Aging and Storage
Wine aging, what, why and how, is probably the most mysterious and confusing thing about this whole subject of wine. It’s important to start by saying that it’s almost impossible to generalize because the wine itself is somewhat unpredictable and optimum drink-ability is subjective.
Most Wines are Best When They’re Young
Contrary to popular belief, most wines aren’t made for aging, they’re made for drinking. This should be good news, because most of us don’t want to store wine in the first place. We Americans are notorious for aging our wines in the back seat of the car on the way home, and in many cases, that’s the best way to approach it.
Most wines are fresh and simple in style, and are at their best when they’re young. Here in the Napa Valley and in some other highly regarded winegrowing regions of the world, there are wines made with very good aging potential. Most of the time, these are red wines, but there are numerous exceptions.
The best advice for anyone is to ask questions when you’re buying wine. Don’t be shy! When you have questions, it can be worth a few dollars extra to buy your wine at a wine specialty shop, where the staff is knowledgeable.
Again, optimal age is subjective. You can generally assume that if the wine is for sale, you can enjoy it now and the bottle aging is optional. Most wineries won’t release a wine that’s so young it’s undrinkable, or not if they want to stay in business! Beyond that, bottle aging is purely a case of personal preference.
In a subject with so few absolutes, there’s at least one: aging always reduces fruitiness. If the fruit is the thing you enjoy most about the wine, drink it when it’s young.
Wine Component Definitions
You hear the term “balance” used in describing wine all the time. When the components below and other variables such as fruitiness and oak are balanced, you’re naturally attracted to the wine without necessarily knowing why. It just tastes good! The same components, when too much or too little, throw off the balance of the wine, so that it’s not pleasing to the nose or the palate.
Brix – translates to the percentage of sugar in the grapes or wine. Most often the term is used to describe the sweetness of the grapes (and other fruits) as they ripen and at harvest. If we say the grapes are 24 degrees brix, it means they’re 24% sugar. We check the brix in our vineyards frequently as we approach harvest because we know that the sugar level will determine the amount of alcohol in the finished wine. In dry wine, generally, you’ll find the sugar at or below ½ of 1%, the human threshold.
The sugar is measured with a refractometer or hydrometer, which indicate the percentage of soluble solids (of which about 90% are sugars in ripe grapes) by weight in the liquid.
TA (Total Acidity) – or titratable (in reference to the method of measurement) acidity is a measure of the sum of all the organic acids in juice or wine and is another important consideration when deciding when to harvest. In healthy wine, the major acids are tartaric and malic, but all wines contain small quantities of citric, succinic, acetic, butyric, lactic and other organic acids. The titratable acid of juice ranges from 0.4 to 1.2 grams per 100 milliliters of liquid, so “grams per 100 ml” translates roughly to percentage. It’s difficult to compare reported acids from country to country, because in the United States, wine acidity is expressed as if all of the acids in the wine were tartaric acid, where in other countries other acids may be chosen as the measure.
Total acidity has considerable influence on your enjoyment of the wine. When it contains too much acid, it will be very tart or even sour tasting. When too little acid is present, the wine often lacks freshness and tastes flat. Generally, cold climate grapes are relatively high in acid, and warm climate grapes, lower.
pH – is a measure of the acid-to-alkaline balance in a solution, based on a scale of 1-14. We think of it as measuring the strength of the acidity, and it’s another major player in harvest decisions. 1 is acid, 14 is alkaline (water is 7). As with brix and TA, we start monitoring the pH of the grapes several weeks before harvest. The freshly picked grapes, and the resulting wine, are acidic, with pH values generally between 3 and 4. The pH influences flavors, and high pH wines are often flat tasting, may lack stability, have a dull color and smell “cooked”. Wines below 3.0 are excessively tart. A pH that’s low, but balanced, increases desirable flavor compounds, inhibits bacterial growth, and produces more and better red color. A low pH will also contribute to the wine’s longevity.
