Tag Archives: Sonoma

Purdue Profs reflect on Calif. fires

27 Friday Oct 2017

Posted by in California, Newspaper Column 2017, Uncategorized

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The wildfires ravaging Northern California and its famed wine country will have a devastating effect there. But Purdue’s Professor of Food Science Christian Butzke expects little impact in Indiana.

grape-sense-logo“It might affect prices but probably not as terrible as the pictures suggest,” said the enology professor. “Vineyards are irrigated so they won’t burn as fast. This is a climate change thing. Spring and early summer brought a lot of rain and a lot of vegetation grew around the vines. Now that dried vegetation is on fire.”

 

Bruce Bordelon

Bruce Bordelon

Even those scorched vineyards will get a second life. “I assume it’s a matter of replanting,” said Bruce Bordelon, Professor of Horticulture and wine grape specialist. “In some cases that might be a blessing, a chance to change varieties or clones, rebuild old trellises, etcetera, that otherwise might not have been done. I guess it depends on whether they were insured and if insurance will pay enough to make up for the very high value of the land and grapes grown there.”

 

Bordelon added the disaster could aid future harvests. The large wine regions have had considerable labor shortages at harvest time. Bordelon said most new plantings could be set up for as much automation/mechanization as possible.

Butzke, who leads Purdue’s annual Indy International Wine Competition, sees the loss in a more personal way. He has many friends working in the California wine industry. “I have several colleagues and a business partner in wine country. This is quite personal.”

 

cbutzke

Christian Butzke

Paradise Ridge winery was one completely destroyed on the first day of the fires. The winery’s owner Rene Byck has visited Purdue to help judge the annual wine competition.
There is one impact that could reach the Midwest. Though most wineries have harvested 70-90 percent of their grapes, smoke contamination could happen in the remaining fruit on the vine. “Damage from smoke can occur and it’s not a pleasant characteristic,” Butzke said. “It’s like sitting next to a campfire, you’re going to smell like smoke afterward.”

 

Fortunately, Butzke added, the biggest part of California’s harvest should be complete by now with the wines safely aging in barrels. The damage to any remaining fruit, especially late-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon, could be significant because of the wine’s high market value.

Barring further damage, neither professor thought there would be much price impact in Indiana when the 2017 vintage is released. Both lamented the terrible tragedy, loss of life, and damage to homes and businesses.

Drinking Age, Contest, & Youth

25 Friday Apr 2014

Posted by in Wine Education/News/Updates

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I don’t grab a handful of wine-related items and post them here often enough. So here are a couple interesting ones today.

Win a Luxury Vacation in Sonoma

I’ve written numerous times about the various online wine sales sites. Underground Cellar is a new one. (Twitter: @ucellar) Instead of discounting wine prices, you buy whatever number of bottles at the lowest price with a good chance of getting more expensive wines as an upgrade.

In other words, you buy six bottles of wine for $30 each – four of those six, or more .. or less .. could be more expensive bottles from the same offer.

This site is new and they’re running a great giveaway to drive membership. I like the concept. I have bought from them and will again. If you’re interested in the contest, you can read all about it and register right here.

Eliminate the drinking age?

Here’s a topic I’d never given much thought to previously but the author raises some good points. From Time Magazine, a column about eliminating the legal drinking age of 21. It’s an interesting read whether you’re a supporter or not.

Compelling Struggle of Young Oregon Winemakers

I’ve visited the Willamette Valley three times and headed back there in June with my first Grape Sense wine tour. I’m always on the look out for new and interesting wineries and approaches to Oregon Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Gris.

This story in The Oregonian paints a fascinating picture of young winemakers struggling to get their wineries going in largely difficult, challenging, and certainly competitive times.

