Cima Collina

Archive for March, 2006

Once when the world was a little younger and words came more easily from my mouth than they should’ve, I said something I shouldn’t have to someone and as a result one day found myself being chased by a very angry young wild bull elephant across the (seemingly) vast Kenyan savannah. I was on foot and so was he, and to this day I can easily recall how the weight of him pounded and the ground shook as he ran after me. Needless to say, I learned a number of poignant lessons that day: 1. never joke about a Kenyan’s spear; 2. white people can run fast , too; 3. I should’ve paid more attention to all of those Wild Kingdom episodes.

In many ways, being involved in a small, start-up winery is like having a wild elephant around. Sometimes I run from it. Other times I’m running after it. And then sometimes I’m sitting astride it, looking out over the landscape and maybe even reveling a little in the accomplishment.

Nowhere to run, Nowhere to hide

I love my job, there’s no doubt about it. I have always enjoyed being involved in wine production and the many roles I’ve had an opportunity in in many various wineries over the years. This is something I’ve learned over the years: the title “winemaker” and all of the responsibilities with the title vary from winery to winery. Winemakers for large corporate wineries tend to do a lot of tastings, sit in a lot of meetings, ask for samples to be brought to them, and talk to a lot of people. Winemakers in medium-sized wineries do anything from fix the bottling line to directing cellar staff, act as a liason between winery ownership and directors and staff and cellarcrew, and possibly manage vineyards as well. Winemakers for small wineries, I have discovered, can be found doing just about anything at any given time whether it’s making a sales call to a local restaurant, planning marketing and financial strategies, making sure everyone gets paid on time, fixing that leaking barrel, purchasing grapes and working with growers on how to manage the vines, cleaning drains…..you get the idea. To a certain extent I enjoy absolutely everything that comes with the job, but there are things from which I do find myself running at times. Budgets, revenue projections, pricing decisions, doing lab work, bottling and preparation for bottling — these are all things I tend to avoid (that’s what I’m doing right now).

Something else: the landscape of this project is often vast and there’s simply nowhere to hide. It’s true. What I’ve discovered is that it essentially involves putting oneself out there, opening oneself up to criticism in one way or another, and at some point realizing and accepting that your being humbled everyday.

But Wait for Me!

When we first conceived of this project there was so much at the time that remained to be decided — package design, marketing and sales strategies, our marketing identity, bottling times, release dates. Many of these factors we had control of, it was just a matter of time before they resolved themselves. But also at the beginning, so many unanswered questions and uncertainties floated around: What will the wine be like? How will we be received? Will this winery be a success? Will it be profitable? Many of those questions are still unanswered, but so many things have changed over the course of the last year and half that we are sometimes dumbfounded by where we are today. The packaging and website have taken a life of their own. Folks are calling or emailing to order wine. Our chardonnay is almost sold out. Some wine buyers recently practically flipped when they tasted our pinot — they liked it that much. So, along the way, we hoped that all these things will happen, but when they have, I have realized this is no longer in our control. Sometimes it seems like it has become a lumbering pachyderm with a mind of it’s own and is setting it’s own course, inspite of me or anything else. I’ve come to accept that we are at that stage where once you’ve set something free you better hang on and enjoy the ride, or at the very least, the chase!

This is Good

Then there are the beautiful moments when all comes together: Harvest is over! Bottling is over! Those catwalks we installed over the tanks are the best! Wow — that wine is tasting good! These are the times when we can congratulate each other and ourselves for a job well done, and they are times to look behind us while on top of that elephant and see how far we have come. At the same time, we can also look out far ahead and see how far we have yet to go. It is the time when we feel like we’re riding high, and realize, yes, it is all good.

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This post is in response to Erwin’s comment to my post from 3-24-06 “Pinot for Everyone Else”:
Hi Erwin,
You raise some theoretical and practical concerns that I’m not sure many can answer at this point. First of all about the frustration you mention about trying to gain a deeper understanding of a varietal: I remember when I was just beginning on the path of learning about varietal characteristics in wines. If I had an array of glasses in front of me, all with a different varietal in them and it was a blind tasting, the initial impression made is of the color and all of its facets: depth, tone, hue. I could get a pretty good idea just from looking at the wines what they might in fact be. Can tasters who are trying to find their way through the maze of varietal character — and trying to learn more about wine appreciation — rely on color as an indicator anymore, as you mention? Frustrating indeed.

You ask about experienced wine tasters and detecting the presence of Mega Purple. Dan Berger’s Wines & Vines article describes a tasting that he, John Buechsenstein of UCDavis, a winemaker named Kerry Damskey Harvey, Clark Smith of Vinovation and Dr. Richard Peterson (former winemaker at Beaulieu) and Dan Berger himself organized. They added Mega Purple in varying degrees: .2% to .8% (remember, this is pretty concentrated stuff, and these additions were described as being “large amounts”) to Cabernet and Zinfandel. Some of the comments: Dan says “the ‘additive’ wines were clearly plumper and a bit more full-bodied than were the control samples…..The Cabernet in this case wasn’t very dark in color, so the additive wines bolstered the red color, but even at the lowest levels, I found the wines to be a bit fatter and less characteristic of Cabernet. For me, the Zinfandels were most hurt by Mega Purple, because the color additives compromised the varietal spice.” Damskey said “he has used Mega Purple in the past a couple of times, ‘but the addition has to be a lot less’ than we used in our blind tasting. ‘And you have to be very careful how you use it. The downside is that I don’t like the way it changes the aroma. More than often, it mutes the aroma'”. Harvey said: “‘the ‘sweetness’ in the Cabernet made the tannins more astringent, ‘ because, she said, the sweetness was out of sync with the rest of the wine…..Harvey added, ‘I don’t plan on using it. It’s easier to add Cabernet Franc to Cabernet Sauvignon. Using (Mega Purple), the wine seemed too disjointed, plus I got a sort of licorice or jug character from it.'” The article finishes with a quote from John Williams, of Frog’s Leap: “William’s concern, he said, is that color additions like Mega Purple might someday ‘become part of the regular winemaking regime'”.

