Channeling Lucille Ball?

Published on by Ingrid Sapona Category: Uncategorized

If you’re of a certain age you may remember I Love Lucy – a t.v. show in the 1950s (and re-run throughout the 60s and 70s) featuring Lucille Ball. One of the episodes I remember best (apparently it was in season 5) was called Grape Wrestling. In it, Lucy pulls up her skirt and climbs into a large vat of grapes to join an Italian woman stomping grapes. It’s a Classic.

Anyway, this episode immediately popped into my head when I read about an event that Flat Rock Cellars is hosting called: Pick, Stomp & Taste. The event, which started last weekend and is continuing this weekend (Sept. 27/28, 2014) involves hand-picking grapes and jumping into a barrel and stomping around. It sure sounds like an opportunity to channel your inner Lucille Ball as you feel the squish of the grapes between your toes. (Mind you, the I Love Lucy episode ends with Lucy and the Italian woman wrestling in the grape-filled vat — I’m sure that’s NOT part of the Flat Rock Cellars event!)

The cost for partaking in the stomp is $25 and it includes a tasting of their 2013 wines (I have NO idea if they did this last year, btw) and a tasting of the newly pressed 2014 grape juice (if you dare). The event is from 11 a.m. -1 p.m.

I’m not sure I’ll make it down to Flat Rock for it – but I have to admit – it sounds fun! If you go, let me know what it was like!

Winemaker Andrzej Lipinski of Big Head Wines

Published on by Ingrid Sapona Category: Miscellaneous Musings

When I started work on the App I was struck by how often the name Andrzej Lipinski came up. When the App was first published in 2012, he was the winemaker at Cornerstone Estate Winery, Burning Kiln Winery, The Organized Crime Winery, and Colanari Estate Winery, not to mention having left his fingerprints on winemakeing at  The Foreign Affair Winery.Lepinski Snapshot 2

Lipinski, who trained as an auto mechanic, emigrated from Poland in 1989. His winemaking journey began in the fields picking grapes and by 2002 he had honed his skills and went on to become the winemaker at Legends Estates Winery and then Megalomaniac. He then moved on to the other wineries I mentioned earlier. In 2012 he started Big Head Wines – a virtual winery.

People really started to take notice of his talent when he was working with Len and Marisa Crispino of The Foreign Affair Winery. While there he produced an appassimento style wine by drying grapes indoors at Vineland Centre. When he moved on to Burning Kiln, which is in the heart of Ontario’s ailing tobacco growing region, he began re-purposing tobacco kilns because, as he says, they’re perfect for drying grapes.

He has continued using the technique and all of his Big Head reds are made using dried grapes. Having devised a reliable method for drying grapes, these days he’s focusing more of his attention on natural yeasts and blending.

Over the years I’ve had various wines Lipinski’s made at different wineries and they have all been very good. But, his Big Head wines are a cut above what he’s produced elsewhere. Friends and I recently enjoyed a formal tasting of a range of whites and reds at Big Head and, while we each had our own favourites (mine were his 2012 Pinot Noir and 2012 Chenin Blanc), we all were impressed with his innovation, daring, and talent.

Here’s a video of Lipinski describing his winemaking journey from appassimento style, to experimenting with natural yeast, to his thoughts on blending.

A living lab

Published on by Ingrid Sapona Category: Winemaking Related, Women Winemakers

On a recent visit to Southbrook Vineyards I asked Ann Sperling, Director, Winemaking and Viticulture, about how the harsh winter of 2014 impacted Southbrook’s spring pruning.

Pruning Technique at Southbrook - Snapshot 3 (05-09-2014 9-11 PM)
Pruned with one cane and a couple of spurs
Pruning Results at Southbrook Sept 2014-second example (05-09-2014 9-10 PM)
Pruned leaving only spurs

She explained that, in general, they pruned pretty heavily. Their theory is that they wanted to ensure that the vines had as much energy as possible, so that they’d be healthy in years to come.

That said, they also experimented a bit. They did pruning trials where they pruned the same variety in different ways to see if different pruning methods have an impact on the vines next year and years to come. In the example she showed us, on one row they left one cane and a couple of spurs. In the next row (of the same variety), the pruned leaving only spurs.  They’ll be taking notes regarding yield and other things and comparing the results of the differently pruned vines – making the vineyard – well, a living lab.

Here’s a video of Ann explaining two of the techniques used on one variety and the different result at this point – September 2014.

Estimates of Damage from the Napa Quake

Published on by Ingrid Sapona Category: Miscellaneous Musings

Though most people thing of wine as pure pleasure, whenever I visit a vineyard or winery I can’t help but think that – at its heart – it’s farming and therefore subject to the whims of Mother Nature. And, when Mother Nature deals a wine region a tough hand – as she did this past winter here in Ontario – my heart really goes out to those whose livelihood is dependant on any crop!

