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CLOS PEPE NEWSLETTER Special Post-Harvest Edition 2000 Fall/Winter Articles: Stellar Harvest—Clos Pepe Pinot Noir comes of age. Find out who made Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Clos Pepe grapes. Also, tales of harvest. Steve and Wes go Pro with Clos Pepe wines. Allocation List begins for the limited 2000 Vintage Clos Pepe Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Wes uses his classroom and writing skills to further Wine Education on the Web, for the American Wine Society, Universities and the L.A. County Fair. Clos Pepe ‘virtual tour’ to be featured at www.VineSwinger.com Wedding at the Clos. The Viticulturist-in-Residence gets hitched to his dream woman—the event is a diverse and elegant testament to their love. Clos Pepe Family Update: Updates on Rob, Stacy and the girls, our awesome new Cellar Master, and the usual suspects: Vigneron, L’agent, Viticulturist-in-Residence and Le Trainer. Pets, pets and more pets. There’s no denying it, the animals have taken over the Clos. The Clos has a new mascot that eats more than the whole family. 1999 Clos Pepe Wines. Who made them, when they will be available, how to get some into your cellar. Steve’s Portugal Trip: The ‘best of’ Steve Pepe’s tasting and touring notes from Portugal and Madeira. Read about great wines, lots of dried cod, and what happens when an ox-drawn cart challenges a BMW. Stellar
Harvest
Harvest commenced at Clos Pepe on September 15, only six days after Wes and Chanda were married. When asked where they would honeymoon, Wes would point to the Pinot Noir vineyard, where thousands of small, ripe clusters hung in waiting. Most people that asked didn’t know whether to be shocked, impressed, or convinced it was a romantic way to begin a marriage. Many wine folks are unaware that Pinot Noir ripens more rapidly than Chardonnay, and is traditionally harvested first. Yields were quite low in the Pinot fields—we ended up harvesting just over a few pounds per plant, and averaged a ton and a half of fruit per acre. Ojai Vineyards was harvested first, we delivered over four tons of fruit to Adam Tolmach down South of us, and the fruit turned out to be perfectly ripe. The very next day, September 16th, we harvested fruit for Siduri, Babcock and Brewer-Clifton. Again the bins of purplish-black fruit were free from any defects and honestly, I had a hard time saying goodbye to so much gorgeous fruit. The next day, September 17th, provided no rest. We were up at 5:00 am as usual, picking fruit for Brian Loring of Loring Wine Company, and as we finished early we also picked a ton of Pinot Noir for the Clos Pepe wines. We slept the next day away and then picked another three days straight, 19th, 20th and 21st, getting lots of nice fruit to Frank Ostini at the Hitching Post and finished picking the last few pockets and sections that go into our first commercial Clos Pepe wines. The Pinot fruit itself was of marvelous quality. Most was harvested around 24 degrees Brix and about 3.35 pH, which will make wonderfully ripe, structured wines. Most of our producers have commented that the Clos Pepe wines in barrel from the 2000 Vintage are unique creatures, and are unlike most Santa Barbara County wine. Bird nets kept the fruit in pristine shape, and careful hand-harvesting in the early morning assured the bins would arrive at their final destination without producing volatile acidity or spontaneous fermentations before crush. The wines that I have tasted at Babcock and in my own cellar show excellent ripe fruit, but more importantly are full of rich, clean earth smells—an unmistakable terroir, and an elegant mid-palate and a long, complex finish. The wines, in my estimation, will be softer than many of the 1998 and 1999 Pinot Noirs from this area as a result of warmer weather and heightened ripeness at harvest. These wines may well be approachable in their youth—but cellaring should certainly reward the patient enophile. The warm weather that arrived after our wedding ripened the Pinot Noir very quickly, making harvest rapid without much rest in between pickings. That small heat wave disappeared as quickly as it arrived, and we went back to dry, cool weather for the rest of September. The heat never came back, and we found ourselves waiting nearly a month between harvesting Pinot and Chardonnay. This gave Chanda, Steve Martell and I lots of time to dedicate to making the best Pinot Noir that we could. More on the vinification of the first legal-to-sell wines from Clos Pepe later in the newsletter. Chardonnay harvest commenced October 7, exactly four weeks into our marriage. The Wente clone was harvested first for Rick Longoria, and Fox 11 News from Los Angeles covered the event with a reporter and camera crew, shooting two separate pieces. Both will air in November, and one is focused on sustainable agriculture, and the other will detail how friends help friends pick grapes in the wine industry. Almost a week later, with work in the winery keeping us busy in between, harvest continued. On September 13 the vines were relieved of their burden again, this time in the rest of the Wente ‘block’, the fruit headed North to Testarossa Vineyards in Los Gatos. Ed Kurtzman, winemaker extraordinaire, showed his true colors and picked all morning with us before following the truck back to Testarossa to press the fruit. Two days later we went back to work for Ojai Vineyards, bringing in almost eight tons of ripe Dijon 76 fruit for Adam Tolmach. This section of Chardonnay tends to be my favorite. The clusters are so small and beautiful that a picker can often drop six or seven into their palms before having to drop them in the bucket. I can’t wait to see how the 1999 and 2000 Chardonnays from Ojai Vineyards are received by the wine press and the public. Following the Ojai pick we had a two week break from picking for producers, with a few days in between where we harvested a small amount of fruit for our Clos Pepe wines. The 4 and 5 ‘clones’ of Chardonnay have traditionally been late ripening here at Clos Pepe, and we decided to really wait until the fruit was perfectly ripe this year. We did receive some strong rain