A night at Olivar

A blend of monastrell and cabernet sauvignon this wine is from the Yecla DO in Eastern Spain, not far from Valencia.

A couple of things I found interesting when researching the grape and place.

1. 1. Monastrell is the spanish name for Mourvedre, which we have discussed before.  You learn something new with wine everyday.
2. 2.  The town of Yecla is only accessible by car – which is unique in Europe.
3. Here are the tasting notes from Barahonda:

Made from 70% Monastrell grapes and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, with a long maceration at 25ºC, placed in American and French new oak casks for five months, in vats for another two months and it is bottled and kept in our cellars for twelve months before reaching the market.

Bright red cherry in colour, in nose its shows a pleasant sensation of mature fruit with a light integrated oak, long texture, intense, balanced, with a full-bodied and complex finishing bouquet.

I knew the fermentation was about finished when the cap no longer needed much punching down and started to slip back into the layer of juice. The next time we do this, I’d like to slow this down a bit to give the juice some more time to marinate with the skins.  I’m interested in the added color, especially in a cab.

We took our food grade garbage bucket of “new wine” back to Mountain Home Brew to press all of the juice off of the skins.   The store provided us with a bladder press for the job.  I was surprised that at least 3/4 of the juices strained right out without having to use the press.  The other quarter came from the actual “pressing.”  The bladder press is a pretty neat deal, utilizing a porous sac and an inflatable bladder that is pressurized with a water hose.

We were in and out in about 15 minutes and driving home with about 8 gallons of wine in two separate 6 gallon carboys.

At this point, the wine was tasting REALLY tart and acidic. I have to admit I was a little bit worried about it ever becoming a drinkable and enjoyable adult beverage.  When I say tart, I’m talking sour patch kids, tart.  We decided to encourage a malolactic fermentation, which turns the malic acid into a more gentle and smooth lactic acid by adding some bacteria cultures.  We added an air lock to each carboy and put the wine to rest for another week.

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The gentlemen at Tavola Rosso have passed me the T-Day baton, perhaps not realizing I have inflexible thoughts about what to drink, and what to shun, on the Great Day of Turkey. Warning: it’s not going to make you Europhiles happy. Check back when it’s Bastille Day.

I’m uncompromising in my belief that on this great American holiday, we should drink American wine. I don’t care where you’re from, or how well your country makes vino. American wine consumption on Thanksgiving should be as ingrained in the tradition as pardoning the turkey. I have a dream that one day, if you aren’t drinking domestic wine, people will say “Look at you! So non-traditional.” And in light of the economy’s spot-on impersonation of that bridge in Minneapolis, my conviction has matured into a bit of tyranny. Not only should we drink American wine to honor our awesome country on a holiday that is embraceable by all people in this great land, we should drink American wine to put money into our American economy. And they said I was no rocket scientist.

You aren’t going to find advice about bottles over $25 in this year’s write-up. I can’t responsibly encourage you pick up a couple bottles of Neal Family Vineyard’s library selection of Howell Mountain Estate Cab 2002. (But if you can, do. Seriously.) I’m happy to insert a pointed quote from the cool-headed owner of Grape Nutz Inc, Riley “Mama” Gerber, who says “Now’s not the time to be spending extra money on wines. Thanksgiving is about fellowship and being together.”

So, shall we start with bubbly? Great news for those who love Champagne: the homeland produces great sparkling wine that is easy to afford, and you can be proud to pour for your friends whether they’re wine snobs or normal.

To wit, enjoying Gloria Ferrer Sonoma Brut ($15) is as easy as mashing yams. If you come across Ferrer’s Blanc de Noirs or the Blanc de Blancs, go for it. While the particular nuances will vary in each wine, the house style seems to produce spright little bubbles and a mid-palate creamy flourish across the board.

Never forget the incredibly impressive First House of Sparkling Wine, Schramsberg. Everything in this lineup is jaw-dropping lovely (and some have the price tag to prove it). The non-vintage cuvée Mirabelle retails for about $20 all over the country, and is a first-rate example of our winemaking panache. It’s big in the mouth, and if you had a checklist of fabulous flavors in bubbly, here’s what you might say to yourself: “Apples, check. Lemon, check. Biscuit dough, check. Gentle, provocative spice, bingo!”

Is Anderson Valley’s Roederer a reliable source for delicious bubbly? Yes. But it’s French-owned. Ditto Domaine Carneros. I have massive affection for Le Reve from the latter, and the former’s Rosé, but on T-day, I’m solid. I’m talking all the way USA.

