Canadian natives try hand at wine-making

An aboriginal tribe in western Canada's arid Okanogan Valley is on the cusp of realizing a decades-old dream: becoming North America's first native winemakers. On the shores of Lake Osoyoos, near the border between British Columbia and the US state of Washington, the sun is scorching hot, the nights are cool and the soil is dry -- perfect conditions for growing wine grapes.

Canadians have been producing Riesling, pinot noir and cabernet varieties here -- one of the country's two main viticulture regions -- for 40 years. Some 15 percent of grapes produced in the province of British Columbia come from thousands of acres (hectares) of land belonging to the Osoyoos Indians. The tribe also boasts the only winery in North America managed by aboriginals: the Nk'Mip Cellars. Justin Hall has been assistant winemaker at the vineyard since 2004, and is now set to become the tribe's first full-fledged winemaker.

"My first concern is obviously not to just become a winemaker, but to be the first aboriginal winemaker, or the first in North America ... (to) bring some pride to the Osoyoos Indian Band," Hall said. The tribe has been involved in wine-making since 1968 by growing grapes, but they longed to own and operate their own estate winery.

In 2002, the dream nearly became a reality, with the creation of the Nk'Mip wine cellar. But one element was still missing: none of the tribe members had the expertise to produce their own wine so they could not yet claim to be a wholly-owned and operated Indian winery.To bring the dream to fruition, they looked to the industry heavyweight, Canadian wine producer Vincor -- with which the tribe is a majority shareholder in a joint venture -- and hired oenologist Randy Picton.

"When I first started, the Osoyoos Indian Band wanted to have me step in eventually as a winemaker, and be able to run our own business in that sense," Hall said. In the meantime, interest in the native winery took off. In 2010, 216,000 bottles of wine were sold for an average of CAN$17 (US$17.20) each to 79,000 tourists who visited. The band council and chief Clarence Louie initially devised the winery plan in order to create employment for its 430 members.

The band manages several businesses with multi-million-dollar budgets and administers its own health, social, educational and municipal services on its 32,000 acres (12,950 hectares). "We advertise and promote our uniqueness," Louie said. "Our native heritage and culture have to be part of every one of our projects."

To attract tourists, the chief did not stop there. Nk'Mip (which in Okanogan means 'where the stream flows into the lake') also boasts a four-star resort hotel and golf course, as well as a new cultural centre. Hotel guests are welcomed to the Indian lands by a sculpture of a native warrior saddling a mustang and an ornamental piragua (canoe) in the cellar. On the Osoyoos reserve, unemployment is nearly non-existent -- in stark contrast to rampant unemployment and few economic opportunities on many other reserves throughout Canada. The band's businesses employ up to 2,000 people from the reserve and neighboring communities during the peak summer tourism season. Band members also receive dividends from these booming businesses.

Hall's dream will soon be realized. Nk'Mip's first vintage with his stamp on it, now aging in oak barrels, will be available to drink next year. Lindsay Kelm of the British Columbia Wine Institute says while the launch will not have any particular impact on the sector, "diversity is good for the industry."Kelm added that Hall had a solid reputation among local growers and winemakers, and that she expects his first batch of wine to be "exceptional."Brian Moffatt, the cellar's retail supervisor, said Hall had a bright future, noting: "The profession is like wine -- you get better with age."

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'Bachelorette' rejection doesn't slow down Sonoma winemaker Ben Flajnik

Sonoma’s bachelor Ben Flajnik may have faced rejection from The Bachelorette’s Ashley Hebert on national television Monday night, but the day after he was back at work on his increasingly popular wine brand.Speaking from San Francisco, Flajnik said Evolve Winery, based in Sonoma Valley, is working on launching a new brand of value wines called “Epilogue,” which will be ready for sale in September. But he also now just may be Northern California’s most eligible bachelor. With his newly revealed single status, Flajnik said he has been receiving a lot of attention from single ladies.

“There have been quite a few submissions to the Evolve Winery website”" Flajnik said. “I think I have thousands of emails, but I haven’t looked at them.”Flajnik also said he hasn’t been paying much attention to his growing chorus of online admirers.

“The whole reason I’ve been able to maintain a level head is I don’t read the blogs, I don’t read Twitter,” Flajnik said. “That’s the best way I’m going to stay the same through this.”Concentrating on work also helps. “We’ve had a lot of exposure due to the show, and we wanted to expand into a different price bracket,” Flajnik said. “We wanted to be able to reach more consumers.”

On Evolve’s website, the 2009 and 2010 Sauvignon Blancs were priced at $19.99 a bottle, and the 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon was marked $29.99 on Tuesday. The new wines they’re producing, a Chardonnay and a red blend, will be priced between $9.99 and $13.99, Flajnik said. They plan to sell the new product in select markets in California, New York, Texas and Chicago. “What we always try to do with our wines is over-deliver on product and not on price,” Flajnik said.

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Learn How to Make Wine at Home the Easy Way

Most wine drinkers have this urge to make some great tasting wine with their own hands and very often their homemade wines go on to become big brands.

So what exactly do you need to make wine at home? There are some basic materials or equipments which you will need in order to learn how to make wine at home. First on, you will need fresh fruits like grapes, apples, apricots, pears and plums. Once you have s large quantity of fruits you will require large plastic or stainless steel containers to collect and hold the extracted juice, an electronic juicer, a tube for siphoning, sterilization liquid or tablets, sugar, yeast and finally clear glass bottles to store the wine.

The first step in the process of how to make wine at home is the extraction of the juice. You can either extract the juice by hand or use the electric juicer. How much juice you need depends on the size of your container and how much wine you are looking to make. Once the juice has been extracted, you have to add the sugar. Sugar is required for most wines except when the fruits you have are sweet grapes. Once the sugar is added, the powered yeast should be dissolved in warm water and added to the sugared juice extract. Let it stand still for a while before you activate it.

The fermentation will start as soon as you see the air bubbles appearing. This fermentation process converts the sugar into alcohol. Once the bubbles stop appearing at the surface, the fermentation is complete. The fermentation process may take a couple of months to fully be done. Once the fermentation process is complete, you can store the wine in clear bottles and keep them in your wine rack.

It is always advisable not to consume homemade wine right away. If you are patient and give the wine some time to age, then you will end up drinking delectable wine. With this easy illustration on how to make wine at home, there is nothing stopping you from churning out the best tasting wine at home.

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Basics of the Wine Making Process

In this article you will be given a brief introduction to the wine making process and a summary of each step from harvesting to bottling. Wine making has been around for thousands of years and it is quite a natural process that requires very little human intervention. Every wine maker has their own special process which contributes to the uniqueness and diversity of wines, making life much more interesting. Although there are many different methods and variations involved in creating wine, there are five essential steps that must take place. These five steps include harvesting, crushing/pressing, fermentation, clarification, and aging or bottling.

