Exploring the Grand Terroir of Gérard Bertrand with Tautavel and La Clape

May 17, 2019

Gérard Bertrand wines of Limoux, Tautavel & La Clape

Even if you are not an expert on French Wine, you are sure to have heard of Gérard Bertrand. He produces that stunning bottle of rosé Côte des Roses. You know, the bottle with the rose embossed on the bottom. It’s hard to miss! And…it’s a lovely wine, that actually comes from the Côte des Roses, an area near Gruissan in Languedoc in the South of France. But Gérard Bertrand is much more than simply rosé….

Gérard Bertrand – the man

Gérard’s family had an estate vineyard. He learned alongside his father. Of course he went off on his own and found a passion for Rugby, which he played professionally for many years. But he always had a passion for wine. When his father passed in 1987 he returned to take over the family’s Villemajou Estate and later created the Gérard Bertrand wine company.

Languedoc -Roussillon

Map of the Languedoc-Rousillon Wine Region in France — The Languedoc-Roussillon Wine Region in France

Even if you enjoy French wines, Languedoc is rarely one of the first regions you will encounter. This region is in the south of France to the West of the famous Provence. It is the region that wraps around the mediterranean sea from Nîmes to the border with Spain.

The red grape varieties here include Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Cinsault, Carignan, all of which can be beautifully blended. We will explore two of these blends below, as well as dipping our toes into a bit of Crémant from Limoux.

Gérard Bertrand – Expressing the Terroir

At Gérard Bertrand they are dedicated to biodiversity and to the area of Languedoc-Roussillon. They expanded from the original Villemajou vineyard to purchase Cigalus Estate, Château Laville Bertrou and the Aigle Estate. Beyond that they now include Château la Sauvageonne, Château la Soujeole, Clos d’Ora, Clos du Temple, Château les Karantes, Château Aigues-Vives, Cap Insula winery, Château des Deux Rocs, Château de Tarailhan and the Estagnère Estate, in their portfolio.

Biodynamic practices

After becoming interested in homeopathic medicine in the early 2000’s, Gérard became interested in Biodynamics and in 2002 started farming the Cigalus Estate biodynamically. They have since converted all their estates to biodynamic practices.

Many of the pieces you will see below will focus on the Biodynamic Cigalus Blanc, the wine that Gérard Bertrand provided as samples to many of the French #Winophiles. With many people interested the list had to be limited. Late to the party we did not receive the samples, but we were able to find several other bottles of Gérard Bertrand wines that peaked our interest!

The Grand Terroir range of wines they produce allow you discover each unique region. In addition they produce a Crémant de Limoux, claimed to be the region where sparkling wine originated. I mean how could we pass that up?!

Limoux

So we have all probably heard the story of the famous monk Benedictine Dom Pérignon who lived in Hautvillers in the Champagne region of France, discovering bubbles and tasting the stars! Dom has, in legend, often been credited with inventing Champagne. He lived from 1638 to 1715. Well… in Limoux they say that in 1531, the monks of Saint Hilaire were the first to discover the bubbles and begin using the “traditional methode” to produce sparkling wines. I’ll let them duke it out, you can pour me a glass of either and I will be happy to watch them debate while I simply enjoy the delicious wine.

Limoux sits in the cool foothills of the Pyranees, an area perfect for growing grapes for sparkling wine. For more on this area, I highly recommend visiting the Limoux AOC page on Languedoc Wine site!

Gérard Bertrand Cuvee Thomas Jefferson Crémant de Limoux Brut Rose 2016

Gérard Bertrand Cuvee Thomas Jefferson Cremant de Limoux Brut Rose 2016 Bottle shot — Gérard Bertrand Cuvee Thomas Jefferson Cremant de Limoux Brut Rose 2016

Crémant de Limoux is said to be the only sparkling wine that Thomas Jefferson kept in his cellar. I like to picture him receiving the sparkling bottles from the chilly basement through his wine elevator…leave it to Thom to invent this stuff. (We visited Monticello a few years ago, hence the photos).

Wine Cellar at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello
Wine Elevator at Monticello.

This particular wine is a blend of 70% Chardonnay, 15% Chenin, and 15% Pinot Noir.

The Grapes are harvested when their acid-sugar balance reach their best. The fruit is transferred to the winery and immediately pressed in a pneumatic pressing machine. In addition to reinforce the perception of freshness and balance, the dosage is very precise. The Pinot Noir grapes are not macerated, in order to preserve their colour. The must is transferred to the vats for alcoholic fermentation using the same process used for still wine. After malolactic fermentation in the vats, the wine is blended together and then transferred to the barrels to mature for 8 months.
From Gérard-Bertrand.com

La Clape

During the Roman era, this area was actually an island. No longer an island, La Clape is bordered to the east by the sea, to the west by the low-lying alluvial plains of the Aude and to the south by the lagoons. The soils here are loose limestone.

Map of La Clape in Languedoc courtesy Gérard Bertrand
Photo of La Clape courtesy Gérard Bertrand

Gérard Bertrand Grand Terroir La Clape 2015

The wine is a blend of 50% Syrah, 35% Carignan and 15% Mourvèdre. It sits at 13.5% abv

A slow ripening process and a late harvest (end of September to mid-October) are the key ingredients for producing grapes that are ripe, healthy and concentrated and also aids the extraction of colour and aromas during fermentation and maceration. The grapes are harvested by hand when they have reached peak ripeness and transported to the winery in special bins. They are then de-stemmed before being transferred to the stainless steel vats for maceration, lasting 20 to 25 days. The wine is then decanted into barrels for 8 months of ageing.
From Gérard-Bertrand.com

Tautavel

Tautavel is a village in the Roussillon region, located between the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean. This region lays claim to some of the oldest hominid remains in Europe. In 1971, the remains of Tautavel Man were discovered. These remains date to 450,000 years ago, and the area is thought to be one of the cradles of civilization.

Map of Tautavel courtesy Gérard Bertrand
Photo of Tautavel courtesy Gérard Bertrand

Gérard Bertrand Grand Terroir Tautavel 2015

This wine is a blend of Grenache, Syrah & Carignan and sits a 15% abv

Work in the vineyard starts by selecting the most suitable plots of land for each variety. The grapes are harvested once they have reached peak maturity, determined by regular tasting, and are sorted twice: once in the vineyard and again in the winery. The fruit is vinified in the traditional manner, the grapes are de-stemmed and then undergo maceration for 3 to 4 weeks. The must is then pressed before malolactic fermentation begins. 33% of the wine is transferred to barrels and matured for 9 months, while the rest matures in the vats.
From Gérard-Bertrand.com

The Pairings

I sat with the tech sheets for each of these wines and prepared a menu, which began and ended with the Crémant de Limoux Brut Rose.

Salmon Crostini

Salmon Crostini with raspberry jam or caviar
Gérard Bertrand Crémant de Limoux with Salmon Crostini

The salmon crostini was simple, just crostini, (sliced baguette, brushed with olive oil and baked 8-10 minutes) topped with smoked salmon, a dot of creme fraiche and then either a dab of raspberry jam or a dab of caviar.

The Crémant was beautiful in the glass, clear with fine bubbles and a light salmon color, that looked gorgeous next to our salmon crostini. The nose hit you first with tart fruit followed by whiffs of toast.

This was beautiful with the salmon, the acid and bubbles cutting through the fat. The creme fraiche mirrored the tartness in the wine and the crostini brought in those toasty elements. It was interesting to see how the difference of salt or sweet on the top affected the experience. I enjoyed the jam matching the fruit in the wine and balancing it with that hint of sweetness, but the crostini with the caviar was my favorite. The caviar contrasted beautifully, pulling forward the fruit notes in the wine. This was a delicious bite and pairing.

Cheese & charcuterie

Cheese and Chacuterie platter Gouda, triple creme, manchego, berries, nuts, honey, sopresso — Cheese and Charcuterie platter

We opened the two red wines and put together a cheese & charcuterie platter, which included gouda, manchego and a St. Angel triple creme cheese. I added some sopresso, honey & walnuts, as well as an assortment of berries; strawberries, raspberries and blackberries.

I found that the triple creme cheese went beautifully with both wines, with the wine pulling forth some beautiful floral notes in the cheese. The Tautavel was surprisingly nice with the salmon crostini with caviar, brightening and highlighting the food.

As expected the sopresso was wonderful with the La Clape with the mouvedre in the blend. The La Clape was also very nice with the crostini with the jam. Together both the jam and the wine felt brighter in my mouth.

Sous vide pork in caramel sauce & Roasted fennel & Peppers

Pork in Caramel sauce to pair with the Gérard Bertrand 2015 Tautavel
Sous Vide pork w/caramel sauce & roasted fennel and peppers

Gérard Bertrand’s suggested pairings for the Tautavel included “grilled peppers, pork in caramel sauce and rabbit with prunes and fine cheeses”. The tasting notes also listed red fruit and raspberry aromas underpinned by spicy notes…delicate notes of scrubland and spices on the palate”. In addition they noted “Ripe black fruits, chocolate, licorice and smoked herbs…”

Intrigued by the pork in caramel sauce, I found a recipe for sous vide pork to riff on. The pork went into the sous vide with a rub of salt, pepper, paprika (for those subtle spices on the palate) and rosemary (for the scrubland herb notes). 2 hours later, we seared the chops and drizzled with a caramel sauce with salt pepper and rosemary. This plated with roasted fennel (pulling forward those licorice notes) and peppers with a bit of rubbed sage (more scrubland). We garnished with fresh fennel and sage leaves and blackberries to tie in the “ripe black fruit”.

Roasted Chicken on a bed of cous cous with arugula and cranberries

Roasted chicken on a bed of cous cous with rosemary, cranberries and arugula

The La Clape suggestions included roasted poulty and creamy cheeses. We had already enjoyed this with the triple creme, so now it was onto tasting it with the roast chicken. I served this on a bed of cous cous with cranberries to pull those fruit notes and arugula to pull some of the peppery notes, as well as add a bit of green.

Both of the wines paired well with the food. These wines are lovely on the nose, but feel lighter on the palate, so that they were beautiful to pair with these lighter meats without overpowering the flavors of the dishes.

Dessert – Deconstructed Berry tart

Deconstructed berry tart with the Gérard Bertrand Cuvee Thomas Jefferson Cremant de Limoux Brut Rose 2016

With a Brut Rosé you can rarely go wrong with a red fruit desert, and this was no exception. I created a simple deconstructed berry tart, with crumbled shortbread, raspberry jam, a puree of raspberries an strawberries, fresh blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, mint and a raspberry sorbet.

