Monday started out badly. Internet connection at the winery was down, printer didn't want to run UPS labels for kegs and I was running late. Then, I read the review on Tasting Table - turned my Monday around.

Our Holiday Card!

Our good friend Lars Skjerping, @LarsSkjerping and a killer campaign manager if you ever need one, recently sent us some great photos from various events.

From the open house, crushing 2010 Stone Crusher Roussanne and pressing 2010 Perli Syrah.

In case you have missed our recent tweets, we have been mentioned in several more recent articles.

• Saveur Magazine - The New California Wine http://www.saveur.com/ and
  http://www.saveur.com/gallery/


• San Francisco Chronicle - N.Y. takes a new look at California www.sfgate.com


• Sunset Magazine - This Years Top Wine Trends http://www.sunset.com/food-wine

It is nice to get press during harvest - even as it winds down we are exhausted and looking forward to getting the last wine in bottle.

We are down to harvesting our last few vineyards. Tomorrow morning, we will head to Anderson Valley and harvest our new Chardonnay vineyard in the deep end of the valley - lots of fog and, as a result, lots of acid. We will also be harvesting Hog Pen Syrah on Thursday. Friday, we will harvest the last of our grapes from the foothills. Roussanne, Grenache Blanc and Grenache. After this, only one vineyard will remain - Broken Leg Syrah.

Rain is expected, a few inches but Broken Leg is steep and I can't imagine we will see any rot.

In the winery, this year has been great. Wines are coming in with low sugar, high acid and lots of flavor. I am sure many critics will hate 2010 but, for us, it is nearly perfect.

We have had some great recent press - here are the highlights in no particular order.

• New York Magazine -Keg Picks in the City http://nymag.com/ (THANKS CARLA!)
• Food and Wine - 40 Big Food Thinkers 40 and Under http://www.foodandwine.com The photo is from Broken Leg - our last harvest.
• Palate Press - Natural Wine on a Practical Note http://palatepress.com/ It is so nice to see a well written article that focuses on people and their goals as wine makers - not the hype.
  
• The Wine Case - Natural Wine: a more practical point of view http://winecase.ca/
• The Gray Market Report - More Unnatural Wine and Other Notes http://wblakegray.blogspot.com/ I was thrilled to be listed by Blake as one of his missing favorites.
• Eater New York - The Breslin Answers the Burning Question What Does One Drink With Fried Foot http://ny.eater.com/
  

Food

On the food front, one of our favorite places in Berkeley, Gather, just had their chef win Esquire's Chef of the Year. Gather is a good customer of ours and one of our favorite places to eat after a hard day at the winery. A really big congrats to Sean Baker. Esquire

Plum recently opened in Oakland. We ate there Sunday night for our Wedding Anniversary (which is actually today). Our meal was delightful. Reminded me of eating at "Bloom in the Park" in Sweden last November. The service was excellent - front of the house and our waiter (Jason - you were great!). I can't say that every dish nailed it but 6 out of 8 did which is very impressive for a new place. We are moving from Oakland in November (Albany - other side of Berkeley) but I plan to eat at Plum after our next late night at the winery. They are open until 1 am.

On the Michelin front, two places we love got some love themselves recently. The Breslin got one star - Congrats to Carla, Amanda, April and Ken. The Breslin is the least pretentious One Star that I have ever been to.


Wood Tavern got Bib Gourmand - also well deserved. And a late congratulations to Rich and his wife on the birth of the baby.

Okay, off to morning punch down. Photos from our open house will be posted next....

Our 2010 StoneCrusher is slowly fermenting. It is currently at about 11 Brix (sugar) with the yeast converting sugar at about a 2 brix a day. Everytime we take the cover off, the smell rocks - it is just incredible.

We are trying to determine when to press - not sure when. Maybe Friday or Saturday.

Labels: Fermentation (wine), Yeast

Image via WikipediaI recently tasted with a wine buyer who started out the meeting, after tasting our Untended Chardonnay, by saying that he like wines that were interesting in their shadows. (I am sure I am not getting what he said quite right, so Jonathan, if you are reading this, I apologize. ) Of course, I though back to reading Plato in college and the prisoners in the cave. I love wine with layers and nuances. Wine that allows you to think and discover as it reveals itself. I often find myself, when thinking about a wine, returning to memories.

When savoring a glass of our Stonecrusher, after the tannin, the wine reminds me of two components to my parent's backyard in Salt Lake City.

When I was growing up, they had an apricot tree. (In fact, there house was built on an old orchard) I can remember biting into fresh apricots and the distinct aromas and flavors. They also had lots of honeysuckle. I can remember the slighty sweet, very fleeting flavors and aroma of sucking on the bottom of the flowers.

