Carneros Wine Alliance

One by one we shuffle out single-file, like soldiers on patrol in the amber light of seven a.m.  It's quiet out in the vineyards of Carneros at this hour. A sea of vines washes out on the rolling hills as a saffron- colored dawn casts long shadows in the rows. The wear and tear of traveling the day before, in some cases from the East Coast, is evident by the silence and the quantities of coffee being gulped. In my case I'm still a bit woozy from the prior evening's welcome tasting/reception at Domaine Carneros: a case of too much swallowing, not enough spitting. At least I'm not alone, everyone seems disoriented and a bit groggy and by tomorrow evening most of us will be back at our jobs working the floor of a restaurant. For now, though, our job is to pick this last block of chardonnay from vineyard 4-C, belonging to our hosts, Clos du Val Winery. John Clews, Winemaker from Clos du Val has graciously joined us this morning and is patiently baby-sitting us Sommeliers. After a quick tutorial and a little history on the site, we're handed our clippers and set loose upon the vines. At first the going is slow, at least for me: the caveat of losing a finger still fresh in my mind. Yet the morning progresses and the sweet juice of the grapes soaks my fingers while my back slowly starts to tighten up. A few vineyard workers linger and watch our progress, we are picking as fast as we can and yet we will wind up with about half of what they would pick. They take pride in their work and have proven themselves invaluable to the Wine Industry. This is hard, physical labor, and we are fortunate in the regard that we started at around 7:30 a.m., early for us night owls, but well into the day of a regular picker. Most often, grapes are picked in the early morning hours, starting around two-thirty, while it is cool to keep sugar levels low and ensure freshness.

By the snail's pace rate that I 'm moving, it's hard to believe that I have picking in my blood. My grandparents on my mother's side were from Guanajuato, Mexico, and spent most of their lives as migrant pickers. Memories of dirt streets and warm lazy days spent at the "camp" where they and the other pickers from the large citrus factories lived, came to mind as I carried my bin of grapes to the tractor to unload my small portion. An elder picker smiles as I walk by, jokingly, I tell him in Spanish that I am looking for work, does he have any for me? He continues to smile and doesn't reply. By around ten in the morning it is heating up. I am gulping water and take off my outer shirt. We are nearing the end of our day, it has been a mere three and a half hours of straight picking, yet I am tired. Finally, we reach the end of our rows and can call it a day. The grapes will be sorted and transported to Clos du Val in Stag's Leap where we will all reconvene and watch our grapes being crushed and discuss our methods of vinification.

The grapes have been hanging on the vine a bit longer than the rest of the vineyard and were left specifically for us participants of this 4th Cru Carneros event. The clone is Hyde, planted on 101-14 rootstock. The spacing in the vineyard is 4X6.5 feet and there are 1675 Vines per acre with 30 clusters per vine on the average. This clone is productive and is one of the top three producers in this vineyard along with a Dijon 95 clone on1130-P rootstock. Back at the winery John takes a reading of the vitals and we learn that our grapes have come in at 24.2 sugar and at a ph of 3.59 high on both accounts, the result could be over-alcoholic wine, a common problem in California. We taste some barrel samples of the Clos du Val wines and John shows us the winery and we watch as a worker climbs into one of the large steel fermentation tanks to clean it out: a dangerous job that could end fatally if the sweeper breathes too many fumes and passes out in the tank. Our grapes are pressed and we watch the juice come running out, John dips a cup in and we taste some of the sweet nectar that is freely flowing. It is sweet and rather fresh, with elegance and depth. Afterword we all sit around and discuss how we would like the Clos du Val team to vinify our wine for us. Given the ph and sugar readings, we decide to split the lot in two and inoculate half and leave the other half un-inoculated for a fermentation with natural yeasts that are readily available in the atmosphere of the winery.

We all are rather hungry and ready for some food and so we head off to the Oxbow Wine Merchant in Napa where we are supposed to take part in a pairing seminar. By the time we arrive, most of us are starving and instead of analyzing plates, flavors, oils and spices, we are just digging in, must have been all that picking...Peter Granoff, a Master Sommelier and part owner of the Oxbow speaks to us (after we've had our fill of food) about pairing possibilities and the roles of wine and food together. The purpose of our coming together was to immerse ourselves in the unique world that is Carneros Wine and to make some sense of it, so that we might be able to convey these particulars to the clientele that we will run across in our respective businesses. And yet, here at the end of the day, sitting in the sun out on the deck of the Wine Merchant, the Napa River in the distance, it seems like the natural thing to do is to just relax and to bask in the sunshine and sip some of these great wines. There will be plenty of time later to soak all of this in and to process all of these thoughts, tastes and visions.