We poured another glass of the Gérard Bertrand Cuvee Thomas Jefferson Crémant de Limoux Brut Rose 2016 (which we had stoppered, pressurized returned to the fridge to preserve the bubbles while we enjoyed the rest of the meal). This pairing did not disappoint and was the perfect end to an evening of delicious wines.

This was a beautiful exploration into this region and this winery for me. I encourage you to search for Gérard Bertrand wines, beyond that beautiful rosé and taste a bit of Languedoc.

The French #Winophiles

Read on for more great pieces on the wines of Gérard Bertrand. As I mentioned before, many of these will focus on the wonderful 2018 Cigalus Blanc, an exceptional white blend that I look forward to tasting in the future.

And join us on Saturday May 18th at 11 am EST on twitter to discuss these wines! Just follow #Winophiles to find us!

Michelle Williams – Rockin Red Blog: “Celebrating Biodynamic Viticulture And The Beauty Of The Languedoc With Gérard Bertrand #Winophiles”

Lynn Gowdy – Savor the Harvest: “This Biodynamic Wine Is a Summer Pleaser + Saturday Culinary Concoction.“

Wendy Klik- A Day in the Life on a Farm : ” New Wine Paired with an Old Favorite.”

Camilla Mann – Culinary Adventures with Camilla: “Lemon-Caper Halibut + Gérard Bertrand 2018 Cigalus Blanc”

Linda Whipple, My Full Wine Glass : “Languedoc Wine Meets Lebanese Cuisine”

David Crowley – Cooking Chat: “Savoring a Special White Wine from Souther France”

Pinny Tam – Chinese Food and Wine Pairings: “Exploring Languedoc-Roussillon with Chateau Millegrand Minervois Mourral Grand Reserve + Chinese Charcuterie Board #Winophiles”

Jeff Burrows – Food, Wine, Click: “Butter Roasted Fish with Gérard Bertrand’s Cigalus Blanc”

Jane Niemeyer – Always Ravenous: Chicken Korma with Gérard Bertrand Cigalus Blanc”

Cindy Lowe Rynning – Grape Experiences: “The Wines of Gerard Bertrand: Expect Joie de Vivre with Every Sip”

Susannah Gold – Avvinare: “A Wine from Gerard Bertrand: A Larger than Life Figure”

Deanna Kang – Asian Test Kitchen: “Gerard Bertrand Rose Paired with Subtly Spiced Shrimp”

Cynthia Howson & Pierre Ly – Traveling Wine Profs: “Comfort Food and Sunny Red: Gérard Bertrand Côtes des Roses with Senegalese Mafé and Fonio”

Jill Barth – L’Occasion: “A Name To Know: Gérard Bertrand”

Gwendolyn Lawrence Alley – Wine Predator:”Bertrand’s Biodynamic Cigalus Paired with French Sausage”

Liz Barrett – What’s in that Bottle: “Get to Know the Winning Wines from Languedoc Icon Gérard Bertrand”

Nicole Ruiz Hudson – SommsTable: “Cooking to the Wine: Gérard Bertrand Grand Terroir Tautavel Grenache-Syrah-Carignan with Saucy Lamb Loin Chops”

Rupal Desai Shankar – Syrah Queen: “A Commitment To Languedoc – The Biodynamic Wines Of Gerard Bertrand”

Payal Vora, Keep the Peas: “Aude: Alive in More Ways Than Wine”

L.M. Archer: “The Hedonistic Taster: Gérard Bertrand 2018 Cigalus Blanc”

As always be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up to date on all of our posts.

Owen Roe’s Union Gap Vineyard – A tour with David O’Reilly

April 3, 2019

Owen Roe Winery, in Yakima Valley Washington

Glasses were clinking, wines were being poured, great conversations were happening, the weather was perfect and Flavor Camp was about to begin.

Wine Yakima Valley treated those of us who attended the WBC Pre Conference tour to 2 incredible days exploring the Yakima Valley. (You can catch our overview here). This first evening was spent at Owen Roe Winery. We managed an impromptu winery tour with Co-Owner David O’Reilly and now we were on to Flavor Camp.

The Yakima Valley is an agricultural region and in addition to grapes for wine, they also produce apples for cider and hops for beer. We were treated to an in-depth look at these with Flavor Camp.

You will get to hear about the Cider and Hops also, but we are about wine here, so….

David O'Reilly with Owen Roe Vineyard explained that we are about as far West in the Yakima Valley as you can go. — David O’Reilly With Owen Roe Vineyard

Vineyard Tour with David O’Reilly

We are at the Owen Roe Union Gap Vineyard in the Yakima Valley. As we climb into the back of the all-terrain vehicle with about a dozen wine writers, David explained that we are about as far West in the Yakima Valley as you can go.

“From east to west there is not a big temperature difference.” David tells us, but Walla Walla, where we would be going the following day, was at 30 degrees the night before, where as Yakima was at 40. The cold air rushes down the valley.

For a bit of perspective, take a look at this Wine map of Washington State, Courtesy of Washingtonwine.org you can see Yakima about at center east/west in the state, with the cascades to the west, compared to Walla Walla to the east.

Washington AVA Photo Courtesy of washingtonwine.org — Washington AVAs Photo Courtesy of washingtonwine.org

Here on this map of the Yakima Valley courtesy of WineYakimaValley.org you can see the Union Gap Vineyard all the way west.

Map Yakima Valley 2019 courtesy of WineYakimaValley.org

This tour would take us through 3 of the distinct soil types on the vineyard and we would taste the flavor profile from each.

Missoula Flood Loess and Bordeaux varieties

We drove up the hill and stepped out at the top, into soft loose dusty soil that immediately covered my shoes. As people walked, little puffs of dust erupted in their footsteps. “Loose soil” is your clue here. This is loess.

Loess soil at Owen Roe's Union Gap Vineyard. — Loess soil at Owen Roe’s Union Gap Vineyard.

David pulls out his altimeter app to check the altitude (we all scrambled to find this app). We were standing at 1199 feet.

Remember those Missoula Floods?

Now it’s time to talk a little soil history. If you read our piece on Montinore, you may have some of this history! If not, you can find it here, where Rudy Marchesi explains the Missoula Floods.

This property sits at the convergence of Glacial Lake Missoula. We would pass the Wallula Gap tomorrow as we headed to Walla Walla. This is where the Ice dam backed up the water, eventually lifting and flooding the valley, creating the Columbia River Gorge and impacting the land and soil all the way into Oregon.

The water here in Yakima came up to about 1150 feet, so the soil we were standing on was above the glacial flood. The soil here are silts (really fine). David pointed out the hillside where you could see the sub soils of basalt and ancient rock that are about 22 million years old.

Owen Roe 2014 Bordeaux Blend. — Owen Roe 2014 Bordeaux Blend in the vineyard

Soils here on top are shallow making it good for Bordeaux varieties. At the top of the hill where we are standing, they grow their Cabernet Sauvignon. This is clone 47, David tells us, a clone with small berries, this wine retains it’s fruit and has beautiful acid. We are tasting the 2014 bordeaux Blend with is a Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot & Malbec blend, with Cabernet Sauvignon from this vineyard block.

In the summers, up here, the sun is up at 6 am and the soils tend to stay warm overnight. They have less of a diurnal (day to night temperature) shift then Red Mountain. Photosynthesis is maximized when the soil is warm so the grapes here ripen earlier and the wine is less tannic and more textural.

We strolled down the hill, creating little dust storms and ending at the block of Cabernet Franc.

Elevation, terroir and matching varieties

David explained the planting method. The soils that are most shallow are planted to the latest ripening grape varieties (cabernet sauvignon), the deeper soils toward the bottom of the hill are planted to merlot, which has big clusters that ripen early. Here in the middle is where the cab franc grows, ripening later than merlot and before the cabernet sauvignon.

Cabernet Franc at Owen Roe

Cabernet Franc is a favorite of mine and of David’s it seemed. He spoke of this ancient grape, father to cabernet sauvignon and how it likes cooler temperatures. In hotter years it gets finicky. This end of the Yakima Valley is about 4 degrees cooler than other sites in the valley during the day, but it stays warmer at night. This gives the cabernet franc “gorgeous texture and keeps that perfume in the grape”.

We taste the 2015 Cabernet Franc. This year was warmer and the cabernet franc was finicky. They had to pluck out the green berries by hand from the bunches. The first major heat will shut photosynthesis down. The 2014 by comparison was very Bordeaux in style and was chunky and tannic.

Irrigation in the Yakima Valley

We noticed the irrigation drip. Washington is extremely dry and they must irrigate here to keep the vineyard growing. The water here comes from wells from the Ellensberg Formation Aquifer. Due to the soil type, it tends to be slightly acidic. The soils are basic and low in nitrogen so this is one of the nutrients they will add in the winery. (We talk about that in our winery tour)

Drip Irrigation, a necessity when growing in the high desert conditions in the Yakima Valley

In so many wine regions we are trained to think of irrigation as bad and dry farming is good. That would be to stress the vines and keep those roots digging deep. Here, with the lack of rain fall, it is necessary.

The region gets only 7 to 8 inches of precipitation each year, and the definition of a true desert is anything less than 10.
http://wineyakimavalley.org/climate/

The cherries in the valley, David tells us, use 10 times the amount of water as the vines here.

Into the glacial soils & Rhône varieties

Calcium Carbonate in the rocks at Owen Roe Vineyard.

Further down the hill we get into the glacial soils where you find calcium carbonate, the white substance we had seen above. These glacial silts have a little deeper soil and give you rock and minerality, the wines are finer than if they were grown in loess & deeper soils, that present as more aromatic and textural.The Oldest soil type here is the Ellensburg Formation, which is old Columbia Riverbed. This predates the Yakima River & the basalt activity. These are actually “anti-clines” that formed through earth movement. The upthrust that we were standing on at this point was at almost 1200 feet. This is not glacial. Anything lower than this was not upthrust, it was just washed away.

Ellensburg is found in high elevations. In Walla Walla the famous Rocks AVA is all on riverbeds at the Valley Floor.

What makes this great for Grenache is that Grenache is cold sensitive, so you want it high in the vineyard so the cold air rushes down. Sounds counter intuitive, it’s at one of the highest elevations & yet it ripens early.

Okay…all this talk about soils and wine, are you thirsty now? Search out a bottle of Washington wine, Owen Roe if you can find it, and enjoy our video tour with David O’Reilly.

Washington Tasting room

Open Daily from 11-4 in the Yakima Valley, they do require reservations for more than 8 guests.

They also offer Barrel Room Tastings on the weekends started each day at noon. You can reserve this for a fee on their reservation page. It includes a tour, private tasting, an expanded flight and a cheese and charcuterie platter.

