The Rosa d'Oro Vineyards Blog

Rosa d'Oro Wine Dinner at the Tallman Hotel January 28th

2012-01-17T09:44:00.000-08:00

For reservation information please click HERE

Saturday, January 28 - Four course Italian feast paired with the Italian Style wines of Rosa d'Oro Vineyards in Kelseyville. Owner Nick Buttitta and family members will be here along with Chef Nick Heidemann to introduce each course. $60

Meet some of Lake County's finest owners and winemakers at this series of monthly Winemaker Dinners in the beautiful dining room of the Tallman hotel. The evening features a sumptuous four course dinner prepared by Executive Chef Nick Heidemann (at left) and designed to pair perfectly with the featured wines. The Saturday night events are limited to 30 guests and begin at 6:00 for a 6:30 seating.

Reservations can be made by calling the Hotel at 707-275-2244. $60-65 per person plus tax. Ask the hotel for special room stay rates for Winemaker Dinner guests.

Menu

Saturday, January 28, 2012

featuring the wines of Rosa d’Oro Vineyards

~ Salad ~

Frisée, Endive and Tender Greens tossed in a Champagne and Honey Vinaigrette with Fennel, Marcona Almonds and Percorino Cheese

Pairing; 2010 Arneis

~ Pasta ~

Gnocchi alla Funghi: Shiitake and Crimini Mushrooms, Porcini Dust, Parmesano Reggiano, Petite Arugula and Truffle Oil

Pairing: 2009 Sangiovese

~ Entrée ~

Roasted Rack of Lamb with Nebbiolo Demi Glace and a Roasted Trio of Fingerling Potatoes, Sunchokes and Rutabaga

Pairing: Nebbiolo Riserva

~ Dessert ~

Chocolate Flourless Torte with Hazelnut Brittle and Dolcetto Coulis

Pairing: 2009 Dolcetto

2011 Vintage Report

2011-12-30T19:35:00.000-08:00

The hand is the window to the mind. - Kant

Weather is often a big part of the grape story. La Niña has been with us for a bit and this winter is expected to look somewhat like the last one. Tahoe needs snow and the Central Valley needs rain while LA floods. The future weather pattern is expected to be less dramatic than last winter's though, and Lake County has a fairly good level of mountainous protection from the Coastal influence and the Central Valley. The quick chart below shows the precipitation numbers for Kelseyville South (our area) and I am always impressed by the rainfall totals (some areas like Upper Lake can be much higher) in such a warm region. The totals are about even with Portland, Oregon ironically. The drought years are clear as can be.

Thru Dec. 2005	14.1” rain	Total 05-06 season	36” rain
Thru Dec. 2006	6.01” rain	Total 06-07 season	15” rain
Thru Dec. 2007	6.22” rain	Total 07-08 season	14.68” rain
Thru Dec. 2008	3.91” rain	Total 08-09 season	13.43” rain
Thru Dec. 2009	5.16” rain	Total 09-10 season	31” rain
Thru Dec. 2010	13.6” rain	Total 10-11 season	34.15” rain
Thru Dec. 2011	4.36” rain	?	?

The general vintage story in 2011 in our area was moderate weather, good moisture and a long season. Summer days were perfect in the low 90's, the season started on time with little frost damage and high humidity. Way warmer then Sonoma County. Everything looked good for a long, moderate season. Then the rain happened, not a whole lot but twice as much as is safe. Unharvested whites and early season reds took a beating and lingering humidity had lots of people spraying to protect against rot. But, what is done is done, and though it is a little too early to look into the crystal ball, we need a blog post, so here are some tasting notes after a month or so in barrel. Most of us probably feel pretty good about the wines, but we can predict that VA (volatile acidity) will be generally high this year (always is after rain). From other reports the long season still required plenty of acidulation in non-Costal regions and California Concentrate ran out of concentrates early - guys were buying Petite Sirah concentrate by the semi truck early. We utilized a wide range of fermentation styles and feel that the varietal typicity is pretty good this year, which is important for those of us that do not blend much. All in all, a trying year that will probably see mixed results - the best learning experience possible.

First round of topping

Montepulciano – From Tracy Hills near Stockton. Much lighter than last year though harvested way later. Plum and strawberry core, nice little coffee touch unlike last year’s heavy espresso blast, some earthy tannin, touch of cinnamon. Nice balance in a medium weight package, like Malbec lite. Last year’s was very big, this is nimble. Montepulciano seems to do well here – we need to see how well this can grow in Lake County.

Barbera (estate) – Harvested in early November, the Barbera this year was a real nailbiter. Lots of bunch rot to remove, but also lots of shatter and irregular set that left the crop quite light and somewhat resistant to rot. Happy to say the first thing that one notices is acid – nice firm acid structure. Solid 3.3pH range. Purpley plum at first then a nice crushed raspberry lightness – this is already showing some range and depth, not in the come-hither sense of the 2009 but a more bass-heavy modern Italian element. Some pomegranate, bay leaf and dustiness and a hint of that Lake County smokiness. I would almost swear there is some herbal character and mintiness at the moment not seen before.

Nebbiolo in Dunigan

Sangiovese #1 – Bill Ham’s Dancing Dogs vineyard in Lake County. Brunello clone, sloping hillside acre. Sangiovese always has that anthocyanic red food coloring wall on the palate at first, like good clean blood with sweet and sour red candy – maybe like bloody Grenache. Not too much prediction here because Sangiovese seems to radically change itself at first racking. This half of the Sangiovese was fermented very hot and hard. Nice tannin, touch of classic astringency that Sangiovese should always have as a thin-skinned grape living tough and hard. More fruit than expected...

Sangiovese #2 – A new source for us while ours grows. This is Wild Diamond Vineyard outside of Hidden Valley, old clone 02 at what, 2500 feet? This ferment was low and slow to complement the above and build complexity. Guess what? Didn’t turn out as expected. Big round structure, not much fruit (this was a big rain victim), very undefined and amorphous. We will see…

Primitivo (estate) – though some of the “early season” grapes were huge loosers due to the rain, a few benefitted. The Primitivo may very well be the winner. Extended hangtime well into mid October, good acid, moderate alcohol. No bunch rot at all, very little bird damage. Every year ours just gets better. Has the earthy red fruit of the 2009. A touch too sweet but hopefully that will rectify itself – it did get a clean 14-day fermentation. Often a good amount of sugar hangs up in the shriveled berries Zinfandel is famous for, then when you press them the press wine can surprise with sweetness. Hopefully it finishes fermenting when you mix it, sometimes not. A bit flat at the moment but typically seems to open up in May with the first gentle racking. Minerality is the goal in this one. Feeling good about this but it is quite fragile at the moment. How far to push these things without sulfur (we like to go until June) is the biggest question and risk.

Nebbiolo – Nova Vineyard in Yolo county, clones FPS 4,6, and 11. This looked very very nice with the moderate weather and fog in Yolo this year. 16-day fermentation, hand punched, part of it split out to ferment hot, the other half low and slow. Young Nebbiolo is really unattractive if you are going for a dry, serious one. Tannic, good texture, ill-defined fruit that will appear (hopefully) and define itself in one year. Going the Burgundy route this will likely go one year before racking. Really want to force the reductive aspect here.

Cab Franc – Again from Nova Vineyard in Yolo. 2 clones, one is the structure clone, the other the fruit clone, hand punched, fermented fast and hard, 9–day fermentation, peaking at 92 degrees. Mmmm, green peppercorn, black pepper, cassis with a velvet ribbon tied around its waist. Winemakers have mega-boners for this stuff. Great structure, built as a skeleton on which to hang….

Carmeneré/Petite Verdot – From Nova also. The Petite Verdot was saigneed off to create one barrel of Port at 10 brix and then the rest was added to the Carmenere, which yield half a ton from 330 vines. Black and red suede smelling like Oregon ferns and wet loamy soil with pickled green peppercorn – the kind I used to make wine sauce for hangar steaks. Low acid, super mouth filling and coating with stewed blue and blackberry. Has tannin but already well polymerized and adding full texture without brash grip. Hoping to add to the above Franc at first racking. Totally new world-ish, but totally orgasmic.

Nebbiolo fermenting

Aglianico (estate) – The greatest challenge every year. Nothing has ever looked quite so good all year – perfect crop load, perfect canopy, perfectly thinned and just a touch of drip. So why the hell does it taste totally different than last year? Last year was red fruit, coffee and some fennel, very earthy. This year it is Bordeauxy ruby and kinda gravelly red fruit with high tones, no coffee, no fennel but seems to be going in that direction. Good grip, moderate acid, harvested November 4^th. Developing very strangely at the moment, recalling the 2006. Again, every year is different with this one. And this one is quite fragile at the moment also.

Dolcetto (estate) – Brutalized by the rain and lazy princess pickers, this was our biggest loser, dropping to the low side of 12% alcohol and picking up about 40% water weight. No real fruit to speak of but well balanced, dry, and like Pabst I can drink it all night and go to work early.

Refosco – In keeping with the general vintage, this is a lighter version but it is developing its classic anise and licorice flavors with a pretty violet tonality. A bit of dirty Petite Sirah style tannin as always. We may even produce 40 cases this year. Incidentally, we will have our first estate Refosco harvest in 2012, but it is such a light cropper we may need to combine it with Nova’s to get a barrel.

Petite Verdot port – This will probably be combined with a barrel of 2010 Dolcetto Port from last year. Excited but always wait one year before guessing while the alcohol is raw…

Greco – Bitter almond with a lemon/orange oil type thing. Greco tastes like a dark white, kind of brooding, mineral, some saline. Much to learn with this one.

Muscat – Two types, about 60% Giallo harvested at 23 brix to get some structure and anti-flab core and then 40% Canelli at 25 brix for the florals and bombastic fruit. Quite restrained this year, potentially a semi-serious Muscat at 1% residual. It is so hard to get a structural Muscat - future blending experiments may be necessary. Unlike some of the other wines this one is bomb proof – 5 days in a container with air exposure and rock solid – a good feeling.

Updated Vineyard Map 2011

2011-12-04T20:23:00.000-08:00

View Rosa d'Oro Vineyards in a larger map

Finished

2011-11-17T22:03:00.000-08:00

Delicious Irony - Primitivo awarded "Best Red"

2011-11-06T08:30:00.000-08:00

In a delicious bit of irony our 2009 Primitivo was pleased to be crowned the "Best Red" of the 2011 People's Choice Wine Awards held at Langtry Estate and Vineyards yesterday.

Almost 300 consumers cast their votes for their favorite wines yesterday after a panel of 13 professional judges whittled down a field of 165 entries to 57 that passed through for judging.

It is a somewhat contentious wine at 16.2% alcohol, totally dry with minimal oak and old-world inflected black pepper and earth characteristics and Dry Creek-style chalky tannin finish. Estate grown in our Kelseyville Bench area vineyard the main Primitivo block was planted in 1998 and is hitting its 10 year+ mature stride. It is planted on St. George rootstock with Primitivo clone FPS 03 (obtained in 1968 from Puglia by Dr. Goheen and made publicly available in 1984, making it the oldest of the Primitivo clones) which may not be a VCR clone. You true Zinfandel and Primitivo nerds can read the exciting FPS history here including Primitivo field trials.

You can find reviews of the wine here and here.

Thank you to everyone who braved the gray skies to come out yesterday and big thanks to our panel of judges (Virginie Boone, Deborah Parker Wong, John Buechsenstein, Shauna Rosenblum, Joe Roberts, Randy Caparoso, Pamela Heligenthal, Marc Hinton, Tina Caputo, Mike and Martha Dunne, Clark Smith and Don Neel) who sacrificed two days to attend and judge in July at Brassfield Estate. Big thanks to all the volunteers as well and Stephanie Cruz-Green, Sheila Taylor, Mireya Turner, Chris Skarada, Dustin Fults and Monica. Extra thanks to Ray Johnson in particular.

Vintage 2011 - rot, redemption, rookdom

2011-10-30T12:50:00.000-07:00

Rot

Did you like that last post? You thought I was all like boo-hoo and wah but then I was like all right on, it is all cool 'bro, want a slurpee? Well, some of it was lie. The rain has left an indelible mark. The pictures below are of Barbera presorting for rot control. I go through the vines before the pickers come and cut out the bad stuff, leaving a trail of tears in my wake. Barbera is a late-season thin-skinned grapes with large berries, which pretty much a triple strike out. Any cluster that touched another or touched the vine itself, canes or trellising had rot. The positive is that at least what we crushed after the sort looked pretty good, but the loss can seem pretty heavy from the ground though.

It is particularly painful because pre-rain Lake County had the highest potential for a Grand Vintage I had ever seen (in my few years here) with more moderate heat and high humidity, no frost damage, early start and typical low pest pressure other than mildew and some early unusual botrytis. If you were up on your mildew control it was looking like a beautifully structured old-world inflected possibility. Many of us never even touched water until Mid-August. Unfortunately limited labor is affecting this vintage just as much as the weather.

In keeping with the general theme of 2011 the alcohol will be below 14% for the Barbera, which is nice for everyone in theory and the acid is good, though not as great as the wack-job press would lead you to believe. In fact, for these late-season cultivars acid is nowhere near screaming high from the numbers I have seen. For the early season stuff like Russian River Pinot and Chardonnay, sure, but everything from the Central Valley is about where it normally is due to the longer growing season (ah ha, the press misses that part). Napa Valley Cab at 3.4pH just is not going to happen (except for Corison of course). American Tartaric as far as I know is reporting no huge loss in sales - in fact tartaric acid is also at an all-time record high price this year, over $200 per 25kg. sack! Painful.

Aglianico canopy going strong

In better news the Aglianico bit was all true though, looking great. An interesting side note is that Aglianico has one of the lowest forming/hanging bunches in the Vitis Vinifera world, meaning that the clusters are extremely exposed and swinging in the breeze. Often the first bunch forms below the very first leaf which is quite unusual, leaving it very exposed - a freaky proposition for sunburn but an absolute blessing for drying out after rain.

The last thing worth mentioning is this piece right here about hiring unskilled non-immigrant picking crews and the current labor shortage. All you pasty suburban kids staring at Facebook, stop taking pictures of yourself, go outside and do some worky work. You are not special. You are not unique or beautiful snowflakes...

Aglianico clusters freeballing

2011 - fall colors

2011-10-23T21:46:00.000-07:00

This post was originally about how bad it all is. How the pickers took four days to pick one acre as it fell from 25.5 to 21 brix in the sticky clay mud, berries went red to pink, bloated with water and exploding. The labor shortage was clearly in effect here in Lake County as in other places, so little operations such as ours were out of luck. Then the early season reds started to come in and they were all skanky and screwed up from the two inches of rain while trolling, self-important wine columnists heralded the low-alcohol, high-acid vintage without understanding that rain deadens acidity and ruins tannin maturity. They will be the first to complain about thin, astringent wines too. More than a half-inch is bad in Bordeaux too you weenies. Look back over your vintage charts and get a life.

And suddenly, it was very cold. Outdoor tanks without heating. Ever wonder how long it takes to heat six tons of grapes ten degrees with a propane burner? I know the answer.

But, then the sun came out. And it stayed out. For two weeks the weather has been perfect. Wife-beater and flip-flop perfect. And then the Primitivo came through beautifully while the Muscats finished up their fermentations more nicely than expected. Three small lots of Sangiovese, three different chances, three different clones, three different faces. Nebbiolo just came in looking amazing and a few more goodies are working. Montepulciano is still to come, the Barbera is back on track for another five days in the 80's and the Aglianico could not possibly look any better.

It still does not feel like true fall, but the vines are slowly starting to shut down. One of the interesting things this time of year is how pretty the virused vines are. Of course, viruses are bad, though sometimes scurrilous sommeliers talk of them as convenient crop limiters and retarders of overripening. There are many types within each family and often the greatest mystery is how. Nematodes are a big problem/vector for fan leaf, as are mealybugs for leaf roll - of which there are at least seven types. Fleck is always out there too. Newly planted vines from clean, safe and certified sources show viruses. All of the Petite Sirah we planted is showing virus in its third year. But, they are also very pretty.

Salinas Valley Food and Wine Festival - Saturday

2011-10-20T21:08:00.000-07:00

Feeling a little outclassed but excited.

http://www.salinasvalleyfoodandwine.com

The 2011 judging panel includes five judges along with several apprentices. The judging team will be led by Master Sommelier, Catherine Fallis. Catherine Fallis is the first woman in the world to have earned both the Master Sommelier diplomafrom the International Court of Master Sommeliers and theAdvanced Certified Wine Professional diploma from the Culinary Institute of America. She is a contributing editor for Sommelier Journal. Catherine Fallis will be joined by several other sommeliers, including Randy Caparoso. Randy Caparoso is afounding partner of the Roy’s restaurant group and also acontributing editor for Sommelier Journal. He has his advanced certificate from the Court of Master Sommeliers. Also joining Catherine Fallis as assistacts will be Certified Sommelier and Wine Maker, Shauna Rosenblum; Certified Sommelier and Wine Maker, Pietro Buttitta and Certified Sommelier and Director of Judging, Sheila Taylor. The sommelier assistants include Certified top Sommelier award recipient, Wade Stephens; Certified Sommelier, Angela Lo Barnett, and Certified Sommelier, Thamin Saleh.

Randy Caparoso

Current Bottom Line editor for Sommelier Journal, Randy Caparoso has 30+ years in pairing wine and food. He has achieved an Advanced Certificate in the Court of Master Sommeliers, and served on many judging panels, includingSanté’s annual national Grand Awards. One of the Founding Partners of the Roy’s restaurant group, Caparoso has also spent time producing his own wines (Caparoso Wines LLC) and continues to speak and write regularly on the subject.

Pietro Buttitta

A third-generation grape grower, Pietro Buttittia is a court-certified sommelier who currently works as the winemaker for Rosa d’Oro Vineyards. Buttitta has also served as a chef at several renowned restaurants, including the Michelin-rated Terra Restaurant in Napa, California. He most recently served as co-chair for the prestigious Lake County Wine Competition.

Thamin Saleh

A passionate sommelier with a wide spectrum of experience, Thamin Saleh has been involved in food and particularly in wine in the Monterey County for over a decade. Currently the Food & Beverage Manager at Solage Calistoga, Saleh can list stints as the Director of Wine at Bacara Resort and Spa, Sommelier/Cellar Master at Park Hyatt-Highlands Inn in Carmel, Marinus General Manager at Bernardus Lodge in Carmel Valley, and G.M and Sommelier at the Quail Lodge Resort and Gold Club. A food and wine expert, he has served on many judging panels.

Wade Stephens

Wade Stephens is a Certified Sommelier from Vino Tabi Winery in Santa Cruz. He is a graduate of the Sommelier program at the French Culinary Institute and has an extensive background in the retail business.

Angela Lo Barnett

Catherine Fallis aka grape goddess®

America's premiere female Master Sommelier.

A popular and entertaining speaker and host for corporate and private events, and the world's only Master Sabreuse, Catherine is founder and president of Planet Grape LLC (www.planetgrape.com), for wine consulting, and of Sabering Champagne! (www.saberingchampagne.com), for wine entertainment.

Fallis is the only person in the world to have earned both the prestigious Master Sommelier diploma from the International Court of Master Sommeliers and the Advanced Certified Wine Professional title from the Culinary Institute of America. She is also a French Wine Scholar and an instructor at the San Francisco Wine School..

Shauna Rosenblum

Raised on her family’s renowned vineyards, Rosenblum Cellars, Shauna Rosenblum now carries on the family tradition as winemaker for Rock Wall Wine Company. She is a certified sommelier and frequent judge at lauded competitions such as the Orange County Wine Competition, Connoisseur’s Guide to California, and Lake County Wine Competition. Her love of winemaking has won her many awards, including “Best Zinfandel in California.”

Sheila Taylor

Sheila R. Taylor is the Director of Wine Judging for the Salinas Valley Food and Wine Festival. Sheila attained her Certified Sommelier education from the French Culinary Institute, and is a Certified Sommelier at Thomas Fogarty Vineyard and Winery, Viva's in Los Gatos, and Michi's Catering Events. After graduating less than 4 months ago Sheila worked with Gary Danko, Grgich Winery, The Red Cross, Breast Cancer Research, Ferrari Owners Group Charities, The Lake County Wine Competition, and poured at the Duveneck Humanitarian Awards honoring Norman Y. Mineta, Sid Espinosa (Mayor of Palo Alto and Director of Corporate Citizenship at Microsoft) and Susan Ford Dorsey (President of Sand Hill Foundation).

What I learned in New York

2011-09-28T08:02:00.000-07:00

I learned that when the bus driver tells you to get off the bus, just shut up and get off the bus. I also learned that a pimp's love really is unlike that of a square (thanks Silky). Wine-wise it became clear that New York is a different game. No wine in grocery stores is a game changer for sure and in a sense it is the potential equalizer that every small winery dreams of. Problem is, no one in NY cares about California wine.

