Hawk Wakawaka Wine Reviews

A Life in Wine: Stu and Charles Smith, Smith-Madrone

Hawk Wakawaka

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Jun 19, 2013

Thank you to Eric Asimov for recommending this post in the Friday, June 21, 2013 edition of The New York Times Diner’s Journal “What We’re Reading.”

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The History of Smith-Madrone

Stu Smith inspecting Chardonnay, April 2013

Smith-Madrone began on a Santa Monica beach at the end of the 1960s, where two brothers, Charles and Stu Smith, grew up. It was a time when an otherwise middle class family could afford vineyard land in Napa Valley, and start a winery fresh becoming owners that produce their own wine, a phenomenon rare in the region today.

Stu Smith worked as a summer lifeguard while completing a degree in Economics at SF State. His brother, Charles, earned his undergraduate at the same institution with a focus on English Literature, also taking a lot of Philosophy classes.

In the midst of his undergrad, Stu developed the idea of studying viticulture, and buying land in the Napa Valley to grow wine. While defending swimmers, he got to know a beach regular that expressed interest in the vineyard idea, offering to help with the purchase. Though the man ultimately had no connection to the future of Smith-Madrone, never paying for any property, the suggestion of a potential investor gave Smith the gumption to move north and begin looking.

In Fall of 1970, then, Stu Smith began the Masters program at UC Davis, while also seriously looking for land. Charles had an interest in wine as well, and so began commuting to Davis, sitting in on Stu’s courses. Though Charles was never enrolled in the program, he completed a portion of the training alongside his brother.

Spring Mountain was largely undeveloped in the early 1970s. As Stu describes it, the hillside was covered in trees, mainly Douglas Fir at least 2 1/2 feet in diameter. “The land was completely over grown, but it had lots of good aspects for sun, and obviously had good soils.” Stony Hill Winery had established itself a little down the mountain from what is now Smith-Madrone, so he had a sense the region could support vines. Then, while hiking the forested property he looked down and found old grape stakes there on the forest floor. The hill had once been planted to vineyard. Though the original investor fell through, in 1971, Stu gathered support from a small group of family and friends to purchase and start what would become 38 vineyard acres.

2007 Cook’s Flat Reserve, Smith-Madrone’s inaugural reserve wine

The brothers now know their hillside property had been planted entirely in vines in the 1880s. The original deed, signed under then president Chester A. Arthur, establishes George Cook as owner on December 5, 1884. Prohibition would later end the life of the Cook Vineyard, but on December 5, 1933, the anniversary of Cook’s purchase, the Volstead Act would overturn Prohibition. In the midst of Prohibition, however, the property returned to forest until Smith-Madrone began. Though Stu instigated the project, thanks to its size and mutual interest, Charles became part of it within a year. Today, as the brothers describe, Stu manages everything outside, while Charles takes care of everything inside. The two are the sole full-time employees of their 5000 case winery.

Touring the 1200-2000 ft elevation site, the landscape reads as a history of Stu’s genuine curiosity and drive for experimentation. Its hillsides weave a range of planting styles, and rows at differing angles to sun. Asking Stu to talk me through the changes, we begin at one corner where own-rooted Chardonnay planted in 1972 has just been pulled. “In the early 1970s,” he explains, “heat treated, certified virus free plants were just coming out. We had the opportunity to get the certified vines, but we couldn’t get appropriate rootstock so we planted on own roots. We brought in non-vineyard equipment [to lessen the chance of phylloxera], and we got 40 years out of those vines.”

Moving across the different plots, Stu shares a history of viticultural knowledge. The age of the vines matches the viticultural insights of their birth year expressed through their planting style. Between plots, vines change spacing, and height, training styles, and angle to sun, all in an attempt to learn what best suits the needs of the site. After traveling the 40 years of site development, we go inside to Charles for lunch and wine.

Smith-Madrone’s Evolution in Wine

Charles Smith tasting a 1983 Smith-Madrone Riesling

We turn to discussion of Smith-Madrone’s wine history from its first vintage in 1977. Today they are known for Riesling, Chardonnay, and Cabernet Sauvignon but they have played with their winemaking. From 1977 to 1985 Smith-Madrone also produced Pinot Noir. “The best wines we ever made were Pinot Noir.” Charles tells me, “but the worst wines we ever made were too. Our 1980 was one of the best Pinots ever made in the United States. We just couldn’t do it again.” The grape is often referred to as a heart breaker for the challenges presented in vineyard. Finally, the brothers decided to pull their Pinot and focus on the other grapes instead.

Stu nods. “The reason we did it was to experiment. We wanted to try making Pinot Noir. If you only ever do the same thing, you get stuck in a rut, and don’t improve.” What is consistent in Smith-Madrone is the intention Stu calls “get the best of the vintage into bottle.” Their focus is less on style and more on responding to the conditions given that year.

In their view, it is Chardonnay that most readily shows the effects of such an approach. The structure and flavors shift year to year, from the ultra fresh, citrus and saline presence of the 2010, to the slightly more candied, chalky, lean-lined body of the 2011, as examples.

Charles clarifies further, “we do pay attention to style on Riesling because style in Riesling is largely determined by sugar level.” Smith-Madrone makes theirs dry. “You can’t bounce around on sugar level with Riesling or no one knows what you’re making.” Even within their dry Riesling, however, the brothers have explored the best approach. A particularly busy vintage in 1984 led to their Riesling getting left overnight on skins. “It was a blistering hot harvest,” Charles explains. “We just kept processing grapes like crazy, just the two of us. If we told our harvest guys to leave, we didn’t know when we’d get them back so we just kept going. We did 127 hours in one week, the entire harvest in one week.” As a result, they simply couldn’t process all the fruit fast enough, and some Riesling got left overnight in the bin. After vinification they liked the increased aromatics and mouthfeel of the wine, and stuck to the practice through the rest of the 1980s. However, after about 8 years they realized something.

Excited by the conversation Charles has run downstairs to grab a 1985 Smith-Madrone Riesling so we can see how it’s drinking. Stu continues to tell the story. “We did overnight skin contact on our Riesling from the mid-80s. The flavor held up well with age but the color changed after 8 years or so. The wine turned orange.” When Charles arrives again with the bottle I’m thrilled to see its darker color and can’t wait to taste it but Stu is unimpressed. The wine tastes wonderful, a fresh juicy palate with concentrated while clean flavors, drinking far younger than its 18 years. Charles and I are agreeing on the virtues of Riesling and its ability to go on forever while Stu is still facing his discomfort with the color. “If I close my eyes and pretend it isn’t orange than I agree it’s a good wine,” he finally tells us.

part of the aftermath of our lunch together

After 41 years of winemaking, to inaugurate the anniversary of the original Cook’s purchase, and the repeal of Prohibition, the Smith brothers released their first Reserve wine on December 5, 2012. We’re drinking the first Cook’s Flat Reserve vintage, the 2007, along side its sister 2009.

In 2008, smoke from wildfires in Mendocino settled into the valley North of Spring Mountain and covered the grapes in smoke taint. Going straight to press, the whites were unaffected, but fermenting on skins the reds never did lose the smoke flavor. The brothers decided, then, to sell the 2008 reds off in bulk and release only whites from that year.

