Hawk Wakawaka Wine Reviews

Going Martian with Graham Tatomer: New Winemaker for Martian Ranch

California

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Jan 21, 2014

Talking with Graham Tatomer

This winter Graham Tatomer took over as winemaker at Martian Ranch in Alisos Canyon, Santa Barbara County. Tatomer has celebrated a life in the wine industry for two decades. His experience has him making and studying wine not only in California, but also Austria, original home to the grapes Tatomer is known for via his own self-named label.

I am a fan of Tatomer’s own wines, and also recognize different stylistic goals from his Austrian white varietals, and the recent wines of Martian Ranch. With that in mind, I am excited to talk to Tatomer, and hear how he sees himself fitting with the project, and where he believes it could develop in working with owner, Nan Helgeland.

Taking over as winemaker at an already established winery offers a unique challenge. A central question becomes how to balance regard for the heritage of a place while carrying style forward. Tatomer and I were able to sit down this week, and discuss these early stages of the process. Such change also demands a winemaker recognize the owners’ views of success, and style for a winery. The conversation with Tatomer reveals how he’s thinking about both in this first month or so with the project.

Following are portions of the discussion with Tatomer.

Graham Tatomer Starting at Martian Ranch

“There are a lot of fun things happening in Santa Barbara county. In winemaking in general in this country it is such an exciting time. There is this sense of let’s plant this grape and see how it does here. One of the things so exciting about Martian Ranch is that Nan really went against the grain planting things she thought could work here, like Albarino. She decided Albarino was a first choice. She drank it in Spain, and thought that region she visited looked and felt like this property.”

I ask Tatomer what makes him the right winemaker for the Martian property, which now makes wine entirely from bio-dynamically farmed, Estate owned fruit from the Alisos Canyon property. He puts four Martian Ranch wines on the table for us to taste made by previous winemaker, Mike Roth. They’re a way of talking through Tatomer’s understanding of the Martian project.

“Nan likes fresh wines that are accessible with some interest there. Moving into working with new varieties as I am doing here, I look for a starting point. I picked these four wines for us to taste because they’ve engaged me so much, they are my starting point. These four wines will also remain largely similar. They represent goals of Martian Ranch.”

We start with the 2012 Albarino, Nan’s Spanish planting. The wine carries peppery-floral notes with a pleasing juiciness and mouthfeel. The wine is a little textural, with a nice weight on the palate. It’s a white wine Flagship for Martian Ranch, and a wine Tatomer knew he’d work with right away. It represents a way in which he and Helgeland are well suited.

Tatomer comments further, “Nan likes winemakers that truly spend time in the vineyard. I do that through my own label, Tatomer. I’m also a fan of bio-dynamic wines, and Martian Ranch is bio-dynamically farmed. That common interest was an important part of why I’m here. We also share sensibilities in where we find balance in wine — that is, open to high acid, more moderate alcohol wines that cause a sense of pleasure.”

We open the 2012 Grenache Blanc. The grape was under-sung in California until a recent resurgence in interest. Martian Ranch offers one of the finely done examples from the state. Tatomer tells me the more he tastes it the more he’s compelled, and is looking forward to working with the fruit.

The 2012 carries the peppery floral nose common to the variety, turning into a dried flower with a touch of wax element through the mid-palate, that also shows faint diesel when pulled through with air, but moving into a long, clean viscous finish.

Though the Martian Ranch project began with a passion for Spanish varieties, the property is well-suited to growing Rhone wines. The Grenache Blanc in particular has inspired Tatomer and Helgeland to turn their attention to developing interest in Rhone whites over the next years.

We open the Martian Ranch 2012 Grenache red, Ground Control. It was picked early then fermented in carbonic maceration for that sense of freshness, and floral lift given by the technique. As is common to the region, however, the structure on the wine is still strong. It’s lifted, while powerful.

Tatomer is excited about the reds. “I had considered doing a bandol type side project at one point. I like those wines. We have Grenache here. I love Mourvedre. She has all these varieties I drink at home, and that was really appealing, to be able to work with these grapes I enjoy. In the American market we’re pretty focused on single varietal named wines. Rhone wines are a great example of how blending can be incredible.”

We turn, then, to the 2011 Tempranillo. It’s all dark purple in the mouth, with easy movement, and a light nut-chew element. The wine shows clean and easy on the palate with the grape’s own natural concentration. It bookends the Spanish interest started with the Albarino.

I ask Tatomer to describe for me the contrast between his own wines, and what he sees at Martian Ranch. How the one will influence the other. He responds, “the focus on Tatomer is to make wines that are quite clean, while engaging, and made to age. With Martian Ranch, Nan wants the wines to be fresh, able to drink quite young.”

The wines from Martian are also priced to be accessible. Tatomer nods in agreement at this, then continues. “The style in terms of freshness will stay largely the same. I also will get to know the site, and how these varieties grow here, and work with that.”

Talking with Tatomer it’s clear he wants to celebrate his new position while being honest about how briefly he’s been at Martian so far. He arrived in early December. “As winemaker here I want to make wines that are meant to be drunk young, while drawing on the bio-dynamic vineyard with a focus on really integrated, and stable wines. When you have reliable fruit, and healthy farming, you don’t have to worry about fixing the wines after.”

Tatomer emphasizes why he respects the farming at Martian Ranch. “Farming gives confidence as a winemaker. When you get the fruit in, and you don’t have to worry about anything — not lacking anything you have to add to the wine, or spoilage that has to be fixed… This is such a premium region. There are not a lot of additions going into wines here in general but it’s also a young region. We get to discover still what does well. The focus for Martian Ranch going forward is all estate, and bio-dynamic fruit.”

***

Congratulations to Graham Tatomer and Nan Helgeland on the new wine partnership. I look forward to seeing how the Martian Ranch wines continue to develop.

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For more on Martian Ranch wines: http://www.martianvineyard.com/

For more on Tatomer wines: http://www.tatomerwines.com

***

Thank you to Graham Tatomer.

Thank you to Sao Anash and Dan Fredman.

Tasting with Mike Roth: Keeping Lo-Fi with Wine

Hawk Wakawaka

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Jan 20, 2014

4

Meeting with Mike Roth

Mike Roth and I are drinking wine at sunset. Behind him the hillsides are colored purple and ribbon clouds echo the color. We’re sitting outside though it’s January. The year has forgotten to turn cold and trees are already early-blooming in town.

