A field trip to reWine Barrels in Salem

Anne Hubatch of Helioterra and I took a field trip recently to reWine Barrels in Salem, OR. What an interesting visit. reWine is the barrel refurbishing business of father-in-law and master woodworker Todd Dollinger and son-in-law Trent Thomas, a former New Seasons wine buyer among other wine industry experience.

I bought a rehabbed barrel from reWine for the 2009 harvest and I'm buying another one for 2010. I like the idea of recycling barrels. As Todd says emphatically, it doesn't make sense to cut down seriously old French oak trees to make barrels that you use for a few years and turn into planters. Renewing those barrels makes sense. Plus, I like the results I've seen. And the cost doesn't hurt. Rehabbed barrels aren't the same as new barrels, but they're pretty close and cost only a fraction of new wood.

The reWine truck, usually full of barrels for delivery all over the Willamette Valley, just back from another drop.

Inside the workshop are barrels in various stages of rehabilitation.

Todd animatedly shows off his self-made barrel shaving machine.

A barrel is loaded on sideways and gently and fairly quietly shaved, back and forth across the grain with the barrel rotating slightly with each pass.

Trent hams it up near the shaver. This machine saves lives and limbs, as early experiments with handshaving were a bit perilous.

Barrels before shaving.

Barrels after shaving.

As you might expect, there's hand shaving to touch up what the machine doesn't quite get.

Barrel heads are also resized to fit snug with the slightly reduced dimensions of the shaved and ultimately retoasted barrel.

Here's my 2005 Siruge barrel from my last homemade wine that's ready for toasting.

Here's a look inside. The electrical element will slowly heat things up to more than 400F over 2 or more hours for a light toast. I'm interested to see how a more subtle toast will react with local Pinot noir. Most barrels out there are medium to heavy toast. Over time, we check in on this barrel as it slowly colors and gains amazing smells of, well, toasty oak.

Here's a barrel that's nearly done with a medium toast. I forgot to get pictures of my barrel as it finished up. Looks and smells good.

Once they're toasted and reassembled, the refurbished barrels are filled with water to soak up. You can imagine the lengthy toasting process dries out the staves pretty good. Once they're water tight, they are drained, gassed with sulfur and wrapped for delivery.

Todd and Trent talked a lot about the process and how they got started in 2009 combining Todd's knowledge of wood and machinery and Trent's experience with the wine industry. We talked about other barrel refurbishers out there who crank out more barrels per day and apparently don't spend nearly the time reWine does in toasting like a new barrel cooper does. reWine's trying to do things differently.

This operation is obviously still very new but already it's impressive to see several local producers buying the product, or bringing their own barrels to get rehabbed like I did this time with my Siruge. It's a bit less expensive to do that. What impresses me most is the wholehearted commitment of Todd and Trent to their work. Todd's fanatic about the process. Trent's all about building long term relationships and making sure reWine is doing everything right to produce excellent barrels. These are people I'm glad to know and do business with. I can't recommend them highly enough. Thanks guys for the great visit.

2007 La Gramiere rouge

Sometimes wine isn't a simple "like it" or "don't like it" proposition. Sometimes wines perplex, engage, delight, all at once, leaving you satisfied but uncertain how or why. For example, the 2007 La Gramiere rouge, one of the "natural" wines we're hearing so much about (in part thanks to Cory Cartwright's 32 Days of Natural Wine over at Saignee, now in Day 3).

This Vin de Table could be Cotes du Rhone Villages, a blend of 80% grenache, 15% syrah and 5% mourvedre from Americans Amy Lillard and David Kling, who moved to France years back and farm a vineyard in the southern Rhone valley. Their blog, La Gramiere, is a nice read with archives detailing the hard work they've endured to this point.

On the site, there's a tasting note for this wine that reads remarkably similar to my experience, mostly. Fruit driven, blackberry and boysenberry flavors, lush, with licorice and spice notes, and firm tannin that gives nice texture. This is delicious southern Rhone red, with so much energy it seems to glow an electric purple. Yet there are reductive notes, stinky vegetal aromas that come and go, never dominating but everpresent. These seem to vanish with a plate of broiled steak and steamed new potatoes, then reappear after the meal. For a while I smelled acetate (nail polish remover), then that seemed to melt into cinnamon notes, then occasionally a touch of acetate reappeared.

On balance, I really enjoyed this wine but am perplexed. This is a wine shape shifter, at once a lush crowd pleasing red, then difficult even wild, requiring patience, good food matches and intellect to seek out what the wine offers, not make snap judgements. If that sounds like a wine for you, and it most certainly does to me, have at it. Plus, I love the old world meets new wine label, especially the striking green that you see only rarely on wine bottles. Beautiful. (Note: image borrowed from La Gramiere)

1995 Ch. Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape

When we moved to Portland ten years ago next month, I brought with us several cases of wine. I'd been collecting bottles throughout the 1990s and just finished working for a Berkeley-based wine importer and retailer. In that position, I took advantage of the significant employee discount to stock the wine larder. "We won't get a chance like this again," I persuaded my wife. I bought a significant amount of wine, at least at the time. I wasn't making wine yet, you know.

Then came the great move north, with baby, cat and life's belongings. That meant engaging a moving company for all the big stuff and renting an air conditioned minivan to drive the family (baby) in cool comfort. And of course, the several boxes of wine. Meanwhile, Anthony the cat and I sweated it out driving our old VW in caravan with the rental. We thought we had A/C in that old heap, but it just turned out that San Francisco air was so naturally cool that we never noticed the A/C didn't really work.

Here in Portland, I still store my wine in the cellar in cardboard boxes, bottles upside down and close to the concrete floor to maximize cooling. There's no air conditioning in the house, but the cellar keeps pretty cool in all but the worst heat waves. I've worried about the wine collection, which I've continued adding to, evidence that we had, in fact, plenty of fine opportunities to buy wine. Then I try older bottles and they're great, and I don't worry so much. What do they say about cellar in Bordeaux rising slowly in the summer to the upper 60s farenheit (maybe higher)? Wine's fragile but not that fragile.

