This past week’s heat wave has really kicked things off in the Bordeaux world. We started bringing in a significant quantity of Merlot and some Cabernet Franc last Thursday and it will only continue through the next few weeks. So far we are seeing good quality but very high Malic acids. At harvest the pHs and TA’s look great until you factor in the loss from the ML conversion. That reveals a different story. We had a similar problem last year resulting in higher than normal pHs. Our average was around 3.8 which probably seems normal for many Napa winemakers but is a bit high for our house average which tends to be lower. We are true to the vintages however, and both 2013 and 2014 have very clear personalities. Overall extractability seems lower this year than last year and the colors don’t seem as dense although I have no color numbers to back that up this year. It’s more gut feeling based on what I’m seeing in the fermentations. What does that mean for winemaking? We are having to work the skins harder to get the same amount of material (color and tannins) out of them than we did last year when the skins just threw color at you. That means cap management is critical this year and controlling the rate of the fermentation is important. The faster the fermentation, the less time you have to extract positive attributes. So far the yeast seem very happy and willing to ferment quickly. Even a few tanks of Pinot Noir wanted to go native so we allowed them if the fruit was clean.

The whites have seen similar good fermentations with speedy drops and healthy yeast. Chardonnay is about 1/2 finished and we brought our last Sauvignon Blanc in this past week. We have also picked our first Muscat from Wappo Hill for the Mocasto d’Oro.

I’ll start sleeping better once all the Pinot Noir is dry but so far so good. It’s too early to tell if the Bordeaux varieties will be as nice to us.