Dry Creek Valley Wines

The word terroir may seem a bit pretentious to some. This may be because of it’s perceived affected “Frenchy” pronunciation or because initially the only people who talked about terroir were in the wine industry or were wine snobs showing off their substantial knowledge of all things wine related.

However, there is something to say about the terroir of each different appellation and even further, of each individual vineyard. In the past years, many different appellations have been classified in California due their unique terroir, which proves that their soil, weather, conditions, etc are different enough from their neighbors to warrant their very own growing region. While this makes it harder and harder for the general public to figure out a wine bottle-it also speaks for some of the different qualities we find in wines from these areas.

As far as I’m concerned-I don’t NEED to know about the terroir of a vineyard where the grapes were grown for the wines I drink most nights at home. But I do WANT to know.  And if I were attending a wine tasting for a certain region or country, I might want to delve a little deeper and get to know exactly what differences in ‘nature’ (think nature vs. nurture) were present for these wines before they became, well….. wines. How much does the nature vs the nurture (winemaking procedures, oaking, ageing, etc) differentiate these wines when they are the final product?

I can taste the difference in a wine that has been French Oaked vs. American oaked. I can taste the difference in high alcohol/low alcohol and sugar content. But-can I taste the difference in how the grapes were grown?
At Michel-Schlumberger we think: Yes. Terroir definitely plays a major role in our wines quality and it’s taste once in the bottle. In fact, we have quite our own little unique terroir on the estate. There are so many variations in our 100 acre vineyard sites. Some places are a little cooler or warmer, some are a higher elevation or different soil or mineral content in the soil…….. How do we choose where to grow what, and what effects are we looking for in the wine when we make these choices?

We’ll have more information on this in the next blogs…in the meantime, what are your thoughts?  Is the concept of terroir relevant or unimportant?

It’s a jungle out there.  At least that’s what it sounded like last week when I went out to the garden after work to score some delectables for supper.  The oak tree was filled with all sorts of birds, hopping from branch to branch, and of all them chirp, chirp, chirping up a storm.  The abundance and variety was simply amazing.  We’ve always been blessed with plenty of birds here on the edge of the wilds but this was really extra crazy.

The sight (and sound), I suppose, shouldn’t have been so surprising to me.  As I wrote in a previous post about birds at Michel-Schlumberger, it makes perfect sense that if you increase the amount and quality of food, water and shelter for any organism the population will readily respond.

Which leads me to the topic of this week’s post.  Kate Frey, a good friend and serious expert on plants and bugs and bees is designing a series of brand-spanking new gardens on the estate.  With harvest 2008 slowly creeping to an end it’s time to get some serious planting done before the big Fall rains hit (you didn’t think we all took a nice big vacation after Crush, did you?).

The plantings will be fairly extensive but the highlights include a honeybee garden (Kate also designed the amazing Melissa Garden in the Russian River Valley), a beneficial/pollinator garden to provide blooming flowers and habitat all season long, and a small native grassland to give folks an idea of what was growing here before all the exotics arrived.

There’s still a ton of work to do but I’ll try to post updates and photos as we go.  Once we finish rolling out this red carpet for our buddies the bugs and bees I expect a nice, deep baritone buzz to accompany our chirpy serenade.  The fun never ends…

One of the many things I do here each day is taste our wines.  Most of the time, it’s simply to check for any off aromas or flavors before pouring them for our guests.  But other times, I sit down and actively taste.  This process is more cerebral and I try to do it alone and in a quiet place where I can concentrate. 

As part of an ongoing series, I invite those of you who’ve had this wine recently to add your own tasting notes in the comment section below.

The name Deux Terres originates from the French meaning two lands or two soils and it’s appropriate for this wine because it unites our two ranches at Michel Schlumberger.  We take the two best blocks of Cabernet Sauvignon from the lower ranch and the best block of CS from the Upper Ranch on Bradford Mountain.  Keeping the wine from these blocks separate while aging allows Mike to pick the best barrels from each and then find the perferct blend.  In 2002, there is a dash of Malbec from a neighboring block.  

