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The very steep Basarin vineyard

Monday October 5th, abortion 2009

Today we woke up around 7:30 to harvest the last of the two vineyards, doctor the Basarin.  The Basarin vineyard is located in Neive, (Barbaresco commune) and is owned by Vittorio and Marco Adriano of the Azienda Agricola Adriano.  The vineyard  is quite steep at 40% and is facing South East.  In total we harvested 2863 kilos of grapes from this vineyard which took us around 3.5 hours.

Compared to the Felice vineyard, it was easier to harvest because the grapes were more easily accessible on the vines and there was a little less selecting necessary because overall, they were healthier than the Felice grapes. The Nebbiolo vines in this vineyard are actually clippings from the Felice vineyard and were planted here in around 1993 (compared to 1971 for the Felice). Due to the difference in location and soil and overall “terroir”, we found the grapes from Basarin to be more structured, with more tannins and acidity than the Felice grapes which were more feminine and elegant.

77 Year-old Sig. Adriano helping with the harvest

Frederik Kolderup doing his part

As soon as the fermentation really begins and the alcohol starts to go up a bit, we will pump over (gently) and blend so that the two vineyards are fermented together. In our opinion they will better integrate if they are blending during fermentation rather than blending post fermentation. The idea here is to get the elegance and femininity from Felice and structure and tannins from Basarin. So far we are very pleased with the fact that we’ve had spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeasts without the use of sulfur!

After our lunch break, we put the grapes into the destemer and pumped the grapes into our second cement container of 25 hl. Before doing this, we added about 500 liters of fermenting must from Felice as a starter. The 25hl tank quickly filled up so we pumped the rest of the grapes into a 750 liter open top plastic container, exactly like the one Frank Cornelissen uses in Mount Etna.  To this plastic container we also added about 50 liters of the fermenting Felice vineyard juice.

Basarin grapes pumped into 7000 liter plastic container

Fermenting Felice Nebbiolo juice

Jørgen tasting the fermenting Felice Nebbiolo juice

We also took the opportunity to taste the juice from the first cement tank containing the Felice grapes… Very good indeed! Hints of alcohol starting to show (most likely only 1% at this point). It was super sweet and even had some mild tannins already.

Harvesting Nebbiolo in Basarin Vineyard in Barbaresco from vinosseur on Vimeo.

Sunday October 4th, 2009

Sunday was another quiet day – Cleaned the destemmer and prepared for tomorrow’s second harvest.

Lunch at Carussin where we drank another wine made by Igino Garberoglio– a 1985 Barbera d’Asti bottled the year that his grandson Luca was born. If you are following these latest posts, you know that the wines of Igino are not labeled, but this was a special label he made for this bottle.  Most likely not stored in the best of conditions since it was in the dining area of the Carussin  house. This being said, it was still quite fresh,  acidic and full of life with slight oxidative notes – very drinkable indeed.

We also had the chance to taste a spontaneously fermented Moscato d’Asti from 1984 made by Bruna’s uncle Carlo. Bottled in the then typical 720ml bottle (compared to today’s 750ml wine bottle). Smelled of steel, oxidized honey and hints of caramelized lemon peel. Similar flavors were found on the mouth with still a slight sparkle left. A bit over the top, but interesting to taste none the less. This was stored in the Carussin cellar.

After lunch went back to check on our freshly fermenting wine and moistened the cap – the “protective” layer of grape skins that forms on top of the grape juice. As the juice begins to ferment, it expands and the cement tank which was about 80% to the top has now risen to about 95-98% full. As wine ferments, carbon dioxide is released.  To confirm the wine has begun fermenting in the early stages, one can light a candle or match and bring it down towards the fermenting grapes and it will burn out due to the lack of oxygen. Once the wine really begins to ferment there is no mistaking as the bubbling sound will be quite loud!

Igino pushing down the cap a bit to keep it moist

After moistening the cap, Igino pulled out another of his wines – a Brachetto vinfied dry and without bubbles!  Normally a Brachetto is a sweet sparkling wine that has about 5-6% alcohol by volume and is very enjoyable with fresh strawberries. This version was completely dry and had no bubbles. Very interesting indeed with the typical Brachetto aromas of wild strawberries and Campari but very dry and around 12% alcohol.