The first step of making wine is known as harvesting or picking of grapes. Grapes are the only fruit that can reliably produce the necessary amount of sugar on an annual basis to yield sufficient alcohol to preserve the wine. Tannins, esters, and acids are other factors of grapes that help provide consistency. Grapes must be harvested at exactly the right time, ideally when physiologically ripe. Modern wine makers rely on a combination of science and old-fashioned tasting to determine when to harvest their grapes. Usually outside consultants, vineyard managers, and proprietors all have a vote in the decision of when to harvest. Picking grapes can be done with the use of machines or it can be done by hand. Most wineries prefer the latter claiming that mechanical harvesters can be too rough on the grapes, vines, and land. After the harvest wine makers sort the grapes into bunches sifting out rotten and under ripe fruit before crushing.

Crushing is the next step in the wine making process which is now done with mechanical presses. For thousands of years this step was done by men and women who performed the harvest dance in barrels and stomped on the grapes, turning them into must. Although machines have removed the romance and ritual of these traditions, there has been a huge gain in regards to sanitation. Mechanical crushing has improved the quality and longevity of wine while also reducing the need for preservatives. Keep in mind, not all grapes begin the transformation to wine in the crushing step. Some wine makers allow fermentation to begin with uncrushed grape clusters, allowing the weight of the grapes to burst the skins naturally before being sent to the presses. There is no difference in the process of wine making for reds and white until the crushing step. For a white wine, the maker will quickly press the must after crushing to separate the juice from the skins, seeds, and solids. This prevents color and tannins from getting into the white wine. Red wine on the other hand is left in contact with its skins to infuse color, flavor, and tannins into the wine.

After the grapes have been crushed and pressed, the must is allowed to sit and will begin to ferment within 6-12 hours with the help of wild yeasts in the air. Some wineries welcome this natural fermentation while others will intervene and eliminate the natural, wild yeasts and add yeast that produces a more predictable end result. Once fermentation begins it will usually continue until all sugar is turned into alcohol leaving a dry wine. This can be a period of anywhere from 10 days to a month. Alcohol levels will vary from one wine to the next depending on the sugar amount in the initial must. Wines made in cool climates will generally produce an alcohol level of 10 percent and wines made in warmer climates can be up to 15 percent. For sweet wines, the fermentation is cut short to allow some of the sugar to be preserved. This is almost always intended by the wine maker for a specific style of wine.

Once the fermentation is completed the clarification process begins. Wine makers can rack or siphon their wine from one tank to another to separate the wine from the precipitates and solids at the bottom of the first tank. Filtering is done with large filters that catch large solids and with sterile pads that strip all life from the wine. Fining happens when substances such as egg whites, clay, and compounds are added to the wine to clear them out. These substances will stick to the solids and push them to the bottom of the tank. The stripped wine will then be transferred to another vessel for aging and bottling.

Finally, the wine is either bottled immediately or allowed to age. Aging can be done in a bottle, stainless steel or ceramic tanks, and large wooden barrels called barriques. This last stage leaves room for endless choices on behalf of the wine maker and has a defining impact on the final product. Hopefully this article has taught you the basics of the wine making process and a tiny bit of history. The next time you enjoy a bottle of wine you can reflect on everything that happened leading up to you sipping that wine from your glass!

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Wine Tasting - What You Should Know About Wine Tasting

As wine tasting is considered to be a very sophisticated practice there is a specific etiquette you have to follow. This etiquette should remain the same whether you are at a vineyard, a wine tasting private party, or in a restaurant.

When you have a wine tasting party you should only invite the amount of people that you can fit comfortably in the room you want to have your party. A crowd may be intimidating. You do not want any of your guests to feel like they are being rushed when they are pouring a glass or tasting the wine.

Always be sure to have bottled water on hand when you are having a wine tasting. This allows your guests to rinse their mouths out between tasting different wines. If you have just tasted a very heavy wine you must have water ready for the guests. If you do not then their next tasting may be tainted due to the heaviness lingering in their mouths. In addition, water is good because guests will get thirsty and they need to drink something other than the wine.

When you have a wine tasting it is important to provide foods for your guests. However, you also want to be sure to have food on hand that will not change the way the wine tastes in any way. The best snacks to have on hand include unflavored things like bread or unsalted crackers.

Decanting

Some people practice decanting before they serve wine at a wine tasting. This is very controversial to many different wine enthusiasts. Decanting is the process of letting wine breathe before you serve it.

Some people let their wine breathe for a few hours before they serve it. However, decanting is not just letting your wine breathe but it is when you pour your wine into a completely different container to allow the breathing. Some people even apply a special filter when decanting to remove bitter sediments that might have formed in the wine.

Younger bottles of wine benefit more to an aeration process than the older bottles. However, the sediment is more common with the older bottles. Many people say that airing out the bottle can relax the flavor of the wine, making them taste smoother. The wine might have better integration. However, all wines do not benefit from this method. Some wines are meant to drink immediately after popping the cork from the bottle.

The best way to tell if you need to let a bottle of wine air out or be decanted is to taste it first. As soon as you pull the cork off of the wine bottle you can tell by tasting if it needs to air out a little.

Blind Tasting

The best way to hold a wine tasting is by blindly serving the wine to your guests. This means that you do not want the guests to know what you are serving to them. You might want to serve the wine in a black wine glass. However, the guests should also not see the shape of the bottle of wine nor should they ever see the label on the bottle.

You never want a wine taster's judgment to be altered because they know specific details of a certain wine. Certain considerations that can alter a taster's judgment about wine include the price, reputation, color, and the geographic region the wine came from.

People have expectations about wine when they know these considerations. If a wine is very expensive or comes from a certain geographical region some people tend to have expectations of the different varietals. Eliminating expectations of the tasters allows a wine tasting to go smoother and the scores of the wines will be more accurate.

Vertical Tasting

When you have a vertical wine tasting you will have one varietal of wine from the same vintage. This means you might have the same wine from different years; 1999, 2000, 2001, etc. The most common purpose of tasting wines like this is to get a good idea of a certain wineries style and composition. You can also get an understanding how the different weather patterns affect grapes during certain years.

Horizontal Tasting

When a horizontal tasting occurs you will use the same wine from many different producers. This type of tasting will allow you to determine which wineries you think produce the better wine. This wine will be from the same year and the same type of wine but from different wineries.

Tasting Flights

When you hold a tasting flight you will have many glasses of wine out for the tasters to test. Next to each glass of wine you will have a card including the specifics of the wine; winery, geographical demographics, type, and more. Some flights include up to 50 glasses of wine to be tasted.

This gives a taster an idea what types of wines come from certain parts of the world and more. You can also get a good idea of the different tastes of the different types of wines when you taste wine through a flight.

Old World versus New World Tasting

Many people enjoy this type of wine tasting. The Old World according to wine enthusiasts is considered to be countries like France, Italy, Austria, Spain, etc. The New World is North America, South America, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia.

The reason these countries are considered to be the New World is because they are new to the wine producing industry and late starters. However, these countries are significant in producing wines.

Many people like to feature the same types of wines from the old and new worlds to determine which they like better. Some people like to do a horizontal or vertical method with this also. There are many ways to mix it up so you can make your wine tasting successful.

Wine and Cheese Tasting

There are many different palate influences that cheese has when you drink a particular wine. When you taste specific wine combinations properly you will understand how well cheese and wine really do go together.

