Kistler 2002 McCrea Vineyards

We had this 9 year old wine and our first thought was that it was a bit oxidized. The color was more than buttery yellow and the note of sulfur on the nose was off putting. Once past the nose, the taste of the wine had an oaky bite and all in all was not to our liking. Is Kistler supposed to be this way or perhaps it is our uneducated palates?
We store all of our wines either in a temperature controlled EuroCave or in our basement. Could temperature flucturations have affected it's flavor? We were disappointed.

Once Upon Quoketaug by Rudy J. Favretti

Soon after we purchased the 42-acre property on Quoketaug Hill, my husband came upon a book written by Prof. Rudy J. Favretti called "Once Upon Quoketaug". We were beside ourselves with excitement because this book documented the lives of a Connecticut farm family from 1712-1960 beginning with the family patriarch, Eleazer Williams.
Rudy Favretti grew up taking piano lessons from Dee (Delia Williams), a descendant of Eleazer Williams in the 1930's. He also helped on the farm by carrying wood and became intimately familiar with the land and it's use. During Favretti's childhood, Grandpa Prentice who was born in 1866 told Favretti stories of his father who was born in 1820, spanning 150 years of information and stories about the property and it's people. A paragraph in the book goes as follows:
"Prentice Allen was an emotional man. Many is the time I (Favretti) saw tears flow into his eyes as he exclaimed how beautiful the day was or as he pointed out the scenery from the top of Quoketaug Hill."
We also know from pictures in the book that the part of this originally 500 acre farm that we currently own was called the West Pasture. The land is still as beautiful as related by Prentice Allen and we are reminded that we are just transitory caretakers of this remarkable property.

Voodoo Vintners by Katherine Cole

If I had read this book while I was taking the UC Davis Online Viticulture and Enology courses, I would have been a more informed contributor to our forum discussions when it came to biodynamics. Too bad for me, this well researched and eminently readable book on biodynamics was just published in 2011. It is clear that Katherine Cole goes out of her way to provide a balanced view on this topic. She begins her introduction with a detailed description of all of the preparations that are the underpinnings of biodynamic farming that makes scientists roll their eyes. Then in her first chapter, she tells a harrowing escape from Iran story, no connection? But there is, and this is where I paused to reflect that using the term "biodynamics" was perhaps merely semantics.
Katherine Cole also gives us an in depth look into the life of Rudolph Steiner putting him in the historical context of the late 19th century to the early 20th century, during the Industrial Revolution. His contemporaries were notables such as Einstein and Nikola Tesla.
She provides vignettes of farmers in Oregon using biodynamic preparations and farming and the passion they exhibit for keeping their soils healthy, believing that this is the key to growing the best grapes possible, which in turn yields the best possible wine.
What Alex Sokol Blosser is quoted as saying resonants with how I feel: "At the end of the day, it's all about farming for quality. If you farm for quality---whether you're organic, biodynamic, sustainable, or conventional---you're going to make great wine." This reminds me of what Alice Feiring learned in Naked Wine when she visited Jacques Néuport, he told Alice that there is no such thing as "natural wine" and that one cannot be married to a dogma, you need to do what the grapes want you to do. (I'm taking HUGE paraphrasing liberties here.)
If you want to untangle myth, voodoo and reality from biodynamics, reading Katherine Cole's "Voodoo Vinters" is a must.

Chateau Ksara 2008 Reserve Du Couvent

When I was in the Wine Stability course, I had a chance to try a Lebanese wine called Chateau Ksara. I emailed Eddy Naim in Lebanon, one of the "students" that I became friends with during online course. Eddy told me that "...Ksara is one of the two big wineries in Lebanon (Ksara produces over 2 million bottles / year), very commercial (as opposed to a niche or boutique winery focusing on quality). But they make excellent whites and their reds have become fairly good in the last few years!"
We liked this Ksara red, we thought the aroma was of sourplums and the taste was a little green but over all it was well-balanced and slightly tannic. All of this for $11.39 made it a good buy in our books.
You can also check out Eddy Naim and his winery, Chateau Qanafer at his Facebook site. Eddy was also kind enough to send me a photo of one of the Ksara vineyards.

