Pick Your Favorite

Tuesday • November 29, 2011

Wow! Our most successful e-blast yet! All we had to do was challenge your imagination. Thank you for your creative participation in naming our 2010 Zinfandel Blend.

Doctors responded. Famous authors responded. Musicians responded. Other winemakers responded. Financial wizards found time to noodle. Mom, daughter, sisters, nieces, nephews, cousins, in-laws, best friends, insurance brokers, and our dentist responded—over 100 suggestions in all.

Some were funny: Pouty Lips, Toby’s Favorite (accompanied by a picture of dog Toby). Some played on the word zin: Zin on a Hot Tin Roof, Whine Not Zin, Original Zin, Zin de Rella. Some elegant: Fidelio, Debutante, Duality. Some visual: Little Yellow Wagon, Moonlight, and Purple Dusk.

We whittled the 100 down to ten possibilities:

Then the three finalists:

Special Dally suggests a memorable indulgence about to unfold and the play on Anita’s name, Speciale, and mine, D’Alessio, is a witty entendre.

Rin Zin Twin makes us smile every time we say it, though we worry some may think our wine a dog.

JAzzin’ is another clever play on our names: J for Joseph, A for Anita, double z for the two blended Zinfandels. It is a name that suggests sophistication, entertainment, and joy.

What do you think? Let us know which is your favorite by checking one of the three above finalists. We will consider your choices and announce the winner by December 12th.

Enjoy the holidays. Salute La Famiglia!

2011 Harvest and Vintage Lucy

Thursday • November 10, 2011

	The 2011 harvest is complete. Our Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah and Zinfandel are resting in their new barrels.   What a year! A late frost in April took much of the spring set of fruit from our Syrah and, two weeks later, three days of gusty winds battered our Cabernet vines. We lost about half of our Syrah to the frost and about two-thirds of the Cabernet crop to “shatter.” Shatter is often due to extreme weather which causes the tiny flowers to drop from the cluster, never to become berries. (See The Oxford Companion to Wine, 3rd Edition, page 291, under “fruit set.”)
	While Mother Nature negatively affected the Syrah and Cabernet production, our Zinfandel production was up about 30%. Go figure!   However, as is often the case with Mother Nature, she doesn’t always just take away — our fruit’s quality is excellent this year. We’ll keep you posted as it is on its way to the bottle, which we project to be April 2013.
	And did we have some fun along the way to barreling! On October 19th, we hosted our First Annual Lucy Stomp. It was a big hit. Anita does look like Lucy, red hair and all!
Jay	Vince and Lido
	A dozen friends picked, sorted, and stomped most of the day.
Leahandah & Best Pal
As usual, our friends Jay, Lynn and Jim came to lend a hand. Leahandah, ever helpful, was back, too, this year and brought her friend Laura and our new guard dog, Lido. Even our dentist, Kathryn, helped out.
	Dr. Kathryn
	After picking the real fun began. Cousin Sheila and husband Tom starred in stomp and bailing. Memories of Lucy were recalled. Some even dressed the part.
Cousin Sheila & Anita
	Stomp!
	Stomp. Stomp!!
	Stomp. Stomp. Stomp!!!
Next year we will host the Second Annual Lucy Stomp on a Saturday, probably October 27th or November 3rd. We hope many more of you can have a “foots in” (think “hands on”) experience. We follow with a delightful champagne celebration and lunch. And pedicures to remove the purple coloring from our toes, feet and ankles. (not) We are thankful for our excellent harvest and have an ever growing respect for farmers everywhere. Anita and I wish you and your families abountiful and peaceful holiday season. Salute La Famiglia,Anita & Joseph

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.

Grapes to be harvested. Notice slight shriveling--very desirable

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).

Picking

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.

...Picking....

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.

..and picking

World's best crew!

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 Romanianoak barrels with medium+ toastedstaves 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 alcoholof 16.6%!!!

Enfold-er

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 alcoholof 16.2%.

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

Making Our Wine – Photo Essay

Friday • December 10, 2010

October 2010 was a whirlwind of picking grapes, followed by crushing and de-stemming, punching down, pressing and finally barreling our Enfold 2010 varietals. Here’s an album of all the hubbub.

	Is she picking grapes or having coffee?
	Preparing to crush
	Crushing, removing stems and leaves
	Crushed grapes
	Fermentation begins in bins
	“Punching down” skins into the juice
	Primary fermentation is complete; siphoning off free run juice
	First filtration
	Pressing off the juice from the skins
	Wine rests in the barrels
	Zin on Hungarian Oak.
	Vines are asleep; harvest and barreling are complete

Birth Announcement

Thursday • October 21, 2010

On September 29, 2010, we picked our estate Syrah for the first time. The weather was mild in the early morning, the brix and pH were blissfully right, and we had good friends to help us. Fueled with strong coffee and muffins, we worked through the three rows, carefully selecting the fruit (no leaves, please!) and celebrated afterwards with champagne and lunch. After months of tending the grapes tirelessly in the summer heat, culling the not-perfect clusters and worrying over the weather, Joseph could celebrate our first varietal in the bins. Salute! Below, you’ll see our birth announcement for Baby Syrah and her brothers.

Birth!
Wow!!
What a kick!!!

Two and one half years in the arrival. Baby Syrah, born 9/29/2010, 800 lbs, ruby red coloring, sweet disposition (26.5 brix), but with just enough edge (3.67 pH) to be the perfect child. Mother and father are doing well. Baby is resting in a warm environment. Needs to be “changed” 2-3 times a day (the juices need to be punched down– bottom to top, top to bottom. Be careful not to crush any seeds!). Three days after being taken out of her incubator, Baby received her shots (innoculated with yeast) and bubbled with joy.

