For more information, including Recipes, Statistics and Winemaking Recommendations, please click on the varietals below in our Grape Offerings Menu, please select below:
The Carneros Merlot showed a lot of bin to bin variability. The above numbers are NOT representative of all pails or drums. Please be sure to check your pails/drums to determine your Brix/TA/pH starting points. Must may require acidulated water addition - Rehydration Article.
PETIT VERDOT
Plumb Ridge, Sonoma Valley CA
22-26
0.95-1.20
3.30-3.50
Harvested October 18th, 2011
(2 Drums and 36+ Pails Available as of Nov 22)
TEMPRANILLO
Carneros, Las Brisas Vineyard, Mahoney Estates, Sonoma CA
Carneros, Las Brisas Vineyard, Mahoney Estates, Sonoma CA
23-24.0
-
-
Harvested Sept 27th-28th, 2011
(SOLD OUT)
Note from Peter Brehm on Carneros Pinot Noir Harvest: We did not provide stats on the Pinot Noir for this vintage. All grapes harvested did not require any aadjustment for sugar or acid. While musts showed 23° to 24.5° balling, the amount of fermentable sugar, both fructose and sucrose, was higher. Wineries are now using 'densiometers' to provide a more accurate potential alcohol. One client indicated a dilution, preferring quite low alcohol. The harvest was over two days. Wineries were coming in and fighting for tonnage. I choose the vines, clones, locations were flavor and fruit appeared the finest. Swan clone, one of the pickings yielded 1.78 tons per acre. Normal procedures were out the window, pickers did walk, we took grapes from three different clones in two distinct areas.
Winemaking Notes: Gruner Veltner and Pinot Grigio:
These wines under normal fermentations will produce over 13% alcohol.
The acids are quite high due to the lack of hot weather during the season. Usually hot weather will reduce the malic acid while leaving the tartaric alone. Grapes that we did do malic and tartaric analysis on showed the malic to dominate. If there is a successful malolactic fermentation, these wines could require an acid addition (maybe).
Defrosting juice without stirring, will leave a stratified juice. Sugars will be on the bottom and water on the top. Tartaric acid forms cream of tarter in cold and alcohol. Leaving the cream of tarter on the bottom of the pail (should be rinsed with juice to remove most sugar) will reduce the acidity, and increase the malic proportionably.
These two varietals present a question initially: Do you wish to finish with residual sugar or dry.
If dry, do not reduce acid and do a malolactic fermentation.
If with residual sugar, you may lower acid slightly by leaving cream of tarter or not, and ferment as is. Lysozyme may help inhibit spontaenous ML.
My inclination is to do the Pinot Grigio dry and Gruner with RS.
The Carneros Chardonnay is next up for harvest. We should have this off the vine sometime in the next couple of days. Fresh customers can expect to recieve their juice Thursday or Friday (you will get a phone call to confirm exact time.)
Peter was able to up our alotment of the Carneros Merlot for the second time. We are able to take orders for this Merlot.
Also still on the vine and looking good are our Plumb Ridge grapes. The Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Petit Verdot are perfect blenders for the Carneros Merlot. Make your own Bordeaux blend
2011Plumb Ridge offerings.
For more information, click on the videos below:
Plumb Ridge mountain top vineyard
Plumb Ridge mountain top vineyard #2
Following are Excerpts from 2010 Harvest News
October 5th:
Introducing:
Oak Knoll Cabernet Sauvignon
With my first communications of the 2010 harvest season, I understood there was a desire to balance our mountainside Cabernet offerings (Nun's Canyon in Sonoma and John Caldwell's hillside Napa vineyard Vineyard) with a valley cab; a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.
Shy to invest in inventory and balanced with a fine assortment of cabernet from the 2009 State Lane and Nun’s Canyon, from a great year, I resisted the risk.
