2021 Campass Barbera and Lasagne

On the days that we have rain, we have been managing to do a little cooking. Last Saturday, it rained all day so it was a perfect day to try a recipe that my mother in Hawaii has been raving about. It is my daughter's recipe for eggplant lasagna. We chose this Barbera to accompany the lasagna. For anything that has tomato sauce like pizza and spaghetti, Barbera is the perfect pairing. My husband claims that we have had this Campass Barbera before but sadly, I do not recall. It was inky purple in the glass and had flavors of black cherries.
Barbera is one of those wines that is a good value and this bottle retails for about $33.00.
Here is a picture of the lasagna. After making the lasagna, my husband and I both came up with a few tweaks. I used the striped purple and white Italian eggplant which is a milder eggplant than the typical large purple eggplant. The original recipe called for the sauce to be on the bottom which is what we did but we think it might hold together better with the eggplant on the bottom.

Vintage 2024: Chardonnay Buds are Awakening!

My husband and I are working as fast as we can to prune and lay down our fruiting canes. We know that the Chardonnay is the first to bud break and we typically begin pruning there but this year we began in the west where the Auxerrois are planted, followed by 17 rows of Chenin Blanc and are making our way east. On April 8, before we finished pruning all of the Chenin Blanc, we decided that we needed to skip over to the Chardonnay and prune the 8 rows there. It was a good decision! The rain and the warm weather are conspiring for budbreak to occur in the Chardonnay. When we began on April 8, the buds were dormant but today, we are seeing a mixture of buds in the scale opening and wooly bud stages. At the very tips and on thin lateral shoots we are even seeing a little pink!

Fortunately for us, our granddaughter is here on her spring break and came yesterday. Today, she worked a full day and with her help we are making good work through the Chardonnay!
I went to check on the Auxerrois and the Chenin Blanc where the canes have been laid down and the buds there still look very dormant.
I thought of a mnemonic for us: Taxes and all pruning due on April 15!

Vintage 2024: April Pruning, Pruning, Pruning

It's almost mid-April fortunately, we have pruned and laid down the fruiting canes for half of the vineyard!

However, that means that there is yet another half of the vineyard that needs attention!

The sap is beginning to run in the canes and we are seeing the return of lady bugs! Fortunately, even given the warm weather that we have been having, the buds are still in a state of dormancy. We are working in the Chardonnay, which is typically the first of our varieties to awaken from dormancy. We might be seeing a few buds that are in Eichhorn-Lorenze Stage 2, bud scales opening.

It's raining today! Time to do some other things that we've put off for a rainy day.

Here is Our Label

It has taken a while to get the final approvals for our label but with the help of our graphic artists (Michelle and Kimberly) and Susan at Jonathan Edwards, we were able to get the necessary approvals from the Federal and State governments. We are also working with a wonderful team at Niagara Labels who printed our labels. Who knew that the label approval, the final step in all of the approval procesess we have been through, would take this long.
This is our label:

Many of our friends who have seen our label are unsure what they are looking at. My husband designed this from Google Earth. Our vineyard is located on Quoketaug Hill at the head of the Mystic River and the view is toward Long Island.
Our name is a nod to our time in Hawaii. Passionfruit is found in Hawaii and is called "Lilikoi" in Hawaiian. We have chosen to give Hawaiian names to our various wines. This example is our Chenin Blanc and Wai Pua means "natural honey from flowers".

2000 Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacoste

A few days ago, my husband brought out this 2000 Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacoste from his wine cellar. I always ask him, "Is this the last one?" because I know by now that if it is, I might demur in drinking it. He said "No", so it was time to open it up! Although the wine is 24 years old now, the cork was in great condition, a good sign. The wine was dark garnet in color and my immediate reaction to the aromas was that it had an herbal, menthol quality to it that quickly blew off, then it was aromas of blackberries and dark cherries for me. It is not an overly fruit-forward wine but it is well balanced and has a soft finish.
We paired the wine with beef pot pie. The beef filling was slowly braised with half a bottle of Lan Rioja. My husband insisted on having a side salad. We had the wine a few days later and it was still drinking well.

Wanting to learn more about the wine, I went to the website of the Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacoste. The Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacoste was purchased by Jean-Eugène Borie in 1978. Jean-Eugène along with his wife undertook the renovation of the property as well as the chateau which had not been lived in since the 1930s. It is family owned and the numerous photos on the sight shows their commitment to the land and their craft.

Vintage 2024: April is Here!

