winemaker's blog

Next Wednesday we are gearing for a flash sale of the Solstice Vineyard Riesling on Wine Woot. I will leave a recording and here is the transcript below. This lovely wine deserve to be talked about!

Hello this is Nicolas, Winemaker at Pacific Rim.

As you may know Pacific Rim is a Washington State winery specializing in Riesling – we make 10 different Riesling styles and 95% of our production is Riesling.

Washington is a great State for Riesling production and Riesling is the #1 grape variety  grown in our State – in fact so much Riesling is grown here that Washington State is the #1 Riesling producer in the New World (ahead of CA and Clare Valley in Australia) and it is the 7^th largest Riesling producing region in the world.  By the way, if like me you are a Riesling fanatic, we have written and printed a little booklet full of information named “Riesling Rules” – you can get it for free by going on our website – RieslingRules.com.

Back to Washington State and our wine today. Washington is a fantastic region for Riesling because of its great mineral driven soils which are very appropriate for Riesling and because of its cool winters and cool nights in the summer which are fantastic to preserve the acidity of Riesling.

This particular Riesling is one of the two single vineyard Riesling we produce. Each of our single vineyard Riesling reflects the best of the two main regions we get grapes from in Washington  – Wallula for the warmer and windier Horse Heaven Hills and Solstice for the cooler Yakima Valley. Solstice vineyard is planted from old vines (about 40 years old) at a high elevation (1,200 feet) in the lower Yakima valley – The soils there are very shallow (about two feet of windblown loess) on the top of a basalt bed rock – it is a very mineral driven poor soil yielding no more than 2.5 tons/acre and I think you can taste that in this wine (it will be a kind of flinty straight character with lots of concentration). This is definitely one of those Rieslings that can age very well for at least 15 years.

The 2010 vintage was cool and the acid on this wine are outstandingly high (0.93), balancing the 0.9% Residual sugar beautifully. This is a trocken wine (aka dry) by German standards. The wine is 13.3% alcohol, so a serious broad shoulder Riesling for dry Riesling lovers. This is a wine for pork chops and serious fish dishes with cream.

We made 2,600 bottles of this wine; it is a very limited production and probably one of the best domestic Dry Riesling. It is closed under screwcap to guarantee the freshness and quality of the wine all the way to your table. I hope you will enjoy it immensely; it is always a treat to share this wine with friends.

Remember to check our website – RieslingRules.com and if you have a minute friend us on facebook.

Prost!

Back from Teutonia and one of the largest wine show on the planet: Prowein. The event is held in Dusseldorf every year, not a bad city overall, and gathers around 4,000 suppliers and 40,000 trade visitors. It is one of those events where you realize the size of the wine biz and the insane number of suppliers involved in it. Pacific Rim was just a little booth (see above) in an ocean of giant stands – one can only marvel at the amount of money spent in a few days for all those booths and events around the fair. I had a good three days meeting with some of our excellent importers (Finland, U.A.E, Norway, Sweden, Italy to name a few) and had a grand time tasting some of my favorite wines. In my top list lots of German producers (Riesling of course), some great Italians (finding a new love for Sangiovese lately – though still heavily dating Barbera), some california wines I never have the opportunity to taste home (go figure) and so many more I could not get to. Most esoteric wines I have tasted were from Monte Negro (don’t ask the name of the variety).

Already we are into the Chinese New Year – and this year it is the year of the dragon! What a great opportunity to talk Sweet Riesling – our best-selling Riesling adorned with a Dragon carrying a cauldron of fire on the label.

