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.

Sonoma Valley

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

When the guys at Snooth recently introduced the concept of page ownership on the site, I felt that I should step up and take on the ownership of Sonoma Valley. It is a very cool feature (find more info here) which, I believe, will help people understand what the region brings from the basis of what Snooth is about … a community based review. As the curator of the Sonoma Valley I thought I should share with you what makes Sonoma Valley special.

Sonoma Valley History

The thing that surprises me the most about Sonoma Valley or Sonoma particularly, is that no one knows the origin of the word ‘Sonoma’. Some people suggest that it originated from a Native American word. The Native Americans that resided in the area referred to Sonoma Valley as the Valley of the Moon, which, Sonoma Valley is often referred to and there is a winery using the name (Valley of the Moon Winery). In fact, using the name Sonoma as place you are going to visit could mean three different things:

1. Sonoma County – which is a huge region that incorporates a number of great wine regions including Russian River Valley, Alexander Valley, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma Coast, Sonoma Valley and more

2. Town of Sonoma – which is a fun little town that is very much oriented to the wine business. In fact BottleShock was filmed in the town of Sonoma because it resembles Calistoga in 1976 more than Calistoga does.

3. Sonoma Valley – which is an incredible diverse wine appellation with a great number of wineries.

According to a number of websites Sonoma Valley was one of the first areas in California to be planted with grapes. Franciscan monks were the first to do so in 1823. One of the first commercial wineries in California was also started in Sonoma Valley, Buena Vista Winery, in 1853. Buena Vista is still around today but source most of their grapes from what is Carneros now.

Where is Sonoma Valley?

Sonoma Valley is just 45 miles north of San Francisco. It borders Napa Valley (to the east) and in many ways Sonoma Valley resembles Napa Valley in many ways. Both Sonoma and Napa are long narrow valleys that are bordered by mountains to the east and west. Mayacaymus Mountains to the east and Sonoma Mountains to the west for Sonoma Valley. The both valleys open up to San Pablo Bay in the south and in the north they both open up into other valleys, Russian River Valley for Sonoma and Alexander Valley for Napa. Sonoma Valley is protected from excessive coastal rainfalls by the Sonoma Mountains but gets substantial cool air and moisture from the bay. I can personally vouch for the temperature drops as I have ridden my motorcycle home from work on summer’s evening and felt the chilling air. The mountains and valleys and air channels allow for a large number of microclimates to exist. The weather from one end of Sonoma Valley to the other is often very different.
From an appellation stand point:

• Sonoma Valley is part of the Sonoma County appellation

• Borders with Napa Valley Sonoma Coast and Carneros

• Sonoma Valley actually has three different appellations:
o Sonoma Valley
o Sonoma Mountain
o Bennett Valley

• Sonoma Valley extends into the west end of Carneros

What does this mean? Well, simply, there is a ton of diversity in Sonoma Valley. There are 25 different varieties of grapes grown in Sonoma Valley including: Alicante Bouschet, Barbera, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignane, Chardonnay,Gewurztraminer, Grenache, Malbec, Merlot, Mourvedre, Muscadelle, Muscat Canelli,Nebbiolo, Petit Verdot, Petite Sirah, Pinot Noir, Riesling, Sangiovese, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Silvaner, Syrah, Tempranillo, Viognier, Zinfandel.
This shows is a wide diversity in climates and soils that permit so many different grape varieties to be grown. The soil content varies dramatically throughout the valley but is mostly a volcanic base. Unlike European laws, there is no restriction to what can be grown in Sonoma Valley and the vineyards in the area take advantage of that to see what works.

What makes Sonoma Valley Great?

Each region in California has something it excels at; Napa is known for Cabernet, Russian River for Pinot Noir, Dry Creek for Zinfandel, and, for me, and the thing that Sonoma Valley excels at is diversity. There are great Cabernet vineyards like Monte Rosso. There are great zinfandel vineyards like the Pagani Ranch (planted in the late 1800s) and awesome Chardonnay, Pinot Noir & Syrah from Les Pierres, Durrel Ranch and Parmalee-Hill. The remarkable thing is that all these grapes are grown within 5 miles of each other.