Giggles telling his favorite camel and Audi joke to the unimpressed

For a long time the East Coast wine market has been said to be different. They drink drier wines, Italian imports reign supreme, and they group California with Australia. Rumor has it they understand the many faces of Riesling, and interestingly, Muscat is not quite so hot out there, met with a 50% meh ratio. California Cabernet is largely relegated to the tourist Steakhouse crowd, the kind of thing a sommelier loathes but pumps up a list with. Oregon Pinot is sought after but considered pricey.

But the clincher really is no supermarket wine, and no BevMo. There are around 2400 wine stores in New York. 2400. There are probably only 240 in the State of California. Imagine, no end stacks of Rombauer Chardonnay at every store. Cabernet Sauvignon is just one cultivar among hundreds and not some special something or other. And California Zinfandel - never even saw one. One shop had Obsidian Ridge, and another had Robert Foley Roussanne from Lake County grapes (though not protein stable and milkey white). Six Sigma was here and there.

So what do those Left-Coasters drink? Well, every single store had at least one and often multiple bottlings from Occhipinti. That means high VA biodynamic Sicilian uniqueness in the $20s and up. Ever wonder where all of the Heitz Grignolino goes? Yup, 6 of 7 shops had it. Dan Petroski's Massican wines were well represented - as an ex-NY boy it makes sense but selling Tocai and Ribolla blends can't be easy anywhere, so good for him. Tablas Creek was fairly visible. Bordeaux was laughably absent, often relegated to six bottles collecting dust in the corner. The first store we stopped in claimed to sell 80 different rosés and were down to their last 20 of the year. Greek wine was always a pleasant surprise to see and the first shop had a Greek Refosco blend (!!!). Looking for that Alsatian Muscat Ottonel? Most shops had a bottle. In short unique was the rule, whether by cultivar or location. Price was a bit more flexible, but imports were the core.

On the huh side a couple of shop owners said that they were not interested in oak discussions anymore. If lots of sweet new oak was your house style, fine. This is the land of the hand sell and continual series of tastings. Something can be found for everyone at a particular price point.

Philosophically it is a confusing conundrum to think that the draconian protectionism New York practices might have created a vibrant wine culture. And also those of us in the meaty $15-25 segment have to deal with the unpleasant reality that our wine costs more in NY. The standard wholesale FOB as 50% of retail does not work there due to various costs, so your $18 bottle quickly becomes $22 on the shelf which can make or break you, though they don't seem quite so fixated on price brackets. The general perception is that California does not offer value, and Lake County is well positioned to challenge that perception.

Muscat

2011-09-23T22:35:00.000-07:00

Finally, some action around these parts. Why does it seem like the really important stuff only happens once per year? This year's Muscat will be a blend of Canelli and Giallo types - this is Giallo in the picture.

See you Wednesday in San Rafael

2011-09-18T12:31:00.000-07:00

Nebbiolo roundtable tasting notes

2011-09-15T19:36:00.000-07:00

Tom Hill graciously allowed me to repost his notes below from the Nebbiolo roundtable a few weeks ago in Napa that was mentioned last week - please see the prior post if you missed it right here. His tasting notes are precise to a fault I feel. This is probably the most comprehensive list of California Nebbiolo bottlings in existence (we did come up with a few missing though such as Graziano, Caparone and Suncé) and without a doubt a comprehensive tasting. Many of the Italian bottlings are missing though. Everything that follows are Tom's notes. Enjoy:

I've long had a fondness for the Nebbiolo grape ever since Darrel lCorti first started selling them to me back in the early '70's. But more it evolved into sorta a love/hate relationship. I love the aromatics of the grape. It can be ethereal at times. The perfume has a distinct floral character of lilacs and violets and dried rose petals. It can sometimes smell of pungency and fresh road tar and licorice. And often those components can be intertwined. Especially when they have some age on them, they can be incredible and complex. But it's when it hits my palate that the problems begin. In their youth, the high acidity and tannin levels can be fierce. So you're always admonished to give them time to age. Sometimes yes/sometimes not. Sometimes the evolve into something ethereal and magical.
Sometimes they never shed those fierce tannins. So I've become sorta conflicted when it comes to Piedmonte Nebbiolo.

I've long felt that Calif could do a better job w/ Nebbiolo than the Piedmonte. I'm still convinced that that's the case. PinotNoir was once considered a temperamental and problem grape in Calif. That thought was long ago put to rest. We can do the same w/ Nebbiolo I feel.

The first Calif Nebbiolo was produced in 1982 by NickMartin at MartinBros wnry in PasoRobles, using some old Nebb out of a vnyd in the SanJoaquinVlly. It was a pretty decent Nebb, especially considering it's lowly provenance. In the early '80's, Nick planted Nebbiolo Michet in his EastSide Paso vnyd and produced the first one in 1986. It was actually pretty darn good Nebb....not great Barolo...but good/tasty wine that spoke of Nebbiolo and was the first indication that Nebbiolo had a future in Calif.
Since those early years, there has been a quiet/under-the-radar interest in Calif in growing Nebbiolo. I think much of that interest was spurred by a comment that Parker once made at a talk afore some winemakers in which he flat-out declared Nebbiolo to be a failure in Calif. So some of the interest in Nebbiolo is driven by contrarian winemakers.

Several yrs ago, I was visiting with both EmilioCastelli/GreenVlly/RRV and KenMusso/ElDorado and suggested that it might be a good idea to get some of the Calif Nebb producers together and taste the wines and talk about them. So, in August 2009; we got together at WindGap wnry for our Inaugural NAP (Nebbiolo Advocates & Producers). This was reported after that event (www.grape-nutz.com/recent.html). Since that first meeting, things have been sorta quiet on the Calif Nebbiolo front. More producers are giving Nebbiolo a shot. Last Spring, Ken thought it was time to have another NAP#2, to which I readily agreed. He agreed to host it at Silenus Winery, a small custom crush facility on the North outskirts of Napa where he makes his DueVigne wines, including a Nebbiolo and Dolcetto from his ElDorado vnyd. After some false starts, we got a date set in Aug the week after the FamilyWinemakers tasting at FtMason and started inviting. It was on a rather short
notice, so many of the winemakers were unable to attend.

Attendees were:
DawnMartella/KarmereWnry/Plymouth/winemaker
KenZinns/HarringtonWnry/SanFrancisco/cellar rat
BryanPastini/Freemont/home winemaker/Nebbiolo fan
EmilioCastelli/CastelliCllrs/GreenVlly/RRV/owner/winemaker
Ken&AnneMusso/DueVigne/ElDorado grower/winemaker
Pietro Buttitta/Rosa d'OroWnry/Kelseyville/winemaker
JoeHealy/BuonaVitaCllrs/RRV
Ron&BarbaraHoule/DueVigne/winemaker
Scott Meadows/Silenus vineyards
Erika
Brad Smith/Silenus vineyards/production manager
Tom Hill

It was a very casual gathering in the outside courtyard at Silenus under pretty warm temperatures. We just pulled together two picnic tables, sat outselves down, introduced ourselves, and started talking Nebbiolo. After that, we started pulling corks, passing bottles, and talking about the wines. My sketchy notes on the wines we tasted are below. Such as they are. After over an hour of this high-level/intellectual discussions, we adjourned to some light dinner fare and popped a few more corks. And then we adjourned into the dead of the night.

Castelli MayBlush Nebbiolo DryRose GreenVlly (12.5%) 2010: Pale copper/orange color; flowery watermelon/spicy slight earthy nose; dry lean slight tannic spicy/watermelon/juicy rather tart finish; a clean bright attractive rose for food in a Provencal style.

Madrona NebbioloRose ElDorado (13.5%) 2010: Darker copper/salmon color; pleasant/simple slight floral/spicy/earthy nose; bit soft maybe off-dry light floral spicy flavor w/ little tannins; not the lean/angular style of the Castelli and a bit on the simple side, but pleasant enough.

DueVigne Nebbiolo MussoVnyd/ElDorado (14.4%; + Barbera) 2007: Med.color; slight herbal rather floral/lilacs quite pretty fragrant nose; bit tannic/hard floral/lilacs/perfumed slight earthy more lush/Calif-style fairly tart flavor; long tart fairly lush bit tannic/hard floral/lilacs finish; lots of pretty floral character; still needs several yrs.

DueVigne Nebbiolo MussoVnyd/ElDorado (14.4%; 8% Barbera) 2008: Slightly lighter color; tighter bit alcoholic lovely floral/lilacs/violets some perfumed/fragrant nose; more tannic/acid bit tighter lovely floral/lilacs/violets flavor; long fairly tart/tannic attractive floral/lilacs finish; clearly a bit tighter than the '07 and needs more age; not quite as rich/lush & more lean than the '07.

Rosa d'Oro Nebbiolo Riserva Clear Lake/Lake County (13.8%) NV(75% '08/25% '09): Light color w/ slight bricking; slight funky/earthy/pungent slight herbal/roasted chile/pungent/tarry light floral/lilacs slight alcoholic nose; rather lean/tannic/hard light floral/lilacs some pungent/herbal/earthy/tarry flavor; med.long light floral/lilacs some pungent/herbal/earthy/tarry light floral finish; needs more age; shows more of the pungent/tarry side of Nebbiolo than most of the others; maybe road-tar Lite; interesting Nebb in a different style.

Karmere Empress LaPetiteMorgan Nebbiolo ShenandoahVlly (14.3%) 2007: Med.light color; bit alcoholic some briary/ShenandoahVlly/berry light lilacs/floral nose; soft fairly lush light tannic briary/berry some floral/lilacs/perfumed flavor; med. soft/ripe lush berry/briary/floral/lilacs nose; speaks of ShenandoahVlly/briary mostly and quietly of Nebb.

Karmere Empress LaPetiteMorgan Nebbiolo ShenandoahVlly (14.6%) 2008: Med.colr; stronger more fragrant/perfumed/aromatic strong blackberry/briary light floral/lilacs nose; bit more hard/tannic strong briary/berry light floral/lilacs soft/rich/lush perfumed flavor; med.long some hard/tannic strong briary/blackberry light floral/lilacs/perfumed slight pungent finish; speaks of ShenandoahVlly but more Nebb on the palate; needs some age.

BuonaVitaCllrs Nebbiolo RRV (14.8%) 2007: Med.light color; lots of toasty/oak slight floral/lilacs/perfumed some licorice/pungent attractive nose; soft fairly lush/ripe some floral/lilacs/licorice/pungent somewhat toasty/oak bit tannic flavor; med.long some toasty/oak light floral/lilacs/aromatic light pungent/licorice finish w/ modest tannins; rather Calif in style but speaks of Nebb.

Castelli Nebbiolo Estate/GreenVlly/RRV (13.3%) 2007: Med.color; bit pungent/earthy/dusty lovely floral/fragrant/lilacs/violets/Nebb very light toasty/oak slight tarry nose; tart/lean/acid some pungent/herbal/licorice/tarry strong floral/violets/lilacs/perfumed fairly lush bit tannic/hard flavor; very long strong floral/lilacs/violets rather tart/lean light licorice/tarry fairly tannic finish; needs 2-5 yrs age yet; lovely floral aromatics.

Harrington Nebbiolo PasoRobles AJB&LunaMata vnyds/WestSide (14.3%; 30% whole cluster) 2008: Med.light color; ripe/lush some Paso/jammy light floral/lilacs/Nebb slight licorice/pungent rather perfumed nose; softer/lush bit plummy/jammy/Paso light floral/violets/lilacs modest tannins light oak flavor; long bit softer/lusher floral/violets/Nebb light toasty/oak some plummy/jammy finish w/ light tannins; lots a pure fruit and some jammy Paso character.

Harrington Nebbiolo PasoRobles (14.1%) 2009: Med.light color; light toasty/oak quite fragrant/perfumed/lilacs/violets/floral aromatic lovely nose; tarter bit more lean/tannic/structured quite fragrant/floral/violets light toasty/oak flavor; very long floral/violets/lilacs bit hard/tannic/tart finish; the jammy Paso character is beaten down by the lovely/perfumed fragrance.

Gang of Six plus One Nebbiolo PasoRobles (14.5%; 50% whole cluster) 2009: Med.light color; fairly floral/perfumed some Paso/jammy light pungent/smokey nose; tart/lean light floral/lilacs bit pungent/smokey/tarry finish w/ modest tannins; med.long tart/lean some tannic light floral/perfumed light smokey/pungent/tarry finish; needs more age; more bass notes than the Harrington version.

Giornata Nebbiolo LunaMataVnyd/PasoRobles/WestSide (14.5%) 2007: Med.color; rather ripe/overripe/jammy/Paso light smokey/pencilly/cinammon some grapey/ripe little floral nose; soft/lush/ripe plummy/grapey/jammy/Paso some smokey/pencilly/oak very light floral/lilacs slight tannic flavor; med.long ripe/jammy/Paso/plummy/grapey light pencilly/oak finish w/ light tannins; seems on the ripe side and the Paso terroir trumps the Nebb aromatics.

Giornata Nebbiolo LunaMataVnyd/PasoRobles/WestSide (14.5%) 2008: Med.color; some pencilly/smokey/oak less jammy more floral/lilacs/perfumed nose; bit less soft light floral/lilacs slight plummy/grapey light pencilly/oak flavor w/ some tannins; long bit tart/tannic somewhat floral/lilacs/perfumed finish; speaks more of Nebb and less of Paso/jammy terroir.

Novy Nebbiolo StolpmanVnyd/SantaYnezVlly (14.1%) 2006: Med.color; strange funky/wet dog fur light toasty/oak some pungent/licorice very light floral/lilacs/grapey nose; softer/lusher some pungent/licorice light toasty/oak very light fruity/grapey/floral bit funky/earthy some tannic/hard flavor; med.long bit funky/earthy slight grapey/floral/lilacs some toasty/oak bit tannic finish; not nearly as good as last one I had and seems a bit off.

Palmina Nebbiolo SantaBarbaraCnty (14.9%) 2006: Med.light color; slight tarry/pungent bright/floral/cherry/cherry cough drops/spicy bit pencilly/oak nose; slight tarry/pungent light cherry/cough drop/floral bit tannic/hard flavor; med. light cherry/cough drop/floral slight tarry/pungent/earthy some tannic/hard finish; almost a tutti-frutti or Pinot-like style to this wine and not a lot of Nebb character.

Palmina Nebbiolo HoneaVnyd/SantaBarbaraCnty (14.3%; Michet) 2006: Med.color; rather strong pungent/oak/smokey some floral/lilacs bit earthy/dusty light pungent/tarry attractive nose; rather tannic/hard/tart strong pungent/smokey/oak fairly floral/lilacs/violets/grapey bit road tar/pungent/earthy flavor; long tannic/hard/angular light floral/lilacs/fruity some smokey/pungent/oak finish; needs some age; bit on the wirey/sinewey side compared to the Sisquoc.

Palmina Nebbiolo RanchoSisquocVnyd/SantaBarbaraCnty (15.5%; Michet) 2006: Med.color; some smokey/pungent/licorice light road tar fairly floral/fragrant/lilacs/violets/grapey some toasty/smokey/oak bit alcoholic nose; softer rather ripe/grapey/floral/lilacs bit licorice/pungent/tarry some smokey/oak rather hard/tannic flavor; long some grapey/ripe light floral/lilacs light pungent/tarry/licorice some smokey/oak slight alcoholic fairly hard/tannic finish; some like a Sfursat w/o the earthy Valtelline character; very interesting Nebbiolo.

Clendenon Family Nebbiolo BriccoBuonNatale BienNacidoVnyd/SantaMariaVlly (14.1%) 2003: Med.light color; lovely floral/lilacs/violets/licorice/perfumed some smokey/pungent slight tarry very aromatic nose; somewhat hard/tannic/lean/acid very floral/lilacs/violets/perfumed slight tarry/licorice flavor; very long hard/tannic/tart/lean/austere very floral/violets/lilacs/perfumed bit tarry/licorice/pungent finish; needs age and should go for more than 10 yrs or so; probably the most varietally correct and my favorite of the Calif Nebbs. (This one had a big dose of smokey Brett, but it worked in the Nebbiolo context for me - Pietro)

Madrona Nebbiolo ElDorado (14.5%) 2008: Med.color; earthy/dusty gout de terroir nose w/ little fruit or fragrance; soft earthy/dusty slightly fruity flavor; med. soft earthy/dusty lightly fruity/grapey finish w/ slight tannins; not much Nebb character and mostly speaks of ElDoradoCnty.

NadaFiorenzo Barbaresco (13.5%) 1996: Med.light color w/ some bricking; rather tarry/pungent/classic Barbaresco very slight floral/violets fruit nose; tight/tart/hard/tannic rather pungent/tarry light floral/fruit flavor; long/lingering tarry/pungent/road tar slight floral/lilacs some tart rather tannic/hard/lean finish; not a lot of fruit left but classic Barbaresco tarry character; needs age to take down the tannins but not sure what will be left.

L&L Nebbiolo mandolina SantaBarbaraCnty (14.3%) 2007: Med.light color; fairly grapey/lush slight floral/aromatic bit earthy nose; soft/lush/ripe grapey/fruit bit soupy slight floral bit toasty/oak flavor; med.short grapey/fruity/lush light toasty/oak finish w/ slight tannic bite; pleasant enough SBC red but a bit on soft/soupy side and not speak a lot of Nebb

Ca'Nova Bocciolo DOC: CollineNovaresi Nebbiolo (13.0%) 2006: Med.color; lovely floral/lilacs/violets fairly rich/lush light tarry/pungent nose; bit hard/tannic lush/floral/lilacs/violets ripe light road tar/pungent flavor; very long ripe/lush strong floral/violets/lilacs/rose petal somewhat hard/tannic bit tarry/pungent finish; needs some age; if Calif winemakers want to make Italian Nebb, this one is it; my favorite of the Italian Nebbs by far.

and from my FriuliFest notes in July:

Ramsay NorthCoast Nebbiolo 1992: Med.light color; lovely floral/lilacs/Nebb bit tarry/earthy/pungent
old Gattinara complex nose; tart still some tannic/hard lovely floral/Nebb light tarry/pungent slight faded
rose petal/old Gattinara complex flavor; a lovely complex old Nebb/old Gattinara nose but still rather hard/tannic on the palate and not likely to outlive them.

IlPodere Dell'Olivos SantaBarbaraCnty Nebbiolo 1988: Med.red color w/ no bricking; lovely floral/lilacs/violets slight smokey/tarry quite complex rather old Gattinara-like nose; lovely smooth light cedary/oak/pungent quite floral/lilacs/violets/Nebb very slight tannic complex flavor; long floral/violets/lilacs/Nebb slight pungent/tarry smooth complex finish w/ slight tannic bite; a really lovely example of an old Nebbiolo much like an older Gattinara.

And a few thoughts from the Bloody Pulpit:

1. I thought all of the above Nebbiolos were sound/well-made wines. They spoke, with varying degrees of strength, of Nebbiolo. In some cases, the terroir (SantaBarbara, ShenandoahVlly, ElDorado, Paso) tended to sublimate the Nebb character. It is not at all obvious to me that any region in Calif can lay claim to being a superior site for the variety. At least not yet.

My easy favorite of these Nebbs was the Ca'Nova CollineNovaresi. Of the Calif Nebbs,
my favorite was probably the Clendenon, primarily because of the aromatics. But it has the tannins on the palate you expect from Nebbiolo and I see little reason it won't easily go out 10 or even 20 yrs. This btl was a gift from MichaelWild at BayWolf who wanted me to toss it into the mix when he heard what we were up to. Close behind were the Castelli, DueVigne, and the two Harringtons.

2. The Calif Nebbiolo future: I think many of the folks out there buying wine share Parker's perception that Nebbiolo is a loser in Calif. I think that perception is flat-out wrong. But it will be a tough challenge to turn that ship around. As AdamLee suggested at NAP#1, Nebbiolo is probably going to remain a niche market for some time and that Italian restaurants are probably the best place to target for the market. People who are aficianodos of Piedmonte Nebbiolo seem to have pretty closed minds and if it doesn't taste like Barolo/Barbaresco, they're not likely to accept the Calif renditions. If Calif Nebb winemakers want to look to Italy for a model, I've long suggested the Novara Hills, Lombardy, and the Valtelline are where they should look. Not Barolo/Barbaresco and the Langhe. But the key is to get people to just try the wines, with an open mind, and not have any preconceived notions as to what a Calif Nebbiolo MUST taste like.

3. I think most of the participants at NAP#2 left w/ a great deal of enthusiasm for Nebbiolo in Calif. KenMusso wants to put together a mailing list and do a quarterly Newsletter, an ambitious but worthy goal. I can see this effort starting out much like the ViognierGuild, just a gathering of winemakers. And look at where that effort took Viognier and Rhone varietals in Calif. I hope these get-togethers can become an annual event. Maybe...someday.. even a FtMason tasting event??

4. The moniker NAP sucks big time. A better, catchier name must be come up with for this sorta rag-tag group of winemakers. Maybe we can get some of the best minds in Science to work the problem.

