Within the borders of Wine’s Metaphysical Country is a complexity of filigree and trellis; a latticework of weft and skein and weave; a many-tendril’d meshwork made of crossroad laid on crossroad, linked to crossroad.
Art meets science here as the past crosses the future over there. Tradition and experiment triangulate and complement. Data mining spreadsheets, fingers spread, dirty nails, the work of fingers, work of hands; a braid of histories. Instinct greeting training; dessucating; pre- and post-industrial entwined.
~
Here is Paul Draper, and here is Dan Barber.
Here is Pre-Industrial Winemaking, and here is Farm-to-Table.
In Charles Puglia, we have an embodied ligature connecting The Ridge and The Hill.
Charles Puglia is the Wine Director at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, and he is coming to Ridge Vineyards.
The Ridge and The Hill.
As Michael Torino said:
“With the concept of Blue Hill at Stone Barns being a true farm-to-table restaurant, focusing on growing and raising the best possible ingredients, and not so much cooking but handling the product properly, and not using t0o many ingredients in a dish, they may be one of the best fits for Ridge I can think of. Their viewpoint really mirrors our pre-industrial winemaking philosophy, and our decision to include ingredients on our labels.”
This line, I love: Not so much cooking, but handling …
~
About Charles Puglia
Charles Puglia has been a professional sommelier for the last 8 years. He currently works as the Wine Director at the highly acclaimed Blue Hill at Stone Barns restaurant in Pocantico Hills, New York. Charles manages all aspects of the beverage program for the restaurant.
Throughout his career, Charles has managed his own beverage programs as well as worked under the guidance of important professionals in the field, many of which have become mentors to him. Prior to working at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Charles held positions that include sommelier at Jean Georges Restaurant in New York City, assistant wine director at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in New York, wine director at Palomino restaurant in Greenwich, CT, and sommelier at Gaia restaurant, also located in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Charles began his career as a sommelier with a simple interest in wine. He began learning through self-education. After spending some time in the field he decided to begin formal education. Charles received his advanced certificate from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust in 2009. He is currently a student of the Court of Master Sommeliers and recently earned his advanced sommelier certificate in August of 2011.
~
Charles is the real deal. Authentic, serious, and devotional. And he has a very kind face.
Charles is joining us for #RidgeSomms.
I find this to be so philosophically resonant, so metaphysically relevant, so metaphorically appropriate.
In “Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen And The Way Of Being Time,” Dainin Katagiri says:
According to Dogen, everything that exists is time, so you are time. Dogen uses the phrase “the time has come” to say that time arises from conditions and appears as particular beings. Does that mean that everything appears by chance? No, in Buddhism “the time has come” is known as interdependent co-origination, or conditioned origination.
~
For Ridge Vineyards, for Blue Hill at Stone Barns, for Charles Puglia, the time has come.
~
The Time Has Come.
~
And with that, we invite you to join Charles Puglia, Michael Torino, and all the other luminaries that make up the cast of #RidgeSomms, for an extraordinary two days of all things Ridge, and wine, and food, and Ridge!
As of the last “official” count, there are over 1.2 million blogs that either self-define as wine blogs, or include enough content on wine to be classified as such.
~
Ok, that’s not actually true.
In fact, it’s a complete lie.
But in truth, there are over one thousand.
Which is actually a TREMENDOUS amount! Wine blogs? Over ONE THOUSAND? That’s incredible!
The number is actually just over 1400. 1400 blogs about ONE subject: Wine.
Which, when you think about it, makes NAMING your blog a real challenge.
You can be somewhat satirical and self-deprecating, à la 1WineDude; easily one of the most successful and familiar offerings out there.
You can be poetic and philosophical, along the lines of Simple Hedonisms, written by that very prolific arch-activist William Allen.
You can be ironic: The Hosemaster of Wine, for example. Which is actually written by a very serious and very intelligent and very experienced individual.
You can be dual-themed; something like WineBookGirl.
Or self-referential, like RJonWine, by the legendarily comprehensive Richard Jennings.
But in the end, you’re writing about wine, and no matter how you dress it up, that’s what you’re writing about. And that’s what your blog is about.
Which is why Red Wine Lovers is so excellent and beautiful and perfect. It’s one of those titles where, as soon as you hear it, you can’t believe no one thought of it previously.
Except they did.
Red Wine Lovers thought of it.
~
Red Wine Lovers is based in Los Angeles, and as such, they have access to very many great restaurants and wine bars.
