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.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
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!
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 
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 
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.
Friday, June 13, 2008
MCV FARM NEWS - 6/13/08 - Office Mate Wanted.
Morning Ya'll,
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.
Cheers Ya'll,
Juan.
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.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
MCV FARM NEWS - 5/31/08 - Man in a Dress?
Hey Ya'll,
Good morning! It seems that Mother Nature has been a bit more cooperative with us in the past week. We have seen some great growth in the vineyard. The vineyard is a funny place one week your ahead, another you are behind, but then weather improves and you are ahead again so on and so forth... We do all that we can to make the best wines possible. Sometimes Mother Nature makes this more challenging, but we have to react to what she delivers us. We can do many things that are proactive in the vineyard, but ultimately we are a reactive bunch.
I have been spending time researching the new screw capping machine that we will be purchasing. The technical/wine geek term for screw caps are Stelvin's. I am not fully sure, but I believe that this comes from the original company that produced them. I guess it is much like we call facial tissue, Kleenex. Kleenex is technically a company that produces facial tissue.
There are many considerations to be made in the switch over to Stelvin. First you have to be aware of what glass is available. Not all of our bottles are currently available as a Stelvin. So at this point in time some of our product line will have to remain on cork. Our main glass manufacturer, Vitro Glass has most of the glass that we will use, but not every bottle as a Stelvin.
Second, we have to choose which type of stelvin to select? There are two main options in the world of Stelvins, the traditional Stelvin and the Stelvin Lux. The traditional Stelvin looks like any screw cap that you may have seen before. See the photos below:
The Stelvin Lux is a little fancier. To the consumer it appears a little less obvious that it is a "screw cap". It is slightly disguised as to its true identity. However, my feelings with something like this is if you put me in a dress, you would all know that I was a man in a dress! (I mean no offense to those men that like to put on dresses) Maybe some would be fooled, but most would see what is going on. I must say that the Stelvin Lux is a bit nicer looking, but I am not saying that I like men in dresses! I have included some photos below:
You can see in these photos that the Lux is a cleaner look, without the obvious look of being a screw cap. However, it is still a screw cap. There is a cost difference between these. The Lux is a little bit more expensive and there are different machines required for applying each closure. I would be interested to hear some of your thoughts on this issue. Which is preferred aesthetically? Perhaps, some of you have come across both of these and have a personal testimonial. Please share! The great thing about these closures is that they can be decorated with art work and even embossed on the top of the closure.
Another consideration to be made is the type of liner placed on the inside of the closure. There is Saranex which allows a little bit of air in the bottle. This maybe most suitable for reds. There is also a tin liner, that allows very little oxygen and may be best suited for our aromatic whites. The best thing is that either way we say good-bye to cork taint! Beyond these considerations there are more decisions to be made, but I have discussed the major ones. So if you can let me know what you think in regards to preference and the next time you are in the bottle shop have a look around at some of the closures to get a first hand view of these.
One last quick thing... Martha Clara wines will be featured at a wine dinner on Sunday evening at North Fork Table and Inn! I will be there to pour them! Till next time, drink what you like and like what you drink!
Cheers,
Juan.
Friday, May 23, 2008
MCV FARM NEWS - MAY 23, 2008 - NoFo to D.U.M.B.O.
Hey Ya'll,
Morning! It has been a pretty week eventful here at the vineyard and it will continue straight through the weekend. Sysco food group held there annual vendors event on Tuesday. There were all sorts of delights to be had from tasty beef, lamb, and seafood dishes to deep fried cheesecake and cappuccino's. People from many different restaurants were present to taste the wares from Sysco as well as sample our wines.
On Tuesday evening Kylie and Gina went from the NoFo to D.U.M.B.O. (Directly Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) to pour wines at an event. It was an event to benefit The American Cancer Society. Geri and I poured wines at an Event in Astoria, Queens. Dish Du Jour hosted the first ever, Best Burger of the Borough Battle. Both events went well with the exception of the rain we had to drive through.
It was pretty amazing returning to the vineyard on Wednesday morning. The Sysco event was done and there was little to no indication that any event had ever taken place. I was quite pleased to hear on Wednesday morning that at the conclusion of the event any unused food was picked up by Island Harvest.
