Click below for a Mount Veeder harvest update from Hess Collection Viticulturist, Sander Scheer.

Hess Collection Mount Veeder Harvest Update from The Hess Collection on Vimeo.

Hi, everyone.  We are busy with harvest, and we’re working on a new video to show you what we’re up to.  In the meantime, check out what’s been written about us lately…

http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/09/29/wineries-embrace-green-business-practices-hesitate-telling-customers#

http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2008/10/03/news/local/doc48e6d95f05087725096241.txt

La voz del Monte

Check out the video below to see harvest in action at The Hess Collection on Mount Veeder.

Hess Collection Mount Veeder Harvest from The Hess Collection on Vimeo.

La voz del Monte

Click on the link below to learn about cluster thinning from Hess Collection Viticulturist, Sander Scheer.

Cluster Thinning at The Hess Collection from The Hess Collection on Vimeo.

Click on the link below to hear about what’s new on Mount Veeder.

 
Mount Veeder Vineyard Redevelopment from The Hess Collection on Vimeo.

Click on the video below to see a demonstration of “Leafing” by Hess Collection Viticulturist, Sander Scheer.

Leafing at The Hess Collection Vineyards from The Hess Collection on Vimeo.

I am not sure if you all know this but Hess Collection Winery is one of four wineries in the world which is a part of the Hess family. The wineries in our family span 4 different continents- Colomé is in Argentina, Peter Lehmann in Australia, Glen Carlou in South Africa and, of course, Hess Collection Winery in North America. This definitely brings a world of winemaking knowledge to the proverbial table. Only sometimes the table is not proverbial, like last week. Winemakers from all 4 wineries gathered in Napa last week for our first ever winemaking summit. It was a unique opportunity for all to get to know other techniques used around the world. Not to mention meeting, greeting, and in a few cases reminiscing with fellow family winemakers.

After meeting each other over lunch we started the actual work. Since this was the first time the global summit was held, everyone thought it would be best if we got to know everyone’s wines. This was our afternoon work, tasting through 24 wines from 4 different continents. The winemaking staff from each winery talked about the vineyards, wine making techniques, and particular strategies for each wine.

As we finished our flights of wine, one common theme rang true to me, the Hess family of wines in each continent is doing their best to make sound, quality, hell – great wines! I know I’m an insider, but I think that our portfolio on a whole is awesome. So next time you are at your local store look for one of our family, trust me it will be a great wine.

Julie Murrell
Assistant Winemaker

Click on the video below for a lesson on grafting from our Viticulturist, Sander Scheer.

Grafting Demonstration from The Hess Collection on Vimeo.

Unfortunately for me, it doesn’t feel much like summer in Napa, but our activities in the cellar keep on going all year long. We have been following the Su’skol Chardonnay’s journey from barrel to bottle and today we are going to continue along that path. Last we spoke I talked about blending the Su’skol in our cellar. This time we will talk about what we do in the winery to get the bottle ready for enjoyment.

There are two things that wineries need to do to get any variety of white wine ready to put in the bottle. These two activities are making sure that it is both heat and cold stable. These are processes that get rid of excess protein and excess tartrate in the wine.

When you pump out any wine there is a slight haze from lees. Lees are essentially proteins such as yeast cell walls and long chains of certain wine chemicals (like color compounds and tannin compounds). To make a wine heat stable it is necessary to add purified clay which will bind with all of the proteins in the wine. Thus leaving the wine clarified. If there are any remaining proteins in suspension, the wine is susceptible to hazing in extreme heat. The haze does not affect the flavor of the wine, but it is visually unappealing.

Have you ever had a bottle of wine with “glass” in it? Tartrate crystals are commonly mistaken for “glass”. This is one of the main reasons why we cold stabilize our wine prior to bottling. The tartrate crystal that becomes the “glass” comes from one of the main acids in the grape, tartaric acid.  Tartrate typically drops out of wine when there is an abrupt temperature change. These two reasons are why white wines are more susceptible to this process. In the winery, we seed tanks with cream of tartar, which is tartrate crystals that have been purified. In fact it is the same substance you have in your pantry. Chilling and seeding the wine work to push the equilibrium of tartaric acid from suspension to crystallization. This relatively easy process allows us to bottle wine that will not throw crystals while in your refrigerator.

Julie Murrell
Assistant Winemaker

Last time we spoke about what it takes to blend a particular wine while in the tasting room. Today I will explore what it takes to translate that blend, known as “bench top” in the industry, into the actual wine blend that you enjoy.

Two weeks ago the winemaking staff got together and worked out a blend of our Su’skol Chardonnay. This wine is our single vineyard Chardonnay from Napa County. The vineyard site is close to Carneros and with its often foggy summer mornings is a perfect site for Chardonnay. Now it is time to complete the work in the cellar.

First off, we translate our blended smattering of different lots and different oak types into the hard numbers for the cellar. Are we only using 25% of this lot? Is it the new oak portion? Well, the cellar crew better know that. After setting the scene for our crew they begin to prep the barrels, taking out the bungs and possibly moving barrels to an easier working location.

Next is the fun, but necessary, part folks. I smell every barrel that will be pumped into this blend, and the Su’skol blend averages to about 1000 barrels! My preferred method of sampling the barrels is actually using a turkey baster. It is fast, and far more efficient than the cumbersome wine thief that is often used. Smelling barrels when pumping out offers two very important securities. The first is that I can double check the cellar is planning on pumping out the proper barrels that I envisioned going into this blend. The second is that we can screen every barrel for any problem and remove the wine from the blend. From time to time a barrel does go bad and this is the one time we have to weed out our problem.

Next, we carefully extract the wine from the barrel using a nitrogen sparging mechanism known as the Bulldog. As the wine gets pumped out of the barrel we transfer that into a tank that has also been sparged with nitrogen. When that tank gets filled we start on another tank until all 1000 barrels are pumped out. The barrels are then carefully cleaned and stored. To ensure that no “bugs” grow inside the barrel we treat barrels regularly with sulfur gas while they are empty.

Julie Murrell
Assistant Winemaker