To get you in the mood and have you start to learn about the wines of Ancient Oak Cellars, we’ve designed two special contests.

One is called “The Great Wine Hunt” Photo Contest.  This contest is based on our Facebook page.  We will be giving away at least one bottle of wine to each winner.  Here’s what you have to do:

1) Become a Facebook fan of Ancient Oak Cellars.
2) Print out the picture of the Siebert Ranch Pinot Noir (found in this Facebook Photo Album)
3) Take a photo of yourself holding the photo in any or all of the following categories of photos:

• most beautiful location in Hong Kong
• most sporty/active
• best with food

Submit as many photos in as many different categories as you want. We will choose a winner who has submitted the most photos, but don’t just take 10 photos of yourself in very slightly different locations on your block, because we won’t count those; they need to be in recognizably different locations.

There will also be winners in all of the above categories, as well as a “people’s choice” and one “Ancient Oak Cellars” choice.

4) To “vote” for a photo, make a comment on your photos (one comment per person per photo), comment on other people’s photos, and also tell your friends, family, work colleagues, etc. to vote on photos too.

5) Come to the Hong Kong International Wine Fair on Saturday, November 6th and visit Ancient Oak Cellar’s booth 3G-F22.

Contest will end at 3pm and we will announce the winners at 4pm, so be sure you send us a message with the best way to get in touch with you at the Fair (FB message, text, etc.).  Winners will receive at least one bottle of wine.
The second contest is the Ancient Oak Cellars Website Treasure Hunt.  To enter it, you need to:

1) Send me an email (melissa@ancientoakcellars.com) to join our mailing list, OR become a Facebook fan, OR become a Twitter follower.

2) Answer the following five questions (send me an email , OR a Facebook direct message, OR a Direct Tweet - all to keep your answers private).  You will find the answers to these questions on the Ancient Oak Cellars website:

• what types of grapes (such as sauvignon blanc, etc.) are in the “Red Blend 8” wine?
• name at least on animal that lives on the Siebert Ranch
• what kind of grapes are grown on the Siebert Ranch?
• where is Ancient Oak Cellars located?
• where are the grapes for our Cabernet Sauvignon wine grown?

3) Answer the following five questions about yourself:

• what is your age? (plus or minus 5-10 years; so if you’re 30 years old, you could say “30” or you could say “25-35” or you could say “20-30 or 30-40”
• what kind of work do you do?
• what kinds of wines to do you like best? (this could be a type of grape, or a taste you like)
• where do you buy wine?
• how frequently do you drink wine with a meal when you are eating at a restaurant?  how frequently do you drink wine with a meal when you are at eating at home?

4) Visit us at the Hong Kong International Wine Fair (booth 3G-F22) and give us your name card (make sure it has on it the way we should contact you - such as a cell phone number where we can call or text you, or an email address).  We will randomly select at least 6 people who have answered all the questions listed above and will give away a bottle of wine to each winner.

Just under 7 tons of Siebert Ranch Pinot Noir were hand picked on Saturday, October 2, weeks later than this block usually ripens.  After removing the grapes from the stems, the “must” was transferred to the open top fermenters for a cold soak period, where we attempt to extract as much color and flavor as possible, prior to the start of fermentation.  These grapes will have a few more days of cold soak before we inoculate with yeast and begin the conversion from juice to wine.  It looks like the 2010 Siebert Ranch Pinot Noir will be a wonderfully intense wine with very ripe flavors of black cherry and blueberry.

The Warnecke Ranch Pinot Noir was inoculated with Assmannshausen yeast (a highly regarded Pinot Noir yeast strain) on Saturday, and is showing remarkable color (a bright purple-red) and flavors (ripe red cherry, strawberry, and black tea).  The process of converting the sugars in the juice into alcohol will continue for 5-7 days before we drain the young wine off the skins, and press the skins to recover as much of the precious wine as possible.

I’ll keep you posted on the progress of our young wines!

-Joe Freeman

I want to share some photos that help explain some of the process so far.  These grapes were harvested into large metal bins called Valley Bins, which hold a bit more than 2 tons of grapes each.  The bins were loaded onto the truck and sent to the winery. Here’s a photo of those bins of beautiful grapes.

