2011 Littorai Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir

I spotted this wine at Tamura's in Kaimuki and picked it up with my husband's blessings. We went to Littorai in January, 2012 to learn how Ted Lemon implemented gravity flow in his newly built winery in Sebastopol. At the time we went to Littorai, Ted was not there but assistant winemaker John Wilson gave us an in depth tour including a wine tasting at the end. The various chardonnays that we tasted were to showcase the influence of terroir from the different vineyards even though the winemaking was the same. I don't know what we were thinking, but we didn't buy any wine at that time and have regretted it many times. We don't find Littorai on the East Coast so when I saw this at Tamura's I was delighted. Now, to keep it cool until I get back to Connecticut.

Marty Johnson and Ruby Magdalena Vineyards

I recently connected with Marty Johnson when we both posted on the U.C. Davis LinkedIn discussion board. The discussion board is open to U.C. Davis Viticulture and Enology Alumni and Friends and it reminds me of the forum discussions that we used to have when I took the U.C. Davis Online course. It would be really great if more people would post so we can continue the great discussions we had.
But, back to Marty and what he is up to. Marty wrote in his email that they just bottled their first vintage of Tempranillo! They bottled almost 48 cases from two barrels and are hoping for a spring release.
Marty has a website: Ruby Magdalena Vineyards
As well as a Facebook Page: Ruby Magdalena Vineyards.
In a further email, Marty wrote that his vineyard is named after his mother, who is of Spanish descent. His mother's family came to (then) "New Spain" in about 1640 and after 1 generation in Zaragoza Mexico, settled in the mountains of Northern New Mexico. The vineyard and eventually the winery is named after her: Ruben Magdalena Vigil de Trujillo Johnson. Marty's father's family is of Norwegian descent. Very cool!

Don't Touch Those Eggs: Spined Soldier Beetle

In early July, my husband and I came upon these beautiful eggs when we were doing our bug patrol in the vineyard. We know from previous experience that we should leave eggs alone unless we know what they turn into, but, unfortunately we didn't. When we looked on the Internet (okay, this problem wouldn't happen if we had a smart phone), we learned that these beauties were the eggs of the Spined Soldier Beetle, Latin name Podisus maculiventris (Say), a good guy that you want in your vineyard.
I found a really good site that has photos of the life cycle of the Spined Soldier Beetle from the University of Florida.¹
The Cornell University Biological Control site lists the pests that the spined soldier beetle attacks: Over 100 species in many families have been reported as prey. Prime targets are immature insects. Reported prey include the larvae of Mexican bean beetle, European corn borer, diamondback moth, corn earworm, beet armyworm, fall armyworm, cabbage looper, imported cabbageworm, Colorado potato beetle, velvetbean caterpillar, and flea beetles.² The spined soldier beetle also looks like the predatory stink bug, Latin Alcaeorrhynchus grandis (Dallas), but not to worry, they are both beneficial.

Additional look-alikes that are not good include the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) and the brown stink bug. The Stop BMSB site provides photos of the BMSB, the brown stink bug and compares these look-alikes with the predatory spined soldier bug.³
References:
1. University of Florida, Life Cycle of the Spined Soldier Beetle
2. Cornell University Biological Control Site
3. Stop BMSB

The Road to Burgundy by Ray Walker

I got my hands on Ray Walker's book, The Road to Burgundy and read it almost in one sitting. If there ever was a good guy who finishes first, Ray Walker's is the quintessential story. My husband belongs to a forum and he used to tell me about an American who went to Burgundy to make wine. So I was familiar with Ray Walker's name, but until I read this book, I did not know the details.
The subtitle of Ray Walker's book is, The Unlikely Story of an American Making Wine and A New Life in France. In reading this book, it is clear how unlikely Ray Walker's story is because his only qualification was that he spent one summer in California helping wash tanks and barrels. He had very little enological knowledge and what he learned was from books written in the 1800's. Is that enough? If passion, dedication and a desire to succeed is enough, certainly in Ray Walker's case, it was enough. Enough to be able to secure grapes from Morey-Saint-Denis, premier cru, Les Chaffots, Charmes-Chambertin and even more improbably, Le Chambertin. I loved reading this book, it gave me hope that maybe, just maybe, you don't have to have a fortune to make wine, you just have to have passion, dedication, a desire to succeed, and just a little bit of pixie dust!
Additional comment: My daughter and I were watching Jiro Dreams of Sushi, if you haven't seen it, it's a good movie. What does this movie have in common with Ray Walker? In the movie, the Food Critic, Yamamoto says this about Jiro's sushi, "Ultimate simplicity leads to purity". That reminded me of how Ray Walker made his first vintage 2009, hand picked, hand sorted, hand destemmed, and for the Le Chambertin, only one punch down. Almost at the end of the book, Ray wrote that he invited a local guy to taste his wines. After he tasted from the final barrel of 2009 Chambertin, this local person said, "Pure. All of them...pure."

