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On Saturday, we completed our Ver Jus harvest. The harvest is straight forward - get up at 5, pick up the truck at the winery, drive to the Brosseau Vineyard (on the map, it is listed as the "Inn at the Pinnacles"), help pick the fruit, load the truck, drive back to winery, destem, crush, press, filter, keg, clean up and try and get to bed before 10 PM.

Last year, we had a crew from In Wine Country who filmed the whole day. You can watch the episode here.


As usual, we bottled a bit of the Ver Jus for cooking. Ver Jus can be used to replace white wine vinegar in most recipes. Two that I enjoy are:

Hazelnut Ver Jus Dressing:
¼ cup hazelnut oil
¼ cup ver jus
1 tsp. honey (or maple sugar)
1 tsp. shallots, minced
1 tsp. fresh thyme finely chopped
Whisk together and adjust with salt and/or pepper/

Ver Jus Cucumber Salad
2 large cucumber
¼ Cup Ver Jus
2 Teaspoons Rice Vinegar
¼ Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon freshly minced Ginger

Peel and cut the cucumber into thin slices. Combine ingredients and mix. Pour the mixture over the sliced cucumber. Serve cool.

I have experimented with using Ver Jus as a replacement for white wine. The results have been mixed. I found it to acidic for butter/garlic/wine sauces.

Drank two delicious bottles of wine over the past week and drank 'em the way I like to -- that is over three days. Especially with wines made from natural yeasts it takes them longer to open and reveal themselves.

Lyle Fass on his blog Rockss and Fruit which is worth reading especially if you enjoy German wines.

We often find our wines open up over the course of an evening or two. I have mainly attributed this to our minimum oxygen exposure during élevage but perhaps it is the yeast.

We spent Saturday afternoon and evening with Ron Mansfield, Steve Lightner and Steve's wife Candice. The Lightner's made us a wonderful dinner complete with peaches in the salad (from Goldbud Farms of course), grilled lamb, multi-color potatoes and a tasty nectarine tart for desert.

One of the interesting components of this spectacular vineyard is the Counoise. There are only 18 vines of this Tablas Clone A grafted on 3309C rootstock. The vines are at the top of the lower block of vines - you can see them sticking up towards the grass in the photo to the left.

We co-fermented the Counoise in a Grenache/Mourvedre blend to learn more about its impact on our Southern Rhone style blends. Despite its low percentage (8%), it adds a lot of spice to the wine and a unique spice at that. We like it- just not sure what it is.

Tracey does the majority of the work on creating our wine tasting notes. I know, it doesn't sound like work but it is. Each wine has to be tasted, contemplated, re-tasted, described, over-analyzed and then written about. Last spring, she started having friends come over and taste the wine - ones with great palates who can articulate what they are tasting. Being able to describe it is often the hardest part.

Having friends help has made this laborious process much more fun.

 
This past Sunday, we had Burt, Brad, Paul, Thomas and Chris all over to the winery to taste our 06 Vieilles Vignes Syrah, 06 Fenaughty Syrah, 07 Tamarindo Roussanne and our first reserve - an 05 Syrah from Brosseau.

All of the wines were suffering SO2 shock. We keep our wines with basically little to no free SO2 until the are moved to tank for bottling. At that stage, we move the free S02 to usually 25 PPM. The first days/weeks after we do this, the wines all taste muted. Missing their aroma.

Even with the SO2, I think the wines tasted great. We have been changing our style a bit - the 06s have much more pronounced tannins. The 07 roussanne is closer to what one expects from this varietal and to quote Thomas - "it seems like walking through a flower stand first thing in the morning". And the 05, well, we are really proud of it. Anyway, release party is coming up on September 13th.

Six months ago I stumbled across a nice piece of praise for our blog on the New York Times blog - the Pour. Our mention is at the very bottom and was written by another blogger whom I greatly enjoy reading - http://winecase.wordpress.com/. The most recent post links to another good blog about purchasing a winery in Portugal which is also worth a read on Decanter - http://www.decanter.com/specials/97593.html

Another great blog which I always read is written by Bertrand Celce http://www.wineterroirs.com/.