Color
Deep purple at the center with darker tones of falu red along with edge of the glass

Aroma
As I typed the intro to this post, I could smell wine a foot away from my computer. An intense bouquet of violets and cherry eminated from the glass and now fills the room.  Everytime I smell this wine I’m reminded that this place is special.  Diving into the glass proper now, an array of spice-nutmeg, lavender, rosewater-swirls around a solid frame of crushed red fruit-cherry, strawberry, raspberry.  There’s a touch of cedar spice but in the guise of pencil shavings and graphite. There’s so much going on as the wine relaxes, I get black tea and darker fruits like plum and blackberry.  These are the kind of smells that make me excited to taste.

Taste
Wow!  The interesting thing about the 2002 Deux Terres is what’s not there. It’s not overripe and loaded down with alcohol like a lot of modern CA Cabernets. It’s not jammy or cumbersome.  Texturally, it’s so nice. Slightly smoothed tannins alongside perfectly balanced fruit and acid. Six years in is a magical time for our wines.  Flavors of black cherry cobbler and strawberry pie come lushly across the palate followed by muted tannins and still bright acididty after all these years.  

Pairing Suggestion:   
I want a steak so bad right now, I can taste it!  But on further reflection, I think I would decant this wine at the beginning of dinner and serve alongside something more delicate like a cheese course.  It think it would go spectacular with St. George from Matos Dairy or maybe Mt. Tam from Cowgirl Creamery.

One of the side benefits of this post is that I get to take the rest of the bottle home with me.

“I’d like to see a nature film where an eagle swoops down and pulls a fish out of a lake, and then maybe he’s flying along, low to the ground, and the fish pulls a worm out of the ground. Now that’s a documentary.”

Jack Handy

Let’s face it – the lowly worm gets no respect.  They’re considered slimy and dirty and disgusting and they eat dead things.  But don’t we all have a friend or relative that you could say the same thing about?  But seriously, I realize that worms don’t have the same mass appeal as, say, a furry puppy but the thankless worm is nonetheless an incredible creature whose existence is indirectly responsible for that beautiful Michel-Schlumberger chardonnay you’re sipping on along with that goat cheese and tomato salad.

The worms that I am interested in are members of that huge and diverse group of organisms responsible for eating what most “sophisticated” critters will not – the stuff that’s too old and decomposed and stinky to be of interest to the top feeders. This group includes all sorts of critters — vultures and seagulls, lions and hyenas, sow bugs and earwigs, mold and bacteria.  And, of course, worms.  We’re lucky to have such an efficient group of waste management specialists working for us.  Without these guys (and gals) we humans would be up to our elbows in organic waste in no time.  Which leads me to the point of this blog – Michel-Schlumberger Wine Estate has just incorporated vermiculture with our viticulture.

Vermiculture (a.k.a., “worm farming”) involves a specific group of worms suited to consuming and breaking down large amounts of organic matter (similar but not the same as the much larger night crawlers most folks are familiar with in their gardens). The worms we raise are called “red wigglers.”  They are red in color and tend to wiggle a lot.  They also tend to eat a lot – about half their body weight per day.

The basic principle of vermiculture is simple – you put a whole buncha red wigglers (start with about 1,000 worms) into a multi-tiered bin filled with bedding (in our case, coconut fiber and manure) and you toss garden and kitchen scraps onto the surface where the worms come to the surface to feast.  Eventually, you can harvest the worm castings (essentially worm poop) to use as an extremely effective plant fertilizer which is very high in nutrients and beneficial microbes.

That’s the principle, anyway.  Our little bin has only been up and running for one week but our herd of worms seems to be adjusting quite well to the new home.  The golf ball sized chunk of half-rotten potato I tossed in yesterday is already almost half gone, replaced by a writhing mass of small, but fat, worms.

