Early efforts at winemaking on the American East Coast: The Jamestown Settlement experiment

Prior to the Spanish monks planting their first vines in California (1769; then part of Alta California, a colonial property of Spain), the first experiment in winemaking by the English settlers on the east coast had already run its course. I provide some context in the following.

Explorerer/Settler Encounters with North American Wild Grapes

The east coast of North America was well-endowed with native wild grape vines if one is to believe the accounts of early explorers and settlers (However, unlike the indigenous inhabitants of Mexico, the peoples native to the eastern seaboard did not utilize these grapes in any kind of beverage.).

According to the Norse Sagas, Leif Erickson sailed from Greenland in 1021 to an unknown country to the west. Erickson named this land Vinland due to the profusion of berries (Recent study on artifacts recovered from an archaeological site at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland shows that Vikings occupied the site in 1021.).

Giovanni da Verrazzano was an Italian explorer who, while in the employ of King Francis I of France, charted the east coast of North America between the Carolinas and Newfoundland. In 1524 he encountered a region "so lovely" that he called it Arcadia and therein he found "many vines growing naturally, which growing up, took a hold of the trees as they doe in Lombardy ..."

Giovanni da Verrazzano, Explorer

Jacques Cartier, a French explorer also in the employ of Francis I, came across an island rich in grape vines and named it "Bacchus Iland."

The first reports of wine production on the east coast of North America is sourced to the pirate John Hawkins. During his 1565 trip to the New World, he provided food aid to a bedraggled group of Huguenots who had sought to establish a settlement at Fort Carolina at the mouth of Florida's St John's River. The settlement had run into difficulty. Hawkins claimed that despite all the troubles the Frenchmen had encountered, they still managed to make 20 hogsheads of wine. The French refuted this claim, indicating that any wine they had was from external sources. 

If this was not the first instance of wine production in the "US," it did birth such an event. Florida was, at that time, part of Spain's New World possessions so the Spaniards undertook an expedition to expel the French from their foothold at Fort Carolina. The expedition was successful and the Spanish established a settlement on nearby Elena Island (now Parris Island) to deter any future incursions. It is reported that the settlers had planted a vineyard by 1568 but it is not clear as to whether these were native vines or vitis vinifera.

In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh's first expedition landed on Hatarask Island in North Carolina and found "a carpet of of grapes growing down to the water's edge."

Both the Pilgrims in the north and the Jamestown Settlement in the south made note of the abundant native grape vines that they encountered.

Let us step back and take a look at some of the native grape species that the aforementioned explorers and settlers might have encountered.

Table 1. Selected native grape species that early explorers/settlers would have encountered.

Species	Description
Vitis labrusca	Labrusca or northern fox grape  Large berries that may come in black, white, or red Best-known of the native species Concord is a pure example of this species
Vitis rotundifolia	Round leaf grape Grows on bottom lands, river banks, and in swamps Commonly called Muscadine Scuppernong the best-known variety
Vitis riparia	Found in both the north and south Riverbank grape Small-berried and harsh-tasting
Vitis aestivalis	Summer grape Adequate sugar in its berries and free of the “foxy” odor of the labrusca
Vitis cordifolia	Winter grape Harshly herbaceous
Vitis rupestris	Sand grape Favors gravelly banks and dry water courses  Distributed through the region around southern Missouri and Illinois down into Texas

Source: Culled from Thomas Pinney's A History of Wine in America (UC Press, 1989)

Jamestown: The First Winemaking Experiment

The Jamestown Settlement, funded by the Virginia Company, was established in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607 with 104 English men and boys. It was the first permanent English settlement in North America. The early settlers were "struck by the rich profusion of grapes" that adorned the surrounding woods. William Strachey, an English writer who served as Secretary and Recorder for the colony between 1610 and 1611, lauded the young wine made from these native grapes by Doctor Lawrence Bohun, "the first experimental scientist in Jamestown and one of its first physicians." While living in Virginia, Bohun produced wine and, as such, is the first named winemaker in the US.The quality of these wines, were less-than-stellar, however, as indicated by a request from the incoming Governor Lord De La Mar that one hogshead of the wine, "sour as it is," be sent to England as a sample.

King James of England saw the production of silk and wine in the colony as a source of wealth that would place England on an equal status footing with its European rivals Spain and France. The Virginia Company also needed profits to pay returns to its shareholders. These were two of the catalysts to a Virginia 1619 law requiring each householder to annually plant and maintain 10 vines. The settlers were to be aided in this effort by eight skilled French vignerons who had been sent to the colony along with vine plants. The latter is significant because it is the first recorded instance of vitis vinifera on the eastern seaboard. Further, the settlers were provided with a winemaking manual that was prepared by the King's Master of Silkworms and Wine, a Frenchman named John Boneil.

All in all, this initial effort at creating a Virginia wine industry was unsuccessful. A little wine was made from native grapes and sent to London in 1622 but was not well received. This first experiment in winemaking ran aground on a number of rocks:

• Tobacco grew very well in Virginia and there was growing demand for the crop in Europe. Given the choice of planing vines which made unsatisfactory wine and the cash crop tobacco, the settlers voted with their pocket books every time.
• The native wild grapes were unsuitable for the production of wine
• The settlers blamed the vignerons for the lack of progress but a number had been killed and others wanted to cash in on growing tobacco rather than the unsatisfactory grape vines. The settlers were so upset with the vignerons that they sought to bar them from growing tobacco.
• There were significant impediments to growing vitis vinifera in Virginia (Pinney):
• The area experienced climate extremes, with the vines alternately blasted and frozen
• Summer humidity steamed the vines and presented a hospitable environment for fungal diseases such as powdery and downy mildew and black rot (These diseases were unknown in Europe prior to the mid-1800s)
• Destructive insect pests such as the grape leaf hopper and grape berry moth.