Of course, I've also had some cellar disappointments. Was that only because of my cellar conditions? Probably not. I know people with fancy, temperature controlled cellars who have off bottles. The one thing I've noticed is that I don't want to cellar half bottles all that long. Recently a half bottle of '96 Ch. d'Epire Savennieres was shot. That was nice wine in its youth and really shouldn't have had a problem making it to 14 years. Maybe it was the wine. Maybe it was my cellar. Maybe it was the half bottle format.

That d'Epire was the last "original" bottle I'd opened, before tonight. I'm down to about 2 cases of originals, those bottles hauled up here 10 years ago. What's left is a mix of 1980s and 1990s Bordeaux, Port, and Rhones, for the most part. That's what I was mostly into back then. Since then, I've gotten more into German, Italian (especially) and Oregon wine. I have old bottles of all those, but they were all procured since the move.

What did I drink tonight? A lone half of the 1995 Ch. Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape. I'd waited on this wine for so long because reports suggested it was highly tannic and needing time. Now at the 10 year mark in Portland, I'm thinking about those older bottles I still have and wondering if they really ought to be opened sooner than later. One, because I don't have a pristine cellar. But two, what the hell, it's been ten freaking years. What am I waiting for at this point?

The Beaucastel only reinforces this thought. The wine is mature, at least out of half bottle. Slightly oxidized upon pouring, it got more youthful in the glass, revealing a lovely mix of peppery cherry fruit and mushroomy, bottle sweet, earthy aromas. No brett here that I could find, no barnyardy or band aid notes. The wine is indeed tannic, and I'm sure this bottle would have dried out before the tannin resolved. Perhaps larger, slower aging bottles in colder cellars will live a lot longer. This bottle was delicious, with a great burst of flavor in the middle palate and a long finish. There's something difficult to describe but clearly obvious in a really good wine. This one had that quality. Enough words. Go try it for yourself, even if you have to wait a decade for it.

Armstrong Vineyard, Part 3: June

For reports earlier in the growing season, see here and here.

I got out to Armstrong Vineyard again the other day to check on things. Remember that this new vineyard will be the primary source for Vincent Wine Company grapes in 2010. Young vines can produce excellent wine.


Despite our very cool and wet spring, things continue to look really good on Ribbon Ridge.

The canopy is tall with lots of healthy shoots, no signs of disease and lots of promise for the summer ahead.

Of course, no flowering yet. We got off to an early start with bud break at the beginning of April, a couple of weeks early. At mid-June we should be in flowering, but no sign of that yet. Just infloresence.

The dry weather recently gave a good opportunity to see about drainage in the vineyard. What parts have dried out? Where is there still water and mud? Here's a shot of the bottom of the 667 block, near the road and still draining water while the vineyard top was largely dried out.

Today's been cold and rainy again in Portland.

Will we ever get good weather to push the flowers to open? Will there be hail to knock off lots of those flowers before they can set as fruit? Stay tuned. For now, things look awfully good.

400th post

Yes, I changed the template again. No, it's not in honor of this being the 400th post in the 5+ years of this blog. But since you mention it, yes, 400 posts. Glad Blogger finally got some fresh(er) templates to choose from, btw.

Thinking about natural wine

I'm thinking about "natural" wine in preparation for writing a piece for Saignee's 32 Days of Natural Wine, which starts later this month. I struggle with what natural wine really is. Grape growing isn't very natural, at least with all the row planting, pruning, etc. Winemaking's even worse. Even a hands off approach requires lots of work or intervention. You still punch down or at least tread the frementing must. You separate the new wine and press the skins to get the rest. You might use sulfur dioxide. You store in vessels of one kind or another. You package it somehow. And that's the bare minimum.

Even most "natural" wine producers do more, in the name of producing something that tastes authentic to the grape, the place, the season. I guess that's really what natural wine is all about. I like Joe Dressner's quote from last year's 31 Days of Natural Wine. He wrote:

"What exactly is a natural wine? For me, it’s a wine that tastes like it fell off the vine and into a bottle, fermented, packed its bags and arrived in America."

But there it is - "and arrived in America." Why is it so much natural wine I read about on the internet is from Europe? Sure, there are lots more producers doing close to the earth stuff over there. But how natural is it to ship the thousands of miles here, presumably not on biodiesel or solar powered freighters, in reuasble packaging with a minimal carbon footprint? Not to mention their usual fragile state, with little or no sulfur dioxide that requires careful handling. Do these natural wines really travel well? Is it the point? Or does enough of the goodness in close to the earth wine production erode in transit, leaving a natural wine denatured?

Ok, no, not entirely. Natural wine can move. But what I want to write about is my passion. City wine. Natural, local city wine that I want to see happening in a much bigger way in Portland, Oregon. It's a movement for local, unpretentious wines that haven't traveled far, from producers who grow local grapes or who work with local growers to produce wines in the city (that latter more my model). To produce something here that tastes like it fell off the vine into a wine growler and didn't travel much further than my bike ride home from the city winery in my neighborhood, my winery or my neighbor's winery or any old body's winery. That's my natural wine dream. Is that crazy?

New releases from Arterberry Maresh

I had the chance to taste through a bunch of new releases from Arterberry Maresh last night. Young Jim is making some excellent wines, all pinot noir and chardonnay from the Dundee Hills. Jim's brash and talks some shit, but his wines speak for themselves. I can't help but admire his confidence that what he's doing is absolutely great. I suppose if you don't believe it, who will? You don't make this hat if you're not confident, right? Yeah, my new favorite hat.

We started with the 2008 Arterberry Maresh Chardonnay Maresh Vineyard. Old vine 108 clone, harvest late, this bottling from a single Dargaud & Jagele light toast barrel that took more than a year to finish fermenting. Maybe there's a little sugar leftover, maybe not, there's fat flavor but the acid balance and freshness is terrific. With lots of lemon, sweet cream and hazelnuts, it's white Burg on the nose but broad tasting Oregon chard on the palate. Bottled unfined and unfiltered, it's a little hazy too. Really, really good.

