2024

  • October 23rd, 2024

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    A picture is worth a thousand words. The images above are the high point of Harvest 2024. That is me with Pinot Noir grapes from the new Wine Club block. On the right is the Rosé we make from the latest Pinot Noir. On the left is the harvest of the Natalie Chardonnay vineyard.

    As you know, we have been working on replanting for a few years. The summary version – in 2022 we asked a local nursery to grow the baby vines in a greenhouse before planting them (with wine club members’ help) in the Nicholson Ranch vineyard in April 2023. This year, their third year, the young vines bore a small number of grapes. Grapes from young vines are generally more fruit-forward and have a softer texture – perfect for making a Pinot Noir rose. I am thrilled to taste the new vineyard’s grapes and wines. I look forward to sharing these with you next year.

    The new vines were harvested in the first half of September. The grapes on mature vines take a little longer to ripen—these grapes that make the reserve Pinot Noirs were harvested by the first week in October. The weather in September and October was challenging, fluctuating from a few days of heat with highs in the mid-90s to 100s to a few days moderating to the 70s and 80s. The hot days ripen the grapes faster and require quick decisions on harvesting.

    The Nicholson Ranch vineyard is divided into many blocks. Its slope and type of soil define each block. Are the vines on top of the hill, or a slope, or on the valley floor? Is the soil clay, volcanic, or sandy? Each combination of slope and soil will produce distinct flavor grapes. Each block ripens at a different time, some taking a week or two longer to attain the best flavors. When I taste the grapes, I am sensitive to each block individually. The hot days required me to use all my experience in the vineyard to harvest each block when each had the best flavor.

    Each block is then fermented and aged separately. After two years of aging, the differences between the wines for each block are more pronounced. The different blocks make a wonderful selection of Nicholson Ranch wines, each different from the other but distinctly Nicholson Ranch.

    This upcoming wine club release features the 2021 Dry Farmed Pinot Noir and the 2019 Cuvee Natalie Chardonnay, each from its own unique block. These wines, with their distinct flavors and characteristics, truly embody the magic of the Nicholson Ranch vineyard. I can’t wait for you to experience them.

    Happy Thanksgiving

    Deepak Gulrajani

  • August 21st, 2024

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    Dear Friends,

    We hope you had a great Summer and continue to enjoy the next few weeks of wonderful weather. August in Sonoma is very pleasant with highs in the 80s and lows in the 50s, great weather for the grapes to ripen. June and especially July were significantly warmer than last year, with July likely having some of the warmest weather I have seen in a long time. At this stage, the grapes are dark green and tough and able to handle the heat. The grapes started ripening in late July and over time will start softening up and develop sweet flavors. The cooler August has come at the right time for optimal ripening.

    As some of you have noticed I write more often about the weather as we get closer to harvest. The weather from now to September greatly influences the color, flavor, and texture of the wine. Either my son Zander or I go through the vineyard regularly to assess the progress of the vines. Soon we will sample the grapes and taste the juice. The sampling is methodical, going through each row in order, picking a grape from every tenth vine, some from the top of the cluster, some from the middle and some from the bottom. Zander collects the grapes and brings them to the winery. We press the juice and let it soak for an hour before tasting it in a wine glass. We assess the juice with the same acute attention as we would a fine wine. We look at the color, the aroma and taste. Does the Pinot Noir juice have the right shade of red, do the aromas evoke flowers, red berries and is it reminiscent of freshly brewed black tea. For Nicholson Ranch Pinot, tea is a key aroma to assess the ripeness. When we sip the juice does it have balance between the sweetness and acidity. All these sensory facets translate to the final wine, so getting it right for harvest is essential.

    On a parallel track I pay close attention to the short-term weather forecast. Cooler weather in the 70s will allow us to wait a few days before harvest. A sudden heat spike in the 90s or an unseasonal rainstorm will need a quicker decision. The harvest decision is the most significant decision a winemaker can make. In a vintage where we are blessed with cooler weather a winemaker has more leeway. When conditions are less than perfect the winemaker’s decision will make the difference from good to great.

    The 2021 Cactus Hill is the first wine from the 2021 vintage. The weather in 2021 had all the drama of a tougher vintage with a hot spell in early September followed by two, fortunately, small rainstorms. 2021 may have had some drama but this story has a Hollywood ending – a Cactus Hill that is as good if not better than any prior vintage we have produced.

    Before I end this note, I have a small ask – please refer the Nicholson Ranch wine club to friends and family. As a thank-you, for each new member you sign up you receive a $200 credit that you can use to pay for a wine club shipment or for purchasing additional wine. New members can sign up online on our website www.nicholsonranch.com. Just send us an email with the name of the new member and how you would like to use your credit. If you sign up more than one member, you receive additional $200 credits for each member you refer. A gift that keeps on giving.