Tannin – comes from the grape skins, seeds, stems and to a lesser degree, barrels, when they’re new. Winemakers value tannin because it’s a natural preservative, an anti-oxidant that helps the wine to age gracefully. It also contributes to the texture and structure of the wine. Red wines are nearly always higher in tannin than whites because the reds are fermented with the grape skins and seeds, while whites are usually pressed to remove the skins and seeds prior to fermentation.
Winemakers prefer tannins from the skins to those extracted from the seeds or stems, because the skin tannins are less harsh. When our winemaker is out tasting in the vineyard as part of the pre-harvest regimen, he tastes for flavor, but he also chews the seeds to check for maturity. When bitten, the seed should break up, like Grape nuts cereal if it’s mature. If the seeds are still green and soft they can impart some very bitter, unpleasant tannins. Gentle handling in the winery will also minimize harshness.
Tannin in wine has almost no flavor, but it has a drying effect in your mouth, and can make your teeth feel furry, similar to the effect of a strong cup of tea. The tannin is the most noticeable when the wine is young. As time goes by, the tannins fall out of solution as a part of the sediment, an indicator that the wine is softening. As with the other components, balance is important for tannin. Too much tannin and the wine is harsh and chalky and may taste bitter. Too little, and the red wine lacks a chewy texture and the structure that we enjoy.
Alcohol (as related to wine) – also called ethyl alcohol or ethanol, is the product of the fermentation, during which yeast converts natural grape sugars to alcohol, heat and carbon-dioxide gas. A little over half the grape sugar converts to alcohol.
When the alcohol in the wine is balanced, it’s unnoticeable, yet still important to the senses. Alcohol gives wine body and a good “mouth feel”. Wines that are slightly too high in alcohol often seem sweet and have a hot after-taste. If an otherwise full bodied wine is too low in alcohol, it may feel light and unsatisfying on the palate.
Oak Knoll AVA
Locals often refer to the Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley as a “sweet spot”, referring to its amiable climate. Because of the mild weather, this small area (about 3500 plantable acres in an 8300-acre area) is home to more than a dozen different grape varieties.
In 1850, a former sea captain and horticultural enthusiast named J.W. Osborne purchased 1800 acres of land a few miles south of Yountville and called it Oak Knoll. Part of this historic site later became the Eschol Winery (1886) and is the current site of Trefethen Vineyards. He established a very large nursery and was the first to plant wine grapes in the Oak Knoll region. Among his many horticultural projects, he made it his personal mission to replace the insipid and ubiquitous Mission grapes that made most California wine at the time, with better varieties. Zinfandel was one of these “better varieties” and he is believed to be one of the key players responsible for bringing it from the east coast to the Napa and Sonoma valleys for the first time. This was a momentous event because Zinfandel quickly became the most widely planted variety in California, and remained so until prohibition. By 1860, Osborne’s 50-acre vineyard was the largest in the Napa Valley. If his work hadn’t been cut short by an untimely death (murdered by a disgruntled employee) in 1863, he would probably have been called the father of Napa Valley wine.
With this kind of history, it’s surprising that the region hasn’t had formal recognition from early on. In the 1990s, the growers and vintners of the district began making their case to the federal government, compiling information from soil experts and engineers, meteorologists and historians, and the Oak Knoll District finally gained AVA status in April of 2004. As with all AVAs, the minimum requirement is 85% Oak Knoll grapes to put the Oak Knoll AVA on the label (see GCU article “What is an AVA?“).
It should be noted that its official name is “The Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley” in order to differentiate it from the Oak Knoll Winery in Oregon. For the purposes of this article, we’ll refer to it as the Oak Knoll District or AVA.
Over a dozen wineries make their home within the Oak Knoll AVA and about 40 others regularly purchase grapes from growers within the region, including some of Napa Valley’s most prestigious Chardonnay producers. The observation is that the mildness of the climate produces whites that are restrained and elegant in style, yet there’s enough warmth for later-maturing Bordeaux varieties to ripen slowly, yielding graceful, fruit-forward wines of soft tannins. The cool conditions keep the Cabernet yields down, but most producers find the quality and character of the wine offsets the low production. The principal varieties of the region are Merlot, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. Viognier isn’t a widely planted grape variety in the Napa Valley, but the mild conditions and well-drained soil in our mid-district vineyard are ideal for it and give a tremendous perfume to our Goosecross Estate Viognier.
