Tag Archives: Lemberger

Winery Tasting Notes Done Right

JJ Williams of Kiona Vineyards did a terrific write-up on the problem with winery tasting notes. If you own a winery, this is a must read. Tasting notes are certainly one of the necessary evils of selling wine.

Photo by Simon A. Eugster. Uploaded to Wikimedia Commons under CC-BY-SA-3.0

Next time you’re at a wine shop, look at back labels. Try to count how many times you see the words chocolate, mocha or cacao used in tasting notes.

For wine students, particularly those studying for Unit 1 of the WSET Diploma on the Business of Wine, it’s helpful to critically examine the usefulness of these notes.

Whether on the back label or website, we should ask if tasting notes really help consumers in selecting wine. Do flourished descriptions of flavors, bouquet and mouthfeel help distinguish one winery’s wine from its thousands of competitors?

Do they answer the important question of “Why should I buy this wine?”

Probably not.

In his post, Williams notes the usual results of these tasting notes.

Enter the wine marketer. We interject ourselves into the equation by telling you what to do, and how you’re going to do it. If I say, “now this Cabernet has a really nice chocolate note,” there are three potential outcomes that I think are the most likely:

1.) The power of suggestion is very strong. If I say chocolate, you taste chocolate.
2.) You don’t taste chocolate. You’ve been eating chocolate for a long time, and this is not that. Since I am speaking from a position of authority, you decide you’re doing something wrong, and slowly nod your head in faux agreement.
3.) You don’t taste chocolate. You’ve been eating chocolate for a long time, and this is not that. You are suddenly aware that your eyebrow is twitching because you’ve just realized that I must be full of $*%#. You slowly nod your head in faux agreement.

None of these are good outcomes.
— JJ Williams, Hitting the Wrong (Tasting) Note?, 12/11/18

What are the benefits of telling consumers that a wine has notes of chocolate? Sure, there may be a halo effect on the wine from positive associations with chocolate. That may help someone pick up a bottle. But there is also a risk of negative associations backfiring too. Back in my retail days, I once had a customer get turned off by a wine described as chocolaty because she was lactose intolerant. (Yeah, I know.) But you get the same issues with virtually every descriptor.

If you think of the tasting note, on a website or bottle, as valuable real estate—are overly common (and, ultimately, subjective) words like “chocolate” truly worth that space?

Putting That Real Estate To Work.

Photo by Aromaster. Uploaded to Wikimedia commons under CC-BY-SA-3.0

Some winery tasting notes feel like they threw darts at the Aroma Wheel and wrote down what they hit. I once had a California red blend with a back label describing flavors of orange blossom, fig, hazelnut, chocolate (*ding*) and hay.

Consumers pick up bottles to read back labels and will often visit wineries’ websites to buy wine or find more details. This space is valuable. Extremely so.

As much attention and care that a winery puts into crafting stylish front labels and web-page design, should be put towards their tasting notes as well. Wineries need to leverage this space.

Writing the same boring tasting notes populated with platitudes and whatever descriptors they get from the Wine Aroma Wheel is not going to cut-it. Wineries have to give consumers a reason to take home their wine over the multitudes of other bottles being described with those same tasting notes.

A tasting note should convey what sets one “balanced, Bordeaux-style wine [that] coats the palate with a velvety richness and fine tannin structure” apart from every other balanced, velvety rich and finely tannic wine.

Otherwise, it is just blowing the same useless marketing BS that virtually every other bottle is blowing. Where is the consumer being helped in this?

Outside the Bottle — In the Consumer’s Cart

Williams highlights a brilliant approach that Kiona uses in crafting their tasting notes. They categorize their “wine speak” into what relates to “Outside the Bottle” details and what pertains to the more vague and subjective “Inside the Bottle” experiences.

1.) Outside the Bottle. This category encompasses everything that is interesting about a wine that happens outside the bottle. Vineyards, geography, growing philosophy, winemaking goals, winemaking process, blending process, etc.
2.) Inside the Bottle. This category encompasses everything that the drinker experiences once the cork is pulled.

We make a concerted effort to talk about the “OtB” aspects of a wine only. This extends up and down our operation, including our website, our tech sheets, our tasting room collateral, our employee training and our general vernacular. In the rare circumstances where we dabble in “ItB” language, it’s almost always in generalities. You might read something along the lines of “fresh black fruit characteristic”, but never “brambly vine-ripened summer blackberries.” — JJ Williams, Hitting the Wrong (Tasting) Note?, 12/11/18

Kiona's Lemberger tasting note

Example of Kiona’s “Outside the Bottle” approach for their Lemberger.