It is April! We began pruning in March and are really into the thick of pruning. Our weather forecaster has informed us that this past March has been the second rainiest March since records were kept. We can believe that.
This year, we are doing a few of our tasks in parallel. In previous years, we went through the entire vineyard removing the black Agfast which kept our young shoots upright and in the trellis wire. We followed that up with cutting the wire that held last year's fruiting canes to the trellis wire and cutting the tendrils. Then we trimmed the top half of the canes and then came the final pruning. This year, we are trimming the top of the canes, removing the Agfast, and cutting last year's canes from the fruiting wire simultaneously before the final pruning.
Here is what the vineyard looks like with the netting at the lowest position on the line post and the canes laid down for this season. At this time, we have done approximately 1/4th of the vineyard. The nice thing is, the buds are still very much dormant.

We are in for a few days of rain this week which will put a halt to our pruning activities. Here is hoping for better weather to come!

Implementing New Net Position

We have always talked about putting our nets at the lowest position on our linepost which is where our irrigation hose is located but we have never implemented it. What a lower net position would do for us during the growing season is that it will definitely avoid this:

The photo shows tendrils growing into the rolled netting. All of the tendrils have to be removed from the netting and the shoots tucked into the trellis wire before veraison when the nets have to be lowered. The removal of the tendrils takes the better part of the growing season. During the growing season, we always tell ourselves that we will never be doing this again!
We go back and forth about how we will lower the netting and how we will attach it to the lineposts. We wanted to use something that was easy to use and reusable. We settled on Velcro this year and are tying the netting to our irrigation hose at each linepost. It looks like this:

One person can lower the netting from it's current position and Velcro the netting to the irrigation hose. It is a good solution, unless we need to use the irrigation!

Vintage 2024: March Pruning

There is no excuse now since we have been having very warm weather this March. Beginning March 3, we have been out in the vineyard pruning. For us, pruning entails cutting the wire that holds down last year's fruiting cane, removing all of the black ties we used to hold the shoots upright, pruning the tops of last year's shoots and most importantly, selecting this year's fruiting canes. As we do this, we are checking to see how the buds look. So far, the buds look dormant, which for now is a very good thing.
It's a good time for me to refresh myself regarding grape vine phenology.

• One of the very best papers, available online is Ed Hellman's Grapevine Structure and Function
• A chart that I often refer to is this: Modified Eichhorn-Lorenz Chart

At the moment, the vineyard is in the dormant bud stage, pretty much stage 1, the winter bud stage:

Here is what the vineyard is looking like now:

We leave at least 2 canes from last year to be this year's fruiting canes. All of the cuttings are piled at the lineposts. This makes gathering the cuttings "easy". Last year, we purchased an expedition sled and used it in the vineyard to remove the cuttings.
This year we hope to implement another idea which should save us a lot of time during the growing season. We almost never have time to bring the netting into the lowest position on the linepost to prevent the summer tendrils from twining into the net. This spring however, we hope to bring all of the nets to the lowest possible position on the linepost to avoid the tendril twining situation. We are testing out a few ideas that we have and when we implement it, I will blog about it. Until then, it's more pruning for us!

States that Drink the Most Wine

My wine feed from a few days ago had a very interesting map of the United States showing the states that drink the most wine!¹
This map is based on data from 2021:

I also learned that there are some 11,000 wineries in the United States. California, the state home to the highest population and the highest number of vineyards, naturally consumed the most wine in 2021: over 155 million gallons. In second place is Florida, having consumed 83.2 million gallons, and Texas takes third with 65.6 million gallons. On the opposite end of the scale, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Wyoming drink the least amount of wine overall, just 1.2 million gallons in 2021.
References:
1. Vinepair, Sara Pinsonault, The States That Drink the Most Wine in America (2023), March 11, 2024.

Industrial Space Upgrade

We are currently in the process of turning our industrial space into a more functioning winery. One important component in a functioning winery is a wash down station. Last year, when we pressed our harvest in our industrial space, we borrowed our neighbor's running water. It's not that we didn't have running water, the water was not accessible to us.
To solve that problem, we were in communications with Mark and Dan, who installed our HVAC. Planning began last fall and my husband began sourcing the wash down station as well as a sink. This past week was when Mark and Dan had some time to do the work for us.
There was a lot of prep work to be done. The electrical outlet needed to be moved and for that we called on our electrician who came on the day that Mark and Dan were there so they could coordinate where the new location for the outlet should be.