The Oak Knoll District is bordered by the Mount Veeder AVA to the west, the Yountville District to the north and the Carneros District to the south. Of the 14 Napa Valley AVAs (as of July, 2006) the Oak Knoll District is clearly the most regionally consistent in terms of soil and climate. The uniformity of climate is due to the broad, flat, almost exclusively valley-floor topography. There is a great deal of marine influence from close-by San Pablo Bay, moderating the temperatures with morning fog and whipping up cooling afternoon breezes on the warmest days of the growing season. It’s second only to Carneros as Napa’s coolest AVA, with small pockets of an even cooler climate on the lower foothills along the western and eastern borders.
The uniformity of soil owes itself to the very large Dry Creek alluvial fan, which is the defining feature of the region. Centuries ago the Diablo and Haire series clay it once had in common with the neighboring Carneros District was buried by alluvial deposits from San Pablo Bay, Dry Creek and the Napa River. Repeated flooding and recession left deposits of loam, fine, gravelly clay loam and silt loam, setting it apart from its neighbor to the south. This fan spreads out over most of the district and the only deviation is a bit of volcanic soil in the northwest part of the district, some visible bedrock along the western border and some sandstone, shale and serpentine in the hillsides, making way for colorful clay toward the bottom (the district is almost completely flat).
Thus far, in 2006, it’s still somewhat uncommon to find a wine with the newly-created Oak Knoll AVA designation on the label, but as more and more of them are released, we expect the wines to express their place of origin through great fruit structure and gentle, elegant tannins. A sweet spot, indeed!
Regional statistics (with thanks to the Napa Valley Vintner’s association):
Temperatures: growing season high: around 92°F (31.5 C); low: 50°F (10C)
Elevation: sea level to 800 feet (244m), most areas at just above sea level
Rainfall: 36 inches (90cm) annually
Cabernet Franc
Common synonyms: Breton, Veron, Noir dur, Bouchy, Bouchet, Gros Bouchet, Carmenet, Grosse Vidure, Messanges rouge, Trouchet noir, Bordo, Cabernet Frank
Cabernet Franc is best known as a team player. With its seductive aroma of black currants, it is treasured for its ability to add perfume to its companion varieties.
It’s another of the classic Bordeaux varieties and was long suspected to be related to Cabernet Sauvignon because the two varieties have so much in common. These suspicions were well founded and recent DNA typing shows that Cabernet Franc is the proud parent, along with Sauvignon Blanc, of the noble Cabernet Sauvignon. Like Petit Verdot and Malbec, many winemakers view it as a voice in the chorus rather than a dominant variety, but you can find some stunning exceptions, for instance the famous Chateau Cheval Blanc is typically about 2/3 Cabernet Franc. And, in the Loire Valley (which grows almost 1/2 of the Cabernet Franc in all of France) it’s the major player in the wine known as Chinon – a lovely, bright, early-maturing red wine.
Cabernet Franc is thin-skinned compared to Cabernet Sauvignon and tends to produce wine that’s lighter in color and body and lower in tannin, so the wine matures more quickly. It makes a generously fruity wine with a fragrance that might remind you of plums and violets with just a hint of spice.
Like Merlot, in cool climates, it can be an insurance policy against rain damage because it’s early maturing compared to Cabernet Sauvignon or Petit Verdot. It’s also early to bud-out in the spring, increasing the risk of frost damage. It tends to yield a little higher than Cabernet Sauvignon.
France is still the leading grower of Cabernet Franc by far, but it’s also found in other parts of Europe, notably northeast Italy, and plantings have increased in Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and, of course, here in California. Some expect it to gain greater importance in the world of wine when our fascination with black, inky, highly-extracted red wine begins to wane.