Earlier this year, Roth changed directions. He stepped away from his role as winemaker at Martian Ranch. Under Roth’s direction, the label became a darling of the wine geek community, celebrated by Jon Bonné in both The San Francisco Chronicle, and his recent book The New California Wine. Roth’s style there revealed a focus on freshness, delicacy, lower alcohol levels, and the honesty of vintage variation.

The move has given Roth the opportunity for more time with his family, wife Karen, and boys Eli (11) and Oliver (8). It’s also pushed him into the chance to express his views of wine unhampered through his own singular project. Next month he will launch his own new label, Lo-Fi. The project brings Roth’s focus on freshness front and center, driven by his view that wine is what he calls “a proletariat drink,” a beverage meant for the masses.

Tasting Wine with Mike Roth

My goal in meeting with Roth is less to talk about his history as a winemaker — that story has been told — and more to develop a clearer sense of his palate. I ask if he’ll choose at least three wines he really loves for us to taste together, and talk about. I want to see his new project, Lo-Fi, through a broader framework — Mike Roth’s views of wine — and recognize it there.

I ask Roth to tell me how he started in wine, winding eventually to the story of our particular bottles. “I wanted to be a chef originally, so wine was still that taste kind of idea. I’m from New Jersey, and my mom is from Finland, so not really a hot bed for wine. I found it through food.” Roth’s original connection to wine shows in how he wants to enjoy it now as well.

In telling me how he chose our bottles, Roth first sets up the context. It’s not enough to tell me about each bottle. He wants me to understand where he’s coming from. Roth admits too that the bottles were less an idea of life long favorites, and more about what was appropriate for the evening.

As we taste along, we’ll be snacking with food. “I think of everything as accompaniments. I don’t drink a lot of wine on its own. If I just want alcohol I make myself a cocktail. I think of wine in terms of food,” he says. “I think wine is the ultimate condiment. It makes the food you eat taste better, the conversation more interesting, and the people you’re with more attractive.”

The Question of Beauty in Wine

We begin our tasting with a Loire Valley white made from one of the unsung grapes of that region — Francois Cazin’s Le Petit Chambord made from the grape Romorantin. “I thought with cheese and everything, the rillettes, it would be fun.” The wine tastes to me like Spring sun — bright and full on the palate, a touch musky still from rains, with a hint of sweetness leaning towards summer. It’s meant to get you excited for what’s to come.

We’re both quiet for a minute. “It has a neat kind of honey mushroom thing.” Roth comments. “It’s got that flinty, musty kind of character. That is different. It’s not the standard.” Roth reveals he originally found the Cazin in the midst of a Chenin kick. He purchased the wine assuming it was Chenin, then discovered something else inside the bottle. “The thing I like about Chenin is the same almost oxidative, nutty, musty, waxy character.”

The conversation about Cazin’s Le Petit Chambord rolls into a discussion of Roth’s thoughts on beauty. He refers to the 1970s and the then-common idea of an actress like Bo Derek as a beautiful standard. The point, Roth says, was that she was naturally beautiful. It was something in her uniqueness that elevated her aesthetic.

Roth then reveals his frustration. “When did the idea of beauty go from a real, natural beauty as the perfect 10 to the idea of beauty as perfection through plastic surgery? Wine in some ways has gone through a similar change — with a focus on perfection, and being too polished.” The result becomes a sea of wines that taste almost the same.

The discussion leads to Roth considering the idea of benchmarks in wine. A lot of California winemakers reference analogs in known regions such as Burgundy as a claim to legitimacy in their own approach. Doing so keeps the attention always elsewhere, instead of looking at what California can do. Roth returns the focus to California’s own history. It leads to discussion of his time in Napa Valley.

“I worked at Grgich, and at Saddleback. I am proud I learned from Gus and Nils. Grgich had this real idea of consistency. He made that 1973 Montelena in the Paris tasting. We could say he made that same wine in terms of quality every year.”

Winemaker Gus Brambila worked alongside Mike Grgich first at Montelena, then moved with him to Grgich. Roth worked with Brambila at the Grgich facility, inheriting insights from both mentors. In discussing the work of Brambila, I feel Roth fill with a sense of calm confidence. “As a winemaker in California, we can hold that up as a benchmark. I learned a lot there.”

I ask Roth what he learned through the experience. He returns again to the point of consistency, naming too Nils Venge at Saddleback, and Grgich Oenologist Gary Ecklin, then keeps his answer simple. “If you keep your cellar clean, you don’t have to add a bunch of things to your wines. Everything they did was so clean.”

The Peasant’s Beverage

We open the second wine, Cedric Chignard’s Fleurie Les Moriers. While Roth pours I ask him again about his self-espoused proletariat ideals. “I always wanted to work in a trade. My dad instilled that idea in me. I always thought, if you weren’t tired at the end of the day, you hadn’t worked. Wine is a craft, a trade. It captures that idea.”

We taste as he talks. The wine is a little tight on the palate but it carries that carbonic floral lift through the nose, and an easy juiciness. “A wine like this is meant to be thirst quenching and delicious.” Roth says. “I am not knocking people that want to drink or make show stoppers. I love fresh wine. It’s lower alcohol, and just has a kind of freshness to it. The idea that its just simple, but it’s better than water or soda.”

He smells the wine again, then continues. “I think the perceived pretentiousness of wine in this country goes against it being enjoyed as a beverage.” Roth says. “I like the idea that wine is a peasant’s beverage.” Roth references the history of winemaking in Europe. People that worked the land were often paid with a portion of the crop. Wine, then, was made in a workers’ back yard as a portion of their food for the year. The rustic simplicity of that Roth admires.

Keeping Wine Lo-Fi

Finally we open Roth’s own wine — an unlabeled bottle that’s been winking at me from across the table since we sat down. I tell Roth that the most thrilling thing to me is an unlabeled bottle of wine — who knows what treasure could be inside.

In venturing into his own project, Roth is beginning with a small production release to come out this winter under the name, Lo-Fi. The Lo-Fi wines he describes are classic to the aesthetic he’s revealed through his tasting — light touch winemaking, fresh focused, meant to be drunk young, affordable, for food. There is even a field blend, the ultimate expression of taking grapes as they are.

The Lo-Fi wine Roth has opened is his 2012 Carbonic Cabernet Franc from Coquelicut Vineyard, unsulfured, and made in neutral wood, then bottled by gravity. He makes sure the bottle is good then pours me some. As I taste I can feel Roth quietly smiling, that calm confidence glowing from him again. I nod about the wine, it still on my palate as I push it through with air. The wine is full of dark floral lift, and flowered herbs.

