Book Review: 21 Questions About Opening a Winery in the United States

I kind of feel like in order to do a good book review on 21 Questions About Opening a Winery in the United States, written in 2010 by Anda Lincoln and Brad Lincoln, it really needs to be reviewed twice. Once now, before I have an operating winery, and once after I have a winery up and running to see how accurate it is. Admittedly, that could be awhile…

The first page is actually a disclaimer. The first sentence says it all, “ The information about laws contained in this Publication is for informational purposes only, and does not (nor is intended to) constitute legal advice or counsel.” It then goes on to state, “THE CREATORS DO NOT ASSUME ANY responsibility OR LIABILITY FOR ERRORS, OMISSIONS, OR DIFFERING INTERPRETATIONS OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS PUBLICATION.”

Thing is, Anda and Brad were a CPA and an attorney, but I’m unsure if they worked in the wine or beer industry. They quit their jobs and decided to open a brewery, and I think this book is a result of them trying to navigate the United States Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) regulations to get their license.

Admittedly, I’ve been putting off trying to read said TTB regulations, so this is a short little double spaced 120 page book. I think it works well as cliff notes of sorts, though it is incomplete. I now know some of the federal regulations, such as I need a site and equipment before I apply for my wine making license, and it could take 90 days to process if I submitted all the right paperwork. It also talks about all the different times one has to refile, such as even moving equipment around on the premises. It is not exclusive to grape wine, and even talks about cider and mead. It is also well documented, indicating forms and what regulations to read to gain further information at the federal level. It is a quick read, and I think it will help me to understand actual regulations.

The downside to this book is that it is $30 for the electronic version, and $40 for the printed version, which does come with a limited time access to the electronic files, so save it if you go for it! I mentioned before that it is 120 pages double spaced, and they like to have a lot of white space with premature page breaks. I think this book could have easily fit into 60 pages, but I’m guessing publishers don’t like printing something that small.

So, it is a good cliff notes for trying to run the federal guantlet to become a winery, but is $30-40 worth it to you when the TTB regulations are available for free?

Further Reading:

• They do provide a few chapters to read as a sample.
• They also have a book titled 21 Questions About Opening a Brewery in the United States, which also has some free chapters to sample.
• They maintain a blog called Legal Libations.
• The United States Alcohol and Tabacco Tax and Trade Bureau’s Law and Regulations for wine.

Drink Review: iSastei Sagardo Naturala

Northern Spain has been producing cider, usually spelled “sidra”, since the ancient Roman times. However, the Spanish have developed a unique taste to their cider, almost a vinegar taste or something very comparable to sour beer.

My husband loves sour beer, so when I was at Bushwhackers Cider a few weeks ago, I was looking in their cases at their sidra. A fellow patron highly recommended iSastegi Sagardo Naturala from the Basque region (the website is in Basque, not Spanish, and so Google is unable to translate it). In fact, he then bought a bottle which he then opened right then and there, and we proceeded to drink it.

As I said before, it is very comparable to a sour beer, and so my sour beer loving husband loves this cider. It might be a tish high in acid, but my fellow drinker summed it up in that it has a bit of a “funk.” According to Andrew Lea, the Spanish do impart an acetic acid flavor to the cider by introducing lactic acid bacteria, which would give it a slight vinegar funk.

I should also add that the Spanish also have some unique traditions when it comes to drinking sidra. They like to hold the bottle up high and then pour into a glass held down low, as this introduces air into the cider to kind of make it carbonated. Looking at iSastei’s logo, you can see that they aren’t pouring from a bottle down low, but instead up high like the tradition.

Further Reading:

• Asturias – World Cider Capital
• Sidra and Siderias – Drinking Cider in Spain
• Cider in Spain

Meeting or Party?

I belong to a local home winemaker’s club. We meet once a month at a member’s house, and this last weekend it was my turn to host. I got busy on a few projects around the house and then did some cleaning. My husband’s grandparents told me, “Your wine party will be a success I’m sure.” Party? Then I realized my own folks kept asking, “When is your party?”

On one hand, it is like a party. There are about 20 of us total, with each household bringing a bottle of wine. That’s a lot of wine. There is usually cheese involved. Last time it was baked brie, and this time I did up a fondue. Some people bring some really good hors d’oeuvres, like stuffed mushrooms. So yeah, I can see how it is a party.