The soft tannins make this an easy red to pair with food. Try it with any sort of roasted or grilled game birds; it’s delicious with lamb and pork or veal dishes. Cabernet Franc is an excellent partner for a selection of medium-hard to hard cheeses like Gruyere or Parmigiano Reggiano. Cheers!
Viognier
Golden, aromatic Viognier is an ancient variety going back to at least Roman times and comes from the Rhone Valley in southern France. It makes some of the most distinctively fragrant wines in the world. The peach, honey and floral aromas might lead you to expect something delicate, but it’s also famous for being rather voluptuous on the palate and generous in alcohol.
It’s found in other parts of the world, but not in quantity. It’s a low yielding, capricious variety that’s highly susceptible to mildew and many growers just can’t be bothered. You might call it a winemaker’s grape. It’s found a happy home in some parts of California, certainly here in Napa Valley, albeit in small quantities. It makes perfect sense to grow it here because one thing we know about Viognier is that it won’t reveal that haunting perfume unless it’s completely ripe. It needs to be grown in a relatively warm climate.
Viognier takes well to blending and, with the exception of the northern Rhone (where it’s often blended with Syrah!), it’s usually blended with other Rhone whites like Marsanne and Rousanne. Otherwise, it has a willing partner in Chardonnay, a combination sometimes found in the Languedoc and the new world.
No matter where it comes from the question of whether to oak or not to oak never has a clear answer. Some are produced in a very Chardonnay-like style with barrel fermentation and aging, while our winemaker at Goosecross prefers to showcase the fruit by avoiding the influence of oak.
With its ample mouth feel it can be a nice alternative to Chardonnay and is more versatile at the table than you might think. Viognier makes a fruity contrast to spicy Asian or Indian cuisine and partners well with sushi. The stone-fruit character complements sweet proteins like shellfish, pork or duck, especially when fruit is used in the sauce. You can find delicious recipes to pair with Viognier or any other variety if you go to Colleen’s Kitchen.
Sweet and Fortified Wines
Humans are amazingly inventive when it comes to variations on a theme and sweet wine demonstrates it extremely well. Oddly enough, virtually none of the methods involve sugar additions. When you hear of chaptalization, or sugar additions, the sugar is added before fermentation to boost the alcohol, not the sweetness. In some cases grape juice or sweet wine are added to sweeten dry wine but, when you taste sweetness, it’s quite often unfermented, residual grape sugar. So, in that case the fermentation was stopped before the grape sugar was used up. There are a few different ways to go about it.
First, it’s important to understand how fermentation works. It’s a natural chemical reaction. After the grapes are harvested the winemaker usually adds yeast to get the fermentation started or, in some cases, he relies on wild yeast to get the job done. The yeast consumes the sugar, creating by-products of heat, carbon-dioxide gas and, predictably, a little over half the sugar will convert to alcohol. When the yeast runs out of sugar, it either dies or goes dormant and the fermentation ends naturally. There’s usually a trace amount of unfermentable sugar remaining, but you and I can’t taste it if it’s under about ½ of 1% or less. Completely dry wines are actually drier yet.
Light-style sweet wines
For light, fruity styles, such as Riesling, Gewürztraminer or Muscat that are slightly sweet, there are a couple of common approaches. The winemaker may have let the wine ferment to dryness and then added a little grape-juice concentrate to bring up the sweetness. If he wants the weight of a normal alcohol level, plus the sweetness, that’s the way to go. When our Winemaker, Geoff Gorsuch, makes our slightly-sweet Chenin Blanc he stops the fermentation, by chilling the wine until the yeast goes dormant, before the yeast has used up all the sugar. He keeps the wine cold until he’s able to filter the remaining yeast cells out later. This produces a lower alcohol which is right in step with the delicate style of wine Geoff is looking for. So, in these cases the grapes were harvested at what is considered a normal sugar level, around 21-24%.
