We are about to press the last of our Cabernet Sauvignon tomorrow. It has been a long and at times drawn out vintage this year.
Throughout the growing season we saw many ups and downs in terms of our vineyard. We had a mild ending to the winter that made our vines want to get rolling fairly early which gave us many days of worrying about late frost and damaging the buds that were bursting. Luckily...no frost!!! On the other note it did stay cool and wet through much of the spring creating very uneven fruit set leading into the summer.
The uneven fruit set means at harvest time there was an abundance of chicks and hens. Chicks and hens is when there is some very small (under developed) berries in a cluster. Sounds bad, but in doing some research some have found this to be beneficial in cooler years because many of these under developed berries have no seeds. With a reduced amount of seeds there may be less green astringent tannins to come off aggressive in the more elegant styled vintage. I am not 100% certain this will work completely as planned but based on the ferments I am incredibly pleased with the quality of tannins we are getting this year. I was under the impression that we would have to press earlier then normal this year, but in tasting through the ferments I have found I was wrong. We have been able to maintain our extended skin maceration's giving great structure without being aggressive or green. We did however have to bleed off more juice then normal from our reds to extract every ounce that we could from the skins during the fermentation's.
After the cool wet spring, we saw a cooler then normal June before finally getting into our normal warm weather in July and August and with some good sunshine. Interestingly though, the nights all summer and right through the fall were cooler then normal preserving the acidity and giving a great balance to much of the fruit, especially the Viognier and Chardonnay.
Near the end of July came our most challenging 10 minutes of 2009. We had a ridiculous and tiny storm front that came through acting with the power of a small tornado up rooting trees and whipping hail at us along the way. The hail heavily lowered the crop volume in the vineyard and forced us to cull out a lot of fruit from within grape bunches. This meant obvious low yields but also opened up the clusters a little which came in beneficial with each rain fall not causing the clusters to become overly tight.
Given the cooler spring weather and cool nights and some rainy days we also started to find veraison (when the skins of the reds change color) coming later then we could have imagined. This also forced another strong decision to thin even more crop in order to ensure the remaining clusters could fully ripen. It meant thinning in some places 50% of the crop in order to be certain the remaining fruit would maintain the quality we strive for our of our vineyards.
The harvest began the first week of September with our Pinot Gris for our Charval production. We then had a lull of a couple of weeks before having a brief rush of Viognier and Chardonnay. All the whites came in during great weather. Much of September was cool and sunny preserving the acids and keeping the potential alcohol to a reasonable level. We are segregating our grapes this year based on vineyards and will be releasing wine potentially based on vineyard instead of varietal or style for the 2009's. The Viogniers and Chardonnay's show these terroir differences beautifully for this vintage. We have fruit ranging fruit oily and tropical right to crisp and almost flinty styled. Should be an exciting year for many whites.
The reds just had to hang and hang. With the exception of the Tannat harvested early in September with just massive structure, all the reds were harvested after October 15th just trying to push for bigger, riper fruit. In the end, I think we succeeded. Much like 2008, I was not completely pleased with the fruit as it came to the winery and though it would be a very green year. Now that the ferments have come to a halt and the reds are all (except the one Cab Sauv) pressed I am realizing that it is a lighter more elegant year, but with great acid balance and fruit character. Some of the vineyards definitely show some bigger structures and bright fruit that will create longer lived wines, while others are going to be lighter and more subtle best for the earlier drinking windows.
The real excitement was with Syrah. We have seen that in both 2007 and 2008 the Syrah that came off our vineyard surpassed all other varieties giving classic meaty, smokey characters with ripe plum and pomegranate like notes. This year was the test. We had our first "real" crop meaning more the 1/4 ton per acre. This year we harvested 1.5 tons per acre and will have a few hundred cases and wow is it going to be great. Once again, it beat the odds and is just surpassing all our expectations. It shows those classic Syrah characters and velvety structure of the past years but also is showing more cracked pepper notes given the cooler vintage. This grape really is something special for our terroir.
So overall the 2009 vintage should be one that will be remembered. We had to take some bumps and bruises, but in the end, I think there will be some gems. I look forward to showing them to you as they evolve in the future starting with our crisp white blend Charval that will be due out in the spring. A great blend of Chardonnay, Viognier, Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc.
Salute.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Let the Harvest Begin
Well, it always amazes me how fast the time can fly. I feel like we just finished crushing our Cabernet Sauvignon. That was October 18 / 2008. Now we will be harvesting our Pinot Gris again on Monday or Tuesday, hopefully!!!