These flavors and aromas don't jump out and I am glad they don't. Finding them is part of pleasure for me.

Labels: honeysuckle

We are likely going to sell out of Stone Crusher in a few days - I love the combination of tanning, richness, apricot, honeysuckle, with good acid. If you get a chance, you can try it at Zero Zero on tap and another places coming soon.

As we approach of fall release, we are hosting a preview of our wines for our Trade partners. (Our open house is coming up September 11th.) Ryan from Naked Lunch just called to share their wine tasting menu for Monday and this going to be fun! Each item will be paired with several wines to allow a compare/contrast of the flavors while we explore the versatility of the wines.

Boqurones with egg, manchego and carmelized onions
09 Coupe d' Or Roussanne+Marsanne, 09 Stone Crusher Roussanne and 09 Untended Chardonnay

Headcheese with cherry compote
09 Broken Leg Vineyard Pinot Noir, 09 Carignane

Grilled beef and heirloom tomato
08 Mendocino Mélange, 07 Reserve Syrah, Broken Leg Vineyard

We our summer being so busy, our blog has gotten behind. Each time I think we will catch up, something new comes up. Perhaps September will be better. In the mean time, Tracey was quoted yesterday in a San Jose Mercury New article about Serious Syrah.

"We think that style of syrah," she says, "kicks both pinot noir and cabernet up and down."

It is nice to see Syrah getting some attention these days. It reminds me that we created a video about tasting our four Syrah's last year. If you haven't watched it, here it is.

We had the pleasure of hosting an Outstanding in the Parking Lot Field this past Monday.

When Tracey first mentioned this group, I had never heard of them. With a tiny bit of research, one starts to read hundreds of reviews of what sounds like incredible meals in the middle of fields. I got excited but had doubts about our parking lot.


As you can see, my doubts were misplaced. With a large arc, the table fit and looked great.

The food was prepared by Nicole LoBue and was truly delicious. Nicole used as much locally produced items as possible. In this case, local meant urban farms - backyards cultivated with vegetables, fruits, goats and rabbits. The list of vendors was amazing.

Despite being cold the event turned out great. You can read more about the event at pluckandfeather.com, the rabbit provider. And view some great photos on Picasa courtesy of Peter Tsolinas. And watch the preview of Edible City with Jim.

The San Francisco Chronicle rated dry roses over the past weekend. They liked Isabel's Cuvee

2009 Donkey and Goat Isabel's Cuvee Mendocino Grenache Rosé ($18): The slightly cloudy look of Jared and Tracey Brandt's excellent rosé hints at their natural winemaking. In this case, half the Grenache fruit (from 90-year-old vines) was left on skins for 36 hours, the other half quickly pressed. The result is earthy, briny and contemplative, like salted strawberry licorice with a peach overtone.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/...

Isabel had a good weekend herself. Despite being Memorial Day weekend, there was lots of snow to play in and even ski.

Last night to celebrate Tracey's 40th, we opened a few special bottles.  The listed included:

1998 Chateau La Nerthe - Chateauneuf -du-Pape

2000 Domaine Jean-Michel Stephan

2007 Donkey and Goat The Recluse Broken Leg

2009 Pievalta Barone Pizzine

And two Magnums

1962 Chateau Talbot

1998 Pride Mountian Merlot

All the wines showed really well.

Great evening with friends!

Labels: None

Yesterday was spent filling bags for a client.

Labels: None

Over the past few months we have been researching putting wines in kegs for a few local places and maybe even one of our favorite places in New York. We are happy to announce that we are launching our first keg wine - The White Label. This first wine is mainly Syrah and delicious.

As soon as it is available on a tap, we will announce where you try it.

Yesterday, over breakfast, I was interviewed via Twitter about FourSquare - a service I think is great. The interview was the first of several recent mentions:

• Business Insider posted a short note and our interview.
• The Wine Kitchen, a favorite spot of Tracey's in the DC area, wrote a great post about thinking about wine and our Roussanne. I totally agree with the lemon and honeysuckle.
• And Alice Feiring wrote the Natural Wine Symposium where we shared our unreleased, Untended Chardonnay. Read to the bottom.

Enjoy!

For the last few months, we have know that our blog service was changing. As a result, I have been trying to decide what to do. I finally made a decision but it will likely be a multi-step process. Today, the first part was done - moving the location to http://donkeyandgoat.blogspot.com/. As a result, we can now post from our phones and update the blog. (Blogger turned off our FTP service on May 1.)

