We are writing to say that sadly, this will be our last post on bottletalks.wordpress.com. BUT we have some really exciting news to share with you: Our website, http://Bottle-Talks.com is LIVE!  So come on down and see us there. Bare with us though, it will be a long-term work in progress as we build a community, resource and podcast for the global wine industry.

2012 Elio Grasso Nebbiolo Gavarini $20

We’re on a Nebbiolo kick and having a blast exploring the huge differences varietal. In Piedmont, Nebbiolo is widely planted but rare to find in the ground elsewhere. Many Pinot Noir fanatics don’t even know they’d love this varietal, plus, you can find a great bottle of Langhe for under $20, a rarity with Pinot Noir. Now if you want to experience something with even more complexity and depth, pick up a Barbaresco or Barolo (starting around $30-$40), but for a Thursday? Elio Grasso’s Nebbiolo will stand out and leave you questioning the mystery of this fascinating grape. To give you an idea of the flavor profile you’re getting yourself into, prepare for red roses, cherry and spice. Forget the wood notes because this wine is all done in stainless. If you like Pinot, but want to venture outside of your comfort zone, pick up a Nebbiolo next time you’re making a seafood dish that’s on the richer side. You’ll be very surprised.

2013 Domaine de l’Hortus 2013 Bergerie de l’Hortus, Pic St Loup

(60% Syrah, 30% Grenache, 10% Mourvèdre) We’ve got to admit, we really weren’t prepared for just how much we’d get for $15. This wine defines value. It sounds like a pretty intimidating, potentially very large and unrestrained wine. The Domaine de l’Hortus was definitely not a delicate wine, but was by no means over the top. Grenache and Mourvedre can pack a big punch, but with the majority being Syrah, the wine is fruity with depths of wild herbs and nicely restrained.The Bergerie goes through a nice long maceration of  The estate is owned by a former professor of Agriculture and his wife who started the business, with their first bottling in the 90s. It has passed along to their four children, who now run the property.

2012 Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir Santa Barbara County

A balanced California Pinot Noir as the goal, ABC’s 2013 Pinot Noir is a blend from six different vineyard sites, and just a touch (5%) of Mourvedre. The sites are mostly fermented separately and when the characters are defined, the blending starts. At around $22, this wine is a steal for Pinot Noir, lively and fresh with red fruit and a touch of spice components. Diverse and balanced, this Pinot is ready to go or can be stored away for a couple years to allow it to develop tertiary flavors. As the entry level wine for this estate, this Pinot Noir is wonderfully versatile and will empty the bottle wanting to give the other wines a try.

2007 La Rioja Alta Rioja Reserva Vina Alberdi

There’s no argument that Spanish wines are still a great value, even when they come from one of the leading quality producers in the Rioja region Keeping a traditional Rioja style, including the use of American Oak, these wines are drinkable now but built to age. They undergo fermentation in warm temperatures in stainless, followed by malolactic in very old, large casks, and finally a bit of aging and periodic racking in American barriques. The exposure to air during racking releases some of the flavors and aromas for early drinking, however preserving the tannins character to Tempranillo’s longevity. 07 was a cooler vintage brings about a beautifully floral and pithy citrus fruit framed by barrel complements vanilla and clove and with a little age, this wine is beautiful now

Harvest in New Zealand, or anywhere in the southern hemisphere, is another way to get great experience and a different perspective, especially if you had worked harvest in the northern hemisphere exactly prior to that. Hopefully you’ve saved up enough money to travel and get to your destination, sold your car to afford your next plane ticket and you’re off to another adventure, new land, different wines, more great friends to make.

There are a couple ways to go about working harvest. If you want to do more than “pick,” the best thing to do is, as early as possible send applications to wineries. Some wineries book interns up to a year in advance. Study the regions. Know where you want to work and why and say so in your letter. Do send a letter.

Getting Started

Wine Jobs Online will get you going in the right direction of how to apply, job listings as well as provide general news on New Zealand’s wine industry.

