KPB
Posts: 4663
Joined: 11/25/2012 From: Ithaca, New York Status: offline
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Honestly, though, I don't think of this as much of a red-wine area. It will be someday, with the general warming trend (and the grape will be pinot noir, or perhaps PN along with a second line of strong cabernet franc reds). But right now, very hit and miss. My feeling is that we currently get a lot of rather stemmy, green pinot noir. Heart and Hand does far better, but their pinot noir can seem a bit sweet and candied, like strawberry soda without the fizz. In fact I often think of the best pinot noir in this area as being more like a rose than a red -- they often have light color, rose-like, and often are sweet without a lot of depth, also rose-like. The producers in that style would be Heart and Hands, Ryan William (who sometimes just declares the stuff to be rose), Hermann Weimer. Forge is trying to make a serious pinot noir, darker and more complex -- but it very often shows stemmy pyrazine aromas and flavors. So it isn't there yet. As for cabernet franc, the hands-down best wine ever in that style was an accidental bottling from Leidenfrost. It was the 2008 "vintner's reserve" and had a story behind it: someone had a contract for a parcel of cabernet franc but abruptly went out of business or had a health crisis. Anyhow, reneged. So they had a whole parcel and as fall dragged on, no buyer for it. Eventually, the winemaker and his daughter (who is now taking over more or more of the winemaking) bring in the fruit and make the wine themselves -- a late harvested cabernet franc. As it happens, that fall was dry and quite hot, and the wine gained a lot of substance and richness. Too much, in fact: when they vinified it the stuff was kind of a "monster red". But Leidenfrost was doing well and had good quality neutral oak barrels and could afford to just leave the wine in the corner. So it stayed in their cellar for a few years. And that wine was sensational -- a world-class wine that could have been from one of the best producers in Chile or Argentina, or from the hilly areas of the Perigord, or maybe a hilly site in the Loire. Profound, chewy, fascinating nose and palate. So I asked the daughter why she didn't drop everything and only make that wine. But her answer speaks to the real issue here: weather. She says they were lucky in a dozen ways. No hurricanes got up this far that summer. It was a glorious, sunny, dry fall. No mold at all, perfect fruit. So, try that ten times and she would be very fortunate to pull it off twice. Still, with global warming, the day is coming when everyone can make that wine. It isn't quite here yet, but it will get here. Today, on the other hand, we are all worrying about the state of the 2023 vintage: tonight the temperature will dip to 26 for a few hours... frost risk is very high.
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Ken Birman The Professor of Brettology
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