Chateau Liles

After a nice tasting session at Arger Martucci it was back to the school of wine at Chateau Liles, next on the agenda was bottling. It was time to Bottle the 2006 Vintage so it was all hands on deck for what was a busy day. Vinomaker had been preparing over the past couple of days to ensure it was all organised and while me and tenbellies were in Vegas he and Vinogirl had been confirming the Blends they would be making on the day, with a little help from Thud of course. Along with the Cab Franc and Merlot, there would be a Claret. This process was very serious and took time a patience until Vinomaker and vinogirl were completely happy with the end result.

We arrived early to Napa that morning picking up some pastries to get the party started, Thud and I had done some monkey work sorting out the bottles the day before and now we just needed to move a few barrels to make more space. We started with the Claret, vinomaker was confirming the precise amount of each Varietal again to make sure it was right, just like a recipe but i had a feeling this was a little more complex than your average sponge cake. Then we started to fill the vats, and wow what a smell. some people say that they can never understand the aroma of wine or understand the complexities of different smells and flavours, well i found that this was the cure. The aroma was amplified in a word and the whole room was the glass, the best part was that i was going to be working in this for the rest of the day. Heaven. It was interesting to see see the wines change as each varietal was added and the aroma became more complex and exciting there is so much more to wine than i ever thought and its sucked me in more and more.

The day moved fast with people coming and going helping a little and some helping a lot, unpacking bottles, gassing, filling, corking, boxing and labelling. I didn't count the bottles or the boxes and the time moved quickly until the final bottle had been corked and the days last barrel emptied. Seeing the final process has started a growing interest in making the wine, the day before i had talked with vinomaker in a lesson about how to know when its time to harvest, tasting the berry and inspecting it inside and out and then going through the picking and pressing. Every time i visited Napa on my trip i had learned more and feed my passion for this tiny fruit. We Ended the day with of course a few bottles of wine, and Vinomaker opening a bottle Merlot he had been saving just for curiosity. Talking about wine, drinking and making wine in the birth place of new age wine is indeed the only way to do it and yet no pompous up tight wine snobs in sight but just people who loved to chat and drink the stuff. I love it.

Life's too short to drink Chardonnay

This would be my first visit to a vineyard, Arger Martucci is a small family winery in the small town of St Helena, Napa Valley. Thud, Vinogirl and I would be having a tasting session and what a beautiful setting it was.

We sat around a table shaded slightly next to a swimming pool, the vineyard was not what i expected but Thud had said that he wanted me to see a small Vineyard before we went to a more commercial big scale winery. Arger Martucci was set up by two friends and their wives who still run it today. They produce several wines, Chardonnay, Viognier, Syrah, Pinot Nior, Cab, Cab Franc, a couple of Blends and a Rose. We sampled 4 wines, although Vinogirl point blank refused to sample the Chardonnay, "Life's to short to drink Chardonnay" were her exact words. I hate to say it but she was right as this wine did not impress at all. There seems to be this love hate feeling toward Chardonnay and on this occasion there was no love lost here.

On the table was the obvious spit bowl and true to my words i would not be spitting, even though i really wanted to rid my mouth of the Chardonnay bit the bullet and took it like a man tipping the rest of my glass away. The Syrah did nothing for excitement and was rather feeble in the mouth however the Pinot Nior had a lasting finish and had more body. When it came to the Cab my only thoughts were how nice the chocolate was, yes chocolate it seemed to be more of a focus when given the sample the excitement of tasting the Cab with a block of Dark Chocolate. Im a fan of Chocolate and Red but i came to Napa to taste wine, if i wanted to eat chocolate id have gone to Cadbury's world!!

The overall experience was great, very personal and a great start to experience a working vineyard. The winery was preparing for harvest as you could see staff cleaning the equipment close by. With a relaxing atmosphere there was a hint of excitement in the air as you could sense that wine making was about to begin in a few weeks time.