And at Industriel, there can be found one Augustus Miller.
Augustus Miller, in the words of Red Wine Lovers, is “a gentleman and an expert.”
This is the art and the grace and the beauty and the poetry of wine.
To be a wine lover is NOT to be a fighter. It is to be a gentleman. To be a wine lover is NOT to be an omnivorous jack-of-all trades. It is to be an expert.
To be a wine lover is NOT to be one hot mess. It is to be, in the words of Red Wine Lovers, “dedicated to a lifelong passion.”
~
I am not a mendicant at the altar of the young.
I do not subscribe to a cult of the young.
I believe in poetry; one of few artistic genres that tends to see its masters mature late. I believe in blues; a genre that depends on wisdom, maturity, and the gravitas of age. I believe in old people. Because if you make it to be old, you are something special.
But the more I learn of Augustus Miller, the more I believe in him.
And he is young.
~
I am not in Los Angeles, and I do not yet know Augustus Miller personally. But I read Red Wine Lovers, and I am a Red Wine Lover. And Augustus Miller is in Los Angeles. And Red Wine Lovers is in Los Angeles.
And I am listening, to the sound, of Los Angeles.
Red Wine Lovers has done #RidgeSomms a tremendous kindness. Red Wine Lovers has gone to Industriel, and Red Wine Lovers has met Augustus Miller. And Red Wine Lovers has dined at the table of Augustus Miller. And Red Wine Lovers has tasted from Augustus Miller’s Wine List. And Red Wine Lovers has written the story, and Red Wine Lovers has shared it with us. And for that, I am in debt, to Red Wine Lovers.
~
Industriel (photo courtesy of Red Wine Lovers, used by permission)
From Red Wine Lovers:
Sommelier Symposium 2013 – Augustus Miller’s journey to Ridge Vineyards
Meet Augustus Miller: Sommelier & Wine director at Industriel Restaurant in Los Angeles. He’s one of the most highly regarded sommeliers in the country, and has an acute understanding of wine at its deepest roots. He presents wine with the utmost confidence in his wine list, and in his palate. He pairs the unconventional. He blows you away with wines of exceptional quality at astounding values. He invites you to new appellations and varietals, and takes you on a journey through time. Most surprisingly, he’s 28 years old.
To better comprehend that last sentence, Augustus has only been able to legally purchase wine for the last 7 years, but has quickly developed the expertise to stand toe-to-toe with some of the world’s most talented wine snobs and master sommeliers alike. He creates an unforgettable experience at the dinner table from the very moment you meet him, and everything pours out from there.
To read the rest of this very fine profile, please click here.
And please join me in thanking Red Wine Lovers for doing all the delectably fantastic wine tasting and earth-shatteringly gourmandesque fine dining for us, so that we could just sit at our computers later and read about it … wait a second!!!
Ah, I kid … Truly, a hearty toast to Red Wine Lovers for so adroitly sharing their experiences, so passionately expressing their passions, so engagingly telling their tales, and for so vividly rendering the sensorial splendors of their singularly immersive explorations of all things wine and food.
And as especial thank you to Red Wine Lovers for contributing to #RidgeSomms is such excellent fashion. As the excitement grows, my appreciation expands. As the drama increases, my humility deepens. As the experience nears, my gratitude grows.
And thank you, Augustus Miller, for joining us. I am so very eager to meet you. Tomorrow!
~
From the Olive Garden at 18, to the Court of Master Sommeliers at 23, to Industriel at 28. The path of Augustus Miller is quite extraordinary.
We asked him to send us a bio, and he did. It concludes with the following quote, from the legendary Gerard Basset:
“You must give back as much as you take”
If the hospitality shown our friends at Red Wine Lovers is any indication, Augustus Miller is a young man who is not only adhering to Mr. Basset’s tenets, but is tipping the scales in favor of giving back.
~
And with that, we invite you to join Augustus Miller, and all the other luminaries that make up the cast of #RidgeSomms, for an extraordinary two days of all things Ridge, and wine, and food, and Ridge!
If there is one thing I get teased about above all else, it is the fact that I always wear a sportcoat.
In fact, it wouldn’t be far from the truth to say, that literally not a day goes by without someone remarking on my constant penchant for appearing so encoated.
But to borrow a favorite colloquialism: That’s just the kind of guy what I’m.
Which is why I am now very fond of Chef Frank Stitt.