The Union Gap Vineyard and tasting room can be found at 309 Gangl Rd in Wapato WA 98951. 509-877-0454

Oregon Tasting Room

Again open daily from 11-4 their tasting room off Hwy 219 outside of Newberg requires reservations for more than 6 guests. You can bring snacks, or contact them ahead of time and they can have a snack plate ready.

Here they have a Cellar Table Experience that you can reserve to do a more private tasting geared toward your palate. Contact them ahead of time to set this up.

The Willamette Valley tasting room is located at 2761 E 9th St. Newberg OR 97132. 503-538-7778

More to come!

Watch for more on Yakima Valley Wine, coming out soon!

And visit our Yakima Valley Wine page on our site for more details on this great region.

As always be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up to date on all of our posts.

Vista Hills Vineyard and the Uncommon Wine Festival 2018

October 21, 2018

Sunset over the vines at Vista Hills Vineyard in the Dundee Hills

Vista Hills was the setting for the “Uncommon Wine Festival” that we’ve been talking about so much. This years was the 9th annual and before heading down there we had a chance to speak with Dave Petterson, Vista Hills Winemaker about the festival and how it got started.

The Uncommon Wine Festival at Vista Hills Vineyard – The Mega Mix

The day itself was spectacular, not too hot, not too cold. The vineyards were beautiful, the wines were flowing, there was even a group on horseback that stopped by the festival, before continuing their ride through the vineyards. And of course there were makers of “uncommon” wine there to talk and taste with. Enjoy our Mega Mix of the day!

While we couldn’t catch Dave during the festival, we did have a chance to taste a few of his “Uncommon Wines”

2017 Fool’s Gold Blanc de Noir

100% Pinot Noir, this blanc de Noir gets pressed and gets no time on the skin, which allows for this lovely light coppery color. They fement it with a champagne yeast. They only made 121 cases of this wine.

The grapes come from their newest vineyard block that was planted just 10 years ago in 2008. Block L sits are around 720 feet. This is all Dijon clone 115.

2016 Rumble Seat Pinot Gris Rose

Rumble Seat 2016 Pinot Gris Rosé from Vista Hills

They call it a Pinot Gris Rosé, but it is really made in the style of an Orange Wine. You can’t find this on their site anymore. It is incredibly popular with their wine club and disappears quickly. Luckily, we snagged a bottle at the festival. As with all their bottles, it comes with a story.

Rumble Seat 2016 Pinot Gris Rosé from Vista Hills label detail and story

2017 Duchess Pinot Noir Rose

Duchess 2017 Pinot Noir Rosé from Vista Hills

This wine is truly “Uncommon” the nose is cotton candy. Not what I normally look for in a wine, but…it was weird and fascinating. So, yeah, we left with a bottle of that too. Here’s it’s story.

Duchess 2017 Pinot Noir Rosé from Vista Hills label and story

The day was truly spectacular and the opportunity to meet and speak with all of these winemakers was once in a lifetime, well, until next year and the 10th annual “Uncommon Wine Festival”.

Take a visit to our page filled with all the fabulous winemakers that we met at the Uncommon Wine Festival filled with photos and interviews.

: Vista Hills Sign

: A group on horseback stopping through at the Uncommon Wine Festival at Vista Hills

: The “Treehouse” at Vista Hills

: Winemakers setting up for the Uncommon wine Festival at Vista Hills

: Looking up at the “Treehouse” at Vista Hills

: Made to order fusion food truck

: A spectacular selection for lunch from the Fusion Food Truck

: Tasty bites to pair with the wines at the Uncommon Wine Festival

: Menu at Phat Cart Food Truck

And for more information on Vista Hills Vineyard visit their website at http://vistahillsvineyard.com/

Update: As we were finishing up this post yesterday in preparation to release this morning, the news broke that the Coppola Family was buying Vista Hills. You can read about the acquisition here https://www.kgw.com/article/money/francis-ford-coppola-buys-vista-hills-vineyard-in-dayton/283-607159415
We wish everyone at Vista Hills all the best and thank them for creating an Amazing Event with the Uncommon Wine Festival, as well as for creating beautiful wines and a magical place in the “Treehouse” to taste them.

read all about the Winemakers

Don’t forget to check back with us here at Crushed Grape Chronicles as we continue to explore Oregon Wine Country. And don’t forget, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Are you baking blueberry pie? Nope, that’s my Malbec.

October 17, 2018

We’ve been talking about the wines we tasted with Leah Jørgensen at the Uncommon Wine Festival back in July at Vista Hills Vineyard. And we have come to the end of our tasting. The 2015 Malbec is deep and rich and Leah tells us it smells like blueberry pie when it ferments. Mmmmm….now I’m hungry.

Leah sources most of her grapes from Southern Oregon’s Rogue and Applegate Valleys, but she makes her wines at Raptor Ridge in the Chehalem Mountains. She is a brilliant ambassador of Cabernet Franc, and while this Malbec may not be her signature grape, it really is delicious wine.

As this was the last wine we would taste with her, I wanted to savor it. She poured, and while I stuck my nose into the glass, she told me about the wine and how we had come full circle.

2015 Malbec from Leah Jørgensen Cellars

I have one more wine and it is a book end. The Sav Blanc that we started with and this wine are from the same vineyard. The Crater View Vineyard with all that Ancient marine material I was telling you about. So this is not like an Argentina Malbec, it’s got incredible acidity, it’s actually got one of the lowest pH’s of all the red that I bring in. So you get incredible acidity from this and it’s all bright brambly fruit. It doesn’t go as leathery, it does get plummy, but it just a very pleasant drinking Malbec.
It has a lot of structure and a lot of tannins and it’s really bright now, I wonder if you will get more of that leather and bottom that’s going to come out of it as it ages?
Well because there is so much acidity in this, I think it’s going to stay in a nice balance and I think that’s what makes the difference. So a lot of reds that we think are ageable reds, like cab savs from California, they don’t have the same acid profile, unless they add it. But it doesn’t naturally have the same acid, so they are going to have all that tannin structure and not as much acid, it’s gonna go in a certain direction. But when you already have berry fruit flavors on the palate and you have acid that’s already there it’s kinda like cab franc, it’s going to carry that wine.
Tell me how you make this then.
We pick it, it’s one of the last things that come through the door. The berries are big, they look like blueberries and when people come down in the cellar, they are like, “what is that smell?”. It is the most fragrant, aromatic, beautiful ferment in all of the cellar. It’s like blueberry pie, because you know that fermented yeasty and then the blueberry..it smells like blueberry pie, it’s delightful. It’s my favorite smelling ferment.
When we finish fermentation, we press it and we go straight to neutral barrel, so again, I used mostly neutral barrels. 8 months in oak just like the others, but we reserve in the bottle, I bottle age this a little longer. Just because I think it benefits from a little more time. We don’t make much of it, it’s not a flagship wine like the cab francs that we like to quickly release, cause we like to stay in business. But I can reserve this one a little bit. It’s not a one off but it’s something that we do that’s an extra. It happens to be my dad’s favorite. My dad love’s grilling and he does amazing dry rubs. He will do like a marionberry barbeque sauce with it, and it’s pretty good.

Marionberries…they are a Northwest thing and they are actually a variation on a blackberry. I had a slice of Marionberry pie the other night that was delightful and would have really been great with this wine and the thought of a marionberry barbeque sauce had my mouth-watering.

On other things

In between all of our discussions that you see on the video we also spoke about her 2016 Cab Franc, about Virginia, where she grew up and the amazing Cab Francs coming out of that region these days. She told me about working at Chrysalis Vineyard in Middleburg, the home of Norton. She and Asa got married in Middleburg and had their rehearsal dinner at Chrysalis. (Michael and I visited the area last year). We talked about their “Côte Clos Rogue Valley”, their homage to Clos Roche Blanche and their Grande Reserve which gets a little extra time in the barrel. We talked about neutral oak. Any new oak she gets is puncheons to allow for less surface area and she only uses those for the reserves.

Aging Cabernet Franc

We also discussed Cab Franc and it’s ageability.

When you compare it with other grapes it’s one of the few that have both (intense acid & tannins) and so that’s what makes a grape super ageable, it’s structure building, it adds structure and ageability to those blends. So Cab Francs on their own will age forever. You can put these down and they get more and more interesting over time. So even just seeing more time in the barrel then we hold the wines we reserve them for 9 months before we release them. So all that little extra time, you have to be patient, it’s hard to be patient when you are a new business, but it does make a difference in the quality of these cab francs.

Equestrian Wine Tours Oregon

At one point we got all distracted as a group of people on horseback arrived to the tasting. It was enchanting. And that was our conversation with Leah, just enchanting. Almost as enchanting as the thought of a fermentation room filled with the aroma of blueberry pie.

Find this wine and other details on LJC

Want to find a bottle? You can find it at Leah Jørgensen Cellars squarespace or look for one of the smart establishments that carry her wine. There is a list here.

This wraps up our conversation with Leah but you can check out our previous episodes with her that include: Leah Jørgensen – Pirate Princess & Winemaker, Grapes of Southern Oregon with Leah Jørgensen, Southern Oregon Sauvignon Blanc with Leah Jørgensen, Blanc de Cab Franc…What? Leah Jørgensen Cellars 2017 Rosé of Cabernet Franc and “Tour Rain” Vin Rouge – Leah Jørgensen Cellars

Check out Leah’s updated website at https://leahjorgensencellars.com/

You can find her on on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram too!

And join us back here at Crushed Grape Chronicles as we continue sharing our conversation with Leah! And don’t forget, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Leah Jørgensen Cellars 2017 Rosé of Cabernet Franc

October 15, 2018

We’ve been talking with Leah Jørgensen of Leah Jørgensen Cellars about her wines. Today’s discussion is about her 2017 Rosé of Cab Franc. If you know Leah Jørgensen, it will not surprise you that her rosé is made of Cab Franc. She is kind of putting Cab Franc on the map in Oregon. As they poured us a glass of this beautiful light pink/copper wine…I’ll let her tell.

