ecent News
ecent News
In the last newsletter I mentioned that we were anxiously waiting for the Valenti Ranch Zin to get ripe so we could wrap up the harvest. Finally they were picked on October 25, and came into the winery looking a little worse for the wear. Claudia, Alex and I spent hours sorting through the fruit to cull out anything that didn't meet our standards. By the end we had thrown out about 20% of the grapes, and I was a little dubious about the prospects. Everything else we had crushed last fall had arrived in excellent condition so it was disheartening to see it possibly end up on a down note. However despite this rough start, it has developed into a very promising wine. The black pepper characteristic of this clone of Zinfandel is a little more pronounced this year, and the fruit has also blossomed. So at this point I can report that we are excited about everything in the cellar.
Any of you who have done a lot of barrel tasting know that Pinot Noir can take a long time to develop and isn't always enjoyable to taste early. On the contrary, Zinfandel delights the palate at every stage of its development. This year I am making extra trips to the cellar because we have five Zinfandels from different vineyards to sample. Add to that the 2 Petite Sirah lots we made and I'm in heaven! As usual some of the Petite Sirah will be used for blending in the Zinfandel. I usually find that 3 to 5 per cent Petite can both enhance and complement Zinfandel's flavor. Since our Zinfandels are vineyard designated, 95% of the grapes have to come from that vineyard, leaving only 5% blending from another vineyard. However if the blending wine or wines (Petite Sirah in this case) are from the same vineyard, up to 25% of the blend could be Petite Sirah, far more than I feel is desirable. In any case we will be bottling a 100% Petite Sirah this vintage as we crushed a total of 3.5 ton, which, by the way, tastes great. Later in the spring we will enjoy similar tastings as the Pinot Noir lots begin to evolve.
So what else do we do in the winter besides looking out the window at the rain? Well, a lot! The tasting I mentioned above is fun, but the serious tasting is with the 2006 red wines which are still in the barrel. We give our wines 16-17 months in the barrel before bottling, rather than the 10-12 months of most other wineries, as barrel aging brings about desirable changes that bottle aging alone can't. Since we will start bottling in February, we have already had a number of serious tastings to evaluate the wines and the potential blends. Because we have 6 Zinfandel lots and 2 Petite Sirahs from 2006, that takes a lot of tasting. Tough job, but someone has to do it! Over the next month we will be moving wines out of barrels, blending, washing empty barrels and filtering if necessary. Bottles, labels and corks have to be ordered and a schedule developed. Due to very limited space we can do only a small lot, move that wine to an offsite warehouse and set up for the next lot. All this has to be done between rainstorms as much of the work is done outside!
Luckily we don't have much to do in the vineyard. We have a vineyard manager who supplies a crew to do the pruning, a long and tedious process that we couldn't do alone. However what they don't do is the dreaded frost watch! Beginning about the middle of February the vines start to bud out and are susceptible to frost. We have a remote sensor with an alarm by our bed, so I get to look forward to spending more than a few nights in the vineyard waiting for the temperature drop requiring the overhead sprinklers. That is undoubtedly my least favorite task of the winter.
Marketing continues in the winter too, and that is our other least favorite thing. Small wineries are always on a yo-yo when it comes to the wine market. When the economy turns, the wine business suffers and distributors and brokers, often under pressure from the giant wineries, drop the small ones. We had given up on the bay area market after a number of these ups and downs. Then about 1 1/2 years ago a young woman, Cynthia McMillan, came into our tasting room, tasted our wines and announced she would like to represent us in the bay area. She explained she was working for a large wine broker but wanted to go into business on her own. We figured we had nothing to lose so we agreed. From that time on she built up our sales and placed us in many of the best restaurants and wine shops in the bay area, including Napa and Sonoma counties. We were ecstatic about her work and looking forward to continued growth. Unfortunately Cynthia found the business required much more time and energy than she could handle alone, and the rewards were not up to the effort she was making. So, she quit and went back to work for someone else, leaving us, we thought, on the discard heap again. Not so. Cynthia contacted another broker, Springboard Wines, to recommend us. We met with them, poured our wines and they immediately said they would like to represent us. They commented on the value for price in our wines that is hard to find in today's market. They have a larger staff and we feel the ability to do even more for us. So this downswing on the yo-yo was a short one. Keep your eye out for our wines!
