Category Archives: The Art of Wine

The Art of Wine: A Conversation with Tyler Thomas of Dierberg and Star Lane Vineyards

05 Thursday Apr 2018

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“You’ve got to make the wine the vineyard is asking you to make.”

It has become a cliché in the wine world that great wine is made in the vineyard. It’s been years since I’ve heard someone claim otherwise. That suggests a potential problem for the thesis that winemaking is an art. Managing a vineyard is, after all, farming, and although farming requires great skill and knowledge, it’s probably not an art. But spend a few hours talking to Dierberg’s winemaker, Tyler Thomas, and you will gain a whole new perspective on farming. Of course, Tyler’s obsessive attention to understanding, at a granular level, what his vineyards tell him is not farming in any ordinary sense.  Since arriving at Dierberg in 2013, Tyler has been mapping his vineyards block by block, row by row, paying close attention to how each section performs throughout the growing season. With the mix of soils, elevations, and aspects to the sun that mark the hilly terrain near Santa Barbara, a vineyard is not a homogeneous field but a patchwork of distinct plots each with their own potential. Unlocking that individual potential is Tyler’s overriding goal.

tyler thomasWhat happens in the winery is, of course, not irrelevant. Tyler would be the first to admit that his capacious, well-equipped winery gives him the room and equipment to vinify blocks separately giving him extensive control over the final blends. He will happily talk about fermentations, oak programs, pump overs, and all the other winery activities, but what he really wants to talk about are vines and their peculiarities which befits someone with a background in plant physiology. His encyclopedic, still-developing knowledge of what every vine is likely to do in a particular vintage bears a strong resemblance to a composer’s choice of which instrument should play a particular melody.  He’s also one of the most thoughtful winemakers I’ve met, sliding easily from talk about viticulture to ruminations on the purpose of wine or the importance of what he calls “human terroir” , the level of understanding and commitment that his staff brings to the job everyday.

Dierberg was founded by Jim and Mary Dierberg in 1996. They began making wine in Missouri as the owners of Hermannhof Winery, one of the oldest wineries in the U.S. Seeking a climate better suited to vinifera grape varietals, and after searching through France and Napa for promising vineyard property, they settled in the Santa Barbara area planting two vineyards in the coastal valleys and their Star Lane vineyard in the much warmer Happy Canyon, about 20 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean

They produce Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from their Santa Maria and Drum Canyon properties, and Bordeaux varieties, Syrah and Sauvignon Blanc from their Happy Canyon location that is also the site of their state-of-the-art winery. All their wines are single vineyard, estate wines and as Tyler describes them, are “built on a backbone of freshness, some sort of tension or supple quality.” (Here is my review of their Santa Maria Pinot Noir and their Star Lane Sauvignon Blanc.)

I recently spent several hours visiting with Tyler at the winery gathering information for a book about the creative aspects of winemaking. Much of our time together was devoted to driving around the perimeter of their Star Lane vineyard before tasting through their lineup of stunningly beautiful wines.

I should mention that Tyler doesn’t think winemaking is an art because, he claims, wine lacks the the expressive range of painting or music. As noted, he’s comfortable engaging in abstract philosophical discussion. Whether winemaking is an art is an argument for another day. However, the reference to the artistry of vineyard management is all mine. At any rate, the word “aesthetic” comes from the Greek word meaning “perception.” Tyler’s approach to viticulture perfectly captures the degree to which viticulture and winemaking is an aesthetic practice. That is the main take away point from this portion of our conversation, which has been lightly edited for clarity.

It took very little prompting from me to get Tyler talking about the philosophical aspects of winemaking:

Tyler: I ask myself these kinds of question about what’s the purpose of wine because it really helps me to do my job. Part of my job is to cultivate, with the Dierberg family, what our goals are. When we open a wine together that we produce from these properties 5 or 10 years down the road, we need to know if we were successful. The purpose of wine is to bring pleasure. It’s not art because it’s limited in expression. It’s not supposed to express melancholy. It’s about pleasure and about the property. If you don’t like the wine you won’t ask where it came from.

DF: What attracted you to this property?

Tyler: When I considered coming to Dierberg, I thought they had a special property. The question I asked myself was would it be possible to craft a wine hedonistically but that had a differentiating intellectual component that was also compelling, that was driven by the property itself. So how do you figure that out?  How do you determine whether the flavor profile was something we did in the cellar say vs.  what was coming from the property”? So one thing I advocated is that you really have to study the site based on what the vines are telling you, the physiology of the vines. I drive around looking for why is that darker green pattern in the center of that yellow pattern. It is hard to segment it when the block originally has been designed to be just one big vineyard. My role as the first generation with these vines is to study that, separate it if we can, so if we do have the opportunity to replant or redesign we can advance our quality because we can redesign more appropriately for the soil type.

