What’s in a Name?

posted by Dan in Wine Industry, Guest Bloggers

 “That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet.”
Really?

If I introduced you to the rose bushes in my garden and I called them, Skunk, Vomit and Sulfur, would you really take to them with a walk away feeling of delicacy and charm?  And in that we find wine’s least charming characteristic – the power of persuasion.  Anyone can pull their Pinocchio from the glass and blurt out something rather interesting or silly  and, almost immediately, you will pick up on that same character if you are sniffing the same wine.

How does this pertain to a name?  Well, in launching my new venture I have the inevitable task of naming my wine.  This is a process that I have thought about over the years; even when I had no desire to make my own wine and label it as such.

I could tell you what I like to drink and why; however, unlike the old saying, “the journey is the destination,” in hindsight I have always felt it to be the other way around – the destination (the words and snapshots in your journal, the airline ticket stubs, the restaurant matchbooks) should incite memories of the time spent or the feelings endured.  When you are dealing with a luxury, packaged good (as pricey wine can be categorized) the hope is that the name, the label, the brand identity makes a connection that either brings you to another place or helps you identify with the thoughts and inspirations of the winemaker behind the wine.  [Note: That is just my opinion and aspiration.]

So, I am torn as to how I want to present myself with this wine.  I know in today’s day of Technology ADD, a brand needs to be dynamic and changing; offering its core essence but evolving with the times.  But for me, the dilemma is deeper.  Do I care about keeping up with the Twitterati?  Or do I want to achieve something that is timeless in its place and presentation?

I concede in my willingness to possibly accept the inevitable evolution of a brand identity, and, therefore, I have accepted the fact that the first attempt may not be perfect in all its parts.

For me, at the moment, ideas are swimming somewhere between an Ivy League education reamed of Humanities, Ancient Greek and Roman studies and all their encompassing esotericism, ethereal character and intellectualism with my modern day appreciation of minimalism, simplicity and elegance.

Can one accomplish both while teetering on the imagery of Tiepolo and Richard Serra? I hope so.

But, if you know me, I tend to stand against the pretension (of wine) albeit appreciating the history of the wine and its craftsmanship – from the technical and traditional to the irreverent and risk taking.
So, how does one portray the personality of the product and the varied personality of the person behind the product?  That is the dilemma.

I am 99% certain of the name of the wine brand and the “sub names” of the white wines I wish to create.  However, I would like to hear from you, my faithful and flawless readers, what attracts you to a wine label?  I’d love to gather your thoughts and comment on them and my decision in the next post.  Thanks in advance for your time and generosity of opinion, I look forward to hearing from you.

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

Bennett Valley & Chalk Hill

posted by John in Snooth, Wine Industry, Wine, Guest Bloggers

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a blog on Snooth.  It also has been a while since I’ve done anything with the pages I curate.  If you don’t know I curate the Sonoma County and Sonoma Valley webpages.  One way to address both of these pages and get a blog in is to talk about two of the smaller, lesser known sub-appellations in the region.  I give you Chalk Hill and Bennett Valley.

Bennett Valley is a sub-appellation of Sonoma Valley and is located in the Sonoma Mountain chain that leads up towards Santa Rosa.  It is almost an extension of the Sonoma Mountain sub-appellation.

Chalk Hill is a sub-appellation of the Russian River Valley.  It is at the east end of the appellation running up against the Alexander Valley appellation and Knights Valley appellation in the Mayacamas Mountains.

I’m going to tell you a little bit about both.

Bennett Valley

History
Bennett Valley is one of the newest appellations in Sonoma County.  In fact, it is one of the newest California appellations.  The application for the appellation was filed in October of 2001 by the CEO of Mantanzas Creek.  Mantanzas Creek is the ‘anchor’ winery of the appellation.  The appellation was granted in December 2003.  I don’t know for sure if that is a record but it is very fast.  According to information I read, there was on opposition.

The area shares a lot of it’s formative history with Sonoma Valley and Sonoma in general.  Grape growing recorded as far back as mid-1800s.  Many of the original vineyards farmed by immigrants and used for local wines.

Geography

Bennett Vally is, well, a valley.  It is one of the smallest AVAs in the Sonoma County with only 650 acres currently planted out of 8,140 acres available.  For comparison, Sonoma valley has about 60,000 acres planted.   It is a valley that is part of the Sonoma Mountain chain that runs along the west side of Sonoma Valley.  It is surrounded by three different mountain peaks: Taylor Mountain (west), Sonoma Mountain (south) and Bennett Peak / Bennett Ridge (east).  Finally to the north is the city of Santa Rosa.

Bennett Valley, like a lot of the area, around it has volcanic type soil and is a cool weather climate.  It’s unique feature, which separates it from the surrounding areas, is cool air is  channeled into the valley from the north by the peaks via the Crane Caynon / Grange Road wine gap.  The air has no where to go but settle in the valley.

