June 2009 Newsletter
Color, does it really matter (in wine)?
I just returned from a trip to Texas where I spent a fair amount of time talking
to particularly enlightened individuals about color in wine. I began to get a
false sense of hope that wine drinkers in general had gotten to the point where
color was no longer a major criteria in whether they liked a wine or not. I am
afraid that is a false hope. While most of our customers, which are a very highly
evolved sub-set of all wine drinkers, fully understand that of all of the sensory
attributes of wine, the way it smells, tastes and feels in the mouth is much more
important than color, most people have not gotten that far. We often judge more
with our eyes than with some of our other senses. I fully accept that but I am out
to change the way people think about wine, one wine drinker at a time.
Some years ago, back in the early days of my winemaking career, I was asked
to be one of several winemakers at a pinot noir tasting. The format was unusual
in that we were scattered among the crowd and most didn't know we were
there. After the formal part of the tasting, it was opened up to questions. One of
the first questions was what the winemakers felt about color in pinot noir. As I
prepared to answer I noticed another winemaker rise. His answer was that color
never mattered to him. When I burst into laughter I was greeted with cold hard
stares from a number of people. I then realized that they didn't get his joke. The
winemaker who had spoken was blind!
Perhaps we should all taste blind (with blindfolds on) or with black wine
glasses. The results would be interesting. But, in the meantime, thanks to all of
you who have appreciated our 2006 pinot noirs, 3 of which have the color of
rosé. Close your eyes and they are so much darker...
Could have made them darker. Enzymes are cheap. Decided not to. Aroma,
flavor, mouth feel are more important to me. Nuff said.
2009 Vintage Prediction
We have had all of the usual stuff - drought, late rain, cold weather, hot weather,
wind, pestilence - well, not the latter. Lately, great weather during bloom which is
now finished. Last year's frost-affected vines have fewer clusters, the others look
about normal. All in all a good start to what could be a very good vintage. But
then again we have a lot of weather between now and harvest, in about 110 days.
New Releases
2008 Gewürztraminer
Saralee's Vineyard
I am guilty of a major wine geek sin.
I sometimes get unduly excited about
"minor" varietal wines. In the overall
scheme of wines, some grape types are
considered capable of creating great
wines. These include chardonnay,
riesling, cabernet sauvignon, syrah,
pinot noir and nebbiolo. A handful
of others may be included depending
on who you are talking to, but a host
of other varieties are relegated to
minor status. Sorry, but I sometimes
get more excited about the wines
from these second tier types. First, I
can drink them more often and with
a wider variety of foods. Secondly,
since I don't expect them to wow me,
I am often very taken with those that
actually do. One of these varieties
is gewürztraminer. This is a grape
that I believe can, on rare occasions,
achieve greatness. It most often is a
serviceable wine that works with spicy
food, hence its reputation for a good
wine with Thai food. However, there
is a middle ground, wines that while
not necessarily great are so captivating
that you just can't seem to keep your
hands off of them. Our friend and
neighbor, Saralee Kunde, grows the
kind of gewürztraminer grapes that
produce this kind of wine. Whether
it is the dry, austere, serious wine of
Dick Arrowood; the rich, sex-in-abottle
wine of John Holdredge, or the
wine that we make, these grapes are
truly special.
I sat down one night recently to try
our very recently bottled 2008 to see
if it was possible to release it with the
June release. I know, releasing a wine
that is thought of as a summertime
treat in time for summer seems to fly
in the face of our usual practice, but
I thought it was worth a shot. Boy,
was I pleasantly surprised. Not only
is it ready for prime time, I will have
a hard time keeping my hands off of
the couple of cases that we are setting
aside for the library.
The vintage was tough. Late season
frost, small crops, uneven ripening and
a host of other challenges made this
one tough year. The gewürztraminer
crop was so far down that we thought
we wouldn't even be able to make a
barrel. We have always made this wine
from a very small block at Saralee's
Vineyard. Across Mark West Creek
from our block they planted additional
gewürztraminer but I have never
been as impressed with this fruit. It
is heavier bearing and later to ripen.