Dried-grape wines
If the winemaker wants to start with very sweet grapes, one way is to pick them and dry them. Italy is the country most of us think of when it comes to producing sweet wine this way, such as Vin Santo and Recioto. Of course, the dehydration boosts the sugar content and concentrates the flavors. Wines made this way can vary a great deal in sweetness, quality and character. The famous Amarone is another wine made of dried grapes, but it’s fermented to dryness so it packs a wallop in terms of both flavor concentration and alcohol.
Late harvest wines
Another way to concentrate the sugar is to leave the grapes on the vines longer than normal. This is risky business! These wines are referred to as “late harvest”. Late-harvested grapes make more complex, memorable wines when they are also botrytized – technically rotten. Sauternes, Barsac, Beerenauslese and Hungarian Tokaj are great examples of wine made of what’s called the noble rot. This botrytis cinerea rot perforates the grape skins, which leads to dehydration. Believe it or not, the rot, itself, gives the wine a distinctive honeyed aroma which, once experienced, is never forgotten. Wines that result from “noble rot” tend to have tremendous longevity, so they’re excellent candidates to put away for a 50th anniversary party, or a child’s 21st birthday.
The latest of all late-harvest wine is icewine (eiswein in German), which is made of grapes that are harvested when they’re frozen! This sounds crazy, but pressing them before they thaw allows the winemaker to extract a great deal of sugar and flavor, without much water, so the wines are very sweet and rich – the harder the freeze, the richer and more concentrated the wine. As you can imagine, these wines are not made in any volume. Germany and Canada are the best-known producers of this style. Icewine and botrytized wines are so rich that they’re usually bottled in half bottles. They’re also, understandably, very expensive because production is extremely low in terms of yield per acre and gallons per ton. Not to mention the risk of losing the crop, altogether, while waiting for the conditions to be right for this sort of endeavor.
Fortified wines
Many of us think of Port, Sherry or Madeira when dessert wine is mentioned. They fall into a category called fortified wine. The fortification is added alcohol which, in the case of Port and Madeira, is added to stop the fermentation from completing. The alcohol kills the yeast so, if it’s added before the sugar’s all gone, the wine is both sweet and high in alcohol. These wines can live a very long time. Sherry creates confusion because, by nature, it’s a dry wine – the fortification doesn’t come until the wine completes fermentation. But – in some cases the wine is sweetened up later. It’s not uncommon to sweeten dry sherry with sweet, concentrated wine. In Spain, the home of sherry, the sweet wine is made of the Pedro-Ximenez grape. Good quality cream sherry is an example. The wine called Pedro-Ximenez,or PX for short, is reliably sticky sweet, and also quite delicious – the Spanish like to pour PX over their ice cream!
So, that’s sweet wine in a nutshell. Look for more detailed descriptions of each style in the near future. Cheers!
What’s The Story With Biodynamics?
The term Biodynamic seems to creep into the conversation more and more often these days when we discuss natural farming. It tends to fascinate us because it has some aspects that are unconventional to say the least. You can think of it as beyond organic with a bit of a mystical side to it. The movement is based on theories presented in a series of lectures by Austrian philosopher Rudolph Steiner in the 1920s. It’s an extremely healthy, if unusual, way to farm because it takes a holistic approach. We’ve been reminded the hard way, repeatedly, in Napa Valley that a monoculture is not nature’s way. The biodiversity angle makes a lot of sense. But, some of the practices raise a few eyebrows. Let’s start with the philosophy behind it.
Philosophy
The ideal is that each farm or vineyard is self sustaining, meaning that as little as possible is introduced from outside of the farm. Taken literally, it means that Biodynamic vineyards include a diversity of plants other than grapevines, especially plants native to the area, and also farm animals in order to be self sufficient.
The Biodynamic farmer recognizes that his cultivated plants are the invader in an otherwise self-sustaining environment and interprets the presence of undesirable weeds or pests as indicators of some kind of imbalance in the ecosystem.