Regions – There are eight (major regions). They are, relatively, from north to south

North Island:

Auckland
Gisborne
Hawkes Bay
Wairarapa

South Island:

Marlborough
Nelson
Canterbury
Central Otago

Do a little research and find out which area interests you. New Zealand grows a lot of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, but did you also know they grow Syrah, Cabernet and Viognier? The latitude and climate in the Northland wine region, the very top of the North Island, is ideal for these warm weather varietals. Conversely, Central Otago, at the southern tip of the South Island, is much cooler and known for Pinot Noir, Riesling and Chardonnay. If you’d like to focus on certain varietals rather than others, find out on which side of the islands you need to be. A great resource is New Zealand Wine website http://www.nzwine.com/

Planning – Central Otago is the southernmost winegrowing region in the world. With a cooler climate, they grow the according varietals. The northern part of the North Island starts harvest much earlier as the climate is much warmer. Know when you need to be there and plan your in-between adventures accordingly.

Types of Visas

New Zealand is pretty flexible when it comes to work visas, especially if you’re under 30. Start here at the New Zealand Immigration website. Regardless of your age, you can apply online, for a 12-month visa. There are some restrictions so check the requirements to be sure you qualify and you can do a quick check here. If you’re between 18 and 30 years old and want to work there, you can apply and then find a harvest gig. This visa is great because it doesn’t limit you to that one job. You can come and go from different places of work without worrying about running out of cash while you travel.

Make sure to allow time for visa processing. Our’s took about a month.

Cost

The cost to apply and receive a visa depends on your country of origin. You can check the costs here.

Application 

At the NZ Immigration website, you can create a user name and password to apply online

Once you’re registered, you can access all forms necessary online.

Almost Done!

Make sure you have a good chunk of change before you head there, around $4200 NZ dollars to cover living costs, car to share if needed, etc.

You’ll be prompted, by your employer probably, to fill out a form to receive an IRD number from New Zealand Inland Revenue Department (which is essentially a Social Security Number for you Americans reading this). You may get this form at your place of work or find it at the Post Office, where we were also able to open a bank account. You’ll receive your IRD number in a little over a week. This is your tax number as well, so your employer will also need it asap. If you’re on a working holiday in New Zealand, they’ll collect taxes as you work, so at the end, or the next year, there shouldn’t be a refund (darn!), nor should you owe anything. But this is convenient if you’re country-hopping.

Well, as they say, Bob’s your uncle so grab your gumboots and jandals, travel safe, and when you get there be sure to fill your chillybin with some savvy, throw it in the boot and head to the beach so you can enjoy the beach before the hard work beings. See ya later.

That was five years ago, but I swear it could have been yesterday

To keep a long story short, and to get to the point of this post, the weekend went off with out (any large) hitches. I remember receiving an incredibly generous (and probably undeserved) email from Mrs. Meadows, aka Mrs. Allen “Burghound” Meadows and that made the last six weeks completely worthwhile.

The World of Pinot Noir has really evolved. I cant remember who told me this, possibly Brian Talley or Kent Torrey from The Cheese Shop in Carmel, but when WOPN first started back in 2001, Brian had told Kent something like “were throwing a Pinot event, wanna bring some cheese?” I’ll never forget that. Fifteen years later, World of Pinot has since outgrown it’s original location, quaint and sleepy beachside town of Shell Beach, just south of San Luis Obispo on the Central Coast of California. It’s now moved 90 miles south to Santa Barbara, where Bacara, a beautifully luxurious Spanish style resort. Of course, WOPN wouldn’t be the same if we weren’t sipping Pinot by the sea and Bacara lies right on the cliffs.