But we are sold out of our selection of 2009 Cabernets from our Virtual Vineyard. Remaining is the wonderful 2008 White Hall Lane Cabernet from Rutherford. These frozen grapes await the call of someones under ripe 2010 grapes, or the abduction to my winemaking cellar at Brehm Vineyards Winery, in Underwood, WA.
Video: Peter Brehm interviews Brandon Brambila at the Shroff Cabernet Sauvignon Vineyard in Napa Valley's Oak Knoll Districut
I have kept my eyes on the Oak Knoll Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. They have been under the care of a viticulturist I trust, and have the Trefthan Vineyard’s farm crew under contract. The grapes have been grown for quality since their planting in 2001, even in the face of small returns. I am impressed by the willingness of the grower to offer grapes at a price that allows us to become acquainted with low risk. Now the grapes have been thinned twice, sugar is above 21° and they are available to you. A bend of mountain top Cab with valley Cab can be a wonderful experience.
I know that these grapes can provide you with a true Napa Cabernet experience. The vineyard’s neighbor garners 94’s & 95’s in the wine.
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Happy Harvests,
Peter Brehm
September 27th, 2010
2010 Harvest's First Gasp
Carneros Pinot Noir
Las Brisas Vineyard gave up its Pinot Noir for the first 2010 grapes from Brehm Vineyards.
Birth was not only late but rather difficult. The cool Carneros Pinot sat all summer in fog and cold. The Mahoney vineyard crew kept mildew and botrytis at bay with a strict spray and canopy manipulation schedule. A couple of weeks ago the grapes and vines looked perfect.....and then came the sun & heat. The result of this thermal insult gradually accumulated over two weeks. The sugars remained modest at 23.4° to 24.5° while the acids remained high (0.9 to 1.1) and the pH's low.
Then in modestly warm weather the vines gave up and the fruit started breaking down...quickly.
While the TA's started falling to 0.7 to 0.8, the sugars stayed in an acceptable 23.4° to 24.5°, and the pH's raised into 3.5 to 3.65 - we picked. True to his word, Francis allowed us row choices of the 100 acre vineyard to provide the most desirable fruit - and we got it.
Unique, I hope, to the 2010 Carneros Pinot Noir, the skins were harvested completely ripe. Color will be easy to achieve! The skin tannins are well resolved and there are nice flavors. The seeds, while not excessively bitter, are a little on the green side. The core of the berries were not as ripe as the outside; the mark of this grape. I am confident that winemakers will be very happy, and Michael and I were happy to get this grape over with...what a year.
Carneros Merlot
Nesteled between the burnt Malbec and the harvested Pinot Noir, along Arnold Drive, lies BV's Merlot. Merlot is known as a grape that is difficult to set grapes. In a year like this with wet spring, cold weather, one would not find it hard to discount the potential for merlot. BV's Merlot, and Merlot in general is doing wonderfully well. The vines have set a reasonable crop and the fruit is maturing rapidly. The vines look beautiful. The poison of the Malbec, the difficulty of the Pinot Noir is the tonic for the Merlot. This business can make one rather humble.
Mike Sangiacomo and I laughed together realizing we may harvest Merlot from their vineyards before Chardonnay. This will be a first. Merlot is at 22.9° and looking pretty.
Sangiacomo Chardonnay
These old vines trellised in the older manner are doing well. John Kongsgaard, a noted Napa Chardonnay winemaker, visited our section of Sangiacomo Chardonnay with the winemaker from Texas's Holy Archangels Monostary. Holy Archangels have been a client of ours for a number of years. John is donating his expertise in their winemaking. John noted that these older vines and trellis system have saved us losses he received with the newer vertical curtain system he uses. The Carneros Chardonnay has survived the cold and heat in good condition. Sometimes you realize that the old ways had their advantages too. 20.1° brix.
Sonoma Mountain Zinfandel
These old, head pruned vines received an occasional grape frying, but it is quite minimum. The vines show some stress from the heat, but the fruit and prospects looks very good. These mountain vines were not exposed to the constant fog of the summer. Our present warm weather should spur them on to reasonable harvest. 21.8° brix.