Then, the old plumbing was removed temporarily while Mark and Dan put up the fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP) to protect the sheetrock from getting wet. The plywood that can been seen on the left photo is where the washdown station will be located. It was the first time that Mark and Dan put up FRP so I understand that there was some reference to Picasso when Dan was trowelling the glue on the wall.

All of the business end of the plumbing is located in one of the bathrooms. There is a filter plumbed into the line as well as many shut off valves.

This is how the washdown station and the sink looks like:

The washdown station will allow us to move wine around and clean the kegs and tanks. Mark and Dan did a fabulous job! Thank you so much!

60 Additions that Can be Made to Wine

In blogging about TTB Listening Sessions on Label Regulations, I learned that there are 60 things that could be added to wine. I knew of a few of them but not 60! Fortunately, we don't add anything except for potassium metabisulfite, which is the sulfite addition on the label. However, it is good to know what other wines might contain. So, here is the list:¹

Additive	Reason for Addition
Acacia (gum arabic):	To clarify and stabilize wine
Acetaldehyde:	For color stabilization of juice prior to concentration
Activated carbon:	To assist precipitation during fermentation, clarify and purify wine; to remove color from wine and/or juice from which wine is produced
Albumen (egg white):	Fining agent for wine
Alumino-silicates (hydrated) Bentonite and Kaolin:	To clarify and stabilize wine or juice
Ascorbic acid iso-ascorbic acid (erythorbic acid):	To prevent oxidation of color and flavor components of juice or wine
Bakers yeast mannoprotein:	To stabilize wine from the precipitation of potassium bitartrate crystals
Calcium carbonate (CACO3):	To reduce the excess natural acids in high acid wine or in juice prior to or during fermentation; as a fining agent for cold stabilization
Calcium sulfate (gypsum):	To lower pH in sherry wine
Carbon dioxide (including food grade dry ice):	To stabilize and preserve wine
Casein, (Potassium salt):	To clarify wine
Chitosan from Aspergillus niger:	To remove spoilage organisms such as Brettanomyces from wine
Citric acid:	To correct natural acid deficiencies in certain juice or wine; To stabilize wine other than citrus wine
Copper sulfate:	To remove hydrogen sulfide and/or mercaptans from wine
Defoaming agents (polyoxyethylene 40 monostearate, silicon dioxide, dimethylpolysiloxane, sorbitan monostearate, glyceryl mono-oleate and glyceryl dioleate):	To control foaming, fermentation adjust
Dimethyl dicarbonate (DMDC):	To sterilize and stabilize wine
Enzymatic activity: Various enzymes and uses:	Carbohydrase (alpha-amylase): To convert starches to fermentable carbohydrates Carbohydrase (beta-amylase): To convert starches to fermentable carbohydrates Carbohydrase (Glucoamylase, Amylogluco-sidase): To convert starches to fermentable carbohydrates Carbohydrase (pectinase, cellulase, hemicellulase): To facilitate separation of juice from the fruit Catalase: To clarify and stabilize wine Cellulase: To clarify and stabilize wine and facilitate separation of the juice from the fruit Cellulase (beta-glucanase): To clarify and filter wine and juice Glucose oxidase: To clarify and stabilize wine Lysozyme: To stabilize wines from malolactic acid bacterial degradation Pectinase: To clarify and stabilize wine and to facilitate separation of juice from the fruit Protease (general): To reduce or to remove heat labile proteins Protease (Bromelin): To reduce or remove heat labile proteins Protease (Ficin): To reduce or remove heat labile proteins Protease (Papain): To reduce or remove heat labile proteins Protease (Pepsin): To reduce or remove heat labile proteins Protease (Trypsin): To reduce or remove heat labile proteins Urease: To reduce levels of naturally occurring urea in wine to help prevent the formation of ethyl carbamate
Ethyl maltol:	To stabilize wine
Fermentation aids:	To facilitate fermentation of juice and wine: Ammonium phosphate/diammonium phosphate (mono and di-basic Biotin (vitamin B7) Calcium panthothenate (vitamin B5) Folic acid (folate) Inositol (myo-inositol) Magnesium sulfate Niacin (vitamin B3) Pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6) Soy flour (defatted) Thiamine hydrochloride Yeast, autolyzed Yeast, cell wall/membranes of autolyzed yeast
Ferrous sulfate:	To clarify and stabilize wine
Fractionated potato protein isolates:	Fining agent for wine
Fumaric acid:	To correct natural acid deficiencies in grape wine; To stabilize wine
Gelatin (food grade):	To clarify juice or wine
Granular cork:	To smooth wine
Isinglass:	To clarify wine
Lactic acid:	To correct natural acid deficiencies in grape wine
Malic acid:	To correct natural acid deficiencies in juice or wine
Malolactic bacteria:	To stabilize grape wine
Maltol:	To stabilize wine
Milk products (pasteurized whole, skim or half-and-half):	Fining agent for grape wine; To remove off flavors in wine
Nitrogen gas:	To maintain pressure during filtering and bottling or canning of wine and to prevent oxidation of wine
Oxygen and compressed air:	Various uses in juice and wine
Polyvinylpolypyrrolidone (PVPP):	To clarify and stabilize wine and to remove color from red wine or juice
Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) polyvinylimidazole (PVI) polymer (terpolymer of 1-vinylimidazole, 1-vinylpyrrolidone, and 1,2-divinylimidazolidinone; CAS 8765-40-5(Chemical Abstracts Service Registration Number)	To remove heavy metal ions and sulfides from wine
Potassium bitartrate:	To stabilize grape wine
Potassium carbonate and/or potassium bicarbonate:	To reduce excess natural acidity in wine and in juice prior to or during fermentation
Potassium citrate:	pH control agent and sequestrant in the treatment of citrus wines
Potassium meta-bisulfite:	To sterilize and preserve wine
Silica gel (colloidal silicon dioxide):	To clarify wine or juice
Sodium carboxymethyl cellulose:	To stabilize wine by preventing tartrate precipitation
Sorbic acid and potassium salt of sorbic acid:	To sterilize and preserve wine; to inhibit mold growth and secondary fermentation
Sulfur dioxide:	To sterilize and to preserve wine or juice
Tannin:	To adjust tannin content in apple juice or in apple wine; To clarify or adjust tannin content of juice or wine (other than apple)
Tartaric aicd (L-(+)-tartaric acid):	To correct natural acid deficiencies in grape juice or wine and to reduce the pH of grape juice or wine where ameliorating material is used in the production of grape wine