This year, get ready for in-depth seminars and dinners featuring seminars on food and featured producers, “foodie frenzy” seminars and a focus on latitude and longitude, elaborate dinners and grand
tastings on both Friday and Saturday. Not to name names, but we will anyway, moderators to include Jancis Robinson, Donald Kinnan, Nick Poletto, Bob Cummings, and Stephanie Mutz. In addition to  not to mention a team of sommeliers including Fred Dame, who leads a Vintage Burgundy dinner. Chefs come locally, Frank Ostini of the Hitching Post, David Rosner (Wine Cask),  David Reardon (Bacara), Johan Denizot (Miro), and bringing their large supply of cheese, Michael and Kathryn Graham of C’est Cheese! Each year there’s a Featured Burgundian producer, a guest star, if you will and this year’s is Alexandrine Roy, a ‘fourth generation winegrower’ of Domaine Marc Roy. In addition to Burgundy, Pinot Noir producers come from all over the world in past WOPNs and future, potentially including Italy, Austria, Switzerland, New Zealand, Chile, and more…

Jitters aside from what has now been five years since my stint at WOPN, I am thrilled to not only be attending as a guest, but also see how this great event has become so much more than just a glass of Pinot at the beach and my moment in time with it, but is now a world class event not to be missed for any fan of the varietal.
Sparked your interest? More details can be found at the WOPN website or for ticket sales, here

If you’ve ever driven through Napa on a winter day, you’re probably familiar with the vibrant yellow mustard that spreads over the valley like a blanket, contrasting with the green hillsides and old, dark brown vines. It brings cheerful color to the normally gray skies that winter brings.

The belief is that mustard is newly native to the Napa Valley, and quite honestly, an invasive weed. It is thought to have perhaps brought up by the Spanish missionaries in the 1800s. Either way, mustard has taken root and is here to stay. Hard to argue with it’s beautiful and bright color it contributes to the landscape though.

But mustard is so much more complex than just a pretty weed. It is first and foremost a very beneficial cover crop. The seeds are spread easily by wind, plant themselves and Voila!, a beautiful bright yellow mustard plant springs up after only a little rain. We are lucky that it springs up all over the valley though because it has a number of highly beneficial responsibilities that contribute to the great wines that are made in the vineyards

Erosion – Mustard’s root system holds the ground in place during heavy rain or wind, preventing the soil from washing away and disturbing the complex underground system.

Nematode growth – Mustard has a surprisingly high level of biofumigants, a natural gas released from plant tissue, that prevents population growth in nematodes, or roundworms that populate soil and can potentially be parasitic and damaging to vines, especially in a young vineyard.

Nitrogen Replacement – When planted next to other cover crops such as legumes, like fava and bell beans, the naturally occurring Nitrogen-fixing bacteria can break them down and distribute it to the appropriate places.

Water Restriction – Vines thrive off restricted water allocation during their rapid growth months, and as you know, our rainy season can continue well into Spring. Without getting too into it, vines need to be stressed and not given abundant water in order to produce high quality fruit. This way, they will put all of their effort to making sure the offspring, the clusters. Too much water will make a vine lazy and the wine dull. No one wants lazy, dull wines. Getting to the point, mustard and other cover crops will soak up some of the excess water so the struggling effect occurs.

On the other hand, in a year of drought, or several years of drought like now in 2015, the thick mustard sprouts up only in patches. With abundant rain, mustard will thrive, but during droughts, it is actually competing with the vines for what limited supply of water we receive. In this case, the dry soil is unfortunately very likely to experience erosion if large storms do finally head our way.

The good news about any mustard at all is that it attracts beneficial insects, which will in turn take care of the harmful insects. If you’ve got the right combination of these different plants, amounting to a diverse cover crop, pesticides will not be needed, vineyards and their environment will be healthier and visitors to the valley will have something beautiful to look at.

PS – Check out our full website at Bottle-Talks.com for all our blog posts and more — thank you!

France’s Emile Peynaud, perhaps the most influential oenologist of modern winemaking (1912-2004), offered categories for aromas found in wine to fall and if they were not innate of the variety, at which point during the winemaking process or life of a wine they entered.

First, look for Primary Flavors, fruit flavors typical of the grape itself. Below are some examples. These should jump right out when the wine is young. Over time, some of the fruit may give way to tertiary flavors, but should still be detectable. Peynaud described them as fruity in character, derived from the grapes.

HINT! If you’re having trouble closing the gap between what you smell and the fruit aromas themselves, then the next time you make a trip to the grocery store, pick up  different fruits and smell them. Close your eyes and try to think of a wine that might give this aroma. Extra points for not laughing.

