This same scenario replays itself throughout the vineyards of the world. Many who are molded into thinking the same thing and pick only after it’s way too late. My Co-Winemaker, Eric, said it best when he opined that if you wait until the fruit tastes really good then it’s way too late. I could not agree more. We are not picking table grapes; we are picking fine wine grapes. There is a world of difference between the two. One you eat with cheese on a plate the other you ferment. While your palate will surely gravitate towards the sweetness in the over ripe fruit, you need some wisdom and self control that sadly many do not. The higher the sugar, the lower the natural acid. So what are you left with and what do you need to do next? (Click Continued to Read More)

You have a choice of two winemakers making the same type of wine but their approach and style are completely different. To set this up they are grapes from the same vineyard and both have all the tools they can muster at their disposal. Here are your choices.

Winemaker one takes in his fruit after fumbling around in the vineyard and decides the grapes are nice and sweet, even raisins. He brings them in at 25 to 30 brix (the measurement of sugar), with a very high Ph and low acid. First things first, harvesting such sweet grapes he now has to add water or re-hydrate the fruit. Not just a little water, were talking say in a two ton fermenter, depending on how low he wants the sugar to drop, it could be 20 to 75 gallons. Then he has to add acid. Since the natural acid was so low he adds tartaric acid. Sounds yummy, hey? It is, if you like a thick gumminess on your palate. After this you will likely add a cultivated yeast since you can’t get the wine to finish on its diminished native yeast and because it’s so high in alcohol. After fermentation you might have further additions but be assured your wine is destined to be varietal “incorrect”, high in alcohol and yummy gummy flavor.

Winemaker two has chose to pick early, add nothing and let the vineyard and varietal express itself!

What will you choose? Please do your homework and you will be rewarded with a greater wine experience.

Too all that care,

Greg Linn
www.ambullneovineyards.com
www.unfilteredwinereport.com
www.greglinnwines.com

I have replaced my first family with my second. That of my children and Jana my wife who should be given a medal for putting up with me for so long. I also have replaced my family with friends that act just as close. Blood is thick but can be manufactured with the same viscosity if you find the right people. Yes, I know it’s supposed to be a wine blog! You see, choices when making a fine wine have the same consequences as your choices in life. Let’s explore that a little, shall we? (Click Continued to Read More)

Let’s say you’re the winemaker. In order to make my point I’m asking you, as my reading audience, to get into the role. Sit back, get a cup of coffee, and pretend you’re about to make a wine. Let’s say all the equipment is there and you have a building equipped with anything a winemaker could want. Are you with me? Now what’s your first step? I’ll help a little. Forget the usual things like a business plan. This is not an exercise thrown on you by a college professor. So your first decisions are vineyard based. Projecting the crop yield, will you be dropping fruit and how often? Will you be pulling laterals, opening the canopy for sun, keeping the fruit zone shaded, targeting one cluster per shoot, two cluster per shot or more? Spraying, cover crop, hedge trimming and the list goes on. The point here is you have many choices. Now after all of that you must decide when you will harvest, at what Brix, Ph, acids, whole cluster or completely destemed? You need to be mindful of the weather, heat, cold, rain, wind, frost. After computing all the data you make a decision to harvest. Then you’re faced with a whole new set of decisions. Someone once told me it’s easy after your fruit is in, you just do what you always do. Oh Really? Your best laid plans for the harvest can go up in smoke if the fruit is not what you expected. And it never is! Sometimes better, but many times worse.

You have moved to the winery where you must decide things like, do I sulfur the fruit to keep it fresh and ward off V/A before primary fermentation? Do I destem or not? Do I use cultivated yeast or let it go native? Do I add yeast food, nitrogen, acid, enzymes, water? After your wine is dry are you using New Oak, and if so what percentage, where from the forest, the cooperage house. Are you stainless fermenting the Chardonnay, or barrel fermenting? Are you cold settling, or right to barrel? The choices go on as they do in life. After all this, it’s about how hard to press, how long in barrel. But my point has been made. Your choices are endless.

What this is really about, however, comes down to this. With each choice you make there is an outcome and what could have been. Yes, after making the decision you did you say to yourself, was it worth it? But the path you took can’t be changed. If you went another route you may have had something different, more satisfying. You may have known all of your first, second, third cousins by name. But on the other hand, you would not know your own children because they would not be or at very least, they would be different. It’s enough to make you drink so that’s what I’m doing as I write this. Life and wine, the same and different.

You can’t allow yourself the what ifs in life. You can always improve, try to become a better person, less faulty than we all are. But to ponder on the what ifs will make you nuts and I’m a testament to that. So make the best decisions you can and once you do, live with it and live it to the fullest of potential. If it makes you feel any better, there may be a you in an alternate universe making an opposite decision and he or she is wondering what if they made the choice you have? Wow, maybe I should not drink while typing!