Grapes, Wines & Wineries

You would think with a small amount of land planted that there wouldn’t be a lot of variation of in the grapes being grown.  If you did think that, you’d be wrong.  It planted mostly with Merlot, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah, with lesser amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon and Franc, Barbera, Grenache, and Sauvignon Blanc.  You can even find a bit of Petite Sirah, Sangiovese and Zinfandel.

Why should you care?

Bennett Valley is one of those lesser known special places.  It is one of those places that is coming into it’s own.  It is home to a well known and respected winery in Mantazas Creek and a lot of smaller family owned wineries. The growers there provide grapes to some of the best known California names including: Stag’s Leap Cellars, DuMol and Caymus.

Links

Bennett Valley Grape Growers Association

Bennett Valley @ Appellation America

 Bennett Valley @ Wikipedia

Bennett Valley @ Calwineries

Chalk Hill
When people say the name Russian River the first thing that comes to mind is Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.  That is a fair assessment as that is what the Russian River Valley is known for.  So, when people hear that Bordeaux style wines are being made in Russian River Valley they think someone is smoking some funny cigarettes or they just made a mistake.  The truth is, it is being done in a sub-appellation called Chalk Hill.

History

There isn’t anything outstanding about the history of Chalk Hill.  It wasn’t one of the first places that grapes were grown in California or even in Sonoma County.  It has, like a lot of places in Sonoma, growing grapes.  The Chalk Hill AVA was founded in 1983 when people realized this wasn’t Russian River Valley.

Geography

The Chalk Hill AVA covers about 33 square miles (85 square kilometers) and is situated at the eastern side of the Russian River AVA.  It has about 1,600 acres (650 hectares) of planted vineyard land with about a 1000 of that planted.  It is mostly rocky volcanic ash based soil and the elevation slopes upward the farther east you go.  The AVA ends on the western slopes of the Mayacamas Mountain. The elevation of the AVA ranges from a low of 200 but is as high as 1300 feet.  Unlike the rest of the Russian River Valley AVA, the Chalk Hill region is relatively warm due to the influence of a thermal belt that runs through the area.  Harvest time in Chalk Hill often takes place in September while harvest in the surrounding regions usually takes place in October.

Grapes, Wines & Wineries

Chardonnay is still the most grown grape in Chalk Hill.  But there is an increasing amount of Bordeaux varieties like Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Merlot.  Like many regions in California people experiment by growing different grapes, other grapes that are grown in Chalk Hill include: Pinot Gris, Sangiovese and Sauvignon Blanc.  With the warmer climate and big variation in altitude it is possible to find an area suitable to a lot of different grape varieties.

So what wineries are in Chalk Hill that you might know?  How about J Vineyards and Rodney Strong?  Yes, they are both in Chalk Hill with, of course, Chalk Hill Estate.
Why should you care?

Like Bennett Valley, Chalk Hill is one of those stealth AVAs.  It is an AVA with great grapes and wineries.  If you are the type of person that knows a secret that other people don’t you want to know about Chalk Hill.  The great thing about it is that you can find all wine in one area.  It produces a bit of everything, Burgundian and Bordeaux wines in 33 square miles.  Oh yeah, don’t forget the sparkling wine courtesy of J Wines.

Links

Chalk Hill @ Appellation America

Chalk Hill @ Wikipedia

Chalk Hill @ Calwineries

John Andrews is a software product manager during the week and is a professional Tasting Room staffer at Loxton Cellars in Glen Ellen, CA on the weekends.

Wine Proxies

posted by AdamL in Snooth, Wine Industry, Wine

There’s an ocean of imported wine out there, so how do you know if something is going to be good or not? While a select few people are familiar with individual producers within a wide range of regions, a slightly larger group just has a firm grasp on the main wine producing regions and sub-regions of the world, yet an even larger group knows they like wine from a specific country or knows they want to try it out. When you don’t consider yourself in that first group, you can learn the names of a few respected importers that you can use a proxy for actually knowing the producer of the wine you are about to buy.

Importers are always popping up and going out of business, but there are a number of reputable firms you can look out for. When I walk into a wine store and am looking for a new imported wine to try, the first thing I do is rotate bottles to look at the back label where the importer information is often stored. There isn’t always a logo on the label as there is in this Kermit Lynch example, but the text should be there. In the US, all imported wine must have some designation of what company imported that particular bottle. Different importers may import the same wine into different states or countries and multiple importers may have the right to import a single wine into the same place, so things can get a little confusing.

I’m mostly familiar with the portfolios of California importers, so this list skews towards the left coast of the US but here are a few of my favorites that I look out for. Some of these importers are distributed nationally.

-Chambers and Chambers – a little bit of everything. In Italy, they even use a consultant named Carla Bocchio who travels around helping them find the best producers. I had the chance to interview Carla a while back when she was in town, so will eventually post this interview on the blog.

-Kermit Lynch – French wines. The famous.

