VINTAGE 2014: Part 3 of 3

WIL FERNANDEZ
The summer of 2014 was unusually warm and dry in Santa Barbara County. Every stage of growth was earlier than most wine farmers had ever seen in this region. The vines took off vigorously from a barrage of intense months of summer sun, leading to fruit development way ahead of schedule.

MICHAEL LARNER
So part of the, part of the whole thing that we’re doing now is you have, you know, this is what we want to see, is these clusters. But you also have, is this fruit that you can tell is obviously behind. I mean not just, you know, in terms of color, but also in terms of size. So this is probably almost about a month behind this, so definitely now is the time to drop this, because this is just sucking energy, it’s not going to do any good, it’s not going to be made into wine, we’re never going to harvest it.

WIL FERNANDEZ
It wouldn’t even ripen.

MICHAEL LARNER
It would ripen, but it would ripen about a month after.

WIL FERNANDEZ
Oh, yeah.

MICHAEL LARNER
In which, you know, there’s no point. But the other cool thing is, you have some stuff that’s already started going into véraison. So you know, unlike whites, reds start picking up color. And so this is anthocyanins loading into the berries, and you’re getting already red color, which eventually looks sort of blackish. The problem with this is it’s basically advertising to birds and everybody else that it’s now basically to the point where this seed could be eaten and pooped out, and basically turned into another vine. The grape doesn’t really care once it’s gotten color, it doesn’t really care what happens to it because all it wants to do is propagate. So it’s starting to advertise. That’s why it changes color, and that’s why it also starts sweetening itself, to say, “Hey, look at me. Eat me. I’m sweet.” Right? They just want to do one thing, which is you know, propagate. We just want to come in here and say, “No, it’s not ready yet. We want to get better flavors, make wine out of it. Do funny things like that.” So.

WIL FERNANDEZ
So we can propagate.

MICHAEL LARNER
So we can propagate. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So we’ve got to come through here and net all this, so that’s why we’re doing all the, we’re doing the preliminary fruit drop now, net it, and then we’ll come back and do another fruit drop if we have to. I love birds, and birds are great, but in a couple of days we’re going to put a net over these guys and keep them out. They’ll actually go in there and peck at it, and then get to the seed, but leave the rest of the berry there, so it starts rotting, you get vinegar. It’s so hard for me to try to get a control on the finches because they’re basically endemic. They’re everywhere.

WIL FERNANDEZ
Yeah, yeah.

MICHAEL LARNER
So the net keeps them out, but you know, they’ll still find you know, some ways. But I mean you expect you know, 5% damage or something like that going into it, you’re okay.

WIL FERNANDEZ
Yeah, yeah.

MICHAEL LARNER
You know it’s, if you leave netting off, I mean it’ll get worse.

WIL FERNANDEZ
Yeah.

MICHAEL LARNER
So.

WIL FERNANDEZ
And it has to be a laborious thing to put that netting on.

MICHAEL LARNER
Yeah. So we do it all by hand. You know again, if I was fortunate enough to have a flat vineyard, then we would come in here with a tractor and have an overhead roll that would just spool it out.

WIL FERNANDEZ
Yeah.

MICHAEL LARNER
If I bring that tractor, put the overhead roll, and get on these side slopes, the tractor flips.

WIL FERNANDEZ
Ahh. So somebody has a flat vineyard…

MICHAEL LARNER
A flat vineyard is a piece of cake.

WIL FERNANDEZ
They can, like up in Riverbench, they can roll it out with the machine.

MICHAEL LARNER
Yeah. They go up there, the tractor goes above it, they put it out, and they can kind of cover over, they can cover up multiple rows. And that’s actually kind of cool because then you can drive down the road still. The funny thing about the netting is it stretches. They sell it in bags of like 2,500 square feet. So if you’re going too fast, and the guys aren’t paying attention, and they make the net really tight and short, you can get like 3,000 feet. And then you’re not protecting your fruit zone. If you’re going really slow, and you’re pulling the net too much and make it too long, you get like you know, 2,000 feet. So you have to be like right spot on to how you’re pulling it, and then getting the same distance. You know, equal distant coverage and all that to get the right amount of length out of it.

WIL FERNANDEZ
Yeah, otherwise you’re spending unnecessary money on netting, or not getting protection.

