Hawk Wakawaka Wine Reviews

Monday Morning Cartoons (No school today): The Scratch + Sniff Guide to Becoming a Wine Expert, a Book Review

Book, Film, App Review

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Nov 11, 2013

Scratching and Sniffing with Jr

It’s not everyday you can read wine books with your kid, not to mention reading wine books first thing in the morning instead of watching cartoons. So, I decided to test out Richard Betts’s new book, The Essential Scratch and Sniff Guide to Becoming a Wine Expert, by reading it side by side with Jr.

Richard Betts has created what he calls “a kid-style book about an adult topic” relying too on spirited illustrations by Wendy MacNaughton, and the design talents of Crystal English Sacca. The book’s approach gives a fun board book layout, complete with faux mirror at the start (for intensive wine study self-examination), actual scratch and sniff circles along the way, and a pull out wine chart at the back.

Even with its playful style (that is, don’t let the playful approach fool you), the book really does offer actual insight into the form that scents and flavors take in wine, including hints at varietal character, terroir, flaws, oak, and winemaking effects. By the end of the text, a dedicated reader with actual wines in hand for practice, can use the Scratch & Sniff‘s format to investigate basic varietal distinctions in wine, as well as essential Old World/New World type casting. It’s a fun process for learning solid wine basics across a vast field of styles and types. In other words, it’s a format you could use to enter into studying wine, or a book you could enjoy for loving wine more.

What the book doesn’t get into is structural components like tannins and acids, but considering the olfactory thematic of the book, that makes sense. It’s hard to scratch and sniff mouthfeel. This is a great gift for your friends that like wine, and are curious but find learning about it intimidating.

In other words, back to Jr. A teenager is a classic “why would I want to do what geeky mom likes to do?” sort of example of how well a wine book plays off outside the wine geek realm.

She’s had to suffer through visiting (not that many but a few top notch) vineyards and wineries, tasting historic wines when I come upon them (including the reasons she should be recording that palate experience in her memory), and even doing (wine) acid tastings to learn the distinctions between tartaric and malic acids. (It ruined her experience with hard candies for a little while.) All that said, she also finds wine boring.

So, what did Jr have to say about The Essential Scratch & Sniff Guide to Becoming a Wine Expert?

From a teenage point of view, she gives Scratch & Sniff the highest compliment. That is, she actually picked it up again for the several-ith time to do this review, and spent a whole lot of time looking through the book repeatedly as well.

Here’s our conversation.

from left: Me, Jr, in our robes in the morning

Jr: Mom, of course books on wine aren’t going to be very interesting for someone who cannot enjoy wine, such as a teenager like myself…

Hawk: Wait, can you say more about why as a teenager you can’t enjoy it?

Jr: Because, like, I can’t enjoy it yet, because, um, (laughing) my mouth has not matured to the point where, like, I can fully appreciate it, you know?, although this book’s creative presentation and approach is fun to look at, play with, and see because it has fun comics and it’s interesting to scratch and sniff different things in the book… (turning pages) Like, bacon!

Hawk: But there’s no bacon in there!

Jr: Yeah, there is! Mom! It’s right there!

Hawk: Whoa.

Jr: Wait. I can’t smell it. I can’t smell the bacon.

Hawk: Let me smell. Oh! I can smell it. But it does smell almost like chocolate. I like chocolate. Huh. That’s one of the few pages that has more than one smelly thing on it.

Jr: Nah ahh! You just haven’t been looking closely enough. (smells another page)You gotta full-on feel the whole page to find it. Wait, why do you want me to just rub the smell circles, instead of scratch them?

Hawk: Because then they’ll last longer.

Jr: What? Oh. Does it make the smell go away less?

Hawk: Yeah, it wears off slower that way. I grew up on Scratch & Sniff books. Did you know there used to be a whole world of Scratch & Sniff books?

Jr: (Quietly) No. (Sighs, and cuddles up.)

Hawk: Does it make you sad?

Jr: Yeah.

Hawk: Do you want people to make more Scratch & Sniff books?

Jr: Yeah.

Hawk: Would it help you to smell the cherries again?

Jr: I didn’t see any cherries. What cherries? (looking back through the book again)

Hawk: Yeah! There’s a red AND a black cherry, and they smell different.

Jr: Oh! I like how the black cherry smells better than the red. Oh! There’s even vanilla! Yeah, I like that one, the vanilla.

Jr reading about “other” (not earth, fruit, or wood) scents to me

Hawk: So, you know more than the average U.S. teenager on wine…

Jr: Well, duh, Mom! My mom is a wine writer! (flipping through the book) I wanna know what butter smells like. (scratches the book) Oh! The grass smells good! Wait, why doesn’t the wet dog, or the wet newspaper have one? That would be fun.