A Pinch of Salt (Oops, Oak) Can Make a Darn Fine Wine

09 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by in Napa/Sonoma

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Peters and Miller in the vineyard behind Kokomo Winery
No wine tasting or even a subscription to Wine Spectator can teach wine enthusiasts more than a few hours visit to the vineyard. The ultimate experience is to tour a vineyard and then spend time with the winemaker.
Through four years of writing about wine it’s an opportunity I’ve been afforded on a number of occasions.
Kokomo Vineyard’s Erik Miller was a gracious host earlier this year and put a few things in perspective with his own winemaking thoughts.
After touring a barrel-making plant in Windsor, Calif, Erik talked about his vineyards and the winemaking process. The conversation started where the morning began and that was with oak barrel aging.
“My philsophy on oak is that we use oak like you’d use salt at a meal,” the Kokomo, IN native said. “You want some salt on your meal so it has that seasoning. It would be bland with out it to some degree but you don’t want to taste the salt.”
But wine is more than just the oak its aged in. Great wine comes from the vineyard. “It’s the terrior – the earth, soild, sun exposure, the bench (land),” Miller said. “That has to be first and foremost in the wine and then that oak is more than a storage vessel. The oak adds some tannin, some flavor and some mouth feel.
“We have to know how to use that and not overpower the delicacy or sense of place. Here I am making 12 different varieties of Zin alone and we use five different vineyards. If I put the same oak on all five vineyards I’d have the same Zin. That common thread would give me a house flavor. I never want a house flavor because those vineyards are very different.”
For vineyard manager Randy Peters the success of Miller’s Kokomo Winery gives him input on what he does with the land and vines.
“Now that we have many more small wineries I can see the end product,” Peters said. “My father and grandfather sold to bigger wineries. There were not a lot of small wineries in their time. All the grapes went into a blend with all the other growers. All the Zin went in a 10,000 gallon tank somewhere.
“Now with smaller wineries like Kokomo, it shows us the things we do in the vineyard throughout the year translates into the wine as a finished product. It makes us feel better spending money and doing work to make a better quality product. We can see it in the finished product by having vineyard designate wines.”
Peters isn’t a grower who sells the grapes and disappears to next year. He is a partner with Miller and regularly tastes the wines of all the wineries who buy his fruit. “That’s an important part of the process, especially if they’re going to put a vineyard designate on it. Then it has to meet my quality standards as well,” Peters said.
Peters and Miller agree that when a wine is a vineyard designate bottling its more than Kokomo Winery.”It’s Paulene’s Vineyard on that bottle, or Peter’s Vineyard,” Miller said. “If there was something lacking that Randy doesn’t think met his standards that’s going to hurt his brand of the vineyard. When you give up the fruit all control is not lost here because we’re in partnership with the vineyards because that name is going on the bottle as well.”
The Dry Creek Valley Kokomo Winery is modest but the wines go far beyond the limited releases seen in the midwest. Miller and Peters team for several wines which often don’t make it beyond the winery or California.
Howard’s Picks:
The Kokomo Cab is really pretty easy to find in wine shops and better liquor stores and a great wine for the price point. But for a real treat try some of the winery’s higher end wines. The Kokomo 2009 Timber Creek Zinfandel (vineyard designate) is tremendous wine. The wine had beautiful black pepper and nice acidity and a well balanced feel on the palate for wine of more than 15 percent alcohol. Wine Spectator gave this wine 90 points.
Howard W. Hewitt, Crawfordsville, IN., writes every other week about wine for 20 midwestern newspapers in Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan.

Send comment or questions to: hewitthoward@gmail.com

Kokomo Native Makes City Name Successful Brand

25 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by in California, Napa/Sonoma, Uncategorized

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Growing up in Kokomo, In., and earning a management degree at Purdue University seems an unlikely path to a successful boutique winery in California’s Sonoma Valley.

But Erik Miller has achieved the unlikely career path with the success of Kokomo Wineries, named after his Central Indiana hometown. It’s a story of two Purdue roommates and a fourth generation Sonoma grape grower combining their passion.

“I had a buddy who moved out to Sonoma County when we were at Purdue,” Miller said. “I came out and visited him and just fell in love with the place. It was really weird for a guy from Indiana to come to San Francisco and all you have is public transportation. Then I saw Santa Rosa and thought it would be big enough to support a career and still small enough for me to fit in and be comfortable.”
Erik Miller

Erik Miller

He accepted an offer to do harvest work for a California winery. “That’s how I became passionate about wine,” he said. “I worked with grapes in the outside and watched the winemaker working. I put all my effort then toward that career – being in the wine industry.”