According to Pinney, "... the failure to make anything out of wine-growing in the face of a prosperous tobacco industry soon led men to give up a losing game." The boomtown mentality of Jamestown was "ill-suited to the patient labor and modest expectations of wine-growing."

But this would not be the last word on winemaking in Virginia; or on the American east coast.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Monks and the Mission: The spread of viticulture through Baja and Alta California

So let's recap. 

The thesis here is that the Spanish, and, more specifically, the Spanish monks, were responsible for the defeat of the French wines by the upstart Americans at the Judgment of Paris tasting. I began offering up proofs in my most recent post. The Spanish were the first to bring vitis vinifera to the New World; vitis vinifera was a requirement to compete with, much less defeat, the French wines.

The vitis vinifera planted at Hispaniola failed. That provided the first opportunity for the Spaniards to put a stake in the heart of the unborn American "wine industry" but they could not be deterred from the mission of embarrassing the French so they took another bite of the apple: they took vitis vinifera cuttings and seeds to Mexico. To the Mexican Highlands, no less, where the climate, and the heavy hand of Hernan Cortes, proved conducive to the growth of the vine.

King Philip II of Spain was a monarch with foresight. He saw the risk and sought to stop the menace in its tracks. He issued an edict in 1595 banning the production of wine in New Spain because it was hurting the business of the European Spanish producers.The King short-circuited his edict, however, by issuing a license to Don Lorenzo Garcia allowing the production of wine and brandy in Mexico. This edict did not accomplish its objectives as Mexican wine continued to flourish and grapegrowing to extend north.

King Philip II of Spain

A little more than 100 years later, King Charles II also saw the light and issued a second edict banning New World grape production, with the exception of wine produced for sacramental purposes. And therein lay the license for the monks to keep afloat this enterprise which would eventually become the ondoing of the French. The monks used this exception to move grapevines steadily northward, beginning with the 1697 planting of vines by Juan Maria de Salvatierra at the Loreta Mission in Baja California.

We move on from there.

After the founding of the Loreta Mission, the Jesuits began a steady march up the Baja California peninsula, founding 18 missions over the next seven decades. But it was not all peaches and cream for the team. It was rumored that they had amassed a fortune and were becoming powerful and this prompted the King to issue an order in 1768 to have them forcibly expelled from New Spain and returned to their home country. The Franciscans took over administration of the missions as did members of the Dominican Order. The Dominican Order arrived in 1772 and by 1800 had established nine missions in Baja California while managing a number of the former Jesuit missions.

While the foregoing was afoot, the Franciscans were also pushing further into the Spanish colonial holdings called Alta California.

Alta California (Source: sfsdhistory.com)

The Franciscans controlled the missions in Alta California until secularization. Friars with missionary experience from the College of San Fernando in Mexico City were selected to take over existing missions and to create new ones: "They knew the crafts of husbandry, weaving, carpentry and masonry" and were also well-versed in the teaching of religion.

The Franciscan spearheading the push into Alta California was Friar Juniperro Serra, the senior member of the community.

He is considered the farther of California wine in that he planted the first vitis vinifera vines in 1769 at a mission called San Diego de Alcalá. Mission grape cuttings were first planted at San Diego and then, in 1771, just north at Mission San Gabriel Arcángel. Subsequent plantings were made in Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara. The totality of Franciscan Missions in Alta California is shown in the image below.

It should be noted that these areas were  the colonial properties of Spain and then became a colony of Mexico after its independence in 1921. California did not become a part of the United States until 1850. 

I will continue next with winemaking activity on the eastern coast of the US.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Monks on a mission: The spread of winemaking through colonial Mexico and Spanish South America

The Spanish were directly responsible for the drubbing of French wines at the hands of the American upstarts at the Judgment of Paris tasting. More specifically, Spanish priests were the culprits. It's a long story -- told in two parts -- so strap in.

European wine grapes (vitis vinifera) were first brought to the New World by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage (1493 - 1496), the first installment in the Columbian exchange. Columbus brought settlers and seeds and cuttings for wheat, chickpea, onions, grapes, olives, sugar cane, and fruits on that journey with the express intent of settling the island of Hispaniola. The Caribbean provided less-than-ideal conditions for grapegrowing and this initial attempt at making wine in the New World was a failure (as was also the case for grain and olives). At this point the French wines were still ahead; but so was Mexico.

Mexico

Presented with a second opportunity to protect the self-respect of the wines of its fellow continental traveler France, Spain demurred and took a second bite at the apple of wine production in the New World. 

Pre-Columbian Mexico was home to grapevines. The inhabitants of the time used the grapes to make a drink which included other fruits and honey. The Aztecs called the fruit of the vine acacholli, while the Purépechas (seruráni), the Otomis (obxi), and the Tarahumaras (uri) all had their own nomenclature. These grapes, primarily due to their high acidity, were deemed by the Spanish conquistadores to be unsuitable for the production of wine.

The Spanish had vitis vinifera vines in their possession, however, and began planning for their deployment. On March 20, 1524, Hernan Cortes, conqueror of the Aztecs and Governor of New Spain, ordered each lieutenant to plant the equivalent of 1000 feet of vines for every 100 slaves they possessed.

Hernan Cortes

This order fueled a significant expansion of the vineyards around Mexico City in the areas of Tacubaya, Puebla, and Hidalgo. Vines were cultivated immediately by the priests who needed wine for the celebration of Mass. According to one source, "They were the ones who transformed inhospitable deserts into areas of cultivation and wine-growing." The Jesuits and Franciscans consolidated the grape varieties planted by other friars and named it the "mission grape." 

The expansion of wine production continued with vines being planted northwards from Mexico City to Querétaro, Guanajuàlo, and San Luis Potosi. Vines were very successful in Parras Valley and, subsequently, Baja California, Sonora and the Puebla vineyards Tehuacan and Huejotzingo.