Enjoy reading...

Last week, we also visited our Perli Vineyard. We have called our two sections by various names over the last two years - Hog Pen, Hog Pen Upper, Potato Patch and sometimes Steve Alden's place.

Hog Pen (the lower vineyard) pictured here and below was grafted over last year from Merlot to Syrah for us. We think this will be a great vineyard. The grafts generally took well and, as you can see, we have great growth. I don't remember when the vineyard was first planted. I think it was 1996 or 1997. The rootstock looks solid and is helped by Steve's limited access to water (and thus watering) I think this may be a near perfect spot.

Steve is clearly a great vineyard manager. He is currently experimenting with modifying his trellis system on the Potato Patch Syrah. The goal is to increase yields while improving overall ripeness with a focus on balance and finesse.

It is an interesting experiment. Many people are obsessive about low yields which sometimes lead to out of balance grapes and wine.

I think his idea (somewhat similar to a Lyre system with cane pruning if I remember correctly) will work well. Syrah grows vigorously and this approach will limit the amount of pruning that will need to occur to manage the canopy . It should also increase the amount of foliage getting light and increase air flow within the vines helping with mildew.

It will be interesting to see how his experiment turns out.

We have two barrels of the 06 Perli that will be held back for our new reserve program. Expected release date - August 15th 09.

Labels: Anderson Valley, Syrah

We spent time in the Broken Leg vineyard last week - inspecting the Syrah portion for frost damage. It is not as bad as we expected but it isn't good either. Cluster count is way down and the ones that survived aren't in great shape. Many berries didn't set.

The potential upside is that the fruit that does pull through should ripen (always an issue at Broken Leg) and could be very intense.

Steve, the owner and vineyard manager, had a crew up thinning, positioning, leaf pulling and mowing (check out the tracked tractor required for this vineyard).


We also spent time walking the upper vineyard. Steve grafted this over to pinot to our specification in June. The buds look like they have generally taken. Grafting over a vineyard gives one year with no production and a second year with low production and some impact from the previous varietal. It should be interesting to see what next years grape taste like and the resulting wine. A pinot with viognier nuances - should be interesting.

The East Bay Business Journal ran a few articles about wineries in the East Bay this past July 4th Holiday with a nice bit about us.

They chose vineyards in places such as Monterey and Mendocino counties and the Sierra foothills, all appellations that would meet the needs of the Rhone varietals and chardonnay wine they were making. The Brandts have established such good relationships with some growers that they are able to have input into growing practices, convincing one grower to plant gamay grapes among his Syrah.

Read the full article and see our photos at eastbay.bizjournals.com

Novus Vinum, Gayot's sister publication focused on wine, has named our Brosseau Chardonnay Wine of the Week! You can read more about it on www.novusvinum.com.

The Monday Room (210 Elizabeth Street, New York, New York) is one of our favorite places in New York. Elizabeth Street also is the home of the Tasting Room - another great place.

Anyway, Ruben has our Recluse. Seeing it on the list made us both happy.

You can see his whole list on their website - www.themondayroom.com

Wine making is agricultural business. Following Pliny's advice, our vineyards are typically on the edge of where that particular varietal will ripen with lots of exceptions.

In our case, this means many of our vineyards are located literally in the woods. This years fire season is already rough and we got our first fire call yesterday. There are several fires burning near our Broken Leg vineyard in Anderson Valley. Nothing close enough to worry about, at least yet.

Trying to fall asleep last night, I couldn't help but thinking about the fires. First 80% crop loss to frost, next a fire...

Reading email this morning, I saw a new consumer post on CellarTracker regarding our Brosseau Chardonnay.