This weekend will mark the unofficial beginning of Summer. You know it is almost summer on the farm when Bobby and his crew at American Tent are pitching a tent!
We will be ringing summer in with a bang! Our Red, White, and Barbecue Blues Festival will be held right here on the farm. We will have all of our great Martha Clara wines available along with Maple Tree 'cue, and Blues music by Kerry Kearney. Come one, come all! The weather looks as it will be a great day for enjoying the beauty of the farm! Please check out the website if you have any other questions.
A lot of people have been asking how the weather is effecting the vineyard. Honestly, right now some may say we are a little bit behind, but if we get a streak of warm weather we can catch right up. It looks as if we will be heading into some nice weather relatively soon. In the vineyard the guys have been disbudding. Disbudding is when we select shoots to be removed. We do this in an effort to help control the yield in the vineyard. It is a fairly simple task, but it is one that takes time to complete. I will have some photos of before and after disbudding.
Lastly, I would like to mention that we got a small write up for our Pinot Grigio on Lenn Thompson's Wine Blog. Check it out at www.lenndevours.com. We are mentioned in the section under Brooklyn Uncorked written on May 19, 2008. I have been getting a lot of great feedback from people about the Pinot Grigio, which is great to hear. Well, I hope all of ya'll have a great Memorial Day weekend and maybe I'll see you at the Festival!
Cheers,
Juan.
Juan Eduardo Micieli-Martinez
Winemaker - Martha Clara Vineyards
6025 Sound Avenue
Riverhead, NY 11901
Office 631.298.0075 x23
Fax 631.298.5502
Morning! It has been a pretty week eventful here at the vineyard and it will continue straight through the weekend. Sysco food group held there annual vendors event on Tuesday. There were all sorts of delights to be had from tasty beef, lamb, and seafood dishes to deep fried cheesecake and cappuccino's. People from many different restaurants were present to taste the wares from Sysco as well as sample our wines.
On Tuesday evening Kylie and Gina went from the NoFo to D.U.M.B.O. (Directly Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) to pour wines at an event. It was an event to benefit The American Cancer Society. Geri and I poured wines at an Event in Astoria, Queens. Dish Du Jour hosted the first ever, Best Burger of the Borough Battle. Both events went well with the exception of the rain we had to drive through.
It was pretty amazing returning to the vineyard on Wednesday morning. The Sysco event was done and there was little to no indication that any event had ever taken place. I was quite pleased to hear on Wednesday morning that at the conclusion of the event any unused food was picked up by Island Harvest.
This weekend will mark the unofficial beginning of Summer. You know it is almost summer on the farm when Bobby and his crew at American Tent are pitching a tent!
We will be ringing summer in with a bang! Our Red, White, and Barbecue Blues Festival will be held right here on the farm. We will have all of our great Martha Clara wines available along with Maple Tree 'cue, and Blues music by Kerry Kearney. Come one, come all! The weather looks as it will be a great day for enjoying the beauty of the farm! Please check out the website if you have any other questions.
A lot of people have been asking how the weather is effecting the vineyard. Honestly, right now some may say we are a little bit behind, but if we get a streak of warm weather we can catch right up. It looks as if we will be heading into some nice weather relatively soon. In the vineyard the guys have been disbudding. Disbudding is when we select shoots to be removed. We do this in an effort to help control the yield in the vineyard. It is a fairly simple task, but it is one that takes time to complete. I will have some photos of before and after disbudding.
Lastly, I would like to mention that we got a small write up for our Pinot Grigio on Lenn Thompson's Wine Blog. Check it out at www.lenndevours.com. We are mentioned in the section under Brooklyn Uncorked written on May 19, 2008. I have been getting a lot of great feedback from people about the Pinot Grigio, which is great to hear. Well, I hope all of ya'll have a great Memorial Day weekend and maybe I'll see you at the Festival!
Cheers,
Juan.
Juan Eduardo Micieli-Martinez
Winemaker - Martha Clara Vineyards
6025 Sound Avenue
Riverhead, NY 11901
Office 631.298.0075 x23
Fax 631.298.5502
Friday, May 16, 2008
MCV FARM NEWS - May 16, 2008 - Hanging Tough.
