Pollux Membership December 2022: Back to the Garden and Breaking out of Prison
A perf
“Back to the Garden”
Domaine Ostertag Riesling “Les Jardins”, Alsace, France 2020
While I am a wholehearted supporter of sustainability in general and as it pertains to winegrowing/winemaking in particular, I am not, as it were, a naturally “hippy-dippy” person. I don’t find myself often “communing with the earth”, unless that involves pretending to fall over on muddy ground so that my 4 year old and 16 month old can have a laugh at their dad’s expense. I do, however, feel that when I spend time outdoors, and particularly on farms or vineyards, a spiritual element comes into play-I feel a certain sense of “at home”-ness that can only be explained away by believing in reincarnation or some such force, as my own ability in this present life to garden and tend to land is, well…rather humble. So, although I don’t necessarily derive any pleasure from the thought of lunar cycles and mystical forces, I am entirely open to appreciating and benefitting from those that do get themselves “back to the garden”, as Joni Mitchell might say. Ideally, my hippy-dippy winemakers also come armed with tangible information, be it factual or sensorial, to back up their wallowing in the dirt/burying things in the dirt/dancing in the moonlight above said dirt. Which is why I love and celebrate the approach (and of course the wines) of one of the Alsace region’s winemaking revolutionaries, a man who on his own labels describes himself as “Vigneron/Jardiniere” (“Winemaker/Gardener”)-Andre Ostertag.
Domaine Ostertag owner Andre Ostertag.
What is it about training in France’s Burgundy region? Although there surely must be (by human process of elimination) some lazy, careless farmers and winemakers somewhere in France’s famed wine appellation, one might be hard-pressed to locate them, as almost everyone who travels to Burgundy to be mentored or do a stage comes home renewed, refreshed, and rejuvenated-the list of winemakers and oenologists I know of whose journey involves a stop in Burgundy springboarding them into a new phase of their passion is staggering. Andre Ostertag is just one such example, albeit a famous and notable one: upon returning from his studies in Burgundy in the mid-1990s to his family’s Domaine in the northeastern French border region of Alsace, he took his search for quality and ecology to new heights. The Ostertag Domaine was founded in 1966 and is located in Epfig, a bucolic village of red and orange-roofed houses in the Bas-Rhin area of Alsace, less than 20 miles from the German border. Andre worked diligently in the vineyards at this time, lowering yields and introducing techniques in the vineyard and cellar from other wine regions while converting all of his holdings to biodynamics (a trailblazer in this respect, he has been certified biodynamic since 1997 and a leader in Alsace for natural farming and vineyard practices). Andre’s independence has manifested itself in terms of classifying his wines, also: rather than the official designations of the Alsace AOC, Ostertag has created his own categories for his wines to fall into: Vins de Fruits (wines that express a grape more than a place), Vins de Pierre (wines that express the location more than the varietals), and Vin de Temps (sweet wines that rely on time and weather conditions to develop the sugar-concentrating “noble rot” of botrytis). Andre is also a leader for his subtle and careful use of oak barrels; Alsace winemaking has traditionally avoided oak entirely, or used larger wooden foudres, letting the at-times oversized fruit and aromas of this sunny, easy-ripening region shine through. Andre has become adept at using standard barriques and is an advocate of the greater depth they provide on the palate, to the point that he is mentioned by name for this practice in Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson’s industry standard tome “The World Atlas of Wine”. Andre produces Alsace’s 4 “Noble Varietals” (Riesling, Pinot Gris, Muscat, Gewurztraminer) in a multitude of minute-production cuvees, from his Grand Cru Muenchberg site on down, and the domaine’s still-small overall production of 8,300 cases is a testament to his continued emphasis on quality over quantity. As far as “Getting Back to the Garden”, however, arguably Andre’s greatest strength is his overarching philosophy, a commitment that manifests itself in this month’s Pollux white wine, “Les Jardins”, and in a broader discussion of the Riesling grape varietal.
Domaine Ostertag’s home village of Epfig, Bas-Rihn, Alsace.