Asa pouring the 2017 Rosé of Cabernet Franc

Leah Jørgensen Cellars 2017 Rosé of Cabernet Franc

This is our Rosé of Cab Franc and you notice it’s very very light pink. Ballet slipper pink is what I call it. If you do a saignee, you’re going to get a darker color. I don’t. In the Loire Valley they do more whole cluster and that’s what we’ve done here and so when you just dump it right into the press, you’re gonna get a very very fine pale pink. When you have Loire rosés from Cab Franc, they are always going to be this sort of onion peel skin, just a very light ballet slipper.
I love it, it’s coppery, it’s pretty and it’s very savory, it’s very dry and it’s….pink grapefruit and then savory, like herbal. Sometimes I get a little tarragon on it or elder flower, lime blossomy, orange blossom I guess, marmalade? I don’t know, it depends on my mood, what I’m tasting.
So you say that this is full cluster?
Yes, whole cluster, just dump it right in the press.
So with that, is it a really gentle press.
Yes, we do a white wine press.
So you are really not getting off of the whole clusters that way. Not a lot off the stem inclusion.
No and the truth is, red wine gets it’s color from the skins and that’s really from fermenting and getting deep extraction and doing cold soaks. So the berry is getting macerated slowly and naturally and you are getting more extraction. We’re not doing any of that, so we’re not fermenting on any of that. So we are literally pressing it to get this salmon color pink juice and then we basically rack into a tank that we chill for about 24 to 48 hours and then we rack back into, with the rosé, another tank, a stainless steel, this is all stainless steel and then it ferments in that tank. So you’re letting things just settle out but you’re still retaining a little color and it tends to get just lighter and lighter when fermentation completes.

Buxton Vineyard in the Rogue Valley

So what is special about that vineyard for you?
While the other vineyards that we work with in the Rogue have inter-marine shellfish this particular place is on a different part of the Rogue Valley it’s closer to Del Rio Vineyards, it’s on the other side of I-5 basically. It used to be under the Rogue River, so there’s River stone everywhere. It looks like Bordeaux basically, there’s just smooth river stones throughout the vineyard, but it’s still that clay, silty loam, river bottom soils.

Buxton Ranch and Vineyard sits just Northwest of the Rogue River near White City and Eagle Point. In addition to the 25 acre vineyard, they are a ranch and raise grass fed Angus/Wagu beef.

The winemaker’s description from her site

What is this lovely ballet slipper colored pink wine like? My first Rosé of Cabernet Franc! Coppery, Renaissance pink, Degas dancer, Cape Hatteras sunset, Valencia heirloom rose petals… smells like pink grapefruit meets cotton candy, marshmallow, marzipan, and ripe apricots, tastes that way, too, plus orange marmelade, green strawberries, summer fruit salad. Deeelightful! Pairs with anything, really.

2017 Rosé of Cabernet Franc

More than just delicious

The 2017 Rosé of Cabernet Franc runs $22 and this is a wine with a mission. Leah donates a portion of the retail sales of this wine to women’s academic scholarships.

Want to find a bottle? Head to Leah Jørgensen Cellars squarespace or look for one of the smart establishments that carry her wine. There is a list here.

We are going to continue our chat with Leah Jørgensen. Next up is her 2016 “Tour Rain” Vin Rouge And check out our previous episodes with her Leah Jørgensen – Pirate Princess & Winemaker, Grapes of Southern Oregon with Leah Jørgensen, Southern Oregon Sauvignon Blanc with Leah Jørgensen, and Blanc de Cab Franc…What?

Check out Leah’s updated website at https://leahjorgensencellars.com/

You can find her on on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram too!

And join us back here at Crushed Grape Chronicles as we continue sharing our conversation with Leah! And don’t forget, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Blanc de Cab Franc….What?

September 28, 2018

You probably have not heard of Blanc de Cab Franc. It is made in small quantities in the Loire Valley and now in Oregon. Leah Jørgensen decided to make Oregon’s first Blanc de Cabernet Franc back in 2011. Leah tells us how it happened.

Leah Jørgensen Blanc de Cabernet Franc

How Blanc de Cab Franc came to Oregon

“I was working at Shea Wine Cellars as a cellar worker and I knew I wanted to get my little project started. So my friend Chris Berg who owns Roots Wine Company with his wife Hillary is like “Hey I can get you a little cab franc”. It was from Walla Walla. I was like “Yeah I just need 750 lbs. “ No problem. So I got this cab franc and I was like “I’m going to make a white cab franc” I had one from the Loire Valley.
I used to sell an incredible book of Loire Wines in Washington DC before I moved out here and one of my accounts was the French Embassy. Because embassies in DC can’t go through their own countries, they have to, like everybody else, go through distribution. So I had the Austrian Embassy, the New Zealand Embassy, the French Embassy, was that it? Anyways, so I remember was at a tasting there and I had a white cab franc from the Loire. They are very rare, there’s very very few producers over there that actually make a white cab franc. But it was always in the back of my mind. I also love the sparkling wines from the Loire Valley. And many of them if they are white they have a base of cab franc often blended with chenin blanc or chardonnay or they make a rosé and I love those base wines as well.
Here in the Willamette Valley, so many producers of pinot noir are taking that cue from Champagne and they are of course making wonderful sparkling wines. You’re seeing more and more wonderful sparkling wines come out here, but they are also making white pinot noir. So to me it made sense, I’m going to do America’s first white cab franc. So that’s what I did. That was 2011 and I had one barrel, it was an oak barrel. Now I use exclusively Acacia. So you get all kinds of the bell pepper, it’s more poblano to me.”

Tastings and Pairings

The wine has a savoriness to it, and yes, that essence of poblano pepper. Leah says it goes well with roasted poblano with a cream sauce and roast chicken.

“I mean, honestly this wine, when you get it on the palate it still has so much acidity, it get’s macadamia, it kinda goes all over from fruity to herbal to nutty. But it still goes so beautifully with scallops and shellfish, but then like pork chops with apple compote, some strange little Germanic, that direction.”

Descriptions and suggestions from her website: this medium-bodied wine typically has delicate nuances of “early blush” apricot, golden raspberries, Meyer lemon, blood orange, white tea leaf, tarragon, and hazelnut – making up a pretty, complex white wine from red grapes. This vintage, the wine also offers subtle botanical notes of elderflower, jasmine, lime blossom, sweet pea shoot, even a hint of ground cinnamon, with flavors of clementine, lemon meringue, light honey leading into a creamy and nutty mid-palate that finishes with refreshing salinity. Drink now for freshness, but this wine will age in the bottle for a minimum of five years, due to the phenolic content from the red skins. Pair with white fish or shellfish, especially oysters and scallops; pasta with simple cream sauce; pork chops with apple compote; roasted chicken; crab stuffed poblano peppers with cream sauce; polenta and beans; a young, creamy, nutty Gruyère.

The fact that this is a white wine made from a red grape in the white wine style is part of the reason that it is included in the “Uncommon Wine Festival”. This is the wine you want for a brown bag tasting with friends. It is sure to stump and intrigue everyone.

Leah Jørgensen Blanc de Cabernet Franc

The source of the Cab Franc – Mae’s Vineyard

The grapes for the 2017 no longer come from Walla Walla. They are from Mae’s Vineyard in the Applegate Valley, farmed by Herb Quady of Quady North. The vineyard was named Herb’s daughter Margaux Mae. The vineyard is “LIVE” certified sustainable. Leah’s site gives you some more geeky details on the vineyard (love that) ” Planted in 2006, the vines are trained on a “V” type trellis that splits the canopy, allowing for lots of leaf area and diffracted light. The vineyard is planted 45 degrees to the east of North, giving more even light exposure during high summer, with south-southeast exposure. The soil series is “Manita”, gravelly loam, granitic with red/yellow dirt. The Cabernet Franc clone is 214 on 3309 root stock.“

Want to find a bottle? Head to Leah Jørgensen Cellars squarespace or look for one of the smart establishments that carry her wine. There is a list here.

We are going to continue our chat with Leah Jørgensen. Next up is her Rosé of Cabernet Franc! And check out our previous episodes with her Leah Jørgensen – Pirate Princess & Winemaker, Grapes of Southern Oregon with Leah Jørgensen and

Check out Leah’s updated website at https://leahjorgensencellars.com/

You can find her on on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram too!

And join us back here at Crushed Grape Chronicles as we continue sharing our conversation with Leah! And don’t forget, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Southern Oregon Sauvignon Blanc from Leah Jørgensen

September 27, 2018

Leah Jørgensen Cellars 2017 Sauvignon Blanc

We have been talking with Leah Jørgensen of Leah Jørgensen Cellars about her inspirations as well as Southern Oregon. We’ve discussed how her love of the wines from the Loire Valley in France influences her wines as well as the depth of history in the soils of Southern Oregon. Now we are finally putting glass to lips and tasting some of her wines. We begin with her 2017 Sauvignon Blanc.

Leah Jørgensen Cellars 2017 Sauvignon Blanc

“This is our Sauvignon Blanc from Rogue Valley. It comes from the Crater View Vineyard that I was mentioning. Hence we gave her a little makeover (she is a mermaid on the bottle) to inspire the fish and I think she has an oyster shell right there. So actually, I wanted to make white wines that go with shellfish. We are here in Oregon right, we have incredible oyster beds, crab. My cousins own the fisherman’s market in Eugene. They are fishermen have fishing boats that go up to Alaska, that’s my Nordic heritage coming through. This wine has got all kinds of bright acidity and gooseberry. It’s not anything like a California Sauvignon Blanc and it’s nothing like a New Zealand, it’s much more along the lines of…sometimes it even gets a “gunflintiness”, so similar to a Pouilly-Fumé. Definitely the Loire inspired Sauvignon Blancs. We use stainless steel and Acacia barrels.”

Acacia Barrels?

“So a lot of the young guns in the Loire Valley have been moving to Acacia barrels for their whites; Chenin blanc, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc. And the reason for that is that if you were to smell an oak barrel versus an acacia barrel, we know what oak is right, it gives that vanilla and caramel and all those wonderful notes coconut too, but if you smell an acacia barrel it’s much more herbal and floral, elderberry flower, gardenia, resin like from a fir tree, so it’s just much more interesting. The grapes like Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc really lifts those herbal-floral notes and it makes a quite pretty difference than using oak. “

This wine was so different from other Sauvignon Blancs from California or New Zealand. It’s softer on the nose, but with great acidity. It’s clean and you get minerals off of it.

“It’s that wonderful thing about putting your nose in a wine glass and getting all these amazing things and then it’s all subjective, because it all depends on things that I have smelled or that I can imagine smelling.”
“And your biochemistry! We are biochemically individual people, so we will experience wine all so differently. That’s why I never really take reviews, you kind of take it as a grain of salt that it should be something experienced Individually.”

This wine retails at $24. It comes from the Crater View Vineyard in Southern Oregon’s Rogue Valley AVA, just outside of Jackson Oregon. This vineyard has some major elevation sitting between 1,500 and 1,675 feet. This site has all the feel good attributes of Salmon-Safe, Oregon Certified Sustainable and L.I.V.E. Certified and… in 2015 they found 250 MILLION year old blue schist rocks and other marine rock as they were getting a new block ready for planting.

Want to find a bottle? Head to Leah Jørgensen Cellars squarespace or look for one of the smart establishments that carry her wine. There is a list here.

We are going to continue our chat with Leah Jørgensen. Next up is her Blanc de Cabernet Franc! And check out our previous episodes with her Leah Jørgensen – Pirate Princess & Winemaker, Grapes of Southern Oregon with Leah Jørgensen.

