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Yountville, CA

Temperature: 72°F
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Archive for the 'Wine Education' Category

Don’t Worry, Be Happy

April 19, 2008 in Wine Education. 0 Comments

Fascinating reading. Many thanks to Appellation America. A wine-closure supplier released results of a research project on various closures and the rate at which they expose the wine to oxygen. This set off a rant by Dr. Richard Peterson, a highly-respected winemaker and scholar, intended to beat it into our little pea-brains that corks don’t “breathe”.

Many were put off by his vehement, more brilliant-than-thou approach but, more importantly, folks of equal education and experience contradicted him in the comments, which are easily as fun to read as the rant.

Takeaway message? They don’t know. PhD vs. PhD and they don’t really understand why or how wine ages in the bottle.

My personal takeaway message? If our foremost wine scholars are mystified by this stuff, and so many other facets of wine, then we shouldn’t worry too much about our own lapses of understanding.

Wine is there to make life more fun and meals more enjoyable, period.

And, if part of the pleasure, for you, is that it’s an incredibly complex subject, go for it! Learn all you can! But, no one knows everything because there’s just too darned much to know. They didn’t even understand what fermentation was until the mid 19th century, frevvins sake!

So, next time you’re feeling clueless about wine, as I often do, chill out and pour yourself a glass! Learn as much as gives you pleasure - and leave it there.

Tours and classes are starting up again soon!

April 14, 2008 in Wine Education. 0 Comments

As the weather warms up, I really look forward to starting up our tours and classes again. This, truly, is my favorite part of my job. I get to meet great people from all over the world, get to know them a bit, share a smile and a little wine!

Goosecross wine education in the vineyard

Here’s what we’ve got cooked up for this summer - and it’s all free for our Wine Club members (up to a party of 6) and our famous Wine Basics Class© is free for everyone that wishes to learn more about wine in a fun, relaxed and unpretentious atmosphere! Where better to learn than in our vineyard!

Wine Basics Class: Every Saturday from June through October from 10:30-11:30; reservations required.

Relax on the lawn, take in the gorgeous vineyard view and have a great time learning how to sharpen up your tasting skills. Here are some of the topics we cover:
» Proper tasting techniques
» Structure and components of wine
» Winemaking preferences and styles
» Industry jargon
» Serving hints
» Wine storage
» and much more…

As the name implies, this is geared toward beginners but we find that even experienced tasters like to come back for a brush up from time to time. We’ve made a lot of friends that way!

Each “student” leaves with our recently updated and expanded class handbook - something you’ll refer to over and over.

The good news is that the class is absolutely free. The bad news is that it fills up very quickly so you need to make reservations early on. Just call us at 800-276-9210 or you can make online reservations up to 1 day (24 hours) before the class.

Estate Winegrowing Tour: Saturdays at 2:30 from May through October; reservations required.

If you’re more interested in how grapes are grown and wine is made, and a semi-private kind of experience, this tour’s for you! We grab a glass of wine and head out into the vineyard to talk about what happens from season to season. We always take a look at what’s happening at the moment, whether it’s shoot thinning, cluster counts or getting ready for harvest. Then we head over to the production area where we talk about how production techniques can influence style and character. After all that walking you’ll be ready to sit down to our own private tasting, enjoy the wines and I’ll make sure you get all your questions answered. The tour is limited to ten people, so it’s smart to reserve well in advance.

Tasting Room: Of course, you know (don’t you?) that our tasting room is open year round, from 10:00-4:30. You get to taste in the barrel cellar and our tasting room crew is just amazing. They somehow manage to inform and make you laugh at the same time. And, a lot of the time, Geoff Gorsuch, our Winemaker, is right there working so you can ask him what he’s up to in the cellar that day. You hear about people feeling intimidated when they go into tasting rooms - there’s just no chance of that happening here. We do recommend reservations, so give us a call and come see us!

Private Tours: You’re always welcome to call me (800-276-9210) if you’d like a private tour, any time of year. Since it’s your tour, we can focus on whatever is most interesting to you. Whether you want your own, private Wine Basics Class or you’d rather talk about spacing and rootstocks, we can do it.

