El Bloggo Torcido - Twisted Oak Winery

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...

Priorities!!

Friday was a good day!  The morning after crushing Mourvedre until midnight, the cellar rats were all wondering how they were gonna get through the day and night...especially since we had helped the good folks at the Heineken corporation with our fair share of depletions this week...in short, our cupboards were bare.  But much to our surprise, the beer fairy had come in the middle of the night and left us a hefty load in the "Beer Fund" cup.

Now, we certainly don't condone alcohol consumption while driving a forklift or operating a de-stemmer/crusher, but we have been known to hoist a few once the machines are turned off and the ladders are put away for the eve.  As they say, "It takes a lot of beer to make wine!".  In fact, next year we oughtta have a beer sponsorship option on our website...think of it as taking part in crush without having to get your feet dirty!!

-Fermento

Child Labor Laws Violated At Twisted Oak Winery...News at 11

On Sunday, members of the  Fermento clan (the Klann family) stopped by the winery for a look at all the action.  My nephew Connor was especially interested in eating fermenting grapes.  I told him the best we could do was make him a right proper Cellar Rat.  Obviously it worked out for us...we took the rest of the day off with beers in hand and put Connor to the test!!  By the end of the day he was barkin orders around like a good little winemaker!

Grape Porn #1

Where are my manners? I did promise... busy day at the winery, and it's going to get busier from now on. Tomorrow we get our first lot of the Rolleri Vineyard Tempranillo, source of our mainline Tempranillo. The next day we're expecting to see the first of our own Estate Tempranillo from the Spaniard block - and if that weren't enough, the Tanner Syrah will be ready too. The joint will be stompin'!

Oh yeah, the porn... 2006 Twisted Oak Estate Grenache, Tufa block. These head-trained vines are planted on white volcanic tuff. And don't they dangle nicely? (photo by El Jefe)

(thanks to Slashfood for the inspiration!)

Speaking of M.O.G.

Imagine my surprise when this MOG came through the destemmer yesterday!!  After a quick check, it was confirmed that all TOW cellar rats had all their appendages firmly attached still.  Dunno who this hand belongs to, but that beer looks eerily familiar...

-Fermento

MOG-inations

Over on Basic Juice, Beau recently posted about "unartful" wine words - like "punch down" and "disgorgement" - though we rather like punchdowns. More on that later.

Today at Twisted Oak we encountered another ugly wine wine term: MOG. MOG is actually an acronym for "Material Other than Grape". The picture to the right is a nice pile of MOG on our crush pad floor. Sometimes the fruit comes in with something more, and we have to de-MOG-rify. It's actually pretty Zen-ful work, plucking the leaves from around the sweet sticky fruit. Layers of sugar actually build up on your hands until they get stiff and you have to wash them off.

Why bother? We like our wines to GO with the salad, not BE the salad! Not only that, but excessive greens can leach bitter flavors into the juice, and who wants that?

I also need to talk for a moment about the spawn of El Jefe, on the left there working the forklift with some degree of expertise. Greg does great work around here but for some reason he has dodged getting a nickname. Fermento suggested "Bitch" of course, but it just doesn't sound right... "That's my son Bitch over there, and I am very proud of him!" Nope. Can't do it.

Anyway, he was kicking butt today between the excellent forklift work and the de-MOG-rification. He needs a nickname. Make a suggestion if you like.

The P-17 Bomber...

Yesterday we received the first little bundle of joy from Parcel 17, a ranch over in Salt Springs Valley on the western side of the county.  This new vineyard is planted to three different Spanish varietals.

Graciano, pictured here, is planted along side Mazuelo, also known as Carignane, and Monastrell, which is also known as Mourvedre.  Everything from this vineyard will be blended together and bottled as it's own product...and if the Graciano is any indication, it'll be a bomber!! 

-Fermento

So, What About Crush?

The funny thing is, almost unnoticed, several tons of Viognier have slipped into the winery from several different vineyards. They have slipped, a couple tons at a time, past all of the surveilance cameras; but I can tell you that small, tight clusters of little tasty berries have been squished mercilessly by the big press into some damn yummy juice!

The fruit on the vines is getting what it needs now. We have settled into perfect days of 90 degree sun, followed by cool, clear nights in the low 60s. Yeah baby.

This weekend gets busy: Syrah from Dalton's out on Dogtown Road comes in on Friday, Tempranillo from Rolleri's on Saturday, and we also expect to be picking our own Tempranillo this weekend. Syrah and Rolle from the Tanner Vineyard should follow quickly.

As always, stop by the winery and check out what's being squished. If you're lucky, we'll let you do a round of punchdowns!!

(photo: Tanner Vineyard Syrah)

Crushing Matters

Yes, it does...

We call it "Crush", when we pick, cut, toss, dump, push, de-stem, pop, smash, squish, pump, punch, stir and squeeze that amazing fruit we call the grape, and then allow it to rot in its own special way into something pretty Damn Yummy.

Crush actually started yesterday (August 18, for the record) right on time. The first lot in was not for Twisted Oak, but rather for one of our custom crush clients - Newsome-Harlow Winery. It was 2.5 tons of Sauvignon Blanc - both tart and sweet -  we think it will be a killer vintage for them.

The start of crush is always wonderful news, but I want to talk about Fermento, our winemaker. Can you believe he actually uttered the words "I can't conceive of a situation in which we would be crushing at 8:30 tonight."? So naturally, the wine press which had been working fine when we tested it two weeks ago, went lame on us.

I'd like to pause now and profusely thank Harvey, who drove all over the bay area collecting parts and then made the long drive to the foothills to repair our press!

I'd like to report the incredible drama that now ensued, with work on the press continuing into the wee hours, an angry wedding party* descending upon us and tearing us to bits, and much screaming and shouting - but I can't. The press was fixed, we waited for the ceremony to finish, and the wedding party enjoyed the winemaking activities and by all accounts had a lovely time (and drank a %@#$! load of wine!-)

Stay tuned for further updates - next week should see the first lots of Twisted Oak Viognier and Verdelho. I'll even have pictures, I bet!

*We do host a few weddings at the winery. The views up here are pretty spectacular. Contact us if you are interested!

2006 Calaveras County Viognier (almost)

"Men are like a fine wine. They begin as grapes, and it's up to women to stomp the crap out of them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with." *

It's about that time at Twisted Oak. Time to stomp the crap out of grapes. To the right is a sample of 2006 Calaveras County Viognier from Canterbury Vinyards, currently sitting at 22.8 brix. Brix is a measurement of the percentage of sugar in the juice. Winemakers like to see around 24 brix or so before harvesting.

You may correctly assume that this fruit is almost ready to be plucked from the vine - just a few more days to develop some more flavor and a little more sugar.

Crush actually begins tomorrow (Friday) with a lot of Sauvignon Blanc (that's "a lot", which is alot) that we will be custom crushing for Newsome-Harlow Winery.

Yippee!

* thanks to Randy Cassignham's Jumbo Joke for that one!