Check out Leah’s updated website at https://leahjorgensencellars.com/

You can find her on on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram too!

And join us back here at Crushed Grape Chronicles as we continue sharing our conversation with Leah! And don’t forget, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

“Tour Rain” Vin Rouge – Leah Jørgensen Cellars

September 25, 2018

“Tour Rain”

It’s a play on words and a bit of an inside joke on the label. Note the rain, the umbrella, the boots… Tour Rain speaks to the Touraine region of France as well as to Oregon Climate and Tourists. The ladies on Leah’s labels may look the same, each is really individual. It’s all about the details, just like her wines.

2016 Oregon “Tour Rain” Vin Rouge

Leah was graciously pouring us through her entire lineup and sharing so much information on her wines and philosophies.

“This is actually the first red that I made it’s a blend of Gamay and Cab Franc. It’s based on, or inspired by wines from the Touraine region of the Loire Valley around the city of Tours. It’s a little play on words. You’re in Oregon, you know, you might encounter some rain and Oregonians, we know don’t use umbrellas, that identifies a tourist, so we are being a little tongue in cheek, a little whimsical.
But not tongue in cheek about what’s in the bottle. For me, the Touraine, especially Clos Roche Blanche were my wines that I would always take to a dinner party. Clos Roche Blanche particularly was 40% Gamay, 60% Cab Franc and anytime I would go to someone’s house I would either grab a Morgon Beaujolais or I would grab a Touraine Clos Roche Blanche, because, it goes with everything, roast chicken, pasta, you name it. It’s a crowd pleaser, it’s got great acidity, amazing fruit. I wanted to make Oregon’s first version of that kind of wine, that blend.
So this is 40% Gamay Noir from Haviland Vineyard which is in the proposed Van Duzer Corridor. And the Cab Franc is from the Mae’s Vineyard in the Applegate Valley. And that’s the same vineyard where the White Cab Franc is from and it’s farmed by Herb Quady of Quady North.
You get a lot of those bramble berries, I love that fruit character to it. Gamay always has that white pepper on the finish. Just the two together I think are just really so complimentary.”

The Vineyards

We spoke before of Herb Quady and Mae’s Vineyard with the Blanc de Cab Franc. That vineyard is in the Applegate Valley.

Havlin Vineyard sits in the Willamette Valley in what will soon be the Van Duzer Corridor AVA (this AVA is just waiting for final approval). The area is known for it’s marine soils, and the corridor’s diurnal shifts in the summer due to the marine breezes. On her site, Leah says “Planted in 2011 with cuttings from Seven Springs Vineyard, this site has a south-west aspect planted in Dupee soils, which is a down slope Willakenzie soil series. This vineyard is dry farmed and LIVE certified.”

From the Winemaker

Here are some extra notes on this vintage from the winemaker on her site. Leah’s descriptions are so lush and vivid they must be shared.

“Perhaps the prettiest profile of our red wines (and especially the gorgeous color!), this blend is always a lovely balance of floral, red fruit, and a hint of pepper and sweet wood – with aromatics of ripe cherry, raspberry, cassis, hibiscus, rose petals, cedar, cigar box, vanilla bean, black puerh tea, and pink peppercorn, and then flavors of bing cherry, pomegranate, cranberry, raspberry, cocoa powder, clove, and roasted bell pepper – this wine has bright acidity and is juicy with rich, soft tannins – it’s light, lithe, flirty and bright. Enjoy slightly chilled (cellar temperature/58-64° F). Serve with pasta; spicy, rich Asian dishes (noodles); smoked salmon; charcuterie and cheese boards; beet salad; brick oven thin, bubbly-chewy crusted pizza; and skewers/kabobs.”

Want to find a bottle? Head to Leah Jørgensen Cellars squarespace or look for one of the smart establishments that carry her wine. There is a list here.

We will continue our chat with Leah Jørgensen tomorrow. Next up is her 2015 Malbec. And check out our previous episodes with her Leah Jørgensen – Pirate Princess & Winemaker, Grapes of Southern Oregon with Leah Jørgensen, Southern Oregon Sauvignon Blanc with Leah Jørgensen, Blanc de Cab Franc…What? and Leah Jørgensen Cellars 2017 Rosé of Cabernet Franc

Check out Leah’s updated website at https://leahjorgensencellars.com/

You can find her on on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram too!

And join us back here at Crushed Grape Chronicles as we continue sharing our conversation with Leah! And don’t forget, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Ross & Bee – Maloof Wines

September 19, 2018

The brains and the brawn, the science and the passion…the perfect pairing for making wines. Ross and Bee consider themselves to be a “true yin and yang team.”

Ross & Bee Maloof exude joy when you speak with them. They are truly excited, bubbling to tell you about these wines that they are so passionate about. And it’s contagious. When we spoke with them at the Uncommon Wine Festival at Vista Hills Vineyard, they were multi-tasking, pouring glasses and keeping up multiple conversations at the same time.

Their story, while not easy, is kind of dreamy. Bee is an aerospace materials engineer, rooted in science, while Ross comes from a hospitality background, running Food and Beverage programs on the east coast in Phili. Ross had this urge to get into production and got into wine doing an internship with Brianna Day of Day Wines. Brianna runs Day Camp, a wine cooperative and home to 11 small producers, one of which is now Maloof.

In 2015 they made a single barrel of wine, while living a bi-coastal life, just coming to Oregon for harvests.

“Ross: In 2016 I had left my job in Philadelphia and I lived in a tent behind the winery from the middle of July through Thanksgiving and Bee came out for a really good portion of that too. She took all her vacation
Bee: and I’d been saving it for years and years and years
Ross: Spent it all
Bee: In a tent”

So they spent the harvest in a tent behind the winery to fund their first vintage. At this point, they decided to make a go of it. They returned to Phili, packed up the stuff they didn’t sell, put the dogs in the car and did a 33-day drive across the country, with stops along the way to visit family.

This year they will be doing their 4^th vintage, but they have only been full time residents since last May.

They focus on white wine, making 6 or 7 wines each year, with only one being a red wine and even that wine is typically 30% white fruit. Their style is

“Bright, snappy, low alcohol, high acid white wines.”

As we got into tasting the first wine Bee gave us a disclaimer.

“Bee: This first one is our possibly, I don’t want to say our most boring, because it’s very classic. (But) It’s going to get weirder going forward.

2017 Nemarniki Vineyard Riesling

Maloof 2017 Nemarniki Vineyard Riesling
“Bee: This is our 2017 Riesling, it’s from a really cool vineyard at the top of the Chehalem Mountain Range, kinda just down the road, the Nemarniki vineyard and it is run by a female farmer, which I’m always a big proponent of. She and her 3 legged mastiff dog, Babe, basically make the best fruit on Chehalem Mountain, it’s so good. We fermented this super classically, low and slow over the winter, in large format neutral oak puncheons, so 500 liter puncheons and then we bottled in the spring. And you’ll notice there’s a little sparkle to it, a little frizzante.”

A couple of extra notes: Nemarniki is Dry Farmed, LIVE Certified, sits at 850 feet and the soil here is Loess. The alcohol sits quietly at 10.5%, and it runs around $18 a bottle.

They suggest spicy pizza (they actually will suggest a type of pizza to pair with any wine. Pizza is kinda their thing), or Asian dishes with lots of umami. They refer to this wine as “Stone-fruit moon juice”, which is an apt description.

2017 “Where ya PJs at?

Maloof 2017 Where ya Pjs at?

“Ross: (This) wine is our fun little spring blend, this is what we think of as our answer to a rosé. This is a blend, it’s 55% Pinot Gris and the Pinot Gris was fermented on the skins, kind of as you would traditionally ferment a red wine. So we ferment that, on the skins in two different fashions; we do half of it with full skin contact and daily punch downs and then the other half we actually do carbonic masceration. Then that’s pressed off and blended with Riesling. So it’s like 55% skin contact Pinot Gris and 45% Riesling. And this wine is called “Where Ya PJs at?”

The Pinot Gris came from Johan Vineyard which will be in the new Van Duzer Corridor AVA when that is approved and the Riesling, like the Riesling above came from Nemarniki in the Chehalem Mountain AVA. Soils at Johan are silty loam and Nemarniki is loess.

Which pie to enjoy this wine with? They suggest a white pizza or “a bowl of popcorn over your favorite John Cusack movie”

This wine sits at 11.5 alcohol and will set you back a whopping $21 (do it if you can)

2017 Beckenridge Vineyard Gerwürztraminer

We moved onto the final wine they were pouring on this particular day.

2017 Beckenridge Vineyard Gerwürztraminer
“Ross: So this last one is our Gewürztraminer. This is from Beckenridge vineyard, just outside of Eola-Amity Hills. The vines here are turning 40 this year. They are own-rooted so really old vine Gewürtztraminer for Oregon. It’s a really lovely little place. We take this fruit and ferment it fully dry on the skins which ended up taking about 23 days. So that’s 23 days skin contact before it was pressed off to neutral oak for the winter and bottled in the spring.”

This wine is from Beckenridge Vineyard. The vines here are own-rooted and dry farmed and they are LIVE Certified. The elevation is 650 feet and the soil is Jory.

On their site they describe this wine as “rose petals and black tea” and “A brooding copper color, with nourishing aromatics of flowers and cheering alpine herbs”. The alcohol goes up another notch to 12.5%, which still sits on the low side in the universe as a whole, and runs $20. They suggest pairing this wine with root veggies and alpine cheeses, oh, and Pizza…always with pizza.

As I noted the rich color of the Gerwürztraminer, Ross filled us in on their approach to this wine:

“Ross: Yeah, so essentially if we kinda think about wine in the binary of white and red, white wine you are typically pressing the grape and separating the solid matter out of the equation and just fermenting the juice by itself and that’s why white wine is bright and acidic and easy to drink. Whereas red wine, you crush the grapes and you leave all that solid matter, the skins, the seeds, the stems sometimes, you leave that in and even kind of reincorporate it. I think of it as steeping tea. The skin of the berry is really where all the pigment is, that’s why even with table grapes, if you go to the grocery store and you buy red grapes, if you cut one open it doesn’t bleed red onto your counter it’s white on the inside, which is why Champagne is crystal clear and it’s made of Pinot Noir. As you increase that steeping time that contact time with the solid matter, in the fermentation, you get more color pigmentation. So if you take white grapes and do the same thing you would normally do for a red ferment, you end up with this copper hue. But what you also end up with is a white wine that has more phenolic bitterness or drive complexity and tannins. So things that you might more often associate with a red wine. There are a number of wine cultures in the world that have been making white wine that way forever. The Republic of Georgia, parts of Slovenia, north eastern Italy, make their white wines, the same way they make their red wines. That’s just the tradition and how they make it.”

