Wine Dinner Success!

Margot and I hosted the first of the wine dinners we hope to have this year. The response was amazing and truly an honor as the chef and wine maker as well.

You can check out the menu with this link http://www.ancientfirewines.com/ancientfire/WineDinner12009.pdf

The Elderberry Piesporter was a hit and the pairing with the spicy garlic hummus was spot on.

The main course provided 3 distinct pairings and all of them were unique and very well matched. My favorite was the quiche with the 2007 Bordeaux. The smoky cheese and bacon paired with the earthy flavors in the wine was uncommon.

The cheese course was an opportunity to try the 2008 Plum Dessert wine in a new way. The intense flavor of the cheddar helped to magnify the wine's flavors and the brie provided a smooth and soft base for this intense wine.

We finished up the evening with a light chocolate cake and the 2008 Strawberry wine. We have used this pairing before and continue to use it because it works so well!

We also included a barrel extracted sample of the forthcoming Amarone. There was no pairing involved and at this point the wine clearly stands on its own and is easily recognizable. Patience will surely be rewarded.

Cheers!

--Jason

2008 Traminer-Riesling Blend Update

The two batches of Traminer-Riesling blend, 55/45 and 45/55, are coming along nicely. A bentonite fining and some more cold have been prescribed in hopes of clearing and a softening of the acids. Time will tell.

We opened a bottle of the 2007 Strawberry (gold medal, I had to...) this past weekend. Fitting for V-Day! It was much drier and still drinkable, but usage as a base for a salad dressing is also planned. We paired it with Grafton Sage Cheddar with much fanfare. It paired well with apple as well.

Cheers!

-- Jason

Wine and the Economy

Ahhh, the downward ride of the economic cycle... Having fun yet?

Depending on what you read and where you read it, the reports on the alcohol business is either doing really well despite everything or riding along with it. That is probably true in some places and not in others, and more likely for some products and not others.

So what do you drink in tough economic times? I would guess what you can afford. Look for local wines that offer small batch attention and a wide range of tastes and aromas. Values from outside the most talked about regions are always worth searching for. And in a lot of places older vintages that don't sell well are reduced. Another year of age for many red wines makes them a better buy all the way around. The whites still need to be crisp in color with age, if not, don't buy it. If you like something on sale and provide yourself a budget for wine in the groceries, you should buy two when you see the best price.

Our own winemaking will be shortened this year due to economic forces, but fear not we have so much underway still that we will have plenty to share with friends.

Cheers!

Jason

2009 WineMaker International Competition

The 2009 WineMaker Magazine Amateur International Compeition is upon us!

Last year Ancient Fire picked up 4 awards and shared one with our friend Vincent!

This year we are back with a few repeats and a couple of new things that have pleased the crowds to date!

2008 Strawberry
2008 Viognier
2008 Plum Dessert
2008 CF Ice Wine

Cheers!

Jason

Sideways

I'm sure quite a few of my friends can quote from the movie Sideways, but maybe not everyone. I'm not going to bother to explain the movie except by example of my current reality.

You see, I am in the midst of both a quest for great wines and to give my brother a fitting send-off to married life. The wines are hopefully the ones I am going to make this year, and for my brother we will have to wait and see. That story will never end the way it did in the movie. I am sure we will have some good laughs and a couple of mishaps along the way though.

What are you all drinking? What is something new and different you have tried for the first time? What surprised you in something new? What are the everyday wines you drink when you do? These are all questions I am pondering for the future of Ancient Fire Wines.

Last weekend Margot and I attended the New Hampshire Winery Association annual meeting. A social hour and dinner preceded the meeting and I have to say the wines and the food were excellent. Many of the wines were from local wineries that we hadn't tried yet and say great things for several young wineries. Some of my favorites were open and represent a raising of the bar for some of the operations that have been at it a bit longer. Make sure you seek out the local wines. Check the association web site for links to all of the wineries that are online.

http://www.nhwineryassociation.com/

Cheers!

Jason

Quote for the times

I said something today while tasting some new wines. The meaning wasn't lost then and it still isn't now.

"If the winemaker matters to the wine and the winemaker is an asshole, their wine might taste like shit!"

Once you know who makes a wine you may evaulate that wine differently.

Cheers!

Jason

Aging and 2009 Update

I have been busy the last two weeks racking, tasting and testing the wines in progress. The reds are coming along very well with the Amarone likely to be the best of the year. Good fruit flavors and mellow oak in the early batches. The fall wines from fresh juice are doing very well but with less age they don't taste as complete as the others. The Traminer-Riesling blends are slowly making their way to the right clarity. I am pretty confident with the taste and structure and expect these will please dry to sweet Riesling drinkers.

Plans for 2009 are fast in motion. In the early spring I will set down a Pinot Noir, Pinot Grigio and a CDP style blend. All three will be using juice plus grape/fruit mass for initial fermentation. The reds will get a slight oak drop for the very early fermentation and then oak will not be used again as planned.

Entry into the WineMaker competition in the spring is assured, but unless I can find some other local amateur contests that might be it for the year. We have some solid new entries and some repeat entries that will be good competition.

