Hawk Wakawaka Wine Reviews

Wine Review Comics: The Current Palmina Portfolio

Hawk Wakawaka

-

Jul 6, 2012

Tasting Palmina with Steve Clifton

Though he’d arrived back from a work trip in Hawaii in the middle of the night only hours before, Steve Clifton was kind enough to make time to taste Katherine and I through the entire current Palmina portfolio. And it’s huge. Here are comics for each of the Palmina wines we tasted.

There is a wonderful consistency of quality across these wines, with each also serving as good food wines, offering a nice balance of pleasure and interest. The Botasea Rosato, Dolcetto, and Santa Barbara Vineyards Barbera are likely the three most flexible for food pairing, with the Santa Barbara Vineyards Nebbiolo offering the easiest approach for the heartier wine options including a range of Nebbiolos and the Lagrein.

Following is some information on 16 wines of the Palmina portfolio.

Palmina White Wines

2010 Tocai Friulano, Honea Vineyard

click on comic to enlarge

Planted in 2002 the Honea Vineyards Friulano gave its first vintage in 2005. The 2010 was given all stainless cold fermentation.

It offers nice distinctive minerality with a pleasing saltiness and acidity. The nose and palate offer almond, citrus flower and zest and mixed pepper. The fruit is picked through multiple passes to keep the acidity up, from a unique limestone river bottom soil with little irrigation.

2009 Subida, Tocai Friulano from Honea Vineyards

click on comic to enlarge

Taking the same fruit at the same time from the Honea Vineyards, the Subida is an orange wine style Tocai Friulano made with 36 days of skin contact, no SO2 or CO2, little punch down, and gross lees moved to barrels. The wine is aged in neutral French oak to allow micro-oxidation but no flavor impact. Malo-lactic fermentation occurs in barrel, and the wine is moved via gravity from barrel to tank, then tank to bottle with no fining or filtration.

The wine opens significantly in the glass, also showing the acidity more vibrantly as it opens. The flavors open from dusty, dried citrus notes to include light pineapple and more floral elements. There are nice nut and white floral elements throughout with tart acidity and toast.

2010 Malvasia Bianca, Larner Vineyard

click on comic to enlarge

Fermented, after a 24-hour cold soak, in neutral barrels, the Malvasia Bianca includes an overnight maceration to heighten aromatics, and deepen the palate, and help relieve bitterness otherwise common to the grape. It is made with all indigenous natural yeast.

The nose here is vibrantly tropical floral with pear, apple, and meyer lemon notes, while the palate becomes white floral, mildly stemmy, with meyer lemon, lemon zest and light apple skin. There is a significant contrast between the nose and palate that makes the wine intriguing. Steve says it is his favorite oyster wine, and it certainly presents as great for seafood.

2010 Arneis, Honea Vineyards

click on comic to enlarge

The Honea Vineyard was started in 2002 for Palmina growing a mix of only Italian varieties on 20 acres.

The Arneis carries fresh, vibrant citrus blossom, nice salty minerality. It’s ripe in the mouth, with a good acidic mouth pinch, a floral nose and opening palate, and a salt and citrus finish. This wine is precise, and clean, with a pleasing texture.

Palmina Rosé

Botasea 2011 Rosato di Palmina

click on comic to enlarge

Though previous vintages of the Botasea have offered a higher proportion of Nebbiolo, two vineyards of Nebbiolo were lost to frost, resulting in more Dolcetto currently being used in the Rosato as a result. The 2011 carries 50% Dolcetto, 25% Nebbiolo, and 25% Barbera.

There is a nice berry and white pepper, well integrated nose. The wine would work well alongside fuller foods offering a nicely dry presentation, medium acidity, and a medium long finish.

This wine was designed to work with foods like a lighter style red wine. It makes me want red meat and fries, and also does well alongside grilled tuna or smoked mussels.

Portions of the proceeds from this wine also go to Breast Cancer Research.

Palmina Red Wines

2010 Dolcetto, Santa Barbara County

click on comic to enlarge

Fermented and aged in 50% neutral oak barrels, and 50% oak tanks, the Dolcetto is the most versatile of the Palmina wines doing well with a huge range of foods, or alongside your cooking process as you get food ready. Having first been made in 2004, it’s also proved to do well with some age, though designed to be drinkable young.

The goal of this wine is to aim towards the light side of things while offering rich flavors. It offers wild red berry notes with mixed pepper, a pleasing light mouth grip, and good freshness.

2010 Barbera, Santa Barbara County

click on comic to enlarge

The Santa Barbara County blend of Barbera is meant to be a little more forgiving, and food flexible presentation of the Barbera varietal.

It smells and tastes like the fresh, juicy, lightly bitter crunch of raspberry and blackberry offering a juicy mouth, and pleasing watery, mixed pepper finish. This wine is dry in the mouth and well balanced.

2010 Barbera Alisos

click on comic to enlarge

The Alisos presentation of Palmina Barbera shows a spicier, richer flavor and body than the Santa Barbara County blend. There is a light bitterness and cracked pepper element here integrated into a rich berry, and earthy note Barbera, all with a clean, watery finish.

2009 Alisos, Santa Barbara County

click on comic to enlarge

Palmina’s first wine, the Alisos was designed to mimic a Super Tuscan style with 80% Sangiovese (10% of which was dried and then rehydrated before pressing), and 20% Merlot.

The passito grapes deepen and concentrate the fruit flavors here into dark raisin, alongside the juicy red cherry and raspberry notes. There are also classic Sangiovese elements of orange zest on the nose, and juice in the mouth. There is great food friendly acidity here.