Then the 2007 Arterberry Maresh Pinot Noit Gherts Vineyard, actually a single barrel of purchased wine from another producer who didn't think it fit the profile they were looking for. Apparently from grapes picked before the rain, the wine has deep color uncommon in 2007. There's a little musky, hard to pin down something in the aroma, but I love this. Lots of ripe fruit, subtle wood, full flavors in the mouth but really nicely refined and long. While I think many '07s are beautiful, they can also be delicate and I wonder about how long they really need to be cellared. This one, though, could last a while and maybe should sleep for a few before it shows its best.

Then onto 2008 reds. First, the 2008 Arterberry Maresh Pinot Noir Dundee Hills, Jim's $25 cuvee that's tremendous value. Most wineries would like this at their high end level. Fragrant, silky but also wound up and needing time to reveal itself, I really liked this. Then the 2008 Arterberry Maresh Pinot Noir Julliard Vineyard, down Worden Hill Road from Maresh vineyard and indeed a world away from the higher vineyard's pure red fruit tone. This has bass notes with a darker fruit profile and really tight structure. Right now, it's a little challenging to drink. But in time this will stun.

Jim and I hung out with some others talking wine and winemaking. Ji'm vocal about barreling wine more than a year, not for the oak profile but the curing aspect of barrel aging. Wines gain an intensity and vinosity from extended aging, perhaps even a savory quality. Some people like bottling early to preserve fruitiness. Some do it to get wine to market more quickly. Some early bottled wines are superb, so it's not like you have to wait. But Jim's wines, like those of the producers who mentored him, show what longer aging can give you. Assuming the source material is really good, of course. We weren't all born on Worden Hill Road, but Jim was and the place is in his wines.

1998 Prieuré St. Jean de Bebian Coteaux du Languedoc

I've mentioned on Twitter how I've opened a few bottles from the cellar this weekend that were over the hill. One I'd bought years ago, a half bottle of '96 Chateau d'Epire Savennieres, so long ago it came from the original Berkeley Bowl before the move from the (in fact) converted bowling alley to its now decade-plus conventional home. Others included Winebid purchases that will go unmentioned. Let's just say that I've had some amazing successes buying at online auction. These weren't those.

However, I'm confident in my passive wine cellar. Here's the 1998 Prieuré St. Jean de Bebian Coteaux du Languedoc, gorgeous after nearly a decade in my unheated, uncooled Portland basement. This wine has a story for me however.

Bebian was the wine I mentioned so innocently online about a decade ago, while I worked for the importer. We'd discounted the $30 price to $10 in the shop with the 1997 vintage. We were up front that the quality wasn't as good as usual. That's the nature of vintage wine. It's not always the same in profile or quality. Surely a $10 price suggested as much. Yet I was unwise enough to mention that price cut on the internets, bringing down the wrath of the owner who said they didn't want the price published. Ah, the days before the internet was understood. This was public information, but not that public. I was kind of pissed off then, and confused. Now I understand, but the whole thing still seems futile. It wasn't like the internet wasn't around in 2000. Word got out about things, even then. But I digress.

Prieuré St. Jean de Bebian Coteaux du Languedoc is a southern France property planted to the thirteen varieties of Chateauneuf du Pape, the grenache, syrah and mourvedre most of us know along with so many other varieites for red and white wine. The grenache cuttings apparently come from Rayas, the syrah from Chave, the mourvedre from Tempier in Bandol, recent syrah plantings from Beaucastel. This is a serious property, for sure.

I was introduced to the property by my friend Paul P. who brought an older bottling to a dinner in San Francisco many years ago. That wine, vintage forgotten, seemed red fruited and Chateauneuf-like. Since then, my experiences with the producer have been about darker fruits and a profile as if Chateauneuf were from the northern Rhone. More focused, pure and defined than that behemoth southern Rhone wine often is.

This 1998 follows that pattern. I wouldn't guess this to be either southern Rhone (typically grenache-based) or northern Rhone (typically syrah). Rather, it's southern France, the Languedoc or Midi. Just highly nuanced and unusual for this region that still produces mostly common wines along with the occasional glossy, too big for its britches beverage. No, this is deep, dark, rich but restrained, focused and intense like few Languedoc reds ever are. It's clean too. No need for rogue yeast to provide earthy qualities here. And the iodine, near to the sea quality of the Languedoc isn't overdone, where you think you're drinking olive brine with the smoke of burning rosemary branches.

This '08 Bebian is all about an aromatic balance of ripe fruit, warm stones, olives, brushy herbs like rosemary and sage, and sea air. Upon first opening, there was a distinct ash note that I find in many Oregon pinot noirs. People sometimes refer to "Oregon garrigue" when noting local wines, and that must be what they're finding. Here we're talking about the real thing, southern French herb and soil scents that provide such a nice savory quality to the sweet ripeness of the wine. In the mouth, this wine is still finely tannic though more approachable than it was younger. I like way the drying tannin balances the sweet fruit of the wine, especially with grilled lamb at dinner where the meat brought out the wine's fruitiness.

As a whole, this is beautiful wine. Aging wonderfully. Full of promise with a few more years of cellar time, as the tannins continue to soften and the sweetness of age emerges. This is why we cellar wine, no matter the occasional disappointments. And let's just say, this isn't the 1997. This is really, really good.

Vincent garage tasting, a pictorial

Four incredibly busy days later, I'm still reflecting the glow of last Sunday's Vincent garage tasting. It marked the end of home winemaking. I'm happy to announce that just today I received final approval for the Vincent Wine Company winery license. It seems fitting to finish the garage project in pictures like memories.

The 2008 Vincent Pinot Noir, Zenith Vineyard.

 Me pouring for wine conspirator and friend, Anne Hubatch.

 

Translucent Vincent Pinot noir.

Garage scene.

Home cured pork from Portland Charcuterie Project.

Lonzino from PCP. Oh my god.

PCP pickles on our Bauer plate.

 A wine garage, but still a garage.

Jennifer prettied the place up with Gerber daisies.

 Last of the homemade wine.

 

Credits:

Thanks to everyone who came.