THE STYLE – The wine came out of a vision, the vision of a great American Kabinett. Of course we could not reproduce that style exactly (Eastern Washington weather and soils are not the Mosel) and we had to tweak things a bit to make a good wine years after years (more on this learning experience later). THE NAME – We also wanted this wine to talk to consumers; most Riesling wines just said “Riesling” and that drove us crazy: “how can consumers find a sweet Riesling if they all say just ‘Riesling’ on the label” – hence we came up with the name “Sweet Riesling” on our labels. At the beginning everyone (Distributors, large clients) told us we were crazy: “consumers do not like the word ‘sweet’ even if they like to drink ‘sweet’ – do not put ‘sweet’ on the label”. The popularity of this wine and the number of copycats since then (It always amazes me to see so many wine companies just copy one another) have proven that the “Sweet Riesling” wording was a winning ticket. THE DRAGON – The imagery was crystallized very early in our mind, we wanted an iconographic art piece that would clearly depict that this type of wine (low alcohol – high sugar – high acid) is made to go with spicy food – Sweet Riesling with hot/spicy food is a culinary experience that one cannot miss. An Asian dragon was perfect for this image – agile, light and deadly. Adding a cauldron of fire helped explain the great tension between a Sweet Riesling and hot food.
BACK TO THE STYLE – We knew we wanted a certain balance where high sugar levels would be balanced by high acidity. The first year we made the Sweet (2006), we’ve picked the grapes at the same time than the Dry Riesling and the acidity did not allow carrying more than 6% residual sugar – we thought: “need more acid”. 2007 brought a warmer harvest and we decided to pick early to keep our acids higher, we found out this was a great timing to harvest for that style and that same year we understood clearly that sugar alone was not enough of a parameter to pick grapes (I know we are a bit slow) – we also decided that we could do away with adding acid by simply picking earlier – yes! One less additive at the winery. What a revelation 2007 was, we’ve picked early, did not add acid and made a naturally balanced wine that tasted great. We narrowed on a slightly higher residual sugar level closer to 7% because now the wine could carry more sugar (and we love the tension between acid and sugar – that is what makes a great Riesling). In 2008 we’ve learned two more tricks; the first one was the use of native yeast and how well they worked for our wines. The second one was the importance of residual carbon dioxide in the bottle – we started obsessing about carbon dioxide and made sure that the residual carbon dioxide would be perfect at bottling. In 2009 we started to think about having a fraction of the blend coming from a botrytized vineyard – until then all our fruit was always clean and beautiful – to get complexity we had to find some botrytis and we’d decided to explore growing botrytized vineyard blocks (note – it does not work that well). We also started to understand deeply the relationship between our pH and the sensation of sweetness for the wines. 2009 brought also the first Sweet Riesling 100% fermented with native yeasts. 2010 gave us a LOT of botrytis. I was like mother nature heard our desire to get some Botrytis and said “you wanted some, here you go my friend” – I think this is my favorite vintage of Sweet Riesling (though the 2011 currently in tank is not shabby by any means), that year we really learned to work with Botrytis – all that rot is not all good. 2011 was similar to 2010, no major breakthrough this vintage. Every vintage brought its share of learning but after 6 vintages of Sweet Riesling we really are starting to get it down to a science – no acid addition, no yeast, pick early, keep your pH low, high residual carbon dioxide, some botrytis.

So for the year of the Dragon, remember to pick up a Sweet Riesling – a treat with Spicy food and now a great story to repeat at dinner time.

I was listening to the excellent Grape Radio featuring an interview with Louis Fabrice Latour (warning Grape Radio could be a bit intense for non wine nerds – consume at your own risk) and part of the conversation revolved around white wine maturity. Monsieur Latour had some great comments about how many people now do not understand older mature white wines especially as it relates to color. It seems that as soon as the color turns a little yellow many consumers – and experts – turn to the conclusion that the wine is oxydized and near total death. I was relating to many conversations I have had in the past with good clients about aged Riesling and how people are so darn sensitive to color and jump to conclusion – not everyone makes green Sauvignon Blanc to be drunk within 12 month! It did not use to be like this, great white Burgundies (the one that Louis Fabrice referred to), the great Rieslings, the great Chenin Blanc from the Loire, an old Bordeaux Blanc, they all turn yellow-yellow after 5 -6 years and if the wine is balanced (sometimes residual sugar helps a lot as well as a low pH/high acid combo), most experienced wine drinkers will consider those wines to be still young and very pleasurable. May be they are not youngsters and have developed more bottle bouquet, but by no mean they are dead. I would agree that some cheap white wines, aged under a lot of oak and often under a cheap natural cork – or a fake plastic cork (all great techniques for hyper oxygenation) can be oxidized and dead, but please do not jump to the conclusion that all yellow pigmented white wines are dead – you might be missing out on a great bottle of wine and another world of wine.

From Sharon Kapnick: sharonswineline.wordpress.com

This is a summary of our long and painful 2011 harvest:

OREGON:

We brought some Riesling from Oregon but also some Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris for our new Oregon winery project. It was a challenging harvest in OR overall following an unseasonably cool spring and summer (Thank you la Nina). We thought that all would be saved by a great August and a promising September but the weather turned cold mid-September slowing down ripening considerably. We were aggressive with yield reduction to allow what was left to ripen a bit more. The saving grace has been the dry weather which has reduced fungal pressure in OR tremendously. We saw little or no rot on any varietal. Most folks started to harvest mid-October wrapping harvest in 2 to 3 weeks – bit of a flash harvest ahead of the rain that are in the forecast as far as the eye can see now. Overall the fruit is low in sugar (21 Brix) but fruit flavors are ripe with no greenness, and colors on the Pinot Noir are very decent indeed. I think that overall it will be a nice vintage with delicate flavors that will reward wineries that tend to go for elegance against power. The Riesling was low Brix and is slotted for a Kabinett style.

