Works and Days under the Ancient Oak

Sommelier tasting with winemaker Greg La Follette

Fri, 29 May 2020 00:14:09 GMT

We gathered 60+ sommeliers from around the country, each with four wines we had sent them, and spent an hour and a half tasting and talking together.

For those of you who were with us, enjoy this review. For others, here's Greg getting pretty jazzed by the collective passions of these 60+ amazing wine professionals.

For all who are involved in getting wines into the glasses of enthusiastic wine consumers, you have our sincere gratitude.

Neighborhoods of the Russian River Valley

Wed, 27 May 2020 15:17:15 GMT

Just as a city has a certain character, but within the city individual neighborhoods have characters of their own, so it is with the “neighborhoods” of the Russian River Valley.

Our winemaker, Greg La Follette, was part of a small group of winegrowers and winemakers who gathered to taste wines from throughout the Russian River Valley to begin to delineate some of the characters of wines made from grapes from different areas of the Russian River Valley. This initiative has matured and is continuing to develop.

Winemaker Greg La Follette on Russian River Valley Grapegrowers and Native Yeast Fermentation - VIDEO

Fri, 08 May 2020 23:16:07 GMT

Standing on the Nurmi Vineyard in the Laguna Ridge neighborhood of the Russian River Valley, our winemaker, Greg La Follette, talks about the value of grape growers who live on and farm their own land, and also about native yeast fermentation -- which forms the heart of Ancient Oak Cellars' wines.

Professional Sommelier -- otherworldly being, or down-to-earth wine friend?

Sat, 17 Aug 2019 23:25:52 GMT

featuring Ryan Baldwin and Nicole Alonso of Margeaux Brasserie in Chicago

This is part of an ongoing focus on professionals in the wine world who we love! Sometimes Winemakers or Somms or Wine Directors seem like they’re in some other world - completely inaccessible to mere mortals.

But in this series we will share the amazing wine knowledge combined with down-to-earth nature of some of our favorite wine professionals.

Here we introduce you to two Somms at Margeaux Brasserie, a beautiful Michael Mina property located inside the Waldorf Astoria in downtown Chicago: Ryan Baldwin, lead Sommelier, and Nicole Alonso, Sommelier.

We (Greg and Melissa) have been to visit and chat and drink bubbles and then cocktails, and we have been fortunate enough to spend relaxed non-work time with these two great folks both in Chicago and in Sonoma County. We asked questions, and here’s what we got!

Was there an "ah-ha wine" -- one that really turned you on to wine?

Nicole : “I didn't have a specific “ah-ha” wine, but definitely a region -- Bordeaux.”

Ryan : “I don’t remember having any single wine that made me more interested in the wine world. I have had some “ah-ha moments” though. I was living in Paris with my wife, and we were living on grad student budgets, so the wine we drank was of very poor quality. We would go to the grocery store (Carrefour, still my favorite) down the street and get basic bottles of “Bordeaux” or “Cotes du Rhône” for around 2 euro. Then we became good friends with an American couple and they would invite us over for dinner. They were older -- she was the lead singer of an American band that was very popular in Europe in the 80’s -- and they were definitely more well-off than we were. They would open wines that were absolutely amazing. I was too young to really appreciate the wine and afterwards we would return home to our 2 euro Carrefour bottles. But that’s where my “ah-ha moment” really happened: I learned about quality vs. quantity and why you need to pay a bit more for a bottle of wine, unless you’re just looking for a cheap buzz…”

What wine(s) (or other beverage) do you drink at home with family and friends?

Ryan : “When I’m at home, I’ll generally have a beer or two before having some wine. Usually something simple, generally lager based. When I get together with friends we most definitely are drinking wine. I love Champagne and Chardonnay. Old world is preferred, but I do love me some California.”

Nicole : “I have a whole list.... Dad = Merlot/Scotch; Mom = Prosecco/Cosmo's; Sister = pretty much any wine/Margaritas; Husband = Malbec/Miller Light; Grandparents = whatever is open and only about an ounce; Most of my friends = are in the industry, soooo it’s whatever is available ;)”

How did you get started in the restaurant business? How did you get started as a Somm?

Ryan : “I started in this business in high school. I worked at a diner (Bakers Square) a few miles from my house. Running food, bussing tables, hosting, cashier, and serving were all parts of the gig. I continued working as a waiter after I moved downtown, while I went to college. Eventually I found myself working as a waiter at a Steakhouse with an extensive wine list and a Sommelier. I seemed to be the dumbest person in the room when it came to anything wine related, so I started reading books and educating myself.”

Nicole : “I've always been in the industry. I started when I was 15 at McDonalds, made the climb to more up-scale restaurants, and then moved to Chicago. My first job in Chicago had a Sommelier, Marlon Paxtor. My wine knowledge back then was red, white and pink. So of course I didn’t know what a Somm was. He took me to my first wine tasting, which was the current release of Grand Crus of Bordeaux. I fell in love with a world I had no grasp on. So I decided to pursue it.”

Are there any restauranteurs or somms or books or podcasts that have been important to you in your restaurant/wine education?

Nicole : “Yes, three women in particular: Alexandria Sarovich, Reena Patel, and Cassie Sakai. They believed in me even when I didn’t. For that, I will always be thankful. I love you ladies! And Ryan Baldwin: for always being down-to-earth as well as someone to look up to, and for giving me an opportunity to work alongside him. Finally, I am super visual with my studies, so if you haven't seen Wine Folly.com, you should -- it’s a really cool site.”

Ryan : “The first person that I attribute my passion to wine is the gentleman who was working as the Sommelier at the first Chicago Steakhouse I waited tables in. His name is Blake Leja, and he was kind enough to take the time to educate me when I was just a pup. When I was studying for my certified Sommelier exam, he would set up blinds for me and then give me real-time feedback. The second person is Master Sommelier Fernando Beteta. Fernando was kind enough to invite me to blind taste with him a couple years ago, and we have been meeting regularly ever since. He preaches the art of humble, and is one of the best mentors anyone in this industry could ask for.”

Do you have any stories (real or imagined) about Greg LaFollette?

Ryan : “I met Greg previously, although he probably doesn’t remember. I had just passed my introductory Sommelier exam and was working at a steakhouse in Chicago as the Sommelier. It was my first ever Somm job and I was meeting with winemakers and reps and learning everything I could, while trying to play the role of educated wine buyer... Greg came in and we tasted through his lineup; I instantly knew that this man had more wine knowledge in his little finger than any winemaker I had met previously.”

Nicole : “I have heard that there was a bunny suit incident, but I can’t find anyone with photos…”

What is special about the Chicago dining scene? Any shout-outs you want to give to other restaurants/wine lists/Somms??

Ryan : “Chicago remains a major player in the international food scene. I think we’re one of the best food cities in the world for fine dining and higher-end casual fare. The city also has a strong supportive Sommelier community. “All ships rise with the tide” is the mindset. Andrew Algren at The Chicago Athletic Association Hotel has a strong wine program. He’s a lover of all things Riesling and I use his list as a study tool for relevant German and Austrian producers. Aaron McManus at Oriole has a fantastic wine program. The restaurant is a tasting menu concept, and his pairings are on point. He is definitely a force behind their 2 Michelin stars. Matt Sussman at Table, Donkey, & Stick has the Tuesday night industry crowd locked down. Terroir Tuesday is a weekly event that showcases glasses of unique wines at a discount. Generally vintage Champagne or small production wines; it’s always filled with restaurant professionals. Outside of Chicago, for those of you in the Santa Monica area, be sure to check out the tasting menu at Dialogue, which is an 18 seat restaurant by Chef Dave Beran and Beverage Director Jordon Sipperly. If Los Angeles had Michelin Stars, this place would certainly have a couple.”

Do you have education or certification or awards in the wine world? Tell us about them.

Nicole : “Well, in the last few years I placed 2nd in Somm Madness. It was surreal, as my goal had been to not embarrass myself and get knocked out first round. Haha! I ended up almost winning -- still can’t believe it! However, I am going for the top spot next year, so keep an eye out! I also placed 1st in SevenFifty's Supertaster's contest and then 2nd in Geja's blind competition.”

Ryan : “I am currently a Certified Sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers, and I hope to pass the Advanced exam in the next year or so. I have come close to passing, but I still need some fine-tuning.”

What goals do you have or experiences you hope to have in a wine world?

Ryan : “My goals are simple. I just want to be the best beverage professional I can be, day in and day out. I want to inspire others the way that my mentors inspire me. I also want to be a good father and husband, and I want to make my family proud.”

Nicole : “I would love to continue on as Wine Director one day. I want to stay relaxed with wine; it can be intimidating, as I remember well, so whatever I take on, I want to keep a warmth to my presence in the wine world.”

Anything else we should know about the daily life of a Somm? Is it as glamorous as it seems?!?

Nicole : “So, my position with Margeaux is a pretty big deal for me. This is my first time having a say in a wine list, being a buyer, and everything that follows. It’s definitely a full day, but I love it! Tasting is pretty much a quarter of the job; it’s also keeping up the list, education, management of projects, inventory, and learning new ways of navigating the restaurant day-to-day.”

Ryan : “I love the fact that my days are never the same and that I am always learning new things! But the life of a Sommelier isn’t all fine wine and parties! The hours are long, the work is difficult, and you have to be comfortable spending time away from your family. A good beverage program is one that makes money for the restaurant, and still makes the guests feel like they are getting something of value in return.”

If I am asked to select the wine at a restaurant, can you give me some advice for the following situations:

-- with a bunch of friends who are looking for an evening of lively conversation?

Ryan : “Cru Beaujolais. It’s super drinkable, and never expensive. Beaujolais is not a fussy wine, and it embodies that “lively conversation” vibe.”

Nicole : “Bubbles! It’s an excellent starter to a dinner and pairs with a bunch of items on the menu!”

-- with my somewhat intimidating boss who likes his steaks medium rare and his wines expensive?

Nicole : “Go with that Opus One! It has such a history and is sure to impress him!”

Ryan : “Old Bordeaux of a strong vintage. Or 2007 Napa Cab - specifically Oakville or Howell Mountain. 2007 seems to be the “intimidating boss” vintage in Napa.”

-- with the person I think I want to spend the rest of my life with?

Ryan : “Champagne! (Duh!). Mono cru, specifically Bouzy or Ambonnay. Single-vineyard if you can get it; definitely vintage. I love Champagne!”

Nicole : “I recommend you get something you both enjoy. That shows that you will work together for those years to come.”

-- with my drab uncle from Duluth?

Nicole : “Malort. Haha! Chicago peeps will get this -- and if you haven't tried it, get a shot for that next dinner with your drab uncle!”

Ryan : “How about a 6 pack of PBR or a hoppy “session IPA” from one of Chicago’s small breweries. Begyle Brewing, or Half Acre Beer Co. Those are legit.”

-- with my god-daughter as she begins her wine education?

Ryan : “I would preach the gospel of Puligny or Chassagne. Show her what great wine is and should be. Then let her go back and drink her 2 euro Carrefour wine in the hopes of inspiring her to be a hospitality-driven Chicago Sommelier…”

WOW - we hope you enjoyed this as much as we did! What great folks!!! Next time you’re in Chicago, stop into Margeaux Brasserie and say hello from us. As you can tell, Ryan and Nicole will be very thoughtful and generous guides for your dining experience.

Vine Propagation for new vineyard planting

Fri, 31 May 2019 00:33:31 GMT

...continued work to replant Siebert Ranch vineyards

This week we took a field trip and visited Novavine Nursery to learn more about the process of grafting and growing new grapevines. We got to see the rest of the vines that we will be starting to plant in about four weeks. Although the approximately 13,000 vines that we have in this greenhouse seems like a lot of vines -- and a daunting amount to plant -- they are a mere drop in the bucket here. And this is greenhouse 5 -- so god knows how many vines they have growing at this point!

The plants in the greenhouse are those that were grafted a few months ago, as described in a previous blog . Since that initial process, the graft union (between the rootstock and the scion wood) was dipped in a wax to seal and protect it, and the whole thing was planted in special tubes and placed in the nursery.

Most of the plants have "budded out" -- which pushes open the wax and reveals growing leaves. A small percentage of those that have not budded yet will not make it, but some are just a bit behind.

Not all the growth is happening above ground. In fact, the growth of the roots is quite impressive. Novavine's special growing tubes encourage root growth. Then the hole at the bottom "air prunes" the roots -- stopping them from growing down, which encourages them to form lots of laterals. This means that when the vines are ready to plant, they'll have a robust root system in place.

Ancient Oak Cellars Fire Recovery - how you can help!

Fri, 03 May 2019 15:15:17 GMT

...and get some great wine at the same time!

As you may know, our home vineyard, Siebert Ranch, which has been in our family for three generations, was wiped out in the 2017 wildfires. We lost our house, barns, and -- in some ways hardest of all -- our beautiful Pinot Noir vineyard.

In the 19 months since the fires, we have done a huge amount of work toward our recovery and rebuilding. But there is still a huge amount of work to do.

The most exciting news is that next week -- one year and seven months to the day since the fires -- we will be planting the first new vines of the new Siebert Ranch vineyard.

We often get asked, "What can I do to help you?" Well, we will have a few planting parties. Probably in July, so mark your calendars and let me know if you're interested.

But for now, we'd love to have you buy some Ancient Oak Cellars wine!

We've put together a few special offers that are specifically targeted as "Fire Recovery" wines.

The first is a vertical of Siebert Ranch Pinot: one bottle each of vintages 2007 through 2014, and four bottles of our reserve Pinot (called Alcman) that has a significant amount of Siebert Ranch Pinot in it as well. We are offering that for $750 for the case of 12 bottles.

The second special Siebert Ranch wine offering is a case of Rosé of Pinot made from the Siebert Ranch vines in 2018. Although the vineyard was almost completely killed, we were able to go on an "Easter egg hunt" (as winemaker Greg La Follette puts it) to find plants that had produced some grapes, and pick them the day before the big D8 bulldozer came to rip out the vines. We were on a schedule (dictated by the schedule of the D8 operator), so had to pick these grapes early, and therefore made a Rosé. This is the last wine we will have from the original Siebert Ranch. We are offering a pre-sale (it will be ready to get to you in mid-June) of a case of 12 bottles for $400.

If you want to buy either (or both) of these cases of wine, please visit our online store ; if you have questions, please contact Melissa at melissa@ao.wine.

Thank you for your ongoing support of Ancient Oak Cellars' family-farmed wines. We couldn't do this without you.

Again, thanks for you support. Please share this with friends who might be interested to know what we're up to these days, and who might want to get some of the special Siebert Ranch wines.

And continue to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Pouring wine at the Pomona College Alumni Vintner's Tasting

Fri, 26 Apr 2019 19:18:10 GMT

wine from our vineyard, which was destroyed in the 2017 wildfires

I am honored to have been asked to pour wine at the upcoming Pomona College Alumni Vintner Wine Tasting event, to be held on Friday, May 3rd from 5 to 6:30pm. I will be bringing wine made from the ranch & vineyard that has been in Ken's family for 70 years, and which was destroyed in the 2017 wildfires (as well as wine made from other vineyards that were not affected by the fires).

Fortunately for us, we had picked all of the grapes in 2017 before the fires, and our wines were made and stored at other sites, so our wine in barrel and wine in bottle are all safe. However, we face a monumental task ahead -- in large part because, unlike most vineyards, ours was destroyed by the intense heat of the fire when it hit us.

We are grateful for the support of our many communities -- including the community of Pomona College, which brought Ken and me together all those many years ago, and which continues to support our family in many ways.

this article was published in the Winter 2019 Pomona College Alumni magazine

More than a year after their home and vineyard went up in flames during the wine-country wildfires of 2017, Ken ’88 and Melissa ’87 Moholt-Siebert are busy rebuilding and replanting.

February 4, 2019 by Alissa Greenberg

The night of Oct. 8, 2017, was unusually warm, so Ken and Melissa Moholt-Siebert left the windows of their home near Santa Rosa, California, open to the breeze much later than they usually would have. Their farmhouse was perched on 31 acres, including pasture for their modest sheep flock and 15 acres of vineyards for their winery, Ancient Oak Cellars. Its redwood beam ceilings and a stonework fireplace hand-laid by Ken’s grandfather made it perfect for cozy late-night movie sessions. Tonight the air was much warmer than the usual cool evenings typical in Sonoma; before bed, they watched a documentary about Leonard Nimoy and enjoyed the breeze.

Around 10:15, the scent of wood smoke started to drift in through the windows, but Ken and Melissa didn’t worry, imagining it could have been from some distant neighbor’s barbecue. But when the smell didn’t go away, Melissa called the police non-emergency number to ask if she should be thinking about evacuating, but the police could offer no definite advice.

Melissa fell asleep before the movie ended, but Ken stayed up thinking about the Hanley fire, which had rampaged through the area half a century before but missed the property. The wind was starting to kick up in strange, fitful gusts, flinging pine needles against the roof. Ken turned on his computer and, as was sometimes his habit, composed a poem—this one about “vanguards of embers and palls of smoke” and his grandfather wetting down the grass around the house, just in case. “Outside the sheep/Are dead silent—not a clank of the bell—but/The crickets strum and I mark the sound of sirens,” he wrote.

Just after midnight as he was finishing his poem, Ken heard a knock on the door. It was a neighbor, there to tell him and there was a fire in Fountaingrove, about three-quarters of a mile away. That was when Ken woke Melissa up. “You need to grab some stuff,” he told her. “We might have to run.”

Ken set about doing everything he could think of that might save the property if the worst were to happen. He drove to the other side of the property to turn on his agriculture pump. He grabbed a broom and got on the roof to brush the needles off. He cleaned out the gutters and tried to cut down a limb from a nearby tree that was leaning toward the house.

Meanwhile, Melissa was racing around the house gathering up what few valuables she could and packing the car. She knew, though, that there were some things she couldn’t bring even if she wanted to: not the sheep, scattered in the pasture, or the piano. And not the ancient oak down the hill in front of the house—the one she and Ken couldn’t fit their arms around, the one that was said to have predated Spanish settlement, the one that was the namesake for their winery.

There was no moon. At first, as he worked, Ken eyed the dark red glow beyond the hills to the east. By the time he was done, fire had circled around to the north and towered above the hillside in between; a sudden gust brought embers racing toward the house. One of them landed in the pasture up the hill, and before Ken could quench it, a backdraft from the south blew the flame into a wall of fire. Debris was falling all around; the drip lines in the vineyard had started to burn. Flames had begun to lick the side of the barn by the time Ken and Melissa drove away. The sound of the smoke detector inside their house followed them down the road.

Some 15 months later, on a December afternoon that’s blustery and dotted with clouds, Ken and Melissa show me around what’s left of their home. A visitor who doesn’t look too closely might never guess that a fire happened here. The hills, just greening up with winter rains, are speckled with straw that looks charmingly pastoral; a creek runs cheerfully through a little dell above the road. But the stumps of burnt trees and the blackened street sign at the front of the property tell a different story. The straw is there to prevent erosion in the newly tilled soil where the vineyard used to be. What looks like a gravel driveway branching off the little road through the center of the property is actually the spot where the farmhouse once stood.

Ken tells me about his earliest memories visiting his grandfather, back when the vineyard was only a sheep ranch and he’d come up during vacations to help his grandfather run it. “I always looked forward to coming up to the farm,” he says. “I enjoyed the physicality of it.” After the wool was collected in burlap sacks, it was his job to jump up and down on the fleeces to compact them. He would end the day sweaty and covered in lanolin, ready to hop into the back of his grandfather’s truck for a ride to the nearby lake.

Ken and Melissa met not long after those days, at Pomona in 1985 in a Human Sexuality class. People always get a kick out of that, he says wryly. She liked that he was something of a Renaissance man who studied classics, wrote poetry and attended feminist lectures. He admired her intelligence, tenacity and considerate nature. After graduation, they moved to Portland, Oregon, where he became an architect and she worked in a research lab. They had two kids, Austin and Lucy, who grew up tromping through the creek and running in the vineyard; by then the property had been planted with 10,000 grapevines.

