Anne Amie Vineyards, Carlton Oregon

HELL'S KITCHEN

 

Let's go back to 1994.  Nancy Kerrigan is whacked with a metal bar. ER and Friends debut on NBC.  Kurt Cobain takes his life at 27.  Forrest Gump is running across U.S. screens.

I am in NYC- a modern dancer performing with the Nikolais Louis Dance Company.  My best friend, Christian, lives in Hell's Kitchen.  Not today's Hell's Kitchen, with its fancy condos and gleaming, trendy restaurants, but a 90's Hell's Kitchen.  It is a neighborhood of sirens, bodegas, shadows, and cat-sized rats.

Christian and I have a ritual.  Since we are both from restaurant kitchen backgrounds, and since we brew homebrew together, and most importantly, since Christian has cable, we meet at his house with microbrew in hand and turn on the telly.  There is a new network called the Food Network and we are entranced.  It's like nothing we've seen before.  There is this guy, Emeril Lagasse, and he is cooking (kickin' it up a notch) in a way we have never seen on television.  It is what we now know as "edutainment".  But, for two ex-kitchen guys like us it is a way to re-live the good ol' days and be inspired.  Inevitably, it led us to the corner bodegas for supplies and a foraged dinner was prepared.

Let's flash forward to 2008.  I am asked to present my wines at a benefit dinner.  The chef  for the evening is none other than Emeril Lagasse.  I jump at the opportunity!  Emeril has done so much to get people eating outside of our cultural boundaries.  He has inspired a generation to try new foods.  The Food Network has brought new ideas about cooking into our living rooms.  My goal is to do the same with wine.  I didn't grow up with wine.  I grew up with sweet tea.  But, I have found a world outside of what I knew.  A world of wonderful flavors.  A world of traditions.  A world that I hope to share with others.

I make wine that is, if nothing else, food-friendly.  And, I love nothing more than talking to others about what we do in Oregon- how our wines at Anne Amie reflect what we are passionate about and how our terroir is reflected in every bottle of our wine. So, it is with great pride that I packed myself off for an opportunity to pair my wines with the food of someone who I have so much respect for.

More from Little Rock.

Demon Alcohol

There can be no doubt that alcohol levels in wines have been increasing and we're as guilty as the next guy, but I see this as a fault in wines. High alcohol wines make for bad food wines and that's what wines are supposed to be for - a beverage to grace the dinner table. Besides not going well with food, after your second glass the buzz is already starting to set in. Too much is too much and these alcohol levels do not reflect the reason we are in Oregon to make pinot noir. Most of us came here to make elegant, balanced wines that will age gracefully.

In the future you will see a return to a more graceful and refined style of winemaking here at Anne Amie and that will include more restrained alcohol levels. I believe that these high levels make for ponderous wines that bore the palate, mask complexity and terroir and give you a nasty headache the next morning.

Famed Napa winemaker Randy Dunn recently made some interesting public commentary on this issue, which you can find at:

http://wine.appellationamerica.com/wine-review/447/Winemaker-Randy-Dunn.html

I could not agree with his comments more. In particular, great pinot noir is all about complexity, nuance, finesse and aromatics - all attributes decimated by excessive alcohol levels.

Thomas Houseman: Winemaker

I'm very pleased to introduce you to the newest member of the Anne Amie team, Director of Winemaking Thomas Houseman. Thomas brings a unique combination of art and science to his winemaking and I am confident that his passion to create distinctive wines will take the wines of Anne Amie to ever higher levels of quality.

Thomas’ winemaking career unofficially began in the basement of his parent’s home in Hampton Roads, Virginia.  At an age when other boys were playing with Stretch Armstrong dolls and Rock’em Sock ‘em Robots, Thomas made his first two wines from a kit he saw in a store. His Welch’s grape juice and orange juice concentrate wines are lost in time, but I’m sure they’d be showing well if any remained.  Thomas pursued sports and the arts, but winemaking dogged him.  In a remote corner of his university library, while looking for a book on Fauvism, Thomas stumbled upon a winemaking book from England.  It described the wonderful elixirs that could be made from anything from rutabagas to damsons.  Free wine from root vegetables sounded great to a starving college student, and a new passion for fermenting exploded along with a several bottles of pomegranate and banana wine.  Thomas narrowly escaped blindness from this stage of his life and went on to New York City, where he pursued a career in modern dance.  Travelling the globe performing Thomas was able, for the first time in his life, to experience wines from different regions in addition to the terrior from which they came.  The last turn of events that led to Thomas becoming a winemaker was the engagement of Joel, the lighting designer for his dance company.  Joel was a home brewer of epic proportions, but his fiancé would have nothing to do with it in their shared New York City apartment.  Thirty or so subway trips later Thomas had his newly inherited and free brewing setup crammed in every corner of his Queens apartment.  So, he bought a book and taught himself to brew.  With the creativity of a dancer, the eye of a scientist, and the encouragement of friends who loved the free beer, the passion for fermenting reemerged. 

