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Howard W. Hewitt

~ … The "W" stands for wine!

Howard W. Hewitt

Category Archives: Food & Travel

You’ve got to order some carry-out

20 Friday Mar 2020

Posted by Howard in Food & Travel, Uncategorized

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Bru Burger, carry-out, Mass Ave.

INDY, MASS AVE. – The unfolding crisis of small restaurants, donut shops, and coffee joints is not really going to be felt until the unfolding Coronavirus crisis passes.

These businesses are the backbone of our economy just as much as Boeing, Apple, and GE. Such businesses are run by your neighbors, common town folk, and struggling entrepreneurs.

The enforced closing, now just a few days in effect, is going to be devastating if you don’t help. That’s right – you.

I grew up working in my Mom’s small restaurant in our small town. I watched her work 10-11-12 hour days for years. The business did well but no one got rich. Restaurants work on margins less than 10 percent and most often in the 3-5 percent range.

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Bru Burger’s hamburger and fries.

In other words, they can’t survive many bumps in the road. Those bumps are Hoosier-size potholes for at least the near future. But you can do something about it. I’m retired and work about 3-4 evenings a week. I’ve decided I’ll get out to a local restaurant every few days for lunch carry out. And, I’m going to write short reviews here.

There are lists of restaurants open for carry out on several websites, including the Indianapolis Star. Or you can take the old-fashioned approach and just call your favorite lunch spot.

I have been in the mood for a burger for weeks. So I called Bru Burger on Mass Ave and order a Burger and fries. It was ready when I arrived and they were all happy to see me. The young lady taking my money said Wednesday was their first day of carry-out only and business was good. At 1:30 p.m. today (Thursday), it had been slower but it also rained quite steady through the noon hour.

The burger and fries were awesome. I had eaten there a few times before. My only critique was the soft and tasty bun could have been toasted. Toasting the bun on carry out would really help for take home food. But it’s a noon time carry out I can heartily recommend.

One other point, restaurant workers are not that highly paid to start with and now business it down. Be sure to tip generously.

You’ll find burger joints, coffee shops, and  fine dining restaurants on most listings. Some are offering their full regular menus while many have special carry-out menus for these tough times.

I’ve seen posts on social media imploring readers to support small, locally-owned business in this crisis. Those post a reminder that these are the people who support Little League, the orchestra, and other local charities. You need them and now they need you.

I can’t say it any better.

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Going to add restaurant reviews

09 Thursday May 2019

Posted by Howard in Food & Travel, Uncategorized

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Louvino, Massachusetts AVenue, restaurant review

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Looking from my table to the bar area of LouVino

Through the years I’ve posted restaurant thoughts (I hate to think of it as reviews) on this blog. Now that I’m retired and have time to take in some interesting lunch spots, I’m going to try to start posting more.

I still do some wine writing, but if you haven’t followed along, I retired the regular wine column last fall.

So part of the plan going forward is to add quickie reviews. Those reviews will include a couple of pics, some thoughts on the food, service and probably atmosphere.

I visited LouVino on Mass Ave today for lunch. I actually tried to visit a couple of weeks ago and was told rather brusquely that it was 1:50 p.m. and the kitchen closed for lunch at 2 p.m. I understand that but didn’t feel very welcomed to return.

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Fries in a jar and okay skirt steak.

But I did give it a try today and enjoyed the experience. It is a little pricey for lunch. I had the lunch special of sandwich, side and drink for $15. My skirt steak sandwich on brioche was pretty tasty. Onions, stilton mayo, and arugula livened the sandwich up a bit. The steak had a bit of  almost a burnt flavor after waitress suggested it would arrive medium rare. The flavor was pretty good though but skirt steak can be tough and this was a little too chewy.

The fries were crispy and plentiful and the two warm chocolate chip cookies, included, were very good.

And by the way, my server was great and responded promptly to a couple of simple requests.

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Three nice old world wines for $17

Of course, being a wine spot I skipped the cola. They offer a page of red and another of white wine flights with 2 oz. pours. The choices were really great. I paid $17 for a Spanish, French, and Italian wine. They were all good but most are available at local wine shops for $20 or less per bottle.

So with tax, I dropped $34 for lunch – not something I’m going to do very often.

The place is beautiful but quite empty at 1 p.m. The decor is modern and stylistic. There is clearly seating for a big lunch or dinner crowd.

