Just the name Tom Rinaldi conjures thoughts of magnificent Merlot and complex Cabernet Sauvignon perfected over 22 vintages at the Duckhorn Wine Company. Ninety-plus ratings are commonplace for this Napa Valley, veteran winemaker. But now, Tom finds himself crafting wines with a new venture, Provenance Vineyards also in Napa Valley, with a familiar line up of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. But after spending some time one early, rainy afternoon, I discover Tom's new obsession: Sauvignon Blanc and it's endless possibilities. Getting behind-the-winemaking-scenes with Tom was an absolute thrill that I'm giddy to share with the world.
Do you do wild yeast or you typically use a commercial use?
Sometimes we don't even add yeast. We have such culture here in the cellar and a good one too. But 95% is commercial use. I'm not a fan of so-called wild yeast and I think people who do quite often lie to you. They say, "it's good, I've had very good success" but I've also had some downright close to disasters.
It seems like trying wild yeasts is risky operation even if you know what you're doing.
You better know what you're doing. You better have a microscope because you're dealing with mold; yeast from mold. And quite often, in early days of that must is sitting there, you'll get a blanket of what looks like penicillium; just a variety of these colorful critters. They should not give you comfort and joy as a winemaker. The potential of volatile acidity just going crazy, especially going right straight to acidic acid because of the lack of bacillus, should be very disconcerting for most winemakers.
You think winemakers are saying "wild yeast" more as a marketing ploy than actual method?
I know there are some. But there are also some to my knowledge who have been very successful and I don't believe they're cheating at all. They have a good thing going. They put that same pumice back in the vineyards and they're breeding a culture that they know and understand and can live with. I'd say one in particular would be Ridge Winery. I don't believe they've ever added yeast (but I'm not sure). I remember discussions a long time ago and it seemed to me that they're on top of it well enough. I know in the old days at Flowers and a couple other wineries on the Sonoma Coast, Greg La Follette in particular; he'd understand the PH. He'd understand the cleanliness of the tank and all the biochemistry that goes with sanitation procedures and understanding what your must looks like; what your fermentations should look like. He could live on the edge. He just has it built into his genes I think.
How do you select the yeasts to use for your wines?
We definitely have our favorites. You have your tried-and-true for so many times that we know that these guys will get us through and we don't have to worry about certain lots. But we also are trying to get a little more "dynamics" so we're constantly trying new designer yeast. They have these catalogs... it's the darnedest thing... it's like dating-- "would you like long legs? blonde hair? tremendous flavor profiles and will ferment up to and beyond 16% alcohol" ...and these other crazy promises.
Do you use multiple yeasts on batches to blend for complexity?
Oh yeah, absolutely. That's the name of the game. We do the same thing with barrels. We'll have heavy toast, French oak and we'll have some relatively greener barrels that just add some complexity. Not very many of them but we find certain French barrels without toasted heads have unique characteristic. The toasting of the heads is a weird thing anyways... It's like toasting tacos or bread. It isn't really a toast; just zapping the outside of the barrel. You're not developing the same way you do with a fire in the internal part of the barrel. So all those are adding complexing agents and making them a little more difficult to put your finger on.
Do you work with coopers to develop barrel styles and toasting levels specifically for your wines?
Absolutely. Yes. And varieties of forest, but the toast levels, the artisans that pick out the wood, those are all key to our success with the barrels. It's a big, big deal. It's sort of like talking about herbs to a chef. You can really blow it or you can really do it just right. We're aiming for just right.
I can imagine when President of Chalone wooed you over it was much like a "kid in the candy store" moment?
The vineyards were pretty much established. The exception is here. This winery was a very fortunate find. We purchased Chateau Beaucanon in 2002 and August ‘02 was the final, "here's the keys" moment. We did the harvest of ‘02 right here. Before that we were a virtual winery. We were going to build a facility in South Napa up in the hills but it became very controversial. It was going to be very difficult to pull it off to tell you the truth so this find was a Godsend.
