w.o.w. - you never forget your first Sardenian

This week's rockroom wine of the week comes to Austin from Sardegna via ... Las Vegas! Huh? Well of course Sardegna (Sardenia) is that big island off the west coast of Italy where all sardines go to spawn, or something like that. But you knew that. What you may not know is that our own JLin, who is currently serving as sommelier (aka wine goddess) at Rao's Las Vegas, is working her way through every Italian wine under the sun. Tuscan or otherwise. Sun or wine. Anyway, she has this to say about this fun little Sardenian white wine made by Argiolas called Costamolino:

"100% Vermentino grapes, it is a lively, bright white wine, redolent with the beautiful floral notes of lemon blossom and passionfruit and pineapple. On the palate, it is bright and creamy (thanks to a partial malolactic fermentation) with lemon verbena and honey all brought together by a tight core of acidity that makes all the flavors pop. It's more interesting than California Chardonnay (ugh in Texas heat) and less searing than Sauvignon Blanc, which can overwhelm with the acid and green notes.....
I hope you try it and fall in love with it. Italian white wines are so much more than Pinot Grigio..."

I found this wine for 14 clams at Central Market on Lamar. They did have one other Sardegna vermentino as well if you want to go all out and do a vermentino flight over a platter of fried calamari with garlic aioli or a bowl of chicken matzo-ball soup with extra egg noodles (as in my photog). Like buttah!

wine of the week - killer new pinot

So for the first ever rockroom wine of the week (aka wow) here's a doozy. Zepaltas Suacci vineyard pinot noir. Loaded with bright fruit and silky texture this wine has a lingering finish that really shows the complexity possible with Sonoma Coast pinot noir grapes. Never heard of Zepaltas? He (Ryan) is the right hand dude at Siduri. And his photo is in the 3-31 wine spectator. And his first wine released under his own label - 2005 La Cruz pinot scored a WS 95. Move fast to get this wine at http://www.zepaltaswines.com/ $48 plus shipping. Ryan tells me the La Cruz is sold out but call me crazy I like the Suacci better anyway.

Bottling day

The 2005 zinfandel and chardonnay went to bottle today. We had several sets of hands pitching in so we made quick work of about 8 cases of zin and 5 of chardonnay. The zin went to bottle unfiltered while the chard was minimally filtered and NOT cold-stabilized, so if you put it in the fridgie for several days it might develop a small sediment of "wine diamonds" (hey, I didn't make that up - google it). Don't get too excited - these crystals can form over time, especially in cool storage conditions, as the natrually occuring tartaric acid in the wine precipatetes out of solution as potassium bitartrate (available on your spice rack as cream of tartar). Most American white wines are processed by chilling the wine in large vats before bottling to force this precipation to occur - better for retail sales to consumers who might think the crystals are bits of broken glass. We did not do this step on our white wines. In Europe, especially Germany where grapes are more acidic, minimally-processed white wines will often develop these crystals over time. Check it out next time you open an old Trockenbeerenauslese ;-).

New Chilean wine?

Saturday night it was time for our favorite Chilean rockroomie to throw his annual Val-Day bash. Thanks Jorge - it was a great party. Of course the party was complete with a few jugs of a homemade wine concoction of his very own. The jug labels said " Lust Fixer Elixer " and just plain "Sin", but sure tasted like sangria - some red wine, fresh fruit juice (those are oranges floating in the brew) a dash of brandy and a few other flavors. Yum!

Press Operator

We pressed our zin and merlot blend today. The zin is our Russian River grapes and the merlot blend is all Napa fruit - majority merlot with some cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc. Harold cranks on the zin in the first photo above and in the second pic Mark pours free run from the merlot blend into a new barrel. Pressing went well - so now we wait for aging to work its magic...

The Scent of a rockroom

The sweet smell of a winery is in the air in the new rockroom winemaking co-op digs as our recently arrived fruit ferments its way toward wine-dom. Briefly...
Whites:
Our little barrel of chardonnay is perking away nicely and you can already smell the toasty vanilla-caramel influences of the French oak barrel. Remember this will be blended with some wine from the same vineyard that is fermenting in neutral vessels, so we will be able to moderate the barrel character. Other whites are doing well ranging from the pinot gris which has almost fermented out completely to the Napa sauvignon blanc that is taking its own sweet time. Keeping our whites in tubs of ice-cooled water keeps fermentation temperatures low. Maybe Santa will bring us a glycol chiller!
Reds:
The picture above shows our merlot-cab-cab franc blend several days ago as it starts fermentation. Unlike the whites, we want fermentation temperatures to climb on this stuff so the bins are wrapped with insulation to make sure we get to 85 degrees plus. Fermentation is exothermic (ah look it up) so no external source of heat is required to easily hit this. The zinfandel got a couple extra days of cold soak to really get the fruit soaked out and be sure any raisined grapes got softened up enough to release their flavors and sugar. Look for pressing alerts on reds in a week or so.