So, this tasting doesn’t necessarily reflect what might happen in reality in that they were using higher additive rates than what might normally be considered, but it is still interesting to read the comments on the effects. So who knows if an experienced taster can say “Aha — they are using Mega-whatever”, but if a varietal wine seems dumbed down, slightly sweet or round, highly colorful, etc., it might be a tip-off of some kind of modern winemaking manipulation (these Mega products are only one of an array of “tools” brought to us courtesy of modern technology).

Which leads me to an idea of disclosure, as you mention as being the main issue for you. Here is an idea and one I would like implement here at the winery: to begin labeling all wines as to their exact content and that they are free of any color additives. Federal law states that anything on the label must match cellar records, and if it doesn’t then the winemaker — not the winery — (so in this case, me) is personally liable for any fines, prosecution, jail time, etc. Maybe disclosure would be the best option for most wineries — especially small wineries — to insure the consumer knows what they are drinking? How does this sound?

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I don’t really like to discuss wine color a whole lot these days because I think the whole subject is pretty tiresome at this point. But two articles that have come out recently in the wine industry media that have spurred my interest. The first article was published in the April, 2006 issue of Wine & Spirits magazine entitled “Pinot Noir Taboo”, written by Jordan Mackay. I’ve gotten to the point with wine media where I’m generally looking forward to my subscriptions running out for most of them, especially the review-heavy types of zines. But, I have to say that the kinds of articles I have seen in this magazine recently have piqued my interest in this magazine, and I hope they continue the good work. In this article, Jordan discusses the taboo of blending other varietals into Pinot Noir to make it darker and richer than it ordinarily would be. It is taboo not because it is an illegal practice (25% of a wine of a varietal wine can be of other varietals), but because no one wants to admit they do it. Jordan doesn’t find out much, because no one is willing to talk to him about it except for the folks that are making Pinot Noir blends outright (for example Terry Speizer, Greg La Follette and Lynn Penner-Ash). All of these folks have been making Pinot for years and say that yes, folks do blend and don’t admit to doing it. Also, an interesting point that Jordan points out is that the amount of Pinot being sold these days has increased dramatically, but the acreage planted has almost remained unchanged. How can that happen unless it is, in fact, being blended with other wines?

The other article that pursued a related taboo is one entitled “Mega Purple” by Dan Berger in the March 2006 issue of Wines & Vines magazine. Mega Purple and its cousin Mega Red are products that I have been vaguely aware of for sometime but didn’t know much about. According to Dan, Mega Purple is produced by Constellation, aka Canandaigua. (A quick corporation primer here: Constellation, which owns, among other things Estancia, Ravenswood, Simi, and the sole distribution rights for Corona and Modelo beers in the US is, in turn, owned by Canandaigua, the illustrious producers of, among other things, Cisco and Wild Irish Rose, and other what I call “formula” wine products). To summarize, many winemakers, maybe thousands of winemakers, apparently use this additive (a concentrate of grape skin extracts) to enhance color, body and add a light “sweetness” to a wine. Here’s a quote from the article on page 53: ” Yet one Monterey County winery president confided, ‘Virtually everyone is using it.'”

First of all — to Jordan and Dan — good job in tackling a subject that folks have whispered for years. It is about time that these things start to be examined by folks in the industry, but especially by wine drinking consumers.

Second of all: why such a concern over color? It is such a silly concern that started in the early 90’s, in my opinion, when the cult Cabernet thing was moving into full swing and the concept that dark-hued wines receive higher magazine ratings (read, then higher the value and collectibility of the wine will be) developed. Before you knew it, a grain of wine color obsession became a landslide of delusion and superficial concern. In the 90’s, the main winemaking discussion seemed to be how to get the most color out of Pinot. I am hoping that wine drinkers and winemakers are moving beyond that simple concern, but apparently not?

The way I see it, there are two different classifications of Pinot these days in the US: PCD’s (Pinot for Cab Drinkers) and PEE’s (excuse the acronym: Pinot for Everyone Else). I like Cabernet, and I have nothing against Cabernet drinkers, but what I don’t like is the concept of placing the same expecations one has of Cabernet (dark, rich, and, well, dark, rich) on a wine such as Pinot Noir and, as it turns out, the typical PCD’s are usually dark, rich and relatively non-varietal in character. If you like that, then go to it.

