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

“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

Crushed Grape Chronicles

Adventures in Wine Exploration

Leah Jørgensen