2019 Paumanok Cabernet Franc

On April 18, I blogged about Long Island Longevity, about two wines, a 1993 Paumanok Grand Vintage Cabernet Sauvignon and a 1997 Palmer Reserve Merlot which we drank on April 8 which still tasted youthful, full of fruit and wonderfully integrated tannins and acids.
On to a more recent vintage, the 2019 Paumanok Cabernet Franc. When we were with the Massouds they also gave us this 2019 Cabernet Franc. Here, we find the same adherence to quality. For a young wine, it is rich with fruit flavors of dark cherries, blackberries and soft tannins which gives it a well balanced flavor.
We would definitely buy this wine!

Vintage 2022: April Update

It's the third week of April and once again we are running up against the deadline imposed upon us by the grapevines responding to the warm spring.
Working in the Chenin Blanc clone FPS-1 shows that many of the buds are at budswell, meaning that we have to hurry and get these canes laid down before the buds become too fragile and we knock them off in the process of doing our manipulations.
Work in the vineyard began in February with the removal of the accoutrement holding last year's growth in place, the wires, the tendrils, and the branch locks (Agfast). The first pass of pruning, cutting the tops of last year's shoots now one year old canes and cutting back the growth to leave options for this year's fruiting canes are all done and we are now in the final pass.
We've managed to do the final pruning and the laying down of this years fruiting canes for two thirds of our vineyard with another third to go!

There is something so serene about looking at a vineyard before all the activity begins for this season.

Long Island Longevity

Recently, we had our friends over for dinner to share with them two wines from Long Island, one of which we brought back from our visit to the Massouds who own Paumanok Vineyards. These friends were supposed to go with us to visit the Massouds in December 2021, but they had a conflict so we went solo.
The two Long Island wines were the 1993 Paumanok Cabernet Sauvignon Grand Vintage and the 1997 Palmer Merlot.

How we came to acquire a 1993 Paumanok Cabernet Sauvignon Grand Vintage really began in 2011 when we had our first Visit with Charles Massoud at Paumanok Winery. It was a delight meeting Charles for the first time and talking with him was so easy to do. We learned a lot on that day in 2011. Fast foward to 2021 when we visited Charles and his son, Kareem, now head winemaker for our annual get together. We again talked of all kinds of wine and non-wine related topics, time flew!
We talked about wine tastings on Long Island and how vintners would get together and taste each other's wines and lamented the fact that it didn't happen in Connecticut. We mentioned that we always felt that it would be a good thing for our area winemakers to get together to critique each other's wines.
That's when Charles went to his cellar and brought up this 1993 Paumanok Cabernet Sauvignon Grand Vintage. The label was different and Charles explained that his early vision was to have "Paumanok" in block letters with the background going from dark red to light red like the flow of red wine. However, the graphics at that time couldn't accomodate his vision.
Charles said that we should share this wine with our friends who were unable to come on our trip. We also had a 1997 Palmer Merlot in our cellar that we could pair with the generous offer from Charles so, on April 8, we tasted these two wines.
For dinner, my husband made elk burgers from elk which our hunter had given us. It was a simple meal but it showcased the two red wines that we paired with it. The 1993 Paumanok, almost 30 years old opened up with red cherries with a hint of cigar, tasting youthful, well balanced and mellow. The 1997 Merlot was still full of dark cherries, licorice and tobacco. The two wines took center stage. We were in awe flavors of the wines and the incredible of the longevity they exhibited!
When I wrote to Charles and Kareem to thank them for their generous gift, Charles said it is a little like the saying from Forrest Gump: life is like a 1993 Paumanok Cabernet Sauvignon Grand Vintage, you never know what you're going to get!
What we got was simply breathtakingly awesome. Thank you so much Charles!

Smoke Taint in Wine

A few weeks ago, my husband pointed me to an article written by one of our friends in California, Professor Phillip Crews who is a chemist at UC Santa Cruz and is also a winemaker at Pelican Ranch Winery. Phil became interested in smoke tainted grapes after the Mendicino Complex Fire in 2018. The results of his research appeared in the Journal of Natural Products in March 2022.
The insidious nature of smoke taint is that it is odorless in wine until transformed by saliva into flavors that are described as "ashy", "bitter" or "smokey". While the authors focussed their research on Cabernet Sauvignon, they examined other varietals including Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Pinot noir, Syrah, Grenache, and Zinfandel.
During a wildfire, volatile phenols in smoke can rapidly diffuse through the waxy grape cuticle and become transformed and bound into phenolic diglycosides (PD) by the action of uridine-diphosphate glycosyltransferases (UGDTs).¹

There are more than 500 volatile phenols that are contained in wood-derived smoke, of those 500, approximately 34 volatile phenolic compounds have been identified from wildfire smoke or barrel toasting or released by grapevine leaves.
Volatile phenols are mainly translocated through the waxy cuticle of the grape berry and then converted into bound phenolic diglycosides (PD). There are 6 classically bound PD chemical markers. In-mouth breakdown of PDs occurs by enzymes or bacteria present in human saliva, which cleave the glycosidic bond and releases the offensive-smelling phenols.
The authors then selected these six phenolic diglycoside (PD) marker compounds phenol rutinoside, 4-creosol rutinoside, guaiacol rutinoside, 4-methylguaiacol rutinoside, sryingol gentiobioside, and 4-methyl sryingol gentiobioside. If the sum of the 6 compounds was less than 6 ppb, the wine was deamed to be fine, it the sum of the 6 compounds was greater than 30-820 ppb the wine was flawed with smoke taint.