First thing I did was get rid of all the Chardonnay and plant Sauvignon Blanc which has been just phenomenal. This is heavy clay, Maxwell series soils and the only thing I know that does well is Sauvignon Blanc and its close cousin, Semillon which seems to be doing very well and we're even putting a little Muscat too as a matter of fact. All the vines along the railroad tracks is Semillon. Any time you see a new growth, those are unofficial but those are Muscat. I've only done it one time, in how many-- 25 at least, Sauvignon Blanc vintages of adding just a little bit and it can be a magic bullet. Otherwise, we have some Muscat to play with. That's kind of fun stuff. You can make dessert wines out of it... I don't remember what they call it. We made something but I don't even know where it is. It's something like 25% alcohol.
Are there any plans to do any other whites aside from the Sauvignon Blanc?
At this point in time, no. We tried to make a varietal Semillon and it was a dud. So far it's been a disaster. I don't know that it could really do well on its own. The State of Washington gets away with it. I don't know of anybody in Napa Valley consistently can make a Semillon that would be appealing. We're just focusing in on Sauvignon Blanc.
You said you're currently blending the Merlot. How's that going?
We're putting together the final blend. We already had it tasted and make decisions: boom, here it is. We have the opportunity once it's blended to see about tweaking it a little bit. So far it's been unbelievable. We've gotten away with making 100% Merlot. All the Napa Valley Merlot we've made to date have been 100%. Whole time I was at Duckhorn, 22 vintages; I never made 100% Merlot there. Always felt we needed to put Cab Franc or Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec; something in there to keep it exciting. But we're getting away with it. I know we're very pleased with the 100% Merlot.
What makes the distinction for you when you decide to go 100% one varietal, one vineyard?
It's certainly the vineyards; they're the key. Of the entire Napa Valley, we're in two spots and those are in the Carneros region, Las Amigas and then Oak Mill right on Orchard Avenue. They have very well drained soils, they're muscular, straight forward. The way we've been pruning and cropping has been very advantageous to color and richness and potential for aging too. I always say Merlot ages like a cat. They zip through life 3-5 times faster than people. They're kind of like watching a movie in fast-forward. You see the development in a shorter period of time which makes them exciting. It also makes them a little like a time bomb. But I don't tell people to get out there and make 100% anything. I think you're cheating with Pinot Noir if you throw in Zinfandel or something like that. But with the Bordeaux varieties, you can go ahead and blend and have fun about it.
You're back to your roots a bit making Merlot from Three Palms Vineyard?
Yeah, the '06 will be coming out very soon which is a blend. That one we've always blended and will continue to do so. It all comes from Three Palms-- 88 acres and all varietals within there. They have Petite Verdot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Cab Sauvignon as well as Merlot. Those all seem to fit very well together but we have to do minimum 75% of Merlot for label distinction.
The distinction used to be 51%. People were putting a lot of Thompson seedless in Chardonnay and that was a turn off. A couple lawyers down in San Diego got upset about it and then they managed to make the rules, bringing it up to 75%. The only time where it seems to take away a little bit of a possibility for great wine is Sauvignon Blanc. Most of the great Bordeaux Sauvignon Blanc's are about 60% to 65% Sauvignon Blanc and the rest is Semillon. A little more Semillon we've found gives it a little more fleshiness, less of that citrus and grapefruity characteristic that we get.
Does adding Semillion let you push the Sauvignon Blanc chemistry a little?
The Semillon will tone down the acidity. It's very hard to keep acids in ripe Semillon. It's very hard to get the alcohol up too, or the sugar. So consequently the alcohols are tending to be less but you get the fatness and age-ability and it's spectacular. I've had Sauvignon Blanc that was older than me back when I was still pretty old and it was surprising alive-- Chateau Carbonneau. It was a year older than me and a half bottle of all things! It was wonderful. They were testifying that it was Semillon that kept it alive. I've made two versions in my career of 100% Sauvignon Blanc that were 100% "Oops, shouldn't have done that." First vintage at Duckhorn was 1982 and the first vintage for Provenance of Sauvignon Blanc, which was 2003. Both of those, we didn't have any Semillon at the time and didn't feel the need. But now it's a requirement. Some percentage of it.
