Clad in rubber boots and a smile, Dustin Walker stares silently at old notebooks and conversion charts. He's surrounded by Erlenmeyer flasks, buckets of potassium metabisulfite and an old copy of Fields and Methods of Knowledge. You'd think it was a chemistry classroom-until you notice the purple stains dotting the floor, leading eagerly to and from several one-ton bins of fermenting grapes.
by Jenni Hanley
This is where the magic happens.
In his fifth year as head winemaker at Times Ten Cellars, Walker is both scientist and artist. He fell in love with fermentation science working as a brewer's assistant over a decade ago, but what made him fall in love with wine, he shares, was a connection to the land-because that's where it all starts.
Times Ten Cellars" wine is born 3,000 feet above sea level, at Cathedral Mountain Vineyards near Alpine, Texas. It's not France or California, but it doesn't matter.
"Texas has one of the best climates [for grapes]," Walker explains. That includes a high elevation, warm days (90 degrees Fahrenheit) and cool nights (60 degrees Fahrenheit), plus a rocky, volcanic soil full of vitamins and minerals. These conditions are especially suited to Tempranillo grapes, an early-ripening black varietal known for producing full-bodied reds in Spain. But Walker's Tempranillo may just put Texas on the map.
This year is "10th Leaf" for Cathedral Mountain, grape slang for its 10th anniversary. Normally this time of year, Walker and his team would be reaping the harvest from a meticulously tended crop of seven different grapes. But no matter how well you tend to the crop, Mother Nature doesn't always play along.
On May 2 of this year, West Texas temperatures dropped to a shocking 27 degrees Fahrenheit. Extremes like this are a wine grower's nightmare.
"The window of fear is any time after bud break," Walker shares, referring to the beginning of the grape's annual growth cycle-usually in April-when the fruit is at its most vulnerable. Unfortunately, a mere four to five hours of below-freezing temperatures can ruin the entire year's crop-damaging primary growth on the vines, which ultimately inhibits the growth of grapes entirely.
But Walker doesn't capitulate easily.
In order to satisfy his grape-thirsty customers, he bought 10 tons of Tempranillo grapes from New Mexico, where the grapes were crushed and deseeded. The next step, mashing the grapes and adding yeast, is a science-one firmly rooted in tradition, in fact.
"There's a machine for everything we do, but Dustin likes these old-world methods," employee Jesse Kelly shares between punchdowns. He stands precariously balanced over the bins of grape skins, seeds, stems and pulp, laboriously mashing the mixture to achieve an optimal extraction of color and flavor from the grape skins. During primary fermentation (five-14 days during which yeast turn sugars into alcohol), this process must be repeated three times per day.
When primary fermentation is complete, Walker and his team must "press" the fruit, or extract juice from the crushed grapes. After that, a secondary or "malolactic" fermentation is used to convert tart-tasting malic acid to a more palate-pleasing lactic acid, providing more mouthfeel and complexity. From there the wine is transferred to barrels where flavors of tobacco, leather, dark cherry and white pepper will mature. Eighteen months later, it's in your glass.
As Walker emphasizes, winemaking takes patience.
So what's next?
The actual winemaking may only occur in late summer, but Walker is busy all year long. He visits Cathedral Mountain every three weeks, treating the soil, keeping insects at bay and pruning vines. And hoping Mother Nature is a bit kinder next year.
Get YourHands Dirty
According to Walker, choosing the right time to pick the fruit requires real artistry. "You want to find the right balance of acid and sugar [in the grapes]," he says, noting that a taste for that balance is something he's acquired over time.
But he doesn't do it alone. Each year during harvest season (late July to mid August in Texas), Walker and his team invite about 50–70 customers to join them at Cathedral Mountain. Keeping with their belief in using traditional methods, volunteers spread out to pick grapes and bin them by hand. Walker believes hand harvesting gives him more control over the quality of the fruit, because machine harvesting has a tendency to produce MOG, or material other than grapes.
"The key to a really good, clean wine begins in the vineyard," he adds.
To get involved, sign up by email. You'll have to wait a couple of years to enjoy the fruits of your labor, but it's worth it.
Perks for "Pickers"
A weekend at Cathedral Mountain includes:
- stargazing
- hearty meal at Reata
- live music at Railroad Blues
- pride of helping to create
- a delicious wine
To see some cool wind gadgets and gizmos CLICK HERE.
For a Novice's Guide to Wine CLICK HERE.
To see what a panel of local wine aficionados think CLICK HERE.