The best way to serve a Cabernet sauvignon is with blue cheese. All you need is just a little. You might serve the blue cheese with an unflavored French bread also. The blue cheese acts by coating the mouth and laying a foundation which will soften the wine and make it taste very good.

The best way to test this is by taking a taste of the wine first. Wait a minute. Then take a bite of the cheese and take another drink. You will see a big difference.

Wine and Chocolate Tasting

Chocolate and wine can go together if you do it right. Some people completely disagree but this is because they do not know how to pair up the two together. When you drink wine with chocolate it is important to be sure the wine is as sweet as the chocolate you are serving. If you have a wine that is not as sweet as the chocolate it will cause the wine to taste very sour.

If you want to serve lighter wines at a wine tasting with chocolate it is best to stick with chocolates that are lighter also. For instance, the white chocolates are the best with the lighter wines. A white zinfandel will go very well when you pair it with a chocolate that is bittersweet.

Priceless Tasting

Priceless wine tasting is not telling the guests how much the bottle of wine costs. If you have several bottles of wine you don't want to let anyone know the price of the wine. When guests know what the price of the wine is their judgment is tainted. Never reveal the price of the wine.

If you feel you must tell the guests the price of the wine, be sure you tell them after the tasting is over. This is because it is a natural perception that an expensive wine is superior to a wine that costs a low dollar amount of money. This may be true in some circumstances but it isn't always the case. You don't want assumptions to be made before the wine has been tasted or it will ruin the wine tasting.

Price point Tasting

The price point tasting method is very similar to the priceless tasting. However, you will use wines that are in the same price range when you serve the wines. The important factor is to establish a baseline for the dollar amount and stick to it.

Big 8 Tasting

A Big 8 tasting includes a wine tasting of the different varietals of the Big 8 wines in a tasting flight. The big 8 wines include red and white wines. The red wines included in the Big 8 are Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Shiraz, and Merlot. The white wines included in the Big 8 are the Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot, and the Sauvignon Blanc.

This is a great way to have a wine tasting if your guests don't know the differences with the different varietals. They can work their way through the wines and find out for themselves what each of the wines taste like and the differences.

This is a fun way to learn about the wines. When you have newer wine tasters this might be the first type of wine tasting you want to have at home. This way, the next wine tasting you have your friends will know what to expect with the different blends of wine.

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Stars of Early American Winemaking: Where Are They Now?

Welcome to Vintage America, our column on the history — and future — of American wine. Every week Talia Baiocchi, author of the Decanted column on Eater NY, will take a look at winemaking from Virginia to Texas to California, to uncover the people, events, and trends that have made America one of the most dynamic countries in the world of wine.

The story of American winegrowing began just one century after Columbus, when French Huguenot settlers arrived in present day Florida. As myth would have it, when Captain John Hawkins arrived in Florida in 1565 — just a year after the settlers — he found them near starvation, unable to grow food, but relatively successful cultivating wine from abundant wild grapes.

This abundance of vine growth is noted by settlers and early pioneers as a symbol of the promise of America as a sort of Eden, where wine and other products would bring those who settled there everlasting prosperity.

But as the story unfolds, America's wild vine, like Eden's forbidden fruit, wasn't all it was cracked up to be. The native varieties — which hugged trees and grew rampant along the coastline, threatening the sea like a verdant tsunami — would prove largely unsuitable for quality wine.

But America's early settlers persisted. Scuppernong — a grape of the muscadine family (or Vitis rotundifolia) native to the Southern United States and likely responsible for the wine the Huguenots first cultivated—eventually gained notoriety and favor in the states.

But America's fighting chance at serious viticulture came courtesy of its native American hybrids. Most were crossbreeds of failed vinifera plantings and native labrusca vines. The first, Alexander, which was discovered in 1740 just outside Philadelphia, was — as almost all the early American hybrids were — a chance breeding. These early discoveries predated any knowledge of plant hybridization and many of the men and women to stumble across these floral love children were convinced they'd simply found a vinifera variety that had managed to adapt.

Catawba--another accidental hybrid which was originally thought to be Hungarian Tokay--went on to become one of the most important western varieties and the base for some of America's most renowned early wines, not least among them: Nicholas Longworth's Ohio sparkling wines.

Stories of America's accidental hybrids and the rare success of native grapes like Scuppernong built the foundation of modern American winemaking before anyone knew about plant breeding or grafting. Most of them faded into obscurity with Prohibition, some resurfaced after as unlikely foundations for modern winemaking out West, and others continue to be relevant in America's lesser-known winegrowing regions. Below is an abbreviated field guide to some of America's most important early grapes and a look at where they are now.

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Despite rain, winemaking is okay, for now?

There's nothing like a sweet glass of wine in the summer. "Oh, that's really good."But with all the wet, rainy weather this spring, grapes could be damaged. They run the risk of disease and high acidity, which makes for bad wine.

"What we'd like to do right about now is begin to turn the rain off. Grapes generally like a drier climate, a drier soil," said Glenora Wine Cellar owner Gene Pierce. "A lot of vineyard work isn't being done simply because it's wet and we're worried about long-term damage."

Now this all might make it seem like the grape crop is in bad shape this season. But the winemakers I spoke with say these little clusters are only three days behind where they should be. The only reason it seems bad is because last year, they were two weeks ahead."

"When you look at let's say May 23rd of last year, the vineyards would look a lot different then than they do now. Do we like all this wet weather? No. But overall things are looking very good," said Pierce. "The grapes are progressing along nicely. The problem is the excessive moisture that we have made it very difficult to do any spring farm work," said Lakewood Vineyards manager David Stamp.

Luckily, it's still early. Grape-harvesting peaks in late July and August. And assuming the summer heats up as it should, wine production should be normal. So get your wine openers ready.

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Promising Kosher Wine

You don’t have to unroll too many scrolls of the Torah to find the mention of vineyards, winemaking and wine. After all, the first thing Noah did after his voyage was plant a vineyard. Why? Wine holds a special place in many Jewish life and religious traditions, from the celebratory Purim to the weekly Shabbat dinner, when a prayer is said over wine to sanctify the meal.

But as every mischievous and curious Jewish kid knows, Passover is the big wine night. Everyone gets four servings of wine, including children some of the time. The rub, of course, is that the wine is sickeningly sweet kosher wine (It’s no wonder why Elijah takes such small sips).

Wine’s preeminent position in Judaism has as much to do with geography as it does with God’s law. The land of Abraham and Isaac is a great place for grape growing and it has been long before Jacob dug his well. Barring divine intervention, however, if Moses found the Promised Land in Norway, wine would not, could not, find its place of importance in Jewish rituals. The abundance of winemaking grapes in the eastern Mediterranean made following Kashrut rules possible.

So why aren’t we all enjoying fruits of the vine from Israel, which boasts several ideal grape-growing locations? You’ll have to skip back a couple paragraphs to the “K” word for your reason. In the minds of most wine consumers (including Jewish wine consumers, who, oye vey , should know better), kosher wines conjure up visions of Manischewitz Concord Grape Wine.

Whether it’s kosher, kosher for Passover or the scary mevushal (“boiled”) wine from upstate New York (the current and ancestral home of Manischewitz’ winemaking operations), kosher wine has a bad name among wine consumers. This is a problem for Israeli winemakers.