Big thanks to Todd Merkel of Portland Charcuterie Project for the delicious home cured meats and pickles. Todd's doing incredible work for the love of food.

And thanks especially to Joshua Chang of PDXploration for the gorgeous photography and permission to use his work here on élevage .

Armstrong vineyard update 2

In the aftermath of the Garage Tasting, I blew off my real job and hung out with friends from Seattle who came down for the shindig. Then I shipped some wine to various people and took advantage of the drive down to Yamhill county to visit Ribbon Ridge and the Armstrong vineyard. This new planting will be my primary source for grapes in 2010 and beyond. I'm really excited, so I took some more pictures (earlier post here).


The spring weather here in western Oregon is still rotten. We had some nice days around my birthday earlier in the month, thank heavens. My mother was visiting and I was so glad she was able to enjoy the incredible flowers all over Portland in bright but still mild sunshine. Since then we're back to constnt gray and serious (for this time of year, anyway) cold. Would you believe highs in the low 50s for a few days? Indeed, the heat made an encore performance. I'm hoping it's off again until we fight the urge come October.

Nevertheless, the vineyard looks great. Young vines are vigorous so there was much more growth here than comparable sites I saw driving around the Chehalem Mountains and Dundee Hills with older vines. Hail has been frequent this spring but there's little hail damage. My hydrangeas look terrible, but the vines seem unaffected. Check out those leaves and primordial grape clusters. This still young vineyard has waited three long years to produce fruit. We're just about there.

 Since my last visit, the cover crop in the rows has been plowed under. Even with all the rain, the soil here drains pretty well so mud wasn't an issue. You can see nice consistent growth in this block of pinot vines, all 115 clone on the southern end of the vineyard looking uphill to the north. If you look closely you can see the mostly vertical shoots growing up between the trellis wires. Those that stray get put into place. All in all, things look terrific at Armstrong. I'll be back again and again charting the parogress of the season, getting to know the vines and vineyard before seeing the fruit in the winery.

 

On the way home, I headed over Worden Hill Road through the heart of the Dundee Hills. This is where is all began for Oregon pinot back in the '60s and '70s. Here's a bad shot from the car down Worden Hill from Maresh. Le Pavillon and Prince Hill on the left, Winderlea on the right.


Down the road I stopped like a tourist to take his shot looking due south from Winderlea to the west facing slope of Weber above and the lower part of the Arcus bowl around the pond and first clump of trees. They don't call these parts the Red Hills of Dundee for nothing. And even with the lousy weather, the sky is mesmerizing.

Garage tasting aftermath, part 1

Wow. Our 3rd annual garage wine tasting yesterday was the biggest and best yet. Sixty to 70 adults, maybe more. I stopped counting after Jennifer and I washed dozens of the used wine glasses as newcomers kept arriving. I had 36 to start with but that clearly wasn't enough. Lots of kids too, which is always great. My own kids have helped punch down, press and bottle my homemade wines, so of course we like kids around. I'll post a complete review of the event, along with excellent pictures from PDXploration that you can see in collage by clicking that link.

For now, my own shot of a 4-year old Martin pressing the 2007 Vincent Pinot Noir Meredith Mitchell Vineyard on the driveway nearly three years ago. He was really into it, and while I won't let him operate the mechanical press at the winery for a long time, it might come sooner than I think. This is what it's all about.

Garage tasting - last call

The Vincent Garage Wine Tasting this Sunday is almost upon us. To recap, I'm pouring my final homemade wine, my 2008 Vincent Pinot Noir Zenith Vineyard. Then we'll try some barrel samples of 2009s that will be bottled and released later this year. And I'll pour some older homemade wines to check in on them, plus some bubbly and maybe something else. We'll see how things go.

Right now, there are about 60 people confirmed, including several élevage readers whom I'm looking forward to meeting. We'll have at least one retailer, a few winemakers, at least one vineyard owner, the graphic designer who's working on my label, homemade charcuterie from a local blogger and élevage reader, and a whole bunch of friends, aquaintences, kids and who knows who else. One thing is clear - this final garage tasting will be the biggest yet and I'm sure the most fun. We even have past attendees coming from Seattle because they don't want to miss it. That's crazy, but definitely good crazy.

If you're interested, email me at vincent . fritzsche [at] gmail . com. Of course take out the spaces and put in the @. I've give you the address. When you get here, we'll be up the driveway in and around the garage. I'll be out there from noon to 5pm. See you there.

2007 Stoller Vineyard Pinot Noir Dundee Hills JV

[note - this was a sample from Stoller's publicity group. I write about it because I honestly like it.]

Stoller vineyard is a large, well regarded site for pinot noir on a far southwest knoll of Oregon's Dundee Hills AVA. It's so large that, in addition to estate production, many producers buy from the vineyard, with some producing Stoller vineyard designated bottlings. Perhaps the most well known of those bottlings is from Chehalem, but buyers over the years have included Scott Paul, La Bete, Boedecker and Adelsheim, among many others. Stoller is clearly one of the blue chip vineyards in the northern Willamette Valley.

In my experience, Stoller tends to produce a strongly black cherry flavored wine, soft and round with lower acid than the local norm. I'm usually looking for more tension and structure in a pinot noir, and it's no surprise that I love this 2007 Stoller Vineyard Pinot Noir JV (for jeunes vignes or junior (young) vines). This is their entry level wine, with a suggested retail of $25. Wonder what the fancy stuff from 2007 tastes like?

Simply put, this is nice Oregon pinot noir. There's an intriguing black cherry, herb and toast perfume that marries nicely with dinner over a few nights. The flavors are similar, with a wet earth component to balance out the sweet fruit. This isn't acidic wine (pH is 3.84), but the whole thing seems a bit nervy and lively despite the chemistry.

It's not cocktail pinot noir, and I can imagine that it's not big and rich enough for some tasters. That's what I love here. The wine trades size for interest, huge fruit for complexity, and it's delicious. What more do you want? Most importantly, you might find this at a good price on a restaurant wine list in some far flung places, where finding good and authentic tasting Oregon pinot can sometimes be a challenge. Order it without hesitation.