Miller’s love for Kokomo made naming the winery easy. Working with his college roommate Josh Bartels and grape grower Randy Peters gave him a team to direct the winery’s success. He also thinks being a Hoosier has its advantages.
“I think there is one thing we have in the Midwest and it’s this stereotype that we’re hard workers,” Miller said in the modest winery offices. “That has been a connection with me and Randy and some of the other farmers out here that we’re down to earth, salt of the earth kind of people.”
Peters, on the other hand, is a fourth generation farmer. His family produced fruit and wine grapes for decades. “We didn’t have much money growing up,” Peters said. “We were growing fruit and wine grapes but working on a low margin. My dad had a second job.”
Peters credited Miller’s hard work and integrity for their ‘handshake contract’ and shared success. “The honesty and integrity of Midwestern people is true,” he said. “Growing up here I’ve always had a passion for raising the fruit but now I can see the end result.”
Growing up Peters would watch the family harvest be sold off to very large producers and dumped into 10,000 gallon tanks with fruit from all over the region. Now his grapes to go vineyard designate wines that represent his work as well as the winery.

Miller makes wines widely available in the Midwest. His Cabernet Sauvignon is a big fruity but well-balanced wine that can be found in many wine shops.

“Maybe people will try the wine because the name is comforting too them,” Miller said. “We don’t spend extra money on the showboat things, the tasting room and winery but we will not take shortcuts on the equipment it takes to process grapes. We use the best oak we can buy, and make sure we’re sourcing the best possible grapes.”
Miller may have Midwestern industrial roots growing up in Kokomo but his wines have been lauded by the biggest competition in the world, The San Francisco Chronicle’s annual wine contest.
Note: In four years I’ve not done a two-part column. But if you want to learn a lot about wine, talk to a winemaker. Next time Miller will talk about some of his wine-making philosophy.

Send comment or questions to: hewitthoward@gmail.com

Catching Up on a Bunch of Good Wines

05 Thursday Jul 2012

Posted by in Napa/Sonoma, Paso Robles & Mendocino, Spain

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Whenever I’m looking for something on my desk and keep stumbling across notes on wines I’ve tasted, it’s time to write some reviews.

Some of these wines span back a few weeks but I always make a few notes on what I thought. I’m not ever excited about reviewing wines and not sure how important it is to readers. But I do figure if someone reads the blog regularly and finds my recommendations favorable to their palate, then it’s worth doing.

So let’s catch up …

Clayhouse 2010 Syrah  – I’m a Clayhouse fan and have written that before. This value line under the Adobe label rocks and is widely available. I don’t drink Syrah often but when I do I drink Paso Robles. Hmmm, sounds familiar?

This wine has the stereotypical dark berry and fruit flavors of plum and caramel. I liked the full mouth feel and nice long finish. This juice gets just 10 month in oak making that long finish smooth instead of tannic. It’s a relatively low 13.8 percent alcohol wine.

Clayhouse 2010 Syrah, SRP $15, Trade Sample, Recommended

Valdubon 2003 Crianza – Beautiful red wine from the Ribera del Duero region of Spain which always rocks my juice palate.

I tasted pronounced black raspberry and vanilla with that wonderful silkiness you get with well-made and aged Tempranillo-driven wines. But this 100 percent Tempranillo was bolder than some. It was beautiful wine.

Even with additional press in recent years, Spanish wines remain a great value delivering superior quality for the price.

Valdubon 2003 Crianza, Around $20, Trade Sample, Highly Recommended

Jigar 2009 Pinot Noir – This Sonoma Pinot Noir is a California keeper. It comes from the Pinot-rich region of the Russian River Valley.

It’s a more full-bodied Pinot than many you’ll pick up but with good balance. It’s rich with nice minerality and acidity on the finish. There is some dark cherry on the palate. It’s really delightful wine.

Jigar 2002 Pinot Noir, Retails around $30, I got a buy under $20 at Zionsville’s Grapevine Cottage. Recommended.

NOTE: I have a few more reviews to post as well and hope to get those up Tuesday night.



Send comment or questions to: hewitthoward@gmail.com

Russian River Magic: One Winegrower, Two Winemakers

09 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by in California, Food & Travel

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Kathleen Inman pours her Klopp Vineyard Pinot for me to taste

GRATON, Ca. – There is nothing like talking to winemakers, winery owners, and vineyard managers/owners to really learn about wine.

