Quick Taste: Delicious Van Duzer

I am not sure how they found me, but I am extremely pleased that they did. I was sent a few bottles to taste from the Van Duzer Vineyards and I enjoyed them thoroughly. As did anyone I could snag to enjoy the wines with me.

The first was the 2007 Estate Pinot Noir. I do not drink a lot of Pinot Noir, but Oregon is definitely the place where I want to have more from. This wine was smooth and elegant with wonderfully ripe cherry and raspberry flavors. There were floral notes of violets on the nose, turning into spice and and a little smokiness. It is $30, so it will take a little while to convince yourself that it is worth the money, but I garantee you will be pleased to have this with Sunday night dinner.

I also tasted the 2008 Estate Pinot Gris. This was a bright and shinny wine. By that I mean it reminded me of a well polished quarter, lively in a bright light. The wine had a ton of tropical fruit flavors like pineapple and kiwi, tempered by a lemon and mineral backbone.

Both good wines, both worth trying.

Remembering that yes, we live on this Earth

Today is Earth Day, the day where we all consider changing the way we live in order to better preserve the Earth.

There is really no question that most people, myself included, do not really change their lifestyles to help the earth. Sure we might contribute money to a “save-the-planet” organization or bring out own bag to the grocery store, but eventually we will forget to bring that bag again and when the non-profit comes back to us for more money we may decide not to contribute.

So today I am going to announce that for the next month I am going to write at least one post a week reviewing and honoring those that make the extra effort to produce wine that do not talk about being green once a year but instead live it every day. The wineries I am going to write about grow their grapes in a way that leaves the least negative impact on the Earth. Often they will have their wines certified as organic or biodynamic. However, if a winery does not wish to go through the costly process of certification, I will not hold it against them.

The details of what makes a wine organic somewhat elude me, as the laws are very different in each country. I know that there are very strict U.S. laws in terms of wines being labeled organic. I think the bureaucratic process might take several years, a rain dance, repeated offerings to the labeling gods, a roll of duct tape (because really, what can you not do with duct tape?) and a lot of luck.

Biodynamic agriculture takes organics to the next level. Biodynamic agriculture is defined on wikipedia as:

“Biodynamic agriculture, a method of organic farming that has its basis in a spiritual world-view (anthroposophy, first propounded by Rudolf Steiner), treats farms as unified and individual organisms, emphasizing balancing the holistic development and interrelationship of the soil, plants, animals as a closed, self-nourishing system. Regarded by some proponents as the first modern ecological farming system, biodynamic farming includes organic agriculture's emphasis on manures and composts and exclusion of the use of artificial chemicals on soil and plants. Methods unique to the biodynamic approach include the use of fermented herbal and mineral preparations as compost additives and field sprays and the use of an astronomical sowing and planting calendar.”

A fuller definition of both organic (and labeling laws) and biodynamic can be found here.

Every biodynamic winemaker that I have met approaches the practice a more of a religion than a practice. These winemakers are so passionate about their belief that biodynamic is the best that you cannot help but appreciate their fervor. I am not convinced that one must only harvest on certain days and should only plant when the moon is at a particular point in the sky, but I think there is no question that the attention to detail shown by these winemakers are what really makes these wines truly special.

Which brings me to the Cooper Mountain Vineyards in Oregon, a state with one of the highest standards of naturalism in the U.S. Dr Robert Gross and his wife, Corrine, established this winery in 1987 with plantings of Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Chardonnay. The vineyards were certified organic in 1995 by Oregon Tilth (the state’s certifying body) and certified biodynamic in 1999 by Demeter, the worldwide biodynamic certifying organization.

One thing I would like to mention is that Cooper Mountain has a great website. It is extremely helpful, especially to bloggers such as myself looking for information.

I was sent a bottle of the Cooper Mountain Pinot Gris 20th Anniversary Reserve 2007 to taste. I found it very refreshing, with lovely floral notes and lemon zest. Really, the perfect wine for spring and a great way to enter Earth Day.

