30% of our grapes are grown biodynamically and to my knowledge we have the only certified biodynamic vineyard in Washington State. We also are the only certified biodynamic producer in the State. We are not fanatical about biodynamie but it has taught us many things and has connected us better to our terroir.

Our understanding of Biodynamic agriculture

What we have learned from Rudolph Steiner’s biodynamic agriculture principles is that our goal should be to set the farm as a self contained entity focused on exporting goods without importing any from the outside world. The farm is in some way limited, just like our planet, and it has to become its own ecosystem to become a sustainable and perennial entity. Of course this preclude the use of any chemical at the farm unless they can be produced at the farm. For these reasons we use only natural products that could be produced at the farm that we call preparations (we actually do not make our own at this point but would like to). The preparations are numbered from 500 to 508:

This is all we use in the vineyard – no other chemical organic nor synthetic. The compost making is very important as it is the key to a healthy soil and in return to a healthy vine. Also we do use the moon cycles to do most operations in the vineyard.

Our understanding of Biodynamic winemaking

At the winery we do not correct any grape deficiencies (no acid, no sugar, no water). We do not use commercial yeasts, only the yeasts that came with the grapes. The only chemicals we use are bentonite (for protein stability, it is remove and does not stay in the wine) and we add sulfites below 100ppm.

Lesson learned

In the vineyard we understand that we do not need heavy chemicals to grow our grapes. Yes, it is more work but there are alternative ways to grow grapes in an economical way. It makes sense and it does not make us a bunch of hippies. Consequently we have pooled our growers together to find alternative ways to grow grapes in a more sustainable way and we are creating an Integrated Environmental Stewardship Charter to move our sustainability agenda forward.

At the winery we know understand that we do not need commercial yeasts and that we can also make wine with fewer chemicals. Yes, the wines might not always be “technologically” correct but we hope they taste better and are healthier for you, just like an organically grown fruit.

We hope that you care as much as we do.

Twice a year I sit down with the our winemaking dream team and we go through the latest bottling to see how our bottled wines are holding. We also remember how we made them all. It is some sort of a 360 evaluation six month to a year after bottling to gauge our performance. Below is a list of the wine we’ve tasted and our winemaking comments:

Wallula Riesling Biodynamic 2007: Great wine, aromatic and mineral, nice acidity. Would not change a thing.
Wallula Riesling 2007: Tighter than the Biodynamic version, sharp, some lime, bit austere right now but armed to age well. May be a little austere?
Solstice Riesling 2007: Very clean, intense, shows some sign of petrol, very nice right now. Recommend drinking now.
Chenin Blanc 2007: We actually did a vertical of the 06-07 and 08 vintage. Those wines really evolve nicely overtime from tight/lime to opulent/Sauvignon blanc like. The 07 is still in its lime/clean phase but is starting to show some hay from the bottle age.
Gewurztraminer 2007: Nice wine, a bit tight, we can improve on this one though this is a nice effort (FYI, the 2008 is very good).
Dauenhauer Riesling 2007: Sl mushroom/botrytis, balanced, very nice. This is one of those wines that we might never be able to do again. What a great bottle.
Sweet Riesling 2007: This is sold out (we are selling the 2008) but for those of us that are keeping the wine in the cellar it will be rewarding. the wine is totally fresh and alive.
Selenium Riesling Vin De Glaciere 2007: Clean, great dessert wine. This is built to age nicely.

If you do taste those wines and have some comments, please leave a post!

Reproduced from the Wine Spectator Website

Thank you Mr Steiman for endorsing our great Riesling region!

Riesling and Washington

Posted: 01:20 PM ET, February 10, 2009

If anyone doubts the current Riesling renaissance, just look at the latest grape production report from Washington. For the first time, the state crushed more Riesling than any other grape variety—28,500 tons, to be exact, or about 38 percent of all the state’s white wine in 2008.

That’s more Riesling than Chardonnay, more than either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, the leading varieties on the red wine side.

This has been building for several years. While Chardonnay has been holding steady, Riesling has been coming on strong. From 16,500 tons in 2004 the numbers climbed to 18,800 in 2005 and to 23,800 in 2006 and 26,000 in 2007.

Why is this happening? Because Riesling has found a cadre of consumers who like it. Finally. Many of us who love the grape have wondered when it would happen. Right now, Rieslings are among the darlings of hip sommeliers, partly because they deliver plenty of class and charm at attractive prices, and these days who can resist that? I’ve always said, hand a glass of Riesling to anyone, say nothing about what it is, and you will get a smile of approval. People like the fruit flavors and the dance the wine does on their taste buds.

It just took a while to overcome that sweet-is-bad myth. Not all Rieslings are sweet, for one thing, and even the sweet ones often have class and charm.

Washington has done well with Riesling throughout its modern wine history. Ste. Michelle Wine Estates claims to produce more of it than any wine company in the U.S., distributed among its various labels. They include Chateau Ste. Michelle, Columbia Crest, Snoqualmie and the most high profile of them all, the joint venture with Dr. Loosen of Germany that makes Eroica.

Hogue has been successful at hitting fine value marks with Riesling for years, especially with its Genesis bottlings. Kiona has consistently scored well with its moderately priced late harvest Rieslings. Riesling was the first wine from Mercer, the new project from some of the same folks who gave us Hogue, and it’s a good one.