Tuesday (8/23) NAP#2

New York, Pourings and Distribution

2011-09-13T07:21:00.000-07:00

Off to New York tomorrow for five days of pimping Rosa d'Oro. While I am excited to see The City the schedule is pretty packed - here is the rundown. RSVP addresses are below for trade:

Thursday:
CALIFORNIA WINE RUSH NEW YORK TASTING 2011

Location: Vanderbilt Hall in Grand Central Terminal

Time: 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm (Trade and Media only)

(California regional trade tasting - Six Sigma will be there with us representing Lake County)

To rsvp for trade please email michael@firstpresspr.com

Friday:

Date/time: Friday, September 16, 5–8 PM

Store: California Wine Merchants

Address: 15 Bridge St., NY, NY 10004

(Nice Friday evening pouring for consumers, please see California Wine Merchants website for details HERE)

Saturday:

Date/time: Saturday, September 17, 2–7 PM

Store: Brooklyn Wine Exchange

Address: 138 Court Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201

(Same thing for this pouring HERE)

Monday:

And the big daddy of them all for us, the portfolio launch for the Fine Wine Agency who will be our new representatives in New York and New Jersey:

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Dear Wine Lover,

Fine Wine Agency would like to invite you to our first annual portfolio show. Join us to taste some of the finest new wine brands to hit New York and New Jersey, and participate in one of our exciting master classes.

Where: Union Square Ballroom
27 Union Square West (b/t 15th and 16th St).

When: 19th of September from 11am till 7pm.

We are also hosting an after party next door at the Union Square Lounge from 7pm till late. Entrance to the lounge will be 30 East 16th Street.

Times and topics of the master classes will be emailed to you upon receipt of your RSVP.

Please RSVP to:

info@finewineagency.com or (212) 627-0330

We look forward to hearing from you!

Anthony Allport
President, Fine Wine Agency

You are receiving this email message because you made a verbal or written request at an event, opted-in on one of our websites, or purchased a product from us.

Unsubscribe eric@finewineagency.com from this list.

Our mailing address is:

Fine Wine Agency

115 W 30th Street

Suite 1110B

New York, NY 10001

Add us to your address book

Nebbiolo

2011-09-09T22:48:00.000-07:00

I did the snoopy dance when I heard about it. Deep in Napa Valley, on a now-rare warm afternoon we gathered at Silenus to discuss making - wait for it - Nebbiolo. Not Cabernet or Merlot, but Nebbiolo. The king of wines, King Dick himself. We opened 28 bottles of California Nebbiolo and a nice battalion of Italian reference points at the end. California Nebbiolo is the heartbreak grape, and every Pinot maker in attendance commiserated over just how damn difficult the viticulture is and the winemaking with this uber-sensitive beast. Face-ripping tannins, high acid (3.01pH for one of them in the bottle!), in need of extensive aging and reacting unpredictably with oak were only part of the aired grievances. Nebbiolo just makes no damn sense, and that is why the good ones are so amazing and the poor ones are the mother-in-laws of the wine world - just horribly abrasive and charmless. As they say, one must kiss many frogs...

Full disclosure: the Italian wine moment that altered my consciousness forever was a tasting with Paolo di Gresy of Marchesi di Gresy side by side 1999 and 2000 Martinenga and Camp Gros Barbaresco bottlings. I had the opportunity to share a bottle of 2000 Martinenga last year and it was at least as good as I remembered. How many times does that happen in life?

Viticulture: Nebbiolo does not like sun and it does like sun. Like Grenache it will not develop color if it is in the shade, and it will not color if in direct light. But, it will grow exuberantly in warmth producing massive vegetative growth without a thought toward fruit quality. Nebbiolo bunches can be huge, easily a pound each. The quality thinning is one bunch per cane without exception; shoulders, wings or bottoms optional. Nebbiolo wants a type of limestone-y marine soil we have very little of in California, so good luck with that. It is also an inbreeding nightmare. It is the wine first to bud in Spring, practically guaranteeing frost damage. It will be one of the last to be harvested, so if it starts to rain = screwed. It must be cane pruned 95% of the time which means you can't just prune to two buds per spur and pretend to forget it. Fact is the Nebbiolo vine just does not like you and there is nothing you can do about it. It will always seem astringent, for that is its nature.

Tom, hard at work, crushing the notes

Enology: One of the fundamental things about Nebbiolo is that its tannin is not "noble". It will not polymerize a la modern Bordeaux into rich silkiness. It is dry and grippy with long chains just sucking and zippering to saliva on your tongue. From a nerd viewpoint it would be fascinating to hear of micro-oxygenation attempts. Nebbiolo is just sandpaper dry with high acid, the opposite of modern wine. It is a slap and tickle in all the wrong places that inevitably has you coming back for more, creeping into your daydreams. Fermentations themselves seem to be fairly normal amongst all of us with tannin management calling the shots. Some used enzymes and yeast products, others just let it go man, all natural. The general concensus is treat it like Pinot with hand-punch downs - don't beat it up but don't let it oxidize too much. Color you can't really control, and adding Barbera is a common antidote (field blending is the unspoken and silently practiced solution in some of Piedmont). Most of us agreed that keeping it 100% pure is important ethically and enologically. Large format wood is a dream for many of us but seems to be the best bet (we use very old Burgundy barrels whose thick staves tend not to breath after many years). Two years in wood is the minimum with stronger vintages able to go longer. Racking may be as low as once per year. Topping up is always a balancing act between do it too frequently and promoting oxidation or not doing it often enough and risking, um, oxidation and VA problems. Due to the low pH sulfur should be used carefully.

Errata: It came up once with Emilio that rootstock may have a greater impact on the qualities of Nebbiolo than the scion choice. We (including I) often regard clonal options as a grocery-store, choosing some qualities (small berries, low vigor, open bunches) over others and imagining that we will get those things. But, in the real world, site usually overrides selection. And with something as touchy and finicky as Nebbiolo, rootstock/site combinations may be more important that whether it is Lampia 01 or 10. Two years ago Adam Lee opined the same vein. We are still very much in the dark regarding rootstock interaction when it comes to enology, not just shatter and nematodes. Much work remains to be done here.

Clone 08 ripening in Dunnigan, pre-thinning

Carving a giant: Roundabout to the first paragraph is that the (potential) beauty of Nebbiolo lies in its Nietzschean agglomeration of the greatest number of opposing forces retained within the simplest and most grounded dialectical structure. What can be right about Nebbiolo is the sum of things potentially wrong squared. When fermenting Nebbiolo its true soul as a white grape comes out, and when DNA testing finds the mother to be Viognier it is not surprising to anyone. Its bizarre ephemeral delicacy is apparent. It does smell like roses and lilacs, cinnamon and a little clean lavender. But, it should also smell eventually like tar, truffles and all manner of wonderful stank, almost like a homeless guy in Starbucks eating seared foie gras while smoking a Havana. It should have this beauty but also this animalistic kinky visceral component and unpleasant acid/tannin thing that would be horrible were it not for this perplexing, dignified charade. It is the tension between light and dark, tenuous integration and looming collapse that is possibly most important. It is almost ecstatic in the aesthetic sense, showing us everything all at once were it not for that fact that it fails most of the time. To moderate the tannin is heretical though this would be the "correct" think to do in the modern idiom. Lower the acid, eviscerate the soul. Augment the color, corrupt the flesh.

Tasting notes:

These tasting notes were written and compiled by Tom Hill, tasting guru at www.grape-nutz.com from the first Nebbiolo Producers' meeting two years ago (tasting notes from this year's event will be forthcoming). His notes are quite good. Being one of the interested producers it does not seem quite right to pass notes on others wines in this context, and I was too busy asking questions anyway, so having his experience to rely on is a blessing. In general, I was surprised and impressed, feeling that we actually had more uniformity and cohesion than expected. The level of insecurity most of us had while pouring our own was pretty charming too. Oak levels varied but for the most part varietal typicity held strong, though California-inflected. The fruit was often beautiful and of even greater delicacy, but it also seemed that we in general missed the basso profundo part of the puzzle. Tar and truffle were hardly ever seen, missing the critical polar anchor. Several bottles from Paso Robles I thought were quite good provided they did not verge into jamminess and excessive hang-time tannin. The future may rely in either working with viticulture to produce fruit that can successfully go reductive and dig deep, or abandoning that part of the paradigm and concentrating on high-toned tannic elegance. As Tom says, Valtellina may be our model in many cases, not Barolo.

Huge thanks to Due Vigne for putting this all together!

2. Naked Lady Castelli Estate Nebbiolo 2005: Med.lighht color;
attractive floral/violets/Nebb slight tarry/
pungent light toasty/smokey/oak very attractive nose; rather
tannic/acid/hard strong floral/violets light
toasty/oak very slight brett light pungent/tarry flavor; med.long bit
hard/tannic/acid strong floral/
violets/Nebb light tarry/pungent finish; needs more time; lots of
classic Nebb aromatics.
________________
3. Novy StolpmanVnyd Nebbbiolo 2005: Med.color; light floral/lilacs
somewhat pencilly/toasty/oak nose; tart
fairly smooth/textured some floral/violets some pencilly/oak light
tannic flavor; med.long light floral/
violets some toasty/pencilly/oak slight tannic finish; speaks gently
of Nebb but more like a Siduri
Pinot in style because of the oak.
________________
4. JeffPisoni StolpmanVnyd Nebbiolo 2006: Light color; very
fragrant/perfumed floral/violets/spicy light
toasty/oak nose; tart/lean bit tannic/hard slight
tarry/smokey/pungent rather floral/violets/lilacs
some toasty/oak flavor; med.long spicy/floral/lilacs/violets light
toasty/oak bit hard/tannic finish;
needs some age; lots of floral almost-Pinotish character.
________________
5. Novy StolpmanVnyd Nebbiolo 2006: Fairly light color; somewhat
tarry/pungent very light floral/lilacs
rather tight/closed nose; tart/lean/tannic slight floral/lilacs/tarry
tight/shut-down flavor; med.long
tart/tannic/lean/hard lighht floral/lilacs very light tarry/licorice
finish; mare angular & hard than
the '05 and seems somewhat tight & closed.
________________
7. DueVigna ElDorado Nebbiolo 2006: Med.light color; light
toasty/oak/pencilly slight herbal/earthy fairly
floral/lilacs interesting nose; tart bit tannic light floral/lilacs
light toasty/oak slight herbal/
earthy flavor; med.long light floral/lilacs/herbal/earthy/dusty bit
hard/tannic finish; good Nebb
character and some of that earthy ElDorado terroir.
________________
8. WindGap GlenroseVnyd/PasoRobles Nebbiolo 2006: Med.color; very
strong/fragrant/perfumed violets/floral/
Nebb very spicy almost Pinotish nose; tart bit lean/hard/tannic very
floral/violets/spicy quite perfumey
flavor; very long very perfumed/floral/violets/lilacs some
tannic/haard/tart finish; speaks loud & clear
of Nebbiolo w/ very perfumed/fragrant character; bright pretty Nebb.
________________
9. WindGap LunaMattaVnyd/PasoRobles (100% whole cluster) Nebbiolo 2007:
Med.light color; bit more toasty/oak
strong floral/lilacs/perfumed/Nebb lovely nose; tart bit tannic/hard
strong floral/lilacs/Nebb some low-
key toasty/oak flavor; very long lovely/floral/lilacs/Nebb light
toasty/charred/oak some tannic/hard
finish; lovely expression of Nebbiolo; more base notes and less
high-toned character than the '06.
________________
10. Novy StolpmanVnyd Nebbiolo 2007: Very light color; light
floral/violets vey slight tarry/pungent some
tight/closed nose; softer light/floral/violets light tannic very
slight pungent/tarry flavor; med.long
light floral/violets/aromatic somewhat softer light tannic finish;
seems a bit tight & closed; lighter
more elegant expression of Nebb; quite a pretty wine but needs age.
________________
11. Novy StolpmanVnyd Nebbiolo 2008: Light color; strong
blackberry/floral/lilacs/spicy almost Zin-like
fragrant/spicy nose; tart lush/grapey/floral/berry/lilacs bit
hard/tannic flavor; long ripe/lush
floral/lilacs spicy/berry finish w/ some tannins; lots of lush fruit
and almost Zin-like in character.
________________
12. WindGap Glenrose&LunaMatta/PasoRobles Nebbiolo 2007: Med.dark color;
lovely floral/lilacs/berry/Nebb
very light toasty/oak almost Pinotish nose; tart bit tannic/hard
bright/floral/violets somewhat cherry/
Pinotish very perfumed flavor; long bit hard/tannic tart
pretty/bright/floral/violets/cherry finish;
needs more age; a very pretty/perfumed/fragrant almost Pinotish
rendition of Nebb.
________________
13. WindGap Nebbiolo 2008: Med.color; much more
floral/lilacs/violets/Nebb-like quite perfumed/aromatic
slight road tar/pungent nose; tart/hard/tannic very
floral/perfumed/lilacs/violets/spicy light tarry/
pungent flavor; very long perfumed/floral/lilacs/violets/classic Nebb
some hard/tannic finish; needs
more age; probably the most classic Nabb of Pax's Nebbs.

Aglianico as of 9/5/2011

2011-09-05T07:25:00.000-07:00

Apparently we are not in any hurry here...

Bottling time, new additions

2011-09-04T08:31:00.000-07:00

This is the crunch. Harvest is sneaking up fast (the Muscat is running scary fast) and we need to bottle the 2010s. Being a small winery our barrel room can hold a maximum of 64 225l. standard-size barrels, leaving just enough enough room to crawl and contort oneself through inch-wide cracks and shimmy under the roof on your belly. We reuse all the barrels for the upcoming crush - with the exception of the 2010 Aglianico which is so burley and ridiculously good that it will need at least six more months of barrel age, but I digress - giving them a serious cleaning in between. Barrels are without a doubt the weakest link or HAACP point in a winery. All of this means bottling, which we do ourselves. Every year we have a few new additions we try out, and a couple of gripes as bottling is labor, time and stress intensive, and it just downright sucks.

But, so far, complaints are just not coming. We have only bottled 230 cases so far (about 2600 bottles), but we have not had a single bottle break, no explosions to clean up, no lips cut by flying glass shards. This year we also trying out Diam corks on the reds which seem to be functioning beautifully with the corker. So, here are two of three new releases for next Spring:

Nero d'Avola (144 cases)

Montepulciano (94 cases)

Sagrantino, 96 cases

Barbera - Monica Pisciella's #Barbera2 summary

2011-08-25T08:24:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, Rosa d'Oro Vineyards was one of five domestic wineries that participated in #Barbera2 this May in Nizza Monferrato, as well as the Barbera Festival in Amador County.

Monica Pisciella was the chief organizer of the event and she was even able to attend the Barbera Festival in Amador, cementing the cross-cultural aspect of Barbera production. Below is her overview of the events.

TWITTER BRIDGES TWO WORLDS OF BARBERA

by Monica Pisciella

Translation: Gianni Lovato
Editing: J.S. Manning, U.C. Davis
Recently in Nizza Monferrato, Piedmont, Italy and in the Shenandoah Valley in Amador County, California, USA, producers, bloggers, and consumers on the two continents have been the leading actors in separate events that, purely by chance, had been planned only a few weeks apart and due of the miracle of the web they were drawn close to a point of almost becoming halves of an international Barbera project.

It was a passion for Barbera and a desire to explore it which united the two worlds in Piemonte and California with different ways of working with the same vine, of producing wine, of marketing Barbera and of promoting the territory. These two separate events which explored world of Barbera led to a comparative dialog to explain, show, and evaluate the production and quality of the Barbera in these different worlds. This interaction led to a constructive recognition of the diversity Barbera viniculture as well as an appreciation of the similarities and differences of producers and consumers in both countries which in turn is fostering a closer association between Barbera producers and consumers in both Italy and California. Interestingly, it was a combination of Barbera and the internet which led to the building of this transoceanic bridge.

Piedmont, # barbera2

On May 14, at the historical Foro Boario in Nizza Monferrato (AT), after more than six months of planning, the day of #barbera2 finally arrived (yes: the hash-tag # facilitated finding, both on Twitter and FaceBook, all the messages, photos, videos and links related to the event). Gathered around the tables, the 100 participants included aficionados, professionals, journalists and producers. On June 11, at the Cooper Vineyards ranch, in Amador County – CA, the Barbera Festival followed, a grand kermesse dedicated to Barbera with about 80 Wineries participating and attended by 2,000 paying visitors. The difference were many, but there were also common threads that crossed the Ocean and wiped out the distances: the intense passion for Barbera, paired with the commitment of all the producers and organizers involved, and with the same great dream of drawing closer people with kindred knowledge of this vine and wine.
At #barbera2 some of the 100 attendants came from far away. Not only from all parts of Italy, including the Islands, but also from Northern Europe and the USA. There were journalists, professional sommeliers, wine experts, importers and representatives, but also simply aficionados, people with entirely different, unrelated occupations. Of particular significance was also the participation of those taking part for the first time in a numbered tasting. Everyone showed up on time at 9:30 on a Saturday morning, united by the customary use of the web and Social Media (particularly Twitter), either professionally o for recreation.
Welcoming them all was Foro Boario, a venue impeccably staged with tables forming a large square at the center of which several “Barbera witnesses” followed one another with their presentations, while the participants could interact with them as well as with each other. The proceedings were filmed and broadcast in live streaming and with access to an excellent simultaneous two-way translations in English and Italian. The speakers included Lucia Galasso (anthropologist), Maurizio Gily (director of Millevigne), Roberto Abate (agronomist), Franca Maria Ratti (oenologists), Prof. Davide Bennato (docent of Digital Media Sociology at Catania University); the five producers of Barbera from Piedmont, whose wine were being tasted: Cascina Gilli, Cascina Garitina, Iuli, Varaldo and Vigneti Massa; two producers from California: Paul Cattrone of PDC Wines and Nick Buttitta of Rosa d'Oro Vineyards, as well as the Californian winemaker Gordon Binz, representing Boeger Vineyards, Cooper Vineyards, Muscardini cellars.
The goal of the presentations was to exchange ideas related to the viticulture in different areas and to the characteristics of Barbera, the vine and the wine, in a simple language accessible to all.
“#barbera2 is intended as a watershed point in communications about wine – asserted Gianluca Morino, a producer (Cascina Garitina) in Nizza and sponsor of the event - I have invested in this innovative and bold project, because I truly believe in the need to communicate about both wine and territory in a simpler, leaner fashion. Our wish is to rejuvenate the image of Barbera, bringing it closer to folks, and I believe that, in our own small way, we have succeeded. Those in attendance have been able to taste wines coming from far-away places; from geographically and physically different vineyards; we are trying to give life and substance to the concept of “terroir”. The Barbera is a wine for everyone: in all its variations, young or matured in barriques, it deserves equal dignity. From this perspective it is becoming increasingly important that it be paired with food, underscoring its ability to enhance the flavor of different dishes.”
During the presentations by the speakers, so many messages were posted on Twitter that the “#barbera2” hash-tag jumped to third place in the “most popular subject” ratings, just below the Turin Book Expo. Thanks to the interaction of many, the dialogue with the outsiders hummed intensively, connecting #barbera2 to the rest of the world, where Wine & Food professionals and simple aficionados “twitted” about Barbera from several Countries.
“Seeing so much interest and curiosity expressed by people twittering from all over the world, was the realization of a long/held dream” commented Gianluca Morino, at the end of the day.
Despite the truly large number of participants, many of them were invited to speak or comment during the event, in accordance with the declared goal of putting wine, and Barbera in particular, in touch with folks.
“We started - added Morino – with an idea: the need for a new kind of wine communications, more open and less self-serving, simpler, facing a consumer frequently intimidated by an elitist language that often scares him away making him feel inadequate and incapable of understanding and of making a choice. At times this results in steering the consumer towards other simpler beverages like beer or, worse yet, carbonated & artificially colored drinks”
The new means of communication, Social Media and particularly Twitter among them, hold a fundamental role in information world, recasting it into a more horizontal and bidirectional, hence participative, force.
“Given a choice I would rather skip other events, but never a numbered tasting, I believe they are too important” - these are the words of Samuel Sanders, an importer of Italian wines, who came from Holland to Piedmont specifically to take part in this event - “On occasions like these, we discover interesting wines for the market and we come in direct contact with consumers. It is them, not the experts, who will buy wine, in the end”
“I believe – says Sergio Miravalle, a Journalist with La Stampa – that, observing events such as this, many institutions ought to question and reflect on how, to this day, public money is being spent to promote wines and territories. One can't help feeling that old formulas are used, with no understanding of the speed at which the world has been changing and still is”.
Striving to add a tangible symbol of Barbera and its territory, Stefano Calosso - a nurseryman from nearby Acqui – and his wife, Valeria De Martini, donated each participant a young Barbera vine cutting, subsequently planted on plot at Cascina Garitina.
The producers from California present expressed their satisfaction as well. “barbera#2 – asserted Paul Cattrone, of PDC WINES, Walnut Creek, the American producer who cooperated the most to bringing to fruition this particular twinning from overseas – gave me a way to get in touch with the people, particularly producers and consumers, who in Italy share their passion for Barbera and the Social Networks. Furthermore it provided an opportunity to meet with Italian producers in the birthplace of Barbera and opened my eyes to the differences between Italy and California in wine production. In fact Italy has a deep sense of terroir, whereas in California greater emphasis is given to the vineyard and its care and vinification techniques ”
Nick Buttitta of ROSA d'ORO VINEYARDS (Lake County) was also enthusiastic. “Everything was well organized and worked like clockwork; much curiosity and never any prejudice toward Barbera from California”. #barbera2 brought good luck to Nick: just a few days ago, during the 2011 California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition, Rosa d’Oro was awarded two prizes for their 2009 Barbera.

