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September 29, 2009
September 28, 2009
Thank You, New York!
Looking for a good place in NY to enjoy some Sokol Blosser wine? Here are two favorites I discovered from a recent trip to the Big Apple.
Fishtail, one of well known chef David Burke’s restaurants, in the upper east side. As the name of the restaurant suggests, the menu is heavy on fish – all of it delicious. I started off with a trio of mini fish tartare tacos. For an entrée, I had the scallops with corn risotto which was delicious. I couldn’t resist and also had a side of small fried artichokes. I love artichokes and I love fried food, so it was a match made in heaven. And, of course, Evolution was the perfect accompaniment to all of it. It especially paired well with the fish tacos.
Commerce Restaurant in Greenwich Village. I actually hosted a happy hour event at Commerce for our wine club members and customers in the NYC area. I depended on a local’s suggestion that Commerce would be a good place for the event. They were right-on! A hip space with very much an old-school feel because of the old-world feel of the neighborhood. My favorites appetizers were the gourgeres (light and fluffy cheese puffs) and the hamachi ceviche served on forks. Our Pinot Gris and Evolution went with both. I saw some tasty lamb sandwiches being passed around that others were oohing and ahhing over with our Pinot Noir, but I didn’t have a chance to try it. I guess I’ll have to go back!
Oh, and one more: Parlor Steakhouse in the upper east side (more upper than Fishtail). I hosted a little happy hour there for my distributor’s sales reps and had to be pried away from the most amazing truffle grilled cheese sandwich bites. Small little bites of heaven. The truffle flavor was not overpowering and added a wonderful little twist to a simple appetizer. And I can make it at home! All the appetizers were delicious, but the truffle grilled cheese sandwiches were the standouts by far. And, we had some extra Meditrina leftover so if you happened to be in the bar that evening, that glass of wine you were treated to that night gratuit was called Meditrina. Hope you enjoyed it!
Thanks, New York, for a great week. I’ll be back soon.
Three Harvest Updates from the Weekend!
Phew... it was a fast and furious harvest weekend! Here are some updates from the last three busy days:
Friday: What's in that hole? Wanna know? In the blackness of the press lies the elixir that will become the 2009 Rosé of Pinot Noir... We have a full security detail surrounding the premises so no one gets too close to this precious, top secret, rose process...
Saturday: Here is a shot from this morning's pick up of Watershed Block Pinot Noir. This is our 2nd harvest from our new planting in the Old Watershed Block. It looks good! We also picked some Concert South Block Pinot Noir for Rosé and Stater Pinot Noir. Harvest is going well and we will finish up up Pinot Noir from the estate tomorrow with the rest of Concert South.
Sunday: All good things must come to an end - this is the last of the Pinot Noir from our estate for 2009. This is the rest of Concert South Block Pinot Noir! All we have left from our vineyard is Müller-Thurgau and White Riesling.
September 25, 2009
Another Indian Summer Harvest Day...
Here's a picture of Lupe, our Vineyard Manager Luis' wife, sorting out leaves from a full bin of Cattail Block Pinot Gris. Another busy day with Concert Middle Pommard Pinot Noir, Walnut NE and SE Pinot Noir, and Anne Amie Müller-Thurgau coming in today.
We've been processing so much fruit I think we are almost out of beer in the cellar fridge! Yikes!
September 24, 2009
Yee Ha!
Here's to the start of three big harvest days at the camp. The picture below is Jorge dumping in 2 buckets of Blue Bird Block Pinot Gris. We will then go to Concert Middle 115 Pinot Noir, then Fir Island Block Pinot Gris, the Orchard West Pinot Noir, then the Old Vineyard Pinot Droit. Can we do it?
Yes we can! Yee ha!
September 23, 2009
Busy Day!
Today we're harvesting the first crop off the New Old Vineyard block. The grapes look good and the cool morning air this AM was wonderful. It got up to about 95 yesterday and should only be 85 today.
We are picking Big Tree Middle, Orchard East, Walnut NW, Gully, and bringing in the rest of Durant PG.
Busy day!
The early morning sun over our Old Vineyard Block of Pinot Noir.
September 22, 2009
2009 Sokol Blosser Harvest Party
Harvest is here and last weekend we gathered our Cellar Club for our Annual Harvest Party. It is one of our most anticipated events of the year. It was a beautifully sunny Saturday and our Club members showed up in force! We gathered in our courtyard and celebrated the 2009 harvest with the release of our 2007 Dundee Hills Pinot Noir. (Yes, it is a minimum of two years before the release of our Pinot Noir. We let the Pinot Noir rest in French Oak barrels for 16 months with 6 more months in bottle prior to release). Our winemaker Russ Rosner lead the toast covering the wild weathered vintage that is 2009.