It was definitely been a trying year for growing grapes, which makes life fun sometimes, battling mother nature. We saw wet cool weather during flowering and fruit set so it made for some uneven sized berries and a slightly lighter crop. I have not dealt with clusters like this year many times in the past with the difference of ripening and berry size within one cluster. That said, several of the berries do not even contain seeds, which if they ripen will give far better fruit with less agressive tanins. Interesting.
Following the poor fruit set and flowering weather has not been a lot better. We did get some dry warm weather through the end of July and start of August to accelerate the the grapes entry into Veraison (when they start to change color) and getting us back on target for normal harvest dates. We have however gone back to having more then our share of rain and inclement weather. Early August saw one of the most brutal storms I have ever seen, even though it was tiny and fast. We saw 4 inches of rain in 10 minutes come with winds that up-rooted 11 trees on our property and hail that harmed a lot of our crop. Since then it seems at least a couple times a weak we have seen some dramatic amount of rain.
Do we feel defeated, absolutely not. We have gone out and thinned our crop by almost 50 percent knocking off all the green clusters that we do not believe would have ripened to our standards in order to make the remaining clusters ripen further and develop the character we have come to love from our vineyard.
As mentioned, our first fruit looks to be the Pinot Gris which should be harvested early next week as long as they dry out a bit over the next couple days. In doing our sampling of the fruit we are finding decent flavor developement, lower then average sugar and higher then average acid. One might think to let them hang longer, and normally I am that person giving the suggestion, but I think the fruit is in the right balance currently for the vintage. It should be interesting, it almost reminds me of the delicate styles Jon (our assistant winemaker) and I use to make in Canada. I think maybe our cooler climate winemaking history might give us a strong adavantage this year.
I am expecting most of our wines in 2009 to show lower alcohol levels and brighter acidity then normal years. My original thoughts if we start getting dryer weather through harvest will be whites with brighter acid and a little leaner, but with some good aging potential and reds that will be leaner and lighter with soft fruit and be best consumed young.
I will have to keep you posted on that as the grapes come in and as the wine is created.
So with that all said, I am off to the vineyard to keep an eye on the fruit as it comes in and i will do my best to keep you in the loop as we dredge our way through yet another harvest.
Sante.
It was definitely been a trying year for growing grapes, which makes life fun sometimes, battling mother nature. We saw wet cool weather during flowering and fruit set so it made for some uneven sized berries and a slightly lighter crop. I have not dealt with clusters like this year many times in the past with the difference of ripening and berry size within one cluster. That said, several of the berries do not even contain seeds, which if they ripen will give far better fruit with less agressive tanins. Interesting.
Following the poor fruit set and flowering weather has not been a lot better. We did get some dry warm weather through the end of July and start of August to accelerate the the grapes entry into Veraison (when they start to change color) and getting us back on target for normal harvest dates. We have however gone back to having more then our share of rain and inclement weather. Early August saw one of the most brutal storms I have ever seen, even though it was tiny and fast. We saw 4 inches of rain in 10 minutes come with winds that up-rooted 11 trees on our property and hail that harmed a lot of our crop. Since then it seems at least a couple times a weak we have seen some dramatic amount of rain.
Do we feel defeated, absolutely not. We have gone out and thinned our crop by almost 50 percent knocking off all the green clusters that we do not believe would have ripened to our standards in order to make the remaining clusters ripen further and develop the character we have come to love from our vineyard.
As mentioned, our first fruit looks to be the Pinot Gris which should be harvested early next week as long as they dry out a bit over the next couple days. In doing our sampling of the fruit we are finding decent flavor developement, lower then average sugar and higher then average acid. One might think to let them hang longer, and normally I am that person giving the suggestion, but I think the fruit is in the right balance currently for the vintage. It should be interesting, it almost reminds me of the delicate styles Jon (our assistant winemaker) and I use to make in Canada. I think maybe our cooler climate winemaking history might give us a strong adavantage this year.
I am expecting most of our wines in 2009 to show lower alcohol levels and brighter acidity then normal years. My original thoughts if we start getting dryer weather through harvest will be whites with brighter acid and a little leaner, but with some good aging potential and reds that will be leaner and lighter with soft fruit and be best consumed young.
I will have to keep you posted on that as the grapes come in and as the wine is created.
So with that all said, I am off to the vineyard to keep an eye on the fruit as it comes in and i will do my best to keep you in the loop as we dredge our way through yet another harvest.
Sante.
Friday, June 12, 2009
NoVA Terroir and Syrah?
A little while back I was quite enthused by a tasting that I was involved in. There is a group of us that get together once or twice a month and choose a selected theme to really nail down on. We taste the wines blind and they often come from all over the world, unless the theme is a region. This particular tasting that got me so excited was all things Syrah from anywhere in the world.
