31
Oct
2011
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Pinot Camp (sorta-kinda): Part I

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Welcome to Pinot Camp.

Now of course this is not the real Pinot Camp, an annual confab in which Oregon wineries entertain and edify “the trade”: scores of wholesalers, retailers and restaurant folks. So this is as close as you (or I: the media is not invited) will get.

The Wine Company, a Minnesota distributor, hosted a daylong version of Pinot Camp with four gifted, passionate and engaging Willamette Valley vintners. The lowdown (with a little background):

Mark Vlossak, founder and winemaker at St. Innocent. “I started drinking when I was 7. I was a little bit hyperactive, and my mom said it would help me go to sleep. 

Mimi Casteel (left), general manager and viticulturist at Bethel Heights. “I got a Masters in Forest Ecology. And then I had a crazy love affair with this spot. 

Andrew Davis, assistant winemaker at Argyle. “I went from cellar rat to winemaker in 8 years. 

Jay Somers, co-owner and winemaker at J. Christopher Wines. “I liked Burgundy more than the New World, and then I realized I was in an area where they were making pinot noir. 

Below are some of the highlights of the day. I have organized it by subject, and not chronologically, as they bounced around on various topics throughout this thoroughly enjoyable and educational day.

THE LAND
Casteel: “It’s the perfect storm of climate and geology so that producers can make these wines that can’t be made anywhere else. “¦In Oregon we are blessed to have everything in our soil that vines need, so we just have to make sure they can get to it. Our soil is ridiculously robust compared to Burgundy. “¦ The ideal is mid-elevation banks hooving up on these hills. The north-facing slopes are for timber and Christmas trees. 

Davis (left): “… Or sparkling wine [chuckles; sparklers are Argyle’s primary product]

Somers: “Being a bunch of crazy pinkos up in Oregon, we embrace that green thing “¦ We’re all in the vineyard. Our family, the kids and dogs are in that vineyard, so we want to take care of the land. Our friends and our workers are there. It needs to be a safe place to be.”

Casteel: “It’s for the most part wanting to live off the land, raise kids, like hippies. Oregon brings that out in people. Most everyone came and thought “˜I don’t wanna screw this up.’ So sustainability was important from the start. 

Somers: “Our job is to shepherd, not to master. 

THE VINEYARD
Vlossak: “You’ll have 3 acres that look completely alike, but the vines get very different treatment, and that’s before you take into account, erosion, weather, wind and water. 

Casteel: “Pinot noir will go way down looking for water. 

Somers: “[We have] the DRC (Deep Roots Coalition) for dry farming. Our philosophy: The vines want the water, and if you water slowly when they’re young, the vines will go find the water. 

Vlossak (left): “The key is managing a plant that has the capability of producing grapes, developing a canopy of leaves that captures the grapes and provide valued nutrition to ripen the fruit. So the two things are to build the vine and to ripen the fruit “¦ My biggest job is to be a leaf farmer, work on the canopy. When grapes start to ripen, you want [the vines] to stop growing leaves, to put all their energy into the grapes. “¦ Pinot noir and chardonnay love that dappled-sun effect. 

Casteel: “In any given year, you drop 1/3 to ½ of your crop. You’re trying to get the canopy to a certain point and then stop. 

Casteel: “These cold-climate grapes in particular are grown only with exactly what they need. If they have more than what they need, they lose expressiveness and tipicity. “¦ It’s much more important to have the right clones in a cold climate. 

Vlossak: “When we got phylloxera, we just let it be, did only what we needed with the canopy and the grapes can have this wonderful swan song “¦

THE GRAPES
Somers: “Everyone thought I was completely nuts [making sauvignon blanc] in ’99. I was thinking Sancerre. But the wine will express its own sense of place. This should be a little painful. We’re not making cocktail wine. “¦ We were planting four different major clones. It was the first major clonal experiment with sauvignon blanc in the United States. I really believe in this variety, and I’m really trying to emulate Sancerre. … If you don’t know the great white grapes of the world, you shouldn’t be making them. 

