Ermitage

posted by Dan in Snooth, Wine Industry, Guest Bloggers

I spent the last week in the French countryside for work – the Loire Valley, Burgundy and the Northern Rhone.  The wine countryside(s).  I was there to visit the forests, saw mill and cooperage of Ermitage barrel makers.   I could easily write to you about the barrel making process, “once upon a time, in a forest far, far away…” however, that would be boring.  So, linked below is jump to a photo slideshow that takes you through the barrel making process. 

What you will see in this photo-essay of sorts is a snapshot of the forest, the selection of wood, work in the saw mill and cooperage…. from forest to finished product.  To be dramatic, the making of a wine barrel can take up to 180 years.  The trees of the French forests (Nevers, Allier, Troncais, Vosges, Bertranges, etc.) although 70% privately owned, are under the watchful eye of a government agency to protect and preserve the natural habitat and safeguard the industry.  Oak trees, which the Agency deems suitable by age and quality, are harvested once a year, after October auctions.  The age of the trees can be no less than 50 years and at their peak, 180 years old.  The Agency releases an auction catalog broken down into parcels from each particular forest.  The good coopers send their top arborists out to inspect the quality of the wood and estimate their bidding prices.  Once the auction is completed, winning bidders have until March to harvest the selected trees from each parcel.  Each parcel of forest comes to market every ten years or so.  But unlike grape farms with diverse soils and micro-climates, it is pretty reliable that the quality and character of these forests remain pretty stable throughout.

When the trees are harvested, the wood will be processed almost immediately.  However, the preliminary staves will be seasoned in the natural elements (air, wind, rain, snow) for 24 to 36 months.  So, the photos that you will see are not one tree going from harvest to barrel room.  The seasoning process along with the geography tends to be the determining factor to great barrel production.  What you learn from tasting barrel samples in French caves (part 2 of the trip) is that it is not the level of toast that the barrel has to offer, but the wood itself.  Just like winemaking, great forests will produce great barrels.  Enjoy the photos and let me know if you have any questions.  (Note: these photos were taken with my camera phone; so, please don’t take offense to the quality, thanks.)

Dan Petroski is Assistant Winemaker at Larkmead Vineyards in Napa Valley. Dan has an MBA from New York University and worked as an Ad Exec in New York for several years, before switching it up and trading his suit for a move out west.

Vintage Reports

posted by Dan in Wine Industry, Wine, Guest Bloggers

It’s the middle of January and Napa Valley is unseasonably warm (back-to-back 80 and 82 degree days this week) and dry.  Winter, which promises wet weather to feed the vines and snow in the mountain ranges to feed the water supply, is already tracking at 75% of normal.  But what is normal?  We’ve been at 66% of what is considered Valley floor normal in Napa the last two years. Compound that over two years and it equals = no damn good (especially when we are tracking behind and January is off to its driest start in years).

With frighteningly low yields for red wine grapes in 2008, we’re safe, but saddened, to expect more of the same in 2009.  It’s dry out there - banks are bankrupt, retail shops are closing their doors, restaurants are shuttering and farmers are feeling Mother Nature inflicted pain.  So, I am off to France.  Not for good, but for work - an opportunity to get away and to visit one of our barrel providers, Ermitage.

Ermitage has been a valued supplier of barrels for Larkmead since the 2006 vintage.  Ermitage barrels make up about 10% of our entire oak program for red wines and about 45% of the oak barrels we use to ferment and age our Sauvignon Blanc (a little over 80% is in wood, the remaining is stainless steel barrels). I won’t delve into too much detail now, because I plan on recapping the trip in words and pictures upon my return.

However, there is some good news, post holidays, to report from the cellar.  Soon, you will all start seeing the 2006 Napa Valley Cabernets hitting the shelves and the wines which kept a great many winemakers up at night worrying about their tannins seem to be balancing out in bottle - building richness and concentration and coming into their own.  You should expect these wines to age well due to their structure and natural acidity; but a tip for those of you who like to inflict Herculean amounts of malice on young wines - they’d be best served as an accompaniment to food.

The 2007 Cabernets are being heralded as a “can’t miss” vintage.  The wines, full of fruit and finesse, power and elegance, are a focused product as a result of the planets aligning during an optimal growing season that produced fruit on the vine that reached perfect maturity of flavor due to precision balance of sugar, acid and skins.  After harvest the wines have consistently developed without intervention and are screaming to be bottled early and consumed upon release.  This is good news for those of you who are willing to cellar the 06’s, because I promise you the 07’s will be drunk one after the other and then they will be gone.

And last but not least, the 2008’s.  The vintage posed an early challenge because of the low yields and a struggle for balanced ripeness.  In the winery we saw many of the wines finish primary and secondary fermentation concurrently, which produced very green flavors.  However, since resting in barrel the last two and a half months, the wines have become more concentrated and have presented more depth of flavors.  We are very excited about the young 2008 wines and after my trip to France we’ll be making early racking and blending decisions to help develop the wines into a world-class product that rivals the previous vintages.

All in all, the best of what is happening in Northern California wine growing these past years is the diversity vintage to vintage.  If your favorite wine producers are trusting their feelings for terroir (a combination earth, wind, water and fire) and making wines true to what is given to them, the bona fide connoisseurs and amateurs alike, will appreciate the differences and complexities vintage to vintage – that is what makes wine drinking and appreciation fun.  Right?  I hope so.  See you all in two weeks, and I will leave you with the words of Emperor Bonaparte,

“Nothing makes the future look so rosy as to contemplate it through a glass of Chambertin.”

Until next time, a bientot.
Dan Petroski is Assistant Winemaker at Larkmead Vineyards in Napa Valley. Dan has an MBA from New York University and worked as an Ad Exec in New York for several years, before switching it up and trading his suit for a move out west.