Short of knowing it took 41 years before they launched the Cook’s Flat Reserve, the wine itself would answer the question of why make a reserve wine–both vintages offer the dignity and graceful presence genuinely deserving of the title. Where the 2007 offers lithe masculine presence, the 2009 flows in feminine exquisiteness. The ’07 gives impressive structure and darker earthier flavors, to the core of tension and mid-palate lushness of the 2009. Keeping to their best of vintage commitment, what changes the shape of the 2007 versus the 2009 on the palate is the success of the fruit each year. Both wines are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc blends, but the proportions changed.

In an industry where reserve wines are common (made even within the first few years of a new winery’s inception), I ask the brothers both what made them wait so long, and why now. They explain that they started studying the reserve market and tasting through wines at different price points to make sure they understood what was available. They only wanted to make the wine if “we could do this and still give value,” Stu says.

After several years of consideration, Charles tells me, they were clear. “We resolved we could” make a wine truly distinct from their Estate Cabernet while still Smith-Madrone. To describe the intention behind their Reserve, the brothers compare it to their Estate. The Estate pays heed to old school, California mountain Cabernet relying entirely on American oak. The Reserve, on the other hand, is a nod to Bordeaux pulling only from a particular section of their property that they’ve always felt gave distinctive fruit, then aged in French oak.

The Romance of Wine

a gift from a friend in the winery

The conversation turns finally to the change in the wine business from when Smith-Madrone began. The Smith brothers represent the last generation of winemakers in the region that could also own their own vines. Today, by contrast, getting into the industry, Stu explains, looks more like a sacrifice. “If you want to go into winemaking now and be pure, you have to give up something.” He says. Most people end up making wine for someone else because it’s such an expensive industry.

“Part of why I got into the wine business,” Stu continues, “was Hugh Johnson and his book talking about the romance and magic and business of wine.” Charles is quietly nodding. “And you know,” Stu continues, “Hugh Johnson would eat his heart out to be here today.” He’s referring to our conversation over wine with lunch. We’ve tasted through multiple vintages of Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Riesling at this point and fallen into as much discussion of my life in Alaska as their life in wine. The whole day all I’ve felt is happy.

We’re sitting at a table in the winery tasting wines with lunch and talking. Beside Charles hangs a placard that reads, “We are all mortal until the first kiss and the second glass of wine.” He explains that a friend bought it off the wall of a bar in St. Louis then sent it to the brothers as a gift. Charles painted several coats of shellac over the saying written in chalk and hung it in the winery. The quotation reflects a feeling about wine that got the brothers into their profession. “As far as I’m concerned,” Charles remarks, “this is what wine is all about. It’s not all business. You sit down, enjoy conversation, and eat food.”

***
Thank you to Charles and Stu Smith for sharing so much time with me.

Thank you to Julie Ann Kodmur.

For Michael Alberty, Steven Morgan, and Fredric Koppel.

Forlorn Hope 2012 St Laurent: A preview

Hawk Wakawaka

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Jun 18, 2013

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Tasting an early bottle of Forlorn Hope’s 2012 St Laurent

click on comic to enlarge

Last September 2012, I was lucky enough to witness the harvest of 90 St Laurent vines from a vineyard in Carneros. Several years ago, Matthew Rorick of Forlorn Hope Wines had convinced the vineyard owner to keep the few clusters intact to be made as one of Rorick’s unusual creatures. He has since managed to expand the collection to include a few more vines in the same location. I’m excited to see how the 2013 harvest goes as a result.

In the meantime, Rorick’s 2012 St Laurent is still in the aging process before release. However, he recently pulled a bottle and shared a preview with a few of us. I was able to take the bottle home and enjoy it over the two days following.

Forlorn Hope’s 2012 St Laurent (aka. Ost-Intrigen) begins all plush sheered-velvet across the palate, a textural pleasure bringing pert red fruit and flower-spice integrated with dried herbs and orange zest. The acidity pulses vibrancy ushering in a long finish. As the wine uncurls with air, the flavors deepen. The fruit stays primarily red with back beats of blackberry seed spice, accents of saffron and smoke, and a move from orange zest to mandarin. By the end, the wine takes on all the appeal of fresh picked cherries pitted and served in fresh baked pie. The crust is crisp. The fruit is tart but deepened from the baking. To make the pie, the cherry has been squeezed over with lemon juice first–the lemon itself does not show in the final flavor, but brightens the cherry in the final pie. The finish is long on this wine with a stimulating zing, full of igneous rock minerality.

To put it simply, 2012 turned out lovely plush fruit for Rorick’s rare creature. I’m excited to drink this wine again. I love pie. It’s my favorite.

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Thank you to Matthew Rorick for sharing the early bottle of his St Laurent.

Forlorn Hope Wines: http://forlornhopewines.com

To see photos of the 2012 St Laurent harvest: http://wakawakawinereviews.com/2012/09/17/harvesting-california-st-laurent-matthew-rorick-and-forlorn-hope-wine/

Visiting Wild Horse Valley, w Enfield and Olivia Brion

Hawk Wakawaka

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Jun 13, 2013

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The Vineyard by Heron Lake, Wild Horse Valley

David Mahaffey, standing at 1300 ft in Wild Horse Valley

Between 1200 & 1400 ft elevation, only 3 1/2 miles East from downtown Napa (as the crow flies), grow 11 planted acres of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in the rocky volcanic ground of Wild Horse Valley. The vines bud just above Heron Lake. At the last of the 1970s, John Newmeyer started 24 acres on Riesling and Gewurtztraminer. In 1980, David Mahaffey became partners with Newmeyer, working the vineyard to make its wine, also budding over the established vines to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Over years of working with the vineyard the pair slowly honed in on the healthiest portions, thus reducing the size to the current 11 acres. It is now also managed entirely through organic practices.

looking into the Pinot Noir rows, above Heron Lake

Wild Horse Valley is an upland valley formation that isn’t clearly visible until the top of the range. From that vantage point, looking Northeast you can see a long scoop that comes out of the peak of the mountains. In 1988, Mahaffey applied for and successfully established the Wild Horse Valley AVA. Its boundaries ride the intersection of Napa and Solano Counties. What defines the appellation is volcanic ground chunked full of large rock, the diurnal shift of high elevation, and the cooling effect of the air moving East from the Bay and the Ocean. Mahaffey laughs as he tells me it’s also a migratory path for innumerable birds. The site has to be netted or all the fruit would go to feeding the North to South flight. Newmeyer’s and Mahaffey’s Heron Lake Vineyard ushers in the Western, and coolest portion of the appellation with the air coming up from Carneros through a 1000 ft chill-effect into the bowl at the Western side. Mahaffey explains too that several hundred meters away, just on the other side of Heron Lake, had been planted to Zinfandel in the late 1800s, those grapes brought back down the hill to blend into the wines of Napa Valley.

