Wallula is the largest vineyard we source grapes from representing about 40% of all our Riesling grapes. It is also our only Biodynamic Vineyard (the first in Washington and the largest). It is the source of our Single Vineyard Wallula, a large contributor to our Riesling made from Organic grapes and a good contributor to our Sweet Riesling. I was there two week ago to check the development of our growing season. The vineyard looked good, appropriate crop level, good growth etc… Below is a picture of how things look like:

 Of course one of the pleasure of walking at Wallula is to spot the sheeps. We use them to weed the rows (remember we don’t use any herbicide or pesticides for Biodynamic farming).  Here they are between the rows:

Wallula is a special place from many different propectives. First is is a high elevation vineyard (1,300 feet) above Missoula flood levels (click here for the story of the flood) and that is very interesting for a higher mineral content. It was also planted biodynamically from the get go and the farming practices are very unique and highly sustainable (see earlier post on biodynamic farming).  The density is high for Washington (1613 vines/ac) resulting in less crop per vine. The trellis is also very peculiar – it is a sort of a modified lyra with a tall vine (the fuit zone is 5 feet off the ground) – promoting lots of shading which protects the clusters from too much sunlight and provides a cooler environment. Finally we have a few buried drip lines that promote more root exploration enhancing mineral content. There are very few vineyards in the world that are so complex and advanced. Below is a picture of a vine so you can picture the whole thing.

Anyone that knows me is aware that I have a soft spot for Chenin Blanc in Washington. Chenin Blanc vineyards are some of the oldest in the State (our Chenin Blanc vineyards are 35 years old on average) and have exceptional depth. One of my favorite site is in the middle of the Yakima on a small south facing hill called Hahn Hill. The vineyard is 37 years old at sits at about 900 feet of elevation (picture above). Hahn Hill represents about 50% of our Chenin Blend every year. The vines are trained with the old fashion fan system (see picture below) where several “arms come out of the same plant. This training is a nice for quality grapes though quite labor intensive because the fruit zone is distributed a bit randomly (versus the Vertical Shoot positionning system where the fruit is nicely lined up on the cordon). Vineyard looks great this year. Should be a very nice Chenin year.

I am getting somewhat addicted to a new cocktail with Framboise (our raspberry infusion) and our newly released sparkling Riesling. I like the combination for the summer. The sparkling, being so sharp and low alcohol, blends very well with the high sugar, higher alcohol Framboise. I suspect that the sparkling Riesling would be a great cocktail base for all sort of liqueurs.

My recipe is 1/3 Framboise and 2/3 Sparkling but you should try for yourself and decide what you like.

Both vineyards are owned by James Willard (Jim) and are in the lower Yakima Valley. Solstice is the source of our single vineyard Solstice Riesling and our block is 30 year old. The grapes are always concentrated (we go for about 3 tons/acre in that old block). The vineyard itself has a very organic feel to it (See picture below). This year the crop looks great with a modest canopy at this point.

Jim was pulling out an old Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard and he showed me the old vines (35+ year old), they were quite massive. Check this impressive picture of Jim vs the old Cabernet:

Skyline is the future source of a newly Gamay vineyard for us. The vines are now two years old so the first crop will be in 2010. Very exciting. Pictures of the growing babies below.

We are now finishing bloom in most of our vineyards. This is a good time to have a look at the growing season so far. Overall the season has been very nice to date with our Growing Degree Days (GDD) tracking close to 2003 (a warm year). Below is the current GDD chart from WSU:

GDD is computed by substracting 50 from the average daily temperature and cumulating that number over time. GDD in the Yakima Valley was 720 as of June 21st. A warm year usually means a early harvest and sometimes lower acidities. We are ready for an early one at this point!

Over the next few days I’ll post some observation and pictures of our main vineyard sites.

Just came across a good Tuna recipe on the web (click here for the recipe) where the writer (Mark) used our Dry Riesling for food pairing. Thank you for the recommendation Mark! Looking forward to try the dish!

Just to clarify the “hybrid” status of our Dry Riesling, we have always blended 15% + of Mosel Riesling in our Washington Riesling to give it a bit more zesty acidity and reduce the final alcohol ofthe wine. The label on Mark’s blog in the 2006 vintage (20% German). The Mosel wine always comes from our dear friend Johannes Selbach in Zeltingen (Johannes owns the Selbach Oster estate and also a negociant business).

I have finally turned the last page of this great book full of great stories about our beloved American wine industry. The book did a great job to lay out the prohibition years and the long lasting impact of the consequences brought by the way the 21st amendment was repealed. The birth of the three tier system is very well explained and so is the rebirth and transformation of the California wine industry. The other regions in the US are also well covered, New York, the Pacific Northwest, Michigan, Ohio and more. It is very interesting to read about how the three tier system was set up and really how unimportant the alcohol business was at the time this was done. Think about it, California was barely the size of the current Washington wine industry and no alcohol had been sold in the country for more than 10 years. No one thought that alcohol sales would grow the way they have, so really it was not a front burner issue and the Federal government gave the right to regulate alcohol to each State as it desired. The results of the repeal are still with us today, 75 years later, a patchwork of different rules, taxes and systems that are a strong barrier to innovation in our industry. A great read.

Dr Vino had a good post on his blog about Riesling ageability. Even though 99% of folks don’t age their wines a few of us do. Myself probably more because I forget about the wines in my cellar rather than by design. Nevertheless, it is always a pleasure to taste an older Riesling regardless of its residual sugar (that would be my “gee, I did not remember I had that bottle here” moment). My rule of thumb is usually that Rieslings with a greater residual sugar have a tendency to age better, but that can be debated. The problem is not to argue if Riesling can age as it is one of the most ageworthy whites; but it is to find friends that share an interest in tasting older bottles of wine. Very often aged Rieslings taste different than younger, fresher Rieslings as they lose their fruit forwardness to gain more honey and petroleum notes. That might turn many folks away. The appreciation of an older wine taste profile brings my old philosophical dilemna; do people do not like a given wine (old or not) because it does not meet their frame of reference (It is not sweet as it should be, it is not oaky as white wine should be, etc…) OR do people do not like a given wine because hedonically it is unpleasant (ie it truly taste like hell to them). My guess is that the earlier reason is often true and that people do not truly enjoy the wine as it is but they always try to apply a frame of reference to it (either past experiences or what they have been told by others) and compare that reference to their present experience. If the reference (or expected) taste matches the current taste, they like the wine; if not, they dislike it. Well, sorry to get that deep here, but that’s what happens when you think about older Rieslings…

Quietly Congress is gearing up to hike taxes on wine. They are proposing around $0.50/bottle. That seems small, but the problem is that wineries pay this tax when they ship out of their warehouses to distributors’ warehouses. Therefore the little $0.50 becomes $1.00 on the shelf (accounting for distributor margin and retailer margin). That might not seem like much but in a difficult economic environment that could send many wines above their perceived price treshold ($9.99 becomes $10.99, $14.99 becomes $15.99). With that in mind it is likely that many producers will eat most of the tax hike themselves thus reducing their profit. What wrong with reducing profit? Well, less profit means less investment, less employment, less creativity and in the long run more company failure and increased consolidation. I don’t think this is good, do you?

I have two ideas to help out the wineries with this tax increase (which is likely and in some way is meant for a good cause i.e. financing a national healthdare system): 1) truly liberalize the wine business, go away with the three tier system  2) allow wineries to pay federal taxes 90 days after the wine as left their warehouse to mitigate the impact on our cash flow.

I doubt any of those ideas would fly…

Nicolas