-Winemonger – Austrian wines. I’m still learning about Austrian wines, but there portfolio hasn’t disappointed yet.

-Charles Neal Selections – France

-Cape Classics – South Africa. Between these two SA importers, I think they have most of my favorite wine farms covered.

-Vineyard Brands – South Africa

-Domaine Select – a bit of everything

There are a couple of good articles you can read more on this idea of learning the name of an importer in order to discover new wines: Slate and HalogenLife

Terroir, an Addendum.

posted by Dan in Wine Industry, Wine, Guest Bloggers

Last week, Greg posted a spot-on treatise on the Terroir debate.

Between Greg and the readers who commented, there was enough meat in their words to satisfy those seeking the Executive Summary and those hoping to take a peek behind the curtain.

Greg’s comments reminded me of the wineanorak, Jamie Goode’s “Terroir” chapter in his book “The Science of Wine.”  Goode dedicates the entire second chapter (which follows ‘The biology of the grape vine) to the Terroir debate.  If a respected wine journalist is going to commit an entire chapter that early, front and center, in a book about Wine Science, then we must realize that this ethereal thing we call Terroir is and will always be up for debate.

Terroir is religion for some and bunk to others.  The notions of Terroir are deep rooted, no pun intended, shunned by those who don’t have it and celebrated by those who do.  But the comments regarding winemaking styles having an impact on the eventual representations of said dogma are true.  It is a constant debate in these parts of California as to whether Terroir exists.   Nature’s forces will never allow two wines from two different parts of the globe, even if they are from the same grape vine lineage, to taste the same.  However, the goal is that the man made impact in the vineyard and in the cellar respects his or her natural surroundings.  That being the hopeful representation of the winemaker’s motives, the conversation ensues amongst us whether or not one, five or twenty-five wines that are produced from the same vineyard will reflect the essence of that vineyard.  We hope so, but….

When a winemaker harvests grapes with a 30% sugar to water ratio and places those grapes in a fermentation tank with the intention to bleed off (what the French call ‘saigner’) the juice that was created naturally from the sorting, de-stemming and transferring processes before the ‘cold soak’ (the pre-fermentation maceration that allows the grape juice to extract non-alcoholic, color concentration along with textual and aromatic components), how much of the vineyard’s character is going to remain in the wine?  Wait, we’re not done. What usually follows this style of winemaking is the addition of pre-fabricated yeasts, water, tartaric acid and nutrients to promote a healthy fermentation.  But is that really healthy – to attempt to put back everything that was taken out of the grape?  This process is where the hand of the winemaker comes into play and knowing this, you ask, where’s the Terroir?  Where is the ‘sense of place’ as Greg D. and Greg T. point out in their comments?

This begs another question, using Greg’s example of North Coast Pinot Noir and its stylistic components - if a winemaker is stylistically apt to pursue, as Greg calls, a ‘low acid, fruit bomb’ Pinot Noir does placing a vineyard designation on the label mean anything anymore?  If one is fortunate to source fruit from some of the storied vineyards in Sonoma County are they just using the vineyard as a marketing tool?  Probably so.  And if you, the consumers, are fortunate enough to taste a number of the same wines made from the vineyard designated, it will be up to you to decide which wines you appreciate, but will you ever really know, because of different winemaking styles, the sense of place that the vineyard is offering?  Probably not.  And that is a sad state of affairs if you believe that a wine could be marketed in such a way to promote itself through association.  So now the debate comes full circle to some comments I made on this blog back in April regarding the disclosure of winemaking techniques.

As Sir Walter Scott said: “What a tangled web we weave, when first we [practice] to deceive.”

Similar to Greg, I started out one way and finished another.  But in truth, that is the beauty of wine.  We will all share our own opinions sometimes vehemently, but the truth is in the palate of the beholder.  Drink well and enjoy.

-

Here’s a quick addition to this post that is quite interesting and falls in line with this debate.  In yesterday’s Wine Business e-mail newsletter they reported on Wine Intelligence’s new research that queried wine drinking consumers about their familiarity with worldwide wine producing regions.  Some of the results are startling.  With only 31% and 29% of American drinkers aware of French wine regions Cotes du Rhone and the Loire, how is it possible that the balance would ever know the Syrah and Sauvignon Blanc “terroirs” of said regions, even if they put it in their mouth?!?  My favorite tidbit from the report asked consumers to write the first thing that came to mind when they saw the name of a wine region.  “When Marlborough was shown, the most popular response was “cigarettes”; for Chianti, the film Silence of the Lambs was one of the most frequently repeated [responses].”  Egad.