There are two main events in Sonoma Valley each year. There is the Holiday Open House which happens the two days after Thanksgiving and there is Barrel Tasting Weekend which takes place the third weekend in March. The first event is very much like a celebration of the year’s harvest as well as a celebration of Thanksgiving and Christmas. The second is a celebration of the New Year and new wines. The wineries will have barrel samples available to try and a chance to buy futures on those wines. Both events are highly attended and a lot of fun.

Working in Sonoma Valley I have a true affinity for it and I truly believe that Sonoma Valley has something for everyone. There are wineries and wines that appeal to everyone. The valley is anchored by a few big producers and supported by numerous small and medium producers. It is not unusual that the wine maker of will be pouring wines in the smaller tasting rooms. It is home to numerous great restaurants and lodgings. There is diversity and character. It is a lot slower passed than some of its neighbors. It can offer a much different experience. To me best of all, when you visit Sonoma Valley you feel like you are a part of the family, a local and not just some visiting.

To find out more, consult the websites below or simply drop me an email.

Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau
Sonoma Valley Chamber of Commerce                                                                                                 Sonoma Valley Vinters & Growers

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.

Busiest time of the year for a wine consumer …

posted by John in Snooth, Wine Industry, Guest Bloggers

As it turns outs the busiest time for a wine consumer like me is not around the holidays or any other special event.  The busiest time of year is during the winery offering periods.  This is the time where the wineries that sell their wines through allocation make them available to their mailing lists.   It usually happens twice a year.  Once in late winter (prior the spring releases) and late summer (prior to the fall releases).  However, right now I’m in one of those most difficult of periods as a wine consumer.

What is a winery allocation?  Is it different than a wine club?  Yes they are different but in ways they are the same.

•    A winery allocation is permission given to an individual to purchase wine.  The amount of wine is that can be purchased is limited to certain number or allocation.  An allocation is not guaranteed and you don’t have to buy your full allocation.

•    A wine club reserves wine for people that are members.  They generally ship what the winery wants to send and wine is not offered … just delivered.

•    For more information, I have blogged about wine clubs and mailing lists before: http://www.snooth.com/talk/#http://www.snooth.com/talk/topic/wine-clubs-1/

To date I have received email and regular make from more than a dozen wineries letting me know that there spring releases are now available for purchase.   They are from wineries like:

• Bond Estate
• Williams Selyem
• Kosta Browne
• MacPhail
• Lancaster Estate
• Peay Vineyards
• Loring Wine Company
• Scarecrow Wine
• Arista Winery
• Paul Hobbs Winery
• Pahlmeyer

• Flowers Vineyards & Winery

Most of these are smaller producers.  Some of these are considered cult wine producers.  This means there production is limited, the allocation offer is time encapsulated and the prices, well the prices are usually higher.  With some of the wineries, where allocations are small and my future allocations will depend on what I buy now.  Throw in that allocations are not guaranteed as mentioned above and my stress level rises.  There are so many good wines but not enough money for me to make purchases.

With a tight economy and sales of high end wine suffering it would seem that now would be a great time for bargains.  However, with these wineries that does not seem to be the case.  These high-end, smaller production wineries have waiting lists for their wines that are often 4 to 5 times the size of the list that actually gets allocation.  Usually, this means waiting multiple years before you get onto the main list.  It also means that to get on the main list one of two things must happen:

1.    A production increase or

2.    Someone drops off the list.

Only then can someone move up the list.  The economic conditions may not have created the deals I was expecting but has caused more people to be drop out of these winery mailing lists.  This is what has happened to me.  I had not expected to get allocations from some of these wineries but now I do.  I’ve been bumped into the mainstream list and I have tough decisions to make.  Where do I spend my money and how much?  It is definitely great to have so much great wine available to me.  I just wish I had the money to take advantage of it.

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.

