Once the fermentation is nearing completion and the wine has the right taste, red wine is pressed of its skins and into barrel.
Video is a production of Donelan Wines and Smiliing Tiger Video
Donelan Wines Video: Processing Wine Grapes after Harvest
After wine grapes are plucked from the vine, then what? This video highlights our approach to the fruit once it arrives in the winery.
Video is a production of Donelan Wines and Smiliing Tiger Video
Dear Harvest Widows and Widowers, Thank You.
Dear Harvest Widows and Widowers,
I love fermenting stuff. Wine, beer, bread; fermenting stuff is wonderful. There is almost nothing like wine, a beverage that ties you to a season, a place, and people whose hands are purple. Spending all season thinking of weather, soil, vine physiology, taste, and quality culminates in one harvest – one shot to get it all right.
Then it begins: the transformation takes place. This transformation is one of the most exciting parts of our craft: creating a beverage that tastes nothing like its original material. The cellar goes from smelling like wet concrete and stainless steel to smelling like fermented goodness. Floral, fruity notes waft through the air, everyone has an extra glint in their eye and spring in their step. We walk, we glide, we move as if on air as the excitement of participating in the transformative process of making wine lifts our spirits and minds.
But that is not all that lifts us. Fermenting stuff comes with a cost, and the burden Continue reading
Donelan Wines Video: The Why and How of a Punch Down
Learn about why we mix fermenting wine with a punch down. Enjoy!
A production of Donelan Wines and Smiling Tiger Video
Can you make wine without intervening? Revisiting hands off winemaking.
As harvest descends upon us in Sonoma County and we begin shepherding yeast to produce wine we turn our attention to the idea of intervention in winemaking.
Wineries frequently advertise minimalist winemaking, gentle handling, little to no intervention, and a hands off approach as methods for producing wines of terroir. This assumes that little to no intervention is 1) practiced, and 2) valuable to driving what makes wines terrific. To some extent I completely agree, one of the definitions of great fruit is that there is little required in the cellar to transform it to great wine. But has the idea of “minimalistic” been framed in terms that are too black and white? It seems we have begun to couch the discussion in two camps: those who highly intervene making wines of effort and those who do very little – native ferments, “gentle” pump overs or punch downs, and other minimal handling of the grapes. The former is considered antithetical to producing a wine of terroir, and the latter the prescription for producing a wine of terroir.
Now I agree that less is more: fewer additions of water, acid, yeast, bacteria, tannins, enzymes, velcorin, etc. generally affords one the ideal opportunity to make a wine that Continue reading
How to determine wine harvest and the search for deliciousness.
What are the keys to understanding when wine grapes are perfectly ripe? This time of year most of my existence as a winemaker is taken up with driving to vineyards. And while I visit vineyards throughout the year, the need to sample and taste increases opportunities to enjoy some of the most beautiful places in Sonoma County. Poor me.
The purpose of these visits is not, at least directly, to determine whether the grapes have the right amount of, say, pepper flavor or cherry or chocolate 
or whatever. Indeed, the process of wine making enhances these flavors and they are not entirely obvious when popping sweet wine grapes into your mouth and crunching on their seeds. So what is it then that we evaluate to determine the greatness – and readiness – of any vineyard? How do we decide when to call a pick?
To be sure, one component is grape chemistry. While many wine producers claim to make their ripeness determination “by taste,” they would be foolish to ignore the basic chemistry changes of grape samples: pH, acidity, and sugar percentage. This basic information provides a window into the vine’s physiology and its responsiveness to the current growing conditions. Most viticulture studies report these numbers as reference points – clues to what the vine is or is not experiencing and what it will or will not do next.
That is how I use the numbers – as a vine’s pulse. As such we begin our sampling fairly Continue reading