I’d probably go back but at the price the food was more okay and wow. The wine flight a little pricey. Still, it’s nice to have a place where you can sample a wine flight, even if its a couple bucks overpriced.

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View one of Youngberg Hill Inn’s assets

02 Sunday Dec 2018

Posted by Howard in Food & Travel, Oregon, Uncategorized

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Carl Giavanti, Wayne Bailey, Willamette Valley, Youngberg Hill Inn, Youngberg Hill Vineyards

It never fails that after I’ve been home a couple of months from  an exciting trip I find unused assets! This morning while looking through some material from my early Oct. trip to Oregon’s Willamette Valley I found this little video.

I was in Oregon for two days with Carl Giavanti, marketing consultant to a number of small Oregon wineries. I spent two nights at the wonderful Youngberg Hill Inn. And it is wonderful. Big spacious rooms with fireplaces welcome guests and breakfast is tremendous.

But perhaps the most impressive part about visiting Youngberg is the fantastic view from the front wrap-around porch. You feel like you can touch any corner of the valley.

 

 

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A great wine experience has depth

10 Wednesday Oct 2018

Posted by Howard in Food & Travel, Oregon, Uncategorized

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Carl Giavanti, Denison Cellars, JL Kiff, Joel Kiff, Lenne Estate Winery, Steve Lutz, Tim Wilson, Wayne Bailey, Youngberg Hill Vineyards

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Lenne owner and winemaker Steve Lutz

McMINNVILLE, OR – Any great wine experience has variety and depth. That means you visit big producers, small producers, and look for something different. I try to do that on every trip and it has just worked out that way on this trip to Oregon’s Willamette Valley to visit some small producers.

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The great Oregon Pinot Noir grape harvest is mostly complete.

I started the day at Lenne Estate, a small production winery with a a tasting room that resembles perhaps a French farm house. I ended my second-day tasting experience at Youngberg Hill where I stayed last night and will again tonight. Wayne Bailey is a leader in the Willamette Valley industry and makes Pinot Noir to age and to pair with food.

 

In between, wine marketing expert Carl Giavanti and I wandered through the fields and hills of the valley near McMinnville to the JL Kiff Winery situated beside a sloped vineyard and pole barn winery and tasting room. .

One of the things I like about the Willamette Valley,  and there are many, is you can go into winery after winery before you find a bad – or less than desirable Pinot. Our start at Lenne was a great way to kick off the day. Steve Lutz, owner and winemaker, took the time to talk about his sloped and really tough vineyard location. Difficult soils are tough on the vineyard manager but great for wine. The harder the vines have to dig to find water the better the fruit regardless of the varietal.

Steve has added a Chardonnay to his lineup, as many Oregon wineries are doing, and his was beautiful. Very Chablis-like or Burgundian, the Chardonnays of the valley may some day rival the reputation of the Pinot Noir.

Lenne makes classic Oregon Pinot in a lighter style with a real sense of place in the glass, a Burgundy-like sensation of terroir and soils, along with a bit of spice on the finish of some of the wines.

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Joel Kiff

The journey to JL Kiff was up onto a hillside in a more remote area. Joel Kiff and Tim Wilson are the proprietors. Wilson also has his own label, Denison Cellars.

 

The unique, steeply-sloped vineyard gives the duo wines which are quite different from block to block within the vineyard. Joel makes 1,000 cases under the JL Kiff label with Wilson doing a similar amount of cases under his Denison label. The wines are medium to modestly priced. It’s these little gems that make exploring wine country so fun and exciting if you’ll just seek them out.

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Tim Wilson

We barrel tasted and tasted some wines not harvested until Nov. 1 last year because of the unique vineyard site. The wines were lighter in taste and a little more elegant. Joel’s wife helps run the small tasting corner in the pole barn structure. The Kiff’s two adult sons are also part of the operation.

 

While perhaps its a romanticized view of winemaking, the fact is in Oregon these scenarios still exist where the family business is wine and all of the family is still involved.

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Bailey on the final day of harvest.

Wayne Bailey is a real Willamette Valley veteran. He also owns the beautiful Youngberg Hill Inn atop a hill with a beautiful vineyard view. His wines are made for food and with plenty of structure, acid and elegance to age well for perfect enjoyment 4-5 years after the vintage year they were produced.

 

Wayne poured for me and a personal friend of his a full tasting of his Pinot Noir wines and a couple of different verticals – primarily Pinot from different parts of his vineyard from ’13, ’14, and 2015. We also tasted his elegant Chardonnay.