Labels that work … for me

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

I’ve been known to pick up a bottle of wine and get it just because I found the label interesting.  I can’t help it, if the label appeals to me I’ll look closer at the wine to see if it worth buying.  I have also been known to disregard a wine completely because I think the label is horrendous, disturbing or just stupid.
Shopping for wine in a wine store often means evaluating a lot of labels.  Before I knew much about wine I made decisions primarily on label.  When I was in a wine store the label was the first thing that attracts me to wine.  While I like to think that I purchase wine based on quality now labels still play a big part in my decision.  Some examples of labels I like are:

They are simple and easy on my eye.  The Continuum and Ovation are elegant and classic.  Whereas the Boarding Pass, well I think it is clever, the overall packaging is unique and as a traveler it works for me.  Simple, elegant get me.  Cutesy, wanna-be-clever and avant-garde don’t work for me.  It is like someone is trying too hard to attract my attention.  Here are a few that don’t work for me:

I understand that with so many choices available to a consumer many wineries will do a number of things to make themselves stand out.  It is a about building a brand and keep that brand in the front of a consumer’s mind.  Labels are definitely a way of creating that immediate attention but not the only way.

I am curious though.  Are people affected by the label as much as me?

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.

Ice Wine

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

° ° Recently one of our other bloggers here on Snooth, Callie Exas, posted a blog on dessert wines.  This is a great blog that outlines what to expect from dessert wines and what they are.  However, (no offence Callie) I felt a little bit snubbed.  You see, I am Canadian and one of the sources of national pride for Canadians is Ice Wine.  Okay, it follows right after hockey, beer, beavers and Michael J. Fox but it is still a source of national pride.  So to make sure that ice wine does its fair share of ‘Snooth Time’ I’m taking this chance to give you the 411.

So what is an Ice Wine?  Using Wikipedia for a concise definition you get this:

According to Wikipedia, the first ice wines were produced in Germany in 1794.  However, ice wines have a much shorter history than that.  The modern history of ice wine begins in 1984 with the first ‘intentional’ production.  It was first produced in Canada by a winery called Inniskillin.  The market grew strong domestically and stared with a white grape called Vidal (or Vidal Blanc).  Other than in ice wine, Vidal’s natural acidity makes it suitable for a wide range of styles, from light and crisp with racy acid, to slightly off-dry.  As the popularity grew, more wineries started to produce ice wines and started use grapes other than Vidal.

What makes an ice wine different from other dessert wines is the fact that the grapes must ‘freeze’.  That is they need to experience three days straight of temperatures below   0° Celsius or one day of -8 ° Celsius.  Additionally, the grapes should be picked at high level of sugar; at 35 ° Brix (normally table wines in California are picked at 24 to 26 Brix).  In contrast, late harvest wines are wines created from grapes picked later in the season with higher than normal Brix.  Sauternes, the famous French dessert wine, comes not from cold but a fungus called botrytis.  However, all of them are known for sweetness and high alcohol.

For me ice wines that are made properly and with care are some of the best dessert wines in the world.  They display depth with multiple layers of flavor.  There is great acidity that allows it to be paired with rich foods like Foie Gras.  Personally, a good Riesling ice wine pairs incredibly well with cheese cake or crème bruelee.  They are definitely worth a try.  Here are a few of my pics:
°
Peller Estates Riesling Ice Wine

Peller Estates Cab Franc Ice Wine

Inniskillin Vidal Ice Wine

Inniskillin Riesling Ice Wine

Stratus Riesling Ice Wine

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 & Australia

posted by John in Wine Industry, Wine, Guest Bloggers

Greetings from Australia!  The land of big Shiraz, great beaches and the wild outback.  My travels (for work) have taken me from San Francisco to Sydney and currently to Melbourne.  From here I’m off to Hong Kong and then Taipei before I get home.
This trip is for my work but I’m hoping to find some time to explore some of the great Australian wine regions and drink some great Australian wine.  I’ve always enjoyed Australian wine and the winery I work for part time, Loxton Cellars, is owned an Australian.

The challenge when traveling for work is being able to find the time to do things that you want to do.  For me, that means visiting wine regions and Australia has many with the most popular (arguably) being the Barossa Valley.  However, most of the southern parts of Australia have wine regions.  My initial stay in Sydney had me in close proximity to the Hunter Valley but unfortunately timing did not allow me to visit it.  Yes, I did have a Sunday free but I used that day to attend an Aussie BBQ with mates of mine that live in the Northern Beaches area of Sydney.  Unfortunately, there were no “Shrimp-on-the-barbie” but there were some killer lamb-rosemary sausages and a great every day sparkling wine called Trilogy .

