El Bloggo Torcido - Twisted Oak Winery

Last Press Load of Crush 2008

A moment of silence, please....

It's wine on drugs!

 

Dude, I am so totally peaking!! Whoa buddy!

Live from Crush!

Right now (11:45AM PDT) we are streaming live video and sound from the crush pad at Twisted Oak Winery! I've tried to embed the video below - we'll see if that works. But if not, you can go here to see the video on ustream.tv. Enjoy!

If you missed today's fun, check back often - or watch for announcements on my Twitter stream: http://twitter.com/eljefetwisted

Cleaning the Press

Crush 2007 Begins at Twisted Oak!

Missed in all of the Piratical Hubbub is the fact that our crush officially began on 8/17 with a few tons of Verdelho from Silvaspoons Vineyard in Alta Mesa. Check out those lovely small berries! Today: Calaveras Viognier from Villa Vallecito Vineyard - stay tuned!

2006 - Making Wine

We're going to spend this week with images from the past year you may not have seen yet. This first batch is from the production side of things, crush and beyond... Most of the images can be clicked on to get a larger view... enjoy!

Making a Little Wine...

Ryan over at catavino.net commented here about our post on drinking at Twisted Oak. I felt the comment deserved a full post in reply:

First, is "not drinking terms for dismissal?" I'd say not so much terms for dismissal as grounds for concern - an intervention may be called for!*

I have heard that beer-wine expression many many times - I had not heard it specifically attributed to the French, but OK. I expect the ancient Greeks and Romans also shared much beer when making wine in the hot Mediterranean sun.

I can assure you the relationship applies here, and then some! (Demonstrating the sheer enjoyment of beer at Twisted Oak in the photo are Dick and Ron Tanner of Tanner Vineyards.)

Beers and ales I can recall from the 2006 crush include Sierra Nevada Pale, Heineken, Newcastle Pale, and Guiness Stout. I can also recall seeing Alaska Pale and our local favorite Snowshoe Snoweizen.

Making wine here also takes a fair amount of reposado tequila in the form of margaritas - but only on special milestones or we'd all be dead. Still, I feel we are one up on the French on this one.

Oh, and I did once find a six pack of Bud in the fridge. I'm afraid I had to take names...

cheers! - j

*: Lest you think we are drunken sots here at Twisted, I want to reassure you we are respons... oh heck, you'll think what you want anyway!

And Now For An Almost Dangerously Serious Post (Part 1)...

This week marks the start of what we call "primary racking" in the cellar.  Simply put, we are racking (pumping) the new 06 red wine out of barrels for the first time in their very young lives.  The secondary fermentation is complete, and the primary lees (sediment) has settled to the bottom of the barrels.  It is time to get the semi-clear wine up off of that lees and into a tank for initial SO2 additions and any other adjustments.  All of this makes it a very good time to look back and report on the harvest.  So here goes...

Traditionally, the Viogniers are the first things to roll in around here and this year was  no  different.  There is always one or two of them that come in much later, but most of those blocks fall right near the end of August.  For the most part they were all very bright with acidity and each one had those exotic jasmine and spicy flavors that we've come to expect from Viognier.  Sugars were high but with our humidity so high in our caves, that shouldn't transfer to exorbitantly high alcohols.  Look for the Viognier to be around 14%, but not much higher.  There were two cooler climate lots that came in about a month later.  They will add a much needed "minerality" to the blend.

Pretty much right on the heels of the Viogniers come our Syrah blocks.  Unfortunately this year they were about a week afterwards so we are unable to produce a Syrah/Viognier this year in the traditional "co-fermented" style.  The 06 Syrahs on the whole are beautifully expressive, deep and dense, and showing some intense varietal fruit characters.  Some new Syrah clones came into the winery this year from the Tanner Vineyard (470 & 877) and also the Dalton vineyard (470) in addition to the original Tanner block (Clone 06).  The new clones are a treat to work with as they will add different characteristics to the Calaveras Syrah, Tanner Syrah and the *%#&@! red Rhone blend.

Stay tuned for more of my incredibly riveting harvest reports...Parts 2 - 13,569!

-Fermento T. Magnificent

The Spaniard Cometh!!

Some of you might have been wondering when your fearless winemaker would come through with a serious post...how about now??  Today was a treat!  We pulled the last lot of Tempranillo in off of the fields, this one from our very own Sheep Shack Vineyard up in Murphys.  The last few years, this baby has been the basis for none other than our world famous Spaniard!!  We'll run some analyses tomorrow morning, but watching it go through the de-stemmer was quite exciting.  The flavors were full and bright and the color was apparent immediately.  Kudos to our very own vineyard manager Mark Skenfield. 

-Fermento

P.S.  Rumor has it that the 2004 Spaniard, which is just about to be released, will be receiving a very good score in an upcoming issue...stay tuned to this spot for an update.

Stuck Fermentations

I've fooled you - this isn't about recalcitrant yeast in a non-zero brix environment. Instead I wanted to comment on a post by Mike over at Winery Web Site Report titled Is Wine Stuck? Mike quotes another post on Seth Godin's blog titled Is Culture Stuck?

Still with me?

Anyway, the concept is that things get stuck when "the masses" want them to be stuck. For example, French restaurants that don't want to risk their three stars so they don't ever change their menus. Or wineries that produce Cabernet and Chardonnay, often in a manner tailored to produce high scores from wine publications...

I don't think wine is stuck. But I do think some wineries and winemakers are stuck. I do know personally at least one winemaker who left a great gig making top-scoring wines every year, because the wines did not please him. Now he's doing other varietals his way, and I believe he may be happier.

If you are tired of stuck wines and stuck wineries, get out there and try something you've never heard of, or from someplace you have never heard of. Better yet, come by and see us and try some Viognier and Tempranillo - "Just like Chardonnay/Merlot, only better!"

Just please don't disturb the rubber chickens roosting in the trees as you drive in! That's our job...