A Cabernet Tour at T.R. Passalacqua Ranch

Always on the lookout for ways to bring you, our extended family, closer to the experience of and process behind Passalacqua wine, we’re excited to let you know about a special event coming up this year: the Cabernet Tour at T.R. Passalacqua Ranch. Those who attended last fall’s inaugural edition of this personalized, on-the-spot Cabernet experience enjoyed it so much that we’ll be welcoming even more Cab enthusiasts to the home of our signature vintages this fall.

The debut event began on a sunny early-October afternoon with the arrival of just over 40 Passalacqua Cabernet buyers at the 100-acre Passalacqua Ranch, located on the southern end of Dry Creek Valley. Open-air Vine Rovers met them at the property’s rustic barn to begin a tasting tour among rolling hills and beautiful vineyard vistas. Divided into 22 separate four-and-a-half-acre units, the ranch yields fruit with a range of Cabernet characteristics, so guests disembarked at three selected vineyard locations to taste the differences for themselves at the very sources of their favorite Passalacqua vintages. A stop at Block 13, for example, gave folks the opportunity to sample a 2004 Dry Creek Valley Cab featuring the berry, plummy character and softer tannins yielded by fruit developing on the block’s eastern-facing, rocky slope in the middle of the vineyard. Meanwhile, a stop at Block 18 on the east side of the ranch offered a tasting of the property’s boldest, most concentrated fruit in our 2004 Dry Creek Valley, Blocks 18 & 19 Cab—a wine offering massive, chewy tannins with flavors of briary blackberry and cassis, subtle olive oil and herbal hints of tobacco.

At each of the leisurely tour stops, barrel and bottle samplings of Passalacqua Cabernets were accompanied by delectable autumn cuisine from Chef Mateo Granados, a perfect pairing with Point Reyes Original Blue Cheese, and casual, informative conversation with grower Tom Passalacqua, winemaker Margaret Davenport, and Jason, Noelle and the Passalacqua staff. As the afternoon concluded, guests returned to base camp at the barn, where they enjoyed the opportunity to buy futures of limited-edition Cabs as well as a specially boxed flight of wines available only at the event.

The 2008 Cabernet Tour is slated for the first weekend in October, and we’re looking forward to sharing another great afternoon of touring and tasting at one of the most stunning vineyards in Dry Creek Valley. For more information on this event, please give us a ring at 877-825-5547.

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Postcard to Passalacqua

Jason with Vince (l) and Brad (r) Passalacqua

Brad and Ginger Passalacqua happened to hear about Passalacqua Winery through friends who had visited here on vacation and, shortly after that, a letter of introduction we sent to folks around the U.S. with a certain Italian surname. We’re so glad that Brad, Ginger, Brad’s dad Vince and stepmom Donna came out to see us last fall, and we look forward to their return to Dry Creek Valley!

We had a terrific time last November with you all and we continue (with emphasis on ME) to enjoy the wine very much. All of our friends who try it with us love it as well. Nice to meet you all and hope to see you soon. My next California visit will be Sonoma County Only.

Regards,
Brad Passalacqua
Champaign, IL

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Winemaker’s Notes:
Crush 2007 with Margaret Davenport

Cabernet was the last to be picked, and although it made for sleepless nights, the benefits of the longer hang time are now evident in the barrel — fuller flavor components and more complexity.

With the 2007 vintage finally over (except for late-harvest dessert winemaking), it’s time to reflect on another season. Thankfully, the vines had enough winter water last January and February in addition to cold temperatures for the dormant period. Spring was not as wet as in 2006, but we did experience some cool weather and rain during bloom, which can reduce crop. We did see a bit of this in Zinfandel in 2007. Instead of big, tightly packed clusters, many were quite loose and stringy. Aside from the large berry size so typical of Zin, the loose clusters reminded me of Merlot. Additionally, many Zin and Chardonnay clusters were full of small green berries that never developed. These are called “shot berries” and they look like little green BBs.

Harvest 2007 began with a bang! The weather was in the 90s throughout August. We didn’t experience a lot of summer fog. The Pinot Noir was ready to pick before Labor Day (August 26), as the crop is thinned early to keep it small and to concentrate flavors. If the vines have a smaller crop to bring to maturity, less time on the vine is required, as long as the weather accommodates. The fruit was also exceptionally “clean” this year—not a hint of Botrytis, the Noble Rot. Anyone growing the thin-skinned varieties on the North Coast, such as Pinot, Chardonnay, Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, or Zinfandel, always worries about mold.

