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Happy Valentines Day!!
Open a bottle of American Beauty and drink it with someone you love.
(Or would like to love!)
A big welcome to our new members and a hearty hello to our long time members.Ê It is good to be sending a report to everyone and I hope your New Year is off to a great start. I am sorry to be so tardy in providing a newsletter but I have been a single parent of late as Cathy is off to Nicaragua on one of her medical mission trips. I know she would wish all of you wellJ. Those of you that have been on our list for a while know Cathy goes to Nicaragua several times a year for this work; she is affiliated with Project HOPE.
I have been spending considerable time tasting through our barrels (well, somebody has to do it) since everything has just finished malolactic fermentation. The samples are still spritzy with dissolved CO2 but with a good shake that will blow off and I have some notes to report. While it is early to tell for sure, I am very excited about our 2005 line up. As I should be, if a winemaker cannot get excited about the current vintage he has no right to ask anyone to try it! So good news, I am excited! 2005 has turned out to be a vintage of good ripeness with very good acidity and alcohol levels where they should be. I know some of you reading this were turned down for our 2004 wines because we ran out, but be of good cheer, we made more wine in 2005 so I hope we have enough for everybody!
2005 "American Beauty" Amber Ridge Darien Vineyard Russian River Valley
Medium ruby color, nose of earth and red fruit, nice attack with dark cherry and a little cranberry, solid mid palate with typical red raspberry, a touch of cola with cinnamon. I am very excited about this years model as the fruit achieved very nice ripeness without excessive sugars and with very bright refreshing acidity. This is a mixture of 115, 667 and 777 clones. This wine finished MLF with a TA of .62, a pH of 3.5+ and abv of right at 14%. Some barrels a bit above, some a bit below. Most of our pinot this year will be about 14% abv and not much more, if at all. We use RC212 yeast and concomitant MLF for "American Beauty".
2005 "Dandy" Brosseau Vineyard Chalone
Dark ruby, earthy nose with some pinot stink and dark fruit, black raspberry and minerals, this wine has good mouth feel and good structure without being too tannic. We pressed slightly sweet this year to get the juice off the skins to avoid excess extraction. 100% destemmed and 50% whole berry, 50% new French oak. Assmanhausen yeast and MLF in barrel is just the thing for "Dandy".
2005 "Rebel" Rancho Ontiveros Santa Maria Valley
Nice dark ruby purple, dark spice nose with earth and dark fruit. A mix of 1A, 2A, Swan clone and Sanford & Benedict clones, this version of the Rebel is showing well early and will be a popular example of wine made from this vineyard in my not so unbiased opinion. Native yeast fermentation and MLF in the barrel are the practice here as well.
2005 "Sojourn" Las Madres Vineyard Syrah Carneros Napa Valley
Our 2005 Sojourn is dark as night with a wonderful cool climate syrah nose of blood and stone, dark berry and plum. This years model contains about 5% whole cluster Petite Sirah and 40% whole cluster fruit from Las Madres. More structure is apparent in the 2005 as you would expect from the Petite and the whole cluster. Like last year "Sojourn" has wonderful depth of fruit and a lush palate feel.
And Introducing!!!!...........
2005 "Savage Juliet" Hein Vineyard Anderson Valley
A new vineyard source for us, probably a vineyard you may be familiar with. Certainly Hein is a long time favorite of mine. A mix of Dijon and Pommard clones, this wine is dark ruby and with dark berry and spice showing now. "Savage Juliet" will also receive 50% new French oak treatment and after native yeast fermentation we did MLF in barrel.
2005 "White Hawk" Syrah Santa Barbara
Another new vineyard source for us, this wine is dark purple and smells like meaty white pepper and blackberry with olive and earth. Dense fruit, well structured and showing good length, vibrant acidity and ripe tannins will help this wine age for awhile I think. We did not use much whole cluster but did use 40% whole berry for this version of wine from a favorite vineyard. Stay tuned for our use of this juice!
Some of you may have noticed we are not offering "Anticipation" from Alder Springs for 2005. It is not because we don't love that vineyard site (I am sipping some 2004 right now) but rather that yields were so low we were unable to source our fruit. Maybe next year!
There you have it!Ê My first impressions of our vino for 2005 let me emphasize once more that these wines just finished MLF so it is really early in their development so cautious optimism is the rule. But I am very happy so far, I hope you will be too.
As always, Health Grace and Peace, to you and yours,
Dain
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