Organic in Sonoma

This is Susan Preston of Preston Vineyards (along with my bud Caitlyn who works in organic produce) in the Dry Creek Valley of Sonoma, just outside of Healdsburg. They are organic farmers and make bread and olive oil too. I tasted their Syrah, Barbera and a Rhone-style blend, and a cool thing they have available on Sundays is a jug wine. “Guadagni Red” comes in a 3-liter jug, it's a blend mostly of Zinfandel, Cinsault and Carignane. I tasted another Zin "field blend" from Acorn winery, Russian River Valley. It was rich and intense. Field blend is a traditional practice when different varieties of grapes are planted side-by-side, then harvested and fermented together.

My old life would have taken me to MacWorld in SF this month, but my new life has me going to the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium in Sacramento next week. Just think of it, an entire convention center filled with wine-relating everything. I hope it's as good as a whole room filled with mac geeks and a glimps of Steve Jobs... A barrel vendor gave me a t-shirt today with this printed on the back: "Getting toasted to ensure deep penetration." Slow toasting on the inside of the barrel means that the extractable substances in the wood are caramelized to a good depth. Wine, as it ages in barrel, will soak up the good stuff.

At the winery this week we finished blending the second half (almost 50,000 gallons) of the Sauv Blanc. We set up this cool filter that looks like the mix of a rocket and coffee maker for the 1st S.B. blend. After it goes through the rocket, then it'll go into the bottle! We'll start bottling after the wine symposium.

I'm off to So. Cal for the weekend!