In looking closer at the above list, there are other additions that we might make depending on the grape variety that we are dealing with. Here is our list of potential additives in our wines:

Additive	Reason for Addition
Malolactic bacteria:	To stabilize grape wine; to conduct secondary malolactic fermentation
Nitrogen gas:	To maintain pressure during filtering and bottling or canning of wine and to prevent oxidation of wine
Sulfur dioxide:	To sterilize and to preserve wine or juice

References:
1. Code of Federal Regulations, § 24.246 Materials authorized for the treatment of wine and juice.

TTB Listening Sessions on Label Regulations

On January 1, 2024, the Alcohol, Tobacco, Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) posted the following notice informing the public that The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) will conduct virtual listening sessions to receive input from the public on labeling of wine, distilled spirits, and malt beverages to disclose per-serving alcohol and nutritional information, major food allergens, and/or ingredients.¹
These listening sessions were intended to engage the public, including consumers, public health stakeholders, and industry members of all sizes, and facilitate the public's ability to provide input to inform rulemaking.
There were five points of discussion:
     1. Do consumers believe that they are adequately informed by the          information currently provided on alcohol beverage labels?
     2. Is alcohol content per serving, and nutritional information (such as          calories, carbohydrates, protein, and fat) per serving important for          consumers in deciding whether to purchase or consume a particular          alcohol beverage? Would a full list of ingredients, and/or major food          allergens, be important information for consumers in making their          purchasing or consumption decisions? In what ways would this          information be useful, and in what ways could it be misleading? Is some          of this information more important than others?
     3. What types of per-serving nutritional information, such as calories,          carbohydrates, protein, and fat, should be included?
     4. Would requiring this information on labels be expected to increase the          cost of the products and, if so, by how much? To what extent are          businesses already following voluntary guidelines for this information?          Are there alternative ways of providing the information, for example by          allowing information to be provided through a website using a quick          response code (QR code) or website address on the label?
     5. How would any new mandatory labeling requirements particularly affect          small businesses and new businesses entering the marketplace?
The listening sessions were held on the 28th and the 29th of February. Full disclosure, I did not attend the virtual session, but my newsfeed contained a link to someone who did. W. Blake Gray posted TTB Listens to Wine Industry on March 1, 2024. Here is what he reported back in his article.