I am thinking about next steps. Will likely move the whole blog to WordPress since it is offered by our domain host. If you have better ideas, please let us know.

jared

Our good friend and former intern Thomas took some great photos at our open house. I wish I had had more time to enjoy the wonderful food. Maybe this fall...

Blake Gray, the great wine writer behind the Gray Market Report, was unable to attend our recent open house so he gave away his tickets via a haiku contest. Nanette Asimov won the contest:

Don Quijote, go
Tell Sancho Panza that I
Enjoy Mourvedre

Enjoy some Mourvedre and reread it.

The wine world has gone through a very hard year. Probably the most telling article was a few weeks back in the New York Times on February 16th in the Dining Section:

But in 2009, sales of wines priced at $25 and above dropped 30 percent nationwide, according to Nielsen. While global wine sales increased, California wine shipments fell for the first time in 16 years. Searching for a way out of the crisis, many Napa wineries are increasingly pinning their hopes on direct-to-consumer sales.

The hottest topic in the business is the so-called "retail room," meaning the combined forces of the winery tasting room, the now-ubiquitous wine club and, most of all, nascent e-commerce.

This isn't exactly a new idea - the winery tasting room became a profit center during the boom years, offering a preview of the possibilities. But on average, direct sales make up a meager 10 percent of local winery revenues, according to Brian Baker, a vice president at Chateau Montelena...

More recently, the Press Democrat had an article that was similar. Our sales grew in 2009 - not by much but they did grow. I have been thinking about this intensely and think I know a few key factors:

• Our customers like our wine. We strive to make wine that speaks of the terroir and results the work for our customers.
  
• We expanded our footprint. California exports internationally fell, ours expanded.
• We spent more time with our customers - whether in New York or in our winery, we spent as much time as we possibly could introducing and explaining our wines.
• We continued to experiment with new channels to talk to customers - we tweeted, continued to update our fan page and tried new services as they became available including FourSquare.
  
• We experimented with TinyBottles.

And on that note, we will continue to experiment:

• Learn how to make great wine without SO2.
• Become better at making whites with skin contact.
• Refining everything to lower alcohol.
• Using technology to connect with more people.

Of course, it still all comes back to you , our supported. Thank you very much for helping us grow last year and please come to our open house on March 20th!

Each year, as we race to try and get our rose to finish, we consider filtering it. Should the wine look perfect or taste like summer? We picked taste this year and, as a result, the wine went into bottle without any filtering (except our bug catcher - to keep out, well bugs). This has been our decision nearly every year.

Each time I pour the rose, this decision is evident. Sediment has already formed around the punts at the bottom our bottles and it hasn't been released yet. With this in mind, I have a few suggestions to maximize your drinking pleasure:

1. Serve it cool - we don't cold stabilize the wine but you can with your fridge
   
2. Pour carefully - don't just shake it up and the sediment will tend to remain at the bottom of the bottle
   
3. Save the last glass for someone with guts - it won't be pretty but it will taste great
4. Don't serve the wine to anyone who cares about looks above all else - this won't be for them
   
5. Do serve the wines to friends on warm summer nights outside under the stars - what you can't see, can' t hurt
   

It isn't warm yet in Berkeley but we are already enjoying the rose. Hopefully you will as well.

Over the last seven vintages, we have been using less and less SO2. In fact, we have even started to make wines without adding SO2. (Isabel's Crazy Sh.. was made without any SO2.)

We went to nearly zero SO2 until after malolactic fermentation last year. This year we went to zero until malos are done.

That said, at bottling, we are often amazed at how the SO2 shows. Our forthcoming 2008 El Dorado Syrah (sourced from Lightner and Wylie vineyards) tasted great the day it was bottled.

Four days before bottling, we measured free SO2 which was zero. We moved it up to about 20 PPM of free for bottling. We do this for stability reasons. 20 is really low - most wineries would move it to 50 PPM, some to 80PPM for bottling. Total SO2, at bottling was 35 PPM. Again, this is very low. I know many wineries that add 50 PPM before fermentation.

Day two after bottling - SO2 starts to show. Day 4, I recheck all my numbers thinking I over added - I didn't. From past experience, over the next month, the SO2 will integrate and then the wine will suddenly stop being masked. This month always causes me stress - I worry about the wine and start to think more about making wines free of SO2. Perhaps this year, we will release our second SO2 free wine.

blog, I am going to try and catch up with some photos and video from my trip to Denmark. My new phone, a Droid, doesn't do so well with photos. There is a software bug that they need to fix.

