Yep, it's Halloween night, and I'm drinking this spooky, scary beer! 

The brewery, Fantome, is named after a ghost legend in a nearby town. As the story goes, the phantom of Countess Berthe de La Roche wanders the ruins of the castle in La Roche-en-Ardenne. Dany Prignon makes this, plus special seasonal beers each quarter which he flavors with herbs and spices-- most of them local. 

This is some seriously funky and sour beer. If you are a saison lover, Fantôme will really appeal to you. If you don't like the saison style...... I can't think of anything scarier to drink! 

Here is a little song that reminds me of Fantôme Saison... and of Halloween:

Here is a great wine from one of the best producers in a very difficult year. 2008 started off with great bud break and flowering, but hail storms, humidity, rains, and fog did some damage to the yields and caused widespread botrytis. But when you taste this wine, the last thing you think of is struggle. This wine is a true example of triumph in a rough year.   

The grapes come from the Lamm vineyard, which sits between the rocky slopes of the Heiligentstein and Gaisberg vineyards. The Lamm vineyard has different soils than its neighbors: here we find loess and loam, which, combined with great ripening from the south-facing slopes, tend to make broad, rich wines with deep density.  Other producers working the Lamm include Schloss Gobelsburg, Hirsch, and Birgit Eichinger.

Willi Bründlmayer took over in 1980; the family lives at the winery and is committed to organic fertilizers, cover crops, natural yeasts, and biodiversity in general. The reserve grüners (like this Lamm) are fermented in large, neutral casks of Austrian oak. Willi has a unique regimen at harvest time: he reserves a small amount of grapes during the harvest and macerates them for half a day to have some must with a bit of skin contact. He uses this tannin-rich must to season his ferments with a little richness. 

Perhaps he did so well in such a damp year due to his work with the lyre training system; a vine training system Willi helped define that involves splitting the grape vine and training it into two arms that extend upward. This divides the canopy, allowing sunlight in on both sides, and it also increases airflow. This can help prevent rot and mildew, and increase ripeness in tough vintages. 

Bründlmayer 'Lamm' 2008 Grüner Veltliner Reserve (Kamptal, Austria) 
When I first tasted this wine it was at a huge industry portfolio tasting. Sometimes, these grand tastings seem silly to me, because your palate can become weary after tasting so many wines, and how can you really get to know the story behind the bottle when you have a rushed 30 seconds to speak to the winemaker and try their entire selection? But on the other hand, if a wine has the ability to rise above the noise in this setting where there are so many sensory inputs, then perhaps it is something truly profound. I came to this after trying a hundred wines and it just stunned me into silence. I had to steal away to a quiet corner to really give it more attention. I immediately special-ordered a case for my wine list. Since then, every time I open this bottle I am once again stunned. It is so beautiful a wine I can barely describe it. It is the kind of wine that makes you want to be a better sommelier each day-- the kind of wine that makes you want to rise up and match the quality of what is in the glass. The wine is rich, broad, and dense, with filigree minerality throughout, and a complexity of aromas that range from apples to melons to what the forrest air must smell like just beyond the Lamm. 

I recently chatted with Lauren Mowery about the New Zealand wine scene in New York; here are the results, published in the Village Voice Fork in the Road series: 

I've worked with several emerging wine regions over the years, and it fascinates me how new wine regions create identity. There are so many different angles to approach identity. Winery identity is one thing, but to have regional identity, you must have some semblance of cooperation between the growers, and usually the earliest groups will form a type of governing body that will go on to inform GI areas and rules. 

But because I work in the service area, to me regional identity isn't about sales or image. When I open a wine for someone I like to be able to paint a picture of where it's from. Many emerging regions focus on grape variety as identity, and yes, it makes my job easier to sell wine when I can say to a consumer, "yes, this is pinot noir, so it may remind you of x, y or z." But should grape variety be tied to regional identity in emerging wine regions?