DF: As we drove across the ridge looking down the Eastern slope of the vineyard,Tyler described the intensive, ongoing mapping project he initiated:

Tyler: In this case going up this level of elevation is going to create different temperatures. When I first got here in 2013 and was driving around in July, veraison was just starting and, down at the bottom, it was 100% green and up at the top it was 80% colored. So you see the white paint? I went up and down marking off where I saw a difference in ripening or vigor–smaller canopy, smaller leaves, looked more stressed–and I basically created a big circle in the middle, which we now call the midsection. See the darker green at the bottom? That is probably due to thicker, richer soils, a little more clay down there, a little better water holding capacity and cooler during the spring so it breaks bud later. While those have broken bud, those are just starting.

And so this is now 6 different sections. After several years of making observations, we now have a name for each block. That really embodies what we’re trying to do with the whole property.

DF: On the differences between new world and old world winemaking?

Tyler: Star lane is owned by one family. We put single vineyard Star Lane on the bottle. But if you know anything about growing grapes you know this is not one property. If this were Bordeaux or Burgundy there would be all kinds of crus. Unfortunately we don’t think that way in the new world. I went to UC Davis but was working for a Burgundian guy using California fruit, so I got this great complement to my original education by having a European mentor to create a different lens with which to view what I had learned. So we take a similar approach at Dierberg. We know this ‘’low 1” block. We know how it comes in, we know how it ripens and we know whether it’s as valuable as the top. It’s generally not as valuable. In good years it is, but in some years we leave it out of the blend.

DF: So I imagine this gets complicated at harvest deciding when and where to pick?

Tyler: The top section is particularly difficult. Because of low vigor I had to come pretty far down, but in this middle section they’re much farther behind. So then they [the pickers] have to walk all the way down during harvest to get the ripe fruit. We make several passes through the vineyard at different times during harvest.

When you get to where the saddle of this ridge is, there is more clay, more energy in the soil and that’s affecting this whole left side, the ripening pattern. It definitely gets riper faster because of drainage and sunlight pattern. There is a shadow in the morning because of this hill that you would think would create less ripening. But for whatever reason it ripens faster. I think it’s the low vigor of the soil where the yellow pattern is. There is not a lot of water holding capacity. I think some of the soil has been scraped off. The very top section was one of the first cabs we picked this year. This bottom section was picked 3 weeks later, maybe even more and not entirely to brix. It had the same or lower brix. We get lower sugar 3 weeks later! That’s’ the plant telling you something. And so we’re just following what it tells us.

My old mentor, the one I mentioned when I got out of school, used to say “you’ve got to make the wine the vineyard is asking you to make”. Now there’s a whole lot of assumptions there. You can say that and we say we all know that. But it takes years to figure that out and understand the boundaries and the spectrum of what you can experience over time.

This block is a microcosm of what we do with all of them whether it’s divided by variety, or within block divided by variety, or observations about the block, and its all driven by a goal. It’s not to create differences for difference sake. I would prefer not to do it this way, but we feel obliged to do it this way until we create more understanding.  By the end of harvest we have over 100 different lots in the cellar.

The monks and the various producers in antiquity were making selections and they had to be studying it. They knew there were certain areas that did better than others.

DF: How important is the science and the numbers when deciding which direction to take a vintage?

Where we have the advantage, once we see the differences we can analyze the soil, do some soil cores and see if that’s driving it. If that isn’t it then maybe it’s the temperature or maybe we have irrigation problems. But even when you look at the chemistries in the cellar, our understanding is still really basic. No offense to the scientists out there who have worked very hard to give us greater understanding. I can measure the tannin and know that this gives more tannin than that but it still doesn’t create the entire sense of what the wine is. I can measure the sugar, the acid, the PH, the malic, the amount of nutrients for the yeast that are there and my color and my tannins. Those numbers can be all the same but the wines are so different that the numbers aren’t driving the whole story. So you have to rely on tasting, your observations, and your experience.

That’s why we talk so much about our house palate prevention program. It’s easy to like the wine you’re making, too easy. You also don’t want to be so critical that you can’t sit down and enjoy a glass of wine but you’re your own worse critic because you don’t want to miss something. You’re relying so heavily on observation to understand the properties of your wine. You’ve got to make sure your seeing them accurately. It’s hardest for the winemaker to be the most objective person in the cellar but it’s the most important. And you have to work at it, tasting other peoples wine and empowering your team to be honest about what they’re tasting.

DF: How common is this detailed approach to understanding your vineyard? Do most wineries take this approach?

This close analysis of the vineyard is not as common as you might think. People are too quick to conclude that they’ve got it. Its really more mental work. I try to mentally touch every wine I have every day

Many thanks to Tyler for an informative and thoroughly enjoyable visit to this wonderful location. If you’re new to Dierberg wines, get thee to a wine shop.

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The Art of Wine: Central Coast Group Project Captain Kierk (AKA the Knightwalker) Syrah Ballard Canyon 2013

06 Tuesday Feb 2018

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captain kierkLow and slow usually applies to barbecue and Italian red sauce. Winemaker Scott Sampler thinks it applies to wine as well. A taste of this Syrah will make anyone a believer.

