From the Fields - Stuart Mast

By Stuart Mast, Calaveras County vintner and timber producer 

I grow cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc. We finished harvesting two weeks ago, which was a little later than normal. Our harvests were at night, and the biggest problem I had was scheduling labor and getting the number of crews I requested. One night, we promised a winery in Amador County 12 tons of fruit to go on a truck with another winery that was putting 8 tons on a 20-ton truck. We had to have the 12 tons ready in the morning. I was promised two crews by the labor contractor and only one crew showed. The crew left at midnight after harvesting only 8 tons. Fortunately, a crew from the other vineyard helped us finish the other 4 tons, so we lucked out on that.

I had a bigger than normal crop, which is good because last year I got hit by the freeze and my inventory was down. Now, we’re pretty well caught up. I’m happy with the fruit quality. The pH is ideal, so once the wine is in the bottle, it will age well. If you are looking to put a wine aside eight or 10 years, it should hold up well, and the pH has a lot to do with that. We dialed in the sugars where we wanted them. They were at 25 brix or percent sugar, which is ideal for what we’re doing. Now we’re fermenting the grapes. Most everything is in secondary fermentation in tanks and will be transferred into French oak barrels, where they will age for at least two years.

For the timber, we do have trees that will be harvested again, but not at the moment. There’s logging going on around me. At first, it was logs from some of the big fires that were headed to the mills, and now I’m seeing green timber being harvested.