Winegrower's Log 2008

December 8, 2008

Things are quiet both in the vineyard and around the winery these days, and it’s a good time to reflect on what happened in 2008 and what we can expect in 2009. This past year has been challenging on many fronts—the surge in fuel prices affected us by dramatically raising our farming costs. We know that the downturn in the economy has really hurt some of our very best customers—restaurateurs, retailers and the distributors who service them. Meanwhile there was an historic election.

As I listen to and read the news, I know many people are very worried about what 2009 holds in store. I’m optimistic that things will get better. All of us are adjusting to the new business realities that we face, and the changes that we make will help us in the long run. I am blessed to work with passionate, committed and talented people at both Talley Farms and Talley Vineyards. On Friday we held our annual holiday season bbq and celebrated the fact that 32 people have worked with our family for more than 20 years. This is something that I’m extremely proud of because it highlights and extends the legacy established by my grandfather back in 1948, and carried forward by my father until 2006.

As you consider what has happened this past year and what to expect in the coming year, think about what’s really important - the people in your life. Is there someone who needs your help now? Can you call upon them for help if you are in need? These difficult times will bring many of us closer together.

Best wishes to you and your family this holiday season and in the coming year. ~Brian Talley

November 10, 2008 
It’s fall, the days are getting cooler and shorter, the vines are changing color and crush is coming to an end. We finished harvesting a couple of weeks ago with cabernet sauvignon from Hazel’s Vineyard. This is looking like an inauspicious year in Paso Robles. The crop was reduced due to poor set, we then suffered a frost on October 12—so what little crop we had froze. Harvesting was very difficult because the leaves became so brittle that they snapped off the vines when the wind blew and filled up the harvest bins. Much credit goes to Kevin Wilkinson and Juan Silva in the vineyard to make the most out of a tough situation.

In the winery, we’re pressing off the last of the red wines—the aforementioned cabernet from Hazel’s Vineyard, as well as some cabernet sauvignon that we were able to purchase from San Ardo in Southern Monterey County. The other key chore for the cellar crew is consolidation of chardonnay. When they fill the barrels with chardonnay juice, they leave each one down about 10 gallons so that it won’t overflow during fermentation. Now that fermentation is complete, these barrels need to be topped up, and that takes lots of time. So far, the wines from the 2008 vintage smell and taste great. The pinot noirs look to be rich and concentrated while chardonnays have good flavors and balance. The verdict is out on our cabernet sauvignon from Paso Robles. We’ll do our best and keep our fingers crossed.

Best wishes to you and your family this Thanksgiving. Enjoy a bottle of pinot noir with your Thanksgiving dinner—its versatility and complexity make it a great match for all of the different flavors of the holiday. ~ BT

October 3, 2008 
We’re now wrapping up the 7th week of harvest with a big push to get everything in before the rain that’s predicted for tomorrow. We finished harvesting pinot noir yesterday. Our crews started at 3AM today with the goal to pick as much chardonnay as possible in our Edna and Arroyo Grande Valley Vineyards. After today, all of the East Rincon and Rosemary’s Vineyards will have been harvested. We’ll still have a bit of chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, and riesling remaining in both the West Rincon and Oliver’s Vineyards. All of our cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc are still on the vine in Hazel’s Vineyard, but these thick skinned varieties generally fare well in the rain.

The latest prediction is for between 0.25 and 0.50 inches of rain starting late tonight or first thing tomorrow. Because the source of moisture is a warm subtropical storm, the threat of botrytis is high—hence our sense of urgency. Overall quality looks very good this year with good flavor and high acidity. Pinot noir yields are below average for the third straight year, but the chardonnay crop is the best since 2005.

Along with winemaking, we’re in the midst of our busiest time of year in the sales and marketing department. We released our 2006 single vineyard pinot noirs in September and the response has been fantastic. Great reviews are rolling in for these wines, with the Rincon Vineyard acknowledged to be one of the very best pinots of the vintage in the recent Connoisseurs’ Guide to California Wine. The 2005 Rosemary’s Vineyard Pinot Noir received a very special accolade from Food and Wine Magazine—best Pinot Noir in America over $20/bottle. This wine is sold out, but we’ve got the 2006 which is every bit as good. For reviews, pricing and other details, check out our Wines and Reviews and Purchase Wines sections. ~ BT

August 28, 2008 
Nearly 2 weeks after our first day of harvest, we began picking grapes in earnest. We brought in nearly 2 tons from the two sections of the West Rincon Vineyard just above where we started on August 16. The weather has been perfect over the past 2 weeks, allowing for slow ripening and perfect flavor development. Tomorrow, we plan to pick 3 different sections of Rosemary’s Vineyard, including a part of what we call the Heritage Block, the oldest block in Rosemary’s Vineyard, which was planted in 1987.

