Wine Tasting

The hillsides here at Michel Schlumberger have been covered in a shroud of fog the past few mornings.  Driving to the winery is when I do my best thinking and I liken it to shaking off the cobwebs of sleep and getting into the groove of work.  In this case, it was the bounce back from a long holiday weekend of fun and plenty of eating (and drinking a bit too). It is easy to forget that Michel-Schlumberger is only 15 miles or so from the coast and that this layer of moisture and gray will soon be replaced by bright blue skies and sunshine aplenty. 

Returning to work is not as big an ordeal as it might be in other industries or at other wineries for that matter. This time of year especially, we all pitch in and come together as a company. Whether it’s helping decorate the winery or stepping in and doing a VIP tasting in the salon, we all work to make the Estate feel like home. Later in the week we are throwing our annual Holiday Party for staff and it’s always a good time.  We have a gift exchange and break out some older vintages.  Jayme and his wife Bethany are coming in from Boston. Bethany is a wickedly funny comedian and we’re all going to go see her show at Caffeine in the City on Dec 6th.  Part of what makes working at a small company so nice are the close ties and friendships you develop.  Even though it’s foggy out and I can hardly see the road in front of me I know that I’m headed back to a place that feels like home.

Jay Kell

Visiting Michel Schlumberger during early November is one of the best times to really see the seasonal change in our vineyards.  It also is prime time to cozy up to a tasting of Reserve Cabernet.  There’s something about this shift in season that really brings out the best qualities in red wine. Don’t get me wrong, if you bring the mussles, I’ll bring the viognier.  But Fall really is the perfect season for full bodied, complex red that we specialize in.  When you’re here, an explosion of fall’s best yellows, oranges, and reds will greet you.  Walking the vineyards each day, I see our lower ranch blocks literally evolving on a daily basis as the leaves begin to change colors and fall from the vines.  It’s hard to believe that harvest ended just a couple of weeks ago. Today was the first noticable change in temperature. I wonder when the block of old vine merlot on the west side of the lake will drop its leaves?  It’s the greenest still.

Tony W 'Punching Down'

Back in the day, I used to work in the cellar here at Michel Schlumberger and during this time of year, I always get a hankering for the days of yore when I would be hauling hose, sanitizing, punching down, pumping over with the rest of the crew. Part of the joy of making wine is the camaraderie of working long hours with folks you know are working just as hard. Leading a group of bikers (spokes not motors) yesterday from New York,  I was explaining the formation of the “cap” and I saw a confused look or two.  So I brought the group over to a bin of fermenting syrah, showed them the top where the skins had formed ”the cap” and then plunged my hand through to the juice and we watched as bubbles of CO2 came to the surface. They were surprised but also immediately got the point!  That’s one of the great things about coming to the winery during harvest is that all of the things we talk about year round are right there.

Come on up to Michel-Schlumberger and join us with the hand’s on experience- then sit back and enjoy a glass.  Nice.

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

Mike and I were talking one day about vintage variation-you know-those often subtle differences between growing seasons and how it affects the wine.  This is one area that it’s really difficult to make generalizations about. This is a good year. This is a bad year.  What is a “bad year” anyway?  Is the wine “bad”?  Who decides these things? More often then not, it’s the press.  Besides questioning the very methodology of determining good and bad vintages, Mike and I are more fascinated by the subtleties and it was my ascertion that even in “bad” years the wine is still pretty darn good. It’s just different. And aren’t those differences what makes wine interesting and fun.  I think so.

One of the tastings we do here illustrates this point precisely.  The reserve vertical tasting is the best of the best.   We line up three of our reserve cabernets from the same block, made in nearly the same way with the same blend and we let our guests decide what’s what.  The vintages are well aged from 1998, 1999, and 2000.  I believe our wines really start to show their stuff at about 8 years so these wines are in their prime.  This special tasting is available here daily and we’re always happy as your hosts to crack them open!  

As Mike and I were chatting we came up with a good way of describing vintage variation.  It’s like a thumbprint.  Our vineyard is as unique as the grooves on your thumb.  It is particular to this place and has definable qualities of soil, slope, spacing, and plant material. All of these things are the physical characteristics of what we call “Bloque Loco.” It’s one of the best spots for Cabernet on the lower ranch. Now the non-physical aspect of this block is how it responds to the growing season. That’s how hard you press down on the thumbprint.  When the vintage is easy and all things go smoothly, the imprint of the vintage is light. When we need to respond to certain challenges during the growing season, like frost or shatter or an increase in mildew, the imprint of the vintage is heavier.  