I have always been stubborn about my projects - doing everything ourselves (Claudia and I) and this has worked for many years. However we are getting older, and after a few mishaps, like falling off my truck, then off my roof, we decided maybe we should get some help! Alex Crangle started with us last summer and shares his experience below. I am sure he would have been this complimentary even if I wasn't paying him!
Well this has been an experience. My time at Claudia Springs began last June when I spent my first week walking every row of the vineyard in sweltering summer heat checking every drip irrigation emitter for a clean, continuous drip. Ironically, keeping myself hydrated was the greatest challenge in those first days. But soon, with the seasonal unpleasantness out of the way, Bob and I got down to the exciting work of re-siding the winery (aka: Bob and Claudia's house) and getting all the wine equipment ready for the approaching harvest.
Before I knew it, my wrists were aching from pressure washing at odd angles and scrubbing the nooks and crannies of the crusher/destemer. I cleaned a lot this year; got sprayed with icy cold water, steaming hot water and covered head to toe with the purple yeasty wine slurry that lives at the bottom of every tank. Bob kept the camera on the cellar desk for just such moments.
This was my second grape harvest, and the first by-far with so much hands-on cellar work. Despite my experiences in the brewing of beer, this harvest proved to be wholly new and with far more differences than similarities. It is, though, the passions that surround this kind of work that keep me engaged and excited to be part of an ancient art. I feel as though I could do this for the rest of my life and never run out of things to learn and explore. That, for now, I chidingly blame on Bob and his abilities as a wine maker and as a humble wine guru. In the cloud of misinformation and disagreement that exists in the wine industry, Bob and Claudia maintain a clear vision of quality, exploration, and accessibility - Premium quality wines, new wines, and affordable wines.
I am very proud to have been part of the 2007 harvest and (though I can't believe I'm writing it) I look forward to getting back out into the vineyard this spring to make sure the drip emitters are dripping clean and consistent, because that's where this amazing wine begins and it couldn't be done any other way. See you next year.
Prost!
- Alex, Winter '08
91% of this wine is from the Anderson Valley, primarily the Klindt Vineyard at the cool end of the valley. The balance of the wine is from the Wilder Creek Vineyard in Santa Cruz County. Because we had a big harvest in 2004 and 2006 but a small one in 2005, we decided to bottle a Mendocino Pinot Noir with some grapes other than our Estate's in it and sell it at a lower price. Big mistake - this wine is really good. So, we will keep it at the $20 price for club members until the end of February 15 at which time we will raise the price to $24 (minus your 20% discount of course). It will be released in our tasting room next week at the $24 price. This is a well structured wine with aromas of vanilla, earth and black fruits. This full bodied wine has flavors of black cherry, cola, licorice and earth. The finish is long and rewarding.
| Cases produced: 295 | Retail: $24 | |
| pH 3.59 | TA .57 | Alcohol 14.6 |
| Silver 2007 - Mendocino County Fair Wine Competition | ||
The Ricetti Bench is arguably the most famous Zinfandel growing area of Mendocino County. It is one of the vineyards that helped make Fetzer famous in the 80's when they were making vineyard designated wines. Part of this bench top is now owned by Fife Vineyards, but John Ricetti owns a small parcel. John, still young in his 90's, cares for this one acre vineyard himself. This is a full bodied wine with white pepper, dark chocolate, plum and blackberry fruit. Not to be missed.
| Cases produced: 165 | Retail: $24 | Club Price: $19.20 |
| pH 3.75 | TA .57 | Alcohol 15.9 |
| Bronze Medal 2008 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition | ||
| Cases produced: 165 | Retail: $26 | Club Price: $20.80 |
| pH 3.65 | TA .59 | Alcohol 15.8 |
| Gold 2008 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition | ||
This has been one of our favorites since 1996. Initially the owners, John and Dorothy Vassar, advised us that all their grapes were under contract so none were available. After shameless begging and promising to put their name on the label, John said, "Be here Thursday at 6:00 AM and we will load a couple ton on your truck. Just be out of here before their winemaker arrives." We've been begging for their grapes ever since. This vineyard of about 25 acres was planted one block at a time beginning in the 70's. After tasting grapes from all the blocks we settled on one that turned out to be the very first they planted, using bud wood from some old vines on the property rather than nursery stock. The Vassar's have reserved that special block of unique Zinfandel for our exclusive use. In its youth this is our most dense and structured wine. With age it reveals its true nature of plum, dried cherry, coffee and spice. It is just reaching that stage now.