Most winemakers leave red wines macerating on the skins and seeds until fermentation is finished. In some cases an extended maceration is desired for an additional week or two in order to extract more tannin and flavor. Scott keeps the wine in contact with the skins for up to 6 months! This is very old school, the way traditional Barolo was made. The problem with those old Barolos was that all that extraction would make the wines so tannic they were undrinkable for 20 years. Somehow Scott Sampler manages to make wines that are rich and powerful yet soft and supple.

I don’t know how this uber-maceration produces such elegant wines. Conventional winemaking theory would advise against it.  In poking around winemaking manuals my guess is that the tannins form long chain polymers that eventually precipitate out of the wine if you macerate long enough thus softening the mouthfeel. Scott said the science isn’t well understood but whatever the explanation, this is a method that requires constant attention, lots of stirring to keep the cap moving, and delicate decisions about when the wine is ready. “The wines go through phases”, he said. They will taste awful one day and I think they’ll never come around. Two weeks later they’re beautiful.”

central coast group projectSoft-spoken and unassuming, Scott is quite literally a “garagiste” producing less than 1000 cases annually out of a tiny, cluttered space in an industrial park in Buellton, near Santa Barbara.  He thinks of his wine as made by a network that includes friends, family, truck drivers, field workers, philosophers, scientists, etc.—anyone who has had an influence on the final product. Hence the name Central Coast Group Project. Yet, despite these humble trappings  his wines are coveted by somms and are on the list of several fine restaurants in LA and New York.

Truth be told I was predisposed to like these wines. After all Scott was a philosophy major in college at Berkeley and a successful Hollywood screenwriter. He names this Syrah “Captain Kierk (aka The Knightwalker)” after a star-fleet commander and the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. What’s not to like?  (Kierkegaard called himself the Knight of Faith and loved to take walks; hence the name “Knightwalker”.) A long quote from Kierkegaard about productive walks appears on the bottle’s back label. Sampler is really into back story.

I had no doubt the wines would be interesting as we prepared to pay Scott a visit. What I did not expect was to be bowled over, knocked out, awe-struck by the sort of wine that can induce a religious experience. This is one of the best wines I’ve tasted in the U.S.

central coast group project 2An incredibly rich, complex nose showing ripe blackberry, balsamic, wet autumn leaves, violets, dark chocolate, caramelized bacon and a lovely sweet oak top note. You could get lost for hours in these aromas. But it’s the combination of power, breadth, and tenderness on the palate that sets this wine apart. The opening is meaty with robust dark cherry, but then turns soft and luxurious at midpalate, light on its feet despite the impression of immensity left by the depth of concentration. A bright, mineral seam develops, as the wine begins to finish, with emergent tannins drying yet soft as talc, very fine grained. As the wine evolves in the mouth it acquires great dynamic range, with fruit intensity persisting showing licorice notes even as the wine fades. At terminus, about 2 minutes in, it gains a kind of spectral presence as if you sense the ghost of what had transpired before.

This is not brooding. It has too much charm to brood. But it is dark and acquires an edge on the back end even as it melts in your mouth. A wine to think about. What is it doing? There must be a meaning here. There is deliberation, stately motion, finding new directions without letting go of the past, power without bombast.

A wine thoughtful and warm, yet majestic but with a touch of the demon, a sacred wine with an intensity matched only by Peter Gabriel’s Rhythm of the Heat.

This is 100% Syrah from Santa Barbara’s Larner Vineyard. Macerated for 101 days, including the native yeast fermentation, it sees two years in neutral French oak with 18 months on gross lees.

Hurry. Only 73 cases made.

Score: 95

Price: $75 (Purchase Here)

Alc: 15.5%

The Art of Wine: Cain Vineyard and Winery and the Art of Brett Management

16 Tuesday Jan 2018

Posted by in The Art of Wine, Wine Culture

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Cain spring mountain Charles OrearIn the wine world today, the “spirit of the age” is the pursuit of pure fruit expression. Find a healthy vineyard site where the grapes have character and will ripen without losing acidity. Experiment with fermentation until you find that magical extraction point where fruit, tannins, and color are in balance. Give it a kiss of oak to add complexity and roundness. Filter and fine to get rid of off flavors and aromas, and you’re well on your way to high scoring nirvana. This approach has created the modern, hugely successful wine industry and critical standards have developed that reflect that success.

I respect and enjoy polish, clarity, and clean, focused fruit power. But it doesn’t make me fall in love. Maybe it’s the old drummer in me, but what I really love is a bit of funk, aka “barnyard”, “animal”, or when euphemisms are in order, “savory”. Often, these flavors are the result of a brettanomyces infection that most winemakers go to great lengths to eliminate from their wine and which all the wine tasting certification agencies treat as a fault.

I guess I’m a bit out of step with the spirit of the age. It wouldn’t be the first time.

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Winery Entrance

So I was excited to visit with Christopher Howell, winemaker at Napa’s Cain Vineyards and well known for his use of brettanomyces as a flavor element. Chris is also one of the most thoughtful winemakers I’ve met, very comfortable putting wine in the larger context of the humanities and talking meaningfully about his philosophy of winemaking.