Amador County, Barbera festival

Barbera Festival was also held on a Saturday, at 10 am. Brian Miller (in the picture), the organizer, anticipate every detail with the greatest care, from car parking to the disposal of recyclable waste. The public, mainly came from Amador County - an area of California where Barbera has taken hold and gained many passionate followers among the producers – found several tasting stations under the trees, only a few steps away from the Barbera vines, in an atmosphere resembling the informal get-together of a Sunday spent in the countryside.
Next to the tasting stations there were also two #barbera2 tents: one reserved for the press, where journalists and bloggers could find samples replicating the tasting held in Nizza and, among the press releases, information on Wineries, wines and recipes. Next to it was another area, dedicated to the public: the high turnout indicated the high level of satisfaction at having the opportunity to taste Barbera from Piedmont. I was pleasantly surprised by the warm acceptance granted to us: many had heard or read about #barbera2 from Twitter or Facebook.
Two different landscapes for Barberas that express themselves differently. The Californian Barbera: younger, fruity, with modest acidity in most cases, easy to drink, possibly answering to the demands of a public that discovered its love of wine in more recent times. The Barbera from Piedmont: different, showing its long tradition through its complexity, the difference between the various areas of growth, as well as the different interpretations among producers. Furthermore, the acidity that distinguishes it and typically characterizes the Barbera to which we are used.
In the US we meet again Paul Cattrone, who outlines a terse assessment: “I was truly very satisfied with both events. I imagine #barbera2 and Barbera Festival as two parts of one sole event and I would like if, in future editions, could become integrated, in both Italy and California. I found interesting how much room was accorded to the presentation of Barbera, its terroir and producers as well as the dialogue with consumers that was started at #barbera2. I would love it if, in future occasions, the producers had more time to tell their story. It would also be nice if, at the next Barbera Festival, we could have, the day before or after, an event dedicate to presentations, just as it happened at #barbera2. Differences remain, but distances disappear, thanks to the modern means of communication, all to the advantage of a Barbera able to communicate with professionals and aficionados and become part of their daily reality.
Right: at the festival, Mike Dunn, journalist from the Sacramento Bee newspaper, and the famous retailer Darrell Corti

*****************************

BARBERA IN CALIFORNIA

In Amador County Barbera grows on approximately 164 acres, divided among 33 producers. In California the total area dedicated to Barbera is 6,900 with a total of 200 producers. There is no meaningful difference in prices depending on the areas and, with the exception of the Montevina brand, sold nationwide, more than 80% of the Barbera produced in California is sold internally by the Firms, mostly to end consumers or to restaurants and wine shops in a 50 mile radius, at a price averaging between $20 and $30. Barbera priced below $ 15 is principally sold to large distributors. For these wineries, oenogastronomic tourism plays a major role and a significant portion of their promotional budget is allocated to it. Quite substantial are the investments in construction of modern greeting and tasting halls, very captivating in their design and in their presence as infrastructures dedicated to leisure time.

Lake County Wineries in SF Aug. 20th - Family Winemakers Weekend

2011-08-04T11:18:00.000-07:00

It is true, we Lake County-ites are heading to Treasure Island in S.F. the day before Family Winemaker's begins. I highly encourage trade to please attend. Contact me and I will send you the code for trade asap.

WARNING! On Saturday, August 20, San Francisco will be invaded by dozens of Lake County Wineries – bringing with them nearly100 big, intense, high elevation wines from the mountains north of Napa Valley. This is a rare opportunity to not only see and meet these boutique wineries, but to taste their wines right in San Francisco. Plus, with a VIP Ticket, you will be able to preview and taste the People’s Choice Award Winning Wines from Lake County. Experience Wines with Altitude!

Wines with Altitude!
Lake County Wineries invade San Francisco
Saturday, August 20
12:00pm-01:00pm – Trade Only
01:00pm-05:00pm – Open to the Public
The Winery SF
200 California Ave, San Francisco, CA 94130
Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=The+Winery+SF

TICKETS
General Admission Tickets: $35 Early Bird (thru 8/3) / $50 at the door
VIP Tickets: $50 Early Bird (thru 8/3) / $70 at the door
VIP Tickets include access to a special tasting of Lake County’s People’s Choice Award Nomination Wines
Purchase Tickets at: http://wineswithaltitude.eventbrite.com

Wines With Altitude

Dozens of Wineries                                Nearly 100 Wines                                Local Olive Oils
From the Mountains
North of Napa Valley                               People’s Choice                                      Food Trucks,
Invade San Francisco!                       Award Winning Wines                               Music & More!

Wienz Withh Altitude!
Anyway you say it, Wines with Altitude makes a statement. It says “Get off the Valley floor!” Every wine lover’s been there, done that. Many have ventured in the southern hills of the Mayacamas Mountains and have experienced the overwhelming benefits of high elevation fruit as evidenced by the wines of Mt. Veeder, Spring Mountain, Diamond Mountain and even Howell Mountain. Now, it time to venture onward and upward to the true High Elevation Mayacamas Mountain fruit – that of Lake County and its budding wine industry. Lake County's intensity of place-climate, soils and sunlight-produces grapes and wines of quality and character. The compelling 'high elevation' mountain terroir, pure California air, & sustainable mindset of this wine region= great "Wines with Altitude".

Why is everyone heading North?
It happened first within the valley itself. Napa Valley’s top growers and wineries started heading up to the hillsides and mountainous regions of Napa. From Harlan in the foothills of Mt. Veeder above the Oakville Grade to Bryant Family on Prichard Hill to David Abreu on Howell Mountain, Napa’s top vineyards and wineries are “moving to the hills”. This trend is continuing in Lake County as top Napa Valley growers (like Andy Beckstoffer) and top winemakers (like Greg Graham of Rombauer and Nils Venge of Groth, Saddleback and Venge Family fame) have set up shop in the Mayacamas Mountains north of Napa Valley.

Get ahead of the Trend!
Don’t miss the boat! It’s happened to all of us. Whether you are a distributor looking or consumer, we’ve all missed out on buying that wine or signing up for that wineries’ mailing list in the past. Make sure you don’t miss out on this High Elevation Wine trend. Come down, meet the winemakers, taste the wines and get into the “know” on this upcoming wine region!

Over a dozen wineries including Shannon Ridge Vineyards, Gregory Graham, Langtry Estate & Vineyards, Cache Creek Winery, Vigilance, Rosa d’Oro, Steele Wines, Six Sigma and Sol Rouge to name a few.
Nearly 100 wines including both varietals popular in the Mayacamas Mountain region like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc as well as lesser known boutique varietals from Aglianico to Roussanne.
One day to try all of these Lake County Wines right in San Francisco on Saturday, August 20th.

2009 Rosa d'Oro Estate Barbera - the dirty details megapost

2011-06-28T23:03:00.000-07:00

Our 2009 Estate Barbera received a double-gold medal and Best of North Coast at the California State Fair Wine Competition this month; a pleasant surprise to say the least. There has been a lot of Barbera talk on this blog between our participation at #Barbera2 in Italy and the Barbera Festival last month. Here is a bit of commentary from racking time a couple of months ago as well. So in the interest of full closure (and disclosure), let's wrap it all up with a bit of down and dirty viticultural and winemaking detail on the 2009 vintage.

We are talking about a little over 1,000 vines here, not a large amount - 9 to 14 barrels per year approximately. They are in two blocks, with three plantings total, 6 1/2' x 9' spacing on bi-lateral cordon, California sprawl. The first and oldest (and smallest) block is clone FPS 02 on Freedom rootstock - the worst combination possible. A little over half of our Barbera is clone 02 which received the lowest recommendation from UC Davis trials. In the Fresno trials it produced the largest berries (small berries are what you want) and had the highest incidence of rot due to the bunch/berry size and structure. Barbera can be a pretty late ripener, and rain with those thin skins can be a disaster, and to make matters worse clone 02 was also the latest ripener, essentially dooming itself in production vineyards. Why bring this up? Because site trumps clonal selection. This means that in our soils, our altitude and with our limited water the bunches are in fact pretty small and the berries are maybe medium size. The Freedom roots have the smallest, lightest crop for us, but the St. George right next to it is still moderate size at most and not a heavy producer. Had the Davis trial taken place in Lake County the results would have been quite different. Our growing conditions alter the grapes Fresno-grown profile. It is fun to treat clonal selection like shopping at a grocery store, and you can optimize some aspects in planting, but site trumps clone, and if you think planting your favorite rockstar clone from the old world in California will yield the same results, stick to selling real estate.

Back to rootstocks. Freedom is a poor choice for us because it is not drought tolerant, and we have limited water. This means that it needs more water sooner and more often than the other vines. It is considered a white wine "Central Valley" rootstock for high production with ample irrigation, its broad adaptability to many soils and good disease resistance. But, having said that, it is our lightest producer of all the Barbera blocks, the berries are tiny, crop load extremely light and earliest ripening. The other 2/3 of our Barbera is planted on good old St. George, the standby for 100 years. It is vigorous, drought tolerant (drought tolerant always means vigorous unfortunately) and works well for virgin plantings that do not have much disease pressure (nematodes). Drought tolerance also pushes ripening back as well, and this can be dicey when it is October 28th and frost is hitting and rain is coming. St. George's vigor also means a lot of handwork shoot thinning (double thinning this year) and trying to get the vines in balance feels really difficult with their monstrous growth. We have been planting more 1103 and 110 as well to try to establish more biodiversity below ground as well. St. George is kind of like Gin and Tonic for old farmers and it has its lore with old vines in California. St. George is all about its taproot, and it likes deep soils where it can really start setting deep roots, so it is no surprise that St. George was a failure in France in shallow soils where it had no drought tolerance at all because it could not establish its root system. Our main Primitivo block is on St. George and there is a hard "crust" layer for lack of a better word just under the top soil, and for the first ten years the vines looked pretty bad as the roots struggled for penetration, but over the last few years they have broken through and they are now really looking much better and are self regulating and in good balance. Again, site always trumps selection.

The second block of the Barbera is clone FPS 03 on St. George, and it is only coming into full production now. The 2009 Barbera has only about 20% of this clone. Clone 03 is not a fancy pants clone either and is considered ho-hum. It came over in 1993 while clone 02 was isolated in the early 80's. It produces heavier bunches with smaller berries, and at this point I can say that monitoring crop load is necessary in some spots, but, our soils are pretty crazy in that block with dense yellow clay, veins of river rock and other impediments. We will need some time to figure out what this clone wants. Crop this year looks fairly low and the vigor can change dramatically in 20 feet, and sugar and acid levels can be quite different from the older block. Most important, Barbera needs time, and a new block can be erratic and difficult for 10 years before it settles into itself and becomes consistent and self regulating.

Oh yeah, Barbera canopies are not very pretty, especially on 2-wire California sprawl. The canes are week and bendy, they droop and have tenacious tendrils that can even strangle themselves. It is not a pretty, upright growing vine, but aesthetics are not really that important are they?

Winemaking

Without a doubt there will be many opinions on making Barbera, and our view may conflict with others, and this just our limited experience with it. Here is a very nice piece with with several more experienced Amador winemakers and growers for the sake of critical complementarity. Barbera ripens at high brix, meaning high potential alcohol, that is hurdle #1. It ripens late, so if you ferment it outside like we do, be prepared to tarp and wrap the tanks and put all your space heaters underneath as the fermentation comes to an end. Getting it dry has not been too difficult, though due its naturally high acid it is not uncommon to find a touch of residual sugar left which also fattens the palate and enhances the nose. This approach is not for us though as we are compelled to adhere to the dry Italian model.

Fermentation temperatures are one of the big winemaking choices. In 2007 it hit 88 degrees F., in 2008 we kept it low at 82. In 2009 we went midway at 85 and I think this is the sweet spot (depending on your yeast, vintage, etc.) for us - warm enough to dig some deeper qualities out of the grape but cool enough to keep it somewhat primary that should complex in the bottle. In general a weaker year will get a cooler fermentation to protect the fragile fruit, a better year goes hotter. A certain amount of heat is necessary though to bring those "terroir-ish" aspects out otherwise you are all bubblegum and grape. Barbera has an inevitable jug wine characteristic for good reason - it is grapey and not really unique without finessing; it is enjoyable but rarely moving unless the terroir is profoundly unique, so we need some heat to moderate that aspect. In a sense Barbera falls into old and new world based on red fruit or plum (old world is red) and we want both.

Another tool in the bag is splitting harvest time up and crushing the freshly picked grapes into the already fermenting ones, this allows some aspects of longer fermentations and some of shorter fruitier to combine if you do not shock your yeast or alter the temperature too much. We have tried it but this approach is probably better suited to some of our other grapes though. There is also the complexity issue, like how you hear the Pinot dorks whining about building complexity all the time - there is a time for complexity and a time for focus. Pinot is about complexity - a focused one is boring and one dimensional because it is a deficient princess grape that needs oak to survive. Zinfandel is naturally complex and needs to focus, as does Grenache. Nebbiolo is ridiculously complex, the ultimate princess, and must be restrained to hold itself together. Barbera wants to be what it is, and it wants all of its natural elements to show coupled with minerality on the finish, but it ain't no Cabernet and never will be. Makeup hangs badly on it.

So, our fermentation was nine days long, hit 85 F, was aerated a couple of times, and used Rockpile yeast. It was fermented in tank (though we do plenty of other small lots in bins - Barbera does not seem mind tanks though) and pumped over standard hose style, no fancy irrigators or delestage. We don't use DAP or do much yeast feeding besides some yeast hulls toward the end. No tannin additions, no enzymes - if you want tannin let the maceration go longer on ripe seeds. Blunt tools my friends. I am personally opposed to heavy acidification and have ethical problems with it in general and this is a large topic for later dicussion, so in short this is a med-low acid Barbera because Lake County is hot, end of story. Anything else is spoofulated. We pressed it, mixed the press wine in, and let it settle for a day. We do choose to innoculate for malo-lactic fermentation (barrels are peroxycarbed before barreling down every year).

And this is where the handling magic starts: we did not sulfur (and do not sulfur reds in general unless there is a suspicious reason to do otherwise) until June. It was gravity racked from tank to barrel (and this took a long time because the tank is just barely above barrels on our crush pad). In spring it was gravity racked again one barrel at a time by lifting each rack on the forklift, filling the barrel from the bottom unless it wants air (like the Aglianico or Dolcetto). The gravity racking is most apparent on the finish, and we now gravity rack every wine unless it has been fined early and needs a rough filtration to make sure all the egg white or casein is out. It also tends to retain more CO2, which protects it a bit and helps guard against oxidation at bottling. 2 barrels were held back to produce more reductive meaty elements until racking in July. At this second (and last racking) a few barrels went from totally neutral old oak to 2nd year oak for three months - the most we have ever used. It is unfined and only went through a bug screen filter at bottling - we hate filtering. Be prepared for sediment in the future, we call it black gold.

We hand bottle our own wines, nothing fancy there, tank to filler, corker then PVC capsule. Unfortunately we are very limited in our barrel storage capacity, so we bottle early (11 months) and flip the barrels for the impending harvest. That means that most of our 2009 and beyond wines could have taken more barrel time, so they have quite a bit of bottle strength and will open up for a while after uncorking. Because tannic structure is not really a concern with Barbera, the short aging is more stylistic than structurally necessary. Needless to say, not all the cultivars can turn around so fast. Amen.

Châteauneuf-du-Pape

2011-06-20T20:57:00.000-07:00

Sure boss, why is it taking so long to dig all of these holes?

Because they are filled with shovel-bending rocks.

Planting Sangiovese, bloom

2011-06-19T20:49:00.000-07:00

Almost wordless post - just not enough time.

Digging Sangiovese holes - more details to follow.

Primitivo blooming - notice all the green shot berries not blooming? Gotta love Zin. The scary thing is that in some areas of Lake County (us in particular) we are now just about even with Mendocino County when we are usually a little over a week behind, and we are now ahead of parts of Sonoma County. At moderate altitude, parts of Red Hills AVA are a good three weeks behind us. Gonna be another crazy year though....

Shoot thinning

2011-06-13T07:53:00.000-07:00

Almost all done with the shoot thinning and suckering. It is probably the single most important step in the long haul toward making a good bottle of wine. Like pruning it removes all the extraneous growth (some cultivars such as Barbera are particularly vigorous and can through up to five times more shoots than you want) which focuses the crop load, opens the canopy to allow light in which reduces mildew and pest pressure, and it allows structuring of the canopy to get a full day's worth of evenly dappled light. It also allows you to direct the growth toward better spur positioning (if you use cordons) equal loading across the whole vine. These vines are just now getting past ten years, and as they age they will wisen and start self-managing, but until then they are gangly sprawling teenagers that can't focus or think ahead and have no idea what may come around the corner.

The touchy part is that you are manipulating the canopy in June for something that may not be ripe until November first (I am talking to you Aglianico, Nebbiolo, Montepulciano, or Cabernet, Touriga, etc.). The vines can get pretty tired by then so you may need to leave a little more canopy then you think to get through the 100-degree days in Lake County, which is the opposite of what you would do with Pinot in Oregon or on the Coast. The Barbera is going to three canes per spur because of its spindly growth but the canes will generally be thinned to one bunch per cane for the large bunch clone (we have a couple) - most of this is unscientific eyeballing and guestimation. It is all delicate work though based on managing into the hopeful future (and having no idea after the last three years what in the world the weather will do).

Barbera Festival!

2011-06-10T07:54:00.000-07:00

Well, if you do not already have tickets for the Barbera Festival tomorrow you are out of luck - they were permitted for 1800 people and sold out weeks in advance. More than 80 wineries will be pouring their respective barberas, which is really quite amazing, and other than Pinot festivals (and we KNOW how THOSE people are) this will be possibly the first celebration of a non-mainstream cultivar in memory. Darrell Corti, Mike Dunn and Randy Caparoso will be there, as well as many others to be sure. Hats off to Mark Miller and everyone involved for making it happen.

For our part we will pouring our first vertical in history as well: 2007, 2008 and 2009 Barbera will be shown for the first time. Having only sampled about one-quarter of the barberas present I hope for time to run around and take notes but it may not be that easy as it looks to be an action-packed day with beautiful weather.

Tonight is also the Toga party in our tasting room - if you make it you can preview the new 2009 Refosco. See you there.

Wordless Wednesday: Stupid #@$*&% Deer

2011-06-08T20:03:00.000-07:00

High altitude winemaking podcast

2011-05-25T20:43:00.000-07:00

The Guild of Sommeliers (which is a treasure trove of wine geek information available at www.guildsomm.com for a yearly membership) has started a monthly podcast series. So far two of them have been on the subject and practice of blind tasting, one is on Sicilian wine with Oliver McCrum and Shelley Lindgren of A-16, and the most recent is on the subject of "high altitude" winemaking. All are extremely informative, and the most recent one is directly related to Lake County viticulture and enology. Enjoy!

http://guildpodcast.com/

Mon, 16 May 2011

High Elevation Winemakeing in California

High Elevation Winemakeing in California with Chris Carpenter from Lokoya, Ross Cobb from Hirsch, Matt Stamp MS and Geoff Kruth MS, from the Guild of Sommeliers.

Direct download: High_Elevation_Winemaking_Podcast_May.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 5:56 AM

Sun, 10 April 2011

Blind Tasting - April 2011 with four new Masters

In depth conversation about blind tasting with Geoff Kruth MS and four new Masters Sommeliers.

Direct download: Blind_Tasting_Podcast_April_2011.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 6:05 PM

Thu, 10 March 2011

Sicily Podcast - March 2011

Tasting and Discussion of the wines of Sicily with Geoff Kruth MS, Matt Stamp MS, Shelley Lindgren, and Oliver McCrum.

Direct download: Sicily_Podcast_3-10-11.m4a
Category:Regional Podcasts -- posted at: 7:31 PM

Wed, 29 December 2010

Blind Tasting 12-27-10

Blind tasting 6 wines with Master Sommelier Geoff Kruth, and guests Matt Stamp and Jason Heller.