I admit, I’m kinda weird, but I think it really is a very cool thing to literally watch kitchen waste converted into the best plant food in the world.  And I’d love to share the joy.  Stop on by sometime, enjoy a glass of wine, ask for a quick peek in the worm bin, and revel in wormy goodness.

Weird Tony

Now that the fog has rolled into Dry Creek Valley, the grapes are finally getting the hang time that they will surely benefit from.    With these cool, wet (we call it frizzle…fog+ drizzle= frizzle) days and nights, the ripening process has slowed considerably and flavors, acids and tannins all seem to be coming together perfectly. 

We picked some clone six cabernet sauvignon off the Bradford Mountain Ranch on Saturday and it came in with beautiful flavors and aromas (not to mention color).   The sugar was right where you’d like to see it and the skins were thinner and more delicate than the block adjacent to it. 

Ah, the physiology of vines, the subtleties of clonal selections and the effects of mother nature.  Cabernet seems to benefit from a little moisture on the skins.  It wasn’t until this marine layer rolled in that we began to see a change in the skins of most of the bordeaux varietals (we grow cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, malbec, petit verdot and carmenere).  Up until a week ago, the skins were tough (a response to the extreme heat?) and the seeds were still attached to the pulp.  Now that we have some cool nights, the grapes are moving towards the latter stages of ripening which includes the maturation of tannins in the skins.  It’s a delicate walk here.  You want to have nice ripe tannins, but you certainly don’t want pHat, flabby tannins either.  One way to achieve this is to taste in the vineyard everyday to get a good idea of the status of each block.   So far the season has been kind and with this cool weather slated for the next few days, it looks like we’ll continue to reap the benefits of mother nature’s air conditioning.  I like the fog.

Mike Brunson Harvest Update

I’ve been a tad over-programmed with travel these last few days as the fall selling campaign gets into full swing. This is the time of year when restaurants are busy buying good earthy Syrahs and aged Cabernets for their autumn wine lists. It is a fast, pleasurable time. More often than not, I am able to see my afterburners blowing at full thrust when I look into the rearview mirror of my car. And, I am not alone out on the highways. I’ve seen the rest of you, wine salespeople or not, jamming at high-speed to keep up with your appointed rounds. Occasionally, you whizz past me with your “jawbones” jammed tight in an ear listening to the heartbeat of families, careers, and the cat’s vet appointments. In America, it seems, it still takes a lot of moving to get things done. Recently, to help me massage travel time between accounts, I’ve been listening to Chuck Berry throwing down some Johnny B. Goode. That tune moves through my Boz just fine when I need to get to a place on time.

The highway patrolman who stopped me the other day as I sped through Santa Rosa agreed that Chuck was just the ticket. The officer also gave me some easy advice: Slow down, grab some peace, enjoy a little dinner, and take the rest of the day off. He was right-on, which is how I found my way to Bistro Twenty-nine in Santa Rosa. It is a perfect respite from the wine wars and a great place to enjoy delicious regional French cooking and a glass or two of local wine. The wine chased some tasty grilled sardines and a steak frittes down my hatch. Buckwheat crepes stuffed with aromatic fillings were a hit at the table next to mine. 

Locals already know that the Bistro’s chef, Brian Anderson, formerly of Applewood’s great restaurant, is married to Francois. She is from Brittany, the 29^th arrondissement – hence the restaurant’s name - and the western-most department in France. It is a beautiful, sometimes rugged land whose residents pleasure in regional ingredients for their tables: seafood, lamb, root vegetables, butter, cider from the Eastern farms, and good, crisp wines from the neighboring river valleys. On a rare sunny day, south of the capitol city of Brest, one can find an out-cropping of rocky cliffs that jut out into the Atlantic. Looking out to sea from here, only ocean separates Europe from America. In the warmth of the sun, the waters that crest on the rocks below strike blue and green and foamy white. Here, one can lean back and relax and put the world into a proper focus. A corner table at Bistro 29 can provide a similar view.