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Bailey after pouring nearly 10 wines.

Bailey’s winery and Inn sets just 25 miles from the Pacific coast. His vineyard enjoys slightly cooler temperatures, particularly near the top of the property which makes for slightly less alcohol and silky Chardonnay and Pinot.

I’ve tried just to do posts showing my daily activity while interviewing these winemakers about warmer growing seasons and price pressures on their wines. Those stories will be published here in the future.

Meanwhile, tomorrow my schedule is less structured. I’m going to see some old friends and go where the day takes me. I certainly plan to post again tomorrow evening about my day.

I’m returning home Thursday. No matter how often I come to Oregon wine country, I never tire of the quality and diversity of operations, the people, and the wine.

 

 

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Pinot, Pinot, and more Pinot Noir

09 Tuesday Oct 2018

Posted by Howard in Food & Travel, Organic, Uncategorized

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Alloro Vineyards, Carl Giavanti, David Bellows, Michelle Kaufmann, Stoller Estate, Tom Fitzpatrick, Vidon Vineyards., Wayne Bailey, WordPress, Youngberg Hill Inn

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A beautiful view of a stand of tall trees through the Alloro vineyard

McMINNVILLE, OR. – I normally advise people not to do more than three winery stops in a single day. So on my first full day in Oregon’s Willamette Valley I was able to stick to that rule but stretched things a bit on the last stop.

Alloro Vineyards, Vidon, and Stoller Estate filled my first day of tasting capped off by a great evening at Nick’s Cafe in McMinnville. Wayne Bailey, owner and winemaker of Youngsberg Hill Winery and Inn, hosted me, marketer Carl Giavanti, and a personal friend who owns a small winery north of Chicago. It was a great day.

I was most anxious to visit Alloro Vineyards up in the hill of Willamette Valley just outside of Portland. Two blind tastings with friends rated Alloro the best of four or five small production wines tasted earlier this year.

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Alloro’s Fitzpatrick

General Manager and winemaker Tom Fitzpatrick is meticulous in overseeing winemaking operations. We chatted in the winery and tasting room. He uses carbonic maceration in the winemaking process which really shows off the fruit.

 

The wines are reasonably priced at $40 for the entry level estate wines. I found the Pinot to be well-balanced, bright fruit, and perfect to sip or with food. Alloro also does Chardonnay, a dry Riesling and a dessert wine.

I  talked with Fitzpatrick about Oregon’s warming growing season and about price pressures with the Valley’s booming success. His thoughts and comments will be feature in a future post.

After a quick lunch stop at the Alison Spa and Inn, we headed to Vidon Vineyards, always a favorite stop. Don was off to California trying to sell wine so we spent time with Don’s winemaker David Bellows. Bellows holds a in PhD in Molecular Biology from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. That’s some serious winemaking science.

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Vidon winemaker Bellows

David, resplendent in his Slipper Noodle t-shirt (Indianapolis iconic blues bar), tasted us through a vertical of Vidon’s classic 3 Clones wines – a 2013, ’14, and ’15. We also barrel tasted the 2017 Apollo Chardonnay which was outstanding – perhaps one of the best Oregon Chardonnay’s I’ve had in previous visits. The wine is part of a series of wines highlight Don’s time with the NASA space program.

Bellows was very insightful on the challenge of the warming climate and what it could mean to Oregon wineries. His thoughts will be included in the future post mentioned above.

The ‘we’ throughout the post represents myself and Carl Giavanti. Carl helped arrange interviews with several of these winemakers whom I interviewed via email earlier this year. I wrote a series of pieces about the challenges of the small guys fending off the big-money investments happening in the Willamette Valley. Carl was my guide throughout the day providing valuable background about each winery and the Oregon industry.

Our last stop was “for comparison’ purposes” contrasting the small wineries to Stoller Estate. Stoller recently was honored with USA Today’s “Best Tasting Room in America” honor. From Stoller’s website: “Our tasting room and winery combine environmental sustainability and high-efficiency design, and harvests 100 percent of its energy through a 1180-panel solar panel installation. Notable design features include a green roof, skylights, salvaged timber, and an EV charging station for electric vehicles.”

Stoller produces 68,000 cases of wine under multiple labels compared to the typical 2000-3,000 case operations of the smaller wineries I’m visiting on this trip. Communications Director Michelle Kaufmann was our host for the tasting and share all of Stoller goals of sustainability and growth.