Pacific Rim, the label started by Bonny Doon of California, moved its operations to Washington and now makes a range of Rieslings from inexpensive everyday dry and off-dry bottlings to single-vineyard charmers.

Poet’s Leap, the joint venture between German vintner Armin Diehl and Long Shadows, has toned down its originally sweet profile and is now making beautifully balanced wines in a soft spätlese style.

Charles Smith, who started K Vintners (for big-time Syrah) and the Magnificent Wine Co. (a value range), bottles Kung Fu Girl, a lovely dry-style Riesling for $12 a bottle.

A sweet Riesling got my highest rating from Washington in the past 12 months: Chateau Ste. Michelle White Riesling Columbia Valley Late Harvest Ethos 2006 (97, $40). These unctuous dessert wines can be stunning.

In its moderately cool climate, Washington does well with Chardonnay, too, but the Rieslings seem to represent better value. And I have a theory why: Many of Washington’s vineyards are on flat ground or gently rolling countryside in the dry climate of Columbia Valley. They need irrigation to keep vines alive; the vines grow pretty big and yields tend to be high. Few vineyards are close-spaced on challenging soils that naturally keep yields low. These make the best Chardonnays around the world, and in Washington those kinds of vineyards are more likely to grow Cabernet, Merlot or Syrah, which get higher prices to justify the extra work. Riesling gets higher yields than Chardonnay while still delivering good flavor and balance.

In that light, maybe the most intriguing new area for Riesling might be Lake Chelan, a chilly region on the eastern slope of the Cascades. The vineyards are young there, but already I’ve been impressed with Tsillan’s Riesling, which has a more Germanic range of vivid flavors and lively balance.

Riesling’s success will, I hope, boost Syrah. It is clearly Washington’s red-wine calling card, making some of the most distinctive and food-friendly reds I taste. It’s been holding steady at 15 percent of red wine production while Cabernet and Merlot both exceed 35 percent.

Sooner or later, the quality of the wines will win over American red wine drinkers, just as Riesling did on the white wine side. But that’s a story for another day. Let’s just pause to applaud the success of Riesling. At last.

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We have bottled last month our first Riesling “made from organic”. We have been playing with Biodynamic grapes and winemaking over the past few years and we thought it was time to play with organic. We did have organic grapes but never made them into a commercial organic wine. We have certified the winery last summer, so we are now the only Washington Winery with an Organic Producer and a Biodynamic Producer certification. The organic winemaking is pretty simple and was really straightforward for us because we don’t really use many additives. We use only native yeasts (no commercial stuff), organic nutrients, no acidification nor sugar added and we do not use any heavy filtration material (just membrane filtration).  I could not go the whole way and not add any non organic sulfites but we have stayed well below the 100ppm requirement for total sulfites (closer to 80ppm total in fact) so the wine is 99.84% Organic. Because we use non organic sulfites (note that yeasts produce organic sulfites naturally) we  qualify for “made from organic grapes” and not for “Organic”. Interestingly this wine would qualify as “Organic”‘ if produced in Canada and many other country that have a waiver on non-organic sulfites (at least to a certain level).

The wine is made in an off dry style somewhere between our Dry and our Sweet Riesling. With 11% alcohol it is very refreshing and quite frankly as pure as it gets. Pick a bottle and comment back on what you think about the wine.

Here is a good recipe for our Dry Riesling tried last week. Half of the wine is for the dish and half for your soul.

Ingredients:

• 1 Lb clams
• 1/2 bottle of Sweet Riesling
• Parsley – 1/4 cup chopped
• one large shallot
• 1 stick of butter

Rinse the clams. Chop finely the shallot and in a large pot saute the shallot with 1/4 stick of butter. When shallots are soft add 1/2 bottle of the dry Riesling. Pour yourself a glass to enjoy. Heat up the sauce and when boiling add the clams. cover the pot for 5 minutes then remove the clams into a bowl. Reduce the sauce to about 3 cups. Add the remaining butter and melt it in. Add the parsley and pour the sauce over the clams in the bowl. By now you should be out of Dry Riesling. Open another bottle and enjoy it with your bucket of clams!

Today I saw our first order ever from Thailand for the American Embassy. They took a bit of Chenin, Gewurztraminer, Dry and Sweet Riesling. That made me wonder if there is a food and wine pairing event at the embassy in Bangkok. If anyone at the embassy reads this blog, could you please report?

I would bet that our Sweet Riesling will be a winner with spicy hot thai food, though Gewurz with a curry could be a very good combo as well.

A great study was released last week by the American Association of Wine Economist about the validity of wine competitions. Great reading and very interesting to find that competitions are very unreliable according to their study. Steve Heimoff has written a great “summary” on the topic on his blog that is a must read for those of you that are interested. If you don’t have time to read it all, let me bullet point the main bits:

• Wine competitions are found to be unreliable  by the AAWE – not news to me, sometimes you get a gold, sometimes you get nothing…
• Wine competitions are unreliable because humans are unreliable – I knew that as well, my taste changes everyday and sometimes several times a day.
• This raises the question of wine reviewers in general though what can you do about it?
• This raises the question about the use of wine scores and accolades by the wine trade and the consumer – I won’t venture there because I get upset too fast on this.

Fun topic, isn’t it?