Chinon Les Chanteaux Couly-Dutheil 2010

We really enjoy the Chenin Blanc from Vouvray. This is one of the reasons we are going to try to grow Chenin Blanc in Connecticut. Recentlly, we had this Chinon Chenin Blanc and it was very different in flavor from the Vouvray. We think that it is a "sec" but probably on the border of "demi-sec". The fragrant nose was one of stone and tropical fruits including passion fruit and lichee! The flavor was honey and apricots and well balanced with an acidic backbone.

The Heartbreak Grape by Marq de Villiers

This is not the first time that we have purchased a paperback version of a hardcopy book that I did not know we already had. We went to Calera to do a tasting and the book was on sale so I had to have it. I read in in 2010 on the way to the UC Davis Small Vineyard Management course. I picked it up again and read it in Virginia. It had more resonance with me this time. It's not only a book about Josh Jensen and his struggle to find land in California for the heartbreak grape, Pinot Noir, I found the book to be an excellent roadmap on what to do if you are a grape grower and winemaker wannabee.
The naming of the Jensen, Selleck, Reed, Mills and Ryan vineyards is explained. I really like Jensen's philosophy: The really nice thing about the best wineries is that they are like the best chefs. They really don't have secrets.... The real talents are happy to share all they know, because they know that next year they'll be creating something new and even better. They're teachers.
This is was Jensen said about Andre Noblet, the maitre de chai of Romanee Conti during the 1970's when Jensen was there as a harvest hand.
In our quest to enter the business, we have been fortunate to meet so many people who have shared a lot of their knowledge with us. I found this book to be a really good read.

Wineries Unlimited

This week finds us in Richmond, Virginia. We are going to Wineries Unlimited but are focussed on attending the trade show portion of the conference. When we went to the Unified Wine and Grape Symposium in Sacramento in late January, we went to many vendors' booths and got an overall impression of the kinds of equipment that were available but were completely overwhelmed. We learned that many of the vendors would be on the East Coast in March so we hope to get more information from a few of them. In the interim from January to March, my husband and I have been mulling over what we need.
The calculations that we are doing go like this:
For each ton of grapes we think that we can get 160 gallons of juice or approximately 65 cases of wine.
We need to look into the most appropriate size of equipment for volumes that can range from 3-5 tons (initial quantities) to the maximum of 25 tons or approximately 1600 cases which is our long term goal.
We are looking into destemmers (not necessarily with the crusher option), bladder presses, sorting tables and stainless steel tanks. We've talked with a few winemakers and listened to their sage advice. To us, the distillation of their advice goes something like this:
Grow the best grapes you can then the wine will make itself. Figure out what is the most important equipment that you need first and invest in that. Remember that people were making good wine long before science and technology came to have such prominence in grape growing and winemaking. Chik Brenneman at the U.C. Davis Institute for Wine and Food said something I'll always remember. When I remarked on all the state-of-the-art, beautiful, shiny stainless steel equipment in the new institute, he said a little wistfully, "Sometimes there is a need for more "art" in state-of-the-art".

Vietti Barbera d'Asti 2009

Now, I get it! We have had this Barbera d'Asti from Vietti before and I have to be honest and say that I preferred the Vietti Barbera d'Alba. This was before we went on our quest to drink Barbera with the intention that we may be planting some on our land. When we went to do our homework and visited the land of Barbera in the U.S., located in the Sierra Foothills of California, both Ann Kraemer and Dick Cooper mentioned the high acidity associated with growing Barbera in the foothills. We were a little perplexed because the Sierra Foothills is warm, but Ann mentioned that the nights are cool so the malic acid doesn't get respired! Ann shared with us her bottle of Yorba Barbera and this Vietti Barbera d'Asti reminds me of Ann's wine...well balanced execution of fruit and acids. This is not a fruity wine but if you like some acidic counterpoint, you will like this Barbera, full of dark cherries on the nose.