Dear Friends,
We are in the last week of Harvest 2021. It has been an extended and relaxed harvest season. After the heat of late summer, fall brought cooler weather with highs in the 70s and 80s and lows as low as the 40s. A harvest day starts before dawn as the grapes are cold, refrigerated by nature. Picking grapes cold preserves the natural flavors and keeps harmful bacteria at bay. Harvesting our grapes by hand is the gentlest way to pick fruit and protect all the flavors. Bruised fruit does not make good wine.
I am in the vineyard each day we harvest, keeping a sharp eye on each bunch picked. If a bunch is less ripe, or sometimes too ripe, it gets tossed. There is no time for “to be or not to be”. If a grape cluster does not look good it gets discarded. In between the grape-tossing I get to enjoy and delight in the beauty of dawn. Somedays the moon is full and about to set as the sun slowly glows from the other side. Somedays, the stars are bright, with Sirius piercing the night-sky. The air, weighed down by night’s humidity, allows moisture to condense on the grape berries making them glisten under the pickers head-lamps. There is no better place to be.
This year’s moderate heat was the perfect harvest weather. It allows grapes to take longer to ripen and spend more days hanging on the vine. The longer “hang-time” gives the grapes more time in the sunshine. And, sunshine is the magic ingredient to develop flavor and texture. Flavors of pear, apple and peach in Chardonnay; tea, roses and berries in Pinot Noir develop with extra time basking outdoors. Tannins that create body, texture and mouthfeel also benefit from added sunshine. Besides making the wine taste good the chemical compounds, called phenols, that make up flavor and tannins are also good for you. Grape phenols are antioxidants and anti-inflammatory and have other health improving properties. So, take it from Dr. Deepak and enjoy a glass or two of Nicholson Ranch every day. Cheers to your health.
Thank you all for your good wishes and support in 2021. I am blessed and I am grateful.
Happy Thanksgiving
Deepak Gulrajani