But then the weather began to cool down toward the end of September and into early October. Healdsburg experienced light rain on September 22. Rain and cool weather can actually send the Brix or sugar readings down. Then growers and winemakers wait patiently (?) for warmer, drier weather to reverse the trend. While waiting, we nervously pace vineyards to spot the first signs of rot in Chardonnay or Zin and send in skilled crews to drop or cut off the affected fruit so the pickers don’t include it with sound clusters. Unfortunately, cutting off fruit this late doesn’t hasten ripening; it just lowers yield and raises labor costs. Agriculture is no fun at all when the weather is bad.

Most of the Zinfandel in the Dry Creek Valley was ripe and picked well before the week of really heavy rain that began on October 9. By midmonth, daytime temperatures were only in the 70s and the days were becoming notably shorter. Under these conditions, it becomes harder and harder for the vine to properly ripen its crop. Often, ripening does not continue normally, i.e., via photosynthesis in the leaves and translocation of sugar to the grapes. Instead, leaves change from green to yellow and the Brix rises as the grapes simply dry out. Flavor and color compounds in the skins begin to break down as the vine prepares for winter. Wines made from such grapes can only be mediocre at best. The vintage outlook for later ripening grapes like Petit Sirah, Cabernet, Syrah, and Petit Verdot in Sonoma County is sketchy and will depend on the individual vineyard site’s soil type, drainage, sun exposure, and crop load.

Waiting for ripeness in Cabernet at the Passalacqua Ranch seemed to take forever! But the vineyard was well-prepared with judicious leafing of the vertically positioned shoots to get the most from the waning sun and to dry out quickly after the rain. Cabernet has a thick skin and loose clusters that allow it to resist rot and shed water easily. The long wait meant greater development of flavor components in the grape skins that are so important to the ultimate complexity of the finished wine. While we picked at lower Brix levels than in 2006, the fruit was fully mature.

By the end of January, all the red wine malolactic fermentations were complete and all red wines racked and returned to clean barrels to slowly mature. The youthful wines are uniformly well-balanced and elegant—no hot, alcoholic monsters or overly aggressive tannins. There’s great focus on true varietal flavor even though acid levels are a bit lower than usual.

While Chardonnay is, as usual, slow to finish malolactic, it, too, is showing extremely well as we taste barrels. These barrels will be stirred regularly throughout the aging period until the wine is bottled in August. The stainless fermented Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc was just bottled on January 17. Both wines fairly burst with fresh fruit and floral aromas. They’ll be ready to enjoy just as spring weather beckons us to fire up the barbecue and sit on the patio.

Farmer’s Corner:
January in the Vineyards
Tom & Sandi Passalacqua

The vineyard crew members who prune the vines and endure the harsh weather conditions of December, January, February, and March are performing the tasks that may determine bunch count. There are many factors from bud break to harvest that will affect the tonnage, but work by an experienced pruner sets the stage for the remainder of the season.

A responsible pruner is truly an artist. Each pruning day, he sanitizes his pruning shears and then sharpens the blade until it’s razor sharp. The thorough cleaning is necessary to make sure that the blade is not carrying a spore of an infectious disease from another vine or vineyard. The sharpness of the blade is necessary to assure clean cuts—tearing of a shoot may open the wood up to Eutypa, twig bores and other threats.

Before sculpting the vine and cutting a cane, he looks at it to determine its health. He knows that a perfectly pruned vine will yield quality fruit—there is more bud wood on a healthy vine and less bud wood on a weaker vine. Too many buds may stress a healthy vine and cause permanent damage which decreases future productivity. On a healthy pruned Zinfandel vine (as in Jason and Noelle’s estate vineyard), the vine may have six to seven arms with each arm having one spur and two buds on each spur. The spurs are well-spaced to maximize light and air. Cabernet vines are pruned in a cordon method with twelve to fourteen spurs, with each spur having one or two buds, depending on the health of the vine. If a vine will not produce quality fruit, the pruner marks it for removal. The bud wood does not always grow straight, leaving four to five inches between itself and the bud wood on the next spur, so the pruner must determine whether the intruding spur should be removed and permanently decrease the number of spurs on the vine, or whether he should shorten the bud wood on both spurs (or one spur) to ensure adequate light and air to the fruit that the bud produces.

While pruning the vines, the pruner must also determine whether there are any non-productive spurs (dead or sick) that should be removed. When the artist is finished with his “sculpture,” he moves on to the next vine, where the process starts again—repeated between three hundred and five hundred times a day, depending on the size of the vines and whether the cane was removed by the pre-pruning.

Properly pruning the vine is the initial and most important integer of the equation—the responsibility of our skilled vineyard crew.