a few days before the last bit of harvesting, but the vines were shutting down and dropping leaves, and the roots did not seem to pick up the water and dilute the berries. This was evidenced by the fact that after an inch of rain we showed little change in the sugars or in the acidity of the grapes. The final two pickings, for Testarossa on the 30th and Hitching Post on the 31st (Halloween! Spooky Chardonnay), went perfectly. The wine pressed off at 24.2 degrees Brix and 3.22 pH, which is the ripest those sections have ever been picked. November 1st was ‘clean up’ day. The last few half-rows of Clone 4 and 5 were picked for Casa Cassara Vineyards, and suddenly the vineyard was wholly bare of fruit. So did anything go wrong in the 2000 harvest? Sure. The rain could have waited a few extra weeks. I stuck the forklift in the mud about twenty times, usually at a moment when we REALLY needed it. Within one week I whacked my head on a crusher destemmer, sliced my thumb open with picking shears and drank sterilizing fluid by mistake in the winery. I didn’t take as many pictures as I would have liked to, I never got a proper Honeymoon, and the dogs ate a good amount of fruit out of picking buckets. But when I look back over the season, my marriage, and the 2000 Harvest, I have little to complain about. The fruit was clean and very ripe, the wines all fermented well and had few problems at their respective wineries. Somewhere in the madness I managed to crush, destem, ferment and press nine barrels of ‘Estate’ Pinot Noir and three barrels of Chardonnay. Now I’m staring down the barrel of a real vacation. It’s good to know I could fall off the face of the planet until January and the vines would be just fine. Clos Pepe
Wines in Barrel—the first ‘Commercial’ Vintage!
Back in 1996 when we planted the Chardonnay vineyard I made a promise to myself. I was itching to make wine professionally, I was receiving top-notch tutelage as an intern at Babcock Vineyards and Winery, and I was ready to take on the wine world. The best piece of advice I received that year was from Jeff Newton of Coastal Vineyard Care, who helped us plan and plant our Chardonnay vineyard. ‘Most winemakers are lost in the vineyard,’ Jeff had told me. ‘They couldn’t farm their way out of a wet sack.’ I remember him telling me this as we walked through the infant Dijon 76 vineyard, young vines struggling to climb the trellis wires for the first time. ‘You’re very lucky here Wes,’ Jeff confided. ‘I’d learn to farm for five years before I tried to make my own commercial wine.’ Those words echoed in my head. Five years. Five seasons. A long time to wait. Jeff wasn’t the first or last local wine personality to offer advice. During one of my first trips to the Hitching Post in Buellton I met Chris Whitcraft who makes some excellent small-production Pinot Noir. This was pre-Babcock and pre-Jeff’s advice. Steve Pepe introduced me to him. ‘Chris, this is Wes Hagen. He’s wants to be a winemaker.’ Chris shook my hand and smiled. ‘You know there’s drugs that can prevent that.’ The next episode also took place at the Hitching Post, the hub of the Santa Ynez Wine Drinking firmament. Bryan Babcock was eating with Walt and Mona, his folks, and noticed we were sitting at the next table. The Vigneron, L’agent and I were discussing whether I might benefit from taking a few years to attend Davis or Fresno State, and we decided to get Bryan’s take on the two campuses. ‘Fresno? Davis?’ Bryan asked. ‘You’ll get out and still need to know how to work in a winery. Might as well just come over and work for me.’ Those are the memories that come racing back when I try to remember the process of becoming a winemaker. It started with Steve Pepe and Frank Guadagnini, both of Long Beach home winemaker fame, and ended with me managing Clos Pepe for five years and (finally)starting our own label with wines from the 2000 vintage. Five years at Clos Pepe has taught me the obvious lesson: that great wine is farmed, not made. The true winemakers are the viticulturists. The potential quality of any wine is dictated by the condition of the fruit as it arrives at the crush platform. It is the enologist’s job to preserve the quality of the fruit in wine form, and to fix any problems that might arise during fermentation and barrel aging. Knowing that I would be making my own legal, bonded wines in the 2000 vintage helped me really focus in the vineyard this year and grow some special wine. This was the first year for harvesting a commercial crop of Pinot Noir as well, and my great passion for the varietal made my hard work and long hours worth while. So enough about me, how about the wines? Pinot Noir: Clos Pepe will be offering 200 cases of Vintage 2000 Pinot Noir to an allocation list. The allocation list has been filling up quickly since the word got out (ed. note: list has been closed since 3/1/01), and is up to nearly a hundred members already. I will cap the allocation list at 200 with a waiting list, and those members will get two months to buy as much wine as they wish before the remaining cases (if any) are offered for public sale. A hundred and fifty cases will be a Pinot Noir made in the New World style—crushed and destemmed before allowing two to three days of ‘cold soak’ to begin extracting color pigments and phenolic compounds into the juice before primary fermentation. These wines received special attention in the cellar, which is the facility of Kahn and Avreline Wines in Lompoc. They were punched down by hand, mixing the skins and the juice up to five times a day, every few hours. The wines generally spent between ten and fourteen days on the skins, began fermenting with indigenous yeasts and were finished with a Burgundian isolate called RC 212, and were pressed slightly sweet into barrel to protect delicate fruit flavors. They finished fermenting in barrel and are tasting wonderful, earthy and complex. Fifty cases of Pinot Noir (roughly a ton of fruit) were fermented in a totally different style. These bins were fermented ‘whole-cluster’ style, which is much more common in Burgundy. The grapes were stomped in small bins for almost an hour prior to harvest, and the color extracted from this