Brettanomyces bruxellensis, or “brett” as it’s called, is a yeast which, along with its close cousin dekkera bruxellensis, infects winery equipment, barrels and sometimes grape skins. They create compounds that result in various aromas some of which are intriguing, such as sweaty saddles, bacon fat, or barnyard, and some that are just unpleasant such as band-aid or rancid cheese. Some people are quite sensitive to these compounds and will be put off by even a whiff. Thus, many winemakers strive mightily to eliminate any trace of it. In some cases an entire winery will have to be dismantled and rebuilt to eliminate the yeast spores that keep on giving vintage after vintage.

However, for others, the presence of a modest brett aroma gives wine character and interest and some of the great wines in history have been influenced by brett.

“How did we learn that this was wrong?” Chris Howell asks. “We value civet in perfume. Why not wine? It’s all about context”, he says, as he goes on to explain that our preferences for particular aromas are very much a cultural artifact, learned from the social environment around us. The clear implication is that maybe our tasting practices and wine education materials should not lump brett in with cork taint or the presence of hydrogen sulfide which are always unpleasant.

Cain winery; Cain Five; Napa; Napa County; California; USA; North AmericaThe trick of course is to know how to keep brett  at acceptable levels. “We don’t know how to manage brett yet”, says Chris but adds optimistically, “it always stops. It’s a fermentation and we kind of know when it’s going to stop.” The science of brett management is still nascent. After all, why study something that most people want to get rid of. But clearly Chris’s 28 years of experience with these vineyards and his wine education in France give him an instinctual understanding of how to assess brett levels and potential development. As you can see from my tasting notes below, the brett character is subtle and more of a background note. “It shouldn’t be the dominant flavor component”, says Chris. It adds character without being the character.

The value of brettanomyces is not the only issue about which Chris Howell walks off the beaten path. Another bête noire of modern winemaking is the presence of bell pepper aromas in Cabernet Sauvignon. The result of compounds called pyrazines, they do mar fruit expression when too dominant. Yet, not all green notes are  unpleasant. “Cab should carry green notes if that is what your vineyards give you. Everyone thinks it’s bell pepper so they just get rid of it”, according to Chris. “But it’s part of what makes our vineyard distinctive.” Once again it’s a matter of degree. If there is enough complexity and evolution in the wine, the smell of green herbs—mint, sage, rosemary– becomes complimentary adding character to what otherwise tastes like fruit juice. “I like wines that transcend fruit” asserts Chris, and indeed his wines have an herbal character that hearkens back to an older style of Napa Cabernet before the the fascination with fruit bombs became the rage.

“We don’t have to please everyone. Some people don’t like our wine and that’s fine. I just want them to suspend judgment and approach them with an open mind.”

That said, Chris’s wines nevertheless have that glow of California sunshine–rich, dense and powerful, with exuberant fruit expression yet with an complex array of non-fruit flavors creating contrast and intrigue.

I would be remiss it I didn’t mention one other important contributor to Cain Vineyards’ signature wine, the Cain Five. That would be elevation.valley The estate vineyards slope downward from near the crest of Spring Mountain with a spectacular view of Napa Valley at elevations that range from 1200 to 2100 feet. The combination of intense sunlight, shallow soils, and good drainage often produce smaller berry size and tougher skins in mountain fruit. Notoriously, the tannins in mountain wines can be hard to manage but produce powerfully structured wines when given time to develop. Cain Five, their signature blend from estate grapes, is no exception. It is a firm, fiercely tannic wine that manages to be elegant and supple as well. That sounds like a paradox but paradox is the essence of great wine.

These wines are as original as the person who makes them.

Cain’s wines illustrate something that I’ve been calling “resonance” and is a feature of all great wines. They build in intensity, starting with an undercurrent of tension in the midpalate that keeps broadening in the mouth even after peaking and beginning to fade. There is duality in the wine. The satiny mouth feel and fresh, round fruit gives way to rising intensity emerging from the background as the acidity and tannin begin to dominate, the fruit reappearing again as a pale image on the finish. Especially as the wines age, both the acidity and tannins seem fragile, but they somehow take over and drive the momentum. My point is that this is a play of forms in transition like the tonal effects operating in the background of a symphony. Great wines are not static; they form themselves in the mouth. Resonance is the key to greatness in wine. Lesser wines are pleasing but lack resonance. There is no better place to discover resonance that at Cain Vineyards and Winery.

