Urban Wineries: Brooklyn Winery Visit

Based on information contained in a New York Times (NYT) Diners Journal article of September 12, 2008, urban wineries can be classified as falling under either the “Red Hook” model or the “Crushpad” model. The Red Hook model is named after an urban winery located in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn wherein the facility houses a full commercial winery in an urban setting and the grapes are sourced from other vineyards and processed at the facility. In the Red Hook winery case, according to the NYT, the owners located their facility in Brooklyn to stand out from the wineries on Long Island as well as to be close to the wine directttors of the NYC restaurants. The Crushpad model, on the other hand, caters to the amateur winemaker by providing the environment and direction to aid in realizing his/her wine production dreams. The Brooklyn Winery, located in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, falls into the latter category.


Brooklyn Winery is a self-described small-lots crush facility which sources Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Riesling fruit from New York vineyards and Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Petit Syrah, Sangiovese, and Chardonnay from California. The 8,000 sq. ft. facility is divided into a production area, a barrel storage room, a wine-bar with a small-plate kitchen, and a patio.

Brooklyn Winery is slated to fully open to the public on October 18. When I visited on Monday, October 4th, it was a beehive of activity as construction workers toiled feverishly to get the social facilities ready for the grand opening.

With the main entrance caught up in the construction activity, I entered the winery through the receiving area. The winery proper is located just beyond the receiving dock and is populated with shiny new fermentation tanks, de-stemmers, crushers, and other winery paraphernalia.

Just off to the left of the production area, and entered via large, double-paned, wood-bordered glass doors, is the barrel storage room, which has capacity for 500 barrels.

Just in front of the barrel storage room, and still under construction, are the wine bar, small-plates kitchen, and patio.

The current Brooklyn Winery location was a former night club and a significant amount of modification was required to transform it into a structure that met the business requirements. Overall, the floor required the biggest structural modification to meet the winemaker’s requirement for a modern winery floor with excellent drainage.

Upon completion the winery will be able to accommodate up to 300 people for special functions. Such functions will be catered by a neighborhood caterer with whom Brooklyn Winery has established a partnership. The company is a fully bonded winery but also has an on-premise license and will exploit that capability by operating a 7-day-per-week wine bar with small-plate capability.

Brooklyn Winery’s customers will fall into three categories, with some overlap within the categories. The major customer group will be the fledgling winemakers, a group which will run the gamut from wine newbie to accomplished collectors. This is the heart of the business. The second class of customer will be the ones frequenting the wine bar for wines and small plates while the third group consists of entities that rent out the facility for special events. Management sees the capacity for 500 customers at full run rate but this is somewhat in conflict with the goal of 30% production devoted to house wines.

Customer projects are initiated with a planning session where all the parameters for making the individual’s wine are nailed down. Customers will be guided through the entire process by winemaker Conor McCormick. After fermentation, customer wines are placed into used oak barrels. Little to no oak influence is exerted on the wines from these neutral barrels. Where necessary, oak staves are added to impart relevant flavors and scents. Customer wines are stored in barrel for 1 year before they are ready to drink.

A Wine Journey: 1998 Alvaro Palacios L'Ermita

In my continuing quest to taste the wines identified as the Wines of the Decade (the best wines he tasted between 2000 and 2009) by Master Sommelier Andrew McNamara, I thought to taste the 1998 Alvaro Palacios L'Ermita as part of the celebration of International Grenache Day.  This post relates the experiences associated with that tasting.
L'Ermita is the flagship product of Alvaro Palacios, one of the pioneering young winemakers who accompanied René Barbier to Priorat to reclaim that region's winemaking traditions. In what has come to be known as the "Grattalops Project," these winemakers had separate vineyards but shared winemaking facilities in order to control costs and quality.  Palacios had an excellent winemaking pedigree prior to his involvement with Gratallops.  He was one of nine children born to the owner of Bodega Palacios Remondo, a respected Bodega in the Rioja Baja, had studied winemaking in Bordeaux, and had worked at Chateau Petrus for 2 years under the famed winemaker Jean Pierre Mouiex.