Business time

There hasn't been much to report lately, though I suppose there a bunch of little things working mentioning. First, sort of big news from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, the federal organization better known as the TTB that licenses wineries and anyone else in the sin business. Yes, I received my TTB Basic Permit, required to sell my wine and the first domino in several at the state and local level to finalize all my licensing. Now all I need is approval for my City of Portland liquor license and the OLCC, our Oregon state overseers, should relent and approve me. Once that's done, I'll start hitting everyone up to buy my wine. Until then, get on my email list. Ha.

Meanwhile, I'm working on a side project where some partners and I will bottle and sell less expensive wines. I wish I could write more about all that, but for now know that I'm working on more than just my own boutique Pinot noir label. There are plans afoot.

There's good progress on my Pinot noir label design. I have a meeting later this week with my designer Angie Reat of Imprint Design. Angie's been great. I can't recommend her highly enough. We're down to two general concepts and with the next round of refinements, I think we'll be close to having our label. By June I want that done and graphics to put onto a new web site and email template. And business cards and everything else you can imagine.

All that leads me to the future of this blog and how it will work with my emerging winery website. I'm setting up my own domain name, so my web "address" will change, that's for sure. However, do I go with a web hosting service, or do I simply do a Wordpress blog that can essentially serve as my winery website. More and more people I'm talking to suggest doing that. Upside is simplicity and I like Wordpress a lot. Downside is that there may be limitations I don't know about or appreciate at this point. Also, I want an email platform with good analytics and I think I can get that in a package with a more traditional web hosting service like Squarespace. So what's better, what's simpler, what's better value for the money I will end up spending? If any readers have ideas, I'd love to hear them.

One thing I want to keep doing is blogging about what got me into all this craziness in the first place -- my interest in wine and what it teaches me. To that end, I'm really excited about writing a piece for Cory Cartwright's saignée blog for next month's 32 Days of Natural Wine. Past participants include Alice Feiring, Joe Dressner, Peter Liem and beautiful photo posts from Detroit's Putnam Weekly. This year may include all those and people like winemaker Eric Texier and Art of Eating author Edward Behr. What a tremendous idea Cory and I'm lucky to be able to participate. Now what should I write about? At least I have a few weeks to ruminate.

Armstrong Vineyard, Ribbon Ridge AVA

For 2010, Vincent Wine Company plans to source pinot noir grapes from two vineyards. One is the Zenith vineyard, which I've worked with for the previous two years. I'll write about that site soon enough. Today's focus is the Armstrong vineyard, a new site in the smallest of the Willamette Valley's AVAs, Ribbon Ridge. Here's a map of the region new published by the Oregon Wine Board and the Map Store. Armstrong is in D11 quadrant.

Armstrong is owned by Doug and Michele Ackerman, longtime wine friends who purchased and planted nearly 15 acres of a neighboring horse farm in 2007. The vineyard is on Lewis Rogers Lane, just below Ayres and Brick House. I was working harvest in the area that fall and watched the land being prepped and planted each day as I went back and forth to Portland. I remember thinking how great it would be to somehow purchase grapes from the site for my own project, just a dream then. How perhaps this could be a site I worked with for many years.

Now in 2010, the vineyard will produce its first commercial crop of grapes. To this point, the farming goals have been to grow roots and strong vine trunks. Now, the trellis wires will be raised and the vines allowed to produce a full canopy and a modest crop. I and two other producers, Ayres and Seven of Hearts, will split the anticipated 12 tons of grapes three ways this year, with more buyers likely in future years as the vines continute to mature and larger crops can be expected. Doug worked with us to divide up the blocks this year, and I'll be getting approximately equal amounts of pinot noir clones 115, 667 and 777 from various sections of the vineyard. The idea is to have enough of each to ferment them separately to assess each, then likely blend into one wine. We'll see. Perhaps there will be more than one wine here?

Recently I stopped by the vineyard to check out the early growth and I managed to take some barely decent pictures with my phone. I must do better, but for now here's what I have.

This view is from the 777 block at the northeast corner the vineyard, looking due south. This area is flat as you can see, but the vineyard slopes to the south just beyond our perspective here. In the distance, notice the back of the Dundee Hills. Just over the ridge is Domaine Drouhin and its neighbors.

From a few rows over, still in the 777 block, Here a view back to the northwest to the 667 block. In between there's a swale where the gravel road from Lewis Rogers Lane comes up to the vineyard barn. Notice in the distance a nice looking chunk of unplanted land. I've heard people breezily suggest that all the plantable land in Yamhill County is pretty much taken. Uh, no. It might not be cheap any more, but there are several empty spots where I'm sure grapes would thrive.

Because of some rain showers, I didn't make down to the 115 block on the south end of the vineyard. Instead, I headed over to the 667 hill. Here's a shot from the top looking down to Lewis Rogers Lane with the Yamhill-Carlton District in the distance. As with most pictures, you don't get quite a sense of how steep the slope is.

So what was I looking for in this vineyard? A few things. One, there are some replantings happening where original vines didn't take. Replants are anywhere you see milk cartons, which protect the tiny new vines. Two, I wanted to see how uniform the new growth is. To my slightly trained eye, things looked really good. And I wanted to see how much growth there had been since my last visit two weeks ago. One of my goals this year is to visit the vineyard a lot and gain more knowledge of how the vines progress through the season. I'm no farmer, so I have lots to learn on this end.

Here is a shot of a particularly strong vine in the 667 block, which seemed the most advanced area of the vineyard that I saw. If you look closely, you can see the primordial grape clusters already emerging. These clusters will flower sometime in June, to begin the fruiting phase of the growing season.

So, what's growing in between the vine rows? Lots of beautiful cover crop, which is plowed under to provide green manure for the vines, but perhaps more importantly serves as competition for the vine roots, forcing them down into the soil rather than faning out on the surface. Deeper roots are better, we'll just leave it at that.

