For the love of wine

Most of the time, we start a trip with a destination in mind. Usually we have an idea why we are headed that way and what to expect. We look forward to that destination, we almost rush to get there.  The anticipation building as we get closer, we reach our destination and our expectations are either met, or not.

But, sometimes the best trips are the unintentional ones. Such as the one I had last week on the way back from visiting som growers in  Sonoma Coast.

On my way back I was planning to stop at another vineyard in Carneros for  a visit.  The fastest way would have been to hop back on highway 101 and be in Carneros in 15 minutes.

Instead, I took the backroad, Old Adobe Road, east of Petaluma and headed south to Carneros.

The countryside was green with yellow fields of flowers here and there. The recent rain had allowed the outbursts of yellow and some pink.

A few minutes later,  I came across a herd of goats, mowing the tall grass in a vineyard. I stopped to take a picture of that. Since I had to make a u-turn to get to the side closer to the goats, I was facing the other direction.

Then I noticed that the farm stand I passed on my way over was really just a couple of hundred yards away and it was getting close to lunch. So I headed back there.

Anything to eat? I asked, meaning any prepared food I can just grab.

The amused farm girl/cashier looked up and pointed at the abundance of greens, pickled beets and freshly laid eggs.

As if on cue, another woman came in carrying a basket of eggs she had just collected from the chickens in the back. “Come, I’ll show you the chickens,” she said. “What are you doing doing this way?” she asked as we heading back into the chicken coop. “Visiting some growers and their vineyards.” I said.  I handed her my card and she busted out in Hebrew, said her name was Heela, and proceeded to  tell me about her brother’s Bar Mitzva’s picture with Yitzak Rabin in Israel.  Heela, was very proud of her chickens, almost as proud as she was of her daughter who works in Washington DC.

Heela is an artist, a paint maker using natural ingredients, such as egg shells. Perfect place for an artist.

I took a dozen eggs and a jar of pickled beets and left behind a bottle of wine. Hannah, the farm girl/cashier was listening to some Spanish music I hadn’t heard in 20 years when another woman came in breathless–the goats have gotten away and are on the road. Hannah would have to go get Pedro to get them back. With that, I left. Out in the parking log, the Bee keeper was showing a photographer with a big camera his bees while explaining what type goes best with what crop. On the highway, the woman’s friend was trying to keep a lone goat from getting to the pavement. Idyllic.

By the time I got to Carneros, it was way past my appointment time. I didn’t care. I was somewhere else. High on natural Sonoma county beauty.

If you want to visit some of the nicest people in Sonoma and get the freshest organic eggs straight from under a chicken, visit Green String Farms on Old Adobe  Road. I highly recommend taking the backroad from Petaluma to Sonoma/Carneros. No destination, just the Old Adobe Road.

Ever wonder what it is in sugar that makes our kids run around like crazy? Or why we like it in all forms?  Well, I don’t have the answers here, sorry. But, I do have an opinion about high sugars in grapes. Maybe they are somehow related. 

I just came back from a seminar put on by the Napa Valley Grape Growers association. The main topic was different, but the high sugar topic was top of mind and kept on creeping into the discussion.

In the last few years, there seems to be a preference for higher alcohol levels in red wines. There seems to be a market preference, which might be driven by a reviewer’s preference and in some cases this leads winemakers to cater to that preference.  This means picking grapes later to allow the sugar level in the grapes to increase relative to the overall weight of the grapes (measured in Brix). The phenomena is called Letting it Hang. An increase in Brix level ultimately results in an increase in alcohol level in the wine. If you noticed, I am being very careful with my words.  There is more and more evidence that the increase in sugar level is not because the vine is producing more sugar but because the clusters are dehydrating, therefore increasing the ratio of sugar to the rest of the grape cluster weight. This is a trick the Italians play with their intoxicating Amarone, except they dehydrate the grapes after they pick them.

Why does it matter? Two main reasons:

1. As the grapes shrink due to dehydration, the growers that get paid by the ton get short changed–that’s most of them.
2. Winemakers that pick very late with high sugar levels risk picking grapes with low acids and high PH. Resulting in either an unbalanced wine, or perhaps worse–a wine that has to be manipulated to bring it back into balance.

Why do I think it should matter to wine drinkers?  well, at least in my opinion, high alcohol wines typically result in heavy, full body, over the top, prune flavors in the wine. None of the subtle elegance that a classic food friendly wine can and should provide. My taste buds, my preference, your opinion may vary. 

