With a month or less to go before the 2012 WineMaker Magazine Conference in Ithaca, NY I’m continuing to take the opportunity to share my experiences with the regions’ wine and people. For any conference-goers reading, make sure you tuck the following tidbit away. The best wines that I have had from the region are the aromatic whites, with Riesling and Gewurztraminer leading the way, but there are quite a few additional styles that offer worthy libations. Amongst the other whites (a topic I wrote about in September 2011) you will find Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and a healthy assortment of hybrid or native grapes like Seyval, Vidal Blanc, Vignoles and Cayuga. You will also find blends of any and all; as well as several producers making sparkling styles from different grapes too. You don’t have to take my word for it, but if you are looking to explore, doing so will ensure you have fun.

The Finger Lakes Wine Alliance is hosting a virtual tasting series this year. Each event combines live Q&A to winemakers, with questions fielded from the organizers and social media channels and online networking amongst members of the media, including myself, who would also be tasting and discussing the wines selected for the event. I recently signed up for the tasting of non-Riesling whites from the region.

Before embarking on my forays into kit winemaking there are a few things to update.  First off, I was able to confirm that, despite my confusion over a 25 vine limit in their FAQ, Vintage Nurseries was not doing me a special favor by sending me two vines, but they indeed will supply anyone from 1 to 100 vines via their website.  Buying in small quantities isn’t cheap with shipping but there aren’t many alternatives.  The rootstock order is in, so I will report on the experience and the rootstock when they arrive and are planted.  For clarification, I have received no discounts or incentives for any of the services or items I have referred to in any of my posts.  If I am ever so lucky and any incentive or gift is received I will be sure to disclose that.

While my focus is inside with winemaking, the vines have been enthusiastic breaking their buds, with  new shoots just beginning their stretch upward toward the top wire.  There is a concern with one vine which has shoots forming on one cordon but only one small bud just breaking through on the other.

Plenty of time to cover the vineyard in the coming months, so now back to the winemaking.

 

 

Having settled in after my foray into a snowy Middle East, my whole urban vining effort is in full swing again with the fermenting of my kit, the order of my replacement vine, the decision to switch from wood mulch to living mulch, and the emergence of this year’s new growth.  I will cover all these things in future posts but for today I will focus on my wine making efforts and the primary fermenting of my first batch.  

Primary Fermentation (Part One): With all the excuses of missing gear removed it was time and yet I still found myself hesitating to start the kit.  With everything I read, there was the constant emphasis on sanitizing everything and I was starting to overthink things.  I was seeing the threat of bacteria everywhere and trying to figure out how to ensure that everything was sanitized and avoid inadvertently touching equipment or setting it on something that would soil things.  There are a variety of sanitizing and cleaning agents out there.  I opted for PBW for cleaning and Potassium Metabisulphite (Kmeta) for sanitizing.  So off I went cleaning and sanitizing the carboy, thermowell, stirring spoon, and airlock (more on this in a future post) to be used for the primary fermentation.

I use my slow cooker all the time. Slow cooking bone-in chicken with vegetables, herbs and various cooking liquids is the most frequent combination. Wine is often one of those cooking liquids, also fueling the cook and pairing with the finished meal. Check out a pork and wine pairing from 2010 that I still remember quite vividly.

Some time ago I adapted a straightforward recipe for Coq au Vin to use a whole chicken and the slow cooker rather than the stove. I’ve used both white and red wines to make it, something dry without a lot of floral aromas works the best. The night before I made the dish recently I had come across my remaining stash of 2009 Winexpert Limited Edition Petit Verdot. I wasn’t that jazzed with the wine when we first tasted it. It was light, mildly flavored and not at all distinctive. It had a very youthful palate of flavors and didn’t hint at any potential, and I always sort of figured I hadn’t given it enough love. It has aged well and is now presenting as an earthy dry red wine with a healthy concentration in both color and the mature flavors. It drank well on its own and made me think of options for the dinner I was planning to make the next day.