Finally, these pictures were taken before a potential frost yesterday morning. I haven't heard anything, and I haven't asked, but temperatures yesterday morning were down to 30F in selected areas of Yamhill county. The 300-400 foot elevation of the Armstrong vineyard plus amateur weather station readings nearby that showed lows in the mid-30s lead me to believe there wasn't a frost issue, or any significant if there was any frost. Here's hoping the axiom that frost danger is done after Mother's Day holds true this year. (Saturday morning update: indeed, no frost damage at Armstrong vineyard. Lots of warmer weather on tap so let's hope frost danger is past.)

Garage tasting May 23, and yes, you're invited

Regular readers should know my story by now. I've been a home winemaker for several years in Portland, OR, but with the 2009 vintage I'm starting a commercial label for my Oregon pinot noir. Along the way I've worked several harvests in commercial wineries and devoted myself to making commercial quality wine at home, in part to enjoy the product and get feedback from family, friends and even blog readers, in part to prove to myself I could make good wine consistently. I'm happy to report success on all fronts.

So, as we've done for the past few years, I'm holding one more tasting of my homemade wine out in my garage where the wine has been made, aged and bottled. When? Sunday, May 23, from noon to 5pm. Why? To have fun and to share what I've been doing out in the garage with anyone who's interested and civil. (Not that civility has been a problem at past tastings, but when throwing the doors open to the world, I figure it's worth mentioning.)

Yes, you can come! You can even bring friends. All I ask is that you let me know you're coming and I'll give you my address and answer any other questions you have. We've had dozens of people at past tastings and it's fun to see old friends, newer friends, friends of friends, even complete strangers who read the blog and get up the gumption to email me and show up, all to taste wine and have some fun.

This year I'll be pouring my recently bottled 2008 Vincent Pinot Noir Zenith Vineyard. I'm very happy with the wine and think you'll like it. It's a great way to close out my home winemaking career before the 2009s and beyond hit local store shelves and restaurants. There will be a sneak preview of those '09s.

As usual, I'll open a few other fun things including some bubbly to make sure we've properly festive. I think it might make sense to revisit the 2006 Vincent Pinot Noir Wahle Vineyard from magnum to see how that's aging.

There is no charge but I will gladly sign you up for my mailing list if you're not already on it. The first offer of 2009 wines will go out this summer with bottling in September and release in time for Thanksgiving

In the meantime, come on down for the swan song garage tasting. Come into the garage through the out door, let your presence be felt. It's sure to be a celebration day, friends. Thank you.

Energy, ESJ style

What an excellent tasting tonight at Storyteller Wine Company in Portland with Steve Edmunds of Edmunds St. John. After all these years, I finally connect IRL with Steve, maker of some of my favorite California wines and something of an inspiration for my own winemaking.

I arrived hoping not to monopolize Steve with my geeky wine questions and fawning. Turns out I did monopolize his time, but without asking too many questions. He seemed delighted to talk shop and I know enough of his history to chime in with comments that only opened the door to more knowledge. You often hear of people being "great guys" but Steve really is.

We talked about old Brandlin Ranch mourvedre and how Steve lucked out to work with old vines and wise old farmers early in his career who taught him so much about grapes. We talked about his making wine in Alameda, CA, and up in the Sierra foothills where he's sourcing a good quanity of obviously terrific grapes. We talked about not owning vineyards, how even an established guy doesn't always get to call picking times if he's not a significant buyer at a particular site (not common for Steve, but still an issue once in a while). Most memorably, we talked about energy.

No, not hippie crystal energy. Rather, we talked about how, as wine grapes mature, they slowly creep up in pH to a point after which they tend to shoot up in pH rather quickly. Steve wants to pick generally right before the big jump, when flavors have developed but before the flavors loose their energy because of low acidity. I'd never thought about it that way. I know that acidity carries flavor, that low acid wines can have tons of up front flavor but tend to fade quickly. Higher acid wines with lower pHs have the acid structure to carry flavors through to a long finish. That effect is what Steve attributes to energy. I think that's exactly right and exactly what makes Edmunds St. John wines so delicious and, in California at least, unique. (Posting on Twitter in the past hour, I wrote about Steve's wines having "energy" and Randall Graham of Bonny Doon commented that Steve's wines have "life force." Yes, that too!)

For the geeky, Steve said that he likes to pick fruit with pH below 3.5, otherwise the energy falls apart and there's no life. I've picked grapes on both sides of 3.5 and I have to say I'm leaning to the short side of 3.5 from here on out. That's not absolute, but even in a hot year like 2009 where we waited to pick so flavors could develop, I see that I could have picked earlier and had ripe flavors without degradation of acidity.

Ok, how were the Edmunds St. John wines? Wow, really good. Really full of energy, so that I'm feeling the energy and life force to write about them. We started with the 2008 Heart of Gold, a 59% Vermentino (Rolle) and 41% Grenache Blanc blend from the Sierra Foothills. This was indeed golden, minerally and full of life. I sensed a bit of alcohol that detracted but these were quick tastes and I'd gladly try this again. Then the 2009 Bone-Jolly Gamay Rose from the Witters Vineyard in the Sierra Foothills that was crisp with minerally strawberry, pretty nice. Steve isn't one to toot his own horn, but he's really happy with this and I won't argue.

The first red was the 2008 Bone-Jolly Gamay Noir Witters Vineyard, the red version of the rose. This is classic gamay, worthy of cru Beaujolais with what must be Sierra terroir. Bright and perfumed, with great soil notes and juicy gamay spice. I would have bought any of these, but I did buy this. Then the 2006 That Old Black Magic, a blend of sources that used to go into my old favorite Rocks and Gravel. This was darker and more dense than I remember any Rocks and Gravel, usually more bright red and peppery. Still, I like.

