10,000 feet. It is an adaptive change, a special sense they have developed over thousands of years, that allows them to find carrion by smell. They literally are the garbage collectors of nature, cleaning up whatever is left rotting in the sun, whether hit by a cement truck, or killed by another predator. It is fascinating to watch the vultures, coyotes, and yellow jackets all jockey for a position at the table of a dead animal. There is some hierarchy as to who eats what, where, and when, but amazingly, all three carnivores seem to take turns, fill their stomachs, and somehow still manage to coexist. Wasps don't bother the coyotes, the coyotes don't bother the vultures, and the vultures are smart enough to give both a wide berth.

Wild turkeys can frequently be seen in our vineyard, occasionally a flock of 20 or more, and they always visit when there are grapes on the vines. Again these are virtually impossible to scare away, or shoot (because they are in and around the vines), but a pack of coyotes can put them to flight in the blink of an eye. It is rare for a coyote to catch a mature turkey, but they have a field day once the turkey eggs hatch.

With the incredibly wet winter and somewhat warmer days, mushrooms have sprouted and I have been eagerly hunting them. The north facing slopes of all mountains, complete with plenty of shade, have become ideal sites for the mushrooms to spring up. Deadfall---twigs and branches---and especially mounds of leaves that have been accumulating since eons ago, have made a mulch that in many places is 2-3 feet thick, and has become primo mushroom hunting territory. Yesterday morning in between rains, I picked 37 different varieties of mushrooms in less than 3 hours. No, I did not eat them, but yes, I have spent the last day trying to identify all of them. This is not in the vineyard proper, but is definitely part of the vineyard ecologic system, as all mushroom areas are on the border of Cerro Prieto.

Some years back we seeded, reseeded, and then reseeded again, throughout all of our vineyard rows. In addition to wildflowers we established bromes, vetch, ryes, clovers, and filaree, all of which help keep the topsoil in our steeply sloped mountain vineyard. In big rain years such as el nino of 2010, without our ground cover, we would have had terrible erosion and actual loss of entire rows. Even with ground cover the last el nino wiped out over
5 partial rows, costing $1000 per 50 feet of lost row to rebuild. We lost over 500 feet of vineyard rows at a price tag of some $5000. At that stage we had just established our ground cover, but hadn't yet learned that degrees of inclination exceeding 45 degrees or more require that hay or straw be put out by hand immediately after seeding, to insure that planted seeds are not carried away by torrential rains. Now, with ground cover established, we still need to put out hay in death defyingly steep slopes. Altho we know the potential areas of erosion, we still have to put out 90 bales of hay or straw each season. To not do so just invites severe erosion and a mass disturbance in the ecology of Cerro Prieto vineyard. Continued in Part 3.

The Ecology of Cerro Prieto Vineyard, Part 1 of 4

2010-01-25T14:03:00.000-08:00

Ecology? We all know the meaning of that, right? Well, maybe we all have a sense of the definition, but essentially it is the branch of biology dealing with living organisms and their environment. So what, you may ask? Well, how about the common threads between:

-barn owls and great horned owls,

-coyotes, ground squirrels, and gophers,

-mushrooms and the floor of the surrounding forest,

-dead trees and leaves,

-turkey vultures, wild turkeys, and the vineyard,

-clover, vetch, bromes, ryes, and filaree,

-barn owl boxes and gophers

-coyotes and our dogs, Cazadora and Cartucho,

-grape vine prunings and their disposal,

-red tail hawks, gophers and ground squirrels,

-rainwater, steep hillsides, and runoff,

-herbicides, weeds, and prostate cancer,

-pesticides

-to name but a few.

Quite simply, all the above are but a tiny part of the ecology of Cerro Prieto. All living things and their environment are what make the vineyard itself, a living, breathing thing. Most folks see a vineyard and think of grapes. Others see beauty, and yet others see an invasion of beautiful countryside, marred by row upon row of vines, end posts, and miles of shining wire. As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Ecology deals with how all items above interact with one another, or in some cases, upon one another.

Let's start with the beautiful heart shaped white face of the barn owl, predators of our vineyard's single most troublesome beast: gophers. Why in the world would anyone put gophers on this planet? Obviously they evolved, but I challenge anyone to give me one teeny tiny reason for why they exist. They are extremely destructive, whether they be in barley fields, almond orchards, or vineyards. We spend an inordinate amount of time trapping the little buggers, yet as many as we kill, 3 take his/her place. Right about now we are swamped with gophers, most living deep down in the soil below our vineyard. Yes, some are up top eating, but others are deep down, breeding, reproducing, and awaiting a break in the cold weather so they can come up and start eating anything with roots...and yes, that means grapevines. With all the grasses, filaree, bromes, and clovers, the gophers have their minds on easy pickings at present, so they are leaving the large rooted vines alone...for now. They will feast upon any replants we have done recently, as these all have the small succulent root systems.

So, where do the barn owls come in ? Well, if we can entice a family of barn owls to take up residence in one of our 7 barn owl boxes, we can then have the one worst enemy of gophers living in one of our judiciously placed owl boxes. It helps to know that for a barn owl to inhabit an owl box, the opening must face due north, away from direct sun and also away from prevailing southerly winds...and rain. Additionally, the owl box must not be near any well-travelled road, as people and vehicular noise will drive barn owls away. Once established, barn owls will sit on a perch outside the box and will notice any motion at all in the dead of night. They have spectacular night-time vision, and this is evidenced

by the mounting pile of gopher skeletons (skulls, pelvises, and mandibles are the most common bones found) directly beneath their box homes.

During the daytime the red tailed hawks circle until they see an easy meal pushing dirt up out of their tunnels, and many a hawk feeds on gophers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In ecology there are countless issues to consider: are there any predators of the hawks? Not really, unless a red tail gets careless and lets a lucky coyote get too close...but that never happens. What does happen, however, is that we also have 4 families of great horned owls , most of whom roost at or near our house, and their favorite meal is...barn owls. I love to hear the great horned owls hooting late at night, but it is a gut wrenching feeling to go out on gopher patrol next morning and find a freshly killed young barn owl, usually somewhere near our home, flat smack dab in the middle of horned owl country. Last year we lost young barn owls on 2 consecutive days, and both were in easy sight of our house. Our house sits atop our vineyard, so it is a natural site for the huge horned owls to set up shop...not to mention nests.

So, in a sense the barn owls are a wonderful predator to have for the pesky gophers. Yet they also happen to be the preferred food for the bigger, higher on the totem pole, horned owls. It is an odd quirk of nature that the beneficial predator...the barn owl...is preyed upon by the king of all owls, the great horned owl. When I first saw those 2 barn owl kills last year, it made me hate the great horned owls, yet I love to see those guys. This is the essence of ecology, though it is just a tiny peek into what ecology is about. Continued in part 2.

Winter's Beauty at Cerro Prieto / Part 2

2010-01-07T22:26:00.000-08:00

Our friends, Ruth and Jim, were fascinated by the mounds of gopher bones beneath 3 of our 6 barn owl boxes. One trial box facing south(where our weather and rain come from) remained empty...an abject failure. But a huge pile of gopher bones was nearby, underneath a well worn perch of a Valley Oak, used by owls to view all 6 acres of our valley vineyard. I had the site right, but failed to orient the owl box opening to the north, as barn owls prefer. I've heard it said that north facing boxes are preferred because a) they do not let the rain and wind in and b) because barn owls do not like either the morning or setting sun in their homes. Whether the reasoning is true or not, I do not know. It is, however, well known folklore that has been passed down for generations, and there probably is more fact than fiction...but am I certain? Nope.

The day before our friends arrived we had had another crisp, beautiful afternoon, perfect for walking the dogs. Cazadora was running and hunting uphill 30 yards in front of the truck, when suddenly a hen turkey jumped up, cupped her wings and sailed right over Caza's head. If you've never seen it, a startled turkey who jumps, cups her wings, and sails downhill until becoming a speck in the distance, is a thrilling sight. It happened in the blink of an eye, however, and even Caza, who hunts anything with a heartbeat, merely stood and watched the huge Merriam's hen disappear in the distance, rocketing away using her cupped wings as massive airfoils.

This happened once before, some 5 years ago, when Caza and I were hunting a steeply terraced but unplanted mountainside behind our vineyard. Then, just as now, the turkey jumped, but she jumped right at Caza's feet. Instinctively, Caza leapt up at the huge bird, grabbed a mouthful of chest feathers and skin, and was startled to feel herself suddenly being picked up off the ground. In a millisecond, (but with great reluctance) Caza released the hen and then watched as she flew higher and higher... then abruptly turned and whistled down the mountain, wings cupped for maximal speed.

At the very top of the mountain vineyard we sat for a spell, admiring all the perennial grasses holding our steeply sloped vineyard rows in place. Some of the filaree had reddish tips, indicating they had recently experienced a hard frost. But on closer observation an entire rim of the steeply terraced Syrah was ablaze with early spring buttercups as well as another tiny fuchsia colored flower, whose name escapes me at present(back to the wildflower identification manual).

Relaxing in the warming sun and looking upwards, one could not ignore the billowy white cumulus clouds, interspersed with several dark grey-blue menacing ones. Caza and Tucho, both tired from their long runs, seemed content to sit and watch a 10 second flight of crows, easily 200 or so in number, as they flew along for just the perfect spot on which to alight. Sure enough, they dropped like stones to sit atop end posts of our mountain Cab rows.

Finally the dogs let it be known they were ready to head home by jumping into the back truck-bed, and we hadn't gone 300 yards when a flock of 3 dozen bandtail pigeons dropped from the sky and whiffled into the top branches of the overhanging live oak trees.

Mind you, this all happened in a very short time span, in the dead of winter...that cold, damp, ugly time. So do I love the "ugly" winters here? I think you know the answer to that one. You should come visit us at Cerro Prieto sometime, where even the winters can be special. Barring that, I would recommend a glass of our Paso Bordo around a warm fire at night. If you can't enjoy the beauty here, a glass of our nationally recognized Cab/Syrah would be a close second.

Winter's Beauty at Cerro Prieto/ Part 1

2010-01-01T13:50:00.000-08:00

Hate winter? Dislike the cold, wet damp that permeates under door jambs and then window sills? Well, join the crowd, but that sentiment of disagreeable winters can be counter-balanced by our spectacular winter beauty.

Now, we're not talking Vail, the Tetons, or Aspen here. I'm talking about the rolling hills and foothills of the Santa Lucia Mountains...here in central coastal California. Yes, as I write this it is cold, grey, damp and ugly outside. Yet, earlier this morning just after first light, the dawn erupted in pinks, orange/blues, and dark blue/purples that literally painted a sky no artist could ever duplicate. Nary a breath of wind...everything still as a stone.

Gradually, as the sun struggled to light up our little corner of heaven, coastal fog started drifting in and grey clouds covered us up. Yesteday noon, however, the Easterlies blew the fog back to the coast(just 15 miles to the west), and the unwelcome bone chilling damp was replaced by a day that was absolutely crystal clear. There to the SE was Black Mountain...35 miles away with its massive antenna, easy for all to see. Twenty miles due south was the Cuesta Grade, clear as a bell and so close it looked like you could just reach out and touch it. Temperatures suddenly went from the low 40's to the mid 60's and it looked like one of our incomparably lovely spring days.