On the other hand, we are a group, a club. We have meetings. Sure, they happen to be in somebody’s home and involve wine, but are book groups that meeting in homes and drink wine “parties”? I’m sure they are still referred to as meetings.

I guess it could be a generational thing, where anything I host is considered a “party” at this stage of my life unless it was done on a more regular basis. Or would I ever outgrow that? I guess it doesn’t matter, as our wine meetings are fun like parties!

Book Review: Grow Fruit

Grow Fruit was writen by Alan Buckingham and published by DK in 2010.

The book is organized by fruit type: tree fruit (apples, pears, plums, cherries, apricots, peaches and nectarines, quinces, mulberries, medlars, and figs), soft fruit (strawberries, raspberries, backberries and hybrids, gooseberries, red and white currants, black currants, blueeberries, cranberries and lingonberries, and unusal berries), grape vines, and tender and unusual fruit (citrus, melons, kiwifrui, cape gooseberries, and others), with two added sections, one being an introduction on what to choose, and the other is “Fruit Doctor.” Each section on a given fruit gives an introduction, lists some must grow varieties of that fruit, talks about choosing and buying plants including rootstock and pollination, growing (planting, care, harvest and storage), pruning, and common diseases or pests.

My impression of this book is that it makes a very good one stop fruit growing encyclopeadia. It even has information on cranberries, which I have found the topic to be a little hard to research at times. However, I’ve been wanting to plant some rhubarb, and this book does not talk about that. The introduction is good, talking about must-grow fruit by difficulty to grow, though I imingine that would vary a little bit by region.

The big draw back I see on this book is that I think it is aimed at an audance with a small yard. I say this because the book spends a lot of time on each type of tree fruit disucssing how to train them into a cordon agaist the side of a building. It does talk about regular orcharding, but that doesn’t seem to be where its heart is at.

Drink Review: Sangiovese

I honestly wasn’t going to post a drink review this week, partly because yesterday’s blog about pruning and tomorrow’s book review would have flowed better if I didn’t. Also, when it comes to wine, I’m pretty much just a drinker, and even with my best intentions, it is difficult for me to focus on it, let alone review it, so it takes something really different to get me to comment on a grape wine.

About a year ago, I had my first Sangiovese wine at The Rusty Grape Vineyard, and I really liked it. A few weeks ago, I had another one up in Woodinville, WA, and I thought, “Man, I hope Washington Farmers plant more of this stuff, cause I haven’t met a Sangiovese I haven’t liked yet.” Last weekend, at the Wine and Chocolate Weekend, I had another one at the Heison House Vineyard, and The Rusty Grape Vineyards again with a few blends they did with the grape. All wonderful.

My sweet husband, having heard what I said in Woodinville, decided to by a bottle of Sangiovese at the local grocery store for Valentines Day. He went in, talked to the wine steward, and together they decided on Mayhill Winery. I think Maryhill is trying to become one of the big winery players in Washington, up there with Chateau Ste. Michelle and Columbia Valley. I sometimes read the Oregon Wine Press, and Maryhill, a Washington Winery on the boarder, always takes out a full size ad on the last page. They offer concerts in the summer with well known musicians, and definitely make themselves a wine tourist destination. They also made the first Sangiovese wine I didn’t like.

“This is going to sound odd, but it tastes burnt. I normally would not think to use the word ‘burnt’ on a wine.” I told my poor husband. I thought about it – what would cause a burnt flavor? The toasted oak barrels. Oh my – they over oaked the wine; that is to say, they left it in the barrel too long, and the characteristics of the barrel now dominate the wine rather than letting the wine dominate. I felt really bad for my husband. I mean, I normally just drink grape wine with so little thought, and with this wine, I couldn’t help but keep thinking, and I was thinking about how bad it was because some humans messed it up.

Home Orchard Society Pruning Class

On February 5, I attended a pruning class taught by the Home Orchard Society. The class was held at their Arboretum located on the Clackamas Community College campus in Oregon City. It cost $10 to attend, and I think there was about 75 people there. We were first given a quick 10 minute lecture, which was followed by a little bit of a question period, and then we broke out into five groups for demonstrations and hands on experience.