Drank enjoyably and uncritically with dinner. Here are some of the things we noticed. This is a unique and unusual wine. It had what we call a skanky nose at first. That isn't necessarily bad and got better as time went on. It had substantial acidity and some mustard green (herbal) and spicy flavors. Cinnamon and nutmeg. It matched well with asparagus (!) and salmon and grilled onions. The acidity pretty much took care of all flavors. There was also a bit of oxidized, sherry flavor in there somewhere which I assume came from the ver jus that was stored and added back. An enjoyable drinking experience but not at all typical. dfeiner

I like to read these reviews in context of the reviewer. You can see all of their reviews here.

We went last night to hear Alice Feiring read from her new book The Battle for Wine and Love or How I Saved the World from Parkerization. (Parker isn't a fan - Forbes recently published his views.)

It was very interesting to see the polarization of the people in the audience. Alice stated that she thought there was more to wine than a simple number - some jumped on the band wagon and talked to her about their love for understated wines that expressed something unique. Others argued that Parker followed that line of thinking and gave examples.

One of my favorite wine makers was brought up - the late Eduardo Valentini. His wines were his - his rose often had a slight amount of CO2 left in it (or perhaps it came about after bottling). I loved them and cherish the few I have left. I don't know how he was rated but I think Alice appreciated his desire to do his own thing.

There have been many reports over the last year about collapsing bee populations. In our backyard, we don't seem to get nearly as many. In fact, in the past, I have had to keep Isabel, our daughter, away from our sage when it is in bloom. The bees were often swarming around it.

This year, we haven't gotten any. I am not sure if the local colony has collapsed like numerous others have in California. Or perhaps it is just coincidence.

Germany has just banned 8 pesticides out of fear of this problem. Our vineyards don't use this pesticide or much of anything since several are organic. That said, I wonder if something else used by the wine industry is contributing to this problem. Bees aren't crucial to grape pollination but they may be beneficial and I would hate to see them go especially since I love almonds...

I just returned from Wrightsville Beach in North Carolina. We had a great time on the beach and at our winemaker's dinner at the Port Land Grille.

Instead of the light, typical summer reading, I brought Gods, Men and Wine by William Younger. I am sure I am going to write more about this book but for now:

'Rabbi Ishmael son of Rabbi Jose visited the home of Rabbi Simeon... They offer him a goblet, which he accepted at the first invitation and drank at one draught. Said they to him:"Do you agree that he who drinks his goblet in one draught is greedy?" Said he to them: "This was not said when your goblet is small, your wine sweet, and my stomach broad."' (Talmud-B, Pesahim, 456.) Such common sense deserved another goblet.

So far, it is a dense but great book. More latter.

Thomas Wolfe may have said, "You can't go home again" but Jared and I plan to do exactly that next week. Crazy scheduling challenges even has us each at a wine maker dinner in our home state on the very same night. With Isabel, I'm off to North Carolina on Saturday where I'll spend the first week in and around the Triangle. While there I'll get out in the market with our fabulous sales reps at JUICE (our distributor in NC). Tuesday we will be in Charlotte and Wednesday in Raleigh. On Tuesday Jared will fly to Salt Lake City where he'll to celebrate his nephews birthday. On Wednesday evening I'll be in Chapel Hill at Elaine's on Franklin for a dinner (if you are in Chapel Hill pls join us!) and Jared will be in Salt Lake City at Luganos for a 50+ person dinner that is sold out! It probably didn't hurt that he made the papers yesterday http://www.sltrib.com/food/ci_9248625.

The second week we will try to vacation more than we work and have rented a house at Wrightsville Beach. I've seen beaches in the Caribbean, France, Spain, Italy, Australia and New Zealand and have never seen anything that is better (for me) than the North Carolina beaches. Needless to say I'm pretty excited! Jared will join us for the holiday weekend and to help me celebrate my new year (no guesses please). And we will conclude our spring sales tour together with a wine maker dinner at The Port Land Grille on May 27th. After that we turn into harvest pumpkins!

