Gravity Flow Winemaking at Vineyard 29

Lately I've been hearing a lot about gravity flow winemaking. I first encountered it in South America, having visited wineries in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay that are gravity-driven. The belief is that moving the wine via pumps is disruptive to the wine and steals some of its character. Gravity-driven wineries are constructed on multiple levels so that wine is transported from higher tanks to lower tanks by gravity. Conceivably you could require as many as 4 levels - sorting level for the grapes/juice to go in from the press, a level below for racking off sediment, another level below for racking off fermentation lees, and another level down into the barrel cellar. I was always skeptical - what if you run out of tanks in the lower levels? What about blending? What if you need to move the wine up to an empty tank? And forget logistics of the hoses - there would need to be trapdoors and tunnels everywhere. The mystery was solved during my recent visit to Vineyard 29 in Napa. There I understood the missing link - a holding tank that moves between levels via elevator, since they have just 1 level of tanks above the barrel cellar. With their elevator holding tank they have more flexibility to move the wine without relying on available tanks on a certain level. Hoses are snaked through tunnels in the walls and floor.

Above Tank Level

Tank Level

Holes for the hoses to snake through to reach the Lower Level

Red wine barrels in the cellar

Once we made our way through the gravity tour, we were welcomed in the barrel cellar for a round-table tasting.

Their 2009 Estate Sauvignon Blanc was unlike any I'd ever had. It was luscious, flowery and tropical while also maintaining the acidity and minerality so coveted in Bordeaux. The use of concrete tanks allows for an air exchange that makes the wine less sensitive to oxidation, so it can age for longer than most white wines - it was aged for 18 months in water-soaked oak barrels (minimal toast) before bottling. This wine was so complex and alive, yet refined and pretty. The finish was super long.

Concrete holding tank for the Sauvignon Blanc

The 2008 Aida Cabernet Sauvignon was blended with small amounts of Merlot and Petit Verdot. It was jammy and thick with super dark blueberry fruit. It was quite balanced in terms of tannin, acidity and alcohol - which was 14.8% but the wine didn't taste hot.

The 2009 Estate Cabernet Franc (75% Cab Franc/25% Cab Sauv) was also unlike any I'd ever had. It had a gorgeous rose/graphite/leather nose with an earthy spice and marked minerality on the palate. Not a ton of fruit but I did notice dark plum. It was very rich and complex with a long finish.

All the wines were decanted 1 hour before serving

Thanks again to Austin for a truly memorable experience - I look forward to enjoying the wines I took home.

Darioush

Last weekend I made another visit to Darioush in the Napa Valley, this time for a sit-down "table-side" tasting. A flat panel tv in our corner of the tasting room showed a video of the field crew harvesting the grapes at night - common practice here in California where fall days can be too hot for harvesting. I think this is such a great process - the field crew works all night and then by 7am the day shift gets to work sorting the grapes and getting the juice into tanks. I'm sure in many parts of the world (warmer climates mostly) this type of shift work is done; in the Finger Lakes it didn't really make sense for us, especially since it could get pretty cold on those fall nights.

Greg, our server, was very knowledgable about the wines and the valley. Darioush wines are made from 90% estate grapes (from vineyards they own) and 10% from vineyards that are leased over multi-year agreements. Owning your own grapes or at least leasing them is important, because it allows you to have control in the vineyard, where wine is born. Knowing the land and the vines gives you a leg up when it comes time to make harvesting decisions. The wines tasted were not far from the lineup I had on my first visit there almost a year ago - Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon. The Cab is their flagship wine and I had tasted the 2007 in March and loved it. This time I got to taste the 2006 next to the 2008 (2007 is sold out because it got great ratings and everyone went crazy for it). The 2006 was obviously smoother, with a silky texture and long finish, but the 2008 had tons more fruit and was much more exciting. The tannins were still gripping but you could imagine how a couple years in the cellar would really do this wine well.

Thanks again to Ryan and Greg for their impeccable service and attention! I highly recommend a visit to Darioush.

Evolution of a Brand

When my former employers took over Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyard in 2007 from the namesake himself they made some subtle changes. First, they began hand sorting all the fruit that came into the winery. While extremely labor-intensive, this elevated the quality level and made the juice more "clean" - free of leaves, bugs, and other imposters that can find their way into the grape clusters. Secondly, Hermann had been experimenting with his different Riesling plots, making a Reserve Riesling from 100% one or the other in different years. In 2007, Fred, the current winemaker, decided to make 2 single vineyard Rieslings from those plots, which they called HJW Vineyard (the original site that Hermann planted in the '70s) and Magdalena Vineyard (land Hermann acquired and planted in the late '90s, now bearing his mother's name). The Reserve Riesling became something else - a small bottling of the best blend in the winery, from the various pickings and vineyard plots that were vinified separately.

Last weekend I did a comparison of the 2003 Riesling Reserve, Hermann's experiment with 100% fruit from the Magdalena vineyard site, and the 2009 Magdalena Vineyard Riesling, which comes from the same place. I worked on the 2009 during my time at the winery. Both had Wiemer's signature acidity, but of course the 2003 was more subtle due to the aging and the fact that 2009 was a wet year that resulted in extremely high acidity in the grapes. (All the 2009's have a crisp acidity that is just great for a variety of foods or several years in the cellar. Sadly, many are sold out, but you can contact the winery to see what is left in the library.) The 2003 was elegant and creamy while the 2009 was vibrant and zesty, but both had the tropical and stone fruit characteristics of fruit from this vineyard site.

A note on the packaging differences of these wines: 2003 is in the classic emerald green bottle typical of many German Rieslings. 2009 is in a taller olive bottle, which is now the status quo for the Reserve bottlings at Wiemer. It's a nod to the more high-end German Rieslings. Also notice the type font was changed and the overall layout and proportion of the label details were improved.

The one constant is, of course, the source of the fruit and the fact that Hermann chose the best sites in the Finger Lakes to make award-winning American Riesling in a tradition that continues today.