Rosés

I recently read an article written by Eric Asimov in The New York Times called Rosé: In Demand, but Not Demanding. His article garnered some comments which I found to be interesting.
My husband and I really enjoy a good rosé at the end of the work day, it is so refreshing. High on our list includes Francis Ford Coppola's Sofia. I've been reading Karen MacNeil's The Wine Bible and in the chapter on Provence she mentions Domaines Ott and Domaine Tempier as two rosés to try.

I was able to locate those two at Tamura's Wine Shop on Waialae Avenue in Kaimuki, although the Domaine Ott rosé was the Chateau Romassan and not the Laéesse recommended by MacNeil. This is what she wrote about the Domaines Ott: The family owned firm of Domaines Ott is undoubtedly the best-known producer in Provence. From three separate estates the firm makes earthy, spicy reds; full-bodied whites that pair well with local seafood dishes; and best of all, three delicious dry rosés. The most elegant of the bunch, Laéesse, is a bracing, spicy wine that has hints of herbes de Provence.
For the Domaine Tempier, MacNeil wrote: The color of this wine---almost copper---is the first tip-off that it's not going to be your standard cotton-candyish, flaccid, high-alcohol rosé. No, this boldly focused wine smells and tastes so much of warm earth, haystacks, and dried wild herbs that your mind leaps to images of paintings by Vincent van Gogh.¹
I haven't bought the wines from Tamura's, I just saw them there. I'll have to do a little more research on these rosés to see if the prices are reasonable.
Reference:
1. Karen MacNeil, The Wine Bible, 2001, Workman Publishing Company, pg. 312.

Aerial Roots On Our Auxerrois

My husband sent me this photo of our Auxerrois growing aerial roots. Although the photos he sent were only of the Auxerrois, he also told me that the Chardonnay as well as the Chenin blanc are also growing aerial roots at the graft union.
There isn't much information on the Internet about aerial root formation however, I did find one article written by Eric Stafne, Mississippi State University on Aerial Root Formation in Grapevines.
In this article, Stafne wrote:
Aerial root formation on winegrapes in the eastern U.S. is not an unknown phenomenon, but the effect of the rooting on the vine has not been studied. Vitis vinifera is generally thought to produce aerial roots easily under moist field and hothouse conditions. With so little documentation of aerial rooting, one may conclude that the roots have no function and have no subsequent effect on the vine after they are produced.
I also emailed my question to Fritz Westover and he responded: There is no problem caused by the aerial roots. They are showing up all over the east this year due to the unusually wet and humid season. They will dry up this winter and fall off. No harm done, and no action required.

Fritz Westover's Vineyard Advising Website

Recently, I signed up for Fritz Westover's website, Westover Vineyard Advising. It is a terrific site for beginners like myself with tutorials that are illustrated and narrated by Fritz. For example, on the Viticulture Tutorial section, there are videos on the following:
Dormant Grapevine Pruning

• Part 1: Grapevine Anatomy and Vine Balance.
• Part 2: Selecting Fruitful Wood and Balanced Pruning.
• Part 3: Cold Climate Pruning Strategies.

There is no charge for signing up and Fritz will email you a newsletter!
Recently, Fritz moved from Houston, Texas where he was an extension viticulture specialist to California to become a member of the Central Coast Vineyard Team. You can read about Fritz and his viticultural journey here: Central Coast Vineyard Team Grows Viticulturist Westover to coordinate technical programs, in an article written by Jane Firstenfeld in the April, 2013 issue of Wines and Vines.
The Vineyard Team also has a Website: Vineyard Team

Beetlemania

We knew that they would arrive in the summer because we saw them coming last year. I'm talking about the infestation of Japanese beetles, Oriental beetles and other beetles that we found in our vineyard. They showed up around June 25th and reached a crescendo around July 10th. At first, we were squashing them by hand and then we remembered from our Master Gardening training that we could use soapy water to create a film that covers their spiracles, their breathing apparatus located on their exoskeleton. Once we tried this approach, we were successful in getting more beetles when we went on our bug patrol. They were still devastating to our leaves, but we are of the opinion that whatever doesn't kill the vines makes them stronger. Here is a lineup of the culprits:

The scientific names for the beetles are:
Oriental beetle, Anomala orientalis
Possibly: Black June bug, Diplotaxis
June Green beetle, Cotinus nitida
Japanese beetle, Popillia japonica
Grapevine beetle, Pelidnota punctata

References:
1. Grubs That Turn Into Beetles, Maine.gov
2. Insects That Attack Grape Foliage
3. Common White Grubs of Northeast Ohio Nurseries

Tons and Tons of Rocks

My husband tells me that almost all of the large rocks in the vineyard alley have been removed. We have 35 alleys so I attempted to do the calculation. We used a dump trailer that was approximately 7 feet long by 2 feet high by 4 feet wide for 56 cubic feet or approximately 2 cubic yards.