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

Another New Wine?

posted by Dan in Wine Industry, Guest Bloggers

It’s June 2009.  I ventured off four years ago this month to pursue my interest in wine.  It was a curiosity and a possible career change then, now it is a daily passion that, not only, fills my heart, hands, nose and mouth, but also pays my bills.  In just a few short years I have been fortunate to make the successful transition from wine drinker to winemaker.  Along the way I have seen a proliferation of new wine labels enter the market.  Some have screamed to success, some are starting off strong but inevitably won’t endure – not for lack of passion or entrepreneurialism, but for a market that has been exponentially flooded during the boom years of increasing wine appreciation. From what I can tell and what research has told us, wine appreciation has not waned, but it has become a sad state of affairs for committed winemakers as the current economy is hovering somewhere between purgatory and nuclear destruction.  The market now seems to be sputtering, spitting, trading down, dining out less, and BYOB’ing when splurging was once a status symbol of the wine (drinking) strivers. Only the strong will survive, no?  Only the realists will realize that a simple drink marketed as an elixir of ancient times modernized will weather the reduction of profits, the refinancing of loans, the sale of family businesses, the savage shake of waking from a lifelong dream.

Amongst the ascent of financial chaos, another wine will come to market in the late Spring of 2010.  It will be a white wine.  It will be a risky endeavor.  On one hand it will not be a wine for novices.  On the other hand, it will be a blend of grape varieties with the hope of promising a new, unique approach of what white wine could be – modern, stylistic, spirited, sharply focused, textured, nuanced; different - taking the best of what California vineyards (and terroir) has to offer and approaching the winemaking with intellectual verve and passion.

I am starting my own label, Ladies and Gents.  I will be sourcing my fruit from a handful of California’s preeminent appellations and some lesser known ones.  My goal is to bring in as many grapes as I can weather and let them tell me what to do next.  My approach is to mirror the burgeoning success of the new-wave of white wines coming out of North East Italy with a Californian winemaker’s bend.  I adore the new world approach of producers Lis Neris, Volpe Pasini, Terlan and Venica & Venica and their use of classic and new world grape varieties, blended and vinified.  My hope is to channel their wines on Californian ground.

It is a risk.  But one worth taking. The economy has nose-dived and many producers are pulling back, down-sizing or shuttering completely because of the arrival of the financial Four Horsemen.

But in each and every thing, one must find the essence.  And the essence of this financial zeitgeist should be opportunity.  Take a look at the markets.  Find an opportunity.  Fill a hole.  The hole I am filling is in myself.  I reared my pursuit on a love of unique, memorable and affordable wines, and I hope that the 2009 vintage can satiate my goals to add a wine of said descriptors to the mix.  In previous posts over the last year I have offered an insight of winemaking techniques and processes.  In my future posts I hope to do the same, but with personal insights on the process.  Wish me luck (and buy my wine upon release).  Details to follow….

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

Bottling Day

posted by Dan in Snooth, Wine Industry, Guest Bloggers

Below is the third and final installment of bottling our 2008 Tocai Friulano and 2007 Firebelle. As promised, here is an attempt at presenting the process with photos. At the bottom of this posting is a link to photos on the Kodak website - the photos you will find there (and some below) were taken by Joshua Liberman. You can find out more about Josh’s photography on his website.

Larkmead is a relatively small producer. On average, we’ll make 8,000 cases a year. Our facility is not set up to bottle our own wine. The main reason for this is that it is expensive to own, maintain and manage a bottling line, especially since it is only used a couple of times a year. Therefore, when it comes time to bottling our wines, like many small producers, we will bring in a ‘mobile’ bottling unit. The beast of an 18 or so wheeler is outfitted with all the necessary automated devices – a filler bowl to fill the bottles, the filling machine, a corker, a capsule put-er-on-er (don’t really know if it has a name), the label machine and two technicians who manage the process professionally.

Depending on the truck you hire for the day, you can bottle up to 400 cases of wine an hour, that’s over 6 cases a minute. Although the process is fast and loud, it is ridiculously efficient with a focus on quality. To manage the day, you will also need about nine freelance workers to help get the empty glass on the truck (two guys), the finished wine in the case box (three ladies), and the cases labeled (two more ladies) and stacked on pallets for transport to storage (two more guys). And you will need a forklift driver (myself) to move pallets of empty glass and finished wine in and out of the way.

So, as mentioned, the empty glass gets pulled off a pallet and put on a conveyor.

From here the empty glass bottle is sparged with either Argon or Nitrogen to displace the oxygen in the bottle. The bottle is then filled with wine (the wine gets to the truck by the use of a pump that is hooked up to a tank inside the winery). Once the bottle is full of wine, it is corked.

After the wine is corked, it slides down the line and a capsule is placed on the bottle.

The capsule is larger then the neck of the bottle, but it is spun and the air is vacuumed out of the in between space and the capsule is collapsed for a snug fit before it is sent to be labeled.

After the wine is labeled, it circles the other side of the truck and is placed in case boxes. Pictured below is our team manager, Hilda, who, with her team, circulate and work the starting and finishing aspects, as noted above, throughout the day. In this photo Hilda is packing our first ever, half-bottle (375 mL) offering.

