Mat & I tasted through all of the 2007 Barrels;

• TNT is seperated into lot 1 & 2 from the different picking dates. Lot 1 has traditional characters of bright red fruits with watermelon and a tightness of tart sour cherry and tannins while lot 2 seems richer deeper & darker with very complex layers.
• Ruxton; There were some more exotic barrels & some that tasted of earth notes with cocoa, lilac and rich textures. Each barrel has a slightly different personality due to the type of oak & the age of the barrel.
• Occidental Road Cellars has just finished ML. The color is darker red & more purple hues in comparison to the other Pinot's. As well the flavor profile is rich cherry & deeper dark boysenberry notes. This is only our 2nd vintage with this Vineyard which we are very excited about becoming a designate bottling.
• The Gamay was made slightly different ( 100% whole cluster & neutral oak ) from the previous vintage and the outcome is interesting; there is still the banana grape texture with soft tannins but there is less intensity in the color & structure which is appealing. Seems to be more in the nouveau style at this point.

Barrels are topped up every other week and will continue to until preparing for bottling in June.

The Gamay juice was transferred to neutral oak barrels.

Gamay fermentation tank was racked off the skins. The juice is still fermenting & is tasting so beautiful. Lots of red fruit.

Pressed off the last tank of TNT pinot & transferred into barrels.

Sorted the gamay grapes & put the whole clusters into fermentation tank.

The weather has turned and we are experiencing light misty rain and cooler temperatures. The Gamay Vineyard was picked today. We received just over 4 tons of fruit that will sit over night in the cold room to be sorted tomorrow.

We were pleasantly surprised that today we received just over 4 tons of Pinot Noir friut from Occidental Cellars Vineyard. We were not promised or guaranteed any fruit so, when it arrived we were Thankful. We had 2 barrels of this Vineyard in 2006 which was blended into our Sonoma Coast.

After the grapes went through the crusher/destemmer & into the tank the juice tasted very promising. We will continue with 3 manual punch downs daily.

Yesterday & today the temperatures have gone way up into the mid 80's and expected to remain for at least a week. Checked the Gamay Vineyard and it is still not fully ripe although the existing weather will help.

The last of the TNT Vineyard Pinot came in this morning, about 4 1/2 tons of fruit was sorted, destemmed & put into tank. Our weather has completly returned to beautiful sunny clear skies temperatures in the high 70's.

We had gray skies most of the day and the rain that was expected was very lite. Nothing eventful happened over the weekend.

Temperatures have dropped again and rain expected sometime this weekend. Today the TNT fermenting tank was pressed off & put into barrels. The juice for the TNT is tasting of intense red fruits.

Temperatures are holding nicely, although forecast is calling from some showers. We are tentatively scheduled for picking the remaining TNT for early next week. Gamay looks like it will be at least another week to 10 days.

Weather is wonderful; sunny and warm without temperatures going into the 80's. Grapes are having a chance to ripen more. Checked the TNT vineyard last 2 blocks that need to be picked. The seeds are still slight greenish. Not quite ready.

Ruxton juice transferred to the basket press. Pressed off and tranasferrred to oak ten barrels. The juice is the purest high quality we have seen and tasting of intense red fruits. It is still hard to pin exact characters at this stage.

The TNT tank is being manually punched down 3 times a day & looks close to being ready to press off for barrels.

The Ruxton tank is being manually punched down 3 times a day, first thing in the morning, mid day and then again later in the evening. This gives the grape skins constant contact with the juice to enhance deeper flavors and color. The weather temperatures are stilll holding nicely in the high 70's with a gentle breeze.

With new cool temperatures that we are experiencing mostly in the 70's, there has been a huge change to picking schedules. The majority of our grapes have been picked but, hearing about the other vineyards, picking has been temporarily postponed.

With the weather changes, this could be an all time perfect harvest. We experienced a long growing season with few heat spikes that did not effect the grapes & then just as brix are reaching the perfect picking time, this cold front has slowed it all down to make for an excellent harvest. The yeilds are lower & the quality high. We can look forward to great wines although alot less produced.

The cool weather is still with us with temperature's in the 70's & a low cloud cover. Checked on the Knights Valley Gamay Noir Vineyard which is currently around 19 brix. It looks like we will not be picking that for a few weeks.

A cold front has come in which is giving us time to breath & a delay for more immediate picking. We received 1/4 ton more of TNT picked by Tom & Tanya in a part of the vineyard which ripening is less consistent. This was added to the fermentation tank of TNT whole cluster. The Ruxton Pinot is also in a fermentation tank.

A picking crew of 16 arrived at TNT Vineyard at 3:30 am. They picked the East Block & the 2 upper blocks which are at the top of a slight hillside facing South. The average Brix was 23.8. Picking was completede by 7:15 with 5 tons of beautiful fruit to deliver to the winery. Temperatures are still in the 90's and not looking like there will be much change in the next few days. Alot of fruit is being picked this week.

Took a look at the TNT Vineyard & most of it is ready to pick, scheduled for 9/5. The TNT Vineyard is a small site owned by Tom & Tanya. They usually organize a group of about 20 people family & friends to pick. Due to the day, mid week, we are having a picking crew start at 6 am. We are only having the east side & the top 2 sections picked so, we still might have a family & friends picking opprtunity for the last sections when they are ready.

The Ruxton continued to cold soak over the weekend & have started fermentation now.

Awoke to some great morning fog. This will help keep the fruit on Vines from ripening too quickly. Checking the TNT Vineyard which we've scheduled to pick next Wednesday Sept. 5th. Started off the morning by getting ice for cold soaking the Ruxton. We have the fermenting berries seperated into 5 T Bins that we have in the cold store room that have bags of ice to create a cover over the cap; cold soaking.

This year the ruxton cropped very small clusters & berries. We picked 4 tons from the Vineyard which is about 20% lower than previous. We had left the Ruxton grapes in our cold room which is at 30 degrees & began sorting, destemming & crushing today. The temperatures are still high although, have dropped a bit since picking day.

Our 1st grapes for 2007 were picked this morning at 7am. The Ruxton Vineyard which is at a high elevation was at 25 brix when picked. We feel that the elevation assisted with this vineyard being the 1st ready. The morning fog & low clouds that we've been experiencing are below the Ruxton Vineyard and allowed this location longer days of sun than most in the Green Valley part of Russian River. The last 2 days temperatures have rised to the 90's and are expected to remain until the end of Labor Day weekend.

Our East block of the TNT Vineyard today was at 22 Brix & we will follow up with that although expect it not to be ready for over a week. More to follow.