    Cheers

    Deepak Gulrajani

  • March 27th, 2024

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    Dear Friends,

    Spring is here!  After an interminable number of rainy days, we finally have had a week (or more) of sunshine daily.  We surely need the rain in California, and I am very grateful to get a typical wet season.  But I miss the sunshine, and it could not have come at a better time.  The rain is excellent; it soaks into the soil, sustaining the thirsty vines throughout the year.  Sunshine in March, following the wet winter, is ideal, just as the young vines are waking up from their winter dormancy.  All in all, a great start to 2024.

    Spring is also when we focus on bottling the wines from earlier vintages.  This year, we will be bottling many Pinot Noirs from 2022 and NIRVANA from 2021.  All the big reds to be bottled, Nicholson Ranch Merlot and Syrah, and Gulrajani Super-Tuscans and Cabernets are from 2021.  Two parallel tracks are essential for bottling.  The first is what is in the bottle, the wine itself, which is both a sensory and an immersive experience.  The second, much more mundane and prosaic, is the glass bottle and the packaging.

    Let us get to the wine.  I taste every barrel to ensure the quality of each barrel and to select barrels to reserve for NIRVANA.  Tasting wine from barrels is one of the favorite parts of my role as a winemaker.  Besides the wine tasting great, the work completely absorbs my attention, letting me forget about all other concerns.  Going from barrel to barrel, I am so grateful for what each barrel does to the wine.  The barrel, as you know, adds aroma and flavor and, more subtly, adds texture and body.  A wine not aged in a barrel can have great fruit and floral aromas.  A wine flavored with oak (essence, powder, or oak chips) will show vanilla, toast, and spice. However, only true barrel aging will transform the texture and integrate the fruit and oak flavors to create a sensory experience of smell, taste, and texture, from the bouquet to the mouthfeel to the finish.  Only patient barrel aging can make a great wine that will go beyond the sensory experience and spark emotions of joy, contentment, and nostalgia.

    Now for the nuts and bolts of getting the wine into bottles and planning the bottling.  After ordering the bottles, foils, labels, and corks, I ensure the bottling truck has been reserved and confirmed well in advance. I measure and check order quantities not just twice but three times.  Fortunately, the agony and stress of supply-chain problems are mostly behind us.  Getting ready for bottling is stressful enough. Better planning leads to bottling the wine without heat and oxygen exposure, which would diminish the quality.  I aim to open a freshly bottled wine and feel the same emotions of joy and contentment that I get tasting the wine from barrels.  

    This wine release includes the 2020 NIRVANA, a wine aged for three years in French oak barrels, and sure to evoke strong emotions with the first whiff of its aromas.  A detailed description is below.  

    Cheers,

    Deepak Gulrajani
    Winemaker / Owner
    Nicholson Ranch

  • January 16th, 2024

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    Dear Friends,

    Happy New Year! We are delighted to have had a great 2023 and look forward to a beautiful 2024.  The weather in 2023 was cooler than our average year, extending our harvest to November.  The wines are now in barrels after completing the primary fermentation and the secondary malolactic fermentation.  They will now age for two to three years in our underground cellars undisturbed, gradually transforming flavors and textures.

    At present, aboveground, the winter rains are making our surrounding hillsides green again. The wind and rain clear the air, so the days following the rain are sparklingly clear.  It is a bit nippy (by California standards) out there, but the sunlight invites one to rejoice in the shades of green lit up by the angled winter sunshine.  When it does rain, our waterfall wakes up and, for a couple of days, gushes exuberantly, transforming our view to one you may see serendipitously on a remote hike in the hills.  For us, it is front and center, framed perfectly from the window of our tasting room. 

     I invite you to visit our colorful California winter wonderland, rain or shine – no snow but a beautiful season.  As a travel note for many of our members from out of state, now through the end of March, hotel rates and airfares are less than half the price than in summer. Restaurant and winery reservations are more accessible.  Make Nicholson Ranch your anchor visit and explore Wine Country this winter.  Please feel free to email me directly at [email protected] or [email protected] for suggestions.  I love traveling to other wine countries, and I would love to share my favorite places in our Wine Country with you.

    While you are here, you will notice that while the grass is green, the grapevines are not.  The grapevines drop their leaves around Christmas, going into three months of restful dormancy.  The dormant plants store all their sap in their roots to protect the plants from cold, frosty nights, leaving dry leafless branches above.  The main activity in the vineyard is to prune the dry branches to prepare for the new season.  A crew of about fifteen people prune each vine by hand going from one vine to the next.  The pruner gauges the health of the vine by the thickness of the branches, called canes, and may keep three or four canes for a vigorous vine and maybe just one cane on a weaker vine.  All the remaining canes are cut off and dropped between the rows to be mulched and returned to the soil. Each grapevine is now perfectly structured to sprout new branches and bear fruit for the 2024 vintage.

    Please visit and witness the start of the vintage.  The centerpiece of your visit is, of course, a tasting of Nicholson Ranch wines.  This winter, we have added two Gulrajani heartier reds to the menu for you to enjoy.  I look forward to your visit.

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    Cheers

    Deepak Gulrajani