WASHINGTON:

Same pattern than OR in WA minus the rain factor and plus frost issues. The summer was very cool and 2011 will be remembered as one of the coldest vintage on record, cooler than 2010 even – 2011 is the 8th coldest year on record sandwiched between 1976 and 1970. The yields were quite lower than last year due to some winter frost damage and some aggressive thinning after bloom. WA harvest as a whole will probably be 20% below average yield which has probably helped to get most fruit to good ripeness. Acids are high and everyone brought some nice botrytis with the fruit. Overall it is a little riper of a vintage (bit weird but the acids were much lower than 2010) for us and we will be able to make every Riesling style we usually produce. We are leaving a few acres out to see if this is a good ice wine year, we might get something good out of this cold weather!

When you live and breathe Riesling, one of the recurring story that we talk about all the time is the many different types (read residual sugars) of Rieslings and how they all have a place at your wine table. This is a theme that we have tried to convey on the package of our main line of Riesling through the clear use of descriptors on the label such as “Dry” or “Sweet” because we want our customers to understand what they are buying (not a given in the wine business sometimes). For the record most folks out there told us we were crazy to use the word “Sweet” on a label and now you can see the numbers of wineries following our lead. Our leadership in this arena is also shown in the very early use of the International Riesling Foundation taste (sweetness) scale on all our Rieslings back labels – a scale that we’ve helped develop with Dan Berger and the team at the IRF.

Why all that matters would you ask? Well, it does matter (at least to us) because it is not always easy to convince some crowds to love, buy and sell several types of Rieslings. we have many cro-magnon folks out there that either think that all Rieslings are sweet and/or believe that sweet wines are waaayyy below them. Often those prehistoric thinkers believe that consumers needs to be categorized as a “cab drinker” or a “dry white drinker”; they love to categorize the world of drinkers like marketers categorize populations (by the way try the Claritas prizm marketing segmentation to see how those people like to categorize everything). If you are like me and enjoy many ways of life, you probably understand that there is a time for dry aromatic whites, a time for sweeter wines and a time for a red wine (OK, maybe not many occasion for red wines but I have to be open minded since this is what I am preaching). This is why I do not believe that most wine drinkers fall into one type of Riesling and that Riesling has to be sweet – I believe most people like many styles of Riesling though, I admit, wine drinkers might have a primary attachment to any given kind. There is a Riesling for Everything has we say at Pacific Rim that all have different Riesling for being.

Based on the unequivocal principle that all Riesling are not born equal and they are made for different occasions and food pairing, we are claiming that all decent wine lists and all decent wine shelves HAVE TO CARRY SEVERAL STYLES OF RIESLINGS and that, at a minimum, the price of entry in order to graduate from prehistoric behavior is to carry a Dry, a medium Dry (often just labeled “Riesling” in the USA) and a Sweet Riesling – 3 Rieslings for being. Note 1: a Sparkling and a dessert style in the set would be swell, but I won’t get mad at you for not having them – at least not yet. Note 2: Several Riesling regions (Mosel, Washington State, Eden Valley Australia etc…) would also be nice.

Just a quick note to display my gratitude to the sun god for giving us a great end of August. GDD are catching up with last year and last year saw a disastrous September which so far does not look like a repeat this year. We might have a great vintage on our hands…..

As we are entering the final stretch of the grape growing season, the growers and wineries of Washington State have published their projected harvest numbers. Below are the top key points:

• Total estimated crop is 20% below last year due to a freeze kill this winter – 128K tons vs 160K tons in 2010 – this is the equivalent of 1.8M cases
• Red are more affected than whites – reds down 26%, whites down 8%
• Among reds, major loser is Cabernet Sauvignon (-39%) and all major red varietals are down
• Among whites, major loser is Chardonnay (-17%) and somewhat Riesling (-13%). Pinot Gris is actually projected a good 20% above 2010 due to speculative planting putting pressure on Pinot Gris prices
• Looking at the future, 2012 could be as high as 176K tons, 10% higher than 2010 – so there is no long term shortage

Overall this is a pretty decent projection. We should not see any major shortage except Cabernet Sauvignon. If the weather stays above 90F until mid-September we could actually have a stellar vintage with low crop and mild temperatures -> Perfect!