I’ll write something independent about Stoller. Their efforts are setting the bar for how one grows, treats employees, and build a brand with integrity and  purpose.

Today, we’re off to Lenne Estate, JL Kiff, and back to Youngberg Hill for a tasting with owner/winemaker Wayne Bailey.

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A quick taste of Downtown Portland

08 Monday Oct 2018

Posted by Howard in Food & Travel, Oregon, Uncategorized

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Bistro Agnes, Blue Star donuts, Portland dining, Willamette Valley Wine Country

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An ‘adult’ chocolate-covered donut.

PORTLAND, OR. – Oregon is a feast for the senses, your cultural point of view, and the palate. Sometimes the Rose City is all three sensory sensations at once.

I spent Sunday night in downtown Portland before heading out to Willamette Valley wine country a little later this morning.

Sunday night dinner was with an old Wabash friend, David Newhart, at a somewhat traditional French bistro. This morning I’m up early and visiting the city’s six-location Blue Star Donuts. Portland is known for Voodoo donuts and they’re pretty

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Donut maven carmelizing sugar on a cake donut. The smell is worth walking in for!

darn good. So I decided to try this upstart ‘donuts for adults’ shop downtown.

Just look at pic above. No ordinary chocolate donut – the chocolate was a deeply rich ganache with chopped almonds. Crazy adult flavors like pumpkin spice pana cotta, passion fruit cake and tons of others. Or  how about lemon  poppy seed  buttermilk. (which might be my second donut!)

The donuts are delicious. They use all natural and organic ingredients. And as you might expect, they come at an adult, gourmet price of $3-4 each – that’s right – each! Locals will tell you to try this new kid on the block. I’m convinced.

On the flip side, I really was anticipating dinner last night at Bistro Agnes. The spot was opened by two heralded James Beard award-winning chefs. I can’t say i was disappointed by I was not wowed by this strategically located downtown home of traditional French dishes.

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Petrale Sole Meuniere

I had the French onion soup, just call me a cliche’, and it was very nice. The soup had a rich flavored beef broth which could have used a few more onions, croutons, and even a couple small bites of beef. The gruyere topping was the hit of the dish. Delicious. David had the smoked salmon carpaccio, Radish, cucumber, and dill was an excellent cold appetizer.

My dinner went south with my main course. I love fish and have always found French-prepared white fish to be delightful.  I ordered the Petrale Sole Meuniere featuring sauteed green beans, potato puree, brown butter, and capers.

The fish was nicely seared and cooked perfectly but the brown butter (and it was swimming in butter) along with the capers made the dish salty and difficult bites at times. The green beans were flavorless. With $13 on the soup, $27 for the fish, and $14 for a very nice glass of Sancere, it wasn’t terribly expensive. I was just hoping for more on the delivery.

With that said, it’s refreshing to see chefs concentrate on the classics – and by no means was it a bad meal. I’d love to go back and give Bistro Agnes a second try.

 

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Lots of new good eats in Indy

17 Tuesday Jul 2018

Posted by Howard in Food & Travel, Indiana, Newspaper Column 2018, Uncategorized, Wine Education/News/Updates

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Beholder, Cafe Patachou, Crispy Bird, Hedge Row, Indy dining, Indy fine dining, Indy fried chicken, Indy Restaurants, Jonathan Brooks, Kimbal Musk, Mass Ave., Next Door restaurant, The Eagle Restaurant

Indianapolis continues to be a food hotbed and even if you only get into the capital city a time or two a year there is something for everyone. And lots of new places to try out.

grape-sense-logoBeholder, the brainchild of Milktooth super chef Jonathan Brooks, is now open and wowing local upscale diners. Brooks has been lauded by Food & Wine magazine, Eater magazine, and mentioned in many other national food publications. Food scene people know Brooks.

His newest venture is something of a gambler’s visit to Indy’s old eastside just beyond the entertainment and restaurant laden Mass Ave. Beholder sit on 10th St., near historic Woodruff Place’s Victorian homes. Brooks is risking name, reputation and a lot of dollars that Beholder can become a destination restaurant that will draw people to the sometimes seamy east side. The immediate neighborhood is changing in the area, and a big thanks goes to Beholder.