When Ken’s grandparents died and the funding for Melissa’s lab began to ebb, they decided to take ownership of the farm, keeping the grapevines and opening Ancient Oak Cellars as a companion business. With help from farmhand Arnulfo Becerra, who had been working alongside Ken’s grandfather for decades, they learned to coax award-winning wines from the land. They continued steadily gaining experience and momentum until the night of the fire, when the flames destroyed the vineyard and everything around it entirely.

After the fire, Ken was the first to return to the property. Melissa was away on a wine sales trip that was now more critical than ever. Ken found every structure reduced to a thick layer of ash, occasionally interrupted by liquefied evidence of the recent inferno. The cast iron in the piano had split in half, and its glazing had poured out through the bottom. A pallet of wine that was set out for labeling had melted, the bottles transformed into glassy puddles only a few inches high. The steel barn roof had heated red hot and flopped over. Aluminum from Ken’s truck had pooled downhill from its charred hull.

Today, Ken points out where the barn used to be—here was where the aluminum pooled, here was where the two domesticated geese and the mean rooster lived—and tells me there was little time for grief or anger in the face of such overwhelming destruction. Instead, the natural pragmatism he shares with Melissa helped them get through the first difficult months. They became “professional refugees,” as she puts it, dividing up the enormous labor necessary for rebuilding. “My new full-time job is insurance paperwork; Ken’s is being a contractor,” she says. “Maybe it’s fortunate that that’s the kind of people we are, the kind that just tackle the next project.”

The grieving process has thus been slow, with sorrow arriving in spurts. The first step for Melissa was seeing and accepting the reality of the burnt property; that really hurt. When FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers came to help with cleanup, removing some 130 truckfuls of debris, that hurt, too. And when it became clear that the vines weren’t going to recover, that was a new, entirely different kind of pain.

Now, she says, the gentle rise of the naked, grassy hills is almost beautiful. That, in a way, feels less difficult than before. “But then,” she says, gesturing at the empty fields, “you start thinking about what isn’t here.”

After our tour, Ken and Melissa sit at a little table set up by the creek, under a canopy of oaks that has recovered heroically. “The native trees did OK,” Ken notes; that includes the ancient oak, which continues its reign over the vineyard as the land struggles to recover. Finding out the oak had survived was a bright spot in all that destruction. Maybe it meant they could, too.

Ken points out an old redwood grape stake that appears to grow out of the base of one of the oaks—the result, his grandfather always told him, of a crow alighting on the stake and dropping an acorn on the ground. The sounds of the countryside underpin our conversation: the chirp of birds and frogs; the soft baaing from the herd of sheep, diminished after the fire but still here. Nearby, some of the 3,000 modern metal grape stakes and 121 miles of wire Ken, Melissa and Arnulfo removed by hand in the last year sit in piles near a half-constructed building that will one day be a new barn.

Ken is building that barn, although he occasionally hires help; aside from the Corps of Engineers, he’s had to do most of the recovery work himself. The permitting process has been especially difficult. Few vineyards were affected the way theirs was, so no methods of streamlining have been put in place, as they often are in areas of acute destruction. In fact, in the case of most Santa Rosa vineyards, the rows of vines acted as firebreaks, mitigating damage. But the speed and ferocity of the fire, the distance of the vines away from the neighboring houses and the topography combined to make the Ancient Oak vineyard a terrible exception.

Even so, Ken and Melissa’s insurance, although extensive, did not cover the vineyards. Instead, Ken stretches the assistance he’s received from disaster recovery funds and farm assistance programs as far as he can by doing much of the initial construction work himself and hiring crews directly to help with more-industrial tasks. Along with wine they had stored off-site and some Ancient Oak vintages made with grapes from other vineyards, that strategy has helped Ken and Melissa limp along financially as they reconstruct their lives.

The first step after the last destroyed vine and blackened stake had been removed was to use an enormous tractor with 5-foot claws to tear through the ground of the vineyard and to add nutrients to improve soil fertility—including, Ken notes wryly, wood ash. After that, Ken and Melissa ordered 15,000 new vines, which will arrive next spring; they are taking advantage of a bad situation to increase their crop, using some extra space where the old barn used to be.

“One thing I think is hard to understand is just how long the recovery period is,” Melissa says, looking around the property and counting. Out of some 13 neighbors whose homes were damaged or destroyed, there are only a few houses under construction more than a year later. In 2019, their new vines will be planted and grow waist high; the next year those vines will need trellises. Finally, in 2021, Ken and Melissa will harvest their first small postfire crop.

But the new harvest is part of a silver lining they both recognize here: the chance to remake the farm on their own terms. Ken’s grandfather knew and loved the land, but he wasn’t a grape grower by trade. And the farmhouse was certainly cozy, but it’s not the house they would have designed for themselves. Now they will be able to update the vineyard, bringing to bear all the wine expertise 2019 has to offer. And they’ll be able to design a house for themselves. Melissa fantasizes about French doors leading out onto a patio with expansive views.

At a recent wine club dinner in Ohio, someone asked her if she had thought about cashing out: deciding not to replant or rebuild and selling instead. She shakes her head, gesturing to the creek, the oaks, the hills. Yes, the first year back has been emotionally and physically challenging, she says. For a while, they stayed in a friend’s house in town. Then another friend loaned them a pop-up camper, allowing them to camp out on their own property, showering in the open. This winter, they’re still camping, in a slightly improved structure, showering at the YMCA and eating at restaurants that are struggling to keep going after a catastrophic postfire tourist season. But still: “We came here, leaving perfectly respectable lives in Oregon, because this land is a piece of Ken’s heart,” she says. “And this hasn’t changed that.”

In some ways, Ken admits, he has enjoyed this time—even having to sleep exposed to the elements. He’s come to love the proximity to nature, the frogs, the owls, the night sounds. “Melissa and I were talking recently, and I said, ‘Maybe we just don’t build a house,’” he says. He imagines more nights under the Sonoma moon or, in case of rain, in the barn.

Melissa looks at her husband across the table and raises her eyebrows, taking in the half-finished structure. “Maybe this could be our summer house,” she replies.

Beneath the Ancient Oak

Wed, 24 Apr 2019 17:11:54 GMT

how oaks have sex -- and other interesting factoids

In spring, a single oak tree produces both male flowers and small female flowers. When a plant bears both male and female flowers it's said to monoecious.

The yellow, wormlike items in the picture are catkins, more technically known as aments. Catkins are clusters, or inflorescences, of male flowers. Each of the "bumps" on the catkins is a male flower consisting of a bract (a highly modified leaf), a lobed calyx and some pollen-producing stamens.

Once the stamens have released their pollen into the air, the entire catkin will fall from the tree. You have likely seen thousands of such spent catkins littering a sidewalk beneath an oak tree early in the spring. Other trees producing catkins include willows and birch.

On a flowering oak twig you have to look close to see the female flowers -- the future acorns. The above photo shows a much-magnified female flower. Actually, mainly you just see the reddish 3-lobed stigma. Below the stigma there's an egg-shaped ovary, camouflaged so well that it blends with the fuzzy petiole beneath it, and the fuzzy stem just to its left.

An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus, of the beech family, Fagaceae.

There are approximately 600 extant species of oaks. The genus Quercus is native to the Northern Hemisphere, and includes deciduous and evergreen species extending from cool temperate to tropical latitudes in the Americas, Asia, Europe, and North Africa.

North America has the largest number of oak species, with approximately 90 occurring in the United States, and 160 species endemic to Mexico. The second greatest center of oak diversity is China, which has approximately 100 species.

The fruit of the oak tree is an acorn; each acorn contains one seed (rarely two or three) and takes 6–18 months to mature, depending on their species. The acorns and leaves contain tannic acid, which helps to guard from fungi and insects.

Oaks produce more than 2000 acorns every year, but only one in 10,000 acorns will develop into oak tree.

A lot of animals (pig, deer, squirrels, mice, ducks…) feed on acorns.

In 2004 the oak was officially declared as the National Tree of the United States, symbolizing the nation's strength.

Oak is national plant of many other countries including England, France, Germany, Latvia, Poland and Serbia.

Oak leaves are used in army ranking: silver leaf indicates Lt. Colonel while gold leaf indicates Lt. Commander.

One of the oldest Britain's coins (six pence) has an oak engraved on one of the surfaces.

Most species of oaks live over 200 years. There are certain oaks that can survive over thousand years. Oak trees planted during the reign of King John managed to survive 800 years and the reign of 35 other British rulers.

Production of acorns starts when an oak is 20 to 50 years old.

For many centuries, abnormal outgrowths of oak tissue, known as 'galls', were used as the primary ingredient in the preparation of manuscript ink.

Symbol of hope and life

Sun, 21 Apr 2019 19:48:34 GMT

...in a precious Easter decoration

Precious little remained for us to find as we sifted through what remained of our house and barns following the wildfires that ripped through our ranch/vineyard/home on early morning of October 9th, 2017.

When I moved to the ranch that had been Ken's family gathering spot for several generations, we became custodians not only of this beautiful land, but also Siebert family heirlooms.

The large upper barns, had served as a poultry barn in the 1920's, and housed a family of barn owls every year in a nest box that Ken built, and had stored hay for the 100+ sheep that Grandpa Henry once ran on this and several hundred acres of neighboring land. For us, it was also where we stored decorations for Christmas, and Easter, and St. Patrick's Day, and Halloween and Fourth of July and Thanksgiving.

Holidays have always been big in my family. My mom and grandma and aunts all have amazing decorations on their tables and fireplace mantles and front porches. Celebrating the special days to remind us that every day is worth celebrating. And any excuse to gather the family around the big dining room table is one to grab and hold on to. You never know if you'll all be able to gather next time.

So it is with great joy that I place this ceramic egg on my Easter table today. It is one of very few things that I found intact in the ruins of our house and barns.

Sending love to my mom, who gave this to us, and thanks to my mother-in-law, who is bringing an Easter feast up from her lovely Berkeley kitchen to share with us around the table in the little rustic shelter that Ken and I are calling home these days.

Celebrate life. Hug those you love. Celebrate hope and signs of new life all around you. Happy Easter. Chag Pesach semeach.

Replanting Siebert Ranch: grafting new vines

Fri, 05 Apr 2019 16:12:27 GMT

How are new vines propagated and prepared for planting?

Siebert Ranch -- including its 15+ acres of vines -- was destroyed in the October 2017 wildfires. We are on the long path to recovery. Here we will describe some of the steps we are taking to be able to replant the vineyards that were first planted by Ken's grandpa Henry.

Budding vines (commonly called "grafting") is a propagation technique that joins a shoot system (called scion) of one cultivar or species of grape on to the root system (called rootstock) of another. When cut to fit tightly next to one another, the cambium layer of the two can fuse to make one plant.

Rootstocks are all resistant to phylloxora (the root louse that destroyed much of European vineyards in the late 19th century. Because phylloxera is native to North America, the native grape species are at least partially resistant. By contrast, the European wine grape Vitis vinifera is very susceptible to the insect. So currently used rootstocks are all derived from phylloxera-resistant North American vines.)

In addition, different rootstocks are more selected for planting in dry and rocky or wet clay soils, and other such qualities.

We are having our vines budded for us at Novavine. The process is that the budwood is cut to single buds and then grafted with an omega cutter to create a jigsaw joint between the two woods (the rootstock and the scion).

After this, they are stored in warm, humid conditions until a good callus forms at the joint. Sanitation and sterilization are critical, because all sorts of fungus, especially botrytis, can grow in these conditions. So oxygenated water baths are used regularly, plus at keys times treatments with hot water baths (170 deg F for 5 minutes), sprays with a beneficial fungus that tends to repress bad fungi, dilute chlorine washes, etc.

This callus operation takes maybe three weeks. After that, they are set out in little pots to grow in a greenhouse for three months before being delivered to the client (us) to plant in the field (these are called green potted vines). OR, they are put out in a plot in Yolo County to grow for a year, then are dug up in winter for planting the FOLLOWING year (these are called dormant vines). We are using vines prepared both ways.

Late last week we paid visit to Novavine, where our vines are being propagated, to see our dormant vines and to see the budding being done for our green potted vines.

These last couple of pictures show vines with lovely healthy roots growing out in all directions that were grafted a year ago, sent out to Yolo County for a growing season, and then dug up and returned to cold storage. These are Chardonnay that we will plant in about a month. They will still be dormant, but should take off quickly.

The vines that were just budded will get to us as green potted plants in mid-July for planting. We plan to have a few planting parties, so let us know if you want to be a part of that. Many hands make light work! And you can enjoy a bottle of Siebert Ranch Pinot or Siebert Ranch Chardonnay in the years to come, with the satisfaction of knowing that you helped make it possible...

Making wine is like making music

Sat, 23 Mar 2019 16:52:27 GMT

or "What I have learned from folk musicians, Burgundian grandpas, Beethoven, and Walt Disney's Fantasia..."

My first major in college was music. I never finished that degree, and instead got degrees in plant biology, chemistry, and food science and technology. But from my early studies one of the things that I keep with me to this day is that making wine can be very much like making music.

There's basically two ways of learning music: one way is by going to the Juilliard School of music or something like that, where you learn the language or the science of music. You learn about call and response, timbre, meter, pitch, tone -- those are the things that go into you. What comes out then that you synthesize is the art. And winemaking is very much the same way: you learn about the language or the science of wine. You learn about tannins, pH, acid, plant physiology, yeast cell biology -- those are the things that go to you. What you synthesize and what comes out is fine wine, artfully made.

Now most of winemakers in the US have to take this approach of careful study to making wine because we don't have the advantage of having generation after generation having made wine in our own backyard. Just as traditional folk musicians often have music kind of coming forward organically from having heard and followed music sitting at their grandpappy’s knee, so have Burgundian winemakers followed the lead of generations past. For example you might have a little kid in Beaune who's maybe six years old sitting at the breakfast table table eating Cheerios or a croissant or whatever it was that they were eating, and listening to her grandpa talk to her dad. And the grandpa says, “Oh this year is a lot like 1946, and this is what I did because my dad had said that is what works in this situation.” And the budding-young winemaker is kind of absorbing that stuff by osmosis. Well, most of us here in the New World just don't have that kind of multi-generational experience with grape growing, so it's up to us to study hard and really understand our medium, to help to overcome the great advantage that so many generations of European winegrowers have had.

I like to construct my wine the same way that I might construct a piece of music. What I like to do is have a delightful, intriguing aroma to draw you in, then a little tension when entering the mouth and a seamless transition to the mid-palate, and then resolution and a lingering aftertaste. I liken this to for instance Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony where the first three movements are like a babbling brook crossing a meadow filled with riotous flowers and dancing youth, but with layers of orchestral texture formed by repeated motifs, harmonies, and intertwining voices. Then in the fourth movement it moves into a minor key, and tension builds almost unbearably until you reach resolution and release in the final movement, with lingering, repeating, songs of thanksgiving and praise.

Or in an example of fantastic cinematic and musical building and release of tension, think of the brilliant interplay in Stokowski and Walt Disney's Fantasia -- this is how I look to create my wines.

Lots of people who are passionate about wine are also passionate about music, so I hope we'll hear from some folks with their experiences learning or making music and/or wine.

Process of vineyard re-plant following the October, 2017 wildfires

Fri, 15 Mar 2019 14:19:56 GMT

...the first 17 months

The fire was October 9, 2017.

When we returned to the property some weeks later, the vines were scorched, but we hoped they might recover.

In February, 2018 we reached out to a nursery to locate new vines in sufficient quantity for a replant, if necessary.

In March 2018 we brought in vineyard expert Rhonda Smith and sampled several rows (when sap should have been pushing) and determined that -- despite the beautiful green grass and hopeful vistas -- the vines were mostly very dry to dead.

Thus, we confirmed an order with the nursery for 15,000 new vines.

We pulled out all the trellis cross-arms, existing stakes, and 11 miles of trellis wire, then brought in large equipment to bulldoze all of the vines, and then added many truckloads of amendments (compost, lime, and -- ironically -- wood ash) and used a D-8 to deep rip the soil.

We then smoothed everything, planted a cover crop, spread straw over all of the land, and installed redundant erosion control measures for extra safety. This was finished by October 15 in the upper parts, and November 15 in the lower. This was a huge job with many complications.

Now we are laying out the new vineyard. The narrow private road going through the private property is not straight, so we have to make adjustments to our rows to fit around the road and not waste land. The north property line is not parallel to the road, so that presents complications. Then there are things like trees, that we don't want to cut down, and power poles, which we can't.

The previous layout had some short "point rows" that were time consuming to spray, so we are aligning these with longer rows in adjacent blocks. The new layout will have about 15% more acreage. It will have 50% more vines due to slightly narrower row spacing and plant spacing in the rows. But it will have 15% fewer turns, due to improvements in alignment and elimination of very short rows, based upon our experience working with the prior vineyard.

Stay tuned for more as the saga continues to unfold...

Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate Awards 90+ scores to ALL of Ancient Oak Cellars’ Wines!

Sun, 10 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMT

“That’s more 90+ scores than I have received at one time ever before!” exclaims winemaker Greg La Follette Here are the scores that Lisa Perrotti-Brown, of Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, awarded Ancient Oak Cellars. If you have questions about release dates or allocations, please contact Melissa (melissa@ancientoakcellars.com) Appellation-series wines: 2016 Russian River Valley Chardonnay – 90 […]

“ That’s more 90+ scores than I have received at one time ever before! ” exclaims winemaker Greg La Follette

Here are the scores that Lisa Perrotti-Brown, of Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, awarded Ancient Oak Cellars.

If you have questions about release dates or allocations, please contact Melissa (melissa@ancientoakcellars.com)

Appellation-series wines:

2016 Russian River Valley Chardonnay – 90 points

“opening slowly to reveal lemon tart, white peach and melon scents with wafts of grapefruit peel and marzipan. Medium to full-bodied, the palate comes through with good citrus and stone fruit, marked by racy acid and a silken texture, finishing long”

Single-vineyard wines:

2016 Flyway Chardonnay – 92+ points

Reserve wines:

2016 Alcman Pinot noir – 94+ points (consistently our highest-scoring wine)

Neighborhoods of the Russian River Valley

Sat, 21 Jul 2018 23:58:00 GMT

Just as a city has a certain character, but within the city individual neighborhoods have characters of their own, so it is with the “neighborhoods” of the Russian River Valley. Farmers for generations have identified many of these regions, but in the last ten years or so the Russian River Valley Winegrowers have engaged in […]

Winemaker Greg La Follette has been instrumental in this endeavor. He and owner Melissa Moholt-Siebert recently attended a tasting of three Pinots from each of the five currently-described neighborhoods, with an all-star panel of winemakers: Ashley Hertzberg of Bacigalupi Vineyards, Jen Walsh of La Crema Winery, Eva Dehlinger of Dehlinger Winery, Theresa Heredia of Gary Farrell Winery, and Erica Stancliff of Furthermore Wines.

Below we provide detailed descriptions of the topography, soils, and aroma and flavor characters of each of the currently-described neighborhoods. At least one more neighborhood is being described, the Eastern Hills, and we are starting to examine the neighborhoods for other varietals, whereas to date we’ve been focusing on Pinot noir.

Vineyard Spotlight: Siebert Ranch

Sat, 21 Jul 2018 23:54:00 GMT

Siebert Ranch is the home vineyard for Ancient Oak Cellars. It is a 31 acre ranch just outside the northern boundary of Santa Rosa, and on the eastern edge of the Russian River Valley AVA, as the hills rise to the Mayacamas. In 1956, Henry and Elizabeth Siebert bought the property, which had once been a part of the San Miguel Rancho, owned by Marcus (Mark) West and his wife Guadelupe Vasquez, who was the niece of General Vallejo. The adobe for the rancho, and the school that they founded, were located less than two miles north/northwest.

In 1993, Grandpa Henry said to his good friend Bob, who was a vineyard advisor, “I want to plant grapes here. Will you help me?” Bob said, “Well Henry, you’re 80, and it takes a while to prepare and plant the land, and then at least 3 years to get a crop.” Henry said, “Well, what are we waiting for? We’d better stop talking and get to work then.”

