What is JAR?

We were in the midst of a heat wave last week that lasted from Thursday, July 2 to Saturday July 4. This week on Monday and today, we were getting pummeled by rain. These two events conspired to keep us out of the vineyard so it is a good time to read up on literature that I've downloaded and keep meaning to read.
The article that I am currently reading is called, "Sensory representation of typicality of Cabernet franc wines related to phenolic composition: Impact of ripening stage and maceration time," it is quite a dense article published in Analytica Chimica Acta.
One acronym caught my eye, called JAR, which means Just About Right (JAR) and refers to how to assess the typicality related to a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO).
Typicality is defined as the characteristics of a wine from a terroir including environmental factors, variety, cultivation and winemaking practices. The resulting biochemical and sensory characteristics of the wine make it possible to differentiate, identify and recognize the wine as coming from a specific PDO.
A little further into the article, I came across a tabulation of the descriptive attributes used to evaluate sensory properties of wines in the quantitative descriptive analysis (DA) and the Just About Right analysis (JAR)

Descriptive Analysis (DA)	Attributes	Description
Visual Olfactive	Color Intensity	Intensity of colour, from pale to dark
	Black currant	Blackcurrant (fruit and liqueur)
	Stewed red fruits	Jam of strawberries or raspberries
	Other red fruits	Fresh red fruits: strawberry, raspberry
	Pastry	Vanilla, cinnamon, candy
	Alcohol	Alcohol
	Empyreumatic	Smoky, toast
	Spciy	Pepper
	Vegetal	Green wood, freshly mown grass
	Humus	Undergrowth, moist wood, ground
	Animal	Leather, stable
Mouthfeel	Acidity	Intensity of sour taste
	Bitterness	Intensity of bitter taste
	Alcohol	Intensity of alcohol taste
	Astringency	Intensity of astringent taste
Just About Right Analysis (JAR)
Visual Olfactive	Color Intensity	Intensity of colour
	Shade	Shade of colour, from orange to purple
Olfactive	Odor intensity	Intensity of odor
	Red fruits	Shade of colour, from orange to purple
	Black fruits	Wine aromas that suggest black currants
	Ripe fruits	Wine aromas that suggest ripe fruits, candied fruits
	Vegetal	Vegetal, herbaceous, sweet pepper
Mouthfeel	Soft tannins	Tannins with smooth and fine textured astringency
	Acidity	Perceived acidity
	Thickness	The viscosity as an indicator of a full-bodied style
	Astringency	Drying and roughing sensation
	Length	The time that aftertaste persists in the mouth

The authors used these descriptors and a panel of judges to enable them to draw conclusions. More about this aricle coming in another blog.
References:
1. Yves Cadot, Soline Caillé, Alain Samson, Gérard Barbeau, and Véronique Cheynier, "Sensory representation of typicality of Cabernet franc wines related to phenolic composition: Impact of ripening stage and maceration time", Analytica Chimica Acta, 732 (2012) 91–99.

Vintage 2026: July 1

The time is flying by as it usually does when there is vineyard work to do. On June 23, there was a huge rain storm that gave us 2 inches of rain. Rain in the forecast during flowering is a thing to worry about because it can lead to poor fruitset. I took pictures of our varieties on June 22 and most of our varieties were in bloom, if not the beginning of fruitset. The Cabernet Sauvignon was in prolific bloom so I wondered what the 2 inches of rain would do to the fruitset there.
Here are some pictures I took before the rain and after the rain:

Variety	Before Rain	After Rain
Auxerrois
Chenin Blanc
Chardonnay
Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabefrnet Franc
Barbera

Thankfully, the rain didn't affect the fruitset and the Cabernet Sauvignon looks very good. The next thing we have to worry about is the heat wave coming for the next four days!

