These past few weeks seem like they are anything but calm. They’ve been packed with pre-harvest meetings and get togethers with friends that I’m not likely to see until harvest is over. One of the highlights was a tasting class I taught down at Cellar 360 in San Francisco. We had a great turn out and tasted through some fantastic wines.
Cellar No. 8 Sonoma County Chardonnay (Black Label)
Buttery Beauty
See post here for tasting notes. http://novacadamatre.com/?p=98
Souverain 1997 Stulmuller Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Elegant and Floral
Souverain 2006 Stulmuller Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Power Punch
Both of these wines were holding up very well. The 05 was much more forward fresh fruit of raspberry and boysenberry while the ’97 as would be expected was more dried cherries and currants with silky soft tannins.
Souverain 2001 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Power Punch
Souverain 2006 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Power Punch
These wines were both powerful with chalky ripe tannins and intense blackberry notes. The 2001 showed a bit of dried sage on the nose while the 05 was almost all blackberries and spice.
Souverain 1997 Winemaker’s Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Spicy and Smokey
Souverain 2006 Winemaker’s Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Power Punch
The older vintage of this wine is so wonderful right now. It has velvety soft tannins, spicy notes, and lush fruits with charming hints of chocolate and coffee. The ’05 was much more intense with dark chocolate tannins, blue and black berries, fresh oregano, and baking spices.
It just goes to show what a little patience can do when aging a wine.
The discussions of the night ranged from how to tell how long a wine would age to the old stand-by “Why does wine give me headaches? Is it the sulfites?”
So…Why does wine give you headaches? Is it the sulfites???
First ask yourself do you generally get headaches more with red or white wines?
If you answered red then the answer to the sulfite question is No! Sulfites are typically higher in white wines so if you answered whites you may have a low level sulfite reaction. High level sulfite reactions are very similar to reactions to bee-stings with a wide range of unpleasant symptoms so you absolutely would know if this is the problem. Only about .5% of the entire population actually has a sulfite reaction so this is unlikely to be the culprit.
So the question then becomes why do red wines give you headaches??? This is because of the Malo-lactic (ML) fermentation that most red wines and some whites (mainly Chardonnay) goes through to develop softer mouthfeel and the buttery character in Chardonnay that is so popular. The bacteria that complete the fermentation give off biogenic amines, a type of histamine, which your body reacts to similar to hay fever or other allergies. Most of the time, the results are mild and go away quite quickly. If it becomes problematic but you still want to enjoy wines, seek out wines that have not gone through ML. This would be most whites and early released red wines like Beaujolais Nouveau.
Quick Harvest Update…
Well it looks like grapes will begin arriving in about 2 weeks to Asti. The cool weather has been very aggravating and has delayed the fruit quite a bit. I’ve seen trees beginning their fall color change as well as geese beginning to flock for their annual migration, all signs of an early winter. That is very bad. The only saving grace we may have would come from an Indian summer. Let’s hope it warms up soon.