Our home sits atop Cerro Prieto Vineyard, and within 30 feet of our house I encountered 9 different species of mushrooms(none edible to my knowledge), when I walked outside this morning. Wet winters and blips of warm days spark a riotous eruption of mushrooms. We have roughly 5000 Live Oak trees on our 73 acres, all surrounding our vineyards. Over eons, oak leaves and their rich mulch have piled up, especially on the steep north facing slopes, where neither man nor beast disturbs them much. Last year we identified 31 different species of mushrooms plus there were a dozen more left uncategorized.

Visiting friends(one from high school days 50 yrs ago) commented that what we needed was a "pig that could sniff out truffles...or a dog so trained. Prices of truffles are worth way more than your grapes". In fact, until the recent run up in gold prices, truffles were way more valuable, bringing some $800/ pound. Well, I can't see us getting a "truffle sniffing pig" anytime soon, so if we have truffles, they are just going to have to stay put ...at least for now.

(Continued in part 2)

Cerro Prieto and the Eden Project

2009-12-21T20:43:00.000-08:00

They say if you answer the phone or doorbell often enough, you are bound to meet some mighty interesting people. For whatever reason, we have been blessed with not only charming but fascinating people, particularly of late. Ten days ago, Michael and Catherine Cutler, two of the 5o horticulturists(that is no typo) from the Eden Project in southwestern England came by for a vineyard visit. They had emailed us some 8 or 9 months ago, and mentioned they would be interested in visiting our vineyard. Well, last week they stopped by, on their tour of California vineyards. Eden Project? "What is that?" you may say.

Well, in a very brief nutshell, it is a massive strip mine, referred to as a "clay pit" near Cornwall, which was a millenium project of British environmentalists, but grew to include people from dozens of different professions...everything from architects to engineers, botanists to contractors, and a host of multiple other disciplines in between. It started between 1996 and 1998 as a group of people gathered to discuss and build a place that no one had seen before: literally, it was "a place that explored human dependence on plants and the natural world; a place that just might make a difference."

In a 180 foot deep, steep sided pit, which was as large as 35 football fields and 45 feet below the water table, they decided and planned to resurrect the clay pit into a "little Eden". Some highlights were:

---bringing in thousands of tons of soil from recycled waste

---colonizing with a huge diversity of plants, many used daily

---capturing water draining into pit for use in irrigation and grey water systems

---creation of architectural structures that drew inspiration from nature

---building of biospheres to grow plants from all different continents

---season with people from all walks of life

---open in spring 2000, for public preview

---do all the above with no money; ie, all work was donated as were funds to make the project go and grow

Still doesn't sound that exciting? Well, I cannot do justice to the spectacular Eden Project Guide, available thru www.edenproject.com/community . This is a remarkable, fascinating project which anyone visiting England should not miss. Eden Project has over a million visitors yearly, who see biodiversity and its applications, implications, and learn about ecology, new uses for crops, self sufficiency, beauty, and countless other ecologically related themes and issues. I highly recommend that anyone reading this blog take some serious time and learn about this historic , incredible project.

Anyway, when Michael and Catherine arrived, I had planned to do some wine tasting with them and discuss the "greening" of our vineyard. They had read our website and had been interested in how we approached "going green", in the hopes of one day being completely organic. Actually, we were the only vineyard they visited in northern San Luis Obispo County, and I was curious as to why. Essentially I believe they were curious how a very small boutique vineyard handled many of the same problems they themselves have had to deal with over the past 10 years.

In no particular order we discussed Cerro Prieto's "going green" to better serve and save the environment. Major points were:

---Use of perennial cover crops to control erosion on our steeply inclined hills/mountainsides, some in excess of 70 degrees. Also we have to manually add hay after each harvest to Bloc 2, or else we actually can lose entire rows in heavy rains.

---Changing from burning prunings to chopping them up with a flail mower, and then using the biomass as a mulch

---Using computerized bird distress calls plus netting to keep away grape eating birds, instead of using noise polluters like Zon guns (sound like shotguns), as well as Roman candle whistlers, bottle rockets, etc.

---Switching from watering to virtual dry farming of vines, leading to thousands of gallons less use of water, and also providing one of the stresses used to produce premium quality grapes

---Vastly decreasing the use of herbicides(a known cause of prostate cancer which I have already had), by virtue of decreasing herbicide concentrations where use is necessary, and switching to manual hoeing and weedeating where feasible. We have cut our % concentration of herbicide by 75% and have decreased by 90% the areas we spray

---Essentially cutting our pesticide spray by 90% by virtue of cutting our grape yields to 1 to 2.5 Tons/acre. This allows more space between clusters, and maximal airflow and sunlight around all grape clusters, thus greatly decreasing the likelihood of mildew formation

---Using organic acid fertilizers where indicated, but doing testing to be certain we absolutely need supplemental soil nutrients.

---Removing 3 acres of vines in our valley vineyard rather than using a fossil fuel burning wind machine to keep vines from freezing

---Switching from strychinne tablets to control gophers to hand set MacAbee gopher traps, thus eliminating poisoning the ground as well as hawks and owls which would be killed by eating a poisoned gopher(secondary killers)

---Use of Barn Owl boxes as homes for gopher eating owls, again decreasing need for ground poisons

There were several other topics, but these are the high points. We were delighted that horticulturists from a colossal ecologic project such as the Eden would be interested in coming to our small 20 acre boutique vineyard. But come they did, and after they left I had this satisfying feeling that

someone, somewhere, took an interest in what we were doing, altho we get no award for it, no recognition. We do it because it is the right thing to do. In the final analysis, we don't own this land; we are just its current custodians, and it would be nice to leave this land in better shape ecologically, than when we arrived. The reward? Well, it's an inside job...and visits by those such as the Eden folks truly is gratifying and makes the effort worthwhile.

Again, if you happen to find yourself in England, take a trip to the SW and visit the Eden Project. You won't be disappointed. I sure plan to visit.

End of Harvest, Part 2

2009-12-14T15:46:00.000-08:00

A quick look around,

The work is all done.

Oops, on second thought,

It has just begun.

Just about the time the vineyard starts looking to be in tip top shape for winter, the gophers go to town and Cazadora and Cartucho hunt virtually all day long; and until each day has hard frosts lasting til mid morning, the gophers are a burdensome problem. Actually poisoning with strychnine is easy, but we at Cerro Prieto are doing our darndest to go green(we are 90% of the way there), and poisons don't cut it. Hence, the time consuming digging out of gopher holes, finding the tunnels, and lastly settting MacAbee traps in each tunnel arm...is the theme for every day until we trap those miserable grapevine-root-eating curs. Unfortunately, gophers breed like rabbits, and if you kill one, two take its place. During the dead of winter, December 15-February 15, gophers go mostly deep underground and altho not dormant, they cease being pests. Come mid February, however, they are right back at it.

Of course, by that time, it is almost time to start pruning again, so in essence, there really is very little down time. And that is just the vineyard side of things...the winemaking still needs to be done. The work would indeed be tedious were it not for the splendor of the leaves changing color, and the beautiful back lit scenes from the low winter sun.

Watching the muted vineyard color changes can be mesmerizing, and it is truly a photographer's delight. Once the vines go bare, the starkness of the naked vines is sad...almost heartbreaking. But we know that by mid February, most of the severe frosts are over in the mountain vineyard, and we anxiously await the first signs of bud break. Although not impressive at first,once 18,000 vines and

360,000 tiny green buds appear, the vineyard takes on another entirely different look, and the new growing year is upon us. In the meantime it is Thanksgiving, a time to give thanks and get together with family and friends...to eat, sit by the fire, and slowly sip and enjoy the product of our labors: Cerro Prieto's International Gold Medal 2006 Merlot Reserve, and our 92 point Wine Enthusiast signature blend, Paso Bordo.

Drinking wine on a frigid winter day around the fireplace is one thing. Drinking your own wine, from a vineyard you planted and pruned by hand...in which you worked, sweated, fumed, cussed, and finally overcame oabstacles, and yes, then finally made into wine...well, at times like these, it IS worth it.

Cerro Prieto's End of Harvest, 2009? Part 1

2009-11-27T07:59:00.000-08:00

The days are short,
The sun rides low,
Yet still out into
The vineyard I go.

Just because the harvest is in, most folks think the vineyard work is done. A nice thought, but far from fact. In truth, once the final grape is picked, a frenetic 3-4 weeks ensues. Cerro Prieto Vineyard is, as many of you know, a straight up/ straight down vineyard. Everything that could be done easily and quickly on a flatter, more level vineyard takes two to three times the work and effort to complete here. The spectacular death-defying 45 degree hillsides which give the vineyard its beauty and charm, also make for double and triple the work at season's end.

The tasks? Well, in no particular order, the $1000 computer/speaker/battery
units that produce bird distress and hawk calls (used to scare away grape eating birds) need to be taken down, speakers unhooked & wire retrieved, then boxed and stored. And we have 15 of them, many placed on the steep hillsides. The hawk kites and windmills, also used to scare away birds, need to be disassembled, carted to the barn, and stored delicately. Windmills and kites usually are used one/acre, but due to the multiple blocs we have, many require 2-3 kites and windmills per bloc, in that line of sight is limited on steep hillsides nestled in between the oak trees that frame the vineyard. For the record, it has been estimated that we have over 5,000 oak trees surrounding our vineyard.

The last item of bird protection measures is the approximate 18 miles of bird netting that we use to protect against bird damage. Much of it just stays rolled up beneath vines tied to the drip hose, but during harvest, if distress calls, kites, and windmills fail, we have to immediately put up the netting to protect the crop. This year we probably had no more than 9 miles of netting in use, but it is absolutely essential if flocks of hungry birds decide to "eat at Cerro Prieto". If we have a varietal that ripens a few days before our neighbors' grapes, or conversely somewhat later, then the grape stealers appear in massive clouds. There is an old dictum: "once birds start eating in YOUR vineyard, there is no keeping them away." Hence the tremendous effort to get "anti-bird" devices up and running well before grapes go thru verasion.

Once grape protection devices are stored, the next most critical job is getting erosion prone areas re-seeded with cover crop(fescue, clovers, bromes, barley, filaree), AND hand spreading hay over the seed. With some hillsides approaching 45 degrees inclination, failure to seed and cover with hay can cause severe erosion in case of high rainfall storms. Currently, there is an El Nino current offshore, and some meterologists are calling for a wet winter. Should anti-erosion measures be left undone, on the steepest hillsides loss of an entire row is likely...and cost to rebuild an eroded row with RR ties, cinder blocks, stakes, baling wire, and lastly 3" gravel, comes to around $1000 per 200 feet of lost row.

In the big, dark, wet of 2005, even with erosion control measures, we lost over 1000 feet of rows. Some of the vines between rows, while still standing, had 8-10 inches of their roots laid bare by the multiple 5" rains we had, each occuring in 5 hours or less. ( Continued in Part 2).

Autumn: Changing of the leaves/ Emergence of a new nationally recognized Boutique Winery

2009-11-01T09:22:00.000-08:00

Much as the autumnal changing of the leaves portends one month of indescribable beauty, there is also a continual changing of the best wineries in California; in some cases, formerly famous wineries have faltered, and no longer can be depended upon to produce that mouth watering wine they had previously been famous for. In fact, many former wineries have changed ownership, and their quality has declined. Some wineries have just shuttered their doors. In other cases, some new wineries have stepped up and replaced former favorite wineries of wine enthusiasts. The picture above reminds us that as the leaves change, and that odd cluster of unpicked grapes still holds onto the vine, so it is with many formerly "favorite" wineries...who, much like the cluster of grapes above, are still holding on, or clinging for dear life to the vine...in fervent hope that their fortunes will change.

