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CALL: 1.800.338.6071 FAX: 831.338.9111 EMAIL: |
WINE CLUB NEWS Spring 2004 for a PDF Version click HERE The latest Wine Club tasting selections are:
2001 AHLGREN Pinot Noir Monterey, Ventana Vineyards
2001 AHLGREN Syrah Monterey, Ventana Vineyards
2000 AHLGREN Cabernet Sauvignon Santa Cruz Mountains, Bates' Ranch
Spring has rapidly given way to Summer. By the time you receive this, Spring 2004 will likely be just a fond memory. We regret the delay, but things here at Ahlgren Vineyard have been busy in the extreme. Additionally, federal label approval has been very much slower than usual. Our apologies. We hope the wines make up for the wait.
2001 AHLGREN Pinot Noir, Monterey, Ventana Vineyards
This is the first Pinot Noir to be shipped as an Ahlgren Wine Club selection. In 2000, we produced our very first Pinot Noir, only one barrel. Those grapes came from the Santa Cruz Mountains. Since the mountain Pinot was not available in 2001 or 2002, we chose to go to Doug Meador for his Ventana grapes, continuing our journey with this grape. As we made the two first Pinots, Santa Cruz Mountains and Ventana, we worked to develop our approach to the grape, and it is different from our approach to the other red varieties. We destem Pinot directly into half ton fermentors. No crushing. No pumping. With Pinot, one of several challenges the winemaker faces is avoiding excessive extraction of tannins that mask fruit flavors. Proper ripening and gentle handling are key. Since we avoid crushing, destemming is depended upon to open the berries, preparing for fermentation. Maceration of the skins that leads to excess tannin extraction is thereby avoided. The small size of the fermentor insures that heat generated by fermentation dissipates, giving us the cool fermentation we are looking for in Pinot. Pinot Noir wants to ferment quickly, but cool and slow makes for greater opportunity to extract color and flavors. Some winemakers add dry ice to the must to chill it further, but in our experiment, we did not see any benefit. So we have adopted the practice of using the small fermentors, frequent and gentle punching of the cap, depending on the cool fall nights and moderate days to give us just the temperatures we want. After fermentation, Ahlgren Pinot Noir is aged in French oak. This 2001 Ahlgren Ventana Pinot Noir is soft and elegant; the bouquet suggests hints of flowers and spice. If wines can possibly be masculine or feminine, this one is a lady. It is balanced and round with flavors that are fruity and hint of cherries. The finish is long, bright and complex. This is a wine that will enhance seafood, chicken, and light fare. Unfined and unfiltered. Bottled 9/17/03. 153 cases produced, 750 ml. 17 boxes of 375ml. We find that our old refrain of decant and bring the wine to room temperature applies strongly to this wine. The body and flavors develop with air. That is certain. $25.00 per bottle (750 ml.) Club Member price per bottle-10% $22.50 Club Member 12 bottle price - 15% $21.29
2001 AHLGREN Syrah Monterey, Ventana More grapes from Doug Meador's Ventana! In our quest for Syrah, the Ventana grapes won out. The wine is so complex and full-bodied, that it became the favorite. This 2001 Syrah has incredible color: deep and dark. It has a fruity bouquet, exhibiting that classic hint of varietal smokiness. In the mouth, it is balanced and has bright spicy flavors, rich and complex. The finish is long and fine. Unfined and unfiltered. Bottled 8/20/03. 628 cases produced. This wine goes especially well with grilled meats and with our favorite quirky match: pastrami on rye with purple onions, dill, mustard and creamy horseradish. Yum! $24.00 per bottle Club Member price per bottle-10% $21.60 Club Member 12 bottle price - 15% $20.40
2000 AHLGREN Cabernet Sauvignon Santa Cruz Mountains, Bates' Ranch
The reputation of Bates' Ranch grapes is well established. 2000 was a vintage when grapes in some vineyards did not easily achieve optimum ripeness, but Bates' came through with balanced development plus good maturity and ripeness at harvest. The wine has the typically complex Bates' bouquet: dusty, earthy, berry, flowery, and elegant. In the mouth, it exhibits silky, rich, forward fruit flavors. It has fine balance, by which we mean that flavors fill every part of the mouth and palate. The finish is long with hints of chocolate. A sophisticated Cabernet. Unfined and Unfiltered. Bottled 8/14/02. 481 cases produced. This wine will go with almost any menu from salmon to grilled steak.