• Most consumers believe that they are not adquately informed by the information currently provided on an alcoholic beverage label
• Diabetics would like to see the amount of residual sugar reported on the label
• People with allergies expressed an interest in knowing what was in the alcoholic beverage; for example glycerin can be a life threatening allergen for some people
• Some wanted the calorie information to be on the label
• Small beer brewers expressed a concern that if information such as calorie content was required, the amount of changes that needed to be made to imprint a new can would be cost prohibitive
• W. Blake Gray opined that ingredient labeling would be good for the industry but he didn't see that nutritional content would be necessary

The reason this listening session was held was that in Europe, nutrition information will soon be required but can be given in a QR code, not on the label itself. Ignacio Sanchez Recarte, representing 13 EU member states, suggested that the US adopt a similar system. A major advantage is that information that is online, but not printed, can be adjusted at the last minute when the results for a wine vary from what was expected.²
What are your thoughts?
References:
1. Labeling and Advertising of Wine, Distilled Spirits, and Malt Beverages With Alcohol Content, Nutritional Information, Major Food Allergens, and Ingredients.
2. W. Blake Gray, TTB Listens to Wine Industry, March 1, 2024.

Vintage 2024: March 1 - Tasting our 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé

It is already March! Time flies when you're trying to get a business up and going during the hiatus in the vineyard. We are having some plumbing put into our industrial space which will make it possible for us to rack our wines and clean our kegs and tanks.
The weather is getting warmer and the crocuses are up! Last night, we had a Japanese style dinner of pork tonkatsu, rice and broccoli and my husband casually said, shall we drink one of our wines? He was referring to our 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon rosé. I said sure! He did warn me that we only had one more bottle of 750 and one more bottle of 375 left of this vintage.
When my husband opened the bottle, we could immediately smell the aroma wafting out of the bottle, reminding us of the singular experience we had when we opened a bottle of Martinelli Jackass Hill Vineyard Zinfandel. The aroma was one of strawberries and raspberries. The flavor did not disappoint. The wine went well with dinner.
In 2018, we had 5 friends come to harvest our first vintage of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Our 5 friends took only one hour and forty-five minutes to harvest 4 rows of grapes.
We borrowed our friend's destemmer/crusher to process approximately 85 pounds of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes which yielded 7 gallons of juice. The Brix at harvest was 17, so we decided that it really should be turned into a rosé. We extracted the juice from the skins by putting the destemmed grapes into mash bags, our usual MOO and stomped on it. We put the extracted juice into a keg in our temperature controlled cooler and then used a yeast called VIN13 to vinify the Cabernet Sauvignon.
We tasted the wine in June 2019 and it was delicious but we waited until October to bottle the wine and regretted our lack of urgency since it appeared to us that we lost that vibrant, fresh red berry fruit flavors.
Over the years, we've shared it with our friends who came to harvest our red grapes but we never tasted that vibrancy and red berry flavors until....last night!
The wine was clear and garnet in color with flavors of strawberries and raspberries. It showed us that there is chemistry happening in the bottle! In 2019, we bottled eighteen 750 mL and twelve 375 mL bottles of this rosé.

What is Valdiguié?

Earlier this month, I wrote about Red Grapes of California and in that blog was a grape called Valdiguié which was mistakenly called Gamay in California. I wanted to know more about the Valdiguié grape and found a very good article from U.C. Davis.¹
Valdiguié is a grape grown in France where it is also known as Valdiguer, Cahors, Gros Auxerrois, Jean-Pierrou at Sauzet, Quercy, and Noir de Chartres. According Robinson, et. al² the Valdiguié is a fairly recent variety, the origins of which are hypothesized to be in Puylaroque in southern France.
The California Gamay was correctly identified as Valdiguié by Pierre Galet in 1980 and verified by DNA fingerprinting. It belongs to the Cot (Malbec) ampelographic group. The grape gained popularity during Prohibition due to it's high yield and tolerance to powdery mildew. Currently in California, there are approximately 1,000 acres planted in Valdiguié.

The variety is vigorous and late blooming allowing it to escape early spring frosts. It is high yielding producing between 5 to 8 tons an acre. Valdiguié is used for the production of fruity red or rosé table wines.
References:
1. Valdiguié.
2. J. Robinson, J. Harding and J. Vouillamoz, Wine Grapes - A complete guide to 1,368 vine varieties, including their origins and flavours, pg 1109-1110, Allen Lane 2012 ISBN 978-1-846-14446-2.

