Defined by Barrel: The Wood Affects the Wine

We have written many times before about how the transparent nature of Pinot Noir reveals everything about itself. The place of its origin, the lateness of harvest, the yeast types used for fermentation, the length of time and type of barrel used for aging all put their very obvious stamp on the finished wine.

A great part of the fun of wine is in the knowing, and we think the deliciousness of the La Rochelle wines can be more greatly appreciated when you know more than just the surface details.

The 2007 vintage will be one of the best Pinot vintages in recent memory. The La Rochelle wines are just now rolling out. Some of the first include a pair of wines that, on the surface, differ only in the type of barrel used for aging. But a deeper look, will show just how profound a difference that aging vessel can make.

We have just released two single barrel wines: the 2007 Pinot Noir - Mission Ranch, Pommard Clone, American Oak and French oak. The barrel used to age wine obviously affects that wine's aromatics and flavors. But it has as dramatic an affect on the texture and structure of the wine as well.

Up front there is substantially more woodiness in the American barrel than there is in the French counterpart. The aromatics include the relatively overt, smoky, sweet oak notes of a Nadalie American oak barrel (Virginia wood) while the wood effect of the French (Nadalie, Allier forest) barrel is more in the shaping of the wine. The aromatics persist longer in the American barrel, the dark fruit notes heightened by the sweet underlayment of wood.

In the mouth, a similar sensation is also present. The French barrel seems substantially more elegant: tighter and less overtly fruity than the American barrel, while the smoky sweetness and dark fruit aromas are translated readily to the mouth in the American.

Imagine the route of the wine through your mouth as a highway. Upon entry, both wines are on a two lane road. Quickly though, the American's exuberant fruit expands the road to 4 lanes. On the mid-palate, the American road is wider still, and on the finish, the road resembles a funnel: the fruit, tannin, and acid are rampant. Conversely, the French road widens only a little and only on the finish. This wine lacks the American's full-throttled wideness at this point, relying instead on a staid and elegant containment (a very well paved, pot-hole-free journey). The French does, on the finish, hint at its own abundance, however: an abundance that will reveal itself over the next several years.

Only 20 cases or so of each wine was produced and it is moving quickly. Grab yourself a bottle of each and make your own comparisons. Let us know which you prefer.

Next time we will discuss just why there is so much difference between French and American oak barrels.

Are Pinots Getting Too Big?

Eric Asimov, wine writer at the New York Times, recently wrote about the "revolution" occurring in the increasing lightness of California Pinot Noir. Steve Heimoff, columnist for Wine Enthusiast magazine, responded, in his blog, to Asimov's assertion.

Taken together these two viewpoints underscore a fundamental issue for me. The only truth in wine is that which is circumscribed by your vineyards and fruit coupled with the winemaker's overriding sensibility that takes those raw products and makes the most authentic wine out of them.

Asimov is talking about a STYLE of wine for which he has a PREFERENCE. There is no right and no wrong to this. The style that he prefers (or that Parker or the Spectator prefers) is not intrinsically better than the fatter style of wine that he doesn't.

The winemaker really only has a responsibility to himself. I can't truly know what the "market" wants especially when I release a new wine. I can only promise that the wine I am producing is as true to the vineyard and to the grape as it can be and, more importantly, that it is true to my winemaking philosophy.

Styles of wine change. Critics gain a pre-eminence which can shape the way wines are produced. That pre-eminence will eventually cease to be, and the next major critic may like a different style of wine. Making wine to suit the perceived palate of the critic is a fool's errand. It's philosophically dishonest and boring...and there's every likelihood that the wine style and the critic won't arrive at the same place at the same time.

There is room in the wine world for any number of wine styles and wine varieties. We, the consuming public, will vote with our palates and our pocketbooks, some styles and grapes will be steamrolled under and serve as the fertilizer for the next "revolution."

In the end, we should all worry less, explore a lot, and drink more good wine.

La Rochelle in the Larger World

We have very consciously decided that we want to stay small...and that we want to sell wine to our friends.

Though most of our wine is sold at the Winery to members of our wine clubs, we do sell a small percentage to fine restaurants and wine shops, mostly in California (they're our friends too!)

Click on the link to see an evolving map of the fine folks all around California who sell our wine.

La Cruz Release Heralds New Appellation

We recently released our latest Pinot Noir made exclusively for members of our Pinot Noir Program. The 2007 Pinot Noir - La Cruz Vineyard, Sonoma Coast marks the first wine we have made from this wonderful appellation.