Nun's Canyon Cabernet Sauvignon
This organic Cabernet is looking beautiful. A portion of the vineyard has East -West row orientation. Here ther were a few grapes effected by sun burn. They are ALL on the ground. The vines are in great condition, the bunches and berries are perfect. The crop load is low. Even at this low maturity (19.2° brix) the grapes are losing the herbecousness and skin phenolics are resolving. The prospects look very good for a great vintage here.
I will be checking in on the Edon Knoll Zinfandel and Petite Sirah this coming week. Grapes from the Columbia Gorge / White Salmon Vineyards are doing well.
Happy Harvests,
Peter Brehm
First grape up to bat in 2010....
Carneros Pinot Noir, Las Brisas, Sonoma County CA
Francis Mahoney's Las Brisas Vineyard in Sonoma County's Carneros appellation is carrying a very light crop. Veraison is complete and the taste of acid is becoming muted with the production of sugar. Bunches are very small and less than normal for this vineyard. I expect 14 to 20 days to harvest. While the temperatures of the recent week were in the 90's, the entire California coast has been very cool - cooler than anyone can remember. This may bode well for the Pinot and Chardonnay we harvest from the Carneros. Bunches/grapes are clean and ripening well with good acidity. This may be the exceptional vintage we always hope for...it is certainly different.
P.S. The hand holding the Pinot and at the Cab's row end, in attached photos, is Michael Crews. Michael will be assisting me and Paul Rago this harvest. He has worked crushes in the Anderson Valley, New Zealand, Chile and is an ardent home winemaker and brewer.
For those who want the very best Zinfandel
Coturri Estate Vineyard
Sonoma Mountain Zinfandel
The history: Located above the tiny hamlet of Glen Ellen in the region known as the Valley of the Moon. Red Coturri and his sons Phil and Tony first planted 2-acres of vines in 1967, and another 5-acres in 1975. The Estate Vineyard is a second generation planting - the first was pre-prohibition before the 1920's. The vineyard is comprised of primarily of Martini Monte Rosso Zinfandel clones on phylloxera resistant St. George rootstock. The Coturri Estate Vineyard is dry farmed, and head pruned in the traditional Italian goblet style.
Micro-Climate: The location is unique for a Sonoma Valley Appellation vineyard- it sits at 750 feet above sea level, which is a perfect elevation for Zinfandel grapes. Tucked into the cleavage of Sonoma Mountain, the vines receive a southeast sun exposure. Creeping seasonal coastal fog off the Pacific Ocean injects a beneficial cooling effect during the summer months and the vineyard avoids the extreme heat that vines on the valley floor get. Conversely, from January to April, it is warmer up on Sonoma Mountain and the vines are protected from winter and spring frosts.
The coolness of Sonoma Mountain and the low grape yield results in a very lush and soft style of Zinfandel. We tend to let the fruit hang longer than most vineyards and consistently get a late harvest style of wine: very dark color, blackberries and apple pie in the nose, a sweet black fruit mid palate and supple and balancing acidity. This combination results in a good drinking, flavorful Zinfandel.
Soils: Many moons ago, Sonoma Mountain was an active volcano and a series of eruptions spewed ash and lava to create diverse soil types at the site of the vineyard. The dry farmed vines at the Coturri Estate Vineyard send down deep taproots that encounter different rocky red clay based soils, and layers of volcanic decomposed ash and lava, which adds complexity to the grapes. Balanced nutritious elements and minerals such as potassium, magnesium, and calcium are added to the soil by planting cover crops like peas, oats, winter wheat and mustard and disking in ground up oyster shells and compost. An important cover crop used is bell beans, a deep-rooted legume with nodules that act like a straw to suck nitrogen from the air into the soil, this naturally occurring process is called nitrogen fixation.