ancient practice was amazing. The wines were stomped and punched down daily, and they stayed on their skins for sixteen days. Fermentation was completed by indigenous (native) yeasts. This wine made itself in a strictly Burgundian fashion. It’s still hard as nails, tannic and unevolved. In barrel, it’s quite a monster, not a shy wine. The crushed and destemmed lots are more elegant and fruity, the whole-cluster wines are much more aggressive. I suggest the whole-cluster wine will need three to five years in the cellar after bottling, and the other seven barrels will produce a softer more elegant wine more appropriate for drinking in its youth. The acidity in both wines guarantees that either will be able to go at least five years properly cellared, and I see no reason why these wines won’t be able to taste complex, fruity and beautiful far into the next decade. For allocation write to weshagen@thegrid.net (or call 805-735-2196 if computers frighten you) as long as you live in a State where I can ship you wine. If you live in a ‘gulag’ state that thinks distributor’s contributions are more important that your right to interstate commerce and the survival of family farms, please write or call your local representative and voice your outrage. Chardonnay: Ahhhh, Chardonnay. The most maligned white winegrape on the planet. Just the sound of the word conjures up images buttery, uninteresting flab that was grown in a region more appropriate for Thompson’s Seedless. Doesn’t anyone respect the most noble white winegrape any more? Well, I try. The 2000 Vintage was good to Chardonnay. The wines were harvested at wonderful ripeness and have fermented nice and clean in the cellar. This year I have limited my Chardonnay production to three barrels, one of which has already been sold to my favorite local sushi joint in Lompoc called Oki. Oki Chardonnay, get it? Ironically, I am fermenting and aging my Chardonnay in 55 gallon stainless steel casks this season. There will be no oak added to this wine at all, which should make a singular wine of great depth, structure, intensity of fruit and wonderful minerality. The wines in stainless are smelling gorgeous through and after fermentation. Pineapple, green apple, mango, chalky mineral notes and grapefruit references seem to dominate the wine at its current stage of development. I have inoculated the casks with malolactic starter, and plan to take this wine through 100% ML fermentation to give it a rich, nutty flavor that will compliment its excellent acidity and mineral flavors. And just for kicks and evaluation purposes, I have also barreled down 60 gallons of Chardonnay in brand new Slovanian oak to see what I’m missing by doing my Chardonnay in a Chablis, non-oaked style. I am constantly trying to prove myself wrong in this business, and decided I should not spurn oak until I try it. A very small allotment (a few bottles) of the new-oak wine will also be available to the allocation list. There is only one allocation list for both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, so joining the list entitles you to a bit of both wines. Allocation list defined: Allocation list will be cut off at 200 persons in the 2000 Vintage which will allow an allocation of 1 case (12 bottles) of Pinot Noir and three bottles of Chardonnay. Special pricing will be available for ‘futures’ orders. A few weeks before the wines are bottled, Clos Pepe will host the allocation list for a Celebration Barbecue and Futures Tasting. At that time we will raid the Lompoc winery and pull blended samples for everyone to taste. If the wine compels you, orders will be taken for the wines, and will be available for shipping or pick-up early in 2002. Pricing has not been determined yet, but because of low yields, organic farming methods, and packaging that will include an original Adrienne Asher-Gepford (R.H. Phillips, Schramsberg and others) label, highest quality ‘sommelier’ style bottle, two inch cork and wax cap, we expect the wine to sell for between $25 and $45 a bottle. The Chardonnay will likely be on the low side of those numbers, the Pinot Noir on the high side. Single-vineyard Pinot Noirs from this area have been selling out quickly at $40-$60 a bottle retail. The price will reflect the quality of the final wine, and will be priced according to the pricing of similar single-vineyard Western Santa Ynez Pinot Noir. Again, the allocation list will fill quickly, and I suggest you send an email to me today ( weshagen@thegrid.net ) to get on the list. An added bonus for those on the allocation list is vineyard and winery updates. Every few weeks, I send a special newsletter-style update to everyone on the list to keep them up to date on cellar work, how the wine is tasting, and everything we’re doing to assure the wine represents its terroir. Wes, Steve and Chanda Continue
Teaching Wine: Since the last Newsletter, Wes, Steve and Chanda have busy with wine education. Wes lectured at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s ‘Wine Compliance’ course on the Santa Rita Hills AVA, as well as running a seminar for the American Wine Society at the Marriott Rancho Santa Barbara. Other recent programs have included two days of seminars and wine education at the L.A. County Fair (both Wes and Steve participated and have been asked back for the 2001 Wines of the Americas Competition) and an invitation to present at Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State San Bernardino, and to present wines at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club on November 17th. Wes also continues his wine writing career with regular columns in Inside Santa Ynez Valley Magazine, Savor Magazine and WineMaker Magazine. On the Web you can find Wes’ writing at www.vineswinger.com, where a weekly ‘In the Vineyard’ feature will be available starting soon (twenty installments have already been finished). VineSwinger.com will also feature a ‘virtual visual tour’ of Clos Pepe Vineyards within the next few months. A 360 degree camera filmed different sections of Clos Pepe, and you can check out the vineyard from almost any angle. Wes is finishing up the text for the tour, and it should be up on the site soon. Exciting!