At this tasting that included three winegrowers, a viticulturist, a wine aficionado, and a wine distributor we tasted through Syrah/Shiraz from California, Washington, Barossa, Cote Rotie, Idaho and Virginia. Yes, Idaho and Virginia were included!!! The bottles cost on average in the $30-75 per bottle range.
There really were some stunning wines. It really showed the wide range of what Syrah/Shiraz can offer. Some wines were overtly fruit bombs showing lush jammy red and blackberry fruit, some showed floral notes, some smoky, some meaty many with great complexity. The regions I am normally best at characterizing would have been California, Barossa and Cote Rotie (or Northern Rhone). California often shows gobs of fruit and fairly substantial barrel treatment and quite elevated alcohol (sometimes balanced, sometimes not). Barossa Valley is similar to California in the sense that it often is a huge extracted wine with jammy and bramble berry like notes and good barrel treatment, usually quite low in acidity. The old world versions like Cote Rotie or Hermitage, Cornas, St. Joseph, etc from the Northern Rhone tend to show some different complexities like smoky meat (think bacon or charcouterie), forest floor, as well as balanced fruit. All of these wines from these regions kept with their trends and common characters.
In the end of all the tasters there were three favorites almost unanimously, although all in different order of the top three. One of which was clearly a wine with a couple years of age, but still with some age ability. It showed great intensity on the nose with subtle fruit like blueberry, raisins, and plum but really struck us for having great earthy and bacon tones. The palate was soft and silky with a long smoky oak driven finish. The wine ended up being Domaine Jamet Cote Rotie 2001. Not Shocking, especially since it was a $70.00 bottle. The other two showed some very common characteristics. They had the plummy and ripe fruit characters of a wine from Barossa or California, but the complexity and subtle meaty tones of the Northern Rhone and also a great underlying floral aspect. The palate one both were medium bodied showing great elegance, still very firm tannins as they were clearly young wines and great long finishes.
Well it was no shocker that they came from very close to each other and they were made in similar methods. Both were co-fermented with Viognier (traditional in Cote Rotie). One had 6% Viognier, the other had 9% Viognier. Both wines were aged about 16 months in barriques of which 75% was new. One of the wines was primarily French Oak, the other was exclusively Virginia Oak. What were they? Tarara Winery Syrah 2007 and Delaplane Cellars Syrah 2007. Both of these wines came from Northern Virginia which was really exciting to see. It made me ask myself the question I am still asking today. Is it possible that Syrah could find a new home in Northern Virginia? I seem to think so, since we have already proven Viognier is from here is second to none, and in most places of the world Syrah and Viognier are planted side by side. In tasting our 2008 Syrah there is several of the same characters only our 2008 is a little lighter then the 2007 given the nature of the vintage and the 2008 shows a touch more floral, the 2007 a touch more fruit. Altogether though it has me thinking...Syrah and Northern Virginia...Great Terroir?
Our 2007 Syrah is currently only available to our Estate Wine Club members as it was our first crop and is a limited release. In the future we are looking forward to having plenty of Syrah since the vines are maturing.
So with that all said, it is time for me to get back out to the vineyard and watch the 2009 Syrah vines grow into some great wine for the future showing Tarara's terroir.
At this tasting that included three winegrowers, a viticulturist, a wine aficionado, and a wine distributor we tasted through Syrah/Shiraz from California, Washington, Barossa, Cote Rotie, Idaho and Virginia. Yes, Idaho and Virginia were included!!! The bottles cost on average in the $30-75 per bottle range.
There really were some stunning wines. It really showed the wide range of what Syrah/Shiraz can offer. Some wines were overtly fruit bombs showing lush jammy red and blackberry fruit, some showed floral notes, some smoky, some meaty many with great complexity. The regions I am normally best at characterizing would have been California, Barossa and Cote Rotie (or Northern Rhone). California often shows gobs of fruit and fairly substantial barrel treatment and quite elevated alcohol (sometimes balanced, sometimes not). Barossa Valley is similar to California in the sense that it often is a huge extracted wine with jammy and bramble berry like notes and good barrel treatment, usually quite low in acidity. The old world versions like Cote Rotie or Hermitage, Cornas, St. Joseph, etc from the Northern Rhone tend to show some different complexities like smoky meat (think bacon or charcouterie), forest floor, as well as balanced fruit. All of these wines from these regions kept with their trends and common characters.
In the end of all the tasters there were three favorites almost unanimously, although all in different order of the top three. One of which was clearly a wine with a couple years of age, but still with some age ability. It showed great intensity on the nose with subtle fruit like blueberry, raisins, and plum but really struck us for having great earthy and bacon tones. The palate was soft and silky with a long smoky oak driven finish. The wine ended up being Domaine Jamet Cote Rotie 2001. Not Shocking, especially since it was a $70.00 bottle. The other two showed some very common characteristics. They had the plummy and ripe fruit characters of a wine from Barossa or California, but the complexity and subtle meaty tones of the Northern Rhone and also a great underlying floral aspect. The palate one both were medium bodied showing great elegance, still very firm tannins as they were clearly young wines and great long finishes.