MICHAEL LARNER
Yeah, or you’re running out of netting. Or you know, or you’re just making it too tight. And if you make it too tight, it collapses, and you’re not protecting your fruit zone. These guys are going to be coloring up here any day now, so that way you know, we’ll be ready to start putting netting, and everything like that, so. And this is our trusty vineyard dog, Bruno. Oh, did you go for a swim? Yeah, look at that. Soaking wet.

WIL FERNANDEZ
As nature’s signal of ripeness to birds and other animals, véraison can be a challenging time for wine farmers. But for me, witnessing it up close for the first time, it was fascinating. Over the course of a few weeks, clusters transformed themselves from inedible green sour berries to soft red tasty grapes. With the vines now fully grown, I discovered how different wine producers have their own philosophies caring for the precious fruit that would become the 2014 vintage.

JONATHAN NAGY
I think it’s good when the winemaker actually is pouring the wine and interacting with people because ultimately you want to connect to people through the wine, but part of that connection is also listening to where people are at. It’s a two-way street. Where I think if you’re not, if you don’t have that two-way street, sometimes you can get a little bit separated, and ultimately you’re really wanting to connect with people. Oh man, these berries are big. So this is vertically chute positioned, so the chutes are positioned vertical. It’s classic VSP. We’ve leaf-pulled the morning side, so we get exposure in the morning, and then in the afternoon the sunlight tends to be a little more intense. But the thing is here in Santa Maria, right around 1:00 the wind picks up, so it really cools things down. So really your prime time for getting sunlight and sunshine is right around, and heat, is right around 10 to 1.

WIL FERNANDEZ
Oh, okay. That’s like clockwork pretty much. Right?

JONATHAN NAGY
Yeah. The fog here at Nielsen burns off around 9:30. 9-9:30, and then you get those hours of good heat, and then 1:00, the wind picks up.

WIL FERNANDEZ
It gets kind of a balance because you’re also, you don’t want to get too much sun. You want air flow plus some leaf cover?

JONATHAN NAGY
Well the thing about grapes is if you open up the canopy early and get some good sun exposure and let the grapes acclimate, they’ll form quercetin that is almost like sunblock. And so by opening it up early, they get adapted, and so you prevent sunburn in a sense.

WIL FERNANDEZ
Wow.

JONATHAN NAGY
So what you don’t want to do is open it up, and then get extreme heat, like say a couple of days of 100°.

WIL FERNANDEZ
Right. Like you don’t want to go to the beach when you haven’t had your shirt off in a while.

JONATHAN NAGY
Exactly. I would say for the most part here in Santa Maria Valley, and I’d say Santa Barbara County in general, we have what I always call ‘wine growers’. And so a lot of people who are you know, the vineyard managers, the vineyard team understands that ultimately they’re trying to produce wine. And so there are some things that you would do maybe if you were just a grower, that you wouldn’t do as a wine grower, because ultimately you’re trying to make ultra-premium wines, and doing things like you know, opening up the canopy, and then later on we’ll do a green drop. So any of the clusters that are behind out about 95% véraison, so about 95% of the clusters are completely colored up. If there’s a cluster that’s partially colored up; we’ll actually drop that cluster. That way, you get a more uniform fruit, and thus get better quality of wines.

WIL FERNANDEZ
By this time, most vineyards were surviving what was now an historic drought. Everyone with irrigation was planning for a very early harvest. But Foxen’s dry farm vineyard was another story. I returned for a third visit to see just how severely they’d been hit.

BILL WATHEN
Actually when you look at this side of the vineyard, you actually see some fruit.

WIL FERNANDEZ
Is this deceiving?

BILL WATHEN
Yeah, it is because the roots are deeper in this corner right here because of all this alluvial sand that’s come down over the ages here. So it’s real sandy here, and then as soon as you get up over that little hump there, it gets clay, and the vines are really struggling. See, we’ve got véraison here. You can see where it’s turning soft here. You know, and this stuff is alright, it’s going to make it, but then because this, this whole hump right here, there’s not going to be anything here. You can see.

WIL FERNANDEZ
It’s pretty sparse.

BILL WATHEN
It’s pretty sparse. The good thing is, we have enough wood for next year to do a couple of canes, so.

WIL FERNANDEZ
So if you get rain, it’ll be…?

BILL WATHEN
Yeah. Yeah, it’ll be alright. So you know, but historically you know, you, you need to, you need some juice to remember this. Right?

WIL FERNANDEZ
Yeah, yeah.

BILL WATHEN
Yeah, so. There’s going to be probably enough for that.

