The Spoken Grape

Limerick and HDV

I was going to put a witty limerick in here but stumbled up this http://www.scribd.com/doc/34057/two-glasses-of-wine The reason for the limerick was in homage to Limerick Lane Vineyards http://www.limericklanewines.com/ , an estate in Somoma which I was luckly enough to be taken around. Old vine zinfandel, syrah, grenach and interstingly Furmint. With an extreamly talented team, headed up by Ross Battersby, who cover all aspects of wine production. The wines were great, lovely character, tannins and balance, if you can find them, buy them, these are fantastic, honest wines.

I spent the afternoon in the Napa valley taking the 128 from Geyserville down to Napa, en route passing some fantastically built wineries, taking all of modern architecture into consideration then merging it around a working winery. Huge amounts of money must have been sunk into this area, all in the pursuit of that perfect expression of the grape. I was to keep moving, keep going though, to reach a winemaker who is crafting top notch Chardonnay for Aubert de Villaine, of Romanee Conti. Stéphane Vivier  is winemaker for HDV Wines http://www.hdvwines.com/ and manages to produce around 5,000 cases of wine just by himself. The wines that stood out for me were the Chardonnays, some of the most Burgundian chards I've tasted in California. This does have to be taken in context though, as one of the chardonnays weighed in at 15% ABV, thats 2% more than most French Burgundys out there. The fact that even at 15% the wines showed balance goes some way to demonstrating Stephanes skill as a winemaker.

So this evening with my microwavable noodles I'm drinking Lagunitas I.P.A http://www.lagunitas.com/. Its probably one of the better IPA's I've tried. Its hoppy and green, hay and straw come through on the palette with citrus, and grapefruits smacking about in wallops. Very refreshing and very drinkable. So tomorrow holds another day of wine tasting,  sunshine and  Cabernet, Cabernet, Cabernet.

Ridge Lytton Springs..............

Today I had the honour of being given a guided tour around the Ridge Winery at Lytton Springs by the winemaker there John Olney. John who is responsible for the majority of zinfandel based wines (Lytton Springs/Geyserville/Ponzo/Nervo and Pagani) produced at Ridge, was quick to point out the heritage of the vines and commented on the fact that when Ridge says old vines they mean all old vines 80+ years.

The winery retains the conscious ethics of Paul Draper, it is made from hay bails and then covered in a wattle an daub plaster sourced from one of the vineyards. This helps insulate the winery, preventing the extremes of temperature that can occur in the Dry Creek Valley from damaging the wine. The winery was well kept, the barrel hall was huge, all American oak but of different ages. Ozone machines to keep the place clean and air pumps ( which can be run dry with no problems) to help shift the wines. All the fruit is hand picked as the head trained old wines would be destroyed if you ran a machine harvester through them. The winemaking here is very switched on with John Olney paying a lot of care and attention to all the processes.

He brought up in conversation an experiment they did concerning Brettanomyces. Currently the big scourge of the wine industry  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brettanomyces Wiki leaves the contamination question vaguely open, but most winemakers will probably tell you it comes from contaminated barrels/fruit fly vectors or dirty unsanitary conditions in the winery. But in recent experiments carried out by Ridge, analysis identified that the Brett yeast came in from the vineyards, it was present on the grape skins and is brought into the winery and ferments when harvested. So it doesn't matter how hard you sterilise you're tanks barrels or hoses you're still reinoculating with Brett wherever you place your grapes. I've worked in places where the cleaning, through repetitive cycles of caustic soda and citric acid washes was religiously carried out in an attempt to stop Brett and yet we'd still get that medicinal/mousy Bretty aroma. So maybe Brett is terroir!

Spent the afternoon touring around Dry Creek, Russian River and Chalk Hill. Visited Bella Vineyards ( good intense zinfandels, clean and precise. lovely underground cellars and very friendly staff). Dry Creek Vineyards ( great Fume blanc and Somers zinfandel). Korbel California Champagne (the wines were ok, but the atmosphere and staff were commercial, devoid of character and made no effort).

Eye of the Hawk............