The dinner took place in Haderslev. (My father's family emigrated to America from this area when it was under the rule of Bismark/Germany.) The food was delicious and the service delightful. I hope to return someday and enjoy another meal there - http://www.ras2ranten.dk/


Anyway, the dinner was great and we made the video directly after we finished eating. Take a look:

And some photos:

After Stockholm, I had a great visit to Copenhagen. Our wines have been imported into Denmark for two years now and it was a pleasure to meet our importer, Ole Jensen, in person.

On Wednesday, he suggested we go to Sweden for lunch after I arrived at the airport. I was, of course, confused. (Fly from Sweden to Denmark to go back to Sweden?) After picking me up, we drove across the Oresund bridge to Malmo. We at lunch at a little restaurant called Bloom in the Park. It was by far the best meal I ate in Sweden and reminded how much I love Europe. Open for lunch by reservations only, we were served by the owner and the chef. The highlight was Swedish Truffles. I didn't know they existed - they do and they are great. Ours would found by Robin Hund - if you read Swedish, which I don't, you can read more about Robin Hund on Bloom in the Park's Blog.

After the lovely lunch and an hour exploring Malmo, we returned to Copenhagen.

Wednesday evening, Donkey and Goat was featured at a great wine maker dinner. The dinner for 24 was held at a private residence full of wonderful, contemporary Danish art.

The menu, deliciously home cooked, included:

Winemaker's Dinner

"DONKEY AND GOAT"

PRESENTED BY WINEMAKER JARED BRANDT

ONSDAG DEN 25. NOVEMBER KL. 18.30

MENU:

Salame Spianata, Prosciuotto crudo med sorte oliven

Bøffel-mozarella med ovnbagte marinerede sherrytomater

Paté af fasan braisseret I cognac

Syltet and, foie gras-mousse, rødvins-coulis med smørristet rugbrød

Roulade af andebryst serveret på en bund af babyspinat, ristede mandler, tranebær og citronfløde-dressing

Stiltonost med trøffelhonning

THREE THIRTEEN, ELDORADO, DONKEY AND GOAT, 2006

FOUR THIRTEEN, ELDORADO, DONKEY AND GOAT, 2007

THE RECLUSE SYRAH, ANDERSON VALLEY, DONKEY AND GOAT, 2006

THE RECLUSE SYRAH, ANDERSON VALLEY, BROKEN LEG VINEYARD, DONKEY AND GOAT, 2007

VIELLES VIGNES SYRAH, MCDOWELL VALLEY, DONKEY AND GOAT, 2006

The dinner was great and went on late into the night. (I think I left around 3AM.) The guests were passionate about wine and had extensive knowledge of American wines. And our host, Ole, made me feel at home by even including cranberries on the menu in a nod to Thanksgiving.

Labels: Copenhagen, Syrah

Last Tuesday, I had the pleasure of pouring at the Haut Les Vins Tasting at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm, Sweden.

It is the first time we have poured our wines at an event in Europe and I was a bit nervous. The event focused on terroir driven, European wine makers, many making incredible wine. I was unsure how our wines would be received, how the label would be received and how easy it would be to talk about our wines considering I know not a single word of Swedish. (And, for that matter, how the wines traveled having flown from SFO to Stockholm just 36 hours ahead of the event.)

As the event started, I marveled at the room. Trade wine events are often held in large hotels - but this one had a bit more history than I am used to . The event was extremely well organized - names tags with color codes to understand who you were talking with for example (Importer, Retail or Restaurant ).

And it went well for us. Many people in the trade enjoyed the wines - several restaurants will take the wine as soon as it makes it to Sweden. And, most importantly, I hope to announce a Swedish and Finnish importers soon.

I am just learning about taking photos with my new phone - a Droid. So these didn't turn out great but I think you will get the idea.

Labels: Grand Tasting, Sweden, Syrah

If you have a taste box, now you can taste with us. Just get four glasses and label them with each wine using a dry erase marker. After that, sit down and watch the video.

Peter Liem's recent column about un-grafted vines in Wine and Spirits is worth a read. (Found via Eric Asimov's blog. )

We often make this same comparison between native yeasts and commercial yeasts. The native yeast is not a single species - various yeasts compete. Each vineyard clearly has its own flora. Thinking about the article made me wonder if it was actually even closer to talk about nutrients. Products like Fermaid ensure safe, complete fermentation. They also make sure that any nutrient lacking in the terroir is provided. Thinking in terms of cheese, imagine a Rochefort producer taking her sheep's milk and adding nutrients to make sure it was like velveeta.