But, as one who has been involved with Pinot Noir for some time and has had the opportunity to form a, more or less, “purist’s” opinion about it, this is an idea I offer: Let’s embrace the concept of, um, PEE! What should we expect from Pinot for Everyone Else? How about “Everything Pinot Can Be”, which is to say, let’s appreciate it for it’s wide-ranging varietal capacity, depending upon where it is from and who makes it. That, in the end, is the beauty of the varietal to me, and also, I suspect and hope, for a growing number of other wine interested folks: the possibilities Pinot holds within itself, without any help from its friends.

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I will admit that I have developed the occasional habit of smoking cigars (small cigars mostly — cigarillos). This is just a recent occurrence and one my husband says coincides with the evolution of Cima Collina. Many times, there just seems nothing better than to go home, sit on our porch, look at the mountains around our house and smoke a cigar, and maybe drink a little Pinot as well. Not being the kind of person to have many vices (although I’m a winemaker, I tend to actually consume very little wine myself), I wonder if he might be right…..

When talking about Cima Collina, people ask me all of the time about what it is like to be involved in a start-up winery. On any given day I could say exciting, fun, daunting or downright frustrating, as one might say with any new project. A project that involves the production and sale of alcohol, however, is probably even more challenging than most might think and it is mostly challenging when it comes to government regulation. Let me give you a run-down here of the hurdles wineries are required to jump over in the US:

There are a myriad of local regulations these days either restricting wineries or banning them altogether. These are usually county regulations, although cities sometimes participate in this as well. Many of these regulations have come around in the last 10 years or so in response to public sentiment about vineyards or wineries. Much of this sentiment stems from misinformation about the wine industry or a “not in my backyard” attitude, or in this area especially, an incredibly far-reaching fear that a community will be “Nap-ified” (ie, there will be almost nothing else but wineries and vineyards in the area). Some of this sentiment is in response, and justifiably so, in my opinion, to ill-conceived projects in the past that caused erosion or some other environmental catastrophe or destruction (hillside terracing, cutting down forests, etc.). So, for a new winery project just about anywhere on the west coast these days, it takes a lot of effort to discover where, how, and, especially, how much it will cost to just get the local conditional use winery permit.

Also under the local regulations category is, of course, the building codes, fire inspection and water permits.

If one is able to obtain a local permit, then a state license from the alcohol control entity (in California it is Alcohol and Beverage Control, or “ABC”). They must approve the winery space, and the proposed uses of the building. Additionally, the winery must pursue various licenses from ABC for a number of purposes: selling wine off-site, tasting room licensing, some types of events require additional temporary licensing, etc.

In addition to “ABC”, the other state entity to consider is that which manages excise tax and reseller permits. (In California, this is the Board of Equalization, or “BOE”). The winery must apply to the BOE to receive a reseller permit. This also allows the winery to pay sales taxes. And, of course, to remain in good standing with the BOE, one must file sales tax returns on time every quarter.

Another permit one has to get if buying grapes from vineyards not owned by the winery is an Agricultural Processor’s permit as well as an Agricultural Agent’s permit.

Before a winery can legally produce wine intended for sale, it has to be “bonded”, ie it must get a federal “Basic Permit” to produce alcoholic beverages under a bond. This is a very complicated process that involves a lot of paperwork, time and patience, on the part of the winery as well as the federal agent handling the case. This permit is received from the “Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau” (formerly known as the “BATF”, but currently known as “TTB”), under the umbrella of the Department of Treasury. There are many requirements that must be met, and a number of restrictions understood, for a winery to be bonded and also to continue to be bonded. Some requirements, for example, are making sure that bonded wine remains in and properly accounted for in the “bonded area”; filing monthly forms (formerly known as 702’s, now know as 5120.17’s) describing the activities that took place in the winery, monthly inventory depletions in casegoods, amount of grapes brought in during crush, monthly wine inventory, etc.; filing excise tax forms in a timely basis, and of course paying the excise taxes due.

Once a winery is ready to sell it’s product and wants to sell directly to consumers in other states, then it is time to pursue interstate licensing. If a winery is in California, then it does not need a license to sell to consumers in California (thank goodness). But for every other state, there are highly varied licensing requirements (the application can be one page or ten pages; there can be a variety of applications for one state; some states require excise tax returns be filed every month regardless of whether wine was sold or not; some states require hundreds of dollars per label for label registration), different costs involved and various restrictions on how much can be shipped to an individual at any given time. The list doesn’t stop there, but you might get the idea of the amount of bureaucracy and paperwork involved when most states require licensing of some sort with different requirements. Those, of course are the states we can ship to; some we can’t. If you are interested in this, feel free to check out the Wine Insitute for more information.

So, there you have it for government regulations and wineries. I will go home and have a cigar, and then we can discuss the other challenges of a start-up winery: marketing, sales, winemaking, politics, wastewater, and maybe in the end making (a little?) money…..

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Those outside of the industry often seem to focus on the winemaker as the primary person in a winery operation. Maybe it is easiest to condense the focus on one person that represents the organization, and that is all well and good. But let’s not forget that there are many, many folks who work behind the scenes in wineries all over the world in a variety of capacities who, in the end, make it all happen. At Cima Collina, Doug is one of those people.

Doug likes to say that he was dragged into this project mostly because, among other things, he’s my husband. But really, he wanted to do this, he just had no idea at the time of his true potential or that this is really his true calling. It all started when I needed help setting the winery up — “Could you pick this up at the hardware store?”. Then it was “Could you go in and do a punchdown?”, then “Would you mind plumbing the rest of the glycol system?”, etc., etc. and, as you might expect, it eventually turned into a full-time, don’t have time for anything else kind of thing.