This wasn’t the first reference to Georgian wines we had heard today and finding these “Orange Wines” made the day pretty unique.

Other Maloof Wines

They were not pouring their Syrah on this particular day, but I asked about it. It was two weeks from bottling at that time. In 2015 they did a classic Syrah/Viognier blend. This year though, it would be Syrah/Marsanne. It was planned to be a Syrah/Marsanne/Roussanne but the Roussanne was lost to a frost.

In addition they have a sur lee aged Pinot Gris that they sold out of earlier in the year, but they will be bottling again next year.

How to find them?

Yeah, not online, at least not yet. Watch for them to get that set up in the spring of 2019. In the mean time they are distributed in Oregon, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Vermont. Check out their distributor page here. http://rossandbee.com/find-wine/

Find them online at http://rossandbee.com/

On Facebook https://www.facebook.com/maloofwines/

At Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/maloofwines/

You can also read our piece on the Uncommon Wine Festival, with our interview with Dave Pettersen the Winemaker and CEO of Vista Hills who founded the event, and check out other interviews we did at the festival with Ryan Pickens of Esther Glen Farm and Winery , Ariel Eberle of A Cheerful Note Cellars , Jim Fischer and Jenny Mosbacher of Fossil & Fawn, Alex Neely of Libertine Wines and Deven Morganstern of Joyful Noise. We look forward to bringing you interviews and discussions with all of the winemakers from this event, as well as details and visits with wineries in each of the Willamette Valley AVAs. So check back here at Crushed Grape Chronicles and don’t forget, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

And if you want to dive into details on the Willamette Valley, you can read our recent post Oregon’s Willamette Valley AVAs – a Primer

Wine, Art & Hedonism with Libertine Wines Alex Neely

September 5, 2018

Libertine (as defined by Alex Neely)

Noun | lib er tine | \ ˈli-bər-ˌtēn \

“One who eschews all cultural values, pure hedonism”

On a side note Merriam-Webster tells us that the term originally meant “freedman” when it appeared in 14^th-century English and evolved to include religious and secular freethinkers in the 1500s. Freethinker…that pretty well describes Alex Neely.

We met Alex at the Uncommon Wine Festival held at Vista Hills Vineyards, an event that would seem to attract and showcase freethinkers in the wine world, so Alex was right at home.

Alex Neely, Winemaker

We spoke with Alex about how he came to wine making.

“I used to purchase wine for a fancy food store and I was a cheese monger as well. I decided to go into wine production, so I called up the guy whose new world Rieslings I respected the most and that was Barnaby at Teutonic. So then I’ve been with Barnaby since 2014, as his assistant and helping run the vineyards, and then I’ve been making this label at Teutonic since 2015. Started out with just some rieslings, and then just started getting some Dolcetto this past year in 2017 and I’m not too sure what the next year will hold but, we just keep adding on.“

The name Libertine Wines comes from the definition above and was shaped by his time at Reed College

“I majored in religious philosophy and mysticism and minored in hedonism”

We all laughed at that. I was thinking back to college and figured, I kinda minored in hedonism also, but then…after reading about Reed College, I’m not sure it was a joke. Regardless, the wines he makes are an homage to that opulence.

“It’s how I live my life, I eat, drink and smoke whatever I care to and don’t worry about it.”

This stuff is new!

You won’t find this everywhere. Alex just started releasing these wines about 3 months ago.

“I’m very new on the scene, but I’ve been hitting the market pretty hard, so we are in about 20 different places in Portland right now, but that’s it, I just sell in Portland right now. And then things like this, I’ve been to a couple, this is I think my 3^rd group event, and then I’ve done like a whole bunch of other random tastings.”

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Art on the Labels

The labels will catch you. They are the type that definitely draw your eye in a line-up of bottles. Attracted to art that speaks of the wine and the story, his labels are unique and evocative. From Carravaggios to psychedelic artists, you won’t forget these bottles.

“My wife helps me out as well she was an art history major at USC. So I’ll find some goofy picture online and she’ll tell me what it is.”

2017 Sunnyside Vineyard Dolcetto Rosé

2017 Sunnyside Vineyard Dolcetto Rose

We started off tasting his 2017 Dolcetto Rose. The fruit comes from the Sunny Side Vineyard down by Enchanted Forest. This vineyard in near Salem and sits off of Sunnyside Road near Rogers Creek. The elevation is a little over 660 feet and the vineyard sits on a slight slope facing south west. Soils here are Jory and Nekia. (Information from everyvine.com)

This rosé is foot stomped and sits in the cold room to soak on the skins for 2 days. He then presses it off and it ferments with wild yeast. It goes into neutral oak with just a tiny bit of sulfite as a preservative. It’s unfiltered and unfined.

The label on this is “The Inspiration of Saint Matthew” by Carravaggio.

“And the legend has it, you’re not supposed to harvest Dolcetto until after Saint Matthews Day, so once I discovered that, I ran to my calendar and I was like s*^t, should I harvest this? Luckliy it was two weeks after, so all set. I really like that he was the master of Chiaroscuro and I really like the contrast of the red against the black.”

The 2017 Acid Freak Rose

Libertine 2017 Acid Freak Rose

This wine was a bit of an accident, but a happy one.

“So I had a half barrel of Dolcetto rosé fermenting and there’s not much you can do with a half barrel once it’s done ‘cause it will oxidize. I had no idea what I was going to do with it, but then I was pressing my Riesling off, it was late at night, I had filled up my holding tank and there is still about 30 gallons left in the press pan and I said “screw it” I’ve had Riesling from Piedmont before, so I just pumped it into the Dolcetto barrel, they finished fermenting together, and then I liked it so much, I threw another barrel of each at it prior to bottling.”

With a wild yeast ferment in neutral oak, it again is unfiltered and unfined. Just 71 cases were produced.

It is a familiar contradiction in the glass. He says “Gentle yet rough. Soft yet hard. Strange yet familiar”. It’s all that. I left with a bottle.

The artwork on this bottle came from him Googling “psychedelic picture”. This picture popped up by the artist Larry Carlson. The picture really embodied the wine for Alex so he contacted Larry and bought the rights.

2016 LaVelle Vineyard “Botrytis” Dry Riesling

Libertine 2016 Lavelle Botrytis Dry Riesling

This wine is a botrytisized skin contact Riesling. It’s funny to hear a winemaker gushing over fuzzy gray grapes, but nobel rot will do that to you.

“So this particular year it came in with super pretty fuzzy gray noble rot, just perfect stuff.”

He found out about the botrytis from the guy growing the grapes, who asked what he would like to do with it. Alex, unafraid, told him to let it go as long as it looked pretty, he was happy with it. Botrytis has to have the right conditions, so this doesn’t happen every year and Alex was happy to have the opportunity to play with this. It hung a bit longer and developed nicely, then his wife and he footstomped the grapes and let them sit in the cold room for 5 days. It went into the press, fermented and sat in barrel for 8 months. At the time of this tasting it had been in bottle for over a year.

This wine has a beautiful nose and then surprising acid on the palate with a little tannic grip from the skin contact.

The artwork for both of the reislings is “The Triumph of Bacchus by Cornelis de Vos”. Alex came across this painting right after he decided on the name Libertine. ” I feel it embodies the true baroque opulence and pure hedonism of the Libertine. It is also a fun Rorschach Test as people tend to project their own personal views upon it. ”

2015 LaVelle Vineyard Riesling

This wine is also from the La Velle Vineyard, which is the oldest Vineyard in the south valley, 40 minutes or so North West of Eugene. The Riesling sits at the top of a hill at about 700 foot elevation.

This wine is the same vineyard, the same blocks as the 2016 “Botytis” Riesling. 2015 was a hot year and Alex wanted a slow cold ferment, but their production facility at that time was in the middle of the woods and without a cold room. As a result it fermented outside through the winter, with Alex checking it monthly. He definitely got a slow fermentation, it took 6 months to finish. It then sat on the gross lees in neutral oak for another year and a half. At the time of tasting it had been in the bottle for about a year. It has the big rich style typical of 2015 vintage and a tiny bit of residual sugar, with great acidity.

On the beauty of honoring the vintage

“So the two (Rieslings) are drastically different because of the year. I’m very vintage driven, I’m like let’s let the year shine through, everybody is like “Let’s let the soil shine through”, but there are a lot of other components going on. I mean I could put a bunch of additives in there to make them all taste the same year after year after year, but where’s the fun in that? My lob would be boring as hell.”

You can find Libertine Wines online at https://www.libertinewines.com/

On facebook or on Instagram where they have a great new sexy photo shoot posted with those bottles!

While they currently do not sell their wines on their website, they have a list of places you can find it in the Portland area https://www.libertinewines.com/where-to-buy

Keep checking back as they expand their reach!

You can also read our piece on the Uncommon Wine Festival, with our interview with Dave Pettersen the Winemaker and CEO of Vista Hills who founded the event, and check out other interviews we did at the festival with Ryan Pickens of Esther Glen Farm and Winery , Ariel Eberle of A Cheerful Note Cellars and Jim Fischer and Jenny Mosbacher of Fossil & Fawn. We look forward to bringing you interviews and discussions with all of the winemakers from this event, as well as details and visits with wineries in each of the Willamette Valley AVAs. So check back here at Crushed Grape Chronicles and don’t forget, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

And if you want to dive into details on the Willamette Valley, you can read our recent post Oregon’s Willamette Valley AVAs – a Primer

Jim & Jenny – Fossil and Fawn at Uncommon Wine Festival

August 29, 2018

Jim Fischer II and Jenny Mosbacher of Fossil & Fawn

These two…they finish each others sentences. Case in point

Jim & Jenny
This is our 2017 White wine blend (they say in almost stereo)
Jenny
our field blend of 6 different grapes from 3 different vineyards
Patron
Wow that was really in sync!
Jim
I’m like, wait, do we really both need to say this in stereo, it’s too weird.
Jenny
Ummm..
Jim
You go, you go
Jenny
No you
Jim
No, no no
Jenny
No you
Patron
It would be better if you went back and forth
Jim
Oh my gosh
Jenny
Well that’s kinda how it goes
Jim
You take the first line of the script…

LOL! They are a team and they bounce comments and ideas off each other in rapid fire. As entertaining as they are…they also are making some “stand up and take notice” wines. Wine Enthusiast just put them in the 40 Under 40 lineup. Check out their photo from the Wine Enthusiast Photo Shoot, it really sums them up.