The school of Wine

This weekend we visited Napa Valley and a remarkable place it is. Driving into the valley you soon get the idea that this surely is wine makers territory, with vines coming right down to the road side you can reach right out and grab a bunch. I had looked at a map showing the vineyards in the valley and could not believe that so many names could be producing wine in a valley 30 miles long and at most 5 miles wide. Each acre filled with the most cared after nurtured vines you could possible imagine producing thousands to millions of dollars worth of grapes.

We made it up to Vinogirl, who was wrestling with a very large Caterpillar problem with her TOMATOES of all things. She stood facing the house in front a very small tomato patch while behind her was rows of vines, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Grigio, Orange Muscat and the vino dogs. We had literally been there a couple of minutes and i was thrown into my first class, Vines one o one. I had no idea the process of growing a vine or the complexities of nurturing a new vine to its surrogate root. The time, effort and patience that goes into producing the grape only makes the wine taste better, this was something i was later to find out in a tasting session. I had some understanding of the weather and the effect it has on the vines but i did not realise how temperamental it could be, Napa had experienced a frost earlier in the year which was very uncommon and this had slowed the growing and in some cases killed off the fruit. This was not the kind of frost that we get back in England, but the kind that comes and goes in the space of an hour or so and damages the fruit for the rest of the year. We talked about the different varietals and the vines, the positions in relation to the sun and the location and the types of dirt, when to drop and how far to trim back even the identification of leaf to grape. Then as it started to getter even hotter we headed to the cellar.

The picture above is of Vinogirl and i tasting one of the wines i shall be helping to bottle in a couple of weeks. The small cellar held alot of wine and was where Vinomaker would experiment and refine his wine. Its was becoming apparent that Vinogirl was more of the growing nurturing type while Vinomaker more the science and refining type. I took part in tasting a few different wines from the barrels, not all from their vineyard and even a very nice port which tenbellies said she liked, i think im on my way to converting her. Beyond the cellar was their own stash and quite a stash it was, so many bottles and so little time, i think i would need to retire now to experience so many wines. Later i chatted with Vinomaker and it came even more clear how little i knew about wine and yet i was quickly learning and absorbing everything they exposed me too, my first test came when Vinomaker gave me my first glass of wine in Napa and asked me to identify it. I'm sure it was to see what i knew or how well my taste buds worked and i can say now that i failed miserably, however it was a very nice glass of wine and standing on the decking with the most amazing view is without doubt the best classroom anyone could have.

The next day we had organised a blind tasting the very first that i had done and to mix things up i had brought some wines from the UK. The Pepperwod Grove Zin, Dona Paula Cab Franc, Pinot Nior from Oregon, and a god awful Tesco homebrand Zin (Thud asked me to bring this one). There was some excitement mostly by me but some from Vinogirl as i sensed she rather enjoyed the partaking of tasting many wines. There were seven wines altogether, Vinomaker had started the BBQ and the steaks were at the ready. Thud had made some very nice Blackberry sorbet for afterwards and Mrs OTW started to bring out the wines. Marking the wines on Varietal, Aroma, Taste, Defects, Finish and Alcohol, year and would we buy it. such alot to think about and i was struggling with the aroma and taste, and remember i had supplied four of these wines the least i could do is identify them. Nope not a chance, this was hard and the first three i struggled but as we continued i got the feel and wrote what i thought and with help they pointed me in the right way. At least i found the bad wine. As we finished we sat and revealed the wines with some very big surprises, Vinomaker brought more wine to the table which helped comparing wines alot easier and we drank and talked more about the wines. The food, the wine, the company and the venue made for the most memorable experience and a fantastic weekend in Napa Valley, and in the words of Vinogirl a good time was had by all.

California Tasting

Oooops!! i have kind of neglected my page here the last month or so, apologies but i have good news! Yes tomorrow we go to the US for a few weeks and ill be in California where I'm sure i will be tasting plenty of different home grown wines, giving loads to write if I'm not to pissed.

Ill be up in Napa Valley meeting Vinogirl with Thud and Family OTW, i have been looking forward to this since we booked the tickets as I'm sure to experience some great wine and be educated by some professional wine drinkers, woooowhooo.

So ill try to keep up with the writing and let you in on some of the things i'm learning and more importantly drinking.