Vlossak: “With chardonnay we basically bought a bunch of crap from California and then eventually tore it out. Adelsheim went and started the arduous process of bringing in Dijon clones. “¦ Chardonnay was our No. 1 crop for a while. In 2010, whites had 27 percent of the acreage and 38 percent of the production. “¦ Bright days allow the plant to make carbohydrates, but if the nights are warm, the plant eats its own acidity. In Oregon the nights are cold enough to actually shut down the plant. The cold nights give them backbone and acidity. “¦ Clean fresh acidity is the hallmark from Oregon. Our climate simply doesn’t let us do fat and buttery. Acidity in an Oregon chardonnay is a function of the terroir, not the winemaking.”

Davis: “We can get weight but not fatness, unctuousness but not that cloying kind. 

Vlossak: “You can make pinot gris if you select the site. “¦ I don’t care what clone of pinot gris I’m planting; I just care how it’s grown. Which is a huge contrast to pinot noir clones. Textural richness is the key “¦ It’s the most texturally interesting of all the white grapes. This style has nothing to do with [Italian] pinot grigio “¦ Pinot gris is absolutely the best wine for salmon, and [the same holds true for] pinot blanc with shellfish, especially mussels. 

Davis: “For a long time we had wonderful riesling (left) and people said “˜let’s pull it up’ and then regretted it. We replanted a lot in Eola-Amity Hills. As far as I know, we’re the only ones to crop it like pinot, high-density, just enough room to squeeze between the plants. We find it falls between the German and Alsatian styles. 

Casteel: “When you choose to grow riesling, it’s because you really want it and you’re never gonna make any money. It’s one of the real pains in the ass to grow. You don’t have late-season options like Germany and Alsace. It tends to be spicy. We do 20 percent barrel, 80 stainless, to get a uniformity on aging that ultimately will be beneficial to consumers.”

Next: Winemaking, vintages, heavy bottles and “global weirdness.”

30
Oct
2011
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Wines of the Week: Oct. 24-30

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Everyday: I’m more of a pinot blanc guy myself, largely because so much pinot gris/grigio is insipid, but when someone nails the latter grape, it’s a delight. The Left Coast “The Orchards” Willamette Pinot Gris 2009 ($15) is perfume-y on the nose and seriously refreshing on the palate, filled with stone-fruit flavors and a stony texture. There’s just enough heft to make this lovely white a nice autumn or even winter sipper, and to help it hold up to chicken tacos or enchiladas and fish on the Barbie. In fact, I can’t think of a better wine for grilled salmon, unless it’s the one below.

Occasion: The Domaine Serene Evenstad Reserve Willamette Valley Pinot Noir ($58) doesn’t taste the same every year, but it always tastes delicious. A hearty, robust, complex wine, this hallmark Oregin pinot ages beautifully: The 2005 was superb with grilled tuna the other night, but I’ve also had stunning renditions from 1997 and 2000 in the last couple of years. There’s usually a wonderful dusty/earthy component, gorgeous cherry flavors (sometimes with some coffee in there) and a velvety, near-endless finish. I can see why Ken and Grace Evenstad, the gracious Minnesotans who own the winery, wait a good while before releasing the wine (the ’07 just came out).

25
Oct
2011
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From Lodi to Languedoc, and in between

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Mel Masters might be the only negotiant living in New Hampshire ““ which, after all, is called the Granite State and not the Grenache State. If there are others residing there, Masters is almost certainly the most accomplished, and definitely the most colorful.

And it actually makes geographical sense for home to be there, since New England is more or less equidistant from the two locales where he buys grapes and produces wine: Languedoc and Lodi. His job makes access to both places crucial.

“As a negotiant, I work with the growers, the winemaker, the vineyard manager,” he said. “I need to be able to have lunch with these people. 

As we were enjoying lunch at Minneapolis’ Sea Change, it didn’t take long to recognize what an engaging “people person” Masters (far right) is. For a negotiant, relationship skills are more important than winemaking chops.

“I’m more a marketing guy than a winemaker,” he said. “My whole aim is styling the wines for the market, like the chef building and conceptualizing a new restaurant. 

So when asked to cite the most important part of his job, Masters quickly answered, “bonding with the people who sell my wine. 

For the last decade, that wine has been under the Tortoise Creek label, named after “these little terrapins” at a house he moved into near Aix-en-Provence in 1969, “back when it was a little village, like a cowtown, we would jokingly say. 

