Special Feature: Ted Osborne, Winemaker's Journal
Olabisi Grape Harvest 2008 In Review, Part 6
A multi-part series from winemaker Ted Osborne of Olabisi Wines sharing harvest notes from the grapefields of Napa Valley.
Read the Winemaker's Journal, Part 1.
Read the Winemaker's Journal, Part 2 and 3.
Read the Winemaker's Journal, Part 4.
Read the Winemaker's Journal, Part 5.
One of the last lug boxes of fruit to be dumped from one of the last vineyards to be picked this vintage, Blue Hall Vineyard. Time for the picking crews to go back to hourly wages and in some cases go back to Mexico for the December Holidays.
November 24, 2008 - Harvest is over. It's usually about this time that you let your guard down and succumb to the sicknesses that you wouldn't allow yourself to get during harvest. For me that was last week. And now one feels rung dry. Creative energy has been spent. Time for some accounting. Maybe it's time to take stock of the vintage. What the heck happened? How about a laundry list of events in chronological order:
August 20 - Opened the new tasting room
August 29 - Picked the Wirth Vineyard Zin
September 5 - Bottled the 07 Zin and 07 Chards
September 12 - Picked Ceja Chard
September 17 - Picked Mendocino Chard
September 18 - Picked Harmon Pinot
September 28 - Picked Suisun Valley Cab
October 6 - Picked King Syrah
October 7 - Picked King Petite Sirah
October 14 - Picked Suisun Petite Verdot
October 17 - Picked Pope Valley Cab for client Phifer Pavitt Wines
October 20 - Picked Howell Mountain Cab for client Blue Hall Vineyard
November 8-9 Grand Opening for the tasting room
November 21 - Pressed last of the reds to barrel
Between and during the picking were the fermentations, which we do au naturale (not started with store-bought yeasts). We let the ambient microflora have its way with the grapes and the juice and monitor the process anxiously along the way. Instead of driving the transformation from grapes to wine, we kind of ride it, like dropping down the face of a big wave and surfing it all the way in. I think what makes the harvest so intense for me personally is trying to balance the things you can control with the things that you can't. Mother Nature happens, and we open our awareness to find the brightest spots in the vintage for each vineyard and wine. Most of the winemakers I've talked with would agree that we, as a group, had to earn our keep this year. The weather kept us on our toes more than usual. It was not business as usual and each vineyard presented differently from previous years. So the normally comforting historical experience with regions and vineyards was not as helpful we'd like. Yet it's the unexpected that makes this such a fascinating art. It's one of the reasons I don't (can't) strive for a consistent style with my wines. By not having a standard format, I feel more able to work in harmony with the natural and magical individuality of each vintage. The wines are almost always very different from year to year, yet they still carry the familiarity of each vineyard's terroir (unique character of the vineyard based on weather, soil, microflora, and varietal). There's a familial similarity, but beyond that, each child is very much itself. All in all, the wines of 2008 should be pretty fabulous. That's the joke among winemakers, anyway. The only wines better than last year's wines are this year's wines. But it's true!
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