Mind you, I’ve never met Frank Stitt, but I’m going to very soon, because he’s coming to #RidgeSomms. And that makes me very happy.
It makes me very happy for a great many reasons, not the least of which is that, on his restaurant’s website (the very legendary Highland’s Bar & Grill in Birmingham, Alabama), is the following:
Jackets are preferred for gentlemen.
I am now very fond of Chef Frank Stitt.
~
As is Dan Buckler.
Dan Buckler, Regional Sales Manager, Ridge Vineyards
Dan Buckler is the Third Jewel in the Ridge Vineyards Triple Crown of Regional Sales Managers.
Like Michael Torino, and like Christina Donley, he is a tireless representative for Ridge, and he too travels a a great many miles.
From Kentucky to Kansas, Utah to Hawaii, L.A. to LA, that’s a full-bore itinerary.
But for Dan, it’s all worth it, in no small part because of something he learned at Chef Frank Stitt’s table.
~
When I first began preparing for #RidgeSomms, I talked to Dan about his invitees; I wanted to know the backstory behind why these particular individuals had been singled out for invitations. Sure, the bios are amazing, sure the cred is through the roof, but knowing Dan, I knew there had to be personal stories there too. Dan’s like that; a narrative kind of cat.
Here’s what he told me about Frank Stitt:
“I first had dinner at Highland’s in 2002, and Chef Stitt came by the table during the evening. It was a revelation, one of the 2-3 great meals that prompted me to say “I should be selling wine to restaurants instead of shoes to shoe stores”. Highland’s remains one of my favorite restaurants in the USA.”
That’s the Poetry of Buckler; a Carver-esque reconciliation of humility and pride, a Levine-like understanding of work, a Fante-esque sense of one’s own destinies, and a dry Matthews-ian wit.
Dan Buckler is very fond of Chef Frank Stitt.
~
Consider these degrees of separation (otherwise knows as The Wine Bone Connects To The Kitchen Bone):
Dan Buckler is connected to Frank Stitt.
Frank Stitt is connected to Richard Olney.
Richard Olney is connected to John Olney.
John Olney is connected to Ridge Vineyards.
So OF COURSE Frank Stitt is coming to #RidgeSomms!
How’s it all work? Like this!
1. re: Dan’s connection to Frank, see above.
2. re: Frank’s connection to Richard, dig this from Frank’s official bio:
“…Stitt’s culinary journey began to take shape when he moved to San Francisco and, as a philosophy student, noticed that beloved cookbooks were taking precedence over the works of Plato and Kierkegaard. He honed his kitchen skills at various Bay Area restaurants, including the kitchen of Alice Waters at her now legendary restaurant, Chez Panisse. Waters introduced him to Richard Olney, who at the time was working on the Good Cook series for Time-Life Books and needed an assistant…”
3. re: Richard’s connection to John; John is/was Richard’s nephew.
4. re: John’s connection to Ridge; John is the winemaker at our Lytton Springs estate!
(as an aside, check the following, from Richard’ Olney’s New York Times Obituary: To his great delight, one of Mr. Olney’s nephews, John, went into the wine business in California, working at Ridge Vineyards in Cupertino.)
So really, it’s truly destiny that brings Frank Stitt to Ridge Vineyars for #RidgeSomms.
(please scroll to the end of this post
for an updated list of #RidgeSomms posts!)
The Annual Ridge Vineyards Sommelier Symposium takes place over two intensive days, and this year, we are inviting you IN!
Please join us, and enjoy unprecedented behind-the-scenes virtual access to one of our most exceptional, yet heretofore private, annual events.
You can friend it on Facebook, follow it on Twitter, read it on our Blog, or watch it on YouTube, but no matter which channel is your go-to tune-in for all things wine, these sessions are sure to swing, and we want you in the club!
Join Paul Draper and a winemaker’s dozen of the best Sommeliers from around the country for two days of winery tours, barrel tastings, library verticals, wine dinners, and more.
You’ll tour Monte Bello’s century-old barrel rooms with winemaker Eric Baugher, and walk Geyserville’s rows of century-old vines with vineyard manager David Gates; you’ll experience eco-sustainable Lytton Springs with winemaker John Olney, and tour the famed Radoux Cooperage with Paul Draper. From barrel to bottle, Santa Cruz to Sonoma, you’ll follow our Sommeliers as they enjoy two intensive days of all things Ridge.
In short, when they’re here, you’re here!