For a while, he and his wife Jamie were content to focus on Languedoc at Tortoise Creek, especially old-vine carignane. But three years ago, Mel decided that some of those wines “weren’t what the American palate was looking for,” so he looked west, as always for “artisinal winemakers and sustainable vineyards.

“When I was deciding where to go, I was looking at Paso Robles,” he said, “but then I ran into some people from Lodi. That’s the only appellation with third-party certification for sustainable. I think Lodi has immense potential. 

So now Tortoise Creek’s portfolio includes carignane and a bright, decidedly French “Les Oliviers” pinot noir from languedoc. And from Lodi, a smooth but taut “Jam’s Blend” (named for Jamie & Mel) chardonnay, a spicy but elegant “Chelonium” zinfandel and a Cherokee Lane Lodi cabernet with just-right intensity, grip and fruit. Plus a sauv blanc and (soon) a viognier, all priced at around $12.

Over the years, Masters has marveled at the “phenomenal degree of improvement in technology. Even in a shitty vineyard you can get good wine.  He has been pained by his beloved old vines being pulled up en masses in Languedoc. “Carignane has to be old. It’s a lot like us: The older we get, the better we are. 

He has evolved and adapted, but mostly he has paid close attention to what consumers want.

“Palates evolve,” Masters said, “but Americans’ are still very different from Europeans’. Americans have a sweet tooth. But you can look at the growth of rose’ here, and that tells me that there’s a general movement to a more sophisticated palate. 

Wherever our palates go, it’s a good bet that Mel Masters will be there.

20
Oct
2011
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Wines of the Week: Oct. 17-23

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Everyday: They say that the Bodegas Breton Lorinon Blanco Rioja ($14) was stored in barriques, but they must have been old because there’s no detectable toast or vanilla on this beauty. It’s vibrant and clean, with perfect ripeness and smoothness. There’s just enough acidity to make this Spanish white made from the viura grape lovely balance and food-friendly focus. It’s also none-too-shabby a sipper or cooking wine (to be consumed while preapring dinner). Some lightly sautéed, poached or baked fish would sing with this refreshing juice, and sushi or a pizza margherita are ideal matches as well.

Occasion: Far be it from me to tout a $60 zinfandel. Blessedly, there’s a loophole with the Ravenswood Old Hill Vineyard Zinfandel 2008 ($60): it’s from an ancient vineyard with a myriad of grapes, making the wine taste more like a blend than a classic zinfandel. Barely meeting the varietal criterion at 75-percent zin, this is a robust, rich, earthy but elegant delight. Layers of complexity unfold en route to a finish that lasts for minutes. Probably the best Ravenswood wine I’ve ever tasted, this hearty red is drinking beautifully now but should be fine for cellaring at last 5 years. It would work at a fancy steak or lamb-chop dinner but was delicious last night with burgers laced with barbecue sauce.

 

19
Oct
2011
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Germany’s vintage, from a grounded correspondent

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My friend Bill Hooper is the kind of guy who can says stuff like “I feel totally and completely honored to have been able to play even the smallest role in the story of German wine” without a trace of irony. And you know there will be quips to follow.

Bill and his family have decamped to Germany, and his wine savvy is sorely missed in the twin Cities. Our loss is their gain, as Bill’s account from Bill on a season’s travails and triumphs surely shows:

“I’ve really come to appreciate certain aspects of Germany as I have come to miss many aspects of America”“and sometimes Germany and the Germans seem to be some strange caricature of some America gone wrong. It can be unsettling (There is, for fucksake, a Bon Jovi edition Volkswagen. WTF?! I think the dashboard is covered in faux ’80s rocker hair.)

“But the genuine culture and tradition, where it exists, is what interests me. I have been on a hillside vineyard in the cold of January, when the Polish workers that I work with all take a break and offer me a warm cup of tea, brewed fresh that morning. We don’t say anything; we just rest our tired backs for a few minutes sipping our tea and watching the snow cover the world as it has been done in German vineyards for almost two thousand years. Surely that almost makes up for German hip-hop. 

