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This Week’s Latest Wine Headlines: July 26—July 31

Happy weekend my friends. I’m going to keep my intro here pretty short because, as you may or may not know, tomorrow is my birthday. My birthday present: sitting my first WSET Diploma Exam. Wish me luck.

For those of you following along on my WSET Exam-Type Questions series, never fear. These will continue for a few more weeks, as I’ve written out several that still need to be posted.

Regarding current events, the food and wine industry (like so many others) continues to be in a state of flux. COVID cases continue to rise here in wine country, as with the rest of the country. Tariff drama remains. US alcohol shipping laws seem to be going sideways. And the fight to create and celebrate a more diverse professional food and wine industry continues.

Scroll through. There’s some fun stuff too. Veraison in Lodi’s looking good. There’s some new wine literature for your fellow wine geeks. Take a photo tour of Sicily. And anybody want some tennis shoes made from wine? Here yah go.

Enjoy your weekend reads. Stay safe, stay healthy, and be kind.

Cheers.

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DipWSET Theory: Achieving and defining wine grape ripeness

[Information based on DipWSET D1 material]

I covered details in a few of these stages in previous posts (Please see Flowering and Fruit set, and Ripening.), but as I approach my exam in just a few days, I realize it may be helpful to have a consolidated list that covers each stage of a vine’s growth cycle to put those other posts into a broader perspective. Hence, the impetus for this post.

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DipWSET Theory: Grape Ripening

[Information based on DipWSET D1 material]

Before getting started, make sure to check out my post on Flowering and Fruit Set.

A Brief Overview:

Ripening is the third stage of Grape Development. Starting from the top…

During grape berry formation—the first stage of Grape Development— malic and tartaric acids begin to accumulate, aroma compounds and precursors begin to form (also check out Aromatic Compounds post), tannins start to accumulate. But the grapes themselves are green and quite bitter—very little sugar has accumulated at this point.

Another interesting anecdote is that water flow is quite high during grape berry formation, but too much water and nitrogen (please also see Stuck Fermentation to learn about soil nutrients) can prolong this phase, as it will encourage green growth, not grape growth. So “mild” water stress is the way to go here.

Veraison is considered second stage of Grape Development. This is when grapes begin to change their color, skins become more supple, stretchy. But regarding the grape growth, it actually slows down. This phase is what many viticulturists refer to as a “lag phase.”

Now we can enter the third stageripening.

The Fruiting Cycle; sggrapegrowers.com
The Fruiting Cycle; sggrapegrowers.com

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Paso Rocks: Paso Robles Wine Review Roundup

Last week I participated in a webinar, discussion, and virtual tasting highlighting the Paso Robles AVA through the eyes of three prominent winery representatives: Jason Haas, partner and general manager of Tablas Creek Vineyard; Jordan Fiorentini, vice president of winemaking and vineyards for Epoch Wine Estates; and Amanda Wittstrom Higgins, newly appointed executive vice president of Ancient Peaks Winery.

The main takeaway (at least to my eyes and ears): Paso rocks. I mean, yes, it rocks in the figurative sense as well. But I was really digging (pun sort of intended) all the geeky geological stuff these guys got into. The show-and-tell of vineyard rocks was one for the record books. Have you seen fossilized whale bone in your backyard? Thought not. And of course, how these soil types and topography of each vineyard’s location affects the wine style is a connection I love making.

So, I thought I’d take some time to talk a bit about each winery, why they “rock,” and of course include mini wine reviews for each. Please, enjoy.

Courtesy Epoch Estate Wines
Courtesy Epoch Estate Wines

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Notre Vue Estate New Releases

If you’ve been sticking with me through my WSET studies, you’ll know that the last two posts were all about soil types and soil health. In keeping with that theme, I want to highlight a new-for-me winery, Notre Vue Estate from Windsor, California whose latest releases dive into the soil types and structures throughout their vineyard.

soils samples from Notre Vue Estate.
Not cigars, like I first thought when I opened the box. These are soils samples from Notre Vue Estate.

As I talked about in my Vineyard Soil post, it’s not just soil composition but vine row orientation—i.e. slope and aspect—that dictate what vines will thrive best where in the vineyard. So, let’s take a look at what viticulturist Daniel Charles has to say about the Notre Vue soils and then have a little taste of what those soils have produced…

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