~
What:
Ridge Vineyards Sommelier Symposium, 2013
When:
May 20th & 21st, 2013
Where:
Just filter for #RidgeSomms, and you’re IN!
~
To read additional #RidgeSomms posts, please check out the selections below!
We’ve just completed the second round of the Monte Bello Assemblage Tasting, and the blend is in!
It was quite a remarkable tasting; somewhat unique in its architecture, as compared to some past editions, in that it was essentially divided into three distinct phases: Audition, Assemblage, and Vertical.
For those of you not familiar with the process by which the Monte Bello is created, I humbly direct you to the following posts:
The Second Assemblage Tasting was held in The Old Torre Winery Barn, and in attendance were the following:
Paul Draper
Eric Baugher
John Olney
Shun Ishikubo
David Gates
Kyle Theriot
Shinji Kurokawa
Amy Monroe
Christopher Watkins (me)
~
As the warm spring sun began to wend its subtle tides through the warming window panes, Eric inaugurated his singular oeno-alchemy…
… as, one by one, we sought our seats and prepared our palates.
We began with an auditioning of sorts; a blind tasting, 5 glasses …
… no explanation, no context, only the instructions: taste, assess, write, vote; 2 plusses, 2 minuses, 1 neutral.
When the veils were lifted, we were found to have been auditioning 4 blocks’ worth of possible inclusion candidates (three different cab lots, and a merlot option); snuck into the line-up was the First Assemblage, crafted back in April. Two of the lots received majority votes. Then it was on to Round II.
Five glasses again, blind tasted again. And again, the directive: taste, assess, write, vote; 2 plusses, 2 minuses, 1 neutral. 4 of the 5 lots fared very well; one block fell by the wayside for showing a bit too ripe.
With Round III came the “proper” assemblage process: two glasses; one with the “control” (in this case, the First Assemblage), one with an “addition.” A and B. Taste, assess, write, vote. Plus or Minus.
Eric Baugher & Shun Ishikubo
“A” took it by a nose, 5 to 4. A 7% addition of South Slope South Cabernet (S3).
Round IV. Two glasses again. A and B. Control (now including S3) and Addition. “B” essentially sweeps; a 7-2 majority. A blend of Camp and Back Hills falls by the side of the vineyard road.
Paul Draper
Round V, an override! I am on the right side of history for this one; I alone voted with Paul and Eric in favor of a 10% addition of 10-acre cab, and as is his right, Paul opted for the addition. None complained, it had been a tough vote.
David Gates
Round VI, we would find out later, found us debating the future of a block I’d loved on its own; my colleague Amy as well, joined by David Gates; however, David, a veteran of the assemblages, predicted it would not, in the end, be “assembled.” He was right, it lost out to a 6-3 majority in favor of the control. But I am holding out for a solo bottling; on its own, the block is beautiful.
Paul Draper & John Olney
Round VII, the final round of the Assemblage. “A” took the majority, which was the control, but Paul and John came out swinging in favor of the addition; a small block of stressed Merlot. To be continued …
And then came the final round. A 6-wine blind vertical of Monte Bello; the preceding 5 vintages, plus the “new” 2012.
I wrote “proper” tasting notes on each, and was able to spot almost all of them as what they were, though much to my surprise, I confused the 2009 and the 2007 (which, I would say, says a great deal for how the 2007 is currently showing, given the overwhelmingly positive critical response we’ve received for the 2009 of late –Wine Advocate: 98 points, International Wine Report: 97 points, International Wine Cellar: 96 points, Wine Spectator: 95 points–given that we’re currently offering the 2007 in our tasting rooms, perhaps a good time to visit!)
But anyhow, in addition to my “proper” notes, I also wrote a spontaneous Haiku in response to each:
2009 Monte Bello
A walk through the trees;
wet, the path, twilit, the leaves.
Into the green mist.
2008 Monte Bello The red blushes of
beauty; luxuriant youth,
serene age; timeless.
2007 Monte Bello As a great trunk’s broad
shoulders grow, ask yourself: Which
is stronger? Roots? Limbs?
2011 Monte Bello Sweet soul perfection
of campground wisdom; as with
smoke, so with memories.
2012 Monte Bello (2nd Assemblage) There is strength to fear
and strength to love; run from one,
run to the other.
2010 Monte Bello Elegance within
a corset; beauty of denial,
of promise: a dream
~
When all was said and done, a new Assemblage had been born: The 2nd Assemblage. The new details are as follows:
62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot, 9% Cabernet Franc 7% Petit Verdot, 13.6% ABV
Welcome.
