Windows on the World Complete Wine Course by Kevin Zraly

I picked up this book again after remembering the WOW dinner hosted by our friend, who followed Kevin Zraly's white wine recommendations for the dinner. The book is divided into 8 classes and after each class there is a little quiz to test your mastery of the material. But, this is really a book that takes you on a global wine tour and is also a lesson in geography. For example, the French wines are divided into white and red wines and Zraly does not leave much out as he explains the complexities of the French wine regions and what type of grape varieties are grown in the various regions. He explains the 1855 Classification of the red wines from Bordeaux and lists all of the chateaux as well as their ranking in the classification. He explains the French laws known as Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) that regulates the wine making practices in each of the French AOCs.
A similar detailed treatment of wines from Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Chile and Argentina is included in this book. Information on how to read a German label, how Italian wines are named, how to understand Rioja wine aging nomenclature are all covered here.
Zraly also covers the wines from Washington, Oregon, New York and California. With each country and region that is explored, he suggests wines and notable vintages as well as possible wine pairings with food.
The second half of this book includes a complete wine tasting course and also a chapter on understanding the physiology of taste. I found this book to be very helpful in identifying wines that I might like to try. I also found many wines that we have already tried and enjoyed. It's a very handy resource book with interesting facts contained on the margins of each page.

Grape Berry Composition at Harvest

I'm rereading my notes, trying to remind myself of things I've already learned. In the UC Davis Wine Production course, we learned that the grape berry at harvest is comprised of the following components in the approximate distribution found below:

• Sugar                   200 grams/liter
• Organic Acids        10 grams/liter
• Amino Acids             5 grams/liter
• Phenolics              2-5 grams/liter
• Volatiles                       trace
• Water                   800 grams/liter

For each of the above components, the most prevalent compounds found in the grape berry are:

• Sugar: glucose and fructose
• Organic Acids: tartrate and malate
• Amino Acids: glutamate, glutamine, alanine, arginine and proline
• Phenolics: caftaric acid
• Volatiles: terpenes and esters

Although the primary carbohydrate produced in the grape is sucrose, there is an enzyme called invertase that splits the sucrose into it's components, glucose and fructose at the point of entry into the grape berry. This keeps the concentration of sucrose on the outside of the grape, ensuring that glucose and fructose will accumulate in the grape. As the grape goes through veraison, the concentration of malate decreases as this compound is being used as an energy source, again ensuring that glucose and fructose remain in the grape.
The phenolic compounds exists mainly in the grape skin and seeds. It's location in the skin is to protect the grape from microbial attacks. In addition, the grape berry contains trace elements including cations and anions. One of the important grape cations is potassium, found in the highest concentration in the skin of the grape.¹
Link to: Grape Berry Diagram²
1. UC Davis Online Course: Wine Production, VID252, Lesson 2.
2. Understanding Grape Berry Development Practical Winery and Vineyard, Issue July-August 2002, Illustration done by Jordan Koutroumanidis of Winetitles.

MOG and the Grape Harvest

When I was taking the UC Davis Online Course, I was happy to leave my former world full of acronyms but I learned that there are a few acronyms in Viticulture and Enology as well. One that comes up at harvest is MOG. The Wikipedia defines MOG as "A winemaking abbreviation for Material Other than Grapes and usually refers to debris like leaves, dirt and stems that can be unintentionally harvested with the grapes."¹ There are other unseen MOG that also comes in with the harvest and in an article in Practical Winery and Vineyard written by Lisa Van de Water called Monitoring Microbes During Fermentation, she explains that the most prevalent yeast on grapes is Kloeckera apiculata and it's sporiferous form Hanseniaspora uvarum.^2,3
Characteristics of Kloeckera:

• SO₂ sensitivity is similar to that of Saccharomyces
• Cold tolerant so can readily grow in musts at temperatures between 10-15 ^oC
• Can survive much further into the fermentation, sometimes all the way to the end
• Can sometimes form thick, slimy scum, or stringy clumps that fall out later as fluffy lees
• Can make prodigious amounts of ethyl acetate (odor of airplane glue or nail plish) and amyl acetate (odor of bananas)
• Efficient in quickly depleting nutrients, particularly thiamine and other vitamins
• Microscopically, it resembles bowling pins or thin lemons with a knob on each end

Lisa Van de Water advises using a phase constrast microscope to examine the must for microbes. Before fermentation begins, if more than 5 or 10 non-Saccharomyces yeasts are seen in a 40x field, a problem is developing. Read about Kloeckera and more in the excellent online article Monitoring Microbes During Fermentation.

