Week 1: Welcome to Sonoma!

Who would have known that each drop of this succulent substance known as wine takes so much work to make! It's only been one week and I have already learned a wealth of knowledge. I have taken my hobby of wine-drinking and gotten back to the basics of wine-making.

Hanzell Estate comprises 200 acres, 12 of which are planted to Pinot Noir and 32 to Chardonnay. There are five different Vineyards on the property; Zellerbach, Day, Ramos, deBrye, and Sessions. If you are ever popping open a bottle of Hanzell, take a moment and wonder which vineyards your Chardonnay is coming from. They have two labels, the Hanzell and Sebella. Hanzell Vineyards paved the way in wine making with many "firsts"... first to insert gas at bottling to prevent oxidation, first to use exclusively French oak barrels for aging wines, first to use temperature-controlled, stainless steel fermentation tanks. But enough bragging, let me share with you what my first week was like!


I received a very warm welcome by Lynda, who is the Associate Winemaker and her family (husband and two young children). I am staying at a guesthouse on her property, which has a beautiful garden smothered with basil and fresh herbs and vegetables and a chicken coop with about 20 chickens (which means eggs for breakfast everyday!). I have officially traded the sound of annoying Miami traffic and horns in for clucking chickens. I am so pleased to see how important the sourcing of ingredients is here. Lynda and her family only eat meat from animals they raise themselves on their farm, and grow all of their own vegetables, fruits, and herbs. I know I came here to learn how to make wine but I may pick up a few other useful tools in the gardening department.

I am staying about 10 minutes away from the vineyard. Sounds close, but I am walking and it actually takes me an hour to get there since I have to go up a long, windy, very steep hill. So in case you thought I was sitting around eating eggs and drinking wine all day, fear not, as I am getting plenty of exercise! In addition to my walk, I have to do what is called "vineyard sampling". The winemaker says which vineyard (one of the 5 I mentioned earlier) and which rows, and I take a pair of shears and walk up and down the rows taking clusters of grapes off each vine.

 Next I take the clusters and destem and crush them, making them into juice. Once that is done I am able to do lab work on them, testing things like Brix (level of sugar), pH (level of acidity), VA (Volatile Acidity) etc. So I have become quite the little chemist, although I don't get to wear a lab coat!

One of the really amazing things I had the opportunity to do was pull the 2010 Pinot Noir and the 2011 Chardonnay from their barrels (they are still aging) and do a blind tasting with the winemakers as they mumbled words like "gummy, veggie, shy and herbal". Talk about pressure! But it was nice to know they valued my opinion. And it was interesting to taste how different the wines were from each part of the vineyards... aww yes, the wonders of terrior!

I am very lucky to lives so close to what happens to be the best bar in Sonoma, "The Olde Sonoma Pub". They serve beer and wine only, and are very well known for their beer selection. Micro brews, IPAs, double IPAs, cider made with Champagne yeast... I know I came to learn about wine but I think I may pick up a few things on beer.