Fall in the Vineyard

Fall has definitely arrived in Connecticut. This photo was taken on October 18th. In 2015, the first frost event, occurred on October 18th. Today, we heard that there might be snow and sleet in northern Connecticut!
Update: We had our first frost event on Halloween evening into the morning of November 1st.

2010 Domaine Huet Le Haut-Lieu

My husband opened up this 2010 Domaine Huet Le Haut-Lieu to pair with a delicious fish in parchment paper that he made with the fresh fish that we scored from our friend "the hunter". One of the reasons that we are growing Chenin Blanc is that we totally fell in love with Domaine Huet. This particular wine comes from the Le Haut-Lieu vineyard. The Haut-Lieu parcel lies on Vouvray’s “Première Côte,” or “first slope,” and is home to virtually all of the appellation’s acknowledged grand cru vineyards. The color of this wine in the glass was a clear gold and the aromas that emanated from the glass was a honeyed lemon. The flavor, yumm, just exquisite and paired so well with the fish.

We have tasted the 2010s from the three vineyards, Le Haut-Lieu, Le Mont and Clos du Bourg. Here is what the Rare Wine Company wrote about Domaine Huet vineyards:
          "Each of Huet’s three iconic vineyards imparts a different signature           to its wine. Le Haut-Lieu’s deep limeston-clay soil produces wines           that typically blossom early. Le Mont has less clay and more stone,           yielding young wines of intense minerality. With age, Le Mont cuvées           develop great length and finesse. And due to its extremely shallow,           stony soils, Clos du Bourg often synthesizes Le Mont’s intense           minerality with Le Haut-Lieu’s generous texture."

Wine Balance

I sometimes drink a Chardonnay that has been aged in oak and taste a bunch of splinters in my mouth. As budding winemakers, we want to understand how that happens and how we can make a wine that is in "balance". So, what are the factors that contribute to a wine being in balance and not overshadowed by one attribute or another?

Source	Attribute	Effect	Masked/Enhanced Flavors
Sugars, glycerin,	Sweetness	Contributes to body and mouthfeel by giving "smoothness and roundness" sensations	Masks acidity and bitterness
Alcohol level	Sweetness	Contributes to body and mouthfeel by giving "smoothness and roundness" sensations; excessive alcohol contributes warmth and heat sensations	High alcohol masks high acidity; High alcohol and low acidity masks high astringency
Primarily tartaric acid	Acidity	Contributes freshness, brightness, crispness; increases impression of astringency and bitterness	Masks sweetness
Tannins	Astringency and bitterness	High tannin levels and high acidity can be perceived as astringent and bitter; Wine balanced with respect to tannins, acidity and alcohol tastes "soft" and "velvety"	Low tannin levels can support higher acidity
Oak		Complexity	Masks fruitiness
	Age	Decreases fresh fruit flavors, astringency and color
	Low Temperature	Decreases the perception of sweetness and acidity and increases the perception of astringency
	High Temperature	Increases the perception of alcohol

As I write this, we have a small amount of our Chardonnay that we harvested this year fermenting in our fermentation chamber. Since it is not in any oak, it won't taste of splinters and it will probably be a very simple wine. I can't wait to taste the outcome.
Reference:
1. Wine Stability and Sensory Analysis (VID254), U.C. Davis Extension, pg. 26-27.

Founder Varieties

My husband and I were talking about Cabernet Franc and what its possible influence would be on the flavor of a wine made from this grape. Our conversation then shifted to talking about Cabernet Sauvignon and the fact that the parents of that noble variety are Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc. That got me thinking about grape founder varieties and after a bit of searching on the Internet, I located an article written by Jancis Robinson in the Financial Times on October 2012, called "Where it all began..."
In this article, Robinson provides the names of the founder varieties and a short description:

VARIETY	DESCRIPTION
Pinot	Pinot is perhaps the best known of the founder varieties. It comes in many different-coloured mutations, of which Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris/Grigio and Pinot Blanc are well known. As Pinot Noir it makes hauntingly nuanced, generally light- to medium-bodied fruity reds, most famously in Burgundy but increasingly around the world. As Pinot Grigio, it is often devoid of any attribute other than popularity. Pinot Blanc is grown in Alsace, in south-west Germany as Weissburgunder and in Italy as Pinot Bianco.
Gouais Blanc	Gouais Blanc is an ancient eastern French variety almost forgotten until identified as “the Casanova of grapes” for the sheer number of its progeny. It has been banned for its low quality several times in France and survives there today only in one non-commercial vineyard in Haute-Savoie. The finest and most numerous examples are grown, as Gwäss, over the border in Switzerland although it is also known south of the Alps where several Piemonte growers cultivate it, some of them calling it Liseiret. It is also grown by Chambers in Rutherglen, Australia. It is light in weight and can have attractive citrus flavours.
Savagnin	Savagnin is best known under that name in Jura, eastern France, where its wines have an attractive nuttiness and a particular affinity for producing the local speciality, vin jaune, which tastes a bit like an alpine sherry. A popular synonym for the variety is Traminer, and the famous Gewurztraminer grape is the aromatic, pink-skinned mutation of it. As Traminer it is particularly popular in Austria, Alto Adige in northern Italy (birthplace of the name, not the variety), eastern Europe and Australia. It turned out recently that cuttings sent to Australia from northern Spain, and then disseminated to growers by the quarantine authorities as the fashionable north-west Iberian variety Albariño/Alvarinho, are in fact Savagnin.
Cabernet Franc	Cabernet Franc is more aromatic, graceful and usually lighter-bodied than Cabernet Sauvignon. In Bordeaux it is the third-most-planted red wine grape after its progenies Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, with which it is customarily blended. It is the principal grape of Chinon and Bourgueil in the Loire valley where its wines, usually 100 per cent Cabernet Franc, can be quite leafy and herbaceous, although in recent years the vines have tended to ripen more fully. It is widely planted, often as an ingredient in “Bordeaux blends”, but is valued on its own account in the American states of Virginia, New York and Washington.
Mondeuse Noire	Mondeuse Noire an ancient Savoie variety is either a grandparent or half-sibling of Syrah/Shiraz, which explains why one of its important synonyms is Grosse Syrah. It makes Savoie’s sturdiest, deepest-coloured reds. In California it was long confused with the north Italian Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso, and vine DNA pioneer Professor Carole Meredith may be the only grower of genuine Mondeuse Noire in the state. She reports its wine is deeper and spicier than her Lagier-Meredith Syrah.
Garganega	Garganega is the main grape of Soave and was first mentioned in the 13th century. DNA profiling shows its close relationship to other important Veneto varieties such as Corvina and Rondinella, thereby confirming its local origins. Much more surprisingly, DNA profiling has shown that it is identical to the Sicilian variety Grecanico Dorato and an almost extinct variety as far away as Catalonia. It also turns out to have parent-offspring relationships with at least eight other Italian varieties including the most-planted white wine grapes in Sicily and Tuscany respectively. This is clearly a key grape, whose wines, if yields are restricted, can recall both lemons and almonds.
Nebbiolo	Nebbiolo is the most distinctive northern Italian red wine grape, most famously producing long-lived, scented but not heavy Barolo and Barbaresco on the Langhe hills of Piemonte but resolutely refusing, so far, to perform with much distinction anywhere else. The first mention of it in Piemonte dates from 1266. The succeeding centuries have allowed the development of several distinct clones such as Nebbiolo Lampia, but Nebbiolo Rosé, long thought to be a clone, has been shown by DNA profiling to be a distinct variety. Because Nebbiolo originated so long ago, it is not known whether it did so in Piemonte or in Valtellina to the north (it has so far been shown to have parent-offspring relationships with four varieties in each region). Its parents are almost certainly extinct.
Teroldego	Teroldego from Trentino in the far north of Italy is also extremely well connected. Surprisingly, DNA analysis has shown that Dureza from Ardèche, a parent of Syrah, is a full-sibling of Teroldego, and that both are grandchildren of Pinot. Teroldego is therefore an uncle of Syrah, as well as a grandparent of Refosco dal Pedunculo Rosso. Winemaker Elisabetta Foradori, who almost single-handedly brought Teroldego to international attention, must be delighted by this news. The variety had been in danger of being abandoned on account of the high acidity of its wines. It needs low yields and careful handling to produce fine wine, but the Australian example below managed to win a trophy in the 2010 Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show.
Luglienga	Luglienga is an ancient, pale-skinned table grape that is grown all over Europe, but its wine is rare and not particularly interesting. The variety is more notable for its progeny, which include Prié and, more recently, the modern crossing Regner that was one of many bred by German plant breeders in the early 20th century to achieve high sugar levels.
Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains	Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains, the small-berried, pale-skinned Muscat, is the noblest of several Muscat grape varieties (which are the only ones whose wines actually taste like grapes). There is a host of different Muscat, Moscato and Moscatel varieties – in fact we identify 15 different ones in our book. This founder Muscat is grown all over the world, notably in northern Italy where it is responsible for the likes of Asti and other Moscatos, but it is so old and so widespread that we cite no fewer than 64 current synonyms, most of them beginning with M, but a host of them throughout eastern Europe, such as Romania’s Tamaioasa Alba, beginning with T. Muscat Blanc is especially good at making strong, sweet wines in southern France and Greece. It is still not known whether it originated in Italy or Greece.
Cayetana Blanca	Cayetana Blanca is a pretty basic white wine grape also known as Pardina and Jaén Blanco in Spain and Mourisco Branco in Portugal’s Alentejo on the Spanish border. It is closely related to a number of Portuguese varieties, and to the dark-skinned Juan García that is responsible for some fine reds in north-west Spain.
Rèze	Rèze---only a few hectares of this very ancient alpine variety, first mentioned in Switzerland’s Valais region in 1313, are grown commercially today, at one time it was more widely cultivated. DNA profiling suggests that it was once grown in the Savoie and Jura regions of France too – and my co-author José Vouillamoz had established that it has a parent-offspring relationship with at least five Swiss or Italian varieties and may also be related to the Piemonte’s Freisa. The few varietal examples that exist are delicate with green apple aromas.
Tribidrag	Tribidrag is also known as Crljenak Kastelanski and Pribidrag in Croatia, Primitivo in Puglia and, most famously, as Zinfandel in California. This ancient variety migrated across the Adriatic to Puglia and thence to California – probably via nurserymen in Vienna and New England. Since its origins have been definitively identified as Croatian, it has been enthusiastically planted there, with the total number of known vines having mushroomed from 20 to more than 200,000. The Zinfandel connection also halted a widespread decline in the area planted with Primitivo in Italy, particularly in the western Salento peninsula in Puglia. But most of the world’s plantings are to be found in California, where it is the second most popular variety after Cabernet Sauvignon. Some of these vines are 100 years old in some of the world’s oldest vineyards. Wines vary from syrupy pale pink “White” Zinfandel to spicy, long-lived relics of the state’s early Italian immigrants.