Epicurean Explorations: minimum group size of 6; held at the Napa Valley Grille, by request

For all you foodies, enjoy delicious Goosecross wines and an outstanding, multi-course, meal prepared by Chef Thad Lyman, Proprietor and Executive Chef at the Napa Valley Grille, while he and I lay out some of the theories behind food and wine pairing. Quite often the actual pairings blow some of the theories out of the water, but you’ll come away realizing that it’s fun and creative - definitely not rocket science - and you’ll take home some great ideas about how to put together some great pairings.

So - if you haven’t been to Goosecross before, I hope you’ll find your way out here soon! Or, if it’s been awhile, come on down! Give us a buzz and we’ll get you all set up for a really great time!

Cheers!

Spring has Sprung

April 9, 2008 in Vineyard Update and Wine Education. 0 Comments

We’re off and running with the 2008 vintage. The vines here at the winery started coming out of dormancy right on time, mid-March, and they’re growing like crazy! Usually Merlot and Cabernet Franc are the first on our estate to bud out, then the Cabernet and finally the Petit Verdot. The harvest will probably follow a similar pattern. When you consider the whole valley, Sauvignon Blanc is often the earliest to bud, with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir on its heels. The Bordeaux varieties tend to bring up the rear.

Early spring is called the season of “great growth” in the vineyard, because the new shoots seem to grow before our eyes. As soon as they bud out, I’m on call for frost protection because we can have freezing temperatures at night here as late as into May. The newly exposed, tender buds will be damaged if the temperature drops below 32° F.

Spring in the vineyard photo collage

Those of you who have come for a visit have probably noticed the large fans in the vineyard. These wind machines mix the warmer air, above, with the cold air, below, to protect the vineyard. Some growers also use smudge pots, which burn diesel or oil to warm the vines. Some years it’s no problem at all and others it seems like I’m up almost every night. This year is more in the latter category - I’ve been driving around checking temperatures in the wee hours a lot lately. I wouldn’t mind a little cloud cover to help insulate things at this point…

This is also the time of “great walking”! As you saw a few posts back, the pruning is severe. Now, it’s time to get out there and sucker. We prune with the idea that we’ll get a shoot for each bud, and a couple of clusters per shoot, but inevitably, the vines do as they please and if there are extra shoots, as there nearly always are, it’s important to sucker out the extra ones. Otherwise we risk over-cropping and crowding, which may exacerbate mildew problems.

Another reason to walk is that the best way to know how the new shoots are developing and to check for signs of insects or disease is to get off of the tractor and walk. As I walk I’ll tuck the new shoots up into the trellis wires.

The vines should flower around mid-May and set the crop by early June. Every season seems to go faster! Let’s hope Mother Nature smiles on us! Cheers!

Can California Wines Be Aged?

February 13, 2008 in Answers, Wine and Wine Education. 0 Comments

Question from Jessica: I recently was told by a French wine connoisseur that he would not open a California wine bottle for 10 years +/- as he does with most of his French wines. When I purchased the wine, they told me that California wines are to be opened young. Can you please tell me how to know when to open a wine, specifically a California wine? Thank you.

Reply: Hi, Jessica! Thanks for writing! This seems to be our French vs. California month (see previous post)!

I wish there was a simple answer to your question, but there isn’t. I’ll start by giving you the big picture. I’m going to assume we’re speaking mainly about red wines although there are whites that age well, too.

Well aged wine in a cellar.

First, the vast majority of wines are meant for early consumption no matter where they come from. For long-term aging, we’re talking about fine wine.

Second, there can be a difference in longevity between the great wines of California and Europe because of climatic differences. In most of the famous European wine-producing regions the climate errs on the cold side. Cool-climate wines tend to be higher in acid than warm-climate wines and acid is an excellent natural preservative (another natural preservative common to red wine is tannin, which comes from the grape skins). High-acid wines can be hard to drink when they’re young, but they stay lively in the bottle longer.

