In The Vineyard with Pat Henderson | New Years in March?

Although the calendar might mark the first day of the New Year in January; for a lot of us here at the winery we tend to think the beginning of the growing season as being the real start to the year. Every March when the warm spring weather arrives in the Sonoma Valley the buds on the dormant grape vines start to swell. When the tender green shoots appear at bud break the start of the growing season, or vintage, has begun. Now the shoots are about 6 inches long and growing rapidly. So far the weather has been cooperative with mild temperatures and not too much rain so we are off to a good start on the vintage.

Last year’s vintage the 2012 was nearly perfect with an abundant crop of fruit that had excellent flavors so the new vintage has a tough act to follow. We have already bottled the first new wine from last harvest with the 2012 Sauvignon Blanc. Since our Sauvignon Blanc is not aged in barrels it really shows the vibrant fruity aromas and grassy character that is found in the Sauvignon Blanc grapes when they are ripe. After the grapes are picked and whole-cluster pressed we ferment the juice at cool temperatures to preserve the fresh fruit taste. After fermentation is done we taste all of our different vineyard lots (more than 30) to find the combination that will give us the perfect combination of exotic flavor and zesty mouth feel that we are looking for.

After you have been making wine for a while you start to think in terms of vintages rather than years. The 2012 marks our thirty third vintage of making Sauvignon Blanc and it is one of the best we have ever bottled.

Cheers,
Pat Henderson
Senior Winemaker
Kenwood Vineyards