Parras Valley is the largest and oldest grape-growing region in Mexico. Wild vines were found in the valley by priests and settlers exploring the area in 1549 and they founded a mission there, naming it Santa Maria de Las Parras (Parras translating to vines). The mission made wines from the wild grapes and were soon shipping wines and brandies from this region to other parts of New Spain. Mission grapes also did well here and cuttings eventually made their way north to the formative Napa Valley. The Marqués de Aguayo winery was founded in Parras Valley in 1593. The winery officially ceased business in 1989.

As the Mexican wine industry flourished, less wine was imported from Spain, a distressing state of affairs for Spanish producers. They petitioned the King (Philip III) and he issued an edict in 1595 banning the production of wine and the planting of new grape vines anywhere in New Spain. In spite of the ban, he issued commercial rights to Don Lorenzo Garcia allowing the production of wine and brandy. Don Lorenzo founded the Hacienda de San Lorenzo winery in Valle de Parras in 1597 to exploit his license. The winery is still in operation today under the name Casa Madero.

Winemaking continued to flourish in New Spain prompting Charles II to issue an edict in 1699 banning the production of wine in New Spain except for sacramental purposes. This religious exception allowed a Jesuit priest to plant the first vines in Baja California at the Loretto Mission. In 1791, Jesuit Priests attempted to revitalize large scale production at the Santo Tomas Mission in Baja California. In 1843, Dominican Priests planted grapes at a mission in today's Valle de Guadalupe. The Mexican Reform War of the 1850s called for many of these lands to be returned to the state. The Santa Tomas Mission was sold to a group of investors and became Mexico's first commercial winery -- Bodegas Santo Tomas.

Colombia

Jesuit missionaries brought vines into Colombia from Mexico in 1530 and succeeded in crafting some wines but were forced to discontinue production after the 1595 ban by Philip III.

Peru

The first vines were planted in the heights of Chile in the 1540s but farming them was laborious so they were moved downhill towards the coast in the vicinity of Ica. The original vines were planted to suport the Catholic mass but the locals began enjoying the wine out of church as well. The wine became so well known that it was exported to Bolivia to fuel the entertainment needs of Potosi, the then "Paris of South America."

The Spanish ban on local wines caused some producers to bargain with the Crown to produce a local aguardente -- the birth of Pisco -- while others switched crops, and the remainder continued quietly producing wine.

Chile

The first grapevines were brought to Chile in 1548 by Francesco de Carabantes, a Spanish Friar. The first Chilean grower was Francisco de Aguirre, who delivered his first harvest in 1551. Other sources credit Rodrigo de Araya who was cultivating grapes in the Chilean Central Valley at the same time. Pretty soon vitis vinifera was cultivated along the length and breadth of Central Chile and Spanish-sourced varieties dominated the Chilean wine scene until disrupted by French varieties beginning in 1851.

Bolivia

Grapevines were first planted in Bolivia by Spanish missionaries in the 1560s but the tropical climate proved inhospitable to vitis vinifera.

Argentina

The first cuttings planted in Argentina were brought in from the Chilean Central Valley in 1556 by one Father Cedrón. The first small plantings occurred in San Juan and Mendoza but by the end of the 16th century vineyards could be found in every settled region. 

Growers gravitated to the Cuyo region over the first 200 years due to its high altitude, favorable climate, and plentitude of water. A total of 120 vineyards were located in Mendoza by 1739.

Grape Varieties

During the first 100 years of viticulture in the above discussed regions, missionaries brought over a number of grape varieties either in the form of seeds or sticks. The white varieties included Muscat of Alexandria, Mollar, and Palomino while the red was Listán Prieto. The Listán Prieto was the most significant planting and is sometimes referred to as the mother grape of the Americas.

Listán Prieto is native to the Castille region in Spain and was brought to the Canary Islands where it flourished. There are very limited plantings of this variety in Castille today with some supposition that it was wiped out by Phylloxera.

When brought to the Americas, the variety was generically called Criolle but had different names depending on location: Mission in Mexico, Negra Criolla in Peru, Pais in Chile, Missionera in Bolivia, and Criolla Chico in Argentina. This variety represented over 90% of the plantings in Argentina and Chile in 1833.

With the passage of time, crossings of these founding varieties occurred with Torrontés in Argentina being the most significant. There are three different Torrontés varieties: Torrontés Riojano, Torrontés Sanjuanino, and Torrontés Mendocino. Some 150 native criolla varieties have been identified to date.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Château Pape Clément: The link between the Bordeaux estate and the Avignon Popes

I recently posted my article on the Avignon Popes and Châteauneuf-du-Pape in the Wine Studies Group and received feedback from member Jean-Yves Maldague that the Bordeaux estate Château Pape Clément was previously owned by the Clement V, the first of the aforementioned Popes. I followed up on this and he is 100% correct. I flesh out the details below.

The first harvest at Château Pape Clément (then named Domaine de la Mothe) occurred in 1252. Nothing else is reported as regards the estate until its purchase in 1299 by Gaillard de Goth, brother of the recently appointed Archbishop of Bordeaux, Bertrand de Goth. Gaillard bought the property at the urging of his brother who could not, due to his position, do so. Bernard liked grapegrowing, however, and was integrally involved in the estate's operation post the transaction. 

With the support of King Philip IV of France, Bertrand was elected Pope in 1305 and took the name Pope Clement V. Gaillard died in 1306 but bequeathed the estate to his brother prior to passing. The estate was subsequently renamed Château Pape Clément.

Pope Clement V, owner of Château Pape Clément
between 1306 and 1309

The pope managed the estate until the press of pontifical responsibilities drove him to donate it to the Archdiocese of Bordeaux in 1309. The estate remained under the control of the Archdiocese until it was confiscated during the French Revolution and sold at auction in 1791.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Andrea Franchetti: A curated review of the legacy of an architect and builder and the products that spoke for him

The wine world has been wracked by a number of leading-light deaths in the past two years or so but none has struck as close to home for me as the passing of the Tuscan and Mt. Etna giant Andrea Franchetti. I have eaten and drunk wines at both of his estates and been the beneficiary of a wealth of information and insights that he has directed my way. But not only did I benefit from knowing Andrea, I also benefited from the organizations and institutions that he established. The staff at both of his estates are some of the nicest, most helpful people that you would want to meet and Contrada dell'Etna, his formualtion, continues to be one of the most efficient methods for surveying the breadth of Mt Etna's offerings. I seek to honor Andrea by providing an overarching view of the structures that he built and the products that he offered.