Most of California leans toward the warm end of the scale, so the wines are often lower in acidity. This usually makes them easy to drink when they’re young, but they may show signs of old age sooner than their cool-climate counterparts.

That’s the big picture, but exceptions abound. If you’ve heard of the “Judgement of Paris” (they’re making two movies about it!), you might be interested to know that a 30th anniversary rematch was held in 2006 pitting approximately 30-year-old wines from California (Bordeaux-types) against great French Bordeaux wines of the same age. The California wines took the top-five ranks.

Longevity can also depend on the grape variety that makes the wine and the specific region and its climate/terrain within the country or state. The variety is stated on the label for most California wines, where French wine is usually named for the region and the varieties used for commercial winemaking in the region are regulated by local authorities. For instance, Beaujolais wines, made of the Gamay grape, aren’t generally intended for long-term aging the way a fine Bordeaux (Cabernet/Merlot) or Burgundy (Pinot Noir) are. Granted, Beaujolais isn’t considered to be in the same league with fine Burgundy or Bordeaux. That’s another reason not to make general assumptions about countries and their wines. A country such as France makes some of the very finest wines in the world and also very ordinary, every-day wines and everything in between - just like California!

So, I’m not trying to dodge your question - I’m trying to suggest that it depends upon the individual wine. Given the big picture, that wine shop didn’t give you such bad advice. Better too young than too old! Please don’t feel shy about asking questions when you buy wine because a good wine shop will have a knowledgeable staff who will be happy to help you.

There’s more detail about aging in this article on our website. I hope this helps!

Cheers!
Nancy

Global Warming: Napa Valley Cools its Heels

December 22, 2007 in Wine Education and Wine News. 0 Comments

As I dragged myself out of bed to 27 degrees F. this morning, one of many freezing mornings in recent weeks, I thought there just might be something to this very interesting article from Appellation America. There wasn’t an actual comment on winter weather but, jeepers, it’s cold!!!Anyway, to get to the point, the article quotes Dr. Andy Walker, of UC Davis, as saying what those of us who live here have noticed (and appreciated!) - that the last three growing seasons have been cool ones. Last summer’s weather was so wonderfully mild that it had a veteran grower crowing about the great conditions and predicting the vintage of the century in August, before harvest even started. Growers, wisely, tend to reserve comment until it’s all in the barn, but he may be right. It was a heckuva good harvest!!Dr. Walker thinks it’s more than a coincidence about the mild weather. As more wine grapes are planted in southern England and Germany enjoys improving fruit maturity, presumably, due to warming, he predicts that the vast, already-toasty San Joaquin Valley, in California’s interior, will heat up, too (yikes!), and work like a vacuum to pull in marine air from the Pacific into Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake Counties. That makes perfect sense. We’ve been boring you for years explaining the way the summertime heat rises in our very small valley, and then lures the cooling San Pablo Bay fog up-valley in the evening, conveniently trapped between our two mountain ranges. I guess we’re just looking at a much grander scale, here.

Global warming in Napa

Dr. Walker said that “the average temperature drop in Napa and Sonoma could well be so significant over the next few years that it could radically change the character of many wines over the next decade.” He thinks Lake and Mendocino counties will experience only a slight change - probably a relief to the Mendocino growers.

Polar Napa

Now, that might sound a little scary until you think about the hot - no pun intended topic on everyone’s lips lately - hangtime. How to get full fruit maturity without also getting outrageously high alcohols. Well, if it’s cooler it will take longer for the sugar to accumulate while we wait for flavor development and seed maturation. We won’t have to worry as much about the sugars, and therefore alcohols, climbing too high. Will the “radical change” take the form of enjoying wines with ripe, wonderful flavors that are 13 or 13.5% instead of 14 or 14.5%? Works for me! Seems to me we’re already on our way. I can hear myself reporting harvesting mature fruit and moderate sugars in recent harvest updates and Winemaker Notes. Yippee!!!Of course, water will become an even greater issue than it is now and already there’s greater discussion about dry farming and “off-dry farming”. We know that there’s a history of dry farming wine grapes in California, just because irrigation used to be so difficult, so perhaps we’ll revisit the past to plan for the future. Using rootstocks that send the roots down rather than out, more frequent cultivation and widening the spacing (again, moving forward to the past) are other recommended ways to decrease water use. It sounds like a manageable challenge if we’re smart about it and think ahead when we replant.So, I hope he’s right! I can certainly live with a cooling trend although, at the moment, I’m still waiting for my feet to thaw out on this freezing-cold first day of winter! Happy solstice!

