October 15, 2021 – “We’re basically compressing seven weeks of harvest into the next four weeks,” says winemaker David Coventry, who has been pulling in Pinot Noir and was about to start on the Chardonnay. After last year, though, it’s an extreme blessing. “We didn’t make any Pinot Noir in 2020. We stuck to our guns. It was painful, because we need every drop of wine, as we try to keep a buffer. But quality is paramount. We won’t make it if there’s any doubt.”
He thinks the short supply of vintage 2020 from many regions, in particular the Santa Lucia Highlands, will make people appreciate the upcoming vintages from the cellar even more. “Look at the positive side. We will have a long look at vintages 2017, ’18 and ’19. I don’t expect them to last long, though!” And he predicts vintage 2021 will be absolutely amazing.
Last year’s pandemic really highlighted what makes the wine industry a great place to work. “The world will never be the same. But my life at Talbott changed very little,” he says of the impact of the pandemic. “This is such a stick shift kind of place. There is nothing automated about it. Every single person had to come to work. While much of the world could work from home, we could not. The greatness of wine is directly related to the amount of human contact. There is no other alternative to be here and to be with it.”
And Talbott’s customers certainly appreciate that intimate contact and attention to detail. “Consumers are drinking as much, as if not more. They are trying to add more joy to their lives. And although cocktails are fun, you can get a lot more joy from wine. It just occupies a different space.”
He notes that many cellars have been dented over the past year, as people have taken the Carpe Diem edict to heart. “Millennials are shelling out serious money for experiences. Hey, it could all go up in a fire. What am I waiting for? Let’s have a nice dinner and a good bottle of wine. Money and time are now viewed differently.”
Fortunately, this super long growing season is shaping up to be an outstanding vintage for the Sleepy Hollow Vineyard. “This vintage will tell its own tales,” says Coventry. “Usually, there are complex picking decisions. This year, it is so simple. Recognizing it is the hard part. You let the canopy tell you when it’s time to pick. We wait for the acid to drop and pick at the latest time possible.” That requires a careful mapping out of priorities, based on block ripeness.
This vintage, for the very first time, Talbott will be producing a rosé. Coventry assures us it will be up to the Talbott standard of excellence in every way. “I’ve wanted to do a rosé since I got here,” he admits.
Many people made rosé last year, rather than press for red. But he wasn’t going to compromise the wine by starting with smoke tainted grapes.
“How do I make a 95 point rosé?” asks Coventry. “The world might not put a lot of effort into rosé, but it has to meet the quality standards of Talbott. No wine here is ever made as an afterthought. Any new product is given deep consideration.”
Basically, his approach is to take a fun wine and render it exceptional. “We’ve done several picks over the course of a month, essentially putting together pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Some we hand picked and went direct to press, while other lots have had no or light skin contact. Our last lot had 24-hour skin contact and was very ripe. That might be our most important component.”
Some lots are in tank, some in once used barrels, some went through ML, others not.
He doesn’t intend it to be just another rose petal perfumed quaffer. Instead, he wants people to think of it as a Talbott wine that just happens to be a rosé. He intends on bottling it early next year and releasing it on the Ides of March.
Another exciting new project this year is sparkling wine, which they will keep en tirage for five years. “We’ve got Chardonnay and Pinot Noir lots for every possible permutation. This is a seriously high acid site, so without needing to keep it in bottle for 10 years before release, we have to carefully build a luxurious style to match up with the rest of the portfolio.”
This is the first time Coventry’s had the opportunity to make sparkling wine since he was at Chalone. He says he and Dan Karlsen once made a special sparkling there for Greta Garbo called, “I Want to Be Chalone.”
They’ll be using facilities at J Vineyards (Gallo) to handle the sparkling process. “Carbonated beverages bottled under several atmospheres of pressure is something best left to professionals!” he quips. He says all the base wines taste like Sleepy Hollow, and are dead ringers for Champagne, echoing their Burgundian roots. The Talbott team hasn’t yet settled on whether they’re making a Blanc de Noirs, Blanc de Blancs or Brut for their first iteration. They’ll make that assessment in December, and then map out the direction for the program over the next five years. He’s especially excited to be making vintage sparkling.
If you go to the Talbott tasting room in Carmel, you might find yourself trying a brand new concept from Coventry: a low alcohol Chardonnay. He made a 10% alcohol Chard in 2020. “As God is my witness, it’s one of the finest I’ve ever had! We’re taking the pulse of what people think, and most are saying, ‘Holy Crap! I didn’t know this is possible!’ It’s just an experiment at the moment, but we are definitely going to do a commercial release.”
Coventry expects the Chardonnay harvest to run straight through November 10. The last pick of Pinot Noir will probably be on October 30, at the Diamond T Vineyard above Carmel Valley. It will cap off what has turned out to be a blessedly perfect growing season.
And then, let it rain.
About the author
Laura Ness is a longtime wine journalist, columnist and judge who contributes regularly to Edible Monterey Bay, Spirited, WineOh.Tv, Los Gatos Magazine and Wine Industry Network, and a variety of consumer publications. Her passion is telling stories about the intriguing characters who inhabit the fascinating world of wine and food.
