Wine Making
Winemaking 2004!
Our 2004 Vintage is heading down the stretch for our June12, 2006 bottling date. This blend of our 5 varietals, estate grown fruit, will consist of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot, 5% Malbec, 5% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petite Verdot. Since we cover the 75% requirement of a single varietal, our Roy J Maier 2004 will again be labeled “Cabernet Sauvignon”. The alcohol is 14.4%. This Vintage is being aged in 100% French Oak, tight grain, with 80% new and 20% one vintage, for 20 months.
Our wine consultant, Mike Hirby has been assisting with this 2004 since August of 2005. Former consultant, Cecile Derbes led us for the first half of this vintage. As this wine enters the final days in the barrel, we are pleased with the wonderful bouquet and rich color it exhibits and hopes that the fabulous finish of our 2003 Vintage can be replicated. These final, remaining days will tell the story of the mouth feel, elegance and smoothness of the Vintage, and our hopes are high that we can again produce a soft tannic structure.
The pre-release date for this Vintage will be immediate. We will take orders for this Vintage at any time and shipment to our pre-release customers will occur after October of 2006, as the weather cools. The actual release to the public will occur after the first of the year, 2007. Our wines drink well early and consumption will be possible as soon as they arrive, and as most of you know, they will certainly improve as they spend more time in the bottle. We will send out the 2004 for professional review in March of 2007.
There will be 950 cases of this 2004 Vintage.
Winemaking 2005!
We began our 2005 Vintage with our new winemaking consultant, Mike Hirby. Mike has become one of Spring Mountain’s most active consultants and his St. Helena residency makes him easily available. He consistently produces some of Spring Mountain’s finest wines, and scores in the 90’s are awarded to his wine programs. We are fortunate to obtain Mike’s services, and his guidance throughout the wine making experience is welcomed.
Mike’s approach is very ‘hands on’ and his assistance with harvest timing and readiness assures that our varietals reach their maximum potential in the field. This is a critical issue here at Saint Helena Road Vineyards because of the unique way we choose to prune our vineyards. Our one fulltime vineyard foreman and field expert, ‘Joaquin’ prunes each and every vine like it is the only vine we have. In the mountain environment at 1800 feet, each vine has developed at its own rate, and the task of pruning varies from plant to plant. There are no ‘blanket’ instructions on pruning; to the contrary, each and every vine has its own rate of development. All vines are pruned as individuals, according to their needs. It requires two months to complete our 18.5 acres at this rate, and therefore when harvest time approaches, our vineyards have ripened according to when they were pruned and which varietals they are. We do an array of sugar testing by refractometer and constantly ‘taste test’ the crop in order to determine at what exact point the grapes are ready for picking. This insures that our juice will reach its maximum potential in flavors and gives us the knowledge that we are starting the wine making process with properly ripened fruit. We insure the quality of our fruit by harvesting in the evening and nighttime hours and maintaining the harvested temperature of the grapes overnight in our climate controlled facility. This eliminates small, pockets of fermentations that can begin during day harvested, gondola operations, and keeps the fruit firm and ready for processing.
All our harvested fruit is cold soaked before the fermentation process. After processing the grapes into must, ( removing the stems, leaving the flesh, skins and seeds = must) we send this must into one of our stainless steel fermentation tanks and set the temperature to a cold setting. A few days are spent in this manner before we increase the temperature and add yeast, beginning the fermentation. Mike’s experience using different yeasts for different varietals and different temperatures that suit these changing combinations, brings these juices into wine and has given us spectacular results. It takes us about 6 weeks to fully process the harvest. Once the fermentation of a tank is complete, we drain all the ‘free run’ wine off the must and transfer this free run wine into 59 gallon French Oak barrels. The remaining flesh, skins and seeds are placed into our press and the remaining wine is extracted. This ‘pressed’ wine is transferred into additional French Oak barrels and kept separate form the ‘free run’. By keeping this separation, we can track the development of both and determine at a later date if the two will be compatible in our final blend. If the pressed wine does not meet the free run level of excellence, it will not be included in our finished product.
Barrel selection is a little known and little understood science. Yes, most of us who appreciate fine wine understand that French Oak creates the nuances we prefer in our luxury wines, yet the differences in the quality of this oak varies greatly from Cooperage to Cooperage. (Barrel making facility) Is the grain of the oak tight or separated further apart? How does the level of toasting affect the wine? Does the level of toasting change for different wines? These are some of the questions asked and at every winery you will find these and more nuances to explore. We believe that Mike has sound reasoning for these various differences and his guidance in barrel selection is a key factor in the development of our ‘wine style’.
As our 2005 Vintage rests in French Oak barrels for a total of 20 months, awaiting its bottling date in June of 2007, we track its development by constant tasting, determining what actions will be required to reach our full potential. We believe that our commitment to excellence and our property location, supplemented by the talent and knowledge of Mike Hirby, gives us the combination that produces the caliber of wine worthy of the name ‘Roy J Maier’, who produced extraordinary excellence as a Musician for the Paul Whiteman Band in the 1920’s and the world’s premier maker of woodwind reeds for over 6 decades.