Let the Batonnage Begin!

October 29, 2007 in Wine Education and Winemaking. 0 Comments

The 2007 Estate Chardonnay is dry, barreled up, and today begins the batonnage.

But, before we can talk about batonnage, we’d better talk about aging the wine “sur lie”.

If you read a basic winemaking text, it will usually advise you to get the wine off the dead yeast cells and grape solids (lees) after fermentation is over or risk making a stink! But, if you do a good job of pre-fermentation settling and racking (moving the wine off of the sediment) and ferment pretty juice (relatively speaking), then leaving the wine on the lees can be a real plus. When you read a back label that brags about “sur lie aging” that’s what they’re communicating.

The upside of sur lie aging? Added depth and complexity which, of course, sounds a little abstract. What we mean is that it can give the wine a richer mouthfeel (decreases astringency and increases body), and adds a toasty character almost like toasted grains. Geoff Gorsuch, our Winemaker, describes it as a protein milkshake character that he absolutely loves. It’s a great complement to the crisp pear, citrus and pineapple character of our Chardonnay.

The downside? If you’re not careful, the risk of making that stink becomes real, perhaps in the form of a delightful aroma of rotten eggs; it encourages malolacitc fermentation (ML - the technique that makes Chardonnay smell buttery). Some might call that a plus, but Geoff feels the ML interferes with our signature crisp, fruit-driven style. So, he has to be ever vigilant that the wine doesn’t undergo ML spontaneously.

So, what’s batonnage? But, of course, eet eez French, for stirring the lees with an instrument they call a baton (stick). So, the winemaker opens the barrel (or whatever sort of container) and goes in to stir up the lees now and then. In our case, Geoff just waits until the cloudy sediment appears to have settled again, which usually takes about a week, and then stirs it again.

The upside? It increases all the lovely effects of sur lie aging; helps keep the hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg aromas) at bay; the lees themselves serve as a buffer between the wine and the wood so that less tannin and pigment are extracted into the wine - and stirring enhances that effect, too; the wine seems fresher longer and is more stable.

The downside? It’s a royal pain in the tuckus, meaning it’s labor intensive. Today, Geoff and Rosario stirred 32 barrels and they’ll get to do it again in a few days or a week.

And, they’ll keep doing this until Geoff’s palate tells him he’s gained all the benefit he can from the technique, probably several months. Look for that Chardonnay to come out of barrels probably late next spring and, with any luck, we’ll be sipping away on the 2007 Chardonnay in a little over a year!

Fun with SimVin

October 7, 2007 in Wine Education. 0 Comments

For those of you listened to our Napa Valley Wine Radio episode on what it takes to start a vineyard or winery, or if you’re one of the many who has that occasional fantasy, you can literally play it out in a somewhat addictive game called SimVin. I learned about this courtesy of Tom Wark at Fermentation and, while I agree with Tom, that it’s perhaps oversimplified and I didn’t always appreciate the limited choices I was offered, it’s got a certain charm.

Wine Quiz

And - it will bring out your personality and convictions, too, on what’s important in this business. For instance at work, lately, there’s been a minor debate brewing over the lunch table about what it takes to sell a bottle of wine. There’s the (to me) starry-eyed point of view that if you make great wine it sells itself and you don’t need to market it, or not much. So, a person of that opinion would probably go to the high end on every choice but marketing in the game. I kinda think that person is going to end up broke, but I’ve been wrong before!