In addition to grapes, we’ve started harvesting both bell peppers and heirloom tomatoes at Talley Farms. This looks to be a great fall for us—the plants are loaded with fruit and the quality of peppers and tomatoes is exceptional. ~ BT

August 16, 2008 
Harvest started with a bang—literally! Shortly after we started picking, a massive lightening storm passed through the area. Lightening struck the ground in numerous places and ignited several small grass fires, which were fortunately extinguished by a brief torrential downpour. According the San Luis Obispo Tribune, there were about 2500 lightening strikes and at least 3 fires in Southern San Luis Obispo County.

Yesterday’s start was our earliest since 1997, and must be attributed to the massive heat wave in mid-June. Parts of the West Rincon Vineyard ripened much more quickly than we expected, so we began harvesting a small quantity of pinot noir (about 2 tons all together) from this area.

We will likely bring in a few more grapes next week, but the majority of harvest won’t begin until September. Quality looks great with well developed flavors at lower sugar levels. Pinot noir yields will be better than last year, but smaller than average. I predict chardonnay production to be about average at just under 3 tons per acre. It was exciting start to harvest 2008! ~BT

July 28, 2008 
We’re entering the long waiting period for harvest—a time when most of our vineyard work is complete and our focus turns to nurturing and protecting the crop into which we’ve invested so much time, energy and money throughout the year. Most years, our chief enemies are birds and deer, but Kevin and his vineyard team have done an amazing job of securely netting our vines. The areas where we’ve had problems with deer have now been fenced. So our big enemy for 2008 is……….yellow jackets! This is turning out to be the worst year in memory for these pests, and we are fighting them with milk jugs filled with a pheromone and oily water. They are attracted to the pheromone, fly into the jug and get trapped and die in the oily water. Kevin estimates that we have killed roughly 10,000 of the pests this year.

On a happier note, we celebrated the new release of Mano Tinta on Saturday. It was a beautiful summer day in Arroyo Grande and about 500 people showed up to taste and purchase Mano Tinta, the charity wine that we produce to benefit the Fund for Vineyard and Farm Workers. Every year we raise about $75,000 for the Fund from sales of this wine. The 2006 continues the tradition established by earlier vintages, as a gutsy red blend of syrah, tempranillo and petite sirah. I am grateful to Wolff Vineyards, Laetitia Vineyard and Winery and Ranchita Canyon Vineyard for their donation of grapes for this project. I am also grateful to our employees who volunteered their time on a Saturday to bottle the wine, as well as our suppliers who donated virtually all of the necessary materials.

Bottling season goes into full swing later this week, and in rapid succession we will bottle Bishop’s Peak Pinot Noir, Cabernet franc, a new syrah-grenache blend, and Petite Sirah. We will also bottle the Talley Vineyards Estate Chardonnay and Edna Valley Chardonnay. All of this should be done by the third week of August. We then turn our attention to harvest, which should start the first week of September. ~BT

June 24, 2008 
The dramatic weather swings have continued as we head into the first days of summer with a four day heat spell breaking records going as far back as 1948, when data was first collected. The intense heat has been keeping Kevin Wilkinson and his irrigation crews very busy making sure that they keep up with the extra water demand due to the extreme weather. We seem to have come through the heat spell with very little sun damage. The clusters are now fully through set, and we anticipate veraison to start in about 3 weeks.

The busy travel season seems to be slowing down. I have returned from an incredibly informative trip throughout France with Boutes, one of our coopers. We visited the forest to watch the process of barrel manufacturing start from the very beginning. We then went on to visit a stave mill, and finally the cooperage itself. It was very interesting to find out about the sustainability practices in the oak forests of France. They have a 150 year plan to ensure the health and longevity of their oak forests. Each tree that comes from the sustainably certified forest carries a special tag to ensure its compliance with this program.

In addition to learning about the origin of our barrels, I was also lucky enough to visit Chateau Margaux, eat incredible food, and try an amazing amount of Grand Cru and Premier Cru wines! ~ Leslie Mead

May 3, 2008 
An important milestone of spring has occurred with widespread bloom in pinot noir in Rosemary’s Vineyard, the Rincon Vineyard and parts of the Stone Corral Vineyard. Bloom (or flowering) is the time when berries are pollinated and is one of the most critical determinants of the size and quality of the crop for the year. So far, quality looks good because the bloom is very even, implying that the clusters will develop and ripen evenly. Our initial cluster counts indicate that the potential exists for a good sized crop this year, but now it really depends upon “set” or the extent to which the berries are successfully pollinated. We’ll be watching closely over the next few weeks.

As I’ve said before, this spring has been marked by dramatic weather swings—most notably a severe frost that affected vineyards in many areas on April 22. Fortunately, all of our vineyards were spared (as I said in my last post, our frost damage occurred about one week earlier and damaged about 5 acres, mostly in the Edna Valley). It has also been extremely windy. For all of the harsh weather, vine growth has been excellent and the vibrant green color of the leaves indicates excellent health and vigor.

