June 2010 Newsletter
The other day, while delivering
freshly bottled pallets of wine
to the warehouse, an ad on a
local radio station grabbed my attention. The ad was for a local, upper
end grocery store, and their produce
manager was talking. He commented
that they had most anything that you
could possibly want and if they didn't
have it they could get it within a day if
it was available. They even got quince
for someone. At the end, he said to
stop by and talk produce and that he
could even show you a quince. The
reason that the ad grabbed my attention is that I thought it odd that quince
seemed to be such a mystery thing to
him. Then it dawned on me, quince,
something that I was very familiar
with from my childhood, might indeed
be something that most people had no
familiarity with. What made it even
more enlightening was that I had used
quince to describe tannat grapes and
that tasting them in the field was like
biting into a quince! I had experienced
this as a child. The forbidden fruit of
the neighborhood was the quince that
our next-door neighbor grew. I was
never told that I couldn't eat them,
only that I wouldn't want to. Since I
managed to eat my way through the
rest of the neighborhood's edibles, I
saw no reason why I shouldn't try the
fruit on this tree even if the adults
were sure I wouldn't want to. After
all, I ate unripe apples (to make sure
that I got some) and even oxalis (we
called it sour grass). Well, one bite of
the quince was all it took for me to
know why I really, really didn't want to
repeat the experience. It was the most
astringent thing I had ever encountered. My mouth was puckered for the
rest of the day! So, I can relate biting
into a quince with the experience of
tasting unripe tannat gapes. For others,
tasting a quince may have little or no
meaning.
We are now finally getting to the
point of all of this, and that is that
we all have a very personal and nontransferable relationship to wine. I
am often asked what our best wine is.
I can answer that but my answer will
change almost as fast as the weather.
While there are times when an aged
Grand Cru Burgundy might be the
best wine choice, there are times when
a simple moscato might be much
more enjoyable. I guess it all boils
down to what purpose wine serves for
you. A while back I was taken to task
by another winemaker in a public
forum for saying that wine's first duty
was to express a sense of place (and
it's second duty was to take its place
gracefully at the dinner table). He
said that I was wrong; that it's first
duty was to provide pleasure. I started
to respond but then realized that I
would be getting involved in a circular
argument. While I agree that wine
needs to give pleasure, simple gulpability doesn't do it for me. When a
wine speaks of a place and time, that
to me is pleasurable. Wine not only
appeals to my senses, it also appeals to
my intellectual curiosity and to a need
to connect to place and time. I love
history and I love to explore. Some
of the first wines I remember tasting
when I began to develop a serious
interest in wine were wines that I had
already read about. By tasting them, I
was able to make a leap from the glass
to that little village in France or Italy
or that stony slope on the Mosel in
Germany. I could sense the place, the
history, the people and the conditions
of the growing season that allowed
that beverage in my glass to be what it
was. It was like reading a novel. I was
transported to a different place and
time. Granted, not all wine that I drank
did that. Some I just drank because
they simply tasted good.
Along the way I learned to analyze
wine, not just for flaws but also as
a way of remembering it. I read the
descriptions by writers and often
wondered what they meant. The
English and French ones were some
of the best. They saw things in wine
that I had never experienced. But
some of the very best descriptions
were the ones done by Kermit Lynch,
a then small retailer and importer
in Berkeley, CA. He wrote about
the wines in a way that was vastly
different. While he did give descriptive
narrative about what the wines
smelled and tasted like, he talked
about things much more important
than that. I learned about griotte (a
wild sour cherry) and garrigue (scrub
land growing on the limestone of
France's Mediterranean coast). Even
though I had yet to travel to France,
I could at least imagine what they
smelled like. More importantly he
created a visual image of the wines,
the place, and the people behind them.
Old, cramped, damp cellars. A plate
of whatever was being prepared in the
kitchen. A trip to the local restaurant
to eat the fish stew that only the locals
knew, with the fish pulled from the
Mediterranean only hours earlier. The
ancient, gnarled vigneron who talked
of what his father and his father's
father had taught him. In short, he
painted a picture that connected the
wines to a place and a time.
So the next time you ask me about
one of our wines, don't be surprised if
I don't tell you how it has aromas of
fresh cherries and is rich in the mouth
with hints of vanilla and coffee from
the barrel and got xx points from
some wine writer. Be prepared to hear
me tell you about how the vineyard
is planted on what was an ancient sea
bottom or eroded material off the
Sonoma volcanics co-mingled with
Franciscan formation rocks and how
the owner grew up on the property
and used to be hitched to a sled by his
father to sled the grapes out of the
fields after the heavy rains and then
sold them for $13/ton, or how they
lost their entire crop several years in
a row to roaming feral pigs. But don't
be too surprised if I just can't resist
telling you what I taste in the wine-even if it does remind me of quince or
the smell of the forest floor when the
first Boletus edulis is emerging or that
rare, old, heirloom apricot fruit in the
waning hours of a warm early summer
so many years ago. Those will be my
personal memories. Yours will most
likely be something different. After all,
wine is in the mouth of the beholder.
