Heart & Hands: Passion for Pinot in the Finger Lakes

Tom Higgins grew up in the Finger Lakes region of New York. While still in high school, he worked at Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards learning both winemaking and tasting room management. He studied accounting and information systems in college, thinking that the technology field was a great way to make a quick buck and allow him to eventually have his own winery. He entered the technology industry during the dot-com boom of the 1990s, and met his future spouse, Susan, who was also a wine lover, while they were both on corporate assignment in Ohio.

Tom quickly longed to return to the wine industry and told me, “The tech industry was interesting for a while, but there were just too many 3:00 A.M. ‘emergency’ pages among other irritating things.” He left his job and started working for Zachy’s Wine & Liquor in Scarsdale, New York. This was an eye-opening education into the world of wine. The connections he made at Zachy’s enabled him to work in Bordeaux at Chateau La Lagune and learn old world winemaking techniques. Unfortunately, at the time, Domaine Romanee-Conti already had an intern and Domaine Dujac felt like they had helped enough young American winemakers with their success.

Upon his return to the states, Tom worked a harvest at Calera Wine Company in California. He then ventured back to the Finger Lakes, working for Thirsty Owl Wine Company and Atwater Estate Vineyards, while preparing to launch his own winery, Heart & Hands Wine Company. I met Tom at Thirsty Owl Wine Company during a trip I made to the Finger Lakes a few years ago. His spouse, Susan spent many vacation weekends in the Finger Lakes and after obtaining an MBA from New York University Stern School of Business, the couple were married and Susan works for a leading management consultant firm when not assisting Tom with winemaking activities.

A suitable site for a vineyard and winery was chosen on a gently sloping hillside overlooking the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake. The site is ideal for Pinot Noir and Riesling, with soils redolent of Onondaga Limestone with outcroppings of shale. The proximity to the lake and the gently sloping site offer the future vineyard protection from harsh winter weather. In 2008, winery construction was completed and a tasting room opened the following year.

As the 6-acre estate vineyard is developed, Heart & Hands has obtained acreage contracts with several premier winegrowers including Sawmill Creek Vineyard and Hobbit Hollow Farm. Current production is under 800 cases of Pinot Noir, Brut Rosé and Riesling. The Claddagh ring on the label is the traditional Irish wedding ring symbolizing friendship and togetherness (the hands), love (the heart), and loyalty and fidelity (the crown). It is worn by people of Irish descent the world over as a source of pride in their heritage. At Hearts & Hands, the Claddagh symbolizes the Higgins’ passion for wine and loyalty to their customers.

Tom is very forward thinking about his wines and winery. He has been using the glass Vino-Seal closure on some of his wines, This seal has a number of advantages. It eliminates cork taint, it is “cooler” than a screw cap, easy to apply, easy to reseal the bottle with, and 100% recyclable. The downside is the risk of reduction, so Tom focuses on sulfur levels at bottling, keeping them around 50% of what he would be used under cork.

The Heart & Hands tasting room allows a special tasting experience for $10 that is uniquely different from most wineries in the area. Tom and Susan take guests into the cellar and taste Pinot Noir from barrels, offering an educational session on barrels, whole cluster, and site differences in determining the character of finished wines.

Heart & Hands Crush Camp offers seven participants the chance to work harvest at the winery while enjoying accommodations at the nearby E.B. Morgan House in Aurora, New York. Activities include picking grapes, sorting grapes, daily punch downs, lab analysis, pressing grapes, and of course, plenty of cleaning. Participants also receive six bottles of wine from the harvest and plenty of swag.

Heart & Hands Wine Company is located at 4162 State Route 90N, Union Springs, New York. The tasting room is open on weekends from 12:00 to 5:00 and weekdays by appointment. The wines are available online at www.heartandhandswine.com. For further information, consult this video and winery review by Jason Feulner, Finger Lakes Correspondent: http://lennthompson.typepad.com/lenndevours/2009/07/

---

Bennett Valley: The Secret is Out

Bennett Valley only consists of about 700 planted acres, but the wines from this tiny appellation are making an impression on wine aficionados. Matanzas Creek Winery, which released a 2007 Bennett Valley Pinot in the 2007 vintage, its first since the 1970s, is the most high-profile producer in this region. Bennett Valley is Sonoma County’s newest appellation, awarded approval in December 29, 2003. Located 45 miles northeast of San Francisco, the appellation is surrounded by three mountains: Taylor Mountain to the West, Bennett Peak to the East and Sonoma Mountain to the South (see map on the next page). The soils are mainly rocky and volcanic in origin. Most vineyards are planted between 500 and 600 feet elevation and enjoy a consistent marine influence throughout the growing season. The Crane Canyon/Grange Road gap in the mountains allows cooling fog and wind to enter the valley moderating summer temperatures and creating conditions that are ideal for cool climate grape varieties. There are 8,140 total acres in the appellation occupied by 36 growers and 4 wineries (2004 statistics). According to the Bennett Valley Grape Growers, only 9% of the planted acreage is Pinot Noir, with Merlot and Chardonnay making up over 66% of the total.

