The crush months Sept 15 to Oct 15

You learn a lot of different things when you start a wine company. It has been a crazy few weeks at Row Eleven.

Craig our National Sales Manager

Craig is in New York hanging with all the stars of the Food Channel. He is always flying somewhere. He claims he is working hard. Sales calls, interviewing sales people, but the pictures tell quite a different story. There is Craig his arm around Fierri looking as if the party has been raging quite a while.

Craig has a wife and four daughters. He is the only male in the house. My partner Ken thinks this is why he likes to travel. I don’t know. Whenever I am with Craig out in the market I can tell he would rather be home. That might be because he is stuck with me every night.

Craig is a 6’5” shaved head ex-marine. I think he is tough. All his daughter’s boyfriends think he is too. Craig loves scaring has daughter’s new boyfriends. Craig likes to go to Marine attention, and look down on new suitors, like a drill sergeant looking down on fresh meat. They know if they mess with him he will rip their heads off. Then he will carry their heads around the neighborhood as trophies.

His oldest daughter is now a freshman in College. She has a new boyfriend. This guy was going to receive the same treatment. Craig’s plan was to let him have it on parent’s weekend. Craig and his wife were sitting on the couch planning their trip. His wife was excited. She would be seeing the daughter who was now missing at evening dinners. Craig was excited. He was thinking how he was going to explain to the boyfriend the ripping off of heads thing, when the phone rang. It was the daughter. The new boyfriend was on television. All they had to do was turn on the football game to see him.

Craig said he appears to be a very nice young man. The announcer said he is a sophomore, who apparently, is still trying to grow into his mere 6’6” 300 pound frame. He is a starting lineman for Penn State. I asked Craig if he has laid down the law yet. He says he hasn’t had time. Now don’t get me wrong. I am sure Craig won’t back down. I just think he and this prospective suitor are just going to see things a little more eye to eye.

Thongs can be dangerous

I learned why some women should not wear thongs at work. One of my California sales people bent down to pick up a case of wine in a retail store the other day. There was this loud rip. Her pants split completely from front to back. Fortunately, the owner had some sweatshirts he could offer her. The problem was the long walk to the back of the store, past what seemed to be an endless amount of sympathetic sales clerks.

Jealousy or just an accident

A forklift ran wild in the winery in Northern California crashing into my fermenting tank of Sanchietti Ranch Russian River Pinot Noir. Saigné is a French winemaking term which essentially means to bleed juice out of a fermenter. The thought is, that if you remove some juice from the fermenter, you increase the grape skins to juice ratio. The result may be a richer more concentrated wine. Well, the tank began to bleed all over the floor. I began to bleed with it. Oh well, maybe it will make a more interesting wine. Stay tuned.

Santa Maria This is a very odd crush. I would have sworn that this crush was going to be mediocre. Let’s face it. 2007 was a great year. This year the Santa Maria grapes looked so/so out in the vineyards. 2007 was such a great year that any other year was going to be a disappointment. But wait, every vineyard we have is fermenting beautifully. All the numbers are good. Last year the wines were edgy and interesting. This year the wines are really upfront and classical in flavors. Who would have thought?

Bien Nacido

Lisa has been making my life miserable. I love blending the Pommard grapes and Dijon grapes that I get from Bien Nacido. Lisa wants to make two different wines show casing the differences. I can’t have a five minute conversation with her without getting a twenty minute dissertation on the value of vineyard designate wines. I live for the blend which is always more fun, more interesting, more creative, and more delicious than any one block in any one vineyard can give. So, me being the winemaker, it must be obvious to you what the final decision was. We decided to ferment our Bien Nacido blocks separately. Blocks N and T were just pressed out this week. My winemaking buddies from Barrel 27 Mack and Russell are really excited about this years wine.

Russian River

I am waiting for the Chicago Jenn’s to start telling me how to make the Russian River wine. They are still a little shy with me yet. But, I know someday it will happen. Mel Sanchietti gave me a new clone to try from his vineyard. So we actually have a little more Sanchietti Ranch this year, despite losses due to the forklift assassin. We are excited to see how it tastes. It is too early to tell. Unlike the Santa Maria grapes, these grapes looked the best that I have ever seen them.

Bottling

While crushing in three different sites we also bottled four different lots this month. So, all the 2007’s are now in the bottle after eleven months on oak.

Fall

I get moody in the fall, more so than any other time of year. I don’t know why. Maybe it is all the crush adrenaline leaving the body. Or the loss of all those excited green leaves that seem to burst from the vines, so full of growth and promise, now dry and yellow. Or, maybe I miss seeing the clusters in their perfect places, ornamenting each vine that are now so conspicuously absent. You ever think about how clusters are cut from the vine, dumped into a bin, and then are crushed to let out the juice inside? Tragic if the story stopped there.

I told you I feel down in the fall. So, I was deeply saddened to read that wine bloggest Tom Wark’s dog Tucker died. Tucker apparently was very old. Tragically, they found him in their pool. What struck me is that I have something in common with Tom whom I do not know. I too lost my favorite companion the same way. I found Britt in my pond. Tucker knew exactly where the pool was. Britt knew exactly where the pond was. He knew exactly where it was safe to walk. He who had ignored it for so many years decides to spare me the one thing I could never bring myself to do. Take him to a vet and put him down. Britt, 15 years old and tiring daily, took charge, leaving me alone to find him and wonder what had happened, and why? Was it a horrible accident? Did Bogie our younger dog push him in when he wasn’t looking? I wouldn’t put it past that Bogie. No, I really think Britt did this on purpose. But, who would believe me? I thought I was alone with this sorrow. I have carried it a lot of years. But, now I read that Tucker did the same thing.

Oddly, Tom’s sorrow brings me closure and peace in an odd way. That I and the knowledge that someone I have never met, shares with me so deep and profound a feeling as the painful and strange loss of a treasured pet and friend. I am not alone. And though you don’t know it, neither are you, Tom. So here is a toast to Tucker and Tom. I am going to drink a young wine, one full of promise. I am going to go out to the edge of the pond and toast us all. I am going to think about Britt, and Tucker and Tom and wonder why out of sorrow something wonderful always comes. Still, while I am standing there I am going to keep and eye out for that Bogie.

That is just some of the news from Row Eleven, where all the wines are great. All our customers are beautiful, all our sales people are amazing, and everyone is happy except Nina, who just cut her hair.