2006 Estate Cuvee

I opened a bottle to write tasting notes, the first of the 2006 Bordeaux reds to be released onto the market, and as 2006 saw a major shift in winemaking techniques, I wasn't sure what to expect.

It is one of the 'Pegase Circle' wines, i.e. a wine made for our 5,000-member wine club, which gives us a lot of flexibility to make interesting blends at a commercial volume. The Estate Cuvee (originally called Claret, but the Bordelaise have objected to that word) was intended to represent the Clos Pegase Estate plantings, with the acreage planted being translated into the percentage of the blend . Over the years we tinkered with it somewhat: in a year when we had a really light Merlot crop (2003), it seemed appropriate to have more Cabernet Sauvignon for that year, so we blended the actual volume produced rather than the acreage planted. The second variant came when we started exploring the various Bordeaux regions, and how the different varieties thrived, and thus were planted in different proportions. Our 2006 Estate Cuvee was based on the plantings of Pessac-Leognan, 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot and 18% Cabernet Franc.

Last month in the cellar we were bench-testing trial blends of the 2007 wine, so reviewing the 2006 seems appropriate. What is it then? Plenty of Cabernet Sauvignon notes with cassis, tobacco and forest-floor aromas (not Brettanomyces, but an earthy and brushy character), but there are Merlot notes of red currants. Without doubt the Franc influences those brushy and tobacco notes, and also livens up the red fruit tones. The palate is more Merlot-oriented with linear tannins (as opposed to the massive and dense tannins from Cabernet Sauvignon, or the snappy, vibrant Cabernet Franc tannins).

More important is how does it differ from the previous vintages, and how can we allocate the differences? The vineyard source was the same, but we changed the entire fermentation and racking process. The vintage is also, obviously, very different, and then we went and finished the bottle with a Stelvin screw top, which makes the wine taste much fresher at this point, one year after bottling. On balance, I think the changes to our practices made the biggest difference, and the wine is even more lush than previous vintages. I say this also in light of the 2007 wines - bigger and more luscious again. I'll speak more about the differences in the techniques as time goes by.

Back in 2005 we embarked on a fairly large project - to completely revamp the Cabernet Sauvignon program at Clos Pegase Winery.  We've been making Cabernet since 1985, when the doyen of Californian winemaking Andre T. consulted for us and crafted a mighty fine wine via custom crush at Rombauer.  The winery finished construction in 1986, and everything else has been physically made there.  

The vineyard sources were varied in the early years as we purchased fruit from a number of local growers, but in the late 80's we committed to becoming an estate winery.  The land surrounding the winery was substantial, of the 50 acres, 22 were plantable, and first plantings included Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Merlot: we only put in Cabernet Sauvignon in 2000 after removing the Merlot when it succumbed to phylloxera, but we used the Franc and Petit Verdot as blending material from the outset.  We purchased the Palisades Vineyard, 42 acres northwest of the winery at the foot of Jericho Canyon, already part-planted with Cabernet Sauvignon.  The other land purchase was Mitsuko's Vineyard, 365 acres of bare land in Carneros, a marginal area for Cabernet at best, but we discovered a rocky outcrop, a soil series more commonly found on Howell Mountain, and completely different from the Haire and Diablo clays typical of the area: 11 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon went in in 1991.

Come 1994, we were producing enough of our own Cabernet Sauvignon to make an Estate Bottled wine, and the next eleven years saw us refine these plantings.

Christmas - only on vacation do I start thinking about writing about working

Neat.  I have a blog.  Nice font, looks easy to use.

I make wine.  Well, actually there are a whole bunch of people that I work with that make wine.  I get the title, which means I get to sit at a desk rather than drag hoses and do the fun stuff.  It's time to use the desk to actually talk about it.

Even so, I have done my fair share of dirty jobs: shoveling out fermentation tanks with pomace (fun), digging out drains (not fun), dropping barrels while driving a forklift (embarrassing, especially when  you have to get help to pick them up again), mixing sulfur dioxide solution (poisonous).

December is blending time.  Specifically, blending the 2007 red wines, some of the nicest wines I've worked with.  I know it seems odd to start talking about a wine that has been in process for some 14 months already (well, 17 years for my favorite of all the wines if you count the planting decision), but we have to start somewhere.  Over the next 12 months I plan to talk about all sorts of vintages of wines, because they all fall within the calendar of winemaking at some point.  

• 2009 is around the corner - the vines may be dormant, but the number of potential clusters per shoot has already been set by the weather in spring 2008.  
• The 2008 wines are all in barrel of tank, finishing up malolactic fermentation, and continuing the process of elevage, my favorite word in French, which describes the raising, or breeding of the wines in the cellar up until bottling.  
• The 2007 wines are almost there - the whites have been bottled for some time, and the fullest bodied Cabernets are in preparation for bottling in June 2009.  
• The 2006 wines are resting after bottling (the Cabernets) or being consumed (the Pinot Noir), or are long gone (the pink wine).  
• The biggest of the 2005's are still available (the Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot), or just about to be released (the Reserve Cabernet).  
• 2004 wines are all but done, with the lone Reserve Cabernet still out there, still youthful and intense.  
• 2003 and further back are safely in the wine library, waiting for the random interlude of a vertical tasting to see how things are, and to answer the constant questions "how does the such-and-such vintage of so-and-so taste?  Naturally, I force myself to taste these wines and answer the questions, well, somebody has to do it.  
• As for the future, beyond the 2009 vintage there are the new plantings coming on line in 2010, currently existing as rootstock, and the development work to be done in 2009 and 2010, which will bear fruit in, oh, perhaps another five years.
  

It takes 10 years to get to know a vineyard.  Five is good, it will show you the extremes, but 10 shows all the little quirks of personality, and with that knowledge, you can start to make an impact on the next ten years.

I was talking about 2007 blends right?