Next, the bins were dumped into a hopper.  We had some great help that day - including Mike, the former Mayor of Santa Rosa, shown here scooping the grapes into the hopper.

From here a large stainless-steel screw moves the grapes to a conveyor and into an area where leaves and stems are separated and removed into another bin.The contract says that the winery will receive grapes substantially free of “MOG” - or “Material Other than Grapes.”  The critter below was removed after he/she was officially categorized as MOG.

The grapes then travel gently to a large tank where they have several days of cold soak to begin extracting the colors and flavors of the grape skins and seeds before fermentation begins.   All this time the heady smell of the grapes envelopes us.  This Warnecke Ranch Pinot is filled with amazing blackberry with ripe-green herbal notes.  Our winemaker, Joe Freeman, carefully examined the grapes as they arrived, and tasted them to begin to determine how they will express themselves in the finished wine.

As the tank sits, a cap of grape skins forms at the top; each day that cap is punched back down into the tank and juice from below is pumped over it to optimize extraction.  That’s where we stand today.  Tomorrow Joe will do some analysis of the juice, then add yeast to begin the magical transformation of earthy grape juice into the heavenly elixir we call wine.

Stay tuned - there’s lots more to come!

It’s hard to concentrate on tasting grapes with with a hilly vista spreading out in front of you and Margo’s dog Zephyr vying for attention at your heels, but we did manage to come up with some thoughts on the grapes, especially our winemaker Joe Freeman.  From past experience with the grapes, Joe knows that they are kind of “sleepers” — in that they show even more finely in the wine made than one would expect from the fruit.  We’re getting close to harvest time, so the stems are continuing the process of lignification — turning brown and beginning to shut down.

The seeds are starting to get more “pop” and crunchiness, with those tannins developing nicely, and the berries are developing nice strawberry and red-cherry flavors.  We’re expecting some nice warm weather in the next several days, so all looks good for continued development of grape flavors and seed tannins.  Expect some great stuff from this wine!

Ten miles away from our own ranch and vineyards, the Warnecke Ranch pinot is our next step in personal connections. Like all our other wines, it is from friends and neighbors, and will maintain our standards of quality. The grapes will be harvested on Monday, and then brought to the winery for a long transformation before they reach your table. Fall is an exciting time for us, bringing the bounty of the land and the promise of good wine to come.

Here are some notes on what we tasted of the wines from each of the types of barrels:

barrel type 1: homey, warming; pushing baked cherry pie, pie spice, ginger; nice, ripe fruit
barrel type 2:  wood overtone - smell the oak as wood, not toast; the fruit carries on the palate for a long finish with fruit; nice blueberry/blackberry; “wow” fruit
barrel type 3:  graham cracker, toasted/burnt marshmallow, toffee, caramel, roast meat; some smoke, but a lot of sweet aromatics; big oak power; not as much fruit support - a good counterpoint to the other barrels that adds more layers of complexity
neutral barrels:  cocoa, rhubarb; good acid; tighter tannins because older barrels are tighter, with less airflow

These are the components we are working with.  Now comes the magic of selecting barrels and determining the best blend from them.

Joe made some beginning trial blends with different percentages of new oak used, and different percentages of some of the different new oak barrels.  We will be continuing this in a few weeks, and then revisiting, revising, and perfecting our blend after we have finished with the insanity of harvest.  We’ll bottle in November or December, and have the wine ready for you some time between Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day, depending on how the wine develops.

I hope that once you get to taste the finished product, you’ll give some feedback on what of these individual components you taste, and how you think we did choosing barrels and blending the wine from them.  I’d love to hear from you!