Clearing "the land" 2005

We began calling our property on Quoketaug Hill, "the land". Really, we should have called it "the jungle", but while we worked on the land, our backyard was becoming the jungle, so it was clear to our friends where the land was.
Since we were still working during the day (and night) we began working on the land during the summer of 2005 when my husband's carefully researched and selected John Deere tractor, a 5325 with 66 horsepower arrived on the land in June, 2005. He was anxiously anticipating the delivery (I suppose it must conjure up memories of Christmas day before the realization of,well, you know), anyway, I wasn't there for some reason (summoned by my mother, known to my children as "executive grandma"), but he went ahead anyway and started using his new toy.
I also pitched in, clearing "the path" on foot with loppers. I became familiar with Celastrus orbiculata, Japanese bittersweet, Rosa multiflora, the invasive rose, and most of all with Toxicodendron radicans, poison ivy in all it's incarnations. That summer, whenever we went on a drive or anywhere, really, I would point and say to my husband "See that verdant and lush green growth on that tree, that's poison ivy".
Here are photos of the land after a pass of clearing the invasive Elaeagnus umbellata, Autumn olive that can grow into some marvelous tree-like specimens but once it gets a foothold will reproduce like crazy!
The view on the left with the Adirondak chairs is looking north. The north field was once an animal pasture and not too overgrown. On the right is the view just south of the Adirondak chairs, on the portion of the land that was left to cedar stands, mountain laurel, wild raspberries, and succession trees like maple, ash, chokecherries, oak and some tupelo.

Visit to Oesco in Conway, MA

On a rainy Friday, we visited Oesco, located in Conway, Massachusetts. My husband discovered that they are suppliers for orchard and vineyard equipment and we had to go and check it out.
I love driving in the Berkshires during the fall when the leaves are changing color, so it didn't take too long to convince me to go on a road trip. When we reached Oesco, it was a bit cloudy and a few rain drops were falling. We spoke with Russ, who was very knowledgeable about the type of equipment that my husband was interested in. Russ helped us with sizing a sprayer for a vineyard and a mower for trimming the ground cover in a vineyard. We also saw a Lancman juicer.
Here is a link to Oesco.

Naked Wine by Alice Feiring

I have to say, I read this book by Alice Feiring three times before I finally got it. On my first reading, I was focussed on the challenge issued by Jason Lett of Eyrie Vineyards in Oregon to Alice to make wine the "natural way"--the way that Alice was advocating regarding the wines that she would drink. The dare did not come to fruition with Jason Lett due to the death of his father, David in October, 2008, however, Kevin Hamel picks up the gauntlet thrown and entices Alice to make wine under his guidance. This is part of the story.
Another thread is Alice's search for Jules Chauvet and his disciple Jacques Néauport. In fact, the title of Alice's book comes from a statement made by Jules Chauvet that "Wine must be naked". I remember reading about Jules Chauvet in Kermit Lynch's book Adventures on the Wine Route and found a picture of him.

It's always helpful for me to see what the person looks like. Chauvet, his disciple Jacques Néauport and Marcel Lapierre are winemakers in Beaujolais and part of Alice's book is about her quest to understand the meaning of "natural" or "naked" wine. Alice travels to France and Spain in search for natural wines and their winemakers. In search for the answer to her quest, she also meets Néauport, the living link to Jules Chauvet who passed away in 1989.
Alice debates the use of lysozyme, reverse osmosis, sulfur, water and whether using them could be considered to yield a "natural wine". She also includes a discussion on the Old World/New World interpretation of "natural wine", put simplistically as "nothing added, nothing taken away."
I can't give away the end---you will need to read it yourself, but it left me a little disheartened.

Visit to Maugle Sierra

It was a cold and dreary day today with rain in the morning with a brief clearing in the early afternoon, so after doing our chores, we decided to take a short drive to Ledyard Center to visit Maugle Sierra. Maugle Sierra is known for the St. Croix grapes that they grow and according to their brochure, the vineyard was established in 2002.
The winery and vineyard is set in a buccolic location. The winery was very tastefully constructed and is an inviting place to spend an afternoon. When cooler weather arrives, drinking a glass of Maugle Sierra wine by the fireplace would be an enticing thing to do.