What's the blending process like for you?
It's rare that we're worried about the numbers. The only time to be worried is if you're trying to keep it within a county, vintage or within the legal standards. The most important thing to know is that you can blend but you can't unblend. So once you make the decision, once you make that move, you're done. You've made that decision. We don't take that lightly. We're approaching it looking at the pieces to a puzzle. If you have a problem and you're trying to disguise a problem, that's one thing. If you have something really wonderful and you're trying to enhance it, well that's another thing all together. You don't just blend willy-nilly and start stirring in all these chemicals and see what happens. You have good color, a wonderful finish, pH considerations, high/low acidity, tannin, all these different parts of the puzzle that are going to help you or they're going to mess you up. You really want to know what you have and where you're trying to go. Then start mixing and matching. We do it here blind and typically it'll be 2%, 5%, 12%, 20% of something. It's trial and error but at the small scale of 250 to 500 milliliters, its no big deal.
Is the Hewitt Cabernet Sauvignon 100%?
It's 100% from the vineyard. It's 60 acres, of which we get about 60%. We share it with Beaulieu Vineyards still. They were originally exclusive owners and when Chalone Wine Group bought Hewitt Vineyard, that's when I came on board. I was excited about being the first winemaker to make 100% from that vineyard. That was real exciting, real enticing. BV was blending it in their Private Reserve. They were trying to assure Mr. Hewitt, who wanted his name on the label, to just tell your friends it's in there. I don't think that was good enough for him personally. He passed away and that's when the vineyard became for sale and that's how it all came to be. It was my desire to absolutely make sure he got his name on the label.
What is it about the Hewitt vineyard that excites you so much?
Well, it's a lot to do with the drainage. We call it a vertically challenged hillside vineyard. Absolutely wide area of sun dispersal, warm, ideal climate. Then the vineyard is in five blocks that are all quite different from each other, different rootstocks, different years of planting, different row orientation. Right out there you have this variation within the vineyard so you have the opportunity to make creations that are unique. We go out there probably minimum ten pickings just for our portion of the 60 acres. We're making very small batches and we're still trying to figure it all out. It's a huge puzzle. It's going to be exciting.
Are you out in the vineyards pretty often then?
Yes. It's nice and convenient here... great on a mountain bike too riding up and down the rows. It's fantastic. I don't carry a refractometer with me when I'm out in the vineyards. All by flavor, appearance and just feel. We are enhanced with the NDVI-- the overhead photographs of the vineyard taken generally and around August. You can see the stress areas and the variant spoiled areas. All of those are part of our tools, very important tools.
What's the one tool that's indispensable to you as a winemaker?
Palette. Your schnoz. Those are life and death. That's the only one that is most crucial. We're unable to chew on the oak barrels and stuff but you can get an idea from the appearance and from the aromas pretty quickly what direction you're going.
Do you do much lab work?
We do a lot of lab work. Generally it's a rearview mirror. You just want to know what's going on here to make sure you don't have certain problems. We do tests for TCAs, for brett, for these weird bugs that can possibly come into your life, especially when we're working off campus. If we had everything right here, I'd feel a whole lot more secure. We want to know, especially close to bottling time, if we're dealing with any bad guys.
Some folks like brett in their wine. You try to keep it at bay?
Correct. If I had a choice, I'd have zero. That's my feel. We're pretty close to zero. We've had a couple of blooms coming out of the clear blue sky but it's something we try to avoid. I don't know what most winemakers think; they're playing with fire. I've heard of unnamed individuals even adding it for complexity, to get Robert Parker to fall in love with their wines. It's silly. To me, it's a spoilage. I prefer not to have it around. But even volatile acidity is a desirable aspect. It can be a complexing agent at sub threshold levels, it just is. It just adds more of that bite and feel and has that complexing aroma that kind of makes you want to know what the heck that is. That's sub threshold levels.