My time in Sydney went by very fast and I am now in Melbourne with the weekend looming.  The good news is that I’ve convinced some coworkers to take me into the Yarra Valley.  Yarra Valley is one of the lesser know wine regions in Australia but is producing a lot great wines including delicate Pinot Noirs and elegant, rich Chardonnays.  The wineries of the Yarra Valley are doing their part to show that Australia is not just about big cabs and fruity shiraz.
That’s it for now … I’ll follow up with my review of the Yarra Valley in my next blog until then here are my first impressions of Australia, Sydney, Melbourne and Australian wine:

•    Melbourne is more in tune with wine than Sydney
•    Beer is consumed everywhere by everyone and even with breakfast (yes, I did try this)
•    Majority of the wines use stelvin closures (twist caps)
•    The red wines are big
•    The white wines are hidden gems
•    The current exchange rate is giving me some great bargains

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.

Snooth Blog – Sonoma County Harvest Fair

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

I remember when I was growing up in Toronto (Canada, eh) that one of the annual events that I always wanted to attend was the Canadian National Exhibition at the Exhibition fairgrounds.  Locally this  event is affectionately called “The Ex”, and the slogan was “Let’s go to the Ex”.  I thought this was the biggest fair in the world and I thought it was the only one of its kind.  Of course I was 10 at the time and didn’t have access to the internet.  I would find out later that every community has a fair like The Ex.

The Sonoma version of this is called the Sonoma County Harvest Fair.  With its roots in agriculture it makes sense that this type of event is tied to the annual harvest.  The event is held in Santa Rosa at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds.  Unlike the Ex, the Sonoma County Harvest Fair does have a rural, farm feel to it and no cheesy games that are impossible to win.  There is a farmers market, a petting zoo, live shows and horse racing.  However, with no disrespect to the sheep dogs, the real draw of the Sonoma County Harvest Fair is the wines.  In conjunction with the harvest most wineries will release their fall wines.  The goal of having these newly released wines medal at the fair and create a buzz around the winery.  For a winery to compete for medals it must meet only one condition, the wine that is submitted must use grapes from Sonoma County.  This means that it is possible for a Napa based winery to actually compete.  Although, it is rare it is not unheard of.

For this year, I was lucky enough to work the wine event.  It is a great place for winery to “show off”, show how many medals you won and talk about how good your wineries wines are.

Wines Competitions

There are a few things you should know about wine competitions and the way medals are awarded.  A wine competition isn’t like the Olympics.  There isn’t one gold, silver and bronze awarded.  Wines are not judged against the competition, they are judged on their own merit.   This means that in a particular class, style and varietal of wine there can be multiple gold winners.  Not intuitive but kind of makes sense.  So what are rankings and what do the mean?  Here is a cheat sheet based on my definitions:

The wine tasting pavilion is the place where visitors can taste all the wines that won medals.  913 wines were awarded medals.  Okay, not quite that many were available for tasting.  Wineries usually pour the wines that won Gold or Silver medals and there were 446 wines that won Gold or Silver medals.  So roughly half the wines that medaled should have been available for tasting.  However, wineries usually attend if two or more of their wines got silver or above.  I noticed a bunch of wineries that didn’t attend so, let’s just say that there were 400 wines to taste from.  I managed to try 31 of them.   Don’t ask me what my strategy was for the wines I tasted.  You’ll be disappointed.

Overall, it was a great event and when I got home, I got to thinking about how the medals were distributed by things like grape, winery and appellation.  There as a nice set (913 elements) data to play with.  I decided to do a bit of analysis.  For my full time job (the mortgage paying job as I call it) I have access to a Business Intelligence product called Spotfire.  It allows me to look into large sets of data and do analysis and find some nuggets of information.  Using Excel and then Spotfire to play with the data I came up with some very interesting pieces of information.

First off I did some basic counts on the medals.  As expected Chardonnay and Pinot Noir lead the way in terms of number of Golds awarded.  What was surprising though was the number of Cabernets that received gold medals considering that Cab is not considered a primary grape in Sonoma.

Then I thought, does the cost of wine really affect judging … well I looked at the most expensive and least expensive wines to get medals.

Next, I decided to look at medals by appellation and the average price for a wine that medal class.  Interestingly enough the average wine price fall in the $20 to $40 range.  Gotta love Sonoma!