Once again we would like to reward our club members with a special sale. Through the end of February, as long as the supply lasts, we would like to offer you wholesale prices (30% off) on five of our current wines for orders of 6 bottles or more. The orders may be mixed. These prices are available only to club members either direct from the winery (800) 734-2160 or through the tasting room (707) 895-3993.
| 2005 Lolonis Viognier | retail $18 | special $12.60 |
| Silver Medal 2007 Grand Harvest Awards | ||
| 2006 Estate Pinot Gris | retail $17 | special $11.90 |
| Silver Medal 2008 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition | ||
| 2004 Steve Ricetti Zinfandel | retail $24 | special $16.80 |
| 3 Silver Medals | ||
| 2004 Ulysses Lolonis Zinfandel | retail $24 | special $16.80 |
| 2 Silver Medals | ||
| 2006 Rose´ of Pinot Noir | retail $15 | special $10.50 |
| 2006 Lolonis Viognier | retail $18 | club $14.40 |
| 2004 Pinot Noir, Klindt Vnyd | retail $28 | club $22.40 |
| 2004 Valenti Ranch Zinfandel | retail $28 | club $22.40 |
No, I'm not talking about this newsletter, I'm talking about the 2007 harvest. As usual we made a couple last minute purchases, including a new source for Zinfandel and Petite Sirah, the Brown Vineyard. So do we call this Brown Zinfandel? We have already brought in grapes from the usual suspects—Vassar, John Ricetti, Alden Vineyards and of course, Klindt Vineyards. The Valenti Ranch grapes are still hanging and somewhat in doubt. They have a ways to go to get ripe and the rains have started a bit early this year. Let's hope for a week or two of at least some sunshine. The positive note is that the grapes all look great and should make super wines. The downside is that the crop levels are down about 30%, so our production is likewise reduced.
We regret to report that we have decided not to continue with one of our wines, the Lolonis Viognier. This has been a great wine for us that we enjoyed immensely, and we know you have too. Our fist vintage in 2000 scored 93 points in the Wine Enthusiast, and in 2004 and 2006, (the latest vintage, included in this shipment) the wine earned "Best of North Coast Region" at the California State Fair. Claudia and I tasted the 2004, 2005 and 2006 together last week and were delighted at how well the wines have held up with aging and how consistent they are.
Even though the critics and restaurant buyers love this wine, the feed back is that restaurant customers just don't order Viognier, so few restaurants are willing to carry it. As a result we still have some of the 2005 left and are just releasing the 2006. So get it while you can.
In August Claudia, my brothers and sister and I attended a cousin's family reunion in Nebraska. While in the area we decided to visit the home of our maternal grandparents in Loveland, Colorado. In the 50's our grandfather had taken an old orchard and developed it into an attractive development of fine homes on very large lots. The focal point of the development was the original, grand brick house that our grandparents lived in, with its large open front porch, expansive beautiful lawns and rock wall border. Our grandparents were teetotalers, serious about life and devout members of the Methodist Church (despite those potential hazards, they were a joy to be around.)
On the first pass down the highway we couldn't locate the house, so we headed into some back streets which consisted of poor pavement, and run down houses crowded together. When we rounded a corner we recognized the back of the garage, and realized that all the open spaces in the development had been filled in with more houses of a not so grand scale. The shocker was the main house. First of all it was not as big as it seemed in our childhood. The one remaining "lawn" was a divided up mosaic of red and white gravel. The front porch had been closed in, and in the window was a neon sign proclaiming "Psychic Reader". There was also a large sign on the edge of the property advertising this business. Our grandparents must have turned over in their graves many times over this transformation of their dream. We wandered around the property, took pictures and ran atop the rock wall. We wondered why no one came out to chase us away, but finally we realized that, duh, they are psychic readers and knew why we were there!