Winemaking is a sanitary environment. We are sticklers on sanitation. We start with clean tanks, clean hoses, clean equipment. The flare comes in the oxidation process, in the yeast, in the malolactic, in all the microbes that are just around anyway. Even the soil, we don't wash the grapes when they come in. That's part of the game. So all of these things are part of the flare, part of the dynamics of the wine. We don't need to bring in "bad actors". We don't need to go nuts with adding stuff. I don't like even adding acid unless I have to. The only thing we want to do is add nutrients for the yeast, make sure they're fat and happy. They're the real winemakers, the guys that are going to convert those sugars into alcohol and complex sugars into esters and make this stuff taste and smell wonderful. If you keep the yeast happy, you keep the winemaker happy. You're taking care of 90% of the battle, maybe more. If you screw that up, you've got yourself a problem.
Have you ever had stuck fermentations here?
We've had sluggish fermentations. But they're extraordinarily rare. We will have residual sugar hanging around and slow secondary fermentations too. That's been an ongoing process so that normally when it starts warming up again in the spring time, they'll finish once and for all. But those are exceptions to the rule, very rare exceptions.
Many years ago, more than 20, when I was trying to do no SO2, I was playing with fire. It was, in retrospect, a mistake but it was just part of that experimental, "let's see what happens" mindset. Some of those "experiments" got to be pretty good sized. Fortunately in the long run, we have tools to deal with that and people in the bulk market who buy them up. I've yet to bottle anything I regret, I'll say that much. Maybe the 100% Sauvignon Blancs, maybe not. They were good when they first came out but in the long run, they weren't. In general, we've taken care of all the situations well before it's time to bottle.
Do you work with enzymes or other additives?
With the Sauvignon Blanc we've been utilizing enzymes just because we don't crush it. We go directly to the press. Semillon must in particular, have these pulpy, snotty messes, we use enzymes in order to just get some juice out of them. For color enhancement, no. It hasn't been a necessity. Having better vineyard practices are more important for color enhancement and development. I've been fiddling around with mega purple and all these other little tools that are available. Occasionally, we'll just toy with the idea but we've been going as natural as possible. And I'm not saying that they're bad or they can't work. But for me, it's better to start with sound fruit, have a good, clean, sound fermentation and then utilize heat, oxidation, temperature, oxidation and micro-oxidation particular to let these wines evolve and grow.
How long is the fermentation on the Sauvignon Blancs typically?
Sauvignon Blanc can be a long time, more than a month sometimes. We have cold temperatures, below 60F if possible. Generally, we have small vessels of Sauvignon Blanc. The smaller, the better so that you don't get a core of heat building up in the larger vessels. We try to get them to go all the way through but Sauvignon Blanc tends to really slow down in the area of 3-2 brix. But that's natural and normal for me. Generally, we're not really worried about volatile acidity. We don't do ML if at all possible. I've had a couple of batches that seemed to have taken off on their own but we've caught it. In general, the Semillon will go completely to zero, even below zero, just dry, bone dry and that's also an enhancement. Just a little bit of residual sugar in there is a benefit. We have already bottled our '08 as an example. It's a quick process. By Christmas or January, we're done all but the clarification, we know what the blends should be, where the problem lots might be and what needs to be called out or worried about. By mid Feb, they're bottle ready.
What are some of the clarifying methods you use here?
Bentonite. We don't fine our reds at all. No egg whites. No gelatin. None of that nonsense. That's something we haven't done. We haven't had to fine any of our reds today, other than one we did as an experiment and I don't know that it was so wonderful. I won't even name the wine. But it was a head-scratcher wine. Bentonite is a wonderful clarification. We chill the tanks so that we'll get that titrate control, not complete stabilization but control. Then we will send it through a 2.45 filter so it's sterile filtration. Since we don't know about malolactic or even some sporulated yeast that might be in there, we don't want to take a chance at those levels. The wine, by the time they go through the filtration, they're clear. Not brilliant but they're certainly brilliant by the time they're released.
