Ken's Blog from Crush Camp
During the harvest in the Napa Valley this year we had the good fortune to become emmersed in wine growing
and making. It was a two day experience called "Crush Camp." We were able to pick grapes, feed them to the crusher, taste the fermenting juice, roll some barrels and even blend our own wine.
Crush Camp was filled with sticky first hand experiences!
After picking the grapes we headed for Sterling Vineyards and Winery where they were in the process of bringing in Sauvignon Blanc and crushing it. The truck pulled up loaded with large bins of just picked grapes and one bin at a time was lifted and dumped onto the belt leading to the crusher. We lined up and sorted the bunches… pulling any bad looking ones, whether damaged or overripe, ensuring that only the best ones went into the crusher.
After loading them in the hatch is closed and the cylinder rotates. Inside there is a rubber-like bladder or balloon that expands and gently squeezes (crushes) the grapes. The juice, called the free run, comes out a hose in the bottom and it snakes its way to a larger fermentation tank. And it’s in these large stainless steel fermentation tanks that the juice is chilled down and yeast added as the juice begins the journey into wine.
Not only was it fun to sort the grape bunches, we also tasted the free run juice as it came out of the crusher. We then went into the winery to sample directly from the fermentation tanks. We sampled from three different ones, discovering how the juice was changing after one, three and seven days of fermentation… a pretty interesting transformation! Each tank was from a different vineyard, or lot, and would ultimately be blended together to create Sterling 2006 Sauvignon Blanc. Sterling will bottle and release this wine next spring… and we’ll definitely have to have some since we witnessed its birth!
Many people don’t realize that the wines we drink are usually blends from different vineyards or even different grape varieties. Certainly they are typically the same grape type, but they can also be different clones and each growing area can add it’s own flavor characteristic. This was rather dramatically demonstrated to the Crush Campers at Beaulieu Winery.
BV is famous for its Georges de La Tour Cabernet Sauvignon, but also for a wine they call Tapestry. We were given the opportunity to work with some of the component wines that are blended into Tapestry. They gave us three different Cabernets, each from a different lot, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. All were 2004 vintage and from Napa Valley vineyards. These wines had already been aged in oak and were going to be used for the 2004 Tapestry blend. After explaining the process we took hold of our glass pipettes and played winemaker!
Using a calculator and taking notes, each of us let our creativity and taste buds lead the way as we created our own style of wine. This Crush Camper ended up with a wine that has 50% Cabernet Sauvignon from BV’s Rutherford vineyard, 24% Cabernet from the St. Helena area, 18% Merlot from Carneros’ Winery Lake Vineyard and 8% Cabernet Franc form up in Calistoga. Now, since there is only 74% Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend, it can’t be labeled as a Cabernet (75% is required by law). So we’ll name it Wine Experience Campfire 2004 Napa Valley!
How does it taste? Pretty complex. From the black currant flavors of the Rutherford Cab with still tight tannins, to the more blueberry flavor of the St. Helena Cab, the Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend is the backbone of this wine. The Merlot adds a touch of softness along with brighter fruitiness like Bing cherries, and the Cabernet Franc puts in a dash of nutmeg spiciness. Each component was oak barrel aged so there definitely is a hint of vanilla too. All in all a fascinating experience.
BV then took the blends each Camper had created and bottled it for us to take home… the perfect souvenir! It’s here now and the plan is to Pop the Cork on our Wine Experience Campfire 2004 Napa Valley next Fall on the anniversary of our Crush Camp visit.
