As regular readers know, I spent mid-October in Napa Valley doing a five-day harvest immersion with the Stags Leap District Winegrowers. I’ve been detailing my activities over the past few days. (The first installment was published on October 17; the second on October 19; the third on October 25.)

Day four began just before 7:00 am at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, where Kirk Grace, the property’s vineyard manager, promptly invited me into his pickup.

We then headed into the vineyard with grape shears, a digital fish scale, and about a dozen five-gallon buckets. Kirk needed to project the yield of the grape crop that was about to be harvested — so we selected random rows, pulled all the grape clusters, and then weighed them to project the total yield.

Kirk Grace, projecting grape yields.

While pulling grapes, I learned about Kirk’s history in Napa Valley.

His family moved to Napa Valley in 1976 and soon launched a small, family winery — Grace Family Vineyards — that would quickly garner international acclaim. In short order, Kirk decided that he wanted to become a farmer, so he headed to Cal Poly to study crop science and focus on viticulture, as he “figured out that grapes pay better than carrots.”

Kirk’s resume includes stints at St. Supery Vineyards, Bettinelli Vineyard Management, and Robert Sinskey. He’s been with Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars since 2006, where he oversees the company’s 142 acres of estate vineyards.

After about an hour, I linked up with Nicki Pruss, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars’ veteran winemaker.

Unlike Kirk, Nicki didn’t set out to work in wine — she started her professional career as a podiatrist. But in 1995, during a long bike trip through the wine regions of France and Germany, she realized that her heart was in wine. So when she returned, Nicki began studying winemaking at Napa Valley College and making wine at home. In 1998, she landed an internship at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars and has been there ever since, becoming the head winemaker in 2005.

Tasting through various "factions" of pressed juice.

Nicki toured me through the entire operation, which was humming with activity as tons and tons of grapes were being processed. Our most interesting activity was tasting through the various “factions” of juice produced from initial pressing through subsequent — and harsher — pressing.

At 9:50 AM, I hopped in my car and drove to Malk Family Vineyards, the smallest producer in the Stags Leap District. I was met by Robbie Meyer (better known for his two personal labels, L’Angevin and Peirson Meyer), and we quickly started walking the property’s two-acre vineyard.

While walking, we filled a ziplock bag with various grapes, crushed them, and poured the juice into a portable refractometer to measure the sugar content, or brix, of the grapes. We then headed to the vineyard at Regusci Winery to do the same thing, as Malk sources some fruit from there.

Robbie Meyer, walking the Regusci Vineyard.

Brix testing at the Malk Vineyard.

Later that afternoon, I headed back to Chimney Rock Winery for the official release of the Stags Leap District Winegrowers’ 2008 Appellation Collection, where I was able to taste through 2008 offerings from all 18 member wineries. Favorites included Chimney Rock’s 2008 Ganymede Vineyard; Hartwell Vineyards’ 2008 Estate Reserve; and the Malk Family offering.

At about 9:00 PM that evening, Jim Regusci reached out to see if I wanted to go watch some nighttime picks. So we hopped in his pickup and spent the next two hours driving through Stag’s Leap, Oak Knoll, and Carneros watching various crews hard at work — some hand harvesting and others on machines. It was awesome.

An evening harvest.