Not so Cerro Prieto Vineyard & Cellars. Now, nearing the end of our first year selling our initial bottling, 2006, we can look back and be proud, not to mention humbled. Our reception from clients and especially wine critics, national wine magazine ratings, and the overall recognition of what Cerro Prieto has accomplished this year is indeed gratifying. Cerro's 2006 Merlot took International Gold Medals at the San Diego International Wine Competition AND another International Gold Medal at the Critics Challenge International Wine Competition. Not only that, but our 2006 Paso Bordo (85% Cab/ 15% Syrah) earned 92 points from Wine Enthusiast Magazine, and was mentioned as one of the top "Bold Red Blends" in the October, 2009 Wine Enthusiast magazine. In other words, while many established and well known wineries have struggled, seen quality drop, gone out of business, or sold out, Cerro Prieto has quietly gone about its business of making exceptional national award winning wines, and now, at year's end, is being recognized by retailers, wine critics and especially customers, as one of the truly high caliber California wineries, and a "must" on every true wine aficionado's list.

Yes, this is an exceptional beginning for virtually any vineyard & cellars, but painstaking attention to our vineyard for 7 years finally got us to our goal...growing the "perfect" grape. There are so many variables that have to be considered in growing the perfect grape(see initial blog from early spring), that it is remarkable we were able to do that in such a short time span. Our mountain vineyard has the perfect terroir to which we made all the improvements, adjustments, and changes necessary to produce the perfect grape. It was but a short step from there to attempt to produce the perfect wine. For my tastes, and hundreds of others who have sampled our wines, we believe we have accomplished our goal.

Did we produce a "perfect" wine? Nope, but we did produce two exceptional wines and have been generously honored by critics, sommeliers, and clients alike. Interestingly, Cerro Prieto sits in the heart of Paso wine country...in the proposed Willow Creek sub-appellation, together with L'Aventure, Booker, Linne Calodo, Jack Creek Cellars, and Saxum. All the above share the attributes of vineyards composed of limestone, all have 50+ degree day/nite temperature swings, and all are under the influence of not only Paso AVA's heat, but also the Templeton Gap's cooling effect virtually every nite. All the winemakers subscribe to low yield production of grapes, somewhere between 2 -4 pounds of grapes/vine. In Bordeaux, incidentally, the growers shoot for 1-2 kilograms/vine, which is 2.2-4.4 lbs of grapes/vine. Is that coincidental? No, it is just an acknowledgement that truly great wines must come from truly great terroir, and they must be not only farmed correctly, they must be pruned to low yields/vine. All the wineries mentioned above subscribe to low or very low yields.

Fanatical attention to the vineyard details, immaculately clean winery conditions, extensive and superb attention to detail in winemaking, use of all the best equipment, superb palates...all go into making world class wines. Winemakers at the wineries noted above are in that group, and all have the passion for winemaking. It is the marriage of the perfect vineyard and superb winemaking ablities that have made the proposed Willow Creek sub-app the heart of Paso's best wines. Saxum, 2 hills to the NW of us, just was awarded 100 points for one of its wines. Only four such wineries were awarded this honor worldwide, and being in the same sub-appellation as Saxum means that we are definitely blessed with world class terroir.

So, as in the picture above, there are some wineries(like the grape cluster) clinging to the vine to survive, and others (like the multicolored leaves), emerging to take their places with the best of California's wineries. We think of ourselves as the multicolored leaves...a tiny boutique vineyard & cellars emerging to produce the best grapes that can be made into the perfect wines that California has become famous for. One bottling does not a career make, but with the same attention to detail, the same perfect locale for a vineyard, odds are definitely on our side that we can reproduce year after year what we began this year...perfection.

92 Points...and what it means...Part 2

2009-10-27T10:20:00.000-07:00

As for the winemaking itself, absolute, rigid, unrelenting cleanliness is the sine qua non of a 92 point wine. "The secret to pollution is dilution", is another way of saying, "Cleanliness is next to Godliness." When cleaning barrels, clamps, hoses, pumps, ferment bins, picking bins, siphons, bungs...heck, everything in the winery... cleaning is not "a lick and a promise". Cleaning is being exquisitely careful about cleaning everything thoroughly, completely, and every time it is used. Bisulfite and dilute acids in washings help kill bugs or fungi in the low pH or high pH range. Basically what you want is a winery floor that if you dropped your sandwich on it, you could pick it up and eat it without worrying about it. That is the definition of clean.

As an aside, some years ago a commercial winemaker was helping me with some homemade wine, and due to fruit flies, he had covered the half ton bins with mosquito netting. Well, the bins were in his garage, and I noted his cat balancing on the rim of one of the micro bins. Sure enough, the cat fell in the fermenting wine, and the winemaker said, " Ah, no worries, it won't make any difference." I later had some of his commercial wine, and frankly, it tasted like wet cat fur. Well, this is an extreme example of how not to do it, but I have also seen in a large custom crush facility, one winery's grapes dumped into the destemmer right after another's, with no cleaning of the destemmer, or any of its allied equipment. Thank goodness that wasn't around here, but nonetheless, if the first load of grapes thru that destemmer had Botyritis, so then, did every other load of grapes that got processed. Hence, "The secret to pollution is dilution", ie, wash and clean everything with each use, and do so vigorously.

A complete and thorough knowledge of winemaking is essential, and also so are all the whistles and bells which include:

---high quality destemmers that cause minimal injury to grapes,

---Mistral sorting tables(moving or vibrating conveyor that removes bitter, tannic, green shot-berries, and manual removal of any remaining stems or otherwise imperfect grapes),

---d'le stage equipment for removing a reductive taste in a barrel wine

---low pressure, variable speed pumps that don't beat wines up

---rigid selection of barrels, and an impeccable system of insuring neutral barrels remain free of disease (boytritis, mildew, bacteria)

---minimal time between harvesting and crushing

---cold, slow, fermentations

---frequent, expensive chemistries done on wines to be certain pH, TA, and Brix are where they should be

---variable pressure wine press to separate juice from skins, without pressing at too high a pressure to prevent juice from crushed seeds(tannic) becoming part of the wine, and also to keep the wine from being "beaten up"

"The less trauma to a wine, particularly a good wine, the better it will be", is a mantra that is spot on.

Returning to the 100 point scale, 100 point wines are rare and are truly nectar of the Gods. 99 to 95 point wines are still in rarefied air, and 94-91 pointers are spectacular wines; 90 points is a wine to be extremely proud of. For that matter, wines from 89 to 86 points priced under $15 bucks is probably a heck of a good buy. As noted previously, problems arise when an $85 bottle of wine garners only 83 points. At that point it is safe to say that the winery was way too proud of that wine. Competition being what it is...well, in the midst of a ghastly recession, that $85 bottle will probably be selling for $20-$25 sometime in the next 6-12 months.

The last and most important part of 92 points, however, is reproducing it next year...and the next... and the next...and so on. 92 points one year and 83 the next is generally not ideal for building the brand. To establish a name for the winery, scores need to be consistently in the 90s. High 80s are fine, but some, if not most of the winery's wines need to be in the 90+ category. And when that rare 94 or 95 does come around, it is a cause for major celebration.

One final thought about Steve Heimoff, who actually was the one who rated our Paso Bordo...He feels his top score is 94-95. Only that rarest of wines gets his 100 point rating ,and he remembers just the small handfull of wines and wineries so honored. Thinking again of Heimoff's 92 rating, it is even more impressive when one realizes his top rating is going to be just 2 points higher than the 92 points awarded Paso Bordo. With that in mind we are once again re-dedicating ourselves to continue producing the perfect grape, and thence...the perfect wine.

92 points...and what it means... Part 1

2009-10-24T09:57:00.000-07:00

Cerro Prieto 2006 Paso Bordo...92 points, from Wine Enthusiast magazine. But what exactly does that mean? Well, generally, if you follow wine much at all, 90+ points are awarded to very, very, good wines. After that, it gets somewhat confusing. As one of my beer drinking friends said, "Hrumph, that's 8 points away from being 100, so I guess it's not THAT good." A more common response is, "Wow, you got 92 points! I can't wait to try it because it must be a great wine."

Honestly, the truth lies somewhere in between, because 100 points is a perfect wine. Just recently, a neighbor 2 hills over, Justin Smith of Saxum, garnered a
100 pointer...a perfect wine. Not only that, it was only 1 of 4 perfect wines awarded by Wine Spectator, and the first ever perfect score for a Paso Robles vineyard/winery. I might add that in the October, 2009, issue of Wine Enthusiast, Cerro Prieto was mentioned as one of the vineyard/wineries in the proposed Willow Creek sub-appellation (still part of Paso Robles AVA), along with Saxum, Jack Creek Cellars, Linne Calodo, L'Aventure, and Booker.
92 points or not, just being mentioned in the same rarefied air of those spectacular wineries was high praise, indeed.

But I digress...what does it all mean...the 92 points and all? I will quote liberally and frequently from Steve Heimoff 's blog of October 8, 2009 (http://www.steveheimoff.com/), to help put this point business into perspective. His blog title, pretty well says it all. "How can we get distributors and other wine buyers to get beyond their '90 point plus' obsession?" Basically Steve writes that "87,86, 84, and even 83 points are not 'low 80s, but mid to high 80s' wines."

Heimoff continues, "The problem is that distributors and many wine buyers look at anything below an 86 as a 'low score'. 87 and 86 are not low scores, and neither is an 85 or 84. All are considered "very good" or "good" scores by Wine Enthusiast's definition. "Of course, if a wine scores 85 points and retails for $50 or more, then there is a problem, but it's not my problem...it's the problem of people at the winery who establish the price," writes Heimoff.

Again quoting, "It's a cliche to say that anything below 90 is dead on arrival. At Wine Enthusiast we don't turn up our noses at an 86 point wine. Wines that score in the 90s tend to be bigger, riper, and probably oakier than those in the 80s...and what I don't understand is how to get the word out that the 90 point threshold is not some magical, absolute event horizon, the dividing line between Heaven and Hell. It's just a number. If you have any ideas how to decriminalize scores in the 80s, let me know." For those of you who enjoy not only drinking, but reading about wine, and wish to stay current on any political, financial, agricultural, technical, or tasting information related to wine, I would highly recommend Steve Heimoff's blog. A real benefit is that his blogs and print articles are not only interesting, they are entertaining...plus he has a keen sense of humor. Personally, he is my favorite wine writer/blogger, and I would encourage anyone reading this blog to check out Heimoff's.

Again, back to 92 points...for Cerro Prieto it is a monumental honor and achievement that a low volume winery (250-350 cases/yr) can compete with much older, much better financed, and much more experienced wineries. The saying goes, "Great wines start in the vineyard", and it is truer than one might imagine. It took 7 years before I felt our vineyard was fine tuned enough to make our own wine. We sell 90% of our grapes to up scale, high end wineries, and make our wine from the other 10%. Amazingly, our 2006 Paso Bordo was our first bottling, but we started with a vineyard in perfect shape to make a near perfect wine. Low yield of 3-5 lbs/vine, painstaking care of each and every vine, and no hesitation in dropping any fruit deemed "less than perfect"...those principles all go into making a 92 point wine. To be continued in Part 2.