Wedding at Clos Pepe
It’s official. Wesley David Hagen was married to Chanda Lee Adams at Clos Pepe on a sunny September 9, 2000. Almost 200 attended the service and the reception on the vineyard. Family, friends, winemakers and wine lovers descended on Clos Pepe from exotic locales such as Indiana, Wisconsin, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, Singapore and Lompoc. The rehearsal dinner was catered by Brothers, and was awesome. Lobster spring rolls were matched with DiBruno’s 1999 Pinot Grigio, Sanford and Benedict Vineyard, and their famous Veal Chop with Mustard mashed Potatoes was a perfect compliment to Tensley 1998 Grenache/Syrah blend. The wedding itself went beautifully. The service began in the early afternoon, and after recent attendance at Catholic weddings (2 hours of aerobics and knee scuffing), we decided to keep our ceremony under 10 minutes, start to finish. Hugh David Burcham, Cathy Pepe’s father and a Presbyterian minister, was kind enough to officiate, and allowed Chanda and Wes a great deal of latitude in creating their ‘dream wedding’. The theme was Eat, Drink and Get Married and everyone was in the mood to help make the theme a resounding success. Frank Ostini’s Hitching Post catered the affair to perfection, and the wines consumed were varied, rare and special. From 1996 Qupe Hillside Reserve Syrah to early eighties’ Premier Crus Burgundies, a 1960 Blandy’s Madeira, Cheval Blanc, old Alsatian and Bordeaux, to 1985 Jaboulet Cote Rotie (that was spilled on Chanda’s dress) the wines flowed as if from a fountain. Each table had a wine variety-name (like Pinot Noir or Grenache), so if you sat next to a table that had wine you liked, it was a great way to break the ice and get to know your neighbors. I’m proud to say that we made it through more than 15 cases of blessed wine, which put a small dent in the Clos Pepe cellar. Fortunately we were registered at the Wine Cask in Santa Barbara (805-966-9463), and more than a few folks helped to put some bottles back in the cellar. The Family Dog played great music after dinner, and I saw almost every person in attendance dancing at one time or another. The party lasted into the wee hours of the night, and finally Wes swept Chanda into his Dodge chariot and drove her to the Alisal Guest Ranch for a day or two of relaxation before harvest started in earnest. Clos Pepe Family Update: The other half of the Hagen clan, Cathy’s eldest son Rob, his wife Stacy and their two precious little winemakers Jen and Nicole, have returned from their stint in Singapore and have taken up full time residence in Arizona. Rob is still traveling extensively through the Far East….Jen is taking horse-riding lessons and shares Chanda’s passion (some would say mania) for all things equestrian. Clos Pepe has a new Cellar Master. Steve Martell comes to us from San Diego, where he lived after graduating from U.C. Santa Cruz where his focus of study was sustainable agriculture, viticulture, biology and fermentation science. Steve fits perfectly into the program here at the Clos. He is a strong worker, knows tons about pumps, machines, irrigation and landscaping, and is passionate about low yields and fine wine. As far as we’re concerned he’s a ‘keeper’, so we’ve made him full time, got him hooked on Santa Barbara Wines and hope he will be with us for a long time. Steve has ambitions to start his own vineyard in the area, and when the time comes (hopefully years off) when he leaves Clos Pepe we can be comfortable in knowing that he will grow great fruit and produce more great Santa Barbara County wine. Wes and Chanda have fallen into a comfortable rhythm on the vineyard two months into their marriage. After spending their ‘Honeymoon’ harvesting Pinot Noir and Chardonnay for two months, they are taking a respite and visiting Big Sur and San Francisco in mid-November. The big news is that Chanda and Wes will be joined by the Vigneron (Steve Pepe) and L’agent (Cathy Pepe) on yet another sojourn to Paris, Champagne, (and most importantly) Burgundy in May, 2001. Pets, pets and more pets. Clos Pepe Pet Soundoff! Bud: the original dog on the property. Bud is plump, grumpy and adorable. Our latest theory is that he’s half Dalmatian, half German Shorthair Pointer. Readers will remember how Bud saved the Long Beach house from a fire, and how Steve rescued Bud from the Clos Pepe pond when he was tangled in a rope hanging off our aerator. Indi and Tiva: Indi is full greyhound, Tiva is half greyhound, half whippet. Both are brindled like tigers. They are the streaking blurs often spotted racing down vine rows at the Clos, chasing a rabbit (or more likely) chasing each other. Indi was recently hospitalized after impaling himself on a trailer hitch. Fast? Certainly. Smart? Well, let’s just say his head is streamlined for speed, not trigonometry. Samson and Delilah: the pure-bred Dalmatian pair that make Bud a little defensive about his heritage. Samson and Delilah were found wandering at the Staples Arena after a Lakers game—most likely discarded by a despondent Trailblazers fan. They are much like Bud, very vocal and very emotionally needy (sounds a bit like the Trailblazers themselves). They have both caught rabbits in the