All Great Wines Begin With ... Lab Work!

Last night's lab frenzy - all white juice got tested, conditioned with nutrients to keep the yeast healthy, and innoculated with yeast, so wine is happening! There in the pic you can see the pails where each batch is fermenting. Each pail sits in a tub of water with ice added daily to keep fermentation cool and slow - avoids loss of aromatics in the whites. In addition to these pail there is a quarter barrel of chardonnay fermenting in an oak barrel. Further back are the large tubs with red grapes soaking in a stew of their own juice. These tubs are wrapped with insulation and dry ice added to cold soak the flavors out of the grapes - a step that costs a little extra but gives fruit extraction a head start before fermentation begins in a day or two.

2006 Grapes Arrived

Yesterday the fridgee truck arrived with our shipment of 1300 lbs of premium California wine grapes. The whites are in the form of pressed and settled juice ready for a cool fermentation into white wine. The reds will go through various cold-soak regimens after which yeast will be added to start their fermentations. If all goes well we will be pressing wine in mid to late December.

In case you have forgotten what we are making or only wrote down the wines you are participating in, here is the full list:

Zinfandel - Russian River - a different vineyard source than we used in '05 (that was Mendocino) this is an old vines vineyard that rockroom sourced from in '03 and '04.

Right Bank Blend - Napa Valley - like its distant cousins being made from grapes grown on the "right bank" of Bordeaux's Dourdogne River, this wine will lead with merlot but we will give it an American-style boost from a solid dose of cabernet sauvignon and a splash of cabernet franc. Certainly an elegant sibling to that Inkgrade badboy we are making!

Chardonnay - being made in 2 styles from 2 sources: a big California-style barrel-fermented (Radoux French oak barrel, medium+ toast) Carneros chard, and a low-oak Santa Lucia Highlands chard going for a more acidic, food-friendly wine. Assuming the SLH juice tests out with solid acid levels (looks likely) we will make a small batch of sparkling "baby-blanc-de-blancs" wine as well.

Sauvignon Blanc - Napa Valley - same source as 2005 but more of it - it disappeared way too fast!

Pinot Gris - Suisun Valley - first time for this one. Call it pinot gris or call it pinot grigio - lets just hope it's good!

If you are in Austin over the Thanksgiving weekend you might want to drop by on Saturday or Sunday as things get going!

On the scene report as White Hawk syrah gets crushed

The following is David's hands-on report from Saturday where he was on location to sort our White Hawk syrah:

Report from sorting white hawk syrah: white hawk first, but had the opportunity to taste inkgrade and hein pinot for this year, all are early and in barrel, so just some impressions, and for those of you who I don't know well, had Jlin to confirm.

White hawk fruit was very clean, but a bit late picking. Having said that, acidulating is easy, and it is ideal to let those grapes hang a bit, because you can never replicate what is 'earned' in the vineyard by getting some more hang time with the clusters. Tasting the fruit...about every fourth cluster was peppery, and we replaced lots of thepre-sorted fruit with browner stems for the whole-cluster component. Still, whole cluster this year is 20% at most, which is fine for the fruit nature gave us...opulent, refined, ultra-aromatic fruit...hints of spice, pepper, but most delicate and important for syrah, floral elements....who didn't as a kid pull off a honeysuckle flower and 'sip' it! That is one of many components our '06 syrah has. Better yet, we got (twist an arm) pulled to the numerous barrel rooms and tried all sorts of 2005-vintage White Hawk Syrah, and I must say the formula rockroom will use this year was the best of what we barrel tasted from 2005...come on out and try it yourself if you don't believe! The best of class was 25% whole cluster, 25% new oak (zebra barrel, recooped with staves so ratio is 25% new French oak...those guys in Sebastapol are forward thinking), which exhibits fruit and nature, which in '06, imho will be stellar, and not oak bits, which are easily overdone.