Let me remember 2010…

A cool growing season

My first harvest in Washington was 1998 (5^th warmest season on record ) and if you take out 1999 (The 4^th coolest season), it has been the coolest season in many years. The seventies and mid-eighties were very cool years as well but really for the past 20 years we have been used to 2,400 GDD (Growing Degree Days) every year. Well, not 2010. We had to go through a cold early spring and really a uber cool end of season – it almost felt like Burgundy at times. A cool season like 2010 brings its load of challenges in the vineyard especially late ripening, low maturity, low yields and potential for rot.

Winemaking to the rescue

The challenges the season brought us had to be dealt with at the winery, this is what they call a “winemaker’s vintage” – aka I will not sleep for 60 days and chew my fingernails to the bone. In challenging vintages, such as 2010, the trick is to accept that there will be compromises and to choose them carefully. The first compromise we made was to bring some fruit below optimal ripeness and avoid having to pick everything at once (it is challenging to bring too much fruit too fast). The second compromise we’ve made was to accept grapes with far higher noble rot levels than we usually do. The third one was to pick almost exclusively on acid level – we would pick once the acid level would go right below “deadly”. Still this was not enough to get away with such a cool season. We had to get out a few tricks out of our Magic Riesling Compendium book namely leaving grapes on cold soak to enrich the juices in potassium (thereby dropping some tartaric acid out of the wine), selectively de-acidify some lots, decide to not make any dry styles from the 2010 harvest and separate lots with higher botrytis levels for Sweet Riesling.

The wines we’ve made

Now we are just releasing the wines we’ve made from the 2010 vintage. They have in common a great high acidity, some level of noble rot (think about waxy, complexing aromas and flavors) and overall a tid bit more sugar than usual to rebalance the extra acid (and of course de facto lower alcohols). Below is a list of the wine we’ve made in 2010:

-        Riesling “Phoenix”: This is our Johannesburg style. We left a tid bit more sugar than usual to rebalance the wine (2.8% instead of 2.5%). Surprisingly close to the 2009 with some added acidity

-        Sweet Riesling: OK, this is a very very nice sweet Riesling; it has about the same sugar than usual (7%) but has a layer of botrytis that I have been fighting to get for years. I would say about 20% noble rot.

-        Riesling Made from organic Grapes: Watch out, this is our best to date (our first vintage was 1998). With a great natural acidity and the slightly above normal sugar level (3.8%) this is a very pure and somewhat crystalline Riesling – very different in the lineup and very cool.

-        Vin De Glaciere – Wallula Vineyard – Made From organic Grapes: A new twist on our quintessential VDG. Now it is made from Wallula so it can carry an organic certification. It was a bit of a challenge to make a dessert wine organically but boy it paid off. Note the 8.5% alcohol on this wine (16% Residual Sugar), it is a great wine in a 375ml bottle.

-        Sparkling Sweet Riesling: Well, when you can’t make a dry Riesling, you make a sweet one! That is what the Germans do and what we did. A new bubbly in the lineup dosed at 7% RS – think Sweet Riesling with bubbles

-        Solstice Vineyard Riesling: We’ve just bottled this one. It has been a fantastic wine so far though it needs a bit of bottle age. It ended up drier than in past year – this is the acid monster for those of us that like that with total acidity of 0.93 and Residual Sugar of 0.93. This is the wine of legends

-        Wallula Vineyard Riesling Biodynamic: This is a very interesting wine because we did not get the sugar we usually do at Wallula. We kept the sugar at around 1.1% as usual but the alcohol is 11.9%. This wine as usual is the best true read on the vintage – untouched from the vineyard to the bottle

-        Gewurztraminer: This is one varietal that fared well in 2010. Great concentration, very aromatic vintage and the best for us since 2008 probably (mmm 2008 was cooler too, may be a correlation?)

-        Framboise: A short harvest in 2010 though quite flavorful. Intense berry flavors, the only problem is that we did not make enough!

The wrap up

In retrospect, 2010 was a great year for Riesling producers – as long as you focused on sweeter styles save a few sites like Solstice. The only thing I wish is that our yields could have been higher and our quantities available larger. I probably lost way too much sleep on this vintage and lost a couple years of life expectancy – which I can regain by drinking additional Riesling every day in 2011. Please expect high acids in 2010 and trust that we did balance everything out with about 10% more sugar than usual. Enjoy the touch of botrytis on the wines, especially in the Sweet Riesling. Have fun with the results of a challenging vintage, meanwhile we are preparing for an equally challenging 2011 vintage (2011 is so far cooler than 2010!).