Interlude...the unexpected...and fame

2009-10-16T10:10:00.000-07:00

When writing a blog, one never thinks about the last blog actually being the last. So it appeared last June 30, when I left the vines and wines for a 7th back surgery in San Diego. Three surgeries and 3 1/2 months later I am back home after 12, 4, and then 49 consecutive days in the hospital. Follow that up with a one month stay in a step-down care facility next to the hospital, and the last
3 1/2 months have literally disappeared. Gone. Finished. Worse, I was deprived of caring for my vines, watching them mature, fine tuning them, watering, adding nutrients, thinning, pruning, waiting, watching. Fortunately, our vineyard manager, Dewight Jones, and good friend, Doug Kruse, of Jack Creek Cellars, were here to oversee the vineyard, and they did yeomans' jobs under some downright frightful conditions.

The unseasonable heat of May revisited the Paso area again in late September for almost 2 weeks with temps above 105 degrees on a number of days. Our recently grafted lower vineyard of Pinot Noir and Sauv Blanc got hammered, but our signature Cab Sauv and Syrah did famously. Yes, we have a smaller crop than planned, but the quality is once again non-pareil. Tough as this year was, our Cab and Syrah from our mountain vineyard will once again be something special.

The death knell of a good blog is irregular or infrequent writings or postings. If that is the case, then Pasodocwine blog should be on life support. Instead, however, we returned home to find our Paso Bordo prominently displayed in the October issue of Wine Enthusiast, with a 92 point rating and a very nice write- up on Cerro Prieto Vineyard & Cellars...with our Cab/Syrah blend featured as one of the top half dozen of California's Big Bold Blends.

Additionally, the Paso Robles AVA was recognized for what it now is...a very legitimate player/producer of fine wines in California, and Cerro Prieto is smack dab in the heart of the Big Bold Blend area. Altho we are influenced by the high temps of Paso AVA, we additionally have the low-lows from the Templeton Gap influence. Five wineries/vineyards received special recognition in Wine Enthusiast: L'Aventure, Linne Calodo, Cerro Prieto, Jack Creek Cellars, and Saxum.(Booker should have been in there, too). All are within the "Willow Creek"area(which one day will be a sub-appellation of Paso AVA). As Justin Smith of Saxum said, "When you are getting a wine from the Willow Creek area, you know what you are getting."

So things could have worked out better healthwise, but the end result of our labor of love, work, time, expense, and devotion were all well rewarded...albeit in our absence. The only sad thing is our Paso Bordo inventory is now down to less than 80 cases, so if you wish to try some, sooner is probably better than later.

Paso's May heat? Man, it's tough to beat

2009-06-30T11:32:00.000-07:00

Wow, a month ago I wrote about all the blooms we had, some 40-60/vine in mid May, which meant that we would have something like 20-40 clusters to thin by mid June. Well, glad we held our horses(actually got behind in vineyard chores is more like it), because by the time our fruit set was complete, we had lost virtually all those "extra" blooms we were going to be choosy and pick from. No need. Mother Nature stepped in and hammered our blooms with 5 days in the 110 to 116 degree category, which now effectively wiped out all but 16-20 clusters per vine...right exactly where we are supposed to be for a vineyard that makes 2.5-3.0 Ton/ acre grapes. Had we jumped the gun, and cluster thinned, I hate to think how many clusters we might now have hanging. Six maybe? Possibly eight? Or could we have gotten clobbered and had only 2-3 clusters/ vine remaining? No question, there is nothing wrong with waiting for a situation to develop, and then allowing it to straighten itself out on its own. Those poor growers who were out there thinning clusters just before bloom, have to be crying in their soup, because our May heat spike literally wiped out 2/3 of our blooms. If we started at 60, we are now at 2o (or less), which is right in our sweet spot.

Is there a lesson here? Yeah, one of which it is better to be lucky than good. I could have just as easily as the next grower gone out and gotten a head start on cluster thinning. I did, however, have this nagging reminder about last yr's mid to late May heat spike. Ooops, make that last 3 yr's heat spike in mid to later May. Each time the 115 degree heat crunched our clusters, many of which were just about to set fruit. Watchful waiting, or rather being just a touch behind in vineyard chores, was a Godsend for us. We now have just about exactly what we need on the vine, clusterwise, and literally had the incredible May heat to thank for it.

Other goodies of note, were the massive amount of Live Oak trees that got so hot, they literally just burst apart. We had something like 5 Live Oaks all down where they had burst apart due to massively excessive heat. It also got that hot in the vineyard, where I encountered one tough 11 yr old vine that had literally burst apart, leaving a split down the center of the vine that literally killed it. I missed it at first, thinking maybe a tractor tread may have been the culprit, but no, it was completely a result of Mother Nature applying the heat. We have to accept it tho, for as they say, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen". There are many diseases and pestilences vines can succumb to...but bursting apart due to heat just isn't one of them...usually.

Other concerns included the massive wipeout of our 6 acre valley vineyard, which continued to freeze at nites, up to the first week in May. Think that was a problem? Well no, but the heat spike did fry up at least half our vines, literally cutting them off about 10 inches above the cordon, and then having them try and regrow, with 2 or sometimes as many as three new canes emanating from whence the heat spike sawed the vine in half. All those Pinot vines had beautiful, full, perfectly formed clusters on them, but with no real cane above the "fry" line, there will never be enough leaves to allow this fruit to ripen. Result? Well, the Pinot we planned on this yr, all 8-10 Tons of it, now looks more like 1-2 Tons, and that is guessing on the high side. The fruit was still there, mind you, it just means we had to go and drop all those beautiful clusters. That is a heartbreaker, let me tell you.

Vineyardwise, we now have but a few more chores, which means tying last yr's Pinot grafts onto the wire...training, it is called...and checking to see if any other vine/vines have succumbed to the intense heat and superimposed drought. After the heat spike ended, we did cut back our last remaining acre of Cab Sauv in the valley vineyard, and grafted on some Sauv Blanc. Close to 98% is doing well, and it looks like we may have a little bit of whites for our guests next yr.

In the mountain vineyard, besides the one vine virtually rupturing from heat, we also developed some major league dessication of much of the vineyard growing out of pure limestone. These vines need more water than others, which is being applied as I write this. Fertilizer will go on next, but first we have to bring our vines up to par with moisture, which will be in the neighborhood of 6-7 gallons of water per vine. We are starting to see a bit of yellowing, which can be from too little water(true), to not enough Nitrogen, also true. When you have a mountain vineyard literally planted into limestone, it is very difficult to manufacture good soil for it. Hence the fertilizer, organic acid based.

Well, that's a wrap for today, but will get the next one out much sooner, due to no more pourings in the near future. This is the colorless time of yr, when everything is green if on the vine, and dried out dead if not. The many colors of spring are long since gone, as I should be, since there is irrigating to do. Just no more heat spikes...please?

San Diego International Wine Competition: Pouring for Gold Medal Winners

2009-06-20T20:55:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday was a beautiful day in downtown San Diego, with a concordance of beautiful sunlight, back lit wispy clouds, and shiny bright black, bronze, and all glass buildings surrounding the annual SDWIC gold medal pouring, located on the roof of the 5 star Westgate Hotel. The food offered at the event was non-pareil...one of my favorites was the escargot risotto prepared by the Farmhouse Cafe from nearby University Heights. There were braised ribs with gravy on mashed potatoes that literally melted in one's mouth. Someone else prepared a pheasant, sausage, and fried sweet potato on a toothpick. Outstanding! Just hands down, outstanding. It was in the true sense a gourmet's delight, and the effort put forth by the food vendors was Herculean. Congratulations to all, and my hat is off to all those wonderful food folks.

As for the wines, there were hundreds poured, and I can honestly say we were told by dozens upon dozens of people that we had the best wine there...our Paso Bordo. In actuality, the pouring was for the Gold Medal winning wineries, but if you won, you were entitled to pour any of your wines. Altho our 2006 Cerro Prieto Merlot Reserve took a gold medal in this event plus another gold in the Critics Challenge International wine competition, it was our 2006 Paso Bordo that turned heads. We started off by offering our Paso Bordo to several of the food vendors nearby, which resulted in their seeing the terrific enhancement that our wine created for their truly spectacular dishes. Conversely, their foods returned the favor for our Cab/Syrah (as well as our Merlot). Some of the pairings were like marriages made in heaven. I wasn't counting, but of approximately 1000 attendees, literally dozens upon dozens who came by our booth to sample our wines, then returned later, and said flat out, our Paso Bordo was the best wine they had tasted at the pouring.

I cannot personally say one way or the other if that were true, in that all my time was taken up pouring...unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to try other wineries. I will say that Gloria Ferrer put on quite a show just across from us, and I loved their Blanc d' Blanc, their champagne made from Pinot Noir, and half a dozen others. To me, they stole the show, but folks who were truly tasting

(and not swilling) wine, insisted that our Paso Bordo was the show stopper. There was no voting, so this is a very subjective thing, but there was no doubt, Cerro Prieto Vineyard & Cellars comported itself well. We could not have asked for a better venue, a better wine educated crowd, nor could we have asked for a more gracious and grateful group of wine aficionados. If every event were like this, pouring wines would be a dream job. As it was, there was a lot of work and preparation that went into this, but my boss, Ms Teresa, and I had a terrific time with our best audience ever.

As an aside, weather makes a huge difference at an affair such as this. The monster Paso Robles Wine Festival held in late May was 116 degrees under our canopy, and I can assure you that is not conducive to pouring nor tasting red wines. This event was a balmy 72 degrees, and was a perfect showcase for our extraordinary blend, Paso Bordo (85% Cab/ 15% Syrah). I believe that we learned a valuable lesson here in San Diego: "If it's too hot, pour not; if it's a balmy day, pour away"...at least for reds, that is. Truly, we will never pour at another event if it is even remotely hot. Red wines hold up poorly in the extreme heat, and some even cook and taste burnt (it happened to us at Paso Wine Fest).

Lastly, the temperament of the attendees was a whole lot more cordial when it wasn't 115 degrees outside. Also, our hosts, Robert Whitley and the Westgate Hotel (plus a zillion volunteers) made the day a special one which Teresa and I will both remember a long time. Anyone who has not attended the SDWIC gold medal pour in mid June each year, has really missed a superb function if you love great wine and outstanding food. My hat is off to all involved, and I thank you for your incredible hospitality.

Another thing both Teresa and I noted was that this pouring, unlike others we had done, was actually attended by wine tasters, not swillers. Oh sure, a couple folks got lit up, but that was really uncommon. More importantly, spit buckets overflowed, because these folks actually tasted, rather than drank most wines....unhhh, not many tossed our wines, I noticed. Nonetheless, it is real privilege and thrill to pour for people who are ardently searching out new wines, but overall, are judiciously trying to find spectacular wines instead of going to just try wines they are already familiar with. The Paso fest is a huge venue, but the vast majority of folks there overwhelmingly went to the wineries they were already familiar with. Not so in San Diego. We encountered literally hundreds of wine aficionados who were interested in one thing: finding new wines they hadn't had before, for the sole purpose of increasing their wine experience. It was nice to be appreciated, as opposed to being ignored by folks only attending a function to socialize with already known wineries. Someone said that the Paso fest was just a popularity contest, and I wouldn't dispute that at all. When I go to a wine tasting, it is solely for the purpose of finding new wines, and increasing my knowledge of wines I like (and those I don't). SDIWC was attended by those of similar persuasion, and hence we will make this an annual trip for Cerro Prieto Vineyard & Cellars.