A complete history of Bennett Valley is available on the Bennett Valley Grape Growers website (www.bvgg.org).

Grey Stack Cellars was formerly known as Dry Stack Cellars, but the owners of Dry Stack Sherry felt the name was confusing. The name was changed to Grey Stack, which refers to a dry stack rock wall made from gray basalt native to Bennett Valley. Grey Stack Cellars sources fruit primarily from two estate vineyards (Dry Stack Vineyard at the home ranch in Bennett Valley and Greywacke Vineyard, located in the Russian River Valley). Pinot Noir fruit is sourced from the Connell Family Vineyard in Bennett Valley.

The owners of Grey Stack Cellars are Peter and Marie Young who came to Sonoma County in 1999. Their first commercial wine, a Syrah from Dry Stack Vineyard, was produced in 2005. Russell Bevan of Bevan Cellars in Bennett Valley was the winemaker until 2009, when he was replaced by Pat Sullivan (Rudd Winery, Peter Michael, Lewis Cellars and Paul Hobbs) and assistant winemaker Randall Watkins.

Although Grey Stack Cellars has focused on Syrah, Grenache, a Syrah-Grenache blend and Sauvignon Blanc from estate grapes, the winery plans to expand Pinot Noir and Grenache offerings and add Chardonnay to the lineup over the next few years.

I recently sampled the latest Pinot Noir offering from Grey Stack Cellars and was very impressed. The Connell Family Vineyard is just up the road from the Grey Stack home ranch. The vineyard manager is Chris Bowland. This wine serves notice that the Bennett Valley is an untapped promising region for Pinot Noir.

Grey Stack Cellars wines are available on the website at www.greystackcellars.com, and through the winery’s mailing list. For tours of the estate vineyards or tasting, phone the offices of Grey Stack Cellars in Santa Rosa at 707-228-1338.

---

Alana Estate: New Star Arrives in the U.S.

Alana Estate is not a familiar name to American Pinot Noir geeks, but this estate will shortly be exporting their excellent Pinot Noir to the United States, and I am confident this wine will find a place in many of their cellars. Alana Estate was established in 1992 by a group of shareholders headed by Ian and Alana Smart. Encompassing 55 acres of land, 42 acres of which are in planted vines, and located on the northern edge of the Martinborough Terrace, this estate is believed to be the driest location in Martinborough. The site is cool with well-drained deep stony soil making growing conditions ideal for Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc. Recent plantings are dominated by close density and low trellised Pinot Noir. The vineyard will be in full production in 2010. Alana’s most immediate neighbor is the world-renowned Dry River, which occupies 30 acres of land immediately adjacent the Alana Estate. Ata Rangi and Martinborough Vineyards are close by.

The Alana Estate is home to a modern gravity-flow winery which is set up to allow multiple small batches of wine to be processed. In 2008, 8,200 cases of wine were produced and the 2009 harvest was even better, producing 11,000 cases.

Winemaker Chris “Hopper” Archer is an Aussie who claims, “ I was forced into the wine industry by parents at the tender age of seventeen, who were hoping to have an endless supply of good wine for their retirement. Their plans came into fruition, except that I eventually escaped to New Zealand to attempt to rebuild my depleted cellar.” Archer’s first job was with Tyrrell’s Wines in Hunter Valley and while completing his winemaking degree, continued vintage work for Tyrrell’s at Wolf Blass in Clare and Rosemount in McLaren Vale. After obtaining his wine science degree, Archer returned to Tyrrell’s in 1992 as assistant winemaker and was put in sole charge of the company’s Pinot Noir program. After a subsequent highly successful five year stint at a small boutique winery, Pepper Tree Wines, he was coerced to New Zealand in 2000 by Morton Estate, before eventually joining Alana Estate. Along the way, Archer has collected a slew of trophies for his wines.

Recently, I was contacted by Flinn Flexer, an American living in Sherman Oaks, California, who has become a shareholder at Alana Estate and is the United States importer of Alana Estate wines beginning in 2009. He estimates that 2,500 cases of the 2008 Alana Estate Pinot Noir will be exported to the United States. I tasted the 2008 Alana Estate Pinot Noir with Flinn and later at home in private and my notes were consistent. The label below is preliminary.

Alana Estate Pinot Noir will be available in the United States November 1, 2009. A portion of the United States allocation is being made available first to the mailing list through the U.S.-based website, www.alanestate.com, that will launch October 1, 2009. Some wine will be sold through a select number of fine wine stores and restaurants, primarily in CA, AZ, NV, MI, TX, and NY. The wine will be poured at the International Wine and Food Festival in Grand Rapids, MI in November, 2009.