Roth nods back, “if you put it in a blind flight of Cab Franc, I don’t think you’d pick up that it’s a California wine.” It isn’t that Roth wants to deny the California piece. He celebrates benchmarks and possibilities of his state. It’s that he’s excited to have made something delicious that is also a bit surprising — Cab Franc, a grape of natural beauty.

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Lo-Fi Wines will be releasing this winter in small quantities.

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Thank you to Mike Roth for making time to share wines with me.

Thank you to Karen, Eli, Oliver, and Jason and Angela Osborne.

Meals with Melanie: A Thank you for Mattei’s Tavern, Los Olivos

Hawk Wakawaka

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Jan 18, 2014

2

Dinner at Mattei’s Tavern

On Sundays we’d go for pastry. In the 1980s, a small rush of French émigrés made their way to Anchorage, Alaska and started a revolution. They opened bakeries for breads, cakes and delicate sweets.

My family attended Sunday service at the stone chapel downtown. We’d don our best clothes, with long winter coats, and simple shoes then duck-walk across the icy parking lot to keep from falling. After the hour-long service, longer with communion, we’d pile back in the car and stop half way home to pick up Napoleon, Éclair, and cheese Danish when my dad was in town.

He worked every other week at the North Slope of Alaska building and maintaining the electrical needs of arctic oil feeds. On alternate weeks he was home.

Sundays, then, began with a sense of grateful reverence, recognition of how we were blessed. Celebration came through simple silence, moments of prayer communing with god. It continued with simple sweets. The warmth of the prayer coupled with the prickling joy of delicate French sugar. The entire day given a feeling of bright gratitude with the pastries a symbol of the gifts we gained.

Alaska’s food revolution came eventually to include more variation in foods, and my mom’s love for pastries evolved into my parents’ love for bistro fare. Bistros for them a perfect restaurant balance — good food touched by congenial service — hospitality with conversation.

My sister Melanie and I inherited our parents’ love for food. She (along with my friend Fred) sparked in me more than anyone my original love for wine. We found together our enthusiasm first and foremost to bubbles. Together we have devoted ourselves to restaurants around the United States and Canada looking always for food with a deft hand, a delicate intricacy of flavors paired with beautiful wines, in a forum that celebrates warm hospitality.

At its best, eating meals with Melanie feels of succulent revelry — that original sense of simple gratitude our parents gave us through Sundays of church and pastry blooming into a kind of reverence for the beauty of flavor, time together, and relaxing service. Some of my happiest moments have come from these meals.

In the last year, Los Olivos has opened a new restaurant, Mattei’s Tavern, bringing together the history of place — the venue opened for the first time in 1886 — with the intricate freshness possible in today’s farm-to-table restaurant culture.

Chef Robbie Wilson offers a seasonal menu designed to showcase, on one side, foods that might have carried that original 1886 menu elevated with a gentle lift — schnitzel of flatfish kept away from the heavy side, accented with the crunch of pickled mustard seeds and calabrian chiles. On the other side, he offers too foods carrying the cultural flavor fusion that so clearly speaks of now — short rib pot roast put along side lightly cooked vegetables and poured over with fresh made ramen broth. On both sides, the flavors are rich, layered, with a light bite of surprise.

The Mattei’s team also hosts the expertise of wine director Stephane Colling. His wine list shows smart devotion to Santa Barbara wines. He seems to select labels that consistently give clean fruit expression with the juicy and often mineral length that works so well with food. The list treats local wines seriously, however, by offering more than merely what comes from Santa Barbara County, offering too worldwide selections.

The current by the glass iteration, for example, mixes local jewels with worldwide gems. It’s possible, for example, to taste Goodland Wine‘s Happy Canyon Sauvignon Blanc, then follow it with Mulderbosch‘s South African iteration. The intent seems less about comparing the county’s wines to wines from elsewhere, however, and more about selecting beautiful wines for a range of palate interests that can be poured at a range of price points.

Visiting Mattei’s Tavern the thread that winds through the decor space, the menu, the wine list seems to parallel my description of Chef Wilson’s food — layers of interest, warm expression, and bites of surprise. The approach to service and overall presentation bring together the heritage of the place with modern flare. The salumi plate, for example, Felix Mattei’s Dirty Laundry, literally hangs prosciutto (my favorite) and coppa with clothespins over a board carrying pickled vegetables and mustard. One of my favorite details houses the children’s menu within the slides of a working View Master, giving kids their own visual treat for the meal.

Throughout the meal, server Jenny Mitchum offered a comfortable touchstone. She hit the balance I enjoy of showcasing the food as it arrived, checking in to track our needs, and giving us space to enjoy our conversation.

I appreciate the revitalization of the historic Mattei’s Tavern space. Partners Robbie and Emily Perry Wilson, plus Charles and Ali Banks, have navigated the challenge of utilizing a historic landmark in a manner that honors its heritage while celebrating fresh new flavor for the region.

I can’t wait to meet my sister there for dinner.

***

The Mattei’s Tavern Website: http://www.matteistavern.com/

***

Thank you to Robbie Wilson and Stephane Colling.

Thank you to Jenny Mitchum.

Thank you to Jason Smith.

Thank you to Charles Banks.

Thank you to Sao Anash.

Living Courage: Paul Lato Wines

Hawk Wakawaka

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Jan 15, 2014

3

Meeting Paul Lato

In Santa Maria, Paul Lato makes vineyard designate wines — Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Grenache, and Syrah — from Santa Maria Valley, Sta Rita Hills, Santa Ynez, Paso Robles, and Santa Lucia Highlands. We meet to first sample his about-to-be-bottled 2012 Pinots, then enjoy his other wines over food. In the midst of our meeting, I receive a message from a friend long in the wine industry about Lato — “that guy’s cooking skills are as legendary as his winemaking.” The dinner demonstrates it. During dinner, I can’t get enough of his Chardonnays.

Lato originates in Poland during communism. He explains that while there the overwhelming passion of writer-artist ~~Kandinsky~~ Kosinski, who Lato was able to meet in Poland, helped inspire his willingness to leave home. After, he lived for a year in Spain, before moving to Canada. Driven by a love of food, he became a sommelier in Toronto selling the best wines from around the world.

