2019: A Pictorial Year in Review

Recently, I uploaded some photographs and it took me back to what we were doing this past year in the vineyard, so I thought that I would share it with you. We thank all of our two legged, four legged, and winged friends for their contributions to our 2019 season.

Malic Acid in Grapes: Part 3 The Importance of Acidity

I am back to doing more digging into the role of malic acid. I have blogged about tartaric and malic acids in the following posts:

• Malic Acid in Grapes: Part 1 Our Titratable Acid Conundrum
• Malic Acid in Grapes: Part 2 Chemical Structure and pKa

In the first blogpost, I wrote about the conundrum we faced when our red grapes were harvested at a very nice level of Brix, but the titratable acidity was very high. In the second blogpost, I wrote about the chemical structures of the two most prevalent acids in grapes and how they respond in a juice/wine environment based on pH.
In this blogpost, I will try to further elaborate on the roles that both malic and tartaric acid play in the ripening grapes.
Why is acidity important?:

• it influences the ageing potential or the shelf-life of wine
• it determines the physical, biochemical and microbial stability of wine
• it ultimately determines wine quality in terms of the perceived organoleptic and aesthetic character

Without acidity, a wine can be very flabby and unbalanced. With the appropriate levels of acidity, a wine can become sublime. But knowing what the right level of acidity is, is a tricky business.
The principal organic acids in grapes are L-tartaric and L-malic acid. L-tartaric acid is often found at higher concentrations than L-malic acid and is the stronger acid of the two. I have already blogged about the Two Stages of Grape Berry Development. During the first stage of berry development, there is the rapid storage of L-malic and L-tartaric acid in the vacuoles leading to an increase in size of the grape berry cells. During the lag phase between stage 1 and stage 2 of berry development, berry acidity reaches a maximum concentration. The concentration of L-tartaric acid is relatively constant, while L-malic acid is the only high proportion organic acid that is actively metabolized throughout the ripening of grapes.
It is this metabolism of L-malic acid that is important to us in trying to understand what happened this year when our Brix level was high and our titratable acid was high in our Cabernet Sauvignon and our Cabernet Franc. Stay tuned for more about malic acid metabolism.
References:
1. H. Volschenk , H.J.J. van Vuuren and M. Viljoen-Bloom, "Malic Acid in Wine: Origin, Function and Metabolism during Vinification", South African Journal of Enology & Viticulture, 27(2):123-136, doi:10.21548/27-2-1613.
2. Crystal Sweetman, Laurent G. Deluc, Grant R. Cramer, Christopher M.Ford, and Kathleen L.Soole, "Regulation of malate metabolism in grape berry and other developing fruits", Phytochemistry, Volume 70, Issues 11–12, July–August 2009, Pages 1329-1344.

How to Build a Cult Brand

Marketing is one part of the business that we know the least about and recently I came across this article, How Do You Build a Wine Brand That Achieves Cult Status? Quietly. I believe in "quiet", I am a proponent of "quiet", so the article sucked me in. Here was the advice contained therein:

• For a brand to be memorable, its product has to evolve from vintage to vintage, but maintain a consistent and recognizable signature.
• The people curating your wine must understand what the brand is bringing and distinguish the brand's distinct approach to the craft.
• Consumers associate wine with their memorable dining experience, so have your wine served at special restaurants.
• It’s essential to embrace the other brands in our industry.
• Millennials are now the largest consumer of wine in the world. They care about craft, sustainability, and above all else — a wine that will be memorable to share with friends.
• In the wine category, consumers want to learn with every glass, to further inform their palate and to also connect the dots between different regions, varieties, vintages and food pairings. As a result, we add the most value when we’re giving our fans what they want—when we teach them about wine. The goal is to share insights (big or small) in every place, whether on our website, on social media, in our tasting rooms and even on our bottles.

