2008 marked our tenth vintage at Westbrook Wine Farm.  All tolled, it was a benevolent winter with sufficient chilling hours and, at our elevation, bright winter sun to enhance bud fruitfulness.  Springtime 2008 in O' Neals brought with it a whole different set of circumstances.  The 28 degree temperature came in on a northeast wind the night of April 20th and fried nearly all the bright green shoots for which we had such hope. Proving her perverse sense of humor, Mother Nature then blessed us with 75 degrees the following day.  A 75% loss of primary shoots were (not so quickly) replaced by weaker, less fruitful secondaries which we allowed to grow without shoot or bunch thinning.  Our net from estate grown fruit was only three barrels of Fait Accompli and but one barrel of the first vintage from our new estate vineyard called "Museum" .

 

Sine Quo Napa

Our "flatland" winegrowers in Madera County did not sustain the frost damage experienced by ourselves and many other vineyards in California.  Our Riesling from Kenwara Vineyard, Viognier from John Simpson, Valdiguie from Lamanuzzi and Pantaleo were spot on and, without a lot of winemaker meddling, rival any we have produced to date.

 

Petite Sirah, you ask?

Typically our very last grape to be harvested, this year found us on October 20th with the rising sun showing a half circle of fire above the thick morning Tule fog which eerily blanketed John Simpson Vines.  At 42 degrees, the first feeling of fall had descended upon Madera County.  It took seven of us five hours to harvest, hand sort and pack 116 tubs of this extraordinary Petite Sirah.

 

High Country Cabernet Sauvignon

The old UC Davis Clone 4 Cabernet Sauvignon is shy bearing by nature.  Add the granitic soils and fickle weather history of high altitude in Mariposa County and it becomes even more recalcitrant.

Be that as it may, our friends at Sturm Gardner Vineyard have learned to harmonize with the elements to produce some of the most intense flavor profiles imaginable.  We crushed two tons of "C-4" this year.  To be continued.... 

Nearly four years ago we wrote a little piece on our decision to cultivate a half hectare piece of stone infested ground just to the east of our Fait Accompli Vines.  All the science utilized in planting for Fait Accompli was to be ignored in favor of a more "historically correct" red Bordeaux field blend on its own roots and trained in the archaic Vertical Cordon method.  Wine Guru, Dr. Mark Arvanigian (History CSUF) dubbed this effort "An exercise in viticultural Darwinism".  The following cuttings (not rootings) have travelled to Westbrook Wine Farm from California vineyards of fame and historical note.  Hence the name, "Museum".

 

*Cabernet Sauvignon heritage clone 29,  Inglenook
*Cabernet Sauvignon heritage clone 30,  See
*Cabernet Sauvignon heritage clone 31, ToKolon
*Cabernet Sauvignon clone 4 1966
*Cabernet Sauvignon clone 6 1969
*Cabernet Sauvignon clone 191
*Cabernet Sauvignon clone 169
*Gros Verdot / Cabernet Pfeffer
*Malbec / Cot clone 595

 

As previously stated, this field was an April 2008 frost victim too.  It's north / south row orientation (for erosion control), however, helped it "slip" the wind into a pass through motion.  Fait Accompli with a nearly east / west orientation (for even sunlight distribution) blocked the frozen north wind into stagnation over the vines thus sustaining more damage.  We were able to make one barrel of this inaugural vintage of Museum.  We hope to offer it as part of our wine futures program for 2011.