Hawk: Okay, but you know more than the average teenager about wine. So, can you tell me reading this book, what you still learn about wine that you didn’t know before?

Jr: No. No I can’t. (laughing)

Hawk: If you spend a little more time with the book I think you could.

Jr: No! I was joking, Mom! …So, just talk about stuff I didn’t know?

Hawk: Yeah.

Jr: I didn’t know there were so many white wines. I knew what the red wines were. But some of the white wines, I didn’t even know how to say, and they were weird to me. Also, I like how they were talking about how not all oaks are created equal, because I really like that picture, and I think it’s a good way to approach it and it helped me put my mind around that a little more.

Hawk: Around what?

Jr: How different oaks are. See? This is the French one right here (pointing to the illustration of an oak barrel in a beret, next to another oak barrel in a cowboy hat)

Hawk: Ah-hoh-hoh! (feigning ridiculous French accent and eyebrow raise)

Jr: Yes. Yes. Okay. The French one–cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, toast–but if you add dill and coconut to all that, then it’s American. See that? Yee haw! American! It’s about oak!

She’s sniffing red, I’m sniffing black cherry

Hawk: Anything you wish was in the book?

Jr: Yeah! I wish it had a scent for wet dog and/or wet newspaper! I also wish it had a scent for burnt rubber. I think it would have been cool if on the last page there had been a whole page to just smell all the white wines and all the red wines and you would smell them and identify everything and see what you learned. Then on the next page it would say what most people identify in the wines, you know, like wine descriptions.

Hawk: But isn’t that a lot of wines? What if you just had actual wine next to you instead?

Jr: I don’t mean like every single wine. I just mean, like, how it talks about Syrah, cause I like bacon, then you have a scratchy for Syrah.

Hawk: But there are so many kinds of Syrah, depending on vintage, and climate, and soil, and winemaker, that would be difficult to put into a book.

Jr: Oh shucks. Well, read this book, then instead of that last page you should just buy wine and sniff that instead. Go ahead, go get real wine! Test what you learned like that.

***

My copy of this book was received at a book release party hosted by the creators of the book, and Cartograph Wines.

For NPR’s look: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/10/17/236160686/scratch-n-sniff-your-way-to-wine-expertise-or-at-least-more-fun

For Brain Picking’s review: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/10/15/scratch-and-sniff-guide-to-becoming-a-wine-expert/

For sample pages and more on where to purchase: http://myessentialwine.com/book/

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The Essential Scratch & Sniff Guide to Becoming a Wine ExpertRichard Betts
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co
22 pages
$19.99

***

Thank you to Richard Betts, Wendy MacNaughton, Crystal English Sacca, and Chris Sacca.

Thank you to Alan Baker and Serena Lourie.

Thank you to Carla Rzeszewski.

Thank you to Jr.

The People of La Paulee: Off-Grid SF, and La Paulee de San Francisco 2014

Events

Hawk Wakawaka

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Nov 8, 2013

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Drinking in La Paulée Off-Grid, SF

Wednesday, I was lucky enough to attend the La Paulée Off-Grid tasting in San Francisco, organized by the inimitable trio, Daniel Johnnes, Patrick Cappiello, and Josiah Baldivino, and sponsored by the American Express Invitation Only program. The tasting included wines of Burgundy selected by some of San Francisco’s top sommeliers. Some favorites from San Francisco’s food scene were also present with fine foods from The Slanted Door, and Piperade, cheeses and charcuterie from Andante Dairy, and Del Monte Meat Co, and breads from Bar Tartine.

Today, La Paulée launches the program for La Paulée de San Francisco happening March 12-15, 2014. The occasion will include the celebrated Burgundy Week as well, with restaurants and shops in both NYC and San Francisco participating.

The La Paulée celebration began thanks to the work of Daniel Johnnes, a James Beard Award Winner for Outstanding Wine & Spirits Professional, and Wine Director for Daniel Boulud’s Dinex Group. Johnnes started La Paulée de New York in the year 2000 out of his appreciation for the original La Paulée celebrations in Burgundy. The tradition there began as a community event bringing together winemakers, vineyard workers, and family with the wines of the region, and food of the harvest. The event has since expanded to other cities throughout the United States, with an annual rotation of San Francisco, and New York alternating hosting privileges for the large annual festival. La Paulée de New York, and de San Francisco have reached iconic status with the best sommeliers of both cities serving some of the stars of Burgundy. Robert Parker described it as “the tasting/dinner of a lifetime.”

from left: Josiah Baldivino, Daniel Johnnes, Patrick Cappiello

The Off-Grid tasting is designed to bring to the fore the community spirit of the original La Paulée, as well as give a teaser to get people excited for the Winter festivities. Patrick Cappiello has been working with La Paulée almost since its inception, and now serves as Chef Sommelier, also helping select the rest of the sommelier team for La Paulée de New York. As Cappiello explained, With the Off-Grid tasting, “we wanted to design a more inclusive event. Burgundy can be thought of as exclusive, but there is enough Burgundy for everybody.”