$30.00 per bottle. Club Member price per bottle - 10% $27.00 per bottle. Club Member 12 bottle price - 15% $25.50 per bottle
OTHER WINES: We have not been saying much in public about the 2000 Ahlgren Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir, because there is so little of it. Only 27 cases were made and that has been saved for Wine Club Members and family. The wine continues to improve beautifully in the bottle, rich and fruity with very nice color and distinct Pinot Noir character.
THE RANT ON DECANT CONTINUES: We are reminded every time we open a bottle of our red wine, taste, and then decant and taste again, that Ahlgren reds, and especially Pinot Noirs respond dramatically to decanting. Be advised: These Pinots will reward you well, if you make certain the temperature is between 65º and 70º. As we mentioned in the last edition, we recently took a trip and had a bottle with us in the car and the hotel room. Although it never got hot, it was definitely up from cellar temperature. When we were on our way home, we opened it for a picnic dinner in our motel, and were delighted by how lovely it was. Even though not decanted, the gentle warming over the course of four or five days had brought out beauties we had not before seen in this wine, to this degree. (We definitely recommend decanting as well as warming if you are in a position to have a decanter at hand.) If you first pull the cork and taste, and next decant swirl and taste, you will experience the opening of bouquet and flavors in air and warmth. It is a notable and wonderful delight to behold. Without heeding our advice on warming and airing, you will likely have a less satisfying experience instead of a lovely one when it comes to these well structured red wines. Young or old, they have been closed away from air for many months or many years.
2000 AHLGREN S.C. MTS. PINOT NOIR: There is precious little left of the 27 cases of Ahlgren Santa Cruz Pinot Noir made in 2000. Two bottle limit. $35.00 per bottle. Club Member price per bottle - 10% $31.50 per bottle.
NON-VINTAGE AHLGREN ZINFANDEL, Central Coast This wine is made from Santa Clara County and Paso Robles Zinfandel grapes, a blend of vintages 1999 and 2000. It has relatively low alcohol for an Ahlgren Zin, 13%, with good acids that combine to make it a very pleasant food wine. It has a bright, lively, intense and aromatic bouquet; balanced flavors with a berry finish. Unfined and unfiltered. 516 cases produced.
$17.00 per bottle. Club Member price per bottle - 10% $15.30 per bottle. Club Member 12 bottle price - 15% $14.45 per bottle.
ADDITIONAL WINES AVAILABLE: Some in very limited quantities. Club Member discounts apply to the following retail prices, (See accompanying order sheet.)
Regular Wine Club discounts apply to the wine below: 1998 AHLGREN Tre Vini Rossi™, Santa Cruz Mts. $15.00 (The Tre Vini continues to show remarkable development with time in the bottle. It is very European in style, the Nebbiolo in the blend shows through nicely. It is a good food wine as well as a good buy.) 2000 AHLGREN Syrah, Paso Robles, $20.00 1999 AHLGREN Cab. Sauv. Bates' Ranch $29.00 2001 AHLGREN Syrah Ventana $24.00 2000 AHLGREN Semillon $16.50 2000 AHLGREN Cab. Franc, Bates' $26.00 2000 AHLGREN Merlot $26.00 2000 AHLGREN Nebbiolo, Harvest Moon $26.00
A VERY BIG SPECIAL: Cab. Sauv, Harvest Moon $14.00 (No additional discounts on the this H.M. Cab.) A bit lighter than the '98 Bates'. This wine is tasting very well with its six years of bottle age.
WE ARE ANTICIPATING THE UPCOMING LIBRARY WINE AND CELLAR SALE FOR LATER THIS YEAR. YOU WILL RECEIVE A CARD WHEN THE DATE IS FINALIZED.
MORE ON PINOT NOIR: This past vintage, 2003, saw us return to the Santa Cruz Mountains for our Pinot grapes. A new five acre vineyard at Richard and Diane Klein's in the hills above Aptos came into fruit. The wine is in French oak, and is most promising: lots of fruit, very good Pinot color, and balanced tannins. We look forward to a long and happy relationship between the Kleins' vineyard and Ahlgren Vineyard.
