Focus & Specificity in Winemaking

{ For readers that might be wondering how a Finger Lakes article snuck into my stream post-#WBC12, it is because I am catching up. More on the trip to Oregon will follow! }

I could write an article on the focus and specificity required in winemaking, but I suspect that wouldn’t be as useful as one about winemakers whose wine is readily available for purchase. If what you read here inspires you to find out more at least I know you will be able to do so free and clear of the restrictions levied on my non-commercial wines. If you want to hear more about my own projects firsthand come over for a drink sometime!

In June when I returned to the Finger Lakes I arranged to visit two winemakers and spend time with them at their wineries to learn more about what drives them. The first was Tom Higgins at Heart & Hands Wine Company, someone I knew a little about but had not yet met. I’m already a big fan of the wine from Heart & Hands so this was part investigatory and part pilgrimage. The second winemaker was Nancy Irelan at Red Tail Ridge Winery with whom I was not yet acquainted, but had heard very positive words about. (Thanks Lenn!)

On the Sunday morning immediately following the WineMaker Magazine conference Ed, Jim, Margot and I piled in the car and headed up the East side of Cayuga Lake from Ithaca to Heart & Hands in Union Springs, NY. Arriving a few minutes early we took a bit to observe the fledgling estate vineyard and the crushpad overflowing with pallets of bottles patiently waiting their contents. Great image right? Too bad I realized I didn’t actually take a picture of it.

  

Tom & Susan Higgins invited us to visit the winery before they opened on what would likely be a busy weekend, the season was just starting and the most recent club shipment was ready for pickup. With visitors soon to arrive we got right to it with a visit to the barrel room, samples and lots of specifics on the wines that we would ultimately taste.

( Tom Higgins explaining their wine-making practices and whole cluster experiments. )

Whole versus partial cluster pressing and fermentation was one of the topics. The basic idea is that grapes are harvested when ripe and the worthy bunches go into the press and then a fermentation vessel without the removal of the stems.  To non-wine geeks I know this sounds riveting, but I can state clearly that you will taste distinctions in the wines so even if you don’t care too much about how, you can appreciate the outcome.

( A wine press full of whole clusters of Pinot. This image was used from Wikimedia Commons. Refer to the attribution page and full details. )

Whole cluster pressing is not required in winemaking and the application of it for Pinot and several other grapes varies regionally and by winemaker. The goal is to enhance the aromatic and structural (via tannins) profile, especially in grapes that may come in low in these respects otherwise. A key consideration in the application of the method is that getting the grapes from the vineyard, through the sorting process and into the fermenter is quicker without crushing and de-stemming them with an additional step. Given the delicacy the Pinot grape is known for, a motivation to do this is not surprising.

( Hobbit Hollow Pinot aging in a barrel at Heart & Hands. )

Using both organoleptic and chemical measures it is clear that the differences in wines with varying levels of whole clusters in the ferment can be identified. Exploiting these differences with what the harvest provides is yet another tool in the tool chest of a winemaker.

And Tom Higgins is certainly wielding this tool to explore the potential of the grapes from throughout the Finger Lakes region. The motivation for these experiments is pretty simple. Each vineyard source offers different fruit and working with each individually diversifies and maximizes the potential results. By the end of our and tasting we had sampled seven different barrel samples or bottling. These tastes represented several vintages, several distinct sources and the amount of whole clusters in the ferment. This also included the first experimental batch (2011) that had been 100% de-stemmed before pressing.

I’ll start with the 2011 100% de-stemmed sample as a baseline. I found this wine to be smooth and gentle with just a little tannic bite. The fruit flavors (cherries) dominated but I felt that everything fell off early in the finish, which was clean and short.

Next up was the 2011 from the Hobbit Hollow vineyard which included 50% whole clusters in the fermentation. The color on this wine was very light, with beautiful pink edges. The nose on this wine was noticeably assertive and a bit spicy. In the mouth the wine was expressive of tart cherries, spicy and the tannins were like fine dust on the roof of my mouth.

The Hobbit Hollow 2011 whole cluster came next. The immediate difference between this and the previous wine is the amount of tannins. They are still really fine, but there are just more of them. The wine is also more tart (cherries again) and earthier.

