One of the hardest things about winemaking is choosing the date to pick certain vineyards. I already discussed choosing to pick the Syrah a bit earlier than I had originally wanted to. Well, it has turned out to be fabulous. When you open the tap to pull a bucket for density tests and tasting, the aromas are wonderful. It's very floral. The enologist said it reminds him of the Northern Rhone, like Côte Rôtie. Now, that's a comparison I like. The potential alcohol is at 13,4, which for me is ideal.
This weekend we made a similar decision to pick our last remaining vineyard, the mourvèdre. It's a small parcel that needs some TLC. There has been a lot of mortality, so there's not a ton of fruit. Mourvèdre is a varital that ripens later than Grenache and Syrah. Last year we didn't pick it until the 2nd of October and I was hoping to do the same this year. Then we looked at the weather for the weekend, rain, and they were predicting lots of it. What to do? Bring it in and be safe, or take our chances and wait?
I called Bertrand Cortelli of Rouge Garance. He said that there was no way he would be able to get all of his grapes in before the rain, so they were just going to wait it out. He also said that Mourvèdre tends to be very Sensible or sensitive to rain, meaning that grapes tend to absorb the water and become diluted, but on the other hand at only 12 degrees potential, it seemed a bit early. All in all he didn't give me a clear indication one way or the other. Darn! Then I saw our enologist. I had gathered a sample so that we could test the sugars and acidity. We tasted the grapes. They were definitely ripening, had some good flavors and color from the skins. It would be ideal to wait. How much rain would we really get. We began talking about the big picture, meaning our blend for 2006. We have two vats of grenache that are weighing in at 15 degrees potential alcohol and the syrah at 13,4. Hmmm, maybe it would be good to have the Mourvèdre come in pretty low. We really need to lower that alcohol. We decided to pick. It rained for over 24 hours straight. I think we did the right thing.
Now, I'm sure that there will be some people out there who will read this and think we made the wrong decision, that you should always try to bring the fruit in as ripe as possible. Maybe they are right. Maybe it's the inexperience, wanting to be on the safe side, but it's also the desire to make a wine that I like to drink, that isn't too alcoholic, and that has balanced acidity. I don't want to make one of these over-ripe, super-extracted undrinkable wines that seem so prevalent today. We'll see how it all turns out!
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