A grape variety is a unique genetic composite formed from a single seed. A pinot noir plant will not grow from a pinot noir seed—you can only get a pinot noir plant from cloning. Pinot noir is many centuries old. Imagine if a single person were cloned for over 1,000 years. On one hand, it would be cool to have the world over-run with Einsteins and mutant Einsteins, but then we might have never had a Richard Feynman.

To me, there is too much a focus on the “classic” grape varieties in the world—vintners/nurseries are cloning old genetic material, which weakens it over time—just think of how many pinot and grenache mutants there are! Not only does this create monoculture in the vineyard, which is dangerous for longevity over centuries, but it pushes new regions to establish themselves in the image of previously established regions. These are issues that nobody really wants to talk about because it’s bad marketing—but I’ll go out on a limb here, and start the conversation. I’d love to see genetically younger grape varieties in emerging wine regions; I’d love to see emerging wine regions grow different clonal material than from Burgundy or Bordeaux. I’d love to see consumers more willing to experiment with grape varieties aside from Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and Cabernet Sauvignon. These varieties are wonderful, and lovely, and needed. But the more consumers push for familiar tastes, the more big wine companies will graft over unique plots, the more start-up wineries will be less willing to experiment with different varieties, and the more homogenous our wine flavors will become. I embrace diversity because I fear the threats to the wine industry that monoculture poses. So, I think it can be dangerous for emerging wine regions to focus on creating their identity around a few international grape varieties. I think we should all be searching for multiple varieties, and perhaps even new varieties.

But these issues of identity that emerging regions face are played out every night in restaurants. People don’t know what to expect from a Martinborough pinot noir, and they want a comparison—is it like Burgundy, or is it like Sonoma Pinot Noir? I want to say “It is like Martinborough Pinot noir,” but this isn’t practical in the situation when someone is searching for a benchmark to set their expectations. So, I am forced to compare Martinborough to Burgundy. I don’t want to. But do I have an alternative?

It seems that emerging wine regions face such high start up costs that they need to enter the market with semi-recognizable wines. But I am willing to work harder at my job to sell less familiar grape varieties to create a little more diversity in the world, and I think there are many other sommeliers willing to do the same. 

Last week I was in the middle of an insane day, a day too busy for tasting appointments. But I had some on the calendar and it was too late to cancel. I had a clear two hours of work to do in the next half hour to get ready for the start of restaurant service, and I went into this particular tasting with my eye on speed, my brain racing with an intense priority list, and my heart pounding with stress. I was going to speed taste through the wines and then get back to business. 

When I'm focused for work, nothing can grab my attention away from reprinting wine lists, ordering, and updating the wine list. 

Nothing but a miraculous wine, that is. Sometimes, these unexpected sips can give you just the perspective you need in a hurried day. One sip of this, and it was as if the world stopped and everything that was truly important came into clear focus. 

This taste of Etna carricante certainly gave my night a whole new sense of meaning and wonder. I love having a job where aesthetic magic can surprise you on an almost nightly basis. 

Winemaker Alice Bonaccorsi has a vineyard that one might find in a fairytale. Here, the vines rise above swirling volcano smoke that billows from Etna, the sleeping giant that smolders in the backdrop; and ancient volcano cones from thousands of years ago jut their hard lava cones up from the vineyard like stalagtites in a cave. It's a fantastical setting, and the wine is as magical as from where it comes. 

Nick Mills of Rippon recently visited NYC to pour an epic vertical from his family's winery. He showed us his wines and shared his philosophies on winemaking and biodynamic farming. His wines were as inspirational as his lecture! Here are some excerpts of his story, followed by a sip-by-sip journey through the vertical: 

Rippon: The Genesis
Nick's great grandfather bought the land in Central Otago back in 1912-- about a century ago! They named it "Rippon," after the grandmother of his great-grandfather. Her maiden name was Emma Rippon, and she lived in Australia. Her son, Fred, went on to become Victoria's first senator, and he also built the estate Rippon Lea in Melbourne, named in honor of his mother. Fred's son Percy (Nick's great grandfather), moved to Central Otago and named his homestead Rippon after the family estate in Melbourne. 