vineyard, which make them valuable additions to the anti-critter canine crew. Rosa: A border collie with a lot of smarts and a lot of attitude. Rosa’s the kind of dog that makes you rethink current theories on animal intelligence. Her stare is so soulful and intelligent that I keep expecting her to start talking. She is an excellent Frisbee catcher, she can play soccer and will retrieve missed shots on the basketball court. She is also an excellent hunter—more than once I’ve seen Rosa leap in the air and catch birds on the wing. Rosa has four separate congenital heart defects, and has already outlived her prognosis for an early demise. Don’t expect her to give up the ghost any time soon. Last but certainly not least in the kennel is Winston the Pug. With nicknames such as ‘Snarfer’, ‘Woofer’, and the ‘Alien Harp-Seal’, Winston is a small dog with a lot of big sounds to share with the world. When asked how he likes belonging to such a large pack of vineyard dogs, Winnie refused to answer. He insists that he is part of the human pack, preferring Chanda’s warm lap to barking and chasing rodents. Who can blame him? Marklar: an Ambanja Island Panther Chameleon, Marklar continues to charm us with his funny little personality. We have built Marklar a stunning new plant-filled ‘apartment’ on the sun porch of our home, where he can contemplate the vineyard while scanning his cage for wandering crickets or waxworms. Clos Pepe’s ‘Elevage’, aka Carlos: Wes decided to go overboard on his wedding gift, and bought Chanda a Hanoverian Warmblood—an excellent horse for Chanda’s love: show jumping. Carlos (Elevage is his show-name), is a proud and spirited young animal. He is slowly acclimating himself to life at the Clos, and is ridden daily and given professional training twice a week. Chanda disappears for hours and hours to train and preen the young jumper, and has found her passion for English riding once again. Chanda is expected to return to show-jumping sometime in 2001, if not before. 1999 Clos Pepe Wines: Ojai Vineyards 1999 Chardonnay, Clos Pepe Vineyards: Get on their mailing list by calling: 805-649-1674 Longoria 1999 Chardonnay, Clos Pepe Vineyards Call to reserve or to check up: 805-688-0305 Hitching Post 1999 Chardonnay, Clos Pepe Vineyards Call 805-688-7843 to check on availability Testarossa 1999 Chardonnay, Clos Pepe Vineyards Call 408-354-6150 for availability and ordering Clos Pepe 2000 Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Call 805-735-2196 or weshagen@thegrid.net to get on the Allocation List. Steve’s Portugal Trip: Saturday, May 20, 2000Casa Velha do Palheiro – MadeiraWe left the hotel for the Lancer’s Winery in Setúbal. This was our first day in which it was somewhat gray and overcast. Lancer’s does 6 million liters of wine annually. All of it is done in a literal tank farm/refinery centrally controlled by computers. They ship one and one-half million cases of wine to the U.S. Lancer’s is owned by the Fonseca Company which was founded in 1834; this wine was started after World War II for the American market. After the tour of this refinery / winery, we went to the Fonseca facility in the town of Setúbal which was built in the early 1800’s. We tasted one of their specialties - Muscatel, a fortified wine made from the Muscat de Setúbal grape. We had their 1997 Psamodos and the 1996 Alambu Muscatel (caramel and honey). The Muscat de Setúbal which is the Muscat of Alexandria grape – originating in Egypt and disseminated by the Romans. Lunch – Restaurant Ribamar. We left the Fonseca facility and went to the sea coast for a wonderful seafood lunch - some of our group were not fans of Poseidon’s harvest. We started with a 1998 Fonseca Sauvignon Blanc and a cold seafood platter which contained persadis which turned out to be barnacles, shrimps, oysters, mussels, two kinds of snails and lobsters. For the main course we had a sea bass which had been encrusted in rock salt and roasted for a half an hour with some garlic and was served with a red pepper sauce which was delightful. With that we had a 1998 red Fonseca which was made with the Touriga Nacional grape (heavy finish). Due to our running late as usual, we had to rush through this wonderful lunch so that we could make our plane flight to Madeira. This was one of the few times when we were actually on time. Dinner – At the Hotel. We started with a 1998 Messias Bairrada sparkling wine (made from Maria Gomez, Bical and Rado de Ouelha grapes). That was followed by a Casa de Brancas which was part chardonnay and part Portuguese grapes. The appetizer was salmon in gelatin followed by a salad with sliced ducked breast capriccio on top of the salad. We then had a veal saltimbocca accompanied with stuffed tomatoes and gnocchi and potatoes gratin served with a 1996 Vihna do Fojo from the Touriga Nacional grape (hot finish). We finished the evening with a 1993 Fonseca Muscatel. Sunday, May 21, 2000The island of Madeira is the top of a mountain and rises almost vertically out of the sea with no beaches. The volcanic soil is extremely fertile. We started the day with a bus tour of the town of Funchal and its environs. Bananas and other tropical fruits are grown by the sea, while the vineyards are grown half way