Fossil & Fawn – the origin story

A little background on Fossil & Fawn. Jim grew up on a vineyard in the Eola Hills, that would be the vineyard he and his father manage together to this day, Silvershot Vineyard. Jim’s father, Jim Fischer Sr. and his brother Bill started a nursery in 1999 with cuttings from neighboring vineyards, they planted in 2000. They originally named the vineyard Crowley Station Vineyards for the historic railroad station at the foot of Holmes Hill, but renamed in 2016 for the family horse who had roamed the vineyard before the vines were planted. The vineyard soil, is old ocean floor littered with fossils which is the “Fossil” part of the name. The fawn part comes from the deer who roam the oak savanna that surround the property.

Jim speaks of his father as always needing a project. When Jim was a child it was roses.

“in the summertime it was my job to take care of the roses. He had 100 rose plants. And so I’d have to go outside and dead head 100 different rose bushes all summer long, so if I never have a rose again I’m happy, it’s okay with me.”
“That being said, now we just replaced 100 roses with 1000 grape vines. So it’s a different thing.”

They started making wine in 2011. The idea was a vineyard specific wine from the family vineyard, to show to potential fruit buyers. Soon they figured they might as well make it an official label and then it had a life of it’s own. They culture yeast from the vineyard and make wines with as little input as possible. This is not to make a big stand for natural wines, it’s just because this makes wines they like to drink.

The Wines

So with a table lined with people bearing empty glasses at the Uncommon Wine Festival held at Vista Hills Vineyard back in July, they began to pour and dive into their “Uncommon Wines”.

Kooky Varieties

Fossil and Fawn 2017 White Wine Blend

Fossil & Fawn 2017 Oregon White WIne (photo courtesy of Fossil & Fawn)

The first wine was their 2017 White Wine Blend. As Jenny mentioned above, it is a field blend of 6 different grapes from 3 different vineyards. Jim calls it their nod to a style of wine from Austria, specifically Vienna called Germischter Satz.

Jim
So this is predominantly from one vineyard here where they have what I would call a bunch of kooky varieties, very uncommon white wine varieties, for example…
Jenny
A very technical term…(Kooky)
Jim
For example, in the Willamette Valley to my knowledge there are 14 plants of Kerner, which is a German grape and that makes up 3% of that wine. All 14 plants of Kerner are in there. And so there is a collection of unusual things, Also a collection of not so unusual things. 50% is Riesling which is fermented in an egg shape vessel. And the next is 20% Savagnin Rose, which is a relative to Gewürztraminer.
Jenny
Which is also in there
Jim
Which, Gewürztraminer is in there at 15%. It is 6% Fruilano, 6% Melon de Bourgogne and 3% Kerner, those 14 plants. So the Riesling as I mentioned is fermented in egg the other 50% was fermented on it’s skins for about 4 days and we pressed off and then it went into a mix of Acacia wood barrels and French oak barrels, totally unfiltered native yeast fermented, we use that yeast that exists naturally on the skins of the grapes to carry out the fermentation. We wanted to make something that was dry but rich and textural but aromatic, something kind of fun, food friendly, very summery.

This wine on their website, they give they name “aka Gewürvigtocloninger”. It comes from 3 vineyards, from 3 different areas of the Willamette Valley. This was the first wine that they sourced from outside their home vineyard at Silvershot. On a map these three vineyards form a triangle of sorts with 30 to 40 mile drives between them, so they span a pretty large area. Beckenridge Vineyard is located just outside Dallas, Hanson is east of Gervais and Omero is outside Newburg in the Ribbon Ridge AVA. Beckenridge is probably best known for Weddings. In fact when you visit their site, that is all that you find. But…that beautiful venue is surrounded by vines and they do actually produce grapes, which would be the Gewürztraminer in this blend. At Hanson they are cultivating an eccentric bunch of grapes. In addition to Pinots Noir, Gris and Blanc, they have Gamay, Auxerrois, Riesling, Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer, yeah, yeah you say, so exotic, but wait there’s more, they are also cultivating Marechal Foch, Leon Millot and Golubok! 10 points for any of those varieties you are familiar with! They provide the Riesling for the blend. The Omero vineyard in Ribbon Ridge provides the remaining oddities, the Savagnin Rose, Fruilano, Melon de Bourgogne and Kerner.

They produced 110 cases of the White Blend and the suggested retail price is $20. Yep, you read that right…$20. I happily own a bottle. Some day later this year you will get a pairing note. I will say that his description is on the nose, summery is the perfect description.

2017 Rosé of Pinot Noir

Fossil & Fawn 2017 Oregon Rose (photo courtesy of Fossil & Fawn)

The Rosé is 1005 Pinot Noir and comes from a small portion of the vineyard that was planted in 2003.

” It specifically comes from one small portion of the vineyard that my friend Greg helped us plant back in 2003. Greg loved cats. He unfortunately passed away a few years ago, so it’s a bit of a tip of the hat to Greg being that this is the first wine that came from just that one portion of the vineyard. We put some kitties on the label as a little thank you for Greg for helping us out with it. And like the white wine, native yeast fermented in barrel. This is a very different style of rosé than others that you might try. This a little bit richer a little bit fuller. There’s this little kind of very very slight bit of effervescence to it. It is very rocky and chalky and mineraly, that I attribute to growing into this very very harsh material.”

These vines are own rooted Pommard and Dijon 777. On their site they talk about picking the fruit on a perfect autumn day — cool and damp in the morning with sun slowly burning off the clouds. ” (how glorious is that)? They destemmed and soaked the grapes on skins for 24 hours then gently pressed, racked into neutral oak and fermented with native yeast. Malolactic fermentation completed in the barrel, so this wine has a richer mouth feel. They just made 89 cases of the Rosé. And again…it retails at $20. You can watch for a future pairing with this wine also.

2017 Do Nothing

Fossil & Fawn 2017 Do Nothing Mondeuse Noir (photo courtesy of Fossil & Fawn)

Do Nothing started in 2016, the idea being that they would be as hands off as possible. The 2017 is 100% Mondeuse Noir from the Omero Vineyard in the Ribbon Ridge AVA.

“I mentioned native yeast and lack of filtration? This is the apex of that very hands off approach.
This is a nod to the very traditional way wine has been made for eons, specifically in places like Georgia. The country, not the state.”

They believe this is the first time Mondeuse has been released as a single variety in the Willamette Valley. The grape itself is native to the Savoie in France.

“we call this “Do Nothing” because the fruit we pick full cluster stem on the whole bunch, throw it into a bin, seal it, put on the lid, seal it, and then walk away. We don’t do any punch downs we don’t even check on the fruit, we don’t look at it for 3 weeks. At the end of 3 weeks we take off the lid dig out the fruit with a shovel into the press and then squeeze it. The juice comes out, we take that juice, it goes into mix of older Oregon and French oak barrels where it ferments very slowly. So at that point our cellar is probably the high 40’s temperature wise, so it ferments over the next 5 months, in our very cool cellar. And then we bottle it without any filtration or fining and this is designed to answer that riddle of “what do you do when it’s warm out and you want a chilled red wine? Well this is a red wine that is designed to be chilled. So very low alcohol it’s 11% alcohol, it’s tannic so it has some nice structure to it, it’s a great food wine it’s just really something super totally different.”

So that 3 weeks that it sits on the skins is called “carbonic maceration”. You might have heard of this with the wines of Beaujolais. This kind of fermentation starts without the yeast, inside each grape, then the grapes burst and they yeast takes over for the remaining fermentation. Now typically the maceration process short, this is an extended maceration…I’m getting really geeky…if you are interested in this fascinating subject there is a great article on VinePair you should check out.

The Do Nothing they kindly made a bit more of, with 215 cases. It’s still incredibly $20 a bottle, that is, while it lasts.

2017 Pinot Noir

2016 Silvershot Vineyards Pinot Noir (photo courtesy of Fossil & Fawn)

This is their flagship wine. In 2011 they produced just 2 barrels and now 8 years in they make 191 cases. The wine comes from Silvershot Vineyards in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA, the vineyard that Jim grew up on. This is own-rooted Pommard, Dijon 114 & 115, Espiguette 374 as well as some mystery clones. This is a mix of their Pinot parcels. 70% of the fruit is destemmed and then fermented in open top fermenters. The rest is whole cluster fermented. They ferment with the pied-du-cuve of wild yeast from the vineyard. Since they do not yet have their own winery, they make their wine at a shared facility in a tricked out 100 year old barn. This wine does contain a little Chardonnay from 30 plants that were mistakenly planted in with the Pinot. They co-ferment, and did some foot stomping until fermentation was complete. They barreled in neutral French Oak for 9 months. It is unfiltered and unfined.

This wine was made to honor the work that Jim’s dad does in the vineyard. This was the start.

They made 191 cases their Pinot Noir this year and it will set you back $30 a bottle.

They also do a Pinot Gris that is from Silvershot. Sadly they were not tasting it on this day. That wine is an orange wine, (a white wine made in the style of a red wine). Follow the link and read about it. I would be tempted to order a bottle, but…they do not, as yet, sell online. But you can find them locally in Oregon! And there are a few distributors carrying them in their portfolios. If you are going to get some, I suggest you do it fast. I expect that they will be selling out quickly.

You can also read our piece on the Uncommon Wine Festival, with our interview with Dave Pettersen the Winemaker and CEO of Vista Hills who founded the event, and check out other interviews we did at the festival with Ryan Pickens of Esther Glen Farm and Winery and Ariel Eberle of A Cheerful Note Cellars. We look forward to bringing you interviews and discussions with all of the winemakers from this event, as well as details and visits with wineries in each of the Willamette Valley AVAs. So check back here at Crushed Grape Chronicles and don’t forget, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

And if you want to dive into details on the Willamette Valley, you can read our recent post Oregon’s Willamette Valley AVAs – a Primer

Syrah Seminar 2016 SB Vintners – Episode 4 Larry Schaffer of tercero on White Hawk Vineyard

June 30, 2016

Syrah Panel Santa Barbara Vintners April 2016 Episode 4

Larry Schaffer – tercero on White Hawk Vineyard

This episode of the Syrah Seminar in Santa Barbara includes the conversation with Larry Schaffer of tercero. He speaks on White Hawk Vineyard in the Los Alamos Valley and his 2011 White Hawk Vineyard Syrah.

Larry is the President of the Santa Barbara Rhone Rangers Chapter, so he is obviously into Rhones. He is passionate about his wines and if you catch him in the tasting room or at an event, you are in for a Great conversation. We had a chance to speak with Larry last year at the tercero tasting room, here’s a snippet of our conversation about Rhones. https://www.crushedgrapechronicles.com/terceros-larry-schaffer-love-rhones/

larry schaffer tercero

Larry sources from Vineyards all over the Santa Barbara area but today he spoke specifically about the Syrah he gets from White Hawk Vineyard. He tells us about the vineyard and it’s soil, the 2011 vintage, how he makes this wine, as well as giving us insights on why Syrah is currently such a great value. Below you will find the video and transcript from the Syrah Seminar.