As I mention in my writings for this month’s Castor membership, Alsace wines in the US in general and Alsace Riesling specifically currently suffer from having fallen into a commercial gap. The modern wine drinker understands increasingly that not all Riesling is sweet (in fact, most isn’t), but has also been conditioned to dry Rieslings having no discernible richness in texture or potential for body weight (lean Rieslings from German and Austria, which I also love, have seen to this). The modern wine drinker in America is also inundated with citrus-driven wines espousing “crispness” which, while not a bad thing overall when the wines are of quality, does create an issue when it comes to Alsace, whose favorable climate and varied soils can lead to bigger white wines armed with substantial aromatics-even if a wine doesn’t have a noticeable sugar content, many drinkers will turn away after a glass because the wine is “too much”-of what, they aren’t sure, but something is overly expressive given their other experience and therefore off-putting. One solution: drink a lot more Alsace white wine. Another, less involved and arguably better idea: drink more Domaine Ostertag. The “Les Jardins” Riesling, fashioned from vineyard plots in three villages (their hometown of Epfig as well as Nothalten and Itterswiller) that are grown on varied soil types (quartz, granite, and volcanic sediment, to name a few) does not aspire to be either an Alsace Riesling (ripe, heavy stone fruit with elevated alcohol) or a German one (steely, petrol-scented minerals and soft apple/pear). It exists in a world in between, where initial notes of bosque pear are backed up almost immediately by a grain-driven, earthy sweetness (think honey and rolled oats, descriptors not often mentioned in terms of the Riesling grape). As Andre himself says in importer Kermit Lynch’s book Inspiring Thirst, “A great wine is one in which quality is contained. Such a wine will necessarily be uncommon and decidedly unique because it cannot be like any other, and because of this fact it will be atypical, or only typical of itself.” Now that is a hippy-dippy winemaker, and one whom I couldn’t be happier to support, not strictly because of what he believes in, but because his beliefs are borne out in my rapidly emptying glass-D.
Domaine Ostertag Riesling “Les Jardins”, Alsace 2020
Country of Origin: France.
Places and People: Domaine Ostertag was founded in 1966 in the small village of Epfig in northern Alsace (about 20 miles from the German border, Epfig is in the Bas-Rihn subzone of the region). Upon completion of training and study in Burgundy, Andre Ostertag returned to his family’s property and sought the techniques and vineyard pedigree of biodynamics, lowering yields and converting all farming to organic, non-interventionist methods. Today he stands as a pioneer of naturally made wine in Alsace and is the winemaker for his family’s 24 different bottlings-total production is just 8,300 cases annually for all cuvees combined. The Les Jardins Riesling is taken from plots of 30+ years of age in Epfig, Itterswiller to the northwest, and Nothalten to the southwest.
Soil: The Riesling for the Les Jardins is grown in multiple soil types: Loess, Quartz, Gres (Gres de Vosges, a sandstone local to the Vosges mountain range in Alsace), Granite, and volcanic sediments.
Grape Varieties: 100% Riesling.
Winemaking: Hand harvested and gently pressed. Fermentation with indigenous yeasts until fully dry. Despite Andre’s reputation as a deft handler of oak barrels, the Les Jardins is fermented only in stainless steel tanks.
Aging: Upon completion of fermentation, the Riesling for Les Jardins remains in the stainless steel tanks to age for 12 months prior to bottling. The entirety of the aging period is done “sur lie” (on the fine lees, spent yeasts left over from fermentation), lending a fuller mouthfeel and texture to this always-angular grape variety.
Flavors and Foods: An uncommonly golden/yellow straw color for a Riesling, even one from Alsace. Stony, earth secondary notes are the first thing to comes across the nose (one wonders about the volcanic soil sites that contribute to the Jardins’ final blend). Also present are scents of honeycomb and a tinge of faint, super-aromatic herb, like aloe or chive blossom. The fruits come last, a welcome factor in a Riesling: pears and white peaches make themselves known, but shyly (turn your nose to the side to get a better whiff). On the palate, there is a varietal spice note of cardamom seed and nutmeg. This is a fittingly wintry Riesling in terms of the herbal/root descriptors! On the palate, Bosque pear and a wealth of earthy, honeyed secondary notes, like rolled oats and a little sweetness that presents itself not as sugar but rather its alternatives (think stevia or agave nectar). A little root vegetable roundness (rutabaga and carrots?) makes this wine, again, very committed to earthy elements. The acidity is high but not overwhelming, and the appearance of a spritzy textural note is brief and fades quickly once the wine opens. High-toned citrus (key lime and star fruit) come as the wine opens/warms to white cellar temp from the fridge (see service note below). In pairing the Les Jardins, I’m in agreement with the website of importer Kermit Lynch: matches should be kept simple, with crudos, pate, flammekueche (tarte flambee), non-spicy sausages with choucroute, or fondue cheeses such as Gruyere.
Service and Cellar: In tasting the Les Jardins, the higher end of the white wine cellar temperature range (50-52 degrees F) is ideal. This lets the aromatics and the higher-toned citrus come out; a colder temperature yields only the earthier, honeycomb notes and the darker side of the pear element. This 2020 vintage of Les Jardins is in an enjoyable place now but will also evolve for 3-5 more years, ultimately lasting for 10.