The above points are what I gleaned from the article. Most of the bullet points are what my husband and I discuss when we talk about how to market our wines. I'm not sure the article addressed how "quiet" this strategy is, but it is worth noting.

2018 Chateau Yvonne Saumur-Champigny L’ile Quatre Sous

We are on a quest to understand how Cabernet Franc is made and have gone to one of the sources of where this grape has been grown, the Loire. I have blogged about the 2016 Melaric Clos de Messemé Saumur Puy Notre Dame crafted by the husband and wife team of Aymeric Hillaire and Melanie Hunin.
We tried this expression of 100% Cabernet Franc, the 2018 Saumur-Champigny L’ile Quatre Sous. The wine was clear and looked dark purple in the glass.
The grapes are grown and hand harvested from a one hectare plot of vines ranging from 15 to 50 years in age. Native yeast is used in the fermentation which is done in concrete vats for 3 weeks without pumpovers to limit extraction. The wine is aged for 8 months in concrete vats. Bottling is done with filtering or fining and no additions unfined and unfiltered besides minimal sulfur dioxide. 500 cases of this wine was produced.
We enjoyed this Cabernet Franc. We find it interesting to know that this is a wine that has been fermented in concrete vats as opposed to oak or stainless steel. It is eminently drinkable for it's youth. This wine can be procured for less than $30.00. We are enjoying our continuing education on how Cabernet Franc can be fermented in different ways.

Our Harvest Luncheon

Recently, we had our harvest crew over for a thank you luncheon. We hope to do this as we continue our journey as grape growers and winemakers. Here is what we offered our crew in terms of food.

In addition to the antipasto as the first course, we also had lamb sliders for which we had condiments including tzatziki. To go along with the tzatziki, we made spanakopita. A gluten free pasta salad was also provided.

For dessert we had fresh fruit, palmiers and my husband made a tray of key lime squares.

To pair with all of the food, we brought out our white wine lineup.

We had a great time with our friends and hope that we can continue this harvest tradition. Once again, we thank all of our friends who helped us with this year's harvest!

Our 2019 Harvest at a Glance

We are currently growing 6 different kinds of grapes, but that doesn't necessarily limit one to just 6 different kinds of wines. This year, we were able to harvest small amounts of Auxerrois, Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Our sixth varietal is Barbera, which was too young this year to lay down any canes.
Here are the harvest numbers at a glance.

Variety	Harvest Date	Weight - Pounds	Volume of Juice	Brix	pH	TA
Auxerrois	9/23/2019	636	50 gallons	19.6	3.26	7.4 g/L
Chardonnay	9/28/2019	291	26 gallons	21.5	3.16	9.3 g/L
Chenin Blanc	10/14/2019	3930	280 gallons	21.6	3.06	13.5 g/L
Chenin Blanc	11/19/2019	50	3.5 gallons	25	3.52	11.2 g/L
Cabernet Franc	10/25/2019	377	30 gallons	23	3.32	11.3 g/L
Cabernet Sauvignon	11/3/2019	332	25 gallons	21	3.25	11.1 g/L

This year, we are attempting to make a very small amount of late harvest Chenin Blanc. For us, Chenin Blanc is a very versatile grape and we have made a pétillant naturel (pét nat) a type of sparkling wine in the ancient style where the lees are left in the bottle, as well as two types of still wines, a dry style and a Sussreserve style where unfermented juice from the current season is added back to the fermented wine.
Last year, we made a rosé from the Cabernet Sauvignon and this year, we are making a still wine from the grape.
With the exception of the late harvest Chenin Blanc, all the other wines have finished fermentation and are now in their "ageing" stage. This allows us to turn our attention to other tasks that we have left undone.

