Vintage 2024: How Can It Be August!

It's already August. We are in leaf pulling mode and are working on the Auxerrois which are the first grapes to ripen.

We went to the vineyard around 9:30 today and immediately upon getting out of the car, we were hit with saunalike temperatures. Our granddaughter and I leaf pulled one row of Auxerrois and called it a day!

Chenin Blanc: Geology of the Three Major Geologic Regions

In the last blog, Chenin Blanc: Geology of the Loire, I ended by writing that next blog would be a closer look at the three geologic regions of the Massif Central, the Paris Basin and the Massif Armoricain. This dive into the soils of the region is to answer the question of why Chenin Blanc found a home in the Loire valley.

It was very interesting to read that the Massif Central, where the source of the Loire river is located is made up of 450 extinct volcanoes some of which were still raging only 10,000 years ago. The lava which was the result of volcanic activity in the region metamorphosed into deposits of granite, gneiss, and schist (slate).
Following the northerly journey of the Loire river, the geological region changes from the Massif Central to the Paris Basin. (For a very abbreviated explanation of the formation of the Paris Basin, please check out this blogpost: Champagne Part 2: Geology).
About 300 million years ago, the Massif Armoricain and the Massif Central were already formed and were part of an extremely high chain of mountains. The foot of these mountains was a warm and humid jungle and over the course of tens of millions of years, these mountains were slowly eroded. The sediment rolling down the hillsides and over the jungle formed a giant arid desert of sediment. This desert area began slowly tilting, allowing an ocean to creep over the basin eventually forming the basement of the Paris basin. Through geologic time, the oceans receded, then came back again, receded, came back and receded once more. The massive amounts of planktonic algae that grew formed the current day chalk in these regions.
The Loire river is now taking a left turn and making it's way through the Massif Armoricain. The Massif Armoricain like the Massif Central is made up of cooled lava from ancient volcanoes, with the oldest rocks thought to be 650 million years old. Granite, gneiss, schist, and other metamorphic rocks can be found here.
We have now entered the region where Chenin Blanc found it's home.

Next blog will be about the regions in the Loire valley where Chenin Blanc is grown and how the soils impacts the type of Chenin Blanc that is made.

References:
1. Jon-David Headrick Selections, Geologgy and Geography of the Loire.

Chenin Blanc: Geology of the Loire

Since my husband and I both have scientific backgrounds, we can't help but ask questions. When we made our first Chenin Blanc wine in 2015, my husband likened it to drinking "jet fuel", it was so acidic to say it was racy was being euphemistic. We were surprised because we were familiar with the Chenin Blanc flavors from Vouvray, being partial to the wines made by Domaine Huet. What we ended up making was something entirely different so, my husband decided to do some investigating and learned that our wines are similar to the Chenin Blanc made in Savennières.
We are asking questions again since our Chenin Blanc is grown on granitic soils. I am on a virtual visit to the Loire and wondering what it is about the soils in that region that produce such memorable Chenin Blanc. One of the best articles online is one that I found called Geologgy and Geography of the Loire. I really do enjoy learning about the geology of a wine making region and have done deep dives before on Champagne and Alsace:

• Champagne Part 2: Geology
• Alsace Part 2: The Geology - The Layout of the Land
• Alsace Part 2: The Geology - The Location of the Upper Rhine Graben
• Alsace Part 2: The Geology - The Vosges and the Black Forest Mountain
• Alsace Part 2: The Geology - The Vosges Mountain Paleozoic Evolution
• Alsace Part 2: The Geology - Putting it All Together

The geology of the Loire is really about the three regions through which the Loire River runs: the Massif Central, the Paris Basin and the Massif Armoricain. The source of the Loire river lies in the eastern Massif Central and flows mostly north and then west for 629 miles and eventually reaches the Bay of Biscay in the Atlantic ocean, just to the west of Muscadet. On this journey, the Loire drains almost 50,000 square miles, fully a fifth of France.

The three geologic regions of the Massif Central, the Paris Basin and the Massif Armoricain is what the next blogs will be about. Thanks for hanging with me!
References:
1. Jon-David Headrick Selections, Geologgy and Geography of the Loire.

Winery Signs Went Up!

We are getting one small step closer to opening up our "winery" for sales. We enlisted the help of Jeff and Carolyn from Coastal Graphics in Rhode Island to help us put signs on our door and a sign on our awning.

Before that, my husband worked with Kimberly from Krushgraphics Design Studio to finetune our label which is a view of the Mystic River and Long Island Sound from our vineyard on Quoketaug Hill. It was Kimberly's advice that our logo should be consistent with our label. Since growing grapes and making wine is our passion and "we" are from Hawaii, we wanted to incorporate the passionfruit into our logo. The logo is a stylized version of a passion vine with a flower and a fruit. It is replicated to look like a Hawaiian quilt design. This logo, our wine label and font styles will be our brand.
So, yesterday, while in the sweltering heat, we got a call from Jeff saying that he could put up our signs! I welcomed the call since I was ready to call it quits in the vineyard. We went to our winery space at Taugwonk and met Jeff and his wife Carolyn. They came prepared with window cleaner and all the accoutrements to put up our door sign. Jeff is a perfectionist and measured the sign and placement many times before he was satisfied that everything was at the same height and straight. Here is what our door sign looks like:

Next, Jeff and Carolyn went to the back of the building and put up the sign on the soffit. Once again, Jeff and Carolyn were critical of the placement, ensuring that it was well centered.

We really like how the signs turned out! A huge shoutout and thank you to Jeff and Carolyn Miner at Coastal Graphics and Kimberly Rushforth at Krushgraphics Design Studio!