News from NW Grapes—June 10, 2008
Update on Sources

Here is a summary of the status of various grape sources for 2008. The website will be updated to reflect these changes in the next day or two, but if you have been following the discussions so far, this summary of changes and continuities will get you up to date fast. There are more detailed notes below for each entry in the following list.

Cancellations

Touriga Nacional

The orders for this grape were too low this year to be viable—and the Cira vineyard has been leased to a winery.

Viognier

No source we can recommend is available to us this year. Frost damage wiped out most of the crop we were expecting. For your information, our impression after our visit to the Central Coast this year is that the best Viognier (wine with the most distinctive varietal character, expressed perhaps most prominently as apricots) comes from hot vineyards. We tasted quite a few Viogniers this year, but only one was exceptional (Opollo) and one very good (Eberle). Both came from hot east side vineyards in Paso Robles.

Significant changes in sources

Cabernet Franc—moving from Paso Robles to Santa Barbara

Our Ranchita Canyon (Paso Robles) source has served us well the past few years, but the tonnage we require has always been problematic. This year, with the shift in processing to Santa Maria, we need to change sources. We have lined up a Lucas & Lewellen vineyard. McKeon-Phillips also uses this source to make a varietal Cab Franc which sells for over $40. To be honest, this is typical over-pricing by a boutique winery, but it is still a good wine.

Merlot—moving from Paso Robles to Santa Barbara

We have been happy with our Paso Robles Merlot sources, but the orders are down this year and do not justify shipping from Paso to Santa Maria. So we have also moved this to the Lucas & Lewellen Los Alamos vineyard. Louis Lucas says simply, “I have good Merlot.” Los Alamos is closer to Carneros in climate than it is to Paso Robles. But Merlot does well in cooler conditions. Both of the sources for Peter Brehm uses for Merlot are in the Carneros area.

Petit Verdot—moving from Paso Robles to Santa Barbara

There never is a lot of demand for Petite Verdot and moving processing to Santa Maria made our Paso source unviable. We thought briefly that we could still get our Petit Verdot from the Cira vineyard again this year, because the winery which leased the vineyard might process the grapes in Santa Maria. But this was not to be.

However, we have been fortunate to be able to switch Petit Verdot to Santa Barbara. This will come from a new Lucas & Lewellen vineyard where the young vines have been heavily pruned. If our past experience in the Okanagan is anything to go by, the first couple of crops off young vines, constrained as they are by the need to limit grape production, end up producing excellent fruit—some of the best until vines are more mature. We have access to these grapes only because are the amount we want is so low.

Sauvignon Blanc (now Napa from Brehm Vineyards)

We are currently asking those who ordered this grape whether they would prefer a Santa Barbara source or whether they would prefer the Napa source we got last year via Brehm Vineyards. We decided to raise the question because they 2007 Brehm Napa source is turning out much better than we toriginally thought it would. Once the decision is made, we will announce it.

Zinfandel—now North Coast from Brehm Vineyards

Zinfandel orders are way down this year, probably because so many people are ordering Nebbiolo and Sangiovese. This meant it was not feasible to offer our Paso vineyards from last year, especially after moving processing to Santa Maria. Those who ordered Zin have been consulted and those who have responded so far (the majority of pails on order) are fine with switching to a Brehm Vineyard source, even though it will cost more. We have not yet decided on exactly which vineyard we will select (there are three Sonoma sources and one Mendocino). All of these are well established Brehm vineyards (two are truly “old vine”) with excellent track records.

