Gris et blanc: Harvest 2013.

Harvest began today, and it was a long day.  Both of Vinoland's white grape varieties are in and are currently having their little bums chilled in preparation for inoculation.  The Pinot grigio crop (I know, I use gris and grigio interchangeably, so sue me) looked fabulous - healthy, tight, juicy clusters.  But hang on a second, have a gander at this cluster, it has both grey (Pinot grigio?) and white (Pinot blanc?) grapes.
This year, a handful of the Pinot grigio vines entirely sported green (white) grapes.  One particular vine had all grey grapes except for the apical shoot position (on just one of it's two fruiting canes) which had two green clusters.  And then there was the cluster above which had about 50% each of both grey and green. 
All grapevines have unique characteristics called transposons, also known as jumping genes, which can express themselves in different growing seasons.  Pinot noir - most likely the parent/origin of Pinots blanc, gris and Meunier - has a really strong proclivity toward spontaneous mutation in the vineyard.  And that's all well and good, I just wasn't prepared for so many instances of the Pinot family's genetic instability in my vineyard.  The grapevines are apparently confused, and so am I.  Oh well, what's new?  Happy harvest!

An Alsatian Pinot Blanc.

It's been pretty toasty in Vinoland the past few days (103° F today), so white wine has been the accompaniment to all of our evening meals.  This Calvet, 2011 Pinot Blanc is one of the bottles of wine I brought back with me from my recent trip home.  I always try to find something different for Vinomaker to try, as I'd never find an Alsatian Pinot blanc for sale anywhere in Napa.
The thing I like most about the wines of Alsace is the labelling, it's very straightforward - in some ways even simpler than California wine labels - maker's name and grape variety, that's it!  And this was a very simple wine due to it's lack of complexity.  I do usually like Pinot blanc, in all of it's mutationally-weird-wonderfulness, but the Calvet Pinot blanc was unfortunately a tad flabby for me.  I did enjoy the extreme white-peachiness of the nose and palate, but without that extra zing of acid that I was expecting the wine just fell short of being appetising.  Bottle got emptied though.

D is for...

...damned lucky!

A propitiously warm Napa evening had me, Vinomaker and the Vinodogs dining outside for what was only the 3rd time this year. A white bean cassoulet, green salad, and garlic bread was just what the doctor ordered after a hot afternoon spent in the vineyard suckering the vines.

We initially paired the cassoulet with a Saddleback Cellars 2008 Pinot blanc, a wine we have enjoyed a lot of lately. Nils Venge, the proprietor of Saddleback Cellars, is perhaps mostly known in these parts for being the first American ever to achieve a perfect 100 point score, given by internationally renowned wine critic Robert Parker Jr. It was OK with the cassoulet. I love this wine just on it's own, but we switched to a Groth 2005 Cabernet sauvignon - the winery at which Mr. Venge was employed when he vinted the 1985 Cabernet sauvignon Reserve that garnered the perfect score.

A French dish paired with French wine varietals on this the most auspicious of days...D-Day; when if it wasn't for our brave British troops, and their stalwart American and Canadian allies, I'd more than likely be sitting here drinking a Gewürztraminer right now!