Here is the lineup of wines that we tasted starting with the young uns:

NV 13  Cain Cuvée  Napa Valley

A blend of two vintages, 2012 and 2013, with fruit from both Spring Mountain and the valley floor, and a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petite Verdot.   Just a hint of barnyard, against a background of baked earth, this is a hearty wine with some rusticity on the finish. Quite savory with notes of blackberry bramble, toast, and French roast coffee on the palate, and a hint of bitterness on the finish, the tannins are fine grained and quite accessible. Juicy up front it acquires a relentless inner drive, defiant and a bit feral.  Score: 90  pts.  Alc: 14.3%  Price: $35

Cain Five 2013 Spring Mountain District

Their signature wine is outstanding, stunningly complex. Rich, deep blackberry fruit but with savory herb highlights, thyme,  hints of caramel, a slightly smoky, saddle leather aroma, a bit of licorice and floral notes emerging midpalate round out the aroma notes on this very complex wine.  Deeply concentrated, it gives an initial impression of being sumptuous and elegant yet it’s powerful, exuding a kind of spiritual calm but with latent energy pulsating below the surface. Concentrated fruit, incisive acidity and broad, dry yet refined almost talc-like tannins create a sense of massiveness in the background that bely its welcoming surface. This wine is about contrast held in suspension. Made from 100% mountain fruit from estate vineyards, it’s a Cabernet dominated Bordeaux-style blend. Score: 94 Alc: 14.3% Ave. Price: $123   Peter Gabriel’s Rhythm of the Heat captures the spirit of this wine.

Cain Concept The Benchland Napa Valley 2013

A Cabernet dominated Bordeux-style blend from Rutherford bench grapes grown on the valley floor. This wine shows a bit more red fruit in the mix–voluptuous black cherry, cocoa, sage and dusty earth–but lacks some of the funky flavor of the other cuvees.  This wine has a lovely, round mouthfeel, which is not surprising since the fruit is from the Rutherford bench and has the character of more typical Napa Cabernet. It is lush and generous right from the introduction with bright fruit notes persisting through the long, languorous finish. Happily, the oak is already very well integrated. This is more intimate, romantic, and stylish than the Cain Five, yet it still has a firm backbone. Score: 93  Alc: 14.6%   Ave Price:$93   Robert Palmer’s Addicted to Love nails the attitude.

Cain Five 2006  Spring Mountain District

This has warm, generous fruit and earth, ripe black cherry, saddle leather, thyme, and subtle roasted meat on the nose. Full and concentrated on the palate, the midpalate shows some softness that is disrupted by hi-toned acidity and burgeoning tannins and so the wine shows off a bit of brawn is it progresses. The tannins are beginning to show some mellowness because they’ve become powdery but you sense they were massive when young. Despite the ripe, round fruit, the structure keeps drawing your attention to an angular point that draws energy just before the finish as if the tannins and acidity want to tame its exuberance. 46% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot, 13% Petit Verdot, 9% Cabernet Franc,and  6% Malbec. Score: 93 Alc: 14.1%

Cain Five 2004 Spring Mountain District

Gorgeous, simply gorgeous. Ah, so nicely pungent, you first encounter a heady mix of saddle leather, mushroom, and tobacco, resting on top of mocha, the fruit, what fruit? Actually there is some dried black cherry and dried plum filling in the background but this is very savory. There is also a leafy character and a mineral core after some aeration, just an endless parade of bewitching flavors. After years in the bottle, the midpalate is pure silk, but a rising current of powdered tannins threaded with delicate but prominent acidity produce a broad, wave-like finish showing dried fruit and a hint of charcoal.  At this point in its development it still has a very generous nose and a lively palate. The mood is intense, feral, and sort of angst-ridden, not rustic but urban tough. I was surprised that the Stones Paint It Black really resonated with this wine. Score: 96

Reviews based on industry samples

Smoke influence and the 2017 Vintage

07 Thursday Dec 2017

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smoke in vineyardsAlthough most of the grapes for the 2017 vintage in Napa/Sonoma were harvested before the devastating fires began, there was still a significant amount on vine and will be affected by smoke taint. The elimination of smoke taint was the main topic at the Postmodern Winemaking Symposium that I’ve attending this week. We tasted through several smoke-damaged wines (along with some Islay Scotch and Mezcal to gain a sensory understnding of smoke influence). And then heard presentations about what is known about the elimination of smoke taint. My quick summary of what is known is that there are some methods  of removal such as flash détente  that seem to work in some situations but they all carry risks and none have been proven broadly effective.

But from an aesthetic point of view, smoke taint poses an interesting question.

The engine of wine aesthetics is difference, differentiation. That is why we have AVAs, vineyard expression, varietals, origin stories and all the rest—its about distinguishing your products from your competitor’s products. This is not surprising because the aim of aesthetic winemaking, is to create something of beauty, and almost all philosophical conceptions of beauty include the idea that what distinguishes beautiful objects from merely pretty or attractive objects is that there is something deviant about them, something uncanny and unfamiliar. Beautiful objects have an individuality about them that the artist or winemaker succeeds in harmonizing, making all the parts of the object work together.

Isn’t 2017 vintage an opportunity to create something quite distinctive with wines influence by smoke? As a consumer I’m always looking for what’s distinctive about a wine, what sets it apart from others. How winemakers go about handling smoke will be one of the fascinating things to look for in this 2017 vintage, especially because the influence of smoke will not be tied to the presence of oak.

