Pruning and replanting

After the rains at the beginning of June, weather improved so pruning got well under way under sunny and cool conditions. Our vines were formerly cordon-trained and spur pruned, but changed to cane pruning a few years ago. This makes pruning slower, as there are often large chunks of old wood that have to be sawn off. As the wood of Cabernet Sauvignon is very sensitive to fungal diseases, especially when large cuts are made, I tried to find ways to avoid the use of a saw.

At pruning you leave enough buds of last year’s wood that you consider adequate. More buds means more fruit and less vigorous shoots, which prematurely ages the vine. Too few buds yield less fruit and more leaves. The leaves will shade the fruit, so the taste will be greener. At the same time, you have to think in advance, about where you want next year’s fruitful canes. If you leave only canes, you’ll need a bit of luck to find a cane in the right position the following year. A spur will yield one or two canes, so this is a practical way to ensure good canes for next year’s pruning.

I decided to leave a few spurs per plant (again) that should yield next year’s canes. This avoids much sawing, as you use up the whole extent of the plant: canes wherever you seem fit, and spurs wherever you want next year’s canes, instead of selecting the two or three best canes and sawing the rest off. Hopefully this will work out, as future harvests depend on this.

The question of spurs over canes can become an almost doctrinal one, with firm defenders of either system. In my view, some varieties, like Grenache or Syrah, need only short spurs, as longer canes will bear more fruit than the plant can handle. Others, like Carmenère or table grapes like Thompson Seedless, need long canes to bear any fruit at all. Cabernet is somewhere in between. Especially in our case, with older plants derived from cuttings from other, old, vineyards, canes are the only way to obtain a decent crop. The plants have not been selected for fruitfulness, so yields tend to be lower and less predictable than on plants derived from clonal stock.

That question over, we turned our attention to the soil. We started by spreading manure in the vineyard, especially in those parts that seem to be more in need of it. We bought the manure earlier this year from farms around us, and it had composted really well. We’ll also be trying several cover crops this year. Since we have no experience with them, we’ll start out with a few trials. Cover crops are low growing plants that cover the soil between the vines during the year or only during a part of it. They are considered beneficial for the soil, avoiding erosion, adding organic matter and increasing soil life. On the other hand, they can compete with the vines for water and nutrients, which is potentially harmful. The issue is to find a balance between the two: enough vigor on the vines and as much cover of the soil as possible.

To grow our cover crops we’ve selected three types of seeds. The first one is a mixture of native grasses that grow in winter and dry up in summer, for which I have high hopes. The second mixture is a classic: oats and vetch. The oats add much organic matter when ploughed into the soil in spring and vetch fixes nitrogen, the most important nutrient for grapevines and almost any other plant. The third is mustard, which grows vigorously, so it increases organic matter in the soil when ploughed in, but also antagonizes nematodes that live in the soil and feed on vine roots. The effect is not studied enough, but certainly worth a try. We’ll also be adding some wild flowers, for diversity and beauty. Of course these will be sown close to the entrance, where everyone can see them!

The manure and cover cops lead me to the third issue that has been busying my mind during the last few weeks: the one of organic, biodynamic and sustainable agriculture.

Often people ask us if we haven’t considered switching to organic or biodynamic agriculture. Our consultant, Cristóbal Undurraga, manages his own vineyards biodynamically, so he would certainly look favorably upon such a change in our vineyards. On the other hand, I feel that at least a limited use of pesticides is justified when trying to obtain better grapes. I’ve known a few producers that work their vineyards according to organic or biodynamic principles, but will use occasionally some pesticide when strictly needed. Even if the would not use pestcides, they don’t feel the need to certify organic or biodynamic practices, as their customers know and trust the quality of their wines. A producer I much admire for this, and the quality of his wines, is Pierre Gassmann of Rolly-Gassmann in Alsace.

Another eye opener was the book “The omnivore’s dilemma” by …. . In it, the author describes different food production systems. It appears that many organic systems have become so large in scale, and the rules imposed can be so non-sensical, that the whole spirit behind organics (locally produced, seasonal, healthy food that doesn’t rely on inputs from outside the farm such as pesticides or fertilizers) has gone lost. The same goes for biodynamics: the founder, Rudolph Steiner, was against the drinking of alcohol and wanted his followers to live in small, self-sustainable farming communities. Now try explaining that to somebody who wants a glass of Lagar de Bezana’s Aluvión after a hard day’s work at the office in Manhattan!