John Lockwood and David Mahaffey checking out the Chardonnay

John Lockwood began working with Mahaffey in 2004, and credits that time as really establishing Lockwood’s commitment to wine. The two met by chance over a mutual interest in hand-built guitars. Lockwood built instruments for Ervin Somogyi in Oakland. Mahaffey was constructing his own guitar, and traveled to East Bay for advice from Somogyi, thus also meeting Lockwood. The two struck up conversation, and eventually Lockwood visited the Heron Lake Vineyard. That year he stepped into harvest with Mahaffey, living up in Wild Horse Valley to help him make wine in 2004, 05, and 06. The bug took Lockwood then to work for Littorai in 2007, into Argentina in 2008, and to cellar work full-time at Failla from 2008 until recently. In 2010, Lockwood and Mahaffey started talking about Lockwood beginning to make his own wine with some of the site’s Chardonnay. The plan fell through due to weather, but in 2011 Lockwood secured the fruit for his label, Enfield.

talking through the history of the vineyard

Mahaffey bottles both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the site under his label, Olivia Brion. His winemaking methods depend on his own ingenuity. Mahaffey’s winery could be called gravity fed, as the vineyard is uphill from a flat spot where the wines start fermentation in bins under tent. Beneath the flat spot Mahaffey dug a small cave, large enough ultimately to hold 4000 cases, though he does not produce that much. The Chardonnay is gravity fed from the tent site to barrels in the cave below. The Pinot Noir moves sideways instead to a converted barrel room next door. Tasting the 2010 Chardonnay now two different times with Mahaffey, the wine offers the varied blessings of Chardonnay in triplicate–a floral lift subtly releases from the glass over a crisp midsection of nuttiness, and an underbelly of citrus oils. In the mouth the experience follows into juicy acidity, rich flavors, and a long lined finish. Mahaffey laughs as he tastes the wine with us. “In life, the ultimate goal is to find good, fast, and cheap, but you’re lucky if you can get two.” He’s being cheeky as he says it. “In wine, the hunt is for acidity, richness, and length.” His 2010 hits that intersection.

Miss Olivia, Olivia Brion’s namesake

Mahaffey hand tends the vineyard, walking through the vines a row at a time to track their progress, pull leaves, and break off unwanted tendrils or laterals. It’s an attention that Lockwood describes as basic to quality vineyards. Lockwood just opened his own label, Enfield Wine Co., the first release a 2010 Syrah from Haynes Vineyard in Coombsville, a site closely maintained by Fernando Delgado. Delgado manages Haynes Vineyard living on site to work with the vines daily. Lockwood explains that he selects his vineyard sites partially by who manages the location. Vineyard practices such as organics or biodynamics are valuable, he tells me, but the practice that makes the biggest difference is attention, an insight Lockwood first learned through Mahaffey.

John Lockwood standing beside Heron Lake

This summer, Lockwood will release an Enfield 2011 Wild Horse Valley Chardonnay. It’s a wine that carries flavoral resemblance to Mahaffey’s 2010, with a leaner, more-acidity focus due to the cooler 2011 vintage. Thinking of it my mouth starts to water. I’ll be buying a bottle later today.

At the vineyard, we also taste through Mahaffey’s Pinot Noir–the 2010 in bottle, and then from barrel. It’s a wine that celebrates bright tension, and small berried fruit. The 2010 has just started to show orange peel and bergamot, a note Lockwood and Mahaffey agree is site signature, as it consistently shows up with a bit of age through vintages. The two start laughing as Lockwood tells me his dream is to get some Pinot from Mahaffey’s vineyard. The laughing comes from the joke that Mahaffey would have to die first. Mahaffey quickly turns the moment into a reflection of his trust for Lockwood. “It’s understood,” Mahaffey tells me, “that if I do suddenly go, John has to bottle the Pinot for me.”

driving back down from 1300 ft, looking over Coombsville

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Thank you to John Lockwood and David Mahaffey for bringing me to Heron Lake and your Wild Horse Valley Vineyard.

More to follow on both Enfield Wine Co, and Olivia Brion.

Uva Buena’s write-up on Enfield Wine Co.’s release: http://uvabuena.com/blog/?p=617

Enfield Wines are available here: http://www.enfieldwine.com/

For Olivia Brion Wines: http://www.oliviabrion.com/index.html

Living the Borderlands: Meeting Brittania

Hawk Wakawaka

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Jun 12, 2013

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In October 2012 while visiting Arizona, I met Brittania, a young woman that a former professional colleague of mine knew well. Her family story struck me at the time as one that was important to listen to within the climate of Arizona’s series of anti-immigration reform bills, including but not limited to SB 1070.

Arizona SB 1070 makes it legal, during law enforcement stops (which need not be documented), for a law enforcement officer to demand papers from an individual “suspected to be an illegal alien” to prove that that person has a right to be within the United States. Failure to have adequate papers immediately counts as a misdemeanor, thereby forcing the individual to court, where further lack of proof could lead to arrest and deportation.

I did not share Brittania’s story in October 2012. However, with the recent protest on the US-Mexico border reuniting families that have been separated by deportation, as well as the discussion on immigration reform that has begun this week, I decided now was an appropriate time to share it.

The question of immigration is also relevant to wine country, and the U.S. agricultural industry more broadly (one of the top forces of the U.S. economy), as the legal and political climates surrounding the issue impact the available work force within wine country, and agricultural regions more broadly. California wine regions, in particular, have suffered increased challenges with finding adequate work forces to harvest when desired. The Napa Valley Vintners recently made a formal statement in support of Immigration Reform in the United States.

Though aspects of Brittania’s story may appear particular to Arizona, it highlights the reality of concern for families dealing with immigration issues more generally. While Arizona has received a lot of media attention on immigration issues in the last several years, California went through serious changes immediately prior and during, and numerous other states throughout the nation have as well. In other words, it is a national reality.

The following is a transcript of parts of my conversation with Brittania.

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Listening to Brittania

“My mom moved here when she was 20 years old with my dad. They have 3 kids. We were all born here. I am the oldest. I have two younger brothers. One is in high school, the other is 10. On September 26, my mom was stopped by a cop. She was driving to work. On the way there she looked back to double check on my brother.

“Every day my 10-year old brother bikes to school, so my mom goes the same route to check on him. She turned to look at my brother on his bike and a cop pulled her over. He said she was going too slow. She was going 40 in a 45. But the ticket doesn’t say that. It doesn’t say why he pulled her over. There is no violation claim, only that she has no Arizona ID.

“He started asking a lot of questions–where she lived, what she was doing here. He asked a lot of questions, but none about traffic. She has an Oregon license. We lived there. It is valid, and she has insurance. The ticket has no charge. It only says she has no valid Arizona license, and that she has one month to go to court and get one. She can’t get an Arizona license because of how the law works here. But if she doesn’t get one she could be deported.

“I am trying to help. My mom has raised us. She raises my brothers. I am in college. My youngest brother is 10. My parents were divorced last year. My dad lives in Utah. I talked to lawyers. They said she can be held and detained, or she could be let go. Here they don’t know. But she could be detained. There is no one else to take care of my brothers.

“My mom has been in the country continuously for 20 years. She works in customer service. She has been in the same job for the last 5 years. We were in Oregon, but we moved to Arizona when I was a freshman in high school. My parents came into California 20 years ago. My dad had family here in the US. They all got Amnesty. They are all citizens, so my parents came too. But Amnesty ended and my parents didn’t get it.

“When I was 6 my dad started a residency case, trying to be legal for the whole family. He would go to court every year, show his kids were in school and had good grades, that he had a business. It took more than 10 years for him to get residency, but it didn’t go to my mom.

