{"id":20,"date":"2012-07-24T01:14:17","date_gmt":"2012-07-24T01:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backroads.cleverconcepts.net\/blog\/?p=20"},"modified":"2012-07-24T01:14:17","modified_gmt":"2012-07-24T01:14:17","slug":"planning-for-the-harvest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backroadswineries.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/24\/planning-for-the-harvest\/","title":{"rendered":"Planning for the Harvest"},"content":{"rendered":"

My name is Paul Warren Frankel, and I\u2019m the winemaker at Sculpterra Winery<\/a>.\u00a0 My last blog I mentioned that we\u2019d look at my plan of attack for the 2012 harvest.\u00a0 Each year I start a spreadsheet where I map out every batch of wine I plan to make.\u00a0 Now\u2026you\u2019re going to find these next subjects riveting (tongue firmly planted in cheek).\u00a0 They are however a crucial and essential part of the plan.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got 2 words for you-Yeast & Oak.<\/p>\n

As we begin to see some early seasonal hints of veraison (coloring of the fruit), I start to think about when to pick the fruit, and at what degree of ripeness.\u00a0 Then I get to choose which yeast to pair with which fruit.\u00a0 There are literally hundreds of yeast strains, each with it\u2019s own characteristics and signature.\u00a0 Fruit and yeast pairings has really become one of my greatest interests in winemaking.\u00a0 I have my choices made and my purchases done for this upcoming harvest.<\/p>\n

\"Veraison\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The yearly planned use of existing oak barrels, and the purchase of new barrels is a true adventure.\u00a0\u00a0 We buy barrels with different oak sourced from France, Hungary, Bulgaria, and the United States (Appalachian, Pennsylvania, and Missouri oak).\u00a0 The parade of oak salesman \u2013 cooperage representatives \u2013 is quite a sight.\u00a0 They run the gamut from our own domestic, razor pressed, Dockers clad sales guys to the slightly rumpled rep selling Acacia wood barrels, to the scarf clad French rep with his smoldering \u201cassistant\u201d\/interpreter.\u00a0 These barrels are not cheap, running from $800-$1,600 for French oak, and I am NOT an easy sale.\u00a0 I ask the hard questions, one of which is, \u201cHow will your oak improve my product?\u201d\u00a0 I love a knowledgeable salesman, prepared to try my wines and understand where our winemaking goal and his product intersect.<\/p>\n

I love experimenting with oak.\u00a0\u00a0 It is part gamble, part science, and all fun.\u00a0 The influence of the oak and the \u201ctoast\u201d can make or break a wine.\u00a0 The toast is the buffer between wine and wood.\u00a0\u00a0 Without the toast, wine would be in direct contact with fresh cut wood, overpowering the wine.\u00a0 Oak derived influences are tannic, resin, herbaceous, or \u201cwoody\u201d (those scents of fresh cut wood, cedar, sawdust, or pencil shavings).\u00a0 The toast influence (the degree that the inside of the barrel has been fired \u2013 light to heavy \u201ctoast\u201d) brings the scents we love to pinpoint when tasting \u2013 spicy (pepper), sweet (from caramel to honey to cotton candy), vanilla (graham crackers & waffles), and toasty\/smokey (coffee, mocha, burnt sugar, bacon).<\/p>\n

We\u2019re getting closer to harvest, and are we excited about this year.\u00a0 Our next blog will look at the progress of certain varietals on the property that comprise the backbone of our products line.\u00a0 Until then, enjoy this beautiful summer\u2026..and drink Sculpterra wines!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My name is Paul Warren Frankel, and I\u2019m the winemaker at Sculpterra Winery.\u00a0 My last blog I mentioned that we\u2019d look at my plan of attack for the 2012 harvest.\u00a0 Each year I start a spreadsheet where I map out every batch of wine I plan to make.\u00a0 Now\u2026you\u2019re going to find these next subjects […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[22,61,74,81,103,122,128],"class_list":["post-20","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-harvest","tag-barrels","tag-harvest-2","tag-oak","tag-paul-frankel","tag-sculpterra","tag-veraison","tag-wine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backroadswineries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backroadswineries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backroadswineries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backroadswineries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backroadswineries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backroadswineries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backroadswineries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backroadswineries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backroadswineries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backroadswineries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}