A Crushing Success

The grape harvest of 1997 begins with an early morning phone call from Fred Brander summoning me to his Santa Ynez Valley vineyard. I am about to join professional and amateur winemakers up and down the Central Coast, participating in the grape harvest, aptly called, the Crush.

This is the most crucial, intense, hectic time of the year, when grapes ripen on the vines and must be harvested, de-stemmed, crushed, fermented, pressed and poured into tanks or barrels.

I am fairly well organized and coordinated. I can walk and chew gum simultaneously. Yet during every Crush for the past five years, I have felt as if I was walking blindfolded on a rope bridge across the Grand Canyon. Despite the intense and challenging nature of the experience, I look forward to the grape harvest all year long.

Brander’s phone call proclaims some of his grapes ready for harvesting. Like an expectant mother feeling labor’s first contraction, I am excited and anxious. Just as contractions start out slowly then accelerate in intensity and frequency with no turning back, the grapes once harvested must be attended to with dedicated focus. I will need to tend to them with timely foot stomping, crushing in the press, and addition of yeast to successfully ferment their juices into tasty wine.

My entry into home winemaking followed volunteering with my husband Paul at the Santa Barbara Winery. For the 1991 crush, our medical and chemistry backgrounds qualified us to be trained as wine chemists, under the tutelage of winemaker Bruce McGuire. During six weeks, as eight varieties of grapes were harvested and fermented, we analyzed juice, and later the fermenting wine, once or twice a day checking sugar, alcohol and acid levels.

The next year we tried it for ourselves and experienced the Crush firsthand. That year Bacchus was with us and we succeeded in making a tasty Zinfandel. But each harvest time has its own unpredictable challenges. Once the whims of nature--including rainfall, temperature, time of day, and sugar content of the grapes--combine to bring the fruit to maturity, each subsequent step of the winemaking process must be critically timed.

Further complicating the equation, we now produce more than one wine varietal. Thus, while the Pinot Noir juice fermenting in vats needs punching down (similar to vertical stirring) four times a day, the Syrah grapes ripening in the vineyard reach critical sugar content and need to be harvested, crushed and inoculated with yeast.

Are you beginning to get the picture? Lucy and Ethel had it comparatively easy on their candy assembly line.

The timing of harvest is determined predominantly by the number of hot summer days. Brander describes this summer as one of “excess.” The early June hot spell produced high grape yields, with unusual July cooling permitting their ripening to slow down. The record-breaking August heat intensified flavor and sugar levels, resulting in a grape crop abundant in quantity and quality.

Our own preparations for Crush ’97 began several weeks ago when we scrubbed down the collecting containers (new, restaurant-quality trash bins), washed out the carboys (5-gallon glass bottles), and spread tarps in our garage-cum-winery.

Up and down the coast, winemakers are altering their routines. Many have stopped shaving. Chris Whitcraft has attached a camper shell to his truck in anticipation of sleeping at his vineyard and winery. Award-winning home winemaker Antonio Gardella hones his focus and dexterity by practicing his juggling.

Paul and I now drive up to meet Brander at his Brander Vineyard as the morning temperature in the Santa Ynez Valley climbs well into the 80s. Unlike previous years when we collected our grapes from the bins filled by the vineyard workers, this year we will do our own harvesting.

It is exhausting work. The clusters of grapes are embedded deep in the vines and our unskilled technique yields splinters, scrapes and only 20 pounds of grapes in one hour. We learn firsthand why vineyard workers wear long pants, long sleeves, gloves and scarfs while working in the hot fields: Wasps and bees are as fond of the grapes as we are. Our thirst finally propels us inside the winery where we discover the meaning of the phrase, “It takes a lot of beer to make a little wine.”

Driving back to our home in Santa Barbara we consider what to do with the day’s harvest. We have not collected enough ripe grapes to fill our 30-gallon barrel and the grapes we did harvest are of four varieties: pinot noir, pinot grigio, sauvignon blanc and chardonnay. Paul reasons that we could use the blend to try our hands at making champagne. Our photographer friend Kirk suggests the perfect name for our novel varietal, “Collage.”

Once home, our 9-year-old daughter Alani begins the foot stomping of the grapes. When fatigue sets in, we reinvigorate her march with rock ‘n’ roll music.

That phase complete, we all seek relief with a dip in the pool. In his haste, Paul plunges in with his work shorts on and soaks the carefully folded envelope of yeast in his pocket. Fortunately, he succeeds in reconstituting last year’s yeast.

The next morning, with our friend Bea “pressed” into service, we set up our Italian grape press. It is a circular array of wooden slats over a metal base with a spout. Turning the gear lever pushes a wooden lid down on the grapes. Juice pours out the spout into a bucket from which it is strained and funneled into carboys.

Not all that sweet grape juice makes it into the glass containers. Some of it is mixed with champagne for mimosas that the adult wine-press operators drink to refresh themselves, while the children enjoy the most luscious grape juice of their lives.