 

It has been an eventful month since last post, starting with a Valentine’s getaway, meandering into a snowstorm in the Middle East, and finally ending with a possible solution for replacing my vine.  In parallel with, and because of, this unusual string of events I have not yet started my first kit, but rather been slowly building up my winemaking supplies in preparation.  All of these things have contributed to a growing excitement about the coming year.

For Valentines, the wife and I enjoed a little getaway from San Diego to the nearby historical gold rush town of Julian, which has been adding tasting rooms and a vineyard here and there over the last decade or so.  Only a couple of local vineyards producing wine from their own grapes, but at least one of the tasting rooms is aspiring to add to that in the coming years.  While an enjoyable round of tastings there were no leads on acquiring a replacement vine.

 

Makers of ice wine probably don't sleep very soundly in the autumn, waiting for the turn of the weather. In the eyes of most ordinary folk in Canada and northern Europe, they must seem absolutely nuts: they actually look forward to the night of the first frost after a warm summer and autumn. And when that frost comes, they leap early out of bed, instead of burrowing under the covers, bursting into frantic activity as though their livelihood depends on it.

Of course, it actually does. Making ice wine adds some crazy-specific weather conditions on top of usual winemaking procedures. To create this wine successfully depends on certain weather and on harvesting grapes within a narrowly defined time frame. That's why just a few parts of the world are known for ice wine excellence.

What do you call a 2000 case production winery? Small. Tom & Susan Higgins, the proprietors of Heart & Hands Wine Company, call it just right. Heart & Hands Wine Company is located in Union Springs, NY on the Eastern shore of Cayuga Lake. Production is focused on Pinot Noir and Riesling sourced from vineyards on several lakes and made in small lots using traditional and often manual practices.  It is just these practical, pragmatic and purposeful choices, both stated on the web site and also described to me by friends who knew the wines, that attracted my attention to their story.

My first trip to the Finger Lakes region took me along the shores of Keuka and Seneca lakes with no plan to visit Cayuga Lake where Heart & Hands is located. I got my first taste of Heart & Hands wine from a Pinot flight at the Red Newt Bistro and I promptly placed an order when I got home.  Before my recent off-season trip I contacted Tom Higgins and found out that our vacation was timed perfectly with their own vacation, and though they were closed for the season and would have happily arranged to meet with me, they were going to be out of town. Damn, I have to wait longer to visit! Tom and I agreed to conduct an interview with a series of questions and answers exchanged by email. For a little inspiration and to sate my unquenched desire to visit I finished a bottle of their 2008 Barrel Reserve Pinot while I drew up my questions. I also reviewed my tasting notes about their wine.

 

 

Winter in the Finger Lakes. Cool climate wine tourism definitely has an off-season and despite some producers taking time off and open restaurants hard to find, the quieter pace of the season provides plenty of opportunity to network, taste and have fun. And if, as in my case, you are doing recon for future visits, the extra time can be put to good use.

 

With the room that is to contain my future winemaking station undergoing a home makeover, it was time to shift back to the vines outside.  The leaves having abandoned their vines, and the harsh Southern California winter in full force, I braved the elements and snipped away for their winter pruning in the forbidding 78 degree (F) winter sun.  When complete, the trellis had transformed from a tangled, intertwined mess to a sleek, minimalist trio of T’s.  It’s very satisfying to finally see the full frame, from which all future grapes will be grown, before me.  As I stepped back from the last vine to admire my work, I stumbled, one foot in the hole where my fourth vine had been, a reminder of how much I have yet to learn.

The search for a Mourvèdre replacement has been ongoing without much success.  Previously, a reader of WineMaker Magazine online had been kind enough to offer me an extra vine he had on hand.  At the time,  I had concerns for the vine.  It looked meager compared to the Zinfandel and Mourvèdre I had planted.  After Christmas, I finally got around to scraping to get past the bark, checking the health of the vine, and sadly confirmed it was dead.  There was no green, neither above nor below the graft.  This meant I was back on the search for a replacement.

“I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines.” - Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer

“All things must pass.” - George Harrison