Oh yeah, I have to tie this into wine. That night we had a leisurely and exquisitely prepared meal at a hotel in Denver. And we tried Colorado wines with the meal. The Merlot was good, but the Cabernet was excellent. I guess this is one of the things that make life worthwhile—enjoying good food and good wine with family or friends.
Nebraska wine. We tried that too. The first part of the trip was a reunion of the 14 Klindt cousins and their spouses in the paternal grandparents home town of Big Springs, Nebraska. The town population is 400, and we kind of took over for a few days. A great time was had by all, much food and wine (and a few other libations) were consumed and memories shared. I had to quit complaining about the difficulty of operating a 10 acre vineyard when two of my cousins related they were farming wheat on 7,000 acres by themselves! Of course we went and stared at the grandparents old home which has held up pretty well. We were without one cousin who passed away last year. His droll sense of humor was missed. He was a psychologist working in a veterans hospital who loved to greet new employees wearing his aluminum foil hat which, he informed them, "keeps the aliens away."
For you sports fans, I have a wine tie in for you too. Cousin Mike played basketball for the Air Force Academy in the 60's, and his teammate was Greg Popovich, coach of the world champion San Antonio Spurs, and a wine connoisseur who has been on the cover of Wine Enthusiast. Mike arranged for a case of Claudia Springs wine to be sent to his friend. Oh, by the way, the Nebraska wine kinda sucked!
In August we also attended a gathering of Claudia's family at a beach hotel in Half Moon Bay. The occasion was her parents' 60th wedding anniversary. It was a joy to see two people who have spent 60 years together still enjoying each other's company as they walked along the beach. We had a fine dinner attended by family members from 4 to 82 years old. The wine tie in? The hotel had a complementary wine tasting every evening. The other hotel guests were delighted when we brought out Claudia Springs wines so they wouldn't have to drink the inexpensive plonk they were being offered.
Maybe I should have titled this newsletter "My Summer Vacation".
It not only grew up, it got too big. For the first time, Harmonique wines are not being made at Claudia Springs Winery. The brand has grown to the point that we don't have the room here, not to mention Claudia and my diminishing stamina to process 78 ton of grapes! Our goal is always to make the best wines possible, and to do that we had to accept our limitations. This fall the wine is being made at another winery, but under my direction as consulting winemaker, so the wines themselves will not change. Our partners in Harmonique, Bruce and Moira Conzelman, purchased the old Christine Woods property and have been enhancing the vineyard. By 2009 they hope to be up and running with Harmonique in a new winemaking facility there. The 2004 Delicacè and Noble One both once again won Gold medals at the International Pinot Noir Competition in Austria this summer.
Those of you who have visited our tasting room lately may have met our new staff—Alex Crangle, Joel Paschal and Monika Fuchs, all very friendly and knowledgable. Alex and Joel have been working with me at the winery which has been a great relief for Claudia and me. Alex has a brewery degree from Germany and Alex has a degree in environmental sciences. Between them they ask a lot of technical questions that I have to fake my way through since my degree is in economics and political science! The best thing is they are head bangers that keep the music cranked up on the speakers in the winery. They even found stuff in my outdated collection that they like. Hendrix anyone?
In 2006 the grapes were whole cluster pressed, then moved to a stainless steel tank where the juice was fermented at 50 degrees in order to retain the fruit and esters of the grape. After 2 months, when fermentation was nearly complete, the wine was transferred to seasoned oak barrels. A floral bouquet of peach, apricot and honey follows through in the intense flavors. A touch of earthiness from the Redwood Valley terroir and a viscous mouth feel round out the wine. Just a touch sweeter than the last vintage.
| Cases produced: 200 | Retail: $18 | Club Price: $14.40 |
| pH 3.50 | TA .59 | Alcohol 14.9 |
| Best of North Coast Region — 2007 California State Fair | ||
The Valenti Ranch is our first Mendocino Ridge wine. The Zinfandel clone selected for this vineyard was the Deaver clone, propagated from a famous vineyard in the Sierra Foothills. Grown in this appellation, the resulting wine shows some of the foothills black pepper character, but with higher acid to provide better balance. The pepper is overshadowed by red fruit flavors of raspberry and completed with hints of cherry, dark chocolate and a touch of oak. A Zinfandel of power and finesse!
