Winery_Times

Tony Coturri: Integrity, Honesty, Responsibility and Experience!

This article is a continuation of the last one. I am researching organic vineyards and the wine makers thereof and Coturri is this day's focus.  Tony has been there for 28 years and has always been an organic grower before organics were a popular style.

Well, as it is true in food, it is true in wine, if you want a quality product it is important to start with the basics!  Quality fruit is always the most important and fruit that has not been adulterated. Who wants poisons and toxins in their wine?  Is this a hard decision?

When you make wine organically you do not place things in it that would harm those that will consume it.  In this day of chemicals and chemists this not likely to be true of those that place profit above quality.

For instance, some less scrupulous individuals will add sulfuric acid (although it is illegal it is also undetectable) to lower PH and give a full mouth feel in wine, how about battery acid in your wine!?

In this day of corporate takeovers, with glitz and glamor, more time is often spent on the bottle and label than on the wine itself. Here is a winery that takes the opposite approach, no pretense, no big marketing campaign, no artist label, or multimillion dollar tasting room!  The focus is on making good wine without chemicals or chemists and additives that you would not want in your wine.  In short, wines made with Integrity!  Coturri up on Sonoma Mountain, where second generation wine maker Tony Coturri does it the natural way, starting with good fruit and 40 years of experience to author wines which are distinctively his!

His skill is such that all his wines are excellent from Pinot Noir to Petite Sirah, consistent with that thread of "Coturri" throughout, starting with the nose!

It is said (and I have experienced) that a great wine maker leaves his signature on the wines he crafts.  Tony is one of the best at this and once you have drunk his wine it is hard to miss the signature as each has a quality that immediately makes one recognize "this is Coturri"!

Now to address the current releases.  If you like Pinot Noir, he has a big one, the 2004, from Jewell Vineyard.  It was on the skins until it was deep and dense, with intense concentrated fruit and rich full mouthfeel with a long and wonderful finish!

Tony's forte has always been his Zinfandel, an Italian tradition, and he has a couple that are very different.  Although the grapes started right next to each, other over there on Sonoma Highway.  If you are traveling from the town of Sonoma, right after Madrone Road, in front of Little and next to BR Cohn, is Chauvet Vineyard.  The old block was planted in 1935 and the new one in 1975.  For the 2005 vintage, the old block is excellent and ready to drink now.  The new block, which was full of fruit and a bit sweet, reminds me of an Italian Amorone.  I think this one will get better as it needs a couple more years of bottle age.

Tony's Sangiovese is really fabulous!  Very Coturri nose, big mouth feel, full fruit followed by an equally long finish.  This is one of the best Sangiovese I have tasted, either here or in Italy. It is an example of why he is known for making some of the best wines from this varietal!

His Mendocino county Petite Sirah is his sleeper wine.  This may turn out to be one of the later day stars as Petite Sirah can take years to develop fully.  Tony feels the Mendo weather is better suited for this varietal and will ultimately be the spot to make this type of wine really shine!  I think his 2004 offering will develop for years to come and I would say this is one to cellar!

This winery is a must for those of you that want a organic tour.  Oh and I know where he is located and it is not easy to find.  Gee, I love being needed!  Yes, I am joking but not about Coturri, this is serious wine!

Coturri is another reason I love what I do!  There is no better place to be than driving the back roads of the wine country! Mark V Marino

Time Flies When You Are Having Fun

Wow, the last two weeks has flown by!  I have had 7 couples in a row that just got married and decided California is the place they ought to be. They loaded up their bags and came to see me!

Well, I do not think they had me in mind exactly but rather wine and I happened to be their guide. Yes, some were repeat customers and some were referrals from other customers.  One couple got me from reading a recent Organic Spa magazine article mentioning me.  Nevertheless, I am happy they did! 

I am adding to the list of Organic wineries!  My old friend Steven Canter, who was married on my ranch 5 years ago, is now wine maker at Quivera. Wow! Steven does a wonderful presentation with education on the organic method and his style of working with it very interesting! If this sort of thing is of interest to you let me arrange a tour for you with Steven sometime soon!

This week: I am going to Coturri this afternoon to check out their program. These guys have been organic since the beginning so they might have more to share than I can say now.  Well, I will let you know in my next article. 

Oh, be sure to check out the new images in the photo albums! They are located under my picture on the blog with comments on where I took themT they may help you in planning your next tour.  I am just shooting what I see on my tours and posting them so you can see in advance the places we visit!

The Grapes are ripening

Well, the grapes are gaining sugar and the harvest is approaching. This is the time of the wine maker!  All are focused on the task at hand. Most wine makers have a plan that they have developed by trial and error over time dealing with their grapes.