At some point, it would be fun to try wines, from the same vineyard, made with ungrafted vs grafted vines, no added yeast, added yeast, no nutrients, added nutrients.

Anyway, if you want to try a bottle of ungrafted Chardonnay, pick up our Brousseau Chardonnay. The vines are ungrafted. And in late 2010, we will release a chardonnay from Anderson Valley which may be called "un-tended". It is from old, un-grafted chardonnay without any of the typical vineyard work. Our first effort (or perhaps lack of effort) at finding what true terroir, following, however inadvertently, the work of Masanobu Fukuoka.

We are starting to take pre-orders for our Holiday Sampler pack - a combination of wine samples, killer chocolate and full bottles. You can learn more about it at adonkeyandgoat.com/holiday_sampler

Yesterday, we got another great review. As always, I like the note more than the score. But I can't complain about the 93...

Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar
Donkey & Goat
By Josh Raynolds

Nov/Dec 09

2007 A Donkey and Goat Winery Chardonnay Brosseau Vineyard Chalone

($45) Bright, slightly cloudy gold. Strikingly complex aromas of poached pear, Meyer lemon, iodine, mint and herbs, with hints of grapefruit rind and smoky minerals. Deeply concentrated, sappy and stony citrus and orchard fruit flavors stain the palate and are complemented by notes of anise, herbs and smoky lees. Really wild stuff, with excellent balance, precision and nervy minerality. The extremely long, dusty finish repeats the grapefruit, iodine and anise notes and clings with excellent grip and clarity. This is one of the more distinctive New World chardonnays I've tasted in a long time. 93pts

With harvest winding down, we have started to spend much more time tasting the wine.

As mentioned early, we made four barrels of Roussanne on their skins. Each wine was made in a different style and now the barrels are each tasting wonderful on their own way. It is popular to classify these wines as "orange" but I don't actually like the name. The reason, orange suggests a color and ours are clear. Skin contact doesn't equate to orange color.

We fermented these is 550 liter open top wood fermentors that have beed used for red wines. One was made 100% whole cluster - we just dumped the sorted grapes in. It is currently tasting the most interesting. There is a wonderful combination of clean fruit (carbonic maceration - not cold) and intense tannins.

One was made with Ver Jus to increase the acidity. We do this we our Chardonnay and wanted to see how it would work with the Roussanne. Tasted last week, the acidity is vivid. It leaps out of the glass - almost like something from the Alps. Crisp - reminds me of a cool fall day since there are undertones of earth.

The other two had variable punch downs and each show aspects of the grape and terroir. All 4 barrels show a bit of grapefruit - which is what we see every year. The grapefruit is less intense then in previous years which leads me to a question - have we lost some of the uniqueness of this site by switching to another winemaking style? One could argue that we are intervening less with this style but is that really the case?

I am thinking of calling this wine Stone-crusher (mining term since this is gold country after all) or maybe after a rapid since you can occasionally hear rafters going for an inadvertent swim when in this vineyard.

The other day Tracey copied me on an email dialog about our wines and thoughts on natural, organic and biodynamic. It's a pretty good manifesto so I thought I'd share on our blog. Tracey writes... "We make our wines for the table not the cocktail glass. We make Rhône varietals in both colors plus an unusual Chardonnay. We (my husband and winemaking partner Jared and I) strive to make wine as naturally as possible. We've done so since day one. Of late, natural is fashionable, which we do of course appreciate, but the reality is we've done this from the start because we feel it makes a superior wine while aligning with our environmental objectives.

We pick early, often weeks before anyone else considers it. Our whites are frequently at and under 13 and some of our reds are at/near 13.5 (both directions). Many of our vineyards are cool climate - we grow Syrah in Anderson Valley in order to get profile we want at a low alcohol. That said, we also don't adjust alcohol to meet our goals. We have seen our wines end up higher in alcohol than other wineries in the same vineyard (who picked later) because we let the native yeast do their thing and don't add water or use reverse osmosis. So, yes we would love to make under 12.5 wines but to make wines naturally at that alc in California is impossible. We believe alcohol is a byproduct of our winemaking decisions and we try to live with the repercussions of our decisions rather than cover them up after the fact.