Palacios bought his first vineyard in Priorat -- Finca Dofi -- in 1990 and then found, and bought, L'Ermita in 1993.  L'Ermita, named for a small chapel at the top of the hill on which the vineyard lies, is a north-east facing, 2-hectare plot that sits between 400-500 meters elevation on a precipitous, well-drained, granite slope.  The steep hillside terraces, some only wide enough for one or two rows of vines, are populated by gnarled, head-pruned Garnacha vines which were all planted between 1900 and 1940.  Since 2000, Palacios, whose practices reflect his view that wines are "a transparent expression of the terroir," has been farming L'Ermita biodynamically.

The grapes for the wine are hand picked with teams making multiple passes through the vineyard to ensure that the best grapes are picked at the right time.  Prior to 2005, the finished wine contained 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, added to provide structure.  Since 2005 the wine has been 100% Garnacha.  The wine undergoes maceration for 25 days in oak vats and is then aged in 100% new French oak for 16 to 18 months.  The yield is approximately 10 hectoliters/hectare and annual production is 250 cases.

Andrew McNamara had identified the 1998 vintage of this wine as one of his wines of the decade and Robert Parker, in assigning it a score of 97, fawned over it thusly: "The blockbuster, opaque purple-colored 1998 L'Ermita exhibits ... copious quantities of sweet oak, a boatload of glycerin and superb blackberry, cassis, and cherry fruit that explodes on the mid-palate and in the finish."

I had the wine shipped into state by overnight delivery so that it would be a part of the Wine Barn celebration of Grenache Day. The details of the evening were covered in a prior post so I will limit myself herein to the circumstances surrounding the tasting of the L'Ermita.  The wine was taken from me when I arrived at the location and was placed into a brown paper bag as were all of the other wines.  The donated wines were

marked uniquely in order to differentiate them from each other as well as from the larger group of wines. I was able to identify the L'Ermita and, after my first encounter with it, it was impossible to dislodge me from my position at the tasting table.

The wine had a youthful appearance with some slight browning at the edges and showed blackfruit, cassis, cedarbox and vanilla on the nose.  The scents were so compelling that it took significant effort to transition from smelling to tasting.  The wine delivered on the palate with blackfruit, minerality, acidity, excellent balance, and a very long finish.  All elements of the wine were fully integrated and the youthful appearance and taste of the wine signaled even greater drinking pleasure down the road.

A definite homerun, as can be seen by the look of amazement on the face of Andrew Montoya, owner of The Wine Barn., as he removes the bag to reveal the identity of the wine.

Taste-Through of Casanova di Neri wines with Giacomo Neri

Stacole Fine Wines recently hosted Giacomo Neri, winemaker and owner of Casanova di Neri,  at its Boca Raton headquarters for a seminar and tasting of selected Casanova di Neri wines.  I was fortunate enough to receive an invitation to this event and took full advantage of the opportunity to meet this respected winemaker and hear, directly from his lips, the story behind his wines.

Brunello di Montalcino has grown rapidly from its roots as a Biondi-Santi-family-introduced clone of Sangiovese Grosso.  Brunello became a DOC in 1966 and became the first red DOCG in 1980.  It has grown from 11 producers in 1968 to 300 producers today with over 2000 hectares currently under vine.  Legal requirements for Brunello include 5 years aging (6 years for Riserva) with a minimum of 2 years in wood and a minimum of 12.5% alcohol.  Stellar Brunello vintages include 1990, 1991, 1997, 1999, 2001, and 2004.

Casanova di Neri was founded by Giovanni Neri who bought the property in 1971.  The winery currently consists of 60 hectares divided among five vineyard sites: Fiesole, Pietradonice, Cerretalto, Podernuovo, and Le Cetine.  The estate is site-driven, using these five sites to produce three distinctive Brunellos, a Rosso di Montalcino, a Rosso di Casanova di Neri (called Rosso di Sant'Antimo outside the US), and a Cabernet Sauvignon. 

@wineontheway and I drove from Orlando to Boca for the event.  It was a wet, rainy Monday morning and we looked like drowned rats as we squelched into the lobby. We were early so Steve Sink took us on a tour of the Stacole warehouse.  The seminar was held in a mezzanine-level classroom with the tables running perpendicular to the speaker's table which was located at the west end of the room.  Giacomo, who was accompanied by Vittorio Marianecci, was introduced to the audience by Steve Sink of Stacole.