2016 Melaric Clos de Messemé Saumur Puy Notre Dame

My husband opened this wine, a 2016 Melaric Clos de Messemé Saumur Puy Notre Dame and we paired it with a chicken pot pie that my husband made.
Drinking this wine which is a Cabernet Franc is part of our continuing education in our quest to understand what cool climate Cabernet Franc can taste like.
The nose on this wine was of black fruit like dark plum, bosenberry, and dark cherries.
The wine itself was clear and sparkling like the garnet gem in liquid form. The wine was medium bodied with delicious fruit flavors with a balanced acidity and just a hint of tannins. We really liked this wine.
We learned from the Domaine Mélaric Site that wife and husband, Melanie Hunin and Aymeric Hillaire are the winemakers. They make wines from Chenin, Cabernet Franc and Grolleau grapes that come from four plots on the slope of Clos de Cerisae looking towards the village of Puy-Notre-Dame.
My husband was able to purchase this wine for around $26.00. We will definitely be buying more of this wine.

Recap of Vintage 2019

It's that time of the year to recap the vintage year that was 2019. Winter 2019 seemed to spare us with the very cold temperature that was coming across the country in January. Our first major snowfall was in March 2019, just when our thoughts were turning toward the pruning duties that lay ahead of us.
Vineyard duties began at the end of March with pruning duties that lasted until late April. The take home lesson for us from this past spring and pruning in March is that some of the tasks we did such as cutting tendrils from the trellis wires need to be done much earlier. We also came to the conclusion that we can do the first cut of pruning in the cold dormant season, which will make pruning tasks a little faster when the time comes to deciding which canes we need to lay down for 2020.
May brought budbreak in our vineyard, with the Chardonnay being the first to send out young leaves into the chilly, Connecticut spring. Throughout May and June we waited for bloom. The late bloom allowed us to keep on shoot thinning in the first two weeks of June.
During one particular weekend in late June, most of our varieties began to bloom. It started with the Chardonnay, which we have come to learn is the first in our vineyard to bloom. Chardonnay was followed by the Auxerrois, then the Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Franc and last, the Cabernet Sauvignon.
The day of the summer solstice, June 21 brought 3/4 inches of rain. The effects of rainfall on bloom was evident in some of the early blooming Chardonnay where the flowers were not fertilized and withered on the rachis.
Summer was a halcyon time with rain occurring at least once a week or during the evening, allowing us a full work day. The remnants of tropical storm Barry brought 2-3/4 inches of rain on July 18th followed by a heat wave during the third week in July.
During this time, we were busy with the endless task of shoot positioning and leaf pulling. Summer was a blur of work while we waited for veraison. The first variety to reach veraison was the Auxerrois in the third week of August. While leaf pulling the Chenin Blanc closest to the Auxerrois, there was a noticeable difference in the softness of the Auxerrois compared to the Chenin Blanc. The Chardonnay was the next to ripen followed by the Cabernet Sauvignon, Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc. All through the waning months of summer, the varieties accumulated sugar in a way that we had not seen before and it was totally gratifying.
Our first harvest was the Auxerrois on September 23. While we anticipated harvesting 1500 pounds of grapes, we actually came in with 636 pounds which went to Jonathan Edwards who helped us with the pressing of these grapes. We harvested the Chardonnay on September 28. Since we only had a little less than 300 pounds of fruit, we resorted to our methodology of foot stomping these grapes and vinifying it in our basement.
The Chenin Blanc came in on October 14, with the help of approximately 30 of our friends. It amazed us that the 12 rows of Chenin Blanc were harvested in 2 hours! The weight of the Chenin Blanc was just short of 2 tons at 3930 pounds and once again, Michael and Alex at Jonathan Edwards helped us by weighing and pressing the grapes.
The Cabernet Franc came in on October 26, but we waited until November 3 to harvest the Cabernet Sauvignon. We were able to wait that long because the weather cooperated, but not enough to change the high titratable acid numbers.
The last harvest that we made for this year was our experiment in the wedding bags, the late harvest Chenin Blanc which we harvested on November 19.
So, our annual cycle of growth chart for 2019 looks like this:

We thank all of our friends and Jonathan Edwards staff who helped us with this year's harvest!