The planet, each farm and the soil itself are all viewed as living organisms that respond to the phases of the moon and cosmological cycles so we’ll get the best results if we time certain farming practices to coincide with the appropriate rhythm. The goal of the Steiner philosophy is to create a harmonious relationship between man and the soil, the native and cultivated vegetation and the animal world as a basis of sustainability. There’s also a moral-ethical perspective or, you might say, a spiritual approach to our responsibility for the land and its creatures. It’s believed that an increased reverence for life and greater sensitivity to the environment will produce a by-product of healthier plants, higher-quality produce and an enriched lifestyle. Some practitioners of Biodynamics embrace the whole of the Steiner philosophy. Others are not as interested in the abstract as they are the actual practices and their potential for superior results.
Nicolas Joly, who has a winery called Coulée de la Serrant in the Loire Valley of France, is perhaps the best-known practitioner. He’s known for his compelling story about his transition from financier to grower on his family’s estate after the death of his mother. He was a novice and relied on his advisors, who felt the vineyard was behind the times. They recommended that he modernize his operation with the use of herbicides and pesticides to save money and Joly followed their advice. After a few years he noticed that the soil looked dull and all the ladybugs and wild game birds were gone. To him, it seemed like a perpetual winter, even in summer. He happened to pick up a book on Biodynamics and quickly became a convert with a very healthy vineyard to show for it. When asked about the difference between organics and Biodynamics he likened it to connecting the vine to the frequencies it needs, like tuning a radio. He said that “Organics permits nature to do its job; Biodynamics permits it to do its job more.”
So, if the soil is a living organism, then adding synthetic fertilizers or pesticides and herbicides is counter-indicated, which leads us to the Biodynamic remedies, which break down into field sprays, foliar sprays and treated compost.
Wine Service At Home
Let’s say you’ve chosen a few nice wines for a dinner party (click here for GCU article on Wine and Food Pairing). Where to go from there? Here are some suggestions for making the most of the wines you serve at home. Remember that these are only guidelines. Wine is to be enjoyed, and shouldn’t exist around a set of rules.
Opening the Bottle
Sometimes we think the reason that more people don’t drink wine is that they’re afraid they won’t be able to get the cork out of the bottle! There are countless different wine openers available these days, and most of them work very well. Here are a few of the most common, and they’re common for a reason-they get the job done!
The Screwpull: If you think of pulling the cork as something you attempt rather than something you just do, then go buy a Screwpull. It’s wonderful because it requires absolutely no skill. You will be successful the first time and it will become your opener for life.
The Ah-So (two-pronged) cork puller does require some practice, but those who have mastered it, swear by it. The trick is to rock the opener down rather than push. It’s particularly good for older wines, if the cork has deteriorated.
The waiter’s corkscrew is a classic because it’s effective and efficient. It takes a little practice, but if you avoid trying to pull the cork out at an angle it’s 99% of the battle. Once you’ve used the lever to pull the cork most of the way out, make sure you grab the cork and opener together as one unit and pull the cork straight up and out of the bottle.
“The rabbit” is like a hand-held counter-top opener and is another virtually fool-proof way to go.
There is no “best choice.” Find an opener that you like and stick with it.
After opening the wine, give it a quick taste to make sure it’s all right. It almost always, is, but if something’s wrong, then you can go to plan “B” before your guests arrive.
Napa Valley Vintage Recap
The information below gives you a valley-wide perspective on the last several vintages here in the Napa Valley. Whenever you look at a vintage chart or recap, such as this one, it’s good to remember that this is the big picture. In reality, any given winery may have good luck on “bad” years and vice versa, so this is only a general guideline. Vintages such as 2010 also help demonstrate how winemakers and vineyard managers can help “create their own luck” through attentive, diligent vineyard management.
2011 Vintage 2011 was a tricky year. It started off cool with 48 inches of rain in parts of Napa Valley, much of it coming in late spring, The cool, wet spring discouraged pollination of grape buds (shatter) and led to a poor fruit set, especially for Cabernet Sauvignon. In July and August we had perfect ripening weather, while September was notably cool. We needed to drop fruit this year and open up the canopy by leafing the fruit zone a little more than usual to increase air flow. October brought in warmer weather and the ongoing pressure from botrytis made picking fast and furious. We needed to pick around the rot in one vineyard this year with a careful eye on field sorting. The grapes show very good quality with sugars between 23°-24° Brix and excellent color. Winemakers who were content to wait for optimum flavors and maturity were rewarded with pure flavors. Harvest extended into November this year resulting in low yields, intense fruit flavors and incredible concentration. All in all, it was a year to be very proactive and attentive in the vineyard, and it’s a year that will showcase the talents of the best winemakers. Overall yield is down about 20% records show.