The eight gallons of surviving juice go into an old refrigerator in the garage to cool down and settle before getting a treatment of potassium metabisulfite, which kills the wild yeast.

Monday morning before breakfast, we let loose our yeast on the grape juice to “eat” the sugar and “excrete” the alcohol (our future champagne) and carbon dioxide byproduct. Cold fermentation will be slow because the rate of fermentation (yeast metabolism) is directly proportional to temperature. If the fermentation is too slow, we can remove the carboys from the refrigerator, allowing the temperature of the juice to increase.

When the sugar is gone, the fermented wine and added sugar and yeast will go into sturdy bottles to undergo another fermentation. Only this time the carbon dioxide will not escape, but will form the carbonation bubbles unique to champagne.

During the next several weeks we hope to follow the example of Adam Tolmach of Ojai Vineyard who each year succeeds in his “attempt to reverse entropy--create order while natural forces are breaking into chaos.” If we succeed we’ll celebrate by opening a bottle of our 1997 Collage on the eve of the new millennium.

* Judy Willis is a Santa Barbara neurologist, freelance writer and home winemaker.

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Setting Up Shop

Sources of grapes and wine-making supplies.

Private wineries rarely sell to the public but Carrari Vineyard in Los Alamos offers 15 varieties of grapes. And home winemakers now have a source for all their winemaking needs at the Home Wine, Beer and Cheese-Making Shop in Woodland Hills.

* Carrari Vineyard, 439 Waite St., Los Alamos; (805) 344-4000. Joe Carrari is harvesting his 58th crop of wine grapes. Before the commercial wine producers began to buy his grapes, Carrari’s support came from the home winemaker. He only charges them $100 more per ton than he does the commercial winemakers, and he provides rushers and stemmers (no wine-press facilities) for home winemakers to use at his vineyard.

Prices last year ranged from $0.35 to $0.75 cents per pound. Minimum sale is 100 pounds, maximum is one ton. His total production is 1,100 tons.

He suggests calling before the harvest to put in an order.

Varietals--White: orange muscat, muscat canelli, sauvignon blanc, chenin blanc, chardonnay, semillon, pinot grigio, grignolino. Red: petit syrah, nebiollo, sangiovese, dolcetto, cabernet franc, merlot, cabernet sauvignon, barbera, friesa.

* The Home Wine, Beer and Cheese-Making Shop, 22836 Ventura Blvd., No. 2, Woodland Hills (800) 559-9922. Owner John Daume has all the ingredients, including grapes, supplies, bottles, barrels and yeasts for home winemakers. The crushing is done at his Daume Winery in Camarillo.

The shop offers several varietals of grapes: pinot noir from Oregon; zinfandel from El Dorado County; sangiovese from Temecula; cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc (Bordeaux blend) from Paso Robles; chardonnay from Monterey, sauvignon blanc from Paso Robles.

Grapes must be ordered in advance of harvest. At other times during the year, grape juice concentrate is available. Cost $1 to $1.80 per pound, minimum 100 pounds equals 5-6 gallons. Price includes use of crusher and de-stemmer. The winery also holds classes and makes available all ingredients and supplies including bottles, barrels and yeasts.

Classes are also given at the shop by the Cellarmasters Winemaking Club, who meet the first Thursday night of the month. For more information on the club, call Joe Queen at (818) 343-5764.

* Other sources of supplies: Many home beer-making shops have the supplies--such as glass containers (carboys), yeast, corks, bottling equipment, and label-making facilities--also needed to make wine.

* Reference Books: The Complete Handbook of Winemaking, a publication of the American Wine Society, 3006 Latta Road, Rochester, NY 14612; $15.95.

“From Vines to Wines,” by Jeff Cox, published by A Garden Way, available in book stores for $12.95.

Wineries of Ventura County:

* Ojai Vineyard: Adam Tolmach, winemaker. No tours or tastings at winery. Wine sold at retail wine shops.

* Old Creek Ranch and Winery: Old Creek Road (between Ventura and Ojai) off Highway 33; (805) 649-4132. Tasting room open Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

* Daume Winery: John Daume, owner and winemaker. 270 Aviador, Camarillo; (805) 484-0597. The winery has two main open houses each year, with the next one scheduled Dec. 7. Other visits are by appointment only.

* Giessinger Winery: Owner-winemaker Edouard Giessinger. 365 Santa Clara St., Fillmore; (805) 524-5000. Tastings from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday.

* Leeward Winery: Chuck Brigham and Chuck Gardner, owners. 2784 Johnson Drive, Ventura; (805) 656-5054. Tasting-room hours 10 a.m.-4 p.m., seven days a week, except major holidays. Grapes from Santa Barbara, Napa, Sonoma and elsewhere, but no Ventura grapes.

* Rolling Hills Vineyards: 126 North Wood Road, Camarillo; (805) 484-8100. Tastings and tours by appointment only.