Thus, if the smoke influence is handled in such a way that it doesn’t overwhelm the other virtues of the wine, and can be made to harmonize with them, it’s not obvious why we should call it a taint. It may be a mark of distinction.

This issue of smoke taint is related to the whole idea of a flaw. When you go down the list of wine flaws that are taught by the various certification organizations almost all of them have aesthetic value in some contexts. Where would traditional French Syrah be without brett, or Barolo without VA, or Sherry without oxidation?

Perhaps the 2017 vintage will encourage us to be more careful about the language we use—smoke influence is not taint if it produces something of beauty.

Resonance: A Measure of Wine Quality

01 Wednesday Nov 2017

Posted by in General Aesthetics, Philosophy of Food and Wine, The Art of Wine

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pollackI’ve been thinking a lot about Martin Seel’s concept of resonance as one of the keys to wine quality.

Think of the rustling of leaves, the shimmer of light on water, or the background hum of the city. What is common about these phenomena is that they cannot be perceptually traced back to a source.  We know the hum of  city is caused by engines, voices, all sorts of devices that make noise but those individual sound sources cannot be picked out. In resonance, events shine, vanish, and reappear without order or form.

Think also of the inchoate, half-formed shapes in the background of abstract art (such as the Pollack painting above) or the sounds that are not quite melodies or harmonies that provide interest and complexity in a piece of music.

The use of tonal effects operating in the background of contemporary rock music provides a sense of movement independently of the melody or rhythm. The precise character of a band’s sound can’t be fully analyzed into component parts, especially if it’s new and different. The sound depends in a general way on which instruments are used, their tone quality and the way the various tone qualities interact but these components cannot be picked out and given a precise specification.

This lack of perceptible form is the key characteristic of resonance. It’s experienced as a kind of attractive chaos, a loosening of expectations and assumptions, drawing us in to the painting or piece of music by creating a sense of mystery about it.

Although Seel doesn’t mention it, wine too has resonance, flavors and aromas that give only hints and nuance as the flavors and textures insinuate and lapse remaining just below the threshold of full discernment. Quality wines often have a clarity and focus to them. But great wines provide a different kind of experience, provoking a feeling of something just beyond the horizon that cannot quite be identified. They present barely discernable aromas that don’t fit our standard categories, that violate expectations and seem starkly original but resist attempts to explain or describe precisely what we’re tasting.

Seel thinks of resonance as a borderline aesthetic phenomenon, present only occasionally in works of art although striking when experienced. In wine, by contrast, resonance is the main characteristic of superior quality. Only the best wines combine clarity with these inchoate nuances that indicate great complexity but resist a full analysis into component parts.What is a borderline phenomenon in the visual and musical arts is central to wine appreciation.

The Art of Wine: Winesmith and Postmodern Winemaking

06 Tuesday Jun 2017

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Clark-tab-1-628x471Since the birth of modern art, artists and art theory have had a symbiotic though troubled relationship.  The conceptual nature of modern art and its “difficulty” for the ordinary patron meant that art had to be explained, and so the theorist acts as a critical interpreter and translator providing context and meaning for what might otherwise seem obscure. (Yes, there is irony in the jargon-laced abstractions of art theory serving as clarifying explanations).

In the wine world, by contrast, aesthetic theory plays almost no role. Although there have been articulate winemakers such as Paul Draper or Randle Grahm who can put wine in a larger context, and wine writers occasionally wax philosophical, “theory” in the wine world usually means science and there is little discussion of the aesthetic aims or the larger meanings of that science.Clark Smith, proprietor and winemaker at Winesmith is a prominent exception. With Clark you not only get delicious, intriguing wines. You get chapter and verse on the science and aesthetics of wine found in his book, Postmodern Winemaking and his website which is brimming with information.

Clark defines postmodern winemaking as “the practical art of connecting the human soul to the soul of a place by rendering its grapes into liquid music.” That sounds like you might expect a discussion of auras and energy fields, but that definition rests on rigorous science and many years of experimentation seeking that elusive quality that makes a wine great. Clark invented the filtering technology that enables winemakers to remove alcohol through reverse osmosis and is equally at home talking about beauty or vicinal diphenol oxidation.So what is “soulfulness” in a wine? In a phrase, “aroma integration”:

“Aromatic integration is the source of soulfullness in food be it a bearnaise, a bisque or a Bordeaux. When aromas are integrated into a single voice the food speaks to the soul in the way a symphony does when the orchestra plays as one.

A sense of unity and harmony is the goal. But contrary to much of what you hear about winemaking that treats oxygen exposure as the enemy, it’s the absorption of oxygen that is the key to both flavor integration and age-worthiness.

…a young wine when challenged with oxygen behaves homeopathically, increasing its reductive strength….In effect the introduction of oxygen has made the wine hungrier for oxygen. Instead of oxidation we get increased reductive strength.