2008 Undici

click on comic to enlarge

100% Sangiovese, the Undici carries a dark nose, showing wonderful spice, orange zest, leather, tobacco, and red cherry. There is a light fresh finish, following a medium body of yum.

2009 Lagrein

click on comic to enlarge

The Lagrein wants food, with meat proteins helping to bring out the range of flavors on the full bodied varietal. There is a rich mix of cigar box, red and dark fruit, and a pleasant drying mouth grip here. I’m a fan of this grape.

2007 Santa Barbara County Nebbiolo

click on comic to enlarge

Spending 3 1/2 years in oak, and 1 year in bottle before release, the Santa Barbara County presentation of the Nebbiolo is meant to be the most approachable of the Palmina Nebbiolos. It loves air and wants a lot of time in decanter or glass after opening.

The wine shows violet, red fruit, lots of spice, and cracked pepper. it is nicely drying, with medium acidity, and a medium long finish.

2006 Stolpman Nebbiolo

click on comic to enlarge

The Stolpman Vineyard Nebbiolo comes from a barbaresco clone grown in a limestone vein. It’s a wonderfully feminine presentation of strength and elegance with floral–violet and rose–spicy, and leather notes alongside cigar box.

2006 Sisquoc Honea Vineyards Nebbiolo

click on comic to enlarge

A more sinewy, athletic version of Nebbiolo, the Sisquoc uses a Barolo clone. The structure here is tight and focused, while fluid, carrying raisin, date, juicy berry, and dried violet plus touches of musk.

2006 Honea Vineyard Nebbiolo

click on comic to enlarge

In the Honea Nebbiolo the Barolo clone is grown in limestone taking the clone of the Sisquoc grown in the soil type of the Stolpman. There is a strength and fullness here, with a rich and tight presentation, though it is more open than the sinewy Sisquoc. The flavors here are rich leather, and cigar, with dried violet, spice, and cracked pepper.

Palmina Dessert Wine

2006 Santita, a Malvasia Bianca Appassimento

click on comic to enlarge

A perfect biscotti wine made from grapes dried for a 120 days and then rehydrated. The wine is nutty, with dried white herbs, light oxidized notes, touches of molasses, date, dried fig, and dried apricot, as well as touches of dark toast. It is a lovely dessert-style wine offering the rich concentration of the style without the sweetness.

Turning Home 7: Pics from Walking Around Naknek

Alaska

Hawk Wakawaka

-

Jul 6, 2012

2

Wine Maker Superheroes: Steve Clifton is Superman; Palmina Wines and Brewer-Clifton

Hawk Wakawaka

-

Jul 5, 2012

3

This is the fourth Superhero Wine Maker dedication in an on going series appearing here (though there has also been one Superhero Wine Writer dedication in the series). To follow the ongoing series on Wine Maker Superheroes click here: http://wakawakawinereviews.com/tag/wine-maker-superhero/

Steve Clifton is Superman

click on comic to enlarge

The legend of Superman presents the American dream of a great ideal–the man so driven by principles of goodness he is strengthened beyond all others to fulfill the demands of integrity in the greater world. Though we might treat Superman as an overly naive mythology, the story’s design reveals its recognition of darker forces through Superman’s demand to carry a dual identity. He must remain hidden from the larger world which he strives to protect.

Still, even in Superman’s Alter Ego, Clark Kent, his full alignment with higher law is evident. Bumbling Kent can’t help but be good. Revealed in the Gemini presentation of Superman/Clark Kent we witness an important lesson. It is only in a thorough integration of our principles with our desires, our need to be close to others, and even our anger, that we have the strength to do what is right. It is only as he lives from his fuller Superman self, complete with oppositional energies such as lust for Lois Lane, vulnerable need for love relationships, and anger or grief for loss of others that our hero is able to embody the superpowers that set him apart. Clark Kent’s goodness is too narrow and naive for him to act with genuine power.

A further lesson generated by Superman’s gifts can be found in his aura of grace shown through his determination to be part of his community, rather than separate from it. Even as his powers would seem to set him apart, Superman utilizes his dual identity not only to protect the fate of those he loves, but also to allow the community to celebrate together in his protective accomplishments. He has no need to hold the credit only for himself.

Steve Clifton

Through his Palmina Wines, Steve Clifton carries an impressive portfolio of Italian varieties grown in the greater Lompoc region of California. The sheer number of wines produced under the Palmina label (and its sister rosé, Botasea di Palmina, made by Steve Clifton’s lovely wife, Chrystal) in itself reveals an ability to juggle a wealth of projects simultaneously. However, beyond the work of Palmina, Clifton also co-produces with Greg Brewer a complete portfolio of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir through the Brewer-Clifton label.

The quantity of wines would be an unimportant point to raise except for the fact that each bottling offers a wonderful balance of each of the three reasons to drink wine–pleasure, interest, and food pairing. Katherine and I were lucky enough to spend an extended morning with Steve Clifton tasting through the Palmina portfolio (review comics to come tomorrow). What impressed us both during the tasting was how clearly designed to drink with a meal the Palmina wines are. That said, these are not food wines in a narrow sense. Instead, these are clean, well-balanced wines that offer intellectual engagement in a relaxing presentation. There is enough to think about here, but the smarts of the wines are well grounded in a body of pleasure. By the end of the tasting, I told Steve that I’d happily want a blind case of Palmina in my house–even if there are several that stood out for me as favorites, any of the wines would be a welcome addition to my kitchen.