At the end of the day, it was great to be a part of a superbly run, incredibly yummy, and great tasting event. If you have never done this event, I strongly recommend you put it on your calendar. Cerro Prieto had a truly great day and so did all the attendees. If you like food...and you like wine...this is one event you need to try out. There aren't many events I would highly recommend, but this one is a sure fire winner.

End of Bloom, and significance for 2012 vintage

2009-05-31T14:11:00.000-07:00

Well, we aren't completely thru with bloom, but for all intents and purposes, it is over. This yr, for the first time, we did not prune our pre-bloom buds back to 2.5 T/ acre, choosing instead to wait until after bloom to do so. Result has been 30, 40, even 60 clusters on some vines. Considering we prune to 16-20 clusters/vine (based on cluster weights---if clusters are heavier, .31 lbs/cluster, we prune to 16 clusters. If lighter, eg, .25 lbs/cluster, then we prune to 20 clusters). So much for technical stuff: what does it all mean?

First off, we will do nothing until our clusters fill out. The stems(eurachus) are very large compared to other yrs, but at present we don't know if there will be a lot of grapes/ cluster or not. We are at fruit set right now, and will see how many grapes we put on a cluster. Last yr, our stem clusters were small, and the number of grapes/ cluster were few. Result? Paso Robles AVA had a heartbreaking 30-50% decrease in yields from previous yrs. Statewide, yields were slightly up, so we were an AVA that really got pounded.

If each cluster is covered up with grapes, then we will wait a few more weeks to be sure, and then will thin to 16-20 clusters/vine. In yrs past we have thinned early on to ensure maximum energy went into all clusters that remained. The massive temp spikes last yr wiped out half of our flower buds, hence the low yields. Looks totally different this yr, so I would say we are in for a big yr(cropwise) if no other natural disasters befall us. Funny thing is, we at Cerro Prieto Vineyard & Cellars always drop fruit to 2.5-3.0 Tons/ acre, so when someone says, "Good crop, no?" We just smile and say our crop is always the same...2.5-3.0 T/acre....except for the disastrous 1T/acre last yr. Looks like we will be in terrific shape this yr, but that is locally, only. State statistics are nice, but what happens locally is the only thing that matters.

This yr we have huge crops not just on Cab and Syrah, but also our Merlot and Pinot. Which reminds me, the 2006 Cerro Prieto Vineyard & Cellars Merlot just took another Gold medal at the Critics Challenge International Wine Competition. This is truly the first Merlot I have ever liked, and it looks like some other folks think the same. Better news is I like our Paso Bordo is even better than our Merlot.

As for 2012, we can expect a standard yield for the AVA, based on early data. As for quality, well, we still have to wait and see what the "sun-heat" numbers have to say. So far, this yr is seeming to be more like 2005, which was foggy and cold all summer long. Unlike this yr, it was extremely damp, too. It was a really tough yr for us to ripen grapes, and our neighbors had similar experiences. In any event, the fog keeps things cool, but June is frequently a cool month. Last several yrs we have had inordinately long , warm summers...great for ripening grapes. With low yields, if summer is cool, then our grapes will have a much easier time ripening than those of people hanging 5-6 T/ acre. If it is warm and sunny, then our grapes will have that long hang time, with ideal ripening conditions. Remember that here at nite, it is 55 degrees cooler than during the day. Ergo, if we get to 86 degrees today, it very likely will be in the mid 30s at 4 a.m. tomorrow morning.

Speaking of that, our cold valley vineyard is doing well, but is still behind other yrs, due to the low lows that have been a presence since early March. Sadly, we grafted over the one remaining acre of Cab Sauv we had down below, and now have an acre of Sauvignon Blanc for a white treat. Many areas of Paso struggle with whites, but our valley vineyard is tailor made for them, being 18-20 degrees cooler than our mountain vineyard. So, come 2011, we will have a white wine to offer, also.

Only other thing of note vineyard-wise, is that this is a record breaking yr for gophers. We are spending more and more time on them, and seem to barely be holding them off. Our Barn Owls are working overtime, the coyotes dine on gophers nitely, the Red-tailed hawks pick them off during the day, and we trap as many as possible. Checking under our 7 owl boxes, we note mounds of gopher carcasses, owl scat, and bone parts daily. Just a random observation: weather is noticeably colder than for past several yrs at this time, but it is way too early to make an prognostications re: upcoming growing season climate. One thing we know for sure...this was really a dry yr here, our 3rd consecutive yr. Will that make for a better vintage? We shall see.

Wall Street, Cerro Prieto Vineyard & Cellars, and Graft

2009-05-21T16:15:00.001-07:00

Okay, so what do Wall Street and Cerro Prieto have to do with graft? Well, Wall Street graft is best defined by Bernie Maddoff, and those cut from the same cloth. Cerro Prieto and grafts...yes, in the plural...is happening as of this writing. We had one last acre of Cabernet Sauvignon that just couldn't ripen due to our cold valley climate, so after 9 yrs of dropping most, if not all of the fruit, we finally grafted over to cold weather Sauvignon Blanc. Actually, we have had 5 vines of Sauv Blanc growing amidst our Cab Sauv, and they have done famously, so the decision was not that difficult. All our mountain Cab is going gangbusters at present, now into its second or third day of bloom. That pretty well fits the bud break(March 21st) + 60 days for bloom. Due to the 200 ft elevation differences in our mountain and valley vineyards, bloom will mostly start now but some will string along for the next several weeks.

This yr we are not thinning the Cab nor Merlot until after fruit set, which should be about 3 weeks from now. It was exactly on this day last yr that the temps went to 115 degrees, right in the heart of bloom, and all unopened flowers literally "cooked off", or more accurately, just exploded off the shoots. This yr we had a hot Paso Robles Wine Fest, followed by cool days, ideal for fruit set. Nonetheless, this yr we waited to thin based upon whether that one day of massive heat comes thru and wipes out all unopened flowers. If we are okay, and don't get that incredible heat, then it just makes thinning more difficult, with all the very long shoots. Better this way than thinning early, however, as last yr's early thinning cut our yield by 50% due to excessive heat spikes.

So grafting here is unrelated to Wall Street graft, yet they somehow have the same root word. Strange, no? In any event, we are looking forward to a successful Sauv Blanc harvest in 2 yrs, and will no longer be dropping Cab Sauv that just requires more heat. The mountain vineyard Cab is doing famously , thank you, as is the Syrah. Both look like they are headed for a good yr, and Lord knows, we need it. Other than that, we continue to replace hard rubber riser hoses, eaten thru and thru by gophers. No question this is a banner yr for gophers, and we certainly have them. Trapping has been necessary on a daily basis, which just takes us away from other vineyard chores that need to be done. Here's to a great 2009... may our clusters not get fried, nor our new grafts frozen, may our grapes all set, and may our wines be superb. That would make it good for grower, vintner, and consumer, all. May the vagaries of farming pass us by this yr...last yr was punishment enough, tho the wines produced will be marvelous. Salud!

Hammer Down

2009-05-08T20:45:00.000-07:00

That's right, hammer down, and get ready for the rocket ride, because that is what is going on down below me as I write. The mountain Rhone/ Bordeaux vineyard is cooking with growth. This is by far my favorite time of yr, when individual shoots put on 4" to 6-7" per week. I have actually measured some daily growth and was completely astounded at how fast this goes. At long last we have stopped bouncing off our valley vineyard lows in the low 30's and have bottomed in the mid 40's. Match that with days like the last 3 days of 95 degrees, and you have the "hammer down" rocket ride that occurs once the low lows disappear. Literally, it seems that a marked shoot can grow in the time it takes to walk to the end of the row and back.

The Cerro Prieto Vineyard cold valley has come alive, putting growth on the Pinot Noir, but nowhere near what our mountain vineyard has done. (The two vineyards are contiguous, however). One thing we sweat is the next 3 weeks in which we need to get thru bloom. If that happens with no gale force winds, no torrential rain and no severe frost, we are in good shape. After the growth explosion going on now, the worst part of the yr is waiting to get thru bloom. Funny how the two follow on the heels of one another, but after elation comes "the wait". Usually there are other things to keep one's mind occupied, eg, the Paso Robles Wine Festival, at which we pour our Cerro Prieto Vineyard & Cellars '06 wines(Gold medal Merlot, San Diego Intl Wine Competion/ and our signature wine, Paso Bordo, a Cab/Syrah blend).

That alone eats up a couple weeks in preparation, so it is a welcome diversion at just the right time. Then raise wires, thin, raise more wires, check petioles, and before long, green grapes are going thru verasion. Next thing you know harvest is upon us and the yr slips away. One of the hardest things to do if living at/on the vineyard is to enjoy what is here, and focus on the big picture, not just the day to day vineyard chores. It is so unbelievably beautiful here that sometimes I forget how fortunate we are to observe nature in her element, and live amongst the vines. That's a good thot to close on. Cheers!

April showers bring May flowers...

2009-05-04T08:19:00.000-07:00

Well, not exactly...at least not this year, our 3rd year of drought which brought us a measly 12 inches of rain vs. our 26 inch average. We did have a fabulous wildflower display in early March, but most were gone by end of April. Our 1/2 inch rain in April did nothing for May flowers, but it is interesting to see the red "bull" clover flowering through the dying perennial grasses, most of which have already gone to seed.

Implication? Well, we have to factor in a brutally cold April (early a.m. only) which has delayed growth noticeably in the much cooler Pinot Noir valley vineyard blocs. Higher vineyard blocs of mountain Cab and Merlot are just a bit behind normal, and Syrah seems to be on its usual development path. The cold valley Pinot, however, is well...cold.

Our new Pinot vines have taken multiple hits below 30 degrees on consecutive days in April. In truth, there were only a few days that didn't freeze for a brief period in the valley floor. Good news is that all freezes were short, most between 4-6 a.m., and temps broke above freezing once touched by the sun. Yes, we did lose some Pinot grafts plus a few transplants. All mature Pinot appears to be healthy, but the cold did keep the vines from budding out until

2-3 weeks past its usual time. Mountain Cab, Syrah and Merlot budded out around March 21st, which means that bloom(usually 60 days after budding out)

is on track and is but a brief 17 days away.

Pinot is either going to bloom late this year, or who knows, maybe not at all. Such are the vagaries of farming, and grape farming is world's apart from most other types of farming. Weather, temperatures especially, are way more important in grape farming than for example, grain farming. The days here have been absolutely beautiful, but we just hate to see nightfall come. Good news is that freezes were short, most no more than 2 hours max, and our days warm up quickly. They say stress is good for making high quality wines...if we make Pinot this year, it ought to be sensational.

Global Warming at Cerro Prieto Vineyard?

2009-04-26T19:23:00.001-07:00

Between carbon caps, "Cap and Trade", melting of both polar ice caps...need I go on...the matter of "Is it warmer now than before or not?" is really quite interesting when looking at it from the vine level in the vineyard. Take for example 10 days ago when we hit an April 16th high of 100 degrees...a new record for Paso Robles. Boy, it felt like summer was here and we were in for an exceptionally long growing season. Hurray! Problem is that 1 week prior, we had set a new low for April 9th of 24 degrees, which toasted any tender new grafts or just budded out leaves. It wasn't a quick freeze either; matter of fact, the entire cover crop of red bull clover and pasture mix was all frozen solid. That again was a record for April 9th, but as a new cold record, not a hot one.