1. Wikipedia Glossary of Winemaking Terms
2. Lisa Van de Water, Monitoring Microbes During Fermentation
3. P. Ribéreau-Gayon, D. Dubourdieu, B. Donèche, and A. Lonvaud, Handbook of Enology, Volume 1, The Microbiology of Wine and Vinifications, Second Edition, 2006, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, pg. 41.

2009 Henri Bourgeois Sancerre

Two nights ago, we finished off this 2009 Sancerre Les Bonnes Bouches with our friend. In the Loire in France, Sancerre is the region where Sauvignon Blanc also called Pouilly-Fume is grown. The Henri Bourgeois 2009 Les Bonnes Bouches tastes of citrus and tropical fruits without the freshly mown grass that to me typifies New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, though I'll admit to liking both styles. One of my favorite makers of Sancerre is Henri Bourgeois.

I first tried the a Sancerre from the Loire, at the home of a friend when he hosted an event called the WOW (Windows on the World) in 2009 based on Kevin Zraly's book. At the event 11 wines were paired with small tastings and the wines were scored by 8 people who were in attendance. Many of us really enjoyed the Henri Bourgeois Sancerre, although during that dinner, we had the La Demoiselle. The La Demoiselle, was certainly a memorable wine for me. The La Demoiselle is a little difficult to find even on the East Coast and costs between $29-$39, the Les Bonnes Bouches is easier to find and is priced around $20.00, both are excellent choices at their price points.

Long Time Coming---New Search Function

I didn't know that I could do this so easily! My blog really needed a Search Function, so I took a little time this morning to Google how to search a Google Blog. I found the answer at this site: How To Add A Simple Search To Your Blogger Blog, and it didn't take very long before I was able to add my Search feature. It is located at the upper right hand corner of the blog. The search function will only search this blogsite. I hope you find it to be useful for your searches of this site.

Teinturier Grape Varieties

Before I began learning about grape varieties I had no idea that even red grape varieties of Vitis vinifera have a white pulp. The first time that I encountered this was at our friend's vineyard where we helped harvest their Pinot Noir and found that while the skin was red, the flesh was white! The red color comes from the skin where a compound called an anthocyanin is located. The extraction of anthocyanin during the winemaking process is what provides the color in a red wine. (This is a much more complicated chemical process than merely extracting the red color, but more on this in a future blog).
The basic backbone structure of an anthocyanin is shown below:^1,2

Since that time, I have learned that there are some varieties called teinturier (pronounced tan-tewr-EHR)³ that have red pulp as well as red skins.the most familiar variety is called Alicante Bouschet, others include Rubired and Royalty, grapes that were produced in the 1930's at the University of California, Davis, by Dr. Harold P. Olmo. ⁴ Other teinturier cultivars include Lacryma and Neronet. Teinturier grapes can be used for blending in red wines to give the wines a more intense red color.
1. All structures were drawn by the freely available drawing program from ACD Labs called ACD/ChemSketch Freeware.
2. Anthocyanin structure is from: Ronald S. Jackson, Wine Science Principles and Applications, Third Edition, Academic Press, 2008, pg. 282.
3. Pronounciation from: WineTasteTV.
4. Information on Wikipedia for Royalty Grape.

2002 Kistler Hyde Vineyard Carneros

A few days ago, we had our friends over for a seafood tagine dinner. She brought over the 2002 Kistler Hyde Vineyard Chardonnay. The color was a goldie lemon and spoke to me of a little bit of oxidation. This can be a good thing or a flaw. Taste is an individual thing and with wine, most often, it is the combination of the wine and the food that it's served with that creates the impression...the memory. My friend and I agreed that it was heavenly with the tagine. With 10 years of age on the wine, it was very well integrated and had flavors of apricots and honey! On the bottom left hand corner of the label you can see that this was No. 3690 of only 6540 bottles (545 cases) made in 2002.

Cast Your Vote for the Wine Spectator Video Contest

After putting up the blogpost for A Great Example of Video Marketing---Gundlach Bundschu, I emailed Gundlach Bundschu and got a response from Katie Bundschu who told me that their video is a finalist in the Wine Spectator Video Contest.
If you are interested in seeing the finalists, the link is here:
2012 Video Contest Finalists
You can still cast your vote to help determine who the winner will be:
Here's the reveal schedule:
September 10-16: Voting
September 17: 2nd and 3rd places announced
September 18: Winner announced and Honorable Mention videos are posted
I know that this is going a little afield of my usual blogposts, but it's always good to have a little fun while learning about wine!