Considering the quality of quantity that Clifton manages to produce in wine serves as a strong first step for establishing a wine maker superhero, but it is how he develops community around his wine that moves him into the pinnacle superhero position as Superman. In talking with Clifton about his goals as a wine maker, he emphasizes his interest in sustainability. Considering the popularity of the word in the United States right now, the idea might not sound impressive. What does stand out is Clifton’s own awareness of what he means by sustainability, and the way in which he follows through on the concept.

As Clifton emphasizes, the notion of sustainability only matters when it makes contact with the way people live their daily lives. While we of course need to cultivate the health of our surrounding earthly environment, it is in seeing how integral to and dependent upon that environment we are that we begin to make a difference in each others and our own lives. Sustainability, then, also depends upon cultivating sustainable community and community relationships. As such, Clifton focuses on developing liveable conditions for his vineyard and wine making employees. In doing so, he also perpetuates a sense of longer term involvement for his employees such that their work includes the benefit of knowledge gained from time. Additionally, by establishing an on going work relationship, employees are able to directly witness, and enjoy the benefits of their own good work.

The refrain heard across California wine country during our travels was that there is a labor shortage–it’s hard enough to find people to maintain the vineyards and harvest the grapes that there is an honest concern over losing fruit before it can be turned into wine. Clifton has helped himself avoid much of this difficulty, however, by establishing on going employees that work with his label consistently throughout the year, thus getting to know the vineyards, while also being able to focus on the daily health of their own families simply by having the luxury of living in one place throughout the year. In these ways, Clifton supports not only the quality of his own wine label, but also the healthy living conditions of his employees.

Further extending his care for the greater community, proceeds from a couple of Palmina’s wines are also donated to charity. The Rosato di Palmina, for example, generates donations for helping to find a cure for breast cancer.

As if his incredible quality focused production abilities, dedication to sustainability, and cultivation of community health weren’t enough, Clifton seals his status as Superman through the unassuming character of his Palmina profile. The goals of the label are centrally dedicated to being food wine. In this way, Palmina presents itself not as a show off wine, but as an integral aspect of a meal, holding a persona meant not to upstage its surroundings, but integrate into it.

***

Tomorrow we’ll look at some of the individual wines from Palmina through wine review comics.

Thank you to Steve Clifton for taking time to meet us. We’re both so grateful.

Thank you to Seth Kunin for helping me schedule time with Steve.

Thank you to Dan Fredman for helping me move from typing “rose’ ” to typing “rosé.” I’m so excited by that I can’t even tell you.

Turning Home 6: Walking Around Outside my Great Grandparents House

Hawk Wakawaka

-

Jul 4, 2012

3

People say the ground in Alaska swallows what’s on it. Traveling around the state it’s hard to find any genuinely old buildings, or visible archaeological sites. Moving to Boston after graduating from high school was a thought revolution for me–facing all the historical locations mixed right in with everyday life.

My great grandparents’ house is no longer lived in, and their property no longer used. The alder and willow, and wild grass has grown up around their buildings, and the driveway from one direction is barely visible. The last time I was in Naknek it was still possible to stay in their house. Growing up, I slept in the back room with my great grandmother. Several years after both my great grandparents had died, and after I’d already stopped fishing, I visited in the middle of summer and slept in the back room where I had growing up. It’s the only place I’ve ever rested so deeply.

I walked around their property for a long time tonight with clear images and moments from childhood flashing through me–I lived there in the summers with my great grandmother till I was ten, and spent much of my time there after. At my youngest, their house was one of the furthest out of town and it was a common occurrence for bears to wander across the property at night. It wouldn’t have been much of a concern except for my great grandfather’s love for his dogs that lived outside. There is a clear image in mind for me of the figure of my wiry, small Grandpappy walking outside at dusk with a shotgun in one hand as he went outside to yell off the bear, and talk to his dogs. I was so scared standing at the little window of his bedroom praying for him to make it inside.

In the middle of the property, Grandpappy had built a Quonset hut for his garage. He spent much of his time outside working on projects there. During the salmon season he’d cut fish into strips and hang them from the rafters, tied together on one end by twine to hook them over for hanging. The fish strips would dry there in the ceiling. Then, some would be brined and slow-smoked for several weeks in the small building at the back of the property. There my great grandfather burned fresh cuttings of wood to flavor the fish until the meat was hard and rich with salmon smoke. There is one type of tree in the area he didn’t like for flavor, and another he did. I wish I could remember which was which.The rest of the dried fish would be left as was to be eaten in winter after having either been boiled, or soaked in seal oil for softening.

To the side of the house my great grandmother hung clothes for drying after washing them in an open top, old-style slosh bucket inside. She did all her house work by hand, having grown at a time long before electricity ever reached the area. She was still scared of things like the vacuum cleaner by the time I was growing up, favoring lifting dirt from the carpet bent over like she was low bush berry picking. Her time was spent almost entirely inside, house work and cooking taking most of the day because of her hand done approach. Each day she kept the same schedule for meals and tea time–5:30 a.m. breakfast, 9 a.m. tea; Noon lunch, 2:30 p.m. tea; 5:30 dinner, 9 p.m. tea. The schedule helped her partition her work, but it also meant anyone knew when it was okay to visit without interrupting her work.