No regrets,

Greg!
www.ambullneovineyards.com
www.greglinnwines.com
www.unfilteredwinereport.com

I’ve been  asked what’s it like living with big dogs. Would I recommend them for families with small children, do they chew, do they drool and so on. First my answer is I love big dogs. Hell, I named Ambullneo after the breed. In a day when both parents work, you come home and the kids are pissed at you, the wife is pissed at you but the dog always loves you. So he got top billing! I’m simple enough, I give credit where credit is due, and I have been pissed at the dog several times but he’s never been pissed at me.

Can we say the same for our kids and spouses? I think not!  Big dogs eat more, poop bigger, drool some, and destroy more. But on the other side they are as gracious and giving a creature as you would ever want in your life. They protect without the training, in that they just have to show up to alarm a stranger. If the kids are playing outside and someone comes to the gate, who do you think is the first there? Yes that person delivering a package, delivering the mail or if he’s there to do harm, they all take a step back when 160 pounds of grunting black thunder comes a calling. But that’s the magic he’s as friendly as the grand parents coming to see the kids, but he or she doesn’t have a clue. It’s enough to give any sane person pause. (Click Continued to Read More)

It takes a little more work to train a big dog just because of their strength but they train very easily if time is spent doing so! We have three Ambullneo Mastiffs and can’t imagine not always having at least one. I don’t breed them but the man who started the breed does, Dr. Mark Riesinger and he’s the one to see if interested. We have another dog ( yes, four dogs),  an English Bulldog we bought from a breeder in Belgium. Now that’s an interesting creature. As you may or may not know English Bulldogs are a cross between the Old English Bulldoggie and a Pug. They can have all kinds of health issues so selecting a great breeder is a must. Some problems include, palates, skin, eyes, digestive tracks and more. What should you expect from a breed that can’t deliver naturally. Yes the pups are all taken surgically for fear of the puppies dying in the birth canal from being to wide. And in the end you have something closer to Chet from Weird Science, then a dog. They fart a lot, they make all kinds of almost human sounds in what can only be described as pathetic when they want something. They’re as stubborn as can be not moving very quickly unless they decide it’s in their interest. They have a fold in front of there face that needs constant cleaning or he will smell like some badly aged cheese.

Sold yet? But here’s the thing, if you love dogs you will never be without one. These are the funniest dogs in the world, the clown in the circus. They are so ugly they’re cute, sort of like me! It would take an hour of writing to even attempt to articulate their abilities to make you laugh but be assured all the other stuff matters little.

Dog lovers are people I trust. I am always leery of those that don’t like them. I understand if someone had a traumatic experience, like getting bit or knocked to the ground. But some people just hate animals… the Michael Vicks of the world who take pleasure in hurting dogs for little or no reason. I have little in the way of tolerance for such folks. In the end I do have great respect for people who like dogs but choose not to have one because they just can’t take care of the animal. That is a smart decision and a compassionate one. Taking care of a dog, like a child, is a huge responsibility and if you’re not ready then the human thing to do is pass. Come to think of it many should pass on child rearing, but that’s another story.

Hug your dog and you will get an unbelievable reward,

Greg!

S

As we got to talking I found out he was born on the east coast, a Philly Boy, and we hit it off from the start. I was 32 years old buying Bordeaux and California Cabernet – not bad, hey? Yes, making some good decisions allowed me the luxury and so I was trying to corner the market on these highly allocated items. Sounds funny since I drink about two bottles of cabernet a year now. But back then I was loose and fancy free. So this gentleman named William reached under the counter and I walked out with what I thought was akin to finding a buried treasure, three bottles each. William and his wife Sheila became great friends of Jana and I so much so that he is the Godfather of one of my children. Life is funny but it was Bill who invited me to a wine dinner at an old restaurant called Rembrandt’s. I met another great friend that year, Bernie Gordon, but that’s for another blog. So, at this dinner while drinking some Cabernet, Bill asked me if I had ever tasted a D.R.C.? I said ,”Nope. But those are nice letters. What does it mean?” Bill went on to explain Domain de la Romanee Conti from Burgundy! (Click Continued to Read More)