Oxygen introduced at the right time accelerates the bonding of color molecules and tannins, shortening the polymers, creating a more refined texture and more opportunities for the flavor molecules to bond to the colloids. The soulfullness of flavor integration is a product of refined structure. And these properly formed tannins will remain in suspension longer holding on to their aroma and flavor as the wine ages.

That’s the theory. In practice?

Every wine I’ve tasted from Winesmith has been its own unique child. Here are 4 of the siblings.

Faux Chablis Napa County 2005

California Chardonnay grapes inspired by the explosive minerality and stalwart ageability of Chablis. The nose is floral showing lemon blossom with a subtle background of dry hay. This florality is very unusual in a wine this old. As with many great wines, there is caprice and vacillation with occasional tropical notes hovering uncertainly between pineapple and ripe banana. Round but not weighty on the palate, the texture is supple, with a layered mouthfeel, angularity at the foundation and ethereality on top, a wine of duality like others in this lineup. The finish is generous and long, with no rough edges, and an endearing seam of pure mineral water,  giving way to a subtle electrical charge at its final destination. Sunny and playful, yet exotic and mysterious like this gorgeous offering from  Debashish Battacharya . This music brings out honey notes in the wine.

 

Roman Syrah California 2005

“Roman” refers to a series of wines made with no added sulfites, akin to “natural wine” although aficionados would blanch at the use of micro-oxygenation to build structure.  Light garnet and transparent in the glass with some browning, this Syrah shows floral aromas blended with a hint of volatile acidity against a rich almond/milk chocolate background. The palate has an electric intensity, the mineral/acidity playing a top note against a wonderfully soft, ingratiating mouthfeel with good midpalate extension, gradually unfurling that electric minerality which reappears on a finish of fine-grained tannins. It’s good natured but quirky and other worldly, a wine of paradox, soft and pretty but with a core of bristling acidity, aging but refusing to go quietly. The grapes were sourced from Renaissance Vineyards in the North Yuba AVA.

Amon Tobin’s Kitchen Sink is as quirky and other worldly as this wine.

 

Syrah  Suisun Valley Mangels’s Ranch 2005

This Syrah differs from the Roman in that it was sulfited and the grapes sourced from Suisun Valley, a relatively cool climate region adjacent to San Pablo Bay. It shows intense aromas of chocolate-covered berries, caramel, and newly turned earth with hints of dried flowers. The full bodied, lush palate has that same electric acidity. The tannins are soft, like velvet, yet persistent supporting a lengthy finish which I would describe as  chalk without the grit, the minerality hanging on forever as the fruit fades.  Tense mineral top notes contrast with the lush full foundation gradually fading to a powdery, yet enveloping texture. The wine caresses but has a provocative edge.

Erik Truffaz “Flamingos” pulls something earthy out of this wine.

 

Crucible Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2007

Straight from the cellars of Sauron, the nose shows intense cassis and sweet black cherry with fig undertones mingling with wet autumn leaves against a hazelnut background. It’s dense and full bodied in the mouth, the finely honed tannins giving plenty of quiet yet resolute structure. The midpalate is extraordinarily broad and dimensional with a seam of raucous dark fruit that owns the night forging its way to a finish that builds layers of character. This wine perhaps best illustrates the idea of flavor integration. The palate seems deep and broad yet the core of intense dark fruit belts out a single note like a massive chorus singing in unison. There is no fruit basket here; just exquisitely rendered force, a wine that shows why power and elegance are not contraries.   This spent 60 months in old French oak with grapes sourced from the vineyards of Napa Valley Community College.

Disturbed’s incredible “Sounds of Silence” will match this wine’s countenance. You have not understood this song until you hear this version.

 

I hope it’s clear from the above that these are starkly original wines embodying paradox and depth, yet made with intention bringing together rigorous science and aesthetic sensibility. But as with all great art they give great pleasure as well; the soul is not satisfied until the endorphins flow.

The Art of Wine: Opus One

15 Wednesday Feb 2017

Posted by in The Art of Wine, Wine Culture

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opus-oneArt has a reputation for being cut off from everyday life, existing in a separate realm of sumptuous galleries, cloistered museums, outrageous prices, and snobbish patrons. That view of the art world ignores all the local art in communities throughout the world which is accessible and can be enormously satisfying, but such is our fascination with celebrity and money that we think of the art world in those terms. I suppose it is then fitting to kick off this inaugural post in a series about the art of wine with a winery that perhaps best represents the celebrity and ostentation of the art world—Opus One.

Opus One certainly has pedigree. It began as a partnership of Baron Philippe de Rothschild of Chateau Mouton Rothschild in Pauillac, France, and the renowned Robert Mondavi who helped build Napa winemaking from the ground up—a marriage of French aristocracy and American immigrant grit. They made their first vintage in 1979 using the Mondavi facility, moving to their current location in 1991.

Visiting Opus One  is indeed like visiting a modern art museum. The building is a massive, cream-colored, laterally-elongated, modern mansion that seems to grow naturally out of the hill on which it’s perched. Mondavi likened it to a space ship, but the central courtyard bounded by colonnades on each side and an interior adorned with limestone mantels and opera chairs is an intriguing amalgam of old and new.