Josiah Baldivino, of Michael Mina, worked with Daniel Johnnes at Bar Boulud in New York before moving to San Francisco. In focusing on the West Coast festivities, then, Johnnes and Cappiello chose Baldivino to select sommeliers. “Josiah has been a real asset. He knows the local [SF] community, and has been working with La Paulée for several years. We wanted to tap into talent here, so we’ve relied on Josiah both for his palate and his relationships with people.” Johnnes explained.

Baldivino flashing the sign for West Coast Represent (that also confusingly looks East Coast–well played, Baldivino. Well played.) w Johnnes and Cappiello–I love the playfulness and mutual regard that shows in this photo

Towards these ends, Baldivino selected some of the best sommeliers in San Francisco to design the Off-Grid tasting. Each was assigned a region of Burgundy, including Beaujolais, and Chablis, and asked to select 10-12 bottles celebrating a more affordable price range of wines available through distribution in San Francisco.

For Baldivino, La Paulée Off-Grid has been especially fun to help organize thanks both to the enthusiasm of everyone working the event, and the selection of wines they chose. As Baldivino describes, the tasting offered wines that “are affordable, really good, and from off the beaten path. They’re wines any of us pouring would actually drink at home ourselves.” The list, then, serves as a guide to some of the best approachable, and intriguing wines of one of the most celebrated regions in the world of wine.

Stevie Stacionis

Stevie Stacionis, Director of Communications for Corkbuzz Wine Studio in New York City, was selected for the Off-Grid tasting as the sommelier in charge of presenting the Côte de Nuits. As part of the overall program, sommeliers were asked to choose two favorites to present in Sommelier Corner. There Stacionis discussed her appreciation for Régis Bouvier’s 2011 Marsannay, and Frédéric Magnien’s Côte de Nuits-Village 2010 Croix Violette. Listening to Stacionis, it’s clear that stories behind the people, and their regions are part of what Stacionis loves about wine.

After, I ask her to talk to me about her experience selecting wines for the event. “It was a lot of fun getting to think through how to show the range of styles and potential of the area, the Côte de Nuits.” She tells me. As part of the Côte de Or, the limestone ridge that runs through Burgundy, the Côte de Nuits is a well-known wine-producing region. She continues. “The Côte de Nuits is a region that everyone knows. It’s pretty cool to get to ask myself, how do I pick wines that are not obvious, and also pick from areas of it that are lesser known and really high quality.”

Asking Johnnes about what he most enjoys in developing La Paulée, he mentions the people involved. “It is a real honor to see how much time people put in to study these wines for a small three-hour event. It is touching to see them making that kind of commitment.”

***

To view the just announced La Paulee de San Francisco 2014 program: http://lapaulee.com/programs_tickets.php

To read up on Burgundy Week: http://lapaulee.com/burgundyweek

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Thank you to Daniel Johnnes, Patrick Cappiello, and Josiah Baldivino.

Thank you to Stevie Stacionis.

Thank you to Jessica Saraniero, and Alyssa Vitrano.

Thank you to the American Express Invitation Only program.

Cowan Cellars Wines, the current portfolio

Hawk Wakawaka

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Nov 6, 2013

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Tasting Cowan Cellars

Over lunch a couple weeks ago I was able to taste through the current portfolio of Cowan Cellars’ wines with Jim Cowan, and his wife Diane Arthur. The couple spend harvest and Fall in Sonoma, then travel East in winter to be closer to family.

Jim Cowan’s route to winemaking began circuitously via online friendships with wine lovers. Then in 2006, in the midst of a visit in Sonoma, Cowan discovered Steve Edmunds needed help making wine at Edmunds St John winery and found himself working the cellar alongside an icon of California wine. The experience helped Cowan realize he could begin making his own wine. With surprise connections to vineyards and fruit along the way, and help from friends in finding harvest housing, Jim and Diane credit synchronicity and their friendships for finding their way into wine.