Please check out the Kodak website for more detailed photos of the process. And although the day is long (I’ll arrive with the truck’s technicians at 6 a.m. - we’ll begin bottling at 8 a.m. - and leave, post clean up, at around 6 p.m.), there is always something to do during bottling, but there is one particular Larkmead cellar hand that gets to sleep on the job, my dog Sophie.

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

Views from Italy

posted by Gregory in Snooth, Wine Industry, Wine

I’ve been documenting much of my days here via posts on the Snooth Forum but to add some color I thought I’d do a little blogging so without further ado, a few photos from the top of the boot.

You can follow along my travels in more detail here, but I’ll briefly put a few of these photos in context

When I arrived in Italy I went basically from the airport to the Sella estate in Lesson, Northern Piedmont. We tasted a few wines with Cristiano the winemaker before visiting the summer home of the Sella family, now siting preserved but unused. A photo from thetop floor balcony shows the warmth here, check out the palm tree, as well as the encrouchment of housing that has virtually replaced the vineyards in this area.

Sella makes wines from Lessona and Bramaterra, The soil in Bramaterra includes sand of volcanic origin and some decomposed porphyr but the sand, and rock it’s derived from accounts for the significant differences between the two wines. both wines are made in a very traditional way and are aged in the Sella cellars in large, neutral wood, though some new oak has been used on some wines.

I’ll of course add tasting note for the sella wines soon but we had a great visit and i know a shipment of wines is on way to the US as we speak so I hope you al keep an eye out for them.

Our Next day began with a visit with one of my favorite producer, Mauro Mascarello of Giuseppe Mascarello. We tasted the line-up chez Mascarello along with renowned Italian journalist Franco Ziliani. As usual this was a high point of my trip. The wines were great, as they tend to be. We toured the cellar after the tasting where, among other gems, lay future vintages of the famed single vineyard Monprivato aging comfortably in their large wood botte.

Of course it could be argued that these large ovals aren’t really large botte. I don’t think that Franco and Mauro were actually arguing that while we took a look at these really large botte, out of commission for over a decade but still a fixture in the winery!

The botte are not the only contains that are throwbacks to another era found in the Mascarello cantina. Both 13.5 liter quarter brentas and these awfully attractive damigiane, look at those tin labels, how cool is that, are still used regulalry to help manage quantities of wines. i want to manage one right into my cellar. Heck, I’ld even take one empty!

Afer the cellar tour we went to da Felicin for a great lunch when we had the chance to blind taste a few great and very surprising bottles of wine. A very humbling experience for all involved as no one really got any right.My guesses from left to right:  1993 La Morra from Rivalta, a 1988 Barolo from Monforte, a 1978 Barolo from Barolo, and finaly a 1974 from who knows. the wines totally outperformed and that was probably due to the fact that they’ve spent all the life in one place after having been moved a few kilometers. What a lovely lunch and a humbling experience.

After lunch we were treated to a tour of the cellar where we got a chance to see some of the wines we didn’t drink. Suffice it to say we had a blast taking a look around at treasures like these.

After lunch, it was a long lunch so after lunch it was 5, we headed back to Alba for the welcome reception for the Alba Wine Exhibition. Along the way we stopped by to take a look at Mauro’s Monprivato vineyard. I have another shot of the vineyard from Cannubi that I’ll post tomorrow but looking north from Monprivato  one can see the wonderful Bricco Boschis estate of the Cavallotto family.  The winery is centered on the top of the ridge and all you see is Bricco Boschis, well pretty much.

Further to the west and a bit further north is Alberto Racca’s tenute Montanello. certainly a new operation but one with roots going back over a hundred. the facilities were once the Cooperative winery for the village of Castiglione Falletto and occupies a wonderful vantage point overlooking some of the great crus of Castiglione.

I’m cheating a bit now as we jump ahead a day to Monday night when we ended up in the village of Barbaresco for an afternoon tasting and dinner at Antica Torre. Since we had about 90 minutes to kill between the tasting and dinner we decided to take a walk out of the south of the village to visit some rather renowned vineyards. For example here we are looking back towards the village and you can see Moccagatta under the houses that line the top of the ridge and beneath that Paje.

Here’s a closer look at Paje. You might notice how lush and verdant the vineyard in the middle is. That’s Roagna’s organically grown vineyard producing exceptional wines while in totally harmony with the naturally occuring ground cover that help to prevent the landslides that have plagued this region recently. Good for the wine, good for the environment and good for the terrain. Why doesn’t every vineyard look like this?

We continued down the road until we came to the fork that divides Faset on the right from Asili on the left. We went up the right hand road and walked up to the top of Bricco Faset. We then went down through the vines and turned back to take this picture of Bricco Asili, just the crown of this hill.

We made it over to the road that heads down through the vines and under Bricco Asili and went around the corner where we ended up under Martinenga with Asili to the left and Rabaja to the right. Perhaps the most important slope in all of Barbaresco and that’s the photo that did not come out! I did however get a photos of these unusually high pruned old vines that lay at the bottom of this famed slope separating these vineyards from the Rio Sordo  which lies just beyond the stand of trees on the background.