Vintage 2010
Less than four months away but
light years away from being able to
say anything substantial about the
vintage. However, we can still dream
and postulate. For now the drought is
a memory. We also dodged the killing
frosts. The rains have continued into
May so the water profile in the soil is
full and the vegetation is going wild.
Due to the wet conditions we were not
able to get into the vineyards early so
we are behind in cultivation. This year
we purchased a spader, an implement
that turns the vegetation under while
breaking up the hardpan and aerating
the soil--all very good things. It does
all of this at the amazing speed of
about 1 mile per hour! Unfortunately
the steering clutches on our tractor
went out and we will be very late
getting the cover crop cultivated. In
fact the grass is higher than the vines
at Mancini. Fortunately this is more
of a cosmetic problem than anything.
Assuming the parts come in on time,
we should have the vineyards all
looking pretty by the first of June. At
this point the vines look healthy but
we are a little behind "normal" and the
cool, wet weather continues. It looks
as if we could be as much as 10 days
behind "normal" at this point but a
spate of warm weather could change
all of that in a hurry.
Karen Guenther is leaving the
nest! Karen and her talents have grown
too big for Joseph Swan Vineyards and
she will be moving on to bigger and
better things. One of the sad things
about being a very small business is
that there is little room to grow. Over
the years we have had some amazing
people help us for a bit while on their
life's journey.
Karen will be around through
Memorial Day Weekend, give or take
a little. If you get the chance, we know
that she would love to see you or hear
from you. We wish her well in her new
adventures. In the meantime, the rest
of us will do our best to answer your
emails and wine club questions, and,
of course, will be thrilled to see you on
your next visit.
New Releases
2009 Gewürztraminer Saralee's Vineyard
I love dry gewürztraminer and this
vintage from Saralee's in no exception.
The block that we usually source our
fruit from produced very little, and,
since we take what is left after the first
winery gets their three tons, we had
to decide whether to make it or not.
The decision was made to take fruit
from an adjoining block, one that
doesn't have the consistency of the
one we usually source from. Our good
friend Saralee Kunde came through,
however, and simply told me to tell
her crew what to pick. We went out
into the block and tasted clusters. Once
we had the parameters in place I told
them what color, what position on the
shoot, etc. that we were looking for and
they went to work selectively cluster
harvesting. The result was perfectly
ripe, wonderful grapes. The wine
was made in its usual fashion--whole
cluster pressed, fermented in stainless
steel, fermented totally dry and bottled
without fining, but this year, due to a
large amount of suspended yeast, it
was coarsely filtered. My favorite wine
with tacos but don't be limited by my
peculiarities. A total of 57 cases bottled
(but not all available as I will consume
more than my fair share)!
2008 Pinot Gris Trenton Station Vineyard
Located just a mile to the west of our
winery, this vineyard has proved to
be an ideal site for this fickle grape.
The Goldridge soil is shallow and
the vineyard consistently cool - ideal
conditions for pinot noir and its
pigment phenotype, pinot gris (a
mutation of pinot noir that has lost
some of its pigment, hence the name,
literally "grey" pinot). The wine was
barrel fermented in older, neutral
French oak barrels, put though a
malolactic fermentation and aged
sur lies until just before bottling in
September of 2009. The resultant wine
displays classic pinot gris character
of round, faintly tropical fruit with
a slight floral hint. Its ample acidity
allows it to pair well with typical
white wine dishes such as shell fish
but I like to serve it with the kind of
food the Alsatians eat (Alsace is its
French homeland), which is just about
anything that red wine goes with other
than maybe beef and game. Great with
poultry, pork, casseroles, stews and the
like. It also works with tacos but not
as brilliantly as the gewürztraminer. A
total of 170 cases were bottled.
2005 Syrah Trenton Estate Vineyard
When I decided to plant some syrah
here at our estate back in the mid 90's
I really had no idea what to expect. I
thought I did, having been a serious
student of the wines of the Northern
Rhone Valley of France, syrah's
ancestral home, and a big fan of our
neighbor Tom Dehlinger's efforts
with his estate fruit, but I was really
unprepared for the schizophrenic
nature of the grape. It seems that
syrah can't seem to decide what it
wants to be. It is even, at times, more
temperamental than pinot noir! Our
first few vintages were, I think, real
reflections of our vineyard. They
were pretty, with lots of nice fruit and
hints of lavender and violets and took
about three years from vintage to
show their stuff. About the time that
I almost gave up on selling syrah (for
some unexplained reason American
syrah has never really caught on in
the American market), the current
vintage would simply fly out the door.
Granted, we sat on it for a year or two,
after having released it much later
than most other producers, but off it
would go. I finally figured out that
it just had its own time and it would
not be rushed. Well, we are going to
release the 2005, an older vintage by
most standards, and I really think that
it will follow the pattern of most of the
prior vintages. By the time that most
people discover it, it will be gone! In
March, I was in London for a panel
presentation on Sonoma County cool
climate chardonnay and pinot noirs
and got a chance to visit some of
the accounts that carry our wines as
well as potential new restaurants and
retailers. One of our importers told one
of the accounts that our Estate syrah
was like Côte Rotie. His response was
that it was better than the best Côte
Rôties and half the price! I don't agree
with him but I have a jaded palate.
