A Year In The Life of Mount Veeder Chardonnay

Written on Monday, December 21st, 2009 at 9:27 am by Marc
Filed under Winemaking.

A Year In The Life: Mt. Veeder Chardonnay
Part 1

“It is not a wine that commands your attention, but rather, rewards it.” 
- author unknown

Today I am starting a project following the life of one lot of wine from the reception of the grapes to bottling of the finished wine.  Christian Brothers Blessing Hess Grapes-Harvest 2009This is a chance for me to bring to you one of the things that brings me joy in wine production; being part of an entire process. The wine in question is one of our estate wines Veeder Summit block 14 or as we call it VS14. This also happens to be the lot we used for the blessing of our harvest, vintage 2009 by our neighbors The Christian Brothers.

 So how did we choose the moment to pick these grapes?  VS14 is an 809 musqué clone.  Brix, which is a measure of sugar levels, and pH doesn’t tell the entire story.  These are good landmarks for when the grapes are nearing maturity, but the final decision is based on taste.  When not a matter of necessity, such as the grapes are dehydrating or the rainy season is imminent, then this is our guiding factor.        

The grape samples taste good and the call goes out to Sergio, our vineyard crew manager, that we are ready to pick. Sergio organizes the picking of the grapes and we prepare to process what arrives. 

 In the blog posts to follow I will talk more about how we process the grapes and update the status of our new friend VS14.

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