Inside the bottle, almost all wine is the same–especially before a consumer pulls the cork. It has potential and possibilities but every wine is promising potential and possibilities.

However, what is outside the bottle makes the wine unique. It’s the people, the place, the story and craftsmanship that sets it apart from each and every other bottle.

That is real estate that pays for its space.

Examples of Tasting Notes That Work

On their website, Kiona has several examples where they use “Outside the Bottle” tasting notes to make their wines distinctive and interesting. One I particularly like is for their Lemberger shown above. This is a bloody hard wine to sell because of the name. But Kiona gives some intriguing history as well as details about what makes their Lemberger different from other domestic examples and Austrian Blaufränkisch.

Personality Not Platitudes
Upside Down Malbec's tasting note

I don’t know why but “Dead Poplar” sounds like an awesome vineyard name.

Upsidedown Wine by Seth & Audrey Kitzke note that their 2014 Gold Drop Malbec is made from one of the fastest growing varieties in Washington State. That piques curiosity. Why are people so excited about Washington Malbec? Maybe I should buy a bottle and find out.

The tasting note also shares that the wine has some Petit Verdot (another grape getting a lot of buzz) blended in to make it distinctive from other Malbecs. Additionally they highlight the small production (only 98 cases) and single vineyard sourcing. While it does have the typical big dark fruits and pepper descriptors of many other Malbecs, those notes act as side bars rather than the main feature.

For their 2016 Viognier, Serrano Wines injects a ton of personality into their tasting note by sharing that this wine was inspired by drinking Guigal’s Le Doriane Condrieu.

Instead of being grown with the typical cordon or guyot vine training methods that most domestic Viogniers use, Serrano points out that they’re using a special tee-pee (or eschalla) training common in Condrieu and Côte-Rôtie. (Their website has pictures of this unique–and very labor intensive–vine training.)

While many consumers are not going to care much about vine training, Serrano’s tasting note works by highlighting why the consumer should care–i.e. why this bottle of Viognier is different from all the other options they have.

That is leveraging every bit of precious real estate to stand out from the pack.
Serrano Viognier tasting note

When evident care is put into crafting a great tasting note that tells a story, it tells the consumer that a lot of care went into crafting the wine as well.

Instead of being a “necessary evil”, tasting notes can be tools.

Wineries should follow the advice of JJ Williams of Kiona. They shouldn’t farm this task to marketing departments writing the same blathering blurbs. They need to think “outside the bottle” and use these notes to tell consumers their stories.

Of course, wineries will benefit by selling more wines. But consumers will benefit as well from better tasting notes.

Instead of standing in an aisle, reading label after label of fruit-forward, divinely complex, approachable and exceptionally food-friendly and layered aromas of black currant, blueberry and cherry [that] are accentuated by an authentic barrel bouquet of hazelnut, cocoa powder [ding], and dark roasted coffee, they actually get words that have value and meaning.

They get words that tell them something–about the people and place this wine comes from. Most importantly, they get answers to the question that all consumers have when they pick up a bottle.

Why should I buy this wine?

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Getting Geeky with Welsh Family Wines Blaufränkisch

Going to need more than 60 Seconds to geek out about this 2016 Welsh Family Wines Blaufränkisch from Dauenhauer Farms in the Willamette Valley.

Full Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample. I also went to winemaking school with Dan Welsh of Welsh Family Wines at the Northwest Wine Academy.

The Background

Welsh Family Blaufränkisch wine

Dan Welsh and his wife, Wendy Davis, started Welsh Family Wines in 2014. A protege of Peter Bos from the Northwest Wine Academy, Welsh utilizes native yeast fermentation and minimalist winemaking to produce food-friendly wines.

Sourcing fruit from dry-farmed vineyards throughout the Willamette Valley, Welsh makes single vineyard designate wines from Armstrong Vineyard in the Ribbon Ridge AVA, Bjornson Vineyard and Eola Springs Vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills, Dell’Uccello Vineyard near Eugene as well as Dauenhauer Farms in Yamhill County.

