notes from the winery
Harvest 2009
Featured
Vintage:
2006 Dry Creek Valley Old
Vine Zinfandel
"The 2006 Zin is an excellent vintage─a big, rich wine, with that Dry Creek Valley raspberry-peppery signature," says our winemaker Margaret Davenport.
A field blend made from grapes grown on the western bench of Dry Creek Valley, our 2006 Old Vine Zinfandel offers fruit aromas of cherry and raspberry/blackberry with a bit of black pepper and green peppercorn. Along with the jammy fruit notes, the oak lends a bit of mocha to the long, savory finish.
Passalacqua's 2006 Old Vine Zin is an ideal wine for harvest celebrations and cozy winter evenings. To purchase your share of this popular vintage, give us a call at 877-825-5547 or visit the 2006 Old Vine Zinfandel page. $29
Winemaker’s Notes: Harvest in the Cellar
Without a doubt, the harvest of 2009 was a late one, held back by late-spring rains (the last storm arrived on May 2) and cool summer weather. Our hot weather came in a series of brief, intermittent heat spikes. Drought was a topic of conversation, and local gardeners’ tomatoes weren’t particularly good.
Happily,
the grapes were another matter. All the varietals got enough hang time to mature properly,
i.e., the rise in Brix or sugar content did not outstrip the physiological ripening that
produces great flavors and appropriate tannins for wine texture. Chardonnay and Sauvignon
Blanc have very intense varietal character this year thanks to this hang time. We’ll
be racking the Sauvignon Blanc off its primary fermentation lees before Thanksgiving
and the Chardonnay is slowly progressing through the malolactic fermentation, bone dry,
in French oak barrels from Cadus in Burgundy. Cadus is one of the cooperages that bends
the oak staves after hot-water submersion. The treatment leaches out harsh oak tannins,
making the barrels particularly suitable for producing soft, creamy Chardonnay with a
smooth texture and subtle toast. The oak plays second fiddle to the fruit.
2009 looks to be a very good year for Zinfandel, and I am really excited about the Heirloom Vineyard in Dry Creek Valley. It’s still a young vineyard but the vines have made a quantum leap in maturity this vintage due to the long growing season. Recall that Heirloom is a collection of famous Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel clones, so it’s basically one of the most complex Zins we make other than those from old, mixed-varietal field blends. We picked it on September 29 at 26.5 Brix, which is just about perfect for Zin. I’m aging it in barrels from Tonnellerie Alain Fouquet, a master cooper from Cognac who has taught me a great deal about French oak. The barrels are made to accommodate the softer tannins of Zin and impart flavors of cocoa, mocha and coffee with a definite toasted wood character.
Choosing oak is a fascinating aspect of winemaking. While oak grows in most of the temperate wine regions of the world, only a few species are used for wine containers, from 60-gallon barrels to large oak uprights that can hold several thousand gallons. American oak comes from the Midwest, in an area ranging from Minnesota at the northernmost, south through Missouri, and east to the Cumberland Gap. The stave mills and cooperages, originally established to make Bourbon barrels, are also located in these areas.
French oak forests are carefully managed by the state, as their original purpose centuries ago was to provide oak for the French Navy. Beech trees are interplanted with oak to prevent the oaks from throwing out branches because knotholes from branches cause leaks. French oak is a species different from American oak and French staves must be split to hold liquid while American oak can be sawed and still be liquid-tight.
Certain cooperages are renowned for their suitability for aging specific varietals. For example, tight-grained oak barrels from Taransaud are prized for Cabernet Sauvignon. Their loose-grained barrels from the forest of Limousin are prized for Cognac. François barrels, coopered in Burgundy, are perfect for Pinot Noir of the Cote d’Or.
But what to do with Zinfandel or Petit Sirah, admittedly New World varietals without a tradition? And how about oak barrels from Eastern Europe? Here a winemaker can use past experience and a desire to experiment─conservatively, of course─to find the right oak to suit her stylistic intentions for each wine. In the case of Viti della Nebbia, my goal was to introduce a healthy amount of vanillin, a bit of coconut and a broad toasty smokiness from Canton American oak, having staves that were air-aged for three years prior to being coopered. Now Canton has introduced barrels with four-year air-aged staves and I am trying them with several wines. On the other hand, for the Sangiovese component of Radici della Famiglia, I favor French oak from the small Gillet cooperage outside Beaune. The subtle toast and spice of these barrels do not overpower the Sangiovese on its own, and blend well with the French oak flavors of the Cab. All in all, the combination of our great harvest and such finely crafted oak barrels makes for much to look forward to in the 2009 vintage.
New Vineyard-Designate Zinfandel Releases
Those of you who visited us for “A Warm Summer Night at Passalacqua Winery” in August know how excited we are about our vineyard-designate Zinfandel program. These wines come exclusively from the finest Zinfandel vineyards in Dry Creek Valley and we make sure to reserve enough for our wine club members to sample in their shipments. New releases of our vineyard-designate Zins include:
2007 Dry Creek Valley Estate Zinfandel ($36) – A classic Zinfandel with focused, lush flavors, this wine is easily approachable and appeals to a wide range of palates.