Sierra Foothills:  Wines are deeply colored, with bright forward fruit, jammy, ripe black raspberry flavors, and a strong black cherry, verging on cola, character.  Aromas are often described as cocoa, briary spice, licorice, mint, chocolate, cedar and tobacco.
○    Amador County Zins are big, full-bodied, jammy/briary/brambly, having aromas of sweet berries, black cherry, black pepper and anise, and a rich, round, full mouth

Central Valley:  Aromas of spicy cherry liqueur, pie cherries, clove and nutmeg, with flavors of  ripe blueberries, cranberry, dried plum, toasted almond and pepper. Central Valley wines tend toward soft, low tannins.
○    Lodi has some of the oldest Zinfandel vines in California.; Lodi Zinfandels have a reputation for being juicy and approachable.

Sonoma County:  Zinfandel from Sonoma County have full, intense blackberry fruit aromas that mingle with spicy black pepper, anise and allspice scents. In general, Northern Sonoma produces “classic Zinfandel”, with some cherry and briar character.
○    Russian River Valley:  The extended growing season intensifies the flavors in the fruit, producing very lush dark fruit flavors (plums and boysenberries).
○    Dry Creek:   Have a distinct core of black cherry and vanilla flavor and aroma,
○    Alexander Valley:  Described as “supple” with plump blackberry and black cherry flavors.
○    Sonoma Valley:  From a slightly cooler region, these wines are lush, with plenty of black pepper and spice. The coolest areas of Southern Sonoma show brighter, rounder berry fruit and an intensely spicy flavor.

So, from the 2010 Ancient Oak Cellars Pagnano Vineyard Russian River Valley Zinfandel, expect a classic zinfandel with intense blackberry and spicy aromas and lush dark fruit flavors.  My mouth is watering and recipe thoughts are flowing already!

Once the merits of these individual barrels and lots are identified, the blending trials begin in the lab.  Each of the candidate wines is sampled, and blended proportionately in several different ways. I will take an educated guess on the first round, using experience with each component to make the initial blends.  Trial and error is best way to know how well these varied wines will get along (Often, my favorite individual barrels in the cellar may turn out to be the least attractive in the blend!).  I’ll take notes, and try variations on the successful blends.  This continues over several sessions, as the blend gets dialed in.  Often, small changes make the biggest difference, and the wine finally hits its sweet spot!

The best blending tool available to me as a winemaker is diversity.  Wine can express itself in so many different ways, even from the same fermentation lots.  Some barrels may be hard edged, but with a beautiful intensity of fruit.  Others may lend elegance, or a pretty floral aroma.  Others yet may provide a needed touch of acid, to keep the wine alive and vital.  When blending from different vineyards, clones, or varietals, even more dramatic impact can be achieved!

The stylistic goal of the blend is of great importance.  If this has been chosen from within the grapes’ true potential, the wine will speak for itself.  There is no sense trying to overmanipulate a wine, muscling a wine that wants to be elegant into an overblown style, or vice-versa.  The wine-“making” will usually be apparent in those wines.  It is definitely important for me to listen to the wines, and let them be my guide.

When tasting your next bottle of wine, explore the variety of ways in which the wine expresses itself to you, with the numerous fruit, floral, and spice aromas and flavors.  A well-blended wine should always be offering you something more, rewarding your contemplation.  As we blend our 2009 vintage wines, we will try to provide you with that reward!

The zin grapes at Pagnano vineyard are head-pruned in the old-vine fashion, but with an upright structure that opens up the canopy and gets more light and air to the fruit (as you can see in the photo above - taken this spring when they were just leafing out).  They are on the old St.George rootstock.  We have pulled the small canes and suckers from the vines, dusted them with sulfur to deter mildew, and are working to secure all the vines as they become heavy with canes, leaves and the developing fruit.  The zin vines budded out a week or two later than our pinot, but now have larger fruit clusters that are developing very well.

Eventually, the vines will be self-supporting, but as they grow they need to be tied to supports.  That was a job to do earlier this summer as the developing canes added weight that exceeded the ties that were there.

This vineyard is in the Russian River Valley appellation, where a long, cool growing season allows Zinfandel to achieve superb levels of ripeness exploding with aromas of peak-of-season ripe blackberries and boysenberries, intermingled with plum and occasionally blueberry. Overtones of black pepper are also quite common. They are quite distinct from Lodi or Amador County Zinfandels, where the greater heat levels produce big, extracted, higher alcohol wines.  Russian River Valley zinfandels maintain excellent levels of balance, appealing to both the hedonist and the classic wine drinker.

