A Walk in the Vineyard
Late in August of 2015, Suzi and I went to check the grapes. We began with the northern terrace about midway down. I took a grape from the middle of each cluster on each side of the row, about the same exposure. I squeezed a drop onto the refractometer then gave the grape to Suzi to taste and see if the seed had turned brown and whether the stem was dark and dry, indicating the end of maturation. They tasted sweet with elaborate flavors. The grapes were showing between 23 and 24 brix (the sugar level), that was specified optimal by the buyers, and not to go over 24 to avoid high alcohol. I asked Suzi, “wouldn't it be nice to make a wine like Aubert de Villaine”, the vintner at Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, in Burgundy France, commonly referred to as DCR, home to what many consider the greatest wine in the world. “Yeah, it’s a pricy dream”, she said. “I read that on release, his 2002 retailed at Sherry-Lehmann in New York for $2,275 a bottle.”
“That’s my dream”, I retorted.
Next year – 2016 – as the autumn leaves painted Roma’s Vineyard with a master's touch, Suzi and I strolled out among the vines. This time, over a week since our first harvest. We set aside a few rows to let the grapes ripen to full maturity just like I read Villaine does. Long after the other vineyards are denuded, his vineyard braces for the oncoming weather until he’s satisfied with full maturity. He believes that his old vines learn to self-regulate, with deep root systems, build up immunity to disease, and by dry farming, force the roots to go deeper, extracting minerals from the soil for more structured wine. As Suzi and I moved along I picked a grape from about midway on the cluster, from the same spot every few vines, and tried to conceal my astonishment. “Here,” I said, “try this.” Suzi bit, then she spit, then she bit again. “Oh my god, the taste. I can’t believe all these flavors.”
As we trod along, I thought to myself, our dynamic resource is Suzi, she can smell a rose at twenty paces, and track the bouquet of our Pinot like a bloodhound. She not only knows grand wines, but she has the sommelier’s soul and a scientist mind, and just as proudly, she is a certified wino. Pinot Noir is by nature, parsimonious with its yields and on our mountain top – looking at the sun – it is frugal at best. The grapes are seldom bigger than blueberries, and the weight of a cluster rarely exceeds 3 ounces. The scale showed 25+, a figure I had not expected to consider, but as we munched our way through the rows, we chewed the thick skins to release the flavor laden pulp and swished it around on our pallets. Not only did it release the molecules called aroma precursors, but our lips also became tainted by a pigment call anthocyanin, the purplish –red color of the skins. It was nothing we had tasted before. Only slightly higher points of sugar, but more tannic and entrancing. By virtue, we discovered what our reviewers would later call a “Spell-Casting Wine.” As we mused along, I thought about Villaine and the lyrics in an old song: ‘You ole desert wildcat you knew where it was at, what life’s all about.”
Other vintners in Burgundy may reuse their oak barrels but Villaine doesn’t, he ages his wine for 18 months in New French Oak barrels. When we bought our first new burgundy barrels, Suzi looked at the invoice with the exclamation, “wow, these must be the Rolls Royce of wine barrels. “Yeah” I said in a low tone, we’re not gonna get rich.” Suzi demurred, “Our richness is in our way of life.” “Well,” said I, “let’s just keep making a wine we enjoy drinking and our friends will enjoy with us.”
Our regret is that we only made a little over a hundred cases and it will soon be gone. Come and visit us at our winery and home on Sunday, May 22, 2022, for the Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Festival, Roma’s Vineyard Open House, and we’ll save you a bottle or two of, ‘Spell-Casting-Wine’.
Suzi and Dean
