Wine: Natural is Better

Last Saturday, after our presentation on winegrapes growing, vineyard management and wine making at MiraCosta college in Oceanside, I found myself explaining our minimalist approach to grape growing and winemaking to the winemaking students. I told them that our philosophy was to grow grapes and produce wine as naturally as possible. Over the years, we had benefited from experimentation. In the final analysis though, after blind tasting our “natural” wines and wines that had been “adjusted”, we liked our “natural” wines a lot better because they retained the body, fruitiness, bouquet and natural flavors that the “adjusted” wines lacked. Although we cannot proclaim that we practice 100% organic and biodynamic viticulture, we can say that we focus on making wine as naturally as possible. It’s like the difference between a well cooked meal prepared with only fresh wholesome basic ingredients vs. trying to attain the same natural taste by cutting few corners and then relying on artificial enhancers to provide the ‘Missing’ flavor. You just can’t duplicate some natural occurring flavors, aromas, mouth feel, and other intrinsic qualities in wine via artificial means……. In our humble opinion.

My final advice to them was to start with high quality wine grapes at the desired Brix level as the best wines were made in the vineyard.

Presentation at MiraCosta College!

You are cordially invited to attend a talk that we plan to give this coming Saturday 4/24/2010 at 10 am at MiraCosta College – Oceanside Campus located at 1 Barnard Drive, Oceanside, CA 92056. We’ll be in room Atztal B (next to cafeteria).

The topics of our talk will be on grape growing, vineyard management and wine making in San Diego County.


If you have questions, feel free to call us or send us an email.


Cheers
Michael and Kim

Impact of wine-grape growers and wineries on California economy

As wine drinkers, when we savor our glass of liquid sunshine, we enjoy the health benefits from drinking wine. But most of us only have a vague notion of the economic impact of California wine industry to California economy. According to the Economic Impact of California Wine and Grapes 2009 released by the Wine Institute and CAWG, the wine industry has a 61.5 billion impact on the state as a whole. The report’s numbers illustrated that the economic impact of the wine industry stretches far beyond the vineyards and tasting rooms. For example, in 2009 Napa County had a gross payroll of 79 millions and 319 millions for vineyard and winery-related jobs and 533 millions in tourist dollars and Sonoma had a gross payroll of 73 millions and 235 millions for vineyard and winery-related jobs and 263 millions in tourist dollars. Even more impressive, Statewide allied industries such at tourism, trucking, packaging, printing, labs, research and more account for 28,546 jobs with total wages of $921,421,000.

Although I was not surprised to see the economic benefits that Napa, Sonoma and a couple other well-known wine regions in California have reaped from their vineyards and wine businesses, I was shocked by the astronomical dollar amounts. Furthermore, the numbers from the rest of the counties listed in the report really surprised me, from Alameda to Tulare, the economic impacts were huge and significant.

I noted that San Diego county’s numbers were not highlighted in the economic impact report. What a shame, considering that San Diego county has much to offer compared to other counties such as Riverside. But yet, Riverside county was listed, thanks to the commercial success of Temecula wineries. This lack of representation was not a surprise as the wine industry in San Diego county has not grown much in the last 20 years.

I’ve recently had an interesting conversation with a wine-grape grower in Ramona who used to live in Sonoma County for 20 years. He and his wife decided to move to Ramona to be close to their children who live in San Diego. He told me that in the 80’s, the Healdsburg/Alexander Valley/Dry Creek area had about a dozen of wineries. Now, Healdsburg has so many wineries that one cannot possibly visit all of them in one weekend. Although it’s hard for any of us to imagine that San Diego County wine industry could ever achieve the economic numbers that other counties have done, this eye-witness account and the 2009 economic impact report tell me that nothing is impossible if we have public policy and American entrepreneur spirit work hand-in-hand.

The conversation about Sonoma county's wineries reminded me of the movie, Bottle Shock, which told the story of the historic Judgment of Paris in 1976, and the Napa vintners, Bo and Jim's struggles and ultimate victory as the owners of the Chateau Montelena winery who made the winning Chardonnay. This movie was based on a true story. Chateau Montelena took the top prize in the white wine competition. As a winemaker, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie not just because of the characters but also the story and history of the struggles that California wineries had to go through to make a name for themselves 30 yeas ago against the formidable French wineries. I highly recommend this movie to wine-grape growers, winemakers and wine drinkers who love wines and have an appreciation for the hard work that goes into grape growing and wine making.

In a nutshell, the economic impact report helps us hold on our hopes that our winery would someday reach its full potential and become a viable business. As for now, when our balance sheets are filled with red ink, we have to remind ourselves of an old adage, to keep ourselves from being depressed and discouraged, “It’d take a big fortune to make a small fortune in wine business” while hanging on to our dreams for a better future.

PIDWS = Exercise+Wine+Friendship

What do winemakers do in their free time to release stress besides drinking wine? For me, regular exercise is the best thing for releasing stress and keeping our body strong and healthy at the same time. I always feel great after exercising.