Univocally bad for you?

Sulfites are a top allergen triggering strong reactions in people (hives, swelling of throat etc..). Thankfully, studies have shown that few individuals are truly allergic to sulfites (I have read 0.5% of the population but 5% of the asthmatic population) and often sulfite allergies are mistaken with alcohol allergies (the headache you get the next day!). For the other 99.5% of the population sulfites are metabolized and excreted. They are cases of sulfite poisoning in young children but usually no one dies from sulfites present in the food chain (would not recommend eating spoons of sulfites though). So, really asthmatic should avoid food with high levels of sulfites or at least follow the recommendation of the FDA which is to avoid food with more than a 100ppm of sulfites. For the non-asthmatic folks, if you suspect a sulfite allergy (again very low likelihood), you can have yourself tested by an allergist to confirm your suspicion. Foods that are known to contain more than 100ppm of sulfites include dried fruit (excluding raisins), lemon and lime juice, wine, sauerkraut, grape juices, pickled onions for example. Now remember that your sulfite intake is additive, so you should not neglect foods that have less than 100ppm sulfites because they add up especially wine vinegar, maraschino cherries, fresh shrimps, corn syrup, relish, maple syrup, some cookies, many medications etc… The FDA requires that any product with more than 10ppm sulfites be declared on the label.

Sulfites in wine

Sulfites have been used in wines for thousands of year; Egyptians used sulfites starting 2,000 BC! Sulfites are used in wines because they have very interesting properties:

• they are a strong antioxidant protecting the wine from oxygen spoilage
• they are a good anti-bacterial agent (we have plenty of those in wines, few good bacteria and many bad ones)
• they have some decent anti-fungal activities (remember that yeasts that are fermenting wines are a unicellular fungus)
• they do enhance the taste of food, in the same manner than salt

Because of health concerns, governments of many countries have regulated the maximum total amount of sulfites in wines. The maximum limit is 350ppm in the USA, 200ppm in the EU – I think the USA should mirror the EU on that one; 350ppm is a LOT of total sulfites.
The winemaker should not really worry about the level of total sulfites (unless one is getting close to the legal limit) but should focus on the molecular sulfite levels. See, not all sulfites are born alike, and when the sulfite molecule is in suspension in wine, it dissociates itself into several forms that are more or less active chemically. The molecular fraction is by far the most active and the one that the winemaker needs to pay attention to. Several factors should influence the amount of molecular sulfite desired:

• The life expectancy of the wine and its window of consumption (if the wine is to be consumed in two years and for the next 5 years after that, then one should increase the sulfite concentration to help the wine survive)
  The expectation for oxygen ingress into the container (cork and bag in the box let more oxygen into the wine vs screwcaps for example requiring increased sulfites at bottling)
• The pH of the wine – very important factor, for a wine with low pH (like in Riesling) the molecular fraction become exponentially more prevalent reducing the need for more sulfites – note that red wines in general have higher pH that whites
• The presence of polyphenols (color, tannins mainly) that are natural anti-oxidant protecting the wine naturally (ie, at same pH levels red wines need less sulfites than white wines)
• The level of filtration, non-filtered wines being more unstable, they might require more sulfites to avoid bacterial spoilage in the bottle
• Barrel aged wines which see more oxygen (vs tank aged) require often more sulfites especially if they are aged for a long time

Overall I would say that wines need to be below 150ppm sulfites. I see very few instances (very sweet wines may be since sulfites benefits are inhibited by sugar) where the level should be higher and I would welcome legislation forcing wineries to put the final sulfite levels in their wines.

Organic, made from organic grapes, biodynamic requirements

The three certifications above all have more stringent sulfites requirement than previously stated. Made from organic grapes and biodynamic wines have an upper limit of 100ppm total sulfites. Organic wines cannot have sulfites added period – one caveat is that yeasts naturally produce sulfites usually around 20ppm, so no sulfite added does not mean no sulfite present. Still organic wines would be a perfectly good way to lower one’s sulfites intake. The only issue I have with organic wines is that they don’t age that well and have to be drunk soon after production which is not always possible.