Loving, gentle, and hardworking godparents Leahandah Bohner, Jessica Cozzetto, Steve Gould, and Jim Bailey assisted in Syrah’s birth. The proud parents couldn’t have done it without them.Baby will take up residence in a lovely french oak chalet (60 gallon barrel) in just a few more days and will spend most of her infancy resting and maturing in the dark. Occasionally we will visit and see how Baby is developing.

Anita punches newly harvested grapes

Within two years we will introduce little Syrah to her siblings. Big brother Zinfandel, a really big boy of two tons, was brought into this world by professional midwives a few days after Syrah and smaller brother, Cab (full name Cabernet Sauvignon), was born three weeks late on the 9th of October. The godparents and other friendswill be invited to the debut of all three siblings in about two years. Between now and then, we’ll all watch the babies’ development with avid curiosity.

Late Summer Update

Thursday • September 23, 2010

Late Summer, 2010,

Friends and Family,

Veraison is complete. Veraison is the change of color and texture of the berries from green and hard to purple and soft. It is the end of the growth cycle and the beginning of the ripening process. (See The Oxford Companion To Wine, Jancis Robinson, 3rd edition, Oxford University Press. It is the best reference book available and can be found on Amazon, used books, for about $30-$35. Worth every penny!).

We finished our pruning by dropping the unevenly ripened fruit and have winnowed about half our Zinfandel and about one third of the Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. Our Zin plants produced enough fruit to weigh in at 10-15 pounds per plant. We have culled to produce about eight pounds and will harvest about five pounds. Just the very perfect and concentrated fruit. The Syrah and Cab were on track to produce between 6-8 pounds per plant. We will pick about four pounds per plant…just the best of the best.

Brix (ratio of sugar to water in the berries) and pH (acidity. we aim for 3.2-3.6) are changing every day, but, s-l-o-w-l-y. We expect to harvest the Syrah first, in about two weeks, Cab in three weeks and Zin in early and mid October. Our last to harvest will be a limited production (25 cases, and only in extraordinary years) Zinfandel, Block 1, Rows 1, 2 & 3.

These vines have been tended differently. We exposed the fruit of rows 1, 2 & 3 to more direct sunlight in their early development and then shaded them with a second growth canopy. We pruned the berries and bunches which were “burned” or over ripened. We gave the plants more water in the spring and early summer and have been cutting back since mid June. We will not water these rows from now on. All these efforts are to encourage early ripening and then a slow build up to a high Brix count 28-30%. We will then put this wine on a heavily toasted, Hungarian, half oak barrel. (Toasting is the process of applying heat to the insides of a barrel. The heat chemically alters the composition of the staves reducing tannins. Lesser tannins produce a “rounder,” smoother, finish to the wine.) Our goal is to produce a big, fruit-forward wine, much like Helen Turley’s Zins produced in Paso from 1995-2005 and Chris Pisani’s early (pre 2000) Zins for ZD.

A late October harvest risks rain. Zin berries are very tightly clustered and will not dry out easily when rain water seeps in between them. They rot. This work of farming requires a delicate balance and a little bit of luck. Keep your fingers crossed.
A surprising number of you have asked to be part of the harvest. I’ll try and give you a two day notice. All hands will be appreciated. But be forewarned, I am a tough taskmaster…no long stems, no leaves and no dirt!!! Just perfect clusters.

More to follow regarding harvest, fermentation and racking.

Salut La Famiglia,
Joseph and Anita

Summer Update

Thursday • July 22, 2010

The grapes and vineyard look absolutely splendid! The past winter’s rains have created a healthy abundance of fruit. Our careful prunings over the winter and into early spring have paid dividends…handsome, upright and sturdy shoots.

I have chosen to early prune — that is, to thin the leaf cover in front of the fruit but to leave a full canopy to overhang the exposed clusters.

The first two photos show a before and after. They are of the same vine. You can see the leaves pulled to expose to the sun and the canopy trimmed to create shade between 1-3 o’clock in the afternoon. Look at the third photo and you will see what has been removed, including dropped fruit. This trimming, removing of unwanted fruit and creation of a canopy takes about 2 1/2 to 3 hours per row. Thirty-four rows, 1,317 plants!

We will harvest no more than 4-5 pounds per vine, or about 6-8 clusters. Each plant now holds an average of 12-18 clusters. We will drop more fruit after the clusters turn purple, culling those clusters which have not ripened well or unevenly. This “green drop” will occur in about a month. In late August/early September we will drop the “worst of the best” to get us to our 4-5 pounds per vine yield.

(Technical Aside) We plant approximately 1,000 vines per acre. 4-5 pounds per vine translates to 2-21/2 tons per acre. Very low yield, very intense flavors.

I will “trim” the vines each week and modify the watering program depending on berry growth and temperature. This week will be the hottest so far this year. We have had unseasonably cool temperatures this spring and early summer. But this weekend, and early next week, we will see 100-107!! Remember, we cool down at night to 55. A 50+ degree swing. The grapes love it!

I’ll send out more updates as we work our way toward harvest. Please send me any questions or requests you have.

Now some business matters. Two things:

Firstly, PLEASE sign in on our website with your mailing address (snail mail) and telephone number. This is the only way you can become a member of our wine club. ONLY WINE CLUB MEMBERS will be able to purchase our wines. There is no obligation to buy but you must be a member.

Secondly, many of you commented on the story about how “George’s Blend” came to be. The saga continues.
I am delighted to tell you that both his beautiful daughters will be married this summer, to men George would be proud of. Our “library” of “George’s Blend” is getting low but you can bet we will toast his children’s future with the wine he inspired and helped to make…”salute la famiglia.”

Take care,
Anita and Joseph