Winter in the Vineyards

Let it rain, let it rain...our 2008 winter has gotten off to a fairly wild and windy, yet much appreciated wet start, bringing us up to just above normal precipitation levels for the season, which is great news.

In the vineyards, Steve and his crew began their winter pruning in December, before the heavy rains hit and turned the ground muddy. They begin with the whites grape varietals, then move on to the reds. The vineyards that have frost protection are done first, since pruning early initiates budbreak sooner in the spring, and they can keep these baby buds safe with the sprinklers. Mill Station (part of our Dutton Ranch Chardonnay) is a perfect example of how Dutton Ranch has learned from their experience over the years. The vineyard was planted in the mid-'70s, and in the early years they would wait to prune it since it was such a cold site, thinking this was safer. This delayed ripening until late in the season, and they were frequently harvesting the vineyard in early November, and running the risk of having fruit still on the vine when fall frosts can occur. So, they decided to make this one of the first vineyards pruned instead, which gave the vineyard an earlier start and as a result an earlier harvest. In 2007, Mill Station was harvested on October 9.

While this hand pruning is going on, Dutton Ranch also pre-prunes the vineyards that aren't cane pruned, using a machine to cut the growth between the wires down to about 12 inches, taking out most of the brush and chopping it up. Then, the way is clear when the crew comes in to do the final pruning by hand. Cane-pruned vineyards aren't pre-pruned, since these vines need to be individually assessed and a three-foot cane selected to tie on to the wire to be the next season's fruiting wood.

Winter in the vineyards also means spreading compost, fertilizing, applying cover crops and taking care of the drainage in vineyards, as well as flushing out irrigation systems and draining the water so it doesn't freeze during the winter.

Composting is done to beef up the soil for higher yields in the vineyards that need it, as well as to increase the quality of fruit. Compost helps with water retention, adds organic matter and microscopic microrizea, so the vines are better able to mine the soil for minerals. Fertilizers, which are added either via foliar sprays or through the drip irrigation system, also give those vines that can use it—like our Sanchietti Vineyard Pinot—an extra boost to hopefully increase production.

In most of our vineyards, a special blend of cover crop seed that's shallow rooted is used so that we promote competition early in the season but not later when water can be scarce. In some vineyards, such as Galante, we actual add ongoing competition by alternating rows of grass with tilled ground in order to devigorate the vineyard.

Because Dutton Ranch farms so many hillside vineyards, they have a lot of storm drains and v-ditches that need tending to this time of year so they stay clear and flowing when the rains hit. Straw wattles—those snakes of straw that you may have seen staked on hillsides—are put out to slow the flow of water and catch sediment.

Dutton Ranch Facts

We're often asked "where is Dutton Ranch" or "how big is Dutton Ranch", so here is a short Dutton Ranch Primer for you:

Dutton Ranch isn't one place (although there is a home office on Graton Road where the Shop Block vineyard is), but a collection of about 80 noncontiguous parcels sprinkled throughout mostly the cool, southwestern part of Russian River Valley. In total, these comprise approximately 1,300 acres that the Duttons either own, lease or manage. About 1,150 of these are planted to grapes, and the other 150 to apples, including the delicious Gravensteins that this area is known for.

Warren and Gail Dutton bought their first 35 acres west of the town of Graton, and planted it to French colombard, in 1964. Their first sale was $88 for a ton of colombard grapes. In 1967, they sold their first chardonnay harvest, and began planting additional chardonnay vineyards in an area most people thought was too cold to grow grapes for still wine. In the mid-'70s, after Kistler put the "Dutton Ranch" designation on their famed chardonnay, the family's grapes became even more sought-after. They soon added other varietals to their holdings, including pinot noir, syrah, and zinfandel.

As with Dutton-Goldfield's Dutton Ranch wines, most labels that bear this designation are made from a combination of the Dutton Ranch vineyards. Dutton Ranch on a label is really more of a grower designation than a vineyard designation. We show that a wine is from a specific Dutton Ranch vineyard by including that vineyard name—for example, "Dutton Ranch-Rued Vineyard"—on the label as well.

Today, Steve, along with his brother Joe and mother Gail, manage Dutton Ranch. Steve's principal role in Dutton-Goldfield is taking excellent care of the vineyards we choose for our wines.

Pinot Terminology
From Pinot Forum 2007 materials.

Acidity: In relation to wine, there are two basic kinds of acid, fixed and volatile. Fixed acidity refers to the natural fruit acids normally present in wine; the most important are tartaric, lactic, malic and citric.

Aldehydes: A group of chemical compounds that take part in both the process of creating alcohol (glycolysis) and its breakdown, oxidation.

Alluvial Deposits: Soil moved into place by water—river or sea.

Amino Acids: The building blocks of proteins, amino acids are important to winemakers in two ways. In grape juice, they are the principal source of the nitrogen needed by yeasts to complete a healthy fermentation. In white wines, they can become a source of haze formation.

Anthocynanins: A phenolic compound found in the skins of grapes (and other fruits and vegetables) responsible for the red colors in wine.