Finally, two syrah that again completely turn the notion of California syrah (or pretty much any new world syrah) on end. First, the 2005 Syrah Parmelee-Hill Vineyard from the Sonoma Valley that made me think of Cornas or Hermitage. Lots of olive and game notes that I love in syrah, with excellent tannic texture and full, juicy flavors. I also bought this. At the mid-$20s, this is ridiculous value in ageworthy but already delicious syrah. Then the 2005 Syrah Bassetti Vineyard, with intense floral notes that made me think Cote Rotie and a saline scent that reminded me these grapes came from just a few miles off the central California coast. I asked if this is on limestone soil, but Steve says basalt, something we know well here in the northwest. Sometimes locals say basalt is a country cousin to granite and limestone, but this wine alone reminds me that basalt is an excellent growing medium. What intensity and density, again lots of olive notes and rich flavors that are still bright and energetic.

I've written before about how Robert Parker has taken Steve to task for trying to make French wines in California. More than ever, I think that's simply wrong. What Steve's making is all California, just full of energy that can't help but connect to his French inspiration. There are no French wines that taste like this, and no California wines that taste like there. These wines are unique. It's no knock that they're so different from most of what you get from my home, the Golden State, nor that in a line up of top French wines, they'd more than hold their own. All that and these are all, with the exception of the $45 Bassetti, priced under $30 with most under $20. That's even more absurd than Parker's comments.

Three dot wine...

I'm keeping busy these days doing all the things necessary to launch a winery. Of course there's the wine. I'm talking about licensing with the feds, state of Oregon, and city of Portland. Working on label design. Building my mailing list so we can find people to buy our wines. Setting up a business web site. Planning for the coming harvest. There's so much to do...

Meanwhile, the wine world rolls and roils on. Did you hear about the big news with erobertparker.com? I've written elsewhere along with so many others that I think it's a big mistake to take the largest online wine discussion community and shut out everyone but paying subscribers. People point out that other wine critics charge for access to their sites. Surely it's easier to administer a site with fewer people. But isn't the point to expand your audience? Isn't 15,000+ registered users on the site something to be proud of, to make advantage of? Surely retrograde isn't the right move, shutting out many, perhaps most of them to speak only to the people who already buy your product. But what do I know... Katherine Cole (@kcoleuncorked) of the Oregonian newspaper tweeted that she's hardly heartbroken about the move. I get that. I replied I'm not either, but I am scratching my head...

Speaking of Twitter, do you follow Randall Graham (@RahdallGraham)? I and nearly 400,000 other people do, and he's great. Interesting, honest and seriously down to earth. Today he wrote a series of tweets about his ailing Citroen. Only the French would name a car lemon... Here's hoping it's back on the roads of Santa Cruz soon...


In the aftermath of the erobertparker massacre, my 2009 wine story of the year Wine Berserkers is growing by leaps and bounds with castoffs from the now-private Parker. Only problem? They just can't get over the Parker obsession. I keep thinking it will happen, but this week's event only reignited the passion for all things Parker and Squires. At least there's a push to finally cut the crap and get on with being the newly most active, non-private wine discussion site out there. What an opportunity for this homegrown community...

That's it, I won't mention the Parker debacle ever again...unless I change my mind...

Finally, I just don't have too much wine stuff to talk about. I'm working on another wine project that I'll disclose soon, but it's too early to go there... I was going to attend an excellent tasting of Torbreck wines at the Allison earlier this week but life got in the way... I've had a few wines lately that didn't delight me or disgust me enough to write about them... But...but...but...

I will be at Storyteller Wine Co. on Friday night to meet and greet Steve Edmunds of Edmunds St. John wines. After all these years, yes, it's true, I've never even met Steve. I've enjoyed his wines for so long. I've interacted with him on wine discussion sites. We're even Facebook friends. Now, at last, a live in person meeting and I can't wait. And I'm looking forward to tasting his newest releases. Hope to see local readers there. Friday, Storyteller, 6pm. Be there...

Seven of Hearts / Luminous Hills

I try to keep my composure when tasting wines that really excite me. So if you'd been there at Byron and Dana Dooley's Seven of Hearts tasting room in Carlton, OR, the other day, you might not have noticed me flipping out on the inside. That's because I was trying the most exciting Oregon pinot noirs that I'm tasted this year and back into the last.

Byron has two labels, Seven of Hearts for purchased fruit and Luminous Hills for 100% estate grown wines at his vineyard in the far southwest corner of the Yamhill-Carlton District. (Full disclosure - Byron and I are both sourcing pinot noir from a new vineyard on Ribbon Ridge this coming year, and we were tasting with the vineyard owner. Nothing from that vineyard was represented in what we tasted, since it's only in production with this coming harvest. I don't think any of that matters to my judgement here, but in case you think it could, now you know.)

I'd heard about Byron's wines for the past half year from sources I trust. I had a bottle of the 2007 Seven of Hearts Pinot Noir Eola-Amity Hills and enjoyed its delicacy. I'd also met Byron at a dinner earlier this year and tried the now released 2008 Luminous Hills Pinot Noir Lux, which was young of course but also very interesting in aroma, texture and taste. That turns out to be a theme with Byron's wines.

Rather than detailed recountings of the specific wines, which I didn't note, let me just say -- try Byron's 2008s. From the base Seven of Hearts Willamette Valley Pinot to the fanciest "Reserve" bottling, they are all tremendously interesting, unique wines with real savor. There's plenty of ripe 2008 fruit, but great acid balance and tannic texture. Color isn't an issue for Byron, so if saturated purple is your idea of pinot noir hue, these might not be for you. However, if you're like me and you're looking for pinot noir that rises above the crowd, that tastes and smells great but will be even better on the dinner table, and will unwind well in the cellar, these are your wines.

The best part? I think the most expensive wine is $35. Sometimes I wonder if people don't get the widespread respect and buzz they deserve if they don't price their wines high enough. Obviously that's no reason to raise prices; it's just a shame. I'd put these wines up against anything in this state. They won't have the dark hue or oaky sheen of others, but for aromatic interest and depth & percision in the mouth, well, let's just say I have my work cut out for me if we're making wine from the same source this coming year. Actually, I'm looking forward to the challenge of seeing where my technique matches up, and learning from Byron as we go.