The entry-level Brunello is the White Label, a 100% Sanigovese which is crafted from 35-year-old vines and aged in Slavonic oak for approximately 45 months and in bottle for 6 months.  The 2005 vintage showed cherries, blackberries, violet, and graphite (from decommisioned Cerretalto grapes) on the nose.  Very elegant on the palate with good acidity and a long finish.  This wine can be drunk today but will be better in 10 years.

The second wine is the Tenuto Nuova, a 100% Sangiovese made from 35-year-old vines sited in the Fiesole vineyard.  Maceration and fermentation for this wine takes 25 days after which it is aged for 29 months in French 500L tonneaus and then in bottle for 18 months.  The quality of this wine is reflected in the fact that the 2001 vintage was designated as the 2006 Wine of the Year by Wine Spectator.  This is a Brunello with great character.  It is hand-harvested and fermented in open tanks.  The 2005 vintage showed rosemary on the nose and was rich and full on the palate.  This wine will require 10 years of cellaring.

Cerretalto is a 100% Sangiovese drawn from a vineyard of the same name located at 750-900 feet elevation.  Maceration and fermentation takes 20 days and the wine is aged for 30 months in French barrique and bottle-aged for 30 months.  This wine is produced only in the years when the grape quality is outstanding.  The winery produces 25 hectoliters/acre from the 13-acre vineyard.  Giacomo described this wine as having a "big personality" and being an "emotional wine" which "needs a lot of attention."  The '05 Cerretalto exhibited graphite on the nose and was rich and long on the palate with hints of blackberry, licorice, and vanilla.  This is a long-lived wine.

The Pietradonice is a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from the Pietradonice vineyard.  The wine is macerated and aged for 15-18 days, aged in small French oak barrels for 18 months, and then bottle-aged for an additional 18 months. Giacomo said that 2006 was a great vintage in Montalcino and that that was reflected in the '06 Pietradonice.  The soil where the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes are grown has a high onyx content and this shows as a marked minerality in the wine.  The wine exhibited dark black fruit, earth, a metallic minerality, round mouthfeel, and a long finish.  Gioacomo feels that this wine will be ready to drink in 7-10 years.

The Rosso di Montalcino and Rosso di Casanova di Neri are both Sangiovese wines built for approachability.  The Rosso di Casanova di Neri is, according to Giacomo, blended with Colorino (10%) to give a violet florality on the nose and soft tannins to the structure.  The 2008 vintage showed violet and cherries and exhibited good balance.  The initial attack was underwhelming but the wine showed good weight and finished well. According to Giacomo, the wine was good now but would be even better in three years and would pair well with foods such as cheese, pasta, and meat.

The event was fully subscribed and the earnestness and passion for his craft was very evident in every aspect of Giacomo's actions.  He consistently referred to himself as just a farmer, self-deprecatingly, I am sure, but boy what excellent produce this farmer brings to the market.

It was raining cats and dogs outside but for 2 hours that day we were in a veritable wine oasis listening to the siren song of the one of the great Montalcino winemakers.

Journée Mondiale du Grenache at the Wine Barn

A group of devoted Grenache enthusiasts descended upon the Wine Barn this past Friday to partake in a blind tasting of Grenache-based wines culled from the very list of the wines tasted at the International Grenache Symposium held this past June at La Verriere in the hamlet of Crestet in the southern Rhone Valley.

The Wine Barn had selected 12 bottles, representing a variety of styles and countries of origin, and a few participants provided additional "blind" bottles to further up the ante. The lineup featured wines from France, Spain, Australia, and the United States and  ranged in age from the 2000 vintage to the 2008 vintage. With the added wine contributions, the wines tasted ranged in age from 15 years old to current vintages.

While the International Grenache Day festivities did not seem to garner the same volume of tweets and posts as those for #Cabernet Day and, more recently, #Bubbly Day, there was considerable global enthusiasm as was evident in the number of locations contributing tweets, the buzz leading up to the event, as well as through information disseminated in preparation for the tasting events (A list of wines and background information from the 1st Annual Grenache Symposium, a primer on the grape, and "activation ideas" for the event, were all made available.).

On a somewhat surprising note, several tasters found many of the wines tasted that night to be remarkably similiar. The jammy red fruit, tar, and herbaceous flavors of the grenache shone through, be it from a 2000 Domaine de la Solitude Barberini Chateauneuf du Pape to a 2006 Torbreck The Steading, and a 2005 Bonny Doon Le Cigare Volant to a 2007 Alto Moncayo. Also holding true across the tasting was the high-octane nature of grenache, with alcohol levels at or above 14.5% being commonplace.

