January Sightings in the Vineyard

We have been working in the vineyard in January and unlike previous weather in January, 2020 has been quite mild with many days in the 40 degree plus range. This is a good thing because we are still trying to catch up on tying up our netting, something we didn't do in the fall of 2019. While rolling up the netting and tying it, we've come across a few praying mantis nests. My first encounter with a praying mantis egg case was in Hawaii so I knew what this styrofoam looking like blob was. This is the first winter that we have seen so many egg cases in the vineyard. My husband thought that the young mantis had already left their nest, I thought not, so I looked it up this morning.
The praying mantis is an insect in the family Manidae. The eggs are laid in a frothy mass which hardens and is called an ootheca. Upon hatching in the spring, there may be 30 to 300 young mantids emerging from the ootheca. Upon emerging from the egg case, the young mantids are very hungry.¹ We are looking forward to seeing the young praying mantis in the spring. They will be our first line attack battalion against the vineyard pests including leafhoppers, aphids and small flies.
Here is a photo of a praying mantis in our vineyard feasting on a yellow jacket.

Fun factoid: In 1977, Connecticut designated the praying mantis as the state insect!

Reference:
1. Amateur Entymologist Society, Praying Mantid caresheet.
2. State Symbols, U.S.A., European Praying Mantis Connecticut State Insect.

2017 Y. Amirault Bourgueil La Coudraye

My husband and I had this 2017 Y. Amirault Bourgueil La Coudraye last night with dinner. We are on a quest to understand the flavor profiles of Cabernet Franc from various regions. Bourgueil (pronounced "burr-goy") is located in the heart of the Loire Valley and so far have tried these two other expressions from the Loire Valley:

(1)      2018 Chateau Yvonne Saumur-Champigny L’ile Quatre Sous
(2)     2016 Melaric Clos de Messemé Saumur Puy Notre Dame

We enjoyed drinking this 2017 Yannick Amirault Bourgueil La Coudraye and tasted the craftsmanship from the first sip which spoke of a Cabernet Franc grow in a cool climate with a very mild tannin influence. The color of the wine was extremely dark purple, but had a nice clarity.
I went on the Internet to find out more information about the wine and the makers and came upon this site from Four Corners European Wine Imports: Yannick Amirault, Bourgueil, Loire Valley.
On that site, I learned that Yannik Amirault took over running the vineyard in 1977 when he was twenty-two years old. He was the third generation vigneron. Their vineyards are organically certified. The grapes are harvested by hand in small buckets to prevent premature crushing and are harvested later than anyone else in the region so as to achieve maximum ripeness. The grapes are destemmed, and fermentations occur naturally in wood vats with indigenous yeasts.
The 2017 Bourgueil La Coudraye comes from 35-year-old vines growing on a 4.75-hectare vineyard of the same name. Fermentation occurred in open wood vats over four weeks and the wine was aged in old oak for six months. They are then bottled unfined and unfiltered with only a little sulphur added.

Alsace Part 2: The Geology - The Layout of the Land

Why is it important to understand the geology of a wine region? The answer is that it is the particular soil type that produces the unique flavors that end up in a wine from a certain region. When I first began my self-education on the geology of Alsace, I came upon this picture which allowed me to visualize what the important boundaries of Alsace was.¹

The above cartoon shows the major geological features of Alsace which is half mountain half valley comprising of the Vosges Mountains to the west, the location of the prime vineyard lands, the alluvial plains which are part of the Rhine graben, and the Rhine River to the east.
The soil types of the Vosges, the prime vineyard lands and the alluvial plains have all been extensively researched leading to the revelation that Alsace is home to a mosaic of soils of differing origins. The Website Vins Alsace² has a beautiful sampling of terroir types and where they are located:

To understand how this mosaic of soil types came into being, is to travel back in time some 300 million years ago and this is the question that I am seeking to answer in the upcoming blogs on Alsatian geology.
References:
1. Tasting Notes from Astor Wine and Spirits, Wine & Sake.
2. Vins Alsace, Geological Past.

January in the Vineyard

We have been having some odd weather for January, with temperatures that almost reached 60 degrees on January 11th and a dusting of snow last night. We went to the vineyard today to continue securing our netting. Here is what we saw.

The snow covered side of the vineyard is where we don't having any tiling underground. The vineyard itself is tiled and the snow had pretty much melted from that area. We spent about two hours working at tightening up the netting. Here is what we saw as we left.

We were glad that we got in a few hours of work, but we were happy to go home. After all, tomorrow is another day.

Taking on Alsace

Last winter, I blogged about Champagne in multiple blogposts with the intention of learning more about Champagne. Here is a recap of the blogs:

• Champagne Part 1: Location
• Champagne Part 2: Geology
• Champagne Part 3: History - When Champagne Became Bubbly (the Contributions of Dom Pérignon)
• Champagne Part 3: History - When Champagne Became Bubbly (the Contributions of the Veuve Clicquot)
• Champagne Part 3: History - When Champagne Became Bubbly (the Contributions of Jeanne Alexandrine Louise Mélin Pommery)
• Champange Part 4: How Champagne Was Made --- The Harvest

This winter I hope to learn a bit more about Alsace. I want to tackle once again, the location, history and the various wines that are grown in Alsace. So, beginning at the very beginning, here is a short blog on where Alsace is located.
Here is a map of Alsace from the electronic Encyclopedia Britannica.