After the reception guests headed for our winery for a delicious family-style dinner catered by wine country legend, Nick’s Italian Café. Chef Eric and Chef Carmen served up an amazing spread including: Capresse Salads, Farro Salad with Soft Boiled Egg, Bistecca Florentina, Prosciutto Wrapped Melon, and Zabaglione with seasonal fruit and dark chocolate.
We opened the library and pulled out some tasty treats ourselves. Guests sampled our 2000 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir as well as 2002, 2004 Estate, 2005, and 2007 Dundee Hills Pinot Noirs. For whites we sampled 2008 Dundee Hills Pinot Gris and our 2007 Columbia Valley White Riesling Dessert Wine.
During dinner, Susan Sokol Blosser read excerpts from her book At Home in the Vineyard. The Sokol Blosser family and staff had a chance to dine and mingle with our club members who never cease to amaze us by their support.
After the dinner we kicked off our second annual charity wine auction benefitting Salud. Salud is a charity close to our hearts. They provide mobile health care to seasonal vineyard workers. We pulled out some vintage SB wines such as 1992 & 1994 Cabernet Sauvignon, 1988 Redlands Pinot Noir, vintage Chardonnay and Rieslings to help raise money for Salud. We feel very good that our ten auction lots ended up gathering over $2500.00 for Salud. This will be helpful in funding four days of mobile dental care for vineyard workers.
All in all the evening was a magical success. We are still recovering from the fun and planning for next year! Hope to see you there.
The group raises a toast to the 2009 Harvest.
Preparations are complete on the first two courses: a beautiful Caprese Salad and a Melon Salad with Housemade Prosciutto.
The next two courses are nearly ready to go: Bistecca Fiorentina and Farro with Zucchini and Soft Boiled Egg.
Chefs Eric and Carmen from Nick's Italian Café talk with Winery Founder Susan Sokol Blosser about the meal.
Michael Kelly Brown leads the bidding during the Rare Wine Auction benefiting Salud.
September 21, 2009
An Eventful First Day of Harvest
We had an exciting "first day" of Harvest on Friday, September 18! It was supposed to be the first day of crush and there was no power to the winery equipment. It was discovered when the rental compressor arrived and blew the circuit when it was turned on. PGE arrived first thing this morning and called in the tracer and backhoe and stayed until after 5:00 to get it all done. They had to turn off all the power at 3:15 and we had to send everyone home.
Enough excitement for the start of the vintage! The 2009 Crush "really" started at 7am on Saturday with fruit from our Concert north block and Walnut block. Today we brought in all the Pinot Noir from our Big Tree block, as well as some from our neighbors, the Staters. Looks like it will be a busy and exciting week... hopefully not as "exiciting" as Friday, though!
On the sorting line!
September 16, 2009
2007 Pinot Noir on an Autumn Evening
Everyone around here is getting so excited and anxious about the upcoming 2009 Harvest that when I got home tonight I just had to open up a bottle of our newly released 2007 Dundee Hills Pinot Noir to celebrate what our 2009 Harvest will be two years from now - delicious, elegant wine.
Okay, so maybe that was a stretch of an excuse to open up a bottle to enjoy on a Tuesday night. But let me tell you, after a long evening walk with my husband and our Golden Retriever, returning home and enjoying a glass of fabulous Pinot Noir and one of Oregon's lovely Indian Summer evenings was the best treat in the world.
Following are our winemaker's notes for our 2007 Dundee Hills Pinot Noir:
The 2007 growing season began in promising fashion with a relatively mild spring. We had light to moderate rainfall and a brief heat spike at the end of May just prior to bloom, which began in early June. Conditions were ideal during flowering, with temperatures moderate and almost no rain. We had a brief heat spell in early July (with temperatures over 100oF for a couple of days) but then almost all of August was cool and overcast. The hot, drying east wind kicked in for a few days in early September, but then we had a return to overcast and cool. We even had a week in mid-September that was cold and drizzly. By September 20th we were watching forecasts that predicted an extended period of heavy rain beginning at the end of the month, so, even though we would have ideally waited a little longer, we began the harvest and brought in as much as we could as fast as we could.