---

ampelos: Little Winery that Did

Ampelos Cellars is a small, family owned winery established in 2000 in Lompoc, Santa Barbara County. Proprietors Peter and Rebecca Work are proud of their recent certifications for the winery’s 25-acre estate vineyard in the Sta. Rita Hills. It became the first vineyard in Santa Barbara County and one of the first in the country to be certified sustainable, organic and biodynamic. Sustainability in practice (SIP) was obtained from the Central Coast Vineyard Team. Sustainability addresses the whole farm with focus on environmental stewardship, social and economic equity, and economic profitability. Organic certification from the governing body, Stellar (USDA), represents a further extension of sustainability. Organic farming means using no synthetic products, relying only on natural fertilizers and employing natural pest control systems to care for the vines. Organic farmers also use minimal filtration and fining materials and often natural yeasts. Biodynamic certification was received by Demeter®. Biodynamic practices are aimed at establishing a state of natural balance in the vineyard. The farm is viewed as an ecological, self-sustaining system. Biodynamie harnesses the earth’s cycles according to moon phases and gravitational forces to enhance fruit flavor, production and heartiness. The farm follows the earth’s schedule, not the farmer’s! The ampelos Vineyard is planted to Pinot Noir and Syrah, with small amounts of Grenache and Viognier. Planting began in 2001 and the first harvest from ampelos Vineyard was in 2004.

Peter is a Danish national and former information technology consultant who dreamed of owning a vineyard and making his own wines. Rebecca is a former Alaskan resident who had similar intentions. Together, they bought an 82-acre property in the Sta. Rita Hills in 1999. Ampelos is a Greek word meaning “vine.” The Greek connection derives from the Works’ love for Greece and their guest house on Folegandros in Greece’s Cycladic Island group where they were married and still spend time together each year. The Works left their corporate jobs and moved to their property in 2002. Their son, Don Schroeder, was the consulting enologist at Ampelos until 2008 when he left to become the winemaker at Sea Smoke. Today, the Works carry on the winemaking duties.

Total production is 3,500 cases which include Pinot Noir, Syrah, Grenache, a Syrah-Grenache blend, Viognier and Rosé. The wines come from both the ampelos Vineyard and purchased grapes from Santa Barbara County. The Works also supply grapes to Brewer-Clifton, Jaffurs and Samsara for their vineyard-designated ampelos Vineyard bottlings. The two primary Pinot Noirs are “lambda,” from the ampelos Vineyard and “rho,” composed of the top 20% of the barrels from ampelos Vineyard. A third vineyard, Fiddlestix, has been discontinued, but additional sources have been acquired. The Works also sell an interesting white wine crafted by their son labeled Chien Edelzwicker, a blend of Riesling, Pinot Blanc and Gewürztraminer, the noble grapes of Alsace.

Ampelos Cellars wines are available on the website at www.ampeloscellars.com. To really understand and appreciate these fine wines, you should visit the winery at 1633 W Central Ave, Ste. B, in Lompoc on Saturdays and taste with the Works. Tasting is available by appointment on other days as well (805-736-9957).

---

Road 31 Wine Co.: One Truck, One Pinot

Regular readers of the PinotFile know that I have been a fan of the Pinot Noirs from Kent Fortner since the first vintage in 2001. From 2001 to 2005, the winery was known as Green Truck Cellars, morphing to Road 31 Wine Co. with the 2006 vintage. Kent says that he was doing some family research in his hometown in Kansas when he saw a sign posted to a gravel road, “Road 31.” This road ambled past his grandparents’ homestead in Kansas. Kent’s 1966 green Ford truck, willed to him by his later grandfather, traveled Road 31 frequently. He decided to make the name change, thinking there were just too many truck labels, but he retained the picture of his green truck on the front label.

Kent crafts his Pinot Noir in a portion of a barrel cave made available by friends who live in the Stag’s Leap District of Napa Valley. He is a one-man operation and likes it that way. His hands handle every step of the crafting from fermenting, to barrel aging, to bottling and peddling. He even delivers wine in his green truck whenever possible. Kent crafts roughly 700 cases of one wine: Road 31 Wine Co. Napa Valley Pinot Noir. Recent vintages are sourced from three vineyards: Nord Vineyard, located at the southern mouth of the Napa River where the water spills into the San Francisco Bay (clone 115), Stanly Ranch Vineyard in Carneros, just across the Napa River from Nord (114), and Suscol Ridge Vineyard, a mountain vineyard in Napa (Pommard).

For Kent, the 2007 vintage was, “Truly a dream. We had cool weather, but not so much that botrytis invaded. We had a drought, but not so severe that we ran out of water entirely, resulting in perfectly stressed vines. We had extremely low yields with clusters so small that four of them would fit into your hand. Finally, we had shockingly even weather at harvest. Truly, a dream vintage.” As far as winemaking went, Kent said, “I couldn’t believe I managed to get through the perfect vintage without screwing it up.” The result is the best Pinot Noir Kent has ever produced.