Those who drink white wine have a lot to be thankful for on November’s 4th Thursday. Not the least of which is gewurztraminer. This aromatic grape can complement all of the flavors on your table, from traditional fare, to a Mexican fiesta. The grape is naturally high in sugar, but doesn’t necessarily produce a sweet wine. It’s typically more off-dry. Flamboyant is another way to describe gewurz (guh-VERTS), and be prepared for a nose-filling blanket of lychee nut. Whew! Look for Claiborne & Churchill’s Dry Gewurztraminer 2007 ($18), or the ripe and racy Estate Grown version from Hook & Ladder Vineyards ($16).

If you’re about to buy a homegrown riesling (because riesling is another tres awesome choice on Thanksgiving) like Washington’s award-winning Milbrandt Vineyards Traditions 2006, a $12 floral, crisp, soft fleshy fruit, and mineral bargain that could teach justice a thing or two about balance, sniff around that aisle your standing in for a gewurztraminer. They’re usually fairly close together.

Another reason white wine drinkers can be thankful is that I’m not going to stroll off into a domestic chardonnay tirade, except to say this: boorrrring.

Now, I understand why you might hem and haw over staying on the domestic track when it comes to red wine. We’re limited to about a million extraordinary options from res publica. A few of the red varietals we’re doing really well here include: pinot noir, syrah, sangiovese, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, zinfandel, petit sirah, grenache, mourvedre, a little nebbiolo, a smidge of barbera, and what the hell, merlot. Throw in the infinite amount of blends stemming from any number of these grapes, and surely you can find something palatable? Let’s do it for our country.

Francophiles, may I please introduce you to Unti Vineyards Petit Frère ($20). The 2006 has just been released and you’re looking at 86% grenache, 10% syrah, 4% mourvedre. Unti is a small winery making big wines in Dry Creek Valley. They’re biodynamic, almost totally unfiltered, and omigod you guys, everything they make will have you briefly tripping over your words. The Petit Frère is screaming at the top of its lungs to be on your T-day table in place of your favorite Gigondas or Chateaunuf-du-Pape. You’ll drink it and thoroughly enjoy the young, bright fruit, silky tannins, and lush, spicy mouthful. You’ll probably end up buying a few more just to have, and if you let one sit for a couple years, you will be handsomely rewarded. If this sounds great to you, call your favorite retailer now about getting your hands on Unti. I’m not exposing an underground secret here – and those who know are quick to gobble up every bottle made. Which, for the record, isn’t much.

Bearing in mind the across-the-board higher price for pinot noir over other varietals (growing pinot noir is a tumultuous love affair – occasional utopian fantasy, frequent heartbreak) locating a pinot noir in the $20 range that is unflinchingly enjoyable is a precarious task. That said I’ve always quite enjoyed Tolosa Pinot Noir from the Edna Valley AVA. It’s intensely aromatic with an enviable pinot funk that is best described as, well, the pinot funk. The red berry fruit is always beautiful without making the overall sip too fruity, and it fills the mouth with soft sand-like tannins that are simply gorgeous. Try Tolosa’s SLO pinot noir 2006 ($23ish).

Benton Lane is an Oregon winery that finds its way to my wine shelf year after year. Great black cherry balanced with earth. Ripe and smooth. The 2006 pinot noir is a good buy at about $25. Willamette Valley Vineyard’s Oregon Pinot Noir 2006 ($25) is a solid choice for those who prefer a brighter berry poppin’ fruit.

Washington is making some formidable cabernet franc. Syrah in any price range from Sonoma’s Russian River Valley is a great place to experiment. I could ramble on for pages. The gist is this: America is a phenomenal country, and we make some astonishing wine. If you can’t find a way to fill your stemware with domestic succulence, you might consider reverting back to the old faithful American tradition: Budweiser. A couple of cool aluminum cans should knock you off that snooty high horse, and the fruits of our own labor will finally appear to you in all their ambrosial glory.

Gobble gobble, turkeys.

• Butternut Squash Soup- This simple soup has Fall written all over it. It’s easy to prepare and can be done ahead of time. We roasted butternut squash, garlic, little yellow potatoes and a variety of pearl onions. Once pureed, I added some chicken stock, heavy cream and minced sage over heat.
• Variety of sandwiches- Lunch wouldn’t be complete without a sandwich. I decided to go with three choices: classic egg salad, pesto cream cheese and English cucumber and salami and sharp cheddar with Dijon mustard.
• Fall Salad- To accompany the soup and sandwiches, we enjoyed a salad featuring spicy walnuts, feta and Granny Smith apple over a bed of lettuce, with a Dijon lemon vinaigrette.
• Cupcakes- Recipe courtesy of the famous Magnolia Bakery in NYC, I prepared vanilla cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting.
• Chocolate Chip Reese’ Cookies- A favorite of all who know Jaylene and her family, her mom brought this delicious bites featuring a mini Reese Pieces Cup.
• Cream Cheese Brownies- Courtesy of Shelby Reed, these rich goodies definitely satisfied our chocolate fix.

