MCV FARM NEWS - 6/28/08 - Still Growing Magic.

Morning Ya'll,

This week the weather was a bit more cooperative with less rain. The guys have been continuing to work in the vineyard. Soon we will begin leaf pulling in the vineyard. This is when we remove leaves from the fruit zone. The newly formed clusters need maximum sunlight to achieve optimal ripeness, so we remove the leaves to do this. In addition if we get rain it helps assure that the clusters will dry in a more timely fashion.

All of the staff has been quite busy preparing for upcoming events. Tomorrow we have our Summer Time Grillin'. Yesterday we bottled our new release wine, Sabor. I will be providing notes on this new, exciting and unique offering from Martha Clara. It is the first wine of its kind! I will say a few things about Sabor:
- Sabor is spanish for 'flavor'
- Sabor contains natural flavors of pineapple and coconut
- Sabor is a white-merlot, so it will be offered as a white wine
- Sabor is "Summer in a Bottle".

I know many will ask, "how do you make a white wine from a red grape?" Well, it is quite easy. We pick the grapes earlier in the growing season so they have not developed as much color. We also pick the grapes early, early in the morning when it is the coolest. Why is this important? Well, temperature will effect how quickly color will extract/leach from the skins. The cooler the temperature the slower the color extraction/leaching and the same vice versa. Once picked the grapes are quickly transported to the winery and pressed immediately. Because the grapes have little to no skin contact at very cool temperatures they extract little to no color. Lastly, as a wine ferments and goes through its lifecycle at the winery whatever small amount of color it had is lost over time.

Many will ask what was the inspiration for this wine? Well, quite honestly it has been my family. I am Mexican and my family here and my family from Mexico always enjoy the wines that I have made over the years, but very few they have truly loved. The one type of wine that they truly loved was dessert wines. This was because of the intense tropical flavors that a dessert wine develops, but we all know how expensive dessert wines can be for everyday drinking. So, I figured lets put tropical flavors into an affordable everyday wine and the idea of Sabor was born. The past wineries I have worked for would not have been the right stage for a wine such as this. Mr. Entenmann and Jackie being open and welcoming of everyone on their farm welcomed this idea. I thank them for this opportunity as will my family and soon the entire Latino community! The great thing about this wine is that it will not only appeal to Latino's but will have a broader appeal as well. Remember: It's Summer time in a bottle! Please give it a try for yourself when in the tasting room.

Cheers ya'll,

Juan.

MCV FARM NEWS - 6/19/08 - Lightning Strikes and Cougar Attacks.

Morning Ya'll,

Well, things in the vineyard continue to roll on. Wojtek and the guys have been busy tending the quickly growing vineyard. Right now we are in 'bloom' in the vineyard. Bloom is when the newly formed inflorescence's begin to open up. The photos show the closed inflorescence and the following photo depicts the almost fully bloomed cluster. People ask if we require bees to help pollinate? Well, grapes are a self-pollinating so we do not require the assistance of bees. Although, the bloomed flowers do not require insect pollinators they produce a very subtle and distinct aroma. In fact it smells faintly reminiscent of suntan lotion. I honestly do not fully understand why if grapes do not require pollinators do they still create an attractive aroma? It would seem an unnecessary action. If you get a chance take a walk into the vineyard and give these a sniff!

Pre- Bloom Bloom

In addition to bloom going on in the vineyard the guys continue to shoot thin. Once again the vine will produce more growth than is ideal for premium wine production. So we have to go out and shoot thin. Shoot thinning as we call it is when we select shoots to be removed from the vine. If you look below you will see the photo of a row prior to shoot thinning and a photo after shoot thinning. You will notice all of the thinned shoots on the ground. Also, you will see the photo of a shoot thinned vine. In addition to reducing yield, shoot thinning allows increased sun penetration, better air flow for drying out the canopy, and better coverage when we spray. This operation can be slow and tedious but it will not only help ensure a quality crop, but also a healthy crop.
Pre Thinning Post Thinning

The wild weather over the past week took its toll one of our trees. We are not sure if it was a lightning strike or the strong winds that took down the tree, but none-the-less no one was hurt.




Lastly, I have been attending various tastings as of late. Debbie and I participated in a tasting for Boulevard Magazine at the De Seversky Center in Old Westbury. This was a great event and it is good to see so many people that are familiar with Martha Clara. On Saturday night Ben and I participated in a tasting for Canvas Magazine at a gallery in Huntington. The event went very well, however at the end of the event I was attacked by several cougar's! (Cougar - think Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore) The Cougarus americanis is a persistent species. This particular group of cougar's surrounded me and were very persistent in myself joining them for a post-party cocktail. I graciously declined and escaped unscathed with the help of some other event attendees. It was a close call none-the-less! In any event that's the word on the farm. As always please feel free to ask any questions! Talk with ya'll soon!

Cheers,

Juan.

MCV FARM NEWS - 6/13/08 - Office Mate Wanted.

Morning Ya'll,

Well, growth in the vineyard has exploded! All throughout the vineyard we see lots of growth. The guys have been busy tending the quickly growing vineyard. They have been busy putting up wires in the vineyard to keep the tender growing shoots in place. Without these crucial wires the tender shoots would be susceptible to the elements and could literally break off the vine. A new tender shoot is very similar in consistency to a thin spear of asparagus. In addition the guys have been completing the job of shoot thinning.

Grapevines have the mind set that more is better. So a vine will put out more shoots than is necessary for producing premium wines, of course the vine does not know that is our intentions. More shoots means more fruit and too much fruit makes wines that lack concentration and depth of flavor. Nature has different reasons for producing fruit than we intend it for. Nature wants to produce fruit that is just tasty enough to entice something to consume its fruit. This "taker" will hopefully pass the seeds to a new area or location and the vine can now establish a new territory. This is natural selection at work! If you look at the world of wine and what is planted some varieties have done a very good job.

We have been busy racking reds out of barrels in the past week. The reds continue to show nicely and I will be very excited when these will eventually reach the bottle next year at this time. Racking is when we pump the wine out of barrels. When we rack we pump out all but about a half gallon of wine or so. This small amount of wine which we call the 'dregs' is discarded. The dregs have all things that gravity has naturally pulled out of the wine. Okay, what do I mean? Well, picture a clear container of orange juice that has pulp. When you first see the bottle all of the pulp is at the bottom. If you shake the bottle vigorously the pulp disperses and there is no longer any pulp at the bottom. However, if you wait several hours you will see that gravity pulls that pulp back out of suspension. Well, gravity takes a little longer with wine. About every three months we rack wines off of their pulp or in our case 'dregs'. Once the barrels have been pumped we then clean the barrels. After we have racked all of the wine, we clean the barrels and then return the wine to clean barrels. This whole process is repeated every three months up until the wine is bottled.

I want to thank, congratulate, and wish Matheus Xavier Gabriel the III good luck! After many years of service Matt will be leaving Martha Clara Vineyards for a design job. When I first heard that Matt would be leaving MCV, I immediately assumed it would be to pursue his life long love of photographing Quinceneras and Bat mitzvahs! I was informed by Matt that this would continue to be "just a side gig and that dream has not yet been realized." Please see below for one last look at Matt's fine work.

Matt has worked tirelessly on many projects while at Martha Clara. We thank him for his hard work and we wish him the best of luck! 

Cheers Ya'll,


Juan.