Inside Winemaking - the art and science of growing grapes and crafting wine

Austin Peterson decided that he wanted to become a winemaker his father, also a winemaker, tried talking him out of it. Winemaking may not be the most lucrative career, but it is rife with people choosing passion over payment. Austin, now winemaker at Ovid Vineyards in Napa's Pritchard Hill, brings a relentless passion to the vineyard and winemaking processes at Ovid Vineyards.

Austin and the rest of the Ovid team might have one of the most spectacular daily commutes. Resting above the main valley of Napa Ovid is situated on Pritchard Hill perched on its western slope. It's this slope that allows cool air to flow out from the vineyard and leave the vines out of frost's harm.

In this episode of the Inside Winemaking Podcast we discuss:

• Organic practices for weed control
• Winery design and gravity flow at Ovid
• The difference between sugar measurements Brix and sugar-per-berry
• The method Austin uses to measure sugar-per-berry and the results they have observed in their vineyards
• The advantages of barrel fermentation for red wines
• How sugar accumulation is not correlated with anthocyanin synthesis in grapes during the growing season
• Results from their experiments with vineyard shade cloth.

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• Ovid Napa Valley
• Le Bon Pasteur, Bordeaux
• Flagstone Winery, South Africa

I'm hoping to put together an episode where I answer listener questions about grapegrowing and winemaking. Please email what's on your mind [email protected]

From experiments with co-fermentation, harvest timing, and shade v. sun-side canopies Robert Hunt has a contagious curiosity for the endless pursuit of refining his technical approaches to winemaking. In 2016 Anderson's Conn Valley lost its founder, Gus Anderson, and thus I asked Robert to describe the founding of stories of the vineyard and subsequent winery. Our conversation in this episode covers topics from estate winemaking and its gritty details, what a good winery lab job looks like, to the lessons of selective harvesting Robert learned from winemaking mentors. Make sure to catch the final question where Robert discusses the fantasy wines he would love to make in Italy, as his travels and interest in Italian wines is impressive.

I'm hoping to put together an episode where I answer listener questions about grapegrowing and winemaking. Please email what's on your mind [email protected]

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• Anderson's Conn Valley Vineyards
• Colgin Cellars
• Clos Pegase Winery
• Pine Ridge Vineyards

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Questions? Comments? Let me know what you think: [email protected]

This episode features Jeremy Weintraub, who is making some of the most exciting wines in California's Central Coast. Having worked at wineries in New York, New Zealand, Italy, Napa, and throughout the Central Coast, Jeremy is well suited to understand vineyard potential and the methods to craft wines that demonstrate what he finds exciting in each site. Our conversation covers his path to winemaking, lessons from Antinori in Chianti, how to co-ferment Viognier and Syrah, meshing lessons from academia with practical farming, how grape clones might not be so important, the commercial reality of making and selling Nebbiolo, the illusions of ripe, brown seeds, his impressions after working with an optical sorter, and the importance of the winery crew being exposed to great wines from around the world.

Fueled by tequila, and recorded naked in an ofuro, or Japanese soaking tub, this episode gave me the chance to exhaust my thoughts on flavor through grapes and winemaking. Part science, part clinical experience, and part bad science veiled as expertise the thoughts presented range from highly technical to pure speculation. I think the hot water and cold night air allowed me to relax and ultimately gives a peek inside my thought processes during grape ripening and the harvest season.

A friendship that spans the divide between California and The Cape in South Africa has manifest in the partnership that is the talented viticultural and winemaking prowess behind Wilson Foreigner. After working the 2004 harvest together in South Africa, Dave Wilson and Chris Alheit, remained friends as they both gained experience working at some of the most prestigious vineyard and winery estates throughout the world. In 2015 they produced a Valdigue from Rancho Chimiles, Dave's family's home vineyard in Napa, and also an Albarino from the Rorick Vineyard in the Sierra Foothills. The Wilson Foreigner wines have a clearly delineated style, which Chris describes as a "nervous energy," and the hue of the Valdigue is "electric magenta." This podcast captures the passion that this young partnership has for finding off-the-radar sites and showcasing their excitement for those vineyards with minmalistic winemaking.

