Cleaning It Up A Bit

Things might be changing here, I might be focusing mainly on the Grenache because I loves it so much.  As you can see, its put on some pounds over the last couple of weeks.  We also went through and thinned out some shoots.  Now you can see that only the shoots growing upward from the cordon are left, and only a max of two shoots per bud position.  The bud positions are spaced about a hand's width apart ideally, and it actually looks pretty good here.  

On the second photo you can see how clean everyone looks now.  The weather has been usual central coast up and down spring.  Highs in the 90s one day then back to the 60's with lows in the 30's.  Lucky no frost problems up here in these hills.  The flowers may starting popping in the next couple of weeks, so that will be our next look at the grenache. 

The ever popular Robert Parker Jr. is in town for Hospice du Rhone this weekend.  All the heavies will be pouring and this is about as fired up as I get for a wine event.  Some of the world's greatest wine and winemakers all in Paso for a few days.  I'll keep things updated, especially for tomorrow night's Rhone'n Bowl which should be amazing.

Frosty Bottoms

   Its been a bit chilly our here at night, so we went around to check for frost damage at the bottom of the Syrah blocks.  Lucky us, no real damage, but as you can see here, the bottom of the block is still just undergoing bud break, while the rest of the vineyard is all shoots and ladders.  Last year, we had to harvest these blocks in halves as the top vines were ripe about a week before the bottoms, and I would say right now just from bud break, the bottom is already a week behind.

GARNATXA

   These are my favorite vines on the estate.  Its a Spanish grape, Garnacha, that made its way to Catalonia, Garnatxa, and then over the Pyrenees into the southern Rhone valley of France to become Grenache.  From there, by ship to America where it found a home here in Paso Robles. So far, every wine that has impressed me in Paso has had at least some grenache in it, (well, outside Dave's Zin).  Some examples you ask?

2005 Adelaida Grenache

2006 Villa Creek Palanque

2005 Denner Ditch Digger

2005 Saxum Rocket Block

2006 Linne Calodo Sticks and Stones

    Yeah, all the heavies, and the list kind of goes on as well, so me thinks its safe to say that Grenache just might become the king

 of Paso.  The wines of Chateauneuf-du-Pape

are all heavy grenache wines, and our climate an

d soils pretty much match up, well besides the galets,  so there you go, we might be onto something.  Which all backs up idea that Rhones should be the backbone of the Paso wine scene.  Napa built its reputation on Cabernet Sauvignon, and climate wise, I'd have to say that you can make better Cab in Napa.  But our Rhones are unmatched.

    The 2007 grenache we pulled off the vineyard is by

 far the best wine I made for the vintage, so I'm paying close attention to these vines this year.  Even spent some time yesterday pulling off buds from the cordon bottoms.  You don't want these suckers taking up valuable vine nutrients and water.

Spring Be Springing

A bit lazy today (wow, I'll give this blog a 4% chance of longevity) so I checked out the nearest block I could.  Just few yards off the crush pad is block 5, our Malbec, and things were looking up and up.

As you see here, the shoots are shooting and the flower clusters are starting to form up.  This is encouraging stuff for our youngest vines, just planted 3 years ago.  

 Last year we harvested a bit off the little boys and got a whopping 780 pounds of fruit off this 1 acre block, which ended up being mixed in with the merlot.   Well, another year under the belt, we should get a bit more this fall.  As you can see, the vines are still on the small side, and having a tough time of it in the rough limey soils, but once they establish, watch out.  In case you are interested, Malbec is a Bordeaux blending grape and will get put into our Cabernet Sauvignon and our Bordeaux Blend.