“My dad is a resident. All three of her kids are citizens. In a year I will be 21, then I can open a case for my mom. But now because she was pulled over, my mom is forced to open a case on her own. We’re trying to figure out what to do. My mom has never committed any crime. She’s been here 20 years. She has always worked, and paid her taxes. She has 3 kids. She raises them. But a family petition may not work. She might not have all the requirements. I am trying to do what I can to help.

“When I graduated from high school, I told my mom I wasn’t going to move for school because I wanted to stay and help with my brothers, but she told me no, that now I was supposed to go to college. She told me I’m supposed to go to college.

“My mom does everything for us. My brother is a Junior in high school, and a football player. The team had a trip planned to go to Ireland to play football. She wanted him to be able to go. So she worked extra for 2 years to save money so they could afford for him to go. She talked to local businesses and they helped raise money for him too. She worked for more than 2 years to save $4000 so they could afford for him to go to Ireland in his Junior year for a one-week trip.

“She gives all her money for her kids, and tries to help my brothers get what they need to feel like they fit in. My mom is always in positive attitude to keep the kids up beat. She maintains herself for the sake of her kids. She calls her mom back in Mexico. It’s the only time my mom will cry. I think she is the nicest person, so respectful, always looking out for others, and now she needs all the support she can get. I am just trying to do whatever I can here.”

***

From the NY Times: “According to a recent study by Colorlines, a news Web site focusing on racial issues, about 205,000 people who were deported between 2010 and 2012 had children who were American citizens and living in this country. There are no solid estimates of the number of deportees’ children who are not citizens.”

When we met, Brittania was a sophomore in college majoring in Special Education, with a focus on Elementary Education. In her Freshman year she took a Seminar course on immigration in the United States, visited a detention center, and attended a conference on immigration. The experience changed her views of the issue, and made her realize the difficulties of her family situation. Since, she has chosen to do organizing work to raise awareness of immigration issues in Arizona. Outside her own classes, she also volunteers in elementary schools, working in kindergarten through 3rd grade classrooms helping students that need assistance with reading, or homework, and also assisting teachers.

Prior to her mother’s deadline, an immigration lawyer was able to help change the ruling so that Brittania’s mother did not have to appear in court. The reality of Arizona law, however, is that if her mother is ever met by another law enforcement officer, she could find herself in the same situation again, facing deportation.

***

A debate on overhauling current U.S. immigration legislation has just begun in Washington. Obama spoke this week in support of the overhaul. To read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/12/us/politics/with-senate-set-to-vote-obama-makes-immigration-pitch.html?hp

To read more on the recent US-Mexico border protest: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/12/us/divided-immigrant-families-reunite-at-arizona-fence.html?hp&_r=0

To read more on the role of immigration on the U.S. workforce, and economy:

* Unions’ views: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/12/us/unions-ramp-up-support-of-immigration-bill.html?hp

The question of immigration is foundational to U.S. wine country, and agricultural work more generally. To read more: http://www.napavintners.com/about/ab_5_immigration_reform.aspx

The Washington Post on Immigration and the Economy: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/immigrants-help-us-economy-study-says/2013/06/13/187dda4a-d437-11e2-8cbe-1bcbee06f8f8_story.html

How a Chocolate Bar Got Me Through: A Reflection on the Value of Wine Blogging

Hawk Wakawaka

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Jun 9, 2013

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The Architecture of the Everyday

It was summer on Montmarte. The cobbled streets felt cool and round in the heat. I appreciated the texture of walking the artists’ neighborhood of the 18th arrondissement of Paris. The hillside was dotted with little boutiques–a woman that hand-painted textiles, then cut them into baguette shaped handbags; a twosome that hammered pastel leather shoes hunched over a pointed toe wooden foot; another woman that had worked for Yves Saint Laurent’s design team then quit in order to create clothing made from antique silk neck ties she lifted from friends’ closets around town. The expressions of these people fascinated me.

I’d arrived in Paris on a student scholarship. During my undergraduate degree I focused on poetry writing, while also studying philosophy and literature. That year I won entry into two summer programs working with poet-teachers for writing, alongside studying literature of the regions–one in St Petersburg, the other in Prague. My scholarships covered the cost of me getting to Europe, the programs’ fees and housing, both of which included breakfast. For the two months I was abroad, breakfast was most of what I’d eat.

Between locations I was on my own for nine days. It turned out the price of getting from Russia to Prague was actually cheaper routed through Paris, so I’d chosen my break be spent there, nine days on the side of Montmarte. I arrived having pre-paid for a dorm style hostel that fed me coffee and baguette in the morning. For nine days I walked the city unable to afford the metro.

To visit Paris was such a gift in the midst of everything I didn’t mind how poor it also felt. My daughter and I barely covered our expenses through my three years of undergrad, so to find myself in Europe was stunning. I couldn’t believe I’d made my way to Paris in the midst of time in Russia (my childhood dream country. At the age of 9, my long term goal had been to make it to the Soviet Union someday.) and Czech Republic. Day 7 the feeling changed. I’d walk 9 hours a day tearing off baguette a little at a time as I went. For the week I had 5 Euro to spend.

Walking up Montmarte my body felt bedraggled. I’d woken up depressed, and spent the morning berating my attitude. To go without food in Paris in the midst of a summer of poetry was too symbolically perfect not to laugh. I was angry for feeling sucked into the negative feeling of the moment. Part of me kept saying I just needed a chocolate bar, a double chocolate ice cream bar sold from a little cart below the Sacré Cœur–the Sacred Heart Cathedral at the top of the hill. The thought was ridiculous though as the treat cost $4.25 and buying one would mean most of my money for the week. After several hours I finally gave in, gave my money away for chocolate. The seduction of suffering was too strong to convince myself I should be saving my money. I was to get another small student payment after arriving in Prague.

Half way into the ice cream I caught myself beaming as I walked. I was happy again. I was in Paris, on Montmarte, my favorite part of town, and the woman with neck ties had created a new vest from the stash she found in her boyfriend’s closet. She let me try it on. A bit down the road a local bartender offered me a glass of wine if I would fill a seat at the bar.

That evening I returned to my dorm and a new roommate had appeared. We’d actually met my first night but she’d moved out for a time, then come back. Her travels took her all the way from Australia, where she’d worked two jobs for two years, one at a pizza joint in Perth, to save money for half a years travels. She asked if I’d like to make dinner with her. My money gone, she took me across the street and bought a jar of tomato sauce, some dried noodles, and a bottle of red wine that cost two Euro. We boiled water, drank wine, and ate. The next day she took me across town to a poetry reading along the Seine. Another roommate had given her a handful of extra Metro tickets before he left Paris.

The day after that I flew to Prague. She sent me emails about getting lost on a hillside in Corsica at dark, finally sleeping in bushes till sunrise rather than hurt herself stumbling down hill. She WWOOFed in Southern France to subsidize her travels. I walked Prague, and sweated through concentration camp side trips I could barely handle visiting.

Six years later, she visited me in Arizona. It was absurdly cold that week and I gave her wool hat and gloves to travel with. We made homemade noodles and sauce in my home, and walked all over my little town. She cooked me vegetarian meals. I introduced her to new white wines. (She’s allergic now to red.)