Of course, weather isn’t the only hazard at Mother Nature’s disposal. Wineries in certain parts of the world face additional perils if they also happen to lie in an earthquake zone.

A report released last week about the 6.0 quake that hit Napa on August 24th estimates that losses to the Napa Valley wine industry top $80 million. The report was prepared by the Silicon Valley Bank’s Wine Division for the Napa County Board of Supervisors.

The Bank estimates that 60% of Napa County wineries sustained some degree of damage, with up to 25% of them suffering moderate to severe damage. The losses vary from $50,000 per winery to $8 million in the most devastating circumstance.

The majority of the damage was located in the southern and western areas of the county, as well in business operations in the City of Napa. The Carneros region of Napa, Mount Veeder, Yountville, and Oak Knoll areas suffered the greatest damage, according to the report.

 

 

 

A Perfect Taste Combination

Published on by Ingrid Sapona Category: Miscellaneous Musings

One of my sisters has an expression she sometimes uses when she’s describing a meal that she’s particularly enjoyed – she often refers to what she calls “perfect taste combinations”. Now, lest you think my sister is some professionally trained chef who is waxing poetic about rarified ingredients that are cooked and served just so – she’s not. She’s a down-to-earth, normal person who just enjoys food and sometimes is moved to try to describe the meal. One of her perfect taste combinations is beer and pizza. (See what I mean?)

Muscedere Vineyards Pizza and Wine IMG_2017
Pizza at Muscedre Vineyards

Well, in my travels to different Ontario wineries, it’s hard not to notice that lots of wineries have found that wine and pizza is – for many – a perfect taste combination. I first noticed the popularity of wood-fired pizza ovens on winery patios across Prince Edward County last year. (Norman Hardie Winery and Vineyard, Hillier Creek Estates and TerraCello Winery, for example).

My recent trip to the Lake Erie/Pelee Island region confirmed the trend. I enjoyed a delicious pizza and a lovely glass of Cab Franc at Muscedere Vineyards. Melissa Muscedere made me laugh when she talked about how popular their pizzas are. “We have people phoning and asking, ‘Is the pizza store open?’ That really annoys my brothers,” she said, “but I tell them not to worry about it – if it brings people here and then they discover our wine, that’s great!”

Pat Muscedere Making Pizza
Pat Muscedere Making Pizza

Paglione Estate Winery started serving pizzas on weekends this summer and Nancy Paglione said it’s been a big hit. “As soon as we put out the sign, people started stopping,” she said.

Though many wineries are starting to cut back their weekday hours a bit as we head into the fall, I’m sure many will still be firing up the pizza ovens on weekends. So, what’ll it be? An Ontario red or a crisp Ontario white to go with your pizza?Paglione's Patio IMG_2069

Being thankful for having a reason to use bird bangers

Published on by Ingrid Sapona Category: Miscellaneous Musings, Uncategorized

After posting the video of Ann Sperling talking about the Green Harvest I realized that viewers of the video may be wondering about the loud bangs in the background. (Indeed, one viewer even posted a comment on YouTube asking.)

Those are the bird banger canons used in the vineyard to scare birds off. At this time of year they’re a common sound in wine country. Though they’re jarring and sometimes annoying (like when you’re trying to shoot a video) – this year I think they’re almost reassuring, as it means there’s something growing that’s worth keeping from the birds!IMG_2092

Indeed, given the lack of grapes this year in the Lake Erie/Pelee Island wine region, there the cannons were moved from the vineyards to the rows of corn, as the birds have had to turn elsewhere for foraging.

So, rejoice in the sound of the bird banger canons – and please ignore the extra background noise in the video!

Of lemons and lemonade …

Published on by Ingrid Sapona Category: Niagara-on-the-Lake Region, Winemaking Related, Women Winemakers
Snapshot of Ann Sperling Sept 3 2014
Ann Sperling in the vineyard at Southbrook Vineyards

This week I was out at Southbrook Vineyards in Niagara-on-the-Lake and Ann Sperling, Director, Winemaking and Viticulture, was kind enough to show me around the vineyard.

Seems the harvest in the Niagara region is going to be late this year (by about three weeks) because of the slow start after the harsh winter and the very wet spring and early summer. Fortunately, though some of us city folk have been complaining about the heat this past week, the growers are thankful for it, as it’s good for the grapes.

Walking through the vines, it was surprising how many of the individual clusters had grapes that were green and grapes that were a deep purple. I asked Ann about this and she explained that the reason for the different stages of ripeness on the same vine is because the primary, secondary, and tertiary buds broke in stages over a period that was longer than usual. The result is grapes in different stages of ripening.

IMG_2083
Grapes harvested in the Green Harvest at Southbrook — Sept. 2014

She said it’s not unusual to have some green grapes among the ripe clusters and that’s why they go through the vineyard and do a “Green Harvest”. This involves trimming out the green grapes from the other ripe grapes. Normally, when they Green Harvest they just take off the less ripe bunches and drop them.