~
As we do every year, we continue to invite our Monte Bello Collector Members to experience firsthand the burgeoning development of the vintage that will one day be theirs; they have now seen the 2012 Monte Bello in its Component state (for more, please click here), in its 1st Assemblage incarnation (for more, please click here), and next weekend, they’ll sample that which we have just created, the 2nd Assemblage. And if history repeats itself, it’s quite likely this will be the Final Assemblage, meaning this will be the last opportunity to taste this wine before it goes into bottle for its long hibernation; not to awaken again until its release in 2015. For more information about this very special event, please see below:
Final Monte Bello Tasting
Saturday & Sunday, May 18th & 19th
11-5pm each day
Cupertino, CA
This event is for Monte Bello Collector members only (a total of 4 attendees per membership), there is no fee to attend, and an RSVP is required. We look forward to seeing you!
It was a truly beautiful morning; ripe with promise, alive with anticipation, resplendent with resplendence.
For events of this scale, we park our own cars well out of the way, high above the vines.
The walk down in the morning, before it all began, was remarkable …
As the sun began its slow and stately waltz towards the Torre Winery Barn, our team began to gather, assembling the pieces of what would shortly become Assemblage Monte Bello …
Glassware, of course …
… but no component more important than the wines themselves …
And of course, a little something from the Library …
Yes, that IS the 2000 Monte Bello. A wine you might recognize from a little re-enactment of a little something we’ve come to know as The Judgment of Paris.
30 years down the line from the original occurrence, an oeno-quorum of sorts was re-convened to address a couple key protestations in response to the original results. For example, ageworthiness. Cue 1971 Monte Bello, thank you very much. The other complaint was, essentially, flukiness. Meaning, the claim was made that the results were a fluke, a one-off, a never-again-to-be-repeated aberration.
To address this question in 2006, young offerings were tasted from all the producers who’d performed in the original event, to see whether or not they were STILL making fine wines, or whether it HAD been a fluke. Cue 2000 Monte Bello, thank you very much.
(for the full Judgment of Paris story, please click here)
All that said, the real star of the Assemblage Monte Bello Event was of course … the Assemblage.
At this stage of the game, it’s classified as the First Assemblage; winemaker Eric Baugher was up nearly all the night before, personally pulling the barrel samples for all our guests to taste …
Perhaps needless to say, the bottles did not go to waste. Rather, they got rather … well … used.
That there is the vine-weathered hand of our own David Gates, VP of Vineyard Operations for Ridge, who was on hand to host. You can see him here with Aaron, entertaining the troops …
As I hope you’ve experienced on your visits to Monte Bello -whether to this event, other events, or in the tasting room- we really have a lovely and amazing and excellent and heroic and wise and excellent group of staff members up here; as delightful and weird and impassioned and funky and spirited and knowledgeable a group of wine devotees as I could ever hope to assemble, and as I hope can be seen from the photos below, they had a great time hosting you at Assemblage Monte Bello!
Please say hello to a few of our gang: Jenny, Kim, Michael, Peter, Sam, Emma, and Jane!
One of the real pleasures of this event -certainly for me, and hopefully for our guests as well- is the appearance of members of our production team; this time around, it was the Vineyard Team doing the co-hosting honors. In addition to David Gates, we also welcomed Kyle Theriot, our esteemed Viticulturist here at Monte Bello …
Another singular aspect of these events is our continuing partnership with local culinary providers; for this year’s event we welcomed back the very fine Fatted Calf Charcuterie …
… as well as a new partner: Kirstin Jackson, author of It’s Not You, It’s Brie, and the curator for the cheeses we served …
And of course, no Monte Bello Event would be complete without that incredible bread from Gayle’s Bakery in Capitola. Betcha can’t eat just one …
Now, it should be noted that, while I referred to the 2012 Monte Bello First Assemblage above as “the real star” of the event, that is of course not actually accurate. The True Stars of the event were, as always, our wonderful guests …
And with that, I dare say, happiness is …
And then suddenly, come Sunday evening, it was all over.
No more wine, no more glasses, no more guests. Just the long walk back up through the vines, there to be met with the conclusionary symbol of a workday completed …
Ok, that’s not actually entirely accurate; in fact, I was actually called upon to speak AFTER discussion on a “Cantilever Sensor Array-Based Diagnostic Device.”
