Nursery Rhymes

Just as temperatures spiked to 80 degrees in the FLX it was time to get the grafted plants into the Hermann J. Wiemer Nursery, aka the ground. After grafting and waxing into spring, we packed the plants in boxes with peat moss and sand and kept them in a warmed room for two weeks so they could develop a callous around the graft, thus protecting it. While they were warming up in this phase we would brush the sand on top to fill in any holes to keep the plants packed in tightly. I called this the Zen Garden because brushing the sand was very soothing. During the second week they started sprouting some greenery, and then it was time to get them into the real world.

We carefully unpacked the plants, checked the callouses to make sure they were sound, re-dipped the tops in wax, and re-packed them in large bins for transport up to the nursery about 15 miles north of the winery. With a crew of 10-12 people, we got 100,000 plants in the ground by hand in 3 days: 2 people unpacked the plants into hand-held picking boxes; 1 person drove the tractor, which pulled a 6-seater trailer; 2-4 additional people followed behind filling in the spaces that were missed.

It was sunny and hot and essentially backbreaking, but what an accomplishment! The babies are doing well and they'll stay in the ground until November, when we'll harvest them and get them ready for shipping across the country to vineyards in need. (I did the harvesting part last November, so now I've gone backwards to the beginning).

Meanwhile, we still have some 1 year plants that are ready for planting if you'd like to have your own backyard vineyard. On our patio outside the tasting room you'll see potted plants of varieties including Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Chardonnay, Gruner Veltliner, Viognier, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Wine Bloggers Unite!

TasteCamp EAST 2010 was held last weekend in the Finger Lakes. TasteCamp is a regional wine event aimed at getting enthusiastic journalists and bloggers together in a region that is new to them to taste as much wine as possible and speak to as many winemakers as possible over the course of a weekend. It had its inaugural weekend last year in Long Island, and this year they hit the Finger Lakes.

We hosted a group of 36 at Hermann J. Wiemer on Saturday, and Fred Merwarth, our winemaker, focused our tasting on the evolution of our vineyard sites and how we make blending and bottling decisions. We started off with our 2008 Frost Cuvee, a blended wine of Riesling and Gewurztraminer accented by our cuvee of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir - a second pressing from grapes originally designated for sparkling wine, where we only use the first press juice (sparkling wines are very delicate so you only use the first pressings, whereas with other still wines there may be 2 or 3 pressings total). Then we poured the '08 Dry Riesling and the '08 Gewurztraminer to illustrate examples of wines that are blended from different pickings. Next was the Reserve flight - the '08 Dry Riesling Reserve, a blend of the best tanks in the winery, and the '03 Dry Riesling Reserve, which was 100% fruit from the HJW site, Hermann's original planting and a very slatey site. After that we poured the 2008 single vineyard bottlings: Dry Riesling HJW Vineyard and Dry Riesling Magdalena Vineyard. We finished with tank samples of these single vineyards from the 2009 vintage, still fermenting.

It was a great event, but obviously I'm biased. Here's what some of the bloggers had to say:

New York Cork Report: http://www.lenndevours.com/2010/05/when-a-winemaker-asks-if-you--need-to-be-anywhere-the-answer-should-probably-be-no-when-that-winemaker-is--fred-m.html

The Wine Case: http://winecase.ca/2010/05/09/tastecamp-day-2-quick-notes-from-seneca-lake/

Wine Lover's Journal: http://www.examiner.com/x-17620-Manhattan-Wine-Examiner~y2010m5d11-Hermann-J-Wiemer-German-precision-gives-rise-to-fine-wine-in-the-Finger-Lakes

Going Postal

For the last couple of weeks we have been putting posts in the 2 new vineyard plots of Riesling that were planted last Spring on the HJW site at Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyard. This task requires a good eye and a bit of upper body strength, since this site is very slatey and we have encountered many rocky interruptions. Sometimes there's a bit of rock just where you want to put the post, and the post either has to be jammed hard enough to break it or the rock has to be dug out. (Last week one of the guys dug out a rock about the size of a small child. Maressa took it home to put in her garden.) The posts have to be in line with the plants, the end posts, and each other. Usually 4 of us are working together to make this happen. It's been pretty windy lately, so we've had to do some correcting along the way since the posts are not completely set until they are pounded into the ground via tractor machinery. While it is difficult to get them all exactly perfect, we are still obsessively trying (I've even been dreaming about posts lined up nice and straight), and I'm pleased to say we have completed 1 of the 2 sites and it looks pretty darn good. Next step there is to finish stringing the wires and getting the plants tied so they don't grow all over the place as they would like to do.

This week we hope to finish the posts in the second site. After the past weekend's gusty winds I am afraid to see what has become of our work so far, but I am trying to be optimistic :)

Pink Pinot

We had a nice summer-like spell here in the FLX about a week ago and it reminded me that people like to drink pink when it gets warmer. I enjoyed a bottle of Wiemer's Pinot Noir Rose from 2006. This is a Pinot lover's pink wine - a rosey nose with bright strawberry fruit and nice body. I had it with pizza and again with broiled salmon and it paired well both times. At $11.50/btl it's a serious steal.

Updates on my favorite Argentine wine - Los Vencejos

The Los Vencejos Aleteo 2006 is now available! This Reserve Tempranillo from Argentina spent 2 years in barrel and 2 years in bottle before release. I blogged/raved about it in February when I tried it. It's $22/btl and available at www.losvencejos.com.

Also, the delicious Los Vencejos Malbec 2007 is on sale for $18/btl. Remember this one got 90 points from Wine Spectator. A steal now and definitely one for the table and the cellar. Salud!