ComfortWinery.com

Mock-up of 2006 label design

by Zack Onisko

Zack Onisko is the designer behind the Comfort Winery labels

Every year, Zack and I have lunch at Armani Cafe in San Francisco to talk about label concepts -- he is a whiz-boy and you can hire him too.

Bottling the 2006 vintage

Yesterday, Aug 12, 2007, was a new moon (the best time for bottling because the moon's gravitational pull is the lightest).   This helps keep the gunk at the bottom of the barrel out of the wine that gets bottled.   The gunk (or "lees" as it's called in the trade) is made up of dead yeast cells, char from the inside of the barrel, and solid tannin (tiny bits of grape skin and seed fragments that settled from the end of winemaking 10 months ago).    

The steps that we finished today were:  blending, filling, argon administration, cork-setting, and capsule-setting.

Thanks to:  Marissa Levinson, The Birch Family, The Eaton Family, Joy and Mike, Ernie, Chub, Jack & Audrey, Carol Werner, Derek & Emily, Heather & Brent Horowitz, and Tim.  We bottled 50 cases in four hours!

Sulpher addition

Both barrels received 1 gram of sulpher today.

Sulpher addition

Both barrels received 1.25 grams of sulpher today.

Blend tasting (50% new oak; 50% neutral oak)

This blend is promising.  The oak is very brisk and dominant now, but I'm confident that it will calm down.   The alcohol/acid balance is good, and the fruit profile is classic RRV.     The depth of flavor is not there, but the bright red fruit flavors are there in abundance (and the fruit is from relatively young vines, ~ 6 years old).

Barrel 1 tasting (new oak)

The new Rousseau barrel is doing its thing, kicking off lots of interesting flavors:  pinecones, toast, mint, and wood-smoke are all evident.    On the palate, there is some black cherry and wild strawberry buried under all of that oak.    The wine is a bit on the hot side now -- hopefully some of that will blow-off, and the rest will dissipate with blending and bottle age.

Barrel 2 tasting (neutral oak)

I am very happy with the color (this is the lightest colored pinot I've ever produced).   The wine is drinking nicely now (because there's virtually no oak involved), showing red cherry that's slightly candied.

Laboratory Work

On Nov 12, I crossed the first major milestone in the finished wine, the first analysis of the wine and the first tasting!

I get my testing done just across the Bay Bridge in Berkeley at the Oak Barrel.

Barrel #1 (new Rousseau Troncais), which holds a blend of Dijon 115 and 667, showed good clarity, candied cherry and raspberry flavors, sweet oak,and plenty of "jazz" from the new barrel.   pH is 3.96, malolactic fermentation is complete, and the alcohol is 14.6%.   Five grams of sulfur was added to the barrel.

Barrel #2 (neutral), all Dijon 777, also has good clarity (and the lighter color I was shooting for this year), nice rounded red and black fruit, much more of a "finished wine" taste than it's counterpart -- this blend is going to stand a decent chance of working out!   pH is 3.95, malolactic fermentation is complete, and the alcohol is 14.7%.  Five grams of sulfur was added to the barrel.

Barrels

The new barrel (a Rousseau, Troncais, Medium-Long Toast) was sourced through my friend, Jerome Aubin.   The 115/667 field-blend is aging there.    The 2nd barrel, which holds the 777 is an '01 Gargaud & Jaegle that's nearly neutral (after being used for several years at Freeman Winery).   My hope is that there will be a harmonius final blend between the new-oak batch & the no-oak batch...

Some of the red-winemakers that are "references" for Rousseau include: Domaine Bize-Leroy (Vosne Romanee), Bouchard Aine, Acacia (Carneros), Sanford (Santa Barbara), Rosenblum (Northern Cali), Archery Summit (Willamette Valley), Cristom (Willamette Valley), Chehalem (Willamette Valley), Rex Hill (Willamette Valley), Gary Farrell (Russian River Valley), Lynmar (Russian River Valley), Seghesio (Sonoma), Siduri (various, CA & OR), Testarossa (Santa Cruz Mountains), Joseph Phelps (Napa), Kosta Browne (Russian River Valley), Gibbston Valley (Central Otago), Quartz Reef (Central Otago).

228 liters each  (typical Burgundy barrel)