Well it was no shocker that they came from very close to each other and they were made in similar methods. Both were co-fermented with Viognier (traditional in Cote Rotie). One had 6% Viognier, the other had 9% Viognier. Both wines were aged about 16 months in barriques of which 75% was new. One of the wines was primarily French Oak, the other was exclusively Virginia Oak. What were they? Tarara Winery Syrah 2007 and Delaplane Cellars Syrah 2007. Both of these wines came from Northern Virginia which was really exciting to see. It made me ask myself the question I am still asking today. Is it possible that Syrah could find a new home in Northern Virginia? I seem to think so, since we have already proven Viognier is from here is second to none, and in most places of the world Syrah and Viognier are planted side by side. In tasting our 2008 Syrah there is several of the same characters only our 2008 is a little lighter then the 2007 given the nature of the vintage and the 2008 shows a touch more floral, the 2007 a touch more fruit. Altogether though it has me thinking...Syrah and Northern Virginia...Great Terroir?
Our 2007 Syrah is currently only available to our Estate Wine Club members as it was our first crop and is a limited release. In the future we are looking forward to having plenty of Syrah since the vines are maturing.
So with that all said, it is time for me to get back out to the vineyard and watch the 2009 Syrah vines grow into some great wine for the future showing Tarara's terroir.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Sorry, I have been Gone
Well we had a little I.T. glitch with the blog over the past couple of months and we apologize, but we are now back and more exciting then ever. I hope you enjoy reading about some of the many things we have going on that are new and exciting at Tarara since I last wrote.
First off, we have entered our 20th anniversary here at Tarara and we are celebrating full steam with events all the time. We have created a lounge once a month for our wine club as well as several great features like season tickets to our concert series which goes an extra month this year. We are also ramping up for our very first "Fine Vine Festival: Just say Viognier". This will replace our "Winds and Wine Festival" as a more upscale 20th anniversary experience to delight you with Virginia's flagship grape variety Viognier and some local cuisine. We will be celebrating with 4 other fabulous Viognier's from around the state as selected by a great panel of sommeliers and wine writers including Laurie Forster and Dave MacIntyre of the Washington Post.
Since I last wrote close to the end of harvest the wines have dramatically been changing. The 2008 vintage is starting to show some incredible poise and complexity that I was having a hard time seeing with all the hustle and bustle of harvest time. The reds, Chardonnay and Viognier are tucked away in barrel just slowly developing into what could turn out to be a classic vintage. The Chardonnay and Viognier are showing a great amount of elegance and complex fruit from 2008. They are wines of incredible balance with a great backbone of acidity. We have some reds resting in barrel that have never existed before at Tarara that are showing great promise. Our Touriga Nacional (previously used for our 2007 D9 - to be released in May) is the first time we have created a dry version of this variety and it shows great red berry fruit intertwined in complex red meat like aromas that all lay under a great structure of acidity and fine tannins. The Tannat that is also a first is full of smokey characters laying under what is clearly our most structured wine to date with massive but velvety tannins. Both these varieties are destined to be in our "Long Bomb Edition Two" with some Cabernet Franc, and Merlot. That could all change as the wine matures further though and more varieties could be added like Cabernet Sauvignon or Petit Verdot. I will keep you posted. It will be hard to top "Long Bomb Edition One" as out of the gates is has clearly been our most popular wine just flying off the shelves due to it's great value.
Our Meritage from 2008 may actually be a first for Tarara as well. This is our flagship wine and for the first year ever will hold a great proportion of Petit Verdot which is showing an Inky violet color, with intense plum character and loads of cracked black pepper notes under a line of vibrant acidity and ripe tannins. This wine is looking to be a blend of Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot. We will see about the Cabernet Franc and how it works with the blend. Right now, I would say this could rival our best Meritage to date. Even better then the great 2007 being bottled next week that is selling like crazy as a futures item? We'll see.