You might think that all the 250 wineries located in Israel are kosher; you’d be wrong. Merely 30 of the 250 are kosher, which, by the way, does not automatically imply awful, sweet or tasteless wines. In the past decade, Israel’s younger, forward-thinking winemakers have tried to put quality above utilitarian sacramental wine, often forgoing the kosher stamp of approval…even though they could qualify for it.

Israeli winemaking wandered in the desert, if you will, for a long time. Back in the 1960s, you could more or less cast Israeli wines in the kosher-but-characterless pot. The vast majority of the grapes (90 percent) were grown in the desert climates, which produced an abundance of flavorless grapes. Today, less than half of the country’s production comes from the hot, low-lying areas. Over the past 10 years, ambitious winemakers looked up, not to the heavens, but into the mountains of Galilee and the Judean Hills. There they found promising land: well-drained soils and cool nights, perfect for producing wines of character.

Recanati, Yarden and Tulip are a just a few of the quality-first Israeli wines you can find on shelves. These may or may not be kosher, but that’s hardly the point. They are good, solid, enjoyable wines.

Driven by small producers, this “wine fever,” as one Israeli wine writer describes it, has made a huge impact on the big producers. The largest 10 wineries (Carmel, Barkan, Golan, Teperberg, Binyamina, Tishbi, Galil Mountain, Recanati, Dalton and Tabor) control 90 percent of the market—and are the ones you’ll likely see in the U.S. They have bought into the quality movement, too. The key here is that these 10 are all-kosher operations.

Good news for all wine drinkers, but especially for those sitting down for Seder dinner in a couple of weeks. While traditionalists may want to re-create the syrupy sweet Seder dinners of old, the faithful have alternatives.

A word of warning: Before you bypass the inglorious Manischewitz-style wines, please know the new-and-improved wines from Israel have a bit of alcohol, as much as 14.5 percent, in them. This more than two times the amount you’ll find in a bottle of Manischewitz. According to Thomas P. Balázs, a semi-pro Talmudic scholar (also a full-time English professor at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga and friend of mine), each cup must have at least three ounces of wine in it and each guest must drink at least half of the cup for the blessings to count. In total, this amounts to a generous glass of wine you’d get at a restaurant. But, as Balázs can attest, some people drain all four cups. “I had a friend who thought he was drinking six percent and really got hammered one year because it was full strength, so to speak,” Balázs said.

The Seder dinner has its solemn moments, but it is more of a celebratory affair, commemorating the Hebrews’ escape from slavery. It’s no surprise that a Seder dinner features so much wine, as it is the official festive drink of the past 8,000 years for many peoples. Seder attendees toast God’s redemptive powers and love for his people. It seems more fitting to raise a Seder cup of wine made in the Promised Land that you would rather not put down so fast.

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Fogarty celebrates 30 years of winemaking

When Dr. Thomas Fogarty was looking for land to grow grapes more than three decades ago, there was little property to choose from in and near his hometown, Portola Valley. The acreage he ultimately bought on Skyline, above Portola Valley and near the Skylonda community of Woodside, "was the last of the (available) agricultural lands in town," he explains.

The renowned cardiovascular surgeon and inventor planted the hilly terrain in the late 1970s, intending to grow grapes to make his own wine. But after the vines were in, it became clear that Skyline's climate, soil and terrain were not the most hospitable if what you're looking for are ease of growing and abundance of fruit.

What might then have looked like an unwelcome challenge, however, revealed itself to be fortune's kiss, because the aspiring winegrower also discovered that the Skyline terroir with its cool, marine-influenced climate and undernourished soil -- was exceptionally well-suited for growing the grapes he was most determined to turn into great wine: pinot noir and chardonnay.

Serendipity? "A lot of things were serendipity," Dr. Fogarty said in a recent phone interview. "You can't take credit for everything."

Thirty-year partners: One of the things Dr. Fogarty can take credit for, though, is his choice of his first winemaker, Michael Martella, whose work at three wineries after earning a degree in food sciences/viticulture at Fresno State University provided broad, real-world experience in winemaking.

He was hired in 1981, and as Thomas Fogarty Winery and Vineyards celebrates its 30th season, Mr. Martella is able to declare to a group of tasters at a recent Woodside event: "I've been lucky enough to be there for every one of them."

Mr. Martella met his boss through a friend who had heard that Dr. Fogarty was looking for a winemaker for his new enterprise. "We hit it off ... and in my own mind, I was perfect for the job," Mr. Martella recalls.

He obviously was able to convince his potential employer of that, and three decades later, Dr. Fogarty says, "Based on the quality of the wine and his work ethic, he was."Nathan Kandler was hired seven seasons ago as assistant winemaker, and has since been promoted to associate winemaker.

The wines: Most Fogarty wines are made with grapes grown on the Winery Estate property or the winery's second property, Gist Ranch, which is about 17 miles south of the estate. In addition to pinot noir and chardonnay, Fogarty bottles cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc, merlot, gerwurztraminer, and a few dessert wines.

The winery sits at about 2,000 feet above sea level, although there's a broad range of elevation on the properties. Mr. Martella says there are a multitude of mircroclimates, even within specific vineyards, and the grapes ripen through a "cool, long growing season."

Although many of the wines have won praise -- and many fans -- pinot noir is Fogarty's flagship wine, according to Mr. Martella, who notes that the winery was the first to grow pinot noir vines on Skyline.

The soil of both properties "features a layer of low-vigor loam on top of sandstone, shale and marine deposits," according to the winery's website. Mr. Martella describes the soil as "thinner and less fertile -- it's mountainous, lean soil."

All of these factors -- the many microclimates, the "lean" soil and steep terrain, the cool climate -- add up to the land's terroir, which is essential to express in the glass, Mr. Martella says.

Because of the cool climate, grapes mature slowly. "We have to work at attaining ripeness," Mr. Martella says. The range of mircroclimates has led to "microharvesting" practices, because grapes in any single vineyard ripen at different times.

Mr. Martella and vineyard manager Julio Deras walk the vineyards tasting the grapes during harvest season, picking them only when they taste ready. "We may pick only 12 rows of a vineyard at one time," coming back to taste and determine when to pick the remainder, depending on ripeness.

Although they pay attention to the Brix scale reading, which measures the sugar content of the grape and is used religiously by many viticulturists to determine when to harvest, Brix measurement is secondary. "There's not a magic number," Mr. Martella says. "We have a Brix ballpark we like to be in, but after that, we like to pick by flavor."

Over the years, California winemakers have increasingly harvested grapes when they're very ripe and have a high sugar content. This can make for some flavor-intense wines -- some would call them "fruit bombs" -- but, according to Mr. Martella, "it doesn't suit expressing the terroir." When the grape is too ripe, he adds, "the fruit expresses itself instead of the terroir."

The Fogarty winemaker also makes wine under his own label -- Martella -- buying grapes from growers he knows, including his brother. Those grapes come from sunnier climes, and the wine they become can be more fruit-forward as a result.