Following are notes via drawing and text on the current portfolio.

click on illustration to enlarge

Cowan Cellars portfolio of wines carries crisp, clean fruit with floral under currents expressed in taut structural focus. Where the saigneé of Pinot Noir softens the mouth feel, it focuses the fresh herbal lift, and keeps the juicy length. It’s a crisp, fun, tasty focus for rosé. As the Sauvignon Blanc dances in layers of tropical forest, white grapefruit with citrus blossom, and faint back hints of crisp quince without sweetness, it spins up the juicy tension, giving a clean, lean focus white.

The two skin contact wines — a Ribolla Gialla from Russian River Valley’s Tanya Vineyard, and a Sauvignon Blanc named Isa, heralding from Lake County fruit — are both beautifully balanced giving the textural interest and lengthening sapidity that can come with macerated ferments, while lightening the touch enough to make the style approachable and pleasing. The flavors and aromatics in both lend themselves to savory Fall foods, and invite Thanksgiving considerations (especially on the Isa).

Turning to the reds, the Pinot Noir takes a red currant herbal element alongside notes of feral forest floor and hints of bay leaf to give a clean wine with nice tension. The two Syrah vintages we tasted generate the most excitement in me. I’m a sucker for a good Syrah, and these give genuine vintage contrast not only arising from age differences that show in young Syrah. The 2010 is nicely open and ready to drink now with blue violet notes throughout, a pleasing spritz of feral musk, and the deepening aspects of cooler Syrah tension — tobacco, touches of tar, and a chocolate finish. The 2011 comes in tighter right now, opening with air in the glass to dark fruit way in the finish after more lifted aspects of tobacco flower, jalapeno spice hints, cocoa powder and red dust accents. I’m digging the length.

Each of these wines were tasted alongside food progressing through stages of a meal. These wines were a pleasure to enjoy with food.

***

Thank you to Jim and Diane.

Cowan Cellars wines are available here: http://cowancellars.com/wines/

To read more on Jim Cowan’s own account of how Cowan Cellars got started: http://blogs.gangofpour.com/cowan-cellars-beginnings

Wine in Context: The New California Wine, a book review

Hawk Wakawaka

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Nov 5, 2013

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Reading the New California Wine

A friend recently shared with me the lesson he’d learned from a high school literature teacher. It takes close to a lifetime to write a book. When you read what someone has written, you learn much of what they know.

Jon Bonné offers through his book, The New California Wine (released today), a generous portion of his knowledge of California, but what he gives is not mere information. Through an intricate inter-braiding of stories about Bonné’s own time with the new heroes of California wine, in depth historical information about how it has arrived at this point in time, and intimate revelations about both specific people and the difficulties of actual wine growing regions, Bonné invites his reader into what is essentially a California Wine Master Class with feeling.

Bonné’s writing here is at its best when he falls into intimacy with one of the people (both winemakers and viticulturists) he profiles in the book. His love for the subject shows in these moments. But his dedication to treating it seriously shows too when he dances out of the personal, and into an explanation of phylloxera’s impact on understanding California terroir, or the problems with Russian River Pinot Noir and soil, as examples. In this way, Bonné delivers his subject matter with a fine-tuned balance showing both the rigors of a true historical critic, and the intimacy of a friend of the industry. The book reaches up to a Master Class level when you realize it is written both for the reader wishing to be truly engrossed in California wine, and also with the understanding we’re all there to learn something. He fits in, for example, quick while adequate explanations of biodynamics, of rootstock types, of specific appellations, and more.

Though the aesthetics of a book’s design might seem extraneous as reviews so often focus on textual content, two elements of this side of the book’s production are relevant to mention. First of all, Bonné’s book is a pleasure to hold (a tactical reality that assists in its reading). It carries the size and weight of a publication you are meant to sit back and drink in. The simple structure of the book itself coupled with the gorgeous (and again intimate) photography provided by Erik Castro make it a pleasure to read. Secondly, however, is the form of Bonné’s writing itself.

In telling his story of California wine — both historic and present — Bonné chooses not exact chapters as much as a rolling of vignettes, given like the cantos of a long poem that when read in succession interweave to tell the full story. The approach releases the reader from the potential boredom of what could otherwise be seen as drier moments of historical information, or technical elements of wine. The approach also highlights what I believe to be part of Bonné’s larger view.

The figures he profiles, like Tegan Passalacqua, David Hirsch, Paul Draper, Angela Osborne, Stephy Terrizzi and so many others, are heroes of a modern age. In an era of unabashed desire to make big fruit to make big money, these people stay the course out of dedication to something more elusive and more valuable–a subtle exploration and discovery of genuine California terroir. The figures Bonné selects are not only the younger hip winemakers that have grabbed the focus of the New York wine industry, for example. He writes on the people that have kept attention on the question of terroir all along, some of whom are, importantly, the people winemakers depend upon — those making the fruit in a way that can support lean balance. By choosing the rolling vignettes style, each person Bonné writes about receives their own celebrated moment.