2010 An exceptionally chilly, wet spring followed by a cool “summer of no summer” had growers biting their nails, concerned the grapes wouldn’t ripen before the rainy season. Diligent vineyard managers did multiple vineyard passes thinning shoots and leaves to improve ventilation to keep mildew at bay. Many stripped the leaves in the “fruit zone” in August to speed along the ripening with increased light exposure.The reward was a series of brief, intense heat waves that dried up some of the exposed clusters. Most wineries began receiving grapes around the second week of September, about two – three weeks later than normal. Those who thinned the shriveled clusters noticed surprisingly good flavor development and intensity, probably due to the prolonged ripening season. The repeated heat waves brought a great deal of fruit ripe at the same time, causing very hectic work for the winemakers. However, it was a blessing for many, like Goosecross, who managed to get all of their fruit in before heavy mid-October rains caused rot in some locations. This vintage ranges from excellent, for those who did the necessary thinning of dried and rotten grapes, to poor for those who didn’t. The Napa Valley Vintners association estimates the overall crop level as down by 10-30%, depending upon location. Goosecross winemaker, Geoff Gorsuch has remarked that the Goosecross wines are, perhaps, our best so far and the yields were down by about 25%.
2009 After a nearly textbook growing season of mild, sunny days and cool, foggy nights, we were reminded not to count our chickens before they’re hatched! It was almost unbelievably smooth sailing until October 13, when we received over three inches of rain in 24 hours! The bad news: A little sprinkle doesn’t much matter, but heavy rain can cause rot, mildew and dilution. The good news: A great deal of the crop was already in by that time, leaving mostly rot-resistant Cabernet out in the rain, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. For Goosecross, the only variety unharvested at that point was Syrah which, like Cabernet, is tough skinned and loose clustered. Our winemaker was relieved to see the fruit come in looking good. But, the vintage will always be discussed in terms of what came in before and after the rain. As winemakers began to discuss the vintage, the most common themes were good flavor maturity at relatively low brix (sugar levels) and good, deep color in the reds – a good indicator for flavor intensity.
2008 This vintage will be talked about, for years to come, as a roller-coaster ride in a region renowned for its agreeable, predictable climate. The worst spring for frost since 1973 took its toll on crop yields, followed by excess heat and rain during bloom, in May, further trimming expectations regarding tonnage. The term “smoke taint” entered our vocabulary for the first time due to a rash of wildfires in late June and early July. Fortunately, no damage was reported in Napa Valley.
Overall, the season was a cool one, allowing for plenty of hangtime, punctuated by a few blasts of heat to bring up the sugars. Rain was about 2/3s of normal, but the vines reacted as if there was a drought, producing unusually small grapes. The small berry size explains the tremendous intensity of color and flavor in the reds. Harvest came early and started with a bang, but the cool conditions that followed made for an almost easy-going crush schedule. Valley wide, nearly every block was in by mid-October, an early finish to a challenging vintage. 2008 will be known for very fine quality and surprisingly low quantity.
2007 The growing season started slightly early and took off like a shot in the beautiful “July in March” weather putting the season as much as 2 weeks ahead of “normal” for some growers. Remarkably mild conditions prevailed in the months that followed raising expectations for an exceptionally high-quality vintage throughout the valley. For most producers “crush” began early and many of us were actively harvesting in August. A brief heat wave around Labor Day hastened the process, followed by a very significant cool down for the rest of the season. Goosecross finished harvest on October 4 and the following weeks brought sporadic rainfall, sometimes heavy. Very little damage was reported because the remaining varieties to be picked, mainly Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot, have good rot resistance and there were enough warm days to bring the sugars up. This is considered an outstanding vintage characterized by small, intensely flavored berries, full flavor maturity without high sugars and a crop that was somewhat smaller than normal.