Fogarty wines, Mr. Martella says, "have a stronger expression of soil versus sun" -- with more minerality, structure and complexity. They are characterized, he adds, "by finesse and elegance."

Over the 30 years of Fogarty's existence, knowledge of growing vines and making wine has expanded significantly, and Mr. Martella and Mr. Kandler, the associate winemaker, are ever on the alert for new information on winegrowing practices.

Next year, the Windy Hill Vineyard at the Winery Estate will be replanted, with a reorientation of the vines for better exposure. That vineyard has produced premium pinot noirs over the years, but it seemed the right time to make a change, Mr. Martella said.

Helping with the Windy Hill Vineyard replanting is Tommy Fogarty, Dr. Fogarty's son, who is a major player at the winery these days as overall manager, helping oversee the day-to-day operations. Tommy Fogarty says he was only about 11 when the first vineyard was planted on the estate. "We learned a lot from our first planting," he says.

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Has the Indian wine bubble burst?

First the bad news: The Indian wine industry is facing the biggest challenge of its young life – it desperately needs to sell more wine. Wine consumption is increasing year over year but is not close to meeting the relentlessly optimistic forecasts – unquestioningly bandied about by the press and government officials for years - that lured many entrepreneurs into the field.

Maharashtra accounts for the vast bulk of Indian wine production. By our estimates, the installed wine-making capacity in Maharashtra is nearly three times annual national consumption. Not surprisingly, nearly half of the 50-odd wineries in the state are on the block, either privately or publicly. Many of the others would entertain conversations about strategic options. Some have stopped production altogether since their tanks are full of unsold wine from previous vintages.

How did all this come to pass? Probably the biggest reason was the Maharashtra government’s well- intentioned but misbegotten attempt to add value to the state’s large table grape crop. Through a combination of subsidies and low interest loans, the government virtually pushed several farmers into wine production. But this was naïve on the part of all concerned. Wine is not simply grape juice and it does not sell itself. Meanwhile, the hype and the easy money from the state caught the attention of some who wanted to make a quick buck and also of large industrial production-oriented concerns. Now they are looking for graceful exits and periodically imploring the government for bailouts.

The shining exception to this dire situation is Sula Vineyards. Using a canny mix of marketing and production management, Sula now sits atop the pyramid. Indeed, in some circles, Sula is synonymous with Indian wine.

And, there is other good news. A new breed of wine-makers, focussed on quality and market development is attempting to establish a presence. That wine breeds passion is evident in their approach. Now they have to infect that passion onto their suppliers, their sellers and, ultimately onto a consumer public.

They face a myriad challenges
First is that making good wine requires good wine grapes. Wine grape production is not well suited to some of the rich deep soils of the Nashik Valley that have sustained high-yielding table grapes for over a century. Wine grapes need poorer soils to create the kind of fruit that adds complexity to wine. That limits production to specific locales in the Valley. And, grapes for wine need viticulture practices that are new to the local farmers. The recent cut backs in wine production have hurt farmers who invested in wine grape cultivation. Many have gone back to table grapes, further exacerbating supply problems. The change in weather patterns is also a concern. The longer the rainy season, the bigger the potential for plant diseases.

Once the wine is made, there is the problem of getting it to the consumer’s table in good shape. Storage and transport conditions border on the primitive and much wine is destroyed before it is sold to the drinker. But even here there are changes. Some distributors are moving to temperature- controlled warehouses and many of the specialty wine stores exercise good care of the bottles in their possession. A spate of new gourmet food stores has added exemplary cellars to their sales locations.

Ultimately there is the issue of finding a market that can appreciate their efforts. Wine is not a traditional part of the Indian table. Few Indians have ever had a glass of wine. They don’t know what wine was supposed to taste like, or if the wine they were having was spoiled or not. If they have had wine of dubious quality – probably an execrable concoction called “Goa Port.” They don’t know – and probably don’t care - that wine can be synergistically paired with food.

This, too, is changing. With Indian culture opening itself to Western influences, more and more middle-class people are exploring wine and forming their own opinions. No longer are they looking only for sweetness, but are beginning to appreciate the complexity of taste sensations that are inherent to wine. They are beginning to appreciate wine and food pairings, though they remain skeptical that wine can enhance Indian cuisines. A wealth of new medical literature about the benefits of wine is stimulating some of this exploration.

Finally, these new wine entrepreneurs need to deal with local and national governments. On the one hand, the Indian wine industry operates under the protectionist umbrella of the national government, which attempts to impede the sale of imported wine through the exercising of huge customs levies. This is not going to last and, in any case, does little for competitively stimulating the quality of local production. But on the other hand, governments do nothing to enable the widespread, efficient distribution of wine. Each state exacts arbitrary and almost punitive levies for entry, basically making interstate wine commerce prohibitively expensive. From personal experience, as a Maharashtra-based wine producer, we know that it is far simpler to export to the USA, than to neighbouring Karnataka and the more distant New Delhi.

Still, the woes of the wine industry are not insurmountable. Wine demand will grow. But wine- makers will have to scale back their ambitions to focus on quality, value and market development. The “gold rush” is over, but new, patient approaches will prevail.

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Big Dog Vineyards: Winemaking in Milpitas

Most wine lovers in the Bay Area are familiar with the vineyards in Napa. However, in this year’s San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, a “Best of Class” and Gold Medal winner was from the South Bay: Big Dog Vineyards. How can a family operated vineyard in the South Bay successfully compete with those big vineyards in a nationwide competition? Please follow me into the hills just east of Milpitas to find the story of a special winemaker, Mark Capalongan.

From Engineer to Winemaker: In the mid-1990s, Mark Capalongan bought a ranch with 50 acres in the hills east of Milpitas. One day, a friend of his, who has been making wine for 30 years, came up to his place, looked around, and said that this location would be perfect for growing grapes. Soils and weather data were sent to UC Davis, the biggest wine school in California. The results confirmed this as a perfect location for growing Cabernet wines. Convinced by his friend, Capalongan planted a total of five acres of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc mostly on the hilltop pasture behind the house. Over the years the vines have been carefully tended for quality over quantity and the low-yielding hilltop vineyard produces much of the quality contained in the finished wines.

Capalongan has been growing grapes since 1996. In 2001, he brought in his first grape harvest, and sold it to his winemaker friend. The resulting wines were surprisingly good, so after that, Mark built a small winery to make the wine on location.

Making wine takes a series of processes, such as de-stemming, crushing, fermentation, barrel aging, and bottling. Mark learned how to make wine from a variety of sources including UC Davis and other local winemakers, but mostly from his own personal experience. He feels that every vineyard is different, and that each has its own personality, just as people do. The subtleties of some varietals may sometimes take years to discover. Each year he learns something that helps him the following year, in both the way he grows the grapes and the way he makes the wine. “The process evolves with time and that ongoing experience is part of the unique terroir of this vineyard,” he said.

Winemaking is fun for Capalongan because, first, it is quite different from his regular job. Second, making wine involves process and analysis as well as sensory evaluation. For instance, how does one control the flavor or bouquet of a wine? There are lots of measurements to be made. One example is the acidity. In finished wine, there is a balance between sugar and acid. Mark makes measurements of acidity, so he can adjust it up and down to achieve a certain ratio. But the ratio is something he learned from a book, which is still only a reference point. In Mark’s opinion, how the wine expresses itself in terms of the aroma and taste is more important. His wife Sandy, who has a very good palate and sense of taste, also assists this part of the process; she helps with some of the final winemaking decisions.