Sulfites at Pacific Rim

As you might have gathered, I care a lot about sulfite levels. I wish we would not have to use it and still get a great bottle of wine that age and that is good now and for many years. Right now, this is a preservative we have to use to guarantee the freshness of our wines and its stability. I guess I find solace in the fact that at Pacific Rim we rarely (almost never) bottle any wines above 100ppm total Sulfites. Several reasons why we can get away with low levels of sulfites:

• Our wines are often fast turn, they are fresh whites that are meant to be drunk young needing less sulfites
• Riesling has very low pH, allowing us use less sulfites and still have a good amount of precious molecular sulfites
• We stop our fermentations (to make white wines) with a centrifuge which separates yeasts and wine without using sulfites
• We sterile filter our wines
• We use screwcaps – a very tight closure reducing oxygen ingress in the wine
• We make sure our wines go in the bottle with very little dissolved oxygen (we even chase the air between the wine and the wine

Since 4th of July is approaching, it seems like an appropriate time to raise the flag and shout a call for the unity of the American Wine Industry. I was inspired to write this post after a call to action that Jerry Lohr made last week at a conference in California. The wine Industry still suffers the lasting impact of the repeal of prohibition experiment which resulted in the balkanization of the alcohol business in this country. The resulting landscape today are many small local wine industries, sheltered (or not) within their State borders that do not talk and do not propel forward American wines as a whole. This is probably accentuated by the powerful Wine Institute of California which, by mandate, focuses on California wines thus inhibiting a country wide conversation about American wines in general (California still represents 90% of the US wine industry). . Today wine is produced in all 50 States, old post prohibition laws are slowly fading away broadening commerce, vines are being planted from the high plains of Texas to the great lakes, and did I mention the internet? – We are wine nation under Bacchus and it is time to unite and build the future of the American wine industry together.

Despite the growth and the influence of the wine industry we are, so far, the most disorganized heavy weight producer in the world – every major producing country (France, Italy, Chile, Australia, Germany, Portugal etc…) have strong national body promoting their domestic wines, making sure that wine is “on the table” during commerce talks between nation and channeling monies for research and development of their domestic industry. Did you know that Chile and China have a bilateral agreement that will reduce the duty on Chilean wines imported to China to 0% by 2015 – Meanwhile the USA’s wineries will still be paying duty at 41%. Does anyone care? Believe me, when a US  agricultural trade employee talks about American products that needs support they talk about meat, poultry, corn, soy, cotton, potatoes, you name it – way before wine. Why is that? Because the meat producers are organized and can get their voice heard (they are also much larger than the wine industry, I concede) – not the wine industry – we need to get our message to Washington that we want their hears. The same goes around for research – what if China, or France finds a way to make their vine mildew-resistant (a good example that Jerry has used during his talk above mentioned), they will use it, take a gigantic advantage over us and by the way sell us those vines so they can do more research – America can do better than. It is time for American wineries to unite and time for the Wine Institute of California to show some leadership in that direction. Happy 4th!

I have been looking lately at the environmental impact of screwcaps closure and I came accross an interesting survey from a company called “Quantis” related to the carbon footprint of the wine supply chain. I think the study was sponsored by the European Aluminum producer, so not fully removed from the industry but Quantis is a serious third party with good credentials: http://www.quantis-intl.com/

Above is the chart that sort out the different sources of carbon emission during the supply chain – from the vineyard to the consumer’s table. Several very interesting points:

1) The winery impact is really small, may 9% of total carbon emmission. So solar panels, water reduction program and other winery improvements are nice but really they don’t move the needle much – though at Pacific Rim we have very good water, waste and electrical conservancy program

2) Glass is about 40% of the total carbon emission – holy molly, that is a lot. Please note that Pacific Rim is using 95% EcoSerie glass, the lightest glass available in the USA (made in USA – 393 g/bottle). We also don’t use pallets for our case goods (they are heavy, they take room, they have a carbon footprint from manufacturing, etc..)

3) Stopper is really not a big deal as far as carbon emission is concerned – Retail transportation (ie from the winery to the retailer) is more important than closure – again light weight glass would help here

4) The other big carbon emiter is the consumer driving to the store, picking up the wine, using the wine etc… – about 25% of the carbon footprint.  We should buy 12 bottles at a time to make things more efficient!

Will report on my screwcap findings next week

Quick update on the growing season (or lack of growing season one might say). The cold weather on the West coast is affecting the Columbia Valley and right now the vine growth is pretty anemic. Check out the growing degree day chart below:

2011 is not even off the ground – 10 degree days total – ouch. We need to see the temperature kick off a bit soon – please? Added to our temperature worries, many vineyards were hit by frost this winter and some vineyards were nailed pretty badly (none of ours apparently -there is a watchful angel for Riesling producers). The combo of winter damage and aa anemic growing season right now will make for a rocky vintage – we can still catch up of course if finally the weather starts cooperating.

