On Saturday, the 14th, we pressed out the last two bins of Syrah. We also received one last lot of Cabernet Sauvignon–just a half ton, which fermented smoothly over the course of the week. The following weekend, we pressed out the majority of the Cabernet–the lots that cold macerated for a few days before taking off. They have very nice color and good Cab flavor, though I think the stars this vintage are some of the Syrah lots. At this point, all we have left to go into barrel is that last little Cab lot. It is currently undergoing post-fermentation maceration, and we’ll press it out this weekend.

We are very pleased with how the harvest went this year. We increased production considerably, to about 900 cases (versus 620 last year). Despite that big jump, everything went smoothly. The cement pad we put in last winter vastly improved our workspace, so we had room to maneuver as we worked with fermentations, barrels, crushing, and pressing all in the same day. The freezer was another important factor—none of the fermentations overheated this year. We were able to use the frozen blocks not only to cool fermentations in progress, but also to delay fermentation in some lots so as to stagger the peaks. This all helped lower the stress level and conserve quality.

The harvest started off with Syrah from the Escorial vineyard owned by Gonzalo Manzur. This was the first vintage from this vineyard of clone 300 Syrah. The quality was very good, and we have high expectations for this site as the vineyard matures. Unfortunately, we lost control of the temperature on a couple fermenters, which then stuck. We therefore had to referment these two lots with some Syrah and Tempranillo that came in later. It was a relief to find some very nice results.

The best Syrah came in from the older Encón vineyard, which has rich layers of flavors and wonderful texture on the mouth. The Tempranillo has better color and more concentration than in 2009. The best lots were co-fermented with some stuck Syrah lots, which helped fix color and create added complexity. So what looked like a big problem has actually planted the idea of doing more co-fermentations with Syrah next year. Finally, the Cabernet Sauvignon from Encón this year has ripe flavors, but less intensity than the 2009 vintage. Most of the lots were cold soaked for two days before fermentation and had 14 to 20 days of skin contact before pressing. Overall we are very happy with the quality of the 2010 vintage. As our production slowly expands, however, we will need to improve planning and make some targeted investments to ensure a smoother, less stressful harvest in terms of time and control.

Our harvest started in a big way on Monday, April 12th. We received just over four tons of Syrah from Gonzalo Manzur. This fruit is from his new vineyard in the Escorial sector of the Aconcagua Valley, on the other side of San Felipe from the Encón Vineyard, (our traditional source for Syrah and Cabernet). Escorial is a cooler area right in the wind corridor of the valley, and it’s on the Panquehue side of the train tracks, so it gets more fog. We would normally expect those conditions to delay ripening, but this is the vineyard’s first vintage and the vines are carrying a smaller crop. These two factors typically cause the vines to ripen the fruit earlier.

The grapes looked very clean on arrival, with good sugars and ripe flavors. The profile includes some interesting cool climate characteristics like carpaccio. I managed to grab a liter of juice out of one of the bins to make a batch of sorbet, and it is yummy!

Since we were crushing on a Monday, our usual crew of friends was not around to help out, so Gonzalo sent over a crew. They spent four hours crushing the fruit into five bins, and Ed then worked late into the night finishing up. The fermentations got started right away in four of the bins. They’re going a little hotter than we’ve seen in the past. This is the first time we’ve had so many lots peaking at once, and cooling is proving to be a challenge. We have our heat exchanger unit in one bin, and we’re rotating ice blocks (frozen in plastic jugs) through the others.

We have quite a bit going on here at Flaherty, but it’s all fairly slowly thanks to the cool weather. The Aconcagua Cabs are finally dry; they’ll undergo a post-fermentation maceration for another week or so before they are pressed out. The Limarí Cab is peaking temperature-wise and should slow down now as it finishes over the next few days. We also have a bin each of Carmenère and Syrah from Limarí, which arrived Saturday morning. Ed crushed the two lots before flying out that afternoon (talk about a hectic day). The juice is currently cold macerating on the skins and will start fermenting within a couple of days.

Jen taking density readings

It was interesting crushing the Cabernet versus the Syrah. Cabernet has a more fragile stem than Syrah, and the clusters therefore tended to break in the crusher-destemmer, with some stems passing through with the fruit. Ed’s job for the day was picking out the stems, to make sure they didn’t affect the wine.

We also got to use our new basket press on Saturday. What an improvement! The press holds nearly a full bin, so we were able to press out two bins in the morning. That would have been an all-day affair last year with the old press. We start by siphoning off most of the wine, using a custom-made filter to keep out the skins. We then load the skins into the press, which gently compacts the fruit to extract the remaining wine. This leaves a solid “cake” of pressed skins, which we compost out in our orchard. Finally, we used the small press for the grape skins that didn’t fit in the main press.