A Fun Place for Local Residents: The vineyard not only brings enjoyment to Mark’s family, but also to local residents. The first weekend of each month, from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., there is a free wine tasting at Mark’s ranch where the wines are available for purchase directly from the source. During summer, he also invites some local bands to play at his patio, for entertainment and even dancing. When harvest season comes, friends and customers sometimes help with the harvest. You can volunteer for bottling if you want to learn more about how to make wine.

This is the first weekend of April, and the winery is open. It is a great time to invite some good friends and try this year’s “Best of Class” Port Wine and “Gold Medal” Cabernet Sauvignon at Mark’s patio. World-class wines are as close as the hills of Milpitas.

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Growing wine grapes, making wine workshops to be offered in April

The Purdue Wine Grape Team will host two Extension workshops in April for those interested in commercial winegrowing and winemaking. The first workshop, on April 15, will focus on vineyard establishment and will help farmers and entrepreneurs who are planning to expand their businesses. The workshop will be at Oliver Winery’s Creekbend Vineyard in Ellettsville, Ind., from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Topics include vineyard layout, vine planting, trellis establishment, weed management, sprayer calibration and use of Driftwatch, as well as vine training and canopy management through year three after planting. Private pesticide applicators will receive recertification credit for attending.

At the second workshop, on April 29, the team will discuss ways to advance high-quality grape growing, winemaking and wine marketing. The workshop will be from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Buck Creek Winery, located southwest of Indianapolis. “Our spring wine grape workshops are a perfect opportunity to improve upon your sustainable vineyard and winery practices,” said Christian Butzke, associate professor of enology.

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Lake Country Wines offers in-store wine making

Lake Country Wines is now officially open for business. Located on the northeast corner of Bob’s Adium gas station in Brandon, Lake Country Wines offers an extensive selection of concentrated grape wine kits and related equipment for the home winemaker. The owner of Lake Country Wines, Mike Cleary, is also offering an area exclusive – in-store wine making.

Customers have the choice of purchasing kits and equipment to make their own wines at home or to use the store’s equipment and make their wine on location. Cleary said he’s excited about the opportunity to introduce others to the growing hobby of home winemaking and is offering free classes and one-to-one instruction.

Making your own wine is legal and is exempt from both federal and state regulations, Cleary noted. Customers may make up to 100 gallons per year free from tax and up to 200 gallons per household. Each gallon makes about five 750/ml bottles of wine.

The wines kits offered by Lake Country Wines are all made from wine grapes grown around the world. Choices include cabernet, merlot, chardonnay, pinot and creative combinations like peach chardonnay, blackberry merlot, blueberry shiraz and green apple Gewurztraminer.

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Why Blending in Winemaking Matters

“Blending is the winemakers’ equivalent to chefs cooking up a signature dish,” says Brian Bicknell, owner of the New Zealand winery Mahi. While some wines — such as Burgundies — are made from a single kind of grape grown in a single year, most wines are blends of grapes grown in various years. Blending together wines made from different grapes allows winemakers to combine less-stellar batches — too acidic or tannic, say — to create a wine that’s better balanced.

Every year, Mr. Bicknell sits down with four or five people from his vineyard — including his wife, who he says has a “fresher and more commercial palate” — to make the blending decisions. They spend two weeks tasting and rating 30 or so unbottled wines in stock at the winery, aiming to craft from them an ideal blend, which is then bottled and sold.

As an exercise, you can try blending at home. Start with a few bottles of different mid-to-low-end drinking wines, and keep three rules in mind: Taste your wines at room temperature, not chilled, so the flavors blossom fully; taste the dry wines before the sweet ones; younger before old and more-acidic wines first; and take breaks to prevent “palate fatigue.”

“At the end of the day, the best blend is in the eye of the beholder,” says Mr. Bicknell. “Everyone has a signature style.”

Winemakers usually consider the following before they blend:

Grape type. Different grapes have innate flavors: Sauvignon Blancs, for example, tend to be floral and fragrant, while Chardonnays have a fuller body. And thin-skinned Pinot Noirs grapes are much lighter in tannin than thick-skinned Cabernet Sauvignons grapes.

Vintage. Temperatures yield different flavors in grapes: Colder years tend to result in higher-acid grapes and warmer years in grapes with riper fruit flavors.

Vineyard. Besides temperature, certain vineyards also have specific soil characteristics that filter directly into the taste of the grapes. And certain wine-growing regions favor certain winemaking styles — California winemakers, for instance, prefer different tastes than French winemakers.

Machine or hand-picked. Grapes picked en masse by machines are usually harvested later in the year. Having spent more time on the vine, they produce wines that Mr. Bicknell calls “fruit bombs” because they’ve had more time to ripen and produce sugar. Hand-picked grapes, plucked at an earlier stage of ripening, tend to exhibit less in-your-face fruit flavors, and create wines that carry earthy expressions on the palate.

Pressed vs. free-run. When grapes are machine-pressed, much of the potassium from the skin also seeps into the liquid. This lowers the acidity of the grape juice and adds a “soapy” texture.

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Wine & Food Event at Olio

Most people don’t associate alcohol with education. This, Olio Restaurant hopes to change that by bringing in Bob Stashak, well-known winemaker, for its wine lecture and tasting event, Wednesday, March 16. Bob Stashak began his winemaking career at F. Korbel and Bros. after graduating from the University of California at Davis in 1973.

Twenty years later, he found Classic Wines of California, which had been looking to expand its sparkling wine production. There, Stashak implemented a traditional bottle-ferment sparkling wine program. Stashak, who’s been in the winemaking business for 38 years, now oversees all of Classic Wines of California’s sparkling wine programs, including bottle fermented and tank-fermented sparkling wines.

Stashak will bring his wine tasting expertise and wine knowledge to Olio Restaurant. Along with wine and wine education, there will be a specialized menu, including bruschetta, smoked trout fillet, white bean and tomato soup, medium-rare prime Angus cigarel, and a chocolate cupcake.

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California winemaking actually began in Mission Valley

Few San Diego wine aficionados know that the first vineyards planted for winemaking in the western United States were located in Mission Valley. In fact, those first vines were hand-carried into California by Franciscan Friar Junipero Serra in 1779, and were planted at the first San Diego Mission site along the river. The early pioneering Franciscans planted grapes to make wine for church services, and planted Mission olives and figs around the church properties as well. The Mission grapes were first brought into Mexico by the Spaniards in 1521, and from these early vineyards Jesuit missionaries spread those European vitis viniferra grape cuttings to South America and eventually into San Diego. The Mission Valley vineyards were the original source of grapes that sparked the beginning of the California wine industry as vineyards were planted at all the Mission sites from San Diego to Sonoma. Most likely, the friars had no idea that California would become one of the most famed wine regions in the world.

