2010 Vietti Barbera d'Alba

We drank this 2010 Vietti Barbera d'Alba last night with a hearty spaghetti. Very dark purple in color, it was a great balance between a mouthfull of fruit with balanced acidity and a little spiciness at the finish.
We are huge fans of Vietti, having previously had their 2009 Roero Arneis and 2009 Barbera d'Asti. The barberas are a good value in the $20.00 neighborhood and therefore are wonderful pairings with comfort foods like pizza and spaghetti, without breaking the bank. We also like the whimsical artwork that identifies each wine.
Here is more information about the Currado family, who make the Vietti wines written by Elin McCoy.

A Pocket Guide for Grape IPM Scouting in the North Central and Eastern United States

One of the books that we purchased this past fall was A Pocket Guide for Grape IPM Scouting in the North Central and Eastern United States. It is a spiral bound, 131 page, 3.5 x 5 inch publication that we purchased from Michigan State University Extension AgBio Research code E2889 priced at $14.00. The book is compiled and edited by Rufus Isaacs, Annemiek Schilder, Tom Zabadal and Tim Weigle, updated in 2011. This book will find a home in my bibbie (overall) front pocket when spring comes. I think that it may be faster and handier than looking things up on a smart phone, it is about the same size and a little thicker. The book begins with an introduction to the how and why of scouting with topics that include, strategies for scouting, tools for scouting and where to monitor in the vineyard.
It contains color photos of the grapevine growth stages, 30 pages of grapevine pests, information on beneficial insects, downy mildew, powdery mildew, black rot, phomopsis, anthracnose, botrytis bunch rot, and many others. There are also photos of chemical injury to grapevines and nutrient deficiencies. The book ends with a vineyard scouting calender that summarizes the kinds of insects and diseases that occur at the various stages of vine growth.

Label Designs

The storm that was predicted to dump around 10-12 inches of snow in our area fortunately was not as bad as initially reported. We may have gotten around 6 inches of snow. Being home bound gave us a little time to appreciate the interest our friends have been taking in coming up with label designs for our brand. Here are some examples:

Actually, designing a label is a little more complicated than the creation of a good, eye catching logo. The label has to meet the requirements set by the Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). Information for at least 10 specific criteria must appear on the front label including brand name, varietal designation, alcohol content, etc.
In the January-February 2014 issue of Vineyard & Winery Management, there is an article written by Taylor N. Burras and Jordan R. Bernstein called Requiring 'Serving Facts' on Wine Labels Could Prove Costly that may have wineries including the nutritional information on alcoholic beverages. This can be traced back to April 2004, when the TTB issued ruling 2004-1 which allowed alcoholic beverage manufacturers to include calorie and carbohydrate content information on labels and in advertisements, as long as the nutrient statements were "truthful and do not mislead the consumer."

The TTB followed up with a proposed rule entitled "Labeling and Advertising of Wines, Distilled Spirits and Malt Beverages" otherwise known as Notice 73 in July 2007. If Notice 73 is adopted, this would require alcohol content, caloric and nutritional information to be displayed in a "Serving Facts" label such as shown on the right. On May 28, 2013, the TTB expanded on Ruling 2004-1. Ruling 2013-2 allows the voluntary labeling of serving facts and nutritional information on alcohol beverage labels. Here is a link to TTB Ruling 2013-2: Voluntary Nutrient Content Statements in the Labeling and Advertising of Wines, Distilled Spirits, and Malt Beverages.

Port Tasting at The Wine Store

For the first annual tasters gathering at the Wine Store in the New Year, James Morrison organized a port tasting. People on the email list brought nuts, dried fruits and chocolates and James provided blackberries, blue cheese and more chocolates for the port pairing. James was also joined by his friend Brett who is a connoisseur of port and would provide some necessary accoutrement when it came time to taste the vintage port.