I think the processes we use are becoming more and more environmentally friendly and sustainable, and it would be interesting to find a certification for that. For the time being, you’ll have to take my word that we’re trying our utmost to keep our workers, wines, vines and soil healthy. Otherwise, come and find it out for yourself!

Beginning of winter at Lagar

This post is written in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where I am to present our wines to our importer in the USA. They have been very well received in San Diego, despite a huge offer of wines from all over the world in the market here. The people are really friendly and the weather has been great, which is a welcome change from the chilean winter!

It has been raining quite a lot in Chile this year, which is always a good thing, except if you have to work under it. We have had some night frosts and the vines have lost all their leaves now, so we’re preparing winter pruning. Since we like doing experiments very much, this year will see some new things in the vineyard. First of all, we’ll be making are own dressing for pruning wounds. The University of California –Chilean universities are very silent on the subject- recommends other ingredients than are available in ready-made dressings, which made us decide to make our own. This also allows us to control the stickiness and adhesion of the dressing, so we can obtain just the kind of product we like to work with. We could even change the color if we’d like to!

Since most of our vines stem from a selection of cuttings from old vineyards rather than certified, clonal plant material, some of the plants have diseases, and it is important to avoid them spreading, hence the importance of pruning wound dressings. To try to rescue the diseased plants we’ll cut the bad parts off (normally almost the entire plant) and split the remaining trunk in half. This might help to dry out any fungi, whereas the plant itself will sprout again from lower down the base. This technique was described by the Roman writer Columella in the 2^nd century, but was largely forgotten since only grafted plants are used in most wine producing countries. If you’d split a grafted plant, you’d probably end up separating the graft from the rootstock, which would leave you with only the rootstock, which doesn’t produce grapes. Fortunately, our vines are all own-rooted, so we can still use the old books and see what they have to teach us.

Another solution would be to take out the diseased or dead plants and burying a shoot of the adjacent, healthy plant in its place. The buried shoot will set root and bear fruit after two years: a technique known as layering. The new plant can benefit from the roots of the mother plant for a few years, before it’s cut off. If you’d plant a new one in place of a missing one, the existing plants would simply not allow it to grow, as their roots have colonized most of the soil and their canopies cast shade over the new plant.

This year we’re also applying lime sulfur to the vineyard. This winter spray is obtained by boiling lime and sulfur together to obtain a reddish, foul smelling liquid. Since only lime and sulfur are used in its manufacturing it’s allowed in organic and even biodynamic agriculture and is probably one of the oldest home remedies still in use. Applying this product will disinfect the vineyard during the winter, allowing it a clean start in spring, with much less residues of insect eggs, larvae and fungi.

Cellar-wise, we were still busy emptying the last tanks before I left, filling barrels with this year’s wine. One of the “toys” I’m bringing home is a “racking wand,” which caused much laughter in California, despite the fact that it was invented just there. “Racking” means taking the clean wine out of a barrel and placing it into a new one. Ideally this is done by gravity, by siphoning the wine from one barrel to another one below it. However, if the barrel you want to empty is the lowest one, you’re forced to use a pump. A pump will inevistably beat and oxygentae the wine, which I not so good. A racking wand puts pressure on the barrel, gently pushing the wine out through a stainless steel cane. While flowing out, a sightglass allows you verify that the lees or sediments stay behind, so they can be washed out when the barrel is cleaned. A clever little invention, that we’ll put to good use.

Just before I left, our moveable tank heater went up in flames. A bolt hadn’t been tightened well enough, and the leaking gas caught fire! Fortunately nobody was injured, but it is a good reminder that safety elements and procedures cannot be neglected, and I’ll see about that when I return. Even in the vineyard, pruning shears, tractors and the likes can cause serious injury, which can be easily avoided when a little care is taken.