The wines are made at the SE Wine Collective in Portland. Here Welsh Family Wines shares space and a tasting room with several other urban wineries such as Esper Cellars, Laelaps Wines, Stedt Winegrowers and Statera Cellars. Alumni wineries like Fullerton Wines, Vincent Wine Company and Bow & Arrow started out as part of the SE Wine Collective before moving on to their own facilities.

The 2016 vintage was the first release of Welsh’s Blaufränkisch from 30+ year old vines planted at Dauenhauer Farms. Multi-generation farmers, the Dauenhauers also produce a Lemberger/Blaufränkisch under their Hauer of the Dauen (Hour of the Dawn) label.

The Grape

Jancis Robinson, Julia Harding and José Vouillamoz note in Wine Grapes that several grape varieties have been known as “Fränkisch” since the Middle Ages. Distinct from Heunisch grapes believed to have originated from Hungary, these Fränkisch varieties were thought to be more noble grapes associated with wines of the Franconia region.

Photo by Ulrich Prokop. Uploaded to Wikimedia Commons under CC-BY-SA-3.0

Blaufränkisch grapes growing in Germany.

The first written record of the name Blaufränkisch dates back to 1862 when the grape was presented at a exposition in Vienna. Later that century, the grape appeared in Germany under the synonyms Lemberger and Limberger. Both names seem to have Austrian origins and may indicate the villages where the grape was commonly associated with–Sankt Magdalena am Lemberg in Styria and Limburg (now part of Maissau) in Lower Austria.

DNA evidence has shown that Blaufränkisch has a parent-offspring relationship with the Heunisch grape Gouais blanc. It also crossed with Gouais blanc to produce Gamay noir. This suggests that the grape may have originated somewhere between Austria and Hungary though Dalmatia (in modern-day Croatia) is also a possibility. Here the grape is known as Borgonja (meaning Bourgogne) and Frankovka. However, the identification of these Croatian plantings with Blaufränkisch was only recently discovered so the grape’s history in this region is not fully known.

Beyond Gamay noir, Blaufränkisch has also sired several other varieties such as Zweigelt (with St. Laurent), Blauburger and Heroldrebe (with Blauer Portugieser), Cabernet Cubin and Cabernet Mitos (with Cabernet Sauvignon) and Acolon (with Dornfelder).

Blaufränkisch in Europe.
Photo by qwesy qwesy. Uploaded to Wikimedia Commons under CC-BY-3.0

Lemberger vines growing in Württemberg, Germany.

In Austria, Blaufränkisch is the second most widely planted red grape variety after its offspring Zweigelt with 3,340 ha (8,250 acres) as of 2008. Covering 6% of Austria’s vineyards, most of these plantings are found in the Burgenland region.

Most German examples of Lemberger/Limberger are found in Württemberg (part of the historic Franconia region). There were 1,729 ha (4,272 acres) of the grape planted in Germany as of 2009.

The 8000 ha (19,770 acres) of Hungarian Kékfrankos, the local translation of “Blue Frank”, are scattered throughout the country. Sopron, bordering Austria, is particularly well known for the grape as well as Kunság. In Eger, Kékfrankos is a primary grape in the region’s famous “Bull’s Blood” wine of Egri Bikavér.

Prior to the discovery of Borgonja as Blaufränkisch, Croatian plantings of Frankovka accounted for 2.7% of the country’s vineyard.

Blaufränkisch in the US.

Paul Gregutt notes in Washington Wines and Wineries that Dr. Walter Clore pioneered planting of Lemberger in Washington State in the 1960s and 1970s. Sourced from cuttings in British Columbia, Clore thought the grape had the potential to be Washington’s answer to California Zinfandel.

Photo source https://cahnrs.wsu.edu/blog/2007/04/a-brief-history-of-washington-wine-walter-clore-washington-wine-history-part-1/

Dr. Walter Clore, the “Father of Washington Wine” and pioneer of Lemberger in the state. Photo courtesy of WSU’s A Brief History of Washington Wine.

In those early years, the grape was mostly used in blends and port-style wines. Kiona Vineyards released the first commercial example of Lemberger in the United States in 1980. Under Clore’s influence, Thomas Pinney notes in “A History of Wine in America, Volume 2”, the grape became something of a “Washington specialty”.

While consulting for Ste. Michelle Wine Estates’ Columbia Crest winery, California winemaker Jed Steele discovered Washington Lemberger. He eventually partnered with the winery to make his Shooting Star Blue Franc.