We’d kept in contact emailing an update every few months for six years. I watched as she completed an undergraduate degree, fell in love and moved East across Australia, then closed that relationship and started a new career. She saw me advance from my undergrad, into grad school, move to Canada, and then back again to the United States, and through pictures watched Jr grow.

I’ve spent time with her in person only twice. Most of the nine days in Paris, and another ten in Arizona. Still, there is a camaraderie we share that overlaps into similar perspectives on curiosity, passion, and compassion. We’ve shared insight on friendship, spirituality, and personal growth. She’s taught me about developing community sustainability programs through her work. Even from the Southern hemisphere, she’s part of the architecture of my life. It’s a friendship made possible by a chance meeting at a hostel in Montmarte.

It didn’t occur to me in advance, but wine blogging turns out to carry a similar treasure. People like Dan Fredman, Alfonso Cevola, and Jeremy Parzen reached out and in differing ways encouraged me to keep writing. Their blogs served too as differing insights into how people engage with wine, and the way wine enriches the larger aspects of their lives–family, friends, travel, the everyday.

Fredric Koppel, Ron Washam, Christopher Watkins appeared as enthusiasts, again with outrageously different approaches but each talented and sincere in their style. Gwendolyn Alley bolsters my enthusiasm through her own. Lisa Shara Hall, and Amy Cleary (writers and professionals in other avenues that happen to also blog) I’ve been lucky enough to become friends with. I’ve been lucky enough too to connect with other blog-writers, and to learn from them about the craft of writing, the value of the everyday, and yes, too, wine. Writers that also blog, like Janice Cable, and Alice Feiring deepen the threads of information.

(All of this to speak only of other blog keepers, not to even mention the blog readers, and the people I write about that have been met and befriended along the way.)

Connecting to people through their stories online has enriched the decor on that same architecture of my life. These are a few examples of connections made through this weird practice of blogging while following other bloggers.

The experience is a lot like that Montmarte hostel. By chance, we all ended up in the same metaphorical dorm room, and now choose to keep in touch. We ended up there because we’re broke, or cheap, or just looking to meet more people. But through noodles and a bottle of wine we just might share our life.

***

Congratulations to the winners of the 2013 Wine Bloggers’ Awards. I’m so grateful to have been included among the finalists, and so happy for each of the winners.

Cheers!

Visiting Andrew Murray Wines

Hawk Wakawaka

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May 30, 2013

6

Tasting with Andrew Murray

Andrew Murray began planting his own vineyards, and making wine early in his 20s. After high school he attended UC Berkeley for a year, but catching the wine bug left for a calendar of wine work in Australia. Upon his return, he earned a Bachelor’s in Viticulture and Enology from UC Davis. With this experience, he began the Andrew Murray Vineyards within the Santa Ynez region of Santa Barbara County in partnership with his parents. The project would earn Murray wine accolades, but eventually lead too to him taking a shift in approach.

the Andrew Murray Rhone white blend–Roussanne and Grenache Blanc

Murray’s self-named label focuses entirely on Rhone varieties, keeping Syrah as its center. Murray explains that he enjoys “a true hillside paradigm.” In finding his original property, and as a guide for selecting current sources he appreciates a slope, touting his focus as “handcrafted wines from hillside vineyards.”

In 2006, Murray sold the family vineyard and shifted to sourcing fruit from locations through Santa Barbara County, and in Paso Robles. The change gave him the opportunity to expand his wine style in terms of site differences, while keeping the attention on Rhone wines. After working so seriously with his own vines, Murray has chosen sites based only on those he can partner with growers. He also contracts fruit by the acre to ensure the practice remains with farming and quality, rather than bulk.

Andrew Murray

Asking Murray about the apparent difficulty associated with selling Syrah, he makes clear he doesn’t worry. “My focus is on Syrah. It’s what I’m so passionate about, and I think it’s coming back in popularity.” Murray explains too that by keeping a Syrah focus, customers know what he’s offering. He’s avoided, then, any possible confusion over label intention, and hasn’t had the stereotypical difficulty with selling Syrah as a result. He admits though to recognizing some of the hardship.

“Syrah has perhaps had an identity crisis in the public eye.” He comments. “It’s such a chameleon grape. Syrah from Paso Robles, you have warm climate. Syrah from Los Alamos, you have cool climate.” The range of possibilities from Murray’s extended region alone explains too how he selects the sites he works with–he explores his passion with a clear center line and range simultaneously. Such possibility is one of the insights of Santa Barbara Wine Country, and the Central Coast.

Murray’s collection of reds–GSM, and Syrahs

Murray’s winemaking career includes overall shift and development of style. He’s reduced his use of new oak, as well as his use of SO2, applying it now only at bottling. He also no longer uses yeast nutrients, and lets his ferments start un-inoculated. “I’ve been slowly giving up control again.” Murray tells me. Where he began his winemaking with no SO2, and little intervention, he explains he then swung the other way becoming far more hands on for a time. Now, discussing SO2 as an example, he admits to only adding 15 ppm in 2012 after ML was complete, and not until bottling.

Murray’s shift he parallels to an overall change in the market. “The industry is going back to caveman winemaking,” he laughs. It’s clear though, Murray is not adverse to technology. Instead, his goal seems to be, as he put it, to give up control to allow the wine room, while at the same time using technology to accomplish things like grape sorting for quality. Murray’s interest currently is to bring only the best berries into his wine, keeping out broken stems (known as jacks) that could bring harsh flavors, even while allowing partial whole cluster in some ferments. “With beautiful intact grapes, you don’t have to do much.” He tells me smiling.

a new second label for Murray, This is E11EVEN Wines

The recent vintages of Andrew Murray wines are some of my favorite–they’ve become more subtle. The reds drink with integrity while also giving some of California’s best Syrah for its price–clean, focused, juicy presentations that show their site variation side by side. The Watch Hill Vineyard Syrah from the Los Alamos area, just outside the Santa Ynez AVA, rises to the top for me, with its cooler climate, hillside bramble fruit and prusciutto, olive flavors. We’re able to taste the 2009, and the 2011 together. He sends me home too with a small bottle of the 2010. But the Watch Hill seems to be a favorite for others as well. Later, when I go to find it at his tasting room, the wine has sold out. I’m grateful I got to drink it with Murray.

One of the wonders to me of Santa Barbara County wine country is the number of winemakers still in their 40s with over 20 years of winemaking experience. It’s an impressive concentration of ability. Murray is one such example. Having developed his own label and honed his understanding of his Rhone project, he just started a brand new passion project focused on having fun making value wines. The result is the This is E11EVEN Wines label, playing on the “Turn it up to Eleven” joke of the movie, This is Spinal Tap. The wines are even brilliantly packaged in an amp printed case box, which when stacked create an implied wall of sound. These wines come in at less than $20, giving a fun, juicy focus on flavor and zip. He’s playing with what he wants to make in the E11EVEN series, calling them “rebelliously blended wines.”

I ask Murray finally about his home, and why he chose to develop Rhone wines there in Santa Ynez. Murray responds, “Santa Ynez is a natural Rhone zone. It’s elevated hillsides, uplifted mesa, and deep water.” He falls into intimacy with the region as he speaks. “Plus, the prevailing wind. That moment when the wind switches back towards the water,” he says,” you always get rain. It allows the Syrah to ripen, but at a slowed down pace. You pick Syrah here from late September, well into November depending on vintage.”