In his previous life, Doug had been involved with wine for quite a long time, mainly on the beverage service end of things in San Francisco during the 90’s doing bar and wine list management at swanky restaurants. He got an opportunity to learn about the wineries from which he purchased wine, and got to taste a good deal of wine as well. All in all, it was a chance to not only discover what was out there, but also to refine his palate. But as the world turns, things change, situations change, and he eventually found himself in the Carmel area.

Fast Forward to March, 2006. What does Doug do now? Well, his official title is Cellarmaster, in that he’s in charge of making sure we all stay in line when it comes to cleaning up in the cellar, making sure all the barrels are topped and in good working order, making sure tanks, fittings, etc. are clean, insuring, bascially, that all goes smoothly in cellar operations. Additionally, we bounce ideas off each other all of the time whether it is winemaking, marketing, sales, etc. He’s the one that gets up and goes to the winery at 2 in the morning when there’s a problem with the alarm, and recently he has become, as his unofficial title would suggest, Cima Collina’s one and only salesperson.

Yes: we do all of our own California distribution and sales. If a retail or restaurant account needs more wine they call us and we deliver directly. And the reason that account has the wine at all is because Doug hit the pavement, put himself out there and made the sales call. The best thing about it all: he likes doing it

It might seem pretty easy when one thinks about selling wine: hobnobbing with chefs, tasting wine, talking about wine, etc. Let me guarantee you it is not. The wine industry on a global scale is bigger than ever these days, which boils down to it being a very highly competitive marketplace right now. The restaurant industry is booming more than ever as well, which means restauranteurs are some of the busiest, around-the-clock, never stop folks I know. What does Doug have to do with when he goes out on sales calls? He has to get the wine buyer’s attention. If he gets their attention, then he has to make an impression in a matter of a minute or less. If that works then the buyer has to like the wine. If they like the wine then they have to like the price. If the price is good, then they have to work on where the wine will fit on the wine list and when the wine list will be reprinted so that we are included on it. He has to accomplish this all with many times at least 1 or 2 distributor reps, each with porfolios of 30, 60 or 100 wines, breathing down his neck waiting for their shot. But the job doesn’t stop there because after all that, he’s got to maintain the accounts as well which means making sure the wine actually makes it on the wine list, calling to make sure they haven’t run out of wine, and if they have, then delivering more. It is a non-stop effort.

Why does Doug do sales for Cima Collina? Why not farm it out to a distributor? We find nothing wrong with distributors, it is just that for this winery operation, it is important that we keep as much control over the finished product as possible, which includes whose hands finally pour it to the consumer. Since our main market is relatively close to the winery, it also doesn’t seem to make much sense to send the wine to sit in a distributor’s warehouse faraway, just to come back here. We think we can make a little more money doing it this way and at the same time keeping prices as low as we can. Lastly, small wineries such as Cima Collina tend to get lost in a distributor’s portfolio, so we want to take on full responsibility — from beginning the the very end — the insure the success of the winery.

So, the results of Doug’s hard work? So far, here’s where you can find us:

Clementine’s Kitchen
Shopper’s Corner, Santa Cruz
Deluxe Foods, Aptos
Uncorked, Saratoga
Kuleto’s, Los Gatos
Star Market, Salinas
The Bountiful Basket, Carmel
Sierra Mar at Post Ranch, Big Sur
Passionfish, Pacific Grove
Monterey Fish House
Village Fish House
Paradise Wine Bar
Grasing’s, Carmel-by-the-Sea
La Playa, Carmel-by-the-Sea
Bixby’s Martini Bistro, Carmel
Bahama Billy’s, Carmel
Taste of Monterey

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One question I often get is “What does a person need to do to recognize and describe all those flavors and aromas in wines?” I usually reply that it takes a lot of dedicated, hard work that involves tasting as many wines as you can get in your glass. I’m inclined these days to also say “Try being a pig”, but that probably needs an explanation:

I was driving along recently and saw a group of wild pigs rooting around quite enthusiastically next to the road. I pulled over to watch because it seemed that they were really enjoying what they were finding there. It was a group of what seemed to be 5-6 females or young males with about the same amount of yearling pigs. They were all different shades of brown — from copper to coffee colors (the piglets had stripes) — and they were oblivious to anything else happening around them. I rolled down the window and every one of them seemed to be grunting quite happily.

Pigs as we all know get a bad rap, most often in our language (Don’t be a pig, chauvinist pig, My, but you look like a pig). Around here, wild pigs have a bad reputation because they aren’t native, they tear up the ground when rooting around, they cause traffic accidents, there are too many of them, etc. (for an even-handed account of the controversy from someone who is experienced with the subject, click on this link: www.coestatepark.com/wild_pig.htm)
But while I sat in my car watching them that day, I was reminded of something that I really appreciate and can relate to: they are connoisseurs in their own right, especially when it comes to food. They eat acorns, berries, wild mushrooms, plant shoots, grubs, and, yes, given the opportunity, wine grapes at their ripest and most tastiest. (At one vineyard I worked for, it almost seemed pointless after awhile to go out and see if the grapes were ready to harvest, because if they were, the pigs usually got there first!)