Igino's wonderful spontaneously fermented wines - dry Brachetto on the right

We then headed back over to Carussin’s and cleaned the containers for the harvest of Basarin tomorrow morning.

Fredrik, AKA "Frisbee" checking out the freshly fermenting Nebbiolo must!

Saturday October 3rd, 2009

• Fermentation begins spontaneously after 24 hours!
• No added yeasts!
• No added sulfur!

Yeeehaaa! It couldn’t have been easier than simply sourcing healthy grapes that have been grown in an organic manner, hand harvested/selected and crushed. The rest we left up to mother nature! Simple! Pump up the volume and click the “Fermenting Nebbiolo Sounds”  below and hear for yourself!

Fermenting Nebbiolo Sounds

Friday October 3rd, 2009

Signage on dirt road on the way to vineyard

Felice Grasso greeting us after harvest and looking proud

Today we’re on our way to harvest the Felice vineyard in San Rocco Seno d’Elvio (Barbaresco commune), owned by Felice Grasso. Our part of the vineyard was the part that was higher up. We were to harvest approximately 0.7ha.

It was a beautiful, warm sunny day. Fortunately we had the help of about 4 others, so in total we were 7 people up until lunch time. The grapes were beautiful and extremely healthy. There was barely any rot, I would say less than 0.5% (perhaps even less). The grapes were juicy, balanced and extremely healthy. Jørgen, one of the leaders of this wine making project, had harvested this vineyard before, but it had been around 10 years ago. In his opinion, it was one of the finest vineyards in the Barbaresco area producing extremely elegant wines.

During the days leading up to the harvest and including the day of the harvest, Jørgen had made numerous phone calls to other wine makers to pose the sulfur question.  They pretty much all had the same thing to say: you should use some sulfur at the very beginning to help the fermentation begin in a healthy way. However, we really wanted to make this wine without the use of any sulfur at all, so during lunch we decided that because the grapes were so healthy, we would take the risk and let the grapes begin fermentation spontaneously without the addition of sulfur or yeast.

After lunch, we headed back to the vineyard to finish the harvest. We finished at around 18:00, carefully piled the containers in the truck and headed to the scales to weight the grapes. We had harvested approximately 3600 kilos of healthy grapes from the 0.7ha vineyard. This would give us about 2800 bottles of wine from this vineyard alone. We then drove the grapes back to the winery where we would make this wine. Since the winery was not in the Barbaresco commune (it was in the Asti commune) we could not label this wine as a Barbaresco DOCG. In fact, this wine is going to be a VdT (Vino da Tavola). On a Vdt wine label you are not allowed to put the name of the grape or the vintage.

Once back at the winery we started to dump the containers into the small destemer. This machine removes the grapes from the stems and “crushes” them lightly. The grape must was then pumped down a tube into one of the cement containers. We filled the 30hl container and part of a 7hl with this harvest. The must was beautiful and sweet. We partly filled a wine bottle with the must to be analyzed the next morning for the potential alcohol. Now all there is left to do is to wait for the grapes to spontaneously ferment which should happen tomorrow or the next day.

Harvesting Nebbiolo in Felice Vineyard in Barbaresco from vinosseur on Vimeo.

Thursday October 2nd, capsule 2009

I want to apologize for the amount of time it has taken me to post part III of this story. We have major difficulties connecting to a wireless service. But alas, cialis here is Part III. There will be more parts to this story, dosage so be patient as I will post them as soon as possible!

We started the day around 10:00 by cleaning three cement (30hl, 25hl & 7hl) tanks located in a wine cellar dating to around 1880.  We used a high powered water hose to rinse them and a brush to get them really clean.

Igino's 2007 Skin macerated Favorita

After completing the cleaning of the tanks, we sat down for a small break with Igino and he poured his 2007 Favoirta for us to taste. This was a white wine with about 15 days of skin contact so it was orange in color. It sparkled as he poured it into our glass. The wine was not so aromatic on the nose, perhaps it was the glass we used. But on the palate, the wine had  great depth, a medium tannic structure, a slight sparkle and an alcohol in the area of about 14%. The wine was bone dry and really long and quite interesting. He only made 60 bottles. My favorite of his wines so far.