up the mountain on high trellising with vegetables and other crops grown under the canopy. We went to The Old Blandy Wine Lodges, and had a tour of the museum where they had displayed account books from the 1700’s. We then went through a tasting of dry Sercial Madeiras - three year old Blandy and five year old Blandy Verdelho, then to medium sweet Madeiras - a five year old Blandy Bual and a ten year old Leacock Bual - and finished with sweet madeiras - a ten year old Blandy Malmsey and a 1983 Cossart Gordon Colheita. Madeiras is a fortified wine made in the Estufagen process – that is by heating the wine for several months. This originally was pleasantly discovered when Madeira was shipped as ballast across the equator and the slightly acidic tart wine was transformed into a nutty fruity wine; now it is done in large concrete tanks. Lunch – Old Blandy Wine Lodge. We started with a sercial and followed that with a still wine - an Atlantis Verdelho (fresh and fruity – tart finish) which is the only white wine made in Madeira and sold only on the Island of Madeira. Our first course was a smoked swordfish and salmon with local mangos which was excellent. This was followed by an Atlantis Rose made from the Tinta Negro (crisp and clean – thin finish) with beef, served with green sweet potatoes and polenta. We finished with a 1996 Dom Martinho, which is the second wine from the Quinta do Carmo, with the banana custard and chocolate custard. After some shopping in the midst of a rain storm we returned to our hotel. Upon returning to the hotel some of us went on a garden tour of the hotel owner’s residence with the hotel manager and his wife, while the rest of our group took a nap. Dinner - Reid’s Palace Hotel. Reid’s is the most famous watering hole on Madeira and the haunt of many famous and infamous individuals in the last century. We initially had cocktails in the bridge room with a 1996 Alianzo Brut sparkling wine (lacked acid – flabby). After a tour of the hotel and the swimming pool we went to dinner in the main dining room which was quite tastefully appointed. We started off with a 1998 Quinta de Perrolids made from the Barriado grape (Riesling like) with a bouillabaisse terrine with anise and zabayone of salmon and sea bass layered with vegetables in a gelatin. This was followed by a parrot fish with carrot and thyme sauce which was excellent, served with a 1995 Casa Ferreindiro - a red wine from the Douro Valley (very dry, huge fruit and finish). We concluded with a cheese course. The location and food were quite exceptional. The service was probably the worst we had during our trip. C’est la vie. Monday, May 22, 2000 Hotel – Pousada Solar Da Rede Now that we had the preliminaries out of the way - we left for the real part of the tour and departed from Madeira for Oporto. Also, we had a new bus driver!! Lunch - Graham’s Board Room. We had a spectacular view of the Douro River and the town of Oporto since we were across the river in Vila Nova de Gaia where all the port lodges are located due to an Oporto Bishop’s attempt to tax the port lodges for his churches. Our aperitif was a three-year-old dry white port or the white port with a tonic and a twist of lemon. For appetizers we had fried cod fish ovals, potato balls and canapés. Our first course was an egg and onion quiche served with a Quinta Bonfien white wine from the Douro Valley. The main course was a fish and shrimp Newberg with broccoli and mashed potatoes. With that we had a 1989 Quinta Bonfien followed by a 20-year-old Graham’s Tawny Port, with some fruit. We then were treated to a video of port wine making and an excellent tasting. We started with a three-year-old Ruby followed by a five-year-old Tawny, then a 1994 late bottled vintage, next a Six Grapes Tawny, a ten-year-old Tawny, a 20-year-old Tawny, a 30-year-old Tawny and concluded with an 1987 Malvedos single Quinta vintage port. Our hotel for the rest of the time in the Douro Valley was the Pousada Solar Da Rede. This was built for one of the king’s mistresses and had an impressive chapel Dinner - Quinta do Noval in Pinháo. This Quinta is one of the most highly regarded and well known of the port shippers. It leaped to fame with its 1931 vintage, which none of the other well known Port houses declared due to the spectacular and abundant 1927 vintage and the lack of sales caused by the depression. The Quinta is on the top of a major hill with a spectacular view of the Douro Valley. It was so steep that the bus could not traverse it and we ferried up in a four wheel drive jeep which barely made it. We started with a tasting of the Noval Coronation Ruby Port, followed by a four-year-old tawny, then by a 1994 late bottled vintage and finished with a ten-year-old tawny. For dinner, which was served family style, we started with potato and cabbage soup which some of our members believe is kale and not cabbage. With that we had the 1997 Corucho Noval red wine made from the Tinta Roriz, Torega Fransesca and Tinta Barroga grapes with pork, rice, potatoes and salad. That was followed by a ten-year-old tawny. Eric then persuaded our host to uncork a bottle of the 1967 Quinta do Noval Nacional which is quite a special wine that is made on four acres of