Day Trip to Long Island

Yesterday, we went on a quick day trip to Long Island. Harvest will soon to be underway on Long Island, the grapes were hanging in abundance and this year looks to be about as stellar as 2010. We went to meet Gilles Martin, a winemaker to ask more questions about how to get started. We love the sparkling wine that he makes using méthode champenoise, the traditional way to make a champagne. He showed us around the winery and the new configuration that enclosed the former outdoor crush pad at Sparkling Point.

We discussed many things, including tank configuration and manufacturers, destemmers, sorting tables, and then he gave us one piece of advice. Start making your labels! That's funny because on the ferry ride over to Long Island, we were sketching our label designs. We then went to Sherwood House Vineyards and McCall Wines to taste some of the wines that Gilles made. Needless to say, we came home with some wine booty, to be consumed at a later date with our friends.

A Great Example of Video Marketing---Gundlach Bundschu

The September/October issue of Vineyard & Winery Management has an article entitled "Video Marketing Goes Viral". In that article, it mentioned that Sonoma's Gundlach Bundschu winery created a video on YouTube called The Brief History of Merlot. I was intrigued and went to YouTube and located the video. It is just as funny as it is instructive and informative. That prompted me to go to their website: Gundlach Bundschu where I read their history which is very well done. So, if you ask me if video marketing works, I'd say "yes", if it is clever and informative as this video on Merlot.

Web Soil Survey

Today, I went to the online Web Soil Survey, a site provided by the NCRS (National Conservation Resources Service) to map out what kind of soils we have on the portion of the land that we will do our first plantings on in the spring of 2013. We have already had our soils tested so we do have information on the soil texture and type, but today, I wanted to see if we have more than one type of soils on the property. The Web Soil Survey showed that we have predominantly Paxton Montauk fine sandy loam soils. We will be planting from north to south and this survey will help us to determine the layout of our vines.

The Web Soil Survey is an easy tool that can be used to determine what kind of soils you might have in your location. The instructions that are provided are intuitive and you can get an idea of your soil type in a matter of minutes.

Cornell University August 31, 2012 Publication---Veraison to Harvest

I came upon the following publication this morning, Veraison to Harvest published by Cornell University on August 31, 2012. For us, living on the East Coast, it provides a good recap of the growing season and how the weather affected the harvest in various locations in New York.
Reporting for the wine growing regions in New York were:

• Statewide---Chris Gerling
• Long Island---Alice Wise and Libby Tarleton
• Finger Lakes---Hans Walter-Peterson
• Hudson Valley---Steven McKay and Steve Hoying
• Lake Erie---Jodi Creasap Gee

In general, most reported that the harvest appears to be 2 to 3 weeks ahead of other years with the Brix level already at 20. Some have already harvested their Pinot Noir to make sparkling wines (we've heard that from a winemaker on Long Island). One report from the Hudson Valley by Steven McKay and Steve Hoying mentions that they may be seeing some rot on their Vignoles and Seyval blanc possibly due to Spotted Wing Drosophila.
I found this report to be very informative. The second half of the publication contains the Fruit Maturation Report on the grape varieties Cabernet Franc, Catawba, Cayuga White, Chardonnay, Concord, Lemberger, Malbec, Merlot, Niagara, Noiret, Pinot Noir, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Traminette and Vignoles.
An example of a report for Cabernet Franc looks like this:

(Click on image to see a larger version)

1996 Pommard Leroy Les Vignot

After the blog writing hiatus during the month of August, celebrating our son's wedding and having relatives visit from far away, this September blog post finds us with our friends enjoying a delicious paella made by the Paella King and wine from our generous friends, she of the white wine discerning palate and he of the often on-the-road sports filmer. So, this gathering which finds all six of us together in any given year is somewhat rare but always enjoyable.
This evening's fare was a seafood paella, where we learned that paella refers to the dish that the food is cooked in and when the dish is seafood and not on a bed of rice but on pasta, it is called "fideo", our chef explained. What to pair with seafood fideo, but 2 bottles of 1996 Les Vignot Pommard from Leroy. It's difficult to know with seafood, what would work, white or red, but oh, it did pair so nicely with the paella. There was a lingering spiciness in the well balanced burgundy that complimented the fideo.
My husband explained to me that this bottle of wine is a Village level wine but from a single vineyard, Les Vignot. I know that Domaine Leroy has vineyards that are farmed using biodynamic techniques because in the book Voodoo Vintners written by Katherine Cole, there is a wonderful story about Lalou Bize-Leroy when she attended the 2003 International Pinot Noir Celebration that is worth reading.
The evening ended with chocolates and shortbread cookies and talk of visiting the Zimmerman house located in Manchester, New Hampshire built by Frank Lloyd Wright.