By the final section of the book, Bonné also gives an index of wines, grapes, and regions shown through with those same people we’ve come to know earlier in the text. The book, then, becomes a reference point for this moment in California wine history — not only those figures that champion the new style, but also the wines that reflect their expression of it. The text stands as useful now for finding the wines that fit into Bonné’s Master Class, but also useful for our future selves looking back to re-learn this period later. In other words, through his book, both its content and structure, Bonné is emphasizing what many of us are excited to witness and experience. We are living a crucial moment in California wine, the full direction of which we are all yet to discover.

It is in these ways Bonné gives to us not only insight into what he knows, but with it, his own genuine regard for the new California wine. His book stands as a testament of his belief for its future.

***
Thank you to Jon Bonné and Ten Speed Press for sending me an advanced copy of The New California Wine.

For a preview of the book, check out Bonné’s excerpts at SF Gate here: http://www.sfgate.com/wine/thirst/article/A-journey-to-find-California-wine-s-new-generation-4947651.php

For more information from the publisher, and an excerpt: http://crownpublishing.com/feature/the-new-california-wine/#.UngJXI3D9G8

For Andre Darlington’s insightful review of the book: http://andredarlington.com/?p=4059

For Fred Swans’s book review: http://norcalwine.com/blog/most-read-articles/9-book-review/824-review-new-california-wine-by-jon-bonne

***

The New California Wine, by Jon Bonné
304 pages, 50 full-color photographs
ISBN 978-1-60774-300-2
$35.00 paper over board

***

Generations of Gratefulness: Bringing my Family to South America

Hawk Wakawaka

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Nov 4, 2013

6

I was raised in a multi-generational family in which the strongest tradition is sharing what we appreciate, and what we have learned through stories about the history of our own and our family’s lives. In thanks for the people with whom I was able to travel Chile and Argentina, I share this story. Thank you.

***

Travel from Alaska to Argentina

I was six the first time my maternal Great Grandmother, Umma, left the state of Alaska. As a full Aleut, she’d lived her life on the Western coast in first one fishing village, and then another. The area is Russian Orthodox.

Orthodox priests were assigned regions to lead, rather than individual churches. Every few months the priest would arrive in a village, and the people would quickly get married, buried, and baptized. And confess.

Confessions occurred in the small church cabin painted with holy pictures, and maintained by my Great Grandfather. Inside, the village would gather, most standing except for seats for the elder women. My Umma would sit through the service, as I stood behind her, my hands crossed on her right shoulder.

Villagers would wait through incense and prayers, blessings till time for confession, then stand in a line to speak to the priest. But first the priest would cross to the front to give communion to Umma where she sat, then return to the back to receive all the others.

Confessions in Orthodox tradition occur in full view, rather than to the side in a small box of a room. After the people proceeded past the priest at the back of the church they would continue in a circle around the sides, kissing holy pictures, till they met Umma. Then the villagers would stand and wait to greet and kiss her too. Sometimes they would also bless me. She was an elder of the community. As her great grandchild, I received honor from her too. It was a blessing I carried with me by being her relation.

My mother was the oldest of her family. She was raised by her grandparents, while also close to her parents. It was partially tradition of staying close to her elders, partially particulars of their own family.

As the story was told, when still young enough to walk to the back of the church, Umma met with the priest. My mom was still little. He said to my Great Grandmother, “someday this one will take you much farther than you’ve ever expected.” Our trip out-of-state was the journey.

Our entire family traveled together landing in Seattle, then driving to Oregon to my Aunty for Easter. I sat in the back, on the edge of the seat between my great grandparents on one side, my middle sister on the other. In the front, my parents and oldest sister rode. On the drive we would come around corners and discover another tall building, or a greater expanse through the trees. Umma would grab my back, squeeze, and whisper, Aling-na! her surprise for everything new that greeted her. On our arrival in Oregon we shared a bedroom. She told me the story for the first time of how the priest had predicted our travel.

She told me too how after I was born she would look at me and smile, then say to my mom, I don’t know where that one came from. It was her way to say too she didn’t know how far I would go.

My parents were both raised in coastal villages. My father, Inupiat, originates further North. Their home regions were small enough both chose to board elsewhere in the state for high school. For university they studied in Fairbanks, where finally they met and decided to marry. Both remained close to their extended families but in having children they made a choice to raise their daughters outside their villages. We spent winters in Anchorage attending a mainstream school, summers on the Western coast commercial fishing with our Native family.