WIL FERNANDEZ
To have a little library wine?

BILL WATHEN
Yeah, to have some library stuff.

WIL FERNANDEZ
Yeah.

BILL WATHEN
But you know, every time I send a crew up here, it’s just costing us so much money because there’s nothing up here.

WIL FERNANDEZ
Yeah? Wow. So there won’t be any 2014 10:00 chardonnay available.

BILL WATHEN
Possibly, but you know, there’s just, we can’t sell it for what it’s worth.

WIL FERNANDEZ
Right, right, right. Yeah.

MATT KETTMANN
I think that definitely the market is opting for efforts toward sustainability. Dry farming is, especially in a drought, is clearly like the extreme level of those efforts. It’s intriguing to me as a wine drinker. I’m intrigued by it. I’m like, “Oh, what does that deliver as far as flavor aspects go?” But it’s not, it’s not going to move the meter so much, I don’t think. You know? Like I said, you get into a prolonged drought, and you know, if we have this conversation five years from now, I mean we’re still like you know, I don’t have a lawn anymore, and no one has lawns anymore. Then maybe it’ll be like, “Oh. Everyone buy a dry farm, because that’s the only wine you can buy.” You know?

BILL WATHEN
I’m going to go over to Bien Nacido, and meet Chris at block eight.

WIL FERNANDEZ
Okay.

BILL WATHEN
You guys up for that?

WIL FERNANDEZ
The fruit looking good over there?

BILL WATHEN
It is. It’s looking real good.

WIL FERNANDEZ
That’s got to be a change, I guess.

BILL WATHEN
Foxen and Bien Nacido go back to ’86. And then in ’96, we asked the Miller brothers to, if we could plant a Foxen monopoly block, block eight, and they said, “Yeah.” So we’ve had the relationship with them since, on that block since ’96. So that was planted by us, for us, so we were able to select all our clones and root stock, and they planted it.

CHRIS HAMMEL
Why is Bien Nacido considered to be one of the great vineyards in California, or even some people have said the world? There’s a couple of reasons. First of all, you have the traditional things that go into grape growing; soil, climate, let’s not forget the input of the staff that’s working the ground. Or it just happens to be a great and unique place to grow grapes. These things come together to form what the french call ‘terroir’. But there’s something else that’s very important, and somewhat unique to Bien Nacido’s, that we have at any given year, somewhere around 45 different clients there making wine. Probably 30 of those are making wine that says, “Bien Nacido” on the label. So this, this is our talent. This is our, this is how we reach the world, through these amazing winemakers like Billy Wathen, that are taking our produce, because it is an agricultural product, a special one we feel, making it into wine according to their technique, according to their vision, and taking it and saying, “Look, this is my Bien Nacido. What do you think?” So it’s not us out there saying, “Look, Bien Nacido’s the greatest. Santa Maria Valley’s the greatest. Blah, blah, blah.” Because when you toot your own horn, it’s not as affective. But it’s more objective and a longer lasting when you have winemakers out there talking about it, other winemakers appreciating that, and critics appreciating what they do. That’s what’s propelled Bien Nacido to the level that it is.

There they are. Those are starlings, yeah.

WIL FERNANDEZ
Those are starlings?

CHRIS HAMMEL
Good job, birds. Keep it moving. Once Billy gets going, you can’t catch him. If he doesn’t want to be caught, then especially on a hill, nobody’s going to catch that guy.

We’re lucky to be here at Bien Nacido, and maintaining such really strong relationships, not only with other vineyards and wineries here, but even in Santa Rita and Ballard and Happy Canyon, and the rest of Santa Ynez. This county’s pretty, pretty tight, you know. So this is where I have my family, this is where I work, and I love it, but we’re big fans of other AVAs in the area. There’s no question. I don’t think of it so much as a rivalry, at least I don’t. And I don’t get that vibe so much, because wine’s not really like that. I mean, it can be competitive a little bit, and maybe somebody’s getting more publicity or scores, and so there’s a little bit of that competition mindset. But for the most part, we’re just kind of fans of one another, especially when it’s done at a high level because you know, it brings everybody up. It’s a fun, fun time to be in this business in this county. It’s never been better.

WIL FERNANDEZ
Harvest time; long nights, early mornings, hard work. Since grapes need to be picked to cool temperatures, wine producers are often found bleary-eyed during harvest from working overnight or before dawn. One morning in August, I got a lesson engaging exactly the right moment to pick.