Now, when I have some time away from the winery, I like to go out on hikes and, if the season is right, look for mushrooms. Being a mushroom seeker, and moreso because I’m a novice, often means inthe dirtiest, muddiest sense, being, truly, a pig –rooting around in the dirt, under rotting leaves, going through underbrush and poison oak to find interesting, and possibly tasty specimens. While I’m doing this, though, I like to think that I’m experiencing what a pig might experience, being the connessieur he is: a pure, unabashed assault of the senses by the natural world. Earthy, barnyard, dung, cedar, oak, moldy, musty, herbal, damp, spicy, minty. (Do those descriptors remind you of anything? Winespeak, maybe?) Then, if I actually find a mushroom or two, it gets even better because the mycological realm presents it’s own incredible array of aromas and flavors. Some mushrooms smell like almond extract (the Prince, Almond agaricus). Oyster mushrooms fresh off a tree smell like anise. There are other mushrooms that smell fragrantly spicy (cauliflower mushrooms), or of apricots (chantrelles). Some poisonous mushrooms smell fishy or farinaceous, or like maraschino cherries or library paste. A whole sensory education in the outdoors! What more could a hedonist or a pig or a wine lover ask for?

So, it’s pretty simple: to get nearly a complete sensory education, all you have to do is be a pig, or, at the very least, take a hike! Happy Rooting

he-don-ism, n: Pursuit of or devotion to pleasure, especially to the pleasures of the senses

• Posted in Food & Wine, Wine Appreciation
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I heard a winemaker say the other day that punching down a 4- or 5-ton tank is virtually impossible to do by hand and would take a “large, Australian intern” to accomplish that task, and then the job wouldn’t be done very well at that. When asked “Why Australian?”, the winemaker replied “Because that’s where our biggest interns seem to come from”……this winemaker works for a Pinot-focused winery that is owned by one of the world’s larger wineries. To me, this comment illustrates yet again the often different ways of thinking between a large winery and a small winery. It also made me wonder if this person had ever worked with any Austrian interns….

Now, what is a “punch down”? The Oxford Companion to Wine (2nd Ed., pg 558) defines it as: “the manual wine-making operation of breaking up and submerging the CAP of skins and other solids during red wine fermentation.” Punching down and pumping over (this is the method of using a pump to splash fermenting juice over the cap) must be done in quality wine production. There are three, main products that arise during the highly complex primary (or alcoholic) fermentation: Carbon Dioxide (as a gas), heat and ethanol (alcohol, technically ethyl alcohol). The chemical activity and evolved heat during fermentation causes the grape skins to rise to the top of the fermenting juice and create something commonly known as a “cap”. It is difficult to convey how forceful an active primary fermentation is: it can seem almost to boil and bubble, it foams, and when there are many fermentations going on at one time in a winery, one can stand in the middle of the room and hear them. As a result of this force, the skins become packed into the cap very tightly. So, a punchdown achieves many things: it is used to loosen the cap, aerate to a certain extent the fermenting must, and keep the skins wet, all in the hopes of extracting as much good “stuff” (color compounds, flavor compounds) from the skins and as little “bad stuff” (seed tannins, maybe stem tannins) as possible.

Over the years, Pinot Noir makers in particular have increasingly preferred to use punchdowns as opposed to pumpovers because it is believed that punching down is a gentler method to use on the thin-skinned and easily-affected Burgundian grape. Most wineries that have sizeable tanks (3tons and more) use a mechanical punchdown device. This device is usually a plate that is attached to a vertical bar, that is attached to somekind of mechanical unit (usually either hydraulic or air-actuated). This unit is then attached to a beam on which it moves from tank to tank. The operator simply stands at the side of the tank and presses buttons to operate the punchdown device.

But really, all of these things are very modern occurrences and have come about in full-force within the last 15 years or so. Before the invention of punchdown “devices”, or, for that matter, the invention of much anything beyond the wheel, one might ask “What were people doing to break-up the cap and make relatively good wine?” Well, they could’ve used wooden paddles or their hands. They might have done the classic “grape stomping”, and then, of course, there is the classic “I Love Lucy” episode that every American seems to remember where a number of folks get into a relatively shallow vat and mix the grapes with their lower legs. But how many people know that in some parts of Europe, it used (maybe still?) to be that naked men got into the tanks to mix the must up? Naked Men?. Hmmm. I would like to know why that fell by the wayside in favor of technology? How much more appealing is a stainless steel punchdown device (manual or hydraulic) over a bunch of naked men stained red from the chest down? But before I go astray…

Now, you might wonder what we mean here at Cima Collina when we say our wines are made with a “minimalist and hands-on approach” ? Afterall, we hear phrases like this quite a bit, but the true meaning of these phrases is often subject to speculation and the use of certain technologies is very much subject to interpretation. When it comes to punchdowns, this is what we mean, ie here’s the Full Monty: all of our punchdowns (for all of our wines — including Cab, Merlot and Petite Sirah) are done manually by a real person — though, sadly, not a naked one (although I am going to check with Tom Wark about the possible marketing implications of that idea…..hee hee) — with a stainless steel tool to help out. These punchdowns are done 3 times per day during active fermentation, less during other times. Why do we do manual punchdowns when technology could make our lives a little easier? Because we believe it is the best way to achieve the kind of quality wine we like. We don’t plunge into the tank, but gently loosen and work the cap. By doing this manually, one can also get a feel for — and I’m not kidding here — how the fermentation is doing, because the texture of the cap, the amount of heat, the aromas, etc. all indicate what is going on in the must and at what stage of fermentation the wine is in. (This, by the way, was a big, unexpected revelation for me. I started out working in winery laboratories, and much of my career has been spent focused on the quality control, must-quantify-everything, perspective). As a result, I spend less of my time doing Brix or temperature analyses, and much more time burning calories by punching down. So, some folks might call us gluttons for punishment, but I prefer to look at it as a way of not feeling guilty about not making it to the gym during harvest. Cheers!