Jørgen unloading the plastic containers

After lunch, we took 160 plastic containers (with a capacity of 23 kilos each) and dropped them off at the “Felice” vineyard so that we would have them ready for our harvest tomorrow. The vineyard is in San Rocco Seno d’Elvio, Barbaresco and is perched up a small hill behind the house of Felice Grasso, the vineyard owner.  It was planted in 1971 when he got married. The vineyards are cared for organically.  A small amount of copper and sulfur (the Bordeaux mix) was applied three times throughout the year. Last time was over two months ago  (by law in Italy you cannot pass through the vineyard with the Bordeaux mix  within 28 days of harvest). We tasted the (free of pesticide) Nebbiolo grapes and they were excellent. Sweet, acidic and tannic. Ready to go!

That evening we had a big family dinner with everybody since Igino’s wife Irma was celebrating her 73^rd birthday!

Wednesday October 1st, 2009

So we landed at Linate Airport (Milano) at around 11:46 this morning, and Jørgen was outside waiting for us in the rented FIAT 16. It was 26°C  degrees and sunny; a welcome change from the 8°C degrees and rain in Bergen.

Our first stop was at Ca’ d Carussin in Asti. Just to refresh your memory, they are the ones who produce the wonderful Barbera d’ Asti Asinoi and Barbera d’ Asti Lia Vi.  Their total production is around 90,000 bottles, 100% Biodynamic, and everything including their Moscato d’ Asti is spontaneously fermented using indigenous yeasts. The only fermentation/storage containers to be seen were made of cement, steel or fiberglass.

Upon arrival we were greeted by the entire Ca d’ Carussin family – Luigi (Garberoglio) and Bruna Ferro and their grown children Luca and Matteo, who were busy in the “cantina” working on the vintage (the harvest) which had just been completed that day.  We chatted with them for a few hours, sipped on coffee made with a very old stove-top Moka while cats, dogs, birds a mouse and of course donkeys (jackasses) wandered around the premises. In fact, Bruna is very affectionate of her animals, especially her jackasses (“asini” in Italian) and went on to explain to me that they are misunderstood creatures. She told me that although we consider them to be “dumb” or simple creatures, they are in fact quite smart and complex creatures who have a knack for sensing danger and won’t do anything  they don’t understand. Hence the name of this wine, Asinoi. A play with words which means “we are jackasses”. Also signifying that the wine is simple, yet complex. Not unlike the jackass.

We then headed over to Luigi Garberoglio parents “country” house and “winery” where we were greeted by Igino Garberoglio, Luigi’s father. We found Igino in his miniature wine-cellar making his own wine. The 75 year-old Igino makes about 200 bottles of wine in a most natural way. He farms organically and uses only a teaspoon of sulfur during the process. He proclaims that he makes “real wine” like he was taught as a youngster. He then bottles without filtration of course and forget about the labels – he has none. He makes this wine for himself and some close friends.

We had a small two-minute tour of his “winery” and then sat down in the kitchen. He ran back to the cellar and came back with a few bottles of the wine he calls “Borgogno”. He was uncertain of the grape variety, even after analysis. He however was quite certain that it was at least partly Pinot Nero but displaying some aromatics which made him uncertain  – we agreed with his assessment.  He poured the wine and it had a slight sparkle. That quickly burnt off. This was a serious wine with quite complex aromas, good structure and concentration with a long fresh finish. We sipped this wine from traditional wine glasses as we snacked on fresh bread baked in a wood-burning stove with young, un-seasoned salami. It was wonderful.  And so our natural wine making experience has begun!

Now we are heading back to Luigi and Bruna’s house for a nice dinner! I have a feeling tomorrow will be a much harder day then today….

Tomorrow I begin my adventure in natural wine making as I head to Piemonte to help make a wine from the noble Nebbiolo grape. Our flight leaves Oslo at a (way too early) 6:30 in the morning through Stockholm then on to Linate (Milano).  Our first stop when we finally arrive in Piemonte Wednesday afternoon will be of course to drop off our bags, then immediately out to the vineyards to taste the grapes. We need to see how they are doing!

