Lodinews.com

default avatar
Welcome to the site! Login or Signup below.
|
||
Logout|My Dashboard

Delicate Winemaking at Estate Crush

Print
Font Size:
Default font size
Larger font size

Posted: Tuesday, October 12, 2010 4:29 pm | Updated: 7:06 pm, Tue Oct 12, 2010.

Delicate Winemaking at Estate Crush 0 comments

One of Lodi's most beautiful vineyards is a little 10-acre patch of Viognier planted by Steve Borra back in 1999 north of the town of Lockeford. Half circled by the Mokelumne River 7 feet below, the vines look like perfect hedge rows, sunken on their own shelf, isolated 40 feet under the rest of Borra's Gill Creek Ranch.

Monday was the day to pick the vineyard's Rhône-style late-ripening golden clusters not only for the Borra Vineyards winery, but also for Jessie's Grove. A crew of about 10 began filling lugs at 7 a.m. under a thin layer of cooling river mist as the sun rose.

Viognier is known for producing extremely floral wines, filled with honeysuckle, golden apple, and apricot. But to capture this full spectrum of aromas, the grapes must be handled delicately.

Taking advantage of new, high-end winemaking equipment and expertise, Borra's winemaker, Markus Niggli, selected Estate Crush in downtown Lodi to process his prized Viognier.

Over the next 2 days, Brandon Herrmann and Oscar Ortiz of the Estate Crush cellar team, headed by new resident winemaker Matthew Ridge, will go about filling their specialized, air-inflated bladder press with nine 2-ton loads, working through over 17 tons of Viognier clusters to gently extract juice.

This juice will then be slow-fermented with its own native yeast at 55˚ F over the course of 2-3 weeks. By mid-February, Markus will have Matthew's team blend in Gewürztraminer to create Borra's 2010 White Fusion, chill it down to near freezing to make sure it won't make crystals in the bottle, and filter it to be ready for bottling.

Posted in on Tuesday, October 12, 2010 4:29 pm. Updated: 7:06 pm.

More Stories

Rules of Conduct

  • 1 Use your real name. You must register with your full first and last name before you can comment. (And don't pretend you're someone else.)
  • 2 Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually oriented language.
  • 3 Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
  • 4 Be truthful. Don't lie about anyone or anything. Don't post unsubstantiated allegations, rumors or gossip that could harm the reputation of a person, company or organization.
  • 5 Be nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
  • 6 Stay on topic. Make sure your comments are about the story. Don't insult each other.
  • 7 Tell us if the discussion is getting out of hand. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
  • 8 Share what you know, and ask about what you don't.

Welcome to the discussion.

    (%remaining%) Remaining Thanks for visiting Lodinews.com. You're entitled to view 20 free articles every 30 days. You will see 10 articles for free before being asked to register, and then you can view 10 additional articles by registering or logging in. Then, if you enjoy our site and want full access, we'll ask you to purchase an affordable subscription.
    (%remaining%) Remaining Thanks for visiting Lodinews.com. You're entitled to view 20 free articles every 30 days, and you currently have (%remaining%) free articles remaining ((%remaining_reg%) before being asked to register and (%remaining_sub%) before being asked to subscribe). Then, if you enjoy our site and want full access, we'll ask you to purchase an affordable subscription.
    (%remaining%) Remaining Thanks for visiting Lodinews.com. You're entitled to view 20 free articles every 30 days, and you currently have (%remaining%) free articles remaining ((%remaining_reg%) before being asked to register and (%remaining_sub%) before being asked to subscribe). Then, if you enjoy our site and want full access, we'll ask you to purchase an affordable subscription.
    (%remaining%) Remaining Thanks for visiting Lodinews.com. You're entitled to view 20 free articles every 30 days, and you currently have (%remaining%) total free articles remaining ((%remaining_reg%) before being asked to register and (%remaining_sub%) before being asked to subscribe). Then, if you enjoy our site and want full access, we'll ask you to purchase an affordable subscription.
    (%remaining%) Remaining Thank you for reading Lodinews.com. You have viewed (%viewed%) of your 20 free pages in 30 days. Please login or register at this time and enjoy the next (%remaining%) articles free of charge. After your 20 free articles, we'll ask you to purchase an affordable subscription.
    (%remaining%) Remaining Thank you for reading Lodinews.com. Because you have already viewed this article, you may view it again as many times as you would like without subtracting from your remaining free article views.
    (%remaining%) Remaining Thank you for registering on Lodinews.com. You're entitled to view 20 articles for free every 30 days, and you currently have (%remaining%) remaining. Then, if you enjoy our site and want full access, we'll ask you to purchase an affordable subscription.
    (%remaining%) Remaining Thank you for reading Lodinews.com. You're entitled to view 20 articles for free every 30 days, and you currently have (%remaining%) remaining. Then, if you enjoy our site and want full access, we'll ask you to purchase an affordable subscription.
    (%remaining%) Remaining Thank you for reading Lodinews.com. You're entitled to view 20 articles for free every 30 days, and you currently have (%remaining%) remaining. Then, if you enjoy our site and want full access, we'll ask you to purchase an affordable subscription.
    (%remaining%) Remaining Thank you for reading Lodinews.com. You're entitled to view 20 articles for free every 30 days. This is your last free article this period. On your next article we'll ask you to purchase an affordable subscription.

    Lodinews.com Blogs

    • Education Café

      A gathering place for educators, teachers and students to share ideas, achievements and news.

    • The Urban Hippie

      My name is Lauren. I photograph the people in my life, the views from the driver seat, food on the dinner table, lovers on their wedding day and everything in between. This is where I share my work, the snapshots of everyday life. I hope you enjoy your visit.

    • Saving with Pam

      Pam Bauserman is the editor of the Panorama page and writes about the clubs and non-profit organizations in the community as well as local volunteers.

    • Marty 'n' Rich

      What’s making news in the Lodi area.

    • Kitchen Corner

      Local foodies share their recipes, tips and experiences in the kitchen.

    Community Blogs

    • The Headwaters

      Lodi-area kayakers share their adventures.

    • Lodi360

      News, events, history and perspectives of Lodi.

    • San Joaquin County Historical Society & Museum

      What happens behind the scenes with artifacts, documents, and photographs that the San Joaquin County Historical Museum holds? What new materials have come in? Have any interesting discoveries been made about old ones? How are the materials preserved? What questions do they raise? How can the community of patrons help members of staff maintain and understand them? These are some of the questions addressed in this blog.

    • f3 Studio by Dario

      Lodi’s Dario Leventini blogs about photography.

    Most Read Most Comments Facebook

    Poll

    Local floral shops had a good weekend, thanks to the annual Mother's Day run on bouquets and arrangements. What did your family do to celebrate?

    Total Votes: 158

    Loading…

    Things To Do

    Submit an Event | More Things To Do »

    Twitter

    Regional News

    Save money!

    Save money!

    Score some great deals from local businesses by signing up for our e-mail alerts!

    Lodi News-Sentinel

    Historical News Archive

    Explore past issues of the Lodi News-Sentinel online with the Google News Archive.

    Mailing List

    Subscribe to a mailing list to have daily news sent directly to your inbox.

    • News Updates

      Would you like to receive our daily news headlines? Sign up now!

    Manage Your Lists

    © Copyright 2013, Lodinews.com, Lodi, CA. Powered by Blox CMS from TownNews.com.