Some of the real treats came with the wines donated by the participants. These wines included the 1995 Domaine Santa Duc Prestige des Hautes Garrigues Gigondas, the 1998 Vieux Telegraphe Chateauneuf du Pape, the 1998 Alvaro Palacios L'Ermita Priorat, and the 2001 Domaine de Pagau Cuvee Reservee Chateauneuf du Pape. All four of these wines were among the crowd favorities, particularly the L'Ermita, which exhibited such a depth of flavor, balance, and finesse that a few tasters were convinced that it had to be a Napa Valley Cabernet.

Montsant DO

Garnacha (as Grenache is called in Spain; Garnatxa in Catalan) is the most widely planted varietal in Spain and some of the most powerful representations of this wine issue from the old vines of Priorat.  These low-yield, bush vines grow on steep, slate-laden (llicorella) soils and produce big, bold red wines.  Almost surrounding the vineyards of Priorat, and also blessed with old Garnacha and Carignan vines, lie the lower-altitude vineyards of Montsant DO.

A subzone of the Tarragona region until it attained DO status in 2001, Montsant is comprised of 2000 hectares of vineyards yielding 7 million liters of wine annually.  The reds from the region can be almost as powerful as the Priorat reds (they are sometimes called "the poor man's Priorat") but, mirroring the trend in Priorat, are also being blended with Merlot, Syrah, and Cabernet Sauvignon to soften and add complexity to the wines.

The Montsant vineyards sit at elevations ranging between 1500 and 2000 feet and while they share some of the slate soil characteristic of Priorat (3000 feet), limestone, sand, and clay soils are also thrown into the mix.  The climate is Mediterranean with some continental influences.  Summers are dry with annual rainfall (most of it occurring in the autumn) of about 650 mm.  Significant day/night temperature differentials, especially during the grape-ripening season, results in good sugar creation during the daylight hours and acid retention at night.

Wines sold under the Montsant DO carry a quality guarantee label on the bottle which signifies that the wine has successfully negotiated a two-part quality test.  The initial quality test is conducted by the Catalan Vine and Wine Institute (INCAVI) which seeks to ensure that alcohol, acidity, and sulfite levels fall within the DO parameters.  The second test is a blind tasting carried out by a team comprised of INCAVI technicians and Montsant winemakers wherein the visual, aromatic, taste, and back-palate properties of the wine are examined.

You could not go wrong by trying a Montsant wine for Interantional Grenache Day.

The Wine Barn's tribute to Grenache, "the unsung hero of the red wine world"

The Wine Barn (@thewinebarn, winebarn.net) will celebrate International Grenache Day by hosting 18 customers for a tasting of 12 Grenache/Grenache-based wines on Friday, September 24th at 6:00 pm.  International Grenache day will be celebrated all over the world and, by hosting this tasting, The Wine Barn will be extending the Orlando area's string of robust participation in these national/global varietal-celebration events.

The theme for the celebration has been set by the Grenache Association but The Wine Barn also wanted to honor the work done by the organizers and delegates at the Grenache Symposium by following in their footsteps.  At the Symposium, the delegates had tasted a wide range of Grenache/Grenache-based wines from a variety of regions.  Most of the wines were of recent vintage but the delegates were also treated to an old Grenache in the form of a 1952 Chateau de la Gardine, a 100% Grenache.  The Wine Barn tasting will follow this theme.

Most of the wines for the tasting will be drawn from the Symposium tasting catalog and all of the major Grenache-producing areas will be represented.  No 1952 Chateau de la Gardines are available on the market (the ones tasted by the Grenache Symposium delegates were donated by the Chateau) but a suitable old Grenache will be included to match up to the structure of the Symposium tasting. 

The Wine Barn tasting will be blind. The cost of participation is $25 which includes a selection of charcuterie and cheeses.  Tasting participants will have a chance to share with other celebrants around the world through the magic of Twitter. 

Don't forget to wear your loud-colored shirt.

International Grenache Day: New House of the Pope

Dating back to at least 1157, vineyards have been planted in southeastern France (see location at right) along the Rhone River. Records dating back that far indicate that Geoffrey, the Bishop of Avignon, planted vines and personally managed his own estate in his fief in Chateauneuf.