Koimari Tropical Saga Sake and Tempura

Not too long ago, my husband made tempura and we paired it with Koimari Tropical Saga Sake. My husband is always on the look out for interesting sake to drink with foods. In February, we had a sake made by Noguchi Naohiko who is known as the God of Sake in Japan.
I was looking forward to drinkng this sake made in Saga Prefecture since I trust my husband's procuring prowess. I found that this Koimari Tropical sake was fragrant and quite fruity on the finish and while I enjoyed the sake very much, I wasn't sure if it was the perfect pairing with the tempura. I think my palate was hoping for something a tad drier, but here I am being a little over critical. The tempura was delicious!

The Saga Sake is made in Koimari Brewery founded in 1909 in Imari City, Saga. The sake is a Junmai Daiginjo. Junmai means that the sake was made with only rice, koji and water. Daiginjo refers to the fact that it ranks as the highest grade of sake. This style of sake is made with rice where 50% or more of the outer layer of rice kernel is polished away and fermented at low temperature. This sake has a pleasant fruity aroma and still retains its fragrant aroma in your mouth.
On their website, they suggest pairing the Koimari "Tropical" Sage Sake with herb roast beef, Wagyu soft jerky, pork and foie gras pâté de campagne, fried horse mackerel with plum shiso, bluefin tuna, crab with shiraae sauce, apple salad with yogurt and sake lees sauce. They also suggested a sake they make called Mitsutake "Crisp" Junmai Daiginjo, which sounds like a better pairing for tempura. I may suggest that my husband get this sake for us to try.
References:
1. Saga Sake.

What COLA Means in the Wine Industry

COLA in the wine business doesn't mean cost of living allowance, it means certificate of label approval. Over the weekend, we had a visitor to our winery who is a graduate student at Yale. During the course of our conversation, he mentioned that while he was in Indiana, we worked for the TTB. We are very familiar with the TTB because of our close encounters during our label approval process.
Before getting our label approval I was aware of all of the regulations that apply to a US label. Here is a table of the regulations according to the BATF, Wine Labels, Vintages and Wine Regions:

Category	%Grape Variety
Political Area i.e. State	If a state is on the label, then 75% of the grape variety must be grown in that state
AVA	If an American Viticultural area is on the label, then 85% of the variety must be from that AVA
Vineyard Designation	If a vineyard is on the label, then 95% of the grapes must come from the designated vineyard and the vineyard must also be in a designated AVA
Estate Bottled	If the label says estate bottled, then 100% of the grapes must come from vineyards owned or controlled by the winery (both must be in a designated AVA)
Grape Variety	If a grape variety is on the label, then 75% of the grapes must be of the stated variety
Vintage	If a vintage is on the label, then 95% of the grapes must come from the year stated
Produced/Made and bottled by	If the label includes produced/made and bottled by, then 75% of the grapes must be fermented, aged, and bottled at the indicated location
Cellared/vinted and bottled by	If the label includes cellared/vinted and bottled by, then it does not necessarily mean that the wine was fermented at the indicated location
Reserve	If the label includes the word reserve, that designation has no legal meaning in the U.S.

In addition to the above regulations, my husband and I ran into another rule that made our COLA take a little longer. When we were getting approvals for our white wines, there was no problem because all of our wines are 100% what variety they are on the label. However, when it came to making labels for our Cabernet sauvignon and Cabernet franc blend and our Cabernet sauvignon, Cabernet franc, and Barbera blend, the word "blend" threw a red flag. If a label contains the word "blend" then the percentage of the grapes that constitute the blend must be somewhere on the label. Winemakers can circumvent this regulation by calling their "blend" anything they want. Our friends at Paumanok call their blend Assemblage, which is very classy. Many wineries call their blend "Claret". Here is a recent wine that exemplifies that wording. It is from Linden Vineyards and their blend is called "Claret".

Jim Law chose to put the composition of his blend on the back label which tells you that the Claret is made of a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 16% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot. However, by calling his blend "Claret" he doesn't necessarily have to disclose what the percentages of red varieties goes into his "Claret".
In our case, we decided to drop "blend" from our label. It simplifies our label.
Getting your COLA can be an arduous process unless you know the rules. Eventually we were approved for the COLA for our red wines blends!