| Cases produced: 300 | Retail: $28 | Club Price: $22.40 |
| pH 3.50 | TA .68 | Alcohol 16.1 |
|
Gold Medal — 2007 California Zinfandel Championships One of only eight Gold Medals awarded |
||
| Gold Medal — 2007 North of the Gate Wine Competition | ||
Most years we purchase a bit of Petite Sirah for blending with the Zinfandels. Occasionally, if we have enough, and the quality justifies it, we bottle a 100% Petite Sirah. I think our last Petite Sirah was in 1999. This one is a blend of grapes from two of our favorite vineyards in Redwood Valley — Vassar and Rhodes. It has a spicy, black fruit nose that delivers blackberry and cassis on the palate. Its medium body and integrated tannins make it a wine that can be enjoyed now or allowed to age.
| Cases produced: 55 | Retail: $26 | Club Price: $20.80 |
| pH 3.69 | TA .58 | Alcohol 14.3 |
February 9-10, 2008 is the date of the third annual Alsace Varietals celebration in Anderson Valley. Wineries from around the world will participate in this annual festival celebrating Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and other noble Alsace varietals. Go to www.avwines.com for details and reservations.
Once again we would like to reward our club members with a special sale. Through the end of November, as long as the supply lasts, we would like to offer you wholesale prices (30% off) on five of our current wines for orders of 6 bottles or more. The orders may be mixed. These prices are available only to club members either direct from the winery (800) 734-2160 or through the tasting room (707) 895-3993. The tasting room is open Friday through Sunday.
| 2005 Lolonis Viognier | retail $18 | special $12.60 |
| Silver Medal 2007 Grand Harvest Awards | ||
| 2006 Estate Pinot Gris | retail $17 | special $11.90 |
| Silver Medal 2007 San Francisco International | ||
| 2004 Steve Ricetti Zinfandel | retail $24 | special $16.80 |
| Silver Medal 2007 Grand harvest Awards | ||
| Silver Medal 2007 San Francisco Chronicle Competition | ||
| Silver Medal 2007 National Women's Wine Competition | ||
| 2006 Rosè of Pinot Noir | retail $15 | special $10.50 |
| 2004 Ulysses Lolonis Zinfandel | retail $24 | special $16.80 |
| Silver Medal 2007 National Women's Wine Competition | ||
| 2004 Pinot Noir, Klindt Vnyd | retail $28 | club $22.40 |
| Gold Medal 2007 Grand Harvest Awards | ||
| Silver Medal 2007 Pacific Rim International | ||
Officially I guess summer doesn't start until June 21, but I feel like it has been here for a while already. So we are getting our summer shipment out early (besides, we already sent a spring shipment.) Shipping in the summer can be risky as a long day in a hot UPS truck is not a wine's best friend. We are making an effort to get this one out before those 100 degree days arrive.
It has definitely been summer. Like the rest of California we are suffering through a very dry year. Last year the rains acted as if they would never quit and I hated that, but this may be worse as we all try to conserve the water that is available to us. The grapes are happy though as there were no rains to stimulate nasty molds and mildew in the vineyard. The vines are growing, the clusters have formed, and there is just the beginning of the flowering. This morning I took a weekly walk in the vineyard with our vineyard consultant. With the demands of the winery we need this extra oversight to be sure we are producing the best fruit possible. I am learning the wonderful world of vineyard pests-thrips, whiteflies, mites, phomopsis, leafhoppers and a myriad of other things to worry about. It does feel good to walk the land and admire the wonders of nature.
Flowering in a vineyard is rather underwhelming. You have to look really closely at the tiny clusters to see the flowers, which are about 1/16 inch long at best, and pretty boring to boot. I suppose since grapes are self pollinating, they have no need to attract bees, hummingbirds or butterflies. We will probably have to start irrigating earlier this year, but our pond is full enough that it should last the season.