The building where the barrels are kept needs some re-engineering as well. The roof leaks in a few places and the cement floor is in a very bad state. So when it rains, instead of having to walk around in the mud, my staff can start working on removing the floor and putting a new one in place.  Most of the men are very practical when it comes to using their DIY skills, and we’d rather do it ourselves than having to argue with a builder. Not that I have anything against builders, of course, but everywhere I’ve been, I have seen difficulties to communicate precisely what you expect from one another and what the result will look like. I guess most of you will get the idea…

The harvest hadn’t finished yet when we got the funds to rip out part of the vineyard and replant it. I might have reported on the Syrah decline earlier: aftyer 10-15 years the plants start to grow less, the bark comes off in flakes and eventually they die. Since our Syrah plots are some of the oldest in Chile, they’ve started to show the symptoms and have become less productive, so it’s time to start replanting them. We took the opportunity to replant some Malbec, which is a variety we hadn’t tried yet, but promises good results in Chile. It could add extra complexity to our Aluvión red blend in the future, or maybe be used in another blend or even varietal. One hectare to start with seems like a good start. Next year I’d like to try some Tannat too, if I can get some of it. Blends are a great way to showcase the properties of soil, climate and winemaking skills of a certain area and winery, and the more varieties you have to work with, the better.

So all in all it has been a busy month. Once the pruning is well under way I’ll be able to go on the next trip, which will take me to Holland, Norway and Sweden. I’m looking forward to that too, but first there is some work to be done!

Resultados de cata de Josh Raynolds

Acabamos de recibir los resultados de la cata de vinos Chilenos de Josh Raynolds para la revista Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar. En general le fue bastante bien a los vinos chilenos. Hubo unos pocos vinos arriba de 90 puntos y lo que más asignó fueron 93 puntos.
A nuestros socios de MOVI les fue muy buen en general, y demuestra que es más factible hacer grandes vinos a escala pequeña, en forma altamente individual y con una preocupación directa en todas las etapas del proceso. Nosotros mismos estamos muy contentos con los 91 puntos para los dos vinos que mandamos. A continuación las notas de cata, traducidas libremente:


2008 Syrah Single Vineyard Limited Edition Cachapoal Valley Morado intenso. Moras, cassis, chocolate amargo y violetas en nariz, junto con notas especiadas exóticas. Denso, concentrado, dulce y sin asperezas, ofrece muchas notas a berries negros y azules, violetas y pan de especies, todo levantado por una acidez harmoniosa. Termina con taninos amplios y suaves, una sugerencia de violeta confita y una densidad y final notables. 91

2008 Aluvion Gran Reserva Cachapoal Valley (compuesto de 63% syrah y 37% cabernet sauvignon): Rubí intenso. Aromas ahumadas y altamente perfumadas a cassis y violeta fresca, que aumentan en complejidad por un dejo a turba o tierra húmeda. Amplio y jugoso en el paladar, entrega sabores intensos de guinda ácida, ciruela quemada, aceitunas y pimienta machacada. Las notas a humo y violeta continúan en un final largo, especiado y de gran presición. 91

Tasting results from Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar

The tasting results from Josh Raynolds, for Stephen Tanzer International Wine Cellar, just came in. In general, they were quite good. There were a few wines scoring over 90 points and the best ones got up to 93. 
Our partners of MOVI did very well in comparison to the larger wineries. This shows that great wines are almost always made on a small scale, in a highly individual way and with a direct involvement of the people in charge in all the processes that involve the growing and making of wine. In that context, we were especially happy with the 91 points we got for both of the wines we sent in. The tasting notes are very eloquent, and show exactly those characteristics that we think typical for the Upper Cachapoal: fresh black fruit flavors, good intensity and soft tannins with even some hint of sweetness.