***

Thank you to Andrew Murray. Thank you to Kristin Murray.

Thank you to Sao Anash, and Lacey Fussel.

Raising Big Table Farm: Photos from a Visit

Oregon

Hawk Wakawaka

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May 29, 2013

3

The Big Table Farm Barn Effort

This summer Big Table Farm will begin building a new barn to serve as their on site winery. They’ve been using a shared space since getting started in 2006.

To make the effort easier, they’ve created a Barn Raising Founders’ Offering that gives people the opportunity to support the cost of the barn building and receive 6 magnums of wine as well.

To read more about the Big Table Farm Barn Raising, check out Clare’s blog here: http://oregonfarm.blogspot.com/2013/05/big-table-farm-barn-raising.html

I’ll post on their current portfolio of wines soon but in the meantime I wanted to share photos of our visit from last summer.

Beautiful Big Table Farm, Gaston, Oregon

Here are the photos of their beautiful home.

approaching Big Table Farm

Last summer I was lucky enough to spend a month in Willamette Valley, welcomed by a host of wonderful people into local life. The region celebrates an incredible down-to-earth sense of community. The feeling of it echos through the calm of the residents, and in their stories of sharing equipment, technique tips, and meals. It’s a place for which I hold strong affection.

Artist Clare Carver and Winemaker Brian Marcy, the husband-and-wife team behind Big Table Farm Wines, invited Rusty Gaffney, aka The Prince of Pinot, and his wife, Patricia, and me for dinner one night. What a hoot! The entire dinner was made from Brian and Clare’s farm (with a bit of cheese from down the road), and their wines (along with an excellent old Burgundy plus a Sonoma Coast Pinot).

looking across the living room into Clare’s art studio

Big Table Farm makes great Pinot Noir in Oregon, and one of my favorite domestic Rieslings (from the Brooks Vineyard) as well. In a recent North to South West Coast N. America Pinot Noir tasting theirs were among the top contenders. Their Riesling was a hit at last years Summer of Riesling party here in Napa Valley too.

Establishing the roots of his viticulture and oenology training at UC Davis, Brian Marcy moved to Napa Valley in 1996 working for the likes of Neyers Vineyards, Turley Wine Cellars, and Marcassin, mixing a stint in Australia with Trevor Jones Fine Wines in the middle.

the 2011 Pinot Noir rosé to start (Clare hand draws, then letterpress prints the labels. Each is hand cut and placed on the bottle. They also change each vintage while keeping a recognizable theme from their farm–more of their labels follow below.)

Clare Carver’s career, on the other hand, took her through art school all the way into Napa Valley, showcasing her fine art along the way in California and Oregon, and leading into a wine label design business as well. The couple met in California.

we started with a tour of the farm–Clare’s work horses, they plow the garden

In 2006, however, they moved North to Willamette Valley, Oregon, recognizing the insurmountable nature of the Napa real estate market. In moving, they were able to establish their label, Big Table Farm, and their home on 70 acres in Gaston, Oregon.

“We always knew we had more in us than just mowing the lawn.” Marcy explains. “We just didn’t know it was all this.” The couple’s Big Table Farm site includes two flocks of chickens–some for meat, some for eggs–at least two pigs (again for meat), meat cattle, gardens, and bees, all tended by the two themselves and their two work horses.

the laughing pigs, Petunia and Rose

“We’ve done a lot of research since moving here,” Clare explains. “The Omnivore’s Dilemma gave us a lot of inspiration. We got our chickens a bus, instead of a coop. They roam all over.” The name of their endeavor arises from the creative, full investment approach they take to their home. “The best food is fresher, and when it comes from your own work, it’s just a little bit sweeter. We love to eat and drink. The big table aspect encompasses the whole picture, the art and the food.”

getting ready for dinner. Brian cooked a fantastic meal including homemade bread, fresh vegetables, and meat cooked in an egg smoker.

The farm approach also arises out of Carver’s own love for animals. “I brought home animals faster than Brian could build fences,” she says. Still, the animals are not simply pets but help to maintain the longevity of the situation with chickens, cattle, and pigs seeing regular turn over for meat. Carver explained that their first year harvesting animals was hardest. Now the day of slaughter is still a challenge but they have found a way of showing respect to the animals and at the same time getting it done quickly that frames the experience more readily.

Big Table Farm Pinots, a 1999 Burgundy, and a Sonoma Pinot

The couple have not yet planted vines on their own property. As Marcy explains, “When we plant grapes it will be well thought out and researched. We’re still finding out what the climate in this little canyon is.” In the meantime, they’ve been buying grapes since beginning their label. To focus on quality, they source fruit from vineyards in which they are able to establish long-term relationships with growers, and also buy grapes by the acre, not the ton. The approach is risky in Willamette’s vintage-by-vintage varied climate, but it gives them closer understanding of the fruit. Their goal in building an on site winery is to extend that closer contact even further into the wine.

from left: Clare Carver, Brian Marcy, Rusty and Patricia Gaffney

Clare titled this: Wakawaka Meets the Prince

Clementine, one of their two honey dogs.

To feed the Farm’s pigs and chickens Clare developed an organic non-corn, non-soy grain blend and then started a grain cooperative to share the mix with others through the area.

Clare tells me that bees bump a person three times before they sting. They don’t want to sting since it would kill them, after all. Her suggestion is that the best thing to do when encountering a bee is to take a deep breath (with your mouth closed?) and back away slowly. (Sounds like a bear.)

a quick glance at some of Clare’s label design work

One of the impressive aspects of Clare’s label portfolio is how varied the styles are. If you line the labels up side by side you can’t recognize the same person designed each of them. She says she loves “the process of helping a winery find their story through their label.” In asking her about the variation through the portfolio she comments, “it’s not my story. It’s their story.” Each design is meant to express them.

***

To read more about Big Table Farm:

More on their Barn Raising Effort: http://www.goodstuffnw.com/2013/05/big-table-farm-crowdsourcing-winery.html

The Prince of Pinot’s Account of the Winery & their Wines: http://www.princeofpinot.com/winery/964/

Forbes Collection of this year’s coolest wine labels: http://www.forbes.com/pictures/emkd45fdmi/2011-big-table-farm-pinot-noir/

***

Best of luck to Clare and Brian as they make this next leap forward. I am rooting for you.

Thank you to Clare and Brian for having me.

Bollinger Vin Clairs (and bottle) Tasting

Hawk Wakawaka

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May 16, 2013

5

The Bollinger Vin Clairs Experience

click on comics to enlarge: how champagne is made, an overview

Terlato Wines was kind enough to include me in a Bollinger Vin Clairs tasting yesterday. Vin Clairs, for those that are unfamiliar, amounts to the still base wine that then goes through second fermentation in bottle to become the final champagne. Guy de Rivoire, Bollinger’s Commercial Director, facilitated the tasting, coupled with an overview of the House, and the blending process.

Incredibly, Bollinger’s Special Cuvée (their non-vintage champagne) can include up to 60 component parts of Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier, and Pinot Noir vinified separately, within some neutral barrels, and some stainless steel vats. Each component is bottled in large format, kept in cellar as a still wine to ensure adequate flavor resources for future vintages. These reserve wines total about 650,000 magnums, or 1.3 million bottles. Still, Bollinger produces only 0.6-0.7% of total champagne made in the region per year.