All of this information in the above table was used in the book written and researched by Dr. José Vouillamoz, Jancis Robinson, and Julia Harding called Wine Grapes - A complete guide to 1,368 vine varieties, including their origins and flavours. This is a good reference to have.

Forgotten Bag of Chardonnay

We are in the vineyard cleanup phase now, with all of our fruit harvested and fermenting in our fermentation chamber. After our harvest, fall tasks include getting the weeds out of the the vineyard row, tethering loose vines and picking up the fall crop of rocks. We had help today which made the job go by in half the time. We then had some time to inspect our vines. In one of the rows of Chardonnay, we found this forgotten bag of Chardonnay.

Since we harvested all of our Chardonnay on September 14th, I wondered what the Brix was on this bunch which has now been on the vine for another month and was left hanging through at least 2 storms that brought 3 inches of rain. When I checked the Brix with the refractometer, it was at 20. This made me think of an experiment that I could do next year. First, I would need to take the Brix of the grapes that I would leave hanging and then come back to it periodically to take the Brix and see if there is an increase in Brix level. It could be that the Brix level reaches a plateau and no matter what further hangtime the grape sees, there is very little return on the investment, and much that could damage the grape. Right now it's a thought experiment, but may be next year, I can implement it.
Meanwhile, it was nice to see that this forgotten bagged grape bunch was still very much intact.

2014 Bedell Cabernet Franc

My husband purchased this 2014 Bedell Cabernet Franc from our local package store. Bedell Cellars is located on Long Island founded by Kip and Susan Bedell in 1980. Since Long Island is just across the Long Island Sound from us and since we are now trying our hand at growing Cabernet Franc, we were interested in tasting the Long Island expression of Cabernet Franc. Cabernet Franc is used as a blending grape in Bordeaux, but it can be very interesting as a wine on its own merit. We always refer back to the stainless steel fermented Cabernet Franc that we tasted in Ontario many years ago that was so perfumey and sublime, we thought it was Pinot Noir.
This 2014 Bedell Cabernet Franc does not disappoint. It has a medium body with a healthy extraction of color, a nice hint of fruit, tannins that have been tamed and some acids that work well with a meal of wild meat with a topping of cheese.

