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The Wines of Pico Island

12/27/2021

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The Wines of Lake Garda

5/5/2021

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In December of 2019, I went to Lake Garda in Italy, near Verona in the north, to learn more about the wines there... 
If you've been curious how ancient Rome continues to influence the wines there today, check out this podcast that looks deep into the history and culture of Lake Garda wines: 
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The Oregon Wine Selection in Virginia is Awesome

6/21/2018

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When I first moved to Virginia, I was blown away by the great selection of Oregon wines in the state. It didn't seem to make sense until I did some digging and discovered that Oregon wines have a long history in Virginia.... 

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Wine Spectator's Wine Experience

10/24/2017

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It was so much fun to be a part of this year's Wine Experience Sommelier Team. For the seminars, we opened up over 100 bottles of 1977 port and decanted them off the sediment, vetted several Gaja bottles for a comparative tasting, opened wines for pairings for the Chef's Challenge (Barboursville vermentino was paired with Chef José Andrés' dish!), and tasted a through a special vertical of Chateau Margaux. 
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Amber Pinot Gris in Virginia....

9/30/2017

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When Jake Busching and Joy Ting made a tiny batch of skin-fermented pinot gris a few years back, they kept revisiting the barrel until it tasted just right. Teaming up with Charlottesville wine professionals Will Curley (Ten Course Hospitality) and Priscilla Martin Curley (Tavola), they bottled the 'orphan' barrel as 'Orphan No. 1.' They hope to find more barrels in other wineries and bottle them under the label series. 

<-- Here's a link to my article in Knife & Fork magazine about the project. 
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A Land Called Honah Lee (Orange County, Virginia)

9/14/2017

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For years, I've been hearing winemakers gush about the special fruit from Virginia's 'Honah Lee' mountain vineyard, so I reached out to the owners to learn more about it.

Yes, Honah Lee is named after the mystical land in Peter, Paul, & Mary's 'Puff, The Magic Dragon' song. The vineyards start around 650 feet and rise up to the top, where you'll find some old-vine viognier at about 1,000 feet. Two turkey barns sit in the middle of the vineyards. Here's a link to their full story. 
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Making Wine

9/6/2017

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I enjoy working with winegrowers who make wine from vineyards they've tended, and who shepherd the stuff from start to finish with a cohesive vision. It doesn't seem right to walk in at the very end of the process and quickly buy some grapes or juice, or slap a label on a shiner, and suddenly claim winemaker status. I never wanted to be a sommelier who "made my own wine." In my view, it's my job to source and support winegrowers, not create. 

For this reason, I always swore that I'd never, ever, make wine... until last harvest, when I did. 

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In 2016 I was researching for an article about passito wine. At the suggestion of a winemaker friend, I took up a tiny project to learn more by going through the process and making a small amount of it. I thought I could gain more insights into the production side if I watched a wine through from harvest to bottling. With the help of some friends, I harvested about 10 small lugs of grapes, dried them by fan, pressed them in a tiny basket press, and fermented the juice in a glass demijohn. I held back a small beaker of inoculated juice to add to the demijohn of must-- but only as a last resort if I couldn't get a ferment started with the native yeasts.

I lost the demijohn of wine to a bad fermentation. But I did make about eight tiny bottles of tasty passito dessert wine from the beaker-- meager gains from a small experiment. Though the amount of wine is insignificant in the grand scheme of things, I learned much about winemaking in the process. The palpable, tactile joys of handling the grapes, the smells and sounds of a fermentation-- all these things brought me closer to wine. 

Hearing the satisfying "glug" as a gas bubble first made its way through the air-lock and signaled fermentation had begun, watching CO2 bubbles churn during the fermentation as tiny universes of yeast worked through their micro-life-cycles, and performing mundane tasks like siphoning without disturbing lees-- all the small decisions-- increased my appreciation for the motions and quotidian labors of winemaking. I always knew these things happened, but by performing them, I saw them in a new light.

Outside of educational experiments for professional growth, I still approach 'sommelier winemaking' with extreme caution. And yet, just yesterday I found myself bottling some experimental PetNat to see what happens... There's a certain gravitational force that pulls a wine lover to make wine. I already relish the day when I can pop the first bottle of PetNat, irregardless of what quality it might embody. I'm now viscerally connected to that wine and to this vintage. ​I can only imagine that this fierce connection to the casual wines I've "made" must be much more intense for the great winemakers of the world. 
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Chateau Musar 1980 white (Bekaa Valley, Lebanon)

8/30/2017

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A splendid chameleon, the 1980 Musar white presents differently every time you stick your nose into the glass, and just when you think you can finally nail down what it is, it changes yet again. This is a wine to sit down with over the course of a day or two, and revisit every few hours. 

I opened this up by myself, in a new house, with belongings in boxes that made cardboard skylines against a wall in each room. The 1980 Musar was a good choice to commemorate the experience. As I drank it, I had fleeting thoughts of insightful comments from the late Serge Hochar. I came for sips between the newly-freed contents of each settled box, and the wine slowly unpacked on me. It became a bottle inexplicably linked with the christening of my new home. 

Once again, the phenomenology of wine emerged from a bottle whose producer had been intent to create such experiences. 

In Serge's own words, (circa May 2013), "My white wine is for your brain. My white wine is way more complex than you could ever think. These whites mature long after the reds." 

I'm frequently re-amazed at the nascent power of communication locked inside of wine bottles. The elemental expression of the producer-- or lack thereof-- can't help but be obvious.

A few months later, looking for that same bottled charm, I splurged and opened another 1980 Musar white, but it wasn't the same. How could it be? That's not what these wines were made for.  