Andrea Franchetti
(Source: Letizia Patanè)

Andrea Franchetti came from a famous and wealthy Roman family linked to the Frankfurt Rothschilds but struck out on his own and built a superlative brand in the wine industry. 

Andrea had been a wine broker and imported French and Italian wines to the US between 1982 and 1986. He wanted to come back to Italy but, before doing so, went to Bordeaux and spent some time learning winemaking from his friends Jean Luc Thunevin (Chateau Valandraud) and Peter Sisseck (Dominio de Pingus). He then returned to Italy and single-handedly build two wine estates -- Tenuta di Trinoro (Tuscany) and Passopisciaro (Mt. Etna) -- from the ground up, the former focused on wines made from Bordeaux varieties and the latter, primarily wines from traditional Mt Etna varieties.

Tenuta di Trinoro

In 2002 Jancis Robinson described Andrea Franchetti's Tenuta di Trinoro as an "idiosyncratic wine estate ... which has achieved quite remarkable renown considering it was first planted in 1992." Antonio Galloni, writing on vinous.com, described the estate as giving "new meaning to the expression 'in the middle of nowhere.'"

Armed with philosophies, practices, and cuttings that he had secured from his Bordeaux friends, Andrea went to the Tuscan hinterlands, to land that to him was reminiscent of the left- and right-bank Bordeaux soils, and bought the 200-ha property that is Tenuta di Trinoro.

The Val d'Orcia area in which Tenuta di Trinoro is located had been almost abandoned between 1960 and 1980 with the primary activity being sharecropping. Sheep-breeding came with the Sardinians when they emigrated here between 1960 and 1970. The houses in the area were primarily second homes for the wealthy.

Given its location, Tenuta di Trinoro gets sufficient sunlight to bring its grapes to maturity during the course of a growing season. Up until 2004, the area experienced Mediterranean growing seasons (mild, wet winters and warm, dry summers) but the growing seasons are now more tropical; that is, more rain and cooler summers (Andrea said that these new seasonal effects allow them to make better wines than they could with the scorching Augusts of the past. The prior August heat left the vines paralyzed which lengthened the ripening process and brought up the sugar. These are much better years, he says, with 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2016 all great vintages. He also pointed out that the concentration is better under these new growing conditions.).

Plants are kept low -- Bonsai vineyard concept -- with each allocated 1 sq meter of canopy. Sheep manure is the only type of fertilization used on the property and spray material consists of copper and sulfur. A mix of clay, propolis, and grapefruit seed extract is sprayed in the pre-harvest period to ward off botrytis and other molds that may occur on the grapes as they approach full ripeness. There is no irrigation except for newly planted vines.

Vini Franchetti characterizes its vineyard work at Tenuta di Trinoro as follows:

We generally every year go into the vineyard and treat every vine 20 to 25 times during the growing season: to thin, hold up, cut away, spray glues or powders, hoe and dig, top and pick. We then do innumerable pickings for two months at harvest. In the winter four more long visits are spent on each vine to prune, tie, and to mend the poles and wires,

As he does at Passopisciaro, Andrea walks the vineyards at Trinoro incessantly. He makes the decision to pick based on taste. Each plot is harvested, vinified, and aged separately according to the process shown in the chart below.

As regards the wines, the Le Cupole is the estate's second label. The 2015 edition is a blend of 58% Cabernet Franc, 32% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 4% Petit Verdot. The yield was 50 hl/ha. We tasted a cement vat sample. Concentrated with soft tannins.

The 2014 Magnacosta is a 100% Cabernet Franc which, like the other crus, had been aged in new oak for 8 moths and then transferred to cement vats for an additional 11 months of aging. The year had been cool but the grapes were ripe and showed as sweet and concentrated in the wine. Herbal and peppery with well-integrated tannins.

The 2014 Tenaglia showed black and blue fruits, licorice, and tea. Fruit carries through to the palate. A little more power than was the case for the Magnacosta. Salinity. Lengthy finish.

The 2014 Carmagi was not giving on the nose. Blue fruit, duskiness, and salinity on the palate.

The fruit was so good in 2009 that Andrea resurrected the Palazzi as a wine in that vintage. We tasted both the 2009 Palazzi (100% Merlot) and the 2009 Tenuta di Trinoro (42% Cabernet Franc, 42% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 4% Petit Verdot) but both were too cold to reveal themselves fully. The Palazzi showed mushrooms, a savoriness, and a hint of green. Mineral finish. The Tenuta di Trinoro did not reveal much on the nose and opened up just enough to give a hint of layered complexity.

A subsequent re-tasting of the Tenuta di Trinoro showed intense spice and dark fruits on the nose along with leather, cassis, and licorice. On the palate, dark fruit accompanying a rich, thick creaminess and beautifully integrated tannins. A long, rich, creamy finish. The Palazzi showed ripe dark fruit, licorice, spice and chocolate. Balanced. High note resulting of pleasing acid levels. A creamy finish.

Bianca Trinoro

In the same year that he launched his inaugural Mt Etna vintage -- 2001 -- Andrea planted some Semillon vines at his Tuscan property. According to Wine Searcher, the property had a sandy patch at its highest reaches (0.6 ha at 620 m). This plot reminded Andrea of the Medoc, prompting thoughts that it might be suitable for a white variety. Given the Bordeaux profile of the estate, he opted for Semillon as that white variety.