2007 Dry Creek Valley Maple Vineyard Zinfandel ($40) – This layered, complex wine can be savored alone or paired with holiday fare, and is an elegant addition to any celebration.
Wine club members may buy these wines in unlimited quantities while they last. To make your purchase, visit Our Wines.
If you are not a wine club member and would like information about becoming one, call us at 877-825-5547 or e-mail Kathy Mooney at Kathy@passalacquawinery.com.
Holiday Gift Ideas
All of our wines, as well as wine club memberships,
are perfect for holiday gift giving. We can also help you with your corporate gift needs,
and suggest the following gift collections for those special family members, friends,
and colleagues on your list.
The Vineyard-Designate Collection $120
One bottle each of our 2007 Dry Creek Valley Estate Zinfandel, 2007 Dry Creek Valley
Maple Vineyard Zinfandel, 2007 Russian River Valley Zinfandel Viti della Nebbia presented
in a three-bottle wooden box engraved with the Passalacqua logo.
The Holiday Classics Collection $110
One bottle each of our 2007 Dry Creek Valley Chardonnay and our 2005 Dry Creek Valley
T.R. Passalacqua Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon with an inlaid rosewood corkscrew in
a Passalacqua case, accompanied by a Passalacqua branded wooden wine box.
To order, please call us at 877-825-5547 or email Kathy Mooney at kathy@passalacquawinery.com.
Farmer’s Corner
The 2009 grape-growing season was one of both excitement and challenges. After a spring of perfect vine-growing weather, we saw a cool summer and slow start to fall. Although we usually expect a relatively hot summer and a harvest in early October, the cooler weather with minimal heat spikes is actually a better recipe for intensely flavoured fruit.
Throughout the summer we kept a close eye on the vines, pulling leaves, dropping fruit and irrigating as needed to assist Mother Nature in the remarkable fruit of this vintage. Cluster size was good, and the crop itself was not too heavy or too light, giving the optimum conditions for a great harvest. Then came October, and Mother Nature’s extreme weather pattern dramatically changed our harvest plans!
The Cabernet vineyard in which the grapes for Passalacqua Winery’s Block 18 and
19 Cabernet and other Cabs are grown, is located on the southern slopes of Dry Creek
Valley’s terraces with vine rows planted in a north-to-south direction. The 30-degree
slopes precipitate rapid drainage and longer exposure to the sun. The roots of the vines
penetrate approximately three feet into rocky loam clay soil, thus when the October monsoon
rains (5.5 inches at the vineyard site) were over, the terroir and the vine layout assisted
the grape maturation environment.
Following the rain, the individual bunches of grapes would have developed mildew had we not changed our harvest strategy. The outside of the grape clusters dried as a result of the winds that followed the storm, however, the berries on the inside of the bunches were tightly pressed against each other which prevented the light wind from drying these inner berries. Lack of a stronger wind current would cause a total loss of the crop.
To prevent that loss, we needed to maximize air flow and create our own wind currents. Our first step was to hire additional employees to remove all of the leaves in the fruit zone of the vine. This activity would allow air flow and sunlight to pass through the specific zone of the vine without being impeded. The green leaves on the remainder of the cane (35+/-) were sufficient for the photosynthesis necessary to allow the grapes to mature. Remember, we still needed wind to dry the wet grapes located on the inside of the bunch. Once again, Mother Nature did not cooperate, so we created our own wind to completely dry out the bunches. We hired a helicopter to hover over the vineyard, which Jason directed with Luca and Mariella watching closely. The helicopter flew approximately fifteen feet above and over each vine row (up and down the rows and then across the same rows), creating winds fifty to seventy miles per hour. This was a great solution, but we had to proceed with caution, as too much wind could blow the grapes off of the bunch, and/or push a vine row to the ground. Thanks to ground communication and the helicopter pilot’s expertise, we did not experience either. After the pilot was finished, you could tap a cluster of grapes and not one drop of water would fall into your hand!
And then the sun came out and kept everything dry. Our vineyard soil is rocky and shallow, thus the vines’ roots were moist but not wet as the soil dried, helping to maintain the concentrated flavor in the fruit that the summer weather had set in motion.
Blocks 18 and 19 were hand-picked at 24.6 Brix, and two other Cabernet blocks were hand-picked at 25.2 and 24.4 Brix - the juice was very dark with a rich berry flavor. The acids and tannins were in balance, all of which is necessary to produce the quality Cabernet that you expect from Passalacqua Winery. Because of the optimum growing season, and our ability to change harvest strategies, I personally have very high expectations for our 2009 vintage.
PassalacquaWinery.com: A New Look Online
We are thrilled to welcome you to our new website, featuring an elegant design, easy navigation and an efficient new shopping cart for your wine purchases. We’ve also added new content on everything from the Cabernet Vineyard and Zinfandel Vineyards behind our most popular wines to Passalacqua’s winemaking philosophy. Click here to browse the new PassalacquaWinery.com!