Direct download: PodcastTasting12-27.m4a
Category:Blind Tasting -- posted at: 5:00 AM

Even more barbera talk

2011-05-18T21:12:00.000-07:00

Nick with Paul Cattrone

Wordless Wednesday - some pics from #Barbera2

2011-05-18T08:10:00.000-07:00

More Barbera Talk

2011-05-12T08:07:00.000-07:00

#barbera2

14 May 2011, Nizza Monferrato (AT), Italy

http://barbera2.tumblr.com/

What is #barbera2?

10 Barbera, 5 from Piemonte, Italy, and 5 from USA
10 winemakers
many terroir
1 tasting table
bloggers (wine & food, but not exclusively)
wine lovers
journalists
1 location, Foro Boario, Nizza Monferrato (AT), Italy
2 days international event

The real protagonists of #barbera2 will of course be Barbera, as well as its producers and the specific terroir these Barberas come from. And this time we’re not only talking about Piemonte but…hear hear!, also Barberas coming from the West Coast of North America.

#barbera2 will be a journey across the Barbera vine and winesemerging from the different terroir.

10 Barberas will be protagonists of an unbiased tasting event, including 5 Barbera from Piemonte region (Italy) and 5 from North America.

But do not expect to meet only big wine experts; at #barbera2 everyone will be welcome to express his/her opinion about the wine. We want to bring out perfumes and flavours of the various terroir, so apparently distant from one another. It is going to be a gathering of different lands and wine cultures. The dialog is unstaged with total freedom of thought, no scores, no winners no losers.

Negroamaro

2011-05-08T07:48:00.000-07:00

Remember this picture from last year? Took it from this blogpost. Negroamaro happily plugged into the ground, growing vigorously under a cloudless sky. The IROC was finally running real nice, Don Henley was on the cassette deck, there was $20 in your pocket and 12-pack of the Beast in the back seat. Rope swings, cheese sandwiches and flip flops. Then you grew up, and sixty pounds later...

Winterkill. Had a good bit of snow in Lake County this winter, and the negroamaro seems to have taken it particularly hard, as well as some of the sangiovese. Lat year's bizarre growing season must have been part of the problem. Talking to guys at Beckstoffer's we were both planting at the end of July, at least a month later than ideal. We don't want to pull them out quite yet, just in case there is a bit of life hiding inside.

Cutworms. Along with whale sharks, fire ants, and defenestration beetles, cutworms are a brutal pest.

Frost damage. The wind machine has only clicked on a couple of times so far this year, and it is unlikely that it has even gone below 33 degrees, but these guys are sooo sensitive. Usually it occurs where a tender bit is touching the grow tube, which you would think might raise the temperature, but you never know with these guys.

The wasp problem is for us. They love to build nests in the grow tubes once the the temperature rises, so every time you go to open one up, you surprise a very tightly knit and private family unit.

In general we might have lost 15% of last year's vines - really not that bad, just a little unexpected.

Greco di Tufo - the TTB has silently spoken

2011-05-02T21:16:00.000-07:00

We received the TTB's judgement on whether or not to recognize Greco (Bianco or Tufo) as a grape name in the United States and their judgement was - no judgement (meaning no). Greco di Tufo in the US is now in purgatorial limbo for the next couple of years even though Greco vines are being sold - too bad for us because it is already bottled. Time to come up with a clever fanciful name I guess, and you better believe we are going to call them out on this silliness, just like how they screwed up Tocai Friulano so that it is not allowed to be exported now because they contradict EU labeling laws. They better not allow four different spellings of Carignan - including Mazuelo and Samso. By the way Mendocino, Nancy Kerr-ig-nan is a person, not the proper pronunciation of a grape. First time I heard a farmer pronounce it like that I nearly busted a gut and rolled down Fox Hill Vineyards laughing.

Our original Greco pressing documentary is right here.

Behold:

For those of you who find this sort of thing interesting here is a good portion of our original petition:

(VCR 11 at the bottom is FPS 01)

[Greco is not recognized as a grape variety in the U.S. yet. We picked the first harvest of this cool Campanian grape propagated by Novavine last fall, documented here, producing about 65 gallons of rather orangeish, minerally wine. Assuming the petition passes, we will be the first winery in the U.S. to produce a "Greco Bianco" wine. We have also ordered budwood to graft over our Chardonnay block to it].

Rosa d’Oro Vineyards of Kelseyville, California hereby petitions the TTB to recognize “Greco Bianco” as a prime grape variety name approved for the designation of American wines. Foundation Plant Services has recognized one clone (FPS 01) of Greco as Greco di Tufo, but because Tufo is a place name, and black and white varieties exist, we believe that Greco Bianco would be the most appropriate prime grape variety name [though Greco di Tufo is infinitely better].
Greco Bianco (White Greco) and Greco Nero (Black Greco) have been cultivated in Southern Italy for at least 2000 years. Greco Bianco is most famous as the Italian DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita) wine “Greco di Tufo” or Greco from the town of Tufo in Campania. In nearby Calabria a D.O.C. sweet wine known as “Greco di Bianco” is also produced near the town of Bianco [ed note - I think Greco Bianco in Calabria is actually Muscat used in the passito style, which may be a bit of a hangup for this petition]. Current estimate is that approximately 2,500 acres of Greco Bianco is grown in Southern Italy.

Other Italian D.O.C. wines that allow Greco Bianco (percentage listed after) as part of the blend are:
· Bivongi (30-50%)
· Capri (up to 50%)
· Cilento (10-15%)
· Ciro (up to 5%)
· Gravina (35-60%)
· Molise if labeled varietally (minimum 85%)
· Penisola Sorrentina (up to 60%)
· Sannio (up to 50%)
· Sant’Agata dei Goti (40-60%)
· Sant’Anna di Isola Capo Rizzuto (up to 35%)
· Scavigna (up to 20%)

· And, the DOCG wine Fiano di Avellino (up to 15% blended in).

In California, Novavine grapevine nursery acts as the importer of Italian budwood produced by Vivai Cooperativi Rauscedo (VCR). All VCR clones utilized by Novavine have passed through Foundation Plant Services (FPS), and FPS officially recognizes Greco FPS 01, generated from Italian clone VCR 11 as Greco di Tufo (see supporting dosumentation #1). The Italian VCR clones of Greco are printed as document #2. In 2009, at their budwood growing ground in Dunnigan, California, Novavine grafted one row of approximately 185 previously established rootstock to Greco FPS 01. One picture of this row was taken by this author in August 2010 and is reprinted in supporting documentation #9.

In 2010 Rosa d’Oro Vineyards harvested the first crop produced by that row of Greco FPS 01. We produced approximately 70 gallons of dry white wine. The harvest and vinification is documented in #9.

Greco, along with regional companion Fiano, are of tremendous potential to warmer growing regions of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. It is capable of producing varietally unique ultra-premium wine, and most importantly Greco is extremely heat tolerant and drought tolerant, minimizing the need for irrigation. Greco Bianco is moderately susceptible to powdery mildew. Greco Bianco’s canopy is very vigorous but it produces a relatively light crop, probably never exceeding four tons per acre in even very fertile soil.

At the author’s request Novavine indicated that in addition to an order of Greco placed by Rosa d’Oro Vineyards, in 2010 orders for Greco had been filled for Clondaire Vineyards in Calaveras County (cited in document #5) and for Callaghan Vineyards in Arizona.

The wine produced from Greco Bianco grown in Dunnigan, California by Novavine is true to type. It ripened very late for a white variety in mid-October. It retained very high natural acidity, has moderate to very thick skins, high phenolic content and produced a typical deeply colored yellow/straw/light orange wine. It also has the strong mineral and orange citrus characteristics typical of the grape. It has the potential to age and also has assertive and attractive youthfulness.

Written and compiled by
Pietro Buttitta
Rosa d’Oro Vineyards
certified sommelier

Supporting Documentation

#1) National Grape Registry, Accessed December 2, 2010, http://ngr.ucdavis.edu/varietyview.cfm?varietynum=2938

#2) Vivai Cooperativi Rauscedo, Greco Bianco biotypes accessed November 16, 2010, http://www.vivairauscedo.com/en/catalogo.php

#3) Novavine, accessed November 16, 2010, http://novavine.com/plant_materials/varieties_clones/vcr.asp
Novavine, 6735 Sonoma Highway, Santa Rosa, Ca. 95409, (707)539-5678, info@novavine.com

#4) Wikipedia, Greco entry, accessed November 16, 2010, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco_(grape)

#5) “Calaveras Winegrowers seek AVA Status Vineyard Tour Highlights new Rhone, Italian, and Iberian Varietals” in Wines & Vines Magazine, August 2010

#6) The Concise World Atlas of Wine, Octopus Publishing, 2009, by Jancis Robinson and Hugh Johnson, pp 144-145

#7) Making Sense of Italian Wine, Running Press Book Publishers, 2006, by Matt Kramer, pp 134-141

#8) Wine All-in-One for Dummies, Wiley Publishing, 2009, by Ed McCarthy, Mary Ewing-Mulligan, Maryann Egan, pp 380-83

#9) Rosa d’Oro Vineyards blog documenting Greco Harvest “The Cutest Grapes I Ever Saw 10/15/2010” http://www.blogger.com/goog_367405441

#10 Two scientific journal articles involving Greco Bianco

Barbera

2011-04-29T22:09:00.000-07:00

The ooey gooey sticky icky first racking of barbera is done. We are thinking quite a bit about barbera these days with the #barbera2 event coming up in two weeks - Nick will be on hand pouring our's as one of five US producers in Nizza in about two weeks.

We have talked barbera before on this blog, but its unique challenges are worth mentioning again. It is in a way a simple grape that can be very complicated, just like cooking a simple dish: proper technique and product are that much harder to nail. It can be very productive, an asset for bulk wine but requiring tons of handwork and management for high quality. It really suckers like crazy, throwing horrendous shoots and trunk suckers. It will actually strangle itself with its own tendrils. As the above barrel lees clearly show, it is very gunky and mucilagenous. While many/most grapes have two seeds per berry, barbera often has three and we have one clone that seems to produce four pretty often. Barbera is a low tannin grape, but with the high seed count when barbera ferments nearly dry it can suddenly pick up a characteristic bitterness as the ethanol starts to break down the seed coat. Barbera is naturally a high acid grape, and this is part of its characteristic purity - it is most often a bright wine with little tannin and maybe some reductive funk in the background from cooler climates. Unfortunately the lack of tannic structure is like a welcome mat for egregious over oaking, and it welcomes that sort of treatment to an extent. It also accepts blending well, but only with a compromise of purity. Barbera in California is a high brix grape; 29 in Lake County is not at all unusual, and we struggle to keep ours in the 14% range as it ripens late at the end of October. Oddly enough, barbera for a bright wine tends to be pretty reductive. Remember our 2006? It lived in a tank for six months and ended up tasting like syrah - barbera needs to breath, which is unusual for a tannin-less grape. Try that with grenache and you will end up with brown wine. Strangely to me, people really liked the meaty reductive tones, and now we sometimes hold back a few barrels from racking to get a bit of the dark characteristics with the signature bright tones. Barbera, and this is the coda, can show minerality (and some of those Sierra Foothills wines are cases in point), and as such it has a higher level of terroir transparency.

Incidentally, the above picture show the newest barrel in our barbera line up - 2005 from Larkmead. We go neutral all the way back to 2000 Seguin Moreau for the Barbera this year. Thin stave French Bdx is the choice to get the most oxygen in ageing, even still it is only May and this 2010 already has a healthy hint of reduction. The purple is always beautiful from barbera, even after the four inches of rain we had before it was harvested...

Rosa d'Oro Vineyards, history and Lake County

2011-04-21T20:49:00.000-07:00

Nice video of Nick giving some Rosa d'Oro history and Lake County information, produced by the Lake County Winegrape Growers.

Olives, pruning, budbreak, miscellaneous projects

2011-04-18T08:51:00.000-07:00

We are running maybe a few days late, 14 days or so behind Mendocino and Sonoma, but nothing like last year we hope. Full break is still lagging

Chardonnay to be grafted to Greco

Barbera

3rd year Sangiovese VCR 6

Few more trees to remove

Our protector

Rocks from vineyard finally in place

Fetzer, Heimoff, Appellations and Ambiguity - An Empathetic Response

2011-04-15T10:54:00.000-07:00

Because I fear Mr. Heimoff's tattooed and sleek gym-toned forearms reigning blows upon me I will simply link to his blog exchange with Jacob Fetzer entitled The Box of Being in an Unknown Appellation. To summarize, Jacob Fetzer lamented the situation of selling wine from an unknown appellation and the lack of recognition and buzz that seems to slow sales - ironically early bottlings were not actually in this appellation anyway, and should be fined by the TTB for false labeling (I could be if I put Red Hills on a bottle) but I digress. Ultimately, we in Lake County have the same problem as Fetzer. I personally just poured over three cases of samples at Fort Mason in San Francisco this weekend at one ounce pours (36 bottles x 25 ounces each) equals 900 samples poured, and I can safely say that fewer than three dozen Bay Area residents had ever heard of Lake County two hours away. If they had heard it was because their parents went to Konocti in the 80's to rock the night away kid free. In short Lake County, you and I are screwed, and we are still failing just like Fetzer's misplaced Redwood Valley, either because we lack the names, or we lack the quality or uniqueness. We are still in the box, and we just barely realize that we have some control over how the box is shaped and what it can hold. We are at the frontier, and we can either play to the market or forge our own way. An AVA will not save us with its brief press-release buzz and may indeed condemn us if we cannot live up to it.

Steve's response was interesting and he wisely called out Lake County by name. His recognition requirements were a little odd: a region must be coastal (North Rhone, Burgundy, Austria anyone?), it must be famous for a family of varieties (Douro, Alsace, South Rhone anyone?), and there must be buzz factor. Number three redeemed the silliness of the previous two. It is all about the buzz from the sales viewpoint.

In a previous post a couple of months back I used a very well done video produced to promote the Cahors region (right here) as a foil for our own infantile yet growing sense of place in Lake County. Lamenting the lack of any food culture or unique agricultural aspects - though Lake County pears come/came close - the question of what we are and where we are going as a wine region is a daily dilemma. We have great growing conditions, but no definable style, no clear elements like minerality, and the (insert gagging noise) most important grape, you know - Cabernet, has largely been a failure due to lack of modest temperature hangtime - with a few notable exceptions such as Obsidian Ridge at 2700 feet. So stop planting more of it! We don't really have any risky/unique winemaking styles (Ceago comes the closest), and no local crazies like Sean Thackrey or Gravner with real vision. Some of the vineyards really are unique and will evolve into terroir-driven typicity; lets just hope we can hang on that long. Clay Shannon could probably lead us in a line dance but no one is capturing hearts and minds here, ourselves included. We need vision.

Where does buzz come from? Unique qualities and value. Value in this economy implies prices under $15 bottle shelf retail, and most of us can't go there. So we better go unique, and this is indeed underway as Rhone whites are gaining traction, and Petite Sirah still seems to be rising. But in a short few years Lake County Sauvignon Blanc has gone from value-priced darling to hospice patient. The fantastic Merlot grown here has no market because, well, that damn movie. We could suffocate ourselves with overdiversity as well and end up in bulk wine hell. Uniqueness is no guarantee in and of itself. There is still much work to be done here. My hunch: Montepulciano and Zinfandel.

Now, we love AVAs. We at Rosa d'Oro are salivating at the thought of putting Kelsey Bench on our labels this year, but we all need to be honest: AVAs, though geographically defined are sometimes bullshit. This is not a European system specifying grapes, blends, or yields. An AVA can range from 62 acres in size (Cole Ranch) to the Ohio River Valley at 26,000 square miles, different marketing strategies for sure. Anything within that AVA goes as long as 85% of the grapes are grown in it, whether is French Colombard or Touriga Nacional. It is just a place where grapes are grown, not particularly indicative of anything in itself. Sometimes the name itself is a problem, like when we get Kelsey Bench we may have to explain that Andrew Kelsey was a horrible human being who more than deserved being killed by the Pomo to those who are curious.

Fetzer's response is awesome and transparently reproduces the problem beautifully - we will just make our own AVA! Problem solved. Redwood Valley buzz is dying, start again. We will dilute the system even more, poison the well with geopolitical gerrymandering in the name of sales. AVAs are great, but they also had better represent something real in climate, typicity, and the resulting wine produced beyond super fine grained distinctions. But, even with AVA status, your wine may still be crap, there may be no "thereness" to it at all, and when it is price gouged frontline to move old units you may be hurting everyone in the area. AVAs are not an easy or self-evident answer and most casual customers really do not seem to care much at all about them. The very first comment to Steve's post was a woman who almost did not purchase a bottle because it said Lake County and Fetzer uses a Redwood Valley PO Box. Thanks lady, we almost would have given up - a deep thank you for overcoming your fear of the unknown and trying something new, and we are thrilled to deliver. If more people say "I don't know the place so I am reluctant to try it" then we are all screwed. AVAs can hurt just as much as they help branding in the market place.

And that is just the point in some of these cases: maybe the AVA didn't fail you, perhaps we have failed our AVAs through by-the-numbers winemaking and grape growing. Some of us don't even really have a useful one (Clear Lake - Lake County).

We must make better wine and grow better grapes that show how good an AVA can be.

For those who are interested, here is a good overview of AVA regulations and problems from Practical Winery and Vineyard Magazine: http://www.practicalwinery.com/MayJune07/mayJune07p5.htm

Oregon Live blog

2011-04-12T22:08:00.000-07:00

Big big thanks to www.enobytes.com for this very kind coverage. Marc Hinton's piece can be accessed RIGHT HERE. And yes, it is true, those 2009s are smokin' now and will be even better when they are finally released.

Tim Hanni - The Swami is in

2011-04-01T21:26:00.000-07:00

http://www.discoverwineandspirits.com/events.html

Tim Hanni is a special kind of dude. He was the second American to be awarded the Master of Wine designation. As the Swami of Umami, and a former chef, he was one of the first to really delve into the "fifth taste" beyond the embarrassingly simplistic sweet, sour, salty, and bitter conundrum - a fantastic overview is here. His recent research has involved categorizing consumer taste profiles into four phenotypes: sweet, hypersensitive, sensitive, and tolerant (in descending order of sensitivity). He is also looking at behavioral models and how they interact with taste bud physiology.

So if you go to http://swamiofumami.blogspot.com/ or http://www.timhanni.com/ you can gorge yourself on high-strung nerdy stuff of the contentious sort.

If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area he is hosting a seminar with Swanson Vineyard on June 4th (the first flyer). If you are really ambitious you should probably attend the two-day conference in Lansing, Michigan on May 4-5th, http://www.spartanhbc.com/.

He is a love or hate kind of guy, and there are plenty of people on both sides. However, his wine knowledge and understanding of food and wine interaction is above reproach, and his research and consulting are having an impact on wine culture already. And if he helps people drink more wine (responsibly, of course), we are all for that.

What is the brouhaha you ask? Here are choice morsels from the naysayers on the internet:

· "you are - in my opinion - an idiot."

· "Seriously, your argument is ridiculous."

· " more pathetic than anything else. Hanni should know better.”

· “…this is utter bunk…this theory gets what it deserves: F” The Connoisseur’s Guide to California Wine

Obviously, this is worth serious investigation.

Barbera

2011-03-14T21:35:00.000-07:00

http://barbera2.tumblr.com/

Barbera is maddening. It is so simple, but oh so not simple at all. It accepts all sorts of manipulations readily, so its purity is often in question. It has a wide temperature tolerance, easily producing plum jam balls or lean mean austere acid machines.

If you are interested in Barbera, you should visit #barbera2. 10 barberas, five from Italy, five from the U.S. One of the five from the U.S. will be our 2007 Rosa d'Oro Estate Barbera. This is not a wine competition but a terroir project, identifying the multiple regional signatures possible in the grape. And to make it better still, Nick will be flying to Italy to present it and discuss the growing conditions, clones, pruning and relevant minutiae to the group. The tasting will be recreated at the Barbera Festival at Cooper Ranch in Shenandoah Valley on June 11th. See you there!

Oh yeah, and if you are really curious, our 2005 Barbera was reviewed by Gary Vaynerchuk in episode #686 and you can watch it right here.

French Tasting - Seattle, Feb. 16th 2011

2011-02-22T08:05:00.000-08:00

We will get back to Italian wine very soon here, believe me, but as an on the road correspondent it is important to maintain a somewhat global perspective to anchor our little regional corner of the world. Think globally, but drink Italian.

The French Trade Commission and UbiFrance sponsored three tastings recently based loosely on value-driven wines from France. Prices varied of course as things like traditional method Champagne can only go so low (about $30ish), but prices went as low as $7 on the shelf for Languedoc wines. Here is a very brief summary avoiding specific producers, largely because some of the wines are not yet available, or may be available in one state but not another.