The reason for pruning an orchard is to keep the tree manageable for picking fruit, but also to improve the tree health and fruit quality.

Pruning can be done any time of the year, they said. In fact, the tree is less likely to try and make a new limb at a place where you take out an old limb if it was pruned in the summer or fall. The reason most people prune orchards in the winter is because there are no leaves, which allows you to see the structure of the tree easier. However, probably the most important reason is that farmers are much busier in the summer and fall with harvest that they don’t have time for pruning, and in the winter, there is not as much demanding things to be done that they have time for pruning.

First off, I was told that everybody prunes differently, but that unless you cut the tree down, the trees are pretty forgiving. Here are some of the key points they made:

• Cut out any diseased or dead wood.
• Cut off all limbs that grow straight up, as they will not produce fruit. These are known as water sprouts.
• Cut off limbs that grow towards the middle of the tree. You want the middle of the tree open for light.
• Cut limbs that rub against each other, as that breaks the bark and gives a place for disease to access the tree.
• Cut limbs that tend to grow downwards. I believe this was because those limbs will put out more wood and not so much fruit. However, if it has another branch growing up from it, prune back to that limb.
• Cut branches that are too tall to pick fruit from.

Prior to going, I knew to take out water sprouts. However, I have a tenancy to prune the tips off other branches because they start to look like water srouts. What is really going on is that the branch goes from having buds that will bear flowers and then fruit, to buds closer to the tip of the branch that will bear leaves. Buds that are a little out from the stem and that are fat are flower/fruit buds, and buds that are closer in and flat are usually vegetative leaf buds.

I didn’t know that was the difference between the buds, but to my untrained eye, that does explain why the tip of a normal branch began to look like a water sprout. Thing is, on a normal branch, it is perfectly okay to leave these tips. In fact, cutting them off is like doing a heading cut. What then happens is that the energy from the tree pushes out the limb but finds that it stops, and so it causes growth, especially limbs, at the point of the cut. So by making a heading cut, I’m actually encouraging more limbs, which means more pruning in the future!

Heading cuts has its place and can be good, but I was probably over using the technique. What I should be using more of is a thinning cut (see page 5 for an illustration of the difference). A thinning cut is the entire removal of a branch, which then allows more light an air into the tree and to other branches. The result of the cut does not exactly promote the growth of more limbs per say, but the limbs that do come in are evenly distributed though the tree and not just at the tips near cuts like with heading cuts.

So despite everyone pruning differently, and that trees can be pretty forgiving of pruning, I felt this was a well spent $10 to see an orchard pruning demonstration followed by being able to prune on trees myself under instructor supervision. Gives a person confidence!

Further Reading:

• Home Orchard Society Pruning Vocabulary
• PNW 404 – Pacific Northwest Extension Publication: Pruning Apple Trees in Commerical Orchards
• Colorado State University: Pruning Cuts

Review of 2011 Wine and Chocolate Weekend, Part II

My original list for the Wine and Chocolate Weekend had us going to the English Estates Winery on Saturday, and the three Battle Ground wineries on Sunday. Unfortunately, some personal business had to be taken care of, so we only made it out to Battle Ground.

Admittedly, I also got so rapped up in scooping out their business that I didn’t always pay attention to the wine, but when it comes to grape wine, how often do I actually comment on it?

We first went to Heisen House Vineyards, which is a historical site in which they are trying to restore an old barn to turn it into their operation. At the moment, they have a nice covered area in which it looks like they do their crushing on, and then a small tasting room. I liked the rustic feel, and it was very private picnic friendly. As far as the tasting went, there was a melot, Cabernet, sangiovese, tempranillo, with a white sparkling wine to finish. All of the red wines were paired with usually a dark chocolate made by Lindt, and the white sparkling wine was paired with a Lindt white chocolate. There were some crackers, meat, cheese, and some small chocolate cupcakes set out.

Our next stop was Olequa Cellars, which is a private residence that has a few grapes and has built a small tasting room on the property. Apparently, they are open maybe once a month, and together we joked about the lack of parking. They served us three chardonnays with lemon or Irish cream chocolates, and then a leon millot, cabernet, and two syrahs with raspberry or plan dark chocolate. The chocolates were Peggy’s Handmade Chocolates, and were available for sale. The leon millot was the only wine we bought on our trip, as it was a lighter bodied red with strong cherry tones. Olequa Cellars also had the cheapest pricing of the three wineries, and was very comparable to grocery store prices. They didn’t put foil on their product, they work in small volumes that probably take less labor, and coupled with the limited tasting room hours, the labor savings probably helps keep prices down.