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Chef Jonathan Brooks

The restaurant has a modern ubran décor and an eclectic menu which can change day to day. Brooks takes his diners on an amazing array of tastes and textures throughout the meal. My dining partner and I enjoyed eggplant tartar, rye pasta with chicken liver pate’, pork tenderloin slices with pickled onion, BBQ octopus and more Since a year or so ago Grape Sense has occasionally delved into food and even Indy-area restaurants.. It was amazing – even some of the things we didn’t think we’d like!

Two glasses of bubbles, two appetizers, one medium plate, two glasses of wine, two entrée, and one dessert came to $185. That’s certainly a high-end price but within the range of dinner for two, with wine, at other top Indy dining spots. Beholder sets a very high bar.

There are lots of other new things to try. The big news of early summers was the arrival of Kimball Musk’s two new Indy dining spots – the more upscale Hedge Row on Mass Ave and Next door at College and 46th. Must is known not just as the brother of Tesla founder Elon Musk but as an entrepreneur and philanthropist.

His business focuses on community, local ingredients, and even bringing affordable foods to food islands like the College Avenue location.

Fried Chicken seems to be new again, often with a hint of spice, Martha Hoover’s food empire just keeps growing. The woman known for the fabulous, and nationally recognized, breakfast at her flagship Café Patachou is all in with her son on fried chicken. Crispy Bird is the small restaurant just off Pennsylvania Ave at 49th.

Another chicken-serving hot spot is The Eagle on Mass Ave. Eagle’s chicken comes out each time tasting like it’s freshly fried and with a hint of spice. Beer is a big deal at the Eagle so the combination draws mature diners and lots of young patrons. It has a youthful vibe that makes it simple fun to enjoy the dish grandma used to do so well.

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Join Howard Oct. 9-13 in Oregon

09 Monday Jul 2018

Posted by Howard in Food & Travel, Oregon, Wine Education/News/Updates

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Oregon wine, Willamette Valley, wine travel, Wine Trips

Spend three days tasting the wines of the Willamette Valley, plus one day visiting the beautiful Columbia River Gorge with lunch in Hood River.

Inn_Event Center

Youngsberg Hill Inn, McMinnville

Our trip starts with your arrival Tuesday, Oct. 9, with a hotel booked in your name in Portland. We’ll visit wineries, the Columbia River Gorge, and wrap up Saturday night back in Portland.

Included: Portland Hotel Tuesday and Saturday, luxury B&B in the valley, ground transportation, tasting fees, and all meals Wednesday morning through Saturday lunch.

Alloro

Taste with the winemakers

Transportation to/from Portland is not included.

HH’s Oregon Trip or write Howard at hewitthoward@gmail.com for a brochure.

The deadline is just days away. Join us for an incredible wine trip in the Willamette Valley.

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More from boutique Oregon winemakers

14 Monday May 2018

Posted by Howard in Food & Travel, Oregon, Uncategorized

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Alloro Vineyards, Don Hagge, Ghost Hill Cellars, Lenne Estate, Mike Bayliss, Oregon wine, Pinot Noir, Steve Lutz, Tom Fitzpatrick, Vidon Vineyards., Wayne Bailey, Willamette Valley, WordPress, Youngberg Hill

Good journalism and writing always demands more sourcing than you can use in a single story. I’ve always tried to conduct as wide-ranging interviews as much as possible with the forum or time constraints of the opportunity.

I did email interviews with the boutique Oregon winemakers I’ve written about in recent weeks. But I also have a great deal of material that didn’t make it into any of the columns.

So here is one long – very long – blog post with some of the highlights from each interview. I thought these were valid and interesting points that didn’t necessarily fit into the stories I wrote. I’m going to present it as concisely as possible in a Q&A format. I included everyone’s answer about aging their Pinot Noir, admittedly a personal interest.

Ghost Hill Cellars

Interviewee Mike Bayliss, owner

The only winery of this group that makes a white Pinot Noir. Why do they make this wine and how has the market reacted?

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Drenda and Mike Bayliss

“We wanted to expand the wines we sell in the tasting room. At the time, all that we had planted was Pinot Noir grapes. The Pinot Blanc was suggested to us by a friend who is a French winemaker, who said that half of the French Champagne is made with Pinot Noir Blanc from the youngest planting of Pinot Noir grapes. Our winemaker suggested instead of aging it in oak to use stainless steel to give it a bright crispness to the finish. It’s been very well received in our tasting room and has been well acknowledged by many reviews.”

What is the ageability of Oregon Pinot Noir?

