A Visit to Ko Hana Agricole

Full disclosure, we were in Hawaii recently and went to visit the Ko Hana Agricole. We were interested in this distillery for two reasons, (1) our neighbors at the Taugwonk Facility are rum distillers and (2) we watched an episode of Taste Makers that featured the Ko Hana distillery. The distillery is located in Kunia, on Oahu.

We signed up for their tour and was met by Chiffon, who took us on the winery tour. Their name is Hawaiian for Ko "sugar" and Hana "work. She explained that they grow around 34 varieties of sugar cane that was brought over by the Polynesians when they came to Hawaii. Outside of their tasting room, they grow the various sugar cane that they use in their rum.
We then went into their barrel room where Chiffon explained the various barrels that were used to age the rum.

As we exited the barrel room, we were fortunate enough to see some fresh pressed sugar cane juice being pumped into their outdoor tanks, where it is fermented. After fermentation, the alcohol is put through the distiller. There are various cuts that are made in order to get just the most concentrated portion that would be free of other products such as methanol and ethyl acetate.

Then it was time for the tasting! It's very difficult "taste" rum so what I did was merely to sniff the rum and very carefully take a very small sip.

I learned that the Ko Hana rums come directly from the sugar cane juice, as opposed to other rums that come from molasses. Chiffon explained that there are only three ingredients that go into the making of a Ko Hana rum: cane juice, a special yeast selected to ferment cane juice and water.
We enjoyed our visit and came home with a souvenir that we plan to share with Veritable Distillers.

2024 Chenin Blanc and SAD: Part One

Earlier this month I blogged about our grapes being affected with late bunch stem necrosis along with this disorder, we believe that our Chenin blanc also suffered from sugar accumulation disorder (SAD).
I found this reference online which may address the problems we saw last year. The artcle was written in 2024 and is a review entitled, "Berry shrivel in grapevine: A review considering multiple approaches".
It is an excellent and thorough review. One of the illustrations explained how the various grape ripening diseases are related.¹

The diseases shown in the diagram include the following:

• Berry shrivel (BS)
• Sugar accumulation disorder (SAD)
• Bunch stem necrosis (BSN)
• Late season dehydration (LSD)
• Berry splitting
• Sunburn

These disorders are all classified as grape ripening disorders. What we observed in our Chenin blanc was definitely a sugar accumulation disorder. Shortly after harvesting our Auxerrois and Chardonnay, we did a comprehensive sampling of the Chenin blanc and came up with 17 Brix. We noticed that while some of the Chenin had reached 20 Brix, many bunches were lagging behind and were only at 14 Brix. According to the review this sugar accumulation disorder (SAD) is also known as suppression of uniform ripening (SOUR).
The findings reported in this review stated that the lack of sugar accumulation maybe the result of cell death in the berries, most commonly around the central vascular bundles proximal to the seeds, and may or may not progress to the pedicel and rachis. The cause of this cell death remains unknown but leads to impaired sugar import into the berries.
The review then goes into the current science that might help us to understand the causes of SAD, to be continued in Part Two.
References:
1. Griesser M, Savoi S, Bondada B, Forneck A, Keller M. Berry shrivel in grapevine: a review considering multiple approaches. J Exp Bot. 2024 Apr 15;75(8):2196-2213. doi: 10.1093/jxb/erae001. PMID: 38174592; PMCID: PMC11016843.

2023 Clos Henri Sauvignon Blanc

We have been fans of Henri Bourgeois Sancerre for awhile now and really enjoyed his Les Demoiselle. We were intrigued to learn that he had purchased land in New Zealand in order to grow Sauvignon blanc there.
The Bourgeois family estate in Sancerre has been passed down through 10 generations. In 2000 Jean-Marie and the late Rémi Bourgeois decided to establish their vineyard in the Wairau Valley with the intention of growing Sauvignon blanc and Pinot noir. The soils in the Wairau Valley reminded them of their own terroir in Sancerre. I wondered what this wine would taste like? Would it be the ethereal expression of the Les Demoiselle or would it embody the New Zealand signature? I have to say that the Clos Henri is really a wine that speaks to the terroir in New Zealand. I do enjoy the New Zealand style Sauvignon blanc because on my palate I get passionfruit and not grassy flavors. We had this Clos Henri with Japanese tonkatsu and it paired very well.