When I played this game, I put lots of money into quality fruit, I would have preferred more options in choosing my winemaker - something between a renowned, million-dollar winemaker and Joe Average, skipped the bells and whistles in the winery in favor of good quality, sound equipment and more elbow grease and threw dollars-a-plenty at marketing (which, for me, would be heavy on the PR; certainly not conventional advertising). Anyway, it’s fun!

The game is presented by Stephen Reiss of wineeducation.com, which is a great site to explore. Besides several informative articles there are other interactive games there, too, like a wine crossword puzzle, a quiz, a vocabulary game and a trivia game. I checked out each option - some are more user friendly than others - but, days could go by while you’re lost in this site.

I have a few quibbles, for instance in my 25+ years in wine I’ve never heard of adding sugar called “sugaring”. It’s usually just called “adding sugar” or Chaptalization. I checked my Oxford Companion and Jancis says the term “sugaring” is used occasionally. I think the game would be more instructive if we go with the more common term, unless the point is to trip up the player with arcane references. Or, maybe it’s a question of where you live.

Second to SimVin, my favorite option is the mulitiple-choice trivia game. It starts out with questions that are so simple that you suspect there’s a trick and then gets increasingly more technical to the point where, unless you’re a chemist or an enologist, you’re probably out of luck. What keeps you going is that you have just 10 seconds to read the question and choose a reply. Kind of gets the adrenaline pumping when the questions get tougher.

I wish he’d post the correct answers because, as I went through the quiz, there was one case where I was pretty-darned sure there was more than one correct response. The answers disappeared after 10 seconds, so I can’t be sure. Another question, about yeast, didn’t appear to have any good responses. There was no mention of the most commonly used species, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or its good buddy Saccharomyces bayanus. Again, checking my Oxford Companion, it turns out that the right choice in the quiz, Saccharomyces ellipsoideus, is a name that’s fallen out of use. Work with me, here!

OK, so I’m nit-picking a little. I always like to check things like this out for accuracy before I recommend them, and there were a few very minor things that made me wince, but not much. I admire the considerable effort that went into this and the great educational value that’s offered, plus it’s fun! And you could use it to liven up your next wine and cheese party. With a little adaptation, and depending upon how geeky your friends are about wine, you’ve got built in entertainment! Check it out!

Q: How High can the Alcohol Get?

July 9, 2007 in Answers, Ask our Educator, Wine Education and Winemaking. 1 Comment

Question from Caryll: My father, husband and I have been discussing what is maximum possible alcoholic content in non-fortified wine. Not sherry, port madeira etc. I have noticed the creeping increase in alcoholic content and have preferred the French wines, which until recently hovered around 12%. I seem to recall wines which reached almost 17% but my husband says he thinks that it is impossible to make a wine of more than 14.9%. Help please! And if you could explain why as well…

Moonshine

Reply: Hi, Caryll! Thanks for writing! I swiped this quote from The Winemaking Page: “Nothing about wine is more lasting - or astonishing - than fermentation.” Matt Kramer, Making Sense of Wine.

It’s true that most wild yeasts have a very low alcohol tolerance, often dying off at 5% or less. They say that if you collect grape samples from vines anywhere in the world and analyze the juice, you’d find numerous strains of yeast, some helpful, others not. That’s why we know wine was discovered by mistake.

It wasn’t until the 1800’s that we realized that yeast is responsible for fermentation and, since then, we’ve gotten better at isolating the helpful yeasts. These days most of the world’s wine and beer is fermented with a yeast species called saccharomyces cerevisiae. Quoting Jancis Robinson, it “evolved from ancestral yeast by a process of genome duplication, rearrangements and deletions, estimated to have occurred over the past 100 million years.” Within the species there are several hundred strains with differing characteristics. One of the species’ distinguishing characteristics is very good alcohol tolerance and, as you pointed out, that becomes important when the alcohols start to creep up as they have in recent years.

You can see on this page that, depending upon which yeast the winemaker purchases, there is more or less alcohol tolerance depending upon which yeast strain is selected. Some of these yeasts tolerate upwards of 15% alcohol as a matter of routine.