Road 31 Wine Co. Pinot Noir is sold primarily to “truckers” on the mailing list with limited retail distribution. The 2006 and 2007 vintages are sold out, but may still be found through retail channels. Add a case to your cellar and your friends will be green with envy (sic). The website is www.road31.com and the phone is 707-649-1200 (tasting by appointment). An informative “plog” is available on the website.

---

Pfendler Vineyards: Hollywood to Vines

Pfendler Vineyards was launched by Kimberly Pfendler in 2007 to honor the legacy of her husband, Peter Pfendler, who first planted the Pfendler Vineyards in 1992. Peter, who passed away in 2007, was a man of many accomplishments. He graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy and served as a distinguished fighter pilot in Vietnam. Later, he obtained an MBA from UCLA and a degree from Harvard Law School and had a successful business career. Peter founded Polaris Aircraft Leasing Corporation in 1974, which became the world’s largest commercial aircraft leasing company. In 1989, he sold Polaris to General Electric Corp., and bought a ranch just east of the town of Petaluma in Sonoma County. He pursued his life long dream of cattle ranching, wildlife and land conservation, and later, planting vineyards and growing grapes.

Kimberly was a successful Creative Executive in the Hollywood film industry. After earning a degree from UCLA Film School, she worked at both Warner Brothers and MGM studios where she developed a series of hit films. She married Peter in 2004, trading her Hollywood glamor for a life close to the land. The drive and passion she developed in Hollywood has given her the tools to launch a luxury wine brand.

The Pfendler vineyards consist of 19 acres of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay on four estate vineyards. Peter was the first to plant vineyards at the Petaluma Gap’s Crown, a very cool and windy area. The Penngrove Vineyard is a 6-acre parcel in this region planted to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir (clones 114, 115, 777, 828 and Swan). The fruit from this vineyard previously went into the Copeland Creek label. The Pullis Vineyard is the coolest and foggiest vineyard, situated on the base of a mountain just east of Petaluma. It was planted to clone 828 in 2005. Pfendler Vineyard is part way up the mountain and was planted to Bordeaux varieties in 1992. Located at 1,200 feet in the middle of the fog line, it was budded over to Chardonnay (Hyde clone) and Pinot Noir (Pommard clone) in 2008. The Helgren Vineyard sits at 2,000 feet on the mountain top and was planted in 2005 to Calera and Swan selections of Pinot Noir. This vineyard will make its debut in 2009.

Noted winemaker and viticulturist, Greg Bjornstad, has been hired as winemaker. Greg was the viticulturist at Joseph Phelps Vineyards and Newton. In 1996, he joined Flowers Vineyard & Winery as vineyard manager and assistant winemaker. Flowers was awarded the title, “Artisan Winery of the Year,” by Wine & Spirits magazine two years in a row while Greg worked there. In 1999, he launched an international vineyard consulting business and has assisted winegrowers in Russia, South Africa and Australia, and well-known stateside clients such as DuMOL, Hirsch, Kistler, Kosta Browne, Paul Hobbs, Pisoni and Scott Paul. He founded his own label, Bjornstad Cellars, in 2005, specializing in vineyard-designated Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Sonoma Coast, Russian River Valley, Bennett Valley and Sonoma Mountain appellations.

Bjornstad’s winemaking starts with vigorous sorting followed by native yeast fermentations. The barrel aging program uses 50% new French oak. Pfendler’s Pinot Noir and Chardonnay receive 8 months of sur lees aging, and are racked twice before the wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered.

The 2007 Pfendler Vineyards Pinot Noir and Chardonnay were sampled over dinner with Kimberly Pfendler. I was impressed by her passion and commitment and I believe this label can compete with the best from California.

2007 Pfendler Vineyards Chardonnay (see feature on Chardonnay, page 21)

The inaugural 2007 vintage for Pfendler Vineyards produced 550 cases of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Rosé. Production will double with the 2009 vintage as the family’s newest vines come of age. The wines are sold through a mailing list at www.pfendlervineyards.com.

---

Harrington Wine: Urban Star

Harrington is part of the popular San Francisco urban wine movement, located in a warehouse in the Produce District. Proprietor and winemaker Bryan Harrington is a Pinot Noir specialist who has achieved a quiet following and his wines are truly worth your interest. I first became interested in Harrington wines after tasting them at the World of Pinot Noir in 2006. The wines stood out for their individuality and deft winemaking.