My parents’ wish for their children was for us to be clearly based in our Native heritage while capable of asking only what it was we wanted to do, without question of if we could do it. A life migrating between Anchorage for school in the winters, and the coast for work in the summers was part of that.

Reflecting on my recent trip to South America, I find myself overwhelmed by generations of gift. I am the only member of my family, besides my daughter, that no longer lives in Alaska. My sisters are both quite accomplished but have chosen to live their lives there in the state of our birth. In this way, I stand both as a fulfillment of my parents’ wish that we succeed in the broader world, and as the one who suffers an effect of that gift without family near by. Family for Native people is integral to who we are, and part of any accomplishment we keep. It is me that must do my work, but my family that has made that possible.

We departed Argentina recently on their mother’s day, a celebration in recognition of the generations of women that are family. Before leaving we shared lunch with Nicolas and Elena Catena. They are two people that, like Robert Mondavi for California wine, helped carry Argentine wine into the greater international presence it has today. Spending time with them was an honor.

We were asked, each of us, to speak to what we learned in tasting wine in Argentina. Alyssa Vitrano began by realizing the parallels of her Italian heritage with that of many of the people in wine of Argentina. Mary Orlin, Kelly Magyarics, and Mary Gorman-McAdams spoke eloquently about the quality of the wines we’d tasted, and the intricacies of vineyards with landscape. We all mentioned the warmth of people that received us. When it came my turn to speak I was flooded with the voice of my Great Grandmother — her story from the priest and my birth. Sitting with such accomplished, warm-hearted people there in Argentina, my family’s wishes for me had sent me farther than I ever expected.

***
Thank you most especially to Marilyn Krieger and David Greenberg.

Thank you to Alfredo Bartholomaus, Alyssa Vitrano, Kelly Magyarics, Mary Orlin, and Mary Gorman-McAdams.

Thank you to Nicolas and Elena Catena.

Terroir, Viticulture, Harvest in the Languedoc: Checking in with Jean-Claude Mas

France

Hawk Wakawaka

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Nov 1, 2013

2

Talking with Jean-Claude Mas

Earlier this week I was able to have a Skype interview with winemaker Jean-Claude Mas to check-in on how harvest turned out this year in the Languedoc. We met earlier this Fall at his home in the Languedoc, where I was able to taste through the large collection of wines Mas makes through multiple labels organized under Domaines Paul Mas.

Today, Mas heads his family’s multi-generational winery, Domaines Paul Mas, named for his father, and led by Jean-Claude since 2000. Under Jean-Claude’s leadership the vineyard holdings have expanded to include sites within each of what Mas describes as the seven distinctive terroirs of the Languedoc–each demanding distinct vine, rootstock, and maintenance techniques.

Terroirs of the Languedoc

soil map of a small portion of the Languedoc

As Mas describes, distinctive terroirs within the Languedoc can be identified through the unique combination of the following factors: altitude, proximity to the sea, the major characteristics of the soil, the wind influence, and access to water.

Depending on the region of the Languedoc, the area expresses a massive range of soil types including heavy clay, heavy limestone, schist, a predominance of pebbles, alluvial sand, and granite. The province also experiences significant wind influence (considered the windiest region of France) blowing both from the mountains, and the Mediterranean. Elevations change significantly approaching the mountains to the West or North offering hillside planting, and flatten as one approaches the Sea.

One of Mas’s primary goals in identifying quality vineyard sites is to locate land that can sustain dry farming. As such, natural availability of water (or not) also stands as a primary influence for his assessment of unique terroir.

One of the gifts of the Languedoc, as Mas describes it, is the huge range of growing conditions all within one province. “We do not have any less restriction than places like Bordeaux or Burgundy” when it comes to growing and wine rules from the AOP and IGP, he explains. “But we have access to incredible terroir, so anything you want to do can be done if you pay attention.” You look for the site with the right combination of factors in which to plant what you’re hoping to grow.

Jean-Claude Mas, during our visit in the Languedoc, September 2013

Mas is a fascinating, sometimes intimidating figure. His own work ethic is so clear, and efficiently executed his presence triggers (in me, at least) a desire to work and perform at a higher level. In stepping into the lead position with Domaines Paul Mas, Jean-Claude has expanded the family’s project multi-fold, turning it from a primarily vineyard focused business to a vineyard and winery project with other aspects such as a new restaurant as well. He has also greatly expanded the vineyard holdings. The resulting volume that the company now produces is unusual for a family owned business in France.

I tell Mas I am impressed by how much he is able to manage and accomplish but also with how readily he can recall details of each of their vineyard sites. Domaines Paul Mas owns now 440 hectares of vineyard land, and works with 1120 contracted hectares, meaning they harvested 1560 hectares during the 2013 vintage. He’s developed a strong team, but stays connected to the goings-on throughout the company, and especially the vineyards.