Upon entering the hushed foyer with classical music playing gently in the background you are greeted by a “concierge”, a charming, yet formal woman whose job it seems is to check your reservation and escort you to the tasting room—in other words a greeter.

In the contemporary, but understated tasting room, bathed as always in classical music, you walk to the bar where a charming yet formal young man gives you an information packet, explains the very limited options for tasting, and pours your wine which you can then take to a nearby couch served by a coffee table, or weather permitting, to an adjoining courtyard. The formal young man was slightly more knowledgeable than a moonlighting college student when I asked him questions about the wine, but only slightly.

Opus One makes two wines: their flagship Cabernet-based blend and a non-vintage second wine called Overture. The cost without the tour is $50 per glass for a healthy 5 oz. pour of their flagship wine; the Overture was available for tasting as well.

All of this is a bit precious and pretentious and is clearly designed to project an image of old world, aristocratic, class and sophistication. But it does have an aesthetic purpose. We were able to sit quietly and undisturbed for a considerable length of time and think about the wine. The atmosphere invites contemplation which is not true of many winery tasting rooms (or art museums for that matter). If you spend much time exploring the art world, pretention is part of the landscape. Why should the wine world be any different? Yes, great wine can be appreciated without the trappings of luxury; but some of the connections to a different time and place would be lost without them.

What makes Opus One worthy of mention in a series on the Art of Wine? As you know if you’ve been reading my work on the aesthetics of wine, I think fine wines that are intended to provide a distinctive aesthetic experience are works of art. Opus One surely qualifies as fine wine. But in particular, it’s an iconic wine that succeeded in bringing a European, classical, wine sensibility to the warmer climate and richer soils of Napa. In 1979, it represented the coming of age for Napa wines which could not only compete on the world stage with Bordeaux but enter into an equal partnership with the most storied wine region in the world. Artworks not only represent their subject matter but make statements about them as well. Opus One not only represents the blending of these two glorious wine traditions but speaks eloquently of this merger of two sensibilities, striking a balance between opulent, generous, accessible California fruit and the restrained, steely, elegance and finesse of Bordeaux. It tastes like what it means and that is the essence of fine art.

Thus, instead of worrying about pretention we should celebrate this icon for its meaning as well as its flavor.

But is the wine really that good? We were fortunate on the day we tasted because they were pouring their 2011 as well as their 2013 which made for an interesting comparison. 2011 was a very difficult year, with cool weather throughout most of the summer and excessive rain during flowering that disrupted fruit set. The weather in 2013 by contrast was close to perfection.  A good wine should bear the marks of its vintage and in this case the difference was very apparent in the glass.

The 2013 was dense with expressive dark and red fruits but set off by plentiful herbal aromas and black olive. It has a bright rather than brooding aspect with chocolate and crushed rock emerging with time in the glass. The palate is rich and viscous upfront and maintains its roundness and depth even as fine-grained, satin-like tannins take the stage, which then fade rapidly through the soft, elegant finish. What it lacks in length it makes up for in sheer charm and polish. The oak is extremely well done, already well-integrated and never a distraction. The blend is 79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Cabernet Franc, 6% Merlot, 6% Petite Verdot, and 2% Malbec.

The 2011 has less exuberant fruit and is more deft than dense. The cassis with cranberry undertones and floral notes are pleasing but upstaged by prominent thyme and bay leaf. Cocoa, earth and toast are beginning to emerge so there is ample complexity developing as the wine ages in the bottle. On the palate, the wine opens gently with a delicate touch. The tannins have softened considerably but the finish lacks length and seems to fall apart a bit as the tart acidity is exposed and the texture becomes firm and less yielding as it evolves in the mouth. This is a good wine but surely not extraordinary although it may surprise us and age quite well. The blend is 71% Cabernet, 11% Merlot, 9% Petite Verdot, 8% Cabernet France, and 1% Malbec.

Opus One uses high density planting in their vineyards, more typical of Bordeaux than California, which produces smaller berries with higher skin to juice ratios. The grapes are harvested in lots, sent through their optical sorter, and then dropped directly via gravity into fermentation tanks where the lots are fermented separately using a mix of propagated yeasts found in their winery and vineyards. The wine is aged in new French oak from several coopers; the 2013 saw 17 1/2 months in oak. It then spends about 3 years in bottle before release.

In the end, these wines are really about polish. They exude refinement and grace and, if those qualities are the most important to you, Opus One will be compelling. They lack the pure power of Harlan and I prefer the paradox of delicate, feminine nose and massive structure of Screaming Eagle. A more precise comparison might be Corison with whom Opus One shares the goal of classic elegance and herbal penumbra.

It is worth pointing out that Napa’s “cult” Cabernets, if you can find one, sell for several hundred dollars more than the $300 price tag of Opus One, and with an annual production of around 25,000 you can actually get your hands on a bottle without too much trouble. That in itself is an accomplishment in a wine world in which the very best are often out of reach.