2022 Nervi-Conterno Il Rosato

The birds are chirping in the morning, the daffodil leaves are starting to pop out of the soil, is it spring? Warmer weather is headed our way and with that, the enjoyment of drinking a well crafted rose. In anticipation, we opened up this rose to pair with a chicken dinner. We were surprised that I had never blogged about this rose and I am addressing that deficiency today. This 2022 Nervi-Conterno Il Rosato is imported by Polaner Selections and is a blend of 90% nebbiolo and 10% Uva Rara. It is a dry wine with notes of red berries. It is our go-to rose during the summer months.
To pair with this rose, my husband enlisted our grandson to pound the sliced chicken breast into thin but even pieces in preparation for making chicken saltimbucca. The recipe that they followed was contributed by David Tanis and appeared in Times Cooking. The only time consuming part was marinating the chicken in chopped sage, garlic, red pepper flakes and olive oil for one hour. After that, it was crisp the fresh sage leaves in olive oil, brown the chicken breasts in the same pan and transfer the cooked chicken into a large baking dish. Top with 2 sage leaves, a slice of prosciutto and a slice of fontina and broil for 2-3 minutes until the cheese is bubbling.

References:
1. NERVI-CONTERNO.

Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines

This morning, we watched an episode of Wine Masters on sparkling wines hosted by Sarah Heller and Fredrik Lindfors. They went through all of the methods of putting bubbles into wine and elaborated on the styles. It went a bit quickly, so I thought I would investigate a bit more and write a blog.

Method	Description
Traditional Method	Hand-pick whole clusters (mechanization causes split skins allowing for early oxidation, undesired color extraction) Gentle pressing (ie. Many Champagne houses have presses right in the vineyard) 1st fermentation to create still, dry base wine (around 10-11% alcohol) Blending (varietal base wines, vineyard sites, reserve wines, etc) Liqueur de tirage (yeast, nutrients, clarifying agent, sugar) 2nd fermentation in bottle (alcohol increases by 1.2-1.3%) Note: the bottle where second fermentation occurs is the same bottle that the customer purchases. Yeast autolysis (contact with dead yeast cells creates additional flavors, richer texture) Riddling (process of slowly turning and tilting bottles downward in a series of moves so yeast sediment glides to neck of bottle where it can be frozen and expelled) Disgorgement (term for the removal of the frozen yeast cap) Liqueur d’expedition (topping up with wine and any desired sugar level – called dosage – for the final style) Bottle aging (some regions have minimum aging requirements)
Transfer Method	Often hand-picking of grape clusters Gnetle pressing 1st fermentation to create still, dry base wine (around 10-11% alcohol) Blending (varietal base wines, vineyard sites, reserve wines, etc) Liqueur de tirage (yeast, nutrients, clarifying agent, sugar) 2nd fermentation in bottle (alcohol increases by 1.2-1.3%) Yeast autolysis (contact with dead yeast cells creates additional flavors, richer texture) Wine emptied into tanks Filtering to remove dead yeast sediment Liqueur d’expedition (topping up with wine and any desired sugar level – called dosage- for the final style) Re-bottled in a new bottle Bottle aging
Tank/Charmat Method	1st fermentation in stainless steel tanks to create base wine 2nd fermentation in sealed tanks (dry base wine is placed in tank together with sugar, yeast nutrients, and a clarifying agent) Wine is filtered Wine is bottled under pressure
Asti Method	Must is chilled so it does not start fermenting, and is stored until needed. (It is fermented to order to create a fresh, new batch.) When needed, must is warmed and fermentation (the one and only fermentation with this method) starts. Initially, CO2 is allowed to escape. Partway through, the tank is sealed to retain CO2 Fermentation is stopped early (by chilling the wine) at 7-7.5% abv, so the wine is left sweet (with unfermented sugar) and a minimum of 4 atmospheres of pressure. Wine is filtered and bottled
Carbonation Method	CO2 is injected into a wine and then the wine is bottled under pressure
Ancestral or Pétillant naturel Method	Pétillant naturel is the oldest method of making sparkling wine, also known as the méthode ancestrale or ancestral method The wine is moved from vat into individual bottles while it is still fermenting, and then sealed under a crown cap Bubbles are created when carbon dioxide gas, a byproduct of alcoholic fermentation, gets trapped in the wine The wine is not filtered and no dosage (sugar) is added, which is why pét-nat is considered more “natural” than other sparkling wine styles

The last sparkler that Heller and Lindfors showcased was a still wine into which they infused CO₂ using the Soda Stream for carbonation. The experiment went a little awry. We have a Soda Stream and my husband is thinking of trying their experiment.
References:
1. Napa Valley Wine Academy, The 5 Ways to Make Sparkling Wine.
2. Master Class, What Is Pétillant Naturel?, September 28, 2021.

