The following is from the July 10th, 2002 issue of the Pacifc Sun newspaper (San Francisco, Marin and Sonoma counties.)

HOME WINEMAKING: FUN WITH GRAPES 4/02
by Richard Paul Hinkle

You know that commercial winemakers are already out in the vineyard, analyzing vine growth and potential fruit yields. But you may not consider that home winemakers might also need to be up on what’s going to be available come the fall, but it appears to be the case. You see, Peter Brehm’s spring issue of the “Grape Explorer” is already out and if you’re in the market for grapes this harvest you might need to check it out.
Peter Brehm has been in the business of helping home winemakers find the best grapes available for non-commercial winemaking ever since I can remember (1975, if memory serves). He used to operate Wine and the People in Berkeley, which combined his own small commercial winemaking with the sourcing of grapes for the home crews who had the love of transforming sugar-ripe grapes into a liquid with more lasting, more pleasing properties. Grapes are nice; wine is better.
One aspect that is new this year—though we have seen the trend building for a few years now—is that premium North Coast grape growers are now willing to sell to home winemakers once again. “The intense rise in demand for top-of-the-line wine grapes, along with rising prices, left the home winemaker looking to Lodi or Madera for grapes,” asserts Brehm. “The prices of the very top-of-the-line grapes are still steady, but the signs of over-production are beginning to show. Over-production in California’s Central Valley and the Lodi district has now shattered the price for wine grapes of average quality. The over-production of the premium and ultra premium wine grapes were delayed by losses due to phylloxera, Pierce’s Disease and an increasing consumer demand for better and better wines. Now the vineyards of Napa and Sonoma may be about to overflow.”
Somehow, Brehm always managed to find quality fruit for his customers, and he’s now offering an intriguing sale on frozen grape must and juice, including Carneros Chardonnay and Merlot and Yakima Valley Merlot (from Washington State). “There’s really no difference in making quality wine from fresh or frozen juice,” contends Brehm. “By freezing our musts and juices, we simply put them in a state of suspended animation. Once thawed, the musts and juices are almost as they were on the day of processing.
“The freezing process does cause tartaric acid in the musts or juices to form salts and precipitate to the bottom of the pails as cream of tartar. Thus we insist that you stir your musts and juices extremely well before doing any analysis. After stirring your thawed must or juice in the pail, pour this into your fermenter and stir it some more. Make sure to scrape out and add all the sticky stuff that remains in the pails into your fermenter and stir, stir, stir. The tartaric acid will not stabilize until after fermentation.”
His plug for frozen musts and juices aside, Brehm is still offering a wide range of grapes from vineyard and growers he has dealt with for many years. Some of the offerings include Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiacomo Chardonnay, Zinfandel from the Talmage Bench (Ukiah Valley, Mendocino County), and a wide range of fruit from the Colombia River Valley.
For a copy of Peter’s newsletter, write him at 932 Evelyn Avenue, Albany CA 94706, phone 510-527-3675, or e-mail him at grapes@BrehmVineyards.com. And tell him Hinkle sent you.

[Hinkle once cultivated a 56-vine vineyard of Cabernets Sauvignon and Franc at his former home in Boyes Hot Springs. The wine was labeled Bad Hinklestein. It is still drinkable (based on the reports of independent sources).]