Melissa, Ken, Austin, and Lucy Moholt-Siebert with Grandpa Henry, on Siebert Ranch

Henry and Elizabeth’s grandson Ken and his wife Melissa and their children visited often in those years, and learned from and helped Grandpa Henry. When Henry died, they took over the vineyard, started farming it, and moved to the old farmhouse. The kids grew up roaming the oak-studded hills, catching frogs in the creeks, and helping with sheep shearing or canning, or vineyard and cellar work — so now four generations of the Siebert/Moholt-Siebert family have lived and worked on this land.

Ken, Lucy, Austin, and Melissa Moholt-Siebert with the new Kubota Tractor, on Siebert Ranch

Early in the morning of October 9th, the Tubbs Fire ripped through Siebert Ranch, leaving little in its wake. What was easy to see was what was clearly lost; what had been spared was harder to determine. The house, barns, truck, and other equipment was clearly lost. Many trees (including the ancient oak) and the vines were standing, but their health was not clear. By spring of 2018 it became clear that most of the trees had survived, with the exception of some that had been close to the house. With those, we cut them down and had a mobile sawmill come cut them into planks that will be used as tables or in a new building, or even (in one case) a handmade guitar. The ancient oak and most of her sisters have survived. Our vineyard will have to be replanted.

We are now in the process of pulling out vineyard stakes, replacing fences, trenching for plumbing and electrical lines, repairing electrical panels, and many, many, many other tasks that constitute “rebuilding”. We plan to rebuild a house, although that project is taking the backseat to the work we need to do on the land.

We had harvested the Siebert Ranch Pinot (and all of our grapes for the vintage) before the fires, so we the 2017 is safely in barrel and will be bottled next spring. We have all other vintages in bottle. We will have to take 3 or more vintages off, and then our Siebert Ranch Pinot will return. More about our vineyard replanting plans another time.

Ancient Oak Cellars’ winemaker Greg La Follette’s enduring love affair with Chardonnay

Sat, 21 Jul 2018 23:53:00 GMT

I first started enjoying Chardonnay as a teenager because my dad was collecting a lot of wines and Chardonnay was essentially a brand-new varietal in California, only really being intensively worked on following the Judgment of Paris. My dad was actively seeking out all those guys like Randy Dunn, Jerry Luper, and Mike Grgich. So I had the opportunity to taste those wines at an early age and also see how they aged, because my dad laid down a lot of wine. What I saw there was that although they were beautiful early, many of them didn’t age so well. I knew from tasting classic Burgundian Chardonnays from my dad’s cellar that Chardonnay can be age-worthy, and that became a goal of mine. When I started thinking more seriously about winemaking, I thought of Chardonnay as being the perfect subject because it’s so much of a blank canvas on which you can paint your own creation.

I ended up doing a thesis that basically focused on Burgundian winemaking techniques such as bâttonage and sur lies aging. When I looked at California winemakers, one of the only people thinking this way was Dick Graff, who founded Chalone Vineyards. Dick gave me 64 barrels of Chardonnay to trial, and with that many individual trial points it was basically industrial scale — since at a time much of the work at UC Davis was being done in 5 gallon carboys. Another one of my research sites was at Simi with Zelma Long. And later I worked on with John Kongsgaard.

While doing my research, I got to meet Andre Tchelistcheff, and my life really was forever changed. So I continued my research into Chardonnay with Andre and some excellent vineyards he had planted early on in the Carneros region. Andre really wanted to learn a lot more about my baking and so I am embarked on a remarkable 3 years stint with Bealieu Vineyards to learn everything I would about the qualities of vineyards and what Andre call the Great Cabernet programs where we were really trying to do was tear apart what made great Cabernet and look at all the various different techniques that were being used around the world, which led me on an international west to look at both anaerobic and aerobic techniques in Chardonnay and Pinot noir as well as Cabernet wine making. Pinot scared the hell out of me; of course the other of the twins of Burgundy is Chardonnay, and I really felt like I needed Chardonnay to help me to deal with Pinot because Pinot is very finicky and frustrating, while Chardonnay is like a Gumby doll — you can just stretch it pull it every witch way so it was very malleable and very satisfying to work with.

So I really was able to hone my thinking about how to make great wines under Andre at BV and pretty soon after his death I was able to help start a couple of wineries and facilities at Kendall Jackson, including Hartford Court and La Crema. This led me on an adventure to work with all of the KJ wineries as a kind of in-house trouble-shooter where my job was to learn the very best wine-growing and wine-making practices. I headed up the technical committee, doing projects and attending conferences and then writing up papers for these gatherings, and bringing all this information back to all of the KJs vineyards and wineries.

I then met Walt and Jean Flowers, and got to help design and build a ground-breaking gravity-flow, gas-assist winery, where I put everything I had learned into practice as the founding winemaker for Flowers Vineyard and Winery. My passion for family-farmed, single-vineyard, native-ferment Chardonnay and Pinot noir blossomed. It is a passion that has filled me ever since, and one that I am so happy to be able to fully realize here at Ancient Oak Cellars.

Kissing the frog

Sat, 14 Jul 2018 23:05:53 GMT

If it is healthy for a thin-skinned amphibian, it's healthy for grapes

It takes a long time to wait for the Pagnano Zinfandel, which harvests mid- to late October, even sometimes into November. By that time, rains have returned, and the morning when we pick can be in the 30s Fahrenheit. Our farming practice is to encourage biological diversity and rich habitat. That means that when we pick, we often find sluggish frogs clutching the grape clusters. Of course, most shake loose at time of picking, but some end up hitching a ride to the winery, and leap away as we sort the fruit, much to the amusement of the harvest crew.

Sur Lies Aging with Greg La Follette

Wed, 02 Nov 2016 15:21:00 GMT

It’s said that the early actors in Ancient Greece rubbed wine lees on their faces in the first form of stage makeup. Much as we embrace wine names based on poets of antiquity, this use of lees hasn’t caught on here at Ancient Oak Cellars. However, if you have seen our recent release of a […]

However, if you have seen our recent release of a 2014 Chardonnay from the famed Kent Ritchie vineyard (or have heard about our forthcoming spring release of 2015 Chardonnays from the Nurmi and Flyway vineyards), you may have noticed references to a technique called sur lies aging. If you haven’t heard about any of these, that probably means you haven’t joined our wine club…yet.

Sur lies is French for “on the lees.” In case you’ve been wondering this whole time what lees are and why they’re better used to affect a wine than as rudimentary blush, I will tell you that lees are the inactivated yeast cells and other particles that settle to the bottom of a barrel. In case you’re still not convinced that they are any good for either purpose, listen to what our winemaker, Greg La Follette, has to say about the technique:

How long have you been using sur lies aging? My entire career (since the 1980s), first exposed to it from Dick Graff, founder of Chalone.

What wines do you use it with? Mostly Chardonnay, but we also do some lees contact with reds, mostly Pinot noir.

What do you see as the advantages of it? Better richness and texture, more integration, and both heat and cold stability without having to freeze tanks or use fining agents.

Are there any risks or challenges? Lots! you can get stinky wines, secondary wine microbe infections, cloudy wines that will need filtration if you are not careful, and hardness or other off-mouthfeel components if you are not monitoring the lees properly and racking them off at the wrong times (either too early or too late).

What does sur lies aging produce that you want to have? Mouthfeel – integration and harmony are important, but also less reliance on sheer fruitiness and more complexity.

Do you stir the lees during aging? If so, how often and why? Some lees get stirred, some don’t. One has to assess the lees on a regular basis to figure out whether to stir or not. The wine will tell you if you take the time to listen.

Do you taste the lees during aging? Why? Yes, exactly – that is the only way monitor them, using a lees thief that goes to the bottom of the barrel.

How long do you age on the lees? When/how do you decide the wine has had enough? This is what I call job security. Experience is the best teacher and every vineyard, every vintage is different. I’m always learning. It is usually the wine that tells me when to rack, which means I just have to listen and understand. It is the understanding that takes time…

Anything else you want to add? Yes, thanks for asking these great questions and getting them out there to folks who really love wine and care about its making!

Stories of Harvest: Lucy Moholt-Siebert

Tue, 13 Sep 2016 23:08:00 GMT

“Harvest is the anchoring point of our year” is what I wrote in the first blog of this series, and it’s what I tell myself as the bathroom light first hits my eyes at three in the morning and when I down a mug of coffee and when I realize that it was decaf. Earlier, when the grating noise of my alarm breaks the tranquility of my darkened room, I’m not awake enough even to think, let alone give myself pep talks. Later on I’m too immersed in the rush of harvest — and in the rush of grape juice, grape leaves, dirt clods, and MOG.

Harvest is the time when we all come together and feel pride through the fatigue. It is the time when the work in the vineyard and the work in the lab conjoins and the work in the cellar begins. So, yes, it anchors us, but it can also be a time when we feel unmoored. It is the time when we lose track of the days, when we lack the energy to eat anything other than cereal, donuts, energy bars, and tacos, when we triage every other element of our lives to make room for the beast.

For my brother, a professional ballet dancer, the Nutcracker season is one in which he says everyone forgets their own birthday — rather sad for him, since his falls within it. My mom’s is during harvest. Asked by a friend what they had done for it, my dad stared blankly and was completely unable to recall. For the record, they had carved out a brief moment for the event that year, but it was quickly forgotten in the turmoil.

My parents never work less hard than I do, but this was something I had to remind myself in the harvest seasons of high school if I came home to find them both comatose. I was taking every AP course I could get my hands on as well as visual fine arts and orchestra and various other activities — and on early Siebert Ranch harvests, I would help harvest the first twelve tons before catching the bus to school. Joining in on the nap idea was tempting (very telling, if you know how much I suck at taking naps), but I always had homework.

My mind, if not my body, certainly took naps during the day. I had more than the standard teenager’s share of glassy-eyed stares. I will always love my AP Lang teacher for giving me a chance to make up credit after I missed a major deadline in the harvest season of my junior year. One friend shook her head at me and said, “I went to bed at three.”

For my sixteenth birthday, my dad bought me a forklift, although of course it really belongs to the farm. I don’t fancy getting a parking permit for it here on my college campus. I had been learning the forklift job for the past several years — though slowly, often with empty bins. At some point I began to be entrusted with full bins, then with full bins in real time rather than in the lulls, and then my dad started simply walking off to deal with some other part of harvest and leaving me in charge. I loved (and still love) the precision, the meditative gaps, the intense spurts of concentration.

At home, harvest is in full swing. Unusually, the first two picks of the season were on the weekend, and Labor Day weekend at that. I was able to go home for them — and definitely appreciated the labor that goes into this business, this industry, and this country. Sitting in my college dorm, I hope for my sake for more weekend harvests. For the sake of the people who work that way every day throughout the fall, I hope instead that some of their weekends can be a small breath of calm between storms. Perhaps, occasionally, they will remember their birthdays.

This is the second in a series that our daughter Lucy is writing about people’s experiences of harvest. See the first here . Much of the time her job is leaf-picking, something she wrote about in depth in the previous blog , so didn’t go into here.

Leaf-pulling and MOG

Fri, 09 Sep 2016 23:51:00 GMT

In my school orchestra, the conductor often joked — in an ongoing effort to get us up out of our sheet music — that all those Italian words on our sheet music mean the same thing: “watch the baton.” The same principle applies at harvest. Anything in Spanish means, for the purposes of a white leaf-picker, “look up and hold on.” (Of course, in either of those situations it also means “work on your language skills,” but that’s another story.) Leaf picking is the easiest, though plenty grueling, job to step into. The actual picking is done by professionals, so quickly that I can pick up vibrations in the trellis at the other end of the vine rows. The leafing job involves standing on a trailer hooked up to a tractor, pulling leaves and MOG out of the two half-ton bins on the trailer.

You don’t stop for anything — not your aching back, not your juice-and-grime encrusted hands, not even that one huge leaf across the bin (because it would take a long time to disentangle) — except the shouts alerting you that someone is dumping grapes in or the tractor is about to move. Both are very good reasons to get your hands out of the way, grab hold of the edge, and look at your surroundings. Eventually, I graduated to holding on with only one hand as we moved, continuing to work with the other, but I can never match the efficiency of the short Latina women working opposite.

At a recent Siebert Ranch harvest, Lena found one thing that is worth stopping for — a baby goldfinch. All that brisk, efficient picking dislodged it from its nest into a bin. We ended up taking it to the Bird Rescue Center , where it will be rehabilitated and eventually released.

Goldfinch! This is not a grape cluster.

Luckily, this is less common than the spiders and earwigs, but it is more exciting — and more fun. Any small breath in the relentless torrent of grapes that is harvest brings a smile to our faces, whether it is a fauna sighting, a song, or even croissants delivered by a handsome French winemaker. The last, sadly, is only about as common as the goldfinch.

Countdown to Harvest with Greg La Follette

Wed, 31 Aug 2016 17:23:00 GMT

You know it’s a chancy business when our winemaker is asked what he’s been excited to see in the vineyard this year, and he responds, “remarkably even and temperate” weather, with most of the growing season being “downright moderate!” That exclamation point was part of the quote, in case you were wondering. Of course, there […]

Ancient Oak Cellars Winemaker Greg La Follette

You know it’s a chancy business when our winemaker is asked what he’s been excited to see in the vineyard this year, and he responds, “remarkably even and temperate” weather, with most of the growing season being “downright moderate!” That exclamation point was part of the quote, in case you were wondering. Of course, there is good reason to be excited about the weather, as Greg explains:

“We decided to take advantage of the long-term forecast for cool weather and push picking back, giving some fruit which still has slightly tougher tannins time to catch up with more developed clusters. The slightly-lagging fruit is usually on shoots carrying 2 clusters. If we were to have a heat spike we might have had to drop more fruit but mother nature is being generous to us this year.”

A heat spike would force us to begin harvesting, since the sugar levels are right on target currently, but we appreciate the time to let the grapes develop more fully without much more sugar. Greg and Ken both agree that the lab results aren’t everything and some subjective taste tests are necessary — or perhaps they just like eating grapes straight from the vine.

We expect to start harvesting next week , so right now we’re doing some long-term thinking before all of us get sucked into the maelstrom. In the cellar, we compare notes with Greg’s other winery, Alquimista ; Greg and Patrick are busy planning this year’s alchemy with their harvest intern Malia van der Kamp, who was raised on the renowned van der Kamp vineyard. For us, the fun project is a potential small trial of carbonic maceration — we would ferment some fruit whole-cluster rather than destemmed, turning each berry into an individual fermentation vessel. Greg has used the technique often in the past, and is looking forward to applying it to our wines.

Later on in the timeline , there are some barrels Greg is particularly excited about…and we think his wife Mara should maybe have some concerns. He described the “downright sexy quality” of Tremeaux barrels: “It is like an already terrific-looking person getting dressed up in something that really shows off the beauty without being blatant about it.” Phoenix barrels, meanwhile, he described as being “very steady performers, not show-offs but they get the job done and complement the fruit without distraction. This is the kind of barrel you want to bring home for your mother to meet!”

Finally, Greg had two harvest memories to share on the eve of the season, one serene and the other, well, not as much:

“The moon setting over Sonoma Mountain is hard to beat for sheer beauty. Getting into a grape fight with two of my young daughters while shoveling out a fermentor provided lasting memories of hilarity, including the obligatory hosing down of the dad and sisters by the oldest brother. I think he got the real last laugh!”

Veraison and Amaryllis

Wed, 03 Aug 2016 15:30:00 GMT

If you drove up the driveway to Siebert Ranch this time of year, you might notice two things: that the grapes are changing color, and that there are rows of brilliant flowers lining the road. While many of you know that correlation does not equal causation, we do really enjoy this particular coincidence. The flowers […]

Wine FAQ: Part 1

Mon, 20 Jun 2016 23:56:00 GMT

What is a single vineyard wine? All the grapes in a single vineyard wine are sourced from only one vineyard. They show the distinctive character of that site and show consistently from year to year a combination of fruit complexity, structure, and finish that will stand alone. We make single vineyard wines from the Siebert, […]

What is a single vineyard wine?
All the grapes in a single vineyard wine are sourced from only one vineyard. They show the distinctive character of that site and show consistently from year to year a combination of fruit complexity, structure, and finish that will stand alone. We make single vineyard wines from the Siebert, Pagnano, and Berger ranches, all of which we farm ourselves. At harvest, we make preliminary fruit selections. Then after aging along with the appellation wines (sourced from several different vineyards), we select and hold back the best barrels for additional time in barrel. Beyond that we also select the best of the best for our reserve series. See our overview of “wine series” for more information.

Does AO have any sweet wines?
No, all of our wines are fermented dry. The mouthfeel, oak lactones, and lack of anticipated bitterness in our 2013 Chardonnay can create an illusion of sweetness, so we recommend that you try that or another of our wines — you may surprise yourself with what you like. If you are sure of your preference, we also offer these sweet wines from other wineries in our wine bar: Old World Winery’s Pinot Gris and Paradise Ridge’s Ode to Joy dessert wine.

How is white wine made? What about rosé?
White wine is generally made from white grapes such as Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc. It is pressed off of the skins as soon as the grapes are brought into the winery, or sometimes after a short soak, whereas when making red wine, fermentation occurs with the grapes and juice all together. In red wine, the color and tannins are leached out of the skins into the juice, but in white wine they are undesirable. Rosé can be made in various ways. If you have ever thought of just mixing red and white wine — congratulations, using a combination of red and white grapes (but not fully fermented wine) is indeed a method of making rosé. Our rosé is a saignée (French for “bleed”), made by “bleeding” juice off after a limited amount of skin contact where some color is extracted from the skins, then the rest of the juice is left on the skins to become a more concentrated red wine. Another way is to press the juice off after limited skin contact, without leaving some for red wine.

Where do the aromas and flavors in wine come from? Are they from additives?
Except for oak, for which more and stronger exposure creates a greater effect in the taste, most flavors in wine are lessened by additives. A “tannic” wine, for instance, can be mellowed by adding different tannins, balancing out the palate. Winemaking is primarily a subtractive art in which the original aspects can be manipulated but not significantly added to. One note to make is that winemakers do NOT add chocolate to provide aromas of chocolate, nor add strawberries to provide flavors of strawberries. Those flavors and aromas are the results of a complicated set of factors in the vineyard and winery. Different clones of different varietals have certain characteristics, but weather and farming practices also affect what the winemaker has to work with. We recommend trying a vertical tasting, or a selection of wines from the same vineyard in different years, to get a sense of how the same foundation can vary year by year.

Stories of Harvest: Matt Polverari

Tue, 26 Apr 2016 12:51:00 GMT

Harvest is the anchoring point of our year, the boundary between the slow, subtle aging of the grapes and the slow, subtle aging of the wine. It is time when days and nights flow into each other with three a.m. picks and late night phone calls. Greg lets his beard grow out and we all smell faintly of sticky juice and vineyard dirt. Everyone comes together — the sandwich makers and the vineyard tenders and the city friends all help to bring the harvest in.

Matt, a beloved former employee, usually held down the fort at our downtown bistro. During the last couple of harvests, though, he went to the vineyards before dawn and pulled leaves and joked with the others. He recently shared his impressions of this headfirst introduction to the harvest ritual.

“One moment stands out. It’s dawn. Knees are aching, back [is] aching, and the sun is aching to emerge. I’m standing on a bin connected to a tractor looking across 101 Northbound as the sun slowly starts to rise. Just at that moment rain starts to fall. I peer across the vineyards looking at the hills and the vines that sit atop of it and realize I’m living a wine label. I lift my arms up to feel the falling drops. I feel like Andy Dufresne after he escaped in Shawshank Redemption, I feel like Marco Scutaro after the San Francisco Giants won Game 7 of the NLCS. Just then I’m hit with dirt and grapes from an incoming worker. I realize how quickly I go from being outside of the bottle to feeling like I’m inside of the bottle. You don’t really get what they mean by sense of place until you are sitting out there feeling the soil with every dump of a bucket. The smell of the wet rain mixing with the soil. Like dry concrete that is mixed with water.”

There are so many people involved in the journey from vine to bottle, and so many of them are with us in those frantic, magical weeks each fall. Each year we wonder how we are all crazy enough to do this, and each year we wonder how we could possibly not. We are grateful to every crazy, wonderful person who helps it happen.