Fermentation?

We have 3 one-quarter stainless steel kegs in our fermentation chamber that currently holds our Chenin blanc harvest. We harvested our first one-quarter keg on September 17th, allowed it to cold settle the gross soluble solids and kicked off our fermentation on September 25th. We observed the slow start of fermentation 44 hours later. But, like any anxious parent we were holding our breaths until we could see this event.
For our second harvest that occurred on September 26, we followed our typical protocol of settling the gross soluble solids and added our yeast on October 2nd. We waited at least 48 hours to see if we could observe any signs of fermentation on those two kegs and nothing was happening. I looked online to see if I could learn anything about why fermentations can fail and I found an excellent enumeration a la David Letterman called Top 10 Reasons For Fermentation Failure at the E.C. Home Winemaking & Beer Making Supplies Website.

• Fermentation temperature too hot or too cold
• Adding too much sugar at the beginning of fermentation
• Improper yeast starting method
• Sealing up the fermenter after adding sulfites
• Using a wine airlock at the beginning of fermentation
• Lack of nutrients
• Fermentation has already completed
• Yeast has reached its limit
• Using distilled water
• Yeast is too old

Patience can be a virtue, but after 72 hours elapsed, we decided to look into the kegs. We could see foaming on the top of one of the kegs and the beginning of foaming on the other. We took a Brix reading and tasted juice from both of the kegs and on the one with foaming, we could definitely taste a fizziness in the juice, good indications of fermentation. My husband decided to test the fermentation locks and when he switched the fermentation lock from the keg that was fermenting to one of the kegs where the fermentation lock was not giving any indication of fermentation this is what we saw:

So to the list of "Top Ten Reasons For Fermentation Failure" add:

• Defective fermentation locks

Here is a very short video of a fermentation lock in action:

2010 Travaglini Gattinara

This wine is in a bottle that has a very weird shape, so that might be the first thing that catches your eye. But, don't stop there, pick up the bottle, take a risk and buy it.
Gattinara is a wine district (D.O.C.G.) in the northern Piedmont in Italy. This is the area that produces wine from the Nebbiolo grape. I found much more information online at the Travaglini Gattinara Site. In 1920, Clemente Travaglini established the winery that bears his name. Since that time, the winery has been in the family and the fourth generation of Travaglinis, Cinzia Travaglini and her husband Massimo Collauto are the current stewards.
The wine is made in the following way:
Winemaking: crushed and macerated for about 15 days in stain-less steel tanks at controlled temperature. The wine is aged for 3 years, 2 years in Slovenian oak of different origin and size, then rest in the bottle for 3 months.
With 6 years of age, the wine had very soft tannins. The deep color of the wine and the berry notes that create it's bouquet and flavor, makes it a perfect paring for a hearty beef stew.
But, back to the bottle shape, I've extracted this information from their website:
An exceptional wine deserves an exceptional bottle. It was with that in mind that in 1958, Giancarlo Travaglini set out to create a bottle that was also a work of art. This special bottle, exclusive to Travaglini, was designed to grace the most prestigious tables in the world. The shape of this bottle naturally catches sediment during pouring, allowing the wine to be served directly from bottle to the glass without decanting.
We paid around $30.00 for this wine, so while it doesn't qualify for my Wines Under $20 Tab, it is an excellent value for a Nebbiolo.

More From Harvest 2016

We are so thankful that our friends were able to join us on Monday for the harvest of our Chenin blanc. It turned out that we had 1/2 inches of rain on Monday night into Tuesday and then more rain on Wednesday and Friday. So Monday, it turns out was our little window of opportunity.
Here are pictures of some photogenic grape clusters from the harvest:

After stomping on the grapes in the Igloo cooler, the spigot on the cooler makes it the ideal container for gravity assisted transfer. After the glass carboy was filled, it went into the fermentation chamber for cold settling of the gross soluble solids. The fermentation chamber is getting a little full this year.