Alsace - Wines of Alsace have been rather stable in price and quality, offering great value in the $15 range with aromatic gewurztraminers, pinot blanc and gris, and of course riesling in the rounder fatter style. Muscat can be a bit confusing if you find them due to the use of the peculiar ottonel selection which is not very aromatic (but still interesting). While Alsace wines can be beautifully aromatic the structure can be a little lacking or a little sweetish, this is where knowing the serious producers comes in to find structured wines and bright acidity. Sparkling Cremant de Alsace can be a tremendous value as well. 2010 is reported to be as good as 2009.

Bordeaux - Always a touchy subject, good rustic Bordeaux was well represented, with many Right Bank Merlot-based value wines. If you love gravel and graphite-driven reds, this is your ticket. Much St. Emilion was represented and some Graves. Moving up the price scale directly correlates with increasing oak use in the $10-25 range. Bordeaux is in a state of flux market wise, and with the amount produced it is all over the map - this applies to whites as well. Never pass up Sauternes.

Burgundy - Oh Burgundy. We want to love it all but you get what you pay for. Value wines from the Maconaisse were all disappointing from the importer I tasted with residual sugar way too high in what seemed to be an attempt to "California-ize" their body. From this selection you will hit $40 before it gets good. Of particular note though (for me) was Crémant de Bourgogne (champagne method from Burgundy) with 20% Aligoté - the other Burgundy white - creating an excellent value driven food wine from Domaine Vitteaut Alberti. Got $15, go buy Cru Beaujolais - few better value food reds exist.

Languedoc - This huge area is where the game is on. It is painful to taste $10 wines that blow away your own $20 bottles, but here they are. I was told once that real men don't drink Minervois, but only fools will pass it buy - there are tremendous GSM (grenache, syrah, mourvédre) values here. For me the best are always free of new oak. Want it a bit bigger, then go next door to St. Chinian. Interesting white blends in the clean stainless style were drinking well with Grenache Blanc and Marsanne well represented. If you see AOP instead of AOC, it is the EU version of AOC and should be regarded the same. A plus for us is that AOP allows grape varieties to be stated on the label, which can only be a good thing. If you want a $10 bottle with dinner, learn the regions and you are pretty well set once you know the importer or producer.

Loire - Find good Muscadet - check. Some producers are really working hard to create more aromatic Muscadet, although the old timers will argue for its utter neutrality. Fantastic Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé were had - Reuilly and Qunicy as well, though in a more aromatic New World format. Less funk, more modern fruit/ester-reductive styles were strongly represented. Reds where conspicuously absent, but herbal cabernet franc is a personal favorite from St. Nicolas and Saumer-Champigny - just watch your vintages if you don't like bell pepper in your wine (I take it with eggplant). Curiously absent was chenin blanc as well, sadly neglected as always. 2010 was a good year here as well.

Champagne - An expensive game to play but with the explosion of grower champagnes you must sample and find your preferred producers. All tasted where clear, concise and consistent showing their terroir as well with excellent overall quality. Be alert to differences in dosage (sugar to balance acidity) as this often defines pairing possibilities. 5 grams sugar can make all the difference, but please do not be afraid to explore wines with a bit of sweetness. Some producers will bottle a single cuvée with different dosage levels to show off the stylistic difference and food flexibility. Also, the difference between chardonnay (Blanc de Blanc) and pinot noir (Blanc de Noir) versus the traditional three variety blends is huge as well and worth exploring. This is one area to have fun with. Find local pourings and save names.

The Rhone Valley and Provence were not really represented at this tasting but Cote du Rhone Villages are well known values while Provence is a bit random. For $20 I say go to Rasteau and Gigondas. Cheers.

Cahors - Defining a Place (the home of Malbec)

2011-02-16T08:15:00.000-08:00

Here is a very nice video promoting the wines of Cahors (produced by Jay Selman of grape radio incidentally). There is a good bit of malbec doing quite well here in Lake County, but the modern historic paradigm for malbec in France is quite specific to the Cahors region. Malbec in Lake County tends toward the petite sirah side of the spectrum with a decent amount of fruit but the Old World version has an undeniable rusticity and earthiness (but not muskiness) that helps to define it stylistically. This rusticity has caused a lot of fiddling - micro-oxygenation was developed while working with the massive tannins malbec produces in Cahors - and much New/Old World conflict exists there today. The AOC minimum is 70% malbec with the possible addition of merlot or tannat (yeah, great softener there). French Malbec is a unique experience, and a wonderfully affordable one with good examples to be had for around $20.

The video does a nice job of focusing on the food/wine/terroir link which again leads to wondering about Lake County and what a cohesive food/wine/terroir advertising campaign might look like here. Is there somewhere we can go beyond pears and sauvignon blanc? Though the sauv blanc is tasty and supremely aromatic it does not have the depth or sustain of its Loire, Austrian or Northern Italian counterparts, nor is it a transplanted "unique" varietal in the way that carmeneré or malbec took hold in South America. If Lake County hung it all on sauv blanc it would end up the Muscadet of the North Coast with according prices and starving farmers. Zin is good here (when it is dry), better than Lodi (for me, sorry), and I believe better than Paso, but a unified profile has yet to solidify - unlike Rockpile which YOU KNOW the second all that raspberry comes tearing through, or Dry Creek with its telltale chalky tannin and black pepper. Though cabernet has largely failed to deliver the petit sirah is good and Rhone varietals are probably the future, but can't help us in the present. Viognier will probably be the new chardonnay soon while roussane will be for the thinkers. GSM blends will be climbing the ladder quickly here.

It is not just a branding issue. Well, it is a branding issue, but not in a vapid or arbitrary sense. We don't want to pigeonhole ourselves or omit some of the wonderful diversity, but at some point Lake County must define itself. It sucks, being unique snowflakes and all, but for the sake of identity we need a Napa Cab, a Dry Creek Zin or a Russian River Pinot. Maybe a Coro program like Mendocino. Amador has a relatively cohesive flavor/palate profile carved out for its wines, but we are still a work in progress. Food culture is pretty much non-existant here, so that French/Italian historico-cultural angle won't work. I shudder to think of what a signature Lake County dish might be. We push elevation - which is good and valuable, but let us be honest, 1,500 feet ain't all that high for the bulk of our vineyards (Red Hills and High Valley can be much higher). Most of Burgundy's cru vineyards are at around 800-900 feet, Barolo is a little higher but no one thinks of that as real elevation, hills not mountains, and it is not a stylistic indicator in a meaningful sense - the compressed growing season at elevation can also indicate lower quality, especially in young vines, so lets not hang it all on that message.

Maybe varietal diversity is our angle, maybe organic or Bio-d (the very low pest pressure here is well documented). Lake County is known to us as the most beautiful place that no one comes to. In 1965 there were under 100 acres of wine grapes, today it is over 9,000, so we are still very much a work in progress, but also very much at the mercy of market forces. We are also split somewhat because the majority of grapes are exported, and often the lack of defining character is in fact an asset to growers and wineries looking to mix lots out of the area. Lake County is actually an extremely good terroir match for merlot in almost every way, but the market is not in a place to recognize it while cabernet is overplanted. Ditto for syrah which can be wonderful in the right spot here, but in the market it is totally neglected at the moment (don't worry, it will be back, so please don't graft it over). These things take time for the quality to rise and and separate and define itself regionally, and it will not be easy since we do not have Alba or Perigord truffles, Thomas Keller or numerous fromageries to help the picture gel cohesively. No doubt we are getting closer though.

Keep out! - The Symposium for Professional Wine Writers

2011-02-09T09:33:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, Napa Valley cannot attend the Symposium

What: The Symposium for Professional Wine Writers at Meadowood Napa Valley

When: February 22 - 25, 2011

How come I should boycott this event? You may not have a choice, actually. The Symposium does not allow entry to anyone who is employed in any capacity in the wine industry. Really? I mean, really?

So, if I am a writer but I work in a tasting room, deliver cases of wine, or work for Vinquiry I am not welcome? Correct.

To maintain the intimate peer-group environment of the symposium, winery employees, winery communications, sales and marketing people, and full-time wine trade professionals are not eligible to attend.

So, I want to make sure that I understand this. If I quit my winery job tomorrow, I, as a writer, could attend? Looks like it. One of the fellowship awardees, W. Blake Gray, who's writing I enjoy very much, was a past negociant, and several of the attendees have been in P.R./communications capacities in the past. Certified sommeliers have also attended.

Is there any obvious conflict between the fact that it takes place in the heart of Napa Valley and Harlan wine is famously poured? Obviously not.

Should I feel confused that my professional journalist friends find this "exclusivity" laughably archaic and cynically myopic? How come I can't think of another writing symposium (there are plenty out there) that do not have employment requirements? Uhm, yeah.

If I am a wine-writing professional, and I work in the wine industry, can't I be trusted to act professionally? No.

So, in a period when traditional publications and journalism seem to be collapsing or merging with web channels, in an industry where very very few professionals have just one job (say, as a full-time salaried journalist), the Symposium wants to retreat into a defensive stance of exclusivity in the heart of the beast rather than reach out and try to affect productive guidance and maintain journalistic standards through mentorship and communication? Yes.

Sour grapes? Absolutely.

Kelseyville Olive Festival March 20, 2011

2011-02-05T19:26:00.000-08:00

Kelseyville Olive Festival Webpage

Vintage 2010

2011-01-07T12:03:00.000-08:00

Sunburned mid-veraison bunches - oh 2010...

San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara 2010 Climate Report

This is a very interesting report on the climatic conditions of the 2010 vintage in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties by Mark Battany, Viticulture and Soils Farm Advisor. Unfortunately for us in NorCal it only reports on those two counties. The amazing thing is that from Santa Barbara to Walla Walla, Washington, most of the West Coast was consistently three weeks behind, but some microclimates were very close to average! Some of our blocks were picked ahead of 2008 for example. Sangiovese we picked up from Amador County was only a few days late. Some Tracy Hills fruit was picked a little earlier than last year!

It is exciting to be part of a challenging and varied year. Lake County had it quite well compared to most areas, but suffered increased mildew and some pest pressure, and even the bird damage responds to the insect population which depends on the growing cycle. Lake County's problem child Cabernet Sauvignon had a miserable time with uneven ripening and clonal variations up to three weeks apart. Most growers scrambled to pick before the rain deluge struggling to average at 24 Brix, while many winery-owned vineyards waited for more ripeness with some picking into the second week of November. Fermentations were very challenging after the rain, smelling like acetone and heavily dosed with S02 which altered the kinetics. Those of us with tanks outdoors spent every night tarping, wrapping and trying to squeeze space heaters underneath everything everywhere.

Going back to pest pressure, more weeds can mean more bugs meaning more birds eating your Zinfandel (or your Pinot in Oregon). And speaking of Zinfandel, the grape variety ripening variation was huge this year. In Lake County Nebbiolo and Touriga failed to ripen, while in Dunnigan Nebbiolo died on the vine mid-October before Greco Bianco was ripe - even Riesling Renano outlived many late-season reds, including Nebbiolo! A few harvested Chardonnay into the second half of October. In Lake County with our judicious canopy management the Aglianico somehow came through last week of October (ahead of 2009!) so beautifully (yes we stripped leaves heavily after the six inches of rain) and classically styled that Mastrobeardino will be begging to buy barrels in no time. Incidentally, I am becoming convinced that late season Aglianico does not obey the 55-degree shutdown threshold. The Primitivo speaks the elegant, feminine side beautifully, but some whites never really hit their California typicity. Fascinating stuff...

A small part hopes that the difficult vintage will engender a bit of paradigm shift in the future with the "California style" continuing to disperse and erode in favor of regional profiles and varietally-specific bottles at lower prices that are unique AND accessible for the consumer. Here is to a low oak 2010.

A trip to Novavine for budding and grafting

2010-12-02T20:47:00.000-08:00

This post originally appeared right here written by Anile Woods and we were kindly allowed to repost it. The really neat thing (if you are a wine nerd) is that it forms the complement to a couple of past posts. The grapevines that are grafted in the post below, just outside Santa Rosa in Sonoma Valley, are grown in Dunnigan where we go to pick a few small batches of odd varietals every year (Refosco, Greco, Arneis, etc.) covered here in 2009 and in recent Greco and Arneis posts.

Vine Budding and Grafting

Friday night we had a guest lecturer, the very highly respected field graft expert, Daniel Robledo. He learned from his father, and not only is an entertaining and knowledgeable lecturer, he is one of the top experts in the country on field grafting. We were very fortunate to be able to have him teach our class.

On Saturday Morning we met at Novavine Nursery in Santa Rosa for a tour of the operations. In addition to wine grape vines, they also grown many varieties of olives as seen below.

After a general crash in the grape vine nursery industry in the 90's, Tom Nemcik took over as operations manager with a pledge to turn the nursery into a supplier of the best vines in California. One of his main goals has been to eliminate all toxic chemicals in the nursery production, which is quite an undertaking. Traditional nursery operations are notoirous for intensive use of pesticide, fungicides and other chemicals.

Here Tom explains the process of hot dipping. All plant materials brought into the nursery/greenhouse are hot water dipped to control mealy bug, phyloxera, nematodes and other pests. By hot dipped, I mean submerged in 120 degree water for 5 minutes. All dormant vines being shipped out are dipped again to ensure non-transmission of the crop-devastating diseases.

This is the grafting house. There are 2 kinds of vines here- root stock and scion. In the field, mature shoots called canes are harvested. They are cut into specific lengths, of specific diameters, containing a specific number of nodes. These folks are debudding the root stock.

The scion canes, called bud wood, are cut into 1 bud sections. The ladies at the grafting machines select matching diameter root stock and scion and graft them together in what is called an omega
graft.

Tom shows a nicely grafted cane.

Here we are at the bench grafting machine. One of these women, and they are all women, can put out 1,000 grafts per day. Tom says he likes all women because they have great fine motor control and their hearts have a lot of love, which they impart to the vines. He places high importance on having a calm, serene and joyful production environment, which he believes imparts a good vibrational growth influence to the vines. I like that!

Sanitation is of highest importance in the nursery trade. Instead of chemicals, he uses ozonated water to sanitize all surfaces, materials and the air. This makes the environment safe for the workers too.
Next the finished vines are sprayed with a compost tea and beneficial biologicals cocktail ( such as trichoderma spp), dipped in rooting hormone and packed in hydrated vermiculite. At this point is is a race to help the plant form a strong callus before decomposing fungi start to set in. he does this by strict control of 100% humidity, and temperature of 85 degrees. They also spray the tops of the bins with peracetic acid, which is concentrated form of hydrogen peroxide.

In 10-14 days the vine have reached a good level of callus and some varietals have bud break. Can you find the tiny buds peaking out of the vermiculite?

So at this point they are readied for either field planting or the greenhouse. They are taken out of the vemiculite and dipped into a parafin wax. BTW, if you know anyone who could use some slightly used vermiculite, they need someone to take it off their hands.

These are packed into boxes containing water, to be immediately taken out to their fields and mechanically planted. In a year they will be harvested and ready to ship out to the vineyard that ordered them. Nurseries graft to order, so you have to think 18 months in advance if you want dormant vines to plant in December.

So once the vines are harvested out of the field, washed clean of soil, hot dipped again, they are ready for shipping. They look like this:

They are packed in shavings of pine and fir and kept in cold storage until the vineyard is ready for them.

Another alternative is to grow them in a greenhouse for 10-12 weeks and ship out. Green vines are good for vineyards who procrastinated about their order and want plants NOW. Green vines require more intensive maintenance for success and are not recommended for certain soils or terrains.

To strengthen the plants in the green house, they formulate their proprietary blend of soiless media, which does contain worm castings, regularly apply compost tea, botanicals, and hand tip. Here the baby vines are hardening off in preparation for delivery.

It was a great trip. This nursery is to be commended for it's dedication to it's employees, as well as the vines. By abiding by a philosophy of respecting the plant's own natural defensive properties, and simply paying attention, they are able to produce a high quality plant with no toxic chemicals or synthetic fertilizers.

The Locavore and the Vintner - Wine, Food, and Ideology

2010-11-28T22:52:00.000-08:00

Should locavore restaurants by definition run locally focused wine lists? It makes sense, but the question has not been easily answered. It seems a contradiction to promote local products while the wine list is packed with foreign bottles, but this is exactly what serious restaurants like Chez Panisse, Camino, and the Slanted Door in the Bay Area are doing.

Locavorism usually sets a 100-mile radius as the acceptable boundary. In San Francisco this would include several hundred wineries. Obviously this radius in Bismark, North Dakota may not be as forgiving, but one would think that West Coast wine buyers would be able fill their lists with local bottles easily enough, but that is not always the case. The old criticism that California wines are too expensive and generally not food friendly is still very much alive and relevant to the restaurant industry today. It is unpleasant to hear this, especially when it feels like consumers still want fruit and oak (wine competitions certainly do). But, the locavore movement is full of promise in the long run for wineries. Food will undoubtedly be better for it in general, and the wine industry needs to take note of what consumers, restaurants, and palates in general are moving toward.

The simplest (though not always easiest) rule to follow for a restaurant is that if it grows together, it goes together. Hazelnut-crusted line caught salmon with a Ken Wright Pinot? Sure. But what if the St. Amour works better for a particular palate, and at a much friendlier price? What if the carbon footprint is of consideration to that particular establishment? France is far away, but Ken is not a low-input kind of guy. Sustainability clearly is a consideration for locavore restaurants. On the other hand, in a place like Sonoma County where everything grows, prickly pears to goat cheese to beets, Pinot Blanc to Mourvèdre, local is almost a banality and is just a quality/cost and ethical consideration.

The wine list, like a restaurant’s menu, is an incredibly important document. It is a solemn contract with the customer – a statement of intent and historical as well as ethical beliefs. It defines the space, the culinary tradition and the nature of the relationship to the customer. It also reflects generational trends, which is to say age plays a role on both sides. As the older generation recedes so has much of the dogmatic cabernet/chardonnay crowd, and with it service standards and expectations. Younger wine drinkers tend to like new things and have a more hands-on approach to wine pairing. Restaurants tune into this, as do the wine buyers who are by and large younger as well. Stodgy service is out and global sampling is in with clear varietal typicity as a reference point.

Some products are so culturally ingrained that availability sometimes trumps local. Few of us are willing to give up coffee, chocolate or tea simply because they are not locally produced. Public squabbles have taken place over winter tomatoes being removed from locavore burgers. Local is great, but do we really want to forgo classic pairings or paradigm regional wines? Are there maybe some things outside of the local-only scope, like canned and preserved foods or cheese? Maybe wine does not fit neatly into the movement at all.

On premise sales are more challenging then ever for wineries to establish and hold onto, and the eat-local movement has been quite fickle. The old criticism of overblown California wines being food-unfriendly has been heard and the pendulum is swinging back. Serious lists often want low alcohol and less fruit/oak density – check. The tighter buying dollar makes this easier to work toward as less new oak and hang time equals lower cost to the winery. But, though unique varietals are being explored avidly (showcased by T.A.P.A.S. and recently by the Wine Institute among others) the restaurant market still feels resistant, sometimes hypocritically bemoaning lack of customer familiarity or relying on the inherent caché (or sometimes confusion) of European wine, particularly in the value-driven price range.

Several wholesale barriers exist alongside the locavore’s wine dilemma for wineries. One glaring example is the Italian restaurant that loudly proclaims local product but runs only Italian imports, sometimes of questionable quality. In this case wine is used to validate the authenticity of the restaurant, often covering dubious culinary practices. This is less of a locavore dilemma than a branding issue. Imports are still doing very well, in particular the high quality and price point of Portuguese and Spanish wines, and simple economics are hard to fight. We should also remember that most restaurants in the mid-price range do not have a dedicated wine employee at all: usually just an overworked General Manager or aspiring bartender who does the purchasing. Convenience is paramount for them, like ordering everything from one book and spending less time hand selling your local wine. For the wine producer, price speaks loudly here, as do frequent checkbacks and sample bottles.

Wine is very much a central part of the locavore movement and food culture in general, and needs to be treated carefully. However it should probably not be treated as a fresh food product at all, and need not be held blindly to the same standards. It should be treated like regional cheese. Here is why:

Wine, for such a delicate and demanding product, can have surprising stability. In the simplest overview wine history is the history of its shipping movements. Bordeaux was built by the English, Champagne by the Czars, Marsala, Port and Sherry by being sent abroad. Syrah went from the North Rhone to bulk up thin and weedy Bordeaux wines. Primitivo from Puglia went north too. Caesar could always get his. Like canned tomatoes or Spam, packaging evolved and wine could go nearly wherever it was needed. Occasionally, it was even better for the transportation time. Wine is somewhat shelf stable with its acid, tannin, and bit of sulfur, while also incredibly sensitive and delicate. It has always traveled.