This is the first in a series. Stay tuned for more anecdotes about harvest from various members of our team.

National Farm Animals Day — Sustainability at the Ranch

Sun, 10 Apr 2016 17:23:00 GMT

In honor of National Farm Animals Day, we’re reposting a blog on sustainability at Siebert Ranch. Originally posted on March 26, 2014. “Some terms defy definition. ‘Sustainable agriculture’ has become one of them. In such a quickly changing world, can anything be sustainable? What do we want to sustain? How can we implement such a […]

“Some terms defy definition. ‘Sustainable agriculture’ has become one of them. In such a quickly changing world, can anything be sustainable? What do we want to sustain? How can we implement such a nebulous goal? Is it too late? With the contradictions and questions have come a hard look at our present food production system and thoughtful evaluations of its future. If nothing else, the term ‘sustainable agriculture’ has provided ‘talking points,’ a sense of direction, and an urgency, that has sparked much excitement and innovative thinking in the agricultural world.”

Mary V. Gold, United States Department of Agriculture

Innovative thinking and a sense of urgency in farming are widely regarded as necessities in these critical, ever-changing times. But for a great number of family farmers such regards are timeless sensibilities tied to a basic set of ethics about caring for land, plants and animals. Especially when these are one’s own commodities. Melissa reminded me of this recently, and while it may seem to some a very simple idea, what she had to say provided me a new context for thinking about the concept of sustainability:

“The kind of ‘sustainability’ that we practice at Siebert Ranch is the kind that farmers use when they actually live on the land that they farm. The land is a continuing family legacy, and it is our home. So it’s imperative that we care for it in the most efficient and ethical manner possible. You simply have to ask yourself, ‘Why would I want to spray pesticides on my own crops? Why would I want anything less than healthy soil and plants on my own land?’”

I see with my own eyes, as I work the vineyard with Ken and Arnulfo an Juan, the time and care required to adhere to the basic ethic of sustainability. But the model and practices also adhere strictly to the United States Department of Agriculture’s clearly delineated standards for sustainability. Congress dealt with the issue of sustainable agriculture in 1990, resulting in the FACTA “Farm Bill”. Under this law, sustainable agriculture was assigned the following basic parameters for all site-specific “integrated systems”of plant and animal production:

A. Satisfy human food and fiber needs

B. Enhance environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agricultural economy depends

C. Make the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and on-farm resources and integrate, where appropriate, natural biological cycles and controls.

D. Sustain the economic viability of farm operations

E. Enhance the quality of life for farmer and society as a whole

I went to Ken this week to find out more about how Siebert Ranch and the other Ancient Oak Cellars’ vineyards commit themselves to these guidelines, and to shed more light on what might appear to the layman to be somewhat nebulous descriptions.

Satisfying human food and fiber needs

“Our practices are sustainable in a variety of ways,” says Ken. “Our vineyards are part of a diverse family farm. The vineyards are our cash crop, providing the raw material for the production of premium wine. Secondly, we also have sheep which graze the grass and provide wool and meat. In addition we also have chickens for egg production and we maintain a kitchen garden.”

Enhancing environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agricultural economy depends.

What exactly does this mean?

“I’ll first point out that only half of our farm is vineyards; the other half is pasture woodland, and creek habitat. Although some more land could be put to vineyard use, we believe the environmental cost would be too high. We protect the creek areas with fencing and keep the sheep out of these areas so that native riparian plants will regenerate and thrive and the new oaks will grow up to the replace the old ones.We encourage the natural succession of plants and habitat development around our diversion pond, even though some water is ‘lost’ to this habitat.”

“In our vineyard floor, we maintain a permanent sod cover. A variety of grasses and small, leafy plants promote a robust habitat for wildlife diversity. This means we may have to irrigate somewhat more (because the sod competes with the grapes for moisture), but the habitat and erosion control benefits outweigh the irrigation cost in our estimation.”

“We encourage native birds with habitat protection and by providing nesting boxes. We also promote excellent habitat for native hawks and barn owls that in turn help us by controlling gopher and other rodent populations.”

I next asked Ken to talk about making the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and on-farm resources and integrating natural biological cycles and controls.

“We use a drip irrigation system, which is an inherently water efficient tool. They run on electric pumps, and we run them only during off-peak times. We maintain it regularly to maximize its efficiency. We have developed redundant irrigation supplies, with both wells and a pond available. We monitor our wells for potential falling groundwater levels and our surface water retention pond for water quality and environmental effects. We have the ability to use groundwater to maximize surface water habitat, or surface water to protect the water table, if necessary. And so far, neither one is in any way imperiled. We employ full deficit irrigation practices. Even in a hot, dry year such as 2007 we irrigated with less than six inches of water for the season. On average, we put about four inches of water into the system each year.”

“The sheep are an integral on-farm resource. We maintain them on the property and in the winter we graze them in the vineyards. This saves mowing with equipment and the resulting soil compaction, fossil fuel use, etc. The sheep are very effective and thorough, and we also save in-row cultivation or herbicide spraying for the time they are in the vineyard.”

“As far as spraying chemicals, we minimize the use of pesticides. We never use restricted-use chemicals. We use ‘Integrated Pest Management” techniques. We only rely upon cultural practices to encourage the health of the vines and other plants, meaning simply that we are treating the cause rather than the symptom. Pesticides are only used in very limited circumstances.”

“One example is when I use a small amount of herbicide to control weeds in just the vine rows, that is, for an area about ¼ of the vineyard floor or about 4 acres (out of the 15 acres of vineyard on the total 31 acres of the ranch). I have explored alternatives, but they generally involve additional cultivation (which uses more energy and damages the soil structure), inordinate inputs of labor, or significantly greater use of fossil fuels. Using a large tiller, for example, will use fuel and impact the soil. By using sheep in the fall and winter, we only need to spray once in a few areas in spring before the vines develop suckers at the base. Compare that to the standard practice of four applications. Moreover, we can spray a low application rate because the sheep leave the weeds very short. They are an essential resource on the farm.”

“Another situation that may involve us spraying a pesticide would be in protecting against fungi and mold in the spring. All vineyards have this issue. Our primary tool is sulfur dust, which is a very traditional treatment that is listed under the Organic Materials Review Institute. Depending upon the conditions, we may make one or two applications with a synthetic fungicide in the period from April through June, though many years we don’t use anythimg but sulfur.”

“Finally, we will use targeted spot-applications (utilizing a small hand operated knapsack sprayer) of a broad leaf-specific herbicide to control thistles and blackberry and certain other weeds in our pasture areas.”

“We also use practices such as mulching the annual prunings which return their nutrients to the soil. We coordinate with neighboring farms with large livestock to bring in manure which we use for compost to amend our vineyard soil.”

How does a farm like Siebert Ranch sustain the economic viability of farm operations?

“There many challenges in maintaining family farms. The pay is not great, the risks are high and the land is too expensive. Estate taxes often force the next generation to start out with a hefty mortgage. A great number of farms do not pass from one generation to the next, unfortunately. We count ourselves lucky that we were able to take up the farm after my grandfather died. It will take more planning to make sure it can pass again to the next generation.”

“But we are economically viable in many ways. We are members of the Russian River Winegrowers Association and of the Farm Bureau. We give annually to the American Vineyard Foundation. Through membership in these organizations and in our own advocacy, we advocate for the continued health of grape growing and farming in general.”

“I think in terms of economic viability it’s also key that we manage the farm directly and do much of the work around the farm ourselves. We have only one full-time employee, Arnulfo. We pay crop insurance so that we can continue to pay the bills if there is a crop failure. In sum, we are very careful with our expenses so that we can remain viable.”

So how does Siebert Ranch and its practices help enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole?

“Our farm is part of a greenbelt and scenic corridor separating Santa Rosa from the Larkfield area to the north. The zoning of our property deliberately reduces its value by restricting development. Furthermore, we ourselves have resisted the urge to subdivide and develop our property as allowed under the already restricted zoning limitation. We believe maintaining this property as a farm stands for the continued viability of farming and provides ‘green’ benefits to the city as well. We try to share our love of this land with everyone we know and regularly host visitors. We have many urban friends for whom this farm is their lens through which to view and understand farming. We support our neighbors, too. For example, the neighboring Cardinal Newman High School uses our property for cross-country running practices each fall, and many other neighbors jog or walk up and down our road for the view it provides. Finally, we give at least 5% of our annual gross income to local non-profits.”

Joe Imwalle: Sonoma County Patriarch

Sat, 21 Nov 2015 19:39:00 GMT

“Gets up every morning, puts on clean, simple clothes, works hard, stays close to home.” That’s how our owner Melissa described Joe Imwalle, who turned 75 on Friday. She was comparing him to our own late patriarch, Henry Siebert. Perhaps this similarity of characters — a way of remembering and caring for people as well […]

We’ve moved!

Thu, 16 Apr 2015 17:36:00 GMT

We’ve moved our tasting room! Just down the street a few doors, closer to Mendocino Avenue at 621 4th Street, and with a lovely sidewalk patio and view of Courthouse Square . The space was formerly Bill’s Downtown Deli, run by Bill Thompson, who formerly worked the Deli counter at Traverso’s for twelve years. Bill’s sandwiches, […]

Winemaker Greg La Follette — fermentation and pressing Berger Vineyard – Sonoma Mountain Cabernet, Cab Franc, and Merlot

Mon, 13 Oct 2014 18:24:00 GMT

On Friday we pressed of the Cab France from the Berger Vineyard, and are barreling it down today. Initially, the Cab Franc had a hard time in terms of fermentation. It was very nuanced and subtle, but gained strength and built itself during fermentation, with a little guiding care and love. It pressed off very […]

The second pick of Cabernet is coming along very nicely and for that we’ve selected a number of different barrels and are doing some very interesting barrel trials that we’ll be able to look at this winter and into next year. I’ve chosen to use barrels from many of the coopers we’re getting. I really want to explore where our coopers are going to express best with the Cabernet. I think there’s enough strength in this vintage, that we can really dial in exactly what coopers, forests, and toasts levels work best with this vineyard.

The drain-offs of the Cabernet are going very well today. They are both very dark, but quite distinct. It should be great for having two different profiles as we make the next generation of the different wines from this vineyard – the vineyard-designate Berger Cabernet, the Sappho, and the Tò Érgon.

This is a blessing, this vintage. It’s really being generous with us — it’s allowing us to explore a few different techniques, a few different styles, wild fermentation versus different types of of yeast inoculation, different cap management techniques. And I think this will hold us in really good stead for future vintages. I’m really excited that this vintage is generously allowing us so much room for experimentation without a great deal of risk.

Several recent wine pairings with dinner

Tue, 30 Sep 2014 01:09:00 GMT

Okay, okay, I know I said that all we drink during harvest is beer, but I lied. We drink wine too. At least we do at our house. In fact, in the last few weeks I’ve posted on Facebook about three different wines we’ve enjoyed for dinner with some yummy fall-leaning dinners at home. […]

How lucky we are to have such an abundance of food that we raise ourselves, and wine that we and our talented and generous neighbors make.

I’d love to hear what you’re cooking and drinking. Comment here, or send me photos and recipes that I can share. Here’s to the good life!

-Melissa

“It takes a LOT of great beer to make great wine”

Thu, 25 Sep 2014 20:13:00 GMT

This may not be the most well-known maxim in the general population, but among folks in the wine making world, it is an accepted fact. After a long hard day picking grapes, or working on the sorting crew, or pressing tons of grapes into juice, or doing god-only-knows how many punch-downs, there’s nothing that you […]

One of our amazingly generous neighbors, Russian River Brewing , knows this very well. They are fans of the wines made here in Sonoma County. Knowing how important great beer is to the production of great wine, they set out to make a beer just for this purpose. This is a beer you can’t find in a store. You can’t wait in line for 12 hours to buy it at their tasting room. You just can’t buy it, period. You have to be a winemaker. In fact, you have to be a winemaker they know and respect and like. Then they’ll drop it off for you during harvest and crush time.

We are lucky (in oh so many ways!) to have Greg La Follette as our winemaker. As you might suspect, Greg is one of the winemakers on Russian River Brewing’s list. Greg – generous soul that he is – shared some of this precious beer with us. Ken and I drank it while lifting our bottles in a grateful salute to the folks at Russian River Brewing.

Here’s to great beer, and great wine. Two things that go hand-in-hand here in Sonoma County. We are lucky enough to have the Russian River Brewing tasting room 456 feet from our tasting room, so come enjoy both next time you’re around.

On the road during harvest

Wed, 17 Sep 2014 13:18:00 GMT

The alarm was set for 3am yesterday morning. That much seemed normal. But instead of slipping into my boots and work pants and heading out for a pick, I was packing my white pants and heels and heading off to the airport. Now I sit looking out over the Tampa bay at the causeway to St. Pete’s, the thatched-roof cabana – empty after last night’s revelry – cormorants perched on the pilings below, and a rainstorm blowing in from the Gulf,while I sip my coffee and prepare for a very different kind of day.

I am in Florida meeting with a potential new distributor here. My guides in this venture are two fantastic guys who are wine brokers. They will be my “boots on the ground” here – working the market, keeping in touch with the salespeople, and being ambassadors for Ancient Oak Cellars. Last night we had a fantastic dinner at Charley’s – a local restaurant with the kind of impeccable staff and service you only get in some old-fashioned steakhouses. We shared a bottle of Laurel Glen Sonoma Mountain Cab. Next time I hope we’ll be able to enjoy some wine grown just next door to the famed Laurel Glen vineyard, on our estate Berger Vineyard..

Off I go to this different kind of harvest – gathering in a team of salespeople to help me bring our wines to the people of Florida. Although I resisted taking time away during harvest, this has been a good break, where I am reminded of the pleasure people have in learning about the hard work of our growers, our vineyard workers, and our winemaker and cellar staff, and then enjoying the liquid results of that labor.

A crazy, beautiful week in the vineyard and cellar – by Greg La Follette

Sat, 13 Sep 2014 19:22:00 GMT

What an incredible week this has been: starting out last Sunday with a pick at the Berger Ranch, picking the Merlot, watching the moon set into the mist up above Sonoma Mountain – walking along with Lucy talking about art and music and artistic direction, and ending early this morning with the pressing off of the […]

And in between, so many things happening. It seems like a lifetime since we started last Sunday. Just so much has gone on – so much has happened – but so many wonderful things. I’m so happy to be working with Melissa and Ken. And my wife. And all of our kids. This is the life, this is what we want to do with our lives. We are living it right now.

I couldn’t be any happier right now. It’s been a very compressed vintage – everything’s coming in all at once. But I think we’re managing very well and we’re staying ahead of the curve. Really respecting the land and listening to what’s going on, and making the right decisions because we are listening to what the land has to say to us.

The Kent Ritchie Chardonnay also came in last week. We only got about a ton and a third, but beautiful fruit. There’s actually a little bit of maple syrup aspect to it. And some sweetness and richness. Texturally it’s a very interesting. The Kent Ritchie Chardonnay never really reveals itself very early. But I think this one is going to be very expressive because 2014 has been an early year, and we’ve been able to really work with Kent on picking up some very special areas that I’ve worked with before, and actually help to plant.

Lots more to come in the next several crazy, beuatiful weeks. Stay tuned.

Greg La Follette writes a Wine Blog – day 1

Fri, 05 Sep 2014 23:26:00 GMT

If you’ve been around our winemaker, Greg La Follette, you know how generous he is in sharing his amazing knowledge of wine with those around him. He sincerely loves to teach. He has graciously decided to share online, via this blog. Wow – we are so excited to be the venue for him to do […]

Once we got to the winery, with the bagpipes skirling the fruit into the destemmer, and the rollers full-open, the grapes were put into the fermentation tanks with about 75% whole berry. This was gorgeous fruit. Everyone in the winery called others over to look at how beautiful it was. Initially we are not doing any punchdowns on the tanks, so we can get as much semi-carbonic action as we can. We are fermenting this in two separate lots – one in an open-top stainless steel fermentation tank, and one in a wide-shallow round tank that gives us an amazing surface-to-volume ratio. On this we are using native yeast fermentation, and allowing the vineyard to really speak to us fully.

We are really trying to listen to the voice of the land telling us what to do — and keep ourselves open to its message. If we don’t, we are condemned to making formulaic wines, but if we do a good job of listening to what the land has to say, we will build a partnership that invites us in. That, my friends, is the key – respecting the land so it can ask us to add just a little to its voice.

This is what we do, this is who we are – stewards of the land. Patiently asking the land what it needs us to bring to the table for it to speak most eloquently. That is what I love, and why I am so excited to be working with Melissa and Ken, who share this vision and this passion.

Winemaker Greg La Follette serenades the Pinot in block 5 of Siebert Ranch

Thu, 28 Aug 2014 22:03:00 GMT

With such a multi-talented (some have other terms for him!) guy as Greg around, you never know what is going to happen. This time it was Greg pulling out his bagpipes to play for the grapes in block 5 of Siebert Ranch. He and some of his family were over to help us celebrate our wedding anniversary and make some delicious pizza in our outdoor pizza oven (photos from that to come). We went for a walk in the setting light, and Greg decided that our vines needed some music.

Greg traditionally pipes the first load of fruit each season out of the vineyard and into the crush pad at the winery. That hasn’t happened yet for us, but this vineyard may have that distinction. So the grapes got a preview performance.

Greg La Follette, our winemaker, pipes in the Siebert Ranch Pinot vineyard

See if you can guess the name of either of the two tunes Greg plays in this short medley. Comment with your answer.

Greg La Follette named new winemaker

Sun, 24 Aug 2014 21:56:00 GMT

Ancient Oak Cellars has named Greg La Follette as Winemaker. Greg will further refine the winery’s range of extraordinary estate wines, including Siebert Ranch Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon from the Berger vineyard on Sonoma Mountain, and Pagnano Zinfandel from Russian River Valley. Greg will also add single-vineyard and reserve Chardonnays. Greg, a […]

Greg, a celebrated winemaker known for his painterly and nuanced mastery of the winemaker’s art, learned secrets of the art from the acknowledged “Dean” of California winemaking, André Tchelistcheff. Greg subsequently has built up a series of wine labels into iconic names in the wine world with a combination of daring winemaking technique and the development of previously little-known vineyard sites into storied exemplars. Greg continues to represent his eponymous label, but now that the brand is taking off, he has the freedom to work on promising projects such as Ancient Oak Cellars.

“We’ve been sharing a cellar for several years and comparing notes as we have made wine alongside each other. Hard work and long hours are a joy and a privilege when you can share what you have in the company of good people. This is something Greg understands at a most basic level and we couldn’t be more pleased to be working directly with Greg and his wife and partner Mara,” says Melissa Moholt-Siebert, co-owner with her husband, Ken Moholt-Siebert.

“Melissa and Ken are the real thing,” says Greg. “I’ve been watching them for several years now and have admired not only their wines and their ideas about wine – which align with mine very well – but also their work and family ethics. Winemaking is like child-rearing, and Melissa and Ken have preserved their family’s farm and are raising a son who is a professional ballet dancer and a daughter who is gifted in science, art, and literature, plays the cello – and also gets up before dawn on harvest days to work in the vineyard alongside her parents and the crew. So they have their feet in generations of dirt and out of that comes something ethereal. Of course it helps that they have some special hillside vineyards – all very close to Santa Rosa – that they farm totally hands-on and which produce some standout fruit that I can showcase. I am thrilled to be making wine directly with Melissa and Ken after having worked with some of their fruit in the past. There is nothing like small family winery stewardship to bring great wines to the table.”

“When we first put the Sonoma Mountain Berger Vineyard Cabernet in the fermentor, it seemed like the air was singing,” says Ken Moholt-Siebert. “I know that Greg can hear it, and I think he hears some other, different songs for our other wine varietals as well. I’m most excited, I think, to see where he takes us with Chardonnay.”