We have vineyards that are organic and even have a new one that was effectively abandoned - closer to the ideas of Masanobu Fukuoka. Biodynamic is very interesting to us but we are hesitant to adopt a management system that is dependent on copper sulfate due to health concerns. We are not alone in these. Alice Feiring blogged about Eric Texier's thoughts around this last Feb here: http://www.alicefeiring.com/feiringsquad/misc/fukuoka_of_char.html We have also strived to find vineyard managers who share our overall concern with the environment and desire for growing natural wine grapes. We struggle with doctrine that ignores excess and risks simply because it was determined to be okay for THAT doctrine. The religious analogies are so plentiful that I won't bother but I'm sure you get the idea. When it comes to dogma, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

In the winery, we are extremely careful with our winemaking to ensure we encourage but not manipulate the wines expression of origin (terroir and varietal). We also make decisions to ensure our wines belong on the table with food and not in cocktail glass in advance of anything edible. That means we pick based on flavor and acid. We ignore brix. We picked Syrah this year at 21.5 brix and it is gorgeous. We also picked Syrah at 23 brix and it is equally gorgeous. In both cases we were examining acid structure and flavors.

We ferment all wines (red and white) in wood vats. This is so key and no one is talking about the vast amounts of small lot wine made in plastic in this country. We abandoned plastic in our personal lives when we had our daughter and discovered the extensive research around chemicals like BPA leaching into liquids. We NEVER considered a square plastic bin for fermentation because it's plastic and it's entirely the wrong dimension for vinification and IT IS plastic. But look in most US wineriers and you will find a square plastic vat with fermenting must.

We add nothing at the vat after crush save the occasional miniscule dose of SO2 if we have a rainy year where rot is an issue. That means no enzymes to enhance color and extraction, no tannin, no commercial yeast, no nutrients to feed the super yeast and 95% of the time no SO2 (until after MLF completes). We can control temperature via manipulating ambient temperature with a refrigerated container and warm rooms within the winery. That's it. For the labor it's all manual. Picking. Sorting. Foot stomping. Punch down. Our hands are in the wine each day and we taste each day and the only time we've ever had a problem was in 2004 when we inoculated a few vats as an experiment to prove our wild yeast preference. The inoculated vats had stuck fermentations and we later dumped the wine rather than fall down the slippery slope of additions to correct additions (we dumped the equivalent of 50 cases). That is one of the problems we have with inoculations. Winemakers choose cultured yeast for various attributes that include performance and aromatic profile. But the lab yeast need huge amounts of food. So the regimen becomes, kill the microbial life with SO2 & Lysozyme, add super yeast, add vitamins and nitrogen (DAP or diammonium phosphate being very popular) to feed these hungry microbes. Then hope the yeast don't put off any off aromas like H2S because of the imbalance in their diet. If they do, add Copper. Then rack and filter and add more SO2... it never stops. And don't get me started on the great irony of adding vast amounts of DAP to the vat to feed yeast. Guess which yeast also LOVES DAP and for that matter any additive rich in thiamin. Read the ingredients on most wine additives and you'll see thiamin at the front. That would be brettanomyces, the dark angel.

Back to us, we complete primary with just wild yeast sometime near the end of the year although in warmer years like this one I expect to be done going into December. MLF is also natural or with wild bacteria. This is easy for us because we do not buy ANY new oak barrels. We buy a supply of 1 year old barrels each year from a single source (relevant for cleanliness) and rotate them in. Our lots see from zero to 35% one year old barrels. As a result we have plenty of Lactobacillus in our used barrels so again, no inoculation, no nutrients and no problems. We have one wine (our Brosseau Vineyard Chardonnay) that does not complete and rarely starts MLF. We do not kill the wine with SO2 and we do not filter. The pH on the wine is in the 3.1-3.2 range which is a natural prohibitor of MLF and we've never had a problems with bottle ferm and been making this wine since 2003. We do make it in an unusual manner. Again back to France. Eric taught us a trick he uses in warmer years. Pick the vineyard twice and blend to lift acidity. It's that simple. The first pick happens to be hugely unusual at veraison but still, pretty simple. You can get a better idea of this here: http://www.inwinecountry.com/?cat=5970254&subcat=5038749&video=218. Oh, and that is an organic vineyard.

The rest I'll just list and save you the rationale given my dense email. We stay sur lie until the wines tell us not too (no prophylactic racking or micro oxygenation). We do not clarify or heat/cold stabilize and we almost never fine or filter. On the occasions we have we've labeled accordingly.

I do hope if nothing else I've managed to convey we are hugely passionate about what we are doing and why we are doing it."

when we don't post for over a month. Isabel has been helping at the winery this year. She knows how to wrap fermentors for sulfur candles, lower the press tray using the down control on the forklift when we need to place it back on the trolley (it takes two, one to lower, one to move the trolley) and punchdown. Here she is last night wearing pink, working hard.