Clarification of sources

Nebbiolo

We started out with two possible sources for Nebbiolo, but now we can confirm our preferred source—Lucas & Lewellen vineyards in Santa Barbara. During our recent trip, we thought we might have made a mistake in thinking highly of this sources when we tasted the recently released Mandolina 2004 Nebbiolo. But we later confirmed this was a winemaking failure—and the winemaker is no longer with the winery. We tasted a 2004 from McKeon-Phillips which used the same grapes and it was fine. A 2002 McKeon-Phillips was exceptional and barrel samples of their 06 and 07 vintages showed great promise. McKeon-Phillips has begun recently to bleed some juice off their freshly destemmed grapes to increase color and intensity in their Nebbiolo. That option is not really available to us with frozen grapes, but I am not sure it is wise anyway. The haunting beauty of Nebbiolo comes not with extra intensity but with age (at least five years in my experience), when its color turns to terracotta and wonderful aromas emerge.

Sangiovese—Brehm Vineyards, Chalk Hill (Sonoma)

We were not sure which Coastal Sangiovese we would get this year, but it will now almost certainly be North Coast from Brehm Vineyards. This comes from the Windsor Oaks Vineyards. The Sangiovese is grown at the crest of the highest hill in the vineyard, in a situation not unlike Tuscany. The appellation is Chalk Hill. Brehm Vineyards controls a number of rows in the block. This grape has shown amazing consistency over the last many years, with pickings always coming in very close to the averages of 25.4 Brix with a TA of 8.1 and a pH of 3.31 (which is just about perfect). This should make a fine varietal Sangiovese or make a good Super T uscan blended with a somewhat flabbier Bordeaux varietal.

Confirmations

Cab Sauv (Paso Robles—Still Waters

We are on track to get 2 tons of Cab from Still Waters in Paso. This was the preferred source of the two we got last year and our i mpression is that it has the stuff to make very good wine. It is grown at 2.5 tons to the acre on a hillside that permits good hang time and also (usually) good numbers.

Chardonnay (various sources)

We have two sources (Brehm’s 2007 Santa Lucia Highlands and 2007 Carneros Sangiacomo Home Ranch) in storage already and expect to fill out our orders with our usual source of Santa Barbara White Hills (from Meridian’s tanks). Orders will normally be filled with a mixture of the sources.

Gewürztraminer (Summerland—Krieger)

The judgment is now in from people who made/tasted both our Summerland source and the Gewurz from Columbia Gorge via Brehm V ineyards. The Krieger (Summerland) Gewurz gets the nod—and it is only available from NW Grapes. J

Grenache Noir (Mendocino 2007, McDowell Valley)

In storage already. Not available regularly. Good advice is to get it now.

Malbec (Paso Robles—Still Waters and Russian River—Windsor Oaks)

Most of our Malbec is still expected to come from Still Waters in Paso Robles. This will be supplemented by 12 pails of 2007 Russian River Malbec that we snapped up in the Brehm Vineyards Spring Sale. During our recent tour of Napa-Sonoma with Peter Brehm, we visited the Windsor Oaks Winery. The Malbec was very good. It made me forget all the problems we have had trying to source Malbec from the Okanagan and Washington. The Still Waters uses most of it Malbec for blending, but we have brought back a varietal bottle for a Club tasting—which I will report on in due course. Our impression at the winery was very favorable.

Petite Sirah (Paso Robles—Tower Oaks)

Tower Oaks (Paso Robles) will be available again for the fourth year—the only red variety-vineyard combination we have got continually since 2005. It gets high ratings from those who have made it. It is good (very good, really) on its own or will blend well with Grenache Noir or Zinfandel.

Pinot Gris (Santa Barbara—White Hills)

This is the only white grape source that has stayed constant over the last four years. This Pinot Gris wins awards—most recently best of class at the Provincials.

Pinot Noir (Santa Barbara)

We got clone 667 last year from the Goodchild “hilltop” vineyard. For logistical reasons, we may get a different clone and vineyard this year, but it will still be Santa Barbara and good quality.

Syrah (Sonoma, Alexander Valley, 2007)

We have this Brehm Vineyards source in storage already from the Spring Sale. We visited this vineyard recently during our tour of Napa-Sonoma vineyards with Peter Brehm. Wine made at the vineyard site showed good Syrah character.


Notes by Rod Church, with help from John Taylor