2008 Syrah Single Vineyard Limited Edition Cachapoal Valley Dark purple. Blackberry, cassis, bitter chocolate and violet on the nose, along with exotic spicy notes. Dense, concentrated, sweet and seamless, offering pliant black and blue fruit, violet and spicecake flavors lifted by harmonious acidity. Finishes with broad, smooth tannins, a suggestion of candied violet, and noteworthy density and length. 91

2008 Aluvion Gran Reserva Cachapoal Valley (made from 63% syrah and 37% cabernet sauvignon): Inky ruby. Smoky, highly perfumed aromas of cassis and fresh violet are complicated by a peaty, earthy quality. Broad and sappy on the palate, delivering pungent flavors of bitter cherry, singed plum, olive and cracked pepper. The smoke and violet notes carry through a long, spicy, sharply focused finish. 91


Stephen Tanzer International Wine Cellar 162, may/june 2012: Best new releases from Chile

End of harvest

When I wrote the last entry, there were still some grapes to be harvested. These are all in the tanks now, which was duly celebrated last Friday with all our staff. The weather was fine, so we did a barbecue in front of the cellar. Since Monday 21 May is a public holiday in Chile, we had an extra day to recover, before starting to work again on tuesday. Only the cellar master and I had to work a little over the weekend, because a few tanks are still fermenting.
With all the grapes in, it was time to look at yields, which were very decent: 8500 kg/ha on the Syrah and a little less, slightly over 7000 kg/ha for Cabernet Sauvignon. This translates to about 60 and 50 hl/ha, which doesn't seem excessive at all.
The last grapes to be harvested were Carmenère, as usual, and the little Grenache and Mourvèdre that we have. All of this was done under beautiful weather, and we've had rain only once until now. This weekend more rain is announced, but that can't harm us any more! By the time we harvested these grapes, the leaves were beginning to yellow, and by now, almost all the vineyard is looking yellow, although the process was slow this year. Retaining green leaves this late in the season allows the plants to build up reserves to survive the winter and bud evenly and with a lot of energy next spring.
Some of the tanks have been drained and pressed off now, and the wines still look great. Not only lots of color, but also some sort of natural sweetness that is hard to explain. It has nothing to do with sugar, as all the wines we produce are dry, which means that there is less than 2 g/l of sugar in the wine, which is imperceptible.
The end of fermentation was slow this year, and it took one tank a week to drop from 4 to 1.6 g/l of sugar, but that is fine, as long as it keeps fermenting. I've heard of a lot of stuck fermentations this year, which is a real nuisance to a winemaker. A stuck fermentation can reward you with a really unctuous and complex wine, as long as volatile acidity doesn't go up too fast. This is a real danger, so most of us prefer a tank that ferments to dryness without too much trouble.
Our custom-made tank heater, a moveable water boiler that circulates hot water through a double wall around the tank, worked like a charm. We spent much less on gas this year than last year, as we don't have to heat all the water in the cooling/heating system, but just the littlewater needed for every tank individually.
Meanwhile, in the vineyard, we're grubbing up 2 hectares of Syrah this year. Syrah suffers from decline, a disease that is very specific to this varietal, and especially some clones of Syrah have been proven to be very susceptible. The causes are still unknown, but for some reason the trunk and the bark start to split, shoot growth becomes stunted and the plant eventually dies. In our case, about 50% of the older blocks of Syrah clone 99 is affected, and about 10% of the plants is dead, so it's time to replace the whole block. It is virtually impossible replant only the affected vines, as the existing ones will not let the new plants grow, so it's all or nothing. We're going to replant with a little Malbec, which reportedly does very well in our type of soil, and some more Cabernet, which does extremely well.
Before we start pruning we'll also apply the manure we have bought at the farms surrounding us. Most of them were happy to get rid of their cows' and horses' droppings, and for us its great material to improve the fertility and structure of the soil. Instead of using chemical fertilizer, this stuff adds more life and trace elements to the soil. This year we'll try lime as well, as this also releases nutrients and improves the structure of the soil. Another thing we'll do is to sow cover crops between the rows, which also increase life in the soil and enhance long-term fertility. In the short term, cover crops compete for water and nutrients with the vines, so we'll start on the more vigorous blocks and observe the effects, before covering the whole vineyard.
The weather is really getting cold now. As I'm writing this, the sun is shining, but warms very little. Since my office is facing away from the sun, it feels even colder. I'm almost through the firewood I bought last month, so it's time to chop a few trees down. Before we start pruning there's hopefully some time left to do this, and there are plenty of eucalyptus trees in a corner behind the vineyard.
The good weather last weekend made me ride by motorcycle to Coya, a quaint mineworker's village up in the Andes above Rancagua, the largest city nearby. I guess I can do with a break, now the wines are almost all finished, so I'm looking forward to traveling to the USA (California and New Mexico) in June to meat the people of Vino del Sol, who are selling our wines there. Yesterday I got my new passport, so everything is ready!