2006 This was a year of drama and challenge for the local growers that included winter floods, a record-setting heat wave and some rain during flowering and harvest. The growing season began nearly 3 weeks late after a long, very wet winter, but moderate temperatures in April and May helped the vines to begin to catch up. Flowering was only slightly late. Some rain the third week of May caused a little “shatter” (impaired pollination) in the vineyards, including Goosecross Merlot, so there was slight crop loss for some of the growers. After fruit set3 the cluster counts indicated that the crop would be slightly below normal in size. The summer was mild overall with the exception of a record setting 10-day heat wave in July causing some leaf and clusters to burn slightly. The heavy rains had produced an abundant leaf canopy, helping to shield the grapes from sunburn, but some crop thinning was necessary nevertheless due to sunburn. Harvest began a week to two weeks behind normal, depending on the grower, with dry, moderate temperatures allowing for gradual, even ripening. Widespread damage to Chardonnay throughout the north coast was reported due to some rainfall in the first week of October. Lucky growers, like Goosecross, already had their Chardonnay in; others struggled to sort through the rot. With the late start, it wasn’t surprising to see grape deliveries going up and down the valley as late as the first week of November, but conditions were dry and temperatures mild for bringing in the last of the crop. Prolonged “hang time”1, sugars and acids in good balance and small berries and clusters worked in concert to produce some excellent wines from 2006.
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Sauvignon Blanc
Common synonyms: Fume blanc, Savagnin Musque, Sauvignon Jauve, Blanc Fume, Fume, Surin, Fie dans le Neuvillois, Punechon, Puinechou,Gentin a Romorantin, Muskat Silvaner, Feigentraube
Sauvignon Blanc gained its fame in the Loire valley of France where it makes the delicious Blanc Fumé, Pouilly Fumé, and Sancerre, but its original home is probably in the Bordeaux region where it plays second fiddle to Semillon as the most planted white. Sauvignon Blanc didn’t have much clout in the wine world until recently, when it was identified as the parent, with Cabernet Franc, of the noble Cabernet Sauvignon. Many believe that Cabernet has Sauvignon Blanc to thank for its hint of bell pepper.
This is a variety with some name confusion, for instance you might wonder what the difference is between Sauvignon Blanc and Fumé Blanc. The names are interchangeable, so there’s no official difference but, in the new world, choosing the name Fumé Blanc is often code language for saying the wine was aged in oak.
When it comes to the question of blending or oak aging, the best advice is to check with the individual producer. The Loire Valley examples aren’t normally blended or oak-aged, but both techniques are common in Bordeaux and in other parts of the world. A little Semillon in the mix can lend the wine some weight, heighten fruit and calm down the acidity a bit, making it the most common choice at blending time.
Sauvignon Blanc is a vigorous, high-yielding variety and it’s the grower’s responsibility to keep the vigor in check in order to avoid producing aggressively herbaceous, borderline offensive wine. It’s early to wake in the spring, which exposes it to potential frost damage, but is also one of the first varieties to ripen later on, which means there’s less risk of rain damage. It’s naturally high in acid, which means that cold-climate producers need to time their harvest carefully so the wine isn’t painfully acidic. Here in sunny Napa Valley we’re glad to see a variety that holds its acidity while we wait for the flavors to fully mature.
Sauvignon Blanc is remarkably versatile at the table, thanks to the bracing acidity. It’s as natural to drink Sauvignon Blanc with seafood as it is to squeeze a little lemon juice on it. It works very well with preparations that include citrus or herbs, such as scallops ceviche or a vegetable or pasta dish with lots of fresh herbs. Sauvignon Blanc is cheese friendly and is especially wonderful with its classic partner, goat cheese. You can find delicious recipes to pair with Sauvignon Blanc, or any other variety, if you go to Colleen’s Kitchen.
Weight: Light to medium bodied, usually quite crisp