Saying a fond farewell to winemaker Kent Barthman

Fri, 01 Aug 2014 20:45:00 GMT

We have been so privileged to have Kent Barthman as our winemaker for these past two years. We are very sorry to see him go, but are excited for his opportunities as the new head winemaker at RoxyAnn Winery in Medford, Oregon. Our new winemaker, Greg La Follette, has this to say about his admiration […]

Our new winemaker, Greg La Follette, has this to say about his admiration for Kent, both personally and professionally:

“Kent is a really hard act to follow, but his work ethic and unquenchable cheerfulness and enthusiasm for wine is a great template. There are very few winemakers on the planet who embody what Kent does in terms of passion and focus. If I grow up, I want to be like Kent – but then maybe he wouldn’t want me to grow up, just keep making wine!”

Ancient Oak Cellars — a Proud Part of Sustainable Winegrowing in Sonoma County

Sun, 20 Jul 2014 17:25:00 GMT

Sharing this from the Sonoma County Winegrowers, of which we are members. SONOMA COUNTY COMMITS TO BECOMING THE FIRST 100% SUSTAINABLE WINE REGION IN THE NATION BY 2019 The Sonoma County Winegrape Commission, also known as Sonoma County Winegrowers (SCW), announced on January 15, 2014, that Sonoma County is committed to becoming the nation’s first […]

Sharing this from the Sonoma County Winegrowers, of which we are members.

Bees in the Vineyard, Pasture, and Garden

Thu, 10 Apr 2014 15:52:00 GMT

Bees -and their importance to our world – are in the news a lot these days. So I was stopped short a few days ago, while walking through the the Oakland Airport, to see this sign indicating that there are 1600 (!!!) species of bees in California! Seriously, how many would you have guessed? […]

Now as most people know, California produces a LOT of the produce grown in the United States (in fact, a staggering percentage, as it turns out: 99 percent of artichokes, 99 percent of walnuts, 97 percent of kiwis, 97 percent of plums, 95 percent of celery, 95 percent of garlic, 89 percent of cauliflower, 71 percent of spinach, 69 percent of carrots, and the list goes on … according to Slate ). And a good number of California’s fruit and nut and vegetable production is dependent on bees for pollination. So bee health is intimately tied to the health of the farms that grow these crops.

However, what many people don’t know is that grapes are not on this list. Grapes do not need bees, or birds, or any insects for pollination. Grapes are “self-pollinated,” or “wind-pollinated.” So, among the countless concerns that we as grape growers have, apparently the health of the bee population is not among them Whew! Well, this is not the approach we take at Ancient Oak Cellars. We work to preserve and protect and enhance the environment as a whole, not just the environment that directly affects our vines. One large component of this is that we do not disc, or till, the soil between the vinerows. Instead, we leave a year-round cover crop – a mix of grasses and wildflowers. This provides habitat for all sorts of creatures – including bees. We also leave a fairly high percentage of the properties not planted to vines, but left as creekside, or woodlands, or pasture – some great bee habitats.

So even though I would have vastly underestimated the number of species of bees in California before my recent trip through the Oakland airport, I can rest assured that they have some good, healthy habitat in the vineyards of Ancient Oak Cellars. Below I’ve included some photos of the vinerows in, and pastures nearby, some of Ancient Oak Cellars’ vineyards. For some information on plants you can include in your home garden that are especially bee-friendly, check out this publication from the excellent organization Xerces .

The View from Siebert Ranch- A Closer Look at Sustainable Farming

Wed, 26 Mar 2014 18:36:00 GMT

Mary V. Gold, United States Department of Agriculture

A. Satisfy human food and fiber needs

B. Enhance environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agricultural economy depends

C. Make the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and on-farm resources and integrate, where appropriate, natural biological cycles and controls.

D. Sustain the economic viability of farm operations

E. Enhance the quality of life for farmer and society as a whole

Satisfying human food and fiber needs

Enhancing environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agricultural economy depends.

What exactly does this mean?

I next asked Ken to talk about making the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and on-farm resources and integrating natural biological cycles and controls.

How does a farm like Siebert Ranch sustain the economic viability of farm operations?

So how does Siebert Ranch and its practices help enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole?

Baby lamb at Siebert Ranch & Vineyard!

Thu, 12 Dec 2013 01:16:00 GMT

Our first baby lamb has arrived! This is always a joyous time in our lives. It is a baby girl – so one that will join our flock to propogate it throughout the years, rather than being destined for the freezer. Such are the realities of ranch life! We have had record cold weather here […]

We have had record cold weather here (as everywhere in the US) for the past week, so we’re keeping an extra eye on mom and baby. Because we do not usually have very cold weather here, we do not work to time the arrival of our lambs carefully – as many sheep ranchers do to ensure that lambs are not born during the heart of bitter cold winter weather. Although we’ve been complaining around here about how cold it has been, it’s really not that cold – and not dangerously cold for the lambs. Still, we’re being extra careful with our sweet new baby lamb.

The sheep serve several functions here on Siebert Ranch. A major one is grazing in the vineyards when there are no leaves on the vines (which would tempt the sheep to reach up and eat the leaves – and the grapes). By doing this, we significantly reduce compaction of soil from the tractor while mowing, as well as gas usage, by having the sheep do as much mowing in the vineyards as possible. Because the sheep graze all the way under the vinerows, we do not “strip-spray” as many vineyards do. This means that we do not use herbicides to kill grass and weeds beneath the vines, but let the sheep graze them down instead. All of this is part of the sustainability practices we have on our ranch. As I often say, we practice the kind of sustainability one does when living on your land.

Rain and the Pond

Wed, 04 Dec 2013 00:56:00 GMT

The grapes are all in, the wines fermented and pressed and in barrel. The production side is quiet. And things have quieted down in the vineyard too. Arnulfo has gone home to visit family in Michoacan, and the vines have turned color and dropped most of their leaves. But we had very unusual continued dry weather and I took advantage of that to dig out the dry pond, which over the years had silted up, perhaps six inches each year. Although the pond dries out every year, it has heretofore never dried out enough to get down into it with at tractor–and get the tractor out without sticking in the mud. This year though I was able to dig a “road” down into the pond and keep on digging with my trusty loader bucket. Where to put the dirt? Well, I created a level picnic ground near the pond and found low spots here and there to fill in.

Then we finally got rain. I was tempted to stay home on Monday and keep digging, because the rain was at first just a slight mist really, but we had a very rare opportunity to observe our son, Austin, dance at the SF Ballet Academy. So we did that, which was wonderful, truly, and then late afternoon and that night the rain really let loose. Still it was only an inch of rain, so I figured by now things should have dried out enough to go finish the job…

The View from Siebert Ranch — A Closer Look at Sustainable Farming

Mon, 06 May 2013 18:28:00 GMT

— by Jordan Wardlaw “Some terms defy definition. ‘Sustainable agriculture’ has become one of them. In such a quickly changing world, can anything be sustainable? What do we want to sustain? How can we implement such a nebulous goal? Is it too late? With the contradictions and questions have come a hard look […]

— Mary V. Gold, United States Department of Agriculture

I see with my own eyes, as I begin to work the vineyard with Ken and Arnulfo’s crew, the time and care required to adhere to the basic ethic of sustainability. But the model and practices also adhere strictly to the United States Department of Agriculture’s clearly delineated standards for sustainability. Congress dealt with the issue of sustainable agriculture in 1990, resulting in the FACTA “Farm Bill”. Under this law, sustainable agriculture was assigned the following basic parameters for all site-specific “integrated systems”of plant and animal production:

A. Satisfy human food and fiber needs

B. Enhance environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agricultural economy depends

C. Make the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and on-farm resources and integrate, where appropriate, natural biological cycles and controls.

D. Sustain the economic viability of farm operations

E. Enhance the quality of life for farmer and society as a whole

I went to Ken this week to find out more about how Siebert Ranch and the other Ancient Oak Cellars vineyards commit themselves to these guidelines, and to shed more light on what might appear to the layman to be somewhat nebulous descriptions.

Satisfying human food and fiber needs

Enhancing environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agricultural economy depends.

What exactly does this mean?

I next asked Ken to talk about making the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and on-farm resources and integrating natural biological cycles and controls.

“One example is when I use a small amount of herbicide to control weeds in just the vine rows, that is, for an area about ¼ of the vineyard floor or about 4 acres (out of the 15 acres of vineyard on the total 31 acres of the ranch). I have explored alternatives, but they generally involve additional cultivation (which uses more energy and damages the soil structure), inordinate inputs of labor, or significantly greater use of fossil fuels. Using a large tiller, for example, will use fuel and impact the soil. By using sheep in the fall and winter, we only need to spray once in spring before the vines develop suckers at the base. Compare that to the standard practice of four applications. Moreover, we can spray a low application rate because the sheep leave the weeds very short. They are an essential resource on the farm.

How does a farm like Siebert Ranch sustain the economic viability of farm operations?

So how does Siebert Ranch and its practices help enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole?

“Our farm is part of a greenbelt and scenic corridor separating Santa Rosa from the Larkfield area to the north. The zoning of our property deliberately reduces its value by restricting development. Furthermore, we ourselves have resisted the urge to subdivide and develop our property as allowed under the already restricted zoning limitation. We believe maintaining this property as a farm stands for the continued viability of farming and provides ‘green’ benefits to the city as well. We try to share our love of this land with everyone we know and regularly host visitors. We have many urban friends for whom this farm is their lens through which to view and understand farming. We support our neighbors, too. For example, the neighboring Cardinal Newman High School uses our property for cross-country running practices each fall, and many other neighbors jog or walk up and down our road for the view it provides. Finally, we give at least 1% of our annual gross income to local non-profits.”

Local Arts Spotlight: San Francisco Ballet School

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 22:18:00 GMT

By Jordan Wardlaw This week I’m going to turn the spotlight on two young men who are aspiring ballet dancers. You’re checking your URL, wondering if you got redirected to some other strange blog. But think again. In the world of small family business with all sorts of ties to the local economy and arts […]

Austin Moholt-Siebert

By Jordan Wardlaw

This week I’m going to turn the spotlight on two young men who are aspiring ballet dancers. You’re checking your URL, wondering if you got redirected to some other strange blog. But think again.

In the world of small family business with all sorts of ties to the local economy and arts scene, these intertwining relationships with generations of other local family artists and merchants can lead to wild and colorful places.

You may have read elsewhere on our site about the partnership between the Brown and the Moholt-Siebert families . My introduction to Melissa and Ken’s family is another small chapter of its own having to do with three different families. But I’d like to focus on our respective families’ devotion to and support of the local arts.

“We both have a history of strong involvement in the communities where we live and work,” says Melissa of the two families. “And we’re both big thinkers who think about what’s best for our communities, not just ourselves.” While Ancient Oak reached out to a long-celebrated extension of the Brown family in 2012, becoming a proud sponsor of the Santa Rosa Symphony , I’m writing today about something quite different. I’ll be introducing you to a young member of the Moholt-Siebert clan who has set out on an exciting, unique journey as a local artist.

Austin Moholt-Siebert, 17, is already an accomplished young man. His pursuits as a ballet dancer have already led him to two of the most prestigious ballet schools in the United States. I sat down recently with Austin and his friend and San Francisco Ballet School classmate Peter Deffebach to learn more about the art form, their current studies and the challenges and rewards that lie ahead. I’ve enjoyed getting to know Austin over the last few months, and this was my first time meeting Peter. I must comment that I found it quite easy to forget that Austin and Peter are 17 and 19 years old respectively, especially once the conversation turns to their passion. They carry themselves with an unusual amount of poise and grace, and speak not only with ease and command of words but with a genuine respect for the demands of their art form.

Jordan : When did you each begin dancing seriously, and how & when did you meet?

Austin: My first dance teacher was in my elementary school, kindergarten actually. I was very inspired by that experience. I had also seen ballet, and I told my mom I wanted to dance. I started taking lessons at Center for Movement Arts in Portland when I was six, with Tim Ryan, who was my primary teacher for many years. I first met Peter at Lincoln High School in Portland, Oregon. I attended Lincoln but I rode the bus across town during the school day to Jefferson High School for its reputable, long-standing dance program .

Peter: I attended Lincoln where there wasn’t a dance program. I studied at a studio in Hillsdale from the age of 9, so I continued to get private dance experience. Eventually once I was in high school I met Austin and made the connection. I figured out right away that Austin was a dancer.

Jordan : How did you end up at SF Ballet school together?

Peter: I finished high school and wanted to take a year of dancing before college or perhaps not attend college at all. I had several friends who were moving to train here, so it seemed like a logical place for me to train as well.

Austin: There’s another very prominent ballet school that I attended, and my first summer session was Peter’s second summer session. We were classmates there first. Houston Ballet Academy was a great place for me to begin serious training. The teaching there introduced great athleticism into my dancing and I was grateful to the teachers I had there. But I’m also very happy here at SF because there is a great technical focus in the program, and there is always an invitation to intellectualize dancing.

Peter: The Houston and San Francisco ballet schools are thought of as the two best men’s ballet programs in the country. Of course there are other elite companies in the US, but their schools aren’t as reputable.

Jordan : Could you talk in more detail about the kind of training you’re undertaking?

Peter: It’s actually not as intense as some people would think in terms of time, about four solid hours of dancing and then maybe a Pilates class. I think it’s important that our four main teachers all had wonderful careers in ballet and are still great dancers. They each have a different focus, for example one of them focuses on basic technical principles.

Austin: There are a series of exercises and each series is centered around a type of movement. Every movement in ballet essentially can be reduced to plies, tendus and rond de jambe. The class is designed so that each movement builds upon the previous one until you’ve developed a wide range of movements that are all based on simple core exercises.

Peter: Teachers like to focus on mastering a core movement in a certain way and use it as a reference in later exercises. We’ll be asked to remember back to a simple teaching as a more complex move is being introduced, and to focus on the quality of that movement and transfer it to the new material. It’s actually a very analytical and methodical way of building technique toward the eventual grand allegro, the more technically flashy and demanding movements.

Jordan : Is there a particular style of dancing that is emphasized aside from the fundamental teaching?

P: Helgi Tomasson is the Artistic Director of the San Francisco Ballet and danced with George Balanchine. His work is very much associated with Balanchine’s technique, so it’s fair to say that the school is based on an Americanized style of ballet.

Jordan : We’ll come back to Balanchine in a minute because it has to do with my next question regarding the height of male ballet dancers. How tall are you each?

Peter: I’m 6 feet, Austin is 6’3”.

Austin: My height makes a lot of movements more difficult, but being tall will also help me get roles which will hopefully lead to getting contracts.

Jordan : I read that Mikhail Baryshnikov was rather short.

Peter: Yes, about 5’6”. Very short for a male lead dancer.

Jordan : And of course Baryshnikov is a household name. But who are some of your other inspirations, the dancers or choreographer who I’m probably not familiar with?

Peter: I like to watch YouTube videos constantly, so I gained a lot of exposure from that medium. For example there are people like David Hallberg who is not just an absolutely pristine, technically perfect dancer, but he is constantly involved in the arts and thinking about what is it saying. He’s the consummate artist. I also watch a lot of videos of Leon Sarafonov who is technically unbelievable; can do things that Rudolph Nureyev couldn’t do. And by that I mean that Nureyev did things that were visually amazing, but not as cleanly as a modern dancer.

Austin: This is a very interesting distinction that all dancers should think about. The driving force behind Nureyev’s fame was that he was an incredible performer. Whenever you hear people talk about him, they were just in awe of his performance quality.

Jordan : I was just reflecting on that idea this past month after Van Cliburn died. As great as he was, his charm and charisma made him unique among concert pianists. He reached a broader audience.

Let’s change topics just slightly. I’ve been curious about the regimen that a male ballet dancer undergoes. How do you train physically?

Peter: There’s a lot you should be doing. I have to do nightly exercises for my knee, not because of injury but because I know I need to have health in that area. Most of us take Pilates once a week or more.

Austin: I work out because I’m tall and I absolutely have to be a strong partner.

Peter: I do strength training regularly, but most dancers in school don’t stress that area unless they are dealing with an injury.

Jordan : Tell me about what kind of performance opportunities are available for you and your classmates.

Peter: We were horses and mice in the San Francisco Ballet Nutrcracker . . . (laughter all around)

Jordan : Paying dues!

Peter: We do have a show that we’ll be performing during the last week of May, but as of yet we don’t know what will be on it. But it will at Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco.

Jordan : When will you graduate from this program?

Austin: There is no graduation, and no accreditation as far as dance schools are concerned. We’re there to get the training we need to take professional auditions. Any job you earn is completely merit-based, so the idea is to study in school and train formally until you can get a contract.

Peter: You train and prepare on a personal level, to a certain extent. I may never be as good technically as another dancer, but if I’m refined enough to fulfill my own potential I’ll be able to do something with it.

Jordan : I always ask any serious, dedicated artist- when did you know that you wanted to make this your life?

Peter: I still don’t know. I don’t have any memory of when I transitioned from having to take lessons to actually enjoying it. I love ballet, I appreciate it on a high level. I’m not sure yet whether I could see myself being an artist the rest of my life.

Austin: I have always, in my memory, believed that I was a dancer. But I didn’t understand what that meant until very recently. Learning what it meant didn’t make me reconsider, and nothing would have changed my mind. But it is certainly a different kind of devotion, and I’m starting to understand the kind of work I have to do. It’s different from when I was a child and it was a simple fun passion.

Jordan : I love your honesty, it’s clear the level of respect you have for those who choose to make that leap. I know from experience what a difficult path you’re choosing.

So what is the ultimate goal for the young, aspiring male dancer? Let’s say there were no limits to what you could accomplish.

Austin: Well, if there were no limits we’d all be principal in the San Francisco Ballet! But really . . . I think that I’m going to make a large part of my career out of partnering. I love technical ballet dancing, but I don’t think I would be one of the best technicians. I have good lines and I’m solid. But I’m a very ambitious artist and a lot of the more artistically-driven roles in the repertoire are partnering-based. For example, John Cranko’s Onegin is a great ballet- but the principle role doesn’t dance all that much.

Jordan : And do either one of you envision yourself teaching at some point down the road?

Austin: I was a teaching assistant at my school in Houston, and I enjoyed it and I learned a lot from what teaching experience I had. However I wonder if I would have the patience to do it at a serious level.

Peter: You can’t lose sight of the fact that to be a dance teacher at this kind of level you have to first be a very accomplished dancer.

Jordan : Peter, can you talk about the decision regarding college vs. a dance career?

Peter: I’m currently deferring from Princeton University. I have an early memory of when I told my dance teacher that I loved dancing but that I wasn’t sure I could make a career out of it. It’s a funny question to be asking when you’re nine years old, but it’s a question that I never really stopped asking. The other question is “what am I doing as a dancer?” By that I mean that I’ve always has a sense of service, and on some level I wonder what dancing does for the world in general. It might sound pretentious, but I’m not sure if me dancing helps to solve some sort of problem . . .

Jordan : I don’t think that sounds pretentious at all. Quite the contrary.

Peter: My goal in coming to San Francisco was to spend at a least year studying seriously and thinking critically about the art form and get a more sure sense whether it’s something I want to do with my life. I have to decide whether my contribution to the art form is enough to have an impact on the way people view it.

Jordan : What do you think about this Austin?

Austin: Actually, Peter is one of my favorite dancers to watch because he’s such an interesting intellectual dancer. Watching him work on his technique gives me a lot of great insight into my own dancing.

Jordan : I’ll say to you both that when I was in music, that would’ve been greatest compliment I could ever receive from one of my fellow players. To hear one of your peers say that you’re one of their favorite people to listen to, or that you have the most beautiful sound, would be such an honor.

Thank you both for your time, and I look forward to seeing what you’re doing in the world of ballet. Best of luck to you!

Sonoma Mountain’s Hidden Jewel – A Day on the Berger Vineyard at Oak Shade Ranch

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 01:30:00 GMT

Jordan Wardlaw takes a trip up to the Mountain to learn about the history behind Ancient Oak’s soon to be released Bordeaux blends that could be our finest yet. Get to know our friends Fred and Carol Berger . . . . . In the immortal words of a modern sage, “It is all about […]

Jordan Wardlaw takes a trip up to the Mountain to learn about the history behind Ancient Oak’s soon to be released Bordeaux blends that could be our finest yet. Get to know our friends Fred and Carol Berger . . . . .

In the immortal words of a modern sage, “It is all about location, location, location .”