Wine is a fermented product. Like chocolate, cheese, yogurt, beer and some charcuterie, fermentation is a flavor enhancing preservation technique that increases longevity. It allows regional specialties, localized products with a history and context, to be marketed abroad. There are benchmark regional products that can be emulated but not equaled, like jamón ibérico de bellota or a Priorat bottle. Local can be better, sometimes not, price is often a deciding factor, and occasionally you just want the best. Sometimes the terroir of a place simply cannot be beat when quality is the ultimate consideration. One of the joys available through wine is the sense of somewhere else in a bottle, often in a way that complements the cultural context of the food being eaten.

The dedicated locavore restaurant must ask themselves if it is reasonable within their paradigm to serve something like fresh local pasta with Alba truffles in San Francisco. And, is it then expected to pair to their patrons’ standards with local wine. What about cassoulet or bouillabaisse made with local products? Which tradition should be honored when you have an historical pairing precedent and local ethos? What about serving wine with an ethnic preparation that does not have a wine culture historically? Should the preparation method dictate the wine more than the products used? Absolutely in some cases. Many of the dishes prepared in locavore restaurants are based on regional dishes from half the globe away. Certainly there is a strong case for non-locavore wine pairings even when the product is local. Sonoma duck legs may be at their best with Cahors by everyone’s standards, and no local Malbec will be close. To simply say that local goes with local, or local goes with French is shallow and disingenuous. The small winery’s task is to show the quality, value and clarity of their product as part of the food dance.

Some wine directors can also be surprisingly oblivious to what a well-trained kitchen can do to aid and tweak wine pairing. A quality kitchen can quickly adjust food to suit a particular vintage or style of wine, adding or subtracting acid, sweetness, salt or fat as needed to work a particular bottle, but this is rarely exploited in all but the finest restaurants, but it is not hard to do. A simple word from a server is all it takes. Warm-weather zin = less acid, not too much salt. Tannic petite sirah = high salt, relatively alkaline accompaniments with a touch of sweetness and good amount of body. Food need not be a lifeless item or the grand dictator, it is a part of the whole and somehow many locavore chefs have gotten away with lazy food preparations that are not taking part in the dance. Responsibility exists in every part of the restaurant.

For the small winery pursuing locavore accounts it is important to make the account personal; relying on your distributors’ reps will not suffice. The local restaurant probably wants local contact. The winery may not make that easy as we small operations have to do it all ourselves. The process may seem a little laborious compared to the convenience of large distributors with a delivery van in your neighborhood at all hours, but a face to face to explaining viticultural practices can be very important. Be ready to pop corks and explain why the bottles work with their program, which is completely different than reading technical sheets or mumbling about raspberry and spice. If possible, pour product side by side with a current glass pour that is comparable. The wine speaks for itself, but the producer shoehorns it into a program. Know their menu, know their chef, and if they have one, their sommelier or wine buyer, period. Offer to personally brief the staff and always leave a staff tasting bottle once a purchase comes through. The staff is the key to selling product effectively , so do everything possible to get past the gatekeeper and to them personally.

Ultimately locavore restaurants will define their own unique boundaries, and the vintner should not give up hope if it is not necessarily a perfect fit. These restaurants attempt to make food more personal and transparent, and the wine producer should take the same approach in working sales as well - we are probably working toward the same consumer after all. Few restaurants have their wine buying set in stone, and a little extra effort and a personal touch can make all the difference.

Quacquarini Vernaccia di Serrapetrona = tasty red sparkler

2010-11-16T20:52:00.000-08:00

Well that was interesting. What we have here is a serious, unique sparkling red from central Italy that is a bit of a rarity and definitely worth a try with a few friends.

Vernaccia is mostly associated with the famed Tuscan white grape that makes the (sometimes overpriced) whites of San Gimignano. However, this is the maybe/maybe not related red Vernaccia Nera grape that is not grown in Tuscany at all, but rather in the foothills of the Marche region. It is grown exclusively in the province of Macerata, and the DOCG is specifically for dry or sweet sparkling with a minimum of 85% Vernaccia Nera with various "local" varietals (Sangiovese, Montepulciano and Ciliegiolo) possibly constituting up to 15% of the blend. Vernaccia Nera is said to be spicy and a little wild at relatively low alcohol levels. It is a late ripener at the end of October. Not sure if this particular wine is blended or not, and it is also non vintage. It is "spumante" which indicates that it is a full sparkling wine, but many Italian sparklers run at a pressure a little below the standard 6 atmospheres, which seems to be the case here (Franciacorta blanc de blanc can be 4.5 - whoa, geek moment, sorry, but you should know that "frizzante" on a label means much lower pressure/fewer bubbles than spumante). And, the bunch pictured below, if it is accurate, indicates a pretty hefty weight and possibly high productivity, which might explain historically the need to dry some of it and still have it clock in at a modest 13% alcohol.

The really neat thing about the Serrapetrona tradition is that the grapes are harvested traditionally, but only half are vinified at harvest. The other half are dried as in the Amarone or more correctly "appassimento" or "passito" style for a couple of months. But, unlike Amarone, the wine from the dried grapes is combined with the wine from the undried grapes, and then this combination undergoes tank or Charmat fermentation to create the bubbles and is bottled under pressure to maintain them, unlike the Champagne method. So two different styles of wine made from (primarily or totally) the same grape are recombined and carbonated. Pretty cool...

     The label states "secco" which means dry, but the one possible complaint is that it is not completely bone dry. One of the practical difficulties of Amarone and other styles of wine production made from dried grapes is that they are incredibly hard to ferment to complete dryness. The process of drying changes the gravity of the must, bacteria increase, and yeast struggle much more. They are also fermented in the dead of winter, adding other environmental problems to the mix. Most Amarone have a bit of residual sugar, and though many wines are called dry at five grams of sugar per liter (most wine folk can sense sugar down to about three grams), in fact Amarone is allowed the exceptionally high level of 8 grams and can still be called dry, well above sensory threshold. This is the equivalent to about two good sized teaspoons of residual sugar per liter. It can be a little jarring at first if you are expecting a bone-dry wine, but persevere you should. The Italian tradition is quite flexible with stickies and sparklers often made from grapes used for still wines, we just don't see many of them imported as they are usually consumed locally and dry wines are considered more "serious".

   So, what does it taste like? First thing we thought was cool-climate Syrah. Looking past the bit of sugar that is present (and it is appropriate for this style) the wine is pleasingly round, rich and balanced. The fruit is full and plumy in the darker plum and berry spectrum. The acid is balanced and totally unobtrusive. Alcohol is unnoticed yet is part of the rich backbone. The wine most likely did not see any barrel time, or if it did it was in the large neutral botti, keeping the wine clear and focused. The partial drying of the grapes rounds and concentrates the tannins, producing a rich and velvety grip on the palate, just firm enough to be serious but refined and well polymerized like Amarone or an aged Bordeaux. And like an Amarone, the drying intensifies the natural spice components, adding more black pepper and savory spices to the mix, almost sort of a cumin quality comes through with a bit of that sweet cardamom spice finish seen in the North.

    For food pairing entree-wise, the bit of residual sugar is the rub. Just use it for a charcuterie and cheese plate. But, if you must match it to a dish, the trick would be to balance the sweetness of the wine with a sauce that had some sweetness. For example plain steak would be a problem, but steak with a slightly sweetened berry-licious sauce that just matched the wine would be ticket. Duck with berry or fruit infused sauce would be an obvious go to - cherry or Kirsch sauce for example. Pork and prunes? Venison is often prepared with a bit of sweetness in the sauce that might work well. One place I worked at served slightly sweet foie gras sauce with the grilled hangar steak. The wine can take beef (or roasted eggplant and peppers for the vegetarians) no problem.

     The other alternative is simply to call this a charcuterie and/or cheese plate red, where the sugar can balance the salt and the bubbles provide lift and freshness. This would be my first application choice and probably the most enjoyable as a proverbial meditiation wine. The verdict: definitely worth trying, and at approximately $20ish a bottle it is worth the unique experience. A quick internet search should yield a few outlets. This bottle was kindly provided by Anna Maria Knapp of Celebrations Wine Club who sources these sorts of unique wines regularly for her customers. It will be featured this month in her wine club program, which is also highly recommended.

Totally unprofessional olive mill repost

2010-11-12T15:45:00.000-08:00

It is shameful to do this, but time is short. So, this is a repost. It is my repost but a repost all the same. We harvested a little over a ton of Tuscan blend olives today. The Arbequinas are about 2 weeks out. Did not get any cool pictures or glam shots. So, in the interest of olive season, we present "A trip to the olive mill, 2008":

The story of the olive goes back a few years, about 6,000. From Phoenicians to Athena to your favorite earth-toned Tuscan Villa (that actually bought theirs from Spain), the olive is a classic, kind of like Bottle Caps. Fast forward to the golden age of Kelseyville, Ca., and take a (very) brief trip through the processing of our 885 pounds of olives by ~~Father Emilio~~ Rafael.

Step 1. Dump picked olives into hopper, where a conveyor takes them through a brief fan-driven leaf remover and a very quick rinsing cycle. The water will centrifuge off, so that is not a problem. Then they enter:

The hammer mill that grinds them up, seeds and all, into an emulsified paste that will be worked for about 45 minutes, until the emulsion starts to break down and the water and oil start to separate, sort of like when your Bearnaise dehydrates or gets too cool or hot. This allows full oil release from the solids. It then will be pumped to the:

Horizontal centrifuge (notice the 2" hose full of olive paste coming in on the lower left of the picture). Spinning at 45,000 rpm this gives a rough separation of the solid matter, the oil, and the watery components that are pumped out through the screen in the middle of the picture. The partially processed oil is then moved to a final centrifuge

moving at 55,000 rpm that gives a final separation of oil from water and a final particulate removal down one micron! Here the beautifully green stuff trickles clean as a whistle into a receptacle that is far too large for the tiny crop. Actually, the oil still needs to settle for a couple of months. Like wine organic solids and components have just been altered, beaten, and traumatized. They they need to do their chemical dance of oxidation, precipitation, and general new life cycle type stuff. Out of the horizontal centrifuge burps the watery paste that remains after extraction, kind of an almondy smelling gross but kind of appealing gray sludge without a trace of olive oil essence.

Olives are slow work. In four days of picking we managed a lowly 885 pounds, yielding a grand 13.2 gallons of oil. Like Nick says, you can imagine in the old days that parents were always yelling at their children to turn off the damn oil lamps whenever they left the room. And a final picture of all three machines together, processing left to right.

Well, there youy have it. Of course yield should be three tons this year (we hope) which is hopefully in the 90-100 gallon range. The oil can actually vary quite a it depending on the growing conditions of the year, harvest time, potential insect damage (olive fly is always a concern) and other agricultural vagaries.

Fall

2010-11-08T07:44:00.000-08:00

Almost

Not Quite

Done.

Sagrantino, Montefalco, to Tracy Hills

2010-11-04T22:15:00.000-07:00

     Sagrantino is one of the new "in" grapes like Vermentino and Gruner Veltliner. There is a lot of hubbub over this grape and only about twelve acres are planted in the California. Ridgely Evers has a little a bit planted in Dry Creek Valley that famed nut ball Alice Feiring made lots of videos of herself slipping and sliding around a bin filled with a couple of hundred pounds of fruit in an attempt to stomp out a "natural wine" masterpiece. The other bit we know of (where Jacuzzi gets theirs) is from Tracy Hills AVA.

     Sagrantino is native to Umbria and twenty years ago it had dwindled to a paltry 250 acres. It was used in either Montefalco Rosso which is mostly Sangiovese and up to 15% Sagrantino blended in (which has a remarkable structuring effect) or it was made into a very wonderful but very limited sweet passito wine. Sagrantino is very tannic (at least in Italy - it is the inverse of our Aglianico problem in which all California Aglianicos tend to be even more tannic than the Italian ones) and is famed as having the highest phenolic content of any grape - which may or may not translate directly into tannin. It likes clay soils, handles heat well, and is a lighter cropper unlike neighboring Sangiovese's excessiveness.

     Stylistically it is quite interesting and clearly belonging to the "noble" class. Despite its stature it, like Nebbiolo, generally does not make a really dark wine (though Colpetrone's is pretty roasty). It has an almost ruby Bordeauxish color but with great clarity. The stunning thing is that like the other noble Italian reds it is FLORAL at the same moment it is dense, earthy and jammy. Know how Nebbiolo is split into high tone floral beauty and dark tarry reductive stank? Sagrantino does that same schtick but on a warmer climate blackberry fruit core. The wines tend to ripen in the 13.5 - 14.5% range and there is a bit of sun-ripened jamminess. Acidity is moderate. Though big and burly it is also elegant and light toned like Nebbiolo over all that rich earth and mineral. It does not have the reductive character but it is capable of great mineral length and a similar clarity and concission of flavor and top to bottom depth.

    The leading producers are Caprai and Paolo Bea and these two are the benchmarks and pricey. Bea pulls out ridiculous 50-day macerations while Caprai is a little cleaner and more updated without being "New World." Antonelli is an effective bargain at around $35 (it is a good clean option with no new oak) and is available. If you pick up a bottle, go for age and decant. Our four barrels finished up fermentation a week ago and are now doing extended maceration in the traditional mold. It keeps changing a little bit the same way that Nebbiolo tastes different from day to day and hour to hour. In Umbria it can not be released for 30 months after harvest, and that amount of time is probably just about right, unfortunately.

   If Sagrantino sounds interesting to you Gary Vaynerchuk devoted a Wine Library TV episode to it HERE - the ending when he tastes the Paolo Bea is one of the funnier things I have seen...

That was that...

2010-10-29T21:43:00.000-07:00

It is over. Just like that. You can keep dreaming all you want but it is done. Six inches of rain, 36 degree nights. Remember leaving extra canopy on the Aglianico to keep it shaded into November? So much for that projected November 8th harvest. Idiot.

(not our grapes to the left, thankfully. All of our crop is in!)

2010 will go down as one hell of a year. In the large picture Lake County in fact came out pretty well. Two weeks late sure, but a good consistent dry summer was a winner. We were way ahead of Sonoma County, better off than Southern Napa, and even better off than a lot of Willamette Valley. Nature definitely calls the shots though, and in retrospect the weather may be the best decision maker.

Here is our funny weather snapshot:

October 11-14 was 92, 93, 94 and 94 degrees of sunny warmness leaving us discussing water
October 19th, 86 degrees
October 23rd, 24th, and 28th we got 1.1" + 3.27" + 1.58" of rain
October 27th, heavy frost.

We picked Aglianico (which looks very, very nice despite the relatively early harvest) and all Barbera on Wednesday in one massive push. The real losers were all the things that never ripened this year and will never be harvested. Touriga National, Souzao, and Nebbiolo never reached brown seeds or got above 22 brix. Cabernet was a big if that was all over the board, though that late warm weather really helped. All tanks are wrapped, tarped, and have heaters running around the clock underneath them. The grapes may be in but we are far from done for the year...

10/25 update

2010-10-25T21:13:00.000-07:00

Never thought we would say this for a few years more, but we have Sagrantino, Montepulciano, and Nero d'Avola working right now in addition to Primitivo, Greco and Refosco at this moment. Awesome. Thanks go to Jeff Brown in Tracy! So far Dolcetto, Arneis and Sangiovese are done and put to bed. Aglianico and Barbera will be in the next two days as soon as we can drag them through the mud and get them working.

Wine geek quiz time

2010-10-20T21:27:00.000-07:00

Here is a copy of the quiz that will be given at Sonoma State University's Lake County presentation and wine tasting tomorrow night.

Quiz

1. In which region(s) is irrigation not allowed?
Rioja Brunello di Montalcino Chåteauneuf du Pape Piedmont All 4

2. Which country has more recognized indigenous varietals: Italy or Portugal?

3. This county had the highest number of marijuana seizures in California for three years in a row, has the oldest natural lake in the United States, and 16.8% unemployment.

4. True or False. HR 5034 was written by well-meaning temperate folks who want to protect underage drinkers and the sovereignty of states’ rights.

5. Austrian wine that is the “groovy” next new big thing (again).

6. The most planted grape in the world by acreage is:
Airén Merlot Trebbiano Grenache Chardonnay

7. True or false. Much valued oak used for barrels in Italy comes not from France or America but Hungary and Slovenia.

8. Ravenswood, Clos du Bois, Robert Mondavi and 59 other wine labels are owned by:
Diageo E & J Gallo Constellation Brands Bronco

9. True or False. Sussreserve is unfermented grape juice added to very acidic wines in Germany, and it used in California to nefariously add aroma to bottled whites and rosé.

10. Cabernet Sauvignon is a cross of Cabernet Franc and ?

Merlot Sauvignon Blanc Pinot Noir Malbec

11. True or false. Napa Gamay is not the Gamay of Beaujolais at all but Valdigué.

12. In California you are allowed to add which of these to a fermentation?

Sugar by concentrate Acid Water Oak All of them

13. True or false. In the 19th Century Champagne was normally over 8% sugar.

14. True or false. Oregon voluntarily instituted Prohibition three years before the U.S.

15. There were no mentionable plantings of this varietal in California before 1962 and Louis Martini bottled the first varietally labeled example in 1970.

Tempranillo Grenache Merlot Semillon

Bonus Question:

Can you help us find a distributor?

Greco di Tufo - the cutest grapes I ever saw...

2010-10-15T20:11:00.000-07:00

The cutest grapes I ever saw were a surprise.When something is simply called "Greco" you can feel pretty sure that you know where it came from. Most of these Southern Italian grapes have links to Greece, apocryphal or otherwise, but this one just calls it out. (There are other varietals that claim to be Greco as well, offering a more historical aspect than literal ampelographical - Trebbiano comes to mind).

Here is what can be seen by the naked eye. Greco bunches are extremely small, and painfully cute. These were picked in Dunnigan where they were just reaching ripeness in equal time with Nebbiolo (!!), which is a very late season grape. The Greco canopies were still going quite strong, saying that they took heat, did not mind wind, took sun with glee, and even on sandy soil they miserly mined moisture while other vines had totally shut down. They are susceptible to mildew, but their tough skins resist damage though they may harbor the foul demon. They have very small leaves, that help form a webbing of protection around the fruit, somewhat like Montepulciano though totally different in appearance.

Here is what they looked like In late August. Vigorous. Having only had a couple of Greco wines the varietal's profile is a little inconclusive. Medium bodied, some mineral finish, some herbal notes and citrus qualities. It certainly holds its acid well. Richly colored. It can also age and dig deep to develop interesting tertiary characteristics. Sort of a core warm-climate Chardonnay quality with a little Viognier thrown in and a touch of cold climate citrus and acid.

Keep your eyes out for the Southern Italian white triumvirate of Greco, Falanghina, and Fiano. Distribution has been increasing with Feudi San Gregorio leading the way. Incidentally they are based in Sorbo Serpico, and if I could be from one place in the universe, nothing could have a cooler name than that.