“It depends on the vintage but as an average 8-10 years – plus. Willamette Valley Pinot Noir is always drinkable upon release and especially with local foods.”

What is background of winery?

“The Bayliss Family has been stewards in this corner of the Willamette Valley since 1906. We’re on 240 acres of beautiful rolling hills made up of sedimentary Willakenzie soils … very rewarding for Pinot Noir grapes. We started planting our vineyard in 1999, after we quit farming 200 head of cattle and putting up 250 tons of hay, farming oaks, wheat, and grass hays.”

Alloro Vineyards

Interviewee: Tom Fitzpatrick, winemaker and general manager

Speak about the growing broad appeal of Oregon Chardonnay:

Alloro Winery, Chehalem Mountain AVA, Willamette Valley, Oregon

Alloro Vineyards

“I think the appeal of Oregon Chard is the classic ‘cool climate’ profile our wines have. We have just the right climate for this style of Chardonnay, which allow the wines to retain all the subtle and wonderfully complex aromas and flavors, rendered on the almost perfect, complementary frame. These are wines that truly express the terroir and offer up a spectrum of flavors associated with the sites they come from.

“Our style is a wine with a classic cool climate profile with all the wonderful elements that come with barrel fermentation and extended lees contact. This focus and approach delivers a wine with moderate alcohol, bright acidity, a mineral core, fresh pear fruit, and flor aromas. It’s complemented by the barrel fermentation and less contact that bring more fullness and roundness to the palate along with notes of biscuit and baking spices.”

Alloro

Tom Fitzpatric

Your vineyard is in the northern-most part of the valley. Why is it unique?

“Alloro is a single vineyard site on Laurel Ridge in the Chehalem Mountains AVA. This is a very unique site with a very distinctive personality. My primary focus is to assure the wines capture the distinct personality of this site as they’re expressed in each vintage. I do this by capturing what I call “purity of flavor.” I want the flavors of these wines to be the direct, unencumbered flavor derived from this fruit. There is a very long list of things we do but in a nutshell we undertake activities that mitigate compromise to the integrity of the fruit and undertake activities that mitigate unwanted outside influence on the wines’ flavor. Once in barrel my wines are moved only one time prior to bottling. All movements are either via gravity or with the use of inert gas, all under the protection of inert gas to protect from oxygen exposure. They are bottled after about 11-12 months to capture and retain the richness and purity of fruit and then bottle aged for about one year before the release.”

What is your Pinot’s ageability?

“Our wines see very little oxygen and are handled to retain fruit purity. I believe this dramatically increases their ageability. In general, my wines typically take 2-3 years to blossom and then drink wonderfully for a subsequent 8-plus years.”

Lenne Estate

Interviewee: Steve Lutz, owner

You have a unique vineyard site, explain whys it’s different.

“We farm the vineyard primarily organically but I am not certified organic nor wish to be. I like the flexibility of being able to use other tools if we get into a year with high disease pressure. The way it is going with the weather and early vintages we haven’t had to turn to a commercial fungicide since 2011. We generally just use organic compounds and micronutrients in the vineyard. Our farming is dictated by the year in terms of how we manage the canopy and that is a changing landscape with these warmer evintages.

Lutz

Steve Lutz

“In the winery we are straight forward unless we get into an unusual vintage. We generally destem and don’t use any whole clusters though I am thinking about playing with it a little this year but it would be totally dictated by the vintage and how developed the stems are. But generally we destem, cold soak and inoculate with yeast. We press before fermentation ends then don’t expose the wine to much oxygen after that unless we have a reduction issue. We sterile filter all our wines and the wines spend 10-11 months in French Oak about 35 percent of which is new.”

When is the best time to drink your Pinot Noir?

“I think the best time to drink most of our vintages is at 10 years out from the vintage. Some vintages take longer and some it is hard to predict their peak. We only started producing in 2004 and so far none of them have oxidized. I think the 2006 wines are at their peak or just past it now for instance. That was a warmer vintage.”

Youngberg Hill

Interviewee: Wayne Bailey, owner and winemaker

Inn_Event Center

Youngberg Inn and event center

Let’s start with your Chardonnay:

“My background in Chardonnay began in Burgundy.  I tried for several years to purchase fruit but never found the quality. So we grafted over half of our Aspen Block of Pinot Gris in 2014 and 2015 is our first vintage. My style is that of Burgundy, fermented in barrels (once used) to have the influence of oak but not be oaky. I want to emulate Montrachet.”

