Birth to Adolescence

Friday • December 10, 2010

All is well. Our wine is barreled and resting. We put up 10 1/2 barrels, which should produce about 175 cases of Enfold 2010 wines for sale in late 2012: 100 of “Anita’s Blend;”
50 Zinfandel Blend; and 25 Zin Block 1 / Rows 1, 2, 3.  We had great luck with all our fruit.  The prolonged ripening at the end of our mild summer allowed the clusters to develop complexities beyond simple sugars and acids.

The Syrahs are fabulous!!!  We could have bottled them without putting them on the oak! They were grand right from the fermentation tanks. We are so excited about what the Syrahs will be like after maturing on French oak for 15-18 months. We will use all of it in Anita’s Blend. It will comprise about 40% of the blend. (We’ve appended a technical report on each of the varietals, clones and barreling techniques at the end of this email).

The Zinfandels were surprising.  We harvested some early and some late—both very distinctive and flavorful.  The later harvest will be our “BIG” Zin, “Block 1, Rows 1,2,3.”  The earlier harvest will be one of the varietals in “Anita’s Blend.”

The Cabernet Sauvignon came in late but with terrific promise.  Not much production (just three pounds per plant) but very, very intense fruit.  All of it will be part of “Anita’s Blend.”

We will filter or “rack” the wine every three months and replace the evaporated wine or “top it off” monthly.  We’ll taste often.

If you’d like to see more pictures of the process of making the wine, please see our other photos below.

Malolactic fermentation (MLF) or secondary fermentation (the conversion of malic acid to lactic acid) will take place in the barrel and soften the wine’s acidity.  (To learn more about racking, topping off, and malolactic fermentation, see pages 560, 702, and 422 respectively in The Oxford Companion To Wine, 3rd Ed.)

Sometime in 2012 we’ll blend and bottle the wine and then allow it to sit for a few months. We expect to ship members’ purchases in time for Thanksgiving.  Please sign up on our website www.enfoldwines.com/club-enfold.

In the middle of next month, we’ll start pruning, the “canopy cut,” and finish in mid-March. More about what we learned this year and what subtle, and not so subtle, changes we will make in anticipation of next year’s harvest will appear in future blogs.

We will plant about 300 Mourvedre vines this spring. I hope to produce a video of the process. We’ll keep you informed.

To you who helped us harvest, thank you very much.  And to all, have a blessed Christmas and a healthy, prosperous New Year.

Salute la famiglia,

Anita & Joseph

For you “tech know files:”

We harvested our estate grown Tablas Creek Syrah clone at 26.2 brix/3.61pH. We put it on new French oak, medium toast, Radoux RWS barrels (Red Wine Select — half tight, half medium grained staves) at an alcohol of 15.4%.  To learn more about cooperage go to www.tonnellerieradoux.com.

We picked most of our Zinfandel, Rows 4-15 (Wine Creek clone), at 23.5 brix/3.46 pH put it on a variety of new Hungarian, Bulgarian and Romanian oak barrels with medium+ toasted staves and tops, at an alcohol of 14.8%.

Zin Block 1, Rows 1,2,3 was harvested at a whopping 26.5 brix/3.4 pH, and we put it on new French oak, medium toast, Radoux RWS barrels at an alcohol of 16.6%!!!

We harvested Zin Rows 16-19 (Dupratt clones) at 25.2 brix/3.7 pH and we put it on new French oak, medium+ toast, Radoux RWS barrels at an alcohol of 16.2%.

Our Cabernet Sauvignon registered 24.0 brix/3.6 pH and we put it on new French oak, medium toast, Radoux RWS barrels at an alcohol of 14.3%.

Due to deer damage last spring, our Syrah vines were unable to produce enough fruit for Anita’s Blend. We contracted with Estrella Farms to produce fruit to our standards and hand harvested 500 pounds from their Rows 23 and 24.  The brix was 29.0/3.58 pH and we put it on new French oak, medium toast, Radoux RWS barrels at an alcohol of 15.1%.

If you are really interested, email me at joseph@www.enfoldwines.com for the tartaric acid levels (See page 681 of the Oxford Companion To Wine). They were all below 0.7%.

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