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These days I rarely go to wine tastings because I am a) starting a winery, and b) I have a 4-year old, and c)I don’t like big, crowded “hog-call” wine tastings (more about this later). But a few weeks ago I decided that I needed to get out more, so I hoisted my periscope out of the water to have a look around, and found “The Pinot Noir Summit”, by Affairs of the Vine in San Franciso on Saturday, March 11. “Taste thirty-five luscious Pinot Noirs top rated wines from The 4th Annual Pinot Noir Shootout in a blind tasting. Pit your palate against the expert panel” was the billing on their website. This intrigued me: a blind tasting and of only 35 wines that had already passed through a judging. There were also seminars on various topics, and I thought it would be fun to sit in the audience and listen to my winemaker peers talk, something, again, that I rarely get the opportunity to do. So I went.

It turned out to be an interesting, fun and thoroughly educational event. There were (I’m guessing) 150 attendees, some of them winemakers, winery owners, winery employees, or wine journalists, but most seemed to be regular wine-interested folks. There were 44 wines to taste blind and were spread out within a relatively large room. Each bottle was wrapped in foil and color-coded. The room was a little cool for tasting red wine (the wines were not as aromatic as they probably could’ve been), but it was pretty well organized otherwise.

My impressions of the 44 wines: there was an incredible wide-range of style and quality in this tasting. A few negatives: there were many wines that were almost undrinkable and had some really awful glaring defects (it surprised me that these wines had made it through a previous judging). There were also a shameful amount of corked wines (although apparently each wine had been tasted as it was opened, there were still corked wines on the tables). But there were far more positives: a delightful variety of different styles of Pinot, a big range of flavors and aromas, oak attributes, color, weight, etc. My own, personal preference, is that I generally don’t like light-hued Pinot — these wines to me tend to be thin and lackluster. But in this tasting there were some light Pinots that were really beautiful wines: elegant, interesting flavors, spicy, and a nice suprise. Some Pinots tried for a darker hue/heavier weight/darker fruit profile that just didn’t work — the tannins were rough or overextracted or (many times) the oak profile was awkward or coarse. But there were other, darker Pinots that were elegant, interesting and well-made as well.

Some Surprises

Casa de Caballos was a wonderful surprise. They are located in the Templeton area, more generally in the Paso Robles region which isn’t known for producing great Pinot, but they are about 12 miles from the ocean and the vineyard is at 1200ft. The winemaker/owner, Tom, says that it can get to be 100 degrees during the day, but will cool quite quickly into the 50’s or lower at night. This was a very nice wine, elegant, subtle, med-bodied.

My friend Sal Godinez (we worked together at Saintsbury for a few years) has his own wine label out called Carneros della Notte and he is putting out some dynamite, medium-bodied yet sophisticated Pinot. Go Sal!

Now, I’ve heard tidbits here and there about Laetitia wines, but never really have had the opportunity to taste them or learn much about them. If you get the opportunity, check them out. Their winemaker, Eric Hickey, has been there for quite some time and is doing a dynamite job. For you folks interested in Pinot clones, there is an old clone called Martini that has been in California for years, but it is, by and large, relatively unremarkable on its own. It almost acts like Syrah in that it is dark and has, for Pinot, a lot of tannin, but unlike Syrah has very little character on its own. Eric brought along a wine made entirely from Martini clone that is grown on their La Colline vineyard and it was a fabulous wine on it’s own — by far the best wine made from Martini I have ever tasted.

Blind Tasting Format

As the day wore on I met up with friends I haven’t seen for quite some time and was able to catch-up and (hee hee) gossip a little too. I met some new friends as well. I prefer this type of tasting to to other big tastings that aren’t blind for many reasons: there is more time in which to savor each wine and appreciate it for what it is (or isn’t); an event that has a smaller attendance (such as this one) is more conducive to meeting people and catching up with friends; tasting blind completely throws out any hype associated with a certain winery, style, pricepoint, etc; it forces the taster to accept what is in the glass without any predetermined notions. I hope to see more tastings like this in the future to help folks evaluate wine in a slower-paced, intimate and unbiased environment. Good job Affairs of the Vine!!