Sante,

Tracey

Last night I went to bed thinking about Joe Dressner and Jean-Paul Brun. Joe Dressner imports a great selection of wines from France and is a wonderful story teller. (Just spend some time reading about Buster and the airport.) Joe introduced us to Eric Texier and to many numerous great wines. He is a defender and champion of natural wines which reflect their terroir.

He also imports one of my favorite Beaujolais - Domaine des Terres Dorées made by Jean-Paul Brun.
Jean-Paul's wines were recently denied "A.O.C." status. Having drunk these wines often (and having lived near Jean-Paul),I am not surprised that they were denied this status. They are unique and reflect something from the past that has nearly been lost. The are not made with 71B - the yeast many attribute the banana flavor often found in Beaujolais wine.

After thinking about this last night, I read an interesting blog post this morning regarding a vigeron revolt in 1907. It reads "Long live to the natural wine", "down with sugar" and "down with cheaters". As is often the case with wine making, what is old is now new.

To learn more about the historical reference and read a wonderful blog, take a gander at the blog Wine Tasting, Vineyard in France by Bertrand Celce.

We have already gotten busy with the 2008 season and, believe it or not, with wrapping up 2006. We have been busy blending our final 2006 wines (and even a reserve 2005 bottling of Syrah.)

Tim Patterson's article in Wine and Vines on wild yeast features us and it a worthwhile read.

Using wild yeast is "not safe winemaking," says Greg La Follette, who does it at Tandem Winery.
Chris Loxton, former winemaker at Wellington now producing his own Loxton Cellars wines in Sonoma County, does most of his Zinfandel and half of his Syrah with ambient yeast, aiming for complexity and mouthfeel, even if it means giving up a little fruitiness. Greg La Follette at Tandem Winery, a Sonoma Pinot and Chardonnay specialist, sees complexity and mouthfeel as the result not only of multiple natural yeast strains, but of having all of them scuffle to get their work done. Jared and Tracey Brandt at A Donkey and a Goat, one of the San Francisco East Bay's many start-up warehouse wineries, got their training under an old-school winemaker in France, and try not to add anything to their reds or whites--yeast, nutrient, you name it--in hopes of getting more out of them.

Read the whole article at http://www.winesandvines.com

Plastic is a hot topic these days. We make our wines in oak for a variety of reason - one of the health. The concerns about plastic have caused Nalgene to stop making a whole product line. Some worthwhile reads:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/business/18plastic.htm
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/media/questions/sya-bpa.cfm

And lastly, Steve Lightner posted about our little experiment on his blog On The Contrary - http://www.onthecontrary.us

Labels: Gamay, Lightner, Plastic, Syrah, Wild Yeast

I realize it must seem like we did nothing but drink wine and eat...well that is partially true. Thankfully lugging a stroller with a 3 year old or wine bag up & down the streets and subways does burn a few calories!

Before we left I did a little research on where to eat. With so many options and so much potential I wanted to make sure we took advantage of every meal to either try something new, visit an old favorite and/or visit an account. For research I turned to my favorite food blog tablehopper (http://www.tablehopper.com/) by Marcia Gagliardi. She is a prolific and gifted writer and we clearly share food preferences. She has 3 visits to NYC archived so I compiled and culled until I had a nice little one pager to carry around in my pocket. On of several I sought on her recommendation was the Monday Room which is the wine bar associated with the restaurant PUBLIC in the LES on Prince Street. Jared and I had the pleasure of spending the start of an evening with Ruben who is the som. I’m not easily impressed and can say both the wines and food were highlights of our visit. For wines, we tasted two stunning and unique whites. One was a 2002 Cour Cheverney made from the Romorantin grape which I was unfamiliar. The other was a 2005 Vin de Pay of 50/50 Viognier & Muscat that was wholly unexpected in it’s aromatic profile and utterly enjoyable. We only sampled two menu items but one was again, riveting and rivaled a recent dinning experience at Daniel Patterson’s COI in San Francisco. It was a pickled beet and eel “bite” topped with a poached pheasant egg. The flavors and textures were amazing. The Monday Room was special b/c Ruben is extremely passionate and knowledgeable and personally attends to each guest.

