Let's talk about wine!

Let’s talk about wine!. As I said before making wine is cooking and cooking starts in the garden or in the vineyard in this case.
Laughing Raven is situated just west of a large, steep hill. This location provides less sun and lower temperatures (sun rises on the east and it is eclipsed by the hill until later in the morning.) At the same time the property is located on ancient river run (at about 9 feet deep, pebbles and sand) with a cover of very rich organic soil.
Vines are very vigorous plants. They grow fast and wild if not pruned regularly. Sauvignon Blanc is of especial aggressive growth (Sauvignon means small savage!) and in this location –left to its own means- the “little beast” would cover the place in no time.
It might sound like having big plants with tons of branches and many clusters of juicy berries would be a desirable thing but alas it is not so.
When a vine grows on its own as much as it can and has all the enzymes and other components flowing in its system to do so, it becomes very much like a weed. As it does so its berries are tainted with the color and taste of a weed. A herbaceous, “green” taste. Just to give you an example of green taste you can try one of those shakes with small wheat plants.
I really like the citrus mineral balance of a good sauvignon so I set to listen to what the experts had to say.
My neighbor is Mark Lyon and we have become very good friends since I moved to his neighborhood. He owns “Cloverdale Enterprises” a beautiful 100+ acre Bordeaux style vineyard next to the Laughing Raven. Mark is also a winemaker at Sebastiani Vineyards and Winery. He has so much experience in this business that I have only to hang around and I constantly learn.
So I listened …..
“That lot looks ideal for a white variety ….” He said …”Which one do you like?”
Well truth was I never had thought of a favorite white wine but …I drank a lot and I thought a lot about tastes…. Then I drank some more and I came up with Sauvignon Blanc. Chardonnay is nice but it is too mineral for me. I like “Sauv” Blanc laced with tastes of French Oak and a tiny bit of effervescence …Mmm…
So “Sauv” Blanc it was ….
And then came the story of the clones and the rootstock and the trellis and the water and the pruning ….