 

 

This year, however, because there’s a fair bit of green among the riper grapes, Southbrook is going to harvest the grapes from the Green Harvest. And, in the spirit of waste not, want not – this year Southbrook will be using them to make verjus.

Here is a short video of Ann Sperling explaining the Green Harvest.

Women Winemakers in Ontario

Published on by Ingrid Sapona Category: Miscellaneous Musings, Women Winemakers

I’ve updated the app (watch for notification from the App Store for the update) and I’ve included a new category: Women Winemakers.

This is the photo for the app category.
This is the photo for the app category.

I’ve been considering adding this as a category for some time, but a friend of mine thinks it’s sexist of me to do so…. After much thought, I decided to add it – my rationale for doing so is simple: to give a shout out to woman winemakers.

Caroline Granger MVI_1869
Caroline Granger

Women are involved in all areas of the wine business but they often fly below the radar – so I thought it would be nice to celebrate them a bit.

Snapshot 1 (31-08-2014 6-22 PM)
Tanya Mitchell

By the way, of the 144 wineries included in the app to date, 24 of those wineries have women winemakers (or women with the title of associate winemaker). I should also point out that a few of them – like Sue-Ann Staff and Lindsay Puddicombe – are the winemakers at more than one winery, so there aren’t 24 different women winemakers listed in the app. (For the record, this is not uncommon – there are also a handful of male winemakers who are at more than one winery – Andrzej Lipinski and Ross Wise come to mind.)

I’m hoping to get videos of as many of the women winemakers as possible. So far I’ve got videos of:

Click on the names above for a link to the videos.

So – stay tuned…

In their own words…

Published on by Ingrid Sapona Category: Lake Erie/Pelee Island Region, Miscellaneous Musings

In my last post I wrote about the fact that there isn’t going to be a grape harvest in the Lake Erie/Pelee Island region.

In chatting with folks at the wineries in that region, I was struck by how many of them shrugged and blamed “the Polar Vortex”. No matter what you call it, the impact of the winter is clear: very few grapes.

Snapshot 3 (28-08-2014 10-00 PM)I shot a short video of Martin Gorski, owner/winemaker at North 42 Degrees Estate Winery, describing in a bit more detail the unusual growth pattern they observed among the vines this spring-summer.

 

Here’s a link to the video.

The Non-Harvest of 2014 for Wineries in Lake Erie/Pelee Island Region … seeing is believing!

Published on by Ingrid Sapona Category: Lake Erie/Pelee Island Region, Miscellaneous Musings

Just back from a couple of days visiting wineries in the Lake Erie/Pelee Island Region and I’ve got to say — seeing is believing.

Back at the end of February Tom O’Brien of Cooper’s Hawk Vineyards was the first person to mention to me that it looked like there might not be a 2014 vintage for wineries in that region. Though I didn’t think Tom was an alarmist, I took the comment with a grain of salt and started asking other Ontario winery owners what they thought the potential impact the exceptionally harsh winter might have on this years’ grapes.

Most winemakers and winery owners I talked to admitted that they thought there would be some damage, but they wanted to take a wait-and-see attitude. I know that in Niagara, some vineyard owners did some testing of the buds in early spring to get an idea about the percentage of dead buds they might have and some modified their pruning to compensate.  The wineries of Prince Edward County bury their vines, so they were not concerned about the harshness of the winter at all.

In the Lake Erie/Pelee Island area, however, Tom’s prediction about there not being a 2014 vintage has come true. Driving around that region last week things looked normal — from a distance.

Muscedere Vineyards Summer 2014 -- No Grapes This Season IMG_2020The rows of vines look lush and green — but many of them looked almost wild, there were so many leaves. Normally vineyard owners neatly trim the canopy to ensure the right balance of sun and shade on the grapes. Canopy management this year sure looked different.

And, given that it was the third week of August in what is the warmest wine region in Canada, you expected to find rows netted to protect the grapes from the hungry birds. (Nearly every row at Colchester Ridge Estate Winery (CREW) was netted by this time last year.) This year there was no need for netting.

IMG_2026

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you take a closer look — expecting to see lovely green or purple clusters — you realize there are no bunches hanging there ripening! You might find a few small bunches of grapes or, in some cases, clusters that started to develop but that have not grown.  It’s quite a sad sight…

Mind you, the winery owners and winemakers I spoke with in the region seem to have taken the loss in stride. After all, they know better than anyone that winemaking is farming — and farmers are at the mercy of Mother Nature. Many also noted that the up side is that they still have lots of wines from previous years available and so when visitors stop in to taste and buy, they aren’t disappointed. Some also said they’d be headed to Niagara to see about buying some grapes, so they may have some 2014 wines available — they just won’t be from grapes from that region.