Uncorked

My husband and I have been watching a TV series on Esquire called Uncorked that follows six sommeliers as they prepare and take the exam to be come a Master Sommelier. For us, who are engaged in the growing and making of wine, it is a very interesting and intriguing show. The sommeliers in this series include:

• Josh Nadel, a wine director of six New York restaurants, whose years-long preparations for the exam have cost him friends, hobbies, and quality time with his wife
• Yannick Benjamin, a thirty-seven-year-old French-born somm who, despite being paralyzed from the waist down after a car crash, in 2003, has been undeterred in his quest to become a Master
• Morgan Harris, a somm at Aureole, has a habit of delivering impromptu wine lectures to strangers in bars
• Jane Lopes, a twenty-eight-year-old straight-A student-type and the only woman on the show, keeps color-coded binders containing her notes on wine theory (“I kind of like to create my own textbook,” she says)
• Dana Gaiser, a blind-tasting savant whose laid-back Miami beach vibe sometimes clashes with his buttoned-up profession
• Jack Mason, a churchgoer from rural Texas whose nerves frequently get the best of him

My husband says that one of these people did pass the test to become a Master Sommelier. I asked him not to tell me. Apparently there are 6 episodes in the series and we have seen three.

2011 Domaine Saint-Germain Persan

My husband got this bottle as a gift from the local package store that he frequents. The owner wanted him to taste this wine made from the Persan grape. The wine comes from Domaine Saint-Germain in Savoie. Have you ever heard of this grape? We hadn't. The wine in the glass was ruby red in color and the flavor reminded us of Cabernet Franc with the acidity of a Barbera. We had this with a fatty osso buco based spaghetti so it paired really well.

But, back to the grape. What is the Persan?
I looked at a few books before I heaved out Jancis Robinson's Wine Grapes from our bookshelf and found the entry for Persan where it is written that the Persan is a Rare but high-quality Savoie variety on a voyage of rediscovery. Much of the information that is contained in this entry has been reproduced on the Wikipedia entry on Persan. In the Savoie region, there are just 9 ha (22 acres) planted to Persan. The wines tend to be tannic with good acidity and well suited to aging! Guyot thought that the Persan was a local mutation of Pinot Noir, but genetic testing showed that this is not the case.
References:
1. J. Robinson, J. Harding and J. Vouillamoz, Wine Grapes - A complete guide to 1,368 vine varieties, including their origins and flavours, pg 783-784, Allen Lane 2012 ISBN 978-1-846-14446-2. Illustration of Persan is also from this book.

Time to Test the Chenin Blanc Again

Our wine has been sitting in our refrigerator in as undisturbed an environment as we can create. Though it has been so tempting to break into the keg to taste it, somehow, we have resisted the temptation.
We took out 50 mL of the wine from the keg and put it into the glass that you see to the left. The wine is becoming a bit clearer and there are definite fruit and floral aromas that we can now smell.
It has now been 19 days since we last tested our Chenin Blanc, so we decided to test it again. This is the third test that we are doing with our Vinmetrica SC-300. To recap:
Our first test on October 23 gave us these values:

• pH = 3.15
• TA = 12.25 g/L
• SO₂ = negligible
• Residual Sugar = ~500 mg/L

Our sensory exam at this time was that the wine was searingly acidic and had very little aromas associated with it.
Our second test on November 4 gave us these values:

• pH = 3.07
• TA = 10.1
• SO₂ = 17 ppm

When we tasted our wine this time, there was a definite difference in the acidity. The wine was not so searingly acidic and the aromas were beginning to develop. Hurrah!
In todays test, our values are:

• pH = 3.11
• TA = 10.3
• SO₂ = 38 ppm

The SO₂ value is still very reasonable, since we put in approximately 1 gram of potassium metabisulfite in solution, into the wine on November 9. Today, we were able to identify tropical floral aromas, like passionfruit in the wine. It was still acidic and I hope that it can develop a little more body. The keg is back in the frig under nitrogen while we contemplate our next steps.

Assembling the Irrigation Pipe

My husband has been busy this November with Trench Digging for Our Irrigation System and now, with the continued good weather, assembling the tubing in situ. He cut all of the PVC piping and spent today gluing the flexible hosing to the pipes.

This is how it looked at the end of the day.

A little background information: We have been working with our local National Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) who provided us a grant for installing this irrigation system in 2013. In 2014, we received an extension on our grant and followed up by Drilling a Well and actually finding a well with enough water (40 gallons/minute) capacity to irrigate our vineyard. We worked with Civil Engineer, Dan Pietro, who designed the irrigation system, but the procurement of the parts and the implementation was my husband's brainchild.
During the afternoon, we were able to put the assembled piping into the trench and then cover the piping with stone dust. We took into account the fact that it would rain on Thursday, November 19th. The rain should help even out the stone dust that is on the trench. We also have an appointment with the NRCS on Friday, who will come out to inspect our work.

1965 Chateau Haut-Brion

Our friends were determined to share all of their older Grand Cru wines with us before they left for their 2-1/2 month trip to the southern hemisphere.
On this evening, we were treated to a 1965 Chateau Haut-Brion. This wine was in the same fire as the 1964 Chateau Giscours. Upon opening the wine, it still retained the bottle bouquet of a great Bordeaux and the first taste for me was one of velvety smoothness and a touch of fruit. Unlike the Chateau Giscours, this wine, for me, was the unfortunate victim of the fire since within an hour, all delicacy was lost. Pity, but still privileged to partake of an old (50 year) wine. Big thanks and shoutout to our generous friends!