I am fortunate enough to have a group of friends who have been in the same aerobics class with me for several years. Our love for aerobics exercise and staying fit helped create a strong bond. Then, of course, our love for wines and each other's company helped seal the deal! One thing lead to another. One day, one of our classmates suggested that we should get together on a quarter basis to have a wine tasting party so we could enjoy each other's company in a more relaxed environment. What a great idea! Who could have said no to that? Our first wine tasting party was an instant hit! We had so much fun. Lorraine, who loved to entertain and had a perfect house and backyard for entertainment, even had a game night and invited all of our significant others to join. She was like a combo of Julia Child and Martha Stewart in one package! We were treated to a fabulous gourmet cookout and games! I felt like I was in one of those reality cooking/entertainment show. PIDWS was born and there was no turning back. PIDWS stands for Pumping Iron and Drinking Wines naming after our group's love for pumping iron and drinking wines. We have had many get-together's since then and also established our own annual Christmas get-together with a full-blown gourmet wine-food pairing and ornament exchange. It takes efforts and work to make these get-togethers happen as all of us lead such busy lives. But our love for one another keep these PIDWS get-together's going. I love the PIDWS. They have added much joy to my life. Life is short. Enjoy!

Year of the Tiger

Yesterday, we celebrated Tet, the Luna New Year, which fell on Valentine's Day this year! Our house was filled of red roses and red gladiolus flowers. For Valentine's gifts, besides the red roses, I also received a bottle of French champagne and a bottle of Italian Prosecco, along with a new treadmill machine, was it a subtle hint about my expanding waistline, I wondered.

We gathered at my aunt Lily's house in LA for the big family dinner. "Bring your best bottles of wines," was the marching order from Aunt Lily, not second best, but had to be the best, LOL. Since eating good food is the main reason for living in our family, our aunts and uncles created a great and healthy gourmet meal to go with our wines. Although it was an unusual pairing, but the eel and mushroom soup actually tasted great with our 2007 Zinfandel. Our White Zinfandel was an excellent choice with the green papaya and beef salad. There were so much food and so many wonderful and favorite homemade dishes that my taste bud was overworked, but very satisfied. Needless to say, our Red wine was heavenly with the red velvel cake that my cousin bought from her favorite French bakery.

So what should we expect in the Year of the Tiger? In the past, the year of the Tiger was often associated with turbulence and massive changes. I predict that the Year of the Tiger will be a wild year full of unpredictability!

From what I've read so far, well, 2010 is going to be a rather turbulent but exciting year, as Tigers are known to be unpredictable, volatile and dangerous. So be flexible for possible changes in your life and get ready for an exciting and wild rollercoaster ride in 2010! My personal advise is to stock up on good wines from your favorite winemaker for those times when you'd need a good glass of wine to calm your nerves. Cheers!

Good Luck and May the Year of Tiger bring you Love, Happiness and Exciting Adventures!

Pruning Season

This weekend weather could not have been more perfect for pruning our grapevines. Over the years, it has become an event we both dread in some ways and look forward to in others. It is a bit of an endurance test like running a marathon. You start out pruning one vine correctly then multiplying that times a few thousand. Each vine is similar in some aspects and completely different and unique in others. Pruning is a series of very quick decisions which cannot be undone, there is no ‘undo’ button and a mistake may take a few years to correct. Incorrect pruning can result in a severely reduced crop or a high volume crop which lacks many quality characteristics, and every variation in between.

Learning to prune is best started with a text book, then try your hand in the field and as my vineyard mentor John Schwaesdall says “Listen to everyone, then make up your own mind about how to proceed based on your conditions”, I’ve found this to be sound advice.

Pruning has basic principles which are true in all situations; however there are nuances which are specific to your varietal, microclimate, personal preference, wine-making technique and wine style. There are a few absolutes, but not many. Start out by speaking to someone in your area growing the same varietal successfully, this conversation and the peak at the freshly pruned vines is worth gold.

Here's to a Healthy New Year!

People often ask us how we stay fit and not become alcoholic, considering the fact that we are afterall wine drinkers who also love food and love to pair our wines with food.

On the one hand, we are thankful for having good metabolism and a certain amount of will power that helps keep us from over indulging ourselves too much. On the other hand, we believe that the physical aspects of grapes growing, maintaining a vineyard, harvest work, grape processing and winemaking work are plenty to keep us in good shape. Working on wine and pruning the grapevines during this winter season hopefully would help us take off some of the weight gained during the holidays.

Some diets do not allow wines. We would never go on those diets! We believe that having wine with dinner in moderate amount is a healthy habit, unless one has medical conditions that prohibit alcohol consumption.

Here is our final secret for staying fit in 2010: Keep eating wholesome and natural food grown by local farmers and drinking good wine made by your favorite local winemakers from locally grown grapes!

Salut!