Although San Diego isn’t considered a premier wine region as yet, many grape growers and winemakers have met with great success here. The late Leon Santoro, winemaker for Orfila winery near the San Diego Wild Animal Park (and in Julian), proved to the wine world and critics that this region can produce “world class” wines by receiving over 100 gold awards for San Diego County wines.

Want to try making your own wine? Expert tools and advice are close at hand. Serous wine drinkers are trying their skills at making their own wine these days with the aid of winemaking kits, custom crushes, and home style operations. Mission Valley residents have the benefit of Home Brew, a wine and beer making supply center located at 5401 Linda Vista Road (619) 295-2337 near the south entrance to USD. Home Brew sells all necessary winemaking supplies, fermenters, bottles, corks, yeast, how-to-books, and many other essentials.

One book they sell, From Vines to Wines by Jeff Cox is an excellent guide for anyone considering making their own wines. Another nice publication, written by Alyson Crowe, called The Winemakers Answer Book is loaded with solutions to every possible problem associated with the winemaking process. And, Winemaker magazine is dedicated to hobbyists with many interesting articles, offering access to abundant winemaking supplies.

For those who prefer catalogs and/or want to investigate the process, Northern Brewer offers a home brew catalog featuring all the tools needed to make wine, and they sell a wide variety of wine kits that have all the essential ingredients for you to make your first wine. Making your own wine will deepen your knowledge of wine, and give you a perspective of looking from “inside the bottle outward, rather than from the outside looking in.” Winemaking can be a very rewarding experience with great benefits. In reality, all famous winemakers started wine-related careers with their first attempt in the winemaking process, so this is your opportunity.
Best advice: start with a simple wine kit.

The easiest way to get started is to buy a simple wine kit. Home Brew in Linda Vista and Northern Brewer offer many kits, with a large selection of grape varietals to choose from. Winexpert is a leading wine kit manufacturer of quality products. Their premium winemaking kits contain concentrated juice from many optional varietals and sources, containing 16 liters, yielding six gallons of wine that can be bottled in six weeks. Kit prices vary, but generally cost between $60 and $150 per kit.

Wine kits are a great way to begin the learning process. But once you’ve nailed down that simple process, you can move to the next level, by purchasing your own grapes locally. This will get you involved in the regional agricultural industry, and put you in touch with many interesting San Diego County grape growers.

Home Brew of Linda Vista has all the tools needed, as they sell starter kits with everything you need to get going, except the grapes. These kits cost about $120 for the basics, up to $200 for the deluxe set. Once you gather “the tools of the trade” you’ll learn basic chemistry, sanitation guidelines, precise measurements and weights, recipe reading, yeast types, aromatic and tasting techniques. In fact, you may discover a new passion in the art form of making wine.

Thanks to the late Bob and Lila Knapp of E.D.I.T.S Publishing in Ocean Beach, I learned about the wine culture in the 1980’s while working for them at Deer Park winery in Escondido and St. Helena. Today, I grow Nebbiolo grapes in the premier wine country of Baja California near Ensenada where I make my own wine. But, growing grapes for your own wine is a major step, taking much work and dedication, not to mention the economic factors and risks of farming. Thankfully, San Diego County has some excellent fruit available at local vineyards.

Visit this winery in Old Town and learn all about winemaking while sampling great wines. William Holzhauser of Hacienda de las Rosas Winery in Old Town State Park can guide you to some sources of local grapes. His winery is actually in Ramona, but this unique tasting room is located near at the Fiesta de Reyes (the old Bazaar del Mundo) at 2745 Calhoun Street, open daily from 11:30 to 8 p.m., 9 p.m on Fridays and Saturdays, (619) 840-579 or haciendawine@aol.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . If you’re thinking about making wine and purchasing local grapes, you should visit and talk with this dynamic character, and sample his wines while learning about Old Town history. In addition, William is a leading wine and vineyard consultant for San Diego County.

Today, San Diego has about twenty wineries spread out from Carlsbad to Escondido, Ramona to Julian. As far as I know there are no vineyards at this time in Mission Valley, so if you have a patio or deck in the valley, plant two vines and you’ll be a modem pioneer. Due to the blessings of the Internet, proximity to Home Brew in Linda Vista, simple winemaking kits, and living in California’s first wine region, now is the perfect time to attempt making your own wine…

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Dubbo wine grapes wiped out

The Chairman of Macquarie Valley Food and Wine, Ken Borchardt, says the entire grape harvest in Dubbo, worth around $3 million, has been wiped out by mildew and disease from the wet weather late last year.

The founder of the Red Earth Estate says some growers are pulling out vines and planning to grow cherries and other fruit crops instead of grapes. Mr Borchardt says the tighter competition could be a positive for wine makers.

"If the weekend warriors, or those that didn't take the industry serious were out, it would definitely open doors for us in reference to markets," he said. "Also if the amount of fruit or wine produced for Australia was decreased, we could actually start earning a little bit better dollars (per pallet).

"Then we could get into the marketplace and market what Australia's very good at, producing premium high quality wines."Mr Borchardt says despite this year's loss there will be wine as some cellars are releasing stock they have held since 2008. He says growers are now looking towards next year's harvest.

"The vines right now are not as stressed due to it having produced fruit. "They've had a very good growing period, our vines are mostly right now, they've never looked so healthy, so that's preparing the vines mostly for next year. "So 2012 could be a bumper harvest, subject to moisture and humidity of course," he said.

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Facing down hundreds of bottles of wine in a wine shop while attempting to pick just the right one can be a daunting task for even the most experienced wine aficionados.

At a recent wine tasting at Stew Leonard's Wines in Norwalk, Heather Munden, Artisan Winemaker for St. Francis Winery in Santa Rosa, Calif., not only treated customers to hand-crafted wines from the vineyard, but offered a tutorial in winemaking.

As customers sipped, she discussed the winemaking process and, in particular, the increasingly popular artisan wines and "old vine" wines.

The term "artisan wines" means different things to different people, but it typically refers to wines made in smaller vineyards.

Many new ones have sprung up in California's wine country in recent years, in what some have referred to as the Golden Age of Artisan Wines. The smaller vineyards usually use a hand-harvesting method for their grapes.

Mechanical harvesting versus hand harvesting the grapes has been open to debate, with strong advocates for hand-harvesting. Its proponents point to the ability to sort fruit by hand and eye, thereby excluding rotted fruit and leaves. Additionally, grapes, juice and wine are moved as gently and as little as possible.

Munden discussed the hand-harvesting of St. Fran-cis' wines. "Typically grapes are harvested during the day in temperatures of 75 degrees and up," she said. "Our grapes are harvested after midnight when the temperatures are about 45 degrees. With the grapes being cooler, the fruit flavor is preserved."

For more than 35 years, St. Francis Winery in Sonoma has hand-crafted fruit-forward wines from mountain and valley vineyards in Sonoma County. While most renowned for its red varietals, including its "Old Vines" Zinfandel (all old vines 60 to 110 years old), Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, St. Francis also produces a Chardonnay.

Of the Old Vine Zinfandel, Munden says, "This is a wine with a sense of history. Imagine that many of these vines have been around before Prohibition."

The older vines produce much less fruit than newer vines. The difference in production can be a half ton per acre for the old, compared to six tons per acre for the new.