Sauvignon Blanc – grapefruit, lemon, honeydew
Chardonnay – green or yellow apples, pineapple, lemon
Riesling – peach, apricot, mango
Pinot Noir – black cherry, raspberry, orange
Cabernet Sauvignon – blueberry, cassis, blackberry
Syrah – blackberry, red plum, currant

Now that you’ve got the Primarys nailed, let’s move on to secondary. Have another sniff, look for non-fruit characteristics that may have developed from fermentation and barrel aging. Peynaud’s description of the Secondary aromas as vinous in character, deriving from fermentation. Whether native or commercial yeasts were used will have a large impact on which flavors and aromas develop during the fermentation, and often associated with oak aging and malolactic fermentation. Depending on the source, there may be an overlap of tertiary and secondary aromas, but the point to keep in mind is that secondary aromas come directly from fermentation and (barrel) aging; some of the same aromas can also develop in the bottle, contributing to tertiary aromas.

Sauvignon Blanc – smoke, vanilla, yogurt
Chardonnay – toasted hazelnuts, vanilla, butter
Riesling – clove, nutmeg, lees
Pinot Noir – vanilla, smoke, coca-cola
Cabernet – Coffee, oak, caramel
Syrah – Cedar, grilled meat, smoke

If the wine you’re enjoying is very young, the complexity may stop here. Although after just a couple years of age sealed in oak or bottle, the wine will quickly develop a third layer, called Tertiary Flavors and Aromas. Peynaud’s description of Tertiary aromas results from aging in a reductive environment in the absence of air. Wines that have been manipulated to a large extent will not develop these aromas and won’t see a very long aging potential. These descriptors are a true mark of a complex wine that has been treated with great care from vineyard to bottle.

Sauvignon Blanc – herbal, stone, lemongrass
Chardonnay – chalk, white flowers, earth
Riesling – crushed slate, orange blossom, onion
Pinot Noir – spice box, mushroom, wet dirt
Cabernet – tobacco, truffle, violets
Syrah – forest floor, lavender, black pepper

Instead of “This Riesling smells like…apricots, I think,” you’ll be saying “Wow, I get loads of primary dried apricots and mangoes, complimented with a dash of secondary nutmeg and I really pick up the tertiary crushed slate and orange blossom.”

Or something like that.  Happy drinking!

It’s a beautiful summer day in wine country.  I’m coming to the end of the one o’clock tour and tasting I’m hosting and it comes time to invite these guests to purchase wine, or even better, join the our wine club membership program. This group was genuinely great.  They were engaging, laughing at my bad jokes, asking questions and actually listening to the answers.

I was right: an overly enthusiastic response, many guests leaping for the shipping forms and wine club information.  It’s a mutually beneficial interaction.  I loved selling great wines – still do! But it’s even better when someone else, unrelated to the winery, finds value and wants to invest in that value. That wine club discount is very attractive, not to mention the wines aren’t distributed outside of California, and the guests are looking for some different wines from a winery with which they felt a connection. I worked hard for that feeling of comfort, to create that atmosphere. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t. But when it does, I get a great sense of achievement. I could imagine being friends with these particular guests.When that happens, guests totally open up with ridiculous offers like ‘you and your husband (who they haven’t met by the way) should come out and stay at our house in Cape Cod!’ True story.

I meant to ask at the beginning, but end up asking now: so, where’s everyone from? ‘Massachusetts…’

Until just a couple days ago, I  would have had to pull out my lengthy explanation of why not only our winery but most wineries in the valley can’t ship to Massachusetts and that it’s because of our antiquated three tier system used for distributing wine. Guests could not receive wine directly from wineries. Massachusetts was one of the notoriously difficult, and I mean put the wine in a nondescript box (think Home Depot) label it olive oil, ship it via air illegally to yourself or find a winery that would for $100/case or more, and hopefully your wine would arrive without enduring extreme temperatures. These poor people might as well have wanted their wine shipped to New Zealand, although maybe that would have been easier.

Afternoon wine buzz officially killed.