Between September 20th and 29th we did about 85% of our total harvest under mostly ideal conditions – cool mornings and warm, sunny afternoons. We did have some heavy rain overnight on the 27th, but kept going on the 28th and 29th during cool and sprinkly conditions. We finally had to stop after receiving almost an inch of rain on the 30th. As predicted, the weather did turn unfavorable after that – we had about 2” of rain between September 30th and October 4th, had small window of dry weather on the 5th and 6th to finish up the harvest, then it stayed cool and wet (over 4” of rainfall) until almost the end of October.
Ultimately, we were very happy that we had made the decision to pick rather than wait, as many winemakers did, for a return to good weather and further ripening. 2007 was one of those years in which that just didn’t happen; had we left the grapes out in those three weeks of cold and wet they would have been at severe risk of mold and rot, and the wines would have turned out thin, light, and dilute. Because bloom had been a little earlier than usual and we had had good conditions during the growing season, we did have enough hang time for good development and maturity even though we picked a few days earlier than we may have had the weather not forced our hand. And the wines are turning out to be very nice.
Our 2007 Dundee Hills Pinot Noir is delicate and elegant – soft, supple, harmonious, and already showing layers of complexity. Flavors and aromas are of mocha, black cherry, and raspberry, and our distinctive Jory soil forest-floor earthiness is beginning to show through. It’s drinking beautifully now after only about five months in the bottle and should age well and develop additional complexity for at least the next five to ten years.
September 14, 2009
Oregon Vintage 2009 – Current Climate Summary and Ripening Period Outlook
For those of you who are a little nuts about the weather - like us! - we thought you might enjoy taking a look at a climate report by Southern Oregon University Climatologist Dr. Greg Jones of the 2009 Oregon growing season to date. This valuable resource, released right before the 2009 harvest is set to commence, offers comparative slimate data for current and previous vintages, and includes an extended weather and ripening outlook for the months of September and October.
Please click here for the full report and charts detailing Monthly Temperature Departures, Rainfall Averages and Cumulative Growing Degree-Day Values.
September 11, 2009
Sokol Blosser Travels to Tokyo!
Thanks to Ristorante Tono 4122 for another great Wine Dinner in Tokyo! In the picture below, Alex Sokol Blosser sits amidst friends from Tono 4122. Cheers!
September 10, 2009
I Made Ratatouille!
On my way home from the office last night I stopped by the basket of beautiful bounty from our employee garden. I took home two big zucchinis, a few tomatoes and a couple of peppers. I didn’t know at the time what I was going to do with them. On my drive home, it came to me: “Doesn’t Ratatouille call for these vegetables?” I got home and opened up my cookbook, and there it was! The only thing I was missing was Eggplant, but I am not much for Eggplant so I just doubled up the zucchini. It also called for a dry white wine, but all I had open was Meditrina, so I used a splash of that. The recipe said to cook up the onions and garlic in olive oil, I used our Sokol Blosser Basil & Garlic Grapeseed Oil. Then added the zucchini, tomatoes, and peppers, a splash of Meditrina with salt & pepper. When it was a little tender, (I like my veggies a little crisp), I topped it with fresh basil from my herb garden. I surprised myself on how good it was - it was so fabulous!
Of course I had a glass of Meditrina to go with it. you can’t go wrong when you share a meal with a Goddess.
I was so excited about it, I just had to blog. :)
September 09, 2009
Born Lucky: The Evolution Video!
Check it out - and let us know what makes YOU feel lucky in an email to sokolblosser@sokolblosser.com. Cheers!
September 07, 2009
A Poem to Celebrate Wine Country
Thank you to recent Sokol Blosser Winery visitors Larry Epstein for this beautiful poem and Stephanie Page for the accomanying photos. Between the two of you, you've managed to capture the essence of the land. Thank you for sharing with us!
A Poem To Celebrate Wine Country
Soil scraped and wrestled by glacial hands from rocky repose;
Iron red, ochre clay, peaty black, sandy loam;
Tumbled together and pulled apart by forces ancient and extant.
Mother Earth stretching her wrinkled skin over tectonic bones
Folded in four dimensions, fed by sun and rain and decay.
Coaxed to give up Her energy to the offspring of vines
Stretched on slender sinews between timber sentinels.
Neat row upon row rolling through the foothills and valleys.
Tenderly topped and tortured and tapped for their juice.
