Preserving Tradition Thru Hand Harvesting on Brandlin Vineyard

This year harvest commenced earlier than usual on our Brandlin Estate
Vineyard, with Zinfandel being the first fruit brought in.

Although misting heavily, and the ground was quite muddy, we
managed to capture photos of some harvesting activities.

Later on while studying these images, we were captivated by the similarity
of hand harvesting now and hand harvesting that was done on Brandlin Vineyard
40, 50 up to 90 years ago!

Henry Brandlin’s son Chester, shared the image below. It depicts two women
(circa 1976) standing in the midst of the same Zinfandel vines, holding buckets
filled with grapes harvested that day.

In the quickly changing world that we live in today, there are few processes
and methods that remain untouched over time – even in the romantic world
of grapegrowing and winemaking.

At Brandlin we find it rewarding to preserve the historic method of hand
harvesting our estate vineyard, just as previous generations did before us.

Vine to Bottle – How Winemaker Steve Rogstad selects the best fruit for quality

"Harvest is a bustling time of year in and around the winery, however in
the months preceding I begin the careful process of hand selecting the very
best fruit while it’s still on the vine.

It is necessary for our vineyard crews to understand our high standards, and “drop” 

any berry clusters that are less desirable. Dropping fruit is a measure we take in both
of our estate vineyards to ensure that only the best fruit is harvested."

(Left: No grape cluster is perfect. Right: Fruit clusters that do not

meet our standards are cut off and dropped.)

(The diagram above corresponds with the following discussion points.)

A: Once the berries have been hand harvested and brought to the winery,
they are gravity fed into a hopper.

B: Harvest workers examine each berry cluster on a sorting table,
eliminating any clusters that are undesirable.

C: The clusters that make the grade travel up a conveyor
belt and are gently gravity fed into destemming equipment.

D: Following the de-stemmer, the berries are optically sorted.

Cuvaison Estate Wines was one of the first, if not the first winery in the United
States to employ the use of a Pellenc Optical Sorter. We use this highly tuned French technology for both Cuvaison Pinot Noir and Brandlin Cabernet Sauvignon grapes.

The optical sorter scans individual berries at a rate of 1000 berries per second, and rejects those that do not meet our stringent criteria. With its high accuracy, we have peace of mind knowing that only the finest fruit will make it into our wines.

The image above shows a comparison between berries that the optical sorter

rejected (at left) and the berries that the optical sorter identified as keepers (at right). 

Once the berries are optically sorted, they are pressed. Many wineries transfer the
freshly pressed juice via a hose, however we believe this fresh and delicate product must be handled more gently. Therefore we gravity feed into stainless steel
open top fermenters.

- Winemaker Steve Rogstad 

An Educational Tour & Team Lunch on Brandlin Vineyard

Earlier this month, our team enjoyed an outing to Brandlin Estate Vineyard,
which rests 1,000 feet above the Valley floor. It is from this estate in which we produce almost all Brandlin wines, including our Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Henry's Keep Proprietary Red Wine and Estate Zinfandel. 

Varietals grown on this property include Cabernet Sauvignon,
Zinfandel, Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. 

Our team convoyed up together and parked just inside the gated entrance of
the estate, where President Jay Schuppert started his educational discussion on the
Brandlin Family's rich history on Mount Veeder, Cuvaison Estate Wines' history
with Brandlin Vineyard and what makes growing bordeaux varietals on
Brandlin Vineyard so unique and special.

The entire team, especially our Regional Managers who flew in from other parts of the country, were spellbound by the scenic panoramas that could be enjoyed from every direction on the property. Cameras were pulled out; each of us wanting to bring back photographic evidence of this rugged and beautiful piece of remote land we are part of.

Jay, who is intimately familiar with the property, lead the group through each block and shared different points of interest. The photograph above shows our old vine Zinfandel with some of the vines dating back to the 1920s.

Our guided hike ended in the Oak Grove, situated on the east side of the
property where the team enjoyed a healthy lunch while tasting through current
releases of Brandlin wines. 

It was a great experience for team members from all different departments
to get together and break bread before the 2014 harvest kicks off. 

Learn what makes Mount Veeder unique

Nestled in the Mayacamas Mountains on the western side of Napa Valley,

the Mount Veeder AVA (American Viticultural Area) is defined by three main factors.

Starting where Carneros ends, 400 feet up Milliken Peak and stretching north
to the Oakville Grade, it’s among the coolest and latest ripening sites for
growing Cabernet in Napa Valley.

The vineyards owe much of their success to being planted on rugged slopes and ridge
tops above the fog line where the diurnal shifts in temperature are greater than the valley floor, but the hours of sunlight are longer. Lastly, the soils are an island of ancient seabed pushed up into a mountain which provides relatively shallow, well drained-soils, with minimal water retention. These factors unite to produce very tiny berries and consequently, very low yields.

The harsh elements (lashed by wind and sun exposure) combine to thicken the
skins of Mount Veeder fruit which is where all the color and tannins are formed. So
when we harvest the Cabernet Sauvignon and crush the berries, we have a huge amount of color and tannin (typically 50% more than fruit that comes from the valley floor)
 that are dissolving into very little juice.

These young, just released tannins, are very small in size and will fall readily onto
your taste buds, creating a bitter, astringent sensation. But by working a small amount of air into the wine, starting with aerative pump-overs during fermentation and then later by ageing in thin stave Bordeaux barrels, the tannins will have a chance, catalyzed by this tiny amount of oxygen, to knit together into longer chains we call polymers.

These developing tannins are too big to fall onto your taste buds and instead glide
gently over your palate leaving the impression of silkiness or velvetiness that are the hallmark of our Brandlin wines.

So to recap, the cool, rugged site provides wines that have perfect natural acidity,
great concentration of flavor and a robust reservoir of tannins that will protect the wine and provide it with years of freshness in the bottle as they slowly resolve.