october

  • October 23rd, 2024

    By

    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

  • October 12th, 2021

    By

    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.

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    Happy Thanksgiving

    Deepak Gulrajani