Then I took that data above, which is consolidated and took a look at it more granularly.  Below is a scatter plot of all the wines that medaled.  Each of the squares represents a single wine.  On the left we have the price of the wine and along the bottom we have medal type and vintage with each medal type.

Again, it is interesting to see that most wines that got medals were under $50.  And the most popular vintage was 2005.  The last thing I wanted to see is what appellation earned the most amounts of medals.  Not a big surprise, Russian River Valley, the current Rock Star of Sonoma County, is the big winner.  Then, we are followed up by Dry Creek Valley (the home of big zins) and then Alexander Valley, the mini-Napa, the region in Sonoma that can make big cabs.

So there you go … the Sonoma County Harvest Fair from a statistical point of view.  I bet you didn’t see that coming.

Snooth Blog – European Vacation Part II

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

When I last left off I was doing my best to stay awake in Reims to adjust to difference in time zones.  Doing my best I was able to stay up to the very late hour of 9pm.  Part of me was disappointed for not having the energy to get out and see the city.  However, the other part kept saying you have a full day to get through tomorrow and the rest will be greatly appreciated.  That in mind, I happily fell asleep in full anticipation of the next day.

Getting to sleep the night before was easy enough.  Getting up the next day was no quite so easy.  Confusion set in at first … where was I and why was the bed/room I was in so small.  The fog cleared and then the excitement of what was to follow surged through me.  The plan was simple today.  First stop was a reservation at Ruinart, then a quick visit to Veuve Cliquot, off to Epernay to visit Moet & Chandon and finally back to Paris to catch my flight to Italy for my friend’s wedding.

After a quick breakfast and check of directions it was off to the first stop of the day, Ruinart.  It was a leasurely drive through the streets of historic Reims to an area I dubbed ‘Champagne Central’.  Within a 5 mile radius you have some of the most famous names in Champagne; Veuve Clicquot, Charles Heidsieck (Piper-Heidsieck), Pommery, Taittinger, Louis Roeder and Krug.  In that same radius there are numerous other “smaller” houses.  My first stop was Ruinart.

Ruinart The house of Ruinart is one of the oldest Champagne houses in France.  It was officially established in 1729.  That precedes Moet & Chandon by 12 years.  The house was founded by Nicolas Ruinart and his uncle, the Benedictine monk Dom Thierry Ruinart.  The location of the winery is in the same place as it was founded.

Dom Runiart – It is said that Dom Ruinart’s close friend was one Dom Perignon who was also a Benedictine monk and that the two shared ideas on Champagne.  Both had spent time in Paris and had come to know the value of sparkling wine.

The Ruinarts were in the textile business primarily and Champagne was second.  Eventually, the textile business was abandoned and the wine side was the focus.  It was around that time that the Ruinarts did something that would preserve their name among Champagne houses.  They bought all the chalk mines in Reims.  Some of these caves were sold to other Champagne houses but many were kept for storing the Ruinart wine.  If fact Ruinart’s neighbor, Pommery, bought some caves from them.  These days Ruinart is part of the LVMH group (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennesy Group) but remained in the Ruinart family until 1950 and eventually became part of Moet & Chandon and finally LVMH.

Champagne Caves in Reims – These chalk mines were created by the Romans around 100 AD.  As the Romans spread their empire across Europe they would seek out resources that would allow them to build structures in the image of Rome.  In Reims, this meant the use of chalk stone.  Upon the fall of the Roman empire these mines remained and many of them as much as 34 meters (about 100 feet) below the surface.  The combination of depth, humidity and material (chalk holds moisture well) make them perfect for storing wine.

Visiting Ruinart is like visiting most Champagne houses.  You are given a tour of the establishment and then are given the opportunity to purchase a taste of the various offerings.  Very rarely do you have a chance to taste the range and even rarer is the tasting free.  The tour at Ruinart is definitely worth the time.

There is something special about Ruinart.  It is the same but different.  Visiting the oldest Champagne house is special. As with visiting other Champagne houses, the visit at Ruinart starts with a tour and then tasting of the wines.  The tour at Ruinart is a bit different in that you visit the cellars and very little of the production area.