The vines are planted at 10,000 vines/ha with yields of 25 hl/ha. According to Andrea, he made 1000 bottles of wine from the harvested fruit each year and drank them after each vintage had matured for 10 years. After drinking the wines over the years, he got to a point where he felt that the vines had matured enough to support a high-quality commercial offering. This led to the release of the 2017 and 2018 vintages on the market. 

The grapes are harvested manually and then transported to the cellar where they are whole-cluster-pressed and then fermented. The 2018 vintage was fermented in stainless steel tanks for a total of 10 days (the 2017 vintage appears to have been fermented in barrels) and then aged (on lees) in cement tanks for 7 months (the 2017 vintage was aged in glass demijohns as they awaited delivery of the cement tanks).

Andrea viewed the wine as being approachable after 5 years but it will not reach its peak until 10 years have elapsed.

Even though Andrea thought the wine should be hidden for its first 5 years, it more than showed its mettle when I tasted the 2018 version. In the early stages of the tasting it showed rosemary, apple, dried hay, and intense herb/florality, spice, and menthol. As it evolved, a sweet white flower and  creamy vanilla with an attendant richness and complexity. With additional time, green herbs and talcum powder.

On the palate, lemon-lime, salinity, a marine character, a stemminess from the whole-cluster-pressing, and a drying, limey finish. With time, a blade-like precision, lime, and spiciness. The sweetness which is pervasive on the nose does not carry through to the palate. Gains weight with time. 

This wine is replete with promise.

Passopisciaro

According to Nesto and di Savino (The World of Sicilian Wine):

In 2000 Etna's wine industry awakened suddenly. Foreign attention and capital arrived. The newcomers Frank Cornelisen from Belgium, Marc de Grazia from Florence, and Andrea Franchetti from Rome bought vineyards on Etna and became evangelists of its potential (Ed. note: Andrea stipulates that Marc de Grazia came to Etna a little after Frank and him.).

Andrea came to Etna looking for high-altitude vineyards where the grapes would mature in the cool of autumn and settled on Passopisciaro on Etna's north face. 

Guardiola, a 8-ha property just on the edge of the DOC, was bought in 2002 (Some of the vines are DOC and others are not). Two hectares were planted to Petit Verdot in 2001/2002 at between 800 and 1000 m altitude and another 2 ha to Cesanese d' Affile. These vines were planted at 12,000 vines/ha with 5 bunches/vine. The vines were subjected to green harvests in order to further concentrate their energy and are the sources of the Franchetti wine first introduced in 2005. The current configuration of Guardiola is 3 ha split between Chardonnay, Petit Verdot, and Cesanese d'Affile and the remainder dedicated to Nerello Mascalese.

Franchetti's first wine was a Nerello (Passapisciaro 2001) but, as he stated in a personal communication, "I tried to make a Nerello that I liked right away, but wasn't able, until 2005 when I finally started getting it. Since then our Nerello has been, I think, getting better because of new touches in the winemaking." 

Robert Camuto (Palmento: A Sicilian Wine Odyssey) provides telling insights into the Franchetti mindset and practices in those early years. In his visit to the Franchetti estate in the summer of 2009, he saw no Nerello Mascalese grapes planted there. In fact, "... Franchetti saw no need to plant local varieties when he could buy or lease Nerello from vineyards that were already established."

His perception of this early-times Franchetti is electric:

Most winemakers were coming to Etna to make their interpretations of Nerello, but Franchetti was here, it seemed, to interpret Franchetti. The others were like landscape painters who had come to paint the volcano; Franchetti was an abstractionist who had come to paint on the volcano. ... For other winemakers, Nerello Mascalese, with its delicate Pinot Noir color and structure, was part of the attraction. Franchetti, on the other hand, was here on Etna in spite of Etna.

Camuto reports that Franchetti told him, "I hated the stuff -- I thought it was coarse. I didn't want to use Nerello to make wine. I looked at it as an ingredient I had to use."

According to Camuto, the early Franchetti Nerello vintages "rolled out the Bordeaux new wave formulas that had worked so well for him at Tenuta di Trinoro" but the long maceration, and aging in barriques, produced a wine that was "as rude as it was rustic."

In an email communication with me, Andrea referred to the wines made before 2004 as the "pre-Socratic vintages."

In 2004, I tried to extract for a long period at low temperature before fermenting the berries; to no avail. I mixed some 2001 Trinoro Merlot in the 2002 Nerello Mascalese. I let the 2003 Nerello Mascalese start out with local wild yeast out of spite. No "philosophy" had been built.

Andrea sent me three of these early vintages to try. They bear no resemblance to the Franchetti Nerello Mascalese wines of today.

The 2001 showed a much deeper color than one would expect from an aged Nerello Mascalese. Hint of Nerello on the nose, but indistinct. Mushroom and earthiness dominates. Concentrated and unfocused on the palate. Bitter on the palate with a very bitter aftertaste. Metallic. Unpleasant finish.

The 2002 showed balsamic, spice, dark fruits, and lacquer on the nose along with hints of tobacco and cedar. Fruitier than the 2001. High acid level. Lack of focus on the palate. Big, dark fruit. red pepper spice. Bitterness and acidity competing on the palate. Severe dryness on palate leading to a furry feel in the mouth.

The 2003 exhibited stewed fruit, spice, and rust. Sweet fruit on the palate. Bitterness, salinity and kerosene.

But Franchetti eventually came to the realization that the problem was with his winemaking technique, rather than with the cultivar and, in 2004, he changed his approach (Camuto):

• He ceased macerating on the skin
• He lowered the fermentation temperature
• He moved from barrique to botti for aging

Franchetti, as cited by Camuto: "You see, I learned that the best part of the Nerello grape is not in the skins, like with the Bordeaux grapes. Its all in the juice."

In his communication with me, Andrea said that he gained his initial feel for Nerello in 2004 when the wine came in "nice and tannic." The first applied thinking happened the following year (lightness, clarity, fining with egg whites). "What Nerello wine should be, or is in the heavens, struck me from 2005 on: I first modified the cellar activities, then the harvesting decision; then my vineyard management practices."