We climbed up through Rabaja and Asili and let me tell you I will never forget how steep these vineyards are. It has been a great start to this trip and I have alot more to come. I’ve got some great video of the vineyards as well so help put them all in context. I hope you enjoyed this little bit and I look foward to my next installment. Until then Ciao!

Gregory Dal Piaz

Community Manager

Snooth

Bottling Prep, Part 2

posted by Dan in Wine Industry, Guest Bloggers

I left off in the last post  talking about the process of “racking” a wine in preparation for bottling.  I also detailed some chemistry information about wine that winemaking types need to think about - not only the chemistry before the wine is bottled, but also its make-up throughout its development.

By the time this is posted on Wednesday I will have cases and cases full of wine.  And I promise in two weeks time you will see a photo essay of the bottling process. I am just not that tech-savvy to propose posting this in real time.

Today, we are bottling our Tocai. It is a small, limited production dry, white wine from 125 year-old vines.  We’ll make just about 120 cases from the 2008 vintage.  This Tocai is the North East Italian variety and brings all the best wild flower and citrus blossom to the nose and floral herbaceousness that is characteristic of the wines from the Friuli region.  We will also be bottling our Merlot based blend, Firebelle, from the 2007 vintage.

On Monday morning at 7:00 a.m. my glass (i.e. empty bottles) arrived.  Stacked on pallets in our branded boxes, 84 empty cases to a pallet.  Since last week, deliveries of labels, corks and capsules have been arriving as well.  My small cellar space has been overrun with packaging. Like any packaged goods brand manager, vendors were kept in touch with over the year – since the prior bottling; kinks were worked out and changes were made.  The most consistent change each year is to our labels.  The most obvious change is the vintage date and the current wine’s alcohol level.  And if the wine is composed of a different blend (e.g. Firebelle - Merlot, Cabernet and Malbec), the grape variety information and percentages have been updated.  For our Tocai, we decided to add an image to the label to memorialize the history behind the vines.   So, some wholesale changes were made and proofs were scrutinized and press checks were attended.

With regards to corks, when buying, we set up trials with our vendor.  These trials consist of smelling corks from different bales (i.e. lots) in order to check for quality – or more importantly, TCA (i.e. the chemical name for a natural fungus that is present in wood based products and we know commonly as “cork taint”).  A cork trial is a great aromatic tester because TCA comes in varying levels of impact. With low alcohol wines, if TCA is present, the impact is more profound.  With higher alcohol wines, e.g. Cabernets, there is a chance, even if there are minute traces of TCA (registered in parts per trillion) in the cork, it will not be discernable in the wine.  TCA is mainly recognizable as wet cardboard or wet dog, or, in lesser instances, as muted fruit profile or heightened menthol character.   So, for the trial the corks are soaked in low alcohol, boxed white wine (Franzia, I believe) over night.  Each cork is in its own individual vile of said wine and poured into wine glasses upon arrival.  We’ll smell ten or more corks from each bale and test five to ten bales in one session. We’ll have a control sample and the goal is to smell the glasses of wine and look for the bales that produce the least amount of impact in the wine’s aromatic character.

Covering the corks are the capsules. Last year we changed our capsule provider, for quality and price reasons, and we were able to secure a higher quality for a better price.  Unfortunately, last year, tin prices sky-rocketed, and if you add in the fact that we purchased our capsules from a French producer while the Euro to dollar conversion was peaking in the 1.50’s, it was an expensive accoutrement. We also buy our glass from France and our corks from Portugal, thus the currency conversion rates last year increased our entire packaging costs for our 2006 wines.   [The conversion rates also impacted our French Oak barrel purchasing.  Barrels that were $500-$600 a piece in 2003 and 2004 are now hovering around the $1,000 mark.]

For example, the rough costs for packaging a single bottle of wine are as follows:

Case Box: $0.15
Glass: $1.30
Corks: $0.60
Labels: $0.25
Capsules: $0.20

On top of this, you need to factor in your grape costs, your harvest costs, your vinification costs (i.e. fermentation yeasts and nutrients), your barrel costs, your time, labor, chemistry analysis, bottling prep, and the act of bottling itself. [You will see in the next post, we use a mobile bottling service which charges around $0.30 per bottle.]

Overall, the cost of producing a bottle of wine, for us (and this differs based on the choices each winery makes), is roughly, give or take a dollar, $10 per bottle.  That does not include the overhead (turning the lights on in the morning, etc.) and the marketing and sales expenses associated with the wine).  So, when it comes down to it, our wine is fairly expensive to produce – almost 3x the price of the average bottle of wine purchased in America.  However, in a Napa Valley comparison, on a QPR basis, our wines tend to be in the top tier of value wines even at $50-$60 per bottle.  I shutter sometimes when I think about this, because when I was a consumer of wine, not in the business of producing wine, I used to think of buying wine at this price point as a luxury.  Now it is value based on the wines I drink these days.  Sorry for the aside.

