Harvest 2009

Harvest 2009!

2009 has been a brilliant harvest.  We had a relatively cool summer, which means the grapes have had time to ripen more slowly--a good thing, as it helps the fruit develop its flavors fully.  True, there was a heavy rain that appeared late during harvest, and no doubt there will be a few vineyards that suffered, but all of our grapes were in beforehand, and we are well pleased!

Work-wise, we had a great crew--Dumitru, our Moldovan intern from 2006, is back with us, and Rob and Aly were our first American interns.  And we occasionally had our daughter, Calvaleigh, home to work with us--a real treat for the parental units!

The return to our roots

So, let's see--one highlight of this crush is that we are trying to return to our roots.  This is a bit of a laugh for Kent and me--we literally are trying to see if the way we made wine when we first started out will produce better wine.  Here's the back-story:

In 2006 we hosted a vertical tasting of all the Pinot Noirs we ever made (since 1986!)  Now you need to understand that this is a lot like standing naked on a table in front of a roomful of people.  The people in this case were our sales staff, interns and a few restaurateurs.  We were worried, it was tense for Kent, but the outcome was very gratifying.  With the exception of one vintage, all of the wines were beautiful.  We were very proud, of course, but it showed how well-made Pinot Noir has incredible potential as wine that can age in the bottle!  And it got Kent thinking hard about how we made wine in those first years.

So this year, as an experiment, we made our Kent Rasmussen Pinot Noir in half-ton bins and pressed it in a basket press.  Talk about nostalgia--when I saw Rob and Dumitru pumping up the pressure on the press, I had to get in the act.  I've included some pictures of them--and me back in the late 80's.  In fact, now I'm thinking I should scan a whole lot of old pictures and create a "then and now" photo essay to link you all to.  (Note to self!)

In the top photo you can see Dumitru and Rob working on the same kind of press as we did back in 1987!  That's Celia at the old winery in Carneros.