The historic vineyard signpost denoting Dr. George Belden Crane’s eponymous vineyard, St. Helena, Napa Valley.
“Breaking out of Prison”
The Crane Assembly Red Blend “Disciples”, Napa Valley, California 2018
“Keeping an Open Wine”…there again is that little, not necessarily brilliant at all catchphrase that I’ve taken to using when it comes to tasting wines that, in theory, shouldn’t appeal to me or to what GWC is all about. You know the kind I mean…big commercial productions, boatloads of overextracted fruit in a wine that doesn’t call for it, gobs of new oak that render a wine numb to its clutches-it’s just not for me, and more importantly, if you want those kinds of wines, there are ample resources better equipped to supplying them than I. HOWEVER, as I’ve stated previously, my final rule is all about what’s in the glass. And in the spirit of the holiday season, I was on the hunt for something that felt a little…just, MORE for this month’s Pollux Red. I wanted it to feel like a holiday party; vivacious, jubilant, even a little over the top-the culmination of a year of life. When I asked a longtime importer/distributor friend to assist me on that particular journey, he ventured: “What about Dave Phinney’s project from St. Helena with Kevin Fox?” I said, “The guy who made The Prisoner?”, and then nearly wretched into the phone. The Prisoner, for those of you unfamiliar, is a capacious red wine that is sort of a liquid manifestation of an older overweight rich man, sitting astride his yacht smoking a cigar in an open Hawaiian shirt and docksiders. Sort of a status symbol among newly-minted wine collectors of the mid and late 2000s, The Prisoner was a huge, overly fruit-forward blend made chiefly from Zinfandel and produced by Orin Swift wines, or at least it was, until the whole thing became so big that Orin Swift was purchased by Gallo and The Prisoner Wine Co. was purchased separately by industry corporate Goliath Constellation Brands, to the tune of $285 million dollars. This sounded like a journey to nowhere for me, one unlikely to yield a wine I’d even enjoy, let alone that made sense for GWC-and yet, as myriad sportscasters have noted before showing the highlights of a colossal upset, “That’s why they play the games!” And so it was that I started delving into a story that, shockingly, was very Gemini Wine Company: nearly 140 years of California history, the burden of “selling out” and then starting again, and, of course, a wine that is delicious: Crane Assembly’s “Disciples” Red Blend.
Vineyards on the eastern slopes above St. Helena.
Upon reaching the mountaintop of the wine industry (and I’ll use that term specifically), Dave Phinney continued to consult and make wine for a number of projects after cashing out with Orin Swift/The Prisoner. In an age-old dilemma of the “chicken or egg” variety, it was the very success and financial resources from producing such a critically and commercially renowned wine that allowed Phinney to even consider purchasing the estate that would become Crane Assembly. Located in the gravel-rich soils of southern St. Helena, it is believed that Dr. George Beldon Crane (or simply G.B.) first established grapevines on this site in 1885. A towering figure in Napa Valley viticultural history, Dr. Crane at one point owned over 300 acres of vineyards (Beckstoffer’s renowned “Dr. Crane” Cabernet vineyard is just to the north of Crane Assembly). Scarce records provide little insight as to the original plantings, but most likely it was a field blend of mixed red varieties, which were prevalent at the time due to the European influence of the first settlers in Napa. In 2012, Dave Phinney along with partner and fellow winemaker Kevin Fox became owners of the 8-acre G.B. Crane property. Of the 6.5 acres currently used for wine production, an astounding 4 of them are Crane’s original plantings. Continuously farmed by a number of different owners for nearly 140 years, Dr. Crane’s original vineyard is now one of the two oldest vineyards in Napa still producing commercially, the other being the Canard Vineyard in Calistoga, which coincidentally also contains old vines of a grape dear to Crane’s heart-Zinfandel. One replanting of Crane’s vineyard occurred in 1930, making all of the vines in this older section a minimum of 90 years of age, and going up to 130-a responsibility that Phinney and Fox took very seriously. Again, the dilemma of Dave’s former big-box winemaking life rears its head-most owners would have probably ripped out these old, scantly-producing vines of Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Carignan, and Mourvedre by now and re-planted the area with revenue-generating Cabernet, but because Dave didn’t need the money, he also endeavored to preserve this land and treat these fragile, delicate to the touch old vines with white glove levels of care. In time, Crane Assembly came to produce three different wines: an estate Cabernet Sauvignon, planted on newer blocks, a Zinfandel-based blend harkening to Phinney’s “Prisoner” days called El Coco, and a field blend that comprises fruit from some of the most famous sites in Napa Valley, Disciples.
Some of the old vines on Dr. G.B. Crane’s 130-year-old property.