Eventually, Lato found inspiration in the early achievements and quality of Robert Mondavi. Mondavi’s story, and wine helped spark a dream for Lato of making his own wines, leading to his move to Santa Maria, California. He arrived with almost no resources except his willingness to learn and work, and by now has created a brand celebrated by Robert Parker, Thomas Keller, and international wine lovers as well. At the hardest moments, Lato explained, he found courage in Mondavi’s philosophy that it is less important if you fail at what you try to do than it is that you go ahead and do it.

As some of you know, when a figure has a clear, and distinctive story, I prefer to let them speak for themselves. Following are portions of my conversation with Lato. This represents only a small hint at everything we were able to discuss, but gives an interesting glimpse into how Lato handled the transition of becoming a winemaker.

Becoming a Winemaker

Paul Lato

“I came to Santa Maria in 2002. I was a sommelier in Toronto for 12 years, and began here [in CCWS (a custom crush facility)] as a cellar rat with a dream of making my own wine.

“In 2002, I like to say, the CCWS was the Woodstock of winemaking because of the labels that were in here making wine. Some of them don’t exist any more. But it was a bee hive in here, a happening place, with everybody making wine. I was in the best position though because there I was cleaning everything, and watching what everyone did, and I could ask all of them, why are you doing this? What are you doing? We had interns too, from Spain, Australia, New Zealand, from all over the world. They would have oenology degrees. And all I did was ask everybody questions.

“To talk to a winemaker that has been making wine for 25 or 35 years, and hear what he was doing… and to stand there and also taste, and listen to what he says, but also watch how he works… Hmm… This wine has a bit of VA and he comes in late and doesn’t clean his barrels. Or, this one tinkers his wine all the time, always adding something, and I see that. I would taste the wine, and learn what techniques.

“I started with 6 barrels, with no partners and no investors. I have 160 barrels now in this vintage. I constantly would work for the other guys. Someone would live in Fresno but have wine here and ask if I could watch it. I would say, don’t pay me, just buy me another barrel. I had about five jobs, working here, watching projects. It all added up, and then suddenly someone would buy me a new barrel or new equipment and it would build like that.

“So, now, here, essentially I have my own winery, the tanks, equipment, you see here. The way I operate, I have to have everything paid in half a year. I own everything, no leases. This is my bonded space. [We enter a cordoned off section of the CCWS space.] And back here is the kitchen space I have. [He shows me a gorgeous grill, a machine for making homemade fries, an espresso machine, and more.] Every harvest I cook for my guys every day.

We walk by the dining table of the space. Beside it hangs a photograph of a fine dining restaurant in Paris, Lapérouse.

“This is my philosophy. What we make here has to end up there (pointing to the restaurant photo). What we make here, when we take it and put it on a white table cloth environment ends up bigger there. This is a worker’s environment, it feels different here. You can forget. The picture reminds us to do our work for a wine made for that environment. I tell my guys, don’t punch down so hard. The wine is for there, not here.”

***

Thank you to Paul Lato for so generously hosting me.

Thank you to Pierre LaBarge, and Sao Anash.

***

Post edit: In my hurry to get the post up this morning I typed Kandinsky instead of Kosinski. Lato was able to meet novelist Kosinski. Please excuse the typo. Cheers!

A Day on a Hill with Jasmine Hirsch: balance, mystery, and IPOB 2014

Hawk Wakawaka

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Jan 14, 2014

8

Tasting and Talking with Jasmine Hirsch

looking North from the top of Block10A, Western Ridge, Hirsch Vineyards

We’re sitting at the top of a steep hill looking North. It’s taken me a little over two hours to drive to the site from my daughter’s school though both reside in Sonoma County. The roads to Hirsch Vineyards lift and fall over the mountain range along Sonoma’s Coast. There is no shorter route to build.

Jasmine Hirsch has driven me down the length of what they call the Western Ridge, then hiked me to the crest of a spine that divides Blocks 10A and 10B to show me exactly where the Hirsch Vineyards Chardonnay is grown. After tasting, I sit down to take a photograph. She sits down too and we begin a conversation about balance.

Along with her friend, and well-known sommelier, Rajat Parr, Hirsch began in 2011 what became an annual event celebrating the idea of balance in wine — In Pursuit of Balance (IPOB). In its first year they simply wanted to host a tasting celebrating Pinot they both enjoyed from California. The idea was to bring together what otherwise proves ephemeral — wines that express terroir — as a way to expand a conversation. — what is it about these wines? what are they trying to do with Pinot Noir? The ephemeral is why I’ve met with Hirsch, to see if I can understand her.

looking thru 1980s-planted Mt Eden Pinot to the Ocean, Hirsch Vineyard

In its first year, IPOB was treated simply. Hirsch and Parr brainstormed the wine brands together on the back of a napkin then gathered them for a casual event at RN74 in San Francisco. The timing proved fruitful, as below the surface interest in the wine community had already been burbling around questions of ripeness, style, and balance in wine. IPOB 2011, then, became a kind of lightning rod for focusing a conversation that had been wanting to start.

Controversy also began almost immediately. At RN74, Parr had instituted a policy of pouring no Chardonnay or Pinot Noir above 14% alcohol. He wanted to show a lighter approach to the fruit. Though alcohol was never an overt concern in IPOB, Parr’s restaurant policy became associated with the event. Many still assume it to be the point of the tasting.

To address some of the concern, Hirsch and Parr formalized their selection process. They created a five person tasting panel of people from differing parts of the industry — a winemaker, a distributor, a sommelier, a wine writer — that together taste and blind select the wines. The pair also removed themselves from the final vote. Hirsch puts together the blind tasting from wineries that have submitted themselves for possible inclusion. Parr tastes with the panel. But the panel determines which wines will be poured at the event. Once chosen, a brand has two years as part of IPOB before it must then be blind selected again.

Tasting About Balance

tasting Hirsch Vineyards wine in the middle of Hirsch Vineyard

In preparing to meet with Hirsch I go back over the list of wineries included in this year’s IPOB. What strikes me first is that a number of brands have received high regard from Robert Parker as well — Caldera, Hanzell, Varner, to name a few.

Parker is commonly spoken of as the champion of alcohol-driven over-ripe wines. As mentioned, one of the criticisms of IPOB has been that by “balance” they actually mean “low alcohol,” with the idea that surely the two are not so easily interchangeable. For both Parker and IPOB’s selection committee to hold the same wines in high regard, then, would appear a sort of contradiction.

