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Vineyards
Vineyard Care and Practices
Handcrafted wines begin in the vineyard. In fact, the hands-on
individual care that we give each vine is the most important factor in
making a balanced, complex, flavorful wine. To achieve this goal we
need to make certain that every cluster of grapes and every grape on
every cluster is equally ripe and perfectly healthy. This is not easy.
To achieve this we start with the overall vineyard, divide it into
blocks, focus on rows and then get hands-on with each and every vine.
Here is what we do:
From budburst, in the spring and throughout the summer, we position every shoot on each vine by hand so that they are all growing parallel to each other in their proper location. This leads to consistent sun exposure for all of the grapes throughout the season. In the spring we remove the excess shoots on the vine; we only want eight on each cordon. Just before the grapes turn color, known as veraison, we remove excess leaves and lateral growth down below the grape clusters so that every cluster will have optimum light exposure and air circulation. Shortly after veraison, we thin the crop to ensure that each vine has only as much fruit as it can fully ripen in that season. If any clusters are lagging behind in color change, they will lag behind in ripeness, so we remove them for the benefit of the other grapes. As the season progresses, we hand position the clusters and remove some clusters in order to assure that none of the bunches are touching or crowding each other. Touching leads to shading and therefore uneven ripening. We also remove individual grapes from each bunch if they are immature, damaged, or not ripening at the same pace as the other grapes.
Irrigation is a separate story of its own. Irrigation is an art. Too much, too little, when to stress the vines, when not to, and the timing of it is all vital. Irrigation is monitored right down to every individual vine so that we can achieve equal ripeness and maximum flavor development throughout the vineyard.
At harvest, the grapes are gently handled and gently clipped from the vine and gently placed in a bin for transport to the winery. We don't want to dent or break any grapes as this will lead to oxidation flavors in the wine. We also do our harvesting at night when it's cooler and the grapes have a better balance of sugar and acidity.
From the moment that the harvest is complete, we begin preparing the vineyard ground and the vines for a well-deserved rest. A natural, organic, nitrogen-rich cover crop is planted between the rows to replenish the soil. The vines are tended to, one by one; some are replaced, some are re-trellised and all are hand-pruned for optimum growth in the following season.
From budburst, in the spring and throughout the summer, we position every shoot on each vine by hand so that they are all growing parallel to each other in their proper location. This leads to consistent sun exposure for all of the grapes throughout the season. In the spring we remove the excess shoots on the vine; we only want eight on each cordon. Just before the grapes turn color, known as veraison, we remove excess leaves and lateral growth down below the grape clusters so that every cluster will have optimum light exposure and air circulation. Shortly after veraison, we thin the crop to ensure that each vine has only as much fruit as it can fully ripen in that season. If any clusters are lagging behind in color change, they will lag behind in ripeness, so we remove them for the benefit of the other grapes. As the season progresses, we hand position the clusters and remove some clusters in order to assure that none of the bunches are touching or crowding each other. Touching leads to shading and therefore uneven ripening. We also remove individual grapes from each bunch if they are immature, damaged, or not ripening at the same pace as the other grapes.
Irrigation is a separate story of its own. Irrigation is an art. Too much, too little, when to stress the vines, when not to, and the timing of it is all vital. Irrigation is monitored right down to every individual vine so that we can achieve equal ripeness and maximum flavor development throughout the vineyard.
At harvest, the grapes are gently handled and gently clipped from the vine and gently placed in a bin for transport to the winery. We don't want to dent or break any grapes as this will lead to oxidation flavors in the wine. We also do our harvesting at night when it's cooler and the grapes have a better balance of sugar and acidity.
From the moment that the harvest is complete, we begin preparing the vineyard ground and the vines for a well-deserved rest. A natural, organic, nitrogen-rich cover crop is planted between the rows to replenish the soil. The vines are tended to, one by one; some are replaced, some are re-trellised and all are hand-pruned for optimum growth in the following season.
Vineyards and Grape Sources
Cabernet Sauvignon
Our Home Vineyard is, literally, surrounding our home. It is located in the foothills of the Mayacamas Mountains; the mountains that form the western border of the Napa Valley. The vineyard straddles the line between the Oak Knoll District and the Mount Veeder appellation just southwest of Yountville. The BCV Home Vineyard vines are predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon, but there are also small blocks of Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot.
For diversity of fruit and complexity in the wine we farm our hand picked blocks in several vineyards running the length of Napa Valley. We do this intentionally so that we can have greater depth and complexity in our final bottled wine. Our vineyards run the length of the valley. Coombsville in the cool south for inky dark, structured wine, State Lane in Yountville - a tenderloin strip of Cabernet, Stagecoach - a famous vineyard for red varietals in the mountains, Calistoga at the top of the valley - a hot Cabernet loving area producing wines of deep Napa fruit, and Black Cordon Vineyard in the Mount Veeder/Oak Knoll appellation in the foothills of the Mayacamas Mountains - which gives us deep, dark, spicy, herb tinged wine.
As you can see we use a blend of hillside grapes for power and structure, and valley floor grapes, from the tenderloin of cabernet territory, for complexity and density of flavor. I've always loved mountain cabernets and valley floor cabernets equally well for different reasons, but it was always my thought to combine the best attributes of both into one wine.
Chardonnay
Our belief is that the best chardonnay grapes come from the cooler growing areas; that is why we make our chardonnay from grapes grown in the Sonoma Coast appellation , just west of Napa Valley and closer to the cooling effects of the Pacific Ocean. Yields are naturally very low in this area and the grapes struggle to ripen. This leads to intense flavors and harmonious balance of acidity and fruit. Our Sonoma Coast Chardonnay is made from grapes that come from a jewel of a vineyard called Gap's Crown Vineyard, in the Sonoma Coast AVA referred to as the Petaluma Gap. Some of the very best producers of Chardonnay are sourcing grapes from this very well known vineyard and our block, which we took over from Paul Hobbs, is unquestionably one of the best.
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