By the 1300s, Pope Clement V, the former Archbishop of Bordeaux, had planted additional vineyards in the area around the town of Avignon, but it was not until the papacy of John XXII from 1316 to 1334 that the wines from the region began to gain their reputation. John XXII made certain that wine from Chateauneuf was regularly supplied to the Papal residence. He also is responsible for the first appellation in the history of Chateauneuf, originally known as Vin du Pape and that was later to become Chateauneuf-du-Pape. John XXII also built the papal residence in Avignon.
Little is known regarding the particular vines that were originally planted, although there is mention of Counoise being a gift to the region from Spain to Pope Urban V (1362-1370). The wines of Chateauneuf were known for their superior quality and sold for 33% more than the general wines of the region. The reputation grew and, over time, the wines were transported by land and sea to the major cities of Europe and later America.

The region (extending from the city of Orange to the city of Avignon along the east bank of the Rhone) prospered for several hundred years until the 1860s when phylloxera decimated the vineyards. By that time there were records of 13 varietals planted in the vineyards in and around Avignon. These varietals are Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, Cinsault, Muscardin, Cournoise, Clairette, Bourboulenc, Picpoul, Roussanne, Terret Noir, Picardan, and Vaccarese.

The Chateauneuf du Pape region languished as it struggled to rebound from the destruction of the vineyards by phylloxera and, up until the time of World War I, the majority of the wine was shipped to Burgundy as vin de médecine to be added to Burgundy wine to bolster the finicky Pinot Noir wines.

The wines that were labeled as Chateauneuf du Pape were plagued by fraud, as other areas sought to profit from the area’s long-held reputation. Appellation d’origine controlee (AOC) rules (Chateauneuf du Pape was the first region with such rules) were developed by Baron Le Roy, owner of Château Fortia, that regulated the varietal make up of the wines, as well as the crop yields and alcohol levels, as many of the grapes yield thin and insipid wines at high crop levels. The Chateauneuf appellation has the highest minimum alcohol content of any appellation in France - 12.5%. However, most Chateauneuf du Papes nowadays don't have a problem in reaching 14% alcohol.

The original AOC rules (1923) allowed 10 varietals, but were soon expanded to the 13 noted above. That said, almost all of the red wines from Chateauneuf du Pape are dominated by Grenache.

Based on 2004 statistics, Grenache covers more than 72% of the 3,100 hectares (7,600 acres), followed by Syrah with a 10.5% coverage and Mourvedre at 7%. Grenache is particularly suited to the terroir of Chateauneuf du Pape, as it loves the heat and full sun in the Mediterranean climate. The soils in the north of the region are characterized by the galets roulés, round quartz pebbles and stones over red clays, although soils farther removed from the Rhone are more sand than clay-based, and more gravelly toward Avignon. The stones tend to trap the heat of the sun during the day and radiate that heat at night, keeping the vineyards warmer in the evening and accelerating the ripening process.

Grenache in Chateauneuf du Pape produces a spicy sweet juice that can have a jammy consistency when it is fully ripened. The wines tend to be soft, but often have a high alcohol content. Syrah is typically blended to provide a depth of color and black pepper spice, while Mourvedre adds refinement and backbone to the wine. Some estates produce 100% Grenache wines, while a few producers insist on using at least a token amount of all thirteen permitted varieties in their blend. The only estate that grows all thirteen varieties and uses them consistently in their wine is Château de Beaucastel.

Châteauneuf-du-Pape red wines are often described as having strawberry or raspberry flavors with earthy and/or gamy overtones and hints of tar and leather. A common aroma descriptor given to these wines is that of garrigue, so named for the low scrubby vegetation that grows along the Mediterranean coast. The best explanations of this aroma vary from dried Herbs de Provence to the aroma of broken twigs and leaves one smells while walking through the woods.

Historically, much of the wine was considered tough and tannic in their youth and requiring of at least 4 to 5 years of bottle age to mellow, but they did tend to keep their rich spiciness over time. Since Robert Parker began reviewing the wines of Chateauneuf in the 1980s, there has been a trend toward the wines being more approachable at bottling to appeal to a broader commercial audience. Unfortunately for fans of the wines, this trend towards a more fruit-driven, approachable style has also corresponded with a four-fold increase in prices in the past 10 years.