Katarina's Blog

Pretty colors light up our vineyards right now. The winter cover crops are sprouting after the rains in December. Yellow mustard, green barley, orange calendula cover the space between the rows of vines. The plants are not only beautiful but they also play a big role in creating the best grapes possible for our wines. There are so many ways in which they contribute.

Almost all of our grapes are harvested now and we are at the end of a long period when I spend a lot of time monitoring the grapes' sugar level. Depending on the wine you make you aim for different sugar levels. I like to pick the grapes at the lower end of typical sugar levels which keeps a little more acidity in the grape and makes for well-balanced wines. However, the most important aspect in deciding when to pick the grapes is still taste. At the end of the day the subjective taste of the winemaker is the most important measurement.

Cork is a fantastic material. I love it. A natural bottle stopper from the bark of the cork oak. The cork comes from the bark of the tree which is harvested and then grows back again. Each tree can be harvested 12-15 times during its life which can be up to 200 years. Cork oak forests, today mostly in Portugal and Spain, are also a natural habitat for many species, some endangered like the Iberian Lynx. Before corks wine storage and transportation looked quite different. But cork also has its problems which the producers now has learned to mitigate.

Time for change – time for veraison. This is the wonderful and dramatic stage when, in only 24-48 hours, the grapes change color, become soft and pliable and the sugar starts rising rapidly. It is happening right now in our vineyards.

Tasting wine straight from the barrel is an interesting exercise. As a winemaker you do it often to see how your wine is progressing. Once a year, in March, we participate in the Barrel Weekend arranged by Wine Road and it is really fun to engage in conversation about the wine and its journey in the barrel and in the bottle with our visitors. The discussion ranges from taste and various barrels impact as well as time, which is an essential ingredient when getting to those sought after flavors in a mature wine.