James poured Taylor Fladgate Ruby Port, Taylor Fladgate Tawny Port and Taylor Fladgate 2005 Vintage Port. James explained how port, a fortified wine was made in Portugal mainly from Touriga Nacional grapes. All of the ports tasted mighty fine, who doesn't like port and chocolates, I say! When it came time to open the vintage port, Brett showed us how with a set of port tongs. It is essential that the port tongs be heated to a high enough temperature. In this case, Brett used a propane fire ring for outdoor cooking to heat the tongs. Standing by, he had a small container of ice water as well as a port filter. All of us watched and listened intently, as a "pop" sound signals a successful bottle opening. Here is a short video of the operation:

We ended the evening with a vote to determine whether the final port should be a 1995 vintage port or the 20 year old Taylor Fladgate. The vintage people won the vote so we tasted the 1995 vintage port which was already throwing a good degree of sediment. We enjoyed seeing familiar faces. It was another successful evening at the Wine Store and such a nice way to start the New Year!
Thanks, James!

Egly-Ouriet Champagne

We had this Egly-Ouriet Champagne because as Lily Bollinger (one of the grandes dames of Champagne) says: I drink champagne when I am happy and when I am sad. Sometimes I drink it when alone. In company I consider it compulsory. I sip a little if I'm hungry. Otherwise I don't touch it---unless I'm thirsty of course.¹
While we have not approached that frequency of champagne drinking, we did choose this bottle of Egly-Ouriet champagne when we had our friends over for dinner. He is off to a 2 month working gig away from home so we wanted to send him off with one his favorite food pairings, champagne and oysters.

The Egly-Ouriet is a récoltant-manipulant champagne, a grower made champagne, made entirely from Pinot Meunier grapes. Egly sources the Pinot Meunier from several parcels of old vines near the Village of Vrigny in the Montagne de Reims. The back label of this champagne gives additional information such as time on lees and disgorgement date. If you are interested in reading more about Egly-Ouriet, here is an excellent article at Scalawine published on May 26, 2011, by Tim Hall: Champagne Egly-Ouriet – A Profile
References:
1. Don and Petie Kladstrup, Champagne How the World's Most Glamorous Wine Triumphed Over War and Hard Times, 2005, HarperCollins, pg. 5.

Gustatory Vocabulary

I am rereading Emile Peynaud's Knowing and Making Wine. In the second chapter, Peynaud goes through a topic called Gustatory Vocabulary. The first impression of a wine is it's odor and wine odor can be divided into aroma and bouquet.

• Aroma: refers to the odor of a young wine
• Bouquet refers to an odor that is acquired through aging

I have to confess that I am a hedonist when it comes to wine descriptions. That is, I'll say, "I like it, or I don't like it." And, that is perfectly acceptable, but there is so much more to describing wine and I found some appropriate descriptors listed by Peynaud:

Fruity	Apple, peach, plum, blackcurrent, strawberry, raspberry, cherry, banana, quince, lemon, hazelnut
Flowery	Rose, violet, reseda, magnolia, honey
Spicy	Clove, cinnamon, fruitstones, orris root, vanilla, kirsch, bitter almonds
Smokey	Caramel, wood smoke, toast, coffee, grilled almonds
Woody	Cedarwood, resin, liquorice, dried leaves
Animal odors	Musk, amber, venison, game, fur

In addition to the above, there is a very good Aroma Wheel created by UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology emeritus, Ann C. Noble that can be used to describe the odor of wine.
There are also a lot of descriptors associated with post bottling defects that I blogged about earlier that can be attributed to certain chemical compounds and reproduced here:

Compound	Aroma	Treshhold of Detection
Acetaldehyde	pungent, fruity, apple	100 ppm
Phenylacetaldehyde	old flowers, old rose, acacia, sweet, honey-like, slightly rancid also can produce fresh, fruity aromas	50 ppb
Sotolon	walnut, nutty or oxidized aroma also maple syrup and curry	7 ppb
1,1,6-trimethyl-1,2-dihydronapthalene (TDN)	kerosene, old riesling	50 ppb
Methylmercaptan (MeSH) Dimethyldisulfide(DMDS)	rotten cabbage, broccoli, natural gas,cooked vegetables	1.5 ppb (MeSH) 10 ppb (DMDS)
Dimethylsulfide(DMS)	canned corn, asparagus, olive, truffle	20 ppb
2,4,6-trichoroanisole (TCA)	moldy or musty	2-6 ppt
2,4,6-tribromoanisole (TBA)	moldy or swimming pool	3-6 ppt
4-ethylphenyl (4-EP) 4-ethylguaiacol (4-EG)	phenol, Band-Aid, leather, clove, barnyard	400 ppb (4-EP) 50 ppb (4-EG)
2-ethyl-tetrahydropyridine 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline 2-acetyl-tetrahydropyridine	mousy, mouse cage, salami skin	low ppb

Dionysus (Bacchus) the God of Wine

I thought I would read something other than winemaking, viticulture or books related to wine and picked up a book on Mythology written by Edith Hamilton and published in 1942. I recall having an extensive introduction to Greek Mythology in the seventh grade, more than several decades ago so a refresher was in order. Well, there is no getting away from wine. Chapter 2 of this book, is about the two great gods of earth, Ceres and Dionysus. Hamilton references the works of Hesoid (8th Century B.C.) and Homer for information on Dionysus. It was not unknown to me that Dionysus was the God of Wine, but I learned much more in Hamilton's book. Dionysus was the son of Zeus and the Theban princess Semele, the only Olympian god whose parents were not both divine. Dionysus called Thebes his home and taught men the culture of the vine wherever he went.
Hamilton writes of Dionysus:He was the vine, which is always pruned as nothing else that bears fruit; every branch cut away, only the bare stock left; through the winter a dead thing to look at, an old gnarled stump seeming incapable of ever putting forth leaves again.
Which is quite an accurate description of what our vineyard looks like currently.

Winter's Oscillating Temperatures

So far, we have seen some highs and lows for our winter of 2013-2014. We recently met with a group of winemakers and vineyard managers and their assistants at Dave's home and we spoke to them about low temperatures during the dormant season. Mike McAndrew, vineyard manager at Stonington Vineyards recalled the winter of 2008 when there were several days of subzero temperatures. That year, the merlot that Dave was managing took a hit. Being newly minted farmers, we are keen weather-watchers and cross our fingers that our vines have been handling the occasional subzero temperatures that we have been having.
On the AccuWeather.com Site, the summary of the temperature for the month of December 2013 looks like this:

During the few days before Christmas, we had some very warm temperatures and then on Christmas Day, it was cold, but brutal cold temperatures were yet to arrive. So far, for 2014, we have had single digit and subzero temperatures on January 3, 4 and 5. This brutally cold weather was brought to us by something called the polar vortex. I keep a weather diary for our vineyard, but we are talking about putting a weather station on our property to accurately measure the daily temperature fluctuations.

Champagne by Don and Petie Kladstrup

Staying with the champagne theme for the New Year, I picked up a book that my husband recently purchased and read it during the holidays. Champagne by Don and Petie Kladstrup, subtitled How the World's Most Glamorous Wine Triumphed Over War and Hard Times, was published in 2005 by HarperCollins. This book is written and researched much like the Kladstrup's book Wine and War published in 2001.
Champagne is a book that deconvolutes the conundrum that is le champagne (the drink), with it's celebratory connotations from la Champagne (the region), the site of untold strife and bloodshed. In the opening pages of this book, the Kladstrups go to the site of one of the bloodiest battles in history, the invasion of Attila the Hun which was fought in la Champagne, then known as Belgica in 451 A.D. More than 200,000 men were slaughtered in one day. Interwoven in the chronology of wars that took place in la Champagne, the Kladstrups tell the story of the evolution of the wine from the pale red drink to what we now know today as the bubbly le champagne.
The Romans planted vines and started making wine in Champagne around 57 B.C. But for many millennia, the region was known more for their wool than their wine. In 1668, a young, Benetictine monk, Dom Pierre Pérignon was appointed to be the business manager for the Abbey of Hautvillers. One of the persistent myths that is debunked by the Kladstrups is the one that clings to Dom Pérignon as the inventor of bubbly champagne. Nothing is further from the truth as Pérignon strove to eliminate bubbles from still wine to make it acceptable for the sacrament. What Pérignon did which is just as important was to lay down the golden rules of making quality wine, rules that are still in practice today!:

• Use only the best grapes and discard those that are broken
• Prune vines hard in the early spring to prevent overproduction
• Harvest in the cool of the morning
• Press grapes gently
• Keep the juice from each pressing separate

The book chronicles the impact of the Napoleonic Wars, the phylloxera devastation, the U.S. Prohibition, and the devastation incurred by Champagne during World War I. For me it was a sobering read and underscored the resilience and optimism of the Champenois. Give a toast to them the next time you take a sip of le champagne.

Champagnes on New Year's Eve

I'm back tracking a little to blog about the champagnes that we drank to celebrate and welcome in the New Year. There were 10 of us and we polished off 2 champagnes to begin the evening's refection. One was a Veuve Clicquot provided by our generous friend for this event. It was fruity, dry and fresh tasting. My husband shucked 3 dozen oysters that we bought locally. One and a half dozen each of Noank bluepoints and East Beach blondes and needless to say, the oysters paired very well with the "Widow" (i.e. Veuve).

The other champagne was the total opposite of the Veuve Clicquot being a bit more yeasty and creamy. It was a 1990 Dom Pérignon that my husband thought was edging past it's prime.
We researched what other foods could pair with champagne and saw that fried foods make for a good pairing. In the end, we opted for chicken liver and truffle paté that we purchased from Fromage Fine Foods & Coffee in Old Saybrook and smoked

salmon on caper cream cheese on rice crackers. I found the recipe on line and modified the smoked trout to smoke salmon and it worked: Smoke Trout and Caper Cream Cheese Toasts. This was our start that presaged a leisurely and entertaining New Year's Eve gathering.
Note: The cream cheese directly on the rice cracker made the rice cracker go soggy. By putting the salmon on the bottom of the cracker and then putting the cream cheese on top of the salmon enabled the cracker to stay crisp but the presentation was not as appealing. Your choice. It tasted delicious either way.

Happy New Year---Wine Tastings in 2013

Wishing you all a Happy 2014! In keeping with a blog tradition I began in 2011, here is a summary of the wines we tasted and blogged about in 2013.
2002 Lopez de Heredia Viña Bosconia
2006 Gaia Estate Agiorgitiko
2010 Hidden Bench Nuit Blanche at Ford's Lobster
2010 Paumanok Assemblage
2007 McCall Reserve Pinot Noir
2009 Chateau La Tour de Mons Margaux
1991 Viña Tondonia Gran Reserva
2008 Gorys Crespiello
1982 Robert Ampeau Meursault La Pièce sous le bois
2010 Paul Garaudet Cuvee Paul
2008 Pio Cesare Oltre
1998 Chateau de La Gardine
1990 Charmes-Chambertin Faiveley
1984 Argyros Vinsanto
2009 Barbaresco Terre di Bo
2011 Sofia Rose
2007 Antoniolo Gattinara San Francesco
Krug Grand Cuvee
2012 Clos le Vigneau Vouvray
2011 Abbazia di Novacella Kerner
2010 Niagara Bachelder Chardonnay
2012 Charles & Charles Rosé
2009 Castello di Neive Barbera d'Alba
2009 G. D. Vajra Barbera d'Alba
2011 Vignoble Dampt Les Fourneaux
1997 Palmer Reserve Merlot
2012 La Battistina Gavi