So, wish me luck today and the next couple of bottling days over the course of the next week, because this is the last chance to have any control of your wine’s development.  I am looking forward to the next post, full of pictures to elaborate on the process.  Until then, drink well, the luxurious kind or not.

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

Bottle Racking

posted by Dan in Wine Industry, Guest Bloggers

In a post earlier this year titled “Winter Winemaking”, I discussed a little bit of the thought process and ensuing vinification activity of a young wine post-harvest.  Now that the majority of our 2008 wines have been blended and are marrying in barrel, it’s (chronological) time to turn our attention to the previous vintage – 2007.   As with our Cabernet and Merlot based wines, the wines will age in barrel from 18 to 22 months before bottling.  We are scheduled to bottle our 2007 Merlot blend and Estate Cabernet in early May.  So, the most obvious and important activity pre-bottling is to remove the wine from barrel and settle it in a stainless steel tank to facilitate the bottling process.  This activity is called racking.

The pre-bottling racking is the final clarifying event for the wine, but also stands for some winemakers as the final blend.  At Larkmead we blend in the first six to nine months of the wine’s life; a philosophy we believe helps the wine harmonize and integrate with itself and the barrel profile, leaving nothing out of balance.   During the initial rackings we will use a centrifugal pump to allow oxygen to come in contact with the wine (an opportunity to soften the rough edges, i.e. tannins) and to force out any remaining CO2.  As the wine ages, it becomes near mandatory not to expose the wine to oxygen, therefore we will move the wine with the help of inert gases.  As pictured,

we are pressurizing the barrel with Argon in order to gently move the wine to tank (a tank that has been gassed with Argon to displace its oxygen).  Argon is heavier than Nitrogen (which is still widely used for this process) and does not bind to other elements (especially those in liquid).  The process of moving the wine takes about five minutes per barrel (a 60-gallon barrel is the equivalent of 25 cases of wine).  During the last two weeks, we racked with Argon over 250 barrels (or 6,200 cases) worth of wine that we are readying for bottling in May.

Once the wine is in tank, and the headspace is gassed with Argon (to displace any residual oxygen) it is time to take a sample of the wine to test its final chemistry.  The chemistry analysis will determine whether there is any remaining bacteria in the wine that can cause flaws or faults in the wine.  At this point we will be able to make decisions as to whether or not the wine needs to be fined or filtered before bottling.  Fining is the process of clarifying a wine, removing any micro solids, bacteria, yeast and polyphenols (i.e. harsh tannins).  A traditional fining solution would be egg whites.  Today there are also other gelatins that produce positive activity that will bind with the unwanted cells.   Said addition is mixed into the barrel before racking or tank post-racking and then allowed to settle to the bottom of the vessel pulling out the unwanted particles that have remained in suspension in the wine.  Filtering takes fining to the next level. Filtering can play an important role in the production of the final product.  When you filter a wine, you guarantee that the whole body of the wine will be subject to electrokinetic activity that once again helps remove any microbacteria. Fining and filtering can help ‘polish’ a wine by removing its rough edges and improving its texture and clarity.

A History of a Wine’s Chemistry Analysis

Chemistry analysis is an important contributor throughout the life of the wine making process. During the cold soak, we will look at the wine’s nutrient profile, sugar content and acid which will guide us through the pending fermentation and cue us in as to whether we will need to be adding any nutrients to facilitate a healthy conversion of grape juice to young wine.  Once the wine finishes fermentation the standard chemical analysis of the wine will include: pH (the general indicator of acidity in a wine; water is neutral at 7 pH, while white wines will be in the low 3’s and red wines in the mid to upper 3’s; thus acidic); RS (“residual sugar” or the glucose and fructose that remain in a wine after these sugars have converted to ethanol concentration or alcohol; each wine and each winemaker will have their own threshold as to what is acceptable RS in a wine.  We consider our wines to be ‘dry’ (i.e. lacking sugar) at less than 1 g/L.  Late harvest or dessert wines can be judged as such if they have more than 4g/L residual sugar); Alcohol (self explanatory) and VA (or “volatile acidity” which is predominantly acetic acid that is produced by spoilage yeast and bacteria in a wine and can cause the development of unwanted sensory effects.  Wines with high acetic numbers can also cause the formation of ethyl acetate that is a common microbial flaw.  At high levels, ethyl acetate produces the dreaded nail polish remover character in a wine; at lower levels it can produce a potential sweet, richness).

Throughout the life of the wine’s maturation the sulfur levels are monitored and adjusted to preserve the wine.  Appropriate levels of sulfur in a wine during aging will act as an antioxidant and will prevent microbial growth.  The absence of sulfur in a wine and the presence of oxygen is the biggest threat to the wine’s health.  During the wine’s life in barrel, we strive for sulfur levels in the mid-30’s and we will bottle our wines at levels around 25 to 28 mg/L (or parts per million, PPM).