Environmentally sound farming practices: Only the best agricultural practices are employed at the Estate Vineyard and it receives special handling to ensure that something is growing in the soils all year round. Weeds are controlled by disking, and the resulting mulch captures important moisture for the dry farmed vines. The open head pruned vines or "monkey claw" controls mildew problems.
Nun's Canyon Cabernet Sauvignon
Top of the mountain, organic, farmed to organic perfection by Phil Coturri
Above is a photo taken this week of the Nun's Canyon Cabernet Vineyard. It is on the very top of the Mayacmas ridge separating the Sonoma Valley from Napa Valley. The vines, grapes and site are perfect - it does not get any better. Note the deep red volcanic soil. In place it almost turns purple. There is broken shale beneath. This is our third year with these grapes. It produces stunning wines, rich, full bodies with fine resolved phenolics. I anticipate a late harvest this year. As of yesterday the vines have just begun to change color. Their ridge top perch will serve them well this year in event of rain.
There are still a few pails of the wonderful 2009 available to provide a compliment to the 2010.
Decisions Made in the Vineyard are as important as those made by the Winemaker
From June 2010's WINE BUSINESS MONTHLY comes the following quote (see page 10 / written by Cyril Penn, editor)
"JUNE. THE VINES ARE GROWING QUICKLY. Choices made in the vineyard now will affect the outcome of the crop at harvest. Decisions made in the vineyard at this time of year can have a much bigger affect on wine style and quality than winemaking decisions do at crush."
Peter Brehm has been expounding this for years. In an effort to illustrate this point, Peter recently visited Francis Mahoney's Pinot Noir vineyard in Sonoma's Carneros district. To view the video, please click below.
Videos, Videos, Videos from the 2009 Harvest
During the 2009 harvest season, Peter Brehm shot short videos of the vineyards and the grapes we offer during his vineyard visits. Please click below to see the videos. All the videos are hosted by You Tube. We hope you like them!
Peter Brehm and Olin Shultz (MoreFlavor!) visit the Nun's Canyon Cabernet Sauvignon vineyardon the Mayacamas Mountain in Sonoma County CA.
Peter visits the Carneros Chardonnay at the Sangiacomo Family Vineyards "Home Ranch" in Sonoma County CA.
Peter visits the Nun's Canyon Cabernet Sauvignon on the Mayacamas Mountain in Sonoma County, CA
Peter examines the volcanic soil at our Nun's Canyon Peak Caberent vineyard on Mayacamas Mountain in Sonoma County CA.
Peter continues his visit of the Nun's Canyon Peak Caberent vineyard on Mayacamas Mountain in Sonoma County CA
Peter continues his visit of the Nun's Canyon Peak Caberent vineyard on Mayacamas Mountain in Sonoma County CA
Peter continues his visit of the Nun's Canyon Peak Caberent vineyard on Mayacamas Mountain in Sonoma County CA
Peter Brehm visits the Edon Knoll Vineyard in Talmage (Mendocino County) CA
Peter Brehm continues his visit of the Edon Knoll Vineyard in Talmage (Mendocino County) CA
Peter Brehm continues his visit of the Edon Knoll Vineyard in Talmage (Mendocino County) CA
Peter Brehm continues his visit of the Edon Knoll Vineyard in Talmage (Mendocino County) CA
Peter interviews Fred and Dora at Edon Knoll Vineyard in Mendocino County CA.
Peter Brehm visits the State Lane Cabernet Sauvignon Vineyard in Napa County (Yountville, CA)
Peter Brehm presents White Salmon Vineyard in the heart of the Columbia River Gorge in Underwood WA.
Peter Brehm contintues his presentation of White Salmon Vineyard in Underwood WA.
Peter Brehm contintues his presentation of White Salmon Vineyard in Underwood WA.
Peter Brehm contintues his presentation of White Salmon Vineyard in Underwood WA.
Peter Brehm contintues his presentation of White Salmon Vineyard in Underwood WA.