Alsace is located in the east side of France bordered by Germany and Switzerland to the south. It is located in a valley with the Vosges Mountains rising to the west and the Rhine River forming the eastern border.
Next up, the Geology of the Alsace.
References:
1. Electronic Encyclopedia Britannica.
2. Vins Alsace, A Wine Growing Region Spoilt by Nature.

Chardonnay Fermentation Experiments

Our harvest of the Chardonnay occurred on September 28, 2019. Since we had such a small amount of grapes, we were able to handle this fermentation in our basement and our friends helped us to extract the juice by stomping on the grapes. The juice went by gravity flow into our basement into the waiting stainless steel kegs where the first step was the cold settling of the larger pulp matter.
We harvested about 290 pounds of Chardonnay, which turned out to be approximately 26 gallons of juice, enough to try three small experiments on fermentation with different yeasts. We chose X16, CH9 and D47 for the fermentations. Our goal is to see if there is an organoleptic difference imparted by the different yeasts on the resulting Chardonnay wines.

Here is what we know from the product data sheet of X16, CH9 and D47:

Yeast Strain	Fermentation Characteristics	Aromatic Characteristics
X16	→Rapid fermentative kinetics →Alcohol tolerance up to 16% per volume →Tolerance to low temperature fermentation (53 ℉) →Low nitrogen requirements →Tolerance to low turbidity →Low production of volatile acidity and H2S	→Very high aromatic production of white peach, white flowers and yellow fruit
CH9	→Alcohol tolerance up to 16% per volume →Fermentation temperature: 57 – 60 °F →Average nitrogen requirements →Short lag phase	→Fresh almond and hazelnut, toasted bread and citrus fruits
D47	→Alcohol tolerance to 15% per volume →Low nitrogen demand →Short lag phase and moderate fermentation vigor →Low to moderate production of H2S →Ideal for barrel fermentation	→When left on lees spicy, tropical, citrus notes develop and the wine is said to have a silky persistence

The fermentation step of the wines inoculated with CH9 and D47 took more than three weeks to go to dryness. The fermentation inoculated with X16 took about 6 weeks to complete because we kept the temperature around (53 ℉). We took the fermented wine data and it looks like this:

Variety	Yeast	Volume of Wine	pH	TA
Chardonnay	X16	12 gallons	3.24	12.8 g/L
Chardonnay	CH9	6 gallons	3.20	10.4 g/L
Chardonnay	D47	6 gallons	3.15	13.2 g/L

Malic Acid in Grapes: Part 4 The Role of Malic Acid

I've been blogging about tartaric and malic acid in grapes. This is the fourth installment. The previous blog were these:

• Malic Acid in Grapes: Part 1 Our Titratable Acid Conundrum
• Malic Acid in Grapes: Part 2 Chemical Structure and pKa
• Malic Acid in Grapes: Part 3 The Importance of Acidity

The question is, what is the role of malic acid in the grape.
The accumulation of malic acid during the first stage of berry development occurs in both leaves as well as the immature grapes. In pre-veraison grapes, sucrose transported from the leaves act as the major source of fuel for ATP synthesis and enables the synthesis of malate in the grapes reaching it's maximum level of accumulation just prior to veraison.
The switch from net accumulation of malate to degradation occurs just before veraison. Post veraison, malate is liberated from the vacuole and becomes available for catabolism through various avenues including:

• the TCA cycle and respiration
• gluconeogenesis
• amino acid interconversions
• ethanol fermentation
• production of complex secondary compounds such as anthocyanins and flavonols

The decrease in malic acid content begins at the onset of ripening where it plays a significant role in anabolic reactions.
Malic acid is an important participant in numerous cellular functions of the grape vine such as:

• dark fixation of carbon dioxide
• acid catabolizing processes of fruit ripening
• controlling stomatal aperture
• improving plant nutrition
• increasing resistance to heavy metal toxicity

Malate is the only high proportion organic acid that is actively metabolized throughout the ripening of grapes. With the accumulation of sugars and inhibition of glycolysis in ripening grape, malate is likely a vital source of carbon for these pathways.
References:
1. 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.

Vintage 2020: Winter

Happy New Year and Happy New Decade to everyone! The calendar has rolled over to another year and another decade. I cannot believe it. Also unbelievable is this weather that we are having in January.

We have taken advantage of temperatures that are in the 40's to go back to work in the vineyard. Actually, we are trying to tie up some loose ends such as rolling up our netting, that we didn't get done in the past decade.
Although the weather can change, a quick look at the temperatures in the coming weeks, show a warm spell from January 10-14. We will be out in the vineyard, working.