A turning point in Thomas’ life occurred when he traded the stage for the cellar, and enrolled in the enology program at California State University, Fresno without having ever set foot in a winery in his entire life.  But, with the passion and headstrong nature that propelled him into the arts he forged ahead.  Two weeks into his first semester found him responding to an urgent need for a production enologist at Fetzer Vineyards, in Hopland, CA.  Once again, without ever setting foot in a winery previously in his life, Thomas was now in charge of tracking millions of gallons of wine and being the liaison between 5 winemakers and the cellar.  It was an eye-opening and exilerating harvest.  Thomas was officially bitten by the winemaking bug.  As a student, Thomas created a Primitivo wine that won several awards in international competition including a double gold at the California State Fair.  It was also at school where Thomas developed an interest in barrels and how they interact with wine.  This led him to work with barrel guru, Jeff Cohn at Rosenblum Cellars.   But, Thomas’ true passion was for Pinot noir. This led him first to the Anderson Valley, to work for Husch Vineyards, and later to New Zealand, where he heard of stunning Pinot noir being made where Hobbits once roamed.  With good fortune he met the Giesen brothers and worked both at their Blenheim winery and at Bell Hill, in North Canterbury.  His visa having expired, Thomas returned to the States, and responding to an ad for an assistant winemaker drove to Oregon.  Ponzi Vineyards was to remain his home for the next several years, where he absorbed all he could from the two generations of winemaking experience in Dick and Luisa Ponzi.  Thomas brings his passion for Pinot noir to Anne Amie. 

He is happy he can still use words like balance, grace, fluidity, elegance, power, and style that once described his dancing and now describe his wines.  In his free time, Thomas still brews, having dragged his equipment across the US.  Yoga and running have replaced dance, but winemaking remains the common thread that started in a basement and continues in our cellar.

Comrades

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of spending time with winemaker Bryan Harrrington and our friend Amy Cameron (pictured at right during a visit to neighbor Belle Pente).  Bryan has his own winery appropriately named Harrington Wines with an annual production of around 1,000 cases. Bryan sources grapes from top vineyards throughout California and makes wine at a small cooperative facility in Berkeley.  Bryan is driven by the desire to make world-class Pinot Noir, something all of us at Anne Amie can appreciate. We had the pleasure of visiting Belle Pente, Domaine Drouhin, Torii Mor, and Chehalem and were excited by the range and quality of all the pinots tasted. At Anne Amie we tasted a mini-vertical ('02-'04) of our Winemaker's Selection and had a sneak preview of our other 2004 pinot noir offerings.  Bryan brought several of his wines and he is gifted at  capturing the essence  of the unique vineyards from which the fruit is purchased.  I am also excited to see Amy has been bitten by the  pinot bug and  I hope she  takes the plunge with a career in the industry as her palate is top notch.  For more information on Harrington Wines, check out this great review on Vinography.  Thanks for visiting!
Tim Brislin

The Passing of Henri Jayer

Anyone who loves pinot noir reveres the name and wines of Burgundy’s Henri Jayer and it is with great sadness I note his passing, just reported by Burghound’s Allen Meadows on eRobertParker.com:

“It is with deep regret that I inform the board members that Henri Jayer passed away last night after a long illness. Jayer was renowned and admired the world over for his lush, seductive, well-balanced and impeccably crafted burgundies and was arguably the most famous Burgundian winemaker ever. Just as importantly, he unquestionably has had the greatest impact and influence among today’s generation of Burgundian winemakers. He was a man of strong convictions about how wines should be made but the superb quality of his wines, even in difficult vintages, certainly provided persuasive evidence that his methods worked. And the auction market voted with its pocketbook as well, according Jayer wines enormous valuations, indeed on a consistent par with those of the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. I knew Jayer for years and also admired and respected his philosophies, work ethic and ultimately, the results he so consistently achieved. Hanky J, as he was affectionately referred to, will be missed. My heartfelt condolences go out to his family and admirers. "

Please click here for the growing and moving tribute thread on eRobertParker.com.

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New Fermenters Arrive!

Making great pinot noir means being prepared. That means that you need enough fermentation capacity to process your grapes the same day they arrive from the vineyard. Here at Anne Amie we never let our pinot noir grapes sit overnight waiting to ferment so we need the tank space available immediately. This means you have to be over prepared as there is always the possibility of a vintage where everything ripens at once. Normally the harvest is spaced naturally by the natural characteristics of each vineyard site, but Mother Nature does not always agree with this concept and you can end up with a year where everything needs to be picked and fermented in a very short period of time. These new tanks assure we can handle every situation and always make the best wine possible. Pictured here is winemaker Scott Huffman unloading our newly arrived tanks. He’s been waiting over a year for these two to arrive and is relieved to have them in place for this vintage.