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Chris Hill- Shaping Virginia Vineyards for Over 3 Decades

7/6/2017

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Here's my latest C-Ville Weekly column about Chris Hill! 
​Hill is a veteran of the Virginia wine scene who has mentored some of today's key producers. 
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Ankida Ridge Vineyards (Amherst, Virginia)

6/23/2017

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If you head up this road, you'll find yourself deep into Amherst County, where a hamlet of vines grows on a sprawling mountainside. 


It was almost the vineyard-that-never-was. When Dennis and Christine Vrooman purchased a hundred-acre Blue Ridge Mountains plot in 1999, they imagined a tranquil retirement retreat. But after a contractor unexpectedly cleared a piece of land during the home-building process, they decided to plant a vineyard.
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By 2008, about 2 acres of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines went in the soil. More recently, in the summer of 2017, they added another 4-acre plot.

They farm mostly organically and integrate some biodynamic preparations, but make a few non-organic exceptions to combat certain vineyard mildews. Officially, they consider their farming philosophy to be Lutte Raisonée. 

​Bees, chickens, and bluebirds keep insects in check, and a herd of sheep mows cover-crops between the vine rows. It's one of the most concerted efforts in organic practices I've seen in Virginia.  


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A Fleet of State-of-the-Art Lawnmovers
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Christine Vrooman at the Tasting Room, Perched above the Vineyards
The Vrooman's son, Nathan, is the winemaker, though the entire operation is really a family affair. 

Their daughter, Tamara, works more on the sales side, and she also represents Virginia wines outside of the state. 

At Virginia wine festivals, you'll often find the whole family representing Ankida Ridge.

This mountainside came close to becoming a quiet, private retirement haven. Instead, it emerges as the nexus of a new family wine legacy. 
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You might not believe it by the verdant land in the above photo, but the original 2-acre vineyard narrowly escaped engulfment by a raging forest fire less than a year ago.  ​It was refreshing to see how nicely the mountains have recovered. 
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The new vineyard, Planted June 2017
​The new vineyard includes a bit of gamay, but only enough for one barrel. Dennis loves Cru Beaujolais, and "theoretically, this site should be ideal for gamay," he says, due to the granite soils. "As our plants age and as we add different clones, I think we're going to make good pinot noir. But I think we're also going to find that our site would be much better for Beaujolais-style wine." Personally, I'm hoping for some Passetoutgrains-style bottlings, and there is also talk of potential aligoté (fingers crossed!). 
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Local Wildlife
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Christine with Soil Samples
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2015 Chardonnay
The 2015 chardonnay is a blend of 50% home vineyard, and 50% of a neighbor's vineyard planted in 1999.
It has woodland aromas as mountain wines tend to do. On the palate it's rich, subtle oak influence, a peachy-fruity mid-palate, refreshing acidity, balanced long finish. 

2013 Chardonnay
This was a personal favorite. 
An earthy, complex nose. Rich palate with excellent balance between acid, density, and spiciness. There is a juiciness of bright fruit with a lively texture. 

2011 Chardonnay
Very soft and smooth. A soft mid-palate but a lingering creaminess and slow-burning, acid-driven finish. 
2010 Pinot Noir 
inaugural vintage, 30% estate
This wine has deep, rich, fruit aromas with a robust, dark palate, intense oak tannins, and a zippy finish. 

2014 Pinot Noir
100% estate
mountain garrigue-like aromas of the local underbrush and trees, integrated with tart cherry and spice aromas. The finish is long and lingering like some of the whites-- this slow-burning complex play between acid and tannin, with soft, chalky tannins driving the texture on the end. 

2015 Pinot Noir 
100% de-stemmed & experiments with indigenous yeasts
rich & spicy fruit. Some grippy tannins here. And once again, that long, lingering finish. 
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To test indigenous yeasts, they'll get a small fermentation going in the vineyard. Then, they'll smell it. If there are off-odors, they've only lost a tiny amount of grapes. If it smells good, they'll add more grapes to it and encourage the microbiology that is already there. 

In 2016, the Vroomans began to experiment with stems by including 25% whole-cluster to the pinot noir fermentation, which can significantly change a wine's character, especially when it comes to aromatics. I'll be curious to taste it on release, and also to see how whole cluster might come to be used at Ankida Ridge. 
             
In their 6-7 years of winegrowing, Ankida Ridge has dialed in a house style. Their inaugural vintage of 2010 made an impact on the international wine community, and if they released another bold and ripe wine like it, they might get the kind of accolades that ripe pinot noirs tend to receive. But as Ankida Ridge moves toward an estate model, their style has shifted toward a kind of winemaking that matches their home harvest by showcasing mountain aromas and highlighting a play between acid and subtle fruit. They pick at a lower Brix, now, and are capturing local nuance and complexity in their recent vintages. 

Dennis says of the 2010 wine, it has "over-the-top flavors and over-the-top aromas." The wine is indeed much bolder and riper than their current bottlings. Special as it was to taste the 2010, it's interesting that Dennis prefers what they are making now, as if he has become a part of the terroir, and his palate has calibrated to their home site. 

The mountain seems to exude a sense of possibility, especially with the potential of the new vines practically bursting through their grow-tubes.  

It's great to follow Ankida Ridge Vineyards as they continue on their journey. The Vroomans feel lucky to have unexpectedly found wine, but Virginia is luckier to have them. 
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    Erin

    I’m Erin, and this is my wine blog. Here, you'll find information about wines from around the world, and Virginia.  


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