Once we get on into the summer, Strawberry will be up again, hopefully we will make 2 batches this year. We will definitely do a big batch of plum and depending on the harvest this year something else of the fruit type might inspire me.

The bottling of the current batch of wines should be complete by this time, which frees up valuable equipment for the fall wines. In the fall I hope to build a Meritage style blend and white arrangement with a little oak.

Cheers!

Jason

Happy New Year!

Wine and Food Pairing Tip: When the power is out, drink beer!

The NH Golden Plum Wine has been in the bottle and is drinking very well! We saw the following recipe mentioned in a holiday special with Sandra Lee. It is called a Sugar Plum Fairy.

1 part plum wine
1 part champagne or sparkling wine
splash of cranberry

The new Ancient Fire Wines URL is active. http://www.ancientfirewines.com/. Thanks Tim!

All of the 2008 reds and the last two whites are still settling and aging. The last round of tasting and blending found good promise.

Cheers!

Jason

So it had been a few days since I posted an update, and then we were without power for 7 days.

Anyway, all of the last batch of 2008's are still mellowing and aging. Bottling should be in a couple more months. The plum wine has been down a few weeks and already tasting very well.

We have been enjoying the NH wines and giving them as gifts. We have given Noiret's, Seyval's, Foch's and more. The wines from the local grapes and indeed the best!

I hope your holiday season is off to a good start. The weather is playing a major role for all us, stay safe and have fun with your families.

- Jason

Turkey Day Follow-Up

Thanksgiving went off without a hitch. Family was fun, the food was great and the wide selection of wines offered many choices!

Early in the day the Ancient Fire Chilean Chardonnay and New Harbour 2007 Sauvignon Blanc provided casual sipping with cheese, crackers and snacks.

A selection of 2006 Cabs from Don David, Sterling Vineyards and Smoking Loon matched some bold wines with sweet potatoes, baked stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes and of course two kinds of turkey!

The Smoking Loon Cab is the closest variety to the Ancient Fire Cab (forthcoming) I have had. I had to go back for several additional tastings to savor the similarities and what lies ahead from our own cellar.

The Candia Diamond went on the table at the end of dinner and promoted much comment. As was expected nobody other than Margot and I had had it or recalled having wines that were similar. We must work on this. It went fast so there may not be so much work to do...

--Jason

Holy Tartrate Crystals Batman!

I precipitated my first batch of tartrate crystals from a white wine this week. A process called cold stabilization is recommended for white grape wines. This process reduces the temperature of the wine and will make the dissolved solids heavy and drop to the bottom of the carboy. Having never done this before I was pleasantly surprised when I racked off the clearing wine to see a layer of shiny sediment that looks like salt. With some additional time I am betting the wine will continue to clear.

The wine tastes OK, the initial fermentation went pretty dry and I like my Rieslings a little bit more full so I am going to back sweeten and blend it as it continues to age.

Cheers!

Jason

LaBelle Wine Tasting

Margot and I went to the open house and wine tasting at LaBelle Winery in Amherst, NH today. This was our first trip to LaBelle, but not our first experience with their wine.

Amy and Cesar lined up a wonderful selection of wines for visitors to try and we were not disappointed. An example of a sangria made with LaBelle wines was also available, and of course cheese and crackers!

Today's tasting line-up included all non-grape fruit wines ranging from light and fruity to bolder and sweet. Our favorites were the Corazon (Seyval/Raspberry blend), Cranberry Apple, Blueberry and Cranberry. We also tasted the Seyval, Heirloom Apple, Granite State Apple (Apple with Maple), and the Blanco (Peach dessert wine). In short supply the Raspberry Dessert wine was not available for tasting, but having had it before we weren't unhappy. Plus we have a bottle of it in the wine fridge already.

All of the wines presented the fruits very well, with the apple wines being the lightest and striking parallels to Riesling and un-oaked Chardonnay. The Cranberry was the most expressive with the fruit flavors and wasn't as tart as you might as expect. The Corazon is a blush wine that is slightly sweet, fruity and would be a knockout chilled on a warm summer day! The Blueberry wine was slightly sweet and pleasingly tart. I will be using this wine as a guide for the Blueberry wine I have planned for 2009.

I also tasted the Jalapeño cooking wine and while it was spicy, it was pleasing and should work very well in the kitchen.

We bought a bottle of each of our favorites and the cooking wine. Pairing these wines with future meals will most certainly be fun!

We met Christopher and Nancy Obert who just published "The Next Harvest... Vineyards & Wineries of New England". This book is hot off the presses and having started reading it earlier in the week I was overjoyed to meet the authors. I will share my thoughts on the book, the adventures it will inspire and the wonderful time we spent with Chris and Nancy in my next blog post.

Check out LaBelle Winery at http://www.labellewinerynh.com/

Cheers!

Food & Wine Pairing #1

Jason Talks Food & Wine Pairing
November 2008

Welcome to the inaugural installment of a food and wine pairing series I am starting. Through this series I hope to offer pairing tips, personal insights and promote some exploration by my faithful readers. Please feel free to respond to the posts with questions and I hope that I will be able to provide useful answers.