On Thursday morning, October 1st we will be up at 4:00 in the morning (again!) to prepare the area of vinification by building a temporary roof (picture a tent if you will) and we will clean and prepare the tanks which at this point I have to assume are made of cement or steel (I will fill you in on the details once I know).  We will be harvesting and selecting the grapes  by hand  from two single-vineyards: “Felice” in Neive (harvesting to begin Friday the 2nd of October) &  “Basarin”  in Barbaresco (Friday the 9th of October).  We will crush and the fermentation will occur spontaneously.  We will do all of this and eventually bottle this wine without (hopefully) the use of sulfur.

I don’t know any other details other than the ones I have shared here. I am not the one who has organized this process, but have been fortunate enough to have been included in it. I hope to be able to update everyone on a daily basis with my natural wine-making process, but I can only assume that the farm we will be staying at will not have internet, and therefore my daily progress may have to be posted after the fact, which I intend to do, photo’s included!

Please check back here as I will try and post here as soon as technologically possible!

In the meantime, enjoy some photo’s of the “Felice” vineyard in Neive:

Thank you La Clarine Farm!

Thank you La Clarine Farm!

Just had to share this website I found because the philosophy behind Hank and the La Clarine Farm seems to be exactly the philosophy I feel is so important  not only in wine making, site but in things not wine as well.

Please follow this link to see their Random Wine Thoughts about natural farming and natural wine making. Then browse the rest of their great website.  I could not have expressed my beliefs any better, salve so I will let them do it for me:

Random Wine Thoughts

There is a lot of talk, and words written, about natural wine these days and it seems to be all the rage.  I’m no exception to this as I have tasted quite a few natural wines, then written about them here.  I therefore felt compelled to write a few words about my thoughts on natural wines, including my definition of natural wine based on my experience and my beliefs.

Having visited Vini Veri, “Vino Vino Vino” in Verona earlier this year, I saw this trend in full swing.  Lots and lots of “natural” wines, many of which were not in my opinion well-made. Others didn’t fit my definition of natural.

I will begin with my definition of a natural wine:

A natural wine should be made first and foremost by a winemaker who has the right attitude and philosophy. It matters little to me whether or not the winemaker is certified organic or recognized by Demeter as biodynamic. I am not excluding these winemakers here, merely stating that getting certified or recognized by Demeter is sometimes not possible  due to vineyard treatments by neighbors or is sought out for the wrong reasons, like marketing rights or government subsidies.  Therefore, I feel that it is more important that the winemaker understands natural wine making and has the correct philosophy. The wine-maker wants to do the right thing.  It’s not important to me that the label states that the wine is biodynamic or organic.

Second, natural winemakers should never use pesticides in the vineyards. They should work as naturally as possible in the vineyards which can include green harvesting and canopy management.  It can include other measures to insure healthy plants which should in turn produce healthy grapes. They should even limit natural fertilizers whenever possible.  Biodiversity should be encouraged, not destroyed.

Wild boar footprints in the Roagna vineyards suggesting biodiversity - photo by Vinosseur

Third, the  grapes should be harvested by hand and not machine.  Hand selection of fully ripe and healthy grapes is an important step in producing a great wine.

Fourth, the grapes should then be crushed and left to macerate on the skins for an extended period of time before pressing to help stabilize the wine and preserve the wine once bottled.  This statement is not from personal wine-making experience but from my reading and talking to respected wine-makers.  Most of the natural wines I have tasted have had extended skin contact for the above mentioned reasons.

Fifth, the grapes should ferment with indigenous (wild) yeasts, not added (selected) yeasts.  Healthy grapes will have these indigenous yeasts on their skins.  I do feel however, that it’s ok to add a natural/neutral yeast to start the fermentation process if it does not commence on its own.  Natural wine makers whom I respect, have the right philosophy and work as naturally as possible have had to do this on occasion.