The experience included six components from multiple vintages, and (separately) from each of the three grapes, leading into the final still Special Cuvée, which included at least some of the components we tasted. The culmination occurred in comparing the still Special Cuvée to its sparkling counterpart. Finally, the tasting extended into several vintage champagnes, and the non-vintage rosé followed by a 2004 vintage rosé.

Bollinger Making the Assemblage: the Vin Clairs blend

click on comic to enlarge: Blending still wines into Bollinger’s Special Cuvée

Approximately 90% of the vineyard land in the Champagne region is grower owned. According to yesterday’s presentation, there are approximately 5000 growers in Champagne, and 10,000 Champagne brands producing 25 to 30 million cases of champagne per year. Champagne houses generally operate as a negociant, sourcing grapes from some mix of the 5000 growers through the region. Within Champagne, there is also a small portion of wines made on a grower-winemaker model in which the owner of a vineyard vinifies a small production champagne from their own grapes. Among champagne houses in the region, only three remain under independent ownership, Bollinger being one of them.

Bollinger produces their non-vintage “Special Cuvée” from a blend consistently structured by at least 60% Pinot Noir, with some Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. With an eye on aging, their vintage blends maintain the >60% Pinot model, sticking to Chardonnay for the rest. Another feature unique to the Bollinger House includes their ownership of more than 60% of their vineyards. The entirety of their fruit comes from Marne district. A portion of the still wines are fermented in old oak barrel, bringing an additional textural and flavor component to their wine. The rest are fermented in stainless steel.

The Bottled Wines

Bollinger’s Special Cuvée offers a silk taffeta texture with the swish of a floor length dress. It carries a richly flavored, while fine-boned presentation of dried flowers, light (not sweet) honey and beeswax, walnut and clove touches with a light pleasing zip of acidity.

Tasting through the several component still wines, followed by the final vin clairs, then moving into the sparkling Special Cuvée drove home how impressive the work of the Chef de Caves really is–to imagine tracking the various wines, creating blending trials for so many potential components, then tasting the final still assemblage to anticipate its presentation after second fermentation… fantastic. So much to track, so much work, so much clarity of vision.

We were able to taste both the 2004 and 1992 Grande Année, as well as the Special Cuvée rosé and Grande Anneé 2004 rosé. Though it sounds obvious, I was moved by the 1992–it’s vibrant zest acidity (in magnum) was coupled with rich smokey, walnut-driven aromatics followed by an electric cord of mouth stimulation cloaked in rich flavors. The saline-chalky electrical-current on this wine was lovely.

***

Thank you to Mary Anne Sullivan, and Stephanie Caraway of Terlato.

Thank you to Guy de Rivoire of Bollinger.

Cheers to Jeremy Parzen!

Photos from a Tasting at Shake Ridge Vineyard, Amador

California

Hawk Wakawaka

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May 15, 2013

5

Photos from Shake Ridge

Ann Kraemer, and the Kraemer family hosted a tour and tasting of Shake Ridge Vineyard in Amador County yesterday. The site grows several-tens of acres of primarily red varieties planted on a mix of rootstocks, and a host of training styles. It’s a beautiful site.

The event began with pork belly sliders and a walk from the entrance of the vineyard almost to the far end, stopping under shaded groves along the way to taste wines. Each of the wineries that use Shake Ridge fruit were represented. After the walk, dinner was served with the opportunity to re-taste the wines, and talk more with the winemakers.

Here are photos from the event.

A Tribute to Grace 2011 Shake Ridge Graciano, and Grenache

Enfield Wine Co 2011 Shake Ridge Tempranillo

two versions of Barbera from Shake Ridge, Forlorn Hope Wine

Matthew Rorick, Forlorn Hope Wine

Dirty & Rowdy 2011 Shake Ridge Mourvedre

Evan Frazier, Ferdinand Wine

Chris Pittenger and Helen Keplinger

John Lockwood and Randy Caparoso

wines of Shake Ridge

Amy Seese and baby, Sue Kraemer

the winemakers of Shake Ridge

Jr sitting within rows of head-trained Zinfandel, Shake Ridge

***

Sending our best to Ann.

Thank you to Ann Kraemer. Thank you to the Kraemer family.

Thank you to Hardy Wallace.

To read more about Shake Ridge, check out this great article by Jon Bonné on some of the lesser known, high quality vineyards of California: http://www.sfgate.com/food/article/California-s-best-lesser-known-vineyards-3294626.php#page-2

The Butterfly Effect: How the death of a fad gave birth to beautiful color in wine, Part 4: Surveying Technique, Terroir

Hawk Wakawaka

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May 14, 2013

4

Thank you to Eric Asimov for recommending this post in the 15 March 2013 edition of The New York Times, Diner’s Journal, “What We’re Reading” : http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/what-were-reading-for-wednesday/

***

The Role of the Vineyard in Technique Choices

Jared Brandt

In El Dorado, Donkey & Goat source Roussanne from the Ellen Ridge Vineyard. It’s a dry site edged by trees and brush on rocky soils along the edge of the American River Canyon. The vineyard hosts 10 to 12-year old vines that have served as the source of their Stone Crusher Roussanne. It’s fruit that struggles to ferment after harvest.

Winemakers Jared and Tracey Brandt began working with the site in in 2006, committed to natural fermentation, without the addition of nutrients. Pressing the fruit after harvest, the juice took almost a year to ferment to dryness. Jared explained, “it kept going, but slowly.” The following vintage the fruit was treated similarly, and again, the wine took 8 or 9 months.

In 2008, the duo decided to experiment with skin contact techniques, moving half to three-quarters of the fruit on a macerated ferment. The wine fermented in 14 days. Jared explains that since 2008, the skin contact lots have consistently fermented as quickly. He comments too, “the more whole cluster we use, the faster it goes.” The reason, it appears, rests in the nutrients offered by the presence of skins and stems not available from this more barren site otherwise.

Donkey & Goat have continued to play with the way they interact with the grapes from Ellen Vineyard, honing their understanding of its best site expression. In 2010, the Stone Crusher received what Jared now sees as more foot tred than he’d prefer. He took that lesson forward into the following vintage and was more delicate with the grapes’ treatment in the winery. By comparison, the 2011 offers a lighter, more cohesive floral and toasted walnut shell presentation to the 2010s more cidery tang. The 2012, though not yet released, was treated similarly to the 2011.

Part of what’s interesting here, is that Donkey & Goat also work with Roussanne from the Fenati vineyard, a site about 1/4-mile from the Ellen, with more fertile soils, and less exposure along the ridge edge. Jared explains, Fenati’s a more tannic site, and the crops don’t struggle there in the way they do at Ellen. In Jared’s view, the fruit at Fenati “doesn’t like skin contact.” The tannins resulting are harsher, flavors less pretty, and the change in fermentation time and effectiveness is far less dramatic. Tasting side by side examples of straight to press fruit from each site, the flavors are also just different. The Fenati has sweet floral notes where the Ellen gives white herbs. The wines also give differing color, even from straight-to-press, the Fenati more white to the Ellen’s yellow.