Ponson Champagne

Recently, we had our friends over for oysters and Ponson Champagne. It is made from 100% Pinot Meunier. We loved the combination of oysters and Ponson. True to my MO, I went to the Ponson Website to learn more about the producers and the wine.
The six generations of Bonet-Ponson began with Grégoire Bonnet who was one of the first recoltant manipulants in the village of Chamery in 1862. Jules Bonnet extended the domain by purchasing more parcels in Chamery. Jules' son Raoul moved to another location in the village after the destruction of the family cellar during the bombing in the Second World War. Raoul then initiated the construction of the present day caves to store his small production of about 5000 bottles a year. Raoul was joined by his 14 year old son André, who was in charge of ploughing the family vines with his two horses. André Bonnet met and married Monique Ponson and started the domain Bonnet-Ponson, growing a few plots of Meunier and Pinot noir in Chamery, Vrigny and Coulommes la Montagne. When their son Thierry joined the domain in 1979, all the steps of champagne making were being processed by the family and their 3 workers. At that time, they were bottling and disgorging 70 000 bottles produced per year. In 2013, Cyril Bonnet joined the family domain and in that year they began the conversion of their vineyard to the organic method of cultivation.

The Bonet-Ponsons farm 10,5 hectares of vineyards planted with 3,80 hectares of Pinot noir, 3,30 hectares of Pinot Meunier, 3,20 hectares of Chardonnay and 0,20 hectares of Petit Meslier, first planted in 2016.
Most of their Pinot Meunier vines grows on the lower part of the hills of Chamery and Vrigny, on sandy or clay loamy soil. The fossil shells found in Chamery attest to the presence of the sea in this region thirty-five million years ago.
Most of their wines do not go through any filtration or finning process. Their clarification occurs naturally during the winter when the cellar temperature drops. The wines stay on their lies for a minimum of 7 months before bottling, building up their structure and refining their taste.
References:
1. Ponson Website

Red Grapes of California

One of my wine news feeds had a link to this article: 1929 book on black grapes sheds fascinating light on the history of California wine from Lodi Wine California which I followed up on. The book was written by Joseph Perelli-Minetti for USDA's State of California Department of Agriculture and published in 1929.¹
It is interesting to note that at the time that this book was written, the United States was in the midst of a nationwide Prohibition which lasted from 1920 to 1933.
Joseph Perelli-Minetti wrote that in 1929, there were 38 different black skinned varieties of grapes being cultivated in California.

This 80 page book provided highly detailed photographs and notes on leaf and cluster morphologies of those varieties. Some of which are the following varieties:

Description	1929 Photo	Current Photo
Mission Grape

The Mission grape was the only European grape cultivated in California prior to statehood in 1850. The grape was planted along El Camino Real by Franciscan missionaries between 1769 and 1833. It is now recognized as the European grape known as Criolla or Pais. The white pulp of the Mission grape was also used to make a wine called Angelica.

Alicante Bouschet

Alicante Bouschet, a teinturier (a red skinned variety with red pulp) was a cultivar highly favored during Prohibition for its sturdiness, so it became used for cross-country shipping.

Charbono

Charbono has now been correctly identified as Bonarda (Argentina), and is synonymous with Douce noir (from France's Savoy region). However, it is still grown and bottled in California as Charbono.

Valdiguié

Almost all of the grapes grown in California and identified as Gamay is now correctly identified as Valdiguié originating in France's Languedoc-Roussillon region. It was not until 1980 that UC Davis provided the correct identification of California Gamay. Up until that time, there was also a variety bottled as Gamay Beaujolais, which turned out to be neither a true Gamay nor Valdiguié, but rather a clonal variant of Pinot noir.

Mourvèdre

Cultivated in California as Mataró, in the 1980's during the rise of the Rhone Rangers, it was understood that Mataró, Mourvèdre and Monastrell all referred to the same grape.

Petite Sirah - identified as the French Durif

As recently as the mid-1990s, Petite Sirah was mistakenly believed to be a clonal variant of Syrah. In 1997 UC Davis established, once and for all, that almost all the Petite Sirah grown in California is identical to the variety known in France as Durif. It is a cross made in the 1860s of Peloursin and Syrah grapes and attributed to a Montpellier, France botanist named François Durif.

References:
1. Randy Caparoso, 1929 book on black grapes sheds fascinating light on the history of California wine, Lodi Wine California, Letters from Lodi, January 9, 2024.