Winemaking in Central Otago got a start back in 1864 when French national Jean Desire Feraud planted vines and entered what he called "Burgundy" wine into some competitions. A few years later, viticulturalist Romeo Bragato travelled the islands to make recommendations to European governments about the possible success of wine production in New Zealand. He noted phylloxera sightings, but he also stated that "there are few of the places visited by me which are unsuitable to the vine" (Bragato 1895:8-10). Bragato's view of the future inspired local farmers to form the Central Otago Vine and Fruitgrowers' Association. At an early meeting, the association discussed planting more orchards to compete with the imported fruit from Tasmania, and producing unfermented wine (grape must) to supply the Prohibitionists with something to drink. (Interestingly, the market for unfermented wine-- aka grape juice-- has a growing place in our contemporary market; some great ones to look for are Millton, Navarro and Oakencroft). But despite the early enthusiasm by this organization which quickly gathered 100+ members, commercial winemaking didn't really get a firm start until the 1970s. 

In 1975, Nick's father, Rolfe (born in 1923 and raised during New Zealand's Prohibition), began experimenting and planted many different varieties of Vitis vinifera rootstock. He was one of the first people to plant vinifera vines to Central Otago, and the Rippon vineyards are all on their own roots (then and now). Using vinifera rootstock is risky business, but if you wanted to make the argument that you get better must when the grape material doesn't have to travel through a graft, you could certainly use Rippon wines as evidence.  

Over time the grapes varieties that found themselves most suited to the site were selected and Rippon works currently with these 6 varieties: 

Osteiner
Riesling
Gewurztraminer
Sauvignon Blanc
Pinot Noir
Gamay

The vineyards have all grown by massal selection, and they are farmed using biodynamic principles. For Nick, after seeing the healthiness of biodynamic vineyards and the happiness of the families who work this way in Burgundy, it was a no-brainer to farm this way in Central Otago. He also had James Millton up in Gisborne who could answer questions. 

Schist

"On schist, the wines become intellectual." - Nick Mills

Schist is the most important feature of Rippon. Nick's father was stationed in the Atlantic on a submarine during WWII and noticed the schist soils in the Douro during a stop in Oporto. He saw many similarities between the Douro and his farm in Central Otago and first got the impetus to plant grapes there. 

Schist is formed when molten substances (often clay and mud) chemically transform under heat and pressure, then cool very quickly, forming thin flaky, sheets of mica that layer with other minerals to form a type of rock that will flake apart in slabs. If the molten clay cools fast enough, you will even find quartz crystals sparkling throughout the schist. 

How did schist get in Central Otago? The Southern Alps were formed during the last 10 million years as tectonic plates Australia and Pacific began to over lap one another. During this violent and fairly recent geologic formation, greywacke (New Zealand's sandstone bedrock) was transformed into schist.  

Climate

Central Otago is in a unique climactic position. The 'Roaring 40s' airstream winds around the planet and comes into contact with New Zealand's west coast. 5-10 meters of rain fall here annually, and it is one of the wettest places in the world. The Southern Alps-- a mountain range that runs down the west side of New Zealand's South Island-- blocks these rains from coming inland, and on the east side of the mountain range there is not much rainfall at all. 

Nick describes Central Otago as having "a simulated Continental climate in New Zealand," but describes Rippon, which is situated underneath of the main divide, as having a more temperate microclimate which is regulated by a large, neighboring freshwater lake-- Lake Wanaka. This is a blessing to Nick because "it makes the wine more lifted. I can focus on texture rather than fruit density."

A nearby cascade waterfall keeps the air flowing over the vines, so they have less worry about rot. 

Wine History in Central Otago

Some early pioneers were making wine here in the 1800s, but modern winemaking is pretty recent. 
Nick identifies three distinct waves of modern investment in Central Otago wine. 

