Hudson Vineyard
Every fall, Lee Hudson, proprietor of Hudson Vineyards, throws a harvest fiesta for all of his field workers, clients and friends. It’s quite the shindig, made even more enjoyable by the broad cross section of wine industry types that attend. Not just the rich guys, in other words. A Mexican band plays and everyone chows down on Carnitas, Chorizo and sometimes Birria before lurching to the dance floor (which is actually the gravel area out in front of the equipment sheds). The one concession we make to the fact that it’s a wine country party is the makeshift bar set out with all sorts of interesting wines, most of which come from the vineyard. There’s beer too, of course. Lee is an inspired winegrower. My block of Syrah is sandwiched in between blocks that go to two other clients, and each one is managed differently, down to the way the excess leaves are pulled and the number of clusters that are left on each shoot. There are dozens of blocks in the vineyard that receive this kind of attention; I don't know how they keep track of them all. At harvest time, I have occasionally resorted to bringing the crew a box of donuts from the Butter Cream Bakery in Napa (their slogan is "being sweet to you is our business") because I have a habit of asking them to do extra stuff for me. They never balk at anything that might make the wine better. Or maybe it's just the donuts. The vineyard is located in the lowest reaches of the Mayacamas mountains, in the northern part of the Carneros AVA. Most of the blocks are sloping, and have soils formed in part by erosion from the mountains, making them better drained than the soils lower down in Carneros. The part of the vineyard where my Syrah comes from is at the junction of two geologic formations, one marine based (a combination of sandstone and old marine deposits) and the other of volcanic origin (basalt). It’s somewhat protected from the wind that blows through most of Carneros and is thus warm enough to ripen Syrah, although it still ripens fairly late, usually in early to mid October. The vines yield modestly, particularly by Syrah standards, generally around 3 tons/acre and often less. 2009 Hudson Vineyard Carneros Syrah
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