Les Blog

I found an excellent syrah in Dallesport that I believe would make a fine base for a port. A barrel taste of the 2006 had rich but balanced fruits, no obvious dessert flavors, and a surprisingly long finish featuring solid acid and an evolution of flavors. This is above average stuff selling for about 1700 per ton or about $34 per case for the fruit (assuming 50 cases to the ton). I have enough of the other ingredient to make more than a barrel of port. If anyone wants “in” get back to me in a week +/- so I can gauge interest and get an order in. The process last time involved no barrel aging but an extended (week?) soak on the skins after adding the brandy. Following this procedure we would bottle in time for thanksgiving.
BTW this grower has some cabernet sauvignon left.

Whit, James and I (joined by James’ friend Bill) racked all the wines on Wednesday night, rigorously (of course!) tasting through all the barrels and carboys to ensure top quality. A few notes to share:

The Perils of a Stainless Steel Tank. We’ve been housing whatever merlot didn’t fit in the barrel in a new 100 liter stainless steel tank. When we opened it up, however, the perils of not filling it absolutely to the top became apparent: a white film had formed on the surface of the wine, probably candida mycoderma. We wrangled it out and sprayed the surface with ethyl alcohol. In sampling the wine, there was no obvious acetaldehyde formation (an oxidized or stale sense to the wine which can result from over-exposure to candida), so we proceeded to rack it.

In refilling the tank, we poured in wine until screwing in the top just barely squirted out wine, so there should be no more trouble with candida. That said, we may want to sulfite the merlot a little more highly at the next (and final) racking.

Specific tasting notes after the jump.
Continued …

Last Saturday, we put together a small blind tasting with the object of seeing what difference we could tease out of a handful of vineyard-designated reds. I’d been wanting to try a Ciel du Cheval and a Champoux Vineyard wine, so I picked up a recent model at my favorite wine shop. James pitched in a Table Rock, and I pulled a Klipsun Les Garagistes from downstairs.

I asked my wife to scramble them and put them in brown paper bags. So I knew what all the wines were, but not which bag they were in; James knew about the Table Rock; everyone else had no idea where the wines came from.

Here’s what we tasted:

• 2002 Soos Creek Champoux Vineyard Red Wine
• 2001 Table Rock Oregon Merlot
• 2004 Andrew Will Ciel du Cheval Red Wine
• 2003 Les Garagistes Klipsun Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon

I was pretty sure the Andrew Will would stand above the rest, with anything from the Champoux vineyard following close behind, even though I’d never tasted a Soos Creek before. I just tossed in the Garagistes to fill out the flight.

So who won? You won’t believe me, and I don’t blame you. But that don’t mean it ain’t true: Les Garagistes, unanimously. It’s the power of good grapes from a good vineyard, for sure.

But please, scoff all you want. We’ll console ourselves with Klipsun.

I have begun experimenting. I know it’s wrong, I just can’t help it. Was it you, James, who was talking about B V? Just twelve short years in a succession of casks made of various woods. (I’ll have to use wood chips.) Now, some of you out there may be in a position to enable me. I believe B V is unfiltered and has cells of the authentic micro-organisms in every bottle. If anyone out there has a little, a teaspoon full, of B V that they could donate to the vat to help innoculate, I would be grateful. The formula is start with white grapes, boil down the juice to about half of the volume, dose it and put it in a cask in the attic. It might work.

23 May ’07, the 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon seems to have turned a corner and may be entering it’s maturity. Color is a little rusty at the edge, flavor is smooth and it has precipitated a fine pile of tartaric crystals. Drink a bottle today!

Yes! it says free vinyard! Sounds too good to be true? Well friend, your right to be suspicious but this here is the real thing! Decide for yourself based on these easy-to-understand facts. 1) My mother is ready to live somewhere that is not next door to her other daughter in law. 2) Suddenly the pacific northwest looks pretty good. 3) Prefers country and views. Conclusion: With a little “help” making the right decision my dear, sweet, kind mother might end up owning land near Portland that will support viticulture. I know it sounds crazy but thats how great things usually begin. So here’s the plan: I feed her info and pix about great places she could live that, coincidentally, might suit other purposes as well. What I need: information about where grapes are succeeding within two hours or less of our burg. Example: I know that syrah is working out near White Salmon. I’ll go there and check out the area, then send a glowing report to esteemed mother. Washington side preferred for tax purposes and dry country won’t do for reasons of taste. I doubt this would be bigger than hobby size, an acre or two perhaps. But think of the fun trading in the easy purchace of grapes for year round back-breaking labor! WOW! Send me your ideas now!

Sadly, Les Garagistes is dead.

News that the group had purchased the pine condo came in a somewhat roundabout way, via the latest issue of Decanter:

Critics, winemakers and merchants alike are sounding the death knell for garagiste wines.

Les Garagistes, perhaps out of town on a tour of the undiscovered country, did not return repeated calls for comment. But the group did send this message from its suite at the Horizontal Hilton:

We are not going to dignify that with a response, we were never there, and it was broken when we found it. But if we are in fact basting the formaldehyde turkey, we must caution Wall Street that this could significantly impact our second quarter wine consumption.

Continued …