Newsletter September 2008

Patz & Hall 2008 Harvest: In Full Swing

Each summer sees us put the finishing touches on the previous vintage. We gingerly rack the wines from barrel into tank and, from there, put them to bottle. It feels a bit like closing the last page of a very satisfying and enthralling book. James and I are both extremely pleased with the quality of the wines from 2007, and look forward to presenting them to the world when the time comes. However, nature refuses to give us too much time to feel satisfied with ourselves. Towards the end of summer, we begin to look towards the future, preparing the winery for the trials ahead. Equipment needs maintenance, fruit bins need to be re-commissioned, and everything needs to be squeaky clean.

Here at the winery, we can feel the seasons starting to change. The days are getting shorter, the sun angle is changing, and the grapes are completing the cycle they began 5 months ago, reaching maturity in their quest for seed dispersal. Harvest 2008 for Patz & Hall began on Labor Day, and will continue at a feverish pace for the foreseeable future. So far, it promises to be a vintage of perfect ripeness with higher than normal natural acidities in both Pinot noir and Chardonnay.

This year, our seasonal crew is made up of a number of young men who worked for us last year, along with an Enology student from UC Davis, a corporate refugee from Southern California, and a young man whose family owns a small wine farm in South Africa. Thus far, James, José, Alfredo and I have really enjoyed working with and getting to know these folks and they have performed admirably, as we have challenged them with plenty of hard work during bottling and the first few days of harvest.

Despite the long hours and aching bones, harvest is every winemaker’s favorite time of year. This is when the personalities of our wines begin to take shape and when our most important decisions are made. In short, it’s our season. Probably more correctly, it’s mother nature’s season, whose coattails we ride, to whose actions we respond, & for whose bounty we give thanks.

Cheers,

Nate Weis
Assistant Winemaker