Saturday, January 31, 2009

Bring On Da Funk

Really good Pinot Noir often walks a razor's edge between earthiness and elegance. It is one of those really intriguing qualities about this grape. Its kind of like a tuxedo, in all its black classic elegance, that was hung up in the barn for just a few days before the gala event. And that may sound bad, but its definitely not.

Pinot's head may be in the clouds but its feet are planted firmly on the ground. That earthiness brings it back down to. ..well...earth. Pinot reminds us, no matter how elegant or elite the occassion, that we are of this earth. We smell and taste and breathe this earth. It sustains us and when we are gone, what remains of us here is returned to this earth.

And what an earth it is. Taste and smell a variety of good Pinots. It will be unmistakeable. The earthiness gets variously described as mushrooms, truffles, leather, savory herbs, wet earth, loam, barnyard, forest floor, wet animal fur, sweaty socks...

I'll stop there before the descriptions get too funky. You get the idea. All of these fecund complexities and riches, combined with the flavors and aromas of bright red or deep, dark black fruit and counterbalanced with good acidity, can produce a wine that sings. And connects you with the earth and the ages.

Cheeers,

Dave

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

January 09 Barrel Tasting Notes

Winemaker Barrel Tasting Notes as of January 2009

Our winemaker Chris Nelson forwarded these notes to us recently. Everything is progressing very nicely and the wines are developing with the style and characteristics we are looking for!

2008 Liberty Bridge Pinot Noir

Color: deep purple Aroma: black fruit with cola/spice, smells concentrated Palate: rich mouthfeel with great fruit concentration, good tannin structure and acid. very nice!

2008 Paris Mountain Pinot Noir

Deep garnet color with UV hues. Smells great! Nose shows depth with black and red fruit (blackberry, raspberry, etc), touch floral/spice. Solid tannin backbone from 667 clone, good acid balance, excellent concentration, jammy, some weight forming. Very nice.

2008 Charles Towne Cabernet Sauvignon

Color: Deep, dark red color. Aroma: Dense nose, packed with blackberry and cassis notes. The oak is just starting to integrate into the layered nose. Some nice dried herbs note showing through as well. Palate: Fleshy in the entry, the wine is full bodied, still tight due to its youth, with aggressive tannins packing the finish with focus and structure. Showing tremendous promise.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

How and Why Do We Make Wine?

Many people ask us this question. Making good wine is a challenge. Making great wine is a very big challenge. Making great California wine while living in South Carolina? Well, some would say, there is a bed waiting for us at Marshall Pickens Psych Hospital.

Why?

This part is easy. My dad bought a home winemaking kit when I was a kid. He was an engineer who liked science, and tried to expose his kids to this in fun ways. In retrospect, I suppose this was his way to introduce us to chemistry. It worked.

We experimented with every kind of juice we could find, making some really bad wine in the process. After the first go round, we collectively decided a better wine making kit might help and made a trip to a specialty winemaking store that carried high quality varieties of grape juice and equipment. This batch turned out better.

It was great fun, even tasting the really bad wine. Watching the fermentation was like magic. We did not realize we were taking part in a process that, according to archaeologists, has been going on for 7,000 years.

The second catalyst occurred when I was in California last spring at a health care legal conference. An attorney colleague was pouring his own wine at the legal conference wine tasting. I thought: if he can do this then so can I.

After the conference we went to the Monterey Peninsula to sightsee. In the process we tasted some of the local Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir. Some of it was good. Some of it was way beyond good. It was all small production wine, sold mostly in California. I thought: we HAVE to get more of this stuff to South Carolina!

How?

Here it gets trickier. First and foremost, we work with really top notch professional people. They make it possible. And fun, although we are very serious about making exceptional wine.

Second, we take a very different approach than a traditional winery. We don't own any land or vineyards. This would tie up too much time, capital and risk. We also don't own any tasting rooms or fancy faux French chateaux. We don't even own a trailer.

Third, we share the winemaking facility, supplies and equipment with other winemakers. This is a common (but not widely acknowledged) approach for small high quality brands and even some bigger wineries. This allows us access to state of the art equipment and processes that we could never afford on our own.

Our facility is in a converted warehouse in the industrial district, far from any Napa or Sonoma wine tours. It ain't pretty and would not impress the tourists (however, our tourist count = zero) but it has everything we need to make great wine.

And this is all good because the grapes don't know the difference. Our money gets spent on really great fruit and really great winemaking people, processes and techniques. We will pay more for the best fruit, talent and equipment and skip all of the window dressing.

And it is showing up strongly in the wines. Our fellow winemakers who have been at this for a few years now are posting some big scores and getting lots of recognition. We are confident we will too. For us, the focus is all on what goes in the glass and nothing else.

The Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs, the movie stars and the retired Fortune 500 CEOS can acquire or create a small Napa or Sonoma California winery for $10-25 million or so. Those fortunate few can buy an instant wine lifestyle.

The rest of us, including many passionate young winemakers with virtually no capital, have to be more creative.

So that is what we do and honestly, we prefer our approach. The camaraderie and shared expertise make for more fun and better wine.

How? Part Two

Next time I'll talk about what happens when the grapes arrive. It's all about fork lifts, getting stained purple up to your elbows, double sorting through tons of fruit and why winemakers say it takes a lot of beer to make wine. It's REAL glamorous!

Cheers,

Dave
Calicaro Wine

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Rolling the Dice on Ripeness

When to pick is either the last step in grape growing or the first step in winemaking. As a winemaker I view it as the latter. It also is unquestionably one of the really important choices that can have a profound impact on the wine.

For people who grow fruits and vegetables this seems like such an easy question. The answer, obviously, is to pick when ripe and get it to the table as quickly as possible.

Sometimes it is that easy with wine grapes too, but not often. More frequently, it turns into a high wire act. The sugars race ahead of acid development, or we have good factors on the chemistry analysis (ie pH, brix, TA, etc.) indicating analytical ripeness of the fruit but we still have thicker skins, greenish seeds and stems and the like indicating lack of physiological ripeness and a risk of making a bitter, astringent, tannic wine.

Come September, the growers and winemakers all nervously watch the weather forecast each day and take regular samples for tasting and testing. A late season heat wave will cause the brix (ie sugar) to shoot up and shrivel the grapes, essentially a condition of dehydration that is manageable for a short while but will require a decision to pick right away if the heat drags on.

Conversely, although not much of a problem in California, in Oregon Pinot country (the Willamette Valley) fall means the rainy season. The roots take up the rain water which gets pumped into the berries and dilutes flavor and all of the other good stuff. Imagine pouring 2 ounces of water into your 5 ounces of wine. That's what they do for the little tykes in Europe, but no self respecting adult would want to drink that.

While winemakers have a number of tools in the kit to deal with whatever Mother Nature throws at us, most everyone agrees that the ideal is picking when all is ripe and in the best balance, so we don't have to make adjustments in the winery. If only Mother Nature would consistently get on board with this plan!

Many California winemakers, including Calicaro, like longer hang time for the fruit on the vine, producing a richer, riper style of wine. We opt for this approach and strive to peak at peak ripeness, believing our tastebuds and our customers' tastebuds will enjoy that extra concentration and full mouthfeel. Our general preference is rich, round, ripe wine over something tasting bitter, astringent or tannic. So, we will generally roll the dice in favor of longer hang time, trying to squeeze in a few more days on the vine to get that extra flavor that will then show up in the glass.

Cheers,

Dave