The
Appellation
The Fog
The Soil
In
the Pinot Season
|
"Support materials - Incredibly good!
The soil-type map and the fog flow chart I'm going to scan
and use for my Sommelier classes."
In the Russian River Valley, the fog is the
dominant factor that defines the appellation, as well as the
style of the wines from here. From the Pacific Ocean to our
west, fog creeps in primarily along the Petaluma Wind Gap,
an area south of Bodega Bay near the Marin County line with
low elevation and soft rolling hills that provides an easy
conduit into the western part of Sonoma County.
During the warm California summers, the interior
San Joaquin Valley becomes extremely warm, many days over
100 degrees. This intense heat causes an offshore movement
of cooler air over the Pacific Ocean to migrate eastwardly
through Sonoma County. The high humidity air condenses as
it passes through the Petaluma Wind Gap and into the northern
part of Russian River Valley. The process usually begins by
mid-afternoon and by 7 or 8 o'clock, you can actually see
the fog "rolling over" the city of Sebastopol toward
Santa Rosa and Healdsburg, settling into the low-lying vineyards
and slowly climbing up the hillsides, before reversing its
steps late the next morning.
The fog provides several benefits: In the summer,
the daytime temperatures can exceed 90 degrees, while at night
it can dip into the 50s. This dramatic shift in temperature
sets up a series of metabolic changes in our grapes which
result in the creation of the sumptuous texture for which
our area is famous.The cool, airy blanket the fog provides
also protects the vines from all-day heat which can cause
dehydration in the warm summer months, and allows the vines'
roots the necessary time to absorb needed moisture from the
soil. It also allows the natural acidities to remain balanced
within the fruit. Another benefit of the fog is the diffusion
of sunlight and UV rays: as flavor development is achieved
during a growing season, many of the chemical compounds within
the berries and skins are produced by direct reactions from
various wavelengths of UV light. So, one wavelength may cause
an ester formation of the flavor raspberry, while a different
one may cause from the same ester formation the flavor of
blackberry. The fog has a significant influence on the flavors
we believe are unique to pinots from the Russian River Valley.
Time-lapse
Map of the Marine Layer, Low Clouds & Fog Movement (pdf)
|