Cover Crop---Tillage Radish

We recently took a drive around the vineyard just to make sure that things in the north end looked okay, while we worked exclusively on the south end, digging the trench for the irrigation pipes. As we made our way on the west side of the vineyard, my husband spied something green growing in one of the rows. It is not an easy thing to go against the grain of the trellis wires, so he had me doing the reverse-limbo under the fruiting wire to check out what the green thing was in the vineyard. When I got to the green thing, it was a tillage radish that had survived the many passes of the grape hoe! I pulled it out and it was huge!

We planted the seeds for this cover crop in early November of 2013 and we had germination and growth a few weeks later, but since we planted the seeds so late in the year, we didn't really reap the benefits of the tillage radish.
You can see from this photo that the taproot of the tillage radish is huge and extends a good 8-inches. The benefit of the tillage radish in compacted soils, is that it will rot in place during the winter and leave behind soil that has been loosened and aerated. Another benefit is that tillage radish is what we call daikon in Japanese and it is totally edible. We're going to have this beauty for a meal soon. Maybe I'll share photos of what we did with it.

1964 Chateau Giscours

Our friends will be going to their southern hemisphere trip to New Zealand in a few days so our mutual friends decided that we should celebrate an American Thanksgiving before they left. It was an excellent idea. We began our repast with Veuve Cliquot and Gruet Champagnes with acorn squash and beet appetizers. Our next course was a chantrelle soup that my husband made following a few suggestions that he got from his wine forum.

The conversation when we were having our appetizers was about the 1964 Chateau Giscours that we were about to try. Our friend told us that it would be a miracle if the wine tasted any good because the wine had been through 2 fires and had been placed next to a chimney while the home was being rebuilt. Also, just before bringing this bottle, our friend had opened two others and tasted it and they had turned to vinegar. Looking at the ullage level, which was at the shoulders, we had to agree that the wine may be past drinkable. But, miracle of miracles, when the bottle was opened, the wine, was indeed drinkable and as we sat down to have turkey, stuffing, green beans, and baked potato, the wine opened up, revealing it's fruitiness and mellowness. Wow! We enjoyed this outstanding meal and wine, with our friends whom we will not see for the next two and a half months. Bon Voyage!

Trench Digging for Our Irrigation System

Even though our small crop of Chenin Blanc has now been harvested and is on it's way to becoming our first wine, we are still working in the vineyard. We are trenching so that we can put in our irrigation pipes and system. My husband thought that he could use a ditch witch that he rented from Home Depot and be done with the trench in one day. He ran into so many rocks that it took him 3 hours to dig a trench that was only 20 feet long and we need 256 feet of trench. Okay---plan B. He used his backhoe and although the trench is a little wider than we would like it to be, it is deep enough and the rocks are no problem for the backhoe. It still is taking more than 1 day, but the weather has been cooperating with temperatures in the low 70's!

Last year at this time, we were pounding endposts. The work never stops!
With the good weather continuing, we were able to spend 4 hours on Thursday, November 6, 2 hours on Saturday, November 7, and one hour on Sunday, November 9th to finish digging the trench that will hold one configuration of pipes for the irrigation system.

Dropped Acid---Tartaric, That Is

Last night, we opened up the keg that our wine is in and took a 40 mL sample so that we could run the pH, titratable acids (TA) and sulfur dioxide tests as well as a sensory test. We ran the pH test first because it only uses 5 mL of wine. Then filled the "beaker" containing the 5 mL of wine with 15 mL of distilled water and ran the TA test. We then ran our sulfur dioxide test and got those results. This test uses 25 mL of wine, leaving us approximately 10 mL to conduct our sensory exam.

The results of the test using our Vinmetrica SC-300 are:

• pH = 3.07
• TA = 10.1
• SO₂ = 17 ppm

When we compared these results with the readings that we took on October 23, we were delighted to learn that we are accomplishing our goal of dropping out tartaric acid by cold stabilization.
Our sensory exam confirmed that the acids are less searing than our first taste test and there is a definite floral nose developing in the wine. It is difficult to tell in the above photo that focussed on the Kimwipe box, that the wine is also become a bit clearer. We are pondering our next steps.

2013 Chateau d'Auvernier Neuchatel

My husband bought this bottle of Neuchatel for us to try. The wine is made from Chasselas or Fendant, as it is known in Switzerland, the leading grape variety there. When I drank this wine, since it was my first taste of Chasselas, I wasn't fully appreciating it's varietal character.
I found their website Chateau d'Auvernier and learned that Thierry Grosjean, the current owner can trace his lineage back 400 years.
Pierre Galet in his book, Grape Varieties says the following about Chasselas:
The typical Chasselas wine is slightly sparkling and crisp, finishing wth a pleasantly sharp sensation. The aromas are equally distinctive, blending notes of lime blossom with elegant floral touches and even occasional mineral nuances.
To me, it was very austere, so recently, I told my husband that he would need to purchase another Neuchatel so that I can give it another taste.