Next week we will also be bottling our highly anticipate first release of Syrah 2007. This wine is still defying it's own limits with its blend of 91% Syrah and 9% Viognier co-fermented. Everytime I taste the wine (which has to stop since there is not much and I keep diving in) I am finding it more and more complex with great raspberry and plum notes nixed with licorise and yes bacon. Sounds odd, but smell for yourself and you will be addicted. The palate is soft and silky with a medium to full body showing great elegance and complexity leading to the long smokey finish. There will also be the new D9 being bottled next week for release in May. If you enjoyed the first version of this wine, the 2007 will make your knees weak with smokey aromas from the 18 months in barrel, meaty aromas of the Touriga Nacional and a lovely blend of earthiness and fruit from the Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Chambourcin. This will all be complemented by the firm tannins, and a good dollop of alcohol (18%) as our new fortified wine. We will also bottle our flagship Meritage 2007 which is already selling like crazy as future and is a lovely blend of 46% Cabernet Franc, 34% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon and our 2007 Cabernet Franc which is a classic rendition of the variety. The first of our 2008's will also be bottled including our Rose which is a blend of 49% Cabernet Franc, 29% Merlot, 18% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Petit Verdot and 2% Tannat and our new style of Charval using all classic "Vitis Vinifera" varieties to include in the 2008 (Chardonnay 48%, Sauvignon Blanc 41%, and Pinot Gris 11%). So much to bottle and enjoy, so little time.
With this all said I have to get back to actually visiting my family right now as I am in Canada and don't get to see them too often. I had the opportunity to come back to my home province of Ontario to receive the "Premiers Award" as being he top graduate out of the Ontario college system in the past five years. It is a testament to all those that I have surrounded myself by. Tarara Winery has played a huge role in my success and the wines are obviously a sure proof and I am glad the Ontario Government has recognized the accomplishments that those I work with have created. I am also here to celebrate a Wedding. My wife's cousin Darryl Keller and his soon to be lovely wife Rachel will be married this Saturday and I would like to wish them all the best and I look forward to a fantastic evening surrounded by my lovely family that my Wife Jen has brought to me.
So at that I will leave you until next time, and I hope we will not have any more glitches to I can keep you up on what is happening in the Vineyard as we come out of dormancy in the soon to come spring (I hope), the Cave where the wines just keep getting better and better, and with our Retail store and all of our events so that you know the best times to visit us at Tarara. Thank you so much for keeping us as the voted number one winery in Loudoun for 12 consecutive years moving into our great 20th anniversary celebrations.
First off, we have entered our 20th anniversary here at Tarara and we are celebrating full steam with events all the time. We have created a lounge once a month for our wine club as well as several great features like season tickets to our concert series which goes an extra month this year. We are also ramping up for our very first "Fine Vine Festival: Just say Viognier". This will replace our "Winds and Wine Festival" as a more upscale 20th anniversary experience to delight you with Virginia's flagship grape variety Viognier and some local cuisine. We will be celebrating with 4 other fabulous Viognier's from around the state as selected by a great panel of sommeliers and wine writers including Laurie Forster and Dave MacIntyre of the Washington Post.
Since I last wrote close to the end of harvest the wines have dramatically been changing. The 2008 vintage is starting to show some incredible poise and complexity that I was having a hard time seeing with all the hustle and bustle of harvest time. The reds, Chardonnay and Viognier are tucked away in barrel just slowly developing into what could turn out to be a classic vintage. The Chardonnay and Viognier are showing a great amount of elegance and complex fruit from 2008. They are wines of incredible balance with a great backbone of acidity. We have some reds resting in barrel that have never existed before at Tarara that are showing great promise. Our Touriga Nacional (previously used for our 2007 D9 - to be released in May) is the first time we have created a dry version of this variety and it shows great red berry fruit intertwined in complex red meat like aromas that all lay under a great structure of acidity and fine tannins. The Tannat that is also a first is full of smokey characters laying under what is clearly our most structured wine to date with massive but velvety tannins. Both these varieties are destined to be in our "Long Bomb Edition Two" with some Cabernet Franc, and Merlot. That could all change as the wine matures further though and more varieties could be added like Cabernet Sauvignon or Petit Verdot. I will keep you posted. It will be hard to top "Long Bomb Edition One" as out of the gates is has clearly been our most popular wine just flying off the shelves due to it's great value.
Our Meritage from 2008 may actually be a first for Tarara as well. This is our flagship wine and for the first year ever will hold a great proportion of Petit Verdot which is showing an Inky violet color, with intense plum character and loads of cracked black pepper notes under a line of vibrant acidity and ripe tannins. This wine is looking to be a blend of Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot. We will see about the Cabernet Franc and how it works with the blend. Right now, I would say this could rival our best Meritage to date. Even better then the great 2007 being bottled next week that is selling like crazy as a futures item? We'll see.