1st Wave: Pioneer Wineries
2nd Wave: "they got things rolling really fast, good on them." 
3rd Wave: in 2000, Central Otago moves into the third wave. 


Subregions in Central Otago

I ask every winemaker I meet from the area about the subregions of Central Otago, and I get a different answer from almost every one. Nick says that while there are clear climactic differences between the subregions, it is just too soon to see an accurate picture of each subregion's soil structure in Central Otago. We must wait until the vines get older, and the winegrowers' understanding of the land must continue to develop. 

Central Otago's wine subregions are based loosely on several settlement areas in the region: 

Wanaka
Bendigo
Alexandra
Bannockburn/Cromwell
Gibbston

If these settlement areas are the building blocks for a clearer picture of subregions, this places Rippon in the Lake Wanaka subregion. 

Terroir at Rippon 

Throughout Central Otago, Grand Cru level sites will prove themselves in due time; but thanks to Rippon's long track record, the terroir here has come into focus and Nick can certainly speak in great detail about the soils and micro-terroirs of his own property. There are two standout vineyards: Tinker's Field and Emma's Block. 

Tinker's Field is named after Nick's father, who passed away in 2000. Rolfe's childhood nickname was "Tink," and as a child he looked out upon this field and dreamed of its future potential. 

Emma's Block is named after Nick's great-great-great grandmother, who was the last in the family to carry the Rippon name. 

Tinker's field is pure schist. Nick sees schist as power. "Power is in compression, and I have to be careful here, because there is no science that can translate minerality into wine. There is no science.... yet. And yet, you can taste the soils by the texture of the wine." 

Emma's Block has a special blue clay veins that run through the schist and give a completely different texture to the wine. 

1990-2010 Rippon Vertical
September 20th, 2013, Nomad Hotel

I think that the quality of the Rippon wines is obvious to those tasters who follow their olfaction, make their own decisions, and don't just promote wines based on trends and bandwagons. And yet, if you consider the auction market and the gray market to be gauges of what wines are considered to be valuable in the world, high end New Zealand wines have not yet made it to this area of wine awareness-- most likely because commercial wine production in the region is so young. Only a few people with great palates lucky enough to have tasted widely and vastly and gutsy enough to follow what their own palate tells them seem to be in on this secret. On September 20th, 2013, a group of these movers and shakers in the wine world gathered in the afternoon at the top of The Nomad hotel in NYC to taste through a vertical of Rippon's history. Only one such tasting of its kind has ever been done before, and it happened in San Francisco in 2012. 

For me, this was an epic day and I had been looking forward to it for months. I woke up with the excitement of any other sommelier who might have been on their way to a DRC vertical tasting. 

Sommeliers Dustin Wilson MS and Thomas Pastuszak poured the opening flights-- it was pretty cool to watch these superstars work together! 

Nick presided over the tasting. We had all heard his story before, but this was the first time that any of us had tasted so many vintages over two decades of this winery's history. The history of a family winery is also the history of the family. And to hear the family history as we tasted each vintage was such a generous thing to share. Many of these bottles came from his mom's personal collection, and it was such a treat to try these side-by-side. 

Rolfe planted his first experimental vineyards in the mid-70s. In 1980, Nick's parents took their family to France and they worked in vineyards for two years. When they returned to Rippon in 1982, Rolfe & his wife Lois began planting what is now Tinker's Field. Soon after, several early wineries in the region got together and founded the Central Otago Winegrowers Association.  

<-- Here are three bottles of New Zealand wine history. 