vineyards that have not been attacked phyllorxia and is thus made on the native Portuguese vine and not on American root stock (which is the way almost all of the wines in the world are now made). Fortunately for some of us, a number of our members had consumed their quota of port, and we were able to enjoy more than a taste of this quite extraordinary, complex and unusual wine. Tuesday, May 23, 2000We departed from the hotel for the Office of the Archeological Park of the Valley of Côa which contained 20,000-30,000 year old Paleolithic drawings of horses and wild boars. Following the bus ride to the Office we took a four wheel drive vehicle to visit the Archeological Park. After quite a bit of hiking we viewed the Paleolithic drawings. The discovery of these drawings has stopped the building of a dam which would have flooded the area and provided much needed water to the farmers. Some of our group thought it was wonderful that this occurred and others said it was nice but why don’t they just ship the rocks to a museum and let the farmers have their water. Lunch – Quinta De Ervamoria. After visiting the Paleolithic drawings we motored for 45 minutes over a single lane winding road to the very isolated Quinta De Ervamoira, the main vineyards for the Ramos Pintos port houses which are now owned by Roederer. About one-half of the Quinta would have been lost if the dam had been built. We started with a white port aperitif. Our first course was melon with a ten-year-old tawny port. The main course was pork stuffed with prunes, rice and potatoes, served with a 1997 Duas Quintas which was made from the Tinta Roriz and the Tourigia Nacional (o.k. fruit, gamey flavor and acidic). For dessert we were served an excellent homemade ice-cream with a ten-year-old tawny port. This was followed by the most extensive vintage port tasting we were offered, starting with a 1995 late bottled vintage, followed by the 1994 vintage (out of balance), then the 1997 vintage (figs - big and prolonged finish), next the 1995 vintage, a 1983 vintage and finally a 1982 vintage (prunes and figs – excellent). We toured their museum which contained Roman and medieval pottery and tiles. For the more adventuresome of the group, we trekked down to the actual excavation site of the Roman custom house upon which a medieval building was constructed several centuries later. On the way back to our hotel, we were subject to quite heavy rains and could see the impact that the weather has on the Douro vineyards as the road in part turned brown from the top soil being washed off the vineyards into the river. Dinner - At the hotel. We started off with olives and sausage, and for the first course we had locally caught trout with an Albert sauce served with a 1997 Duas Quintas white wine (flabby, needs acid). The main course was roast kid with potatoes, beans and carrots served with the 1997 Sersa de Ordios, a wine made from the Roriz and the Touriga grapes (good fruit and flavor – gamey finish). Wednesday, May 24, 2000We started the day at the Quinta De La Rosa in Pinhão for a tour of the facility which started with a video of port wine making. Until 1988 this property sold all of its grapes to Sandeman and since then has started selling wine under its own name. All of their port wines are produced in the traditional style which requires an hour and a half to two hours of military style foot treading of the grapes in the lagers (concrete troughs) followed by an hour and a half to two hours of free style dancing in the lagers. Lunch – Quinta De La Rosa. We started with a white port (quite good) which was served with prosciutto, sausage, ham, pork turnovers and fish turnovers. For the main course, we had roast chicken with risotto, sausage, peas and carrots served with a 1999 Quinta De La Rosa white wine made from several Portuguese grape varietals (floral nose, good fruit and flavor). This was followed by sheep, goat and cow cheeses with a 1995 late bottled (one of the best we tasted) and a 1990 vintage port from the Quinta. In addition to the winery, they also have six rooms which include two suites and two houses which they rent to visitors. We passed Taylor’s Vintage House in Pinhão, which was a warehouse of theirs until several years ago when they converted it into an excellent hotel. However, we were unable to stay there since it was taken over by a Rolls Royce owners group and our bus was a mere Mercedes. Dinner – Quinta do Passadouro. Before dinner we went to the Quinta de Napoles which has just been acquired by the van der Niepoort company. We did a barrel tasting of their 1999 wines (berry nose – big). We traveled to their main facility, the Quinta do Passadouro, which was a winding steep road back up the Douro Valley. For appetizers we had turnovers made with meat and shrimp - American potato chips, which one wag nicknamed “Douro-itos”. With this our host, Dirk van der Niepoort, served his 1996 Redoma white wine which was aged for 20 months in barrels (1/3 new oak) and had gone through malolactic fermentation (diesel nose and taste). We also tried the 1997 Redoma reserve white from his best barrels (excellent). For dinner we had Portuguese cabbage soup with potatoes, sausage and onions. This was served