This article, in the New York times by Eric Asimov, which was forwarded to me by multiple friends, does a much better job describing the style of wine I am talking about. It also includes a list of wineries producing some of these classically elegant wines.

Back to my post, just like sugar, high alcohol wines, can bring me crashing down 30 minutes later and wanting for a more balanced wine.

We have finally launched our website after weeks of preparation.  After evaluating web development firms; writing content; collecting images; co-ordinating email subscriptions,analytics, graphic design and photography; and testing…our site is up.  Check it out at www.StompingGirlWines.com

We went for the minimalist design, similar to our low-intervention style of wine making.

We will continue to update our blog and you will find a link to it from the site, so the URL should be easy to remember. Just click on Blog on our Home Page, or go to www.StompingGirlWines.com/blog

Since our wines are not ready to be released yet, the e-Commerce part of the site is not live yet. We are working on enabling the Allocation and Futures modules on the e-Commerce site and are hoping to have that up in a month. Stay tuned.

Some of you may wonder what is so exciting about a label being approved or even why a label would have to be approved at all? It’s just a wine bottle label right?

Well, think again. Our good old uncle Sam, or The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, aka TTB,  wants to make sure we say the ‘right’ things on our wine label:  for example, that we state the correct appellation, or where most of the grapes in the bottle came from; that if we say the bottle contains Pinot Noir, then most of the wine in the bottle is Pinot Noir; that if we say it is a 2008 vintage, it is mostly 2008.  And that is just the beginning.

As many bloggers have documented before me, this is a real fun process, not!

We have to state the correct alcohol level. Now, as far as I can tell, this is very important to the ‘Man’ from a taxation perspective. Wines above 14% alcohol are taxed at a much higher rate than ones below.   A lot of the rules have their roots in Prohibition.

We need to have the usual disclaimer on the back about birth defects and your ability to drive a car or operate machinery.

Then there are layout rules for some labels.  Here is a doozy straight from the TTB web site:

“When using a varietal/two or more grape varietals as the type designation, the varietals [and their percentages] must be in at least 2 mm print and appear separate and apart or more conspicuous than surrounding text.  If the mandatory information appears surrounded by other text, it must be in bold print or at least twice the size of the surrounding text.” All good stuff in the name of consumer protection.

And then there are things we can’t say.  You can’t make mention of any kind of the potential health benefits of drinking a glass or two of red wine.  Nope!  Not allowed.  Never mind that for millenniums civilized people around the world have been raising a glass and toasting Salut! or Sante! or Le-Chaim! to your health.

We may have to wait another hundred years to be able to make those claims. In the mean time, we are just glad we got our labels approved.

Salute!

It has been a while since Uzi and I have indulged ourselves with top notch Burgundy.  I won’t go into the reasons but I want to let you know that amidst what has become a daily barrage of economic and financial bad news, it was a pleasure to receive a bit of good news in this month’s newsletter from Kermit Lynch in Berkeley, CA.  He is offering Red Burgundy at 40% off by the bottle and 50% off by the case.   

We are rarely disappointed with a Kermit Lynch purchase–from his roses, to his Cote de Rhones, to his Burgundy offerings–and are definitely going to take advantage of that 40% off and take home some of these red Burgundies.  I’m thinking of picking up a 2006 Bourgogne Rouge that’ll work for any day of the week.  I think I’ll take a 2006 Santaney “Les Gravieres”–Uzi and I enjoyed a bottle of this years ago at Rivoli and liked it so much we tracked down the importer and bought a case.  I can’t pass up a 2005 Gevrey-Cambertin Domaine Boillot “Les Evocelles” on sale.  We shared a bottle of this on our anniversary a few years back and I can’t wait to do it again this year.  And finally, a 2004 Chambolle-Musigny on the list looks good.  I don’t think I’ve had this wine, it is one of Uzi’s picks and he has great taste in Burgundies. Besides, the name is so beautiful and fun to say that it is nice to have a bottle around to remind you of this poetic sounding and poetic tasting wine. Try saying it… “Chambolle-Musigny…”  

Burgundy has served as inspiration for our own production of Pinot Noir from Carneros, Santa Lucia Highlands and Sonoma Coast.  So this is a perfect opportunity to taste a few bottles and keep us on track to producing a Burgundian-style Pinot Noir.  

Go enjoy some for yourself.  And let us know of any other wine deals you come across.