And the rest, as they say, is history.

He began planting Petit Verdot which he blended with Cesanese d' Affile to make a wine he called Franchetti.

Once Franchetti was introduced, Andrea pivoted and sought to make a great white wine from Chardonnay (first bottling in 2007) and Nerello Mascalese wines that reflected their terroir (first bottling of Contrada wines in 2008) . The distribution of vines by contrada, and the individual contrada characteristics, are shown in the figure below.

Source:vinifranchetti.com

In order to ensure that any differences in the wines are contrada-specific, the wines are given the same vinification treatment: fermentation in steel vats; malolactic and 18 months aging in large neutral oak barrels; fining with bentonite; and no filtering. The Franchetti is aged in barrique.

We began our tasting with the 2015 Passorosso (Passopisciaro until a few years ago). The grapes for this wine are sourced from 70 - 100-year-old, bush-trained vines grown at altitudes between 550 and 1000 m in the contrade of Malpasso, Guardiola (40% of grapes), Santo Spirito, Favazza, and Arcuria. High-toned red fruit with smoke, leather, and mineral notes. On the palate, bright red fruit, acidity, with drying tannins on the finish.

The 2015 Contrada Rampante was made from 100-year-old-vines which are planted at 8000/vines/ha and yielded 17.6 hl/ha. Herbs. smoke, iron, sweet tar, tobacco, and spices. Good fruit levels but not as focused as I would have liked.

The Contrada Chiappemaccine 2015 was the least complex of the wines I had tasted up to this point. Not very giving on the nose and non-complex on the palate. The 2014 edition of this wine showed fresh red fruit, sweet herbs and spice. Tobacco on the palate.

The 2014 Contrada G was elegant. Smoke, tobacco, leather, and sweet tobacco. Savoriness. Complex, big fruit but balanced by acidity. Silky tannins. Long finish.

The Franchetti 2014 is a blend of 70% Petit Verdot and 30% Cesanese d' Affile. Yields of 17 hl/ha. Fermented with selected yeasts in stainless steel tanks for 10 - 15 days.  Malolactic and 8 months aging in barriques, followed by 10 months in cement and 2 months in bottle. Bentonite fining. Rich, inky, with herbs and smoky barrel notes. Powerful. Not a classic Etna wine but I loved.

Andrea Franchetti's Mt. Etna Chardonnay Journey

When he arrived on Mt Etna in 2002, Andrea decided to restore some ancient terraces lying between the Guardiola and Passochianche Contradas and to plant the plots to Chardonnay rather than Carricante, the latter being best suited to the clime and soils of the eastern slope. The vines were planted at elevations ranging between 850 and 1000 meters in "very loose, deep, powder-like," mineral-rich lava. 

In 2009, Andrea planted an additional parcel of Chardonnay in Contrada Montedolce. 

Andrea's intent was to craft a long-lived Chardonnay reminiscent of the wines of Burgundy and, towards that end, planted at 12,300 vines/ha in order to force inter-vine competition and the production of small, concentrated berries. Andrea felt that the combination of stressed fruit, altitude, abundant sunlight, and significant day-night temperature excursions would produce wines with excellent body plus the acidity and minerality for which the zone is famed.

The first Chardonnay was introduced in 2007. It was called Guardiola initially but, since 2014, is called Passobianco. This 100% Chardonnay utilizes fruit from all Passopisciaro Chardonnay plots.

On every occasion that I have been to Passopisciaro, I have seen Andrea walking through the vineyard, plucking something here, tasting something there. So he knew the vineyards like the back of his hand; and he noticed that as the vines became older, individual plots were developing distinct characteristics. In 2018 Andrea decided to utilize his knowledge of the vineyard characteristics to bottle a Contrada Chardonnay using grapes drawn solely from one of the highest parcels (870 - 950 m) in Contrada Passochianche. The resulting wine is called Contrada Passochianche.

The fruit sources for the Passopisciaro Chardonnays are summarized in the chart below.

The first-ever edition of Contrada Passochianche was 2018.

According to Passopisciaro, 2018 "was one of the rainiest and most tropical vintages that we've seen on Etna in the last eight years, especially at the end of the summer." The number of leaf-pull passes through the vineyard had to be increased in order to provide air passage through the vines and mitigate the effect of the humidity. Additional mitigation efforts included the use of products such as clay, propolis, grapefruit seed extract, copper, and sulfur.

The harvested grapes were destemmed and cold-soaked for 12 hours. They were then fermented in large neutral oak barrels of no more than 20 Hl, followed by malolactic fermentation in barrel. The wines were aged on lees for 10 months in large neutral oak barrels and for an additional 12 months in bottle.

This wine was alive, taking on different characteristics as it spent more time exposed to the light of day. It was popped and poured. 

One of the first things that I noticed was the extremely high surface tension of the wine. I felt like even I could walk on that water. 

Restrained on the nose initially with hints of herbs, sweet white fruit, apple, and peach. Weighty on the palate at first blush. Bright, intense, racy acidity which was instantly ennervating of the salivary glands.  Citrus. Palate-coating chalky limestone and a peppery cupric finish.

The altitude is apparent, imparting a chiseled character. With the passage of time, a complex mix of minerality, acidity, bitterness, and slate on the palate and the finish.

The nose opens up to reveal tropical notes to include pineapple. As the initial bright acidity recedes, citrus (lime) and minerality rule the day. The wine continues to excite the salivary glands but in a less whole-palate manner. 

The wine becomes less weighty over time with lees and honeydew melon making their presence felt. More linear on the palate with consistent minerality and lime and a saline intrusion. Bitter finish with a lean, mineral, wet-rock aftertaste.

This is a complex wine which has all the characteristics and stuffing to hang around for a while.