While working as a bartender in San Francisco, Harrington traveled to Europe and became enamored with the very small producers who were tending tiny vineyard plots and crafting a few barrels of wine. It was a model that he eventually was to pursue. He began making wine in his basement in San Francisco, attended several University California Davis classes, and moved on to a cooperative winemaking facility in Berkeley. He finally started his own label in 2002 and settled into his present location in San Francisco. His wines are crafted in an artisan fashion with no wine made in larger than a 300 case lot. Bryan says, “It is my responsibility each year to use every means possible to bring a fruit-full and authentic wine experience to your glass.”

Most Harrington vineyard sources are at least 30 years old and nurture California’s older heritage clones. Bryan notes, “Vineyard sources have been chosen not only for their age and quality, but also for their ability to convey those characteristics that typify the particular Pinot Noir appellations, whether it be the firm structural elements of wine from the limestone of Chalone, the dark fruit flavors of the Sonoma Coast rocky ridge tops, or the racy Bing cherry profiles from the Goldridge soils of the Russian River Valley. The winemaking approach is biased to accumulate the particular flavors and aromatics natural to each site.”

Photo below shows Bryan (left) and partner Ken Zinns pouring at the 2009 Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Festival.

I recently sampled the four 2007 Harrington Pinot Noir releases. As Bryan promises, each wine speaks of its location and has an appealing individualistic style and personality. Also, all four wines retain the finesse and delicacy that Pinot Noir is known for and I like this. All fermentations are driven by natural and inoculated yeasts.

Harrington wines are sold to a mailing list at www.harringtonwine.com. Look for Bryan Harrington pouring at San Francisco Urban Wineries events sponsored by the Winery Collective. The Winery Collective is a collection of small winemakers dedicated to producing artisan wines (www.winerycollective.com). Harrington wines are available for tasting seven days a week at Grange Sonoma, another tasting room collective located in Sonoma at 23564 Arnold Drive on Highway 121 (www.grangesonoma.com).

---

Taft Street Winery Reinvented

I can remember drinking Taft Street wines in the early 1980s when I was developing a passion for wine. The Tierney brothers from Berkeley, John and Mike, joined Mike Martini to form Taft Street in 1979. John and Mike Tierney cooked in nearby restaurants part time while undergraduates at Cal, and started making wine. John graduated from Cal and moved to Sonoma County to work at Souverain Winery. He returned to Berkeley to be the winemaker at Wine and the People where he met Mike Martini. The Tierney’s house on Taft Street in Oakland was built in 1918, and its garage was so small that a car could no longer fit comfortably inside. The brothers decided to turn it into a winery, a true garagiste winery. A few years later they moved to a winery in Sonoma, releasing their first wine in 1982. Robert Parker, Jr., rated their wines highly and the label became quite well known. By 1990, they were producing 20,000 cases of good wine. Unfortunately, Taft Street wondered off the original intended course and was bought by a Manhattan, New York importer. The label soon faded into obscurity.

Mike Tierney and Mike Martini have resurfaced and reinvented Taft Street eight years ago. Their tagline is “Garagistes since 1979.” The winemaker since 2007 has been Evelyn White (formerly at Clos Du Bois) and the wines have been solid since that time. The principals are holding to a policy of reasonable prices, quality grape sourcing and moderate production. The grapes are brought in from the Russian River Valley, Sonoma Coast, Alexander Valley and Dry Creek Valley. Several varietals are produced including Chardonnay ($17 to a $30), Sauvignon Blanc ($16), Pinot Gris ($16), Riesling ($16), Gewürztraminer ($16), Merlot ($15), Syrah ($22), Zinfandel ($24) and Rosé of Pinot Noir ($16) and Pinot Noir ($20 to $36).

Taft Street wines can be enjoyed at the winery’s tasting room located at 2030 Barlow Lane in Sebastopol. Open Monday through Friday from 11:00 to 4:00 and on weekends to 4:30. The wines are sold online at www.taftstreetwinery.com.

---

Van Duzer : Corridor Makes the Pinot

The Van Duzer Corridor is the only break in Oregon’s Coastal Range that borders the western side of the Willamette Valley. This corridor or gap allows Pacific Ocean air to flow eastward into the Willamette Valley, moderating summer heat. The influence of the Van Duzer Corridor extends inland to the McMinnville and Eola- Amity Hills appellations as well as the vineyards in the Dallas area of the Willamette Valley.

The Van Duzer Corridor is named after Henry Brooks Van Duzer, a New York native who had a long career with the Inman-Poulsen Lumbar Company, one of Oregon’s largest lumbar firms. He was Chairperson of the Oregon State Highway Commission for eight years and during his tenure, there was a significant increase in much-needed highways in Oregon. To formally recognize him, the corridor was named in his honor.