“This week saw the end of another harvest in the Pfalz, where most everyone is wrapping up the vintage. 2011 was the complete antithesis of 2010, but both years are such rare and bizarre beings that you could go a lifetime (and many have) without seeing these conditions again, and so I consider myself fortunate to have had them so early on. I am left to wonder though, just what a more normal vintage looks and feels like. Hopefully, time will tell.

“With a warm, early spring, the year began some three or four weeks ahead of the norm. This came to the joy of a lot of growers who had made much less wine in the small 2010 vintage (about 25% less than usual for the whole of Germany), because it gave hope that a larger yield might have the chance to ripen during the course of the year.

“In early May, much of the country was devastated by early frost. The vineyards most affected were those on deeper ground as the freezing air rolled down the steeper hills of the better vineyards and settled in frost-pockets (many of which had been known even by the Romans to be poor land for the cultivation of vineyards for this reason.) There was damage in almost all of the 13 wine regions (Weinbaugebiete), and even the steepest vineyards of the Franken region were destroyed, including most of the famed Würzburger Stein, which is one of Germany’s better sites.

“In all it was estimated that somewhere around 20% of the total area under vine in Germany was compromised by frost, with parts of the Pfalz, Rheinhessen, Baden, Württemberg, and Franken taking the brunt of it. Early panic set in and not only did grape prices (for the not-yet-grown 2011 vintage) start to skyrocket, but prices on just- or soon-to-be bottled 2010 wines were amended.

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16
Oct
2011
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Wines of the Week: Oct. 10-16

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Everyday: An oft-repeated refrain in the wine world is that with gruner veltliner, you get what you pay for, that the quality rises accordingly, if not exponentially, with the price tag. So I guess that makes the Kurt Angerer “Kies” Gruner Veltliner ($17) the exception that proves the rule, as this expressive, full-flavored white drinks way above its tariff. It’s fresh and ripe and spicy, with layers of fruit but plenty of kick from the mineral that marks the great gruners. It’s easy to see why sommeliers have loved this varietal forever, since this balanced beauty from Austria would play well with most any seafood or fowl or pork dish, not to mention just about any salad extant.

Occasion: Piedmont is another place where spending a lot of moolah should and generally does bring ample reward. Not that you have to, with the likes of the Vigin “My Ruby” Barbera D’Alba ($24) has vibrant red-berry fruit and great texture and length. The tannins are much softer than what one usually finds in the spendier reds of the region, those bracing Barbarescos and Barolos, making “My Ruby” very approachable in her youth. And again with the minerality and the table-top versatility, although this wine fairly shouts for roast chicken or pheasant.

13
Oct
2011
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Good for these guys

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Not sure if my vote helped put any of them over the top, but the just-announced inductees into the Vintners Hall of Fame was almost a mirror image of my ballot. Or maybe we all just lemmings without knowing it 😮

The inductees: Peter Mondavi Sr. of Charles Krug Winery; Prof. Albert Winkler of California-Davis; Joe Heitz of Heitz Cellars; former Beringer winemaker Myron Nightingale; Mendocino County pioneer John Parducci, and Central Coast vintner Richard Sanford (left).

I agree wholeheartedly with not only the choices, but the sentiment expressed by nominating committee chair W. Blake Gray in the press release: “I’m especially glad that we have the joy of sharing this honor with Peter Mondavi Sr., and John Parducci, who are still going strong in their 90s, as well as Richard Sanford, the youngster in this class, who just turned 70 this year.”

Amen, Blake. These honors mean so much more when the recipients are alive; as a baseball fan, I hated to see Ron Santo not make the Hall of Fame while he was still around, and almost hope he doesn’t get in posthumously because of how transparent that would be.

Anyway, here are the Vintners Hall’s bios of the new inductees:

Joe Heitz
Joseph Heitz started his career making sweet wines as commodities from Central Valley grapes. In 1951 he went to work at Beaulieu Vineyard under André Tchelistcheff, and helped develop a quality control regime. Heitz spent 1958 to 1961 establishing the Fresno State enology curriculum, setting up its hands-on approach. In 1961 he acquired the Only One winery in St. Helena, where he purchased and perfected wine blends to sell under the Heitz Cellars label. Heitz was among the first Californians to price his wine on the basis of “perceived sensory quality” and not the cost of materials and labor. He set the tone for Napa for decades to come by realizing that higher prices ($6 to $9, as opposed to the standard $2-$3) would not repel the customers he wanted, but might actually cultivate them. For many years Heitz believed strongly in blending to achieve his results, but when he was able to secure grapes from Martha’s Vineyard, he quickly established one of the first iconic single-vineyard Cabernets from Napa Valley.
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13
Oct
2011
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Fin du Fresne: Straight shooter from Down Under

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Winemakers tend to be open books, not given to circumspection. Even by those standards Fintan du Fresne is a candid kind of guy.