From there we moved on to samples of both 2010 and 2011 wines made from the Patrician Verona source, both of which had been 100% whole cluster fermented. The only thing I wrote down about the 2011 was, round. I must have been listening to something that was drawing my attention away from my glass and notebook. Not a bad thing I guess, I was living in what the moment offered. The 2010 got more consideration however. I detected a full nose with lots of spice, influenced by both the whole clusters and the additional year in oak. The tannins were hard to pick up tactilely, I suspect that was the natural mellowing of the bulk aging. The finish on this wine is long and full flavored. This wine was tasting incredibly well, and so it would makes sense that it will be used in the 2010 barrel reserve bottling.

( You'll meet winery and vineyard dogs almost everywhere. They do keep an eye on you though! )

We moved from the barrel room to the tasting bar to finish our trip through the available wines.

The 2010 Pinot blend (3 sources, 50% HC) is the version from Heart & Hands to which I am most familiar, having tasted and/or enjoyed three consecutive vintages now. The 2010 doesn’t disappoint against the two prior years, expressing cherry, red currant and spice in both the aromatics and flavors. The nose is full, the mouth is moderately complex and the finish sticks around long enough to bring it all full circle.

The 2010 Hobbit Hollow single vineyard bottling came next. Fermented with 100% whole clusters I expected more spice and tannins, but the extra year of aging has worked wonders in mellowing all the components into a nicely balanced light and hugely drinkable Pinot. I detected hints of crushed sage in this tasting, something (the green or herbal character) I hadn’t readily picked up in the earlier samples.

We finished with the 2008 Barrel Reserve Pinot. This is still my favorite of all the finished & bottled wines from Heart & Hands. I purchased some in 2011 and haven’t been able to bring myself to open a second bottle just yet. The nose is big and the fruit in the mouth is more assertive than one might expect from cool-climate Pinot. With hints of black pepper and a long, warm finish, this wine most certainly makes you stop and pay attention.

( Tom and with wine lover's smiles. Thank you to Tom & Susan Higgins for hosting us and taking time out of their busy schedules to share their passion. )

A couple days later Margot and I, our friends have ventured home already, visited Red Tail Ridge Winery on the West side of Seneca Lake. As I mentioned earlier I was not previously familiar with the wines or people of Red Tail Ridge, so with that in mind I was very excited to spend time getting the story and experience the wines. Arriving right at opening time, Nancy Irelan, co-owner and the winemaker, ventured over from the winery to the tasting room to meet us. A quick conversation and the game plan to visit the winery first and return to the tasting room after that was formed. Margot opted to find a spot to read so our two groups parted company and headed off in different directions.

( Red Tail Ridge vineyards at the back of the property. )

Standing on the crush pad I gathered some background on the history and current configuration of Red Tail Ridge. Mike Schnelle and Nancy Irelan started Red Tail Ridge in 2004 after having been drawn to the area for its natural beauty and agricultural base. With a total of 34 acres and 20 under vine, there is plenty of vineyard work to be done here. The tasting room has only been open for five years, before that the wines were poured and sold from tasting rooms of partner wineries in the area. The winery building and operations are LEED Gold certified, the only one in New York State and on a short list nationwide, which makes a bold environmental and sustainability statement for the industry. And that is just part of the commitment to specifically fitting what they do with the land and being good stewards of the location that supports them. More about their environment commitments can be found at the winery web site.

I then asked Irelan to explain her path to where she currently was. Not a native of New York, I figured there was a journey and a story or two to be had. During and immediately after college her focus was on bio-chemistry, microbiology, physiology and then plant health, improving crop yields, but not specifically grapes or winemaking. The force drawing her towards grapes and winemaking came soon enough and she parlayed her skills into a job improving viticulture practices and working with experimental grape varieties for a large California winery (Gallo).  That tenure and those experiences clearly sharpened Irelan’s focus; she is clear that not all grapes are right for a given location, it takes upwards of ten years of experimentation to prove such fitness, and the whole system of the land and how it is managed must be taken in concert in order to be successful. This is another specific focus at Red Tail Ridge, finding and planting grapes that do well on their site. As they continue to get to know their site, the soils, biological diversity and weather, other areas of the world that offer similar profiles will be the inspiration for experimental plantings in search of vines that find Red Tail Ridge a worthy home.

( I could work here, how about you? )

( A large, open space with lots of stainless and very clean. I love wineries! )

The winery is impressive, especially considering it was designed with strict guidelines and no certainty that LEED certification would follow, with glass for the whole East-facing wall. The view from the second floor staircase through this window, over the vines and down to the lake is the stuff dreams are made of. It was cloudy during our visit, but I still found it captivating. I can’t possibly cover all the details of the winery design and it’s greenness nearly as well as others have already done. More information can be found at the winery web site link above and the Red Tail Ridge press & news page.