Geology of Quoketaug Hill

After purchasing our land, we did tests to determine if the land was suitable for grape growing. The soils in Connecticut tend to be acidic, with the exception of land located in the northwest corner of Connecticut, which is surprisingly alkaline.
This property is located on the southeast corner of Connecticut, very near the Rhode Island border. A soil test conducted in July, 2009 showed the pH of the field topsoil and subsoil to be 5.3 indicating that liming of the soil to raise the pH to a more neutral level is desirable. The soils on this property are designated as Paxton and Montauk derived from glacial till comprised of schist, gneiss, and granite and creates a sandy loam soil texture of 64.2% sand, 25.2% silt, and 10.6% clay. Although this composition allows for good drainage of rainwater, some tiling may be necessary due to a firm substratum that may restrict root growth.
We went to vineyard owners located near our property and asked if they had tiled their vineyards. Jonathan Edwards told us that he tiled his vineyard and that it was essential for water drainage so that the grape vine roots do not get "cold feet" in our climate which can often times be prone to periods of abundant rainfall.

Quoketaug Hill

The story of how we got our land is a good one. We started looking for a vineyard site in July, 2002. The first piece of property that we saw was on a hill in Old Mystic called Quoketaug Hill. We liked it immediately, but because it was the first place that we saw we needed to have some time to think about it. When we finally decided to buy the land, the Real Estate Agency that was selling it said that there was already a bid in for the land on that very day so just by a few moments, we missed our chance to buy what became in our minds, the perfect site.
Then, the odyssey began. Our real estate agent was a real trooper as we dragged him as far east to Little Compton, Rhode Island, north to Griswold, Connecticut and west to East Haddam, Connecticut almost every weekend for a span of 2 years. Then in November, 2004, my husband, who was trolling the real estate section every day came upon a piece of land for sale that sounded like the land on Quoketaug Hill. When our real estate agent looked into it, it was the same land! This time we were ready. We were able to put in a bid and closed on the land in March, 2005.

Our land is the cleared piece that is circled in the center of the photo.

Pétiller in Vouvray---My Unlearning

When I read Kermit Lynch's Adventures on the Wine Route, I came across the phenomenon common in Vouvrays called pétiller or the natural desire to sparkle.
In the chapter on the Loire, Lynch writes "A generous dose of sulfur dioxide will suppress this desire, but that is a bit like whipping a dog for wagging its tail."
Is it almost like brainwashing? We learned in yet another course, Wine Production, that fizzing in a still wine is an indication of post bottling fermentation and it is not a good thing. In order to avoid this post bottling fermentation, we need to ensure that any residual sugar would not be consumed by yeasts or bacteria present at bottling, by among other things, using sterile filtration with a filter with an absolute rating or by dosing with sulfur dioxide. Lynch writes, "For some reason, many tasters seem to be threatened by such a spirited display of energy, so most Vouvray producers resort to all sorts of technical shenanigans to keep their wine still."
This answered a question I had when we drank Laurent Kraft Vouvray and observed some fizzing.
There is so much to learn, even when (just) drinking wine!

Grape Pest in Connectict --- The Spotted Wing Drosophila

Since we are Master Gardeners and need to keep up our active member status, we went to the Hot Topics course in Vernon on Wednesday and the topic was about pests in Connecticut. Joan Allen gave the seminar and one of the pests that she mentioned that is creating a problem for Connecticut farmers is the Spotted Wing Drosophila. This is a new pest in Connecticut and Joan mentioned that we should be on the look out for it. I found a great picture of the male and female drosophila on this link from British Columbia:Spotted Wing Drosophila
The insect looks like this:

It wasn't until we went to help a friend pick their grapes that we realized that "farmers" also meant "grape growers". It seems that some of the vineyards in Connecticut are now infested with the Spotted Wing Drosophila. The problem is that the drosophila will burrow into the grape, eat the grape pulp and lay their eggs in the grape berry. The eggs then develop into maggots and the grape growers were seeing maggots in their harvested grapes.
Here is a link to more information about the Spotted Wing Drosophila in Connecticut.
Correction: My husband and I attended a seminar in Rhode Island where one of the topics was the Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD). The problem with the SWD is the sawlike ovipositor that the female uses to puncture intact grapes to lay the eggs. This puncture is the portal through which other organisms, bacteria and fungi enter to damage the fruit. Please see the following blog site for more updated information. Spotted Wing Drosophila, Crop Insurance and Alice Wise