This was a changing moment in my life because I no longer cared about the 1985 Cabernets I had bought and the 1985 and 1986 Bordeaux futures. I wanted to know more about Pinot Noir and Burgundy. Soon after I started to sell what I had bought and replaced it with Burgundy thinking they all must be great. How wrong I was. No one made more mistakes than me when it came to Burgundy. In fact I have poured more swill down the drain then I would like to remember! In those early days there were times I hauled off and punched Bill in the arm for costing me so much. But in the end I have to thank him because that first Burgundy will always be with me and has driven me to making great wine. A life changing experience so to speak! Bill has moved from California to Arizona where he fought off cancer and started raising their daughter McKenna. They moved to Florida and he lived part time in Virginia where he went through school and earned a Master’s Degree. He works for the government now and has moved, where else, 4.2 miles from my home, right where he belongs. Now we get together often and reminisce a little. We are waiting for McKenna to get her license in the next couple months so we have a designated driver full time. Life goes on and he is my best friend! William and I have been on some crazy adventures, asked to leave McMinville on one road trip. Yes, there are many stories and empty bottles behind us and I hope a long road to hoe! There are still a few Cubans and a bunch of establishments we still need to finish and visit and no doubt will be asked to leave.

I was once told by my father that when you die you are lucky to count on one hand the total of your friends. It is a fact that the word is over used! A true friend is there when you’re up and when you’re down, that you can call at any time of night or day and they will answer!

He’s there for your family when you’re sick. And when you pass on he’ll be there for them long after you’re gone. That’s my friend Bill. And to him I thank for enlightening me in the ways of Red and White Burgundy and the magic of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, for the honesty and integrity he has always carried himself with and for his devotion to his family and friends and always being there. I only hope you have a friend like Bill in your life and if you do, don’t let him drift away! Besides you never know when you’re going to need to punch someone. Come to think of it, Bill is about due!

To friendship, a magic all it’s own, and wine leading me to that friendship,

Greg!

However, blending is an art! It sounds contradicting but its how my feeble brain works. Putting together a cuvee or a vineyard wine of high quality is very difficult. Remember my blog post called “wines are not created equally”? Most producers take what they have from a certain Vintage or certain Vineyard and throw it all in a tank and presto, they have wine. No, that’s not how the great wines are put together. The quality producers agonize over the blending process trying to come up with the best combination. Some blend for consistency such as champagne houses in their non vintage wines. They will, on a regular basis, blend two, three or more vintages together to achieve what they call their house style. No easy task, believe me.

We blend our flagship wine Bulldog to be consistent from vintage to vintage. Of course this is limited to wine from one vintage but there is a thread were looking for, a moniker, so to speak, that makes it recognizable as such. A vineyard wine is all from the same vineyard. Bulldog is not, so it’s even harder to blend. All of our wines, however, start with the same premise: blend the best wine possible no matter the sacrifice. So step one is blind tasting each and every barrel, scoring that barrel on its quality from every sensation we can muster. The noise the mid palate, the finish, the complexity,(how many flavors are present), the balance, the balance, the balance! No I’m not repeating myself. We, meaning myself and my staff, try to execute our plan to the best of our abilities. Not unlike the preparation for a football game. Now this might sound a little “off” but I am also looking for an emotional response to the wine. Please save the hankies but when you get it right it’s, well, euphoric! (Click Continued to Read More)

Here’s the part that’s hard to figure. It was best put by my co-winemaker Eric Bolton. Some barrels just don’t play well together. There’s no answer for this phenomenon, but let me explain further. Let’s just use a simple numbering system say 1 to 10. One is the least agreeable and a ten is excellent. If you use all 10′s and blend them together they might or might not produce a great wine. Something could be missing from the mix…some tannin, some acid, some fruit flavor. Now you can have four barrels from the same fermenter and all will be slightly or dramatically different. Why? Heck if I know! But what I do know is to make a great wine, some of those barrels that scored 5′s or 6′s might have to be used. If a gap is missing then you need to fill it if you have the ingredient to do so. Not that dissimilar to the DNA strain in Jurassic Park, throw in a frog and you have a dinosaur and in our case a great wine.

Blending is the most important or equal to the most important things we do. It takes many weeks in some cases and is painstaking sacrifice. I am often reminded of this when the wines we don’t use end up somewhere else and my staff thinks I’m nuts not bottling this on its own. A less expensive wine with our label, but that’s not who we are. A final story, we made 500 cases of 2006 Bulldog which scored a 93 from Mr. Parker if you care about such things. The vintage as a whole was widely trashed by many in the critic community. Although I don’t agree with that assessment, it is worth mentioning the following. Our total production for all our Pinot Noir’s was 1500 cases. We sacrificed 20 Barrels, bulked them out! 20 barrels is equal to 500 cases of wine. That’s 25% of our total production! Maybe we should call this article sacrifice because if that’s not it then erase the word from the dictionary.

It takes will, and a lot of tasting in many combinations to come up with the right blend. It’s frustrating, rewarding, disappointing, and extremely gratifying all rolled up into one. It is our artistic expression of what wine should be. You’re the real critic and the only one that counts. If you don’t agree then we better put down the brush!

Drink well my friends,

Greg!