My deepest felt memories reach back to my great grandparents property. My daughter Rachel walked around outside there with me, and gratefully knew to quietly wait till I was ready to tell her about it, rather than ask me. The idea that their property is now silent gives a challenging first view. Finally, I decided I’d look for close-up photos around the property that caught spaces close to how they had been when they were still being used. The images give a feeling of the texture, and shape of the place.

part of the rain water gutter along the side of the quonset hut garage

a bird house on top the quonset hut garage

one of the benches inside the steambath–we would wash in a fashion much like a Russian banya; not just a sauna to sweat, but also for washing

hooks in the dressing room for the steambath

the handle and lock set-up for the entrance to the steambath

the same stove that heated the house was for cooking too

at almost 90-years of age my great grandfather repainted the entire house. he said he wanted a bright blue so it would be easy to see

Lunch at Bell St Farm: Martian Ranch 2009 Santa Ynez Grenache, and No Sulfur Grenache

California

Hawk Wakawaka

-

Jul 4, 2012

2

Bell St. Farm, Los Alamos, California

Jamie at Bell St. Farm is a gem. They also have the tastiest meat loaf sandwich ever in the history of the world. And Katherine had some sandwich I can’t remember but it was good too. Plus, the bread was whoa.

Anyway, in the midst of waiting for our food, Jamie and I took to talking about the nice selection of local wines on their list, with offerings both by the glass and the bottle. Our conversation came around to Martian Ranch & Vineyard wines, made right there in Los Alamos.

By the end of lunch I’d tasted two rose’s, and then a secret bottle of a Martian Ranch experiment–a no sulfur, low intervention Grenache from the 2011 vintage. Michael Roth, Martian Ranch’s wine maker, had just dropped off the Grenache experiment earlier that afternoon for Jamie to try, and he was kind enough to share a glass a piece with both Katherine and I.

By the end of the affair, I left with a bottle of the Martian Ranch 2009 Santa Ynez Grenache to taste later. The 2009 was actually made by the winery’s previous wine maker, Brett Escalera, and shows a different style, I’m told, from the newer (2011 and forward) wines by Michael Roth. Roth has been able to focus on developing wines that celebrate the spirit of the area from which they grow. The No Sulfur Grenache is a Michael Roth experiment though, and I count myself lucky to have tasted it.

As if Jamie hadn’t already been generous enough, it turned out too that I missed meeting Michael Roth by mere moments. We apparently passed each other in the doorway of Bell St. Farm. He left just as I was walking in. Perhaps the opportunity will represent itself.

Following is a wine review comic of Martian Ranch’s 2009 Santa Ynez Grenache, and their Low Intervention Grenache experiment as well.

click on comic to enlarge

Martian Ranch 2011 No Sulfur Grenache Experiment

The No Sulfur Grenache offers a fresh red cherry, light funk opening, with light cola notes showing alongside the lemoncella and lavender elements. The wine is lively in the mouth, showing as both drying and juicy, but with the tannin beating out the acidity slightly in the overall balance. This bottle had light stem bitterness that showed primarily in the medium-long finish. Fun wine! Katherine very much enjoyed it as well.

Martian Ranch 2009 Santa Ynez Grenache

The 2009 Grenache from Martian Ranch offers a clean, well-balanced, spicy and drying varietal presentation. The wine offers a foundation of red berries, alongside spice, pepper, and surprising smoke elements. The alcohol comes in here at 14%, with a balance of medium acidity and medium tannin showing with a medium finish.

The style here would be distinct from the more recent Martian Ranch wines that Michael Roth has made from 2011 forward.

***

Martian Ranch also bottles Grenache blanc, and a Grenache rose’. I’m curious about both, but particularly the Grenache blanc. I knew in advance that Whit, of Brunellos Have More Fun, carries Martian Ranch wines made by Michael Roth at the shop she buys for in L.A. After tasting their No Sulfur Grenache I contacted her online to hear quickly what she thought of the rest of the portfolio–she said Roth’s wines are solid throughout. She and I have an overlapping palate in regards to the style that Roth would be producing, so I look forward to tasting more.

***

Thank you to Jamie for your excellent food, good conversation, and generosity in wine.

Thank you to Whitney Adams for telling me quickly about the rest of the Martian Ranch portfolio.

Turning Home 5: Celebrating Little Man’s 5th Birthday

Alaska

Hawk Wakawaka

-

Jul 3, 2012

1

After growing up the youngest of four generations of women, my sisters (two older than me) and I had four girls between us. While my great grandmother was still alive, my oldest sister had her first daughter so that there were five generations of us for a time. Then five years ago Melanie had a little boy–Oliver. Yesterday was his birthday. It brought with it the first big tides of the season, with the biggest fish catch, and the day finally finishing with Oliver’s birthday dinner and cake, then presents.

What do five years olds want these days? Oliver asked for Cocoa Pebbles, Fruity Pebbles, Captain America and Spiderman. Here are some pictures, first of Oliver with his Grammie (she’s almost 70 and still commercial fishing), then showing off some of his Spiderman gear.

Happy Birthday, Oliver!

The First Complete Vertical Tasting and Review: A Tribute to Grace Grenache 2007-2010

Hawk Wakawaka

-

Jul 3, 2012

3

At the start of the drive through California, Katherine and I were lucky enough to share an evening with Angela and Jason Osborne, and enjoy with them the first full vertical tasting of their wine, A Tribute to Grace, that they’ve ever hosted.

Our meeting Angela and Jason arose from a lucky suggestion made by Steve Morgan of Tribeca Grill. He’d been kind enough to host me at Tribeca Grill for several hours. We toured the wine cellars, and then talked through his work with the restaurant, ultimately getting around to our mutual love for comics, and his history in wine (write up to follow). At the end of the afternoon he pointed to a bottle in the upstairs wine cabinet and said, remember this one–I think you’d like her, and her wine. It turned out Angela had visited Tribeca Grill a few months before, and they carry her 2009 Santa Barbara Highlands vintage. That evening I set out to find contact info for Angela, and we were able to arrange a meeting on Katherine’s and my first evening in the larger Santa Barbara area.