I think that is more illustrative way of defining the differences a vintage can have in a vineyard. Instead of writing off or presuming that “in this certain year” a wine is no good, this idea of a thumbprint engenders a willingness to taste, to experience a wine for what it is.  One of the coolest things in tasting wine is spotting those differences and appreciating that particular moment in time.

Jay Kell

If you feed them they will come.  And some water for drinking and bathing helps, too.  But it really is that simple to attract all sorts of very cool wild birds into your yard for your viewing (and listening) pleasure.  Besides, we kinda owe it to them.  After all, they were here first and we’re the ones who moved into their turf and took away valuable food sources and habitat.  The very least we can do is toss out some sunflower seeds once in awhile.  But beware:  Feeding birds is addictive.

For me, it started with a single hummingbird feeder I hung from a beam on the front porch adjacent to the tasting salon.  It only took a few days before the little guys (and girls) were fighting for position, speeding back and forth between the oak tree, the flower beds in the organic garden, and the feeder.

But I needed more.  You see the hummers are mostly active around dawn and dusk – fine for them but I wanted birds all day long.  And lots of ‘em.

So then came the extra large tube feeder filled with shelled sunflower chips.  Perfect for birds because of the high protein content and ease of feeding (no shelling required), and perfect for me since there’s no mess with discarded seed hulls.  Within a week the feeder was covered with a colorful collage of birds – goldfinches, purple finches, chickadees and pine siskins.  But then I realized that a little bird probably gets mighty thirsty after a big meal of seeds so I put a bird bath in the garden.  And they happily sipped and splashed.

And life went on and I watched the birds and things were fine until I noticed the other birds – the ones that were too big for the tube feeder or didn’t share the same love of sunflower chips.  Didn’t these towhees, doves and juncos deserve a little love, too?  So up went the platform feeder with the millet seed and peanut chunks.  And just to demonstrate the severity of my addiction to feeding birds, as I installed the platform feeder this morning I was already scanning the area for a suitable location for a nice suet feeder.  After all, the jays and flickers and woodpeckers could use a little help, too, right?

So there it is.  There are plenty of worse things to be obsessed with, I figure.  And when I get a chance to sit on the porch with a glass of syrah and watch the birds up close and personal I feel very happy.  So here’s to our feathery friends.  Our beaky buddies.  Our chirpy chums.  Our avian amigos.  O.K., I’ll stop now…but here’s a cool site if you are interested…http://www.birdpost.com/

Tony & Friends

‘I love Sonoma wines………..and that little town is so cute!  Have you been to Girl and the Fig Restaurant?  How about to Buena Vista Winery?’ ( a quote from a friend of mine) 

Yes-these are great places, and yes the town of Sonoma is lovely.  However-it does not encompass ‘Sonoma Wines’.  It’s come to my attention increasingly over the years that Sonoma County is often a mystery to wine tasters who come to visit. 

There are many towns in Sonoma County that are worth a visit-and that hold many of our finest wineries.  In fact, a very small portion of Sonoma County’s wineries are actually located in the town of Sonoma. 

The tricky part is appellations.  We have different growing regions (appellations) in Sonoma County that all have their own distinct identity and reputation.  We have Alexander Valley, Dry Creek Valley, Russian River, Sonoma Valley, Chalk Hill…….and I could go on.  The point is-that if you’re coming to Sonoma County it’s good to keep in mind that all of these different areas exist and that you’ll get a much different experience depending on which areas you choose.  Not to toot the Dry Creek Horn yet again-but here in our own special appellation we have what I would consider to be one of the most amazing views from a car that you can get in wine country.  Driving to work in Dry Creek for almost 3 years out of my 7 years in the wine industry-I’ve spent some of the most pleasurable hours of my work day.  I can’t even begin to describe the patchwork and colors of vibrant, warm, autumn vineyards along Dry Creek or West Dry Creek Road.  The payoff on one of our Estate or Green Tours in late September and October is just that much sweeter when you get to the top of the hill and look over our speckled vineyards to see the pallette of oranges, reds, and yellows that stretch out as far as the eye can see. 

Of course the view isn’t the only amazing thing about our Valley but it is just one more thing that is unique to our little area here nestled in Northern California’s Sonoma County Wine Country.  You’ll see beauty everywhere up here, but each area has it’s own unique type of beauty and of course, also our own unique wineries, wines, and people.