Lemberger hit a high point of popularity with 230 acres in 2002. But in recent years the variety has seen a steep decline with only 54 acres in production as of 2017. Today, some of the oldest plantings are found on Red Mountain at Kiona and Ciel du Cheval.

In Oregon, there is not enough plantings of Lemberger/Blaufränkisch to merit inclusion on the state’s acreage report. Outside of the Pacific Northwest there are some plantings in Lodi, New Mexico, New York, Michigan and Ohio.

The Wine

Medium intensity nose. A mix of red fruits–cherries and raspberry–with floral notes like carnations. With air some forest floor earthiness comes out. Little to no oak influence except for maybe some slight allspice baking notes.

On the palate, those red fruits carry through and are amplified with high acidity. Very mouthwatering. The acidity also brings out black pepper spice and makes the forest floor earthiness seem more fresh. Soft medium tannins balance the medium-minus body weight of the wine very well. The moderate finish lingers on the red fruit.

The Verdict

Photo by Jeremy Keith from Brighton & Hove, United Kingdom. Uploaded to Wikimedia Commons under CC-BY-2.0

Lots of juicy red cherry notes in this wine.

This is a very Pinot noir-like Blaufränkisch that is very different from the Washington Lembergers I’m familiar with from Kiona and Alexandria Nicole. Those wines tend to have a much bigger body with dark blackberry fruit and more noticeable oak influences.

The lightness of the body, ample acidity and spice notes are certainly closer to Austrian examples of the grape. Though the fruit in Austrian Blaufränkisch tends to be more on the black fruit side of the spectrum than this very red-fruited Oregon wine.

As this was my very first Oregon Blaufränkisch, I can’t say if this is typical of how the grape responds to Oregon terroir. My gut is that it is because the Pinot comparisons are inescapable.

The best way to describe this wine would be if an “old school” Oregon Pinot noir (like Rollin Soles’ ROCO) and a Cru Beaujolais (like a Côte de Brouilly) had a baby.

While it is enjoyable on its own (especially if served slightly chilled on a warm day), the best place for this wine is on the table with food. Here its mouthwatering acidity and interplay of fruit & spice can shine with a wide assortment of dishes. At $20, this would be a terrific bottle to think about for Thanksgiving.

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Getting Geeky with Savage Grace Cabernet Francs

I make no effort to hide my enthusiasm for Washington State Cabernet Franc. As I noted in my Walla Walla musings, Washington Cabernet Francs have the structure and depth of our best Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot wines but with an intoxicatingly gorgeous bouquet that can range from perfumed and floral to savory fresh forest floor and coffee nuances.

It truly is a grape variety that every Washington wine lover should explore. For wine drinkers outside the state, these wines may be hard to come by but they are worth the hunt. Simply put, if you see a Washington Cab Franc on a restaurant list or wine shop shelf, try it!

I suspect that Michael Savage of Savage Grace Wines shares a similar love affair for Cabernet Franc because he makes two fantastic examples of the variety–one from Two Blondes Vineyard and the other from Copeland Vineyard in the Rattlesnake Hills. He also makes a Cabernet Franc rosé from grapes sourced from Red Willow Vineyard in the Yakima Valley.

The Backstory

Full disclosure, I was in the same wine production class as Michael Savage at the Northwest Wine Academy so I got to see the nascent beginnings of his winemaking career. He started his winery in 2011 with his very first release being a Cabernet Franc from the Columbia Valley.

Inspired by the wines of Oregon producers J. Christopher and Cameron Winery, Savage makes his wines in a distinctly “Old World style”, using native fermentation and a light touch of oak. The wines rarely go above 13.5% alcohol with a yearly production around 2400 cases.

The Grape

Photo taken by self as User:Agne27. Uploaded to Wikimedia Commons under CC-BY-SA-3.0

The original 1985 Cabernet Franc plantings at Red Willow Vineyard.

Paul Gregutt, in Washington Wines, notes that Washington State University planted the first experimental blocks of Cabernet Franc vines in the 1970s with Red Willow Vineyard following suit in 1985. From these Red Willow plantings, David Lake of Columbia Winery released the first varietal Washington Cabernet Franc in 1991. From the 1998 vintage, Kay Simon of Chinook Wines released the first varietal Cab Franc rosé that today has a cult-following among Washington wine lovers.

