Herzog Winery: Lake County, California

This is something completely different. And it almost looked fake while driving. Careful, don't cut yourself. In the Indian days, you know what this was? The bows and arrows were made from this. made from what kind This is what this is obsidian rock is how they made the arrows. So, Look at it. where are we? Look at this glass. Look how sharp it is. This is what they use as arrows. We are in Lake County. In Lake County, the AVA, as we already spoke about AVAs, this is the Red Hills. So, Red Hills is the most prized sub-appellation in Lake County. So, this is called the Red Hills because this property, the red sand, the red dirt, but more than that, I think what's exciting about this property is this obsidian rock. So, obsidian glass, obsidian rock, this is volcanic, this is lava. So, if we look behind us, that mountain, that's called the Konocti Mountain. That's where the volcano erupted from. That's the volcanic mountain. And it obviously sprayed lava throughout this area. Fast them, they're going to say millions of years ago. So, this is all volcanic rock. So, what you see here, this is just a portion of the rock as they prepared the vineyard, what they took out. And how does it influence the vineyards? So, I can't really tell you sign- scientifically of how it influences. There's one thing for sure is the drainage. So, when you water the vineyard, and how the the water drains through, so it doesn't keep pockets of water, it doesn't it it drains through all the way in the and the water goes down to the bottom. So, the roots have to go down to the bottom to find water, deeper to find water, which is that what we want for the grapes. So, that's a great thing in terms of the vines, the the the struggling of the vines in order to get the best grapes. of rocks in the back. Now, what they say about this the whole way through, so it all drains, so the water finds its way to drain. What they say, mineral, there's a lot of minerality that you get from this, but I can't tell you. I don't I can't tell you scientifically that that's true. Smoke, some people say it has a little Yeah, when you lick at it, smoky. I'm serious. Okay, I'm not going to try it. Come on. Try it. Okay. Is it smoky because it's 105° here? No, it has like a little smoky flavor. It is it's and they'll get sandy, too, from the sand, but that's okay. This is what it is. This is what you see again, now you understand why the Indians made bows and arrows out of it. It's sharp, you can actually cut When we work this vineyard, you can't use tractors with tires. Uh-huh. Because you'll get flat tires, it's going to shred the rubber tire. So, you need to have chain tractors. It's glass. I wanted You can't do anything, you can't make a fence, you can't do anything with it cuz it doesn't it's glass, it doesn't hold cement, it's not porous like regular stone. So, this is what the whole vineyard is all about. Now, we'll go up into the vineyard, walk the vineyard, see the vineyard. Again, this is where the Herzog Lake County Red Hills cab comes from, starting 21 vintage. It's Red Hills, starting 23, it will be out of this vineyard. So, we actually have the 21 Lake County Red Hills and the barrel sample of the 23, which is out of these grapes right here. Let's go, I'm thirsty. So, this is the vineyard that we established 4 years ago. This is going to be the second year of crop out of this vineyard. And next year, hopefully, you'll come back for the planting. We'll do the special Maya planting here next year when we come back. But as of now, this is the planting, this is the vineyard, this is Bottle Rock Lake County Red Hills phenomenal fruit. Can we still pick them? let me just tell you if if I could describe it this way, if you look on paper on the lab results of this vineyard, this is a Napa vineyard. This is This area is called Lake County? This is called So, the whole area, whatever you see all the way including the lake, is Lake County. How Where's the lake? Red Hills, this Kelseyville. The lake is right there, straight ahead. You see the lake? That's Kelseyville. And there's a AVA called Kelseyville. Uh-huh. That's the one Lake County um AVA. The more premium Lake County AVA is Red Hills. Mhm. And this is where here in the Red Hills. So, you see across us that big vineyard that's Beckstoffer. Again, Beckstoffer is the staple of Napa. And now here in What I learned is like this, I learned from Pepsi, they copy what Coke does. I do the same. Good parts, good grapes, good grapes. There's smarter people than me. I they lead and I follow. So, if I saw Andy Beckstoffer there, I said this is good enough for me. I guess I'll copy you. Are you drinking with me? Am I copying you? That's my motto. I think that's a hashtag for Dovi. All right, let's hashtag Dovi. They get more darker fruit, not as red as we had in the wines we had earlier today. nose. If there is two things that must Mati is obsessed with, it's his sparkling wine and Lake County. Like he swears by it, he really believes that it's an underpriced wine, and uh And that is true. And he says that people will come around and and with with No, let let me be totally honest. I'll be totally honest. Our Lake County wine until the 2021 vintage has been multiple vineyards every year. It was never hasn't had like Alexander Valley. You know Alexander Valley year to year, you know what to expect. Lake County year to the year to year variations was all over the place. Mhm. And so was the vineyards where we got the supply from. We went to Beckstoffer, then we went to certain and we went to different vineyards around, and it actually reflected in the wine. Mhm. Now, we have a home. Can I drink while you're explaining? drink, go ahead. So, now we actually have a home. Mhm. And the home is right here. It's the Red Hills, it's Bottle Rock. This mountain is called the Camel Back Mountain, so that's the name of the vineyard, Camel Back Mountain. Herbal, like celery. No? Yeah, big green is bell pepper. Okay. Herbal is not green. So, what is herbal? I think you have more of spices. You have more of the oregano, you have more of these herbal spices. You get mint, you get oregano, you get that type of spice. You get a lot of that spice. Almost even say like a little You want to get anise, you get a little anise even in there. For the Syrians. Arak. You could actually smell it, by the way. arak arak You can actually smell. I got cut cut from He got cut from arak. Yeah. I think we should do like one barrel dedicated like to your finger. That's going to be the workers count. I get in Mosh I Maya from the wine cave. Don't cut yourself on your knee now, okay? Let's do let's do some barrel business. Look sharp in the real pieces. Where's the barrels at, Fred? love that. I have an idea. If I had my little way, I'll eat pizzas every day. What do you mean, how? Let me show you how. I get in Mosh I Maya Mosh I Maya I get in Mosh I Maya Maya Mosh I Maya in here.