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• Wilson Foreigner
• Alheit Vineyards in South Africa
• Broadbent Selections
• Chateau Angelus, Bordeaux
• Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, Napa
• Merryvale Vineyards / Starmont Winery and Vineyards, Napa
• Pahlmeyer, Napa
• Cruse Wine Co., Petaluma
• Flagstone Wines South Africa

The Inside Winemaking Podcast on iTunes

And Stitcher Radio Too

Questions? Comments? Let me know what you think: [email protected]

After working among some of the top wineries in Napa, Aaron Miller took over the helm as winemaker for Plumpjack Winery in 2012. Plumpjack sits on some of the most valuable real estate in the Napa Valley, with the estate vineyard planted in the iron-red soils of Oakville's eastern edge. In this episode Aaron tells the story of Plumpjack and its relation to its sister wineries Cade Winery and Odette Estate, also operated by the Plumpjack Group. Each of the three wineries has been created to express the unique qualities of its estate vineyard, each in a different district of Napa. Our conversation in this episode covers Aaron's background, his observations of growing Chardonnay in the warm northern half of Napa, the characteristics of fermenting in steel, oak, and concrete tanks, the efforts to manage those different tanks, and Plumpjack's 20 years of experience in bottling the top Cabernet under cork and screwcap closures.

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• Plumpjack Winery
• Cade Winery
• Odette Estate

Questions? Comments? Let me know what you think: [email protected]

In a quiet nook off of Silverado Trail in St Helena District of Napa Valley, Boeschen Vineyards is hidden where the grapevines meet the oak hillside. Cypress trees interplanted with the Sauvignon blanc vines was the compromise the Boeschens struck with their master gardener mother, Susan. After a career as a strategy consultant for technology companies Doug Boeschen was compelled to take a viticulture job and learn about growing grapes and making wine. That compulsion is what catalyzed the purchase of vineyards that would become Boeschen Vineyards and then the building of a winery within a cave to solidify the new estate brand. I met Doug during our studies at UC Davis, but used the opportunity of this podcast to catch up and learn the stories of both his education in winemaking and the creation of the Boeschen wines.

Our conversation ranges from the land stewardship certifications that the Boeschen earned, to the influence of the Porsche Carrera in his winemaking, and then to technical aspects of farming such as Pierce's Disease and shade cloth to protect grapes from the afternoon sun. One of my favorite aspects of this episode is what Doug learned from working in a tough internship in Bordeaux. Thanks for listening.

This episode is the return of David Bos, a guru of organic, biodynamic farming, and one of Inside Winemaking's most popular guests. For those that have yet to listen to David's initial interview ( #011 "Beyond the Cowhorn" from Februrary, 2015) I would suggest listening to that first. During his round two we get explore compost, its creation, and how to source high quality material. David gives a background on his early experiments with biochar, something that has a potential to aid compost in the soil and also describes rock dust, AKA Azomite.

In the second part of our discussion we talk about the critical elements of running on organic spray program for grapes, specifically to control powdery mildew. There is a lot of hippie information about "natural wines" out there and David gets frank regarding what he considers natural and how organic farming fits into the battle with powdery mildew. Our conversation weaves in and out of technical farming and then even touches into some of the biodynamic preparations and how, and when, they are used in the vineyard. Always one to put his words into action, you can check out David's own wines at BosWine.com and the new Wine and Swine Club.

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• Bos Wine Main Website
• Earthbound Compost
• More on Biochar
• More on Azomite
• Some of the organic mildewcides discussed in this podcast:
  • Stylet Oil
  • Serenade
  • Sonata
  • Biolink Sticker/Spreader
  • Univ. Cal. Integrated Pest Management for Powdery Mildew

This episode of the Inside Winemaking Podcast is an exciting one for two reasons. First, my guest, Tyler Thomas weaves us through the epic vineyard and winery estate that is Dierberg and Star Lane Vineyards. Second, this episode was recorded over Skype, and is the initial foray outside a previously limited geographic range of the northern California.

From own-rooted vines, to the differential rates of flavor and tannin extraction, all the way to the 250-year plan that Star Lane Vineyards is built upon, this conversation with Tyler is a treasure trove of ideas for winemaking geeks.

As I prepare to bottle my 2014 red wines I've put together a working document of all the important aspects that have to come together to successfully wrap up wines' tenure in the cellar. This episode of The Inside Winemaking Podcast is a peek inside my brain, and my planning for the end of the 20-month affair I've had with these grapes and wines. With so much to prepare and a heightened level of consequence, winemaking becomes very technical on the route to the bottling line.