Below is a link with an interview with the man himself – Kermit Lynch.  It is not only about Burgundy but also gives some insight as to how he views wine and the wine world.   I listen to him and just nod because what he says is so grounded in truth and has helped shape my world view on wine.  It is also an interesting aside that Louis works with Kermit on several “special” bottlings and Louis’ regard for Kermit is equally as great.  He has done more for the idea of wine (notice just not French wine) in the US then most know – he is a remarkable fellow.

A very old hand painted picture on a cement vat in the Loire Valley

The interview:

http://kermitlynch.com/blog/2012/01/25/the-bourgogne-sessions/

The Elite Squad of Hector Barrel Protectors...armed and dangerous, protecting the Riesling.

Traditionally in the Finger Lakes, Riesling is produced in stainless steel tanks.  This is a great tool, as it allows very good control (relatively) over the wine since wine in stainless is a bit more predictable.  It is also easier to cool and heat, and for a host of other reasons it just makes perfect sense to nearly everyone.  All that being said, of course we had to go and try something new.  Something that would totally separate us from everyone else.  You know, put our stamp on things because that is what we are told we have to do…be different and edgy!  What is this new, cool, edgy and never-tried technique?  Making Riesling in barrel!  That’s right we are turning the wine world on its  head.  This is gonna put us right on top of the heap.  Straight to number 1 baby…

Actually, I am blowing smoke!  Blowing smoke in a big way…Riesling being done in barrel has been around a heck of a lot longer than anyone at Forge Cellars.  In fact, take this simple little test and ask yourself, “Before stainless steel tanks were around, what did they keep wine in?”  So no, we are not trend setters.  Have you ever seen how the three of us dress?  If anything we are rolling back the clock a bit.

Louis and I had a conversation about this some 3 or 4 years ago while sitting in Gigondas.  We were talking about “cool climate” wines, wines that are often coveted for their fresh, searing, laser-like acidity.  We both were commenting how wonderful acid is and then he started to tell me about experiments he had done with high acid whites in barrel and how wonderful they turned out.  I thought it all made sense because if you look at all the cool climate regions of the world, using barrels of different sizes was the norm before the stainless steel manufacturers showed up.   So from early on, we decided we would “work” in a different way by using OLD barrique for our rieslings.   I say OLD because it is almost a prerequisite to explain that using barrels does not mean using brand new just-out-of-the-coopers’-hands barrels that end up imparting toasty, buttery, vanilla flavor to your wines.  Besides, who the hell can afford that?  Great barrels are $800 to $1000 apiece.  Mind you, a barrel holds 25 cases of wine…do the math.  The idea of hammering helpless little white wines with new oak is well, lets just say, not for us, but the idea of letting a high acid, fresh, laser-like riesling “relax” a bit in a nice aged barrel could make a whole bunch of sense.

Thus far, I think the wines are showing great promise and are responding in a way that I think is consistent with what we thought.  They feel more mellow, less edgy and honestly, I have a hard time not drinking them now!

Samples for France

We (Justin and I) sent our first batch of samples to Louis in France.  That was to say the very least… painful.  Really, it  took 1.5 hrs to set up the shipment.  Shipping internationally is not as easy as sending cookies to your aunt in Minnesota.  The upside is that the samples showed up and in good condition.  They will not only be analyzed on the taste side by Louis but also by our enologist who will be running all the lab tests to make sure our little darlings are “stable.” When you do things as natural as possible (no fining, filtering, experimenting with natural yeasts and so forth) you better be REALLY diligent about the chemical make-up of your wines.  If not, well, lets just say that this is what keeps winemakers up late at night with worry and really pisses consumers off when they get an “off” bottle.

Back to Pinots (next post is on Riesling).  They are showing the evolution that I would expect right now which means currently they are harder to taste and not so forgiving as when they were just a couple months old.  Aging is a funny thing that way…

We have essentially two different wines from 3 different parcels, with a pile of different barrel combinations.  We also have our free-run and our press juice separated.  We call the single vineyard, all coming from one grower, Pinot #1 and then it is either FR (free run) or PR (press).  Free run juice is the wine that was never pressed and tends to be softer, richer and overall more pleasurable.  Press juice is the from the grapes that had a little squeeze at the end of their lives. On its own, press wine typically has less color and finesse but it still can play a role in the blend as it can bring a bit of structure or grip to the final wine.  We also have Pinot #2 and this comes from 2 vineyards that were harvested on the same day.  Right now, Pinot #1 is fairly dark and brooding, the color is amazing and rich and the aromatics are of the earth and dirt.  Pinot #2 is lighter and more fragrant and smells like flowers, roses to be exact.  I always view #1 as the masculine and #2 as the feminine.  I hope we keep them together as they really do play off each other nicely.  What is that saying about “behind every great man is a great woman?”…this is the case when you blend the two, they create a nice harmony.   If for some reason over the next year we decide we like the wine better without the press juice then we have the option of making a nice “little” Pinot.  This is a fairly typical thing to do and the quantities would be small, maybe 25 cs or so, but it is a nice option to have and could give a 3rd wine to the line-up.  For now, we wait, taste and ponder…..

This picture is of me “thieving” Pinot.  What is “thieving?”  It is the device you use to take wine out of a barrel, usually glass or plastic and kind of looks like a turkey baster.

This is the view of Sunrise Vineyards.  This vineyard is our only vineyard that is facing Cayuga Lake.  As you can see, the vines have not been pruned yet, but the “hilling up” has occurred.  Hilling up is something we have to do in cold climates in order to protect the graft on the grape vine between the rootstock (the stuff underground) and the fruit-bearing portion (the stuff above ground).  Bob owns this vineyard and we contract the first 10 rows of Riesling.  We had a great conversation yesterday about doing more work in the organic mindset.  I’m hopeful I can convince my good friend, Tony Potenza, a local organic legend, to give us a hand in developing a good composting program.

Sean said he can go old school and create our own typeset for Forge.  This literally means creating out of lead our own typeset that will then be used on one of those ancient, beautiful, and mostly unused printers to create a label.  This is unheard of in our age.  Most people use slick design programs to give the impression of the “real thing” but we are actually considering doing the “real thing.”

Pretty cool to have a handset label that goes on the bottle of our handmade wine.

Keep your fingers crossed that all this goes as planned as we only figured this out yesterday, but  you’ll be the first to see the results if indeed it all works…

RR

thanks,
RR

Back to the wines.  I’m very encouraged with the early stages of the evolution.  They are showing the texture and pureness we hoped they would.  It looks like our diligence with sorting and our fermentation regime is letting (not telling) the wine express itself.

I haven’t tasted Pinot in a couple weeks but that will be a year long evolution so I have time.

RR

Finger Lakes riesling

2011 started so beautifully and we were getting such great early ripening.  Just check out the color on the riesling starting to develop on these grapes in late August early September.  Then the rains came.  This is what made the vintage tricky – as our Vineyard Liason Phil Davis said “we had to do the weather dance.” In other words everything was about when to pick and if you could gain an extra day or two of hang time until the next weather front came through.  We chose to hand pick everything and sort again in the winery.  Expensive as hell, but for us, it was the right thing to do in 2011.

This was my first vintage managing, with Phil’s help, the growers we chose to work with.  Looking back it was best to start with a tough vintage.  It really ramps up the learning curve – 0 to 60 in no time flat.

RR

Thanks again,

Louis, Justin and Rick