2005: so far, so good

Last year was quite an experience weather-wise: a warm dry winter, a cool wet spring, a hot dry summer followed by a cool wet fall. Not what you would call a perfect vintage for Pinot Noir. Yet, the Pinot Noir vine has its own way about things and does pretty much what it wants – sometimes even ignoring Mother Nature a bit.

An early tasting of our 2005 Pinot Noir wines in barrel has us very optimistic and, in fact, on the edge of excitement. The wines have lovely color, beautiful expansive aromas and gorgeous fruit that has an almost perfect ripeness. Scott is comparing them to the 2000 vintage, which is very exciting indeed. While way to early to give a final judgment, we are very, very happy with what we’ve tasted so far. Our 2005 Pinot Noir wines will be released in March 2008.

Pinot Noir for Everyone Else

Winemaker Annette Hoff of Montery’s Cima Colina is the author of a fine blog and offers some very insiteful comments concerning the over manipulation of pinot noir and wines in general these days. In a recent post she comments:

“The way I see it, there are two different classifications of Pinot these days in the US: PCD’s (Pinot for Cab Drinkers) and PEE’s (excuse the acronym: Pinot for Everyone Else). I like Cabernet, and I have nothing against Cabernet drinkers, but what I don’t like is the concept of placing the same expectations one has of Cabernet (dark, rich, and, well, dark, rich) on a wine such as Pinot Noir and, as it turns out, the typical PCD’s are usually dark, rich and relatively non-varietal in character. If you like that, then go to it.”

That’s some great insight. For the complete story and to visit Annette’s Cima Collina blog, follow the link below:

Cellar Rap » Blog Archive » Pinot Noir for Everyone Else.

Map of Pinot Noir genome is on the way

A group of Italian scientists are unlocking the secrets of pinot noir. Somehow, I don’t think its going to make anything about making great pinot noir any easier!

Map of Pinot Noir genome is on the way - decanter.com - the route to all good wine.

G is for Garretson

By Tim Brislin

Last Saturday after realizing I’d made a huge mistake, TIVOing Dancing with the Stars (I prefer remembering Jerry Rice pirouetting past a cornerback), I was flipping through the channels and came across Sesame Street. After getting over the initial shock that Mr. Snuffaluffagus can now be seen by everyone, I settled in and saw the letter for the day was G. Elmo offered these words: Grass. Gift. Goat. So far so good. I wondered aloud what words would fit if Elmo was taking a winery tour. “Grape” my wife replied, thankfully speaking to me again even though I prefer Angelina over Jennifer. Good answer but too obvious. Elmo seems like he’d be a syrah drinker and would tell Oscar. G is for Garretson. Now I know I’m stretching, as Elmo is only 4 years old, but in puppet years that’s 32, and that’s plenty old enough to host a wine dinner in Oscar’s trash can. Having a bottle of Garretson G Red in front of me probably had something to do with my reply as well. 

Garretson Wine Company is a must have for any wine collector, and this fine Paso Robles vintner produces wine that are varietally correct, terrior driven, and expressive. I first met Owner/Winemaker Mat Garretson at a trade show in Boston, drawn to his table by his colorful labels and the buzz his wines were creating. After looking at his labels and noticing the alcohol content, I felt some trepidation towards tasting his offerings. After all, high alcohol is the demise of the wine industry, as wine critics bemoan, and California producers among the worst offenders. But these wines were perfectly balanced, complex, and showed exactly why Paso Robles is the epicenter for
Rhone varietals. Since these wines are highly sought after, I had some trouble buying my own stash and decided in order to best enjoy Garretson, I’d have to bring Mat to Anne Amie. A few emails later, Mat agreed to come and in February, he will be pouring his wine all day, and showcasing some of his favorites during an elegant dinner that night. 

I’m going to apologize to Mat for my preconceived notions regarding alcohol content and his wines, especially after reading his article on that subject which can be found here: ( http://www.garretsonwines.com/id50.htm ). It seems I’ve become blinded by provincial pretenses. We don’t get high alcohol wines in Oregon because the weather doesn’t let us…Garretson gets higher content due to his warmer weather and that’s part of what makes his wine different and enjoyable to drink. 

Keep an eye out for Garretson’s brightly colored labels, definitely try some of Mat’s wine, and make a point of visiting our winery on February 25^th to learn more about Garretson Wine Company.