"Zeez young American girl...I am surprised. She eez young and thin, but she can drink like a taxi driver!" This is what the French uncle of Eric and Laurence had to say about me last night over magre de canard. I almost choked on the Burgundy pinot noir that Eric had just poured for me. But then he continued, "non, non, it eez a compliment...I am impressed! And it eez important if she wants to be a winemaker."

It's true, the grape doesn't fall far from the vine. Following in Jared and Tracey's footsteps, I am now here in the Rhone Valley of France working with their former mentor, Eric Texier. This being my first time in France, I have finally gained exposure to the magic of Old World wine. The intricate world of wine here in France can feel overwhelming at times, but working at A Donkey and Goat last year prepared me well. Through working the vendange (harvest) here, I have realized the important traditions that Jared and Tracey brought back with them to the winery in Berkeley: focus on terroir, natural winemaking methods, striving for complexity, and evaluations based on taste.

Tom Bentley made this great video about our making verjus. I hope you enjoy it.

Isabel and I checked her vineyard on Labor Day. I sampled by the cluster, Isabel sampled by the grape. We jointly determined that a bit more sugar would be good - either for juice or wine.



I expect us to harvest this vineyard in late September or earl October.

A short video from the Lightner Vineyard. One of the great things about this vineyard is the view (okay - just kidding, it is great but...).



The vineyard is close enough to the American River that it is always windy. This wine help keep mildew and other bugs at bay naturally. We will first pick this vineyard, the Syrah, either in late September or early October. It should be a great year here.

Yesterday morning, I drove up to the foothills to check several vineyards. Most pressing was Ellen Ridge. The grapes are ripe - lots of brown seeds, good sugars and nice acid. (24 Brix, PH of 3.37 and TA of 7.5 G/L)

Ellen Ridge is on the edge of the American River canyon at about 1,800 feet above sea level. The blue label is right where our vines are.


View Ellen Ridge Vineyard in a larger map

This year we are going to try something totally different with our Roussanne. 50% will be fermented on the skins in an open top wood fermentation vessel. The other 50% will be fermented whole cluster. It should be interesting. Not sure what day we are picking but it will be soon.

Chardonnay is slowly fermenting towards greatness. You can watch my update and learn how to measure brix.

Robert Parker recently reviewed several of our wines. The conventional wisdom is that Parker loves low acid wines. Being fans of high acid wines, one might think he would dismiss ours.

Not the case - he liked both our Prospector and Four Thirteen.

2007 A Donkey and Goat Four Thirteen
RATING: 89 points
FROM: El Dorado, Sierra Foothills, California, USA
VARIETY: Proprietary Blend
DRINK: -
ESTIMATED COST: $32
SOURCE: WA, #184
Aug 2009

A gorgeous example of an El Dorado-styled Cotes du Rhone, the 2007 Four
Thirteen is a blend of Syrah, Mourvedre, Grenache, and Counoise. This
aromatic red exhibits plenty of sexy, sweet plum, black currant, and
cherry fruit intermixed with notions of loamy soil, pepper, and spice, a
savory, round, lush mouthfeel, and a heady finish. Drink this hedonistic
effort over the next several years.

2007 A Donkey and Goat The Prospector
RATING: 88 points
FROM: El Dorado, Sierra Foothills, California, USA
VARIETY: Mourvedre
DRINK: 2009 - 2013
ESTIMATED COST: $25
SOURCE: WA, #184
Aug 2009

The 2007 The Prospector reveals surprising elegance considering it is
nearly 100% Mourvedre along with sweet blueberry and cassis intermixed
with hints of underbrush and forest floor. Medium-bodied and well-made
with silky tannins as well as a very good finish, it should evolve for 3-4
years.

Tel. (510) 868-9174
-Robert Parker

Early this morning, I went and checked on our Chardonnay barrels. Each year, we try and fill the barrels to just the right height - an impossible task. I find that the native yeast, from Brosseau, are very foamy in there first few days of fermentation.



On a different note, the Journal of Wine Economics just released its newest issue. The lead article analyzes the reliability of Gold medals awarded at 13 California Wine Fairs. “An analysis of over 4000 wines entered in 13 U.S. wine competitions shows little concordance among the venues in awarding Gold medals. Of the 2,440 wines entered in more than three competitions, 47 percent received Gold medals, but 84 percent of these same wines also received no award in another competition. Thus, many wines that are viewed as extraordinarily good at some competitions are viewed as below average at others. See the full PDF here.

We picked Chardonnay a week ago today. It has started to ferment thanks to the native yeast.

I made a few videos with my flip camera - here is one of the better ones.