• Posted in Wines
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I am Annette Hoff, winemaker and “operations manager” for Cima Collina, one of Monterey’s newest “artisan” wineries. As you might be able to deduce from our website, we here are on a mission — a mission to not only make great wines from this area, but also to educate folks about our lovely, little-known county and all of the new things happening on the vineyard and winery front. We love Monterey. We love it for it’s geographical diversity and all the potential it has to grow a diverse set of winegrapes across a wide variety of microclimates. Think Monterey Cabernet tastes green? Think again — there are up-and-coming vineyards and small wineries now producing Cabernet, as well as Cabernet Franc, Petite Sirah, Malbec, Merlot, etc. that will make you want to investigate more. Think great Monterey Pinot only comes from the Santa Lucia Highlands? As much as I love SLH Pinots and respect the great vineyards and wineries making wines from the regions, I can assure you that there will be other areas in Monterey that will produce great Pinot to add to the mix…..What about Rhone varietals? Syrah, Roussanne, Marsanne…..there are now some wonderful Rhones coming out of the area that I just love…….

What will I blog about, one might ask? Why put this out there? There are more motivations than I can list, but a few might include: goings on here at the winery; the ups, downs and challenges of a small, start-up winery; insight into the winemaking and winegrowing process; introducing the characters in our winery and ranch crews and those from which we source our grapes, etc……I endeavor not so much to create a soapbox from which I will offer, well, words of wisdom(?), but a channel from which to communicate insights and ideas for all who are interested in Monterey and the wine industry at large.

So, with that said, I would like to post here an article I wrote in Fall of 2005 for the “Monterey County Magazine” as a way of introducing this region. I will expand on this article more in the future by examining each region on a more in-depth basis.

Winegrowing in Monterey County

As a local winemaker, I am very excited to be a part of Monterey County’s viticultural (grape growing) and winemaking communities. This region is a unique and interesting place to grow grapes and make wine and has established a strong reputation throughout the world. What are the reasons for this distinction? In my mind there are a number of factors including history, a combination of geographical and climactic factors unique to this region, and unrealized potential that promises a prominent future in California’s wine industry.

Monterey County has had a long, rich agricultural tradition, of which grape growing has played an important role beginning in the 1800’s. Grape cuttings were brought to the region by Franciscan friars in the early 1800’s and vineyards in the Soledad region as well as in Carmel Valley were planted and maintained by the local Esalen Indians under mission direction. Once the missionary era ended, however, so did those vineyards and grape growing was not pursued in the region on a large scale again until the 1960’s. At this time, a study from the University of California at Davis declared that the Monterey region could be a prime location for grape growing and compared its climate to those of Burgundy and Bordeaux – a supreme compliment at the time. It was then that a number of viticultural pioneers – whose names, among others, included Wente, Mirrassou, J Lohr — began planting vineyards around Monterey County, mostly in areas where viticulture had not been attempted previously. Many of these early efforts did prove that a number of grape varieties – most prominently white grape varieties — could be grown quite successfully and with distinctive, consistent varietal attributes from year-to-year.

Today, Monterey County has almost 40,000 acres planted to wine grapes, second only to Sonoma County, and the economic value of the wine grape crop is the 7th largest in the county at almost $175 million. Over 50% of acreage is planted to the white grape varietal Chardonnay. Other white wine grape varietals include Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, and Riesling. Red wine grape varietals are Pinot Noir, Syrah, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon.

What sets viticulture in the Monterey region apart from other areas in California? Most would say the climate plays a dominant role. We have, generally, a much cooler, milder climate here than grape growing regions to the north or south. Fog and windy conditions occur most days keeping temperatures low. As a result, the grape growing season is longer than in other regions in California which can be a key factor in the flavor development of the wine grape. The weather in all parts of the county is determined largely by the Pacific Ocean with the general rule that the closer a vineyard site is to the bay or ocean, the cooler it is. This sets up some guidelines about where different types of wine grapes are planted in the county. White wine grapes and the red grape Pinot Noir generally require less heat to ripen, so these are planted mostly in the relatively cooler regions of the Salinas Valley, Santa Lucia Highlands (on the west side of the Salinas Valley on the bench above River Road), and to a certain extent in the Chalone (to the east of Soledad in the Pinnacles area), lower Carmel Valley (west of Carmel Valley Village), and Arroyo Seco (west of Greenfield) regions. As one moves further south, and inland, however, the climate changes considerably and becomes much warmer over the course of the day than in the northern areas. These areas, which include upper Carmel Valley, San Lucas, Hames Valley and the Lockwood Valley regions, grow varieties which require more sun exposure and heat to ripen, namely Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petite Verdot, Petite Syrah. It must be pointed out, however, that although these regions can get relatively warm during the day, nighttime temperatures are usually as low as those in the rest of the county. This enables the grapes to cool during the night, which can prove exceptional for flavor development and grape quality.

Another reason viticulture is so interesting here is geography, particularly a large variety in topography and soil types. The landscape of Monterey County ranges from steep, rugged mountains that might have decomposed granite or clay soils to numerous river valleys, large and small, with sandy, sedimentary or rocky soil. Each type of soil, coupled with the microclimate created by the local topography as well as the viticulturist’s choice of varietal and vineyard management style, creates a unique opportunity to grow high-quality, distinctive grapes and, as an extension, make interesting and unique wines from the region.

The Monterey region has largely established a reputation as a viticultural and winemaking success. Many wineries from all over the state not only have sourced their grapes from Monterey County for decades but also own large vineyards here as well. The most well-known example is the San Bernabe vineyard just south of King City on the west side of Highway 101 which is the largest contiguous vineyard in the world. It is comprised of over 12,000 acres of which 5600 is planted to wine grapes. But in addition to the larger vineyards of Monterey, there are a growing number of small vineyards and wineries that are creating reputations for themselves not only locally but around the world. A prominent example is a number of small vineyards located in the Santa Lucia Highlands. These vineyards in recent years have produced a number of highly regarded wines, especially Pinot Noir, that have found great appreciation by wine lovers.