A Tribute to Grace Grenache: Santa Barbara Highlands 2007-2010; Vogelzang 2009

click on comic to enlarge

I count myself blessed to have tasted through each of the current incarnations of A Tribute to Grace. Together they present a beautiful familial resemblance sharing delicate balance and body, plus a fascinating combination of fruits with spice, floral and earth elements. These are wines that embody their attribute of Grace.

The complete tasting consisted of four vintages from the Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyard, along with one Grenache made from the Vogelzang Vineyard.

2007 Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyard Grace Grenache

The 2007 vintage began with a 4-day fermentation, made from 50% whole cluster and 50% de-stemmed grapes. The two were fermented separately but then blended completely in the end.

The use of sulfur was very low, as is consistent across each bottling of Grace Grenache. In the 2007 vintage 5 barrels were used, 2 of which were new. The vintages are each generally larger than the previous, with an average of two new barrels integrated to each. All of the vintages were bottled at 17 months on the 3rd day of the 3rd month (also Angela’s birthday), except for 2010, which was bottled on the 4th day of the 4th month.

The 2007 Grace offers a beautiful nose that shows as fresh and also spicy, with red fruit and berry and a fascinating dance of ripe apricot. Mixed pepper touches the wine without too much heat. The palate follows. This is a nicely balanced structure, that wants to present as well integrated alongside the flavor profile. The wine’s character is compelling, giving a tart and juicy, lively sensation in the mouth, all with a softened yet vibrant presentation of surprising fruits. This is a wine that is excited about itself, without being pushy in its desire to share what it has to offer.

2008 Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyard Grace Grenache

Picked on Halloween and a full moon, the 2008 vintage was foot tred in costumes, complete with Marie Antoinette helping by lifting up her skirts in the bins. The grapes were 50% whole cluster, 50% de-stemmed and foot pressed after being rained on by a surprise seasonal storm. The rain water was pressed into the juice.

2008 opens as a dainty vintage with a lighter and higher note profile than the previous year. Still, even with the delicate presentation there is a core of strength in the structure of this wine. It drinks as a wine that is clear, centered, and certain of itself without the need to try for more or other than it is.

Again, the unique fruit profile shows here offered through red fruit and berry, ripe apricot, and notes of cooked down rhubarb. The fruit here is more cooked than fruit, without sliding into jam. But along with the concentrated fruit elements there is a freshness and delicacy of rain water that really does dance in this glass. Of the vintages the 2008 most readily celebrates its name.

(If any of you doubt me on the rain water suggestion–my great grandparents used only rain water for drinking and cooking when I was growing up so I was raised familiar with the rounder mouth feel and fresher flavor profile of rain water, versus the steely, dirt qualities of tap water.)

2009 Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyard Grace Grenache

Earthiest of the collection, the 2009 vintage immediately offers cooked caramel and light leather notes on the nose, and opens to show more smoke. The red fruit and berry carries forward here and offer too perfumed aspects as well as it opens.

This vintage is the most brooding of the group, drinking with a greater richness and also a bit of a frustrated note, the tannins show here as both stronger, but also tighter in the mouth. The 2009 vintage stands between the delicate earlier vintages and the dirtier style of a Chateauneuf du Pape.

It was made with a 4 day cold soak, then moved outside to soak in the sun.

2010 Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyard Grace Grenache

First of the vintages to be co-fermented, the 2010 Grace Grenache was made by alternating whole clusters with de-stemmed grapes in the bins then foot stomping them together. The bottling seems to have gone through some carbonic in bottle as it gives a light fizz in the mouth after opening.

2010 presents as more concentrated than would be expected with its age. There is a rich, sassy presentation with distinctly perfumed notes alongside spice, ticked red fruit and berry, red fruit leather, and light caramel.

2009 Vogelzang Vineyard Grace Grenache

In the Happy Canyon area of Santa Barbara county is the Vogelzang Vineyard. The lowland area is vastly different from the rugged, moonscape of the Santa Barbara Highlands vineyard. In 2009 Angela Osborne was offered a small Grenache contract with Vogelzang, and chose to do a site specific bottling from there. Ultimately, Angela felt she had to choose to continue with only one vineyard for time management reasons and selected to stick with the Santa Barbara Highlands Vineyard she’d developed such a strong relationship with.

Osborne’s view of the Vogelzang varietal is that it offers a prettier, lighter version of the Grenache than the Santa Barbara Highlands bottling. As she describes it, Vogelzang is more of a girl next door, sweet girl sort of vintage compared to the greater range that shows in her sister bottles from the other vineyard. After spending the evening tasting through the vintages, and living with my nose in each glass for an extended time, I told Osborne that I could see how she came to that conclusion but I disagreed.

Years ago I had a friend that was quite frustrated in love. He wanted to get married but kept finding women that were a little too wild, without a consistent enough temperament. Often they’d seem nice up front, so he’d get more involved with them, but in the long run major issues would start to unfold unexpectedly. There had been several women that would have happily married him but in each case he’d ended up feeling he couldn’t trust the woman in the way he would need to love them long term. I told him it was clear what he needed to find a lifetime of love. There was only one sort of woman that would hold his fancy long term. She had to be dirty in bed, and sweet every where else.

The best version of a woman to take home to your mother is the one that gets along well with her potential in-laws, sets you at ease in shared company, but holds your attention just for her all night long. I described this to Angela and said that’s what she’s got in the Vogelzang–a pretty, graceful Grenache that shows first as sweet but pours you a glass full of phermones. This is a delicate and also sexy wine.