Harvest at Lagar

With the harvest well under way, it's time for a first report on how thing are going.

The decision to harvest was a difficult one this year, since March was so warm and maturity raced ahead. We irrigated quite a bit after veraison (when the berries change color) and this paid off very well. We still have green, healthy leaves and hardly any shriveled berries on the unharvested fruit. Even the acidity in the grapes is still very decent despite the heat, and alcohol levels stayed well under 15%. People have been reporting less color this year, but so far we've had better color than ever, so we're not complaining. The berries have stayed very small, so the ratio of skin to pulp is very high, which could explain the improved color.

We felt that by 22 March some of the Syrah was ripe enough to be harvested, hoping to avoid jamminess and overripeness. This Syrah has now finished fermentation and is looking great. Fantastic color and very fresh and intense flavors. It's undergoing some extended maceration on the skins to gain a bit more tannin (structure), especially since the berries were crushed very little and the skins are so healthy. Malolactic fermentation (a secondary fermentation which is desirable in most red wines) has started on this wine, so with a bit of luck we'll be able to finish that and fill the barrels with a clean wine.

Harvest continued with some Cabernet Sauvignon from a plot that we hadn't vinified ourselves in years before, out of curiosity to see what it would give. Then on with some more Syrah and the bulk of our Cabernet from the beginning of April onward. We're fermenting a few tanks spontaneously, which spoils our sleep at night because this increases the risk of a stuck fermentation -every winemaker's nightmare - but can give some extra interest and complexity to the finished wines. Other tanks are inoculated with selected yeast to have a more predictable and consistent result. One of these yeasts is very expensive indeed and packed in small, gold-coloured packages. The people in the cellar call them the golden nuggets and expectations are very high. It is very unlikely that a yeast can substantially change the way a wine tastes, let alone convert bad grapes into good wine, but it is nevertheless worth the try. Not that we have any bad grapes of course!

At the same time we harvested fruit for our customers, so at some point there were well over 50 people working in the winery and the vineyard. A logistic nightmare, especially for the vineyard manager who is still walking around with puffy eyes and less energy than usual. Thankfully that is over now, so we can concentrate on our own grapes and wines again.

We only had some Syrah and Petit Verdot left when we ran out of tanks, which forced us to stop harvesting. I wish I could say everything was planned this way, but the logistics at most wineries end up dictating what can be done and what can't. Since the weather is cooler now, with sunny but cool days and very cold nights the grapes are staying fresh and healthy, so it doesn't seem much of a problem. Next week we'll be bottling some wine for an importer in the USA which will give us an empty tank, and the first Syrah is almost finished by now, so that'll give us the other tank we need to finish the harvest. The last grapes to be harvested are Carmenère, Grenache and Mourvèdre, but they're very slow ripeners and will have to wait another two weeks or more.

A friend from Holland, who is also a winemaker and in charge of a small cellar in Maastricht, came over to give us a hand this harvest. We studied in Montpellier together and he's a very good friend and a great person to be with. He took six weeks of holidays, a luxury not everyone can afford, and has lots of energy, ideas and practical solutions. I already know that we will miss him a lot when he's back to Holland. But for the moment he's still here and we're taking full advantage of that! We've done lots of improvements in the cellar and in his spare time he does some gardening and even built a dog house for all five dogs!

As usual during the harvest, things normally go wrong at the worst possible moment. This year three dogs got dermatophytosis and a filling in my teeth fell out. The dogs are treated with an iodine solution (my hands are stained yellow now as well as dark red) until I find the time to see a vet, and my teeth will have to wait. Otherwise it's been a relatively quiet harvest and certainly one of the most pleasurable ones I've had so far.

An importer and connoisseur from the USA came by to see what we're doing and he felt that this year there'll be another step up in quality in our wines, which was very encouraging.