Which is essentially the story of my “giving a talk at Stanford”; a story I have gleefully deployed for weeks in the service of deflecting the near-endless impositions on my social calendar that I regularly endure:
I’m so sorry, I’d love to join you for dinner, but alas, I am scheduled to give a talk at Stanford that night.
Believe you me, I would love to attend your seminar, but regrettably, I myself am giving a talk at Stanford the very same Friday.
I can think of nothing more enjoyable that attending your gathering, but as it turns out, I’m on tap to speak at Stanford that night, I am so sorry!
So it was a great pleasure to contribute to this event, and on behalf of all here at Ridge Vineyards, we wish a very successful wrap-up to this year’s NMC conference, the 10th International Workshop on Nanomechanial Sensing!
That said, I do not appreciate my prepared text on Golden Nanofingers being usurped by those folks from Hewlett-Packard! Having to riff improvisationally in front of this caliber of crowd required that I draw on previously untapped rhetorical reserves the likes I’ve which I’ve rarely had to summon, and I’m not likely to soon forgive!
Ridge Vineyards is adding ingredients to its back labels.
~
~
“Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.” – Chopin
~
The premise is this, that if the raw materials are there, and they’re good, then not that much else is needed.
Son House and a National
Basho and seventeen syllables.
Rothko and red.
Kerouac and an Underwood.
Anonymous Four and Hildegard von Bingen.
Chopin and a piano.
Tenshō Shūbun and ink.
~
Pro Tools.
If you’re familiar with it, then you either curse it as a devil, or praise it as a god, but whatever your feelings, it’s hard to dispute the truth of Pro Tools and the music industry.
It changed everything. Can’t sing in tune? Pro Tools has you covered. Can’t play in time? Pro Tools has a drum loop just for you. Third verse should have been the first? Pro Tools can shift that around for you. Need a piano part, but no one in the band plays piano? Pro Tools. Real marimba cost too much? Pro Tools.
And so on.
I may sound cynical, but I’m no Luddite. I was working with Todd Rundgren in San Francisco back in the very early nineties, on an interactive music project. We were still in the CD-Rom days then. I was there at the beginning. I recorded an entire album on ADAT when it was only me and the Grateful Dead team using them. And while my first album was on analog tape, my last one was with Pro Tools.
Pro Tools.
There is a great story about Pro Tools.
The setting? A music production conference. All producers and engineers. No rock stars, just tech geeks. Pro Tools was looming on the horizon; to some, it was the beginning; to others, the end. A team of designers gave a talk. They extolled the virtues of what Pro Tools could and would do. It was controversial. People shouted, friendships collapsed, factions formed. In the middle of it all, a seasoned veteran stood up. The place quieted down. He had a lot of gold records. When it was down to silence, he pointed to himself, and said the word, “Pro.” Then he held up a razor, and said “Tools.” And he walked out.
Buffalo Springfield’s “Broken Arrow” famously took some 60+ takes to create, with all the different sections spliced together; this was how it was done in the old days; tape and a razor. And yes, this was manipulation of a kind, but what’s important is that EVERY note on the final recording is a REAL note, played by a real person, using a real instrument. The song was assembled from native parts, and raw material.
Ridge Vineyards has elected to include an ingredients list on its labels. Here is Paul Draper on why:
At Ridge we call our approach to winemaking “pre-industrial”. We believe that for anyone attempting to make fine wine, modern additives and invasive processing limit true quality and do not allow the distinctive character of a fine vineyard to determine the character of the wine.
Ridge is adding to its labels a list of actions and ingredients to demonstrate how little intervention is necessary to produce a fine, terroir-driven wine from distinctive fruit.
This is philosophy, and this is principle. And this is reason enough.
But not the only reason. Consider safety and health.
Did you know that The TTB (Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) has approved over 60 different additives for use in wine? Some are fairly benign of course, but some are not. Consider Velcorin. It’s approved. And here is just a sampling of what our friends over at PinotBlogger.com found out about it:
Special Remarks on other Toxic Effects on Humans:
Acute Potential Health Effects:
Skin: Causes skin irritation.
Eyes: Exposure to vapor or mist will cause eye irritation.
Inhalation: Inhalation of vapor or mist may be irritating to mucous membranes and upper respiratory tract.
May affect behavior/central nervous system. Symptoms may include somnolence, tremor.
May also affect respiratory system (dyspnea), and metabolism
Ingestion: May cause gastrointestinal tract irritation.
The toxicological properties of this substance have not been fully investigated.
Nice, no?
No.