The 2009 Vogelzang offers red fruit and berry, with delicate rhubarb, spice, very light leather, and a feral earth muskiness. This wine comes to the dance in the prettiest dress, and bells on one ankle. The structure here is well-balanced, and pleasing with just enough tannin and grip to the mouth.

***

Thank you so much to Angela and Jason Osborne for hosting us, and sharing your story, and your beautiful wines. They’re honestly some of the favorite wines of any I’ve tasted. Sweet pets to Archer dog.

Thank you to Steve Morgan for pointing me in Angela’s direction.

To read Angela and Jason’s Life in Wine story click here: http://wakawakawinereviews.com/2012/07/03/a-life-in-wine-angela-and-jason-osborne-and-a-tribute-to-grace-and-faith/

To read more of Angela as a Wine Maker Superhero click here: http://wakawakawinereviews.com/2012/06/30/wine-maker-superhero-angela-osborne-as-viii-strength-tarots-major-arcana-woman-in-tune/

To see pictures of our visit with Angela and Jason click here: http://wakawakawinereviews.com/2012/06/21/driving-california-wine-pictures-day-1-visit-with-angela-and-jason-osborne-a-tribute-to-grace/

A Life in Wine: Angela and Jason Osborne and A Tribute to Grace (and faith)

Hawk Wakawaka

-

Jul 3, 2012

4

Meeting Grace: Beginning a Life in Grenache with Angela Osborne

In the story Life Water for Chocolate, the young woman, Tita, channels her passion for life, and love through her cooking. The meals she makes for the ranch on which she lives become expressions of her feeling, received and experienced by those that eat. In this way, the dining table operates as a vessel for the elixirs that Tita generates–potions to reveal feelings of true love, and genuine grief, or to guide the recipient to the next stage of unfoldment on their life path. It is Tita’s devotion to the meals’ own fullest expression that generates such magic. Through Tita’s story, the reader witnesses the power that one woman’s attention may bring to the simple art of food; how an otherwise everyday process is opened into a case of fuller living.

So too Angela Osborne dedicates herself to cultivating the surroundings and conditions of the wine she helps bring to fruition. Her devotion is channeled through a grape she fell in love with in the United States–Grenache. Having been raised in New Zealand by a single mother, with the help of her grandmother, Osborne also traveled to the United States regularly to visit her father. However, it was not until into her 20s, after moving to California to live, that she witnessed the grape she fell in love with for the first time. Grenache does not grow in New Zealand.

In 2006 Osborne moved to California to shift from the rather citified life she’d had in London, England and instead get closer to more natural conditions along the California coast. The movie Like Water for Chocolate served as one of her inspirations–seeing the women living their passionate lives on a ranch made Angela ask what she was doing in such an urban environment. It was a lifestyle that did not so readily suit her. She’d worked at a wine retail shop in the southern portion of California several years prior and so, in moving back to the state, stepped in to help during their Christmas rush. The job was meant to simply be a short term jaunt while she readjusted to life in the States. Two weeks into her stint, they hosted a wine tasting celebrating the work of several small production Santa Barbara Grenache producers.

Osborne had tasted Grenache from Dry Creek Valley a few years before and was enthralled by the grape then, devising a long term goal for herself of making similar wine. At the time, she’d been unclear about how wine making operated in the United States, believing there to be far more necessary infrastructure than is actually required. As such, she’d expected that the idea of making Grenache really would be a life long project to pursue.

In 2006, while tasting Grenache in the wine tasting, Osborne took up a conversation with Russell P From, wine maker of Herman Story wines. In talking with From, Osborne discovered that much of California wine production actually occurs through what is called a Custom Crush facility–a wine making warehouse through which people essentially rent the space and equipment necessary to make wine. Additionally, she discovered that people rarely own their own vineyards, and instead contract a portion of grapes from which to then custom crush their wine. The information was an epiphany for her. Even better, however, From took to Osborne’s passion for Grenache and invited her to step in and try a vintage piggy backing, initially, on his already established vineyard and crush contracts. Within a few months of arriving back to the United States, then, Osborne was already taking the first steps to fulfilling her dream of making Grenache like she’d tasted from Dry Creek Valley, and starting her label A Tribute to Grace.

Cultivating Grace: Making Grenache

In making Grenache, Osborne dedicates herself to developing, and holding a conscious awareness of the wine’s surroundings, and also the wines particular needs. From this perspective, the wine is more than simply a chemical process arising out of grapes. It is also a sort of conduit through which expression and experience can be passed. More than simply a vehicle for the wine maker’s devotion, however, the wine carries its own presentation, larger than what the wine maker can predict or control. To honor the sort of life that the wine has, ultimately independent of the wine maker, depends on striking a delicate balance of making choices as a wine maker, on the one hand, while surrendering to forces beyond one’s control at exactly the same time. Osborne brings into her wine making practices a balance of this sort of surrender to the wine’s own processes, alongside her own grounded intuition for what the wine may need to come to fruition. Each vintage, as a result, has offered its own opportunity for Osborne to experiment and learn new techniques in wine making, while carrying a familial resemblance in the wine across vintages at the same time.