A bite into Idaho – Sawtooth Winery

As I said before, I have tasted more wines from Idaho than anyone else I know. I really wanted to go out of my comfort zone of regions I am familiar with and try something so new and out of the box. I have to say Idaho certainly quenched that desire.

The first wines to arrive from Idaho were from Sawtooth Winery. The winery, formerly known as Pintler Cellars, was founded in 1987 by Charles Pintler and started as a fifteen-acre vineyard in the heart of the Canyon County region of the Idaho's Snake River Valley. Pintler Cellars joined Corus Estates & Vineyards in 1998. The winery then changed its name to Sawtooth Winery.

Sawtooth Winery is actually owned by a larger parent organization, Corus Estates and Vineyards, formerly Corus Brands. Corus owns several wineries in the northwest corner of the country, including Alder Ridge, Battle Creek, Six Prong and Zefina. Each of these brands are very small producing boutique wineries.

Moving back to Sawtooth, the winery makes a rather wide variety of wines. They have your classic Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah mix that you can find at almost every wineries in the US. However they also experiment with other wines such as Tempranillo, Muscat Blanc, and Late Harvest Gewurztraminer. You can find the full list here and all at reasonable prices for someone looking to explore.

I also tasted the 2005 Tempranillo, 2005 Syrah, 2007 Chardonnay, 2006 Viognier, and 2007 Riesling. Something I need to mention is that the wines, especially the red wines had a very strange metallic bitterness to them. It was really the first time I had tasted something like this in a wine.

The best of the lot that I tasted, and really the only one I can fully recommend is the 2008 Pinot Gris. It was just released on April 1st and is worth picking up if you can find it. From the moment I opened the bottle I knew I was going to enjoy the wine. There was a pleasant floral quality to the wine, with the smell of peaches mixed in. I liked the taste of nectarine with a little bit of white pepper at the end. When I went back to research the wine I found that it is really only mostly Pinot Gris, with a small amount of Chardonnay and Muscat mixed in, probably to give the wine more aromatics and weight. The blend is 86% Pinot Gris, 10% Chardonnay, and 4% Muscat but the fact that it is a blend should not be a deterrent from trying this or any wine.

Wines tasted on October 15th, 2008

Pinot Grigio (Gris)

1) Villa Dugo Pinot Grigio 2007, 13% ALC., DOC Friuli Isonzo, Italy

2) Erste & Neue Kellerei Pinot Grigio 2007, 13% ALC., DOC Alto Adige – South Tyrol, Italy

3) Ponzi Vineyards Pinot Gris 2007, 13.3% ALC., Willamette, Oregon, USA

Sauvignon Blanc

4) Sileni Cellar Selections Sauvignon Blanc 2007, 12.5% ALC., Marlborough, New Zealand

5) Clos Roche Blanche Sauvignon Blanc 2007, 12.5 ALC., AOC Tourain, Loire, France

6) De Martino Parcela 5 Single Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2007, 13.5% ALC., Casablanca, Chile

My Review:

1) I thought this wine was a bit boring. It had a little bit of vanilla and smokiness to it. Makes me think there was a bit of oak. Something I would suggest as a large party wine, not too expensive and bland enough to be inoffensive to everyone.

2)Much more interesting wine, with a bit of a floral note in the nose. The taste was still rather spicy, fruity with a little it of orange citrus.

3)A very different wine than the first two, more of a passion fruit and orange rind nose. The taste was a little sweet and creamy to me, although there was still plenty of acidity.

4)Like a freshly opened can of string beans. Lots of asparagus here, although the taste had a little bit of tropical fruit.

5)Really interesting. Like putting my nose into a bag of werthers originals. This wine was really aromatic with vanilla and butterscotch everywhere. The taste had some nice grapefruit to it, but the werthers were definitely overpowering.

6)Asparagus bomb! So much boiled string beans. I had to run out of the room.

7)We opened another bottle to see if we could find a classic Sauvignon Blanc. We did in the De Martino Organic Sauvignon Blanc 2007, 13.3% ALC, Maipo Valley, Chile. Thank goodness. There was the grapefruit I was looking for. This wine was spicy, zesty and very fresh.