"Oh yes, god brings grain from the land, wine to make people happy . . . .
Their faces glowing with health, a peaople well fed and hearty." Psalm 104 (The Message)
I finally got back up to Coeur de Terre yesterday afternoon. I had wanted to catch bud break, but missed that by at least three weeks. Last year I would have been just in time. Bud break came about a month earlier this year that last. If we have continued warm weather this could be another warm, early harvest, similar to 2008.
Grape vines are so vigorous. Once the buds break out the growth is amazingly fast. It's taxing for the crew of the vineyard, because the vines don't always produce growth where the vineyard manager wants that growth to be. In the photo ab9ve you can see many shoots coming out of the lower part of the vine. The best time to prune off this growth is when you can do it by pinching them off with your fingers, and that is right now. But think about doing that for row after row after row to an entire vineyard. Scott Neal, the Co-owner and Winemaker at Coeur de Terre says that his crew touch the vines over a dozen times in the course of a year. And when you multiply that by the number of vines in a vineyard, that's a lot of hand work.
A while back I got a crash course in pruning from Lisa Neal the Co-Owner and Vineyard Manager of Coeur de Terre. She said the ideal branch coming off the vine is about a big around as your finger with growth shoots coming up a hand's width apart. I thought the vine above looked about perfect. Each of those buds will grow straight up and then be trained to the wires that sit higher up. When it reaches about 7 feet off the ground it will be topped. All of this work is to get the vine to concentrate it's energy into fruit production. Left to it's own the vine would only produce more vine.
A while back I got a crash course in pruning from Lisa Neal the Co-Owner and Vineyard Manager of Coeur de Terre. She said the ideal branch coming off the vine is about a big around as your finger with growth shoots coming up a hand's width apart. I thought the vine above looked about perfect. Each of those buds will grow straight up and then be trained to the wires that sit higher up. When it reaches about 7 feet off the ground it will be topped. All of this work is to get the vine to concentrate it's energy into fruit production. Left to it's own the vine would only produce more vine.So, I headed up to Coeur de Terre expecting to see some clean up work, or pruning, or trellice repair . . .
But, no, Scott Neal is in the midst of crush! "Where is he getting fruit this time of year?" You may ask. The answer is the freezer. Scott took some of the Riesling grapes from last harvest and had them frozen in a commercial plant in Salem. Yesterday he and Berto were shoveling them into the press. It will take two to three days to press the grapes. The ice locks up most of the water in the grapes so what is pressed out is amazingly sweet, intense, thick wine. For it to be a real ice wine it would have to be picked while frozen on the vine (which when they were harvesting Riesling last year around Thanksgiving time looked like it might have been a possibility!) It's called Late Harvest Riesling, and by volume it is one of the the most expensive wines Coeur de Terre sells. That entire pressing will make precious little wine, but oh my goodness is it amazing.
But, no, Scott Neal is in the midst of crush! "Where is he getting fruit this time of year?" You may ask. The answer is the freezer. Scott took some of the Riesling grapes from last harvest and had them frozen in a commercial plant in Salem. Yesterday he and Berto were shoveling them into the press. It will take two to three days to press the grapes. The ice locks up most of the water in the grapes so what is pressed out is amazingly sweet, intense, thick wine. For it to be a real ice wine it would have to be picked while frozen on the vine (which when they were harvesting Riesling last year around Thanksgiving time looked like it might have been a possibility!) It's called Late Harvest Riesling, and by volume it is one of the the most expensive wines Coeur de Terre sells. That entire pressing will make precious little wine, but oh my goodness is it amazing.I was talking to Ryan, the tasting room manager and he shared with me that Coeur de Terre is almost out of their Rustique which is a Rose made from their Syrah grapes. So head up this weekend and get yours. It's a beautiful and refreshing summer wine. It's too bad there won't be any left by the time summer actually arrives!