I have just finished a great conversation with Dr Jim Harbertson of WSU and one of his PhD students about bitterness in Washington white wines. In truth it must be said that I might be a bitter “super taster” meaning that I am more sensitive to bitterness than most folks – I do not like IPA beers, don’t appreciate super tannic red wines, can’t eat much unsweetened chocolate, like wimpy truck-stop coffee etc… It is very interesting because my palate might make me quite suited to make sweeter - low bitterness wine – maybe I was born, or my body was pre-programmed, to make Riesling (or other sweet “elegant” wine). OK, that suits me great, no Cabernet, no Chardonnay, no oaky monster, give me Riesling, Pinot Noir, Gewurztraminer.

Sorry for the personal digression. Back to bitterness in Washington whites which, albeit only a few gifted one might notice, is a real bummer. At Pacific Rim, we might be embarking on a quest to find out why many Washington white wines can be bitter if not properly fined (fining is a winemaking technique where a fining agent is introduced to bind with an unwanted molecule and then precipitate with the unwanted molecule at the bottom of a tank where it can be removed after racking off the clean liquid above). What is intriguing is the fact that most work on bitterness has been done on red wines and that we know very little about bitterness factors in whites. I have always felt that light exposure in Eastern Washington led to high skin phenolic content that in return could be extracted during juice skin contact (either due to maceration in a truck after machine picking or during pressing or both).  Stay tune for an update on this fascinating topic – at least fascinating to about half a dozen folks in the country….

If you read this blog you should understand that they are many types of Rieslings out there and that they all have their own Riesling for being. This morning I came across a well written and funny post (http://swamiofumami.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-or-if-you-wear-underwear-may.html?spref=tw) that helped me connect a few sweet profile dots. I have been thinking a lot lately about sweetness levels, why so many, who likes dry vs sweet Rieslings, what food to pair with the different sugar levels etc… The main Riesling question I am trying to answer is: “do consumers like one sweetness style mainly, or do they like the diversity of styles”. This is not a trivial question for me because it would help us understand if we should try to sell different Rieslings to the same consumer or if consumers are well compartmented and mostly go for the same style. I came across several good articles lately that helped me understand that a large percentage (30 to 40%) of the US population (and probably of the whole planet) do not like dry alcoholic beverages, they like low alcohol, slightly or overtly sweet drinks and shy away from bitterness (by the way this is a bit of who I am, so this is close-to-home interesting) – this would be an indication that consumers have a certain taste profile and mostly stick to one style.  I have also read that those consumers prefer sweet beers (note that many beers have residual sugar and of course low alcohol) or cocktails (much sexier to order a Tequila Sunrise than a glass of White Zin!). Those consumers that like sweet wines (or if you are a mild case like me, that prefer wines with low alcohol and no bitterness) have been proven also to have a more sensitive palate (most of them are super tasters) that can be overwhelmed by too much bitterness or alcohol. Now the article I was referring to above is linking the consumer data with overall consumer behavior and it made so much sense to me – won’t comment on the underwear situation discussed in the article) – May be one day we could define you as a person by the type of Riesling you like and vice versa!

 Time to pick up on my favorite topic – Sweet vs Dry Riesling. I do not count how many conversations I have been part of where people HAVE TO give me their opinion about liking drier Riesling better than sweeter ones, or vice versa, or a version of that. Why do people like to pigeonhole themselves to ONE STYLE of Riesling is beyond my comprehension – yet they do it all the time. Well, folks, here is the news: you don’t have to have a favorite; you are authorized to like them all. Let me give you a piece of advice though, if you do not mind: Instead of freaking out about the Residual Sugar (or lack of) of your picture perfect Riesling, could you please focus on balance and pleasure.

You have to focus on balance because like most folks you probably do not care for monolithic beverages that can be a bit of a modern art statement (like a heavily oaked, low acidity Cab Sauv). First balancing act is the tension between acidity and sweetness – you need to be tricked: ya think it’s sweet, well – think twice – most important the wine never finishes sweet. Acid and Sugar are fun to play with and once you get it, you can’t get enough of this “trick me with sweetness” game. Second balancing act is the austerity of the wine – a tension between alcohol and phenolic content – a perfect wine will have the right amount of each so that it feels sophisticated but yet light and elegant (no high alcohol, dry bitter stuff please). Last balancing act are the aromas where youth and age are both present, where fermentation aromas and bottle bouquet play on one another. Check this out, out of all those important balancing acts (acidity-sweetness, alcohol-phenolic content, young-old aromas), sugar only comes once… Please do not reduce Riesling conversations to just sugar and STOP TELLING ME ALSATIAN RIESLINGS ARE DRY – they are not.