RYAN CARR
Sampling is kind of difficult because as human beings, we naturally go for the ripest fruit. So you really kind of almost have to be blind as you’re sampling. So we’ll, a field like this, so we’ve got a nice little block here. We’re going to take a sample basically from these two rows as we’re walking up, and then we’ll cruise over, and we’ll walk back down and take a little bit more, just to get a nice field sample to get an idea as to where this field is, as far as ripeness is concerned. So what we’ll do is we’ll grab a section, and we’ll just pull a couple of clusters. I’m trying not to look too hard at the clusters.

WIL FERNANDEZ
Try to randomize it?

RYAN CARR
Try to keep it as random as possible now. So I’ve grabbed a couple from this side, now I’m going to go directly on the other side.

WIL FERNANDEZ
Oh, so you’re getting two sides of the…?

RYAN CARR
Correct. So I get some that are in the sun, some that are in the shade, and that way we can get a nice sampling of what’s here. And as I’m walking through the field, I am looking at the grapes to make sure that I do get a good sampling of what’s in the field. So if we come across, if we’re seeing a lot of pink berries or if we’re seeing a lot of raisins, we’ll make sure that we grab some of that so that we get a good representation of what’s actually in the field.

WIL FERNANDEZ
The outliers….

RYAN CARR
Yeah. As much as you don’t want to, you want to pick blind when you sample, but you want to make sure that you are getting a good representation as to what’s in the field. So I mean we’re not really seeing much raisining yet. We’re still, we’re still a few weeks off of actually picking here, but because we sell fruit to several different people, much like a lot of the other vineyards in the area, we got to keep on the numbers, and make sure that all of our winemakers know where the vineyard is so that they can make plans for their upcoming harvest, and when they’re going to want to pick. And also you know, we get a pretty sizeable sample. It’s not like we’re coming out here and testing just a couple of berries.

WIL FERNANDEZ
Yeah, right. I didn’t know how much you were going to pick.

RYAN CARR
You know we, as we’re getting started, we will test individual berries, just to see how it’s progressing. But once we get closer to harvest where we’re weeks away or days away, this is really the only way to get a good idea as to what’s in the field. Usually I hadn’t sampled this vineyard this early until this year. This was the earliest I’ve ever sampled this vineyard. Typically we’re just starting to sample next week doing big samples like this. I’ll go through with my, the refractometer and test sugars that way. We crush it, we let it sit for about you know, maybe three hours or so, and try to mimic what’s actually going to happen in the winery so we get a better reading on the sugar. So this is more of a quick, you know, just to test in the field. So what I’ll do is, I’ll just grab a whole cluster, crush it, get some juice on there. That way you’re getting a good sample of juice from the whole thing. It takes the reading. 19.3 (Brix).

WIL FERNANDEZ
Wow. Taste like 19.3?

RYAN CARR
Tastes like 19.3. And I mean, the other thing we’ll do, I’ll do when we are getting really close, a day before I’ll pick something like that, you know. It’s on the border, maybe I haven’t made the, the decision wasn’t quite sure in the winery about how I tasted. I’ll come out here and again, same kind of thing. Grab the whole cluster, and just…

WIL FERNANDEZ
It’s ready?

RYAN CARR
Well, you get a good idea as to what the cluster’s tasting like. Chew up some of the seeds. You really get some of the tannins in there that you’re actually going to end up with, so. It makes it fun too.

WIL FERNANDEZ
Even the most experienced wine farmers were easy going, friendly people. A good example of that was Wes Hagen. We met one August morning as he brought in his first crop, about three weeks early.

WES HAGEN
Everything in my life can be so complicated, and like so many things going on at once, that harvest is like the one time where there’s a single focus. Pick fruit, make wine. And the hospitality fades away, the website fades away.

STEVEN PEPE
Sales fade away.

WES HAGEN
Tastings, and we focus.

STEVEN PEPE
Sales fade away.

WES HAGEN
Yeah. We focus on, on making wine.

STEVEN PEPE
Sales fade away.

WIL FERNANDEZ
Making wine. It sounds so easy, but that term just didn’t seem to fit after experiencing a vintage from the dirt up. Wine farmers really are the backbone to a great bottle of wine. They risk a lot for sometimes little reward. But if you know what to look for, their stamp is on every glass, and their passion is in every bottle. From now on, when I enjoy a glass, I’ll remember. This wine was not made; it was grown