However, the production area is nothing special but the cellars. The tour
takes you deep below the surface into sets of interconnecting caves.  These caves span 6km in length.  Even in early September, the temperature changed dramatically.

The newer parts of the cellar were built in the 1700s but they connect to the older chalk mine caves made by the Romans in about 100 AD.  These caves alone are worth the visit.  I don’t think I have ever stepped on a site that is almost 2000 years old.

I learned a number of things that would serve me well on the rest of my visit.  One of those things is the signs that appear on the stacks of Champagne bottles that are everywhere.  The signs will have three elements:

1.     The top number is the location of the wine within the caves
2.     The second number is the wine makers code for the blend
3.     The third number is the number of bottles in the stack

The tour took us through a lot of the caves but there was one display that stood out for me.  Ruinart is known for its blanc de blanc champagne.  The wine comes in a clear bottle that allows you to see the brilliant golden color.  However, in the caves where light is at a minimum you can’t always make this out.  So Ruinart in one section of their caves have sodium based lights (so as not to damage wine) to display the brilliance of the blanc de blanc.

I didn’t see any gryropallets at Ruinart but they do use them for their “R” by Ruinart which is there introduction cuvee.  Everything else is riddled by hand.
The tour ends up back where you start with a choice of wines to try.  You are given a choice to try any of the wines in the range but only one wine.  The choice is tough:

·       R by Ruinar, their introductory cuvee
·       NV Blanc de Blancs – main nonvintage wine
·       NV Rose – rose nonvintage wine
·       2000 R Cuvee – vintage cuvee only available in France
·       1998 Dom Ruinart – prestige vintage cuvee
·       1998 Dom Ruinart Rose - prestige vintage rose cuvee

Some quick notes about the Ruinart wines:

·       They are chardonnay heavy
·       The do not use any Pinot Meunier but do use Pinot Noir
·       They only use Premier Cru grapes
·       Prestige wines aged 10 years for Dom Ruinart and 12 years for Dom Ruinart Rose and they are not made in every vintage.

Since I have access to everything but the Vintage R wine that is what I selected to try.

Here are my notes:
2000 Ruinart R Cuvee (4/5)
Color: Deep golden with wonderful bubbles
Aroma: Traditional yeast and dough aromas but with floral … very nice
Taste: Softer than expected acidity with doughy flavors and great finish

Veuve Clicquot  From Ruinart it was just a quick drive over to Veuve Clicquot to stop in and make a couple of purchases.  I didn’t make an appointment for a tour at Clicquot but definitely wanted to stop by.  When you arrive at Veuve, you know you are at Veuve.

The orange color is everywhere at Clicquot.  It is juxtaposed against the old traditional buildings.  It does have a bit of an “in your face” kind of feel but it worked for me.  The people at Clicquot are very friendly and are very knowledgeable about the wines.   I must admit it was a bit of a surprise for me as I fully expected the emphasis to be on style and beauty rather than knowledge.

After completing my purchases of vintage Veuve it was time to drive down to Epernay and visit the largest Champagne house in the nation, Moet & Chandon.  Moet & Chandon is close to the central part of Epernay.  When you approach it from the north you have to basically drive through the city center, which for me was a challenge.  I finally arrived, parked and made my way to their headquarters.  Moet & Chandon is located on “Avenue de Champagne”.

This street is aply named as most of the major buildings on this street belong to major Champagne houses.  They include well known houses like Pierre Jouet and Pol Roger and many lesser known ones (to me) like Vranken (who own many labels) and Mercier.

Moet & Chandon  The first thing you notice about Moet & Chandon is the size.  Everything about it seems bigger than other Champagne houses.  In fact, Moet & Chandon have properties in both the US (Domaine Chandon) and Australia .  The tour at Moet & Chandon is a much about the history of the company as it is about the wine.  Moet & Chandon is part of the history of France being the wine of choice of Napoleon as well as the Tsars of Russia.  The wine caves of Moet & Chandon have served as bomb shelters, criminal storage and wine storage.  They own 1500 acres of vineyards and have an annual production of more than 2,000,000 bottles stored in more than 30 kms of subterranean caves.

The tour/history lesson at Moet & Chandon ended in a tasting.  I chose to try both  the 2000 Grand Vintage and 2000 Grand Vintage Rose.