For a rock size of R-6, which is approximately 24 inches, there are 1.4 tons per cubic yard. Since there is considerable void volume and the tonnage varied from truck load to truck load, I've taken the average to be approximately 1.7 tons per truck load which comes out to 59.5 tons of rocks! It boggles my mind!

The Emperor of Wine by Elin McCoy

This book was sitting on our book shelves for the longest time. I picked it up for something to read on my trip out to visit family. Yes, I abandoned my husband to take care of the vineyard alone, but feeling sorry for him, our friends have come out in droves to help him. Thanks to all of our friends!
The brouhaha over Robert Parker and his singular influence over wine styles is not something that people in the business are unaware of, but this book written by Elin McCoy and published in 2005 provided an important context for me to understand the person. He grew up in an era where wine was just beginning to become accessible to more that the upper class and Julia Child was teaching America how to prepare French cuisine. On the West Coast, Alice Waters having an epiphany that simple, yet fresh ingredients can be transformative, opened a restaurant called Chez Panisse in San Francisco in 1971. There were wine writers, this was nothing new, and McCoy mentions Bob Balzac and Bob Finigan as people engaged in writing wine newsletters. On the East Coast, Frank Prial was writing a wine column for The New York Times and whenever he wrote about a wine, the area shops would typically sell out of that wine. So what did Robert Parker do that was so revolutionary to have such an overwhelming impact on the wine industry? Could it be that he was the first to use a 100 point system to rank wines that he tasted and wrote about it in his newsletter called The Wine Advocate? Could it be that he claimed to be an advocate for the wine consumer, modeled after Ralph Nader and purchased all of the wines he reviewed with his own money? Could it be his stance on the 1982 French vintage, calling it the vintage of the century?
After his unwavering promotion of the 1982 vintage in France, and the validation that followed, Robert Parker gained prominence. I can remember my husband and our friend subscribing to his newsletter and reading about all of the wines that Parker had reviewed in that issue. It was a teaching tool and a tool that allowed us to understand what a certain wine could taste like, if you had a palate like Parkers. As time passed, we began to understand what Parker meant when he wrote that a wine was "hedonistic" or "unctuous". It could be that our palates were diverging. Here is where I fall. I think that it was important for a person like Parker to provide information that was lacking in the literature at that time. He showed you a path, but you have to forge your own!
The book was a good read and parts of it is just out there in the ethersphere as is a lot of the controversy surrounding Parker's influence. It effectively passed the time for me while I took 3 flights to arrive "home".

Krug Grand Cuvee

Our friends Mary and Barry had cause to celebrate this week and they invited us to partake in a meal at the Mystic Oyster Club. Barry had secured a Krug Grand Cuvee while he was in California for this occasion.
As we sipped the current bubbly while downing some of the freshest oysters in town, we kept remembering the other two bottles of Krug Champagne that we drank in November, 2011. It came from Mary's brother Richard's stash. Richard was a knowledgeable and serious collector of wine. At that time the occasion was to celebrate Richard's life as well as host Chee, Joan and Barbara's visit to Connecticut. Chee knew all about the Clos du Mesnil vineyard and enlightened us on the Krug champagnes. We remembered the essence of crème brûlée from the Clos du Mesnil and found the Grand Cuvee to be a bit more of tart green apples and less of the creaminess we remembered from the vintage champagnes.

Barry was soon to be on his way to Scotland, as part of the camera crew filming the British Open in Muirfield and he mentioned that he had 30 hours after his flight landed in Heathrow and his departure for Edinburgh the following day so we thought we could hook him up with Cameron Roucher, vineyard manager at Rathfinny Estate in the UK, gearing up to produce sparking wine in the South Downs of Sussex. Given Barry's affection for champagne, we thought it would be pretty cool if he could visit. I emailed Cameron and he said that it wasn't too onerous a train ride and he could pick Barry up at the train station. (Thank you, Cameron!) The connection looked to be a "go" until Barry's flight was delayed stateside due to the rains and the flight got diverted to Charles DeGaulle airport instead. It would have been pretty cool to see Rathfinny, albeit vicariously through Barry's visit. Barry will have to take a rain check on that one, or make that a sun check!

Ladybug Life Cycle

Earlier, I blogged about the grape flea beetle and showed part of it's life cycle. It is also important to know the life cycle of beneficial insects in the vineyard. We were able to get photos of ladybugs in their various incarnations. I was unsure of the larval stage because most of the photos that I saw online were larval stages colored orange and black and not a completely black larva, but Joan Allen of the UConn Extension verified that these were indeed ladybug larva.