The wines in the IPOB list also seem to show a diversity of styles — some are known for stem-inclusion in Pinot, while others always de-stem; several pursue only cool climate vineyard sites, while others are known from warmer regions; oak use across the list varies.

I ask Hirsch to address the question about balance and alcohol. She responds, “to reduce the conversation about balance to alcohol is incorrect. It’s just one element.” She continues, “balance seems more about intention than about style. You can have wine with a sense of place that can age really well and have alcohol at 14.5%.”

Pushing her further, she admits that people in the wine industry use alcohol as a sort of proxy for ripeness. What is going on in the grape is far more complicated — acids to tannin to physiological ripeness to alcohol balance varies by vintage — but short of tasting we sometimes guess our way into a wine through numbers.

Asking about the IPOB committee’s selection process I discover there are no formalized guidelines. Instead, Parr and Hirsch chose people whose palate they trust to recognize quality, filter flaws, and taste beyond a narrow sense of personal preference. The committee then votes on wines to be included. Hirsch admits though too that often through blind taste the committee simply recognizes a “yes.” There are moments wines just speak the ephemeral.

Jasmine Hirsch in Hirsch Vineyards (I love this photo)

We move to a table near the start of the Western Ridge to taste through Hirsch Pinot Noirs. It’s a chance to push Jasmine on what it is she wants from wine, while also investigating her views on farming. She was raised, after all, on a vineyard.

Her family’s site grows primarily Pinot Noir, with just small sections, like the one we visited, of Chardonnay. We focus our conversation, then, around Pinot. Hirsch points out a simple but important point — how expensive and difficult it is to grow Pinot Noir.

Such challenge puts fine focus, Hirsch believes, on thinking about one’s intentions with wine. Hirsch is interested in asking, to put it simply, what is your goal in making wine? In working with her family’s company, her own answer to that question rests in the uniqueness of her family’s place. In the end, she agrees with a view held even by the monks of Burgundy — perhaps more than any other grape, Pinot Noir can express terroir.

I ask her, then, to describe Hirsch Vineyards. “There are so many important factors that establish the specifics of a place, elevation and proximity to ocean, for example. Here, the San Andreas fault makes a lot of soil variation and different aspects, sections of vineyard a little more or a little less sheltered.” She pauses for a moment, then continues.

“Winemakers are like translators of terroir,” she tells me. “They’re there having a conversation with the vineyard.” The relationship between farmer and winemaker proves essential too to the process. Hirsch has noticed that as the wines of Hirsch Vineyards have become more transparent, more purely expressive with less extraction or oak, her father’s farming has also improved. She explains, “in tasting the wine, he can taste what he could do differently in the vineyard.”

We return to the idea of finding “the yes” in a glass of wine. Hirsch describes for me an experience of the ephemeral. There are times, she tells me, when drinking a wine captures your full engagement — you can’t quite say what it is. “I have this sense that if I could just have one more sip, I could figure this out, but of course you won’t figure it out. It’s the ineffable.” I’m nodding as she speaks, and my mouth is watering. I can’t help but imagine such wine. “That is for me what great Pinot Noir is about. The mystery.”

***

In Pursuit of Balance 2014 will travel for the ~~first~~ second time to NYC on February 4. Tickets are still available. For more information: http://inpursuitofbalance.com/#/events/new-york-2014/

IPOB 2014 will occur in San Francisco on March 10. The San Francisco event will also include two discussion panels: on vine age, and defining ripeness in Pinot Noir. Tickets are still available. For more information: http://inpursuitofbalance.com/#/events/san-francisco-2014/

All IPOB wineries will pour at both events.

Post edit: My mistake: IPOB 2012 occurred in NYC. It alternates years between NYC and LA but occurs every year in SF. Cheers!

***

Thank you to Jasmine Hirsch for hosting me.

More on Hirsch Vineyards Wines in a future post.

Return to Presqu’ile, Santa Maria Valley

California

Hawk Wakawaka

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Jan 13, 2014

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Tasting Presqu’ile Wines

entrance to Presqu’ile, Jan 2014

The wind blows red dust from the empty strawberry field over the valley, obscuring my view as I drive. It’s mid-January and most of California has received no rain. Santa Maria Valley already a desert, the valley floor proves pale.

I pull into Presqu’ile winery eager to see the building complete after visiting exactly a year ago. The infrastructure and rock siding were in place but the building was then still open to the elements. By summer it was completed. The view from the spot is beautiful, looking West towards the water, the length of Santa Maria Valley that pulls its breeze from open exposure to the ocean. The vineyards receive a cooling blast daily.

Matt Murphy, owner of Presqu’ile along with his family, and Dieter Cronje, Presqu’ile winemaker, meet me inside.

view facing West from beside Presqu’ile Winery, Jan 2013

I ask the duo about the weather from 2013 rolling into the New Year. The lack of rain is a worry. December gave a deep blast of cold that damaged avocado orchards the Valley is also famous for. Murphy explains he’s grateful for it though in relation to the vines. The cold snap put the vineyards into an appropriate sleep. With warmer temperatures, and lack of rain, the region masquerades as spring. He thinks without the freeze they’d have been entertaining bud break already.

The fruit in this spot grows in marine sediment. The wines all carrying a mineral crunch verging, but not quite, into saline. The whites spin on the palate turning flavor over flavor in an easy dance. While the reds offer the almost-tricky tannin common to sand — quite present and yet easy through the mouth.

Murphy and Cronje also like the perfume and spice arising from whole cluster fermentation. Whole cluster tends to increase tannin level in wines but Presqu’ile’s come in graceful. Tasting through their reds, it’s clear the whole cluster works well alongside the almost-jalapeno-Mexican-food spice common to fruit from Santa Maria Valley.

Dieter Cronje, Presqu’ile Winemaker, Jan 2014

We’re tasting through the current portfolio, Matt Murphy, Dieter Cronje and I. When we reach the Pinots I comment on the tannin, asking Dieter to discuss his technique. He explains, “When it comes to reds we keep the focus on temperature and alcohol for tannin management.” By keeping the fermentation a little cooler, the fermentation is more likely to stroll than race.

He continues, “Sluggish [fermentation] can be okay, just as long as it doesn’t start oxidizing. As long as it’s still producing CO2 it’s protecting the fruit and not extracting as much tannin.” Thanks to the slower fermentation, the wine is less extracted in the end, keeping the tannin, in Cronje’s view, more balanced in the final wine.