I haven't been out to Byron's vineyard yet, but I can't wait for the chance. In the meantime, I've recommended one friend to check out the tasting room on E. Main in Carlton this weekend when she has family in town. There's a lot of wine and food to explore in Carlton, but Seven of Hearts should not be missed. Even more so because Dana sells her incredibly delicious Honest Chocolates in the tasting room. They even have a few chocolate and wine pairings to try. Let me know if you've tried these wines (and chocolates) and report back if you visit. I want to hear what others think of these incredible wines.

Bottling my 2008 Zenith pinot in the garage

I spent most of Sunday bottling my last homemade wine, the 2008 Vincent Pinot Noir Zenith Vineyard. It was a great day, the culmination of nearly a decade of home winemaking, finishing as it began. Out in the garage, by myself, listening to the radio, working quietly. I love making wine commercially but I'll miss the simplicity of the garage.

Here's a shot of the barrel in the converted water closet out in the garage (apologies for the crummy iPhone photos...).

I bought the barrel from a local winery. It was new in 2005 but I paid a pittance for it after only 3 years of use. Yes, it's French oak (people always ask). The cooper is Sirugue. I love their brand.

To touch up the wine with a little sulfur at bottling, I rack into 5 gallon carboys with a tiny bit of SO2 solution. Then I use a barrel turned on end to fill the bottles. Here, I'm at the bottom of the barrel so I rack into a tub to maximize gravity flow, then gently pour into the carboy.

Here's a shot of many, many newly corked bottled with the floor corker on the right and mags slowly filling (giving me time to take the shot).

In the end, I got exactly 23 cases of 750ml bottles and two cases of 1.5L mags. There wasn't much sediment after a careful racking last summer. The last bottle I filled came from the minor sludge from the very bottom of the barrel, collected by rotating the barrel upside down with the tub directly beneath. We'll drink that once it settles.

Now all that's left is printing one final homemade label run, before we go with a redesign for the first commercial release later this year. Here's the proof.

How's the wine? I'll leave it up to you. Let me know if you want to try it. I will say I'm definitely the happiest with it of anything I've made...and I wish I had a whole lot more. I'm looking at doing one final garage tasting in May, date to be determined. You're all invited, but email me vincent.fritzsche[at]gmail[dot]com so I know you're interested.

2005 Thomas Pinot Noir Dundee Hills Oregon

Once again, John Thomas has produced a winner. This is translucent, savory red fruited wine with lovely fragrance. The aroma is slightly lifted but it's all about wild strawberries and well integrated woodsy spice and ash notes. There's a good mix of breadth and focus to the flavors. It's not rich but it is mouthfilling, covering the palate yet still nicely precise and detailed. This is drinking well now but should age nicely for some years given the bright acidity. Fans of extract and weight might not get this wine. I love it.

Dinner with Morgon

Easter dinner and tasting note with images.

Onion and chard omlette with gruyere, fluffy textured, delicate and rich at once.

Steamed asparagus with lemon, sweet butter and fleur de sel, not as sweet and tender as you'd hope but pretty good.

 Warmed pugliese that's a little spongy but the kids like that.

2002 Marcel Lapierre Morgon, rusting a bit as you can see, a lovely complex aroma of strawberry preserves, soil, black tea and hummus. Softly textured with bright acidity, broad flavored, strawberries in autumn with a little cheese rind on the finish, obviously low sulfur here but more than alive and delicious with the meal, especially texturally. Please age your best cru Beaujolais. It's worth your time and cellar space, and worthy of a simple but special family dinner on a cold spring holiday.

Two new releases from Angel Vine

One of the best discoveries for me last year was Three Angels, now named Angel Vine due to yet another wine industry trademark conflict. If I had a nickel for every one of these...

Three Angels is wine made in Carlton, OR, by Ed Fus, who's specifically in zinfandel and other varieties like primitivo. I tried a few from 2007 and loved the Avery Vineyard Zinfandel from the Columbia Valley. I'd never heard of the producer but loved the peppery, juicy Avery zin.

Then I had the pleasure of meeting Ed at last year's Portland Indie Wine Fest, where he was featured. This year, Ed provided a couple of samples of 2008s to try, and I'm happy to recommend both.

First, the 2008 Three Angels Primitivo Columbia Valley. This wine is large scaled but pure, only lightly oaked with a terrific aroma of ripe berries and fennel greens. It's a bit hot in the mouth but fresh and lively without any overripe flavors. Fans of bigger wines should like this. I enjoyed it but preferred...

The 2008 Three Angels Zinfandel Avery Vineyard Columbia Valley. This is in the low 14% alcohol range, downright subtle for most zin these days. This is just terrific zinfandel. Ripe but not overripe, slightly herbal and leafy but with plenty of juicy raspberry fruit, then a blast of white pepper that gave the wine another dimension. Maybe it reminds me of great old Amador zin, or something from Ravenswood in the old days. Really, it's excellent NW zinfandel and something I'd recommend any zin lover try to see what's possible up here.

Longhorn bullshit

So, in my last post, I wrote about some "Texas" wines. Only the wines I wrote about weren't all from "Texas," necessarily. Thanks to Russ Kane at VintageTexas I found out that the subtle phrase "for sale in Texas only" on so-called Texas wine labels is essentially code for "the grapes and/or wine used are in part or completely from out of state." It allows the label to not have to list an appellation, hiding the real source of the wine.

I remember seeing that phrase on several bottles in various wine shops and sections at grocery stores on my Texas visit. I know that the Becker "Iconoclast" wine I wrote about had that phrase on the label. I'm not sure about the others, but I know I saw that phrase enough during my visit to wonder about it. Honestly, I assumed it was a taxation issue, so that you might pay less tax if you only sold in state.

Why assume that? Because there's an AVA for multi-state wine. It's call "American." You saw it on 1996 Washington wines when severe winter weather led to an extremely short crop that meant several wineries bought California and other wine to fill out bottlings. I've seen it elsewhere, without shame. Apparently, in Texas, the truth doesn't set you free. Perhaps other states have this sneaky kind of thing to obfuscate on the true source of the wine. I don't want to single out Texas unnecessarily. But I'm let down and frankly kind of pissed to learn all this. I'm a wine professional and that phrase wasn't even clear to me. How can that be ethical? Good going Texas.