With the warm spring weather comes increased activity and travel. David Block and I are headed to New York for the annual Lauber Imports Trade Tasting and a special dinner celebrating Talley Farms 60th anniversary at Telepan Restaurant. Leslie Mead will travel to France late next week to learn more about some of the barrels we use. We’ve got some great events planned for the spring and summer, so please check out our events calendar for more information. ~BT

April 22, 2008 
This has been a cold and windy spring. Budbreak was even and shoot growth was good early on, but current conditions have slowed things down dramatically. We’ve also had harder frosts than we typically experience. On April 14, frost damaged areas unprotected by wind machines or sprinklers. Vineyard Manager Kevin Wilkinson estimates that about 5 acres were affected. It’s also been dry. To date, we’ve received just over 20 inches of rain, which is about average for the Arroyo Grande Valley. The problem is that it stopped raining in February, and it seems unlikely that it will rain much more this season. Soon it will be time to start irrigating our vines.

Meanwhile, our main focus is shoot thinning (removing extra shoots and opening up the canopy), fence building, and preparation for planting new vines. Next month, we will plant about 7 acres in two sites. One is our brand new Las Ventanas Vineyard, directly across Lopez Drive from the winery, and at the entrance to our new Las Ventanas custom home site development. The other is the replanting of an original section of Rosemary’s Vineyard directly in front of my mother’s house. Both vineyards will be planted at high density (6’x3’) to make the best use of the land and to maximize wine quality.

The most exciting development around the winery was our winemaker’s injury weekend before last. Much of the Talley Vineyards crew enjoyed an unseasonably warm spring weekend on a campout just above Lopez Lake. As Leslie walked to her tent to go to bed, she stepped in a hole and broke her foot. She now travels in a wheelchair.

Leslie is looking forward to walking with crutches by next month, when she will be traveling to France. All of us at Talley Vineyards wish Leslie a speedy recovery. ~BT

February 21, 2008 
We are still experiencing winter-like weather here in Arroyo Grande, but nothing like last year's frigid temperatures! In the vineyards, we have seen minor amounts of bud push, but only in areas containing thinner soils. The rest of the vines seem to still be dormant. The vineyard crews should have all pruning completed by next week. I am very happy to say that it has been a pretty wet winter here. We have received 20 inches of rain to date. As you can see from the pictures, the groundcover is responding quite favorably to all of this moisture. The vibrancy of the new plant growth in the Arroyo Grande Valley is breathtaking!

In the winery, we are very busy bottling. We are currently bottling the 2006 single vineyard chardonnays. I am extremely pleased with the quality of the 2006 wines. I think they have a great balance of both concentration and elegance. I believe that this was the perfect vintage to elevate the status of the Oliver's Chardonnay to a single-vineyard bottling. This wine greatly benefited from the extra barrel aging. Next up will be the bottling of the 2007 Talley Estate Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc. 2007 will be the inaugural bottling of these two varietals in screwcap. We feel that making this change is important in that screwcaps do a great job of preserving the freshness of the wines, and that these varietals are perfect for this closure. We will also bottle the 2007 Bishop's Peak Pinot Gris at this time. We are very pleased with the beautiful floral characteristics of this wine. All three of these wines make me look forward to summer evenings and seafood! ~ Leslie Mead

January 14, 2008 
The coming of the New Year marks the beginning of the new season in our vineyards because this is when we start pruning the vines. Pruning is the first step in our winegrowing cycle and one of the most critical because the choices we make now will impact yields and quality for years to come. My basic philosophy is to prune “short” for low yields. In general, this means less vegetative growth, a more open canopy so that more air and sunlight can penetrate to the fruit zone, and a smaller potential crop. We expect to wrap up pruning all of our vineyards by March 1. Then we can turn our attention to our next major vineyard project—planting vines in the new Las Ventanas Vineyard and the redeveloped section of Rosemary’s Vineyard.

I’m thankful for the rain we’ve received to date. Late December was wet here in Arroyo Grande and to date we’ve received about 8.5 inches of rain for the season. This puts us just ahead of the year-to-date average, which gives us a good chance to meet the total annual average of 19 inches. Right now the prediction is for dry weather during the next three weeks. I’m crossing my fingers for another 10 inches of rain through the season.

In the winery, we are turning our attention to bottling. First on the schedule will be the 2006 Estate Pinot Noir in early February. That will be followed in short order by the Rincon, Rosemary’s and Oliver’s Vineyard Chardonnays. This will be the first time we’ve held the Oliver’s Vineyard over the harvest. The vines in the original planting of Oliver’s Vineyard are now 17 years old and it’s my belief that we can achieve more depth of flavor and complexity with the extra barrel aging. The Oliver’s Vineyard packaging will be consistent with our other single vineyard selections, with the Oliver’s Vineyard designation the most prominent aspect on the label. I think the new upgraded Oliver’s Vineyard Chardonnay will be a great enhancement to our 2006 chardonnay offerings, all of which will be released this spring. ~BT