We historically have not filtered at all but with our big lots now, I'm a real believer in filtration. So we will make sure that they're at least yeast-free filtration, if not all the way to at least .65 micro. We've done trials in the past and I've done trials for the last 30+ years. If it's done properly, filtration will be a better wine in the long run than the not filtered almost every time.
Do you press at dryness or let batch go into extended macerations?
There is a certain period of time when its tasting severe. We'll go through and taste daily and there's a certain point where, "Whoa, there it is." And what you do with the free run as opposed to what you do with a pressed run should become crucial. I would recommend for any home winemaker, just press at dryness, just get it done and you don't even have to keep them separate. Post dry is starting to be another world altogether.
Do you filter out stems, seeds and raisins?
That's where you're starting to mess around with fining. There's a way but you're going to take out some of the good with the bad. It's better, given an opportunity, to not have to worry about that sort of thing. Stems is a good example: you got a bunch of stems in the tank, they're going to add a phenolic flavor pretty rapidly, so that's something that you're going to want to filter those out. I'd keep the free run separated from pressed wine in that world.
I'm almost always looking at the seeds. I want them to be dark. Vinified seeds are really important, if you got little green stripes in there, that's trouble because then you're leaching out more and more of the potential raisins, that's something I don't want to deal with.
I've seen some winemakers that have thrown whole bunches with stems and all, is that just a stylistic preference?
Yeah, I've seen people do it especially with wimpy wines to add a tannin profile, but it's a green tannin, it's a harsh, ugly tannin. We're finding that a little bit goes a long way. A little bit can actually be better than none at all. But I think with Pinot Noir, that's a trick that came up and is still relatively popular, and yeah you can get away with it. Personally, we avoid stems unless we're talking Sauvignon Blanc or Semillon going into the press, and then they're helpful for channeling the liquid through.
You're owned by the 800-pound gorilla of the wine industry. Is there pressure to make wines that are stylistic to getting the high reviews?
There was a very brief period of time where you were getting evaluated according to your Spectator scores, and it was like the lottery or just throwing a dart at the board. It fortunately came and, to my knowledge, it's gone. I love getting a good strong Spectator score, I'll say that much and Parker, generally speaking, just seems to ignore us, which is fine. I don't really make any wines for that purpose. For me it's the marketplace, the people themselves who try these wines that get excited about them. We're not doing a lot of advertising, it's really bottle by bottle that we get a fan base and a lot of people loving the wines. I'm trying to make wines that are restaurant friendly. Most people can't wait five years, ten years until a wine is approachable. They want something tonight, and so do I. They want something tonight, this week, or for this year. Take it home and have it tonight with meatloaf or, your anniversary party. And that's important to me, much more so than making these you have to genuflect before. I'm not trying to make a cult wine. It just doesn't fit into my personality. It doesn't fit into the level of wines that I make, the amount of wines, volumes if you will. Admittedly we're in some incredible vineyards and I'm trying to enhance those the best I can so...
I guess what I worried, at least from a consumer standpoint was, was there going to be pressure to stray from the winemakers stylistic point of view? And at what point would there be a clash?
Na, there won't be not as long as I'm here, I can promise you that... there's been nobody ever looking over my shoulder, not even suggesting, There have been some ideas to go into a direction that I personally didn't favor. I want to know the breed, the history, everything about it. I want to be in the vineyard. That's why we're trying to make sure that we know just the volumes we're aiming for.
Provenance isn't trying to make wines for everybody. We're definitely in the elite or the high end, but their hand made. We're not cutting corners, we're not cranking it out. Everything goes through our sorter now. Every red grape that we bring in here is going through this monotonously slow hand sorting tedium, but it's crucial and we're taking out things that we don't want in there and it's making these wines much more refined, much more consistent. And that's important for us, the track record.
