Yes, people.   Winemaking is a process.  A long process that takes passion, skill, luck, trust and a lot of beer.

I know. It was shocking to me as well… And I grew up in Sonoma County… You would think I would know a little more than the average person about what it takes to make a bottle of wine, but sadly, I do not.

Until now. 

Friday I spent the morning at Ketcham Estate in Russian River Valley picking very ripe pinot grapes with local winemakers from various wineries around the valley, Marcy Gordon, a travel writer and little-known trouble maker and Dr. Horowitz, a marketing teacher and blogger with too many blogs to name just one (and the guy who put the event together).   The vineyard excursion was for a project that three local winemakers decided to do with the extra pinot grapes at the estate, by turning the fruit into late harvest pinot or pinot port.

We spent the morning, clippers and buckets in hand, clipping rows and rows of grapes.  The guys rode around in their golf cart, bringing our full buckets to the containers. I got there too late to enjoy the morning fog, but the heat wasn’t too bad until it was directly overhead around noon. Thankfully their was water and beer to cool us down. 

Saturday was spent at two different wineries in St. Helena in the Napa Valley.  Well, Smith-Madrone was on Spring Mountain, overlooking the Napa Valley.  Spottswoode Estate was right in the middle of a neighborhood in the city of St. Helena, reinforcing their family estate heritage.

Thanks to Russ Beebe of California Wine Hikes fame, we learned more about the difference in climates, variations in vintages and saw part of the behind the scenes of crush.  Russ also decided that there wasn’t nearly enough card games in our lives and set up a poker run. He would randomly give out cards until all of us received 5 cards each.  Of course, being the skillful, sneaky and amazing women that we are; myself, Thea from Luscious Lushes, Alexandria and Liza from Brix Chicks all combined our cards to get five kings… Tying with Andy Gamitian of Flights Wine Blog (who also collaborated with another wine blogger) and who ultimately won.

I will allow my fellow wine bloggers to review the wines we tried and talk about the tasting notes and behind the scenes fun, because as I told the group, I don’t honestly care about reviews of wine.  As I learned from my Project Y-ine trip, most kids in their twenties don’t as well.  It is all about recommendations from friends ~ So, since you are taking the time to read this far into this post, I consider you a friend and I wanted to tell you that if you ever see the 2007 Smith-Madrone Riesling or the 2006 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon, try it… They will not disappoint.

As for Ketcham Estate’s pinot noir, it has been too long since I have had this wine that I forget what I thought of it. I will let you know what I think, because I plan on buying or stealing a bottle very soon….

Pictures on next post.