Towards end of spring last year, we had some warm and cold days---not unusual for our springtime---and then in the midst of bloom, May 15th to 20th---we had 5 days with highs between 105-110 degrees. The killer blow came next day, May 21st, when Cerro Prieto Vineyard registered 115 degrees in both the mountain and valley vineyards. It got so hot that any flower bud that was still unopened ended up literally "popping off", much like popcorn. Walking thru the vineyard one could hear the tiny "pop-pop-pop" of unopened flower buds exploding. Our crop last year was 50% of normal, and any buds that had flowered already did fine. The unopened ones succumbed to the excruciating heat. Jeez, Global Warming , right?

Well, not so fast, because 12 days later we hit 24 degrees in our valley vineyard, which just added insult to injury. Now, when I hear about global warming and all the reasons to believe it, from the vines viewpoint, we not only are having record highs, but we are also having record lows. Already this month we have had both record highs as well as lows. So what exactly do the vines see? In a nutshell, we are seeing virtually unheard of extremes, which, incidentally, coincide with the third year of a predicted local 10 year drought(in some articles). So from a vine's viewpoint, what in the heck is going on?

If vines could speak they would say that it is the temperature extremes that they notice, not global warming... nor cooling. How or why is this important in the vineyard? Well, last year Paso vineyards were hit with a 30-50% crop loss, directly attributable to the climatic extremes; in 2008, it was the extreme heat, not the later freeze, that clonked us. This year the wildly swinging extremes are starting out in APRIL with new daily lows AND highs. So, for global warming proponents, yes, we see the effects of climate change not only in our vineyard, but also in our pocketbook. But it is not just the warming that is to blame here. The record freezes are every bit as damaging as the heat waves we have experienced the last 3 years.

Is this global warming...or global cooling...or both? For every iceberg that is melting I can show you a vine that has been hammered by the cold. When you put these two extremes back to back, and do it more than once, there is a terribly negative effect on all local vineyards. Here at Cerro Prieto Vineyard and Cellars, we are as beaten up by the record highs as we are the lows. And for the vines, it isn't global warming...it is global temperature extremism, which is a bad omen for vineyards...and a worse omen for the wine aficionado.

So please, before making a case for global warming, you might consider how the vines see this...and if they could talk they would say "It is the record breaking temperature extremes bothering them...not global warming".

Getting Along

2009-04-13T16:51:00.000-07:00

In his January 21st blog, Eric Asimov referred to "Culture Wars over wine issues such as power vs. finesse, terroir vs. what's in the glass, traditional and modern," to name but a few. My response to his blog was published under his comment section on January 27, 2009. It read:

We at Cerro Prieto Vineyard and Cellars have just released our first commercial bottling, and were overwhelmed with just how delightful our low yield vineyard(1-2 Tons/acre) produced Cab, Merlot, and Syrah, that is the essence of terroir AND finesse in a glass. We can't wait to be ignored, ridiculed(Westside Paso Robles area), nor looked down upon by someone from the likes of WS. Our answer is very simple. We make people's wine experience enjoyable and rewarding...one client (wine aficionado) at a time.

The folks at Wine Enthusiast have been very generous to our vineyard (Sept., '07 issue by rating the 2004 Byington Cabernet Sauvignon, Cerro Prieto Vineyard) with 91 points. People who have drunk our wine have been equally gracious. But being ridiculed for not being Napa has grown old and frankly boring, because in WS anything other than Napa or France is inferior from the gitgo (Generalization, I realize). In the end it doesn't matter what the sage of Napa says...or not. What matters is what's in the vineyard, what is the vineyard like, and most importantly, what's in the glass. Snubs, guys like the snooty professor alluded to in a few articles above...those all just come with the territory, and have to roll like water off a duck's back.

The Paso Robles area is capable of making Napa cult-like Cab wines...and frequently does, tho one has to be selective. One just needs the terroir, the minute attention to detail, the low vineyard yields, and the love of the vine/wine to make truly remarkable Cabs and Bordeaux like blends. The main difference is that we do that at prices that are affordable for the majority of wine aficionados. Napa doesn't.(Again a generalization, but you get the idea). Those not familiar with our AVA are missing a bet...and to heck with snobbery, petulance, and dare I say it...ignorance.

Survival of the Fittest

2009-04-05T18:03:00.000-07:00

On one of our Cerro Prieto Vineyard & Cellars vineyard tours this week, I was noticing how things have changed just in the last 4 weeks since we have been conducting tours. First off a note about the visitors we have had. All have been not only interested, they have been interesting. All have succeeded in their endeavors in one way or another, all are open to learning new things, and all have been treated to the many fascinating things Cerro Prieto Vineyard has to offer.

Take the Barn owls for example. They are our best friends as far as keeping the gopher population in check. Of our 7 owl houses, 3 are currently in use with a pair of young owlets inside. Parents patrol the vineyard at night when gophers are working, and usually nab half a dozen or more gophers per nite. How do I know this? Well simply by counting the gopher skulls, ribs, and pelvic bones under each roost in the morning. This has been an excellent adjunct to gopher control but does have one glitch: we have 3 families of Great Horned Owls above the vineyard, and their favorite food? Barn owls. Oh well.

Going thru the vineyard rows, it is interesting to note that the magnificent floral displays of orange and yellow calendulas, orange and yellow poppies,the red Marinum variety of the California poppy, the bluish purple stinging nettle, and 4 different kinds of clover---bull red, yellow, white, and a pink--- have now crowded out the other flowers, so they can produce and flower, then re-seed. In hotter more elevated areas, where drought accelerates a changing of the guard, the clover has given way to the wild radish of all hues, (pink, yellow, purple, white), and the omnipresent mustard weed, soon to flower out in its yellow glory. Not present but coming, is the pesky and aggressive yellow star, with spikes so tough they can puncture a tire. Also seen in the lower cooler valley areas are masses of filaree, with its purple flower, now going to seed. For cattle this little plant is said to have the maximum nutrition on a weight basis of all cattle feed. We like it for its abiltity to reseed, especially on steep inclines, or terraces between rows, thus becoming soil holders in our incredibly steep vineyard.

In the sky, there are circling "sapolotes", or turkey vultures, which keep the vineyard clean of carrion. Coyotes, ever present inside and out of the vineyard's deer fence, kill wood rats, mice, gophers, the hapless jackrabbit, an occasional cat, ground squirrels, rarely a wild turkey, and the dozens of grape eating Valley Quail. Coyotes then become food for the aggressive badger with his long claws and file-like teeth. Our occasional lynx lunches on all the above plus will take a coyote, if the coyote gets careless. King of the heap is a mountain lion, rarely present, but sure to be here if a deer somehow squeezes thru a coyote hole dug under our deer fence. All in all, it is truly survival of the fittest in the vineyard, which is replayed dozens of times a day, week in and week out. We can show visitors some or many of the "survivors", but it is the perpetual repeat of this scenario that fascinates me.

Everyday, hundreds of people visit wineries to sample different wines. Pity they don't take the time while here to see what the really interesting goings on actually are. Those folks who have taken our tour and later bought our low yield premium wines have not just a knowledge of the wines they now drink, but also a bit of understanding on how eco systems in the vineyard work, how all are inter-related, and how virtually most, if not all, contribute to the terroir of this dynamic, constantly changing vineyard. Currently we are starting bud break in our higher mountainside/hillside areas, while the colder pinot valleys are still dormant( thank goodness). We have continued to have below freezing nites in our valleys, and somehow, someway, those dog-goned Pinot vines know not to be tricked into budding out by the heat of the day. Somehow they just know not to bud out which would then cause the new buds to freeze off.

Anyone who doubts survival of the fittest needs spend no more than a couple of hours here when the Red tailed hawks screech, then swoop down, talons extended, and scoop up a gopher. The rest of the story is equally majestic. How lucky for some wine lovers to first see what a breathing, living, complicated, intricate dance of life this vineyard is. There are some very lucky people to have seen it. We know they now enjoy our wines so much more for having seen and observed "Survival of the Fittest. You should try it sometime; it is captivating.

Paying the Piper for summer in January, 2009

2009-04-01T20:30:00.001-07:00

December was cold here, as were the first two weeks in January. Kazaam! Summer arrived in mid Jan, and we averaged 85 degrees off our back deck into the first week of February. Those 2 weeks were without doubt the nicest, mildest 2 weeks we have ever had in any new year's first month. Then, Kazaam! Winter returned with a vengeance, days were cold, but nites were frigid. For the next 6 weeks we had ice in the bottom valley vineyard until the sun's rays melted it, usually about 9 a.m. Yes, the warm summer weather was a nice respite to the bone chilling cold, but as the saying goes, " A good deed never goes unpunished".

We had to wait awhile until the freeze stopped, but then when we finally got around to pruning in late March, the first signs of the "summer in winter" became evident. Young vines, particularly those planted last year, or grafted vines from last year, came up "lame". Specifically, the small, delicate vines were evidentally influenced by January's warmth to begin the motions of preparing for budding out. With the 6 weeks of frost and ice that followed, all those young, susceptible vines got hammered by the night time freezes. Most of those vines grafted died back to the rootstock. The one year old new transplants just froze thru and thru. The warm spell in winter was lovely, but when one owns a vineyard, that kind of climatic behaviour never comes without consequences.

I had actually guessed we would have either a delayed bud break or a delayed harvest. Apparently it is neither, but rather just a rampant killing of young, tender vines and grafts. Our hillside/mountainside vineyard was spared the insult, due to an 18 degree temperature differential from hilltop to valley. We have replanted where vines died and regrafted where grafts died. In some cases, only half or more of the grafts were freeze killed. Those we salvaged by just pruning back to green wood. All in all, the spectacular late January weather was welcomed by most everyone in the Paso Robles area. The resultant damage to low lying vineyards, however, was not. Established vines did fine in our valley areas, but the younger ones...they will just have to try again.

The 2008 Crush...a paradox for Paso Robles AVA

2009-03-27T08:19:00.000-07:00

In the Steve Heimoff blog from one week ago, "Observations of the 2008 final grape crush," several interesting statistics were discussed. First was that the 2008 crop in tons, essentially equaled the 2007 crop, and second, that in terms of tons crushed/ variety, Cabernet Sauvignon was only ranked 4th, behind Chardonnay, Thompson's seedless(yes, that's right), and Zinfandel. As an aside, Napa Cab grapes price increased only 5%.

These are statewide stats which afford an overview of the 2008 crush. If one were to ask any of my Paso Robles neighbors, however, one would get an entirely different picture than the statewide results. Quite frankly, I was stunned by them; the following is a response to the Steve Heimoff Blog:

Altho I tend to be a lumper rather than a splitter, "lumping" is a bit difficult when looking at grape reports. Just as individual vineyards may have totally different microclimates from a vineyard two hills over, price of grapes/Ton really should be split up between high end (low yield Tons/acre) and lower end (high yield Tons/acre). There is a grower 50 miles east of Paso Robles who several years ago sold his grapes exclusively into the Japanese market, and got only $300/Ton for his Cab. However, he machine pre-prunes, machine harvests, AND hangs 12(yes, twelve) Tons/acre. He was happy as a clam with that in that his per acre costs ran about only $150/Ton. We, and many folks around us in the Templeton Gap area of southern Paso Robles AVA, hang Cab between 1-2.5 Tons/acre, and garner $31oo/Ton for Cab and up. Pinot Noir in the cool to cold valleys of the Templeton Gap last year sold from between $3000 to $3500/Ton, and in the south county of SLO, I heard of $4000 to $4500/Ton( tho this is NOT first hand knowledge).