Claudia and I are happy too. Any of you who have been to the winery remember how tight for space we are. Much of the work is done under the carport in the winter to avoid the rain. There isn't enough room to set up stacks of empty bottles, the bottling wine, and the pallets for the bottled wine. As a result we often have to put off some of the bottling until spring or even summer when the weather cooperates. This year we got all the bottling done for the year when we finished the last Zinfandel in early May. We had visions of relaxation, lower stress and even a vacation of 2 or 3 weeks. Of course that sounded too easy, so instead we decided to do some remodeling on the house which we have put off for 18 years. Maybe next year we will get that vacation!
Anderson Valley's annual Pinot Noir Festival was held May 18-20 and it couldn't have been better. The Grand Tasting was held at Goldeneye this year in a 6,000 square foot tent with an open lawn area in the middle. Lots of room, great food and of course, fabulous wine were enjoyed by all. There were 35 wineries from Anderson Valley and beyond serving only Pinot Noir from Anderson Valley grapes. Man do we do good here! All events were sold out, including 750 people for the Grand Tasting. Get your tickets early next year as we will continue to limit attendance to an enjoyable level.
It is warm weather, and to help you enjoy it we have included two light crisp wines to refresh you in the hot times-the 2006 Klindt Vineyard Pinot Gris and the 2006 Klindt Vineyard Rose‘ of Pinot Noir. However to go with that barbequed lamb, steak or even burgers, we have released our 2004 Klindt Vineyard Pinot Noir. WOW, I think this is our first ever all Klindt Vineyard shipment.
As we mentioned in the last newsletter, we had a larger crop than usual last year-nearly 8 ton. We took the grapes to Handley Cellars to whole cluster press and cold settle the juice before returning it to the winery for fermentation. Whole cluster pressing results in more delicate, aromatic white wines because there is less extraction of phenolics from the skins that can make the wines bitter or astringent. It takes a good press to do this right. We fermented at 50 degrees to retain the freshness and bouquet. As usual at this temperature it was February before the fermentation was complete. The wine has aromas of white peach and tropical fruits. In the mouth the flavors of pear and peach predominate with a hint of pineapple, all wrapped with a viscose mouth feel. The finish has a bit of earth and a lingering impression of hazelnuts. Altogether this is one of the more complex Pinot Gris we have produced.
| Cases produced: 425 | Retail: $17 | Club Price: $13.60 | |
| pH 3.59 | TA .57 | Alcohol 14.6 | RS .37 |
Sometimes you have to do something just because you like it, not because it's smart! Why else would we take $3,200/ton grapes and make a Rose‘ that sells for $15? That's just what we did. We picked the grapes for this wine a little earlier to keep the alcohol down and the acid up. The grapes were de-stemmed and allowed to soak on the skins for 24 hours before pressing. Our press doesn't work well on unfermented grapes so we only got about 120 gallons to the ton instead of 150 as we do for the red Pinot Noir. Since the amount was small the wine was fermented in neutral barrels rather than stainless steel. The advantage of this is that it gives a nice supple mouth feel to the wine. As it fermented we topped the barrels with small amounts of saņee, the wine ``bled'' off fermenting red grapes early to concentrate the color and flavor. (I can't remember how to spell saņee and I can't find any books with the correct one!) Finally just before bottling we added 3% Viognier to supplement the aromatics. The result is a fruity, crisp wine with enough structure to hold up well with a variety of foods.
| Cases produced: 78 | Retail: $15 | Club Price: $12 | |
| pH 3.65 | TA .6 | Alcohol 14.1 | RS .1 |
Before I wrote this I re-read the newsletter from Winter, 2005 in which I described the 2004 harvest. What a crazy frantic harvest it was. A heat spike in September pushed the grapes to ripeness early, and everyone in the valley was scrambling to get the fruit in. With persistence and a little bribery of the picking crew, we got the job done. Claudia and I were nearly overwhelmed with the task of destemming, punching down, pressing and barreling all this wine at in a short time (we even had Zinfandel coming in at the same time). That year I decided to do a trial on some of the wine by doing some whole cluster fermentation-About 10-15% of the grapes were placed intact into the bottom of the fermenters, and the rest de-stemmed on top. The idea is to get more bright fruit flavors from the carbonic maceration of the uncrushed grapes as well as a hint of spiciness from the stems. The rewards of that harvest are abundant in this bottle of wine.