Rudi Bauer, the first experienced winemaker to land in Central Otago, headed to Rippon in 1989 and was the viticulturalist/winemaker from 1990-1992. Rudi now makes wine at Quartz Reef, but when Rudi first arrived at Rippon he did many interesting things. He established a special shape of bottle that might help mark Central Otago as a unique region (you can see this in the two bottles on the right side of this photo). These bottles are stunning and unique. Unfortunately they did not fit in fridges and for practical reasons have gone the way of the bocksbeutel. But Rudi's early thinking about regional identity was far ahead of its time, and I'm sure he inspired many early winemakers to think about the impact that their early decisions would have on lasting vineyard and winemaking techniques and on marketing their wines to the world for years to come. 

Rudi mentored many people on wine techniques. He's a unique guy who combines humor with philosophy to get his message across. 

At this vertical tasting, Rudi was present for the presentation of these first wines. What a treat to taste them with their winemaker! 

Rippon 1990 pinot noir
a cool vintage
very complex aromas: green herbs, mushrooms, meat, pork sausage, sweet spices, cashews; tannins were rich 

Rippon 1991 pinot noir
an even cooler vintage than 1990
green and savory, tarter and lighter than the 1990

Rippon 1992 pinot noir 
an even cooler vintage than 1991
rich and dense, meaty and spicy, dense texture, wild and rich tannins

Then we tasted 1995, 1998, and 2000. Nick considers the time period of these wines "a hiatus for the winery as a business. We were focusing on planting and developing. In the wines, there is not a lot of detail, but you see a grape vine that is comfortable in its environment." 

During this time period, Nick was focusing on his skiing career, and after a severe knee injury dashed his hopes of being in the Olympics he enrolled at the CFPPA be Beaune to study winegrowing. Nick returned after his father's death to help his mother and siblings run the winery. 

Rippon 1995 pinot noir
almost minty-- this reminded me of '90s Eyrie. 

Rippon 1998 pinot noir
a darker personality with lots of tertiary aromas and the first hints of oxodation; but going back it smelled like flowers.  

Rippon 2000 pinot noir
sweet spices and cloves

Nick's first official vintage was in 2003. He described Rudi Bauer shaking him by the shoulders and saying, "Do you realize what you've got!" If only we all had such a person who could shake us and let us know when a very special opportunity lay ahead! 

Nick did realize what he inherited, and he fully took the reigns and has charged ahead, full steam. It's a true family winery, with his siblings and his wife also helping at every turn. 

2006 was the first year the winery was "Parkerized." The US took notice in this vintage, but it wasn't a classic vintage because it was their warmest year. 

In 2008 Nick first released Tinker's Field and Emma's Block. These two sights began to show individuality, and so he bottled them on their own. These aren't barrel selections-- they are blends across each entire vineyard. He also makes a "Rippon" pinot noir which is a blend of mature vines from the entire property including both Tinker's and Emma's. 

In this flight, we got to taste two years, side-by-side, of each of the three bottlings. 2010 is in the back and 2009 is shown in the front row. From left to right the glasses are Rippon, Emma's, and Tinker's. 

You can see the vintage difference in the color alone-- 2010 is much more extracted in the back row, while the 2009s have a paler, more garnet hue. 

And the Rippon whites are gorgeous too. 

Nick surprised us with a bottle of Rudi's 1991 Rippon riesling at the very end, and it was off the charts. It reminded me of old Zilliken! 

I know that in 30 years, people will look back on this tasting and marvel. I can only hope I will be around to taste through the 50 year anniversary vertical! 

To hear Nick tell his own story in person, check out Episode 118 on Levi Dalton's I'll Drink to That podcast. 

Bibliography

Bragato, Romeo. (1895) Report on the Prospects of Viticulture in New Zealand. Department of Agriculture. 8-10. 
Cooper, Michael. (2002) The Wine Atlas of New Zealand. Auckland: Hodder Moa Beckett. 
Mills, Nick. (2012) Lecture at Public restaurant. 
Mills, Nick. (2013) Lecture at The Musket Room restaurant. 
Mills, Nick. (2013) Lecture at a vertical tasting held at The Nomad. 

It's been a big week! 

At work, The Musket Room received a Michelin Star after just four months of being open!