In considering the idea of terroir in wine, the conversation often sticks on the side of flavor recognition with the wine itself, thinking of place in terms of what qualities it gives to the wine’s final presentation. The point is certainly relevant. But the concept of terroir carries no straight line from place to bottle, as the choices made in vineyard and with winemaking dictate the wine that can ultimately be received.

Winemakers that speak of listening to the vines sound more believable with examples like Ellen Vineyard versus Fenati. Such examples, though too, highlight the relevance of knowing the vineyard, and developing a relationship with it over time. It’s an approach harder to find in a bulk-fruit focused market such as California, compared to some grower-winemaker models of the so-called Old World.

Thinking Briefly on Terroir: the relevance of vine age

Talking with Jon Bonné, wine editor for the San Francisco Chronicle, on the idea of terroir, he expresses a willingness to challenge, though not dismiss the notion. His point rests in the youth of the American wine industry, and also the role of vine development over time. Both drivers arise too, from, the mechanisms of the U.S. West Coast bulk fruit market–grapes sold more often by weight, then made into wine by its vineyard owner.

As viticulturists describe, the role of site becomes more relevant to fruit quality and flavor as vines age. Younger plants regulate their chemical processes and distribution through the plant more erratically before acclimating to their site. Vineyard Manager and Winemaker, Steve Matthiasson, explains that its as if vines develop memory over time of how to respond to varying climate and soil conditions. Younger vines just don’t have that experience. As a result, the younger the vine, the more relevant the plant’s age and clone are to the fruit expression. As the vine develops, however, the clonal distinctions seems to lessen. The plant gets older, acclimating to and expressing more site character.

In considering, then, the relevance of terroir in New World wines, the idea of vine age must be addressed. The reality of vineyards in the United States, however, is that most are rather young. Younger vines also generally produce more fruit. The flavors seem to become more concentrated and complex with older vines, but the production level also diminishes. In a market run by the price of fruit by weight, vineyard owners tend to pull vines before production levels decrease.

The question, then, of whether so-called Orange wines express terroir, would seem to rest not only in the technique itself, but also in the source of the wines’ fruit. As Bonné points out, “terroir examples from New World wines, generally can be found from people working with vines over 20-years old.” As examples, we talk through some of the winemakers featured at the event In Pursuit of Balance, many of whom are able to work with older vines–Varner, Sandhi, Wind Gap, and Hanzell, to name just under a handful. In each case, the labels are producing white wines that also seem to show unique site expression from vines at least 2-decades old with a hands on approach in the vineyards. Wind Gap also produces several examples of skin contact whites.

Bonné considers the history of skin contact whites in California, and points out that it begins not simply in grabbing a technique but in a matter of emphasis and innovation. As Bonné describes it, the history arises from first making white wines a central focus. John Konsgaard with his unfiltered Chardonnays from Newton Vineyard offers one such example. His devotion to Pinot Grigio with George Vare through Luna Vineyards gives another. In both examples, just taking white wines so seriously stands as a moment of being radical with wine.

“What I love about all this,” Bonné highlights, referencing Vare and Kongsgaard, is that “these people wanted to explore what happened when white wine became the most important thing you did.” One result is that by turning the attention to whites as central, exploration of technical options became paramount. Eventually, this also led winemakers to explore older traditions resulting in the re-introduction of macerated ferments, and extended macerations, what we now call Orange wines.

Bonné also points out, that in his view, giving such attention to whites amounts to making a strong statement. Orange wines generally need time to resolve their tannin structure before release, then again more time in bottle before drinking. “In our culture where even reds are opened quickly,” Bonné tells me, “it’s a strong economic statement to make wines that are meant to be held for 5-years after release.”

Innovation of Technique

In addition to consideration of the vineyard itself, there is also the relationship of winemakers to their vineyards. Many winemakers producing Orange wines in California are not intimately connected to their vineyard sources, relying instead on the work of vineyard managers that communicate primarily about picking times. To the extent that such a relationship defines any particular label’s approach, the discussion would seem to focus not on a cultivation of relationship with terroir, but simply on an exploration of technique.

Speaking as a matter of emphasis, Bonné comments, “in the New World it is entirely a discussion of technique,” not terroir. For Bonné, what is exciting about the exploration of macerated ferments, and extended maceration on white grapes is less about the direct results in the wines themselves, and more about the explosion of the white wine category. “The best part of winemakers experimenting with the approach,” he tells me, is that “they’ve pulled out useful lessons on how to enhance texture, and enhance expression in white wines.”

Hank Beckmeyer, owner and winemaker of La Clarine Farm offers one such example. (Beckmeyer, however, works intimately with his vineyards as well.) In 2009, he decided to purposefully “do it all wrong” when working with Viognier. He wanted to see what the grape would do if fermented and treated like a red wine.

The result, at the time, he thought was very nice aromatically but rough on the palate. Still, he took a lesson from the experiment and began using short skin contact durations at the start of all his white wine ferments to bring textural interest, and those increased aromatics he liked. He also started playing with using skin contact on one grape lot going into a white blend so that “only a portion of the blend has that kooky texture” he likes but doesn’t want to dominate.

For Beckmeyer, the result has been finding that he appreciates the use of skin contact on varieties with lower tannin in the skins, and higher natural acidity. Skin contact is known to increase potassium levels in the must, leading to a decrease in overall acidity depending on contact duration. The necessity becomes, then, keeping a balance on use of the technique in relation to the overall composition of the wine. On grapes with higher natural acidity the use of skin contact can modulate what could otherwise be too much of a good thing. In Beckmeyer’s view, including some skin contact serves as a way “to bring some zing to the wine.”

This Spring, as part of my exploration of U.S. Orange wines, Beckmeyer shipped me a bottle of his 2009 Viognier he hadn’t tasted in a couple years. The roughness he’d described was no longer there. Instead, the tannins had lengthened and smoothed, offering a sensual texture. The wine also carried a mix of pleasing aromatics not always typical to the variety–passionfruit, and kumquat, alongside backnotes of oregano, lichen and bark. In the mouth it carried through also rich with fig, cocoa, and olive. That zing was definitely there, a wine full of sapidity.

***

Donkey & Goat also play with other small lot fermentations of skin contact, most often producing blends that have some small textural influence from macerated fermentation, rather than full Orange wines. Their 2011 release of Grenache Blanc is one such example. Their 2011 Coupe d’Or is another–a 50/50 Roussanne/Marsanne blend that utilizes 1/4 of its fruit from skin-contact Roussanne of the Ellen Vineyard.

***
The next installment of this series will consider the roles of tradition and technology in terroir and technique.

***

To read previous installments of this series:

Part 1: The Butterfly Effect: How the death of a fad gave birth to beautiful color in wine, Part 1: Considering Recent History

Part 2: The Butterfly Effect: How the death of a fad gave birth to beautiful color in wine, Part 2: Variety, Terroir, and Mind Scrambling

Part 3: The Butterfly Effect: How the death of a fad gave birth to beautiful color in wine, Part 3: The Craft of Wine Tasting, and the Question of Responsibility, Conversation with Two Sommeliers

To read last year’s series explaining Orange Wines beginning with how they’re made, then their presence in Georgia, Italy, and California, begin here: Understanding Orange Wines Part 1: A Quick and Dirty Look at How They’re Made and What Their Tannins Do To Our Saliva

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