Our last stop of the day was at the Rusty Grape Vineyard, which was very crowded, partly due to their growth and marketing. They had invited Majestic Chocolates back from the year before, who served a little tiny spoon’s worth of chocolate upon request, which had been previously selected for the pairing. This was the best and most enjoyable wine and chocolate pairing of the wineries we went to. At the Rusty Grape Vineyard, we tasted a Riesling, seven reds, and an tasty orange muscat and an off balance blackberry dessert wine. Admittedly, recently I’ve grown tired of chardonnays, as it seems like everyone has one, so it was kind of refreshing that the one white table wine that they had was not a chardonnay.

One thing I observed was that the chocolate really seemed to enhance the wine if paired properly, but I didn’t really ever have a moment where I thought that the wine enhanced the chocolate.

The other thing to note was that we sampled 22 different wines at three wineries, with 15 of them being reds. That is too many wines, and I did feel the effects. 15 wines total would have probably been better. If you ask me to really talk about any of them, I couldn’t say much about the reds because they all sort of end up being the same to me after a bit, where as the whites and dessert wines were different, and therefore I can remember them. Call me lazy or call me an amateur, but it is the things that are different, or in this case the non-reds, that are going to be rememberable. Which means, for me, being a cider house among eleven wineries in Clark County will make my product different and customers will remember. Now lets hope my business is worth remembering!

Review of 2011 Wine and Chocolate Weekend, Part I

Behold the power of the websites. There are eleven wineries in Clark County which band together three times a year for some major tasting events. This last weekend was the Valentine’s Wine and Chocolate Tour. Going to eleven wineries in one weekend is difficult to do as 1) it gets expensive, 2) is a lot of driving, 3) requires you to only spend one hour per winery including driving time, 4) is difficult to process that much wine that quickly, and 5) after awhile, everything tastes good or the same as the last wine because your taste buds are shot. I needed some way to pare the list down, and “Behold the power of the websites.” Their websites dictated if I even made it in the door.

One winery offered up a chocolate class, which sounded like a neat idea until I looked at the price tag. Also, their tasting was $10, while everyone else listed $5. Maybe their wine is worth the extra money, but I decided to pass. The next winery hadn’t updated their website since mid-January to even list this event, and considering how they had set out boxes of chocolates last year that left me unimpressed, it was added to the skip list. Winery #3 was teaming up with a bakery to serve cupcakes, especially a chocolate cupcake with frosting made with some of the wine from the winery. I was tickled by this, but I’m not a baked chocolate gal, and was not impressed when I had that the year before. The next website was vague, stating that it had perfectly paired artisan wines and chocolates for the weekend. The next website to hit the “do not go” list only advertised their music. I had been to an event there before, which had good music and good good, so I did not doubt that it would be fun, but I wasn’t intrigued. The next winery is by appointment only, and I don’t think they participate in events like this one. The last rejected winery was because they also don’t update their website for events like this.

What did grab my attention? Winery #5 was a winner, Olequa Cellars, as I had never been there before, and they were pairing their wines with Peggy’s handmade chocolates. The next one on the list was the Rusty Grape Vineyard, which I am a sucker for because of the owners. We poured for them last year at this event, and they had they best chocolate pairing of the wineries we went to that day with Majestic Chocolates from Portland, OR, which they were bringing back. Admittedly, Heisen House Vineyards was another vague in regards to the chocolate and wine pairings, but they promised, “At Heisen House we’ll be sharing the secrets of creating the perfect wine and chocolate pairing and will combine a unique confection with each of our wines to illustrate how when paired correctly, both are even better!” This sounded exactly like what happened at the Rusty Grape Vineyard last year, so they had my attention even though it wasn’t specific. I had also never been there, so another reason to go. The last winery, English Estates, was another one I had not yet been to. They were teaming up with Missionary Chocolates to serve truffles, and they also offered to have a photo taken of you and your sweetheart to take home.