We also tasted through the 2006 Hein Pinot and Inkgrade cab. In order, here is the progress report: Hein-damn, must be better than last year...why? been in barrel a month, so fully fermented but still has 9 months to pick up character-I tasted stawberry preserves, and loads of cranberry, the whole-berry variety you find when you're lucky. This differs from the '05 rockroom Hein in magnitude....the '05, if any are Burgundy fans, is Anderson Valley*read cool climate*, and is oppulent and pretty, with ultra-floral notes. The '06 will be that, if barrel samples hold true, just more preserved fruit qualities, so look for both, and try them side by side. Next, Inkgrade. Do you know how hard it is to find a cabernet with chocolate/cocoa notes? tough to do with a young one, and that is EXACTLY what Inkgrade is yielding this year so far. This is an inaugural year for availability of Inkgrade fruit, and thank goodness we jumped on it. Scott C. was all over this one, as he was out here to meet the fruit, and since the cab came from 2 VERY distinct blocks, both good but one higher altitude with more sun, I think we got the best ratio of fruit, and damn it's good. Inkgrade just finished malo, and has a complexity and flavor, so far, which easily tops your favorite Napa cab if you are looking for something aside from ultra-toasted, oaky cab. Nothing wrong with that if that's your Parker preference, but this is less oaked, and meant to be so because it shows what nature gave us this year. I like 'oaked' too, but this exhibits real varietal character, and with well treated *thank you Scott* Howell Mountain fruit, chocolate/cocoa notes get to show themselves. It's going to be a yummy cab, gang.

That's it from the source, and realize that is mostly one pallette, all opinions stated are mine, not necessarily from JLin, our resident sommelier, who was there too, and sure she'll have her say as time permits, but think we were of a mind for basic impressions. Rockroom wineauxs, this year is looking good across the board, so pay attention!

Ink Grade Cab "scratch-n-sniff" data sheet

There is a saying that "Great wines are made in the vineyard", but most great wines also have a data sheet like this showing all of the steps taken in the winery to ensure they get to the finish line in the best shape possible. Various additions of chemicals, yeast and yeast nutrients as well as temperature controls and punchdowns or pumpovers to keep juice and skins mingling all add up to make contributions to final wine quality. Based on this early tasting I would say the effort has paid off!

Grapes will soon be inbound to Austin

Harvest 2006 is finally drawing to a close in California and the last of our fruit to be shipped to Texas has been picked - Caldwell Vineyard cabernet franc from Napa Valley for our Right Bank Blend. I am anxious to see this fruit as the report from the field was super-ripe grapes with some raisining and thick skins on tiny berries. Several wineries use this grape in blends to add complexity to bordeaux-style blends. Hey - that's just what we are going to do! Well I had a vineyard pic to post with this but Blogger is screwed up at the moment and won't upload.

Inky!

Our Ink Grade Vineyard cab was pressed last night and it is, well, inky. Great color and nice tannins . Most promising of all though are the subtle aromas and flavors of spice, cedar and cassis - just some of the unique character we were hoping for with this Howell Mountain fruit. What will it be Christmas 08 when you pop it open with a slab of prime rib? We will see...

Hein in barrel

It was a perilous climb but well worth the trip - our Hein Vineyard pinot is happy times in the barrel. Loaded with bright fruit it should soften with time as it goes through malolactic fermentation.

Merlot, er, I mean "Bordeaux Varietal" harvested

The cornerstone ingredient to our Right Bank Blend will be Napa Valley Suscol Ranch Vineyard merlot (see photo of this relatively young vineyard) which was harvested October 11th. Preliminary report is that the grapes were very clean with good ripe flavors and solid acidity. Sugar levels were a tad high so we will have to see if blending with cab and cabernet franc balances this out or we do a little "amelioration" to prevent excessive alcohol. Cabernet from the prestigious State Lane vineyard will be picked this weekend and cabernet franc soon after that. Then we will be ready to make our bordeaux-style field blend! This should be a very different wine from the Ink Grade cabernet sauvignon we are making.

Working lunch

One of the perks of winery work - 1989 white burgundy with meatball subs. Yum!

Ink Grade cab is in

Our Napa Ink Grade cab is on its way to becoming wine! David P. sorts grapes here as we took fruit from 2 blocks - 70% G1 which was very ripe with some clusters showing slight raisining, and the rest F4 which had brighter acidity and cleaner fruit. The idea is that the 70/30 mix will have big, ripe flavors , plus enough structure to age a bit and/or enjoy with a steak.

Bleeding for flavor

JLin taking out a bit of pink juice to concentrate flavors in some bins of pinot noir. Yum!

Barrel fermented chard

I siphoned settled chardonnay juice into 8 barrels for a barrel fermented chard last night. Note the mix of oak and stainless. We will add yeast today. This is Santa Lucia Highlands - we will do some barrel fermented chard from this region for the co-op this year.

Hotel San Fran garden

A couple was in the hot tub so I left it out of the photo.

Accommodations when Crushing

Almost as unique as the custom crush experience is my suggestion for where to stay when visiting the area. Check out www.innsf.com - not the usual tourist part of town but you can walk to the winery and it is a great value for a true Victorian b and b. Gourmet cont breakfast spread and beautiful grounds.