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Harvest 2011

We harvested our first grapes this week. Gewurztraminer on Tuesday the 4th and Pinot Noir today. We dodged a bullet this morning with 35 °F temperatures. Looks good through next week. More varieties to come.

Champagne and Chocolate!

Last night we had a great time tasting four champagnes and pairing them with different chocolates. The four champagnes that we tasted in order were A) Gloria Ferrer Brut ($13.99), B) Bernard Bremont Grand Cru Brut ($37.99), C) Pertois Moriset Grand Cru Brut ($39.99) and D) Louis Bouillot Rose ($14.99). Each of these wines was paired with 4 chocolates: homemade chocolate-covered strawberry (thanks to Jeri Cramer and Mary Beth), chocolate and raspberry homemade chocolate (thanks to Sharon Honig-Bear), Trader Joe's Bittersweet Chocolate Almond Bar (about 59% cacao) and a chocolate brownie bite from Costco. Each of the champagnes and chocolate pairings were picked by someone as their favorite. The biggest winners were the chocolate strawberries and Lois Bouillot Rose with more than 20 people (out of 60) picking these as their favorites. See you next time!

Australian vs California Shiraz

Today we discussed maintenance tasks for the vineyard, such as leaf pull and powdery mildew control. In class we tasted Australian and American Shiraz (same as Syrah). The top winner was the Australian 2009 Mollydooker Boxer with the majority of the people highly favorable towards this wine. All wines were very good, but alas our Syrah (which we no longer grow) was not quite in the same league as these wines (we did not oak ours). Other wine favorites were the 2007 Woop Woop and the 2007 Laughing Magpie from Australia. The 2008 Eberle Syrah (Paso Robles, California) and the 2008 Bridgman (Columbia Valley, Washington) from the USA were also quite good. The Cline 2008 Syrah was good but at the bottom of the list, and also at the bottom for price. Sorry if you missed another great tasting. Maybe you can catch the next one.

Bordeaux vs Rhone

Tonight in class we talked about some of the problems that can go on in the vineyard, such as disease (powdery mildew), nematodes and phyloxera. We talked about what you can do to control these situations. For the wine tasting, we started with three Rhone blends (2007 JV Fluery Cotes du Rhone, 2009 Le Combier Vasqueyras and 2006 Chateau de Nages) and three Bordeaux blends (2008 Chateau La Valade Cotes de Blaye, 2008 Chateau Monfort Bellevue (Medoc) and 2008 Chateau Les Bernedes (Medoc)). These wines gave us various blends of Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, and Carignane (Rhone style) and Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc (Bordeaux style). There was a mixture of opinion on which wines were best. For every wine that someone had a favorite, another person chose it as their least favorite.

Rhone style blends

Last night we assessed the frost damage that occurred on 5/15/2011. Temperatures plummeted around 3 am to a low of 28.4 °F (based on data from DRI weather station at Valley Road Experiment Station) and hovered there for about 2 hours. The damage is still being assessed but was sporadic with some shoots being completely damaged and other shoots not at all on the same vine. Overall the damage so far looks to be about 20% of the shoots. On vines that had not yet been pruned, these shoots were emerging from portions that would be pruned off anyway. We dodged a bullet, just barely. Note that hybrids suffered just as much damage as the viniferas. For the tasting, we tasted three different rhone varietals: Grenache, Syrah, and Petite Sirah. Then three different blends from these wines. Just about everyone agreed that the wine tasting was fantastic and that the blends were significantly better than the individual wines by themselves.

Bordeaux Red Blending

Tonight we discussed wine blending and described the different Bordeaux blends. In the tasting, we tasted three Bordeaux varietals, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot separately, then as blends. Everyone enjoyed the wines and saw the variation and power of blending. This starts a series on blended wines. Next we taste Rhone style red blends. Hope to see you there!