2008, for example, was a riper year. A wine maker friend and mentor checked the grapes with Osborne after she picked them. He warned her that she was going to need to use additives to control the juice or the resulting wine would simply be too alcoholic, and undrinkable. Osborne steers clear of chemical interventions with her wine, but his suggestion that she could add distilled water to the grapes did catch her attention. Panicked that she may lose her work for that year she rushed to the hardware store at the end of an already long day, looking for 42 gallons of distilled water to pour in with the grapes. The local shop of the small town, however, only had one gallon. Unsure of what to do, Osborne returned home to sleep, and find her solution in the morning. But, before going to sleep, she surrendered her worries to the powers that be. To find the answer to what she needed, Osborne said a kind of prayer. Aloud she announced the trouble she had–she needed to figure out how to deal with the problem of the potential alcohol levels in the wine, and with no distilled water in the area there were no apparent answers to her trouble. In admitting she didn’t know what to do, she also surrendered the concern, saying she gave the solution over to higher good–that whatever is for the best here be what happens. Then she went to sleep. In the middle of the night, Osborne woke up. The skies had opened up and a massive rainstorm was coming down through the entire region. She realized she’d left her freshly picked grapes outside in their foot stomping bins covered only with mesh. In the morning, when she went to check the fruit, about a foot of rain water had filled each bin. Having found what she needed, she pressed the rain water into the wine with the grapes. The resulting wine holds an alcohol level consistent with each of the other vintages Osborne has produced.

Osborne’s wine making also includes a great degree of sharing and celebration. She regularly invites friends to foot stomp the grapes with her (2008 the foot stomp even occurred on Halloween in costume), and she generally tends to the wine playing her music of that vintage. In addition to incorporating her friendships and musical tastes into her wine making process, Osborne also pays close attention to biodynamic practices, respecting lunar effects on the fruit when she harvests, presses, racks, or bottles. (We tasted the wines with her and Jason on a fruit day, for those of you wondering, and each of the wines was lovely–more on the tasting tomorrow.) While being closely involved in these aspects of the conditions that surround the wine as it is produced, at the same time Osborne seems to allow the wine its privacy in the barrel, refusing to impose techniques that would otherwise push the wine, rather than allow it to unfold on its own. This is not to say that she is entirely low-fi in her choices. Osborne generally incorporates two new oak barrels into her regime each year, thereby maintaining a low level of spice and tannin influence in the wine from oak. She also utilizes very low levels of sulfur to help the wine maintain stability at bottling.

Living Grace: Angela and Jason Osborne

Completing a degree in Film from the University of Auckland, Angela worked in a wine shop in the same city just to pay the bills. Though the space happened to be one of the best shops in Auckland, Angela’s interest with the work did not extend beyond a job at the time. She enjoyed selling wine, but it wasn’t a long term interest.

When she announced that she was leaving her job to seek out work making documentary films, Brent Maris, a wine maker from Marlborough paid Angela a visit. Disappointed she was leaving work in wine, he told her that the industry needed her. Passion like hers is rare, he said. To prove he meant it, he offered to help Angela find a job working for a winery over seas–perhaps she simply needed time out of New Zealand. Determined instead to pursue her film career, Angela put a deadline on the offer, and told Maris that if she hadn’t found a film job within six months she’d take him up on the suggestion. A week before the deadline was up Maris had found Angela a job with a winery in the United States working harvest, and she’d found a film job running errands for a filming crew. Putting the two offers side by side, she realized the wine opportunity made more sense, and so began what, without realizing it, would be a career in wine .

Prior to leaving New Zealand, another wine maker that Angela knew from the shop invited her to meet a friend of his on a blind date. Angela and the wine maker had talked often enough that he had a feeling his friend would suit Angela quite well romantically. Willing to take the leap, Angela agreed to the date and found herself happily involved in a relationship. She’d already decided to leave New Zealand with other plans, however, and so after two months of dating, Angela moved from the island, leaving her boyfriend to continue his already well established life there. After, they were able too to remain in loose contact as friends.

Five and a half years later, Angela returned to the island to accompany her mother during her mom’s wedding ceremony. Living in California at that time, Angela arrived in New Zealand without a date to the celebration, and so her mother offered to secure Angela a ‘plus-one’ with one of her old friends. Angela decided to go ahead and take her mom up on the offer. Arriving in New Zealand, Angela discovered, her old boyfriend, Jason, the blind date, was the person her mom had set her up with for the ceremony. Finding themselves happy to reconnect in person, Angela and Jason spent their time together during Angela’s visit in New Zealand. Within a year, their dating developed into them marrying, and Jason moving back to California. Now they work together in California in wine, where Jason also continues his cranio-sacral body work practice.

I asked Jason about the experience. He tells me that he’d known since the first time they dated that Angela was who he wished to spend his life with but that his only opportunity to be with her would come through his willingness to wait until they were both ready. The way he describes this, I have to say, I believe him.

Together, Jason and Angela now dedicate themselves to their Tribute to Grace. Their ultimate goals include continuing to cultivate their Grenache varietal from the Santa Barbara Highlands, while also taking advantage of the alternating harvest times between California and New Zealand. Their intention is to bring Jason’s cranio-sacral body work to a vineyard location to combine their life in wine and the healing arts with a space that people can visit and do retreat. In doing so, they’d like to begin to make a New Zealand wine, while continuing to make their Santa Barbara Highlands Grenache.

Katherine and I were lucky enough to share an evening with Jason and Angela that included the first full vertical tasting of A Tribute to Grace that they’ve hosted. I am so grateful. Tomorrow I’ll post a write-up of the wines.

If you’re interested in seeing the previous post on Angela as the Wine Maker Superhero Justice VIII, you can view the post here: http://wakawakawinereviews.com/2012/06/30/wine-maker-superhero-angela-osborne-as-viii-strength-tarots-major-arcana-woman-in-tune/

Turning Home 4: Two Bald Eagles this Morning

Alaska

Hawk Wakawaka

-

Jul 2, 2012

2

Visiting the beach this morning there were two bald eagles–an adult, and a juvenile. Bald eagles feathers are gray until after their second year when they turn the more familiar white and brown combination. (To give you some vague sense of the birds size, and distance to me, I took these without a zoom lens.)