Winemakers select yeast first for practical considerations, such as lack of off-flavor, heat or cold tolerance, performing well in a barrel vs. a tank, settling nicely when the fermentation is over and, of course, alcohol tolerance. But the science has advanced to the point that certain yeasts are chosen for contributing to flavor or accentuating certain varietal characteristics.

wine yeast

“Wild” or “native” fermentation, in which no yeast is added, is usually a mix of yeasts that inevitably include saccharomyces cerevisiae if wine has been made on the site before. It works its way into the vineyard and becomes part of the winery and is, most likely, the yeast that ultimately gets the job done.

wild yeast

Your husband’s idea that the wine can’t be higher than 14.9% may have something to do with wine tax laws. We’re certainly allowed to produce high-alcohol wines, but when we go over 14% we are taxed as if we made a fortified wine, to which the alcohol is added, and our $1.07 per gallon federal tax goes up to $1.57.

I hope that helps settle your family debate. For everything and more that you might want to learn about yeast, grab a glass of wine and try going to this page.

Cheers! Nancy

Global Warming and our Future?

July 5, 2007 in Wine Education and Wine News. 0 Comments

For those of us who lie awake worrying that Yountville may become the next Fresno due to global warming there’s good news (I think). Recently the Napa Valley Grapegrowers got together for a conference called “The Future of Napa Valley: Beyond Hang Time.” They spent some time on the potential effects of global warming and of course talked about the ever-present hangtime issue itself.

global warming

When you read that more and more people are planting wine grapes in England due to climate change, you can seriously start to wonder about the future of a region that already errs on the warm side. However, as with most things in life, generalizations don’t always work. Like winegrowing itself, it’s site specific.

southern England

So here’s the not-so-scary-sounding forecast from those who are in a better position to know than most:

Number one, the soils ain’t gonna change for the next 100 to 1000 years unless there’s a whopper of an intervention by the Gods or man since, as Dr. Deborah Elliot-Fisk of UC Davis pointed out, “The soils in Napa Valley are 100,000 years old.” She predicts the soils will be stable, except for possibly decreased soil moisture due to warmer temperatures. Sounds like more drought-resistant rootstock is in our future and smart, strategically-timed irrigation practices will be essential so we don’t run through our water supply.

Number two falls in the “people are funny” category and produced my favorite quote from the session. Regarding temperature change and perceived quirky weather patterns, Dr. Rick Snyder of UC Davis said: “All my life people have been saying the weather is unusual.” Yup. I’ve heard a number of people blame this year’s low rainfall on climate change, totally forgetting that we had nearly double our normal rainfall in 2006.

But he foresees climate change, as does Dr. Elliot-Fisk. She predicts that the warmer temperatures in the upper Napa Valley may shift south a little not necessarily meaning hotter hots, but making a bigger percentage of the valley warmer. Good-bye to Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and bubbly?? She says the mountaintops will either stay the same or cool slightly due to increased fog. It may be that the state of California overall will be warmer by about 5 degrees Fahrenheit by 2055 to 2075, with 15 more days of temperatures over 90 degrees. But with our marine influence and Dr. Elliot-Fisk’s predicted increase in fog, the California model won’t necessarily be the Napa Valley reality.

Dr. Snyder summarized the results of a study on Napa Valley weather patterns between 1917 and 2006 and came to the conclusion that “From a grower’s standpoint, the weather has actually improved in Napa.” It shows an increase in the average low temperatures for January and also an increase in average high temperatures at harvest time. But the study shows less risk of extreme rainfall or extreme high or low temperatures today than we had prior to 1988. Living here, it’s hard to believe, but he said there’s been less flooding recently than in the past. Dr. Snyder added that “It’s the extremes that hurt you, not averages”.

The dueling Drs. seem to think that these are manageable changes as long as our viticultural practices shift along with the change.

professional wine grape pickers

Of course, these are projections and none of it is certain. But it’s easier to sleep at night, cooled by the evening fog, minus the nightmares about Yountville’s future as the next raisin capital of the world. More on the hangtime issue to come.

Take it off… Take it all off!