Next week we will also be bottling our highly anticipate first release of Syrah 2007. This wine is still defying it's own limits with its blend of 91% Syrah and 9% Viognier co-fermented. Everytime I taste the wine (which has to stop since there is not much and I keep diving in) I am finding it more and more complex with great raspberry and plum notes nixed with licorise and yes bacon. Sounds odd, but smell for yourself and you will be addicted. The palate is soft and silky with a medium to full body showing great elegance and complexity leading to the long smokey finish. There will also be the new D9 being bottled next week for release in May. If you enjoyed the first version of this wine, the 2007 will make your knees weak with smokey aromas from the 18 months in barrel, meaty aromas of the Touriga Nacional and a lovely blend of earthiness and fruit from the Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Chambourcin. This will all be complemented by the firm tannins, and a good dollop of alcohol (18%) as our new fortified wine. We will also bottle our flagship Meritage 2007 which is already selling like crazy as future and is a lovely blend of 46% Cabernet Franc, 34% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon and our 2007 Cabernet Franc which is a classic rendition of the variety. The first of our 2008's will also be bottled including our Rose which is a blend of 49% Cabernet Franc, 29% Merlot, 18% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Petit Verdot and 2% Tannat and our new style of Charval using all classic "Vitis Vinifera" varieties to include in the 2008 (Chardonnay 48%, Sauvignon Blanc 41%, and Pinot Gris 11%). So much to bottle and enjoy, so little time.
With this all said I have to get back to actually visiting my family right now as I am in Canada and don't get to see them too often. I had the opportunity to come back to my home province of Ontario to receive the "Premiers Award" as being he top graduate out of the Ontario college system in the past five years. It is a testament to all those that I have surrounded myself by. Tarara Winery has played a huge role in my success and the wines are obviously a sure proof and I am glad the Ontario Government has recognized the accomplishments that those I work with have created. I am also here to celebrate a Wedding. My wife's cousin Darryl Keller and his soon to be lovely wife Rachel will be married this Saturday and I would like to wish them all the best and I look forward to a fantastic evening surrounded by my lovely family that my Wife Jen has brought to me.
So at that I will leave you until next time, and I hope we will not have any more glitches to I can keep you up on what is happening in the Vineyard as we come out of dormancy in the soon to come spring (I hope), the Cave where the wines just keep getting better and better, and with our Retail store and all of our events so that you know the best times to visit us at Tarara. Thank you so much for keeping us as the voted number one winery in Loudoun for 12 consecutive years moving into our great 20th anniversary celebrations.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Light at the End of the Tunnel
And then there was a day off........Well we have just about finished our harvest season. All of the grapes have made their way into our cave and are just finishing up their primary fermentation's. It sure was an interesting year and one that I am sure we will look back on as one that made us wiser.
First off, I have never had a vintage with such a perfect split of white varieties and red varieties. We were able to spend the first 4 weeks of the vintage concentrating on only the white varities (Chardonnay, Viognier, Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc) and then 1 week of just slamming our reds in (Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Touriga Nacional, Tannat and Syrah). What a rush it was at the finish line.
Throughout September there were a couple of rain falls, one in particular at the beginning of the Month, I think here name was Hannah, which is one named removed from the mix for my first born. This all made us a little nervous about the up bring of rain and the cooler fall giving us a hard time ripening our fruit. This is when we went out and did what all the financial people hate to here and knocked off the fruit we knew would not ripen.
October was interesting and really lead to what made us push the envelope on hang time for our reds. The rains slowed and the nights were cool and even cold in many cases (but not quite enough for frost) with abundant sunshine during the day. By the end of September our sugars hit their peaks for the season and stopped really changing much. All the month of October they were hanging anywhere from 22 - 23 brix giving a great potential for balanced alcohol. Even with the sugars in a perfect range I just wanted darker seeds, better flavor, and silkier tannins. So the grape stayed on the vine.
As of October 19th we official got hit by frost on our Vineyards at Tarara. That meant a week of controlled and fun chaos. We received 30% of our harvest in three days and at the end we were glad we did. The fruit was just getting to the point we wanted it. The tannins were softening, the seeds where brown and the flavor in almost all the fruit was just starting to show lovely ripe berry notes. The best part is there was a perfect balance of acidity to hold it all together.
A couple weeks later our Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc are just chugging on through their ferments. That Cabernet Sauvignon spent it's first 8 days just cold soaking. The wait seems to be well worth while. The wines which could have been disastrous this year have turned for the best. Stunning.
Looking back, the whites that I was once sceptical on are showing incredible complexity at such a young stage and beautiful elegance. I think in some cases there quality may even surpass the nearly perfect 2007 vintage.
Only time will tell what the final result of 2008 will be, but my gut tells me it is going to be a great vintage that will also drink well young while you wait for the 2007's to mature.
Cheers to another vintage in the history books.....almost.
First off, I have never had a vintage with such a perfect split of white varieties and red varieties. We were able to spend the first 4 weeks of the vintage concentrating on only the white varities (Chardonnay, Viognier, Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc) and then 1 week of just slamming our reds in (Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Touriga Nacional, Tannat and Syrah). What a rush it was at the finish line.