It turns out, for Mas, his ability to manage such a wealth of information arises both from his own familiarity with the plants and climate of the area — he grew up working in vineyards with his father, feeling an affinity for the local flora — and his intensive internal organizational and problem solving abilities. The two together mean he tracks and utilizes information in his own head efficiently.

So how did harvest 2013 go in the Languedoc?

Harvest 2013 and Sustainable Viticulture

There were several incidents of heavy rain in vintage 2013. As Mas reports, in three months there were three incidents of rain lasting two days each, including just before harvest. Some wine producers panicked, as a result, fearing the potential mildew that easily comes with rain. Mas and his other winemakers discussed the best approach to the vines when these rains were on their way, and agreed it was better to wait till grapes were fully ready, rather than rush to pick in advance. Those vineyards that were well maintained, and that were picked with proper hang time (rather than out of fear of the rains) gave “very good to exceptional fruit.”

In the last year, Domaines Paul Mas purchased a new-to-them 100 ha property, which means they increased their overall yield significantly. At the same time, the average yield for 2013 was down 5%, in Mas’s case largely thanks to management choices to focus on quality and ripeness.

Mas reports that in the end the rains were positive. His healthiest vineyards showed little or no mildew impact. The rains also had a positive affect in many cases as they slowed the maturation process increasing hang time to give a clearer balance to the resulting fruit.

Mas has been increasing the proportion of fully organic farming through his vineyards. Each of his sites focus on sustainable practices (he also intentionally leaves large parcels of land untended for a decade to reinvigorate) with an aim towards becoming fully organic. He reported that his already fully organic vineyards actually did the best at naturally resisting mildew production.

For Mas, organic farming arises out of his commitment to quality and the good life. “We can survive without wine, but wine makes your life better. How we farm affects nature, affects the environment around us. As long as the vine is well balanced in its environment, it is healthier and more resistant to disease.” The healthier the vine, the more we can have good wine.

***

Thank you to Jean-Claude Mas.

Thank you to Julie Billod, Anne Alderete, and Michelle McCue.

The Carnal, the Corporeal, the Somatic Indistinguishable from Each Other: Conversation w Abe Schoener

California

Hawk Wakawaka

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Oct 31, 2013

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Interpreting Doctor Schoener: A Video by cdsavoia

Earlier this week I got an email from Miguel de la Torre. He helps generate the cdsavoia video project, which creates short films presenting the work and personality of creative individuals in five fields — music, fashion, fine art, wine, and design.

As many of you already know, winemaker Abe Schoener and I have kept a sort of on going conversation. Both of us originate as professors of philosophy that somehow left that world to enter the world of wine. The trouble and promise of philosophy, however, is that it never leaves you. The on going conversation, then, has been based partially in Schoener and I sharing the compulsion of purposefully choosing sensual (that is, bodily) life with thought, of educated pleasure, of unbridled but directed curiosity.

Because of previous write-ups I’ve done on Abe, Miguel wrote to share the new video cdsavoia has just produced on the work and world of Abe Schoener, and offered me the chance to release the video here on my site as well. I took a watch before accepting, but it’s worth the view — charming, smart, well made, and a bit irreverent (the combination I look for in anything I do).

Check out the video here:

Or, you can watch it directly over at cdsavoia here:

http://www.cdsavoia.com/#/artists/abe-schoener/play

If you’ve got time, take a look at their other video interviews too. They’ve got another recent one on winemaker Matt Dees of Jonata, the Hilt, and Goodland Wines too.

***

Thank you to Miguel de la Torre.

Zombie Walk Mendoza Argentina: Happy Halloween, Everyone!

Hawk Wakawaka

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Oct 31, 2013

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Zombie Walk Mendoza Argentina

Walking through downtown Mendoza with a hot wind pouring over us, I turned back towards the hotel in a slight daze. Reaching Plaza Independencia in the center of town, I expected to cross without incident and return to the hotel. Within a few steps, however, I was greeted by laughing zombies. Then more of them. Very quickly I was confronted with two feelings simultaneously — a visceral need to leave the park urgently, and an intellectual curiosity to stay long enough to figure out why I was surrounded by people covered in rotting flesh.

It turns out I had walked into the pre-stages of Mendoza, Argentina’s annual Zombie Walk, a phenomenon that began in the year 2000 as a flash mob in Milwaukee, and was successful enough to launch worldwide events occurring annually since. Mendoza has carried now a four year annual tradition.