The aromas of black cherry and blackberry carry through into the mid palate. Black fruit, spice and licorice complete the flavors and the finish is long and silky. This may be our best one yet!
| Cases produced: 300 | Retail: $28 | Club Price: $22.40 | |
| pH 3.79 | TA .57 | Alcohol 14.7 | RS .2 |
| Gold Medal — 2007 Grand Harvest Awards | |||
| Silver Medal — 2007 Pacific Rim International | |||
We won't send another shipment until the fall, hopefully in September. You probably won't here from us until then as I only write newsletters under extreme duress (``Hey Bob, we can't get out the shipment until you write the newsletter''). As we said above, it is a little risky to send so many wines to so many different states that we want to wait until it is cool everywhere to ship. However we will still ship orders from you but we will keep an eye on the weather before we do so. Since we are running low on Zinfandel, we may have to release the 2005 Zinfandels from Vassar, John Ricetti and Valenti Ranch in the tasting room before we get them out to the club. Check with us this summer if you want to order a preview of your next Zin Pack.
Once again we would like to reward our club members with a special sale. Through the end of June, as long as the supply lasts, we would like to offer you wholesale prices (30% off) on two of our current wines for orders of 6 bottles or more. The orders may be mixed. These prices are available only to club members either direct from the winery (800) 734-2160 or through the tasting room (707) 895-3993. The tasting room is open Friday through Sunday.
| 2003 Klindt Vineyard Pinot Noir | retail $24 | special $16.80 |
| 90 Points — Wine Enthusiast | ||
| 90 Points — Wine and Spirits Magazine | ||
| Wine of the Week — Santa Rosa Press Democrat (Sonoma County) | ||
| This is a great wine and fortunately we made a lot of it that year. However the supply is dwindling. | ||
| 2005 Lolonis Viognier | retail $18 | special $12.60 |
| Silver Medal — 2007 Grand Harvest Awards | ||
| 2005 Estate Pinot Gris | retail $17 | club $13.60 |
| Selected for the James Beard Foundation Dinner in New York City in October, 2006. | ||
| Less than 10 cases left | ||
| 2004 John Ricetti Zinfandel | retail $24 | club $19.20 |
| Gold Medal — 2007 Grand Harvest Awards | ||
| Gold Medal — 2007 West Coast Wine Competition | ||
| Gold Medal — 2007 Pacific Rim International | ||
| This vineyard is just one acre, so we buy all the fruit. John is in his 80's now, and this planting is the pride of his life. | ||
| Less than 20 cases left | ||
| 2004 Steve Ricetti Zinfandel | retail $24 | club $19.20 |
| Silver Medal — 2007 Grand harvest Awards | ||
| Silver Medal — 2007 San Francisco Chronicle Competition | ||
| Silver Medal — 2007 National Women's Wine Competition | ||
| 2004 Ulysses Lolonis Zinfandel | retail $24 | club $19.20 |
| Silver Medal — 2007 National Women's Wine Competition | ||
By the time you get this it will officially be spring. And the weather has reinforced this. We have had beautiful warm weather that made us forget all about the cold winter nights we had not so long ago. Claudia and I even ran away from the winery for a few days to enjoy it. People often ask us what we do in the winter because all the wine work is done. Well, as you know, we like to age our wines a little longer than many wineries. That means in January we are preparing wines for bottling that we will do in February and March. By the first week in March this year we had bottled our ‘06 white wines, an ‘05 Pinot Noir and three Harmonique Pinot Noirs. At one time we had seven tanks full of wine, barrels stacked around the grounds, and a bottling line set up in the lower winery (a grandiose name for our garage converted to winery). We still have three ‘05 Zinfandels to bottle but we are taking a break because all the work exhausted us (and our bank account). So, for our break we are working on this club shipment. Fun.
A lot of people feel that white wines are just something to pass the time waiting for the real wines-the reds-to get ready. Anyone who has spent time around a winery knows that it is much harder to make a good white wine than a good red one. Why? Well to start with the red wines spend about two weeks fermenting on the skins which provide the color, tannins and all the big flavors one expects. Then it spends up to eighteen months in oak which imparts vanilla and new oak flavors. With white wines, especially the aromatic varieties showcased at the recent Anderson Valley International Alsace Varietal Wine Festival, you get fermented juice and nothing else (except those big oaky, ML‘ed Chardonnays).