Morning Ya'll,
This past week Gerri, Ben and I were able to attend Brooklyn Uncorked. Brooklyn Uncorked is an event hosted by Edible Brooklyn and the Long Island Wine Council. At this event most of the L.I. wineries and Brooklyn wineries get together to pour their wares. The event is great because the folks in Brooklyn are very receptive to North Fork Wines. The idea of a vineyard growing World Class wines only a short drive away is incredible to them. As it should be.
Our wines showed very well. We poured our Brut, '07 Pinot Grigio, '07 Viognier, '07 Chardonnay, '05 Pinot Noir, and '05 Five-O Red. All of the wines showed very well, but there was a lot of excitement surrounding the 2007's. The Pinot Grigio, Viognier, and Chardonnay were big hits. The word must have been going around because people were coming up to the table and asking specifically to taste these wines. After tasting all of our offerings people were quite impressed. It was great to hear all of the positive feedback. We handed out a lot of VIP tours so I hope we see a lot of Brooklyn neighbors coming out to visit!
Tonight Martha Clara will be hosting a wine dinner at Morton's Steak House. Ben and 'Aunt' Bev. will be in attendance. Nancy has set up another corporate event this evening and I will be conducting the tasting. The word is that these folks will be conducting a team building exercise that includes playing the Nintendo Wii! It should be interesting to see. I am not a video game guy, but I have played the Wii and it is a lot of fun.
The really big news this week is virtual. Our website has undergone major renovations. Matt and Bernie have been hard at work with the renovations. It looks pretty awesome and it will continue to undergo changes and additions in coming weeks. So, if you have a few moments please check it out at www.marthaclaravineyards.com ! Bernie is still busy working on some aspects of the site, so if you click on something not yet completed you will see a photo of Bernie with his construction cap!
Lastly, I know some people will be running a little bit late to work today because The New Kids on the Block will be performing on the Today Show. Ben seemed pretty excited about this reunion! He mentioned that he would record it and view later... over and over again. Well, that's the farm news for the week! Talk with ya'll soon!
Cheers,
Juan.
This past week Gerri, Ben and I were able to attend Brooklyn Uncorked. Brooklyn Uncorked is an event hosted by Edible Brooklyn and the Long Island Wine Council. At this event most of the L.I. wineries and Brooklyn wineries get together to pour their wares. The event is great because the folks in Brooklyn are very receptive to North Fork Wines. The idea of a vineyard growing World Class wines only a short drive away is incredible to them. As it should be.
Our wines showed very well. We poured our Brut, '07 Pinot Grigio, '07 Viognier, '07 Chardonnay, '05 Pinot Noir, and '05 Five-O Red. All of the wines showed very well, but there was a lot of excitement surrounding the 2007's. The Pinot Grigio, Viognier, and Chardonnay were big hits. The word must have been going around because people were coming up to the table and asking specifically to taste these wines. After tasting all of our offerings people were quite impressed. It was great to hear all of the positive feedback. We handed out a lot of VIP tours so I hope we see a lot of Brooklyn neighbors coming out to visit!
Tonight Martha Clara will be hosting a wine dinner at Morton's Steak House. Ben and 'Aunt' Bev. will be in attendance. Nancy has set up another corporate event this evening and I will be conducting the tasting. The word is that these folks will be conducting a team building exercise that includes playing the Nintendo Wii! It should be interesting to see. I am not a video game guy, but I have played the Wii and it is a lot of fun.
The really big news this week is virtual. Our website has undergone major renovations. Matt and Bernie have been hard at work with the renovations. It looks pretty awesome and it will continue to undergo changes and additions in coming weeks. So, if you have a few moments please check it out at www.marthaclaravineyards.com ! Bernie is still busy working on some aspects of the site, so if you click on something not yet completed you will see a photo of Bernie with his construction cap!
Lastly, I know some people will be running a little bit late to work today because The New Kids on the Block will be performing on the Today Show. Ben seemed pretty excited about this reunion! He mentioned that he would record it and view later... over and over again. Well, that's the farm news for the week! Talk with ya'll soon!
Cheers,
Juan.
Friday, May 9, 2008
MCV FARM NEWS ~ May 9, 2008 ~ No Suckers Please.