Throughout September there were a couple of rain falls, one in particular at the beginning of the Month, I think here name was Hannah, which is one named removed from the mix for my first born. This all made us a little nervous about the up bring of rain and the cooler fall giving us a hard time ripening our fruit. This is when we went out and did what all the financial people hate to here and knocked off the fruit we knew would not ripen.
October was interesting and really lead to what made us push the envelope on hang time for our reds. The rains slowed and the nights were cool and even cold in many cases (but not quite enough for frost) with abundant sunshine during the day. By the end of September our sugars hit their peaks for the season and stopped really changing much. All the month of October they were hanging anywhere from 22 - 23 brix giving a great potential for balanced alcohol. Even with the sugars in a perfect range I just wanted darker seeds, better flavor, and silkier tannins. So the grape stayed on the vine.
As of October 19th we official got hit by frost on our Vineyards at Tarara. That meant a week of controlled and fun chaos. We received 30% of our harvest in three days and at the end we were glad we did. The fruit was just getting to the point we wanted it. The tannins were softening, the seeds where brown and the flavor in almost all the fruit was just starting to show lovely ripe berry notes. The best part is there was a perfect balance of acidity to hold it all together.
A couple weeks later our Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc are just chugging on through their ferments. That Cabernet Sauvignon spent it's first 8 days just cold soaking. The wait seems to be well worth while. The wines which could have been disastrous this year have turned for the best. Stunning.
Looking back, the whites that I was once sceptical on are showing incredible complexity at such a young stage and beautiful elegance. I think in some cases there quality may even surpass the nearly perfect 2007 vintage.
Only time will tell what the final result of 2008 will be, but my gut tells me it is going to be a great vintage that will also drink well young while you wait for the 2007's to mature.
Cheers to another vintage in the history books.....almost.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Harvest Part 3
With a cool and wet spring with some torrential storms, a wetter then normal July and a tropical storm at the start of Harvest mother nature is finally being friendly.
We still have our Merlot (Hill Block), Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon left out in our vineyard. We also have some Tannat coming from off site as well as some more Cabernet Franc. All of these grapes were almost harvested the week of September 22 to 26 but we decided that we would test mother nature once again. Finally...she gave us the break and is giving us some of the best ripening weather we could ask for. It has gotten up to 70ish during the day and cooling off at night to the mid 50's and even 40's to allow the acidity to stay fresh while further maturing the seeds, skins and flavor.
We have started to taste some of our blend potentials for our whites as well and have finished most to the barrel ferments of Viognier and Chardonnay. Our main white blend that we are currently doing trials on is our Charval (with a face lift this year) is looking to be a blend of about 58% Chardonnay (about half of which comes from Clone 96 - a musque clone adding more banana and tropical aromatics) and 42% Sauvignon Blanc. The barrels have fermented beautifully with only the Wild Yeast barrels of both Chardonnay and Viognier still working away. The wild yeast has been a lot of fun being a slower and cooler fermenter in all cases so far preserving the aromatics and expressing more or our "Terroir". Our Virginia Oak trials have also been very successful thus far with Chardonnay ferments but it is still very early to tell. Any way we can express our vineyard and location "terroir" we will strive to do so by staying as local as possible with everything in our winemaking.
We have also just brought in about 3 tons of Petit Verdot that could sneak it's way into our flagship Meritage as well as our soon to be released "secret wine" (see the past blog) on November 1st. It would obviously go into next years edition though. The cold soak is showing great color already, with a lovely black pepper note in the juice. We are quite excited.
Anyway, I have to get back down to the cave and help our assistant winemaker Jon Boyle racking our 2008 Syrah - very yummy.
Until next time - Cheers!
We still have our Merlot (Hill Block), Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon left out in our vineyard. We also have some Tannat coming from off site as well as some more Cabernet Franc. All of these grapes were almost harvested the week of September 22 to 26 but we decided that we would test mother nature once again. Finally...she gave us the break and is giving us some of the best ripening weather we could ask for. It has gotten up to 70ish during the day and cooling off at night to the mid 50's and even 40's to allow the acidity to stay fresh while further maturing the seeds, skins and flavor.
We have started to taste some of our blend potentials for our whites as well and have finished most to the barrel ferments of Viognier and Chardonnay. Our main white blend that we are currently doing trials on is our Charval (with a face lift this year) is looking to be a blend of about 58% Chardonnay (about half of which comes from Clone 96 - a musque clone adding more banana and tropical aromatics) and 42% Sauvignon Blanc. The barrels have fermented beautifully with only the Wild Yeast barrels of both Chardonnay and Viognier still working away. The wild yeast has been a lot of fun being a slower and cooler fermenter in all cases so far preserving the aromatics and expressing more or our "Terroir". Our Virginia Oak trials have also been very successful thus far with Chardonnay ferments but it is still very early to tell. Any way we can express our vineyard and location "terroir" we will strive to do so by staying as local as possible with everything in our winemaking.