OK, so it was our still very much alive-and-well winemaker Kent Barthman who uttered the axiom. But it rings true, nevertheless, and it sent me off and running on this mid-week adventure.

Our tasting room has been unusually abuzz as of late; and I’m not talking about intoxication. The kind of buzz that indicates something special is brewing- or rather aging in our case. The wine, one could say, isn’t doing much at this moment. It is sitting in barrels in a cool cellar taking on the spice and tannin of the French oak and tended to by a master of his craft. The slow, steady process of the oak imparting its influence into the wine is one that will reveal rewarding qualities in different stages over time. But I’m reminded by the master himself, as we talk in the cellar one morning, that wine behaves in a variety of ways. Two vines of the same varietal raised from a single clone and budwood may develop dramatically different qualities in a single vintage, it may have nothing to do with anything a wine maker put into a fermenter, or how many new French oak barrels he stored in his cellar. What would be that difference?

“ Location, location, location .”

I think I’m getting it now.

As we continue to talk, I broach the subject of the tremendous excitement about the 2011 vintage Bordeaux varietals from the Berger Vineyard up on Sonoma Mountain.

“It’s a unique location, and the vines are in good hands,” Kent tells me. “It’s difficult to get grapes to ripen up there, but what results is a dense, concentrated crop that we think is producing a robust, mature and balanced wine.”

I began to grow even more curious about this idea of location , so I endeavored to take myself on a field trip. I called Fred and Carol Berger , the vineyard owners, and asked if I could have a bit of their time up at Oak Shade Ranch . I desired a more personal experience of the whole process, a more meaningful connection to the life of the wine. Its life, I would find, was not so much in the dirt as it was in the family that has tended that dirt for over one hundred years. One thirty-minute scenic drive later, I was taking in the views, the smells, and the sounds up on Oak Shade Ranch.

I took the scenic route, without regret. I found my way to Oak Shade Ranch and found the old family home built just above block four of the vineyard. To the west is a creek that is flanked by a dense stretch of oak forest, not far at all from the Cabernet and Merlot vines. These vines appear to be the ranch’s namesake. Coming into the house, I’m greeted with a warm welcome by the Bergers, and a handshake from the 84-year-old Fred that could be described as industrial-strength. The living room in the 40-year-old home provides an impressive panoramic view of the Mayacamas with the bare, rugged vines of southern blocks in the foreground. Below us lies the Valley of the Moon and the town of Glen Ellen nestled in the foothills not far below. I’m anxious to get out on the property and survey the proud vines, but first I took time to talk at length with Fred and Carol about the history of these wonderfully quirky twenty two acres that sit at 800 feet elevation along the eastern slope of Sonoma Mountain. Even as I sit down, I’m beginning to build a connection to the life of the wine.

I began learning the story of the Berger family from 1891 to the present. Fred was born on this very property in 1929 in a small house just down the hill on what was still a very rugged old world ranch. It would be several more years until Sonoma Mountain Road was paved or any indoor plumbing or electricity was introduced to the ranch, and vineyard planting was in the even more distant future. “My parents had the opportunity to plant vines after prohibition was over”, Fred remembers. “But they were very much against anything having to do with alcohol, or ‘contributing to the sins of others’ as they called it. So for years this land was mostly prunes and pears. I remember going through the orchards with my mother during the harvest. I was just a little brat. I’d put one in the pail, one in my mouth, one in the pail, one in my mouth . . .”

In addition to the eleven acres of prune and pear trees was a mostly open, wooded space at the lowest reaches of the mountainside not far above the expanse that is Jack London State Park. This forest proved to be a valuable commodity for Fred’s father, Henry, who cut and sold wood to pay the bills. Up to two-hundred sheep grazed the land to keep the grasses down, although before the days of adequate fencing many of them would prove to be easy prey for dogs from surrounding properties, making the population difficult to maintain. “I came home one summer to find dead sheep lying around all around the ranch,” Fred recalled. “Other ranchers would let their dogs run wild, so many that my father shot twenty-one of them in one year.”

Rugged farm life gave way to other opportunities in the early 1950’s just before the Korean War, and Fred have developed an interest in flying. He, just like my two grandfathers of roughly the same age, decided to enlist in the Air Force before he would inevitably be drafted. Training in Southern California proved to be where he would meet his wife Carol who was raised in Pasadena and living in Glendale at the time. The next twenty years would turn out to be a military career for the Bergers, seeing Fred work his way up through the ranks and spending most of his time as an Air Force officer stationed overseas in a vast array of locations from Germany to France to countries in the Far East. The Bergers would eventually have four children during this time.

But the ongoing life of Oak Shade Ranch would begin to play a role. Of the three-hundred total acres that belonged to the Berger family, the seventeen-acre parcel on which most of the vines lie today was passed along to Fred having been in his mother’s name. Other portions of varying size were inherited by Fred’s brothers and other family members. Although the couple would only visit the ranch one time in twenty years, it was a meaningful trip during which Fred and Carol began to plan their future. Walking on the mountain together one afternoon Fred took Carol to a familiar bluff where there was a crystal clear view of eastern slope of the mountain, telling her now that he had inherited that section of the ranch that he was planning to build them a home on the very spot where it stands today. Soon after, he would retire from the Air Force in 1972 and moved his family back to Oak Shade Ranch.

Using his skills and with the help of his father, at this point in his 80s, Fred built the family home in 1972. His father was a self-taught carpenter who had eventually made his living in building homes including, incidentally, that of Jack Warnecke in Alexander Valley who planted the vineyard that Ancient Oak Cellars would eventually buy Cabernet Sauvignon from. I’m reminded of the special feeling one gets when knowing that old-world family farming is the essence of a wine, or any agricultural product for that matter. Soon after Henry passed away, Fred bought the thirty-four acre parcel that had been left to one his brothers.

Vineyards had been planted in the surrounding area for generations, and Fred would talk often of trying his hand at growing grapes. But it was his uncle, Herb Bruning, who already made wine himself and gave Fred the encouragement and the raw materials that he would need to make it happen. Fred recalls: “He got so damned tired of listening to me say I going to plant a vineyard that one day he showed up with a pickup truck and started bringing in the vines. 1,800 bare root Cabernet Sauvignon vines to get me started. I had no tractor, no fence, no irrigation, nothing to cultivate with. But my biggest challenge was the soil which was only about 6 inches into the ground and right on top of tough, gray clay so the roots wouldn’t penetrate. “

Fred dutifully went about his job, digging the holes and planting the vines. The variety of different soils along Sonoma Mountain would pose challenges over the years, with many vines having to be replanted. Fred’s father and uncles had resorted to blasting away massive sections of clay with dynamite in the 1920’s in order to plant fruit trees on those very sites. Challenging as the land could be, those original three acres that Fred and his family planted in 1973 would prove to be durable and fruitful. Block one is currently farmed by Ken and his crew here at Ancient Oak, and we couldn’t be more proud of what came out of it.

The Bergers slowly expanded their vineyards, planting when they could afford to. Merlot and a small block of Cabernet Franc were added several years after the first planting. 1979 would be the first vintage of wine produced from the grapes up on Oak Shade Ranch, and they would go to become the smallest grower for two highly acclaimed labels in Kenwood and Glen Ellen. But they were also one of the best, and the relationships were long-lasting. They built their reputation for growing consistently robust grapes, despite the logistical hurdles posed by the uniqueness of their location. The family successfully dry farmed the ranch for many years before finally installing an irrigation system. Fred painted a wild picture of hundreds of feet worth of hoses crawling all over the vineyard. Carol shares a brief story that I found to be the essence of the family’s tradition:

“ If you were high up on the hill, there was barely any water pressure. Our daughter was always reading, and when she would go up there to water she would just put the hose down and read her book while waiting for the hole to fill up. But that was the easy work. Fred would do most of the pruning himself in the winter. The kids would help when they could, but they usually found whatever work they could so they weren’t stuck out there in the cold with sore, tired hands. My sister always used to say how amazing it was that all of our kids had jobs during a time when no one could find jobs. But sure enough, during the pruning season they always seemed to have a job! ”

Each of the Berger children, two girls and two boys, would play an important role in tending the vineyard, often working all summer and through the harvest. Fred had his more modern farming operation running by the early 1980’s and continued to take pride in his deft hand at getting the most out of his low-yielding, temperamental vines. Farming is by nature an unpredictable venture. Vines will behave in remarkably different ways from one vintage to the next, though some things would remain very much the same for Fred. His grapes tended to ripen quite late but would deliver unique qualities that winemakers would prize highly year after year. Suddenly one late harvest, everything seemed to change for the Berger family. The volatility of farming hit the family hard in the disaster of 2010.

2010 was indeed a particularly meager, for some even devastating, year for Sonoma County grape growers. I remember reading in the local press about an unprecedented number of crop insurance policies being filed as more and more vintners were simply walking away from a crop that didn’t ripen, developed rot, or flamed out on the vine during Indian summer. Up on Sonoma Mountain in mid-October, picking had just commenced when the vineyard contractor abruptly called everything off. The grapes fell just barely short of the minimum sugar levels required for harvesting, and almost everything was left to rot on the vines; their growing contract was voided. It was a huge blow to the Bergers, marking the end of what had been a long and successful relationship with their buyers. Carol described it as a “heartbreaker.”

Fred, now 82, went ahead and had the vines pruned but was unsure about the future of the farm. With no contract, there was no money to have everything done properly during the growing process. Fortunately, word of mouth found its way to Ancient Oak Cellars owner Ken Moholt-Siebert who came out to Sonoma Mountain with a mutual friend and didn’t want to see the grapes go to waste. The two families agreed to have Ancient Oak Cellars begin farming the now twenty-two acres of Bordeaux varietals, and our crew worked feverishly during the summer of 2011 with the hope of a viable crop. The fruits of their labor have been in barrels for about sixteen months so far, and everyone at Ancient Oak is very excited about the prospects for this wine and that of future vintages. Though he may be slowing down and allows Ken’s crew to do the heavy lifting, Fred seems happiest when he is on his tractor and at the center of the work.

Nearly every detail of the Berger family story seemed to turn to color as I walked along with Fred down the mountainside and through the vines which are showing early signs of life. We first make our way down block four and alongside the oak shaded Merlot vines. We eventually come into block one, the old gnarled and battle-tested vines that are now forty years old and reliable as ever. We come across several small cabins that are each in their own right chapters in the one-hundred and twenty-two year story of the Oak Shade Ranch. I listen to each of them as Fred relates in his animated manner. He struggles with an allergy as we begin heading uphill, but he never pauses. He still displays the steadfast but calm demeanor of a farmer who in forty years has never seen any two seasons that were alike.

I’m amazed at the stunning views, and the sheer diversity of the land. It’s an unseasonably warm day in late February and some of the Cabernet vines are springing to life with small, vibrant leaves. I’m reminded what a unique treasure this land really is. Reaching the top of the vineyard at 800 feet above sea level, I’m more than comfortable in shirtsleeves but I can see clearly down to a wooded space that was covered in frost just two hours ago. The Berger vineyard is a special place, complete with all of its perplexing idiosyncrasies. I’m enjoying getting to know a farmer responsible for such gorgeous land, especially this land that can be at times baffling. I sense a bit of what it is to live the uncertainty of agriculture. This farmer’s plight is like that of maintaining a beloved car that that doesn’t always run smoothly, but has never ultimately let you down. I’m proud to share his story on the behalf of Ken and Melissa’s family that will work for years to come to ensure that Oak Shade Ranch continues to manifest great things.

This coming weekend, I’ll feel uniquely privileged when pouring barrel samples of the 2011 Tò Érgon and Poietes Cabernet blends to tasters and wine buyers alike. They will not only see in my eyes and hear in my voice my genuine belief in the promise of the wine, but I’ll be able to relate the story of the Berger Vineyard in a way that I couldn’t have derived from a book or the words of winemaker. I’m confident that anyone who wants to talk about the wine in our tasting room will sense our individual connection to the life of the wine and that every individual at Ancient Oak is a part of a beautiful and nuanced tapestry of stories spanning many generations of families who will be forever connected. The living, breathing spirit of this wine will be a proud reflection of families bound together by an honest and passionate devotion to bringing out the best of the land.

Barrel Tasting 2013 — coming March 1st!

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 00:43:00 GMT

There is definitely a buzz around here as of late, and we expect our barrel tasters next week to amplify it to a bona fide roar. Ancient Oak Cellars’ upcoming release is going to make a serious splash in the world of wine. Our relationship with the Berger Vineyard on Sonoma Mountain has already yielded […]

Ancient Oak Cellars’ upcoming release is going to make a serious splash in the world of wine. Our relationship with the Berger Vineyard on Sonoma Mountain has already yielded some beautiful fruits that display immeasurable promise. We know that when you taste our 2011 vintage from the barrels beginning March 1, 2013 you will agree that the vines on Sonoma Mountain have given us something special that will be a superb wine for many years to come.

This represents a turning point and the beginning of a new tradition of winemaking at Ancient Oak as we prepare to release two cuvees for the first time on our label, comprised of stunning Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. This already fruitful venture into the world of bordeaux varietals is a labor of love for all involved. Owners Ken and Melissa discovered Fred and Carol Berger’s vineyard on Oak Shade Ranch in 2011 following its long and successful affiliations with several highly distinguished Sonoma County wine producers, and immediately knew that they would be proud to produce wine from the fruits of this 22 acre ranch. With vines dating back as far as 1973, many superb vintages throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s stood as an enduring testament to Berger family’s dedication to producing consistently great results at harvest time.

Nestled along two dramatic ridges on Sonoma Mountain at 800 feet elevation, the vineyard offers stunning views of the Valley of the Moon and the Mayacamas. Its location provides unique growing conditions that produce smaller berries, resulting in greater concentration and a remarkable balance and maturity. The late harvest near the end of October 2011 yielded 28 tons that has now spent about sixteen months in 55% new oak barrels.

View over Sonoma Valley from the Berger Vineyard

Winemaker Kent Barthman praised not only the vineyard for its natural features, but for the Berger’s legacy and for Ken’s vineyard management crew that helps the vines to fully express themselves.

“The Bergers, just like everyone else involved in growing grapes for Melissa and Ken, are a true family-run operation in every sense. Fred was born on that ranch, he planted all of the vines himself, and there is a genuinely close working relationship between the two families in producing the wine. The vineyard itself is unique, and though its yields are on the low side it produces berries of immense quality. These were great wines from the second they began fermenting. It’s really great for a winemaker when a wine virtually makes itself. There are some things that can be done in the cellar to help a wine come to full expression, but it’s really all about location . The Berger vineyard is simply a great location for growing Cabernet and Merlot, and with Ken’s direction the vines are in the best of hands.”

Early rave reviews have already come from Rick Burmester of Corrick’s , a noted wine connoisseur and former proprietor of Sonoma’s La Crema Vinera . Upon tasting our barrel sample, he was immediately won over and considered it to be among the most promising of all Cabernet and Merlot varietals in all of Sonoma and Napa. He noted its similarities to a 1979 vintage that he helped to develop along with grower Dave Steiner.

“Like the special 1979 cabernet from Steiner, it has notes of overpowering, youthful fruit with a distinct plummy richness. Full of rich boysenberry, reminiscent of the great French Merlots. It’s a wine that was special from the beginning, clearly a product of a unique vineyard. Sonoma Mountain produces Cabernet that is on par with anything coming out of Napa, and this wine just sprang out of the fermenter and will retain its fruit for many, many years.”

Here’s the rundown on our cuvees from the 2011 vintage . . . .

Berger Vineyard 2011 Cabernet-based cuvee : 85% Cabernet, 15% Merlot

Berger Vineyard 2011 Merlot-based cuvee : 70% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Cabernet Franc

Wine growers Fred and Carol Berger

We are extremely excited to be introducing what will almost certainly be among the finest wines ever produced on the Ancient Oak label, and our upcoming barrel tasting will be a fun coming out party for these gems. Our tasting room will open the barrels March 1 & 2 from 10:00am-5:00pm and March 3 from 12:00-5:00 pm. Again, the following weekend, we will offer them March 8 & 9 from 10:00am-5:00pm and March 10 from 12:00-5:00pm . Not a part of the Wine Road events happening the same weekends, this will be a place to escape the crowds and do some serious tasting of never-before released wines. In addition to the Berger wines, we will be tasting our estate Siebert Ranch Pinot Noir from 2011 and another brand-new wine for us – a Rose of Pinot named “Lucy” in honor of Ken and Melissa’s sweet daughter.

Stay tuned for our upcoming feature article which casts the spotlight on the Berger family and tells the story of its family tradition merging with our own.

Cheers!

Interview with Ancient Oak’s Denise Gill

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 02:03:00 GMT

Denise Gill, Director of Sales and Hospitality Take a few moments to get to know our lovely and charming Director of Sales and Hospitality, Denise Gill. Denise’s sales and marketing savvy coupled with her deeply-rooted understanding of wine make her one of Ancient Oak’s greatest assets. She is at the counter of our tasting room […]

Take a few moments to get to know our lovely and charming Director of Sales and Hospitality, Denise Gill. Denise’s sales and marketing savvy coupled with her deeply-rooted understanding of wine make her one of Ancient Oak’s greatest assets. She is at the counter of our tasting room five days a week and always provides a warm and fun visit when tasting our wines. Denise and I recently sat down to discuss wine, her own background and relationship with the Moholt-Siebert family , and of course the seductive and subtle indulgences that we have in store for tasters this week with our soon-to-be famous Wine and Truffle pairings.

Jordan Wardlaw sat down to interview Denise this week as we anticipate our Valentine’s Happy Hour.

Jordan : Denise, how long have you worked in the wine business? Any notable experiences or insights you’d like to share?

Denise : I have 20 years of experience within my career in the wine industry. I started this journey with taking wine related classes at Santa Rosa Junior College and UC Davis. Some of my notable accomplishments include implementing new wine clubs, creating new events, opening tasting rooms and building long relationships within the wine industry.

J : I’ve talked to customers who would like to know: How did you come to form a partnership with Ken and Melissa?

D: A prominent mutual friend introduced me to Melissa and Ken. I was intrigued with the great family history, a passion for Sonoma County wines, and their value of sustainable farming practices . Shortly after our meetings, I was invited to their home to taste the wines which commenced our excitement to put Ancient Oak Cellars on the map. On October 25, 2012 we opened first tasting room in downtown Santa Rosa, inside the historic Corrick’s building. Staying local is important to Melissa and Ken when determining the vineyards they will farm. Along with the winemaker Kent Barthman , the mainstay wines produced are the Russian River Valley Chardonnay and Pinot plus other single vineyards like the estate Siebert Ranch Pinot Noir RRV , Pagnano Vineyard Zinfandel RRV and Warnecke Cabernet Sauvignon from Alexander Valley. All of Ancient Oak Cellars wines have received outstanding recognition.

D: Over the past 9 years, I have judged the San Francisco Chronicle and CA State Fair wine competitions. This is clearly an educational experience to follow the trends and the different vintage outcome such as ripeness, pH, acid and alcohol levels. There are panels of three or five professionals from wine writers, wine makers, educators, buyers and distributors. A day of judging includes tasting up to 100 wines which are then awarded a Gold, Silver, Bronze or No Award. The San Francisco Chronicle is the largest competition in the US, this year featured over 5,500 competing wines.

J: That’s a LOT of wine! Could you talk about your personal taste in wine and some of the wines that you are most passionate about?

D: My favorite wine is determined by what’s for dinner, the weather temperature or who I am sharing the wine with. The wine that tends to be the most versatile is Pinot Noir. Even my white wine friends enjoy one of my favorites, Ancient Oak Cellars Estate Siebert Ranch Russian River Valley Pinot Noir . I love the great flavors of lively strawberry, cherry, a touch of earthiness, balanced French oak, supple tannins, and elegant silkiness. The Russian River Valley has claimed the best appellations for growing Pinot Noir. The long, cool, foggy mornings produce happy, healthy vineyards. Wine is the best beverage to enjoy when it comes to enhancing food flavors. The ultimate pairing makes for a memorable experience. The best rule of thumb is to mirror some of the flavors in the wine thus enhancing the wine and food pairing.