Cronje also commits to ambient yeast, not inoculating the Presqu’ile wines, as he believes it’s the best means to express the vineyard, rather than the flavors of a produced strain. In the winery, the team experiments a little with fermentation and aging vessel. Their focus remains primarily in neutral barrel and cement, but they also put a bit of fruit in other vessels to see how their site expresses itself.

Matt Murphy guiding us through the Presqu’ile Winery as its being built, Jan 2013

Presqu’ile’s first vintage comes from 2008. Murphy and Cronje had worked harvest together for another winery in Santa Barbara County and hit it off, discovering similar commitments in wine quality. They decided to try their hand at making wine together, before then launching into the full portfolio project of Presqu’ile in 2009.

We’re able to taste their first wine — a Sauvignon Blanc from 100% White Hills Vineyard fruit that gives nutty aromatics accented by dried lemon peel. Murphy is excited to pour it. “This wine was about us working with whatever we had at the time — one square stainless steel tank, and a kiwi in the winery,” referring to Cronje. They both nod and smile.

The Presqu’ile project is finally old enough that the team is able to see how the wines are aging. Age worthiness is a primary goal. They see the 2008 as encouraging. The 2009s also show the character of the Presqu’ile site, as 10 acres near the front of the property were planted in 1999.

Anna Murphy’s Santa Maria Valley bug collection, Jan 2014

For the Murphy family, the choice to make wine originates with Matt but the project has become a family commitment. After falling in love with wine, Matt traveled to Santa Barbara County to work harvest, also meeting Cronje as a result.

When the family realized it wanted to invest in vineyards, and build a winery they considered sites in Oregon and throughout California but Matt’s heart found itself in Santa Maria Valley Pinot. So the family stayed.

Asking Matt what about Santa Maria Valley speaks to him, he describes the floral-to-fruit expression coupled with the Valley spice, and the “light on its feet” tannin given by the sand. Cronje shares his view. The Valley also likes to offer tension that keep finesse through the wines. The pair’s portfolio shows this.

Today, Jonathan Murphy, brother to Matt, works as assistant winemaker of Presqu’ile, coming into the project in its first full portfolio year of 2009. Sister Anna Murphy works in the cellar, and runs the winery lab, collecting Santa Maria Valley bugs that find their way into the winery on a small cork board to the side of her desk (it’s a charming collection. I had to take a picture.).

As of 2013, Presqu’ile primarily uses estate-only fruit from its Santa Maria Valley property. In previous years, their whites also used Riverbench Vineyard, and White Hills Vineyard fruit. The Santa Maria Valley Pinot also draws from Bien Nacido, and Solomon Hills Vineyards. From outside Santa Maria Valley, Presqu’ile makes one Pinot Noir from the Rim Rock Vineyard, a unique site North of the Valley growing only 2 acres of Pinot Noir that goes entirely to Murphy and Cronje. The Presqu’ile Vineyard, and Rim Rock Vineyard Pinot Noirs are my favorite.

***

Presqu’ile Wines made what will be 7000 cases for 2013. They are available through their website and as of 2012 have national distribution.

http://www.presquilewine.com/Wines

***

Thank you to Matt Murphy and Dieter Cronje for making time to see me. Have a great trip!

Thank you to Sao Anash.

Happy 2014, Everyone! I hope you have started a smooth and rewarding New Year!

Flowing in Gratitude for 2013: Time to take a break

Hawk Wakawaka

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Dec 11, 2013

10

Moments from 2013 in Photos

It’s overwhelming to look back through the mass of photos, and stack of wine interview/tasting notebooks I developed in the 2013 calendar year. I can’t say clearly enough how grateful I am.

I went through the photos I’ve taken, and picked a few images to highlight moments from the year. It reminded me how important it is to look back just for a sense of perspective. I didn’t realize how much I’d done until I took the time to consider it.

Here are a few photos. It was hard to choose.

Visiting with Carole Meredith and Stephen Lagier of Lagier-Meredith, aka SCIENTIST LEGEND and SYRAH MASTER (I’m realizing I should send them capes)

Touring the Sta Rita Hills as part of two weeks devoted to Santa Barbara County wine, here one of the dogs of Pence Ranch.

Standing in front of the Southern Ocean while traveling Victoria, Australia

Watching my brother-in-law run the Napa Valley Marathon. So proud of him.

Visiting the iconic, old vine, elevation Monte Rosso Vineyard with Morgan Twain-Peterson and Carla Rzeszewski

the aftermath of an excellent afternoon with Smith-Madrone

Ryan Glaab, Hardy Wallace, and Pax Mahle before the 7 Percent Solution Tasting

Spending time in the Santa Cruz Mountains, here with the gang at Fogarty Vineyards

My label for the Australian wine, Between Five Bells H-Cote Blend, shown here as it wraps the bottle–It was even selected as “Beautiful Thing for the Week” by Australia’s Wine Business Magazine. Custom wall pieces of my drawings also went up in the new wine room of the Villandry Restaurant in London, and in multiple homes and tasting rooms in the United States, and I got to illustrate for a few different magazines and wine programs, including Serious Eats, and Le Metro.

Visiting Lodi over several trips in both Summer and Fall, here in the Peninsula of Mokelumne River AVA with Tegan Passalacqua

Spending time in people’s homes sharing wine, heritage, and interviews, here with Ron Silva as he prepares Portuguese food for dinner, Alta Mesa AVA

Exploring old vine vineyards with the Perlegos brothers, Clements Hills AVA

Meeting the goats at La Clarine Farm with Hank Beckmeyer

Touring through various El Dorado Vineyards with Chris Pittenger and Hardy Wallace

Visiting with dear friends in Willamette Valley, Oregon, here Remy Drabkin and Lisa Shara Hall

Celebrating my parents’ 50th Wedding Anniversary

Tasting through the complete history of winemaking from newer labels of California, here Evan Frazier of Ferdinand

Keeping up with ongoing stories in Napa wine, here Matthew Rorick harvesting his St Laurent from Carneros

Tasting and Touring the Languedoc, lunch floating the canal du Midi from Carcassonne

Visiting Valdobbiadene, and the hills of the Prosecco DOCG, here with Silvia, Primo, and Annalisa Franco of Nino Franco

Traveling Northern Italy with friends, here with Jeremy Parzen in Venice

Tasting and Driving through Chilean wine from Santiago, the Holy Virgin at the top of San Cristobal Hill

Studying and Touring Wines of Mendoza, Argentina along the foot of the Andes

***

I have so much to write still. My stack of notebooks from the last year is over 10 inches high. This month still I have a number of illustrations and wall pieces, plus a couple of labels to do, and freelance articles to write, along with tastings and interviews with winemakers. My plate is full. I am so grateful. I am also tired.