Most are following the sugar content of the grapes and now is the time if they decide to drop clusters to improve the remaining fruit.  Some wine makers will start to check the grape's seeds. This is especially true for the "Black School" (see previous blog "Wine Making Styles, Green vs. Black") as they pick based on the seeds turning black thus indicating their maturity.  Many, regularly taste the grapes to identify the flavors they seek and those that will be present in the resulting wine.

The first to be harvested and the least sweet will be the white wine grapes, those used specifically for Champagne!  These are harvested at 18-19 brix and are most acidic due to the fact their sugar is still so low.  This acid is also why the bubbly can sometimes give one a stomach ache if one fails to accompany it with food.

Next harvested will be the white wine grapes that go into the still wines, Chardonnay and Sav Blanc predominantly, but other white varietals too.

After the whites are in, the reds finish, beginning with Pinot Noir grapes and ending with Cabernet and Zinfandel.  The higher the brix the wine maker is looking for, the longer the grapes will take to finish and the higher the alcohol content of the resulting wine. Brix divided by 2 is the usual alcohol level of the wine it creates, 24 divided by 2 equals 12 percent alcohol, 30 divided by 2 is 15 percent alcohol.

More to follow! 

Oh, please check out my new photo album< "Winery Times" shows the wineries we visit.   "Wine Wizards" are pictures of some of my clients!

Remember, the worst day wine tasting is better than the best day working!

Sustainable Farming

There is that old saying "There is nothing new under the sun"!

This is as true today as it has been in the past.  Some farming practices are as old as farming, our founding fathers knew to add amendments for improving the soil and thus the produce the land yielded!

I first learned and practiced organic gardening after being exposed to it by the modern father of this practice, Robert Rodale, while I was a college student in Sacramento in the early 1970's.  We read his Organic Gardening Magazine and learned of composting, adding manure, green clippings, worm castings, earth worms, oyster shells, and other naturally occurring ingredients to improve our soil.  We learned to mulch to control weeds and conserve moisture.  These are truly old practices, lost by the evolution of chemicals in the 20th century, which made farming on a larger scale easier, but sadly did not replenish the soils that produce our produce.

Those that did the extra work organic methods require were rewarded with amazing food, with very much greater quality and favor!  Today, we see a resurgence of these methods and those that purchase organic foods regularly pay more for them quite happily, as they are superior and worth the additional money, not to mention better for the consumer of these organic products.

Well, the same is true for the wine industry. I see more and more vineyard managers looking into and practicing organics.

Again, these vineyard owners and managers see the value of sustaining and improving the soils that support their grape vines.

There are currently two levels of commitment to these vineyard practices. One level is made up of the group that is willing to be overseen by an organization that will certify their vineyard practices. These growers join the CCOF, California Certified Organic Farmers.  The organization's folks come in and randomly check for chemicals in the soil and search the vineyards for non organic practices to certify that the vineyard is in fact organic!  Some certified vineyards are; Quivera, Coturri, Benzinger, Imagery, Moon Mountain, Preston and ZD.  There are more and I am adding a field to my database for CCOF so I can better track them.

The second group is made up of those those that believe there is much validity in organic practices and who, as most farmers do, love the land. It follows that they have a vested interest in improving their property.  Their issue comes when confronted with a problem that threatens the vineyard and could ultimately kill it. At this point they feel that a non organic solution would be prudent to prevent a catastrophe.  These are people who are experienced in farming and want to be as in control of their destiny as possible when it comes to the health of their land and their vines.  Davis Bynum is the foremost of individuals with this philosophy and he has over 40 vintages under his belt!

The term "sustainable farming" in my opinion does organic farmers a disservice as we, as a whole, believe we must do more than just sustain the land. As stewards our goal is to improve the land, not merely sustain it!  We can improve it by adding amendments, primarily in the form of compost and manure, to make the soil more nutrient rich so that there will be no need for chemicals. We can create plants that are so strong they themselves make pest control unnecessary!

Pride Mountain !

Looks like we are 2 weeks away from Pride Mountain's release of their next vintage of Cabernet!  It will be offered first to the mailing list (for about two weeks) then it will be available in the tasting room  around September 1!

Pride makes a Reserve Cabernet and also a Claret that are available in limited quantities and only to their most loyal customers.

Pride is located on top of Spring Mountain and is a destination, if for nothing else, for the views of the Napa Valley! (see my photos)

Pride's product is yet another example of hillside Cabernet.  It shows the benefits of the vine's struggle with thin soil and less nutrients which creates an environment that makes for more intense fruit. When the vine suffers the fruit improves!

Stay tuned, for more at the only destination for this kind of information, the "Man in the Valley", Me!

Hey, did you check out our new photo gallery?? I am taking pictures as I go, now you can follow my progress, one winery after another. If you take a tour be sure to get me to take your picture and see yourself on our photo gallery, dubbed "Wine Wizards"! My clients are the best and the brightest. Hey, the cream rises to the top , no?