  

The first part of the tasting was direct from the tanks. At low temperatures, both the wines and the winery, saying anything meaningful about the wines would be premature. We sampled three styles of Riesling from 2011 and Blaufrankisch & Teroldago from 2010. All of the wines tasted clean and fit the style guidelines for them. I look forward to tasting all of them in finished form!

From there we moved to the office and talked Pinot. We tasted the Winemaker’s Select and classic Estate Grown Pinot Noir’s, both from 2010. I am finding as I experience more and more Pinot that the differences between multiple bottlings from the same producer and/or source can often be subtle and require quite a considerable focus to fix and consider. This is not without exception however. These two wines, both cuvees, are produced from the same grape sources and undergo the same process. The difference is that the select bottling was blended from a small group of barrels that whispered something different. The wines are both similar and different, and there are equal amounts of subtlety and coarseness in the differences. Both wines projected strawberry and raspberry notes to me. The winemaker’s select also brought in rose petals where I found cherry in the classic version. Both showed me brown spices, but the strength of those spices was more pronounced in the select bottling. Both wines shared their fine tannins, which stick with you through the finish, but here again the select bottling had more nuance in the finish from a bit more oak and spice. Both wines are earthy with the select trending to wet biomass earthiness where the classic goes off to more dry soil and leaves. The earthy component took the most focus for me to detect the difference, but once I did it was charming to say the least.

( Teroldago, a new variety to me and an experiment with promise at Red Tail Ridge. )

The conversation over Pinot samples had to do with how much experimentation is possible with a small staff and future expectations for interesting projects. I met Dan, a recent addition to the team, who was still getting his bearings at Red Tail Ridge. With additional production-focused staff, the time spent on the crushpad and amongst the tanks and barrels can be optimized. More eyes on the balls in the air, more monitoring and fresh ideas are expected. New projects, either smaller lots and/or more focus on the experimental varietals, can be green-lighted and have a person’s attention for their entire timeline. I suspect return visits will see examples of these projects in action!

I finished my experience in the tasting room. I was particularly interested in the wines made from Dornfelder and Teroldago, two of the experimental varieties currently available. The non-vintage Dornfelder (from ‘09 and ‘10 lots) put up black raspberries and black currants with a touch of mint. The tannins are moderate to low and fine enough in texture to play nice. The dose of acidity in the finish brings everything together. I have no other experience with this grape so I can only say that I enjoyed this tasting and look forward to the bottle I put away after the trip.

The 2009 Teroldago had a bigger nose than the tank version, as expected, but it was really big. Plums, dark berries and baking spices were found in both the nose and mouth. The finish has hints of licorice in it. This is definitely a wine I will want to get more experience with.

Thank you to Nancy Irelan and the team at Red Tail Ridge for taking the time to meet with me. I can't wait to get back to the Finger Lakes and see what is new from this dynamic group!

( A bottle of yet-to-be-released Dry Rose. I found the prior vintage of this wine to be a nice balance of strawberries and lemons with plenty of tartness and acidity typical to Rose wines. )

How’s that for focus and specificity? From both visits my head was buzzing trying to fit all the information and ideas together. Winemaking isn’t my day job so I can’t spend nearly the amount of time pondering all the angles that full-time winemakers can. The job is tough despite that, and I bet the full timers would say they never have enough time either, but it is truly incredible to see what comes of that time when you get a chance to peek inside a winemaker’s brain.

Cheers!

Jason

Winery Visits in Woodinville, WA

Chateau Ste Michelle & Columbia Winery Visits
Woodinville, WA - May 2010

As far as we can remember Chateau Ste Michelle was the maker of the first Washington wine we ever had. We recall it being a Riesling from a tall, sloping bottle and that we had it many times after the first. This Riesling has popped up at many gatherings since and has been offered to us by friends far and wide. And why not? It is a very good wine.

So as we would be in Seattle for the tail end of our Pacific Northwest vacation, we arranged a tasting at Chateau Ste Michelle (CSM) in Woodinville, about 30 minutes northeast. What a beautiful property! Some of the buildings date to the 1800’s and the grounds contain flower gardens established by the original owners. It was raining so we didn’t get much in the way of pictures to share.

Our private tasting was in the library of the main house. The interior of this house was ornately decorated, with beautiful cortains, rugs and  large works of art on the walls. Beside a very nice couple from Edmonton, Alberta we had the full attention and service from Christina from the Chateau's staff.