I think the garlic breath may have worn off, although the girl at reception did keep her distance. The reason, Gilroy, garlic city of the U.S, home to creamed garlic soup, which actually tastes really good, and the famous garlic chicken. Unfortunately for Gilroy being a world focus point for garlic doesn't bring in too many tourists, quite a few of the shops had gone bust, the high street was deserted and the local paper was full of stories of jobs losses and incompetancy with the mayor. But the soup was very good.

Tonight I'm drinking a northern California brewed beer, Eye of the Hawk http://www.mendobrew.com/brews/eye_hawk.html , which describes its self as a favourite at the Great British Beer Festival http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=gbbf .  It's at 8% ABV so it's a step up from the buds/coors/heinies. It's not bad, quite malty and full on but for me its not got enough hoppy bitterness to keep it fresh, so it comes off a bit flabby but packs in some robust flavor, goes well with peperoni pizza.
Tomorrow I'm off to visit one of the most renowned producers in Sonoma, Ridge www.ridgewine.com  . I'l let you know how it goes.

Fat Cat Cabernet and Chili

So with the pound taking a nose dive against every currency except perhaps the Zimbabwean dollar, I'm getting 30% fewer good ol' greenbacks. With my new found poverty I'm hitting back with the hobos haute cuisine, Trader Joe's Turkey Chili. Actually it's not bad, meaty chunks of something with a spicy chili sauce and beans.

 

 So, and I'm sure Hugh Johnson would disagree, I decided to go with the Black Mountain 2005 Fat Cat Californian Cabernet. This is a bargain, $4.99 at Trader Joe's and for this price is pretty good. There's a slightly iodine nose, surrounded with blackcurrant. Its a clean nose without anything wrong, a little basic perhaps.  For a Cab it's medium bodied without any strong tannins, they're there but in a rather balanced kind of way. Knocking it back gives a mainly fruit driven character, blackcurrant and spice. Not a bad wine and at this price better than many of the entry level wines from bigger producers.

Talking about big producers, Au Bon Climat http://www.aubonclimat.com/ , located in the Santa Maria Valley, may not be large but they do have a large following spread across the world. The tasting was a bit rushed, but all the barrel samples were well structured, tannins were all well in place, firm and will no doubt go onto creating something interesting. A wine that stood out for me was the Marsanne, reminded me of Southern Rhone whites that have a touch of Volitile acidity giving them that sexy edge. They can be a bit pricey but are worth it as a premium producer on the Central Coast. So this evening, with a can of chili and a glass of cabernet, I'm watching the sun set across the pacific and looking forward to lunch at Gilroy http://gilroygarlicfestival.com/ garlic capital of the world, which, at the right time of year cooks 10 tons of beef … 4 tons of pasta … 4 tons of calamari … 2 tons of scampi …plus 2 tons of fresh Christopher Ranch garlic …Bring it on!

Back on the road again........

Somewhere in between traveling you gotta take a break. You have to sit back and draw your breath. Its only with good people can you do that. Arriving in the US after a 12 hour flight, it feels like 23:30 but the suns up, someones welcomed me home before shoving a charity bucket in my face. Wrong bus, next bus, finally found the car rental, 00:43. In car, in traffic and moving at 20mph. 100 miles down the Interstate 5, 4 hours later pulling up on downtown San Diego. Beer and food, eyes finally close and sleep takes me 0821.
Temecula,one of So Cal's top wine regions. Hot, breif growing season, clay soil in a flat valley, a few higher vineyards. A broad spectrum of varieties, covering sangiovese, sauvignon blanc, syrah, viogner, merlot, Cabernet...............the list goes on and on, even a sparkling Gewurtztraminer! As far as the quality goes, some all right, some not. Short growing season mean problems with flavor ripeness, high temperatures through the growing season means hot, unbalanced wines. This region needs time, it needs to find out what works, possibly the syrah and viogner, and focus on those varieties. Until then it's the few producers with a focus that are producing more interesting wines, check out www.pontewinery.com . Up the central coast tomorrow to visit Au Bon Climate to get an idea of how Burgundy is done in California.