With the basic chemistry established and at acceptable levels throughout maturation, it is now time, pre-bottling, to determine whether or not the wine has any remaining spoilage yeasts and bacteria that produce off character(s) in wine.  The most common ‘flaws’ that develop during primary and secondary fermentation are as follows: Oenoccoccus, a malolactic bacteria that will produce high levels of acetic acid; Brettanomyces is an easily distributed volatile acid, ester and phenol that is responsible for the off-aromas and barnyard flavors we commonly know as Brett; Lactobacilius, another malolactic bacteria that forms during sluggish fermentations produces that buttery character in a wine; Pediococcus is yet another lactic bacteria that can cause textural defects that suppress the fruit character in a wine and prevent the healthy aging of a wine.  The appropriate chemistry analysis of these bacteria will let you know if you have any of these miscreant cells remaining in your wine.  Although some of these cells may be present, there is a good chance that they are ‘dead cells’ that were neutralized during the healthy process of sulfur maintenance.  If we feel that the wine is in jeopardy due to high levels of any of these cells, we will make the decision to filter the wine.

A short cut to checking if a wine has problems is to check its turbidity, i.e. the wine’s clarity or haziness.  Turbidity will help determine whether a wine has any suspended solids.  Those solids may include the yeast cells or the microbacteria listed above; however, as mentioned, those solids may or may not be active in deteriorating the wines.  It is up to the winemaker to make the judgment based on the full chemistry analysis as to whether or not they wish to clarify the wine further through filtration, to finish and polish the final product or to free it from the potential danger of those bacteria attacking the character of the wine.

As I type this, I am happy to report that we have the full chemistry analysis of our Merlot blend, Firebelle. The wine has a pH of 3.9, RS of less than 1g/L, VA of less than 1g/L, Alcohol at 14.5% and no spoilage bacteria whatsoever.  The turbidity of the wine is 25 NTU and we’d like to see that lower than 15; so, we are going to rack the wine from tank to tank because during the process of moving the wine from barrel to tank, it is likely that you will shake up some solids which we are comfortable knowing will settle out once again in the weeks ahead pre-bottling.  So, looks like a near perfect (chemical) wine.  But most importantly, how does it taste?  Well, that is for you to decide when the wine releases January 2010.  I’ll report back in a couple of weeks with a photo essay of the bottling process.  Until then, thanks for reading.

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

Winemaking Techniques: Disclosure and Regulation

posted by Dan in Wine Industry, Guest Bloggers

Friends of Snooth, not much of a blog here, but hoping to get some forum-like feedback.

Last week on the “eBob” bulletin board a question was posed regarding the marketing of wine.  More exact, the disclosure of winemaking techniques (with regards to its marketing).  The concern of the post was whether or not it is ethical to present a wine with all its romantic ideals coming from a particular place if the wine was manipulated to taste in such or such a way.

The style of a particular wine was not in question, but how the winemaker achieved his or her goal, and if it is appropriate, for educational purposes, to be discussing these practices if they are part of the process.

The Devil’s Advocate debate was: does it really matter?

Will disclosure actually diminish one’s perception of wine?  Will there be buyer’s remorse or more importantly, will you not purchase a wine that used fish bladders for clarifying purposes or added water and acid during fermentation to achieve optimal results?  [Note: the addition of water and acid during fermentation not only can produce more of a wine, but also can lower potential alcohol levels and help produce a healthy fermentation if grapes are harvested, over-ripe, slightly dehydrated and out of balance.]

A similar, political example to this is: last year, you may recall the outcry against Brunello di Montalcino producers who were cutting their wines with juice from other regions of Italy to alter the wine’s taste and/or production levels.  Remembrance of this issue can be found here.

Governments have gotten involved, wine has been confiscated and as a result consumers are stuck holding an empty bottle.  But has your taste and enjoyment of these wines changed?  Do we need Governments to get involved to protect against these indiscretions?  If you once enjoyed Brunello and stocked your cellar with some, do you now feel cheated? Are you heart-broken?  Are you smashing bottles of Brunello and dumping them down the drain?  Are you not buying Italian wine anymore because one is a reflection of many?

There are many questions to be asked about this debate of disclosure and many opinions to be heard.  On the subject of regulation, in the recent issue of Decanter an interview with Tom Black, a Tennessee businessman, mammoth collector and investor in Alto (the NYC restaurant) made a pinpoint argument against regulation.  He says, and I quote, “We scream free trade to the world but don’t allow it.  I’d let people buy direct from the winery and have it shipped home.”

On the Parker boards regarding the above disclosure debate, the ugly comment was reared, “[you assume] the geeks that inhabit this forum resemble the normal wine consumers.”  I hope not to degrade anyone reading this by reposting that comment, but let’s hear it – what are your thoughts about disclosure and/or regulation?