How can a winemaker can make a wine consistent year after year?
We're not making Budweiser. We're not trying to make them consistent in the same flavor every year. We're trying to enhance. We want to show off the varietal, the area, the region, and then the vintage. If the vintage is a challenging one, there's going to be characteristics in there that we're not going to try to disguise. We're going to be honest about them because it turns out that some of the weakest vintages or the ones that got thrashed and trashed in the press, are the most age-worthy. If you have a bottle of '97 and compare that to a bottle of '98, the '98's going to kick butt. So it's one of those things that you don't want to dictate the future. It's a dangerous practice to say "this wine is not going to last, it's a wimpy wine, and so forth and so on." Some of these are very balanced, they will surprise you over a long period of time. And I've learned it dramatically and done comparative tastings after considerable periods of time and the results are usually stunning.
So we're trying to have a thread of similarities; we want this merlot to be merlot, we want Cabernet to be Cabernet, but we also want Oakville to say Oakville and Rutherford to say Rutherford. There's to me a huge difference in the profile of those wines, cherry berry versus mocha and leather. That's what we're looking for when we're putting the blends together, just an enhancement of that. Very difficult to express that in exacting terms, it's just something you-- feel.
Thank God we have years and years of memories for vintage after vintage that "don't freak out that's it raining today, don't worry, it's all right. Hey, you got a long way to go." And the same thing at harvest time. People go nuts because they think they're missing this very tiny window... it a very large window. We're talking days and days of time unless you get this horrific heat wave or this gigantic storm coming through and that's pretty rare. You build up confidence when you've been through it a few times. It's never exactly the same but there are patterns that start to come forward and we have the tools.
I'll never forget, it's 1983 and I had a tankful of very expensive fruit and it smelled awful. I called my buddy Rick Foreman, "Rick you got to come down here. I got a disaster. I got something you got to see." And the top of the tank was all white and moldy mess and it smelled like mold. It smelled like bad strawberries that you went on vacation, came home and you found this elephant waiting in your refrigerator and he smells it he goes, "Ah, this is it! This is Bordeaux." I said, "What are you nuts?" And he goes, "No this is it. This is the smell you get from Bordeaux."
With California heat, you get high sugars, but then low acids, right? But you don't like adding acid which gets a little bit dangerous, right?
Correct. You have to trellis, you have to take advantage of the leaves on the vines. Out at George III vineyard, that place is a jungle. We could hide that fruit and let it develop. We can crop it accordingly too, larger crop and get a little lag in there. It's a game. And given a choice, I'll take heat over rain, thank you.
We're getting challenges now that we didn't get before. The late 70s early 80s out in Carneros were a nightmare trying to grow Merlot and get rid of that green peppercorn, brussels sprout flavors. And now, the warming patterns we've been getting, it's a disaster for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. They have a very hard time, it's too warm for it but the Merlot ripens very rapidly and very early, fully ripens. So you have to take advantage of the situation. And I think growers are doing that very well. We certainly are taking advantage of it. Some of our cool climate Merlot seems to me, just right.
You've been making wine in Napa Valley since graduating from Davis, any daydream of experimenting in other regions?
Sonoma Coast... a Pinot Noir... a little Chardonnay... just day dreaming. Sitting in a rocking chair, mail order only kind of operation. 20 barrels of this, 5 barrels of that, whatever.
What are some of the surprising things that you've seen taking shape here in the Napa Valley. You've been making wine here for a number of vintages, so what trends, directions or methods strike you most since you've started?
Some of these things we're falling in love with are so labor intensive and you wonder if you're getting bang for the buck, barrel fermentations in reds. I would not have understood that 10 years ago but now its become relatively common place. And we do it here.