However, I think that our syrahs at
least have a kinship.
Medium deep ruby. Aromas of plum,
violets, mild game with good acidity,
plush mouth feel and mild tannins.
We need to introduce people to syrah
so we will be pricing this below
sustainable levels. If it ages half as
well as the last several vintages, it will
be an unreplaceable bargain! 363 cases
bottled.
2008 Côtes du Rosa
I recently was invited to taste a range
of Sonoma County pinot noirs with
a German food and wine writer and
then to join a small group for lunch.
Rather than subject him to yet another
pinot noir (the reason for his trip was
to write an article for a German food
and wine magazine about California
pinot noir), I thought I would bring a
wine that was local, had some history
behind it (planted 86 years ago by
Frank Mancini's father), and was fun. It
was nice to hear both of the other two
winemakers comment about how fun
the wine was. Granted, it has a serious
side as well, but not too serious!
100% whole cluster fermented (the
French call the technique mèthode
ancienne). Aged in neutral French
oak barrels. Deep ruby color. Pretty
nose of ripe raspberries and other
red fruit. A bit of spice, a bit of sass.
In the mouth it is bright, fresh, and
lively. Medium bodied with a nice,
clean finish. We usually drink this one
in the summer with mixed grill as
the acidity cuts the fat in the ribs and
sausages while working very well with
the grilled garlic, tomatoes, fennel,
squash and peppers. If we were in the
Mediterranean, this is what we would
be eating and drinking. Since we are
not, we will do it anyway! We bottled
127 cases in October of 2009 although,
like the gewürztraminer, we make use
of a fair amount ourselves!
2008 Pinot Noir Cuvée de Trois (C3)
2008 is a vintage that has already
had its reputation sullied by the
massive fires in Mendocino County.
For those that are not familiar with
our feography, Mendocino County is
to our north. Fortunately for us, far
enough north that it had absolutely
no effect on any of our vineyards. That
being said, we did have issues, with
the main one being the worst frost
damage in more than 30 years. Some
vineyards were totally decimated with
others suffering little or no damage.
In our Trenton Estate Vineyard we lost
about 30% of the crop, including all
of our chardonnay, to the freezes. The
vines that were not affected (including
our oldest vines in the Laguna Road
block) still produced less than half a
normal crop due to extremely small
berry and cluster size. Great Oak
Vineyard, which is high enough in
elevation to have escaped the freeze,
produced only 1/2 ton per acre. The
fruit that we did bring in was very
concentrated due to the small berry
size and in some cases, higher than
usual sugar as the vines were very
efficient in that department since they
had so few berries to nourish. What it
all boils down to is that we have a lot
less pinot noir than the last few years
-- even lower than the low crop year
of 2007. And, because the crop was
so low in Great Oak, there will be no
vineyard wine in 2008 as what little we
had was needed to make the Cuvée de
Trois work.
The 2008 C3 is a bit of a departure
from the norm. It is much darker in
nature. Darker in color, much darker
in fruit and also darker in its overall
presence. It is a wine that I am sure
will have broad appeal. The C3 sells
very quickly each and every year
which tells me that we have achieved
our goal which is to produce a pinot
noir that reflects the character of the
wonderful area known as the Russian
River Valley, is drinkable at an early
age, and works well with food. Sadly,
production was about 60% of what
we produced in 2006 and about 2/3rds
of what we made in 2007. As always,
nothing was made to be Cuvé de Trois.
It was a barrel-by-barrel selection
to decide what went into the C3 and
what went in the vineyard wines. All
of them have to be the best wines we
can make from what we have to work
with. Get it while you can! 1256 cases
were bottled in September of 2009.
Upcoming Events!
New Release Tasting
Memorial Day until July 1. We will be pouring the new releases. We will be open Saturday and Sunday from 11-4:30 as well
as the Friday and Monday of Memorial Day Weekend.
Single Night! Saturday, June 5, 6:30-10pm
C. Donatiello Winery in the Russian River Valley. For full details go to
www.rrvw.org If you are a millennial or are just young at heart, this should be a rocking good time! Our very own Cody
Sapieka, a card carrying millennial, will be representing us but the rest of us will probably make an appearance as well. We
will be pouring wine made from a single barrel of a single vineyard, single clone point noir.
Pinot Days: June 21-27
Join us and a whole lot of other great pinot noir producers in San Francisco at Pinot Days. Go
to www.pinotdays.com for exact times, ticket availability and other information. The events we are participating in are as
follows: Monday June 21: Winemaker's Dinner with Chef Roy Yamaguchi
Friday June 26: Focus Tasting, best of Russian River Valley, Carneros and Sonoma Coast
Saturday June 27: Grand Tasting
We will also be participating in Pinot Days in Chicago in November. More info to follow.
Be on the look out for a Wine club Party around the end of July. Details to follow.
Grape To Glass: August 22~23
Too much to talk about, go to www.rrvw.org
Sonoma Wine Country Weekend: September 3-5. We will be participating in the pinot noir dinner at De Loach as
well as the big tasting on Sunday. For details go to www.sonomawine.com.
Ongoing!
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