Ted Klopp, Kathleen Inman, and Merry Edwards bring all the components together to make some of California’s Russian River Valley’s best Pinot Noir.

Klopp pulls a barrel samle for us to taste.

Thursday morning I tasted the wines of Merry Edwards, who has an almost cult-like following for her small production Pinot Noir and almost magical Sauv Blanc. The next visit was with Kathleen Inman at Inman Family Wines. Then in the afternoon Ted Klopp shared a couple of hours talking about grape growing and working with winemakers to make the best wines possible.

Our first stop was at the Merry Edwards winer at Graton. Ron Hayes, who  has worked with Edwards for nine years, poured the wines and shared his considerable wine knowledge. The entry level Russian River Valley Pinot ($42) was nicely balanced, medium to light bodied Pinot. The Meredith Estate Pinot ($57) was the powerhouse of the lineup. It had bold Pinot fruit, a smooth mid-palate for powerful wine, and a lingering finish. The 2009 Klopp Ranch Pinot ($57) had a little less power but a longer finish – my favorite of the line up. We tasted an Olivet Lane Pinot ($60) that was similar in elegance and style to the Klopp.

Ron also pulled a 2007 Tobias Glen Pinot ($54) to show the wine’s aging ability. He suggested the entire lineup would age nicely for up to 10 years. The Tobias was also a winner with a soft balanced Pinot palate with a very Burgundian mouth feel.

Obviously, these are not value wines. This is boutique wine made by one of California’s most honored, recognized, and darn best winemakers. The product proves it. Edwards has a reputation for meticulous attention to detail. In our afternoon visit to Klopp, he talked about Edwards frequent visits to the vines to check on growth, taste fruit, and give Ted all the feedback necessary worth of Pinot Noir at these prices.

The second stop Inman Wines with owner/winemaker Kathleen Inman. A charming host and winemaker/grower concerned about sustainability and the environment, poured her lighter style Pinots for us. We tasted several of her wines and a couple of those choices in the 07 and 08 vintage. She buys grapes from Ted Klopp and grows her own in the adjacent Olivet Grange Vineyard. I liked both styles and but found the Klopp Thorn Ridge Ranch Pinot a bit more to my taste. The fruit was slightly bigger but all of her Pinots were well made with silky mouthfeel an a beautiful finish. Inman’s Pinots all sell at the $56 price point.

I liked Inman for her modest and practical approach to running a winery. She farms with sustainable methods, adds very little sulfite and only if necessary. She’s not interested in being certified, she’s interested in making wine the right way and taking care of the environment. She built her winery and small tasting room using totally recycled materials. She could have had the building certified for it’s unique use of materials, like recycled car steel, for the siding but again didn’t want to pay the thousands of dollars for certification. The point for Kathleen is simply to do things the right way.

Talking grapes and wine with Ted Klopp

Klopp was generous, knowledge, and funny during our two-hour afternoon visit. A native of the Midwest and Wabash College graduate spent most of his career in higher education at Marin College in California until changing lifestyles.

He bought the ranch north of Graton and inherited apple and pear trees. Neighbors, consultants and friends told him he would be ‘crazy’ if he didn’t plant vines. He took their advice and now supplies multiple wineries. He makes a little wine at home himself we sipped while sitting on a nice porch with a beautiful vineyard view.

Klopp loves that Merry Edwards comes by regularly to check the crop. He appreciates Inman’s questions about his farming practices.

I have enough material for stand alone newspaper columns on Klopp and Inman. I hope to have those up in the very near future.

Late in the afternoon we visited Arista Winery near the river and tasted through their very well done Pinot Noir. We didn’t think much  of the wine made from the Russian River Valley fruit but loved the Russian River valley line and one line made with grapes from Mendocino County.

Rochioli, an iconic name in California Pinot, was not disappointing though some might be a bit put off if they don’t know about the winery in advance. They make some of the best high end Pinot in the U.S. They only pour three wines in the tasting room. We tasted Chardonnay, a nice Pinot Rose’, and a single Pinot Noir. Most of their Pinot Noir wines are reserved for club members. It’s a club that has a long waiting list just to BUY their wines. It’s not Pinot for today or tomorrow – it’s a bottle you buy and put a way a couple of years to enjoy at it’s best.