2018 Stark-Condé Cabernet Sauvignon - Jonkershoek Valley

I blogged about this South African wine about a year ago and at that time, I wanted to do some research into the Jonkershoek Valley where the Stark-Condé Vineyard and Winery are located. I went to their website: Stark-Condé to learn more about them. While I was in the midst of doing this, I happened to ask my husband why he purchased this Cabernet Sauvignon from South Africa. His explanation was rather interesting. He mentioned that our friends asked us if there was a winery that they should be visiting when they went to the Stellenbosch region in South Africa. My husband did the research and came across Stark-Condé as one of the wineries our friends should visit. They went there and were very impressed. So, my husband went to our local package store and asked if they could get some of this wine and they were able to, so we now have a local supply.
The Stark-Condé story begins with Hans-Peter Schroeder who was raised in Stellenbosch but spent much of his life abroad. Schroeder's first occupation was as an officer in the merchant navy and he went to Japan many times in the early 1960s. In his desire to learn the Japanese language, Schroeder decided to live in Japan and attended the International Christian University in Tokyo where he completed a four-year business administration degree and met his future wife, Midori Maruyama. Schroeder and Midori got married in 1965, but due to the South African apartheid regime’s Prohibition of Mixed Marriages, they could not go back there to live.
In the 1980's with the end of apartheid looming, they decided to go back to South Africa, purchased the Oude Nektar farm in 1989 and focused on growing grapes. This explains the Stark part of their brand name, which comes from Schroeder's mother Franziska Stark who was the first of the family to settle in Stellenbosch. She is remembered for her fierce independence and insatiable curiosity.
The Condé contribution comes from Jose Condé's tribute to his Cuban father. Condé is from Independence, Missouri, the son of a Cuban father and an Irish-American mother. His interest in wine started when he went to New York after being awarded a scholarship to study art. One of the Japanese clients of the design studio Condé worked for, asked him to move to Tokyo for a year to help with international projects. There, Condé met Marie Schroeder on his first night in Tokyo. He married Marie Schroeder, the daughter of Hans-Peter Schroeder and Midori Maruyama. The Condés decided to move to South Africa to be closer to Marie’s parents. Condé’s intention was to open a design studio in Cape Town. However, once he was in South Africa, the wine bug bit and he pivoted to becoming a winemaker.

The Jonkerschoek Valley is an ideal location to grow Cabernet Sauvignon. The grapes are farmed organically and the winemaking is kept as simple and as natural as possible. The grapes that went into the 2018 Stark-Condé Cabernet Sauvignon were hand picked, meticulously sorted and small batch fermented with natural yeast. The wine was matured in small French oak barrels for 18 months before being bottled, with no fining or filtration, in December 2019.

References:
1. Stark-Condé Website
2. Peter Kenny, On his first visit to Japan as a mariner..., UPI Archives, March 20, 1993.
3. JOSE CONDE - WINEMAKER AT STARK-CONDE, Wines of South Africa.

Pruning Time is Approaching

We typically give ourselves a break in January and then get back into the vineyard in late February, but the warm weather coming up may be forcing our hand. We have been trying to apply the Simonit&Sirch method of pruning in our vineyard. It was time to refresh our memory on the technique and to take a further look into it's concepts. Toward that end, I found an excellent article online in Canopy Vineyard called The key to pruning: Respect.
Marco Simonit, a Friuli-based master pruner observed the gnarly old vines in the vineyards of Italy, France, Tunisia and Greece and wondered why some vines lasted for centuries while others died well before reaching their prime.

In 2003, Marco Simonit and his childhood friend Pieropaolo Sirch began training their vineyard crews in the eponymous Simonit&Sirch Method of branch-pruning. In their method, the key is to respect the sap flow. This method prioritises small cuts on young wood and the uninterrupted flow of plant sap. Large wounds cause dry wood to deepen at the expense of the living wood. The combination of these dry wood areas creates disturbances to the sap flow leading to the development of trunk diseases.
The four fundamental principals in Simonit&Sirch Method are:
1. BRANCHING - Shaping the structure

2. RESPECTING VASCULAR FLOW – through the structure of the plant and separating desiccated areas from the main vascular flow

3. CUTS AND CROWNS – reducing cutting surfaces and respecting the crowns

4. PROTECTIVE WOOD – leaving a portion of protective wood when cutting on two-year-old wood

I found this article to be very enlightening. Also, in that article was a reference to the Simonit&Sirch Academy where there are free courses on pruning methods. I will be checking out that site soon!
References:
1. Chris Boiling, The key to pruning: Respect, Canopy Vineyard, 12-14-2021.
2. Simonit&Sirch Academy.