HUGE thanks to Janis Switzer of the Paso Robles Press for featuring Alta Colina in today’s issue. We had a great time on the Vineyard with Janis, her husband, and Lisa Pretty a few weeks ago. Thanks again to Janis for this great piece on our history.
And isn’t this a great picture of Bob?! Thanks to the Forbes family for lending us their amazing photography skills! Check out the Bryn Forbes Gallery for more.
American Rhone-Style Whites
2009 Skinner Stoney Creek Vineyard Fair Play Grenache Blanc
2010 Donkey & Goat Coupe d’Or El Dorado Roussanne-Marsanne
2010 Kinero Alice Paso Robles Grenache Blanc
2010 Cowhorn Spiral 36 Applegate Valley White
2010 Unti Cuvee Blanc Dry Creek Valley White
2010 Andrew Murray Vineyards RGB Camp 4 Vineyard Santa Ynez Valley White
2009 Alta Colina 12 O’Clock High Estate Paso Robles White ($28, 14.8%): This relatively new label owned by Lynn and Bob Tillman has found a great white expression from an estate mix of Viognier, Roussanne, Marsanne and Grenache Blanc. Big but plenty energetic, with a subtle honeysuckle kick from the Viognier but also a quicksilver nerve - think hay and steel and dried apricots.
2010 Clayhouse Red Cedar Vineyard Estate Cuvee Blanc Paso Robles White
2010 Kunde Family Estate Sonoma Valley Viognier
Jon Bonné is The Chronicle’s wine editor. Find him at jbonne@sfchronicle.com or @jbonne on Twitter.
This article appeared on page G - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Ch ch check it out! Our 12 O’Clock High white blend made Jon Bonne’s cut for his annual SF Chronicle Thanksgiving wine recommendations. It’s very exciting to see our name in print in the Chronicle plus we couldn’t agree more with his recommendation! This Viognier blend will likely make a cameo on our Thanksgiving table. With all the delicious fruit on the palate and fuller bodied style, it’s a great pick to pair with the diverity of a traditional Thanksgiving meal.
A huge thanks to Jone Bonne of the San Francisco Chronicle for not only tasting our wine but including us in this great lineup!
To read the full article and read Bonne’s reviews of the other wines visit the SF Chronicle website.
Harvest 2011 has commenced…finally! Last week we brought in our Grenache Blanc and we’re looking towards next week’s Viognier pick to keep the harvest train rolling.
We’re a solid three weeks behind usual but despite the delay the quality of fruit is looking amazing so far. These longer, cooler seasons are great for Alta Colina Vineyard. Because our site is generally above the fog line (though you can see in these photos that isn’t a hard and fast rule!) our vines get a couple extra hours of heat and direct sunlight everyday, which means getting the grapes ripe is not a problem for us! These cooler years let us leave the fruit hanging so flavors can develop without fear of sugar levels getting out of control.
We’re off to a good start…
Winemaker Bob Tillman writes about 2010 in Alta Colina Vineyard:
The winter of 2009-10 brought Paso Robles almost twice our average rainfall, breaking several years of near drought conditions. All this water cleansed the soil of accumulated irrigation salts, and recharged both the soil profile and our well. The 2010 growing season was 2—3 weeks late in getting started (as measured by bud break) and unusually cool throughout the spring and summer. The net of this was a delayed harvest. Our first pick was Grenache Blanc on 9/17, 3 weeks later than normal. Our last pick, Mourvedre and Grenache, came on 10/28 also about 3 weeks later than usual. (I am excluding the late harvest Viognier, picked much later, about which you will hear more later.)
After sweating whether we would ever ripen our fruit, a heat spike in late September gave the vines impetus to get the job done. Then in October a series of storms threatened Paso Robles, but passed mostly to the North with only light rainfall on the vineyard. We were very lucky to have only small losses in our head-trained Grenache and Petite Sirah blocks from the mildew induced by these storms.
Our 40,773 vines yielded 113 tons of grapes, equivalent to 5.5 pounds/vine or about 2 bottles per vine. This was 24% higher than our average yield, a testament to the wonders that rain and weather can deliver. Since the number of grape clusters is constant in the vineyard year to year, all the increase came through more berries per cluster and larger berries. Alta Colina Winery consumed 43 tons, while 70 tons were sold to 11 other wineries in Paso Robles. The breakdown of our vintage looks like this:-Toasted Slope Syrah: 16 tons
-Roussanne: 2 tons
-Old 900 Syrah: 7 tons
-Grenache Blanc: 1 ton
-Grenache: 4 tons
-Viognier: 5 tons
-Mourvedre: 4 tons
-Marsanne: 2 tons
-Ann’s Block Petite Sirah: 2 tons
The long hang-time and cooler growing season seems to have produced our finest quality wines to date—at least based on early tasting of barrels. As I write this in January, we have completed malolactic fermentation and are in the process of initial blending trials. There is much excitement around these wines—it appears that we will continue our string of steady improvement in wine quality as the vines mature.
Justin and Harper, the Cutest Official Harvest Interns in the World, were hard at work surveying the Winery this morning. They were generally pleased with the state of affairs. In the words of the venerable Justin, “Alta Colina is number one.”
And in case you can’t decode Justin’s comment as he was running between the cold room and the fermentation room, he’s suggesting, “Harper, you want to go to the white curtains?”
Makin’ wine, makin’ wine, makin’ wine! Check out this video to see Bob Tillman pumping over of a single lot of 2010 Syrah. We go for big flavor, big color, and balanced tannins in our wines and pump overs play a big role in making our style of wines.
Making sure the juice remains in contact with the skins is the only way to extract all the good stuff we want in terms of flavor and color from those grape skins. In the video, you can see that the skins form a layer on top of the juice below, that layer is called the cap. As the yeast convert the sugar into alcohol, that process releases CO2, which pushes the cap to the top so pump overs (and later punch downs) are important to push the cap back down so it interacts with the juice.
During harvest we pump over each lot 2 to 3 times daily to get the best color and flavors possible. As fermentation progresses, the cap breaks down and becomes easier to push around! When fermentation finishes (when there’s no sugar left), we press off the juice, which leaves the dry skins availalbe to compost in the Vineyard. Stay tuned to see other steps in the wine making process.
It’s been a great few days with Zach in town from Bend, Oregon. He added on a few days to a business trip to Sacramento and he and his dog Charlie have fallen right back in to wine country life! We did a little tasting, eating, and drinking (or course!) and we’ll be getting up early for another Syrah pick tomorrow morning. Our sister, Katie, and her family couldn’t join us this weekend but they are in for Harvest Festival next weekend. See you there!
As in much of the country this week, it has VERY hot in Paso these last few
days. Solidly over 100 degrees and Bob is showing a little leg to mother
nature in response! Ya’ look good Bob.