To celebrate I’ve decided to take the rest of the year off from posting on this blog. I’ll be catching up on tons of work off blog. Also, it’s time to rejuvenate through the dark month, and come back in the new year refreshed and excited again for work.

Looking forward to seeing you here just after the new year. In the meantime, feel free to email me, as always, or find me on Twitter or Facebook.

Enjoy a wonderful remainder of December, and the holidays. Thankful with all my heart.

An Early Tasting of Matthiasson 2011 Vermouth

Hawk Wakawaka

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Dec 9, 2013

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Matthiasson 2011 Napa Valley Vermouth

It isn’t everyday you get to sip a vineyard designate Vermouth. The Matthiassons are getting ready to release their first–a 2011 Flora based Vermouth from the Yount Mill Vineyard.

Flora stands as one of California’s unique varieties, designed in 1938 at a California based agricultural research facility as a cross between Semillon and Gewurtztraminer. The result gives a heady earth-spice to a lushly slick-bodied grape.

The Matthiassons chose Flora as the base for their dry Vermouth, generating the floral spice component on the nose followed by a savory (hinting at exotic) earth spice on the palate. The contrast between aroma and flavor on this Vermouth is part of its interest.

click on illustration to enlarge

The Matthiasson 2011 Napa Valley Yount Mill Vineyard Vermouth opens with a pretty nose of orchard fruit verging into erotic edges of floral spice and lift. The palate turns to show a savory spice and curved back of flavor with a medium long finish.

The Vermouth gives a rich caramel color in the glass generated from fermenting Flora on skins. This Matthiasson Vermouth is a celebration of Autumn as it rolls into cooler evenings. Enjoy it as a sipping drink on your own or even better with friends.

***

The Matthiassons are getting ready to release their 2011 Vermouth in the next few weeks. Keep an eye out for it on their website here: http://www.matthiasson.com/Purchase-Wine/Current-Offerings

Luminous Austerity: the High Altitude Chardonnays of Catena Zapata

Hawk Wakawaka

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Dec 6, 2013

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Drinking White Stone and White Bones Chardonnay

The light hugged up against the Andes in the Gualtallary zone of the Uco Valley glows. The atmosphere is thin at such high elevation. It pinches to breathe. The intensity of sunlight changes, comes less filtered from less air, literally more radiation, or ultraviolet reaching the surface of the earth. The air itself shows luminous.

At the Western-most edge, the Adrianna Vineyard pushes through sand and lime into a nest of seashell laden, fossilized white stones. Roots of chardonnay wrestle for water here, the vines surrounded by stark temperatures of the highland plateau.

The thought of an old seabed at 4800 feet/1450 meters stuns me–the white, fist-size rocks full of ocean evidence. We are standing at the foot of the Andes in luminous light, surrounded by stark landscape in air so thin it hurts to breathe–standing on ground the result of missing water.

the Andes through White Stones Chardonnay

Catena Zapata White Stones and White Bones Chardonnays originate as two separate block designates in the Adrianna Vineyard. Further East, the White Stones block riddles through with rounded white stones bringing calcium concentration to the already limestone rich plot. 400-yards West, the White Bones block rushes with fossilized seashells. Between, a meter deep well of sand separates the two.

We visit the high-elevation vineyard standing beside holes dug in between the vines as soil studies to view the distinctions between the multiple blocks. Then we move to the side and taste the wines.

Catena Zapata’s high elevation chardonnays deliver a taste of their mountains’ luminous austerity. The flavor presentations beautifully confuse, giving simultaneously a sense of delicacy and richness. Where the White Stones offers intense, lean mineral texture, the White Bones layers an additional viscosity of floral flavor. Both carry a structural core of energetic strength with juiciness, enough to stand up to foods unexpected for Chardonnay–spiced meats, empanadas, even espresso I discover when I taste the wines again later.

The 2009s showcase the lean high-elevation focus of whites grown in such a unique zone. Comparing them to the 2010s, however, highlights the additional softening (though slight–these wines are not in themselves soft) and flavor of an extra vintage. The 2010s come in right now more clear and focused by comparison. All four of these wines–two Chardonnays in two vintages–offer beautiful focus with presence that is thrilling.

***

2010 is the current release vintage of both Chardonnays. Some 2009s are still available in the US market.

Thank you to Laura Catena, David Greenberg, and Marilyn Krieger.

Thank you to Mary Orlin, Mary Gorman-McAdams, Kelly Magyrics, and Alyssa Vitrano.

For distribution information: http://www.catenawines.com/eng/locate/north-america.html

Listening to Nicolas and Elena Catena, Catena Zapata Wines

Hawk Wakawaka

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Dec 5, 2013

1

Talking with Nicolas and Elena Catena

Our last day in Argentina we were able to spend the afternoon lunching with Nicolas and Elena Catena, of Bodega Catena Zapata. The couple helped bring Argentine wine into the International market over the last several decades, opening the door for other producers of wines from Argentina to enter the United States as well.

Catena Zapata began originally with Nicolas’s grandfather Nicola who moved to Argentina from Italy in the late 1800s. The opportunity for shifting varietal and quality focus in Argentina has greatly increased these three generations since the project began.

In taking over the company, Nicolas has been dedicated, along with his daughter Laura, to raising the focus on quality and understanding terroir. The level of influence that Nicolas Catena has carried in Argentine wine can readily be compared to that of Robert Mondavi in California. Catena in fact names Mondavi as one of his inspirations. Meeting Nicolas and Elena Catena to share in food and conversation was a genuine honor.

When talking with some people the level of experience they carry shows finely distilled through the insights they share in conversation. In such instances, I prefer to present a transcript of the conversation, rather than an article on their work–especially in a case like the Catenas, where much has been written on them already. With that in mind, following are some of the stories and insights Nicolas and Elena shared with us.

Nicolas and Elena Catena, October 2013, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Over lunch we enjoy several wines that the group had named as favorites earlier in the trip–a 2004 Nicolas Catena Zapata Malbec, a 2001 Nicolas Catena Zapata (Bordeaux blend), and a 2009 White Bones (high elevation) Chardonnay. Sitting beside Nicolas during lunch, I turn to thank him for sharing these wines. Our conversation begins.