La Cruz Vineyard sits right on the Petaluma River and is comprised of two distinct sections. These sections are further divided into blocks based upon varietal and clone (in the case of Pinot Noir). The upper portion of the site is called the El Coro block and is comprised of very light, infertile soil, while the lower block is alluvial soil from the river...much darker, heavier, and fertile than El Coro. The photograph to the right shows El Coro block soil along with bird netting that is held together by plastic spoons.

In 2006 we harvested only Dijon clone 115 but got it from both vineyard sections. We vinified each section separately then blended them before release. The photo below and to the left shows the distinctly light brown soil of the El Coro Block.

This wine is distinctly different in weight, aromatics, and flavors than any other Pinot we have made. While our main source of fruit (the Santa Lucia Highlands) is generally characterized by dark raspberry fruit notes and significant mid-palate viscosity, the La Cruz wine is much more an amalgam of rose petals, blood orange with a transparency in the mouth that shows off the very clean, expansive acid line of the wine.

In the future we hope to have a couple more sites from this appellation so that we have wines to share both with club members and Tasting Room guests. For the time being, however, if you would like to get a couple of bottles of this wonderful wine, we'd like to invite you to join our club.

Terrific Wine, Better People

I had the occasion to taste at Testarossa Vineyards today after having visited Ridge Winery earlier in the day for their 2008 Monte Bello assemblage event. I have enjoyed the Testarossa wines quite a lot (their 2005 Pinot Noir, Sleepy Hollow Vineyard was stunning) and have been up to their tasting room only once before.

The team there, led by Jeffery Marino, the Tasting Room Manager, could not have been nicer and more generous.

The thing that most tasting room teams share, and what the Testarossa folks have in spades, is a love of wine. Apparently, quite a lot of them had had some of our Pinots in the past (I think I have Bob Zamorra, a great wine lover in his own right, who works both for us and Testarossa, to thank for that!) and liked them. And being as passionate and as generous as they are, they allowed me to taste some wines that have not been released yet or that were part of their library.

The 2006 Chardonnay, La Cruz Vineyard and 2007 Chardonnay, Sleepy Hollow Vineyard were both stunning. They were outshone, however, by the 2006 Diana's Reserve Chardonnay that is a blend of the finest barrels from each of the vineyards from which they source fruit.

On the Pinot Noir side, the 2006 Pinot Noir, La Cruz Vineyard was gorgeous (another tie-in: our 2007 La Cruz Vineyard will be released very soon) as was the 2007 Sleepy Hollow.

More info about the winery can be found at www.testarossa.com. Tell the great team there, that we sent you!

Beauty and the Beast

It was the end of a working day last week, and I wandered into my wine cellar in the garage looking for a bottle of Pinot.

From the 2005 vintage, we had produced a number of very small (some only a single barrel) offerings and will have 11 separate single-barrel releases in 2009. Anyway, I found a bottle of one of the 2005 wines wedged behind some Cabernet.

The 2005 Pinot Noir - Mission Ranch, Pommard clone is both beautiful and ugly simultaneously.

Shortly after I acquired the La Rochelle brand from my cousins, we decided to change the packaging to more clearly delineate what we wanted La Rochelle to be. Before our current label design (created by Nick McNeill), we developed a new look that was just horrendous. The picture to the right shows the abomination (kids, this is why you leave the label design to the pros!).

The wine inside the bottle was wonderful. Explosive aromatically (fresh raspberry and cranberry fruit, spice from barrel), the wine had a beautiful, silky mid-palate, open fruit flavors, and great acidity. I had it with roasted chicken, mashed potatoes and corn. Yum score = 100.

Beautiful labels, do not guarantee delicious wine, and - thankfully enough, in this case - the ugly ones don't also describe the wine inside.

2006 Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz Mountains Released

While single-vineyard wines make up the backbone of our Pinot Noir Program (in fact, we will release a wine from the Deer Park Vineyard from Santa Cruz Mountains for the wine club later in the year), our appellation wines boast a complexity and deliciousness that typify our best offerings.

Grapes have been grown in the Santa Cruz Mountains since the 1850s with Pinot Noir a growing contributor to the overall acreage planted in the appellation, especially recently. Unlike other more hill-challenged appellation, many of the vineyards in this appellation are small, the average size (according to John Haeger in his seminal book North American Pinot Noir) being just 11 acres.

The Deer Park Vineyard provides the vast majority of fruit for this offering with the San Vicente Vineyard adding the last few percent. This wine is dramatic, imbued with wonderfully intense dark-berried fruit, great mid-palate acidity and a fair amount of tannin. This is one of those wines that needs some time before it shows its best.

When it does, though, the results will be stunning. Only 80 cases of this wine were produced and can be ordered in our on-line store.