The other wine bar experience we thoroughly enjoyed and found from Marcia was Inotecca, also in the LES at Rivington and Ludlow. We landed at JFK on Sat at 6pm and by 8pm with our 3yr old fast asleep in her stroller we relished our first meal back in NYC. The locals looked surprised and then impressed to see our sleeping beauty in this hip and happening spot. And the light dinner was perfect. Of course, any place that focuses the menu around “stuff” on bread is going to draw me and this was certainly up there with the best of them.

Also worth mentioning from the favorite new spot category are two of David Chang's places: We took Isabel for lunch at Momofuko Noodle and Ssam. Both were fabulous but being the pork loving girl that I am if I was pressed to pick one I'd go Ssam.

Finally, our last meal together (Jared sadly was in New Jersey when I was sipping the 1947 Rioja at BLT Market) was Sunday brunch at The Tasting Room. This qualifies as both a favorite and an account but this was our first time for brunch. Not surprising Colin's culinary artistry is not limited to dinner time. I'm from North Carolina and it is not easy to please me where biscuits, corn bread and grits are concerned. He made all 3 to a level even my grandmother would have approved of.

All of this food writing has my stomach grumbling...I wonder if wine critics get thirsty when writing about wines?!?

Tracey

Labels: LES, Monday Room, NYC, Tablehopper

On Friday evening Isabel and I had our last NYC dinner at BLT Market. This account is one of our favorites, located in the Ritz Carlton at Central Park and one of the rising stars in the Laurent Tourondel portfolio. Earlier in the week I had met Jeremy and Jim (Sommeliers) who are both contagiously passionate about all things grape. When playing mommy as opposed to winemaker I found myself at 5^th Ave and 55^th each day at 5:30pm. This would be the location of the NYC Disney store and my little princess had discovered that each day at 5:30 she could meet and be photographed with the princess du jour. I can only hope an interest in wine and food will prove to be as genetically coded as her single minded obsession with all things pink and princess. It is adorable but I honestly did not expect to see the inside of Disney’s retail racket 4 times in one week! On the upside, BLT Market is mere blocks away so I negotiated with the 3 year old. She got one last princess hoo-rah and I got one last supper at a fabulous restaurant. I even managed to rope in an old friend to join me who has just returned from living in Argentina. Kenner is truly a man of travel and leisure.

So, we three sit down to dinner at this gorgeous restaurant overlooking Central Park for our last dinner. The wine book is impressive by weight alone and with an old friend to catch up with and a princess to entertain Kenner and I decided to ask Jim to surprise us with something medium to full bodied, red and from Spain or Southern France. Surprise us he did! I thought he was joking when he suggested we give a try to a 1947 Rioja. But joking he was not. He brings out a R. López de Heredia, Viña Bosconia Gran Reserva 1947! I am by no means expert with Spanish wines (although I have a good friend in a tasting group who thankfully provides some education) but without research I knew this would be a special wine. Jim decanted it and to all of our surprise there was very little sediment. The cork did not survive so we do assume it was the original. After tasting we did decide to decant back into the bottle because the wine was fresh and beautiful and did not need the additional aeration that would occur over the course of our dinner. Vina Bosconia is a blend of Tempranillo, Garnacho (Grenache), Mazuelo and Graciano from the El Bosque vineyard. A Gran Reserva ages for 8-10 years in barrel before it is bottled and then another 10 years before it is released. I’m afraid I focused on the moment and not on articulating tasting notes. I can share that it was insanely fresh with high toned fruit aromas with lots of earthy, woodsy, mushroom undertones. Like silk on the palette. And most surprising was the still vibrant color. The biggest challenge was to savor it so we could watch it evolve. It did begin to fade as the evening wore on but not offensively, just a subtle farewell from a 61 year old wine. Kenner (my dining companion) is an intellectual so we discussed the turmoil following WWII going on during the 1947 harvest, the many years Franco was ruling Spain while this beautiful wine was developing, and the romance and sentimentality that attracted me to this vocation to begin with. Upon return to Berkeley I of course decided to do some sleuthing and came to appreciate Jim’s selection even more as I realized how fantastic a recommendation it was. Aside from the age of this beautiful wine I found myself getting excited to read about their philosophy and winemaking. I’ll share highlights but if you are interested… http://www.lopezdeheredia.com/english/vinos/vinos.html