Perhaps because his father is a journalist ““ among New Zealand’s most respected wine writers ““ the Chamisal Vineyards winemaker is prone toward refreshing candor rather than rote answers. Rather than risk getting in the way, I’ll let Fin roll:

*”We could put oak on it and sell far more wine,” he says of Chamisal’s signature wine, the delicious Stainless Chardonnay ($18).

*”Other people say that chardonnay shouldn’t show primary fruit. That’s what stainless is all about: Here, try this. 

*”We don’t call that adding water” when high Brix (sugar levels) prompt them to, well, add water to the fermenting juice. “We are allowed to “˜rehydrate grapes’. We often call it “˜post-harvest irrigation.’ If something comes in at 32 Brix, like shriveled raisins, we have to do that. If the Santa Ana blows in, we can go up five Brix in one night. Last September we had four days of 110 degrees, and the grapes went from 23 to 32 Brix. You can’t get it all picked at once. 

*”There are a lot of people who want to emulate Burgundy. Good luck to that. I’m not the guy. 

*On the grassy/cat-pee flavor profile of New Zealand sauvignon blanc: “Cloudy Bay couldn’t get it ripe, so they developed that style, and the others followed. There’s some great sauvignon blanc coming out of Marlborough, but it’s hard to get here [he cites Hawkes Bay and Matua Valley Paretai].The most underrated wines in New Zealand are the sparkling wines. There’s also some phenomenal riesling, gewurztraminer and pinot gris.”

*”We want underlying spice throughout the reds. When people think terroir, they think minerality. To me it’s more spice. The problem is that a lot of people think terroir is all about nuance and delicacy. But it can be massive. 

*On the pinot noir craze: ” ‘Sideways’ was maybe a catalyst, but it was going to happen anyway. 

*”The 100-point system has always been a bit silly because it’s really 20 points. It’s putting the power in the hands of two or three critics. Individual people shouldn’t have the power to define what we drink “¦ Robert Parker [left] saw the writing on the wall and, like a pro footballer who bows out before he ruins his knees, stepped aside. 

By the way, the Chamisal wines I sampled with Fin were wonderful (we didn’t even try the Stainless Chard because he knew how much I already liked it). The Estate Chardonnay had gorgeous tropical fruit and spices, and the “Califa” Chard ($38) took those attributes up a few notches. The “Califa” Pinot Noir ($60) was rich and robust but also elegant and not overly extracted like so many post-“Sideways” pinots.

All of these wines boast a purity befitting their maker.

9
Oct
2011
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Wines of the Week, Oct. 3-10

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Everyday: It shouldn’t be easy to forget a delicious wine from New Mexico, but somehow the Gruet Brut Blanc de Noirs NV ($14) is not on my radar as much as it should be. This vibrant sparkler is a wonderful weeknight sipper that also makes kick-ass Mimosas and Bellinis. Lively, friendly and just fat enough, it zings through the palate and lingers in lovely fashion, making it eminently quaffable but also worth savoring. Like its bubbly confreres, the Gruet is an amazingly versatile food wine, pairing well with potato chips and popcorn, sushi and salmon, steak and baked potatoes, apple pie and fatty cheese, etc etc. etc.

Occasion: Alvaro Palacios’ old-vine grenaches from Spain’s Priorat region are well worth exploring at a couple of price points. The Les Terraces Velles Vinyes 2008 ($35) is a firm, focused introduction, with bright cherry and herb flavors and soft but not wimpy tannins. The Finca Dofi 2008 ($70) is earthier but just as fresh, again with the smooth tannins, and a racy finish. These are supple but complex exemplars of just how profound the grape called garnacha in Spain can get. Grilled or roasted beef, lamb, game or sausages will cozy right up to these reds.

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