Contrada dell'Etna

In 2008 Franchetti created and sponsored a wine fair called Le Contrade dell 'Etna where the region's producers showcase their wines -- within the contrada context -- to the wine press and enthusiasts. Brandon Tokash recounts receiving a call from Andrea one Christmas wherein Andrea discussed his idea for a gathering of north-slope producers to show their wares. In the continuing discussions on the topic, they expected 10 or so producers to show up for the inaugural event but over 30 did. The first two sessions were almost big parties, according to Brandon. This fair was held at Franchetti's estate for a while before moving elsewhere.

In Conclusion

Andrea's legacy is clear. He built two high-quality estates in two very different regions with differing grape varieties and grape-growing environments, all without the presence of a regional support system. He went into the Val d'Orcia boondocks and designed and built an enterprise that today produces some of the best Bordeaux-style wines coming out of Tuscany. He had no Consorzio to lean on for assistance. He had no surrounding collegial producers. Such an infrastructure does not even exist in the area to this day.

A similar situation existed at the time he came to Mt. Etna in that, even though the region had historical wine roots, with the exception of Benanti there were few high quality wine producers. Franchetti brought his Trinoro style to Etna but realized pretty quickly that the formula was inapplicable there and made the adjustments necessary to produce a high-quality wine.

How has Franchetti contributed to the shaping of the wine direction on Etna? First, he was part of the initial group of outside investors who brought the potential of this region to the eyes of the wider world. Second, he showed that a Bordeaux cultivar (Petit Verdot) could be blended with an almost extinct cultivar (Cesanese d'Affile) to make a world-class, non-indigenous wine on the mountain. Third, his focus on the importance of contrada effects, both in the stable of wines that he produced and in his establishment and support of Contrada dell"Etna.

One of the questions that will begin to boil to the surface in short order is "what's next?" There is always some concern as to how a wine brand will be affected by the passing of its founder and history is replete with both positive and negative examples. What is especially interesting here is that Andrea stood athwart two enterprises and it is not obvious that there is any other person possessing that vantage point. Both estates are equipped with highly competent operational management so there will be no problem in that regards. The areas where some differences could potentially emerge are in the knowledge of the vineyards and picking decisions. Andrea roamed the fields incessantly and alone. His picking decisions were made based on his intimate knowledge of those vines. His ideas for brand extensions came about through his knowledge of the evolution of those vines. We will all wait with bated breath and continued good wishes for the employees, management, and customers of Vini Franchetti.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

The Catholic Church and wine: The Babylonian Captive Papacy and Châteauneuf-du-Pape

I have been tracking the role of the Catholic church in the spread of wine beyond its entry point into western civilization beginning with the story of the Cistercian monks and the wines of Burgundy. I continue now with the French popes and Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

France was embroiled in military conflict with the English as well as the independence-minded Flemish in the late 13th century. War is expensive and the French monarch (Philip IV; also called Philip the Fair) resorted to taxation, coin-debasement, and borrowing to acquire the needed funds. 

King Philip IV ("The Fair") of France
(Source: history.com)

Philip prompted loud outcries from the Catholic Church and Pope Boniface VIII when he levied taxes on the French clergy amounting to 50% of their incomes. Boniface "reminded" the King that only the Pope had authority to tax the clergy and issued a Papal Bull forbidding the transference of any church property to the French crown.

Pope Boniface 
(Source: the templarknight.com)

Philip retaliated by forbidding the removal of bullion from France. Matters were partially resolved when Boniface eventually (1299) agreed that Philip could tax the clergy in times of emergency.  But this was only a temporaray lull in an intense diplomatic battle between the two rulers which culminated with Boniface escaping an arrest ordered by the King (he was actually captured for three days at his Palace in Anagni prior to his escape). Boniface died soon after the escape and was succeeded by Pope Benedict XI.

Upon Benedict's death, Philip engineered the election of Bertrand de Got, former Archbishop of Bordeaux, to the papacy. Bertrand took the name Clement V and his ascendance marked the beginning of what came to be called the Babylonian Captive Papacy (due to the influence exerted on Papal affairs by French Kings during this period). Clement V (who was also linked to the Bordeaux estate of the same name) ruled from 1305 - 1314.

Pope Clement V 
(Source: thefamouspeople.com)

Word came over the Alps that a French Pope might not be very welcome in Rome so Clement accepted King Philip's offer to house the papacy in France. Clement decided to settle in the Comtat Venaissin (of the Avignon area) which had been sold to the papacy by Raymond VII of Toulouse in 1229.

Grapes were probably grown in proto-Chateauneuf-du-Pape in Gallo-Roman times but it is only in 1157 that we get the first mention of the vineyards of Geoffroy, Bishop of Avignon, who grew vines there and "maintained them in keeping with Roman tradition." Clement V, in 1314, discovered the "special soil" of the area.

Pope Clement V was succeeded by Jacques Duèze, former Bishop of Avignon, scion of an important merchant and banking family in Cahors, and a connoiseur of Cahors wine. Duèze took the name Pope John XXII. 

Pope John XXII

The Pope sought a location away from the hubbub of the Avignon Court yet close enough for a courier to complete a round trip within a single day and settled on the heights of the Village Calcernier which lay halfway between Avignon and Orange. A small castle had occupied the spot but John oversaw the entirety of the construction of a new Castle between 1317 and 1333.

Castle ruins at Châteauneuf-du-Pape

John did much to improve the viticultural practices of the area. He brought in winegrowers from Cahors to plant vineyards under the castle walls and regularly drank the wines. He eventually gave the wines the coveted designation Vins du Pape, opening the door to entrance into the grand courts of Europe. According to the archives of the Apostolic Chamber, a total of 3 million vines were planted in the vicinity of the Pope's Palace in 1334 (between 600 and 800 ha of vineyard) and annual consumption at the court exceeded 3000L.

