Meeting Charles Massoud One Year Later

My husband and Charles both think that it has been two years since we last met, but it's really only been one year. We first met Charles last year just around this time and I wrote up a blogpost: Visit with Charles Massoud at Paumanok Winery. This past year has been filled with all kinds of activities for us as we try to get our land prepared to receive 6,000 vines from Mercier Vineyards in Vacaville, CA, so it may seem like two years. Charles was as welcoming as ever and we sat down with him and he poured us tastings of his wines made in 2011. The year 2011, will go down as a challenging year on the East Coast. But the places that we have gone to taste the 2011 vintage, reveals that the hallmark of a knowledgeable, talented winemaker is to take what the year gives you and make something stellar from it. The Paumanok wines are a fine example of knowledge and talent in practice. Charles let us taste two different clones of Chardonnay and clones in fact, do make a difference. The wine from the Muscat clone had a fruitier aroma and flavor than the other Chardonnay made from a different clone. Then, we were treated to a barrel tasting and were able to compare two different styles of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and the first vintage of the small berried Cabernet Sauvignon that Charles had told us about during our first visit. Here was another example where clones again made a difference. This Cabernet Sauvignon showed amazing depth of flavor although the fruit came from three year "young" vines. Our short visit with Charles came to an end since we did have another appointment to keep. We returned the following day to make some purchases and found Charles in the middle of making preparations for bottling and planting another 8 acres of vines.