We had an absolute ball this week with our banter back and forth across the Atlantic. Steph is still toodling around Italy, and Val admits that owning a vineyard would make her break out in hives. From harvest talk and male somms modeling designer table cloths (hey, we don’t make this stuff up), to baboons and Madeira-tasting party tricks, this episode covers a lot of ground but is a lot of fun. We hope you enjoy hanging out with the Wine Two Five ladies this week.
IN OUR GLASSES:
Steph: I opened Katarina’s gift – a 2011 Campochiarenti Chianti Colli Senesi (*side note – their Press page lists Katarina’s blab interview!)
Val: Still drawing from my samples from June. You can see how this looks in last week’s show notes blog. This is the Catena 2013 Malbec from the Catena Zapata family in Mendoza, Argentina.
DISCUSSION TOPIC:
“October is my favorite color” memes are everywhere and we feel the same way, so let’s tie this in with today’s topic! The grape harvest!
Fall overlooking the vines of Castello di Brolio
It’s harvest time in the Northern Hemisphere. It usually begins in the late summer, around August, with the grapes picked for sparkling wines. These grapes are picked with lower sugar levels and they often don’t need to be as ripe, but the acidity levels are still high which is important for sparkling wine.
Thicker skinned red or black grapes are picked later as many of these (like petit verdot & cabernet) tend to ripen later. Not only do they need to develop sugar levels (since this is what the yeasts convert to alcohol), but they also need to develop phenolic and tannic ripeness where the skins are concerned. If grapes are picked too early, and no doubt you’ve had a wine where the tannins are fiercely aggressive, the wine can be pretty rough if they aren’t allowed to soften during the ripening process. (This is also where wood aging in barrels comes in, by the way.)
Here’s a little factoid for you: Anthocyanins are what give the black grapes their color, and during ripening, these increase as the chlorophyll levels in the grapes (the green color) decreases.Obviously we aren’t going to go into pH levels (red wines versus those with more blue color) and malic and tartaric acids or what potassium has to do with any of this.
But there are other things that come into play when we are talking about harvest. The weather is a biggie. Not only do growers have to worry about weather at harvest, for example, picking late in the season under rainy skies can be devastating to crops. Grapes can become diluted or mold can ruin the harvest altogether. Early frosts with grapes still on the vine can also destroy the crop. That said, weather throughout the summer and even back in the spring can impact yield and ripening. Late spring frosts when vines are still budding can kill off the developing grapes and/or significantly reduce yields. Summer hail can shred the grapes and destroy the canopy – or leaf system – that protects the grapes from harsh sun and facilitates photosynthesis.
Other things that can affect harvest include disease and pests. A few years back Val saw photos of baboons eating grapes in South Africa. Having since been there, she knows now it truly is a problem! We laugh, but in fact, the electric fences don’t keep out the baboons. There are accounts of mama babooon throwing her babies onto the electric fence to see if it screams. That means it’s hot and not to go in. But if the baby baboon doesn’t scream, well, it’s grape on! There’s a cute piece in the LA Times blog from 2010 called, “Baboons: The wine connoisseurs of the animal kingdom” And can anyone guess which grapes the prefer?
Apparently they like a good pinot or chardonnay. You may also remember these are the grapes featured in the burgundy wines we talked about in episodes early this month. Speaking of Burgundy, this kind of plays right back into the discussion topic of harvest and then into this week’s WinoRadar!
WINORADAR:
So after Burgundy suffered frost, hail, mildew, locusts, frogs and the plague (just kidding about the last 3), and according to another article in Decanter “every grape counts” as this was the worst harvest since 1981, and is somewhere between 20 and 27% lower than last year. So guess what they are dealing with now? Grapes are being stolen! http://www.decanter.com/wine-news/harvest/burgundy-grape-theft-wars-333330/
I mean, who does this? Stealing grapes? No, not the baboons. There are no baboons in Burgundy – at least that we are aware of. It’s almost as strange as our current election sh** show … almost. We’re not even sure this could top that. But it’s strange just the same. Also according to the 8 October Decanter article, “Meursault-based Domaine Latour-Giraud lost the equivalent of 1,200 bottles of wine.”