White Hawk Vineyard

White Hawk is located in the Los Alamos Valley on the East side of Highway 101. It is in Cat Canyon in the Northern part of the valley East of Cat Canyon Vineyard. The vines here work extra hard because the soil is so sandy, cuasing low yields and intense berries. It sits at around 900 feet elevation, and the south facing slope gets lots of morning fog.

White Hawk Vineyard on the Santa Barbara Vintners Viticultural Map.

This 75 acre vineyard is mostly planted in Syrah with a little Chardonnay. The vines here are custom farmed for the many wineries who source fruit here, including: Herman Story, Longoria, Silver Winery, Wild Horse, Sea Smoke, Sine Qua Non and Andrew Murray, in addition of course to the two wineries pouring Syrah here today, tercero and Central Coast Group Project.

For more on Larry and tercero visit http://www.tercerowines.com/

His tasting room is in Los Olivos where you can find Mae Apple pouring his wines Thursdays through Monday 12 to 5 ish or by appointment.

You won’t find tasting notes here. They encourage guests to discover the flavors without being “lead”.

They are located at 2445 Alamo Pintado Ave, Suite 104, Los Olivos, CA 93441, (the entrance is actually located on San Marcos).

tercero Wines Tasting Room

Be sure to try to get to the next seminar! The Santa Barbara Vintners will have one during the Celebration of Harvest Festival, which happens October 7-10. Here’s a link to more information. http://www.celebrationofharvest.com/

And check back here at Crushed Grape Chronicles for more on our visit to Santa Barbara. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Syrah Panel Santa Barbara Vintners Spring Weekend 2016

Episode 4: Larry Schaffer, Winemaker tercero

The Transcript

Wendy Thies Sell (WTS): Alright, our next area to visit is Los Alamos, home to White Hawk vineyard. We will taste 2 wines from Whitehawk. First up is tercero’s 2011 White Hawk Syrah. Wine maker Larry Schaffer studied viticulture and enology at UC Davis. He began his career as the enologist at Fess Parker Winery, before starting his own winery tercero. Larry’s focus is Rhone variety wines and he told me that his goal with every wine is to have it be a transparent look at that vineyard, that vintage, that variety or blend. Larry, thanks for being here and tell us about this wine and working with White Hawk Vineyard fruit.

Larry Schaffer: Well, thank you Wendy, and I want to thank all the other panelists, and thank all of you guys. It’s always a pleasure to have a number of people in a room talking about Rhone varieties. It doesn’t happen often enough. Before I get into this specific wine, I do think it’s important to give a nod to those that came before us and have really created the ability for us to be sitting up here, talking about these; definitely Bob Lindquist. I think, when you make wine you kind of think “I’ve arrived. I’m able to do what I want to do because I’m here” but really the only reason we’re here making Syrah is by the fact that people before us worked with this variety through thick and thin and have continued to work with this variety. People like Craig Jaffurs, people like Joey Tensley, Doug Margerum, Bob Lindquist and all the folks at Zaca Mesa. So I just kinda want to give a nod to all of them.

So my wine is my 2011 White Hawk Syrah. This is actually a future release. I kinda share the same, some of the same ideologies as Michael Larner in the fact that I like my wines to stay in oak for a long time. So 2011 was a really special vintage. I remember talking to winemakers up north, and by mid October they had picked everything. They got hit with massive rains. It was also a frost year so crop levels were quite low. But as the panelists before me were saying, when it rains in Paso and north, if it rains two inches, we might get a half an inch. We don’t get a lot of rain and one of the great things about Syrah, the clusters tend to be long, they tend to be relatively loose and any wind after a rain as long as its not humid, they’ll dry out, we’ll continue moving forward. So in 2011, I picked these grapes on October 28^th, which was relatively late for this vineyard. I started working with this vineyard in 2010. In the one-acre block that I was working with, I got two and a half tons in 2010, in 2011 I got less than one. So I did not have to go through the vineyard like Chris and Trey and knock all the grapes off, there just wasn’t a lot of grapes there for me to work with. I brought the grapes in, partial whole cluster in the bottom of my fermenting bin and then crushed on top of that, cold soaked for a couple of days. I made this wine at Andrew Murray Vineyards production facility and it was a very cold year so the ambient temperature in there was really cold. I waited for about 4 or 5 days for it to kick off and then I inoculated. It was about a 2 week fermentation, manually punched down 2 to 3 times a day, pressed and settled and then barreled down to 3 to 7 year old French Oak barrels. Oak is not a bad thing and I agree with Chris. I personal don’t use new oak, I’ve never used new oak on any of my wines. The newest oak barrel I’ve ever used on my reds is 3 year old oak. I like everything else to shine through and the oak to be in the background. But that’s not to say that oak is a bad thing, I’m not saying that. So again, a cool vintage and what strikes me about this wine, is the acidity. There was great natural acidity in 2011, because of how cold the vintage was all the way though. And I think with Syrah especially, but with all red wines, I think acid is kind of the key to the longevity of it, the liveliness of it. One, more acid is going to mean a lower pH, it’s going to mean that that wine is going to stay fresher longer. The other thing, I don’t rack my wines, so this wine stayed in older French Oak for 30 months. So after it was put into barrel, it stayed in barrel. I topped it, I SO2ed it, but I did nothing else to it until right before bottling when it came out of barrel. By doing that theoretically I keep the wine tighter. You imagine if you take a wine out of barrel you’re decanting the wine. You’re going to move it into a different trajectory. It’s not a better or worse thing, it’s just different. I want to keep my wine as tightly wound as long as I can so that when it gets into bottle, it starts its aging process, because I will keep my wines in barrel for a couple of years and normally in bottle for a couple of years before releasing. Enjoy! Thank you.

WTS: Larry told me that for the price there is no better value in red wine, in California than Syrah. Tell me more about that.

Larry Schaffer: Without a doubt. I mean if you think of the fact, so a couple things. One, and Chris kind of alluded to this, Syrah is a relatively new variety in this country, compared to many other noble varieties that people drink. The first variety labeled Syrah in this country was in the mid 70’s. That’s not that long ago. A lot of the plantings that we’re tasting today were planted 20 years ago and less. And a lot of that is really…it stems from the fact that even in the Rhone, even in the Northern Rhone, the wineries we are talking about like Chave, those wineries were not known in this country very well until the 80’s and the 90’s, when reviewers like Robert Parker started really talking about that region. People had talked about Bordeaux, people had talked about Burgundy, had not really talked about the Rhone. So the Rhone region as a whole, Rhone varieties are still relatively new in this country. But in terms of value, you can certainly spend more than 35 or 40 dollars on a Syrah, you don’t really need to, to get a tremendous wine. And that’s throughout Santa Barbara County and really throughout the state of California and even into Washington. There are places where the prices are going higher than that, but Syrah, really both in Syrah and Syrah blends, offers great value in all different kinds of styles,not cooler climate or warmer climate per se, but everything in between. Because Syrah is a bit of a chameleon, it will grow well anywhere and it really comes down to site and winemaker in terms of determining style, in terms of how ripe they want to get those grapes and how ripe they want to make that wine.

WTS: Briefly tell us about White Hawk Vineyard. It’s very sandy, right?

Larry Schaffer: It is. I’m gonna let this guy next to me talk a little bit more about it, but it is sandy, it was planted in the 90’s. I believe Benjamin Silver of Silver Wines assisted in the planting of it. Similar to Larner, which I also get fruit from, it’s chalky sandy soil. If you drive up the vineyard, you better have a car that can get you through the sand and back down or else you’ll be stranded. It really is amazing, your feet kinda sink in. Because of that I tend to find the grapes have a lower pH higher acidity and lower yields naturally without them having to do too much to the vineyard. The vineyard was planted again in the mid 90’s, planted to a number of different clones of Syrah and that’s what Scott’s going to talk more about.

WTS: Thank you Larry. Larry has a tasting room in Los Olivos.

Save

Wine Makers

Gérard Bertrand – the man

Languedoc -Roussillon

Gérard Bertrand – Expressing the Terroir

Biodynamic practices

Limoux

Gérard Bertrand Cuvee Thomas Jefferson Crémant de Limoux Brut Rose 2016

La Clape

Gérard Bertrand Grand Terroir La Clape 2015

Tautavel

Gérard Bertrand Grand Terroir Tautavel 2015

The Pairings

Salmon Crostini

Cheese & charcuterie

Sous vide pork in caramel sauce & Roasted fennel & Peppers

Roasted Chicken on a bed of cous cous with arugula and cranberries

Dessert – Deconstructed Berry tart

The French #Winophiles

Share this:

Like this:

Vineyard Tour with David O’Reilly

Missoula Flood Loess and Bordeaux varieties

Remember those Missoula Floods?

Elevation, terroir and matching varieties

Cabernet Franc at Owen Roe

Irrigation in the Yakima Valley

Into the glacial soils & Rhône varieties

Washington Tasting room

Oregon Tasting Room

More to come!

Share this:

Like this:

The Uncommon Wine Festival at Vista Hills Vineyard – The Mega Mix

2017 Fool’s Gold Blanc de Noir

2016 Rumble Seat Pinot Gris Rose

2017 Duchess Pinot Noir Rose

Share this:

Like this:

2015 Malbec from Leah Jørgensen Cellars

On other things

Aging Cabernet Franc

Find this wine and other details on LJC

Share this:

Like this:

Leah Jørgensen Cellars 2017 Rosé of Cabernet Franc

Buxton Vineyard in the Rogue Valley

The winemaker’s description from her site

More than just delicious

Share this:

Like this:

How Blanc de Cab Franc came to Oregon

Tastings and Pairings

The source of the Cab Franc – Mae’s Vineyard

Share this:

Like this:

Leah Jørgensen Cellars 2017 Sauvignon Blanc

Acacia Barrels?

Share this:

Like this:

“Tour Rain”

2016 Oregon “Tour Rain” Vin Rouge

The Vineyards

From the Winemaker

Share this:

Like this:

2017 Nemarniki Vineyard Riesling

2017 “Where ya PJs at?

2017 Beckenridge Vineyard Gerwürztraminer

Other Maloof Wines

How to find them?

Share this:

Like this:

Noun | lib er tine | \ ˈli-bər-ˌtēn \

“One who eschews all cultural values, pure hedonism”

Alex Neely, Winemaker

This stuff is new!

Art on the Labels

2017 Sunnyside Vineyard Dolcetto Rosé

The 2017 Acid Freak Rose

2016 LaVelle Vineyard “Botrytis” Dry Riesling