with a 1999 Redoma rose which was aged 40% in wood and 60% in stainless steel. This was followed by kid which had been wrapped in bacon and baked, served with potatoes and rice with peas and carrots. We were served a 1996 Redoma red (tannic finish) with this as well as a 1995 Passadouro red and a 1995 Redoma red. We then followed with flan and fruit salad dessert served with a 1995 late bottled vintage. We were then treated to a taste of the 1998 barrel sample vintage port (alcohol and fruit nose – big – excellent fruit and flavor – spirit pronounced). Thursday, May 24, 2000Hotel – Infante De Sagnes - Oporto We departed the hotel for the Casa De Mateus in Vila Real. We had a tour of the palace which was built in the early 1700’s and sold its name to the makers of Mateus wine for a flat fee rather than royalty payments - oops. Lunch – At the Casa De Mateus. We had an aperitif of 1957 white port made from grapes from the property (thin flavor and finish). Our first course was a potato leek soup with egg served with a 1994 Vino Bianco from the property. This was then followed by a fish course with potatoes and carrots and a 1995 wine from the property as well. We concluded with a raspberry sorbet. Walking to the bus we saw a confrontation between an ox-drawn cart and a BMW, which the ox-drawn cart won. Dinner – Taylor Port Lodge. That evening we had dinner at the Taylor Port Lodge hosted by David Guimaraens. With started with a tasting of the Taylor and Fonseca wines - which have been made by the Taylor and Guimaraens families for the last several hundred years. We started with the Fonseca Bin 27, which is their four-year-old vintage character wine (black currants and berries – 60% foot trodden), and compared that to the 1994 Taylor late bottled vintage (6-year-old – cold filtered – blackberries, currants and spice). We followed that with a Fonseca ten-year-old tawny and a Taylor 20-year-old tawny (caramel and nutty). Next we tasted a 1998 Guimaraens vintage port (chewy) and a 1978 Guimaraens vintage port, and compared these to the Taylor’s 1998 and 1987 Vargellas (spirit showing), a single Quinta vintage port. We began dinner with white port - Chip Dry - with appetizers of fried fish and meat turnovers. Our first course was roasted couch (sea bream) Provencal with roasted potatoes served with a white Douro wine. This was followed by a filet mignon in a port wine sauce with rice, beans and carrots served with a 1998 Villa Regia red wine from the Douro. Dessert was a frambois mousse in a chocolate box with red and black currants, served with a 20-year-old tawny port. On our way back to the hotel at around midnight, we discovered that the Oporto soccer team had beaten the Lisbon soccer team for the national championship. Thus all the Oportos were in the streets - either in their cars or on foot - making passage almost impossible. So when our bus got close to the hotel, after driving down some one-way streets the wrong way, we departed the bus chanting “Oporto” - “Oporto” – “Oporto” to be part of the local citizenry and made our way to the hotel. (I suspect our coats, ties and accents gave us away). It took our bus driver and hour and a half to finally get out of the traffic jam. L.A. Lakers fans could learn something from the Oportos. Friday, May 26, 2000Hotel – Four Seasons Ritz – Lisbon We departed Oporto for Lisbon and stopped at the Palace Hotel Do Buçaco which is surrounded by a forest. It was originally started as a Carmelite monastery and then the Portuguese royal family built a hunting lodge in it early in the 1900’s. It took the last king of Portugal from 1898 to 1908 to build the hunting lodge. Unfortunately, he was deposed and it was taken over by the state in 1910. In 1917 the state leased the palace as a hotel. Lunch – Palace Hotel Do Buçaco. We started with a sparkling wine and then had a carrot soup with watercress served with the Buçaco Blanco reserve (gamey finish). This was followed by roast chicken Portuguese style with Newberg potatoes, broccoli and carrots with the Buçaco Tinto reserve red wine. This was followed by apple pie and vanilla ice-cream with a Buçaco brandy. We then motored back to the Four Seasons Ritz Hotel in Lisbon for our final dinner. Dinner – Ritz Four Seasons. We started with a sparkling wine, the 1997 Alianca which is made from the Bairrada grape (good mouse, fruit and yeasty finish). For the first course we had an excellent marinated sea bream capriccio style served with the 1997 Ridoma reserve white wine from van der Niepoort. The next course was an excellent wild mushroom risotto followed by a suckling pig with clam and coriander, served with the 1996 Quinto dos Roques - which is made from the Toriga Nacional grape. We then had a creamed spice cake Portuguese with cheese and poached pear and finished with a 1995 late bottled vintage Niepoort port. Following our good-byes, we all wended our way back to the U.S., some more directly than others. Don’t
forget to join the Allocation List! Email weshagen@thegrid.net Happy Holidays from the Clos Pepe Crew and our Menagerie: Steve, Cathy, Wes and Chanda, Steve Martell, Ramon and CesarVISIT www.clospepe.com and LEARN WINE!!! |
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