A couple of weeks later on a windy Fall-like morning, I call on John at Clos du Val to check in on the progress of our wine. He meets me in the lobby and we go up to his office where he pulls up the information on his computer. According to the data the inoculated batch seems to be producing consistently lower levels of sugar than the uninoculated batch. On September 24th, both batches were at 24.2 % by October 2nd, the inoculated batch is at 4.7 while the uninoculated is at 10.5 and by October 7th the levels are at 1.1 and 3.1 respectively. The yeast used for the inoculation is PDM (John tried to find the spelling for this, but was unable to locate it in the literature he had on hand, it is pronounced like prees-de- mousse. The inoculation was done to safeguard the levels of the wine and to prevent against spoilage. It is musty and somewhat humid in the barn.  Our wine out of the barrel seemed to be developing well, there is a muskiness on the nose with the inoculated batch and a sweetness on the uninoculated batch...I wonder what the finished product will taste like? It seems strange to me that as we continue throughout the year, working our jobs in various locales across the country, our wine is growing and changing out here in the Stag's Leap area of Napa, as the sentinel of steep rock palisades in the distance keeps an eye on things as yeasts and sugars and amino acids work day and night.  Close to a year from now we shall see how things went.  Of course we're not invested to the degree that a functioning winery is, but I am already anxious to see how things will come out. The science seems to be pointing to decent wine.  Time will tell.

The Good, The Bad and the Unpretentious

Petite Syrah

13.8% alc.   

Quixote Winery in Stag's Leap AVA

Back when I used to work at Meadowood Resort in the Wine Education Department, part of my job would be to occasionally take guests of the resort on wine tours of the Napa Valley.  I spoke to a lot of people and met a lot of Napa Valley wine industry folks. One of my favorites was Quixote Winery in the Stag's Leap district of Napa. Aside from the inspiring Friedensreich Hundertwasser design of the building and their commitment to organic farming, Quixote has that certain je ne sais quois that is so often missing in Napa Valley wineries. Whether that is attributable to the casual-chic element that is evident upon entering, or the sense of history and funkiness that hangs on the walls in the form of photos of popular and not-so popular images - a seemedly ad -hoc mixture of eccentric relatives, wall of fame, and Joseph Campbell- installation artpiece of the hero's journey. Or, perhaps it is the cool-as-a cucumber approach of the resident estate manager, Lew Price, who's low- key approach is a breath of fresh air in a valley where the hard sell can be a bit too prevalent. Being a native Californian, I have to admit my bias towards California wines, after all ask any Frenchman about French wine and you'll be lucky to get a word in edgewise. I also like to pull for the underdog. Perhaps that's why I love Petite Sirah so...the wine's mysterious origins are as intriguing as a Caravaggio painting, and the flavors continue to gain nuance as the grape is taken more seriously. Quixote shares this love with me, and they have dedicated themselves to that love, going so far as to have a "high noon" shootout between Petite Syrah and Cabernet (Quixote uses the alternate spelling for the grape with a y rather than the traditional i, the difference is completely unimportant) to see which paired better with lamb. I don't need a shootout to figure this one out, but if your interested in the story, I suggest you go to their website and click on the "QSpot."

I first had this wine at the shop and immediately fell in love with its depth and rusticity. The fact that the wine is modestly priced and delivers so much only confirms my assertion that Quixote is serious about Petite Syrah. Just think, if this is the base model, imagine what the tricked out version offers! And so, last saturday when I found myself in Culver City for a dinner honoring my brother's 46th birthday, I was pleasantly surprised to see the Pretense on the wine list (with a decent mark-up as well) Tom Schnabel, the producer of Café L.A. on KCRW, a long-standing favorite show of mine, deferred to me and asked me to pick out a bottle. I said, sure, knowing that the Pretense was the proverbial ace up my sleeve. The wine didn't dissappoint and Tom sent me an e-mail a few days after thanking me again for the selections. My notes on the wine are as follows:

Ripe black cherry and blackberry with damp earth, candied apple and coffee grounds aromas. medium-to full bodied with silky tannins that go the distance. Bright,yet balanced and taut.