Send comment or questions to: hewitthoward@gmail.com

Day Two: Barrel Making, Dry Creek, and Chateau St. Jean

08 Thursday Mar 2012

Posted by in California, Napa/Sonoma, Videos

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Toasting barrels at Radoux, Windsor, Ca.
SONOMA COUNTY, Ca. – Is there anything better for a wine geek than waking up on a Thursday morning knowing you’re going to spend the day in the Russian River Valley tasting Pinot Noir?
In planning for this trip I wanted to make a visit to Kokomo, Indiana’s Erik Miller. Erik is owner winemaker for Kokomo Vineyards in the Dry Creek region of Sonoma. We finally got together on a quick phone call and he invite Drew and I to join members of his Wine Club at a barrell making demonstration. Of all my wine experiences in the four years I’ve been wine writing, I’d never seen the process.
Master Cooper Francis Durand

I certainly came away from our visit to Tonnellerie Radoux, Windsor, with a new appreciation for those oak barrels. The variables in how coopers can mix the oak and watching the hand craftmanship was fascinating. That mixture of oak plays such an integral role in how the oak win interact with the wine for the final product.

Radoux’s Master Cooper Francis Durand led us through the plant demonstrating each step of the process. This will be a future newspaper column but really enhanced my knowledge of oak and it’s sophisticated role in winemaking.

After the hour-and-a-half tour, we hopped in the car and drove the 20 minutes up Ca. Highway 101 and Dry Creek Road to Kokomo Winery. Eric greeted us with fourth-generation vineyard owner and manager Randy Peters.

There is no better education than walking the vineyards with the grower and winemaker for those who really want to know more about wine. We visited several blocks of the vineyards at the winery, talked about the dry Sonoma winter, pending bud break, and all of the things to get a wine geek all geeky.

Chatting with Erik Miller, Gary Peters at Kokomo Winery

In the tasting room Drew and I enjoyed the Sauvignon Blanc, a Cab, a really nice Pinot Noir made from Gary’s grapes near the Sonoma Coast, and two Zins. The 2009 TimberCrest Zin was one of nicest I’ve tasted in a long time. Dry Creek is known for its Zinfandel. But the area can also grow almost any varietal, it’s that variety that intriques Miller.

We had a great chat with Erik and Randy which will turn up in a future newspaper column or two.

And yes, for those who don’t know, Erik did name his winery after his hometown of Kokomo, Indiana.

Our final stop of the day was a hastily arranged visit to one of Sonoma’s best, Chateau St. Jean located betweent he cities of Sonoma and Santa Rosa on CA. 12.

The manicured vineyards of Chateau St. Jean

Our friend and host Stephen Pavy, Joseph Phelps Winery, put in a call to the St. Jean tasting room and a couple of tasting room hosts led us through a really nice tasting of their reserve wines. Newbies need to know or keep in mind even wineries like Chateau St. Jean, which is available in Indiana and all 50 states make premium wines with limited distribution or available only at the winery.

We tasted a great Pinot Gris, two Chardonnays, a couple of Pinots, and their signature Bordeaux style blend Cinq Cepages 2008. The highlight for us was the Sonoma County Reserve Merlot ($90) and Sonoma Reserve Cabernet ($90). The Cabs in Sonoma are generally a little lighter than the Napa powerhouse Cabs. But the beautiful balance and silkiness of these wines would  please most any palate.

Chateau St. Jean is a great stop and any Sonoma trip should include a visit. The grounds are truly stunning. They have a tasting room for their other wines which range in the mid-teen to $20 pricepoint.

So it’s off to the Russian River Valley this morning.. We start our day with two of the grand ladies of California wine. Our first stop is at Merry Edwards and second at Inman Family wines. Kathleen Inman is going to pour for us her Pinot. Ted Klopp, a Wabash College grad, provide Pinot grapes from his ranch to both producers. We’ll see Ted this afternoon.

If we don’t run out of time, we hope to pay a visit to the iconic Rochioli Vineyards later today.

NOTES from the road: I do have many more wonderful  photos taken by Wabash College senior Drew Casey who is along with me on the trip. The loading times are taking forever! I did get all but one or two photos from Tuesday up this morning. Just click on the photo image at upper left and scroll down to Napa Day photos. I hope to get yesterday’s up this evening.

Send comment or questions to: hewitthoward@gmail.com