Albert at the Fall '05 harvest - K Olsen's photo Frontenac heavy on the vine Katie stirring the cherry tank James, Rick, and the tractor at the Fall '05 harvest Katie, Andy, and the cherry tanks

The bountiful harvest last October brought neighbors, friends, family, school children and newcomers together for two days of ag splendor.  Brilliant skies, savory food, beer and wine kept us clipping clusters of grapes through four and a half acres to harvest ten tons.

Summer was on the cool and damp side, so the acid levels in our red grapes was high.  Andy decided on carbonic maceration, a process commonly used in Burgundy where the summers are cool and rainy.  We packed whole clusters into tanks and let them sit for two weeks at 85 degrees.  The enzymatic reaction meant that inside their skins, the grapes ate malic acid. At the same time, the fruity esters and fruit flavor were released.  The result was exciting:  Range Rider Red, a blend of our Frontenac, Maréchal Foche and St. Croix grapes, released at the end of February, 2006.

Range Rider Red is the first wine on the market under our new name, TEN SPOON VINEYARD + WINERY.  That’s the big news here at the Rattlesnake Creek vineyard; we’ve had to move on, namewise.  In a nutshell, here’s Mitch Frank’s story about it in Wine Spectator OnLine (opens in a pop-up window).

Spring brings an exciting 2005 vintage of BLIND CURVE, our sauvignon blanc made from Dancing Crow Vineyard, Lake County, California, grapes.  The grapes were picked at peak acid and sugar levels and Andy made the wine in two separate tanks, using different yeasts.  He and Casey blended them together to produce a splendid, crisp white with a lovely fruit fragrance.  Then, to assure a long life for the wine, it was cold stabilized.

It’s been a very good year for wine quality, but not quantity.  The Flathead Cherry Dry, 2005, is exceptional, if we do say so ourselves.  The harvest was small, and the cherries loaded with flavor.  The trade-off is that we have less wine this year, but it’s a rare treat.

We purchased pinot noir grapes from two organic vineyards at peak harvest last fall.  The Cattrall Brothers’ vineyard in the Willamette Valley, Oregon, produced a smaller than usual harvest due to the cool, wet season.  Like the cherries, these were packed with flavor and the wine reflects their richness.  For our Yellowstone Park red wine, we purchased gorgeous pinot grapes from Charlie Barra’s Redwood Valley Vineyard in Mendocino County.  The glory of pinot noir is that no two are the same, and our two wines are distinctive to their terroirs. We are pleased. Our Yellowstone Park wine promises to be a treasure.  You can find it starting in June, only in Yellowstone Park. 

In the vineyard, James Harbaugh stoically pruned vines all winter, to tunes on his iPod. He does gorgeous work. The vines, with their horizontal cordons and clipped vertical canes, look like Giacometti sculptures glinting in the pale, late winter sun.

A Journalism student, Miller, from the University of Montana stopped by on a school assignment in February.  His questions reminded us how important the sustainable facet of our operation is.  When we remove the grapes we remove tons of biomass from the vineyard.  That means tons of trace minerals, nutrients and natural chemicals leave the soil.  To replace them is an essential part of any agricultural business.

Our method for revitalizing the soil includes:  

1. compost from broken-down sheep bedding straw brought in by friends in Evaro who raise championship sheep;  
2. trace minerals from Colorado, where a Precambrian seabed, cooked under volcanic layers, has been excavated;  
3. a teabag of mycorrhizal fungus dropped in the bottom of each hole where a vine is planted to replace the same fungus destroyed by cultivation;  
4. chicken feathers in a granular form for nitrogen for good wood on the vines.  

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