The wines poured for the tasting were from several select vineyards in the Columbia Valley, or were blends from several labels that are made in much smaller batches than those wines from CSM we can get at home.

2007 Cold Creek Chardonnay - Nice fruit flavors and a smooth finish. An excellent example of a commercial Chardonnay that was not “over-made”.

2005 Ethos Reserve Merlot – Excellent nose and complex flavors. Washington Merlot was a surprise for me, something I hadn’t really had previously.

2006 Wahluke Slope Syrah – Bold and coating on the tongue. This was my favorite of the group. Flavors of dark berries and strong coffee.

2006 Artist Series Meritage – Smooth and complex, lots of flavors from a blend of Cab, Merlot, Malbec and Petite Verdot.

2006 Ethos Chenin Blanc Ice Wine - We had a choice for our last wine and once offered the ice wine it was decided. As you would imagine it was very sweet with incredible fruit flavors and that ever popular honeyed backbone. This was a nice treat to finish up the tasting.

As each wine was presented some distinctions about the locations and conditions of the vineyards were offered as well as history and background of the labels and how they came to be.

After the tasting Christina suggested we take the tour which is not only fun and informative but gets us three more tastings of different wines. How could any self respecting wine drinkers refuse?

The facility we visited is the site of the white wine production for CSM and of course the visitor center. Impressive in size for sure, it is amazing to think that they have another facility at least as large to produce the remainder of their wines. Some history of the winery was offered, and displays of medal winning wines, recent partnerships, and expansions were found along the tour walk. The bottling line was in the middle of a break in the action, but looking at the raw material queued up I could see how much volume it could produce!

At the end of the tour we lined up at the tasting bar and sampled three additional wines, including the Muscat Canelli which was tart and fruity with hints of spice. The tasting room and retail store are dressed in lots of wood and feel very much like you are working in the winery.

We wandered around the retail store for a bit and selected six bottles of wine to have shipped back east. Combining our favorites from the tastings to enjoy at home is sure to bring back some fun memories.

Across the street is the Columbia Winery, a Washington producer that we have more recently become familiar with. I had been told by some friends that their red wines were worth trying so I added this stop to our trip to check on that advice. It was good advice to take for sure!

Columbia Winery’s tasting facilities and tasting room have a very different feel than CSM. I would describe it as not channeling the history of the property and buildings that CSM can. With a modern feel, dark wood and lots of light the contrast was a nice way to transition to a different batch of wines.

Merlot came up again and scored big with both of us. We tried Merlot, Syrah and red blends from the Otis and Red Willow vineyards, and finished with the Geuwrztraminer. All of the reds were rich and flavorful with nice complexity. We are very familiar with the Columbia Cellarmaster’s Riesling but had never tried the Geuwrztraminer from the same line. With a strong fruit and floral nose the wine was sweet, but not in an overpowering way. Another strong finish.

Ready to move on and get something to eat before heading back to the city we asked our server for a recommendation. In the course of the conversation we found that we had travelled across the country to meet someone who used to live in Boston and had previously worked at the company I now work for. Truly a small world. The food recommendation resulted in the Purple Café & Wine Bar, from which Margot’s pizza blog entry from a couple days ago came.

If you are going to be in the Seattle area you should definitely take a look at the large concentration of wineries in the Woodinville area and build your own adventure.

Cheers!

--Jason

Mother's Day at Dalice Elizabeth Winery

For Mother's Day my family (wife, me, sister-in-law, father, mother, brother) converged on the Dalice Elizabeth Winery in Preston, CT. They are open daily for wine tastings, but check their web site at http://www.daliceelizabeth.com/ for specifics before you go.

I was fortunate enough to talk with several of the winery's staff and get some history on the winery that will help explain my impressions of their wines. The wine-making operation has been ongoing for 11 years, but up until October of 2009 it was exclusively a wine-making school, aka ferment-on-premises operation, where groups of people contracted to make wine by the barrel on site and then take it home when it was complete. Last October they officially opened for retail sale, on-site tastings and private wine dinners.

While they train their adolescent Chardonnay vines all grapes for their wines are sourced from California and Washington. They expect to have site grown wines in 3-5 years. Anyone who has ever ventured into wine grape growing knows how much patience is required here.

They offer a range of wines including Chardonnay, Sangiovese, Syrah, Zinfandel and a Chardonnay Ice Wine. They also make a Cabernet Franc, but it has sold completely out and won't be available again until next year.