How do you describe your approach to Pinot Noir?

“Pinot is the most transparent of any varietal, so my job is to be as light handed in the winery as possible to let that sense of place and vintage shine. That is why making wines from the fruit on our hill is so much fun.  We have three distinct soils on our hill, elevations from 500 to 800 feet, and different slopes and orientations. As a result, we make distinctly different wines from each of those distinct ‘terroirs.’ ”

What is the ageability of your Pinot Noir?

“We believe they can age for 20-years plus.”

Vidon
Interviewee: Don Hagge, owner

Don_Tractor

Don Hagge

I have interviewed Don Hagge on several occasions over the years.  I did not ask him a lot in my email interviews like I did the other winemakers. But here are a couple of blog posts and stories featuring the colorful Hagge, wine maker, farmer, student of Burgundy, and NASA engineer.

My visit with Don.

First time meeting Don Hagge

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Winemaking is always about farming

09 Friday Feb 2018

Posted by Howard in Food & Travel, Italy, Newspaper Column 2018, Uncategorized

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Barolo, Chiara Boschis, Dolcetto, Italy, Nebbiolo, Piedmont, Pira & Gigli

Whether it’s the hills of Southern Indiana, the lush valleys of California, or limestone soils in Bordeaux, winemaking is farming. Most any winemaker will quickly share that great wine comes from great vineyards.

grape-sense-logoAdditionally, the best winemakers say they only get involved in a tiny portion of the winemaking process.

“A vineyard is by God,” said Italian winemaker Chiara Boschis, in Indianapolis to promote her Piedmont wines. “Winemaking is an art, such a long process from the grape to the harvest and then vinification. What is important is to be a good farmer. We have learned to be better and better farmers.”

Boschis is a bit of an icon. She started in the late 80s with her first vintage in the early 1990s. Her ‘old farm of Barolo’ had been worked for nine generations. “But being a girl, I was not really involved. Ah, a lost resource.”

So off she went to university to earn a degree in economics, which she hated. When her father purchased a nearby small winery in 1980, she jumped at the opportunity. “I wanted in, I wanted to have my hands in the wine. At that time Barolo was not as important as it is today. I was attracted to all the new ideas.

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Boschis talking Italian wine.

Pira & Gigli winery has been her workshop ever since. She believes in minimal interference. As a matter of fact, she calls her wines 99 percent vineyard and 1 percent winemaking.

She almost immediately started reducing the crop in her 10 hectares (about 24 acres) to improve grape quality. She became diligent in keeping her winery spotless. She called the 1990s the years winemakers learned what they needed to do to make the Barolo grape, Nebbiolo, a world-class wine.

“Back then the winemakers were called the Barolo boys,” she said. “I was the only girl. Women have always been the column of society, taking care of the kids, the budget, and the household. Now a lot of girls are taking up winemaking.”

That emergence in the 1990s was crafting Piedmont wines to be food-friendly and a bit lighter than previous tradition. “We wanted to reduce the crop to reduce the alcohol and sugars,” she explained. “We wanted to make wines of elegance, wine for food.”

Piedmont wines are for serious wine drinkers. The first step into Piedmont wine is Dolcetto. You’ll often find it labeled as Dolcetto d’Alba or Dolcetto d’Asti – that’s simply a geographic designation. It’s an earthy grape with bright fruit and can be found for around $20.

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Boschis explaining Piedmont’s winemaking regions.

Barbera is a real workhorse in the area and maybe the best value. The best Barbera wines are silky on the palate with lots of spicy notes. Barbera can range from $25-$50.

Nebbiolo is the rock star in northwest Italy. Wines labeled Nebbiolo are essentially ‘second wines.’ The wines are dry and tannic with a distinctive flavor of terroir and region. Nebbiolo can be found at a wide range of prices from upper teens to $50.

The very best Nebbiolo, in specified Piedmont regions not far from Turin, becomes Barolo. Barolo is considered by many wine critics and wine drinkers one of, and in some case, the best wine of Italy and even the world. The wine is made for food and to age. They are rich wines perfect for big food and Barolos usually have a pronounced finish.

Good Barolo is hard to find at less than $50 or $60. Boschis’ Barolo wines are generally $100-$120. So, Barolo isn’t going to be for everyone, its not easy to find unless you are in a larger city wine shop, but Barolo is a dynamite wine. Try a Piedmont in your price range with Italian beef or hearty sauces.

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