Cabernet Franc is prized in Washington and Bordeaux for adding color, aroma and acidity to Cab and Merlot-based blends. Varietal wines are trademark by vibrant berry fruit that can range from red raspberry to blueberry. Wines often have floral aromatics (particularly violets), juicy acidity and savory nuances like freshly ground coffee, olive tapenade and forest floor. With oak, chocolate and tobacco spice can emerge.

Cabernet Franc is valued in the vineyard for ripening earlier than Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s also more winter-hardy than Merlot. Despite this, acreage of the variety has been steadily dropping from a high point of 1157 acres in 2006 to 685 acres in 2017.  Today, Cabernet Franc is the 4th most planted red grape in Washington behind Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot & Syrah.

Other producers making great Cabernet Franc include Sheridan Vineyard’s Boss Block, Convergence Zone Cellars’ Downburst, Camaraderie Cellars, Owen Roe’s Rosa Mystica, Hestia Cellars, Spring Valley Vineyards’ Katherine Corkrum, Gamache, Lagana Cellars and Cadence’s Bel Canto.

The Vineyards

Copeland Vineyard was planted in 2000 in the Rattlesnake Hills AVA of Yakima Valley. Owned by the Rawn brothers of Two Mountain Winery, the vineyard was converted from an orchard planted by their grandfather in 1951.

Covering 26 acres on a sandy, rock strewn slope in the rain shadow of the Cascade Mountains, this warm-climate site averages 2980 degree days. In addition to Cabernet Franc, Copeland also produces Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Lemberger, Merlot, Riesling, Syrah and the Portuguese grape variety Touriga Nacional.

Two Blondes Vineyard was planted in 2000 by Chris Camarda of Andrew Will and Bill Fleckenstein.  Located next door to Sheridan Vineyard, the name references the hair color of both men’s wives.  A bit cooler than Copeland, the 30 acre vineyard averages around 2200 degree days.

Chris Hoon, a 3rd generation farmer, manages the vines as well as those of neighboring Sheridan Vineyard. Beyond Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Malbec are also planted.

The Wines

2016 Savage Grace Cabernet Franc from the Copeland Vineyard in the Rattlesnake Hills

The 2016 Copeland Cabernet Franc was sourced from the Rattlesnake Hills AVA with around 260 cases made. Savage aged the wine 6-7 months in neutral oak barrels. Inspired by the Loire Valley Cabernet Francs of Chinon, Saumur-Champigny and Bourgueil, this young Cab Franc has high intensity aromatics of raspberry and rhubarb pie as well as blue floral notes. There is also a little herbal aromatics that add complexity but not enough to describe it as green.

On the palate, those raspberry and rhubarb notes come through and are heighten by the juicy, medium-plus acidity. The wine feels heavier in the mouth than what it 12.5% ABV would suggest with grippy but approachable medium-plus tannins. Some of the rhubarb “pie spice” notes come out on the palate like cinnamon and nutmeg. Long, mouthwatering finish.

Two Blondes Vineyard Cabernet Franc

2016 was the first release of the Two Blondes Vineyard Cabernet Franc and this wine couldn’t be more different than the Copeland. High intensity aromatics as well with similar blue floral notes but this wine uniquely has savory pink peppercorn spiciness and olive tapenade that gets your mouth watering before even taking a sip. There is also fruit in the bouquet but it’s more blueberry than raspberry. It doesn’t have the freshly ground coffee notes yet but I can see that emerging in this wine with more bottle age.

On the palate that tapenade savoriness takes on a meaty element that would have me thinking in a blind tasting of a lighter style Côtes du Rhône until the minerally graphite pencil lead note emerged. The pink peppercorn spice carries through as well with the medium-plus acidity keeping the mouthwatering action going. The medium tannins are very soft for such a young wine and almost velvety. Like the Copeland, the Two Blondes Cab Franc has a long finish with the blueberry fruit lingering.

The Verdict

Both the 2016 Savage Grace Copeland Cabernet Franc and 2016 Two Blondes Cabernet Franc are outstanding bottles. They exhibit very well two shades of this grape variety’s personality in Washington State. Very food friendly and approachable now, I can see these wines continuing to give pleasure over the next few years.

At $28-32, they are both very solid wines for the price point. However, I would give the nod to the Two Blondes as being the most complex and layered. There is so much nuance and character in this wine that it’s worth getting multiple bottles to watch it develop.

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