Albemarle Terroir

For more discussion of the 2010 Virginia growing season weather and it’s effect,  see this article.

And another.

We’re going to take a culinary diversion.    I make a butternut squash lasagna 6-10 times per year that is just fantastic.      It turns out that butternut squash seeds from my compost pile came up in my garden this year and we decided the let grow.   Now, in late August,  we have a crop of beautiful butternut squash.  Albemarle butternut squash.   The recipe calls for a basil white sauce.   I’m going to use the basil that been growing on my front porch all summer long.    Albemarle basil. The ingredient I’m most excited about is fresh hand made semolina pasta instead of standard store purchased lasagna noodles.  Albemarle pasta.

Put it all together an you’ve got Albemarle Lasagna.

I wish I had a cow so I could make Albemarle mozzarella cheese.

What Albemarle white wine should I drink with this dinner?

A recent C-Ville Magazine has a nice short article on how the Albemarle drought and warm summer affected local wine growers.     The hot dry summer resulted in harvest starting as much as 3 week early.

The reduced amount of water reduces yields because the vines can’t fill the grapes as much as normal.  The reduced yields make it that much easier for the heat to ripen the grapes as well.   The combination of the two means that many wine growers have to harvest their grapes earlier than normal.

The Pollak Vineyards facebook page indicates they started harvest on August 10, 2 week earlier than normal.   (Also note that rain during harvest occured, which is not helpful to wine quality).

The Cardinal Point facebook page indicates harvest was underway by August 24th but does not indicate the date it started.

The article indicates decent grape quality despite the low yields.   Next years tastings will determine that!

2010 is not 2009.   2009 Bordeaux wines were released earlier in 2010 with much fanfare because of the near perfect climate conditions during the 2009 season.   As shown below,   the 2010 Bordeaux growing season is shaping up to be significantly cooler than 2009.   The Growing Degree Days (blue line) for 2010 is well below the average GDDs for Bordeaux through mid August.

On the positive side,  the precipitation has been below normal as well with does support a higher quality vintage.  Currently Bordeaux has about a 4 inch precipitation deficit.

Bordeaux 2010 Precipitation

You’ve probably been wondering how the Albemarle Wine climate has been progressing in 2010.  The short summary is HOT!   The graph below provides both:

1) A comparison of Albemarle County 2010 daily average temperatures (green line) and average temperatures (purple line)  since May 1, and

2) A comparison of Albemarle County 2010 growing degree days (blue line)  and average growing degree days (red line).

The graph indicates warmer than normal temperatures in Albemarle County during the grape growing season as indicated by the 2010 GDDs being approximately 500 GDDs higher than average.     A visual inspection of the temperature comparison also indicates  the purple line is generally above the green line, also indicating higher than normal temperatures.

Unlike temperatures,  precipitation has been lower than normal so far during the 2010  grape growing season.

Those who live in the Albemarle with me know that it’s been quite warm.   Last summer we experienced cool nights and those have not materialized this summer.

The  2010 conditions should be beneficial to the red varietals typically grown in Virgina but potentially negative to the white varietals.

Last night I ate dinner at the Staunton Grocery in Staunton VA. We had an outstanding New Zealand Sauvingon Blanc from Mohua last night. The wine has excellent grapefruit flavors without being overpowering. Think of a grapefruit juice mimosa but tastier.

I’ve seen  a few news stories about the excellent 2009 Bordeax vintage.   I went back through my blog to see what I had written and realized that I never did a complete 2009 Bordeaux climate review.     The WSJ article referenced above says “This year was no different. No sooner had I arrived at Bordeaux’s Gare Saint-Jean station last week than my taxi driver was telling me what a great vintage this was. Had he tried the wines? No, but the weather was perfect, he confidently informed me. He has a point; the weather in 2009 was superb.”

Let’s take a look at the year in the context of the Ashenfelter et al. paper discussed in this blog. 

Average Temperature over the growing season

2009 Average Temperature:  65.3 oF
Average Temperature:    65.2 oF

Below is a chart showing the progression of daily temperatures in 2009 (Blue) vs. the average daily temperatures (red).   Likewise, Growing Degrees Days, which are also used in agriculture to represent the growing potential assosciated with temperature is presented for 2009 (green) and on average (purple).  

As both the average temperature and GDD statistics indicate, the 2009 years temperature wise was very near normal. 

I had work off on Friday and decided to head over to Sugarleaf Vineyards.  I’d been reading about it for over year and hand not had the chance to try their wines.   Driving up to the vineyard is an experience in itself but once there you are ensconced in a beautiful Albemarle County rolling hills location.

The vine rows of Sugarleaf Vineyards

Sugarleaf wines are quite good across the board.  Deborah, out server, explained that Sugarleaf has 5 acres of estate grown grapes including Cabernet Sauvignon, Viogner.   The vineyard also sources wines Mt. Juliet Vineyards in Northwestern Albemarle county and While Hall Vineyards nearby.