2020 Passionfruit Estate Auxerrois

We recently tried our 2020 Auxerrois that was bottled at Jonathan Edwards Winery. We are trying to see what foods will go well with this wine. Auxerrois is a sibling of Chardonnay, both according to DNA analysis descend from a cross between Pinot noir and Gouais blanc.
The wine was pale yellow in the glass. This wine, while related to Chardonnay exhibits a very different flavor profile. We whole cluster press the grapes and then ferment it in stainless steel barrels where it sits on lees for at least a year.

Here are some numbers from this vintage:

Variety	Harvest Date	Brix	pH	TA g/L	Lbs	Gals	# Cases 750 mL	# Cases 375 mL
Auxerrois	9/17/2020	19.0	3.07	7.5	1670	133	36	21

We feel that the Auxerrois is a good pairing with Asian food. We made eggplant kabayaki. This is eggplant cooked to resemble the teriyaki style Japanese unagi (eel). The pairing went very well! The side was bok choy that was blanched in boiling water then sauteed with sesame oil with a light teriyaki sauce. While the bok choy did not clash with the Auxerrois, we thought that the sesame oil over powered the flavor of the Auxerrois. My husband liked the eggplant made this way. We will try another side that might be a better match in our quest to find the perfect Auxerrois-food pairing.

Hyperoxidation in Our Pressed Chardonnay Juice?

Today, I am looking back at our 2024 Chardonnay harvest and pressing. We pressed our 2024 Chardonnay on Monday, September 30, the juice was left in the press pan until there was enough to pump over into our transport barrels. During that time, the juice turned a dark brown color, despite the fact that my husband added potassium metabisulfite to the pressed juice. I recognized it as oxidation, but was it hyperoxidation?

Hyperoxidation is a winemaking practice that involves forced oxidation of white juice prior to fermentation in order to reduce the phenolic content of the juice which can be bitter and lead to astringent wines.¹ If hyperoxidation is used on the juice, the result is juice that is black in color. This technique originated in Burgundy sometime in the early 20th century.
Since we did not add more oxygen into the juice by using a diffuser, our juice did not qualify as hyperoxidized juice, however it was much darker in color than we usually see in our pressed juice.
I remembered a Chardonnay that we tasted in January 2023, during our Great Chardonnay Tasting when we sampled a wine called 00 from Oregon's Willamette Valley made by Chris and Kathryn Hermann using hyperoxidation. Double Zero’s Chardonnay is picked fully ripe, but at relatively low sugar levels, and the whole clusters are foot-crushed, chilled and macerated overnight. It then sees a long “heavy press cycle” with no sulfur additions. The must goes into the press pan and immediately turns dark brown to black through oxidation of the molecules from the skins.
This hyperoxidation technique used by 00 is to maximize the extraction of phenolics from the skins and seeds making the oxidized phenols fall out of suspension. The resultant clear juice is put into barrels, leaving behind the gross lees, and fermented with native yeast and then aged.
The result is a wine that retains all of the complex aromatics, flavors and texture from the phenols—is astonishingly oxidation-resistant and fresh. The top wines develop for 18 months in barrel, gaining in complexity and richness of texture through contact with the thick layer of lees.²
This is a picture of the 00 juice in the press pan which looks very much like the color of our pressed juice:

Recently we went back to sample our 2024 Chardonnay. The color was pale yellow in the glass and the aromatics were reminiscient of tropical flowers. The favors were of honey and pineapple. We will continue to leave our wine on the lees and monitor it's evolution. This wine seems to have a different flavor profile from other Chardonnays that we made. It could be the result of the juice browning, dropping out some of the oxidated phenols.
Here is a picture of our 2024 Chardonnay in the glass:

References:
1. Australian Wine Research Institute, Winemaking Treatments - Hyperoxidation.
2. The Rare Wine Company, Double Zero Chardonnay.

Retrospective Analysis of Vineyard Problem in 2024

All growing years are never the same and 2024 was another year to learn yet another lesson in viticulture. The summer was warm with a rain event almost every week, which in any other year is a welcomed event, saving us from having to irrigate the vineyard. However, the warmth and the rain caused our vines to grow uncontrollably and probably lead to what we began to observe in the vineyard. Here are some photos of the grapes as they matured through veraison.