The ladybug belong to the order Coleoptera and the Family Coccinellidae. The fact that the ladybug goes from egg-->larva-->pupa-->adult means that it goes through complete metamorphorsis. Ladybug adults as well as the larval form feed on aphids and other soft bodied insects.
In the photo above, it seems as if the larva are eating the egg cases that they came out of. I did find a reference that mentioned that there is some evidence that ladybugs lay infertile eggs along with fertile ones, in order to provide a food source for hatching larvae. When the natural food supply is limited, the ladybug lays a higher percentage of infertile eggs.¹
An interesting factoid about the ladybug adult pictured above, also extracted from reference 1: Coccinellids became known as ladybirds during the Middle Ages. The term "lady" references the Virgin Mary, who was often depicted in a red cloak. The 7-spot ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata) is said to represent the Virgin's seven joys and seven sorrows.
Reference:
1. Debbie Hadley, Ladybugs - Family Coccinellidae.

2007 Antoniolo Gattinara San Francesco

One of the perks of working hard in the vineyard is coming home to a delicious home cooked meal, prepared by the vineyard partner (my husband). This night, we had grilled asparagus with beef tenderloin and because we are farmers we ate our meal at 8:30 (read "starving"). The vineyard partner knows how to wash away the sweat of the day (the past few days have been extremely hot and humid and we have been calling ourselves the eighth dwarf "Drippy"), by serving this delicious Antoniolo Gattinara. A fruity, inviting nose but with enough backbone of acid to stand up to the meat, the pairing was perfect. We had our friends over after our dinner and served them what remained of the Gattinara. They enjoyed it.
According to Michael Skurnik Wines, Antoniolo is located in Gattinara, a commune located far north of Barolo and Barbaresco. They use 100% nebbiolo in their wines. The vineyard was established in 1949 and now the third generation of Antoniolos, son, Alberto and daughter, Lorella supervise every step of the winemaking. The grapes from this wine comes from the San Francesco vineyard and according to the Skurnik website produces the most delicate wine compared with wines produced from the Otto San Grato and Castelle vineyards. Terroir matters.

Grape Flea Beetle

In mid-June, I emailed Fritz Westover, who along with Ed Hellman, maintain a site called The Vineyard Doctor, about a little beetle that we managed to get a good close up photo of. From looking at the Vineyard Doctor site, it appeared that this little beetle was a Grape Flea Beetle and Fritz confirmed it.

When our Auxerrois was leafing out, we saw some leaf damage that looked like this. We turned the leaf over and to our horror, we saw the culprit! It was some kind of little larva. We took the leaves home where we could get a closer view of the little varmints and they looked like this:

It turned out that these were the larval stages of the grape flea beetle. The larval stages of an insect can be very different from the adult, therefore it is helpful to know what the various stages look like. The Vineyard Doctor site mentions that both the larval and the adult stages are damaging to grapevines. The areas most affected by the grape flea beetle are those closest to wooded or protected areas. This is true of our Auxerrois that grows on the west side of our property. Fortunately, there were only 4 such vines that were affected and we were able to remove the larva and get rid of the leaves. We monitored one of the affected vines and it is making a comeback!
A really good explanation and key to recognizing larval forms from the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment can be found at this link: RECOGNIZING INSECT LARVAL TYPES
Link to: The Vineyard Doctor

The Vineyard: Six Week Performance Appraisal

It has been six weeks since the crew from Mudd Vineyards came to plant our tall vines. When they left in May, our field of dreams looked like a field of sticks.

At the six week mark, our vines are exceeding our expectations:

Our vines appear to be thriving in spite of the fact that they are in the hands of viticultural innocents. For our self appraisal, the next time we put in a vineyard, we will do more derocking before hand, put in the pencil rods as soon as the vines are in and be more prepared for replanting activities. We have more rocks to remove and the green that is in the vineyard alleys are all weeds and while we can convince ourselves that for the moment, they are helping in erosion control, we know that we must put in a cover crop!
Waiting in the wings are the trellis materials including the locust endposts sitting in yet another pile.

Arachnophilia

The vineyard is a lot of work but stopping and seeing our little helpers makes a delight of the work. The mornings have been very misty. On an early Saturday morning, before the first shift (my husband, Jane and I) started with the work of putting in the pencil rods, the dew had made jewelry from this spider's web.

We love spiders in the garden because they make our life of bug patrol easier. At the moment, the grubs have metamorphosed into their adult form and we are dealing with Oriental and Japanese beetles. In scouting our vineyard, we came upon these busy spiders:

Still trying to identify the spiders, when I do, I'll update the blog.