At Claudia Springs we ferment our Pinot Gris and Viognier in stainless steel at about 50 degrees in order to retain the fruitiness and freshness we desire. This cold process also preserves the natural acidity by preventing malo-lactic fermentation. This method is a little risky because the yeast is working in such a hostile environment that it some times decides to stop, and must be restarted again, a difficult process. After two or three months when the wines are nearly dry, we transfer the Viognier and a portion of the Pinot Gris to neutral oak barrels (barrels that are at least three years old so they won‘t impart an oaky character). In the barrels the wines warm up and they must be monitored carefully so that they won‘t go through ML. Occasionally a small amount of an enzyme made from egg whites, called lysozyme, is added to retard the growth of these bacteria. The neutral barrels contribute mouth feel and roundness. To augment this, the lees in both the barrels and the tank are stirred regularly to contribute a creamy texture to the wine. Finally when it is time to bottle, the wines are filtered. Sterile filtering is necessary to insure stability by removing all bacteria and yeast. Our whites contain about .3% residual sugar which is technically below the threshold of taste but which bring out the fruitiness of the grape and balance the acidity. The yeast could ferment even this small amount of sugar in the bottle if not removed. Some wineries actually add a relatively large amount of lysozyme to inhibit the bacteria and the yeast but this is a chancy practice and we feel it is detrimental to the finished wine.
This year we did things a little different. We normally hand bottle all our wines, and every year we cross our fingers as it is difficult to insure the complete sterility of all the bottling equipment. (Well made red wines are usually stabile with little or even no filtering.) So far we have been lucky. Well, okay, there were those 40 cases of ‘97 late harvest Viognier in 350 ml bottles that blew up in some people‘s cellars, but we won‘t go into that. Because we had over 1,000 gallons of Pinot Gris from ‘06, we felt this was too much of an investment to risk, so we arranged to use a mobile bottling line when it was at Handley Cellars this March. It was a lot of work to prepare and move the white and rosé wines to Handley, but it was worth it. It took about 4 hours time on the mobile line to bottle all the wine, about 950 cases, and it was labeled, capsuled and in the box ready to sell. Claudia and I normally spend weeks hand labeling the wine at some point after bottling at our winery. We would like to do all of our wines this way, but we haven‘t found a mobile line that can get into the tight space of our facility.
Bottling at Handley had an odd consequence. Federal law requires that the facility that bottles a wine must obtain the label approval for that wine. Since that facility does only the bottling, they must put "bottled by" on the label. As a result some of our wines will have "bottled by" rather than "produced and bottled by" Claudia Springs Winery, even though we did every thing but bottle the wine. Labels from some other wineries may have "made and bottled by" or "cellared by" instead. I don‘t remember what all the terms mean other than some or all of the process was done by a different winery. Really helpful to the consumers, huh?
We started out the year well. So far we have received the results of two competitions, the San Francisco Chronicle competition and the Grand Harvest Awards in Sonoma. Golds were earned by the ‘04 Estate Pinot Noir and the ‘04 John Ricetti Zinfandel, and silvers were garnered by the ‘04 Steve Ricetti Zinfandel, ‘04 Ulysses Lolonis Zinfandel and ‘05 Lolonis Viognier. We expect to pile up a lot more by the time of the next news letter.
As you know, Claudia and I are partners with our friends, Bruce and Moira Conzelman, in the Harmonique label of Pinot Noir. Recently Bruce purchased the Christine Woods Winery, a great property with a beautiful setting, highway frontage and about twenty four acres of grapes. Bruce hired a consultant and immediately began upgrading the vineyards. Expect even better things from this winery in the future. You can find out more about the wines at www.harmoniquewine.com. This wine is available to taste and purchase at our tasting room in Anderson Valley.
Please remember that the wines listed above, as with all our wines, can be ordered by calling the winery. Unfortunately, like other wineries, we may be unable to ship to some states. If you have a question about your state, please call.
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