With the Thanksgiving holiday almost here, many of us are furiously planning the dinner menu or choosing what to bring to share with family and friends. In this installment I am going to offer some tips to generate conversation over the big meal.

What wines go well with turkey dinner? This question has a wide range of answers and none of them are universal.

One basic principle in pairing wine with food is that bold foods need bold wines. When either the food or the wine is drastically understated in comparison to the other, the lesser of the pair can easily suffer a knockout.

If your turkey has subtle flavors, butter and sage as an example, a medium bodied Chardonnay with some oak might go very well. If your turkey has a spicy or thick glaze with lots of pepper and/or fruit flavors that same Chardonnay would be lost. In the latter case a Zinfandel or Pinot Noir might stand up to the flavors without going overboard. Keep in mind the boldness of the side dishes as well. With a healthy mix of flavors that is typical on the Thanksgiving table no one wine will pair well with every dish, but medium bodied whites and reds will be the all-around best choices. You might also try Viognier, Riesling or Merlot.

You may come across buzz about Beaujolais Nouveau at Thanksgiving. Beaujolais Nouveau is one of the earliest of the French wines released from the current year’s harvest and typically hits the stores in North America around the 15th of November each year. A mellow, fruity and approachable red wine, Beaujolais Nouveau pairs well with many flavors. That coupled with the timely release means it shows up on many Thanksgiving tables. I have paired this wine with Thanksgiving dinner for a couple years in a row with positive results, but for the last two years I wasn’t that impressed with the wine itself. The 2005 vintage was my favorite of the last 5 years and the 2008 vintage will be tasted independently of the Thanksgiving holiday for me this year.

If you live in the northeastern United States you might not realize the next domestic wine revolution is underway. With so many unique wine varieties available your options have never been so vast. Many of these wines, which are made from grapes that tolerate the colder climate, offer flavors and aromas that pair well with the distinctive seasonal tastes of New England. Choosing some local wines to put on the Thanksgiving table can be a worthwhile adventure and a wonderful reflection of the traditions we honor at this time of year.

Wine List for our 2008 Thanksgiving

2008 Ancient Fire Chardonnay (no oak) – this is the starter with the salad, cheese and crackers.
2005 George Deboeuf Beaujolais Villages – I expect this will pair well with the turkey and the sides.
2007 Candia Vineyard Diamond – this slightly sweet and fruity cold weather grape wine should help the transition to dessert.

Some of this information might seem non-committal and circular and if you were thinking this you were paying attention. The best wine and food pairing are the ones you try and like. The person to your right, whose elbows keeping jabbing into your side, might disagree entirely with your take on a pairing. As a host your goal is to provide options that are balanced and do not create strong negative reactions for a broad range of tastes. Not getting it right once only means you have to come back and try again.

Cheers!

Jason

Wine progress update.

The peach beer went into the bottle today. It is going to need some charging time and I hope for a good bit of fizz to help it taste more sophisticated.

I checked on all but the plum wine today and I am very excited. Amongst the reds the Cab that was started in March is coming along the best, I guess nine months since it was started is meaningful. Assuming I need to let the others age that long I won't be bottling anything until mid-year 2009!

The Riesling and G are coming along well. The funny taste and aroma are gone. I am awaiting a bit more of a drop in the outdoor temperature so that I can get the acid crystals to drop out. With a little patience and a light back sweetening I think we will have some wonderful wines to drink.

I opened a bottle of the 2007 Amarone last night. This batch went into the bottle in the early spring of 2007 so it has aged almost 18 months. It has come a long way and is very rich and powerful. I couldn't have hoped for a better result.

Cheers!

-- Jason

So the Riesling and G are coming along, but I am a bit suspect based on the taste and how dry they are. I think I need to increase my patience further with the fresh juice wines and for these two let them clear on their own. I also plan to use the New England cold to help stabilize these new whites, the reds won't need it as I understand it.

LaBelle Winery in Bedford is having an open house on 11/22. Check their web site http://www.labellewinerynh.com/ for more information.

-- Jason

All four of the newest wines, Riesling, G, Amarone and Cab were racked to clean glass this week. The tastes that come through the yeast and CO2 are pretty good, with the Amarone the farthest along based on taste alone.

We had some homemade ribs with a Penfolds Hyland Shiraz last night. The wine was magnificent and worked really well with the smoky and spicy ribs.

We went to Jewell Towne in South Hampton NH this week and enjoyed a tasting with Peter and his staff. Many of the varities available for tasting will be unique if you are not already aware of the types commonly grown in New England. The Traminette was the mutual favorite.

Cheers!

--Jason

The Gewurztraminer is coming along nicely, dry with some mineral tones. Still has a few weeks to lose the gas and fermentation aromas.

Everything else will be checked on this week.

-- Jason

I just updated the home site. A little bit a polish and some more information. Find Ancient Fire Wines at home at:

http://www.phelps-online.com/

Jason

Fall Wine Tastings

The September and October tastings were a hit!

Thank you to all.

Jason

I've joined the NH Winery Association. Help us promote NH wines and the winemaking craft.

http://www.nhwineryassociation.com/

Please visit the member wineries and check out the wonderful selections they have available for tasting.

Jason