We tasted all of the available wines. A big thank you to Blaze Faillaci for finding an open bottle of the ice wine for us to try some of. It was indeed excellent. John Wilcox got us going with the Chardonnay and explained that they make both an oaked and a stainless steel style. He indicated that we were tasting the oaked version which was aged for six months in American oak. The aroma of this wine was very subtle and I couldn't really define it. The flavors spoke of melon and grapefruit for me, which Margot agreed with. The oak was very slight resulting in a refreshing taste and a smooth, medium finish. We ended up buying a bottle of this to share at the end of our tasting.

Having arrived on Mother's Day I think we might have been interested in more than the winery might have been planning to do for guests, but upon asking if we could get a cheese plate for six it was promptly served and was of excellent quality. The service gets high marks and for a young operation that is a wonderful thing to be able to do. The cheese plate included Parmigianino/Reggiano, blue, goat and cheddar cheeses accompanied by black and green olives, hot peppers, marinated tomatoes, a fresh tomato & green onion salsa and of course crackers. The cheddar cheese intrigued me right off the bat. I knew I had had the specific variety before, but couldn't remember where. As I write this I think it is a Beemster which hails from Holland. I never did ask.

The next wine John served us was the Sangiovese. Fans of Italian wines will know this is a the grape in Chianti as well as one part of the "Super-Tuscan" style wines. The wine was dry and had wood on the nose. I didn't ponder the flavors as I was busy talking and enjoying time with Mom. We were also celebrating my birthday (from the end of April) and my mother had purchased me a Harney's tea sampler containing four Oolong teas and a beautiful white tea pot. I was explaining how I came to know of Oolong tea and how I was going to explore it as part of my sommelier training. Back to the wines.

Blaze took over from here and served us the Syrah next. This wine was lighter than some Syrah's I have had and definitely was not the spicy, super-fruity Shiraz typical of Australia. That should not be taken as anything bad at all. For the sake of an analogy lets take Pinot Noir. Classic French Burgundy is made from this grape and is often a focused and refined example of what you can do with the grape. On the other hand you can get Pinot Noir from California and Washington states that is fruit-fotward, super earthy and full bodied. These are two different wines each with their own merits. I was recovering from eating a hot pepper so I can't say anything about the flavors of this wine. The lightness of it was echoed from around the table so I knew that much was true.

I did find that the Sangiovese and Chardonnay both went well with the cheese and olive selections. I don't think anyone else was specifically considering the pairings so I didn't talk about it much. The goat cheese was very creamy and smooth which was very nice indeed.

The next wine was the Old Vine Zinfandel from grapes sourced from Mendcino, California. From the very first sip I found this wine to have some perceptible sweetness, it made me think of my own Cabernet blend from 2008, an asset for sure. The wine was oaky with dark cherry and plum flavors. Margot also suggested blackberries. The tannins were well balanced and clean, and the finish was smooth. There were hints of hotness, but it didn't linger. This was my favorite wine of the day.

Blaze appeared with a partial bottle of the Chardonnay Ice Wine and all six of us got a small taste. I had never had one of these from the Chardonnay grape and had asserted the flavors might not be bent toward the apricot, peach and honey flavors of the Vidal ice wines I have enjoyed. There were aromas of honey and peach, but the flavors were more of orange and flowers with the honey behind them. With plenty of sweetness this wine could be savored by itself or with a flaky pie or tart containing apples and spice.

Taking the optimistic side of the local wine business I would expect that in the coming years the Dalice Elizabeth Winery will continue to find success. Once the vines on-site start producing they might be able to infuse a sense of place into their wines. Preston, despite being up the road from Foxwoods, is a rural area with farms and lot of trees. With ponds and lakes on, and adjacent to, the property the place is charming. As it is for the other New England wineries I have visited what you can grow locally offers some constraints, but with a sense of place, good service and pride in the craft the results can be very enjoyable.

All the wines are available for retail sale. The Chardonnay goes for $29, the ice wine for $55 for a split. The other wines are similar in price to the Chard.

We also got started on the 2010 Passport to Connecticut Farm Wineries program. I was familiar with this program from 2009. If you visit and get your passport stamped at 16 or more of the 30 participating wineries by November 7th you can be entered to win one of several resort trips to Spain. More information can be found at http://pressnewengland.com/blog/?p=604 and http://www.ct.gov/doag/cwp/view.asp?a=3260&q=399108.

Cheers!

Jason