Lastly, I just got a message from a friend in Brazil, quoting a comment from Jancis Robinson -yes, the great lady herself!- on a wine I made last year for another winery:

"Very dark crimson. Very intense with a suggestion of tarmacadam and liquorice. Really very impressive. A real line through this wine, to borrow an Australian tasting term. Velvety texture but the wine is not at all sweet. Great character and definition. Burnt black fruits. Really rather sumptuous."

We only tried to make a relatively simple, varietal Carignan and stress the qualities of this lesser known grape variety, but these tasting notes left me feeling very content. All I can say is: "Thank you Mrs. Robinson!"

February and March at the winery

February came and went, and it was very warm. This possibly explains why this post comes so late: maturity raced ahead and is about two weeks ahead compared to last year. There was a lot to do to prepare for the harvest and at the same time too warm to be able to do much. Fortunately the evenings were getting cooler, and it became quite awarding to leave things for later on.

Overall, we felt rather satisfied with the way things went. The vineyard is looking healthy and in balance, so no more sprays were necessary and we only cut the grass between the rows a little. We gave the rose bushes at the head of each row and extra dripper, increasing the amount of water they get when irrigating, and the result looks fantastic. A big row of flowers of all colours leading the eye to the end of the vineyard with the Andes Mountains behind!

There was twice a menace of rain, but they remained only short drizzles, so false alarm. I was, however, telephoned immediately by eager salesmen who wanted to sell their products against rot, but we kept our hands firmly on our pockets! We had just a few people going through the rows to take away bunches with signs of rot, which only occurred in the Syrah and Petit Verdot. Especially Syrah has very tight bunches, which increases the risk of rot, even under dry weather conditions. We found that sometimes a small part of the bunch, usually somewhere in the middle, can have rot and then dry up. This eases the tension on the rest of the berries, which subsequently stay healthy until late in the season.

The berries of Cabernet are very small and dark, look very healthy, and they promise some very concentrated and structured wines. There are some attacks here and there of red spider mites (Brevipalpus chilensis, to be precise), which creates tiny, coalescing purple spots on the older leaves, but this late in the season the harm is very little. After the harvest we'll spray a little mineral oil, an organic product that suffocates them, to decrease the risk of having many of them overwintering and attacking next spring.

The other big event, at the beginning of March, was the bottling of the 2010 wines. We made the blends of different tanks and barrels at the last moment, to avoid oxidation, so it was only a few days before bottling that we really knew how the wines were. Of course we blended and analyzed many samples, but it is still a great emotion to taste the definitive blend as it is. And they taste very well. Before filtration the Syrah Limited Edition showed more oak and less fruit, but a light filtration at bottling cleaned the wine and brought back the fruity flavors nicely. The other wines changed less, and especially the Aluvión Red Blend pleased the people present at bottling. The Cabernet is showing a bit more of the fresh fruit flavors that I think are very characteristic for these vineyards close to the Andes. Both the 2008 and 2007 have more dark fruit flavors and seem a little heavier than the 2010. But time will tell how they evolve.

On a sad note: one of my dogs was hit by a truck and died instantly, which left us feeling sorry for a few days. He was buried in block three at the beginning of the third row. The remaining two dogs stayed close to us and didn't go on the street for a few days. Meanwhile I got two new ones from the dog pound in Rancagua, and they are doing very well. Not very good guard dogs, I fear, but hopefully they won't have to chase away any unwanted visitors. Then a friend of mine brought a fifth one, which was rescued from the streets in Santiago, so it's getting busy here, especially when they're playing all together. To any of you who are thinking to bring any other ones: please no more dogs! Five is quite enough. I'll have to build a dog house for them (more of a dog apartment building) as the night are getting colder every week. We're now around 10ºC before sty sun comes up. One of the guards volunteered to build it, and the design is there as well, now I only have to buy the materials and he'll get started.

For my house, I bought an antique -or just old- table that measures 3,5 meters in length and comfortably seats 12. It didn't seem that big at the antiques market, but once in the house it looked much bigger than before. So I put the rest of the furniture away and the living room is now a big dining room which has to fulfill both functions. I like the way it looks and the friends I invited over the weekend agreed -or so they said.

As I'm writing, the harvest has just begun, so there's a busy month ahead, but more about that in the next post...