The three-tier system dates back to post-prohibition. At the time of the repeal in 1933, the government decided that there needed to be a body between producers and retailers. Enter distributors, and now producers must sell to distributors, distributors sell to retailers and retailers can sell to consumers. For whatever reason, the government thought this would protect the nation from becoming the real boozers they were before Prohibition. The 21st Amendment also granted permission to each state to decide how to control alcohol within its boundaries. Each state has a decision on whether to collect taxes on alcohol if any, entering creating large differences from state to state in creation and application of such rules.

Great idea, considering there are 50 of us! Therein lies the foundation that is the bane of the direct shipping department in wineries across the U.S. as each state has different laws by which to ship.

There are tons of exceptions though, combination retailer-producers, producer-distributors, you get the point, all varying by state.

However, as of the first day of 2015, the governor signed the state’s new budget which enclosed a statement legalizing direct shipping not only from California and wineries in other states, but from wineries within Massachusetts! As with each other state, wineries must purchase a permit to ship to that state and MA’s permit costs $300, but this will allow for 12 cases of wine to be shipped to a home residence per year per customer, whereas other states permit much less, such as Arizona, limiting the shipments to two cases per person per year.  Some states even limit the amount of wine allowed to be shipped depending on each county (This also depends on the size of the winery and other factors). Although it’s from last summer, Wine Spectator provides a detailed summary of direct wine shipping by state.

The permission to ship legally to Massachusetts opens up tons of potential business for wineries everywhere.As the 14th most populated state (over 6.9 million), this new law will make purchasing wine out of state much easier and less confusing for wine country visitors and potential wine club members, not to mention the hospitality crews at our wineries!  

Until January 1st, tasting rooms everyday encountered visitors from Massachusetts on their first trip to California wine country, only to find that they cannot ship wine, or that to ship is outrageously expensive. With the change of the direct shipping law, we’ll hope to see many more visitors coming from this state, 3000 miles away, eager to find and ship wines they cannot find in their home state or unique bottles from wineries with a great story to bring home to share with their friends and family.

Lately, a new trend has started to develop involving two passes through the vineyard. The first pass typically occurs anywhere between October and December and trims canes down to about 12 inches. It’s being called ‘double’ or ‘pre-‘pruning and has been most commonly practiced, so far, on cordon-pruned vineyards. It can even be mechanized, potentially saving cost and time! Whether done by hand or machine

Vines re-pruned to 12 inches is advantageous in a couple ways:
– Prunes canes down to a manageable length, i.e. No shoots in your face for the final prune, explained below
-Lowers risk of fungal spores landing on the vulnerable final cut and traveling down into the rootstock, potentially doing some major damage to the vine

Keep in mind, it’s not uncommon for fully developed shoots to reach six feet in length. Often these shoots hang over the top wire, getting in the way of precision cuts during pruning. The angle and length of the final prune is crucial for the success of the vine during the next growing season. When there are several old shoots hanging in your face and poking your eyeballs, it’s difficult to make the best cut.

More importantly, during the vine’s dormant time, winter, is when fungal spores can attack and potentially cause a major infection called Eutypa lata. The spores love to stick to the raindrops that land on the vines and it’s the perfect place for them to make their home. By the time these spores can potentially climb down the canes, it’s time for another prune and the part of the affected cane is trimmed off. Preventing disease now can extend the life of the vine.

About where the cut is being made in the below picture is where the pre-prune cut will be, taking the vineyard through to the end of winter.

Source: Taken at Stefano Lubiana Wines Tasmania,3 June 2010, 11:18:24, https://www.flickr.com/people/50979249@N06

When the weather turns toward spring is when it’s best to make the final cut, which will look like the vines below.  There will be less cane to work with so crews can focus on the cut itself, the angle and number of buds.  During the warm and dry weather is when the open cuts can heal quickly, if the sap hasn’t already started to flow.  Either way, spores have much less of an opportunity to infect, and give vines the best foundation for a healthy start to the growing season.

Source: A bilateral cordon Guyot system after dormant pruning. Photo by Patty Skinkis, Oregon State University.http://www.extension.org/pages/69937/guyot-vine-training-system#.VK3RWtLF_Sg