World records have been set repeatedly, with zombie numbers growing. The original largest started at 894 zombies walking in 2006 across Pittsburgh. The following year Toronto drew 1100 zombies. England hosted more than 1200 in 2008. The current World Record for largest Zombie gathering, as recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records, gives the Twin Cities 8027 zombies in November 2012. Santiago, Chile has actually had a 12,000 person zombie walk, and Buenos Aires 25,000 but neither was officially recorded to allow for World Records.

Considering the simultaneous revulsion and fascination I felt at the early scene preparing for the walk, I’m glad I had to leave and meet living people before the festivities took off. Eventually I discovered in the midst of the park there was a woman putting makeup on people, covering them in blood, and disguising even young children brought to her by their parents.

It turned out I was the only one in our group to happen my way into the zombie festivities. Here are photos of people preparing for the affair.

Zombie Walk Mendoza 2013

Happy Halloween, Everyone! I hope you enjoy!

Walking through Downtown Mendoza, Argentina

Argentina

Hawk Wakawaka

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Oct 30, 2013

1

Traveling from Chile to Argentina

We flew from Santiago to Mendoza over the Andes. Both countries told stories of the road poorly tended by the other neighbor. In the States, we’d heard the whole thing was hairy. So we flew.

Most of the people in the three rows surrounding me on the plane clearly would have starved refusing to eat human flesh. In the fourth row back there was one man I was certain would have quickly eaten us all. Looking down at the snow covered mountains, I was clear I’d be one of the people to hike out. I’m from Alaska. It would be required. People in the States emailed me to ask, what was your plan in case you crashed?

crossing the Andes

There are many more wines from Chile to write about but I’ll come back to those with more time.

Walking Downtown Mendoza

We had an afternoon to explore Mendoza on our own. Any time alone on press trips is a god send, even when the group of people is easy to get along with it’s an experience to have time in silence. In the midst of a ten day trip, it feels even more rare. I decided to walk alone in silence looking for photos of people, and the streets in downtown.

Here are pictures of downtown Mendoza, Argentina, a town hugged up against the Andes, on the Western side of the country. Though most of our stay was comfortable, that afternoon a hot wind blew in making the city humid and sticky.

This photo is one of my favorites. There was such a connection of the mother and boy walking together through town bringing home their flowers at the end of the work day.

I’m grateful I caught this moment — a priest so focused on where ever it is he’s going. It was such a surprise to catch it, and yet so easy, just another moment of someone walking through town.

This photo is another favorite. This man was sitting in silence on his own in the middle of the city non-descript. He struck me as handsome and restful, so I asked if I could take his picture. In less than a moment he lit up bashful and pleased that I wanted to take his photo, asking if he could take mine instead–all communicated across few words and a language barrier. His composure went from almost invisible to lit up radiant, and all I could do was smile in return. It’s moments like this I treasure — something so simple that can shift the feeling of an entire day.

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Cheers!

Missing Mendoza.

Recognizing Consumers, Predicting the Future: A Conversation with Sergio Hormazabal, Vina Ventisquero

Hawk Wakawaka

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Oct 29, 2013

3

A Conversation with Sergio Hormazábal

Traveling in Chile we were able to share lunch with the President of the Chilean Association of Winemakers, Asociación de Ingenieros Agrónomos Enólogos de Chile, and winemaker for Viña Ventisquero, Sergio Hormazábal. Working for Viña Ventisquero, Hormazábal is responsible specifically for their Root: 1 brand. Hormazábal advocates for the quality of Chilean wine, noting that the goal rests in encouraging consumer desire as quality is there and continues to grow. We asked him to express his views on the idea of making wines for the consumer. Following are some of the thoughts Hormazábal had to share.

Sergio Hormazabal, president, Asociación de Ingenieros Agrónomos Enólogos de Chile, and winemaker, Viña Ventisquero, climbing the steep slopes of Apalta in the back of a truck

“People talk about making the wine the consumer wants. To me talking about the consumer is like trying to capture the rainbow. Who are you talking about? If you want to talk about the consumer, show me faces and names.

“People like to look at statistics to predict the future. This is always a mistake. If you look at statistics you are always looking in the mirror to the past, to what is behind you.

“How to predict what will sell? What is the future? It is very complicated but I think the only way is not to look at the numbers but instead to be in places and talk with people. You do not experience the future through the numbers but by being in a place, by talking to people, by looking at the street to see what’s there. It is not scientific. It is a feeling. But you need time in the street, in a place to catch a hint of what is to come.

“We talk as if people know already what they want. People do not always know what they want. Instead, give them a taste of something. They like it? A moment before they had not had it. They did not know they would like it.”

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Thank you to Sergio Hormazábal.

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