I'm very pleased with the advances in laboratory feedback. It's incredible that you can get down to such very tiny numbers and reassure yourself good and bad. I'd say the technology of the equipment that we have available to us is astounding and making life easier. There's home winemaking and then there's real modern winemaking which is standing on top of a tank pumping it over, something I did for year, after year, after year, the previous millennium. I mean,
The troubling aspect, I went to a place and the wines are being "synthetically produced", if you will. They produce these wines but the micro-oxidation units and the submersion of oak planks into the wine and so forth, I don't know if that's troubling but it's almost like robotics that the wines are being prettied up into patterns and it's also troubling that people are trying to mimic these high-scoring wines. And there's these freak wines out there that somehow were produced and mimic that by a fingerprint.
But I'm also seeing a pattern where a lot of modern equipment coming in. I don't like having a 14.0 percent and above becoming desert wine. I think that's silly. It should be 16 percent and above. It's something that yeast normally don't ferment to. So it isn't something we're adding spirits to make this desert wine, a port or a sherry or some other form of those wines. And the numbers we're using are all based on GLC now, gas liquid chromatography, and they're taking to the 100th decimal place. So it's technology helping and it's also holding us back because people don't want to pay the taxes, so all these wines that are $10, $12, $15 are sent through these machines, spinning cones that reverse osmosis to drop the alcohol out and make sure that you're under this make-believe number of 14.0. And you get all these wine writers that say, "Oh, my God, look at this thing, it says 15 percent. We never used to have these wines." Yes you did, you didn't realize it, we just told you otherwise. We'd have a day like today when it's starting to rain, you've got this barometric change and you're comparing the boiling point of water to boiling point of water-wine mixture and you're going to get some freaky numbers there and this is the time you record them, and yeah, "I'll be darned, it's 13.9 woohoo! We made it under. I don't know where we came up with that 14.6 that I didn't write down before, but..."
Where do you find the inspiration in making new wines?
You know, I think it's just trying to do it again. That's the biggest challenge for me is try to gear up for one more. I'm excited about the potential of the upcoming '09. We have so many opportunities to make decisions and take advantage of opportunities, but they come and go and hopefully I'm there to see it and I'm feeling the inspiration. I'm excited about being part of Napa Valley. It's a real privilege to be here and I'm just having a good ride.
Do you have any rituals or habits before the harvest begins?
Oh yeah. Either sparkling wine or champagne to kick it off, drink some, pour some on the grapes, that's a given.
Geography, availability, price, all that aside, if you could make wine from any varietal, from any region, anything pique your interest?
Cabernet is really hard to pass up on. Merlot is something I make it because I know that there's a big following, there are people that love it, it's something you don't have to really take too seriously.
But I'm loving Sauvignon Blanc. It's wonderful, exciting, much more dynamic than I'm allowing myself to see. So the great potential for that stuff in so many versions that we could make, that's exciting. If I'm going to do the dream come true, Sauvignon Blancs, we'll probably have about five ranges. Some would be machine crushed and processed in that way, some would be nonclarified, some would be barrel fermented, all 100 percent wood, from France or California, God knows from where, but some high quality oak fermentation. And then the others would be theses little stainless steel tanks.
I'm enjoying trying other people's Sauvignon Blancs. Not as excited about New Zealand ones because they all seem to be cookie cutter. There's a characteristic that they just can't seem to shake. I don't know if it's because of that real cool climate or what.
So what do you drink when you're not drinking your own?
That's rare. I love Champagnes, sparkling wines and I love how far California has come compared to the French-- it's spectacular. I drink a lot of Pinot Noir from Sonoma Coast, Anderson Valley and Santa Lucia area. Burgundy, when I can splurge.
I just really want to thank you for taking the time. I've been a huge fan of you wines-- Provenance Vineyards has been one of my default stops when bringing friends through wine country. Your wines are beautiful expressions of the skills and passion you put behind them. Again, thank you.
timo said:
posted Aug 31, 2009 at 11:39AM
Interesting