Want to see all the additives currently approved? Click here to review the TTB’s website.
There is also taste. Do you know what Mega Purple is? It’s concentrate, essentially. Cheap grape concentrate. Sold for about $135/gallon, and added to so many wines it’d make your head spin to see them all. Not enough color in your wine? Mega Purple can fix that. Not enough body? Mega Purple can fix that too. Don’t like the final texture? Mega Purple it. Need some sweetness? Mega Purple again. Oops, bit of Brett get in there? Mega Purple can mask that. Mega Purple: You can put that s*$t on everything.
Dan Berger contributed a great article on the use of Mega Purple in Wines & Vines magazine; you can read it here.
~
The first wines were made—or, better said, made themselves—some 8000 years ago between the Caspian and Black Seas in the area that today includes eastern Turkey, northern Iran, Georgia, and Armenia. We can surmise that early hunter-gatherers picked wild grapes. Occasionally, instead of eating them, they may have crushed them for juice and perhaps forgotten them for a week or two. Attracted to the sugar, bees and wasps would have carried yeasts to grapes already broken on the vine by birds or wind; those yeasts fermented the juice. When tasted, it had been transformed—as if by magic or a divine hand—from simple, sweet fruit into something affecting the senses in surprising and enjoyable ways. In the Christian ritual of Communion, this natural transformation became a symbol for wine as the blood of Christ.
Thus begins a new essay from Ridge Vineyards entitled “What’s In A Wine?”. It’s heady stuff at first glance, but upon closer inspection, it’s real, it’s direct, and it’s now. Consider a Ridge Vineyards label:
It’s right there at the letter C. “Yeasts brought to broken, mature berries by bees and wasps.” Just like before Jesus.
But consider all the letters:
A-D are pretty straightforward; not a great deal being done by us in the way of invasion or manipulation. Cutting each cluster by hand? Well, short of waiting for the cluster to fall off of its own volition, that’s about as minimalist as is possible if your intention is to produce wine. Farming practices that protect environment, workers, and community? Well, that certainly involves some proactivity, and verdicts on the methods are certainly subjective. For Ridge, we define sustainability like this:
A system that is sensitive to the environment, responsible to the community, and economically feasible to implement and maintain. These three principles provide a framework and direction to guide our decision-making. Sustainability is an ever-changing target, even a state of mind: improvements can always be made to lessen one’s impact on the planet.
Integrated pest management. Beneficial crop cover. Organic farming. Sap Flow Monitoring.
These are just a few examples. For more, please click here.
C we already discussed. D is pretty much the same. What’s needed is already there. We rely on that, and nothing more. But E is an addition, this is true. How invasive is it? Go back to that TTB list of approved additives. Notice anything? Calcium Carbonate is one of very few items without a restriction associated with it. Why? Because it’s harmless. It’s basically Alka-Seltzer for wine. Settles the acid a bit.
And then we come to F. This is the big one. This is the Firestarter. S02. If there is a line that separates “Natural Wine” from whatever ostensibly isn’t, it’s probably drawn in S02.
The matter of S02 is probably one of the most misunderstood issues in the contemporary world of wine, and truth be told, I’m not going even come close to solving the mysteries here. What I am hopefully going to do is clarify the language of F.
Smallest S02 addition needed to maintain vineyard character.
What does that mean? Or, more specifically perhaps, how much is smallest, and how does that maintain character?
Thomas Ulrich wrote a tremendous article in Wines & Vines recently (January 2013), entitled “Going Native, Very Carefully.” In it, Ridge Vineyards winemaker Eric Baugher details with astonishing specificity our winemaking processes, and in particular, our handling of S02. To the question of how much, there is this:
“The winery team adds 30-35 ppm of SO2 to the must (at crush) to select for native Saccharomyces and limit the growth of bacteria that could spoil malolactic fermentation.”
—and this—
“To reduce the risk of oxidizing or spoiling the wine, the winery team adds small amounts of SO2 before crush, immediately following the completion of malolactic fermentation and during each quarterly racking thereafter. According to Baugher, a small dose of sulfur dioxide is 5-10 ppm. For him, the amount of SO2 depends on pH and residual sugar-aldehyde formation produced by any in-barrel springtime fermentation.”