Appellation: The geographic provenance of a wine. In the United States, the names of states, counties, and American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) can be used as wine appellations.

In the News

This just in from Restaurant Wine:

2005 McDougall Pinot Noir - 4 stars
Very fine Pinot Noirs. The McDougall is elegant in style; full bodied, finely flavored (plum, violet, cherry, red currant, vanilla, toast), crisp, and very long on the palate, with a persistent finish. Fine quality.

2005 Sanchietti Pinot Noir - 5 stars
The Sanchietti is somewhat fuller. It is complex in flavor, supple, and full bodied, with firm acidity, evident richness, and a very long, rich finish, tasting of black cherry, violet, toast, vanilla, and kola nut. Exceptional.

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Our 2005 Rued Vineyard Chardonnay has been receiving rave reviews lately, including these:

"A very fine Chardonnay, complex and layered, and quite dry. Acidity makes the tangerine, kumquat, ripe yellow pear, roasted pineapple and oaky, creme brulee flavors really come alive. After you swallow, the wine leaves behind a delicious impression. Editors' Choice...95 points." ~ Wine Enthusiast

"It is not that this wine is short of volume so much as it is lower on the bombast scale and is a member of the new Chardonnay paradigm. Its unmistakable charms are those of focus, complexity, impeccable balance and clear minerality, all tied to a solid core of appley fruit and toast oak. There is a temptation to call it "French-like", but that would miss the essential truth that this wine in its clarity and focus is to Chardonnay what the best Russian River Pinot Noirs are to that demanding variety...91 points, 2 stars." ~ Connoisseur's Guide

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Dan Berger's Ten "Best Wines of 2007" included 2 of Dutton-Goldfield's: our Freestone Hill Pinot Noir and Cherry Ridge Syrah.

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Coming up in April's Decanter Magazine, our 2005 Morelli Lane Vineyard Zinfandel is receiving 4 stars.

I Don't Normally like Chardonnay, but…

Chardonnay fatigue…it's out there. More and more wine drinkers are growing tired of chardonnay and moving on to other varietals, often lighter and crisper wines that better refresh their palates. In fact, over the past couple of years, I've had an increasing number of consumers tell me at tastings and winemaker dinners that they don't drink much chardonnay anymore. Yet when they try our Dutton Ranch Chardonnay, the response is often: "I don't like chardonnay, but I really like yours!" Typical of the comments that follow: "It's not too oaky. It's not too buttery. It's not too heavy." In essence, what they are saying is that the wine is well balanced.

A growing number of trade buyers have also commented on how well balanced our Dutton Ranch Chardonnay is, year after year. How do we do this? It starts in the vineyards, needless to say. Let's take our current release, the 2006 vintage, as an example. Five vineyards comprise the blend. All of them are in the Green Valley, the southwest part of the Russian River, which is consistently cooler than other parts of the appellation. As a result, grapes come in at higher levels of acidity, allowing us to make a wine that has a brightness of fruit and lively mouthfeel that one doesn't find too often these days in California chardonnay.

Yet despite its brightness, the wine hardly lacks depth. Four of the five vineyards: Mill Station, Schwartz, Walker Hill and the highly regarded Rued, are all over 30 years old. These old vines produce not only the citrusy backbone so noteworthy in Green Valley chardonnays, but also provide a complex range of aromas and flavors that give the wine an added dimension. Floral aromatic notes, tropical fruit character, mineral undertones, these old guys add a special depth to our Dutton Ranch blend. And to top it off, Morelli Lane brings stone fruit and pear notes that add to the overall complexity of the wine.

So, right from the start, Steve has given Dan some great fruit with which to work. Dan's task: don't over-manipulate the raw materials. Dan prefers not to filter his wines. That means, to insure stability, they will have to go through full malolactic fermentation. Yet, because our chardonnay comes in at harvest at high levels of acidity, the wine can go through a complete ML without having the excessive buttery notes and cloying character that so often accompanies chardonnays from warmer climates that go though malolactic. The oak regime is fairly tame: the wine is barrel fermented, then aged in 40% new French oak, medium toast, for ten months. Dan wants the softness and spice that comes with time in barrel, but doesn't want oak to be the dominant feature in the wine. And finally, the wines are vinified at moderate alcohol levels. The Dutton Ranch Chardonnay typically comes in at around 13.5% alcohol; the 2006 vintage is no exception.

We are fortunate to get fruit from some of the best chardonnay vineyards in the north coast, vines that provide plenty of richness and complexity on their own. There is no need to artificially amp up the wines. We've already got what we need to make a truly distinctive chardonnay, one that combines both richness and complexity with a lively bright core of fruit that carries a long, clean finish. It is a wine that appeals to both chardonnay lovers and those who swear they don't drink the stuff anymore.

 

Dutton-Goldfield Winery, 825 Gravenstein Hwy N, Suite 3, Sebastopol, CA 95472
707.823.3887 ~ Fax: 707.829.6766 ~ Email: info@duttongoldfield.com ~ web: www.duttongoldfield.com