We have also just brought in about 3 tons of Petit Verdot that could sneak it's way into our flagship Meritage as well as our soon to be released "secret wine" (see the past blog) on November 1st. It would obviously go into next years edition though. The cold soak is showing great color already, with a lovely black pepper note in the juice. We are quite excited.
Anyway, I have to get back down to the cave and help our assistant winemaker Jon Boyle racking our 2008 Syrah - very yummy.
Until next time - Cheers!
Monday, October 6, 2008
Winemaker scared, but not of Harvest
OK, so harvest this year has had it's challenges. Between having broken presses, rainfall, broken down trucks and ravaging deer I probably should have started to go crazy a little while ago. my wife Jen says I did, but I think that she is just talking about my normal charming ways.
Harvest has been hard, but what really has me shaking in my boots is the amount of private tastings that I fear may be in the 2009 season. In case any of you did not already know we at Tarara have a little deal going this football season. A deal that might have my cocky attitude knocked down a notch, some hope anyway. The deal is that anyone who buys a case of wine on Sunday or Monday to celebrate their favorite football team can be entered into the pool. I being a Northerner my whole life (from Canada, but close to the border) am a huge Buffalo Bills fan. At the start of the season I made the deal that if the Washington Redskins had a better season then the Bills I would do a private tasting for those entered in to the pool from case purchases on Sunday's or Monday's.
I was very confident this would be no challenge a week ago with my perfect 4-0 team. Well.....now the Skins have beaten the Cowboys and the Eagles in two weeks (two huge victories) and bringing them to 4-1, while my Bills lost to Kurt Warner and his Cardinals (after last weeks performance by Warner, I thought this game was a shoe in for me) making the Bills 4-1. On top of that the Bills have now lost starting QB Trent Edwards to a concussion. Bad news for me, great news for any case buyers on our Football days.
That all said, I have a huge recommendation to any of you reading this blog. November 1st we have a huge release of a brand new wine at Tarara. If you are a football fan and a fan of huge reds, I recommend you stop by and check out this new wine. If you come of November 2nd it also happens to be a Sunday so if you buy a case it could make the wine purchase even more fun if Buffalo's luck carries over from yesterday.
So, as much as I would like to sit here and sweat about the football season, I do still have to make some great wine for you to drink. Today, we crush Petit Verdot and we will let our Merlot (from the Hill Block), Cabernet Franc, and Cabernet Sauvignon hang through this stretch of great weather we are supposed to have. I hope to see many of you here over the month of October (Virginia's Wine Month) and into November and further enjoying some of our new releases for Thanksgiving and this exciting football season.
Cheers!
Harvest has been hard, but what really has me shaking in my boots is the amount of private tastings that I fear may be in the 2009 season. In case any of you did not already know we at Tarara have a little deal going this football season. A deal that might have my cocky attitude knocked down a notch, some hope anyway. The deal is that anyone who buys a case of wine on Sunday or Monday to celebrate their favorite football team can be entered into the pool. I being a Northerner my whole life (from Canada, but close to the border) am a huge Buffalo Bills fan. At the start of the season I made the deal that if the Washington Redskins had a better season then the Bills I would do a private tasting for those entered in to the pool from case purchases on Sunday's or Monday's.
I was very confident this would be no challenge a week ago with my perfect 4-0 team. Well.....now the Skins have beaten the Cowboys and the Eagles in two weeks (two huge victories) and bringing them to 4-1, while my Bills lost to Kurt Warner and his Cardinals (after last weeks performance by Warner, I thought this game was a shoe in for me) making the Bills 4-1. On top of that the Bills have now lost starting QB Trent Edwards to a concussion. Bad news for me, great news for any case buyers on our Football days.
That all said, I have a huge recommendation to any of you reading this blog. November 1st we have a huge release of a brand new wine at Tarara. If you are a football fan and a fan of huge reds, I recommend you stop by and check out this new wine. If you come of November 2nd it also happens to be a Sunday so if you buy a case it could make the wine purchase even more fun if Buffalo's luck carries over from yesterday.
So, as much as I would like to sit here and sweat about the football season, I do still have to make some great wine for you to drink. Today, we crush Petit Verdot and we will let our Merlot (from the Hill Block), Cabernet Franc, and Cabernet Sauvignon hang through this stretch of great weather we are supposed to have. I hope to see many of you here over the month of October (Virginia's Wine Month) and into November and further enjoying some of our new releases for Thanksgiving and this exciting football season.
Cheers!
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