There may be more than one problem going on here but a few of the symptoms suggest that our grape bunches suffered from something called late bunch stem necrosis(LBSN).¹
LBSN is a complex physiological disorder of grapevines, where the bunch stems (rachises) shrivel during ripening, followed closely by berry shrivel. The cause of this shriveling may be due to environmental stresses that causes the vine's xylem that transports water and nutrients, to shut down. Without a working xylem network, water and nutrients do not get to the grape bunches leading to the shriveling.
In reading this article on LBSN, one thing stood out that might have relevance to our situation: Aerial roots (roots forming on the cordons) can happen in response to winter injury, late frost damage, or excessively wet, humid conditions. While they do not negatively affect the plant, they do serve as a useful clue that the vine is experiencing these conditions.
We did observe aerial roots in many of our vines. In 2023, we had a late frost event on May 18th that decimated the south half of our vineyard. In 2024, we noticed that the north half of the vineyard fared better than the south half, being able to ripen the grape bunches. So it could be that our vineyard was still trying to recover from the damage done in 2023. The aerial roots and the berry shriveling were the visual cues that indicated a stressed vine.
We wait with anticipation as to what lessons Mother Nature has in store for us in the vineyard this year.
References:
1. Amaya Atucha, Berry Shriveling in Grapes: Late Bunch Stem Necrosis, UW-Madison Department Horticulture, September 13, 2019.

2022 La Centenaire Paired with Seafood

We visited our son and family recently and scored, among other bounty this bottle of 2022 La Centenaire Serge Dagueneau & Filles. It is a 100% Chasselas wine from the Loire Valley. We weren't ready to have this bottle of wine until we saw an episode of "Dining with the Chef" on NHK World. Chef Saito said that the best way to cook salmon that has been marinated in a mixture of sake, mirin and soy sauce is to put a piece of parchment paper in the pan and then add the marinated fish. Chef Saito's fish looked delicious! My husband was intrigued. We already had on hand, fresh oysters from our friend Will, so we decided to have wine and protein.

First, the oysters were the best that we have ever had! They were huge with the right touch of brine and so fresh! The Arctic Char a la Chef Saito was lightly seasoned and delicate.
The La Centenaire paired very well with the salmon but I detected a slight off flavor when paired with the oysters. (Because we all know that the best pairing of oysters is with Chenin Blanc!) Nevertheless, the La Centenaire was very good. A nice, light bodied wine with floral and tropical aromas. It was much more to our pallete than the 2013 Chateau d'Auvernier Neuchatel, a Chasselas from Switzerland that we had in 2015.
The La Centenaire is made from vines planted in 1895. Imagine a vineyard with vines more than 100 years old!

The fruit is picked by hand, and the vinification is in stainless steel, and it is bottled within a few months of the harvest. Today, the Domaine Serge Dagueneau is run by his daughter, Valerie who is the winemaker.¹
We liked this wine very much and look forward to having another bottle of La Centenaire.
References:
1. Vintage and Vine, Serge Dagueneau.

Hokkaido Japan and Pinot Noir

A few nights ago my husband and I were watching our go to news station, NHK World and learned that Pinot Noir was being grown in Hokkaido, the northern most island in Japan. Since I associate Hokkaido with abundant snow and skiing opportunities, I found it difficult to wrap my head around the fact that Pinot Noir can be grown there. Pinot Noir has a reputation of being a fickle grape to grow, indeed Marq de Villiers wrote a book about it called The Heartbreak Grape.
The summers in Hokkaido can be humid and warm-to-hot. The soils are dark, soft and highly fertile. According to Hokkaido government data, there were 41 wineries in the region as of Dec. 1 2019, nearly triple the number in fiscal 2009. Surprisingly, there are hospitable pockets in Hokkaido that are uniquely well-suited to growing Vitis vinifera, Pinot Noir.
Here are two of the wineries producing Pinot Noir:
Domaine Takahiko:¹
Domaine Takahiko was founded by Takahiko Soga in in 2010. Wine has been a part of Takahiko's life since childhood.² His parents operate the Obuse Winery in Nagano and he went on to train as an oenologist and microbiologist at the Tokyo University of Agriculture. His love of wine took him to the Jura and Burgundy where after 10 years, he decided to establish his own farm dedicated to raising Pinot Noir in Yoichi, a 50 minute train ride from Sapporo. The reality of grape farming in Hokkaido means that Takahiko has to deal with the annual infection of Botrytis cinera. He does not use excessive amounts of fungicide but instead uses blowers to control the Botrytis. He also harvests the infected grapes separately and makes the Domaine Takahiko Nana Tsu Mori Blanc de Noir. The infected berries are pressed directly after harvest, and the juice ferments dry (or nearly dry) every year. The wine, rather than redolently aromatic and sweet, is deep and defined by its savory, umami notes.