June 13, 2007 in Wine Education. 0 Comments

I recently had the opportunity to witness the performance of two professional Portuguese strippers!! Without musical accompaniment or mood lighting, father and son team Sergio and Joaquim took it all off, repeatedly and with gusto, after a long flight here from Portugal. Most impressive!

Our Winemaker, Geoff Gorsuch, has been fortunate enough to spend some time in the cork-oak forests of Portugal but, for the rest of us, Cork Supply USA, our cork supplier, brought the action here and demonstrated live the ancient art of denuding the cork-oak tree of its bark.

Sergio and Joaquim brought along some friends who happened to be cork-industry experts including Dr. Macku, PhD in agricultural and environmental chemistry, Sao Santos Silva, an expert in forest engineering and Frederico Mayer the Purchasing Director for Cork Supply and each enlightened us in his/her area.

Should be no big surprise department: their concerns are extremely similar to ours, as growers and winemakers. It’s all about putting the right tree in the right place, taking good care of it and harvesting with care. Aside from numerous references to sorting, there was virtually no discussion of drying, purification or other production methods because while important, as with wine, the quality is determined primarily by the raw material.

Proper Cork Harvest

And, as with viticulture, being good stewards of the land is an issue that’s front and center. We learned that the forests serve 3 main functions:

1. Cork production, by far the most important function.
2. To produce secondary crops, many naturally existing, such as medicinal wildflowers, honey and mushrooms.
3. To preserve grass lands and open space providing a side benefit of wild game such as boar.

The forests are also host to a number of migratory birds and some endangered species such as the Iberian Lynx and the Spanish Imperial Eagle.

These forests or plantations are nearly all family owned, but are subject to national regulations regarding the growth and management of the trees, harvest cycles (every nine years), pruning, thinning and tree removal. Land conversion is forbidden. Once a grower, forever a grower.

These knowledgeable presenters, with their charming Portuguese accents, gave us the ins and outs of soil and climate, managing the forests and how the trees reach the point of harvest. And then the floorshow began! Sergio and Joaquim flexed their biceps and picked up their axes.

We were all surprised to learn that there are some cork oaks growing right there, in the parking lot at Napa Valley College. Perhaps not an ideal habitat, but how convenient! When asked about growing the oaks (Quercus suber) here, Frederico indicated that it can be done, as we could clearly see, but the quality will not be good enough for wine corks -we’d be doomed to grow bulletin boards or something mundane like that.

Important fact: If the tree is harvested properly, it is unharmed and the bark grows back.

Proper Cork Harvest

Sergio and Joaquim led us to tree number one, an unwilling virgin oak, never before harvested, at about 20 years of age. When they discussed recent innovations it was mentioned that a specially-designed chain saw can be used these days, but in this case the traditional ax was the tool of choice.

Drum roll…

Poor Sergio and Joaquim! That tree did not want to give and the bark came off with considerable difficulty and in pieces. Frederico commented that the youth of the tree could be a factor and also we may not have had enough warm weather here for the bark to loosen its grip to the tree adequately (harvest in Portugal is usually from mid-May through mid-August and will be about 1 month late this year due to a rainy May). Not an auspicious beginning, but our strippers were undaunted. On to the next tree!

Sergio and Joaquin

The next beauty was 30-ish, had seen the ax once before and knew how the game is played. It submitted to the expertise of our strippers and shed its bark in two lovely, symmetrical pieces and in a matter of just a few minutes. And a few trees more…

Proper Cork Harvest

Now, Sergio and Joaquim are shy, soft-spoken, rather compact men, but don’t be fooled. They have to have the arms of King Kong to pull off a job like that over 3 months! No heavy breathing and they didn’t even break a sweat!

What a morning! It’s like everything else in life: whatever the topic, there’s a lot more to it than you ever thought… Many thanks to Cork Supply and to Sergio and Joaquim, et al, for a most informative and entertaining session! Next time I think I’ll bring my boom-box to get the trees in the mood… A sia saide!

PS: For some general information on how the cork gets from the tree to the bottle, soon to be expanded and updated, thanks to the excellent information from Cork Supply, click here.