ADVENTURES AT AHLGREN VINEYARD : Hummingbirds! So far this season, these little beasts have consumed fifty pounds of sugar made up as nectar and they are going on sixty. They are as thick as flies around the two feeders, and a delight to watch. We see Annas and Allens. Some of the Annas live here year round but others, and all of the Allens are migratory. Hummingbirds migrate very long distances, as far as 16,000 miles, we understand. So, Dexter is running a fueling station, and what a treat it is. As reported in the past, Val has given up trying to get rid of the gophers. The current system is this: keep the weeds and cover crop down. That allows the real professionals, hawks, owls, coyotes, bobcats, even cougar and foxes to really do their job. And then do some biodynamic mumbo jumbo. There are now far fewer gophers than when they were actively campaigned against. Now, we wonder about the mole activity! Lots of coyote song in the spring. Redtailed and red shouldered hawks as usual, along with the usual cast of avian characters. Baby quail have hatched and are on the march. The madrone trees and toyons produced fabulous blossoms this year, so a big berry crop is anticipated come fall. Robins and Cedar Waxwings are probably making Fall travel plans. The grapes also look wonderful. Although it is too early to really tell, the first harvest of our little acre of Pinot Noir looks very promising.
LOW CARB WINES? There are a number of recent articles stating that low carb wines are about to be marketed, but that they have actually always been around. Dry wines are, in fact, low carb. Easy to wrap our minds around that one! We are enclosing a copy of an interesting article on wine nutrition found at Robin Garr's web page www.wineloverspage.com/wines/nutrition.shtml.
As a Wine Club Member, your credit card information is on file here, so you can simply fax or email us your orders, or just give us a call. No need to worry about online security. Just let us know what you want shipped. We can run the charge using your credit card number on file here, and the wine will be on its way. Or, to fax an order, you can use the enclosed order form, or download the order form from the web site, fill it in, and fax it on to us. Tell a friend! They can download the order form and/or the Wine Club Application directly from the web page, or they can give us a call. To contact us directly: Long distance: 1-800-338-6071; fax 1-831-338-9111. Local phone: 831-338-6071; email ahlgren@ahlgrenvineyard.com. Unless excessively hot or cold weather indicates otherwise, we ship at the beginning of each week so that wines arrive before the weekend.
PICK UP AND DELIVERY: Some members, for whom it is convenient, choose to pick up their Wine Club packages at the winery on a Saturday afternoon during our tasting hours. This makes for an opportunity to taste, talk, and enjoy the ever gorgeous view. For those of you who pick up at the winery, we are now packing your wines in boxes so that they are ready to go when you arrive. Due to very limited storage space here at the winery, if you do not pick up your wine before the next shipment is ready, we will ship the previous box on to you. We will give you a call before doing so, however.
TASTINGS AND SALES: SATURDAYS 12-4 AT THE WINERY It is great time to visit, pick up your Wine Club packages, and taste some current releases. Bring a friend. Send a friend.
That's all for now.
SALUD! CHEERS! À VOTRE SANTÈ, PAX!
Dexter & Val Ahlgren P.S. We will be listing the winery for sale very soon. Come visit us.
GOVERNMENT WARNING: (1) ACCORDING TO THE SURGEON GENERAL, WOMEN SHOULD NOT DRINK ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES DURING PREGNANCY BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF BIRTH DEFECTS. (2) CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES IMPAIRS YOUR ABILITY TO DRIVE A CAR OR OPERATE MACHINERY, AND MAY CAUSE HEALTH PROBLEMS." P.S. AGAIN -- OLD NEWS:
Val was digging around "decluttering" in her own personal Sell This House reality project when she came across a bottle of Ahlgren 1976 Chardonnay, Monterey, our first Chardonnay from our first commercial vintage. The bottle had a little mailing sticker on it designating the contents, and we thought there was no chance it could be good. The cork had been leaking; the bottle was sticky, the ullage was considerable. The level of the wine well down into the shoulder of the bottle. First, we just took a little taste. Color was good, but there was a very slight hint of oxidation, but nothing that would cause you to dump out a very old wine. Considering the age (28 years old), condition of the cork, and the amount of wine that had been lost to leakage, a lot of oxidation in this white wine was to be expected. A little oxidation was surprising. With other things to do, we recorked the bottle by simply stuffing in a used cork, and then put the bottle in the refrigerator. Next evening, daughter Beth and son-in-law Matt were here, and we said, "Have a taste of this," offering it as more of an historical curiosity than a serious wine to taste. The wine was very different. Gone was any hint of oxidation. The bouquet was fresh and clean with hints of botrytis, giving a lovely overtone of honey. Color was clean with no hint of brown. Flavors were bright, and balanced, wonderfully complex, inspiring us to keep Val hunting through odds and ends of wine stored in our closets, pantry and any other possible sites of buried treasure. We keep our eyes open as we sort through the old wines for the upcoming Library and Cellar Sale, date to be determined.
Bye again,
The Ahlgrens
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