Domaine De Montille Winery¹
Etienne de Montille comes from a family with a 300 year history of growing grapes in Burgundy, France. Facing the challenges of climate change in Burgundy where rising temperatures were leading to overripe grapes, de Monteille was looking for a new site to plant Pinot Noir.
Having tasted and been impressed by a wine from Hokkaido, de Montille went to Japan. In May 2019 de Montille first planted vine saplings at his vineyard in the southern Hokkaido city of Hakodate, a relatively snow-free area. Etienne's goal is not to mimic the Burgundian style but to create a Pinot Noir that is distinctly Japanese.

These pioneers in Pinot Noir grape growing in Hokkaido are very inspiring! It reminds me of the grape growers on Prince Edward County, Ontario. Where there is a will, there is a way! I can't wait to taste some Hokkaido Pinot Noir!
References:
1. Asai Rina and Kitai Genki, NHK World, Hokkaido Pinot Noir: A new frontier for Japanese wine, December 16, 2024.
2. José Pastor Selections, Domaine Takahiko & Takahiko Soga.
3. Kyodo News, Global warming brings Pinot Noir cultivation to Japan's north, December 31, 2019.

Limoncello from Veritable Distillery

A few days ago, my husband and I went to pick up our online order of Limoncello from Veritable Distillery. Their facility is located at Taugwonk Spur where we have our winery. They make sherry, bourbon, gin, limoncello and coffee liqueur.
Last night, we tried a small amount of the Limoncello, straight up and tonight we tried it with an ice cube. It was delicious both ways.

It's nice to get to know some of our neighbors at the Taugwonk Industrial Facility!

Our Late Harvest Chenin Blanc

We have been trying our hand at creating a late harvest botrytized Chenin Blanc since 2019. Initially, we were bagging the grapes that our harvesters missed during the harvest. In 2022, we were delinquent with our harvest and didn't get to the organza bags until it was too late. In 2023, we tried to be more proactive in bagging the Chenin and were able to bag 750 bunches. In 2024, we dedicated half a row of Chenin to our late harvest efforts.
Here is a snapshot of the statistics associated with the vintage:

Year	Harvest date	#Pounds	Volume	Brix	pH	TA	# Bottles
2019	11/19/2019	50 lbs	4 gal	25	3.52	11.2 g/L	12
2020	12/11/2020	5 lbs	375 mL	39	-	-	0
2021	12/15/2021	20 lbs	1 gal	31.5	3.52	14.2 g/L	6
2023	12/1/2023	80 lbs	4 gal	44.0	3.62	14.8 g/L	37
2024	12/72024	50 lbs	2.5 gal	26.8	3.56	10.0 g/L	NA

What is true is that it takes a lot more pounds of grapes to have a small amount of juice from these raisin-like grapes. We have also learned that the final sugar content is very important in the flavor profile of the finished wine. We liken it to the German wine pyramid of sweetness:

1. Kabinett the lightest style of Riesling, made from grapes that have a sweetness level of 67-82 Oechsle (148–188 g/L sugar) at harvest. . Kabinett wines range in style from dry to off-dry¹
2. Spätlese means “late harvest” and grapes have a sweetness level of 76-90 Oechsle (172–209 g/L sugar) when harvested
3. Auslese meaning “select harvest”, Auslese is even sweeter picked at 83–110 Oechsle (191–260 g/l sugar) where the grapes are hand-selected and have noble rot
4. Beerenauslese meaning “berry select harvest”, these grapes are basically raisinated noble rot grapes picked at 110-128 Oechsle (260+ g/l sugar)
5. Trockenbeerenauslese Meaning “dry berry select harvest” the most rare wine of the group made from raisinated grapes that dried out on the vine picked at 150-154 Oechsle (350+ g/l sugar)
Based on the German categorization, our wines can be categorized as:

• 2019     25.0 Brix     Auslese
• 2020     39.0 Brix     Trockenbeerenauslese
• 2021     31.5 Brix     Trockenbeerenauslese
• 2023     44.0 Brix     Trockenbeerenauslese
• 2024     26.8 Brix     Beerenauslese

For noble rot to occur in the vineyard, the conditions have to be just right.
In looking back, our first attempt in 2019, was harvested on November 19 and though there was noble rot infection the grapes were not given the time necessary to dessicate and concentrate the sugars. For the 2024 harvest, while we bagged our grapes and harvested it on December 7, our Brix is at the Beerenauslese level. Though the grapes were shriveled when picked not all the grapes had been infected with noble rot.
This year is another year to try our hand at growing a noble rot infected Chenin!
References:
1. Schlink Haus.

