Alexander Valley, California

I use to say that harvest comes but once a year. Yes, I know, not a huge revelation, but nonetheless it gives the career of winemaking an extra sense of urgency to make the most of every opportunity. And it is this sense of urgency, this realization that every vintage is once forever, that has moved me to travel and experience winemaking at its most critical time: harvest. Only 6 months ago, I found myself under the Southern Cross in the Marlborough region of New Zealand, experiencing the harvest of Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir while working for Indevin Ltd. ( www.indevin.com ), the largest contract winemaking facility in the southern hemisphere. Early this morning, as I drove to work, I crossed the Russian River, my headlights illuminating vines of Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and Sangiovese on the other side. Highway 128 at this point runs just barely east of Geyserville California, and it is here, in the Alexander Valley, that I am working my first North American harvest outside of Oregon.

“Harvest Eonologist Intern,” is what will be on my resume for the time I will spend here in the Alexander Valley at Ferrari-Carano’s Mountain Winery, ( ferrari-carano.com ). Sometimes I think “Official Sniffer and Taster” would be a more truthful description of my job, and I can’t say I mind. Every morning, before coffee, I get my nose into my business by sniffing and tasting each of the 40 or so tanks (there will be over 100 soon) that are currently in the winery, most of which are from different vineyard locations around the valley. I then record temperatures, check them against the previous day, pull samples and take them back to the lab for analysis. The process is one that will be done daily at countless other wineries all over the northern hemisphere this harvest of 2007.

Great winemaking requires many things. Some might say nearly too many, but most all who have done it, or are doing it, would agree that first among them is time. Two others would be a keen sense of observation and a good memory. Maybe that is why winemaking is an art that weaves through generations, from one to the next, their collective memories and experiences culminating in greatness that could not be achieved in just one lifetime. But one lifetime is what we have. It is what I have. That said, as I think back about my time in New Zealand just 6 short months ago and remember the aroma of freshly crushed Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, I can’t help but notice my fingers punching the keys on my computer. Stained purple from a day of pressing Alexander Valley Zinfandel, I realize that harvest no longer comes but once a year.