So not only location, but also grower mentality(ie, high yield vs low) plays a big part in this. That is what makes the crush totals so tough to interpret. Frankly, it would be very helpful if the crush totals broke down the yields into under 3T/acre and over 3T/acre. Some of us nutty people hang 1-2.5 Tons/acre, but that is where great wines come from. Real terroir, incidentally, generally tends to be found in the lower yielding vineyards. Obviously this is a generality, but it holds pretty much true. As for our Paso Robles AVA, our average yields were 50% of normal last year, in large part due to a week in mid May of 105 -110 degrees, followed by May 21st with a 115 degree day...unfortunately, this occurred in the middle of bloom, which literally "cooked off" the unopened flower buds.

Also factored into the crush stats would have to be the high density plantings, eg.,

2300 vines/acre vs. 870 vines/acre on a traditional 5' X 10' planting. Here, lbs of fruit/vine would make a lot more sense to quantify, in that some vines may only have a handful of clusters/ vine. Crush stats do have their value, but one does have to know what exactly all the parameters are...which in some cases may skew the information so that it doesn't make sense.

The Pouring Trip: A micro look at wine sales

2009-03-18T08:38:00.000-07:00

Before the Storm, Cerro Prieto Vineyard, Spring 2008

We are just back from our first pouring trip, and it was an eye opener. Following our first bottling several months ago, we were anxious to get our new, 1Ton/acre wines "out there", convinced that once someone tries them, the wines will sell themselves. Starting a new venture into the teeth of the worst recession since the 1930's, we pressed ahead, anxious, but nonetheless, optimistic. "Always room at the top", as the saying goes. We had an excellent product, and priced it fairly, taking 25% off the top just because of the financially chaotic times. People want...people demand and deserve true quality at an affordable price. That is our niche and we believe we have filled it.

We concentrated on the upper end wine market in North County area of San Diego, meshing a post-op check up at UCSD med center with some wine pouring. What we saw was a bit surprising: In the area we visited, there is still a bunch of money being spent at large, up-scale shopping centers, but we were wine-centric and found interesting tidbits of info.

First of all the wine industry is not dead, nor is it on life support. It has, however, shut down at the upper price end, even in extremely wealthy areas. The most common comment in some very nice wine shops, wine bars, and restaurants was that there is a cap on what consumers will pay. Wine bars for the 20-30 yr old crowd are selling lots of wine, but it just doesn't sell much over 20 to 30 bucks. Yes, many have the higher end wines in stock, but as several sellers mentioned:

"Over a hundred bucks, and nobody is buying".

It seems retailers have seen a $100 cap on bottles, and their really high-end Napa stuff had just been sitting on the shelf for some 9-12 months. While waiting to chat with one wine shop owner, I watched a customer fill 3 cases with Spanish and Argentine wines, all in the $7-$10 range. He was putting on a party and obviously was shopping for value, with Tempranillos, Malbecs, and the like. His comment was, "This Spanish and Argentine stuff is a great deal".

We were waiting in line to show our wares, a $39 Cerro Prieto Merlot and our signature blend,

$49 Cerro Prieto Paso Bordo(85% Cab/ 15% Syrah), when we overheard part of a conversation between two Napa reps and the store owner. Gist of the conversation was that the fellow from Napa was putting the hard sell on the owner for some pretty pricey wines(Cabs, Syrah, blends) and the owner wasn't too happy about it. My wife commented that we would be facing a tough sell. The owner had a mask-like countenance and said nary a word to the reps.

When our turn came, the owners came over to us, we had a nice conversation, and they truly seemed to enjoy our wines. We don't know if we made a sale, but we did make good contacts, and witnessed first hand that even in tony high end neighborhoods, $100 is the max that wine drinkers will pay. However, the average customer is counting his nickels, and is buying quality, much of it from the Argentine and Espana. At true wine bars, clientele seemed to be younger, and again, drank with passion...at $5 to $7 / glass, and happy hour was full...but later was nowhere near as busy.

Fine restaurants in the area were also hurting, with traffic down by 20-30% or more (their own words), and wines at dinner were mainly based on value, not brand. If folks were drinking, it was not only yummy, but it was good value. $30 to $50 bottles were sold, but more often a glass at

$7 to $12 was sold rather than a bottle over $40. Mind you, this area had a jam-packed parking lot full of BMWs, Mercedes, and Lexus' but even the well-to-do were watching their wine spending.

Less exclusive wine bars did land office happy hour business, but with wine at 4 to 5 bucks/glass.

So people out of the Napa area are buying...just not their stuff. Also, no question some eateries have closed down. One wine shop was now serving high-end wine/food dinners to try and attract back their clientele. There were lots of long faces on this trip, and a lot of folks really struggled to sell wine. High-end places were selling low cost value wines to try and capture the market.

Here at home, in the Paso Robles area, the situation mimics the pricey areas in SD: good but lower cost Spanish and Argentine wines mixed with inexpensive local wines, but high end just isn't happening. Restaurants serving food comparable to San Francisco cuisine are moving higher end wines; still, there seems to be an aversion to wines much over $100. Gourmet dinners may have an $80 or $90 bottle sitting on the table, but $40 to $70 bottles are more likely.

At the end of the day, our trip was a start, not a success. We are waiting on some retailers, but are hopeful only. This is a tough market, no matter how you slice it. Right now, the demand is for great quality at an affordable price. Sound familiar?

(The above article appeared as a guest piece yesterday in the Wine Sooth, an excellent blog by Art Przebinda.)

Vineyard Tours at Cerro Prieto Vineyard & Cellars

2009-03-16T10:39:00.000-07:00

(Eco) Vineyard Tours at Cerro Prieto
By Appt: 805-226-8448/ cell: 674-0826
email: pasodocwine@yahoo.com
Fee: $25/ person for 30-45 minute tours. (longer tours available by special request)
Includes Eco measures discussion and demonstration, PLUS:
Identification of different varietals by leaves and their grape clusters
Pruning and thinning: everything you ever wanted to know and more, with demonstration (seasonal)
Walk, ride thru vineyard and several miles of trails in 6 X 6(when available---this is a working vineyard)
Walk thru rows with cover crop, flora, and fauna identification, wildflower tour(spring), fern grotto
Demonstration of irrigation and fertigation
Learn about erosion control in a straight up/ down vineyard setting; learn about terracing
Demonstration of bud break, bloom, and fruit set(March, April, May)
Verasion demonstration(in season), and significance
Brix demonstration with grape tasting(Sept/Oct)
Harvest tours(Sept/ Oct)
Fossils/ geography/ topography tour and discussion of soil types and significance
Bird identification: these birds have all been identified in our vineyard
Hawks: Redtail, Peregrine, Red Shouldered, Cooper’s, Kestrel, Sharp shinned hawk
Owls: Barn owl, Great Horned owl, and Western Screech owl(night-time only)
Birds: Blue Jays, (Western and Stellar’s) Black-headed Grosbeak, Dark-eyed Junco, Bullock’s Oriole,
Flycatchers (Ash-throated, Olive-sided), Anna and Allen’s Hummingbirds, Quail, Dove,
Towhees(California and Spotted), Western Meadowlark, Band-tailed Pigeon, Titmouse,
Swallows( Barn, Cliff, and Violet Green), Woodpeckers(Downy and Nuttall’s),
Finches, (Purple and House), Sparrows( White-crowned and Song), Red-breasted Sapsucker,
Merriam’s and Rio Grande turkeys(early morning first light only)
Demonstration of grape protection from varmints and birds( netting, bird distress calls, hawk calls)

Whether/ Weather, part 2

2009-03-07T08:40:00.000-08:00

Vineyardists know this, but for those of you not viticulturally inclined: the significance of two weeks of summer in the middle of winter is twofold:

Should that January warm spell cause bud break to advance two weeks, that is not good news for inland valleys or low lying areas. The reason is that late spring frosts are not uncommon in these lower lying areas, and if bud break is moved up two weeks, those buds/ blooms are more susceptible to a late spring freeze.

Contrarily, if the warm January followed by warm spring days (but standard cold nites) causes bud break to be retarded for several weeks, that could conceivably delay ripening by two weeks, which could then cause hanging grapes to be subject to early fall frosts. Which way the bizarre January weather is going to affect things, I don't have a clue. But it will affect either an early bloom with potential for late spring frost damage, or it will affect a late harvest with early fall frost damage to grapes. The optimist in me says neither of these will happen. The realist says it probably will, one way or the other.

Whether the Weather

2009-03-06T22:22:00.000-08:00

"Spring is sprung, fall is fell, March is here and it's hotter than ...usual." You all have heard that old one before, but as a matter of fact, the weather is, well, puzzling. From second week in January to first in February, we had temps off my back deck in the high 80's, average about 85. In January, for cripes sakes. What in the world is going on? We had 2 inches of rain post harvest, two more in December, then two inches twice in January. February we had another two, and now in March, another two. That is a grand total of 12, and we are getting near the "no more rain period" around these Paso Robles parts. At the 25 mile long Lake Nacimiento, just to the west of Paso, the lake is down below 25% of capacity, with many areas looking like mud bowls.

Okay, what does this mean? Well, the summertime temps in January were a bit scary for encouraging vines to swell their buds, just prior to budding out. Then came a cold snap in Feb, and now nites here remain in the mid to low 30's. It looks like a usual bud break time will occur, but inland valleys will be very prone to late spring freezes...again. As for the third year of drought, any dry farmed fruit on westside, or eastside, can count on being 50% or less. If we have another 12 inches of rain, then all bets are off. Obviously for drip irrigated vineyards, we can make up for the insufficient rain, but that means starting to water now. For us, not a huge expense, but for 400 acres, or 2000 acres, we are talking serious bucks. Generally it seems, most folks are keeping their powder dry and are hoping for more rain. Problem is if you wait too long, it may not do you that much good. Some neighbors have watered, but to date, most have not.

Last year we ended up 50% light in our Cab, Syrah, and Merlot blocs. The 5 incredible days of 105 to 110 degrees around May 15th were highlighted by 115 degrees on May 21st in our vineyard. That is no typo. At that point we were half way thru bloom, and half the tiny buds that give way to blooms were still closed up. At 115 degrees, unopened buds just literally popped, like popcorn, and blazooey, there goes the crop, Martha. The icing on the cake...literally...came June 2nd when we hit 24 degrees in our valley vineyard. By then, tho, the damage was done. I think the late frost down low was just someone sticking a stick in our eye, just to rub it in.

What does all that mean for this year? OnlyLord almighty knows. But weird weather like summer in January usually portends some other freakish weather happenings, and most end up not being favorable. One thing we will do for certain is to not prune our valley vineyard until the last moment before bud break. When the buds are really swollen we will prune then. Just guessing , but I have a feeling that the 2 week summer in mid winter will push everything back two weeks, and that includes bud break, bloom, and verasion. Sure, things may just proceed as usual, but the last several years we have seen weather nobody has found in their vineyard journal logs before. Somehow, that's what this year feels like, but, of course, it is not certain.