2000 Grand Vintage (3.5/5)
Color: Light golden
Aroma: Traditional yeast and dough aromas but somewhat muted
Taste: Good acidity with sour green apple and doughy flavors

2000 Grand Vintage Rose (3/5)
Color: Rich salmon color
Aroma: Strawberry aroma with a touch dough
Taste: Strawberry and raspberry flavors with long finish but not my style

My day done I headed back to Paris.  The rest of the trip was not wine focused, it was for a friend’s wedding in Italy, so I want comment to much on it other than to say it was a lot of fun.  Okay, here is one picture from it.

One thing I learned in planning this trip is that touring Champagne is not like touring wineries in California.  Champagne is a more formal and draws a larger world wide audience.  Appointments are required in almost every place and a significant number of Champagne houses are closed to the public.  It is next to impossible to just drop in.  If you do plan to visit Champagne contact the places you want to visit well in advance and if at all possible try to do so before or after the month of August.  In the month of August many Europeans are on vacation and many businesses are on “skeleton” staff.  Lastly, many of the prestige houses require that you get referred or are high up in the industry to even entertain the thought of a visit.  Since I learned this as I was planning some of the places I would have like to have gone were not possible because they just didn’t get back to me or I wasn’t placed “well” enough in the industry.  Irrespective, I had a great time and I highly recommend a trip to Champagne.  I hope to return very soon.

Wine and the economy

posted by John in Wine Industry, Wine, Guest Bloggers

This past Sunday I was at Loxton Cellars working at the tasting bar as I usually do.  It was the Sunday of the Memorial Day weekend.  Typically the Sunday of a long weekend is the busiest day of the three day weekend.  So mentally, I had prepared myself for a little bit of chaos.  Philip and Mark can attest that the tasting room at Loxton is not that big.  Well, the space is big but the space is also used for 256 barrels, the winery office, the winery lab (which doubles as the kitchen) and the winery restroom.  If you get more than 10 people in this space it gets busy.

The everything room @ Loxton Cellars

What happened was not pure chaos but peaks and valleys of visitors.  While not ideal, we did manage to see a lot of people and the best part, for us, was that we sold a bunch of wine.  In those valleys of calmness it gave me an opportunity to think about and discuss with my coworkers for the day, Chris the owner and wine maker of Loxton, and Barrett, part-time Loxton guy like me and training to be a sommelier, what the impact of the current economic state has had on the wine industry.

What I am going to say is based on observation of my time at the winery and what I see when I’m in wine country.  I didn’t do any hard research.  So what effect has the slowing of the US economy had on the wine industry?  By my account, not a whole lot.  In fact, I would argue that there isn’t much of a change at all.

Again, I’m speaking based on my perspective.  We’ve seen less people at Loxton compared to this point last year.  However, the winter this year was especially long and wet in Sonoma.  People just don’t like going out in wine country when it’s wet and cold and this includes the locals.  Weather is a huge factor to us both to the number of visitors and the quality of our product.  Good weather is something we pray for.

The real determination for us, as a business, to whether the weak economy is affecting us is our sales.  It is true that first quarter sales were lower than last year.  However, if we factor in that we saw less people because of the weather then we need to look at another measure to really compare.  That figure would be average dollar amount per purchase.  When we looked at this it wasn’t very different.  In fact it was a single digit difference from last year.  So it appears that when people did visit us and made purchases they were purchasing the same amount of wine they were the year before.

What about sales to date?  The total number of purchases?  It can be easy to rationalize events.  View them in a way that makes them seem normal maybe even look good or optimistic.  However, when you look in your bank account the truth will hit you.  Is there money there or not?  For us, we can’t complain.  Sales are a little bit off from last year but that can be attributed to the slow start to the year.  This, as I stated earlier, was due to the crappy weather.  People are still buying our wine.

This brings me back to the Memorial Day weekend.  While we did have time to talk about some these topics the fact is we were pretty damn busy.  We saw a lot of people and those people were buying wine.  We had to turn away a van of twenty, twenty-something women, we just didn’t have enough staff to serve everyone.  Sales wise, we were right on target with last year.  While I can’t say for sure that the slow economy US is not affecting the wine industry it doesn’t seem to have as much an effect on us.