That gave me a list of four wineries to visit over two days.

Drink Review: E. Z. Orchards Cidre

On February 3, cidermaker Kevin Zielinski of E. Z. Orchards Cidre did a tasting at Bushwhacker Cider, which has since grown into a nice little neighborhood pub.

Zielinski was pouring his 2009 vintage. It is a nice amber gem color, though slightly hazy because it is bottle conditioned naturally carbonated but the excess lees the carbonation produces was not removed. It has an excellent and strong aroma. The flavor is very pleasant, though between alcohol, sugar, and acid, sugar is the dominate flavor, though it is probably an off dry. It has a very pleasant mouth feel, and no lingering aftertaste. It is incredibility easy to drink, and may become my new favorite craft cider.

Zielinski says he does not use sulfites, does not filter, and does not pasteurize, and so far has not had a problem with shelf stability here in the Pacific Northwest. He added that he had not lost a batch to spoilage from not using sulfites due to using good fruit and cleanliness, though he has lost batches due to cider maker mistakes.

Zielinski had the foresight to plant cider apple trees in his orchard in 2000, and he began making cider in 2003. He said he would do a single crush, but then split the juice four ways to run various experiments, such as temperature differences during fermentation or different yeasts. He said in 2007, he felt he finally had a commercial worthy product, which he then repeated in 2008, which lead him to become licensed in time for the 2009 vintage, which is now on sale for $12 a bottle. He only makes one cider style, which is done in a French method, which he said he found does not work on dessert style apples.

We were asking him a little about his orchard, and the advice he had was to first find out the growing habits of the trees, as some are more vigorous than others. Next, he said to find out the tree’s retention. That is, does the apple have a short stem, so it is likely to be squeezed off the tree in the first windstorm? The United States, due to E. Coli outbreaks on dropped fruit, does not permit the use of dropped fruit for anything, even though there is enough evidence that E. Coli does not survive fermentation. However, an apple that stays on the tree longer is also more likely to have more sugar and will have better flavor. Zielinski added that he actually picks his fruit and then puts it into cold storage, and then crushes and presses all the fruit at once in January.

Chocolate and Cider Ponderings

This coming weekend is the Chocolate and Wine Tasting Weekend here in my area. We had a lot of fun doing it last year, and have several wineries planned out to visit this year. But the whole thing got me thinking – this is the market in which I would open up my cider house, so I would be a vendor participating in the Chocolate and Wine Tasting Weekend. What chocolate would I pair with cider? Pondering it, pairing chocolate and cider doesn’t seem to come as easy as pairing chocolate and red wine.

I put the question to the Cider Workshop, and got mixed responses. Some say they wouldn’t do the pairing, and others say it is possible. Dries Muylaert suggested drinking first and then eating the chocolate, pairing a heavy tannin ciders with light chocolates, and Claude Jolicoeur added to have a heavy chocolate with lighter ciders. All this talk got me thinking about either buying a whole bunch of chocolate for experimenting with cider, or making fudge where I could control the flavors. I decided to try making fudge.

Now, I have never made fudge before. I did some reading on the internet, and somewhere I read that for beginners, recipes that call for condensed milk or marshmallow cream will come out smooth without much hassle. Some recipes require a candy thermometer. Poking around, I settled on a fudge recipe done in the microwave, without a thermometer. I think I had the whole thing done and in the refrigerator in 10 minutes. It may not be the best fudge in the world, but it is a good starting point. I should add that I discovered that one 12 oz bag of chocolate chips is 2 cups.

I think if I got more experienced at making fudge, I would add some cider. One cidermaker on the Cider Workshop did say that he made a fig/calvados/marzipan/chocolate dessert. Also, I had a cousin studying in Spain for awhile, and rather than trying to figure out how to bring me home a bottle of Spanish cider, she brought me home a bar of “Chocolate con leche y sidra” (chocolate with milk and cider) made by Sabores del Campo. So making a chocolate with cider is a possibility.

Further Readings:

• Local vintners offer wine, chocolate tasting for Valentine’s weekend (2010 article)
• Chocolate & Wine (and Beer) tastings around Washington
• Strongbow Hard Cider Cupcakes (with chocolate frosting)
• Match Game: Pairing Wine and Chocolate