The best white wine of the tasting was the 2007 Vidal Blanc.  With 1.5% residual sugar,  this wine is quite sweet (although not desert wine sweet) and had strong fruit flavors.     I took home a bottle with me to have with grilled pizza that evening.   While drinking that bottle,  I noticed a spiciness that I did not taste in while on the property.  I was initially a bit surprised because it has  the same spiciness as in the 2008 Viognier, just not as strong.

My notes for the the 2008 Viognier say “spicy pear”, which  is 80% Viognier and 20% Petit Manseng.   It was a very close second to the Vidal Blanc and has an intense spiciness.  It’s not overpowering or distruptive, but is definitely there and creates an interesting tasting experience.

The outstanding red wines included the 2008 Petit Verdot and the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon.  The cabernet has strong cherry flavors and the extra year in the bottle (compared to the other reds which were 2008s) has benefited this wine quite well.     The 2008 Petit Verdot was a very intense wine with lots of berry related flavors.  During the tasting of the wine I commented that “you can chew this wine the flavors are so intense.”

Overall,  I’m very impressed with Sugarleaf Vineyards and the quality of their wines.   It is a small outfit as far as Albemarle County wine producers go (they produce about 1000 cases per year) which probably explains the relatively higher prices.   It must be very difficult to achieve any economies of scale producing 1000 cases.

The vineyard backs up against a mountain.   It would be a great place to have a weather station because I’m sure Sugarleaf must have a significantly different climate compared to the Albemarle County Airport (the location with easiest to obtain weather data).  The airport is on the other side of the county and would have a potentially significantly different climate than the airport.      The different climate certainly affects the grapes as they grow and the weather station would help to qualify the changes.

It turns that that I did the Pollak Vineyards barrel tasting two weekends in a row.  I had friend in from out of town today, so we we went again the 2nd weekend of the tastings.      The tasting covered 5 different wines (4 varietals) each of which I’m pretty excited about.  Jake Busching, the Pollak Vineyards winemaker (wine grower, as Jake says) lead the tasting both times and is, as can be expected, a wealth of information about the Pollak Wines.

2009 Chardonnay –  The Chardonnay is pre-filtered and is quite cloudy in the glass.  Jake explained that the bottling process will involve filtering the wine to ensure that no stray yeast ferments sugar once the wine is in the bottle.   The wine is  a bit acidic at first but not so much that it dominates the overall richness of the wine.  I’m sure the final bottling process will bring the Chardonnay to a proper finish and will be excellent upon release.

2008 Cabernet Sauvignon – Jake focuses on dirt.   His goal is to ensure his wines reflect the qualities of the dirt the grapes are grow in (i.e. the Albemarle Terrior).   The Cabernet reflects this by having strong fruity and earth flavors.  It will be quite tasty for years to come.

2007 Meritage (bottled) –  The purpose of a barrel to bottle comparison was to allow for some comparison of the development of the wine.  The 2007 had a bit more bite than the “out of barrel” 2008, but was also quite fruity.

2008 Meritage – In comparison to the 2007,  this wine was much smoother which allowed me to focus a bit more on the more subtle, less in your face,  fruit flavors contained in this wine.

2009 Mille Fleur – Of all the wines we tasted, I think I’m most excited about this one (actually, the 2008 version to be released in the next few months).   The Mille Fleur is a desert wine in which a small amount of the 2009 Viognier was left on the vines as long as possible to help develop sugars.  It’s then harvested and subjected to a fermentation process, but only about 5% of what is normal.  This is done to ensure the wine remains sweet.  Where this wine gets exciting is that the 5% fermented wine is then mixed with “a boatload” of a Viognier brandy made with grapes from the 2008 harvest,  which increases the Alcohol content to 17.5%.        All grapes were estate grown.  The 2009 Mille Fleur, like the Chardonnay is quite cloudy, but is an excellent early stage dessert wine.        The 2nd time at the barrel tasting Jake’s audience was only myself, my wife and a friend.    We were very fortunate.   Jake opened the 2008 Mille Fluer cask (to be released in the summer of 2010) and let us try the near finished product.   Whereas the 2009 has 14 months left in oak barrels, the 2008 has been in oak for 18 months.    The short description of the 2008:  fantastic!     On our way out, I put my name on the list for several barrels.

Unfortunately,  the 2009 Pinot Gris nor the Viongier were available for tasting.   Jake commented that if you think the 2008 were good (which I did, I took one all the way to Shanghai after all),  the 2009s are significantly better.     Interestingly,  the 2009 climate was just about ideal (the best of the 14 years Jake has been making wine in Albemarle County).    Check out the 2009 August Climate update.  While the year started out quite wet,  the last half of the summer was slightly drier than normal.  Most importantly,   the August temperatures were relatively benign with evening temperatures regularly in the 50s.    This allowed the grapes to develop near perfectly.       I’ll be loading up on quite a bit of both varietals when they are released.

Pollak Vineyards is opening up their barrels to the public next weekend.  I am planning on going and trying out last years crop.   This will be my first ever barrel tasting.  I look forward to trying it out and writing about the experience.