The Carthusian monks grew and maintained these vineyards until the 18th century while the name Châteauneuf-du-Pape was officially adopted in 1893.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Can Font (Emporda, Spain): Regenerating vineyards to take care of the planet

As part of my ongoing coverage of Regenerative Agriculture, I have reported on a number of ongoing deployments to include Tablas Creek Vineyards, Troon Vineyard, Solminer, and Familia Torres. I continue on that path with a look at the Can Font (Emporda, Spain) experience. The material covered herein was drawn from a Francesc Font presentation titled Regenerating vineyards to take care of the planet which was delivered at the recent Regenerative Viticulture Symposium.

Francesc Font, Can Font Farm Manager

According to Francesc, he comes from a long line of farmers, his family having been thus employed for over 300 years. The farm has always had strong ties to winegrowing with one of his grandfathers serving as the President of a regional wine cooperative for over 40 years. 

Both Francesc and his wife are trained Agricultural Engineers and they came to the realization that their farming practices were releasing significant amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and, therefore, contributing to global climate change. They were also contributing to desertification as their tilled topsoil is washed away when it rains and blown away when it is windy. Can Font studies showed that they lost about 20 tons of soil/ha/year. If the study area is extended to Penedes as a whole, that number rises to 25,000 tons/ha/year. This amounts to a loss of 1 centimeter of soil per year; it takes nature 40 years to create 1 centimeter of soil. This was not a sustainable operational model and it led them to ask the question: What can we do?

Broadly speaking, they did three things: Investigate. Learn. Apply. They began by investigating what was being done in the world beyond the borders of the farm to address the issues they had identified. They then dug deeper, seeking to truly learn about the new approaches/technologies they were discovering. And, finally, upon their return from an investigatory trip to Australia, they decided to become regenerative farmers and winegrowers. 

While in Australia they had seen how regenerative agriculture: (i) helps to sequester carbon and, in so doing, contributes to mitigation of the climate crisis; helps bring soils and the environment back to life, which, in turn, aids biodiversity; and allows the production of healthy foods without the use of toxic chemical inputs.

Even though they had committed to regenerative, they still had a question as to whether the approach was economically viable. They only way to find out, they realized, was to implement it.

For Francesc, implementing regenerative agriculture required action on three fronts:

1. Stop degrading the soil (cease tilling and the use of chemical inputs)
2. Understand the soil in a way that they had not understood it previously. They had to look at: the way the minerals in the soil interact; how the roots work (how they move, how they descend, and whether they run into obstacles); soil compaction; and soil microbiology.
3. Begin putting regenerative techniques into practice.

Today Can Font is a no-till farm which operates without chemical inputs. The regenerative practices which have been implemented to date are indicated in the table below.

Table 1. Regenerative practices implemented at Can Font.

Regenerative Practice	Tool/Technique	Description
Cover Crops	Legumes	One of the most important Fixes Nitrogen from the air (for free) Includes, vetches, clovers, etc.
	Grasses	Feed our microbial communities (also for free) Mustard is interesting because (i) its taproot helps to de-compact soils and (ii) it plays an important role in the natural sulphur cycle
	Flower-bearing crops	Feed the bees and animals that prey on the main pests that affect our almond trees
Soils Management	Nourish the soils	Compost applications Manure applications Application of mineral products Application of natural products Application of sea water (contains all the minerals that a plant needs)
	Work with soil microbiology	They make their own preparations using natural, non-toxic materials from the farm Apply these amendments using a home-made “subsoil plough” which breaks up and aerates the soil to feed the aerobic microbes Use a tank-and-pump system to apply soil amendments close to the roots
Water Management	Keyline System	Encourages the natural flow of water through the cropland
Biodiversity	Boost biodiversity	Use Franco-era bunkers to harbor bats which help in the fight against loberia botrana
Animal Management	Introduce Pigs	Helps with management of the cover crops by continually grazing Fertilizes the almond groves

Francesc spent time explaining the importance of managing cover crops; "unmanaged or poorly managed cover crops can become a problem" At some times, they will cut the cover crop down (all the way or to vine level, depending) while at other times they will flatten the crop with a roller crimper. Using the roller crimper in the summer time, according to Francesc, allows them to spread the flattened plant cover over the soil, creating a protective layer through a mulching effect. This protective layer makes it harder for soil water to evaporate, allowing maintenance of soil humidity and providing a favorable climate for the microbial communities. This environment also prevents erosion by mitigating the force of the impact of falling rain.

Cover crops are a powerful tool but they also have some downsides:

• Can Fron sustained more frost damage than neighbors whose vineyards were covered with glyphosate
• There is more competition when there are more plants. The farmer must build more robust soils that are able to feed both the cash and cover crops.

Mirroring some of the work being done by Regenerative Organic Certified, Can Fron has created indicators and is measuring against them (one of their mantras is "improvement through measurement"). The results indicate:

• The soils contain a lot more life than when we were farming conventionally. Soils now have 80% more fungi, 80% more bacteria, and 1000% more protozoans, the latter of which plays a leading role in the natural nitrogen cycle.
• The soils are more stable
• Water stability of soil aggregates up by 64.69%
• Water-holding capacity up 19.97%
• Mainly because of the organic matter they have gained over the years
• They have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 20%
• They are capturing 15 tons of CO₂/ha/year
• That is equal to the emissions of 10 cars.

These were great results; and they were happy with them. But what was the impact on the bottom line. Francesc exhibited a chart which showed a period of declining profitability during the transition but increasing profitability after regenerative was fully implemented. Regenerative says Francesc, has a cost. If you know the cost, you can plan accordingly and choose the pace of implementation. They chose to go all in (as opposed to Familia Torres which is proceeding with a phased approach).

Can Font's experience shows that regenerative agriculture can be applied in Emporda, said Francesc, and when you apply the technique, you will produce healthier foods, you will make a better living while caring for the planet, and you will feel "super happy." That's how he feels. 

Francesc closed by exhorting attendees to embark, or continue, on the path to regenerative agriculture.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme