#adoberoad

We are finally winding down from the 2015 Harvest here in Petaluma. With 8 different varietals picked off of 3 different vineyards ripening 3 weeks ahead of schedule our small winemaking team had a tight schedule and a very busy harvest. We hunkered down, woke up early, went home late, and got dirty but we made it through in one piece and will have some very beautiful wines to show for it. 2015 saw a change in our winemaking team, as well as a new vineyard for Adobe Road. We are excited about both, and are looking to this harvest as the first of many successful vintages to come.

Now in it’s third consecutive year, the drought in 2015 brought some new challenges, as well as heightened national awareness with pictures of barren ski slopes and near-empty reservoirs highlighting plastered across news sites and evening broadcasts. A dry winter and the compounding effects of low rainfall lead to an early start to the growing season and a warm, dry summer. This in turn lead to another high-quality vintage marked by lower yields than 2014. What does this mean in terms of the quality of wine this year?

For starters, it will be expensive, so start saving now (or buy futures!). High quality fruit was the result of a warm, dry, and sunny summer as well as the reduced number of clusters per vine resulting from early flowering followed by May frosts. As a result, we saw anywhere from 30% to 50% lower yields than in 2014.

In the winery our new Cellar Master, Carlos Rodriguez, has been doing an amazing job of not only keeping the place organized and shiny, but also being one of the driving forces behind all winery operations, from weighing fruit to overseeing daily punchdowns and racking wine into barrel. Also new to Adobe Road, is head Winemaker Garrett Martin. A Sonoma County native, he brings years of experience from a number of great wineries in Sonoma and Napa. He joined us for the tail end of harvest and has been working closely on the finalization of some of our red blends, most recently the 2012 Redline, as well as overseeing our latest round of bottling.

Just bottled: 2013 Rose, 2014 Semillon & Viognier. *2014 Chardonnay not pictured*

Currently the 2015 wines have all finished primary fermentation and are now in barrels undergoing secondary (malolactic) fermentation. This is a very important, yet oft overlooked step in winemaking as it denotes a time when the wine really comes into balance in terms of mouthfeel and can make or break the final wine. Once secondary fermentation has finished, and we see good balance in the wine, the fermentation bungs are replaced by more permanent ones and the barrels are moved off of the main floor and stacked with the previous vintages to settle in for ageing.The 2015 Pinot Noir from Sangiacomo Vineyard was the first to complete this process and is ready to age. The rest of the ‘15’s are nearing the end of their secondary fermentations and all should be finalized by the end of next week.  In general, red wines are typically aged in barrel for 16-20 months, with whites coming in at ½ to ⅔ of that time before being bottled.

Now that the hectic crush period has ended, it gives the winemaking team time to do some other tasks. Everything in barrel is checked monthly and topped off as needed to prevent unnecessary oxidation as the dry climate promotes evaporation in the oak barrels. As they say, “A full barrel is a happy barrel.” This is also a time when wines from the previous vintages begin to be finalized and bottled. Speaking of bottling, our top of the line Beckstoffer Georges III Cabernet Sauvignon gets that beautiful red wax seal over the cork applied by hand, one bottle at a time! It is a time consuming process, but one that has a very striking and beautiful result. It’s not just the wines that are “hand-crafted”!

Cellar Master Carlos hand-waxing the 2012 Beckstoffer Cabernet 

We are really excited for the 2015 vintage and can’t wait to release the wines to you in a few years’ time.