J: I recently did an interview with David, our friend at Sonoma Chocolatiers who we’ve partnered up with to offer wonderful wine and truffle pairings in our tasting room this week. Could you talk about the partnership with the Chocolatiers and tell our readers about the Valentine’s event?

D: Working together with Sonoma Chocolatier, we have created the ultimate pairing ranging from a Lemon Thyme Brie truffle with the Chardonnay to a Smoked Olive Oil Pergon for the Zinfandel. The Chocolatiers also have created a truffle especially for us, a 70% cacao dark chocolate truffle with a ganache infused with our own 2010 Zinfandel . We invite you to taste these pairing starting Saturday, February 9 through 16th. (closed Sunday) from 11:00am to 5:00pm.

J: Any interesting notes about pairings, or personal favorites you’d like to describe to entice us?

D: It’s fun to pair wine with chocolate especially during Valentine’s to start or finish a romantic day. I fell in love with their California Coastal truffle. The ganache is made with organic cream infused with herbs native to California’s Coast which creates a great marriage with the layers of savory richness of our Siebert Ranch Pinot Noir.

J: So, what’s next for Ancient Oak Cellars?

D: I’d like to tell people about our new partnership with the Berger Vineyard in Sonoma Valley . This amazing 800 ft elevation vineyard has the perfect terroir and weather for Bordeaux varietals plus sweeping views of Mt. Veeder in the Mayacamas. To introduce these wines, we will offer barrel samples in our tasting room during the first two weeks in March. We hope you can celebrate with us and taste these full-bodied, stellar wines.

Perfect Pairing: Wine and Truffles by Ancient Oak and Sonoma Chocolatiers

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 18:39:00 GMT

This week our new team member Jordan Wardlaw sat down with our friend and partner David Gambill, owner and founder of Sebastopol’s Sonoma Chocolatiers. Ancient Oak’s collaboration with David is sure to be one of our highlights this year as we offer our Valentine’s Wine and Chocolate Pairings February 9-16. We are delighted to be able to offer what is truly Sonoma County’s finest artisan chocolate, handcrafted by a small family business that takes pride in its commitment to sustainability and immaculate quality. Sonoma Chocolatiers in just a few years of existence has already built a sterling reputation and achieved fame in the North Bay Area for their renowned truffles and caramels.

Perfect Pairing: Wine & Truffles by Ancient Oak and Sonoma Chocolatiers

I’m Jordan Wardlaw , the newest member of the team at Ancient Oak Cellars. I’ll be bringing our readers updates about our activities in the tasting room, vineyards and cellars as well as telling your more about the people in our extended family.

This week I had the pleasure of getting to know our friend and partner David Gambill , owner and founder of Sebastopol’s Sonoma Chocolatiers . Ancient Oak’s collaboration with David is sure to be one of our highlights this year as we offer our Valentine’s Wine and Chocolate Pairings February 9-16 . We are delighted to be able to offer what is truly Sonoma County’s finest artisan chocolate, handcrafted by a small family business that takes pride in its commitment to sustainability and immaculate quality. Sonoma Chocolatiers in just a few years of existence has already built a sterling reputation and achieved fame in the North Bay Area for their renowned truffles and caramels.

I caught David during a frantic week of preparation for Valentine’s Day, when orders are filled at a daunting rate. Nevertheless, David was generous with his time and we discussed the history of his thriving chocolate company and its partnership with Ancient Oak Cellars.

Jordan : How did Sonoma Chocolatiers come about and what kinds of products are you known for?

David : It all started immediately after my family left Washington D.C. several years ago. My background is in environmental policy and planning, and my wife is a psychotherapist. I had lived in Sonoma County many years ago and always felt that it was an ideal place for living. We didn’t want to put my daughter in school in Washington, so we made the move. I had been making my chocolates as a hobby for 20 years, and was encouraged by friends to begin making them professionally. I bought the Infusions Tea House in the Sebastopol downtown plaza which has been home to Sonoma Chocolatiers ever since. We were almost immediately successful and were voted Best Chocolatier by North Bay Bohemian every year since 2010.

We are probably best-known for our carmels which have been immensely popular. Our most popular truffles are the Fig Cardamon, Rose Heart and the Aztec Aphrodisiac . The Aztec is a very popular seasonal offering (available mid February through Mother’s Day) that uses what the Aztecs considered the two strongest aphrodisiacs- chocolate and an herb called damiana. We also include cinnamon and vanilla.

We don’t wholesale our truffles. They have a shelf life of about 7-10 days, so we sell them direct to customers and to local retailers. We use Scharffen Berger exclusively in all of our truffles.

J : Where can customers find these delectable treats?

D : We sell in about 50 shops in the North Bay such as Duncan Mills General Store, The Tides at Bodega Bay, Oliver’s, Pacific Market, Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco and various Sonoma wineries. We are pleased to announce that we will be selling our chocolates at the newly-opened Scharffen Berger flagship shop in the San Francisco Ferry Building.

J : Could you talk briefly about the experience of running a family business?

D : In our case, I run most areas of our business in both the Chocolatiers and the Tea House. But my wife does a number of things behind the scenes including bookkeeping. Our 8-year-old daughter, depending on her mood, will perform basic chores like cleaning and busing tables.

J: I had heard you mention recently that you wanted to raise your daughter in a “healthier” environment. Could you say more about that and what exactly you mean?

D : When I lived here in Sonoma previously I had worked as a geologist in the geysers. I knew Sonoma was a beautiful, healthy place and I found the pace of life was conducive to a more community and family oriented life. I could spend more time with family. I worked in alternative energy development for 30 years, so sustainable business models were important to me. For example, we chose to work with Scharffen Berger because of their ethics. Infusions and the Chocolatiers is also the first retail business in downtown Sebastopol to use all LED lights. We are proud of that and take our commitment quite seriously.

J: As you know, Ancient Oak also maintains a steadfast commitment to sustainable business and agricultural practices. Could you talk Sonoma Chocolatiers’ use of organic and local ingredients?

D : Nearly every ingredient in our products is locally produced and organic. We let the chocolate speak for itself and use no added sugar. You can get less expensive chocolates, but they aren’t as rich or meticulously crafted. Scharffen Berger because the chocolate has a particularly long-lasting quality.

J: How did the partnership with Ancient Oak Cellars and Sonoma Chocolatiers come about?

D : Keven Brown at Corrick’s had been carrying our chocolates for a few years and he talked to Melissa and Ken and we started doing some business. It was a great fit from the start. It was easy to pair good chocolates with just about any of your wines. The Valentine’s wine and truffle pairing seemed like a natural direction to go in.

J: What should wine drinkers know about your chocolates?

D : They should know that ours are designed so that first flavor they taste is chocolate, and the last flavor they taste is chocolate. Of course there is the dark chocolate outer layer, and the ganache in the center is a rich burst of chocolate flavor that is a great foil for the many herbs, fruits and savory flavors that are infused into the center, creating the in-between layer. Some of our favorite examples are the Lemon Thyme Brie and the Fig Cardamon.

J: Tell us about how wine taste profiles interact with your truffles, for example if I wanted to pair something with our 2010 Russian River Pagnano Vineyard Zinfandel .

D : When it comes to wine, you really can’t go wrong with any of our basic 62-70% dark chocolate truffles. The Lemon Thyme Brie , for example, will accentuate the fruitiness of the Zinfandel without masking or offsetting it. If you wanted to really bring out the fruit of the wine you could pair it with our Blood Orange truffle . Chardonnay also pairs beautifully with darker chocolates, I recommend an 82% truffle and encourage the taster to drink the wine first.

J: What is a great gift idea for Valentine’s or other occasions?

D : Nice gift ideas are truffles that stand on their own, a selection that go with wine but ones that could be enjoyed over time. Our seasonal holiday special truffles include the Rose Heart, Lavender Love & Lust, Aztec Aphrodisiac and Holiday Spice.

J: Finally, could you tell us what’s next for Sonoma Chocolatiers? Any upcoming new products or big events?

D : Watch for our Tulsi Truffles (holy basil) which are coming back very soon. Tulsi is a wonderful Indian herb with an earthiness that pairs well with red wines. We’re also introducing our Peanut Butter & Heaven and Orange Peanut & Heaven truffles which will be available soon.

Ancient Oak Cellars sponsors inagural season of Santa Rosa Symphony at the Green Music Center

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 17:11:00 GMT

We’re pleased to share with you this recent newsletter from the Santa Rosa Symphony announcing our sponsorship of their inaugural year at the beautiful Green Music Center. We invite you to join us at the “Roaring Celebration” Gala on Friday, October 5th, and also at concerts throughout the year. Season subscriptions are still available. ************************************************************************ […]

We’re pleased to share with you this recent newsletter from the Santa Rosa Symphony announcing our sponsorship of their inaugural year at the beautiful Green Music Center. We invite you to join us at the “Roaring Celebration” Gala on Friday, October 5th , and also at concerts throughout the year. Season subscriptions are still available.

************************************************************************

Ancient Oak Cellars is not only the premier wine sponsor for “A Roaring Celebration” but is also the official brand being poured for the Symphony’s Private Reserve Club receptions during the 2012-2013 season. In addition to being business sponsors, vintners Melissa and Ken Moholt-Siebert have other connections to the SRS. They have recently entered into a partnership with Keven Brown, son of Conductor Emeritus Corrick Brown, to open a downtown tasting room in Corrick’s on Santa Rosa’s Fourth Street.

“Working with Keven makes sense on so many levels, personal and professional,” Melissa says. “We are both involved in multi-generation businesses. Ken’s grandfather, Henry Siebert, started our ranch and planted the vines. We honor his legacy and continue to develop the ranch from the hard work he put into it. We are very hands-on and do it all ourselves, along with winemaker Kent Barthman and a few full-time vineyard workers. Great wine is rooted in the land, and this area has always been ‘a place of the heart’ for our family.”

“Our daughter Lucy is in the ArtQuest program at Santa Rosa High School, where both Keven and Corrick attended and studied music,” Melissa continues. “Lucy is taught privately by Cory Antipa and at SR High by the amazing Mark Wardlaw; both are Symphony members. Our 16-year-old son Austin is an aspiring professional dancer. He has spent the last two years studying on scholarship with the Houston Ballet Academy and has just been asked to join the San Francisco Ballet School on full scholarship.

“Professionally, the collaboration with Corrick’s makes sense because it has such an amazing reputation and dedicated customers in the community, and is building a reputation for fine art with their ARTrails gallery. We hope to draw many regional and national tourists to Corrick’s, and to the fantastic restaurants and shops of downtown Santa Rosa as well.”

The Ancient Oak Cellars tasting room in Corrick’s is scheduled to open in late October. Both proprietors extend an invitation to Santa Rosa Symphony friends to attend the grand opening.

Updates from the Vineyards

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 19:11:00 GMT

Here are some updates from some of our vineyards. As harvest nears, there’s lots happening these days, so look for more news soon. Siebert Ranch Pinot (August 16th): Sunny, but lovely refreshing breeze here in Santa Rosa. Pinot is about 90% colored up in block 4, Siebert Ranch and we’ve done a green drop. That […]

Here are some updates from some of our vineyards. As harvest nears, there’s lots happening these days, so look for more news soon.

Berger Cab, Merlot, and Cab Franc:
Look for a post about this vineyard coming soon…

Great year in the Pagnano Vineyard Zinfandel

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 01:40:00 GMT

The Pagnano Vineyard – home of our 91-point zinfandel, is looking fantastic this year. We have a well-balanced crop: healthy but not too vigorous growth of shoots and leaves, and a crop that is a good size to ripen well. Right now we’re going through the vineyard and thinning shoots as needed, pulling leaves to […]

Today is Sheep-shearing Day at the Siebert Ranch

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 03:53:00 GMT

I imagine it’s not too much different now than when my great-great grandpa Burt was shearing sheep in Eastern Montana – though he had an order of magnitude more sheep than we do. It is hard physical work – no way around that. Paul shears our sheep after a long day as a butcher at […]

Fortunately for the sheep, I don’t think they realize how ridiculous they look when they’re freshly-shorn! More like goats than sheep.

Wine Writer Peg Melnik blogs about Ancient Oak Cellars

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 21:26:00 GMT

We were very honored to be interviewed by wine writer Peg Melnik. Read what she has to say: Ancient Oak Cellars hopes to open its tasting room in Corrick’s Stationery Store on Fourth Street. What’s the story behind this winery, and just exactly when can we start swirling, sipping and shopping? Here’s a Q & […]

We were very honored to be interviewed by wine writer Peg Melnik. Read what she has to say :

Q: If your Ancient Oak Tasting Room is approved how will it change “the culture” of downtown Santa Rosa?

Moholt-Siebert : I think it will enhance the culture that exists. There are strong family-owned businesses that offer the best that Sonoma County has to offer in their various settings. We’ll add to that. What I do think that we’ll be able to be a part of is bringing a renewed sense of vibrancy to the downtown. It’s been a hard time to be a small, family-owned retail-oriented business. What we can do is help to bring more folks – tourists and locals alike – into downtown, where they’ll stay to do some shopping, have a bite to eat, and discover or remember what downtown Santa Rosa has to offer.

Q: Where are you in the process? What hoops do you still have to go through to make this a reality?

Moholt-Siebert : There have been neighborhood public meetings to give folks a chance to give feedback to the city staff. All of it has been very positive. The next step is the Planning Commission hearing in mid-July and then it will go to City Council. We’re really hoping that can happen in August, but it may be early September. That would have us opening near the end of harvest or shortly thereafter.

Q: What’s your back story? What don’t the uninitiated know about Ancient Oak?

Moholt-Siebert : We are a small family operation – with just the two of us (Ken and Melissa), our winemaker Kent Barthman, and a few full-time vineyard workers. We are very hands-on and do it all ourselves. Our vineyards are Ken’s top priority. As they say, great wine starts in the vineyard. Melissa has been focused on developing national sales, which is now established to the point that she can turn her attention to starting this tasting room and introducing the wine to California. We hope to have the wine in more of the fantastic local restaurants and retail outlets soon.

Q: How did a property ignite your love affair with wine?

Moholt-Siebert : For us, the wine is rooted in the land. We began working with Ken’s grandparents many years ago to help on the vineyard. And Ken spent much of his childhood coming up here from Berkeley. This has always been a “place of the heart” for Ken, and developed into that for the rest of the family as well. So when we had the chance to take over the vineyard, we did so. Ken and I both grew up in families that cared deeply about growing our own food, cooking as a family, eating well, and enjoying wine. We want to educate and share with others the importance of a direct connection with the land and are passing this on to our kids in a very immediate way.

Q: Do you expect more tasting rooms to follow your lead and try to move into downtown Santa Rosa?

Moholt-Siebert : We absolutely expect – and hope – that more tasting rooms will follow into the Fourth Street area of downtown Santa Rosa. The city is working hard to create an environment that is conducive to tasting rooms and brew pubs. We can’t wait to have additions to those who have paved the way, and to be a part of the thriving community that is forming.

Q: If your tasting room gets the green light, what labels will you be pouring? What are their price points?

Moholt-Siebert : This will be a showcase for Ancient Oak cellars. We offer a Russian River Chardonnay for $20, a Russian River Valley Pinot Noir for $25, an Alexander Valley Cabernet for $25, a highly-rated single-vineyard (Pagnano Vineyard) Russian River Valley Zinfandel for $32, and a single-vineyard (Siebert Ranch) Russian River Valley Pinot for $35. We will have some amazing single-vineyard (Berger Vineyard) Sonoma Mountain Cab in another year or so.

Q: What will this synergy between wine and commerce do for downtown Santa Rosa?

Moholt-Siebert : Santa Rosa is the capital of the Sonoma County Wine Country. It has a charming downtown with amazing merchants – many with such a rich history of generations of civic involvement in Santa Rosa. Being able to publicly celebrate the great wine we make here in Sonoma County will be such a pleasure. And the increased number of tourists we draw will be fantastic for the restaurants and shops downtown.

The California Visitor’s Center and Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce tell us that they expect 52,000 visitors to the Welcome Center this year. Of those 52,000, about 85% are coming in and seeking information regarding wineries and tasting rooms, and of that number, 55% are specifically asking for referrals to wineries and tasting rooms in the City of Santa Rosa. What a great opportunity to bring this wide group of new visitors into downtown to share not only our wine but also the fantastic art and local products at Corrick’s, great coffee, exciting local restaurants, and small shops that form the heart of downtown Santa Rosa.

Ancient Oak Cellars Tasting Room Coming Soon!

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 23:20:00 GMT

We just returned home from an incredible family trip to breathtaking France. More to come with pictures and posts about our time there and the wine tastings we had along the way. While we were in the middle of our travels we were honored to be featured on the front page of our local paper, […]

After years of requests from our customers and friends for a “public” space to enjoy our offerings we’re thrilled to be opening one! The tasting room will be located inside of Corrick’s – we are converting a large portion of their space into our tasting room – just adjacent to their Art Trails gallery focused on local artists. We too will be featuring the many talented local artists in our space. Together we will celebrate the relationship between Art and Wine. Read the article here.

We look forward to seeing you all in person at the new tasting room – stay tuned for the official opening date coming soon.

How to make perfect Pinot Noir poached salmon

Wed, 02 May 2012 06:03:00 GMT

Commercial salmon season opened today and in my house that is cause for great celebration! (I invite you to responsibly enjoy salmon by choosing only line-caught wild salmon, and just saying “no” to farmed salmon). Between now and mid-October I plan to enjoy this amazing delicacy in many ways. One of my favorite – […]

(I invite you to responsibly enjoy salmon by choosing only line-caught wild salmon, and just saying “no” to farmed salmon).

Between now and mid-October I plan to enjoy this amazing delicacy in many ways.

One of my favorite – and the way we enjoyed it at my house tonight – is simply poaching in pinot noir.

Create this easy and delicious recipe:

1) Sprinkle salt and pepper on salmon filet or steaks.

2) Heat a 1:1 mixture water and pinot noir in a broad pan.

3) Add the salmon, cover, and simmer. If the filet or steaks are about 1/2 inch thick, cook for about 5 minutes; 1 inch thick steaks will take about 10 minutes.

4) When the fish is almost done, remove it to a platter and cover it to rest and finish cooking. Increase the heat in the pan to a boil and cook until it has reduced by about two-thirds.

5) Add a few tablespoons of butter; melt and stir to incorporate. Pour the resulting now reduced sauce over the salmon, garnish with fresh chives, and serve.

Of course I always pair this with the Ancient Oak Cellars’ Siebert Ranch Russian River Pinot Noir -and I encourage you to do the same!

Here’s to the start of a fantastic wild Pacific salmon season…

Cheers!

-Melissa

Enter Two Contests to Win WINE at the Hong Kong Wine Fair November 6th!!

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 04:54:00 GMT

Ancient Oak Cellars is going to be visiting Hong Kong soon. We’ll be pouring samples of our wines at the Hong Kong International Wine Fair. There will be two days of tastings for the “trade” (wine buyers, restaurant sommelliers, etc.) and then on Saturday, November 6th we will be pouring wine for the general public […]

To get you in the mood and have you start to learn about the wines of Ancient Oak Cellars, we’ve designed two special contests.

One is called “The Great Wine Hunt” Photo Contest . This contest is based on our Facebook page. We will be giving away at least one bottle of wine to each winner. Here’s what you have to do:

1) Become a Facebook fan of Ancient Oak Cellars .
2) Print out the picture of the Siebert Ranch Pinot Noir (found in this Facebook Photo Album )
3) Take a photo of yourself holding the photo in any or all of the following categories of photos:

Submit as many photos in as many different categories as you want. We will choose a winner who has submitted the most photos, but don’t just take 10 photos of yourself in very slightly different locations on your block, because we won’t count those; they need to be in recognizably different locations.

There will also be winners in all of the above categories, as well as a “people’s choice” and one “Ancient Oak Cellars” choice.

4) To “vote” for a photo, make a comment on your photos (one comment per person per photo), comment on other people’s photos, and also tell your friends, family, work colleagues, etc. to vote on photos too.

5) Come to the Hong Kong International Wine Fair on Saturday, November 6th and visit Ancient Oak Cellar’s booth 3G-F22.