However, faced with the prospect of
maybe missing a vintage, I decided
to look at the other block. The fruit
was very uneven, not an uncommon
thing in the vintage. However, there
appeared to be fruit within the block
at the same degree of maturity as the
other fruit. Once again, Saralee and
her crew came through for us. They
agreed to go through the block picking
only the fruit that I deemed mature.
At the end of the day they had picked
enough additional fruit for us to make
our usual amount. The interesting
thing was that the overall sugar in the
juice after pressing was the lowest I
had ever seen in our gewürztraminer.
I was concerned that the finished
alcohol would be less than 12%. Not
necessarily a bad thing, just something
that we were not used to. We followed
the same protocol as usual--whole
cluster pressing and settling overnight
before racking to small stainless steel
drums for fermentation. We inoculated
with the same yeast (gewürzraminer
is one of the few wines we do not
ferment using wild yeast). When we
checked the alcohol on the finished
wine, I sent it off to a lab for a
confirmation. Twice. The alcohol
exceeded 14%! While you will never
notice it in the wine, it was a shock.
Once again, Mother Nature had come
along and slapped me upside the head
to remind me how little control we
really have.
The wine: (Gewürztraminer)
Palest of pale lemon yellow. Bright
aromas of lychee and citrus pith. In the
mouth it is bright, fresh and engaging.
I am very sensitive to bitter and I
always pick as soon as the naturally
apparent bitterness in the grapes is
gone. If you don't wait, you need
to leave residual sugar to mask the
bitterness. We make this bone dry
(no detectable sugar when measured
in parts per million) so this is very
important. This wine walks the line on
bitterness but is definitely on the right
side. I hope I can get this close again
as this wine is the kind of "little" wine
that I get really excited over. I tasted
it next to our '07, and, while a little
different in style (the '07 is a little
richer), I had a hard time picking a
favorite. At the end of the night it was
the '08, with the acidity and brightness
being the deciding factor. Plus, it
tamed the curry a little bit better!
2007 Chardonnay
Trenton Estate
The vines are few and the grape
clusters are small but when we get a
crop the wine can be really special.
There is no doubt in my mind that
this is one of the best chards that this
vineyard has produced, perhaps the
best since the '77.
The wine:
In the nose, Meyer lemon/orange
blossom and hints of jasmine,
honeysuckle and green apple along
with wet stone. In the mouth it is very
bright and focused with great acidity
and enough ripe fruit to balance the
acidity. Impeccably balanced. Sadly,
we produced slightly less than 2
barrels. Only 47 cases were bottled.
2007 Pinot Noir
Cuvée de Trois
I was going to wait until the fall to
release any of the 2007 pinot noirs.
My take on the vintage from having
tasted a fair number of pinots is that
it is a great vintage that will be drunk
way too soon. While the 2006's are
drinking very well now and many
will improve over the next few years,
the 2007's seem tightly wound. Then
an odd thing came to pass. We were
visited by a wine writer. We tasted
through a bunch of wines and since
he was interested I pulled some of
our '07's. I told him that they weren't
ready for prime time so it was just for
his interest and not for publication.
He thought that they showed really
well but I wasn't sure. A short time
later we were contacted by The Wine
Spectator asking to taste the '07's for
an article. I hesitated but figured since
they were being tasted against other
'07's it wouldn't be a total disaster. I
was very pleasantly surprised when
Jim Laube wrote a little piece for their
online publication entitled, "Tasting
Highlights: California Pinot Noir." In
it he profiled a dozen Russian River
Valley and Sonoma Coast pinot noirs.
The Cuvée de Trois and Trenton View
were two of them. The Cuvée de Trois
garnered a top score of 93, along with
two other wines. We were in great
company in the article. Jim Laube's
notes on our wines were very good.
Of the C3 he wrote "shows this iconic
Sonoma winery at its best, with a
terrific wine at a great price". He goes
on, "Shows wonderful balance and
purity of flavor, depth and complexity
built around spicy wild berry, black
cherry, mineral, anise and spice...
Full-bodied, fresh and lively. The
finish sails on. Drink now through
2013." I couldn't have said it better.
On a final note: wine from the same
four vineyards (I know, I can't count)
went into this wine as has been the
case for several years. The blend is
never the same as we attempt to make
not only the best vineyard wines but
the best Cuvée de Trois each year.