“We have been thinking, the wine has been so well received in the American market that we say thank you.” The conversation opens up to the rest of the table.

“With my father, there was this idea. It has been like there were two different wines [in the world], the French, and everything else. You remember the famous tasting in France when the American challenged the French. For my father, American wine winning was a shock, and also for me because my wine education came from my father. We had an inferiority complex until that moment.

So, for me, my inspiration was not Europe, but California. California in the 1970s and early 1980s, when they were trying to do wine like the French. I remember when I met Robert Mondavi he told me he was trying to do what the French do.

“I used to visit California in the 1970s. In 1980, I was a visiting professor at UC Berkeley in Economics. So, our first weekend was visiting Napa. The first winery we visited in Napa with Elena was Robert Mondavi. We went just as tourists. I was really surprised by the flavor. That started to change my perception. I was accustomed to French and Italian wines. I had never had a California wine of high quality before.

“After that I met Robert Mondavi. He was such a nice person he would answer every question. It was different than visiting France. He would tell us exactly what he did to make the wine.

“Elena and I decided to do something different in Argentina after those three years in California. Our youngest daughter, Adrianna, was born there. So, when we started this new project for Argentina for our own winery, our inspiration was California. The meaning of that was we started planting Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon in Mendoza. Until that moment these varieties were only a little bit in Mendoza. The most important variety in my family [before that] was Malbec for red and Riesling for white.

“We came to the conclusion that it was about the micro-climates we were planting in to produce quality Malbec, to produce the best with French expression. So, we decided to plant in a place with lower temperatures to produce the best expression. We decided we would plant at the limit.”

The Catena’s were the first to plant at over 5000 ft elevation in the far Western portions of Mendoza at the foot of the Andes. Today the zone is recognized as producing some of the highest quality fruit for the country, and many other producers have followed suit, planting on the same plateau but East of the Catena’s vineyards.

“Everyone told me I was crazy, that the grapes would not ripen, that there would be frost. And it paid off because today we think that the best expression comes from this altitude. When we went up there and began planting, we were simply looking for lower temperatures but finally we discovered there was a factor there we had not considered–sunlight intensity.

“Such intensity [due to the change in atmosphere and decrease in UV protection at higher elevations] seems to be relevant for flavor expression of anything you plant at high elevations. At that altitude, the radiation, the UV-B, seems to be really high and deepening flavor expression. We are in the process of discovering how this works. What I can say is that wines coming from this place are really different in this micro-climate from temperature, radiation, and elevation, and they should be different.”

Nicolas and Elena’s daughter, Laura Catena, helped instigate an elevation and UV-index study looking at the impact of UV intensity differences on grape development, and variety. The winery now supports a research institute also in partnership with UC Davis looking specifically at Malbec. I will write more about Laura’s work, and the research institute in a future post.

Each of us in the group are asked to speak to our last day in Argentina, what we have learned and what we have seen. Mary Gorman-McAdams MW speaks of the light, and landscape of Mendoza, Argentina. “The light reflecting in the Andes, in the snow, that purity, that freshness, now I know that is what I am tasting in the glass. The altitude is such an important part of the terroir here.” She explains. “It plays such a role in the longevity, the complexity of the wines.”

Nicolas smiles and responds. “Thank you for your comments. Yes.” Some of the other comments have considered success and work ethic. Nicolas speaks again. “For me, the most important factor influencing success is luck. Niccolo Machiavelli said, success can be explained half by luck, half by virtue. Virtue for Machiavelli means the capacity to do a lot very efficiently. Joe Gallo responded, ‘I disagree with Machiavelli–luck is 80%.’ At this moment, I think maybe, I agree with Joe Gallo. Luck is a very important factor. Today, right now, I have decided. I agree with him.”

Mary responds, “I would think a person would have to position themselves to take advantage of their luck.”

Nicolas pauses for a moment, then responds. “I received really the education, the culture of an Italian family. I started working at the winery, and I had to work from the age of seven. I took care of the chickens, and a rabbit at first.”

From across the way Elena hears this and nods. “Yes, he grew his own.”

Nicolas continues, “It was an obligation. I had to do it. After going to school in the afternoon I had particular tasks I had to do. By eleven years old I did everything at the winery. That was the Italian education, the culture it brought to Argentina. The working culture.

Elena responds. “Recently we went to Piemonte, staying in an agriturismo [housing at a winery]. We were impressed by the working culture. They told us that due to the economic crisis there they have gone back to the old ways. They have many generations living together. They made us dinner one night. You walk into that humble house and you have a professional kitchen, making pasta by hand for the whole house. There was grandfather with the baby, and a whole lot of generations, and each one doing an aspect of the over all job.”

The speeches continue. Some are emotional. I speak of my family in Alaska, and the intensive work ethic they have. I explain that whatever I do I give thanks to my family, and that I see the Catena’s incredible work ethic, and how they honor their previous generations too.

After the speeches, Elena responds briefly to say thank you for what we shared. “If a person does not drink wine, you cannot trust them because if you drink wine, you may show your heart.” She tells us smiling.

People begin talking in smaller groups. Nicolas and I speak together first about my childhood commercial fishing in Alaska. Remarkably, they have a friend from Alaska living in Buenos Aires. He thanks me for telling him about my family. I ask him about his.

“I received an education very much like you describe.” Nicolas is referring to my growing up commercial fishing from the age of nine. As he continues, he reflects on his own childhood work, commenting on the challenge of it frankly, but not begrudgingly. “Still to this day I cannot answer why I had to work so hard. My family had money but I had to learn the work of 80 people. I learned the work of everything in the vineyard and the winery.”

He then responds to my comment about thanks and family relationships by reflecting on his own. “Originally, I was very young, my vocation was to study theoretical physics. I would have left the country to go further in physics. It is very close to philosophy, dealing with ideas. Then my mother died in a car accident and for my father it was very hard. I decided to stay with him. So, my vocation became economics, but mathematical economics, which is very abstract. I have no regrets because that is life.

“I meant what I said about luck and Niccolo Machiavelli, not just as an idea, as a practical reality too. That’s life. Growing up I had to study the intellectual in the morning at school, and the practical in the afternoon at the winery and vineyard. Also, I think, we do things for the love of our parents. It is like this. We do something important also to make our father happy.”

***

Thank you to Nicolas and Elena Catena.

Thank you to Marilyn Krieger and David Greenberg.

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