Harvest season has officially started. Monday our team picked, sorted, stomped and pressed the bright and juicy Chardonnay grapes. Ever since Jared, Justin, and I tasted the fresh grape juice last week, I've been waiting anxiously for harvest to officially begin. Seriously, I would've gulped down a whole glass of the sugary but full-flavored stuff if there was not the threat of a terrible stomach ache to follow.

We met at the winery around noon, and discussed the game plan over fried chicken sandwiches from Bakesale Betty. Or rather, Jared and Tracey attempted to explain the plan over high-pitched yelps from Izzy, who was playing hide-and-seek behind the huge truckload of grapes. Soon our small but mighty group of workers got started. Though I missed some of the floor action while I was holed up in the lab, I did witness some brave efforts. First, there was Linda, with the eyes of a hawk, spotting and plucking numerous earwigs who loved hiding in the clusters. Then I experienced my first black widow encounter as Lisa risked her life (or at least the possibility of getting a very painful bite) by removing it from the sorting table. Also worthy of mention was Alex's foot-stomping skills. He hopped in the huge barrel of green grapes not once but twice, despite the rather unpleasant feeling of perpetually sinking in cold, sticky juice. Meanwhile, I proudly donned the geeky lab goggles and was thrilled to realize that the painful Monday through Friday summer Chemistry class that I just completed was actually making lab work easier! I measured the pH and titratable acidity and based on the numbers and the vibrant taste of the Chardonnay grapes and juice, it looks to be another great year.

I am so glad I had the opportunity to be a part, however small, of Donkey and a Goat's harvest this year. Jared and Tracey have taught me so much in the past year, and I can't wait to learn from their former mentor, Eric Texier, in France. I owe them so much and can't wait to hear how the rest of the harvest season unfolds!

had such a good game last Saturday, we suspect it was because of the wine served before the game...


Thanks Scott and Helen for the photo and your support!

Two of our Syrah Vineyards are off the grid in Mendocino. We spent time at both of them this past weekend.

Perli Vineyards is south of Anderson Valley beyond the end of the pavement on Fish Rock Road. It has been in the Alden Family for several generations. The vineyard has a complete collections of wildlife - rattlesnakes, bears, scorpions, goats, deer, and raccoons just to name a few. In fact legend has it that Steve Alden, the owner, made a living trapping animals many years back.

We grafted a vineyard over a few years back with Steve - Hog Pen. In this video, Steve talks about the clones and the vineyard name. We like 877. He likes 174.

As a family, we camped on the vineyard. Didn't see a bear or a live rattlesnake, but we did see a scorpion. Isabel makes a short appearance in the background. We left the Prius at the cabin/campsite this time - didn't want to have it towed out from the vineyard again.

Labels: Syrah

Verasion is just starting for some of our Syrah in the Anderson Valley and Mendocino Ridge area. We spent the weekend in the vineyards checking on status, camping and eating a great dinner thanks to Steve Alden at Perli Vineyards.



More videos are coming.

Thinking about our party coming up - take a look at the spring party.

Over a wonderful bottle of 2000 Rousseau, I recently spent an evening talking about the embattled Governor of South Carolina. Evidently, he is considered a hero by many in France for following his heart or at least being torn about what to do. This honestly and tension is unusual for an American. (Until I had heard this perspective, I tended to focus solely on his hypocrisy.)

Winemakers often face a similar dilemma. Last year, the LA Times ran an article about a famous winemaker who, according to the writer, had tried to make wines for a very famous critic and himself and got lost in the process. You can read the article here - http://shar.es/94HL. (N.B. The winemaker claims to have been misquoted.) More recently, Eric Asimov wrote about one of my favorite wineries in Spain, López de Heredia, who has stuck to their tradition and not tried to follow two masters. In the article, Mr. Asimov quotes another wineries sales director:

“Our technical director is very keen to protect the Marqués de Riscal identity, which I understand, but business is business,” the commercial director, Javier Ybañez Creus, told me. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/dining/12pour.html?pagewanted=3&ref=dining

In both cases, a desire for commercial success caused something to be lost.

Being small, we are lucky that our friends support us and we are able to follow our hearts. We do this with our Chardonnay - using Ver Jus and making something unique to us. We also do this with our Syrahs - bucking the trends and doing what we want. I hope we are able to stay true to our hearts and continue our no compromise wine making....

Our fall release has been posted and the wines are all tasting great. Included in the release is our schedule of events. One that I wish I was attending is another wine dinner in Greenwich CT. Chis, the chef/owner, is a great guy and this looks tasty. Tracey will be there and on the East Coast for a full week. Isabel and I (along with Justin and Lisa) will hold down the fort/winery.