One thing I do believe in and that is the pendulum theory. We have had bizarre weather starting with the big, dark, wet in 2005, followed by strange runs of unseasonably hot weather in cold weather times for 2006, 2007, and 2008. Maybe the pendulum is going to swing back and bring us more of the routine most of us are used to. But if it hits 115 in May during bloom again, look for me to take up raising peanuts in Georgia. My bet, tho, is that the pendulum will swing back and bless us with normal bud and bloom weather...I hope.

Wine Storage 101 or, how to store your wine

2009-02-16T13:07:00.000-08:00

Steve Heimoff (Steve Heimoff Wine Blog) wrote an interesting and entertaining blog on Shipping and Harmful Temperatures, yesterday, which was delightfully well timed. This morning I dropped off our newly released 2006 Cerro Prieto Merlot & 2006 Paso Blend(Paso Bordo/ 85% Cab & 15% Syrah) to favorite physician colleagues at the local hospital/ medical suites. One of my favorite people and physicians here, loves gourmet food as well as great wine. Just for completeness I mentioned that these wines were best when stored at 56-64 degrees, served at 70-72 , and decanted 10-15 minutes before drinking. This is a knowledgeable physician, enjoys good wines, but I think she was a bit surprised by the advice.

Same happened when I delivered a pair of bottles to a colleague at a nearby medical suite. "Really", was his response. These are both smart people who enjoy a fine meal and great wine. Yet, I really wonder if they ever actually were told exactly how to enjoy their wine to the max.

If you are a non-believer, who enjoys good wine, but do not care for it appropriately, you are going to get maybe as little as half (or less) enjoyment out of your wine as you would if it were handled with care and in a proper fashion. Some years back, I wondered if one of my favorite wineries had taken a leap off a high cliff, in that their product had fallen severely from my favor. Now, I wonder if maybe that had to do with shipping in hot weather,(which it is here, frequently, in summer), did they get a new winemaker?(no), or could it possibly have been heat damaged in shipment or perhaps in storage. My personal experience and that of others, is that whereas you may lose an occasional bottle to being "corked", I bet a person loses a heckuva lot more wine to improper storage during shipping or improper storage at home.

The business about serving at room temperature? Well, our wines at 64 degrees are flat. Really, flat. Get them up to 70-72, and they literally come alive, right up your proboscis(nose)... proboscitory delight, if you will. Both our wines have huge, beautiful boquets, but if not decanted for 10 minutes, or if served cool, one will miss half of what our wines have to offer. I do have a few friends who prefer their red wines cool. Nothing wrong with that...it is a matter of taste. But I would go a step further and say they are enjoying half, (or less) of what they could have enjoyed had they decanted and served at room temp.

My grandmother Berry, from Bordeaux, was a marvellous cook and served wine with all meals, usually a tad on the cool side. To this day it was my favorite wine ever, and it was just poured from a barrel into 4 decanters and placed in the center of the table with standard French fare. I will relate more of this story, an entire blog in itself, at at later time. Point is that the wine was spectaculo-fabuloso, but it was served a bit cool. I have wondered at times, if it could possibly have been even more impressive had it been served at room temp. Ah, that was a long ago time, so I'll never know. But this I do know: serving reds at room temp with adequate decanting, after proper storage at 56-64, gives the wine drinker the maximum pleasure that he/she will get from drinking wine. Anyone who doesn't know this or rather doesn't believe it, will be in for a pleasant surprise if they change their ways to the recommendations mentioned above.

Low Yield vs. High Yield

2009-02-13T15:48:00.000-08:00

Generally, if one were to come upon this choice, the answer would be high yield and the topic would almost certainly relate to yields on CDs, Treasuries, or high grade Bonds. Yet, in the wine sphere, and particularly in the vineyard( and later in the barrel), low yielding vines have high yielding vines outclassed hands down, when it comes to caliber of, or quality of wine grapes. Don't get me wrong...there are grape growers out there who have land flat as a billiard table, machine hedge, machine pick, produce 10-12 Tons/ acre, and sell exclusively into the Japanese market. No one reading this blog would be interested, (even out of curiousity) what those grapes, and more importantly, what those wines tasted like. I could guess, but that just sends shivers up and down my spine.

More to the point, there still remain proponents of "There is no difference in grape tasting nor in wine tasting of yields of 3Tons/ acre vs yields of 5 Tons/ acre". Some stretch that to 6Tons rather than 5, and swear up and down that there is no difference. Well, maybe so, but in our vineyard I have experimented with 5 Tons/acre vs 3Tons, 2.5Tons, and 1 Ton/acre yields;
and I can tell you that only somebody with burned out taste buds would make the assertion that 3 Ton yields make no better wines than 5 Ton yields. That is just patently absurd, but that doesn't mean there isn't a coterie of folks out there who don't truly believe it. There is a difference between 3T/ acre and 2.5 Ton/acre, but it is, to my taste buds, ever so slight. 1Ton/acre is certainly better yet, but not three times better...it is just better. Unfortunately, it is also economically not feasible unless a vineyard is planted 23oo vines/ acre or as many as 4000 vines/acre. Once you start doing that tho, special equipment is necessary, again neatly overly priced, and pretty soon only a multi-millionaire could afford to farm that kind of operation.

Back to reality, most vineyards are planted somewhere between 870 vines/acre and 740 vines/acre(spacing of 5'X 10' and 5'X 12' , respectively). A 3Ton/acre vineyard on 5'x 10' planting means about 6 lbs of grapes/vine; our Cab averages .3 lbs/cluster and 8 to 10 spurs/vine, with 2 shoots/ spur. Allow 1 cluster/shoot, and you should have somewhere between
16 to 20 clusters/vine. Allowing for dropping any cluster that touches another, we end up somewhere between 4.8 and 6.0 lbs/vine. This spacing allows air to circulate in and thru the entire cluster, as well as allowing maximal amount of light to all parts of the cluster. These two issues can determine whether a cluster ripens fully thru and thru, vs just ripening on the outer portion of the cluster. Also consider that where air and light can get to and thru a cluster, one will need less fungicide or pesticide, because dense, damp, unlit areas do not occur(or certainly occur less frequently) for these unencumbered clusters.

Now imagine 5-6 Tons/acre vines, still with 5'X10' spacing, and what you have is twice as many clusters in the same space, with cluster overlap, poor venting of air around the cluster, and a large portion of the outer cluster that never sees the light of day. Immediately the chance of mildew or mold goes up, the need for fungicides increases, and the chance of all these grapes ripening anywhere nearly as well as vines with half that load, is slim at best. To me this pretty well ends the argument, and tasting grapes as well as the wines from each lot, confirms it.

5Ton/acre wines will taste herbaceous, or green, if you will, and should you like your wine to taste like green peppers, or salad, then this is the choice for you. Additionally, the tannins in Cab grown thus will be harsh and distasteful. What's really interesting, is that there are vineyard consultants out there advising growers, who are wedded to the idea if 3 Tons/ acre is good, then 5 Tons/ acre is better. I have had this conversation with many grape growers, and it is not one I can easily win. After all, 5 Tons/acre makes more money than 3Tons/acre, so the farmer sees it as thus.

Here, I lay some of the blame for higher yielding vineyards squarely on the doorstep of wineries. If they want high end wines, they necessarily should be using low yield grapes. A high foot traffic location can convince a vintner he can skate with 5-6Ton/ acre grapes, and still sell a lot of wine. Frankly, this is a black eye for the wine industry, grape farmers and vintners both. It is a practice which can lower the AVA's reputation for producing excellent wines and grapes. Oddly, some wineries still do not subscribe to low yields equal excellent wines equation, but sooner or later someone is going to tell those folks that "the emperor is wearing no clothes".

So, "low yields equal great wines" is the way to go with respect to crop loads, but that assumes everything else is equal and is done in the proper fashion. "A great wine starts in the vineyard", is a very old mantra, and crop loads play a large part of that. Nonetheless, terroir, individual vine attention, proper nutrition of vines, water needs, climatic conditions, hang time...there are more, many more considerations in making a great wine. Simple truths still hold true. Paying attention to them is essential for every vintner. As the years roll by, I firmly believe the high yield theory will relate to CDs and bonds...not crop loads for grapes and fine wines.

The Perfect Grape

2009-01-28T09:38:00.000-08:00

Why not? We have cottage industries searching for the perfect form, the perfect body, the perfect skin…why not the perfect grape? 2000 years ago the Romans certainly enjoyed their wine. 3000 years before that hieroglyphic record shows that the Egyptians certainly enjoyed theirs. So why would a wine lover not try to make the elusive perfect wine, which ultimately led them to searching for the perfect vine, the perfect grape? Certainly today there are those questing for the world’s best wine, the perfect wine; Wine Spectator votes yearly on the world’s best wine. Where, then, is a better place to start than by growing the world’s best grape?

It is a simple process, really. Find the perfect site, preferably with the perfect weather where day/nite temperature splits of 55 to 60 degrees are the norm. Perfectly drained limestone soil and vineyard orientation with southerly facing is a must. Add elevation and steeply sloped hills/ mountains, have adequate rainfall, (but none during grape ripening), and the location is perfectly set. Vigorous rootstock and hardy clonal selection must be perfect for the unforgiving nutrient depleted limestone soil. Spur arrangement and spacing thru yearly ongoing assiduous pruning and thinning allows enough room for each and every cluster, each and every grape, to breathe and bask in the sun’s natural light. Post verasion any cluster touching another should be removed; this ensures maximal airflow and light available to the grape, greatly reducing chances of mildew or mold, and assures even ripening throughout the individual cluster.

Canopy management is essential and if grapes are on trellis, movable guide wires can allow for more shade or sun depending on environmental and climatic conditions. Irrigation if available should be minimal to non-existent once grapes have gone thru verasion. Prior to verasion, testing for and replenishment of the soil’s nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and minerals) is of paramount importance. Prevention of rot or mildew must be undertaken, but in low yield vines, this is a much lesser problem, if at all.

Once grapes begin to ripen, Brix levels, pH, and TA(total acidity) should be checked and followed so comparisons can be made in future years. Lastly, the fun part, daily tasting of grapes, waiting for the perfect flavors ---blackberry, raspberry, dark cherry, strawberry, huckleberry, cassis---to mature is the final step for growing the elusive perfect grape. Picking too soon may leave some or many grapes not fully ripened, hence tannic or vegetal…both unpleasant. Full cluster sampling gives the best indication of…is this vine ready or not? Overly ripe fruit can be as bad as underly ripe; there is a perfect time to pick in each microclimate of the vineyard, and failure to pick exactly at that moment will not give one the desired result. Watching intersecting lines of pH and TA is good form, but ultimately, the flavor, and in some cases the bouquet of the grape must be just perfect. Harvest then, rush the grapes to the crush pad, and if you do not have the perfect grape, you will be close enough.

So is there a perfect grape? Well, we here at Cerro Prieto think so, and our history shows that if grapes can receive this kind of individual attention and care, they can qualify as the perfect grape. One thing: there is no such thing as a shortcut in the quest. Too high a tonnage of grapes/acre(greater than 2.5-3.0 T/acre), improper pruning/thinning, inattention to nutrient or water needs, rushing or overly delaying harvest…all can defeat the quest. But if all the above occurs, and quirks of nature don’t intervene, the perfect grape may be elusive… but it is certainly attainable, and better yet, is reproducible.

Then, once the perfect grape is in hand(or rather, in the barrel)…the perfect wine is not far off.