October is my favorite time to visit a vineyard. This beautiful stretch of weather is exactly what I have in mind. After a series of rain showers the gorgeous fall sunshine has returned to the valley. Now is the time to make a visit and taste some great wines. The vineyard above is Momtazi Vineyard where Maysara Wines are grown and made. I stopped by to bring a copy of my book,
The Theology of Wine, as a thank you for all of the help the Momtazi family has been to me in learning about wine.. I was thinking I might meet up with Tahmiene, Maysara's talented wine maker, but was delighted to run into the patriarch of the family, Moe Momtazi. Moe opened the book to the page with the photograph of Maysara on it. The photo is looking out of the huge, arched doors of their new facility, and we are looking at the same exact frame as we look at the book.
Moe gives me a tour of the place. They are currently finishing the floor of the area just adjacent to the tasting room. They are using the tops and bottoms of the barrels that were left over from all of the staves which have been used to cover all of the interior walls. The caps of the barrels were cut to an octagon shape and small squares of oak harvested from the estate were added at the corners. That's a close up view above.
The over-all effect is stunning. The floor is huge, and you can begin to get a sense of it's scope in the photo above. Below this floor is the new barrel aging room. Moe shared that his daughter, Tahmiene, had asked him to build a barrel cave in the hillside just opposite the new facility. "I told her that wasn't going to happen." Moe said. The new barrel area required some tricky excavation, but will remain at the perfect temperature throughout the year without added air conditioning or heating. There is a natural spring just under the floor. The water that accumulates in the sump naturally adds moisture to the air so that less wine will be lost to evaporation. The evaporation is often called "the angles share."
The stringers for the stair way are a single piece of oak harvested from the estate. It's difficult to capture just how impressive these 5/4 inch by twelve inches tall by 20 feet long pieces of oak really are. The area where the new floor is being installed is going to be offices for Moe's daughters who, according to a recent newspaper article, are are taking over the wine production from their father. I'm not so sure. However, Moe's passion is definitely the vineyard. He talked about how costly it is for them to make their own composts and solutions for their bio-dynamic vineyard. "It would be ten times less costly to simply purchase the solutions already made." He said. But the goal of the vineyard is to grow grapes using only what is available on the land itself.
The scope of the building is monumental. The barrels pictured above use to fill the entire wine making facility, now they occupy a small corner of the complex. Moe is such an amazing person who has been able to take a vision of a beautiful winery and make it a reality. He also had a vision to build a facility using materials mostly harvested from the estate. Moe also appears healthy after a long recuperation from a surgery. I'm so thankful that he is doing well. It was such a blessing to be able to talk with him.