"There is much more concentration of flavor in the older vine fruit," Munden said.

"The old vines have been lovingly tended to by three, four or five generations of winemaking families."

At the tasting, Munden sampled a selection of St. Francis wines and described the flavors and pairings of each one. The Chardonnay "has a citrus taste; you can taste the lemon peel and it can be paired with fish and pastas with a cream sauce," she said.

The Merlot, she said, "is 99.9 percent estate fruit; you can taste the smoothness of the fruit and it has a chocolate silky finish." She says, "It reminds one of women with pretty dresses and nice shoes. It's feminine and refined. This is a wonderful cocktail wine, but it can be paired with brick oven pizza or an elegant dinner."

Of the Cabernet, she said, "The Cabernet has a rich, chewy mixture of blackberry, black current, cedar, vanilla flavor with a supple round tannis at the finish. The Old Vine Zinfandel has deep aromas of ripe black cherry and licorice with toasty oak notes that carry it into a long luscious finish."

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A new zeal for winemaking

As land masses go, New Zealand is the youngest country on Earth, having been around for about three million years. Averaging around 120 kilometres from west to east coast, it's the only truly maritime wine-producing country -- ocean breezes cool vineyards off substantially in the evenings.

Marlborough is easily the New Zealand winemaking region pumping out the most wine. Located on the northeastern edge of the southern island, it's where most of New Zealand's renowned Sauvignon Blanc is produced. These days, there's more focus than ever on sub-regions -- valleys within Marlborough that each produce their own style based on climate and soil. Hawke's Bay, located on the eastern shores of the north island, is the second most popular region, with Central Otago and Martinborough bringing up the rear.

Last Wednesday, there was a trade tasting of New Zealand wines led by Robert Ketchin of New Zealand Winegrowers. Canada imports the equivalent of about 850,000 cases of New Zealand wine a year, 350,000 cases of which is shipped in bulk for blending into Cellared in Canada wines made by some of our larger producers. The other 500,000 cases hit the shelves, a big jump from the 30,000 cases we saw only 15 years ago.

Sauvignon Blanc is New Zealand's baby -- of the 850,000 cases shipped to Canada, around 64 per cent is Sauvignon Blanc. Forty-two per cent of all vines planted across the country produce Sauvignon Blanc, most made in a style that's often imitated but never duplicated by other countries. The wines are typically very crisp -- they're almost never aged in oak barrels, but rather kept in stainless steel tanks until bottling. Lemon, lime and grapefruit flavours typically dominate, with grassy/herbal and green pepper/jalapeño notes often present as well.

While Chardonnay is still produced in healthy numbers, Ketchin reported that as a category it's flat -- Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris are New Zealand's rising stars. The former grape (which makes up 18 per cent of Kiwi wines) results in light, fruit-forward reds with cherry and raspberry notes and modest, earthy complexity. They're not as funky as red Burgundy or as concentrated as those from Sonoma County, but still over-deliver for the price. Pinot Gris, a white grape, makes up around five per cent of production; it's typically made in a style that brings a great, viscous mouthfeel and ripe tropical fruit notes.

There are a couple of areas in which New Zealand wineries are both unified and progressive -- the closures on their bottles, for example. Around 95 per cent of Kiwi wines are sold in screwcap bottles; clearly the country's winemakers have faith in their ability to keep wines fresh and devoid of flaws.

New Zealand wineries are also making great strides in sustainable winemaking, with the goal being that all wineries will be sustainable by 2012. As it stands, around 80 per cent of wines are sustainable -- all materials, carbon outputs, etc. are monitored and documented -- with that number continuing to climb in light of the country's self-imposed deadline.

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Express yourself while winemaking in Loire

More than 600 Loire valley winemakers gathered in Angers in February for three days of tasting and touting their terroirs. But the vignerons, whose vineyards are spread along the banks of river's 630 miles, are as varied as the terroir or soils they till and the more than 740 million gallons (28 million hectoliters) of wines they produce each year.

Nearest the Atlantic coast are the Muscadet makers, who struggle to overcome a reputation for producing mediocre bulk wines from Melon de Bourgogne grapes planted in gravelly, sandy, soils that are rich in gneiss and granite. Some winemakers have even removed the word Muscadet from their labels.

Pierre Luneau-Papin's Marie Chartier explained as she poured several white wines that were crisp, fresh, and filled with peach and citrus flavors.

"If you go to a wine shop." she said, "and tell the man you want a good wine, but you do not want Muscadet and he says 'No problem Madame and hands you this bottle,' (which reads 'EXCELSIOR'). You take it. You taste it and you come back the next day and say 'Oh, it was very good. Muscadets are not as good as this wine.'

"But, in fact, it is a Muscadet," she laughed. "It is Melon de Bourgogne. It is just more easy for us to sell it this way."

East of Nantes and Anger is the hamlet of Savennieres where Evelyn de Pontbriand, owner and vigneronne of Domaine du Closel-Chateau des Vaults, practices organic methods to make still whites and reds and sparkling wines from different plots on her 15-hectare estate.

"My objective is to express this magnificent terroir. The soil is schist. The grape is Chenin Blanc (a white wine varietal without a distinct aroma profile, but is) a blank canvas on which the design of the terroir shines through," said de Pontbriand.

"Making white wine isn't difficult," she insisted. "We don't do anything. We press it. We put it in barrels or tanks. We just taste. It practically makes itself.

"What is difficult is to farm properly. That's extremely subtle. You really have to walk every day through vineyards and look everywhere and see how it's going," she said.

Her Clos du Papillon, which comes from a butterfly-shaped, four-hectare plot, "is special because the spot is special. It's a geological spot...There is an area, which must have had little volcanic eruptions when it was below the sea. The soil is much darker, very complex...When you walk, it is warmer there and the vines are (35-to-70 years) old. The spot yields a bone-dry wine that offers a mix of roasted nuts, apricot and a long finish filled with minerals.

Near the eastern end of the Valley, not far from Sancerre and Pouilly Fume, lies the village of Menetou-Salon, where vineyards have existed since at least the 11th century. It is here that Philippe Gilbert and his winemaker Jean-Philippe Louis take the same varietal used in Burgundy, Pinot Noir, and "try to stay out of the way and work with Mother Nature," said Gilbert

The pair have embraced biodynamic methods for their 67 acres of vineyards that lay above Kimmeridgian limestone alternating with softer marl. The method of organic farming emphasizes the use of manure and composting while excluding artificial chemicals and pesticides.

"When you use chemicals say against mildew, you know how it works. It says 'Put it on' and it's good for 10 days and you're covered. You can stay home for 10 days and not think," Gilbert said.

"When you're in biodynamics, It doesn't work like this anymore. If you don't like to go into the vineyard, then don't do biodynamics. Because you have to go, you have to think, you have to study, you have to share. It is more work, but it is also more peaceful and better for the earth."

Unlike most other Loire winemakers, Domaine Philippe Gilbert makes just four wines - two whites, a rose and a red. The red Les Renardieres 2007 made from 25-year-old vines shows plenty of dark berries, a bit of spice and smoke with soft tannins.

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