2006 Mourvedré
For those who are unaware, this
wine comes from a little patch of
1910-planted vines near Mancini
Ranch and Zeigler Vineyard. Although
the varietal originated in Spain,
it is probably best known for its
contribution to the wines of Provence,
France, particularly Bandol.
The wine:
The nose shows its typical liquid
pepper character but this year it is
more white than black pepper, joined
by aromas of blueberry. In the mouth
it has medium body, slight tannins and
lower than usual acidity. It is intense
yet not jammy or over-ripe as the fruit
had just reached maturity at lower
levels of sugar when we harvested. It
should continue to drink well for the
next 5 or so years. 25 cases bottled.
2006 Tannat
The real challenge with this grape is
the ferocious tannins that are present.
We followed a similar winemaking
protocol with this vintage as we had
with the prior year, but seem to have
had a little better success on taming
the tannins. Practice may not make
perfect but hopefully it does allow us
to improve.
The wine:
This wine has the same
pretty cherry cola with hints of licorice
and black berry/plum fruit. In the
mouth it is bright, lively and still a bit
astringent. Although I have had old
Madiran wines, I have no clear idea
where this wine is going to go. Great
now with hardy food, I have a feeling-
-a gut reaction really--that it will
soften and gentle over time to become
an even more interesting wine. The
next time someone brings me some
wild boar, this wine is going to come
out. Since that rarely happens, perhaps
I will get a chance to see how well it
will age! 50 cases bottled.
2005 Zinfandel
Mancini Ranch
This is only the second of our 2005
zinfandels to be released. After a while
the vintages begin to run together
but I seem to recall that 2005 was
a vintage with great structure and,
we hoped when the grapes came in,
lower alcohols. We seemed to get
the structure but the alcohols weren't
always low. Mother Nature messing
with us again. Well, with this one,
the alcohol was quite low by today's
standards, under 14%! On the other
hand, the nearby Lone Redwood
Ranch, picked at comparable maturity
levels, was way, way over that.
The wine:
The aromas: black pepper city.
Bramble and cherry predominate. It
is very bright and very focused with
flavors echoing the aromas. Once
again the balance is nearly perfect. Its
great acidity and tannins which seem
to emerge after extended airing, argue
for a very long life. I doubt if I will
wait that long. It is my kind of zin. 538
cases bottled.
On a side note, one of the comments I
got from a number of restaurateurs and
retailers in Texas on tasting our zins
was that they thought that they didn't
taste like zin. To wit, they weren't like
dried berry pie with loads of vanilla.
They liked them but weren't sure what
to do with them. In the end most of
them came to the same conclusion, it
was time for them to start showing the
wines to their customers and to use
them to show them what zinfandel
really is, fashion be damned. I agree!
Coming events Release of 2008
Rhose! The only thing holding it up
is the label. Once that is done it will
be out. And no, we did not misspell
the name. The inspiration is from the
wines of the Northern Rhone Valley
appellation of Hermitage. They can
grow three grapes there; marsanne,
roussanne (both white) and syrah.
From the first two they make dry and
sweet white wine. From all three they
make the great Hermitage rouge. I
don't know if they make rosé or even
if they are allowed. But, if they do/
could do it, it would probably include
syrah and the two white grapes that
often are included with the syrah.
In that spirit we made a rosé that is
about 90% syrah and the balance
marsanne and roussanne, all pressed
and fermented together. Once the
label is approved we will have the
labels printed and release the wine.
Stay tuned. We will do an email
announcement.
— Rod Berglund
Upcoming Events!
1st Saturday & Sunday in August& November
we will be pouring
library wines for our continuing 40th
anniversary celebration.
14TH Annual Grape to Glass Weekend
August 14-16, 2009
Sonoma County's Outstanding
Russian River Valley Wines. Hands-
On Vineyard and Winery Experiences
Wine Country Regional Cuisine
www.rrvw.org/grape-to-glass
Sonoma Wine Country Weekend:
4th through the 6th of September
3 days 200 wineries and chefs.
We will be pouring our wine so join
us where wine food and friends meet.
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