Pleasure is probably as important as balance in my mind. They are many sources of pleasure in wine tasting but the most powerful ones are not hedonistic pleasures (ie I like it or not), the most powerful are personal connections. I always like a wine more when I know who made it, why they made it, how they made it- I love context and wine without context is …. boring. When I taste a wine I have to learn more to make a call on its quality. How was the vintage, where are the vineyards located, why did the vintner choose to make this wine (for money of course, but there is always a deeper story that is worth seeking). The best wines I know are made by friends – just like the best cooking is either from my mom or my wife. You know what I am talking about, wine can talk to you on a deeper level than mineral water and if it does not talk to you at that level, then might as well drink vodka. Corollary: blind tastings are useless.

I don’t like sweet or dry Riesling – I like Riesling. I like Riesling because it is the only varietal that can play the full balance spectrum and that no one has pigeonholed into ONE MONOLITHIC STYLE. Riesling is the last varietal that can be free and different – let’s not fight over what it should be but let’s embrace it for what it brings to our ever more homogeneous wine world – Riesling Sherry anyone?

Lastest National Agricultural Statistics Service grape data for the mighty State of Washington are in and Riesling was the number one varietal harvested in total tons in 2010. An incredible performance considering that I suspect the total Riesling tonnage was down due to a heavy Botrytis pressure.  Here is the list:

#1: Riesling: 33.5K tons +4.4% vs 2009, prices slightly up vs 2009

#2: Cabernet Sauvignon: 31.9K tons, +15.6%, prices slightly up

#3: Chardonnay: 28.6K tons, -14.4%, prices slightly up

#4: Merlot: 28.3K tons, +14.1%, prices slightly up

#5: Syrah: 10.9K tons, +9%, prices slightly up

Overall the State is estimated to have harvested 160,000 tons or about 10.4 Million cases. Riesling alone was probably about 2.2 million cases. Below is an estimate of where it went:

- Chateau St Michelle and friends (Snoqualmie, Columbia Crest, Eroica program): 1.1 Million

- Hogue: 0.25M

- Pacific Rim: 0.16M (that one I know for sure)

- Ascentia (Covey Run+Columbia): 0.14M

- all others: 0.55M

Guess what we drink abundantly during the holidays at my house: Riesling! Really, we drink a lot of Riesling – dry, sweet, very sweet bubbly, in whatever form it can come in. There are so many reasons why I love to make and drink Riesling and the holidays are a perfect time of the year to share why.

First, I like low alcohol wines because I enjoy sipping wine all evening long and I don’t like to be drunk (also I hate hangovers). Riesling fits that bill for me – 8.5% alcohol, I love it, 12.5% max, fine.

Second, the acidity of a Riesling fits any food (or at least I have never been trumped by a bad pairing yet). Consider the following holiday dishes (home made of course) in my house and my favorite Pacific Rim wine to pair it with:

- Holiday cocktail with Sparkling Riesling (with Framboise or on its own!)

- Crab cakes with Dry Riesling or with our new Riesling if accompanied by a spicy sauce

- Smoked trout cheese dip: Sweet Riesling here please!

- Foie Gras: Vin De Glaciere

- Choucroute (Sauerkraut + potatoes + various sausages): one of our single vineyards drier styles (Wallula or Solstice)

- Boeuf Bourguignon (alternate: Coq au Vin): Dry Riesling or Solstice

- Chocolate covered marzipan: Riesling Vin De Glaciere or Dauenhauer Riesling

- Tarte Tatin: Riesling Vin de Glaciere

See, there is really a Riesling for everything.

Third, I love to share and surprise people with Riesling. It is always fun to pour a Riesling to people that up front would say: “I don’t drink sweet wines” and then at their first sip  adding: “Oh, but this is good”

So what don’t you enjoy the holidays, surprise yourself and your family with some great Rieslings and start your new year resolution early: MUST DRINK MORE RIESLING IN 2011

Would not have said it better than the wine economist at: http://wineeconomist.com/2010/11/30/retail-wine-sales-big-versus-hot-hot-hot/

A good quick read that would once again show our dear Riesling performing very well.