Squeezed and pressed from sweet fruit and pungent peel;
Combined by alchemy and human spirit and imagination
Into a liquid gold kaleidoscope of flavors, forms and bouquet
Too numerous to capture in a lifetime, much less in a day.
But I humble myself to sample the fullness of Natures’s bounty,
Responsibly, in the time that I have to revel in Her vineyards.
September 01, 2009
Why We Still Use Natural Cork
First, let me say that I hate corks. They definitely can have an impact on the wine. Corks are generally acknowledged to be responsible for causing taint in anywhere from 2-5% of wines bottled with them. The taint is caused by the presence of the chemical trichloroanisole (TCA), which is formed by the activity of the microorganisms that cause mold. The chemical may be present in the cork bark when it is still on the tree and can also be formed during the processing that converts the bark into wine stoppers.
In some cases the taint is severe enough that it is obviously the cork causing the problem, and the consumer realizes that. Although I hate that, I actually prefer it to the scenario in which the cork taint is very slight – just enough to depress the fruit or make the wine taste a little off. In that case the consumer might not be aware that the cork is the problem and will just think that the wine is not very nice. The severe cork taint bottle is infuriating to both the producer and consumer, but hopefully the consumer will contact the producer and the bottle can be replaced. In the case of the insidious low-level taint bottle, the consumer will probably just decide that he or she doesn't like the wine and never contact the producer.
Even though I hate natural corks because of the spoilage potential, we have made a very conscious decision to continue with them because of our strong commitment to sustainability. Our core values compel us to examine every step in the winegrowing and winemaking process. We have to care as much about how we make the wine as the wine itself.
Having already addressed the major negative issue with natural corks, here are the positives:
• Most cork comes from Portugal where the trees are a protected resource, subject to a code of good practices to ensure sustainability. Many of the forests are managed organically. Cork oak forests are one of the most successful examples of sustainable agroforestry in the world.
• Cork oak forests provide valuable habitat for in incredible diversity of species, especially endangered birds like the rare black stork.
• Cork is a renewable resource. The bark is stripped from the tree about every nine years, after which it grows back. Cork oaks can live for hundreds of years.
• Cork is recyclable. Wine corks can be collected and remanufactured into numerous other products. There is a growing worldwide movement to collect and recycle corks.
• Cork is biodegradable. A cork that goes into a landfill will eventually degrade and dissolve.
• Cork is lightweight, chemically inert, moisture and rot resistant.
Here are the reasons we haven’t switched to synthetic (plastic) corks:
• They are a petroleum-based product and are not recyclable on the consumer level. A plastic cork that ends up in a landfill will be there essentially forever.
• They are not proven for long-term storage and have, in some cases, been found to contribute plastic flavors and/or aromas to the wine.
• Maybe most seriously, the wine would be in contact with the plastic, potentially leaching out carcinogenic plasticizers.
Aluminum screw caps are currently the most promising alternative, but they also have issues. Here are the reasons we haven’t switched to screw caps:• Aluminum is not a renewable resource and is not biodegradable.
• It takes a tremendous amount of electricity to manufacture aluminum, and many (if not most) of the caps would probably not be recycled.
• There is a plastic liner in contact with the wine, so again there is the plasticizer extraction potential.
• Recent findings have raised questions about the aging of the wine under screw caps. It seems that the guarantee of an absolutely airtight seal can cause the wine to develop differently. In the absence of any oxygen, the wine can become what is chemically called “reduced”; that is, it can form sulfur-based compounds like hydrogen sulfide (the smell of rotten eggs) and mercaptans (a skunky smell). Proponents of screw caps acknowledge this possibility and say that winemakers may simply have to adjust their winemaking and bottling protocols. This is a new issue and not yet well understood.
There is just now another new alternative closure emerging – a glass stopper (like the top of a decanter). This could snap up some market share, since it is a much more upscale concept than the screw cap (which has cheap, jug wine connotations). However, it uses a silicone (plastic) gasketing system to make the seal, and requires an aluminum capsule over it to hold it in and ensure tamper resistance. So again, plastic and aluminum.
As synthetic corks, screw caps and other alternative closures become more widely used and the natural cork manufacturers see their market share decreasing, they are all working like mad to come up with a solution. Over the past few years they have made some progress (the percentage of tainted bottles has dropped), but they have still not solved the problem. They may be getting closer – there are new methods for removing TCA using everything from supercritical CO2 extraction to gamma ray irradiation.
Since there is still no perfect closure at this time, we continue to opt for the natural cork, the most sustainable choice.