Wine in progress: Viognier and Grenache Blanc

“Come down from there, right now!”

With the harvest so early this year, Christian had hoped to be lounging by a pool somewhere in the Caribbean about now.  Unfortunately, though, the children — not Ivy and Julian but rather metaphorically the wine — needed some babysitting.

The whites have been the best behaved since they finished their primary fermentation by early October and Christian chose once again to prevent the wines from going through secondary, or malolactic  fermentation.  The primary fermentation is where, put simply, the sugars in the grape juice convert to alcohol.  The second fermentation (without getting too technical and paraphrasing Wikipedia)  is where tart-tasting malic acid, which is naturally present in the pressed grapes, is converted to softer-tasting, lactic acid.  By keeping the wine cool and using a judicious amount of sulphur, Christian avoids malolactic fermentation and crafts wines with a “crisper” and less buttery style.  Think a crisp Grenache Blanc with oysters or a slightly tart Viognier with grilled peaches.

6 barrels of Damiano Vineyard Viognier and 7 barrels of Saarloos Vineyard Grenache Blanc now sit in cold storage awaiting bottling next year. Christian will make sure they behave in the meantime.

Napping

Impatient grapes

Even the slow ripening Grenache Blanc that we get down in Los Olivos, Santa Barbara County, was impatient this year.  On September 25, the Grenache Blanc from the El Camino Real Vineyard of the Saarloos Family was harvested and trucked to our facility in Sonoma County.  We expected them in mid-October.  The grapes were — like all this year — beautiful and ready for pressing.  This will be a record year for Stark Wines — all grapes in by the end of September.