In 1998, Carl Thoma, managing partner of Chicago-based Thoma Cressey Equity Partners and his wife Marilynn bought the run-down Van Duzer Vineyards property. The couple had developed an enthusiasm for wine when they both attended Stanford University to study for their MBAs. Thomas had been a managing partner in Parducci Wine Estates in California, and like so many Oregon wineries before, Van Duzer benefited from an enthusiastic outside investor. Jim Kakacek was hired to upgrade the estate’s 65 acres of vineyards, manage the winemaking, and direct construction of a new winery. New plantings of Pinot Noir were complemented by field grafting of Dijon clones to 15-year-old established Pinot Noir vines. Vineyard plantings now total 82 acres and include Pommard, Wädenswil, and Dijon 113, 115, 667 and 777 clones. Two clones of Pinot Gris are also planted. The vines have 9’ x 4’ spacing and VSP trellising which improves light penetration spray coverage, disease resistance and induces moderate stress in the vines.

By 2001, the efforts began to show in the wines and success has followed. The new winery was finished in time for the 2006 harvest, increasing capacity to 20,000 cases when the entire estate is producing. The old winery was a source of brettanomyces in Van Duzer wines and was part of the Van Duzer ‘style’ in the 2002, 2003 and 2004 vintages. The problem was curtailed by 2005 and eliminated beginning with the 2006 vintage when all wine was vinified in the new winery.

Recently, horticulturalist Rebecca Sweet has been hired to manage vineyard operations at Van Duzer. The vineyards are LIVE certified. All wines are 100% estate fruit and production is divided between wines that represent the entire estate and block-designated wines of special pedigree.

The Van Duzer label is inspired by Zephyr, the Greek mythological goddess of the gentle West Wind, who blows Pacific breezes over the estate’s hillside vineyards. The estate is located 60 miles south of Portland and west of the Eola Hills and Salem in the eastern mouth of the Van Duzer Corridor three miles off Highway 99W. Because of its location, summer temperatures in the vineyard drop sooner in the afternoon than in the vineyards to the North or south by 13 degrees. The result is extended hang time.

The Van Duzer tasting room is open daily from 11:00 to 5:00, March 1 through December 30, or by appointment (800-884-1927). The tasting room, located at 11975 Smithfield Road in Dallas, has a grand view of the vineyards and the Baskett Slough Wildlife Refuge. Winery tours are available by appointment. The Van Duzer lineup of Pinot Noirs and Pinot Gris are available online at www.vanduzer.com with some retail distribution. Older vintages of some wines are available.

---

Vergari: Letting Wines Find Their Voice

I have met David Vergari on several occasions and I am always impressed by his philosophy. He says, “Wine is dynamic, going down many paths on its way to becoming something unique. Often times I help it along. Sometimes the best choice is to do nothing and let the wine find its voice over time.” Vergari (below at the 2009 World of Pinot Noir) admits that the majority of his winemaking goes on in the vineyard, in concert with the people who watch over the vines.

Vergari’s life long interest in wine is attributable in part to his Italian ancestry. His first memory of wine occurred when he was five years old in his great-uncle’s cellar in San Francisco where he sampled “Dago Red,” cut with water, of course. He began his working career as a financial analyst, but winemaking was in his blood. He began his winemaking career with internships at Sonoma-Cutrer and The Hess Collection in California, and work abroad at Coldstream Hills in Australia and Covisa in Spain. Returning to California, he became a research enologist at Joseph Phelps Vineyard before becoming the winemaker at Rutz Cellars, and later at Maddalena Vineyards. In 2003, he founded his namesake label Vergari Wines.

Vergari crafts Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon at Owl Ridge Wine Services in Sebastopol, California. He divides his time between the winery and vineyards in Northern California and his home life with Katie Orth in Sierra Madre, Southern California. His dedication and talents have turned his winemaking dreams into quite a success.

A few months ago, I sampled a trio of Vergari’s Pinot Noir releases. His vineyard sources are carefully selected and superbly farmed. The Van der Kamp bottling is clearly the star. Winemaking employs careful sorting, 3 to 6 day cold soak, native yeast and native malolactic fermentation, 20%-30% new French oak, and aging for 11 months.

Vergari wines are sold on the website at www.vergariwines.com and through fine wine retail stores (listed on the website. 626-818-8398.

---

Monterey County: Great Pinot Values

Monterey County winegrowers are prospering in this recession as consumers seek out more value priced wines. With 42,000 acres planted, Monterey County has only slightly less vineyard acreage than Napa Valley (43,000 acres). 75% of Monterey County grapes are sent out of the county to be incorporated into wines from Napa and Sonoma that often say, “California” on the label. This trend is slowly changing as Monterey gains more cachet among consumers. Many wineries both in and outside of Monterey County are now bottling Monterey County appellation wines, including Pinot Noir.

Pinot Noir thrives in the northern parts of Monterey County including the Carmel Valley, Chalone, Arroyo Seco and Santa Lucia Highlands appellations (see map below). The plum of Monterey County is the Santa Lucia Highlands. This prestigious grape growing region sits directly opposite the low-lying vegetable plains of the Salinas Valley. The maritime climate is well suited for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, which represent 78% of the Santa Lucia Highlands appellation’s 5,500 acres of vineyards. The Pinot Noirs from this appellation are primarily vineyard-designated, with more appellation wines certain to appear as plantings increase and newer plantings come into production.