Six, the fermentation should take place without any artificial temperature control. Of course  the wine-maker may chose an ideal place to ferment the wine. If you are doing this in the cellar where the average temperature is quite constant, this is a sort of “temperature control”, and is ok in my opinion.

Grapes macerating in Amphorae. Photo courtesy of Doug Wregg of Les Caves de Pyrene

Seven, “oak” (barriques) should not be used.  When I speak of oak, I am referring to barrels smaller than 600 liters. Of course, it also depends on the age of the barrel. If the barrel is only 200 liters but is 100 years old, I suppose that there will be no influence on the wine except for the exchange of oxygen, and this is ok.  Oak, especially new, adds unwanted elements (flavors) to the wine and also softens tannins,  for these reasons I don’t think a wine is natural if it’s been fermented or stored in oak.  I want to clarify one thing here to those who might be reading this and thinking “this guy obviously hates oak”.  The point of this rule is that I am against the use of oak in natural wine because although oak comes from trees and in and of itself is a natural product, the oak is then toasted. Once the wine comes into contact with this finished barrel, the wine changes. I personally feel that this is completely unnatural. So, for my definition of natural wine, I feel that other fermentation/storage mediums should be used, like cement, amphorae, steel etc.

Eight, a natural wine should be neither fined nor filtered before bottling.  This in my opinion is an important rule. Why take anything from the wine?

Nine, a natural wine should not have any added sulfur. This is probably the most controversial point.  Many producers are adding only 10 or 12 mg of sulfur (10-12 ppm) at bottling, and I am grateful that less and less sulfur is being added to wine, but adding sulfur is not natural and therefore for me to consider a wine completely natural, there can be no added sulfur. This being said, even a wine with no added sulfur will still contain sulfur since it is a by-product of fermentation.  I also feel it important to mention that although in my definition of natural wine there can be no added sulfur, there are many great wine makers who add a few milligrams of sulfur at bottling and I enjoy these wines on a daily basis.

That’s  my definition of natural wine.  Therefore, with regards to this website,  I will never categorize a wine I taste as “natural” unless it adheres to the guidelines I have laid out above.  Many of the wines that I do not categorize as natural, may to others be regarded as natural.  I have to add that I do not and have not ever made wine, so I realize that my definition might seem rather simplified to some.

As with any trend, there are leaders, followers and imitators.  I feel the clear outspoken leader in the natural wine world is Frank Cornelissen from Mount Etna in Sicily. I have written about him and his wines more than once here on my website.  Another leader in my opinion is the Domaine Le Mazel in the Southern Rhone who have been making wines without the addition of Sulfur since 1998.  Although less well known than Cornelissen, their Cuvée Raoul is one of the greatest wines I have ever tasted.  I will do a thorough profile and tasting note on this wine on this site in the very near future.

There are the followers.  These are the great winemakers who are more recently involved in natural wine making and in my opinion are doing a great job and making huge strides towards excellence.  These wine makers also adhere to the above mentioned rules I feel should be followed.

Then there are the imitators which I saw plenty of at Vini Veri and continue to see on a daily basis.  For one, some of these wine makers insist on fermenting and storing their wines in oak (barriques). At times even using new oak.  How is this natural?  Now, I find it important to state again that I am not against the use of  oak.  I am simply against the use of oak in natural wine making.  I also want to state that I am not accusing these wines as being “bad”.   I have tasted many excellent wines which are almost natural and have been aged in oak.  And second, some of these natural wines are just poorly made.

Finally, I feel that some people just don’t understand natural wine.  I am happy that natural wines are becoming trendy, but as with any trend, there are many  bad copies.  Not all natural wines are good.  I may offend some people by these statements and this isn’t my intent at all. I am simply stating my opinion.  I welcome comments and an open dialogue with anyone who feels otherwise.

To sum up, natural wine should be fermented grape juice.  Nothing taken, nothing added.

Date tasted:  June 9th, 2009

I have written before about Frank Cornelissen.  To refresh your memory, click here for one of my previous tasting notes and more about Frank.