As a winemaker and as someone who enjoys and appreciates this region very much, I am excited not only by Monterey’s current reputation, but also in its future potential. Dedicated viticulturists are planting new vineyards every year, and new wineries are coming into production as well, which means only one thing: there will only be a greater variety of interesting, distinctive, and local wines for you too seek out and enjoy.

As a local winemaker, I am very excited to be a part of Monterey County’s viticultural (grape growing) and winemaking communities. This region is a unique and interesting place to grow grapes and make wine and has established a strong reputation throughout the world. What are the reasons for this distinction? In my mind there are a number of factors including history, a combination of geographical and climactic factors unique to this region, and unrealized potential that promises a prominent future in California’s wine industry.

Monterey County has had a long, rich agricultural tradition, of which grape growing has played an important role beginning in the 1800’s. Grape cuttings were brought to the region by Franciscan friars in the early 1800’s and vineyards in the Soledad region as well as in Carmel Valley were planted and maintained by the local Esalen Indians under mission direction. Once the missionary era ended, however, so did those vineyards and grape growing was not pursued in the region on a large scale again until the 1960’s. At this time, a study from the University of California at Davis declared that the Monterey region could be a prime location for grape growing and compared its climate to those of Burgundy and Bordeaux – a supreme compliment at the time. It was then that a number of viticultural pioneers – whose names, among others, included Wente, Mirrassou, J Lohr — began planting vineyards around Monterey County, mostly in areas where viticulture had not been attempted previously. Many of these early efforts did prove that a number of grape varieties – most prominently white grape varieties — could be grown quite successfully and with distinctive, consistent varietal attributes from year-to-year.

Today, Monterey County has almost 40,000 acres planted to wine grapes, second only to Sonoma County, and the economic value of the wine grape crop is the 7th largest in the county at almost $175 million. Over 50% of acreage is planted to the white grape varietal Chardonnay. Other white wine grape varietals include Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, and Riesling. Red wine grape varietals are Pinot Noir, Syrah, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon.

What sets viticulture in the Monterey region apart from other areas in California? Most would say the climate plays a dominant role. We have, generally, a much cooler, milder climate here than grape growing regions to the north or south. Fog and windy conditions occur most days keeping temperatures low. As a result, the grape growing season is longer than in other regions in California which can be a key factor in the flavor development of the wine grape. The weather in all parts of the county is determined largely by the Pacific Ocean with the general rule that the closer a vineyard site is to the bay or ocean, the cooler it is. This sets up some guidelines about where different types of wine grapes are planted in the county. White wine grapes and the red grape Pinot Noir generally require less heat to ripen, so these are planted mostly in the relatively cooler regions of the Salinas Valley, Santa Lucia Highlands (on the west side of the Salinas Valley on the bench above River Road), and to a certain extent in the Chalone (to the east of Soledad in the Pinnacles area), lower Carmel Valley (west of Carmel Valley Village), and Arroyo Seco (west of Greenfield) regions. As one moves further south, and inland, however, the climate changes considerably and becomes much warmer over the course of the day than in the northern areas. These areas, which include upper Carmel Valley, San Lucas, Hames Valley and the Lockwood Valley regions, grow varieties which require more sun exposure and heat to ripen, namely Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petite Verdot, Petite Syrah. It must be pointed out, however, that although these regions can get relatively warm during the day, nighttime temperatures are usually as low as those in the rest of the county. This enables the grapes to cool during the night, which can prove exceptional for flavor development and grape quality.

Another reason viticulture is so interesting here is geography, particularly a large variety in topography and soil types. The landscape of Monterey County ranges from steep, rugged mountains that might have decomposed granite or clay soils to numerous river valleys, large and small, with sandy, sedimentary or rocky soil. Each type of soil, coupled with the microclimate created by the local topography as well as the viticulturist’s choice of varietal and vineyard management style, creates a unique opportunity to grow high-quality, distinctive grapes and, as an extension, make interesting and unique wines from the region.

The Monterey region has largely established a reputation as a viticultural and winemaking success. Many wineries from all over the state not only have sourced their grapes from Monterey County for decades but also own large vineyards here as well. The most well-known example is the San Bernabe vineyard just south of King City on the west side of Highway 101 which is the largest contiguous vineyard in the world. It is comprised of over 12,000 acres of which 5600 is planted to wine grapes. But in addition to the larger vineyards of Monterey, there are a growing number of small vineyards and wineries that are creating reputations for themselves not only locally but around the world. A prominent example is a number of small vineyards located in the Santa Lucia Highlands. These vineyards in recent years have produced a number of highly regarded wines, especially Pinot Noir, that have found great appreciation by wine lovers.

As a winemaker and as someone who enjoys and appreciates this region very much, I am excited not only by Monterey’s current reputation, but also in its future potential. Dedicated viticulturists are planting new vineyards every year, and new wineries are coming into production as well, which means only one thing: there will only be a greater variety of interesting, distinctive, and local wines for you too seek out and enjoy.

• Posted in Cima Collina
• 6 Comments

• Carmel Valley, CA 93924
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