I recently sampled a number of value-priced Monterey County Pinot Noirs that are currently on the market. Monterey County has only 30 wineries, so many producers are located outside the Monterey appellation. The quality was consistently solid and this is a region to look to for reliable, value-priced, varietally true Pinot Noir. The Monterey Pinot Noirs tend to be darkly colored and well-endowed with dark fruits.

Will success spoil Pinot Noir? Basically, there are three tiers of Pinot Noir from California and Oregon: (1) < $25, (2) $25-$60, and (3) > $60. The differences between the three tiers are subtle and often only detectable by experienced tasters. The average consumer may not see the justification for the higher priced wines. Is the $60 Pinot Noir three times better than the $20 Pinot Noir? In recent years, there has been a remarkable advance in quality of low-priced Pinot Noir from California and Oregon and this will certainly pressure the economic viability of higher priced examples of the varietal. Will there be enough Pinot geeks to support the multitude of high-priced Pinot Noirs? I had a subscriber recently cancel his subscription to the PinotFile saying, “I am tired of paying for overpriced California Pinot Noirs.” Only time will tell.

---

California Chardonnay Tasting

No, the title is not a misprint. The PinotFile has now been published over eight years, and I have never done a feature on Chardonnay. Sure, I have reviewed an occasional Chardonnay from Oregon and California, but my focus and first love is Pinot Noir. My second love, and I finally have come out of the closet, is Chardonnay. Yes, I have dabbled in the world of ABC (“Anything But Chardonnay”), and I have enjoyed many bottles of Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Melon, and Pinot Gris. I keep returning to Chardonnay, especially the full-blown, barrel fermented, in-your-face, lush style of Chardonnay that is often criticized as too fashionable and food-unfriendly. Studies have shown that lovers of big, oaky Chardonnay are mostly male and over 60, so I fit right in. I lost my Chardonnay innocence 20 years ago to Kistler, whose wines have provided me many pleasures over this stretch, but I have recently found many other producers and styles to delight in. I am not such a Chardonnay H-bomb devotee that I don’t appreciate other styles of domestic Chardonnay.

The Chardonnay camp seems to be split now into three groups. There are the advocates for nonoaked Chardonnay which is crisp, fresh and lean, 100% barrel-fermented Chardonnay, and “tweener” Chardonnay that combines barrel and stainless steel fermentation lots in the final blend. There are variations among these groups as well with some employing 100% malolactic fermentation and others using this technique only partially. Some winemakers such as Kevin Kelley of LIOCO have begun to ferment grapes on their skins, hoping to add another dimension to Chardonnay. The oaked Chardonnays feature a flavor profile of caramel, pineapple, vanilla, toast, butter and richness. The newer nonoaked Chardonnays emphasize focused and pure flavors of minerals and green apple. Think lean as opposed to fat.

Chardonnay was not always the most popular wine in the United States. The Wente family in Livermore, California bottled the first Chardonnay in 1933 and labeled it Pinot Chardonnay, a term originated by and retained by the French for many years. The Chardonnays to follow from California, including those from Hanzell and Stony Hill, were often lean, age-worthy and Chablis-styled. Sales of Chardonnay were miserable

and planted acreage before 1970 was miniscule. It really took the now famous 1976 Paris wine tasting, at which Chateau Montelena Chardonnay won the top award for white wine, to fuel Chardonnay popularity. By the turn of this century, Chardonnay was ubiquitous in California. In 2006, according to Western Farm Press, Chardonnay was the largest acreage wine grape with almost 95,000 acres. 53% of all white vine vineyards in California by 2004 grew Chardonnay. The Nielsen Company, tracking the total U.S. food, drug, and major market liquor channel, reported in August 2009, that Chardonnay was the top selling varietal by far with a 22.1% market share in sales and 20.9% share in volume. Year-on-year, Chardonnay sales have increased 3.9% while case volume increased 4.9%.

Regardless of what style of Chardonnay you prefer, one thing is certain. It is a whole lot easier to find good, even great, domestic Chardonnay, than Pinot Noir. Over the past six months, I sampled 50 domestic Chardonnays and the quality was remarkably high. Many of these wines are small production, expensive and strictly allocated through mailing list offerings. I have chosen to review below the 23 best examples I tasted. All but one are from California. Keep in mind my admission above regarding my stylistic preference.

---

Small Sips of Pinot

---

Pinot Briefs

Early Reports on 2009 Burgundy Glowing There is a Burgundy legend that vintages that end in 9 are great vintages and looks like 2009 is following history. The weather in 2009 has been exceptional with a mild spring and a warm, dry summer. Some are comparing 2009 to the magnificent 2005 vintage.