I may not have mentioned this before, but I feel very fortunate to live in Norway when it comes to wine.  We do get our hands on some pretty obscure and rare wines that very few other places in the world get.  This wine is no exception.  The 2002 was his second vintage in which he produced about 2000 bottles total between the 3 Magma’s and one Rosso del Contadino.  In this vintage, Frank Cornelissen produced 3 different single-vineyard bottling’s of the Magma 2.  The Calderara, Trefiletti and the Marchesa vineyards.  Approximately 1300 bottles of the Magma’s were produced.  That’s it.

The Marchesa vineyard is an ungrafted vineyard which is normally very sun exposed and has a good balance between tannins and density.  According to Frank, this was a “backward” vintage, and therefore the alcohol was rather low, even harvesting as late as November 2nd.  Harvest of the Nerello Mascalese grapes are done by hand and the grapes are foot trodden.  The wine was fermented in Amphorae buried in the ground up to the neck (to keep the Amphorae from exploding during fermentation).  Only indigenous yeasts are used of course, and the wine is left to macerate with the skins for between 5 and 6 months.  The wine is bottled directly from the Amphorae without fining nor filtration.  Nothing is added nor taken.  No added SO2.

504 bottles of the Magma 2 Marchesa were produced, approximately 150 came to Norway.  Like I said, I feel fortunate to live in Norway.  Price at time of release, 1000 Norwegian Kroner ($155).

Bottle opened at 22:45:

Appearance: Very light red but within 15 minutes darkening to a darkish purple, black then going back to red again within a few minutes.  This is certainly a “living wine”.

Nose: Crushed rose pedals, dark plums, rose hips. Very farmyard, especially dead sheep (the specific dead sheep comparison came from my two Norwegian friends who were tasting with me). Wild, sour, small cherries.  Hints of dark cocoa.  Hints of Macadamia nuts, eucalyptus.  Much more tight and precise than it was the first time I tasted this wine back in 2006. If you breath in deeply, hints of prune juice without the dried fruit aspect.

Palate: Extremely concentrated but very light and fresh with red fruit dominating.  Within a few seconds, the tannins arrived and held firmly.  None of us could sense the 13.7% alcohol, it was extremely well integrated.  The acidity was medium plus and very ripe and “sweet”, but the wine is bone dry.  Hints of plums that have been picked a week before being over ripe,  the fruit is very ripe.  No dried fruit evident.  Sour fruits.  Every sip seems different and has you going back for another.  The wine will most likely run out before we finish analyzing this bottle.  There is a slight nuttiness on the finish with super-ripe fruit that  lingers and these two aromas add incredible complexity to the wine.  One of the most fantastic and interesting wines I have ever tasted, again.

23:15:

Tannins really stepping up, but not dominating.  More nutty macadamia’s starting to show.

23:30:

This is the hard part of this entry, having to write and report the following:

The wine seems to be “dying”.  The finish seems to fade quickly now. The 3 tasters all agreed that the wine was now dead. Perhaps if we had waited, and if we had any wine left, the wine would have come back alive. I am not sure.  I should also mention that this wine was not stored perfectly.

To conclude, I feel that this wine will throw many old school wine people off.  I believe they will most likely say that the nutty aspects of the wine are signs of oxidation and therefore this wine is not a good wine, and therefore not well-made. This being said, you have to remember that when judging  a wine, you must do so as objectively as possible.  You cannot let your personal opinion of weather or not you like the wine enter into the equation.  There are many well-made wines that I just don’t like, that doesn’t change the fact that the wines are well made.

The facts about the Magma 2 Marchesa are that this wine is well made, has tremendous concentration, complex aromas both on the nose and palate, is extremely well-balanced and the finish seems to never end.  These are
facts that are undeniable and in my opinion reflect an excellent, well-made wine.  Don’t get distracted by the nutty aromas and forget the aforementioned quality attributes.

Translation of back label:

Ingredients:  Only Nerello Mascalese Grapes from the 2002 harvest without the addition of any other ingredient.

Attention:  This wine has not been modified.  It doesn’t contain stabilizers nor preservatives.  There will be a natural deposit because the wine has been bottled without filtration.  It’s important to store the bottle at temperature of less than 16°C  (60.8° F).  It’s recommended to not decant.