Morning Ya'll,
Well, it is a wet morning and looking like it will be a pretty wet day. This past week was a pretty busy one on the farm. Wojtek was pretty busy with his guys planting vineyards. I was unable to get photos, but there is still some more planting ahead. However, things are on hold with this latest batch of rain.
The guys in the vineyard have begun disbudding. When we have bud break each vine will produce more buds than we ideally want. Each bud as it breaks will form a shoot. Each shoot has the potential of forming clusters. However, we will remove buds to reduce the amount of fruit the vine may produce. Disbudding as we call it means simply removing the tender emerging buds that we do not desire.
Which ones are these? Well, we do not want overcrowding so if we have two buds coming from a similar place we will select the healthier one. Also, we prefer buds that are growing on the top portion of the cane versus one that is growing from the bottom. We also will remove any buds that are growing on the lower portion of the trunk these we call suckers.
We have a bunch of new wine releases coming soon. We should see the new Chardonnay being released this weekend. The new Gewurtz should be released very soon. Viognier is also following closely behind those two releases. We have released the new 2007 Pinot Grigio to great response. It seems that the staff is really enjoying the P.G. as well as our customers!
Yesterday, Ben and I were able to taste some of the 2007 wines with Lenn Thompson. Lenn writes for his blog Lenndevours.com, Dan's Papers, Edible East End and other various periodicals. It was the first opportunity I had to taste with a wine critic and I felt like it went very well.
Lastly, I want to mention that next Wednesday, May 14th is Brooklyn Uncorked. This is a great event for Long Island wineries hosted by Edible Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Market is a great one that shows great potential. The people are "thirsty" to learn about there local wine region.
Also, next Friday, May 16th we will be doing a wine dinner at Morton's Steakhouse in Great Neck! On June 1st we will be doing a wine dinner with North Fork Table and Inn. Today, I will be meeting with the folks at Gemellis in Babylon about setting up a wine dinner possibly for June 2nd. These will all be great opportunities for our customers to enjoy an evening of great foods and great Martha Clara wines.
I will be sending some photos in the next day or so showing some of the growth in the vineyard. Till next time drink what you like and like what you drink!
Cheers,
Juan
Well, it is a wet morning and looking like it will be a pretty wet day. This past week was a pretty busy one on the farm. Wojtek was pretty busy with his guys planting vineyards. I was unable to get photos, but there is still some more planting ahead. However, things are on hold with this latest batch of rain.
The guys in the vineyard have begun disbudding. When we have bud break each vine will produce more buds than we ideally want. Each bud as it breaks will form a shoot. Each shoot has the potential of forming clusters. However, we will remove buds to reduce the amount of fruit the vine may produce. Disbudding as we call it means simply removing the tender emerging buds that we do not desire.
Which ones are these? Well, we do not want overcrowding so if we have two buds coming from a similar place we will select the healthier one. Also, we prefer buds that are growing on the top portion of the cane versus one that is growing from the bottom. We also will remove any buds that are growing on the lower portion of the trunk these we call suckers.
We have a bunch of new wine releases coming soon. We should see the new Chardonnay being released this weekend. The new Gewurtz should be released very soon. Viognier is also following closely behind those two releases. We have released the new 2007 Pinot Grigio to great response. It seems that the staff is really enjoying the P.G. as well as our customers!
Yesterday, Ben and I were able to taste some of the 2007 wines with Lenn Thompson. Lenn writes for his blog Lenndevours.com, Dan's Papers, Edible East End and other various periodicals. It was the first opportunity I had to taste with a wine critic and I felt like it went very well.
Lastly, I want to mention that next Wednesday, May 14th is Brooklyn Uncorked. This is a great event for Long Island wineries hosted by Edible Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Market is a great one that shows great potential. The people are "thirsty" to learn about there local wine region.
Also, next Friday, May 16th we will be doing a wine dinner at Morton's Steakhouse in Great Neck! On June 1st we will be doing a wine dinner with North Fork Table and Inn. Today, I will be meeting with the folks at Gemellis in Babylon about setting up a wine dinner possibly for June 2nd. These will all be great opportunities for our customers to enjoy an evening of great foods and great Martha Clara wines.
I will be sending some photos in the next day or so showing some of the growth in the vineyard. Till next time drink what you like and like what you drink!
Cheers,
Juan
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