january

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.

Cheers

Deepak Gulrajani

Happy New Year! I hope your holidays brought joyful times, health, and new memories with family and friends. The New Year at Nicholson Ranch started wet with a lot of rain and more forecast in the coming days.  This is a good thing for us, and for the vineyards, as the soil soaks up the rain and stores the water for springtime growth.  The waterfall you see from our tasting room is continuously flowing, filling up the pond below, inviting life. We spotted the first waterfowl to return, a cormorant and a pair of ducks (likely migrating bufflehead). The grass shooting up on the surrounding hills is slowly turning green. When we get more sunshine the hills and the vineyards will be robed in a swathe of verdant green.

All the wine from 2022 is now in barrels in our underground cellars.  The grapes picked in September fermented in small tanks in the winery.  The first fermentation is when yeast convert the grape sugars to alcohol and other compounds that impart flavors and aromas. This fermentation takes about three weeks.  The wine then goes through the second, slower fermentation called malolactic fermentation (ML for short) that converts the malic acid in grapes to a softer, creamier lactic acid.  The fermentation can take two months (or sometimes longer).  ML just finished for the very last barrel of 2022.  All red wines (with rare exceptions) go through the second ML fermentation. Not only does ML improve the texture of the wine, but it also makes the wine age-worthy.  Without ML, the wine would be excessively tart and texturally rough.

In addition, ML converts the malic acid which is a food source for some microbes into a more stable lactic acid.  As a result, we can store and age the wine in barrels for a long time without fear of spoilage.  For a winemaker, this is a very satisfying moment, when we guide the wine to being not just a tasty beverage, but one that will provide immense pleasure years after it was made.  Recently, I heard from members who are still enjoying older Nicholson Ranch Pinot Noirs from the 2011 and 2013 vintages. Curious about other vintages we opened bottles of 2008 and 2010 Pinots. Both wines showed beautiful aromas and flavors, belying their age.  For me, these older bottles are like photo albums with memories encapsulated from their vintage year.

This wine club release includes wines from 2017 that are just approaching their prime, as well as a 2019 “777” Pinot Noir. We hope these wines bring back joyful memories from their vintage years.

Cheers!

Dear Friends,

Happy New Year! We are enjoying a good start at Nicholson Ranch, even with Covid.  After a year of a severe drought, California received abundant rain delivered by a cascade of storms dubbed “atmospheric rivers” for their serpentine appearance on a radar map.  The immense rainfall turned our wine-country hills bright green by Halloween and the Sierra Nevada mountains white by Christmas.  After two years of being a mud-hole, our pond is full to the brim, the surface shining like a silver mirror.  The winter sun, flying low, makes the moisture sparkle on the green hills.  Sunset bathes the landscape in an orange hue.  At the moment, it is perfect.

Despite the tribulations of Covid, last year was one of the best years for me.  As of the end of 2021, my three older kids are all venturing out into their adult lives.  Zander, my eldest, is literally off the payroll.  After three years of working in our lab and hosting our guests, Zander decided to pursue further and deeper in the lab sciences area.  Taylor, my second son, has his first real job as an engineering consultant in the Bay Area; and, Natalie, my only daughter, was accepted by UCSF, one of the best medical schools anywhere.  I am a proud father and I feel very content having the kids move out into the world.

The New Year has also got me breaking out to experience life beyond wine country.  Early this month my wife, Nancy, and I were in Houston for a family wedding.  It was good to travel and see friends and family after two years.  It was exhilarating to celebrate with music, color and delicious food. I feel refreshed and rejuvenated.  As 2022 is my 60th year, I plan to celebrate my milestone year by spending time with friends and family, visiting India in the spring and Europe in the summer.   

I look forward to seeing you, my wine club family and friends in 2022.  Come out and visit Wine Country.

In the meantime, we have wonderful Nicholson Ranch estate wines for you from the 2018 and 2019 vintages.  The California sun, our volcanic soil, and the craft of my winemaking team allows us to share our little corner of Sonoma with you.  

Cheers.

Deepak Gulrajani