California Winemakers Love Chenin Blanc

My husband forwarded this article "California Winemakers Love Chenin Blanc. But There Isn't Enough", from the San Fransisco Chronicle a few days ago and I thought it was a good article to begin the first blogpost in the New Year.
We love Chenin Blanc and consequently, almost half of our vineyard is planted with Chenin Blanc. Our viticultural mentors and friends, the Massouds over in Paumanok are the only other people we know who grow Chenin Blanc in the Northeast.
Here are some excerpts from the article written by Jess Lander:¹
There is a resurrection of Chenin Blanc in California wine production along with an increased demand for white wines over red wines. Palisades Canyon is a historic vineyard in Napa Valley's Calistoga region whose current stewards are Felicia Woytak and Steven Rasmussen. The wines at Palisades Canyon is crafted by fourth-generation Napa Valley winemaker and grape-grower Graeme MacDonald. He ages the Chenin Blanc sur lie in neutral oak. They only made 30 cases of it, but the demand for this under-the-radar Chenin Blanc at a pricey $75 a bottle sold out in two minutes!
In Graeme MacDonald's grandparent's time, Chenin Blanc was produced in an off-dry style for Charles Krug on one of the original parcels of To Kalon, Napa Valley’s most famous vineyard. Graeme MacDonald goes on to say that it was a wine people lined up for more than anything. They couldn't get enough of Chenin Blanc.

One has to ask what happened? Why is Chenin Blanc such an unknown white wine only now having a moment? In 1984, there were roughly 45,000 acres of Chenin Blanc planted in California, according to the California Grape Acreage Report. Over time, most of California’s Chenin was blended into mass productions of other cheap and sweet white wines, often labeled “California Champagne” or “Chablis” by the industry’s biggest players like Gallo. Chenin’s reputation plummeted. In 2023, there were only about 4,000 acres left. That accounts for less than 1% of the state’s wine grape acreage.¹
Through the ensuing years, Chenin Blanc had some notoriety but not a lasting one. In the 2000s Craig Haarmeyer of Haarmeyer Wine Cellars in West Sacramento and Tegan Passalaqua of Sandlands in Lodi began producing Chenin Blanc. Reed Skupny, who makes Lang & Reed’s Chenin Blanc began compiling a list of growers of Chenin Blanc but in 2019, he stopped updating his list when the number of growers approached 70. The grapes that Lang & Reed purchased for their Chenin Blanc were being used in the production of brandy. Now the grower has a line of wineries who want his Chenin Blanc.
The article corroborates our feelings about Chenin Blanc. It can be made in a variety of styles, still or sparkling and is often characterized by orchard fruit flavors like apple and pear. Chenin Blanc can also be made into a dessert wine. It is rich, complex and age worthy.

References:
1. Jess Lander, "California Winemakers Love Chenin Blanc. But There Isn't Enough", San Francisco Chronicle
2. Palisades Canyon Website.

Happy New Year!

We rang in the New Year by drinking our 2019 Cabernet Franc. My husband made pork chops stuffed with spinach and gruyere cheese with a side of wild rice. It was the perfect compliment to the Cabernet Franc which surprisingly for me was between a medium and full bodied Cabernet Franc. It had enough fruit and the tannins had mellowed out with bottle ageing.

The wine was clear and dark purple in the glass and the aromas and flavors to me were like dark cherries. We consumed only half of the bottle and will taste it again and see how the wine evolves.
Here are the statistics for this Cabernet Franc:

Cabernet Franc	Harvest Date	Weight/ Lbs	Volume of Juice/ Gallons	Brix	pH	TA	%Alcohol
2019	10/26/2019	377	32	23.0	3.23	11.3 g/L	13.1

In the evening, just around the time that the clock rang in the New Year, Mother Nature provided us with her own fireworks, lightning and the loudest thunder! Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!