1) Send me an email (melissa@ancientoakcellars.com) to join our mailing list, OR become a Facebook fan , OR become a Twitter follower .

2) Answer the following five questions (send me an email , OR a Facebook direct message, OR a Direct Tweet – all to keep your answers private). You will find the answers to these questions on the Ancient Oak Cellars website:

3) Answer the following five questions about yourself:

4) Visit us at the Hong Kong International Wine Fair (booth 3G-F22) and give us your name card (make sure it has on it the way we should contact you – such as a cell phone number where we can call or text you, or an email address). We will randomly select at least 6 people who have answered all the questions listed above and will give away a bottle of wine to each winner.

Winemaker Joe Freeman – early thoughts on Pinots

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 07:09:00 GMT

Ancient Oak Cellars now has two Pinot Noirs in tank! It seemed like a long wait for these grapes to ripen, but the rewards of patience are the ripe flavors and mature tannins we are seeing in the fermenters. As if on cue, Fall weather arrived today, with dark clouds, cold temperatures, and light sprinkles. […]

Just under 7 tons of Siebert Ranch Pinot Noir were hand picked on Saturday, October 2, weeks later than this block usually ripens. After removing the grapes from the stems, the “must” was transferred to the open top fermenters for a cold soak period, where we attempt to extract as much color and flavor as possible, prior to the start of fermentation. These grapes will have a few more days of cold soak before we inoculate with yeast and begin the conversion from juice to wine. It looks like the 2010 Siebert Ranch Pinot Noir will be a wonderfully intense wine with very ripe flavors of black cherry and blueberry.

I’ll keep you posted on the progress of our young wines!

-Joe Freeman

Crush Begins – Warnecke Ranch Pinot

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 04:52:00 GMT

It’s been crazy weather so far – and continues to be.Â It looks like harvest and crush are going to be very condensed, making for some exciting (and somewhat tense) times.Â For us it has started out very well.Â Our first 20 tons of grapes – Pinot Noir from the Warnecke Ranch and Vineyard near […]

I want to share some photos that help explain some of the process so far.Â These grapes were harvested into large metal bins called Valley Bins, which hold a bit more than 2 tons of grapes each.Â The bins were loaded onto the truck and sent to the winery. Here’s a photo of those bins of beautiful grapes.

Next, the bins were dumped into a hopper.Â We had some great help that day – including Mike, the former Mayor of Santa Rosa, shown here scooping the grapes into the hopper.

From here a large stainless-steel screw moves the grapes to a conveyor and into an area where leaves and stems are separated and removed into another bin.The contract says that the winery will receive grapes substantially free of “MOG” – or “Material Other than Grapes.”Â The critter below was removed after he/she was officially categorized as MOG.

As the tank sits, a cap of grape skins forms at the top; each day that cap is punched back down into the tank and juice from below is pumped over it to optimize extraction.Â That’s where we stand today.Â Tomorrow Joe will do some analysis of the juice, then add yeast to begin the magical transformation of earthy grape juice into the heavenly elixir we call wine.

Stay tuned – there’s lots more to come!

Warnecke Ranch Pinot Noir Added to the Ancient Oak Cellars Family

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 14:35:00 GMT

Margo Warnecke Merck, daughter of the famous architect John Carl Warnecke, lead us through the Warnecke property on a warm afternoon this last week. This property includes a mile of beach front, but more importantly for us — vineyards. We were there to see a block of pinot noir we will be using for a […]

It’s hard to concentrate on tasting grapes with with a hilly vista spreading out in front of you and Margo’s dog Zephyr vying for attention at your heels, but we did manage to come up with some thoughts on the grapes, especially our winemaker Joe Freeman.Â From past experience with the grapes, Joe knows that they are kind of “sleepers” — in that they show even more finely in the wine made than one would expect from the fruit.Â We’re getting close to harvest time, so the stems are continuing the process of lignification — turning brown and beginning to shut down.

The seeds are starting to get more “pop” and crunchiness, with those tannins developing nicely, and the berries are developing nice strawberry and red-cherry flavors.Â We’re expecting some nice warm weather in the next several days, so all looks good for continued development of grape flavors and seed tannins.Â Expect some great stuff from this wine!

Barrel Sampling and Beginning Blending Trials – 2009 Siebert Ranch Pinot

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:02:00 GMT

This is one of the most fun – and most interesting – parts of this whole endeavor.Â We met with our winemaker Joe to barrel taste the 2009 Siebert Ranch pinot and determine what barrels we want to use for our 2010 wines.Â The barrels are all French oak – some new and some that […]

barrel type 1 : homey, warming; pushing baked cherry pie, pie spice, ginger; nice, ripe fruit
barrel type 2 :Â wood overtone – smell the oak as wood, not toast; the fruit carries on the palate for a long finish with fruit; nice blueberry/blackberry; “wow” fruit
barrel type 3 :Â graham cracker, toasted/burnt marshmallow, toffee, caramel, roast meat; some smoke, but a lot of sweet aromatics; big oak power; not as much fruit support – a good counterpoint to the other barrels that adds more layers of complexity
neutral barrels :Â cocoa, rhubarb; good acid; tighter tannins because older barrels are tighter, with less airflow

These are the components we are working with.Â Now comes the magic of selecting barrels and determining the best blend from them.

Joe made some beginning trial blends with different percentages of new oak used, and different percentages of some of the different new oak barrels.Â We will be continuing this in a few weeks, and then revisiting, revising, and perfecting our blend after we have finished with the insanity of harvest.Â We’ll bottle in November or December, and have the wine ready for you some time between Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day, depending on how the wine develops.

I hope that once you get to taste the finished product, you’ll give some feedback on what of these individual components you taste, and how you think we did choosing barrels and blending the wine from them.Â I’d love to hear from you!

Characteristics of Zinfandel from Various California Regions

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 06:18:00 GMT

We will be producing an estate Zinfandel from a Russian River Valley vineyard that we have recently leased.Â Although our winemaker Joe Freeman has plenty of experience making zinfandel, this will be the first made for Ancient Oak Cellars.Â So â€“ we’re thinking a lot about zinfandel these days.Â One topic that I’ve been wondering […]

Sierra Foothills :Â Wines are deeply colored, with bright forward fruit, jammy, ripe black raspberry flavors, and a strong black cherry, verging on cola, character.Â Aromas are often described as cocoa, briary spice, licorice, mint, chocolate, cedar and tobacco.
â—‹Â Â Â Amador County Zins are big, full-bodied, jammy/briary/brambly, having aromas of sweet berries, black cherry, black pepper and anise, and a rich, round, full mouth

Central Valley :Â Aromas of spicy cherry liqueur, pie cherries, clove and nutmeg, with flavors ofÂ ripe blueberries, cranberry, dried plum, toasted almond and pepper. Central Valley wines tend toward soft, low tannins.
â—‹Â Â Â Lodi has some of the oldest Zinfandel vines in California.; Lodi Zinfandels have a reputation for being juicy and approachable.

Sonoma County :Â Zinfandel from Sonoma County have full, intense blackberry fruit aromas that mingle with spicy black pepper, anise and allspice scents. In general, Northern Sonoma produces â€œclassic Zinfandelâ€, with some cherry and briar character.
â—‹Â Â Â Russian River Valley:Â The extended growing season intensifies the flavors in the fruit, producing very lush dark fruit flavors (plums and boysenberries).
â—‹Â Â Â Dry Creek:Â Â Have a distinct core of black cherry and vanilla flavor and aroma,
â—‹Â Â Â Alexander Valley:Â Described as â€œsuppleâ€ with plump blackberry and black cherry flavors.
â—‹Â Â Â Sonoma Valley:Â From a slightly cooler region, these wines are lush, with plenty of black pepper and spice. The coolest areas of Southern Sonoma show brighter, rounder berry fruit and an intensely spicy flavor.

So, from the 2010 Ancient Oak Cellars Pagnano Vineyard Russian River Valley Zinfandel, expect a classic zinfandel with intense blackberry and spicy aromas and lush dark fruit flavors.Â My mouth is watering and recipe thoughts are flowing already!

Thoughts on Wine Making from Joe Freeman, our winemaker

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 05:30:00 GMT

One of my goals as a winemaker is to identify wines that will contribute to a balanced, truly enjoyable blend, and to carry this potential along into the finished blend.Â Whatâ€™s the process behind this?Â This is where the stereotype of the winemaker really fits!Â Wine thief in hand, I go from barrel to barrel, […]

When tasting your next bottle of wine, explore the variety of ways in which the wine expresses itself to you, with the numerous fruit, floral, and spice aromas and flavors.Â A well-blended wine should always be offering you something more, rewarding your contemplation.Â As we blend our 2009 vintage wines, we will try to provide you with that reward!

Our Estate Zinfandel Vineyard – Pagnano Vineyard

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 23:32:00 GMT

Exiting news!Â We have finalized a lease for a zinfandel vineyard a couple miles west of our estate pinot noir – the Pagnano family vineyard.Â The vines are an old vine clone brought from the property next door to the vineyard (no longer in grapes, sad to say).Â The vines themselves are mature but not […]

The zin grapes at Pagnano vineyard are head-pruned in the old-vine fashion, but with an upright structure that opens up the canopy and gets more light and air to the fruit (as you can see in the photo above – taken this spring when they were just leafing out).Â They are on the old St.George rootstock.Â We have pulled the small canes and suckers from the vines, dusted them with sulfur to deter mildew, and are working to secure all the vines as they become heavy with canes, leaves and the developing fruit.Â The zin vines budded out a week or two later than our pinot, but now have larger fruit clusters that are developing very well.

This vineyard is in the Russian River Valley appellation, where a long, cool growing season allows Zinfandel to achieve superb levels of ripeness exploding with aromas of peak-of-season ripe blackberries and boysenberries, intermingled with plum and occasionally blueberry. Overtones of black pepper are also quite common. They are quite distinct from Lodi or Amador County Zinfandels, where the greater heat levels produce big, extracted, higher alcohol wines.Â Russian River Valley zinfandels maintain excellent levels of balance, appealing to both the hedonist and the classic wine drinker.

Stay tuned as we report on development in the vineyard, harvest, and the winemaking process.ï»¿

Wine Tasting This Weekend + Report on Last Wine Tasting

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 01:09:00 GMT

We had a great time earlier this month at the Russian River Valley Winegrower’s “Single Night” Tasting.Â It was a night dedicated to Single Vineyard-Designate wines from the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County, California.Â We were thrilled to be in such amazing company. Our table was next to Acorn Winery.Â Betsy and Bill very […]

Our table was next to Acorn Winery .Â Betsy and Bill very graciously suggested that “when we grow up, maybe we’ll be an Ancient Oak.”Â Generously said by generous folks.Â I encourage you to try their delicious Allegria Vineyard Russian River Valley Zinfandel .

We had some fabulous friends join us for the event.Â Our godson Andrew and his lovely squeeze Virginia came to Sonoma County just for this event.Â It was wonderful to have old friends with us while we were also making new friends.

Our wines were very well received.Â We poured our 2008 Siebert Ranch Russian River Valley Pinot Noir .Â Of course, being a Russian River Valley event, there were quite a few Pinot Noirs being poured.Â It was wonderful to hear a number of folks come back to the table or find us later in the evening to let us know that ours was their favorite Pinot of the evening!

Now on to the next fun event…this coming Sunday, June 27th, we’ll be at the San Francisco Pinot Days’ Grand Festival held in at Fort Mason from 1-5pm .Â Although we’re sorry to see that our friends from Acorn Winery won’t be there, we’re again thrilled to be in such august company.Â As the website says, “Sunday’s Grand Festival at Fort Mason in San Francisco will showcase more than 220 phenomenal producers of pinot noir. Consumers will be able to sample up to 500 pinots from every important domestic pinot noir region, from the Russian River Valley to the Santa Lucia Highlands, Oregon to Carneros, the Anderson Valley to the Sonoma Coast to the Santa Rita Hills.”

How is our Vineyard Sustainably Farmed?

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:15:00 GMT

Here’s what the California Wine Institute has to say about Sustainable Winegrowing: Sustainable winegrowing is a set of best practices that guide Californiaâ€™s growers and vintners in producing wine in an environmentally friendly and socially responsible manner that benefits families, employees, communities and wildlife, and the soils, air and water that make great wines possible.Â […]

While California winemakers and winegrowers may have legal title to their vineyards and wineries, most consider themselves caretakers of the land, stewards who are mindful of the impact winegrowing and winemaking have on the environment. Together, they have embraced a statewide Code of Sustainable Winegrowing Practices, a best-practices guide to keeping California green and clean by reducing water and energy use, minimizing pesticide and herbicide use, building healthy soils, protecting air and water quality and maintaining natural wildlife and vegetation.

Great stuff, and certainly true on our own family-owned ranch and vineyard.Â Here’s just one section of our sustainable practices plan.Â For more, see the Siebert Ranch website :

To enhance the environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agricultural economy depends, we do the following:

Cellar Report from Winemaker Joe Freeman

Thu, 27 May 2010 11:07:00 GMT

It’s a time of awakening and selection in the winery cellar.Â Cold, dark days, although doing their best to hang around this year, have begun to give way to warmth and sunshine. Â It seems that the wines in the cellar can sense the onset of Spring, and have woken up from their Winter sleep.Â I […]

We will continue to monitor the wines’ maturation, a process termed “elevage” by the French.Â The expectation is that the wine will become more refined and integrated during its time in barrels.Â Most Russian River Valley Pinot Noirs will spend between ten and sixteen months in barrels before bottling.

There is always a risk of spoilage, but with careful monitoring, any potential problems can be addressed.Â Monthly analysis for acetic acid (vinegar) will provide early evidence of the conversion of alcohol by Acetobacter bacteria, while careful topping of the barrels, and use of sulfur dioxide, will protect the wine.

The Siebert Ranch Pinot Noir from 2009 is showing great promise. Â Deep purple color for a Pinot, with all the expected depth of flavor and richness that suggests. Â Still showing forward tannins, the additional time in barrel will allow great integration with the powerful fruit.Â We should all look forward to tasting the finished version of this wine!

Joe Freeman
Winemaker, Ancient Oak Cellars

Ancient Oak Cellars at Russian Rivery Valley’s “Single Night” and SF “Pinot Days” in June

Wed, 26 May 2010 10:55:00 GMT

We are very pleased to be participating in two fabulous Bay-area wine events next month: the Russian River Valley/Next Generation Winemaker’s “Single Night,” featuring single vineyard-designate wines from the Russian River Valley, and “Pinot Days.” Single Night will be held Saturday, June 5th, from 6:30-10:00pm.Â It is being hosted by C. Donatiello Winery on Westside […]

News from our Russian River Valley Pinot Noir Vineyard

Tue, 25 May 2010 17:54:00 GMT

Here’s the report from Ken, at the vineyard:Â More light showers and cool weather continue.Â The highs are only in the mid-60s F.Â In April, we had 4.29 inches of rain bringing our water year to-date to 29.7 inches, which is just about dead-on for normal.Â It seems quite wet by comparison to the last […]

Spring Work in a Russian River Valley Pinot Noir Vineyard

Wed, 05 May 2010 20:19:00 GMT

As the weather warms up in spring we begin to worry about mildew.Â Mildew on grapes will ruin the wine, so we have to be vigilant and make sure it does not become established on the vine.Â Mildew grows actively when the temperature is between 70 and 85 degrees for at least 6 hours during […]

Another significant job in the vineyard in Spring is called “suckering.”Â This is when we – well, mostly Arnulfo – remove shoots and leaves from the vine.Â Some of these are classic suckers, as those with fruit trees might know, that grow up from the base of the vine.Â In addition, when suckering we select the shoots that we want to bear fruit this year.Â This controls vigor and reducing the production of grapes from each vine, limiting yield.Â Suckering has several other purposes as well.Â We pull some leaves from the vine, which results in better sun access and airflow.Â This is important to combat mildew, which can harm the young green growth of the vine, and – if it gets established on the vines now – can result in bunch-rot prior to harvest, which none of us want!Â Finally, when suckering, we make decisions about where we want to guide the growth of next year’s positions.Â Whew – lots to think about when it looks like we’re just pulling a few leaves and branches off the vines!

To watch a fabulous video about these processes, featuring Paul Hobbs, watch Winegrape Chronicles, vol. 2 , made by the wonderful Sonoma County Winegrape Growers.

Musings on the Life of a Winegrape

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 02:12:00 GMT

It is hard to imagine now, in the quiet stillness of a spring morning, the crazy excitement that is the reality we live in at harvest time.Â Thinking about the life cycle of a vineyard, the life cycle of the winegrape, made me think of one of my favorite videos ever.Â The Sonoma County Winegrape […]

We are having a much better water year this year than in the past two, so we are hopeful that that the vines will appreciate the good soaking they have been getting and that we will have a better harvest this year.Â We’ve had some fantastic help at harvest time these past several years.Â I thought I’d share some harvest photos.

Hints of fruit to come

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:16:00 GMT

We are busy with Spring preparations here. After one of those rare days when the marine air is pushed well off-shore, today the fog is back and the sun is just beginning to peek through. The vine canes have 3 or 4 leaves and vaunt the thimbles of tiny chartreuse pearls that will, if all […]

With the recent strong rains the grass is growing tall again in the vineyard. It is a shame we can’t graze the sheep any more in the vineyard, but some have demonstrated a liking for grape leaves.

We are preparing for our first spray, likely toward the end of this week. Our vines have tested low in zinc the last number of years, and zinc is important for fruit set. We need to get the zinc on before the vine blooms, but we also need enough leaf area upon which to deposit the zinc. Zinc tends to bind to the soil, so it is best to apply to the leaves, rather than to the soil.

A Special Early Easter Basket

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 18:21:00 GMT

We got an early Easter basket at the ranch/vineyard.Â Ken found these killdeer eggs in the field.Â This well-hidden ground nest contained some of the most beautiful Easter eggs we could imagine.Â Mom made her long-trill distress sound and feigned a broken wing to try to draw us away.Â As soon as we admired the […]

First Day of Spring

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:21:00 GMT

The first day of Spring.Â A magnificent day.Â And a glorious sight in the vineyard – Arnulfo has completed pruning!Â Very satisfying to look over acres of vines that are tidily contained, while showing their pent-up energy in the form of the buds pushing out all over.Â The promise of things to come.Â Spring is […]

Sheep bells in the early evening

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:18:00 GMT

The melodious sound of sheep bells tells me that the sheep are coming back into the barnyard at the end of day.Â We keep sheep here on the ranch and vineyard for a number of reasons.Â Henry had sheep, and loved them dearly.Â He passed on his love of sheep to several generations of the […]

Grapes awakening in the Russian River Valley

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:00:00 GMT

Arnulfo has been working long days in the vineyard, wanting to finish the winter pruning before the grapes bud out.Â Already the pruning cuts are weeping with sap where he cuts them.Â The sap is bright and crystal clear, catching the sun like a prism.Â Arnulfo is very focused and does not want distractions.Â He […]

Baby lambs as agents of sustainable agriculture

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 04:52:00 GMT

Hurray!Â We have the first of our new lambs!Â We expect 20-25 of them this year.Â In addition to being absolutely adorable, they are significant agents of the sustainable agriculture we practice here on the ranch/vineyard. We maintain a permanent cover crop of pasture grasses between rows instead of tilling.Â The grass cover supports many […]

We maintain a permanent cover crop of pasture grasses between rows instead of tilling.Â The grass cover supports many beneficial insects and other wildlife, protects against erosion, and builds organic material in the soil.Â It also out-competes weeds and makes a more comfortable walking surface.Â Because of the shading effect of the vines and the deeper soils, the grass stays green longer in the vineyard than in the hillside pastures above.Â During most of the growing season the sheep mow the grass for us.Â As the vines bud out, we move the sheep out – and we have to mow with a tractor.Â We try to wait to mow until the seed heads have developed, so that the grass will die back instead of growing again.Â But sometimes we have to mow twice at least every other row so that it is easy to work in the vineyard.Â The difficulty of walking through tall grass, and the additional frost pressure it supplies are not our only concerns – we may mow to reduce hay fever!