Disciples is sourced from vineyards with great historical and qualitative pedigrees: Tofanelli in Calistoga and Morisoli in Rutherford, to name a couple. Here we have the third instance of my “support a Dave Phinney project?” ethical dilemma come into play-only by Dave’s relationships built at Orin Swift would he have access to these vineyards (and the highly sought-after particular blocks within them) that give Disciples its beautiful charge of red and purple fruits. The name “Disciples” is in deference to the old vines on the Crane estate property; these younger vines used to produce the blend are, in the team’s mind, capable of equaling the level of fruit they are getting in the century-old vineyards in St. Helena. I will readily admit that, upon tasting Disciples, my first thought was: “I’m glad Dave Phinney DIDN’T make this wine.” Kevin Fox is a colleague of Phinney’s who has worked extensively in Napa and has shown a talent for doing collaborative dinners with restaurants (truffle events at The French Laundry, for example), and although Disciples is certainly a full-bodied red wine, the high level of ripeness is held into a balance that bigger, cultish Napa reds don’t often possess. The fruit of Zinfandel definitely assists with this task; dark red cherries are also lifted by a decidedly white fruit profile (Zinfandel is one of the few red varieties, along with Pinot Meunier, that for me show white fruit flavors, like white peach) that keeps the wine from feeling overblown in the attack and mid-palate. The beautiful inky purple of Petite Sirah also makes an appearance, and the overall effect is that of decadence without pretentiousness or bombast, as though you went to a cocktail party and were surprised to find honest, agreeable conversation amongst the cognoscenti. A bigger wine than I would typically enjoy? Yes. But made well, made thoughtfully, and at a production level that is currently about 2% of the number of cases of The Prisoner? Let those yacht guys have that wine and think they’re special; we’ll be toasting the holidays with Disciples-indeed, a happy jailbreak; one the Count of Monte Cristo would be proud of-D.
The Crane Assembly Red Blend “Disciples”, Napa Valley, California 2018
Country of Origin: United States.
Places and People: Crane Assembly was founded in 2012 by Dave Phinney (Of Orin Swift/Prisoner fame), winemaker Kevin Fox, and business partners Bryan Sandoli and Darryl Browman. Kevin makes all of the wines for Crane Assembly, whose estate fruit in southern St. Helena is one of the two oldest commerically producing vineyards in Napa Valley-a true treasure. For Disciples, the team source highly renowned vineyards around the Valley, including Tofanelli in Calistoga and Morisoli in Rutherford.
Soil: A mix of Gravel, loam, and sand.
Grape Varieties: A true field blend in 19th century Napa Valley tradition, the 2018 vintage of Disciples is made from 49% Zinfandel, 19% Petite Sirah, 10% Charbono, 9% Grenache, 7% Syrah, and 6% Merlot.
Winemaking: Gentle extraction of the fruit via hand-harvesting. Co-fermenting with the exception of the Zinfandel, which is made separately and blended before bottling.
Aging: 12 months in French oak barriques (small percentage of new).
Flavors and Foods: From the first nose, you know you are dealing with a powerhouse red. Intense dark red cherries mingle with a whiff of white peach, plum coulis, and red cassis. There is vanilla and nutmeg indicating the new oak aging but it is thankfully not overwhelming. The palate is (again) unexpectedly balanced; the fruit is understandably intense and viscous given the varietals and climate, with thick, inky red cherry, santa rosa plum, and even a bit of blueberry compote. The texture is inky and lush, with grape tannins that are in check and new oak tannins that are…wait…not really there? Shocking in the best way! Zinfandel’s exceptional ability to give you ripe fruit and higher alcohol without sacrificing it’s silky texture, combined with the sheer “reducing a sauce” delectability of Petite Sirah, is what makes Disciples compelling. Slow-roasted winter meets (beef short ribs) would be excellent, as would holiday potato accompaniments (dauphin, gratin). A steak frites plate is also hard not to love, although I would argue for a sauce bearnaise over au poivre. Disciples is also a perfect “where the heck do we go from here?” red wine, served after a dinner when you’ve already had red and don’t want dessert wine/spirits.
Service and Cellar: As with many wines from riper regions (Priorat, Southern Rhone) it is imperative to serve Disciples at a red wine cellar temp (56-58 degrees). Pouring this wine at room temperature will still yield amazing fruit but the finish will be long, to the point of mimicking a spirit, which you do not want in this wine-serve it properly and save your rocks glass for a nip of something after you’ve finished enjoying Disciples. As I’ve noted above, I’m a fan of Fox’s balance of the fruit/integration of the oak barrels, and think this wine will show well for another 6-10 years.