Understanding the first steps in translating smoke in vineyards to ruining finished wines is still evolving but include proximity of a vineyard to wildfire(s), fuel source, smoke exposure duration (>1 h or more), age of the smoke, wind patterns, land topography, and heat inversions.
References:
1.Phillip Crews*, Paul Dorenbach, Gabriella Amberchan, Ryan F. Keiffer, Itzel Lizama-Chamu, Travis C. Ruthenburg, Erin P. McCauley, and Glenn McGourty, Natural Product Phenolic Diglycosides Created from Wildfires, Defining Their Impact on California and Oregon Grapes and Wines, J. Nat. Prod., 2022, 85, 3, 547–561, March 3, 2022.

Seven Champagne Grapes

On the evening that we had Paul Bara and Egly Ouriet Champagnes, my husband made a comment that there were 7 champagne grapes. Our friends and I could name only 3: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. In fact, we were at that moment enjoying an Egly-Ouriet Les Vignes de Vrigny Brut Champagne made with 100% Pinot Meunier.
Why do we enjoy 100% Pinot Meunier made Champagnes? Pinot Meunier tends to have higher acidity than Pinot Noir and can achieve similar sugar levels and tends to contribute a youthful fruitiness to the base wine. The longevity of the varietal is not particularly good so that few growers make a totally Pinot Meunier based Champagne. The notable exceptions include Egly-Ouriet, Georges Lavel, Michel Loriot and notably Krug.¹
Chardonnay adds acidity and structure to champagne. A champagne made with 100% Chardonnay can be racy. Pinot Noir brings elegance, perfume and body to the blend. Pinot Meunier adds richness and fruit to the blend.
In addition to Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, varietals also permitted to be planted in Champagne include Fromenteau, Pinot Blanc, Petite Meslier and Petite Arbanne.²
Fromenteau is also known as Pinot Gris adds fruitiness to the wine in a way similar to Pinot Meunier. Pinot Blanc has a marked floral and honey aroma and produces wines that are full and rich. Petite Meslier has high acidity and some greenness similar to Sauvignon Blanc. Arbanne adds rusticity to the blend but can sometimes taste metallic.
I have never seen or tasted any champagne made from the other permitted varietals. Maybe my husband can procure some?
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 815-817, Allen Lane 2012 ISBN 978-1-846-14446-2.
2. Laura Maniec, GuildSomm, The Seven Champagne Grapes, 17 February 2011.

Paul Bara Bouzy Réserve Brut Champagne

Our friends and we have been tasting through a few Champagnes this winter. Champagne will pair with just about anything. Recently, my husband purchased this Paul Bara Réserve Brut Champagne and we invited our friends over for dinner. Instead of the usual oysters that my husband is very proficient at shucking, we decided to go with a cheese and sausage platter.
We had a beautiful Point Reyes Blue cheese, a generous gift, that one of our newest friend sent us from San Fransisco. We served that with some lavender goat cheese and lavender honey which paired very nicely. I find that typically, blue cheese is difficult to pair with wine. But the addition of honey or fig jam to the blue cheese changed the interaction of the cheese with the champagne! This pairing added a richness, which we think the champagne already possessed and it was just wonderful!

The Paul Bara Champagne is imported by Kermit Lynch. It is made with 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay. I initially tasted an austere lemon flavor but that went away as the Champagne opened up and there was an underlying complexity of orange rind and spice.

Vintage 2022: April is Here

It's April and spring is in the air. Mother Nature played a trick on us on April Fool's day. We went to continue our pruning duties knowing that it would rain. While we were working, we saw this dark cloud overhead:

I was at the north end of the vineyard and my husband was at the south end of the vineyard, near our truck and I thought that he would get into the truck and pick me up but he didn't so I continued working and that cloud cover left without even a sprinkle of rain. Fooled us!
We are getting close to finishing our first pass of pre-pruning the vineyard. I checked and our Cabernet Franc buds are still pretty much in dormancy.

Today, while we working, my husband came upon this gem:

My husband put it in a baggy for safe keeping and when we finished our work for the day, he said, "I have something to show you." Me: "Oooo!" When we went home, my husband looked it up on the Internet. It is the egg case of the Carolina praying mantis which can be rare in Connecticut.
I have blogged about the Chinese praying mantis with photos of both the egg case and the mature insect. We love having praying mantis in our vineyard because they are voracious predators!