May 8, 2006
Staying on the terroir track for today, I was alerted to an article in a local paper by a good reader of FERMENTATION. The article spoke to the formation of a new regional grape growing and winery alliance that is focusing on a swath of land that deserves focusing on for its special and unique climate. The "Petaluma Gap" might be a term you’ve heard of lately, particularly if you are an aficionado of Sonoma County wines. The Petaluma Gap…
May 8, 2006
I think I’ve finally concluded that in the Old World (Europe) "Terroir" is really "tradition". The European wines from different appellations, large and small, that you drink tend to have a consistent and particular characteristic not because the climate and soil from that appellation force upon the wine a particular character, but because there are a set of traditional winemaking and grape growing techniques in an area that lead the wines in a particular direction. Those traditions relate to how…
May 4, 2006
Andy Beckstoffer is a pretty astute guy. Andy is one of the largest growers in Napa Valley and maybe the most respected. And it was Andy who last year initiated an inter-industry discussion on the affects of long hangtime and hyper ripeness on the vines and on wines. This is a touch subject for a number or of reasons. Over the past decade or so vintners have been asking growers to let the fruit hang on the vine much longer…
May 2, 2006
I just get downright excited when I see something like this. Andrew Lane Wines has released a 2004 Napa Valley Gamay Noir. Do you know how rare this wine is? Charles Sullivan, the California wine industry’s unofficial historian, notes that there are no more than two acres of this grape reportedly planted in California…both in Napa Valley. Gamay Noir, also known as "Gamay Noir a jus blanc" is the grape responsible for that potentially very yummy, very refreshing very summerish…
Apr 28, 2006
I think it’s simple: A designated growing area, an appellation or, as they are called in the United States, American Viticultural Areas, are only useful if they are able to deliver expectation to the drinker. If I can’t have a pretty good idea of what I’ll experience in the bottle if it says "Anderson Valley" or ‘Oakville" or "Russian River Valley" on the label, then what’s the point of putting the appellation on the bottle at all? This is also…