As you may guess, smaller harvest and resulting production of wine will most likely equate to some higher prices. So when you think about why wines cost what they do, it makes sense that “the year” has something to do with it, right?
It’s also not a new thing. Last year in the Rhone Maison Etienne Guigal had about 1/3rd of their premium viognier grapes stolen that were reserved for their famous Luminescence. Sadly, it was a stellar year. Happily, the rest of the grapes were still in the best shape. The stolen grapes were valued at nearly 40,000 euros (or about $45,350 at the time). Here’s more on this story from, of course, our trusted friends at Decanter. Another little factoid about this coveted Condrieu? The only other great years in which this wine was made were 1999 and 2003.
But wait, there’s more! Also in 2010, in the Langeudoc-Roussillon in Southern France, producer Roland Cavaille had folks literally come in at night with a mechanical harvester and rip off 30 tons of Cabernet Sauvignon. How did they get away with this? Apparently the vineyards were in an isolated spot away from the village.
See – and Val gets all bejiggety about deer eating my hydrangeas. If she was a grape grower she’d break out in hives. We totally raise our glasses to people who grow the grapes and take on that stress year round so we can drink and talk about vino. Speaking of which, it’s Factoid time.
FACTOID:
Here’s an interesting factoid from Oz Clarke’s The History of Wine in 100 Bottles: From Bacchus to Bordeaux and Beyond: Did you know that when Madeira was imported into major port cities of Savannah and Charleston prior to the Civil War that Americans were the world’s greatest Madeira connoisseurs? Dating back to the 1660s, the blind tasting party trick at the time was to not only identify the wine, but to identify the actual ship the wine came in on. The reason for this is that the ships varied in the amount of traveling and their routes across the Atlantic. So each wine could be tied to an individual ship and verified by looking at the ship’s log.
Can you imagine not recognizing that Madeira has different styles (Sercial, Boal, Verdelho, and Malmsey) but knowing that it came floating on in from the Trowbridge or whatever ships were docking during that time? Good thing blind tasting papers today aren’t being graded like this.
(NOTE: We made a joke here that was actually a trick question regarding a tractor, did you pick up on this?)
EVENT UPDATE:
Florence: It was so cool that Steph got to hang out with Katarina, our guest from Episode 62!
Some of you may remember that Katarina’s also a sommelier and heavily involved with the FISAR organization (F.I.S.A.R. – Federazione Italiana Sommelier Albergatori Ristoratori or Federation of Italian Hotel & Restaurant Sommeliers). Well, she shared an audio clip with us about an event happening on the 12th & 13th of November in Florence, if you just happen to be going there about that time. More information is here: http://www.vinoe.it/
There will be cooking demonstrations, tastings from incredible producers, including a vertical of vintage Giulio Ferrari bubbly! And did she say male sommeliers sporting designer table cloths? Um, yes, yes she did. She also promised to post pictures on twitter. We can’t wait for this. You can also stalk Vino e’ on twitter, as we’ve been doing, @vinoefisar.
New Orleans: Our friend, author Suzanne Hoffman from Episode 69, will be in New Orleans at some wine and food events featuring the Labor of Love: Wine family women of Piemonte book! Here are the dates/times/places:
Rebellion Bar & Urban Kitchen, Tuesday, Oct. 25, from 6:30-9:30 p.m. “Chef Chris DeBarr and his team at Rebellion will welcome home Suzanne Hoffman with her gorgeous, groundbreaking book, Labor of Love: Wine Family Women of the Piemonte that will be paired with a grand tasting of wines from the iconic northwest Italian wine region.” (from “Piemonte Wines & Book Signing” Eventbrite site – click for tickets)
Swirl Wine Bar & Market, Wednesday, Oct 26, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM CDT. “This highly anticipated event will feature wines from esteemed producers Bartolo Mascarello, Vajra, Cascina delle Rose, Malvira, Marchesi di Barolo, La Scolca, Marenco and Ca’Bianca. The tasting event will begin at 6pm, pause at 6:30 for a reading and then continue with questions, book signing and continued tasting. The event is $15 and a plate of Piemontese cheeses will be available that evening for $15. Weather permitting this event will be held on our patio.” (from “Labor of Love, Celebrating the Wines and Producers of Piemonte” Eventbrite site – click for tickets)
PATREON LOVE:
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