Wine Yeast

2010-10-12T22:13:00.000-07:00

   Fermentations seem really exciting, like the first hour of dinner rush when everything is going well and everything is in the right place and all the dishes are up at the same time. Or that first dinner date full of your clever and witty comments for the first hour. Toward the end fermentations feel like the table that was seated 30 minutes after the kitchen has closed, and they want to do the full tasting menu, or when you made a joke about hating cats and you find out she has 14. Some fermentation are smooth and fairly linear. Some whites have been very nice and clean, just need a little bit of cooling during the peak activity, taper off and let them finish warm at the end and boom. Done. Some reds tends to be fast and hot and leave cab fare the next morning, like Barbera. Sometimes a fermentation is a problem every year, no matter how well you prepare.
   Our Dolcetto, which should be the quickest and easiest wine to make and drink is the biggest headache every year. For three years in a row everything looks fantastic - perfect temperatures, everything healthy, moving predictably, and then all of a sudden at 5 brix it slams on the brakes. That clean 7-day magic just became 12-13 days of nail biting drama, getting bitter and tannic and threatening to produce off flavors.
   Yeast are magical fungi that facilitate a lot of what is wonderful in the world. For example: alcohol (including favorites such as beer, wine, and Old Turkey), bready goodness like ciabatta and the amazing brioche (butter is another wonder), kefir, some stinky cheese rinds and MSG. They also have some evilness, like infections and food spoilage. They are quite a broad range of beasties. For winemaking we are interested in two basic types, and selection are propagated from those that have special features. Some are more voracious than others, some are more sensitive to heat or cold or their nutritional preferences. Some pump out extra goodness in their lifespan, like glycerol that imparts fullness and sweetness - this however is at the cost of greater nutritional fastidiousness and potential difficulty.
   More important though than just choosing yeast from a catalogue is that grapes can come with their own hurdles. High potassium in skins can actually shut down yeast metabolism. Different vineyards carry different microbial loads, and these can interfere with the yeast doing their job. Sometimes there are other organisms that are subtly part of a flavor profile that is accepted as part of "terroir."
   The problem is that yeast are particular, and when they are stressed, scared, or feeling insecure or unappreciated they create flavors and aromas that humans don't care for. Ever smelled rotten eggs, garlic, or farty wine? Yeast did it. One of the most widespread modern afflictions is a yeast called "brett" (Brettanomyces) that can feed off of wood sugar in barrels, residual sugar in wines (there is always some) and is highly resistant to sulfur. It is far more voracious than the yeast that conducts fermentation, and in fact in can ferment on its own as well. The problem is that it produces yucky smells like wet horse, sewage, or other fun descriptors. At a low level it can add complexity (this is common in some Malbecs from Argentina on purpose) and some beer styles actually inoculate for it - far away from the winery hopefully.
   Yeast actually start dying off about 1/3 of the way through a fermentation. They quickly build up a huge population, generate heat (we count on the yeast generally raising a tank's temperature from 68 degrees at the start to 84 at peak fermentation - all by their own kinetic activity), and start dying off and dwindling before they are even half done. It is pretty amazing to think about. Four tons of grapes can be approximately one ton of sugar. And a few days later it is all ethanol, CO2 and some other stuff. All by a few horny fungi that generated millions of children in a couple of days - joylessly.
   Most winemakers develop a favorite yeast that behaves predictably and cleanly. Getting that wine dry smoothly is the first and most important task. Alice Fiering will tell you that winemakers just pick the yeast they want out of a catalog to give them the flavors and features they desire, destroying all authenticity in one quotidian blow, and to a very tiny limited extent this is somewhat true. You can get a little more passion fruit with one, a little more raspberry with another, but it quickly diminishes over time. Yeast choice is for Sauvignon Blanc, not Cabernet. Getting the wine fermented cleanly is much more important. Even those wild/indigenous fermentations are in fact from the same family as cultured yeast - and they have been the most successful. Yeast don't make magic. They can catalyze some aromas that are already there yet undetectable to our limited senses (cue discussion of Hume's color theory), but so can "native" yeast. The issue often becomes what is historically correct and appropriate. There will be more said on this later...
   You can always press the wine while it is still sweet and allow it to ferment in barrels or in another tank - and this is common practice these days. People fear tannins and want fruit bombs, so they press the grapes early before they are dry and the ethanol extracts all the tannins from the seeds into your juice. Problem is that it can halt the fermentation by shocking the yeast with a temperature or turbidity change. It also introduces sugar into a barrel which raises the risk factor exponentially. We do not have the ability to keep barrels at a happily fermenting 70 degrees when it is 35 degrees at night outside, so for us it is a difficult option. Not to mention, the Italian historical paradigm that we try to follow is do not press until dryness, and you will notice that Italian reds are always very dry, and this is the reason.
Anyway, yeast are magic. Stupid, lazy horny magic.

Sangiovese Porn

2010-10-05T21:50:00.000-07:00

Oh yes. Was going to keep this all to myself, but it is always better to share.

Amador. Sangiovese. Brunello cuttings. Look at those small tight little bunches. Perfect spacing, hanging loose and free. Firm fleshed yet supple and seductive. Resplendent in radiant warmth, cool and disinterested but you can sense the yearning. A little wisened age here, maybe a little more slap than tickle in that demure package. Round and full beneath those leaves. Heavy on the mouthfeel and grip and a little less lipstick and flash - the kind of stuff that gets better with age.

If Isole E Olena mean anything to you, if you see "Cepparello" and the lips quiver, then you are jealous already. We don't even have pictures of the REAL good stuff. While our own Sangiovese vines continue to grow, we had to find a source for this year. A couple of phone calls, a guy knows a guy, and all off a sudden you have a dream date, twice. This particular three-way hookup was - um, not really sure how to say it but it may be pronounced Ménage à trois.

Half of the Sangiovese was planted according to famed Tuscan consultant Alberto Antonini's direction, here on 3'x6' planting, 420A rootstock, and the budwood was from Isole E Olena's Cepparello vineyard. Though it is called a Chianti Classico clone it actually has IGT status. Tannic, spicy, naturally acidic. Tense and high strung are standard decriptors here. Look at that perfect handful. The other half is the above photographed Brunello clone - a little deeper and more relaxed, a little less acid and a little more top heavy. Amador fruit tends to be a little light on nitrogen, keeping canopies in check and resulting in good UV exposure and relatively light and balanced crop loads. Stylistically this year's should be very different than the lighter weight (but more fun) Romagnolo clones we usually use. Exciting stuff, currently sitting at 15 Brix and 82 degrees, awaiting its 11pm ~~pump~~ er pumpover. Daddy like.

Arneis

2010-10-01T22:49:00.000-07:00

Arneis was not on the original road map for this season (see left), but being flexible is part of the fun. Based in the Roero in Piedmont, Arneis translates approximately into little rascal or stubborn one, illustrating its peculiar viticultural needs. It likes the legendary sandy soil that also produces asparagus, and Arneis is one of the go-tos for those difficult asparagus pairings (though they are not really that challenging, especially with sauce, egg, or cheese).

Arneis almost wasn't. By the 70's it had virtually disappeared all together. Arneis does not age, it is not a fruity or particularly hedonistic white, nor is it a stony or minerally and structured drink. Perhaps its greatest claim to fame was that it was also known as Barolo Bianco back in the day when Barolo was given away because no fool would ever buy such a poorly made wine - and Arneis was the diluting additive that tamed the tannin and acid of Nebbiolo.

So what should the Arneis experience be like? Almond is a big marker, as is a straw-ish hay-like component. (This is ironic incidentally because last year's special run white was Tocai Friulano, which has similar charcteristics in some ways, and is on sale now, hint hint). If you want mineral, not much. Delicate flowers? Not really. The paradigm here is more of warm, roundish experience of unusual nuances.

Anyhow, if you don't mind leg hair in your wine, we whole-cluster pressed the Arneis, all 80 gallons, and now it is slowly fermenting away, hopefully producing a nice, clean Spring bottling. No battonage, no oak, no trickery. Just Arneis being what it is, and teaching us along the way.

Alcohol and Wine. It is in there - it is true.

2010-09-23T20:53:00.000-07:00

(warning - this a very boring and dry yawn inducing geek piece...)

Wow, we are still talking about alcohol! W. R. Tish recently posted a very nice piece here discussing the rising alcohol levels - yesterday's rocket fuel is today's norm. The thesis is that reviews should contain ABV (Alcohol by Volume) information, and amen - they should. And she is correct that there is no compelling reason in the light of transparency to not include them. BUT, if information is the key to informed consumer reviews, then from a winemaking perspective reviews should include acidity and any "additives" (gum arabic, fining regimen, etc.) as well if data equals knowledge and these are available. Anyway, some nice information is contained within and it is certainly worth a read. But, it is also seems a little misguided and reductionist by overly concentrating on a number that has 2% total leeway plus or minus as being intrinsically meaningful and relatively accurate in and of itself. Quite simply, your most powerful stylistic indicator would be acidity rather than alcohol. First though, since we have a higher level of access, here is some industry insight from within the wine beast:

1. Winemakers regularly put 14.5% on bottles that they know are not actually that percentage to cover the allowed spread on the ABV statement. They know it is 15.3, and legally choose to state 14.5 because it sounds better. This is an industry standard, and that is a fact. Unless you are on the inside, this might be unknown. ABV statements are a strategic marketing tool that is very carefully considered. All that jug wine in the supermarket is not actually 12.5% like it says - most of it is on high side of 13. But it is allowed the leeway to state 12.5 when it is 13.9. Tish claims that this range is moderately slippery and that is o.k., but the very thrust of her piece refutes this "moderate" claim. A review of a 15.1% wine that states 14.1% and vice versa is obviously comparing apples and oranges. The 15% threshold is pretty clearly taboo.

2. Watering back (amelioration) is very common practice in California. Barbera, which can hit 16% alcohol pretty easily in the warmer climes, is often watered back to 14.5%ish. Tempranillo and obviously Zin are the same. Most reds can float up to 15%. This is legal and no statement is required. If we try to establish some sort of direct correlation between alcohol levels and some standard of quality, it would be very much a leap of faith to believe that adding 15% water to crushed grapes to lower the alcohol to 14% will somehow result in a better end product. It certainly is a more manipulated product once that threshold has been crossed. We can give you your low alcohol, by adding water. Does that feel right?

2a. We can add acid in California at will. Higher sugar levels directly correlate with diminishing acid. Most elsewhere in the world higher alcohol means low acid wine. We can not make this stylistic correlation with domestic wine laws. Sorry. In Barolo and Toro, yes. California, no. And yes, acid is a manipulation. Alcohol levels might indicate acid levels, but they might not.

3. For larger producers that can afford it (and it is not cheap) alcohol removal is an option. Clark Smith at www.grapecrafter.com has written endlessly on alcohol sweet spots and it does not need to be rehashed here. Many wines have alcohol levels that have been reduced. Little guys like us are jealous because we want to do it but can't afford it. From a naturalist viewpoint (which is an illusion) this is a major manipulation. If alcohol is used as a ripeness indicator in reviews, adjusted wines can be overripe and low alcohol - a conundrum if alcohol is used to indicate something stylistically.

3a. On a similar note, many producers add concentrate back to sweeten white wine just before bottling, adding extra nose and body. Sauvignon Blanc, various Muscats, Riesling, Gewurztraminer and Pinot Blanc are commonly adjusted varietals This is the sussreserve technique used in many German wines, and sometimes this is cited to support its use. HOWEVER, QMP wines are allowed to do it, yet it is rarely practiced because it is considered schizerly and inferior. This is a pretty heavy manipulation. And again, here you can have a high-alcohol white, that is also sweet, and may have low or adjusted high acid, ruining the classic alcohol/r.s. Riesling formula.

4. Alcohol sensitivity organoleptically is variable. Usually at about 15+% it becomes noticeable, though there are always famously balanced wines that are high alcohol yet good. I would hate to miss that Negro Amaro just because I erroneously thought that at 14.8% it would be wonky. Also, the people that think they can feel the effects of 13% versus 15% can suck it. One night a bottle is fine, the next night 2/3 is too much. Gee, drink twice as much when a pizza is in the belly. The vagaries of the human body are great and many, and varying widely day by day. If alcohol is the enemy here, you may need to go to beer.

5. Alcohol is part of terroir (or at the very least a byproduct) as ripeness/climate/growing conditions/soil water holding/canopy/ad infinitum. This rubs shoulders with the hated "naturalness" straw man. Some areas have always produced high alcohol wines - Puglia, La Mancha, or Banyuls.

The concern here is that, yes, alcohol a significant indicator of something. But what? To say that alcohol simply indicates warmth or body is a banality. What is an alcohol level preference? In your Cognac or mild ale? What about your sake? Pretty broad playing field here... Certainly the alcohol level effects pairabilty, implicitly when in balance and explicitly when it is a problem. HOWEVER, acidity is more important generally, and this where my newly minted sommelier's hat goes on, pairings are now starting to exploiting contrast and counterpoint more and more, opening up possible venues with what were previously considered clunky complementary pairings. Also, and this where my former chef's hat goes on, food can be altered to be made more pairing friendly. Hot wine, better lower your black pepper level, and pass on that squeeze of lemon if it is low acid. Richer because of alcohol? Tighten up that texture, that risotto should be a little thicker to accompany the Amarone. High alcohol wines are generally low acid (though they can be acidified in California), so watch the acid level in the dish. Either work the counterpoint with acid or work with warmth and body by reflecting it in the dish.

Tish's piece squarely accepts these challenges and the general fuzziness in the beginning. But at the end of the day the stated ABV is still held to be a crucial piece of info. In contrast it may only be moderately informative. Please don't believe that alcohol will show the whole story. It is a stylistic indicator at best, if it hasn't been acidified, dealcoholized, sweetened or watered back. There is just too much legal manipulation in the New World (horrible conceptual tool). We should look forward to ingredients listings if you want conclusive stylistic indicators in conjunction with alcohol. My hunch is that most of those big score U.S. wines have a big wallop of gum arabic and added polysaccharides - all legal direct manipulations. And these are probably just as responsible as brix ripeness for lush mouthfeel, Parker's glycerin fetish and the general low acid/big wine explosion.

This is no apology for high alcohol. Our goal at Rosa d'Oro is to keep the alcohol as low as we can and produce self-consciously old-world inflected wines. We do not chase critics scores. In fact, when we have sent something for review, it has always scored very low, and we don't bother anymore. And we like acid and tannin here, and these are inversely related to sugar/alcohol levels.

So, in short, please do not discount a wine just because it is 15%, or grab a 13% just because of what the ABV statement says. Please don't believe that a high alcohol wine will necessarily be low acid. There are all sorts of bad wines on each end of the spectrum, and balanced ones where you might not expect. If you comb the internet you can find labels for Primitivos and Shiraz's at 15% from the 70's. This notion that high alcohol is a totally new think is false, though it is demonstrably more prevalent now.

I warned you this was long winded and boring....

Breakage

2010-09-12T21:23:00.000-07:00

Breakage happens. Driving a cork into the neck of a bottle displaces/compresses a huge amount of gas. When a blowout occurs, it usually happens at the shoulder, just like this - clearly the weakest point. The shape is always the same teardrop, though this one fractured a little bit in addition. Figures for breakage vary widely depending on who you ask and why. So far, with these particular bottles which are a pretty nice build, we are seeing about one bottle per 300 cases, or 1 in 3,600. Not a bad figure really and we are pretty happy with them all around.

The last brand we used was a nightmare, about 1 in 40 cases breaking, meaning wine everywhere, broken glass and the all important time-destroying cleanup ruining the day. We hand bottle our own wines in a small finished room with a pneumatic corker that can't be hosed down or simply brushed out. I won't name names, but with that last glass we used the quality control schmuck who finally came out after numerous angry phone calls claimed that:

a) 1 in 480 bottle breakage is totally normal and acceptable, and we shouldn't be complaining. And,
b) It was the other guy's fault, not his company's.

Needless to say we will never use Demptos glass again - oops.

Grape Pics

2010-09-07T22:00:00.000-07:00

Here is Barbera. Looks o.k. Typical spindly canes, smallish leaves, medium size bunches.

Here is the Dolcetto. Classic big bunches, moderate thinned crop. Looks good.

Primitivo: nice, classic growth, differentially ripening away, again, nicely thinned

Oh my gosh, what the heck is this? This is the Aglianico, as of September 7th. The standard rule of thumb is 60 days to harvest from veraison. Looks like a November 15th harvest this year, just like on Mount Vulture.

I Love Hungarian Oak

2010-09-04T20:05:00.000-07:00

A Rosé wine question

2010-08-28T20:54:00.000-07:00

A faithful reader recently asked about rosé wines, wondering who, what and where they were royally made. Fact is, a dedicated rosato is very hard to find. Here are a couple of quick thoughts:

1. Rosé, as in a dedicated rosato that is made for its own ends, is very rare. Most rose is the product of a saignee program, meaning that juice has been drained from the skins of a red wine not to create a rose specifically, but to concentrate a red wine. (Here is a hint - after three inches of rain last fall in Northern California during harvest, you can bet that a rather large amount of 2009 rose from those areas is available. Many vintners bled off 20-25% of their juice to make up for the rain filled Cabernet.) This is standard practice in many places, all over California in particular. In many/most cases the pink juice is drained off in 24 - 48 hours, water is added to bring the alcohol down to 13-ish % (most in the know claim that a rose over 13% is an error in California) and the pink juice is fermented coolly like a white wine, usually resulting in strawberry madness. The famed areas of rose production in Tavel and Lirac (to a lesser extent) can approach 14%, which brings us to the next point...

2. The best roses are usually dedicated roses, meaning that the grapes are pressed in the pink stage, adding extra body, complexity and depth that the saignee method can not, also helping to meld higher alcohol/ripeness levels, because in most of the world water can not be added like it legally is in California. Grenache and Cinsault are the primary varietals for this. Certain parts of the Loire are quite famed for their Cab Franc roses as well.

3. Rose shows flaws quite clearly, just like a white wine. The number of H2S-defective roses running around is astonishing, ostensibly because it is usually an afterthought, and the last tank to be checked and monitered during crush. The yeast work too fast, or are too cold, the juice is too clear or they are too reductive. Yeast stress is the largest offender, as some defects are moot with the early removal from skins. VA isn't such a problem. A lot of roses have had H2S problems and have been copper fined, stripping them down to the basics of pink alcohol. At the other end are enterprising roses fermented in new oak barrels with all sorts of bizarre woodiness and over enthusiastic batonnage programs that smell like old cheese and sawdust. Most people find charm in a simple rose. Residual sugar is another area of contention as a touch holds onto volatile aroma compounds, lowers alcohol a tad, and broadens mouthfeel. On the downside, sugar is sugar, and a sweet rose can make you feel like a hack - though some good ones do exist with a touch of sweetness. The irony is that cold weather grapes (imagine a St. Laurent rose = brilliant) would probably make real good rose, but colder climates are the last place you would want to consume them. This is where a place like Alto Adige comes into its own.

4. There are a few grapes highly regarded for rose beyond Grenache and Cinsault. Sangiovese and Mourvedre are a couple, Cab Franc and Tempranillo can also work quite well. Minerally Pinto Noir can be phenom, and skanky grapes like Syrah and Negroamaro give a good hope of unusual varietal interest. Obviously just about any red grape can make a rose - and most end up tasting like strawberry. Our Nebbiolo experiment in 2006 was pure watermelon Jolly Rancher - one of the few flavor profile varients beyond barrel treatment to be had. The fermentation kinetics usually create a pretty firm strawberry core, and then you try to work spice into the mix. Just about any hot area will make them, and on a hot day they can all taste pretty darn good. Whether or not getting too fancy with them is open for debate.

5. Ironically, some of the best and cheapest to be had is Bordeaux Cabernet rosé, say 2005 Phelan Segur at $5.95 a bottle retail. The extra minerality and Cab-iness clinched it.

6. When you talk about rosé Champagne or Cremant (non-Champagne sparkling wine) - it becomes a whole new complex animal, and for the money, probably the only game worth playing.

And, number 7: The eternal dilemma: That rosé you had in Provence will taste like crap at home. Such is life...

Negroamaro - the next Syrah?

2010-08-01T09:53:00.000-07:00

Negroamaro or "Negro Amaro" could be the new Syrah, with the exception that it might actually sell. It has several things going for it:

1. It has a pronounceable name that is descriptive and its meaning can be inferred by most folks with a bit of work that lends an adventurous/exploratory element that some consumers love. It is not as foreign as Aglianico...

2. Negro Amaro is like Syrah in that it has good dark violet color and only moderate tannins (Syrah has a particular tannin-color linking structure that prevents it from ever becoming too tannic and drying). It can be silken or a little chunky, but never astringent. Negro Amaro also tends to be floral and perfumed with that violet flower and touch of high-toned delicate white blooms coming through against a deeper and more musky/rustic background - a lot like Mourvedre and North Rhone Syrah.

3. Like Syrah there can be strong leatheriness that forms the backbone in conjunction with a brambly spice element that evokes the old world (perfect in our lineup) while still being a relatively fruity warm weather grape. It has skank and finesse.

4. Coming from Puglia it is obviously drought tolerant and heat loving without compromising its typicity- yay. (But, it does sunburn, and crop load can be vary with soil type.)

5. Negro Amaro is often blended - the Salice Salentino DOC specifies minimum 85%, and often Malvasia Nera, Sangiovese or Primitivo are added to bump up the fruit/floral quotient. Hopefully this will not be the case in Lake County where we need to actually restrain the fruit bomb character of our wines and try to produce something with actual structure and character. For us, the more bramble the better - we don't need to worry about fruit here.

6. Negro Amaro rosato is known to be very, very good.

Needless to say we are excited to try our hand with this one. Its mix of backward rusticity, delicacy and aromatics should be exciting. Now if we can just get Nero d'Avola to pass quarantine our Southern Italian plantings will be complete. Sorry Calabria, but we don't see Gaglioppo in our future.

(Oh, incidentally, Negro Amaro may be a distant cross between Verdicchio and Sangiovese).

Time to taste, and top up

2010-07-21T22:29:00.000-07:00

Every six weeks we need to taste, peak into each barrel, evaluate, and replace the evaporated wine that slowly diffuses out through the oak. Not such a bad job, except when two days before you tasted 60 Madeiras and the day before you judged the home winemakers competition. Keeping the palate sharp is extremely important; regular training is necessary.

Seattle area pourings 7/16 and 7/17

2010-07-15T09:55:00.000-07:00

If you happen to be in the Seattle area this weekend Rosa d'Oro Vineyards (via myself) will be pouring on Friday evening from 5-8 at Winestyles in:

Bothell Washington

22833 Bothell Everett Highway

Suite #104

Bothell, WA 98021

Phone: 425-408-1031

And we will be pouring on Saturday from 3-6 at the Fremont Wine Warehouse:

3601 Fremont AVE N, Seattle, WA 98103

In the Courtyard

Our wines will be available all weekend at both events. The event at the Fremont Wine Warehouse will emphasize domestically grown Italian varietals with an informative presentation. Please stop by and say hello.

Flowering Olives

2010-06-16T18:05:00.000-07:00

If summer ever comes, the olive harvest may be much better than the grapes...