To quench guests’ thirst, I served hot cider and a cranberry spritzer for the mothers-to-be, and champagne with raspberries for those looking for a little pick me up.

The important equation that is necessary to turn grapes into wine:

Sugar + Yeast = Alcohol + CO2

To start the fermentation I went ahead and added the Bourgovin RC 212 yeast packed to some warm water for about 10 minutes and confirmed that the yeast was indeed activated.  Next, I combined the activated yeast water with about a cup of must and mixed that around in a tall pint glass.  Then, I dropped the yeast mixture into the large white plastic garbage can like fermentation container, which I made sure to mix around really well. 

Once again, sit and wait.

There is one necessary activity during this primary fermentation – punching down the cap.  As the wine begins to ferment, the grape skins are pushed to the top of the fermentation container, above the juice.  The technique is actually as simple as pushing the skins back into the juice and mixing it around a little bit. What this accomplishes is 1. providing oxygen to the process, and 2. preventing the skins on the top from growing weird things that might contaminate your soon to be wine.  I found this  part of the process quite fun actually, and enjoyed punching down the cap twice a day and getting my (clean) hands down in there.

During this primary fermentation the only thing that the winemaker can control is the temperature.  We chose to let our wine ferment as fast as it wanted to and tried to keep the air temperature above 70 degrees.  This resulting in the must pushing 83 during the height of fermentation.  Next time, I would probably try to slow this down a little bit and let it take a little longer, which i think would allow more color to be extracted from the grape skins.

This took us about 5 days.

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We received  our sweet and tasty fruit at Mountain Home Brew in Kirkland, and  were a little surprised that 100 pounds of cabernet sauvignon fit into just four boxes. 

First, we ran the grapes through the a destemmer/sorter machine which did exactly what you might expect – it separated the grapes from the stems and in the process mushed the grapes up a bit creating some of the first juice we got our hands on, and enjoyed sampling. It was grape juice at this point, and sweeter than I expected. This part of the process could have taken even longer if we hadn’t had access to this equipment.  I can imagine standing around a sorting table for hours picking grapes off of their stems.

Next, we took our large garbage can of grapes home and asked Liz to jump in and give them a good crushing.  She cleaned up her feet and legs and jumped in.  After about 10 minutes of treading in grape juice, crushing grapes between her toes, and letting her entire legs go numb (the grapes were that cold), we called it good.  At this point our grapes had become “must” or a mixture of stems, seeds, grape skins, and juice.

We added some sulfite to kill off the natural yeasts on the grapes, and before putting the “must” to bed for about 24 hours added some yeast nutrients to nourish to wine yeast we would add the next day.

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Armed with a bottle of Amity Pinot Noir, we tracked down some fresh alaskan silver salmon for the occasion. With a side of mashed potatoes and another side of kale we had ourselves a nice little dinner to watch the media fest.

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Amity is “helped establish the area’s reputation for world class Pinot noir as early as 1985, the year Robert Parker “Discovered Oregon,” praising Amity Vineyards’ 1983 Winemaker’s Reserve Pinot noir.”

We happened upon the winery right in the midst of their harvest, and the grapes were coming off the vines and into the warehouse on the hill.   The staff noted that this was the latest harvest they could remember, and they were very optimistic about the fruit quality.

Having taken the time to learn about wine making this fall and understanding the importance of adding sulfites to the wine in order to kill off the natural, and difficult to harness, yeasts on the grapes, I have an appreciation for both the art and the science of these “Eco-Wines”. 

The 2007 Pinot Noir really needs some time in the wild to open up, but once it does, it becomes rather enjoyable, especially if you are averse to sulfites in any way and can appreciate the commitment to sustainability and organic growing.

Having just finished a fascinating book, “The Emperor of Wine” by Elin McCoy (more on this in another post), I became intrigued by the garagistes, a group of innovative winemakers in the Bordeaux region, producing "Vins de garage", or "Garage wine".

Maybe what was missing this fall was some sort of hand in the harvest season.  Not being able to join in on the picking, I thought I could at least celebrate the best grapes the state of Washington and try my hand at some garage cabernet sauvignon. 

After selling the idea to a couple friends, by over simplifying and perhaps over romanticizing the process, together we set out to try our hands at making a few gallons of our own wine.  I’ll be sure sure document the process and my thoughts over the next few weeks of crushing, fermenting, pressing, fermenting, and whatnot, stay tuned.

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