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Harvest in Sta Rita Hills and Eola Amity Hills

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I spent over a month deep in harvest this year here on the West Coast of the United States.

First, I did a journalistic deep dive following the team led by Raj Parr and Sashi Moorman in Lompoc for nine days through harvest getting first hand insight into the winemaking that goes into their three labels – Domaine de la Cote, Sandhi, and Evening Land – and a little bit of Piedrasassi and Combe as well. It was an incredible opportunity to truly see how they make their wines, shadowing the team in every stage of harvest from calling picks all the way through barreling down after fermentations are complete. The first seven days were spent with their team in their winery in Lompoc processing fruit from Sta Rita Hills. Then for two days Sashi and I went to the southern part of Willamette Valley so I could shadow the team there working with fruit from the Seven Springs Vineyard for their Evening Land project. The nine days were non-stop busy with full harvest hours.

After checking out the Seven Springs project, we flew back to Santa Barbara County and I drove from Lompoc to the northern part of Willamette Valley to work as an intern at the Carlton Winemakers’ Studio. More on that later.

I’ll be writing over the next months in a few different ways about my time with Sashi and Raj, but for now, here’s a look back at the Instagram collection from harvest with them and their team to give you a better sense of what harvest looked like. Integral to their philosophy about wine and winemaking is tasting wines from around the world that connect to the wine type or variety they are making, as well as enjoying wines that they admire, so there are also photos of some of those wines we tasted along the way.

 

Owning Trousseau. @rajatparr @duncanarnot @ownrooted

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Syrah? Yes.

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Chardonnay juice fresh picked this morning for Sandhi. #santabarbaracountywine @sandhiwines

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The actual wines from the 2011 Syrah blind tasting? … @sashimoorman @rajatparr

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There are clear reasons someone like Raj Parr has risen to such prominence and regard in the world of wine. The wines he has tasted repeatedly at different ages and stages in his life is one. His tasting experience revolves around the finest, rarest and oldest classical wines of the world. The memory he has for what truly seems like any wine he tastes is another. He can readily recount what wine he was drinking in what year and talk easily about how it tastes that time versus another time when he drank it again. The incisive clarity with which he combines these assets of tasting history and memory for it though ultimately deserves the regard he’s gained. It’s a level of insight few have. Last night he let me read through his November 1998 notebook written during his first trip to Burgundy while working as a sommelier at Rubicon as the assistant to Larry Stone. In the back were also loose pages of other wines tasted in the same time period. There I found this tasting note for the 1865 Lafite, a wine he has enjoyed again many times since, and continues to view as one of the best wines he has had in his life. Just his description here of the wine and his response to it captures for me so much about how Raj views wine, what he values in it, what he loves and that coupled with following the Domaine de la Côte crew this week has shined a light into what this Pinot project is about. The conversations with Raj, Sashi and John have been invaluable and their kindness in letting me do grunt work and be part of everything. It’s been a huge honor to have this time and I am super grateful for being given these glimpses, like this notebook, of lives lived in pursuit of beauty, taste, service and excellence. @rajatparr @sashimoorman @domainedelacote

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Oh, Pierre, you big tease. I love you. #champagne

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Holy moly this is good. Indian street food from Bollywood Theatre, Portland. #indianfoodforthewin

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Strange beauty full of intrigue and so alluring. Wonderful wine. #champagne

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Rain in Willamette Valley. #willamettevalley

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Walking Seven Springs Vineyard #Repost @sashimoorman

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To check out how my harvest in the Willamette Valley went, read about it here: http://wakawakawinereviews.com/2016/10/18/harvest-in-willamette-valley/

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