No Consensus Among Wine Competitions in U.S. A paper was recently published in the Journal of Wine Economics (Volume 4, Issue 1, Spring, 2009) titled, “An Analysis of the Concordance Among 13 U.S. Wine Competitions.” The author of the study, Robert T. Hodgson, analyzed over 4,000 wines entered in 13 U.S. wine competitions and found little concordance among the venues awarding Gold medals. Many wines that are viewed as extraordinarily good at some competitions and awarded a Gold medal, are viewed as below average at others and receive no award. Winning a Gold medal is greatly influenced by chance alone. I believe the discrepancy among different competitions depends on a number of factors including the difference in makeup and qualifications of the judging panel, the breadth of wines submitted for judging, and the amount of wines required to be tasted by judges daily. I personally, rarely participate in judging panels, finding that the subjectivity of wine judging is so broad that consensus is almost never the rule.

Minerality in Wine Wes Hagen, winegrower and winemaker at Clos Pepe Vineyard in the Sta. Rita Hllls, explains the source of minerality in wines on this short video titled, “How does wine get earthy?” http://askawinemaker.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-does-terroir-make-it-into-glass-of.html. Hagen believes that grape skin thickness is influenced by calcium and silica which are absorbed from the soil and thicken the skins, contributing to minerality. Also, minerality is more evident in wines with high acidity or low pH.

Scientists Decoding Brettanomyces DNA Brettanomyces or brett for short, is due to a yeast contamination of wine leading to aromas of sweaty horse, manure, Band-Aid and burnt plastic. At low levels, it may add interest, body and complexity and appeal to some drinkers, but in significant levels it is considered a serious fault and ruins wine. Because it cannot currently be controlled, it cannot be deliberately introduced during winemaking. Scientists are now attempting to decode and sequence the brettanomyces genome, hoping that this information will lead to prevention of this yeast contamination. In addition, knowledge may be gained that allows control of the yeast so that it may be purposely incorporated into wines.

One of Oregon’s Wine Industry Founders Dies Richard Sommer was something of a recluse so his story is not widely known. Sommer came from California to introduce vitis vinifera grapes to Oregon’s Umpqua Valley in 1961. He was very well educated in plant ecology, having attended University California Davis and University California Berkeley. He planted the first vinifera vines in Oregon since Repeal on a turkey farm west of Roseburg. He eventually established Hillcrest Vineyards and today it is the state’s oldest continuously running vinifera winery.

Pinot Noir Event in South Africa Sommelier Jörg Pfützner is hosting “Investigating Pinot Noir” at Creation Wines on September 19, 2009 in the Hemel-en-Aarde near Walker Bay in the Western Cape. The tasting will compare the maritime Hemel-en-Aarde region of South Africa with other cool climate Pinot Noirs of New Zealand and Burgundy. This event is South Africa’s largest comparative tasting of Pinot Noir and is supported by the Hemel-en-Aarde Wine Growers Association to raise awareness of the cool climate Pinot Noirs of South Africa. For more information visit www.blog.sigihiss.com/?p=1836.

California Wineries Exceed 2,800 The Wine Institute reports that there are over 2,800 wineries in California with wine grapes now being grown in 48 of the state’s 58 counties. California is the fourth largest producer of wine in the world, after Italy, France and Spain.

California New Plantings of Pinot Noir According to Wines & Vines (July 2, 2009), Nat Di Buduo of Allied Grape Growers spoke at a recent Vineyard Valuation and Ag Symposium in Lodi, and reported that 36% of new plantings in California are Pinot Noir, significantly ahead of Chardonnay (22%) and Pinot Gris (16%). He felt that Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris were being over-planted.

---

What This Country Needs is a Good $8 Pinot Noir

At a time when young consumers are looking for a good Pinot Noir they can afford, along comes the 2008 Redtree Pinot Noir from Cecchetti Wine Company. Everything is appealing about this wine. The label is classy, the red screw cap is eye-catching, the alcohol is low at 12.5%, and the wine inside is remarkably good for the price. In some markets this wine has been discounted to less than $6.

The wine includes some red varieties other than Pinot Noir and is made with oak chips instead of oak barrels.

Cecchetti Wine Company is a new face in the wine business, having been launched by industry veteran Roy Cecchetti and his wife Rachael in 2007. Roy Cecchetti has over 20 years of experience developing wine brands, including the successful Pepperwood Grove. The former winemaker for Pepperwood Grove, Bob Broman, has been enlisted as winemaker. Cecchetti Wine Company has two labels: Line 39 includes Petite Sirah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc from the Lake County AVA. The Redtree label offers several varietals for early consumption at affordable prices.

Redtree Pinot Noir is widely distributed. For more information, visit the website at www.cecchettiwineco.com.