Organic. Natural. Old wood (they cooper themselves from American Appalachian Oak). Native fermentations. Hands over machines for all phases of winemaking. An appreciation for the structure provided by a strong acid backbone. And most impressive, after 131 years the estate is still in the hands of the original family. I know the first appointment I am making on my next trip to Spain.

Here's to 61 and still going strong!

Tracey

Labels: BLT Market, López de Heredia, Viña Bosconia Gran Reserva

Our first of several sales trips happened last week: New York City. I can still recall the first time I went to the big apple to sell our wines. I felt giddy, like I imagine young wanna be actors must feel when they arrive. Because my friends if you can make it here you can make it anywhere! Well four year later we have made a considerable amount of success for ourselves in Manhattan and beyond but I still get a rush each time I visit.

This trip was special for many reasons. For one, it was the first sales trip Jared and I have done together. Isabel was born in February of 2005 and in March of 2005 we released our very first wine. This means we’ve always played roshambo to determine who gets the trip vs the home front duty. This time we decided to make it a sales trip combination vacation and took the whole family. We rented a *little* apartment in the LES and had a fantastic week alternating between selling wine and introducing our daughter to the wonders of Manhattan. Back in November when we planned the trip we realized that Eric Texier (our mentor and friend) and his wife and three children were also making a family trip to NYC for their sales trip and painfully would arrive 12 hours after we departed. Try as we did it was impossible to overlap. But in an odd coincidence last night I received a text message asking if I stayed at the apt on Houston because the refrigerator was full of our wine! At first I thought it odd that whomever rented the apartment after us would go to the trouble to figure out my cell phone and text me. But Jared noticed it was a French cell and we soon confirmed that in this increasingly small world we inhabit the Texier clan had rented the very same apartment we did!

On that note we also encountered our first wine list featuring both Eric and our wine from the same vintage, merely lines apart. Something about seeing our wine on the list at the fabulous Aqua Grill, in New York with Eric’s wine made us both pause and realize, hey, we have come a long way!

More New York stories to follow….after a week selling and playing we must attempt to catch up on the piles of mail and email. Plus I think our taxes are due tomorrow!

Labels: Aqua Grill, Texier

We had the pleasure of meeting Greg Neville, owner and Chef at Lugano's in Salt Lake, a few weeks ago. He is hosting our Utah debut on May 20th.

I have heard he is a great chef from many people including my mom. That has been confirmed with his recent award from Salt Lake Magazine as the Best Chef in Salt Lake.

We are planning to follow Novus Vinum's advice and give our mothers our favorite Rosé. Isabel is planning on giving Tracey one as well.

We are thrilled to have our Rosé so widely admired.

Labels: Isabel, Rose

Anyone interested in an offline in New Jersey? I am planning on meeting a few people at Latour's in Ridgewood on the 11th. I am not sure what BYOB is like in NJ. That said, I will be bringing our Spring Release to sample.

If you are interested, drop me an email or leave a comment. We are having a few scheduling glitches but assuming that can be solved, it should be fun!

Latour
A French-American Grill
6 East Ridgewood Avenue
Ridgewood, New Jersey 07450
201-445-5056

We are about to go to NYC for a week. It will be the first family trip to NY. The last time we were there together was before before 9/11 and before Isabel.

We have been a bit overwhelmed with trying to figure out what to do. One useful guide has been Table Hopper by Marcia Gagliardi. Her guide to the East Village has been especially great. Fatty Crab here we come!

That said, if you have recommendations for the East Village and for what to do with a three year old in New York, drop us a line.