Update on Test Vineyard

Sweat equity only goes so far. The progress on the test vineyard is slow but steady. The trenches have been filled and the weeds have taken over, but the gash where the tile was laid is still apparent. Check out what it looked like this winter.
We hired a rock splitter to make smaller boulders from several 40,000 pound boulders so that they too can be buried in the fall. From what we can tell, during the winter, these buried boulders erupt in the spring to give a bumper crop of baseball sized rocks.
We'll visit some nurseries this fall to get an idea of what they have in stock. This is not what is recommended by UC Davis, but we'll be sure to see if they have the rootstock and scion we are interested in growing.

Thermovinification and 1995 Chateau de Beaucastel

I'm rereading my Wine Production notes and came to the section on Thermovinification. In our class, we didn't discuss thermovinification so it was one of those topics that kind of fell by the wayside.
Linda Bisson defines thermovinication as: The holding of the must or intact berries at a high temperature for a short period of time, followed by rapid cooling. The process is not as rapid as thermoflash maceration, nor does it lead to the same amount of cell damage. Whole berries may be treated rather than must. In this case the surface of the berry reaches a high temperature, but the pulp does not. This provides the heat treatment exclusively to the skin cells rather than to the entire must.
The consequences of thermovinification sound beneficial:
Heat denaturation of enzymes (PPO)
Increases color extraction
Increases stability of "purple dimer"
Alters microbial flora
Easier to press leading to higher yield
Characteristic flavor changes
Fruit characters intense but less complex
Increase vegginess (may be too intense once fruit disappears)
Hydrolyze terpene glycosides to free terpenes
Aging/Chemical reactions occur
This lead me to Google wines made by thermovinification and I came across an article in Wines & Vines written by Tim Patterson in December 2010 called Thermovinification Heats Up. What surprised and kind of shocked me is that in this article, Tim Patterson writes that Chateau de Beaucastel uses thermovinification to control their brettanomyces problem. It was kind of a timely article for me to read because we had some friends over for dinner and had the 1995 Chateau de Beaucastel. I asked my friend who is a grape grower and a tasting judge if he could smell any brett on the wine and he said "no". I also did not smell brett and wondered if my memory of the Quality Control class was faulty. In Quality Control, one of the wines that was said to have brett was Chateau de Beaucastel. After reading the article on thermovinification, I'm wondering when Chateau de Beaucastel began their heat treatments.

Dr. Richard Smart and his view of Conventional, Organic and Biodynamic Viticulture

The June 2011 issue of "The Drinks Business" featured an article written by Lucy Shaw which had the title Dr. Richard Smart Slams Organics. Lucy Shaw's article is a very short summary of statements that Dr. Smart made at a Conference in Barcelona, the topic was Wineries for Climate Protection. I'm not sure if Lucy Shaw meant to have an eye catching title to lure the reader and the first line certainly did not stop me from plunging into the entire article head first.
The article quotes Dr. Smart as saying: “When people buy food they don’t mind choosing products that have been grown on land treated with chemicals, so why should they care about how a wine has been treated?” Smart spoke passionately about the need for winemakers to wake up to the fact that CO₂ is a pollutant. “Oenologists are environmental vandals of the worst type. CO₂ is the greatest pollutant and winemakers are releasing it back into the atmosphere, undoing all the good work in the vineyard."
I've been reading Dr. Smart's articles in Practical Winery & Vineyard and somehow, what he was quoted as saying just didn't add up. I wondered if he was trying to be intentionally provocative. The current (Summer 2011) PW&V has an article written by Dr. Smart entitled "In Defense of Conventional Viticulture". I wondered if conventional viticulture does need defending. As a wine drinker, I am first concerned with wine flavor, I understand that in order to grow grapes much care must be taken in the vineyard to get a crop, whether by conventional or alternative farming methods. But, as a grape grower, I will try my best to grow grapes without resorting to herbicides and pesticides because I know that they are harmful to the environment and the long term sustainability of the land.

2007 Vietti Nebbiolo

We had this Nebbiolo made by Vietti with Vietnamese bahn mi sandwich. The color was clear garnet and the aroma was of black cherries. The flavor was spicy and went well with the spicy sandwich. I thought that it had an aftertaste of black tea and I liked the lingering note. The mouthfeel was well balanced. We have been enjoying the wines made by Vietti. We have also had their 2009 Roero Arneis and their 2008 Barbera d'Asti. The Barbera d'Asti had a little barnyard aroma and the flavor was a little vegetal. The Nebbiolo is a good value at under $20.00
The Vietti Winery Website is located here: Vietti Winery