Stay tuned as we report on development in the vineyard, harvest, and the winemaking process.

Our table was next to Acorn Winery.  Betsy and Bill very graciously suggested that “when we grow up, maybe we’ll be an Ancient Oak.”  Generously said by generous folks.  I encourage you to try their delicious Allegria Vineyard Russian River Valley Zinfandel.

We had some fabulous friends join us for the event.  Our godson Andrew and his lovely squeeze Virginia came to Sonoma County just for this event.  It was wonderful to have old friends with us while we were also making new friends.

Our wines were very well received.  We poured our 2008 Siebert Ranch Russian River Valley Pinot Noir.  Of course, being a Russian River Valley event, there were quite a few Pinot Noirs being poured.  It was wonderful to hear a number of folks come back to the table or find us later in the evening to let us know that ours was their favorite Pinot of the evening!

Now on to the next fun event…this coming Sunday, June 27th, we’ll be at the San Francisco Pinot Days’ Grand Festival held in at Fort Mason from 1-5pm.  Although we’re sorry to see that our friends from Acorn Winery won’t be there, we’re again thrilled to be in such august company.  As the website says, “Sunday’s Grand Festival at Fort Mason in San Francisco will showcase more than 220 phenomenal producers of pinot noir. Consumers will be able to sample up to 500 pinots from every important domestic pinot noir region, from the Russian River Valley to the Santa Lucia Highlands, Oregon to Carneros, the Anderson Valley to the Sonoma Coast to the Santa Rita Hills.”

We hope to see many of you - old friends and new - at this event.  If you’re a new friend, please introduce yourselves to us - especially if you are a Facebook friend.  Just think - this could be you in the next photo (this is
Virginia and Andrew, us, and our winemaker Joe Freeman at the Russian River Valley Winegrower’s tasting).

Sustainable winegrowing is a set of best practices that guide California’s growers and vintners in producing wine in an environmentally friendly and socially responsible manner that benefits families, employees, communities and wildlife, and the soils, air and water that make great wines possible.  The California wine community has the most widely adopted green winemaking and winegrowing program in the world.

California wines are cultivated predominantly by families who have farmed the land for generations.  To ensure that their children, and their children’s children, carry on their winemaking legacy in a healthy environment, Californians have adopted sustainable practices that allow them to grow, produce and sell wines in a socially responsible manner that benefits everyone - families, employees, neighbors, communities and wildlife, and the soils, air and water that make great wines possible.

While California winemakers and winegrowers may have legal title to their vineyards and wineries, most consider themselves caretakers of the land, stewards who are mindful of the impact winegrowing and winemaking have on the environment. Together, they have embraced a statewide Code of Sustainable Winegrowing Practices, a best-practices guide to keeping California green and clean by reducing water and energy use, minimizing pesticide and herbicide use, building healthy soils, protecting air and water quality and maintaining natural wildlife and vegetation.

Great stuff, and certainly true on our own family-owned ranch and vineyard.  Here’s just one section of our sustainable practices plan.  For more, see the Siebert Ranch website:

To enhance the environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agricultural economy depends, we do the following:

• Only half our farm is vineyard; the other half pasture, woodland and creek habitat.  Although some more land could be put to vineyard use, we believe the environmental cost would be too high.
• We protect the creek areas with fencing and keep the sheep out of these areas, so that native riparian plants will regenerate and thrive and new oaks will grow up to replace the old ones.
• We encourage the natural succession of plants and habitat development around our diversion pond, even though some water is “lost” to this habitat.
• In our vineyard floor, we maintain a permanent sod cover.  A variety of grasses and small leafy plants promote a robust habitat for wildlife diversity.
• We may have to irrigate somewhat more (because the sod competes with the grapes for moisture) but the habitat and erosion control benefits outweigh the irrigation cost, in our estimation.
• We encourage native birds with habitat protection and by providing nesting boxes.
• We promote excellent habitat for native hawks and barn owls that in turn help us by controlling gopher and rodent populations.