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 have
always been intrigued with why our grape vines and their fruit
grow so differently on our different ranches, notably our
Diamond T Estate property in Carmel Valley and our Sleepy
Hollow benchland vineyard in the Santa Lucia Highlands appellation.
Both are located in the cool maritime-influenced climate of
Monterey County and both slope from top to bottom at about
the same angle, but they are quite different in perception.
As growers of wines, we know that there is an interaction
between the plant and its environment, sometimes known as
terroir.
Terroir
refers to the earth, but also the seasons, rainfall, climate,
winds, temperatures and even unknown forces that we have to
struggle to understand. The concept has been around for centuries,
simple and a bit primitive on one hand, but extremely complex
on another. Basically it concerns the caretaker or grower
working with the plant (in this case, the grapevine) long
enough to recognize that all of these effects are felt in
the final outcome, in the quality of the wine.
We
use this information to try and grow the right plant, clones,
variety, in the right place, slope, facing, yet after all
these years of growing grapes at both Diamond T Estate home
ranch and Sleepy Hollow Vineyards, we still find that some
vines thrive in certain areas and others barely survive.
These
vineyard are 30 miles apart by road. The 24 -acre Diamond
T Estate planting is only eight miles from Carmel Bay and
faces South. The Sleepy Hollow Vineyard sits 23 miles from
Monterey Bay and faces North. Both carry the overall Monterey
County appellation with out sleepy Hollow parcel located in
the Stana Lucia Highlands appellation.
Fruit
from both vineyards is handled the same way in the winery.
Both are hand-picked into 40-pound lugs at harvest. The crushing
and pressing is done by the same machines, the juice settled
and racked into French barrels of the same size. Hand enoculation
follows using the same yeasts. The only difference is some
extra aging for the Diamond T Estate wines. Yet they are incredibly
different tasting wines. The Sleepy Hollow shows soft, tropical,
apple citrus, earth, sweet yeast and vanilla oak, with a medium-plus
fullness in the mouth. The Diamond T exhibits the essences
of rich, soft, tropical fruit, yeast and subtle toast oak,
with flavors of spice and nuts. It is a full, rich wine. The
flavors of the two wines are very distinct and the difference
easily discernable in the mouth.
Sleepy
Hollow, planted in 1973, gives average yields of between two-and-a-half
to three tons per acre. The vineyards face North, sitting
on a slight slope of Arroyo Seco gravelly loam. It is alluvial
(geologist term for a type of sediment) in composition with
the topsoil composed of granular decomposed granite to about
24 -inches to 30 -inches. Below that, our vineyard is a more
typical slope-wash(rock that washes down from the top of coarse
pebbles, angular rock fragments and much larger pieces of
fractured granite and quartz.
While
preparing the vineyard for planting, we used two D-8 tractors
chained together in order to pull a huge six-foot steel ripper
that weighed one ton. But when we got in front of the winery,
the tractor lodged in a giant piece of quartz and stopped
dead. The boulder won, breaking the ripper into two pieces!
The ripper was sent off to the smelter but we still have our
five-ton quartz boulder at the entrance to the winery! Needless
to say, with this soil type our drainage is wonderful; the
vines never get wet feet.
Our
Diamond T Estate vines were planted in 1984 close to Carmel
Bay where the yields rarely exceed one ton per acre. Harvest
falls later there than at Sleepy Hollow Vineyards, usually
in October. Diamond T fruit grows almost exclusively in Monterey
shale mixed with smaller rock fragments and loam. The topsoil
ranges from four inches at the top to 15 at the bottom, which
is underlain by heavy layers of fractured shale. Our sedimentary
shale came from warm shallow seas millions of years ago, giving
our ranch amazing fossil beds. All of our three children have
brought their classmates up to the ranch to enjoy this history.
While
preparing the Diamond T Ranch for vineyard planting, our tractor
brought up so much rock we weren't quite sure what to do with
it. Our solution seemed quite simple. We couldn't haul it
off so we used sledgehammers to break it up into smaller pieces.
But after three months of back-breaking, 10-hour days smashing
large rocks into smaller ones, nine laborers walked off the
job, I wanted to join them, but for obvious reasons, couldn't.
After
planting, we of course had to wait years with both vineyards
before we actually knew what we had in terms of grape quality.
Do
we now have favorite areas that make better wine than others?
You bet, and the difference in quality is significant. Given
that thousands of years have eroded the geologic high points
of our vineyards, very little top soil remains up there. It
obviously erodes down the hill, some stopping on the mid-slope,
most going all the way down to the bottom. The mid-slope,
known as the belly, concentrates soil and nutrients, traps
the sun and provides very good drainage. This soil covers
the slope-wash, which is composed of eroded material from
above. Below the belly, lays the toe or foot of the mountain,
where the soil is heavier and damper. Here the water table
is higher and doesn't drain as well. Remember that grapes
don't like wet feet. The vines are leafier and bushier and
produce too much fruit. Fruit that is watery and flabby. Not
a good thing for quality wine.
With
all of this in mind, it is fairly obvious that our favorite
fruit comes from the "belly" of both vineyards and
our wines, made from this mid-slope fruit, show more depth,
complexity, roundness, and just pain quality. This is one
of the reasons all our barrels are kept separate until the
final blending is done. That way we can declassify any that
do not measure up, thereby keeping the quality as high as
possible. We find that declassification is one of our best
tools for keeping Talbott labels consistent.
Knowledge
of terroir helps our understanding in making balanced wine.
If I could use only one word to describe what I strive for
in Talbott wines it would be balance. Balance can be applied
to the terroir, the harvest yields, the harvest sugars and
even the taste of the grape. With Mother Nature always unpredictable,
balance is an ongoing challenge. But then again, I think the
challenge is a big part of what keeps us all in this crazy
business.
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The
rocky terrain at Diamond T Estate Vineyard
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Robb
and Katie beside a cross section of what lies beneath
the Sleepy Hollow Vineyard
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Robb
with Pinot Noir at Sleepy Hollow
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Rocky
terrain at Sleepy Hollow
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Robb
shows rocks recently ripped out of the top section of
Diamond T
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The
quartz boulder that refused to budge now in front of
the winery
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Workmen
at the winery building a wall from the abundance of
rock dug out of Sleepy Hollow Vineyard
Photograph
by Chris Schmitt
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