To get at some of the technical detail above, I direct you to an excellent article by Shea A.J. Comfort; you can find it here. In the meantime, to get to the real nitty-gritty, the important thing to know is this: ppm stands for parts-per-million. Parts-per-million. Meaning, 30-35 ppm is … not much. Numerous sources will confirm that the total SO2 allowed in wine in the US is 350 ppm, and in the EU it is 160 ppm (for red wines). So again, 30-35ppm is … not so much.
So why add it at all? This is where the “maintain vineyard character” part comes in. Paul Draper spoke to the issue in an excellent interview posted on Alice Feiring’s site “The Feiring Line.” Consider the following, excerpted from said interview:
The difference of opinion over natural wine often occurs over the use of SO2. Of course we have the problem that EU regulations allow an addition of 10ppm and US regulations allow 0ppm addition for “organic” wine. That problem is really beside the point as an addition of 10ppm in virtually every case is insufficient to keep the natural process on the proverbial straight and narrow in order that the wine will consistently express the distinct character and quality of its site. Of course that presupposes that the site is sufficiently good terroir to provide that character and quality in the first place. My experience of growing fine wine and of tasting wines made with 0ppm to 10ppm is that unless the minimum effective level of SO2 is used the wines will not consistently express terroir. Given that, that expression or the attempt at that expression is essential to what I love about wine, we carefully analyze the wine to determine that effective minimum level.
If I can offer a translation of sorts, I believe the gist to be this: At Ridge, we add just enough S02 to PREVENT anything changing the flavor of the juice, as opposed to adding S02 specifically TO change the flavor of the juice.
And that is the A to F of a Ridge label.
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We provide other resources as well. Consider a “typical” wine page on our website, say, for the newly-released 2011 Ridge Vineyards Geyserville (the wine whose label we analyzed above). Scroll down the page, and you’ll find this:
Winemaking
All estate-grown grapes, hand harvested. Destemmed and crushed. Fermented on the native yeasts, followed by full malolactic on the naturally-occurring bacteria. 16.9mg/ liter calcium carbonate added to ten small fermentors to moderate acidity; minimum effective sulfur (30 ppm at crush; 92 ppm over the course of aging). Pad filtered at bottling. In keeping with our philosophy of minimal intervention, this is the sum of our actions.
That’s it.
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We have considered health and safety. We have addressed taste. We have discussed terroir and vineyard character. There is also a bit of the activist behind it all. In a recent e-mail, Ridge winemaker Eric Baugher wrote the following, as regards additives and ingredient labeling:
We feel, by listing our ingredients, we can bring the issue into the consciousness of consumers. Not that we want to make enemies in the industry, or attack any wineries for what they might add to their wines, we are looking to consumers to become more knowledgeable about these additives and practices by volunteering this information on our labels. If they begin to make their purchasing decisions based on the level of purity of the wines they drink, then it possibly could have an effect on making those wineries think twice before they add something.
And in a letter Paul Draper recently penned on the matter, he wrote:
We refer to winemaking at Ridge as “pre-industrial” – an approach that involves the use of native yeasts, hand-harvested, sustainably grown grapes, naturally occurring malolactic bacteria, and a small number of natural ingredients used in making fine wine over the last two hundred years. We are hoping to encourage other fine-wine makers to provide a list of ingredients for their customers.
For more on Paul Draper and the concept of Pre-Industrial Winemaking, please click here, but for the purposes of this post, I hope the following definition will suffice:
Pre-industrial winemaking begins with respect for the natural process that transforms fresh grapes into wine, and the 19th-Century model of minimum intervention. When you have great vineyards that produce high quality grapes of distinctive individual character, this is not only an environmentally and socially responsible approach, it’s also the best way to consistently make fine wine.
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The point is, in the end, it’s for you. We want your wine to be healthy and safe. We want it to taste good. We want it to be unique. And we want it to be honest. We want you to know the pro, and the tool.
We want the wine to be symbolic, and we want it to be transformative.
We want it to be Son House and a National; Basho and seventeen syllables; Rothko and red.; Kerouac and an Underwood; Anonymous Four and Hildegard Von Bingen; Monk and a piano; Tenshō Shūbun and ink.
You see, due to the magic of technology, Paul Draper can be beamed right into your living room –this Friday night– for a live wine tasting. And you can be beamed into his.
Taste along online as our winemakers explore the spring release wines and provide you a wealth of information about the winemaking techniques, vineyard history, food pairing ideas, longevity of the wines, and the unique aspects about each vintage. You’ll be able to ask questions in real time and hear what the winemakers have to say about these exciting new wines.
Wines to be tasted: (Download a tasting mat to follow along!)