The adult:

The juvenile (next to a seagull in the first pic):

***

Still working on the wine write-ups. It takes a while out here staying in a house with 12 people.

The town I’m in is on the Western edge of Alaska, with less than 600 people in the winter months, while several ten thousand people move through it in the summer. There is one grocery store, with 90% mark up during the fishing season. The mechanic’s shop closed. There are no coffee shops. We had a high of 55 degrees Fahrenheit today. But the fish are also starting to come in–the drift boats and set nets sites both had their first bigger catch tides today.

Today is also my nephew’s fifth birthday. After several generations of only girls and women, little man gets to celebrate. Happy Birthday, Oliver! Happy to be here with you, and your other crazy family members. Love you lots.

Turning Home 3: Commercial Set Net Salmon Fishing with the Family

Alaska

Hawk Wakawaka

-

Jul 2, 2012

2

Set Net Salmon Fishing in Bristol Bay (on a slow day)

Bristol Bay, on the Western Coast of Alaska where the Alaska Peninsula joins the mainland, hosts the largest salmon run in the world and includes five species–King (also known as Chinook), Red (also known as Sockeye), Silver (or Coho), Dog (also called Keta or Chum), and Pink (aka. Humpback, or Humpy).

The commercial salmon fishing industry operates through two types of gill netting–fishing from a 32-foot boat in what is called drift-netting (because the boat is always floating while the net is out; it is illegal for the boat to be on anchor while fishing), or fishing from shore, called set-netting.

Set-netting is generally done near the mouth of the river system, and occurs on pre-determined “set net site” locations along the beach that are designated through a state controlled leasing system. Original site designations were allotted in the middle of the last century through a point system in which applicants earned points from their history of participation in the fishing community operating prior to the leasing program.

For people to fish at a set-net site, or from a drift boat, they must also own a Bristol Bay area fishing permit. These were also awarded based on points during the middle of the last century. Since the point system, permits or set-net sites have changed hands via either inheritance, friendly legal transfer or sale.

Gill nets are approximately five feet wide with a rope of corks tied along the length on one side, and a rope full of 300 lbs of lead along the other length of net. In this way, the net floats like a curtain in the water. For drift netting, the curtain of gill net floats off the back of the boat; while in set netting the gill net is anchored on both ends in a line perpendicular to shore. To pick the fish from the net in drift fishing, the net is pulled back into the boat, and then after the fish are pulled from the net, it is put back out into the water again. For set netting, on the other hand, a 20 ft skiff is used to pull along the length of the net while the tide is in, or the net is picked by hand as the tide goes out with the fisherman walking in the water along the length of the net.

My father commercial fishes for salmon from a drift fishing operation, while my mother, two sisters, brother in law, and niece each fish their own set net sites with their fishing partners Nolan, and Cathy. I grew up set-netting, only getting on my dad’s boat on occasion when he needed extra help.

Following are pictures from visiting my family’s set net operation this morning. Hopefully later in the season I’ll be able to visit my dad’s boat and take pictures of drift fishing as well.

These pictures are actually from the slowest tide these sites have ever had during this time of year.

reaching over the bow of the boat to grab the set-net and pull it over the boat to pick

pulling the rope that the net is tied to over the bow of the boat

pulling along the (mostly empty) net–from left: Nolan, Mom, Melanie (taking pictures from the bow)

(taking pictures from the stern)

picking a red salmon out of the net

all three picking fish from the net

Nolan is a family friend that fishes with my mom and sister Melanie

showing off the genetic diversity of the river system–these are both red salmon but significantly different sizes from the same spawning year

fishing partners

family fisherman–Melanie, Mom, Me

When the fish have been pulled from the net they are gathered in brailer bags and then delivered to a tender with a weighing crane on deck and ice water fish hold in the hull.

the tender my family sells fish to–the tender then delivers the fish to a cannery

getting ready to lift the brailer from the back of the skiff

weighing the brailer of fish

dumping the fish into the hull

two members of the tender crew–Tony and Chris

visiting the other skiff crew briefly–my niece Melissa, and her dad Kevin

Cathy, our fishing partner, picking the net from the water as the tide goes out

she walks along the net pulling the lead line up out of the water so she can see if fish are caught, then throws any fish she picks from the net into the tote to bring back to shore

pulling the tote of fish up the mudflats (the tide had gone out) back to the beach

My summers growing up commercial fishing were so long. The work was tiring, and much of the time I was worn out and unhappy from exhaustion. Somewhere in there along the way I found that if I looked up at the sky and read the weather patterns showing in it, and how the light patterns changed over the course of the day, I somehow felt relief. Ever since, I’ve tracked the sky as I travel, and in fatigue have watched the skies to gain rejuvenation.

Here’s why:

the view of the sky from the Naknek beach

***

We ate fresh king salmon, caught this afternoon, for dinner tonight, alongside a Pinot Grigio Ramato from Friuli. Yesterday, we caribou soup served with Sta Rita Hills Pinot Noir. The night before we ate a roast with Domaine Tempier La Migoua Bandol Red. For life on the edge of the world, we’ve been getting spoiled. Wine comics of all coming soon. And more on Angela Osborne’s beautiful Grenache too.

Cheers!

Share Wakawaka!

Share Wakawaka!

Share Wakawaka!

Share Wakawaka!

Share Wakawaka!

Share Wakawaka!

Share Wakawaka!

Share Wakawaka!

Share Wakawaka!

Share Wakawaka!