The Love Story of Mitsuko’s Vineyard
Posted by Colleen | Wine News | Posted on February 3rd, 2012
Toast your special someone with a bottle from Mitsuko’s Vineyard!
Order wine for your valentine now!
Get Your Bacchus Bucks!
Posted by Kerry | Wine News | Posted on January 13th, 2012
It’s already mid-January and that means there’s only a couple weeks left to get your Bacchus Bucks! The New Year is the perfect time to replenish what the holidays have taken out of your wine cellar, and Bacchus wants to help. When you purchase $175 or more in our online store, you receive $50 off your purchase. The $50 credit is available at the time of purchase and need not be earned towards future purchases – it’s like getting bonus bottles of wine delivered right to your door.
Just remember to use the coupon code 50Back to enjoy this offer, or click here to get started right now.
If you have any questions, please contact us at (707) 942-4981 or orders@clospegase.com
Best Wishes for a Happy & Healthy 2012
Art & Wine Pairing: 2008 Pegaso & “Two Lines Up Oblique”
Posted by Kerry | Wine & Art | Posted on January 12th, 2012
Cellar Beats
Posted by Kerry | Cellar Activity | Posted on December 14th, 2011
When we arrive for work at Clos Pegase, we walk through the cellar and get a first-hand look at what production stage our wines are in. As we journey to the offices or tasting room, we also get to enjoy various songs playing through the stereo. Today it was Adele’s “Someone Like You,” yesterday it was house music. Our production staff uses music to keep themselves motivated during hours of pump-overs, topping off and fork-lift work. But, as you know, music tastes can vary greatly. By what genre of music is playing, we can usually tell who’s working in the cellar that day or at least who got there early enough to claim control of the radio. Ricardo, who specializes in barrel care in our cellar, enjoys playing “Mexican Pop” but has also been known to pop in a Credence Clearwater Revival CD from time to time. Brad and Ashley, our cellar veterans, introduce even more diversity with their iPod playlists. Brad has some friends in local bands that he likes to listen to, while Ashley gets her groove on to classical and old jazz tunes. With a handful of harvest interns in the mix each year, we are constantly exposed to even more music.
For the 2011 Harvest, we were joined by four interns, all from different countries, with very different musical tastes. With Japan, Spain, Argentina all represented, there were new beats in the cellar every day. Mixed in with their music was also an assortment of “American Top 40” hits, so that our interns could experience American culture as well.
Needless to say there seems to be a ‘battle of the beats’ going on in our cellar. We have enjoyed the benefit of being able to discover all these different artists and songs and it’s something we would like to share with you. Be sure to follow us on twitter and look out for #cellarbeats to see what songs are currently playing in the Clos Pegase cellar.
Why 2011 Will Not Be 2010
Posted by Colleen | Harvest, Napa Valley, Wine News | Posted on August 23rd, 2011
A Case of Fertilisationis Interruptus
The similarities between 2010 and 2011 are remarkable. As the remainder of the US has sweltered through record heat, coastal northern California has had another year of below average temperatures and above average rainfall. Indeed, the cumulative degree days (an approximate measure of the total time during the growing season that grapevines are sufficiently warm such that they can be metabolically active) and seasonal rainfall totals between 2011 and its predecessor are nearly identical, and yet I can say with complete confidence that the vintage characteristics will be completely different.
How can that be so, you might inquire? There are a number of differences, some profound and some subtle, that will ultimately differentiate the winegrape characteristics between the two vintages. Perhaps the most important single factor influencing grape quality in 2011 will be the number of berries in a given grape cluster, which is greatly reduced from 2010. The reason for this relative lack of grape berries is that, in 2011, the flowering of the grapes was rather prolonged, a bit delayed even beyond its late timing in 2010, and, for better or worse, intersected by a bout of cold, wet weather. In some instances (especially in our Tenma Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon and Dunaweal Vineyard Petit Verdot blocks in Calistoga), this resulted in a complete loss of unopened and unfertilized grape flowers from the cluster (a process known as shatter or coulure). In some Chardonnay and Pinot Noir blocks at Mitsuko’s Vineyard in Carneros, poor quality of fertilization resulted in shot berries (millerandage), a sort of crazy quilt of berries of various sizes throughout the clusters.
Shatter and shot berries provide a distinct natural advantage in 2011 that was not present in 2010, namely there will be less fruit to ripen overall in a cooler year. The more prodigious crop levels in 2010 forced us to cut a lot of grapes off of the vines early on as the reality of a cooler season set in. This year, we needed to follow this expensive practice (paying employees to cut potential profits to the ground) in only a limited number of blocks (one example paradoxically being our Graveyard Hill Cabernet Sauvignon, which bloomed at a different time than the Cab at Tenma Vineyard and did not shatter appreciably). However, lest you think that this luck of nature will permit us to coast to an easy harvest absent of hard work in the vineyard, it should be noted that the long bloom time period has translated into an attenuated veraison (the time in the growing season when the grapes soften, change color and begin to accumulate sugar), requiring us to be more liberal in pruning off clusters (or even parts of clusters) that lag significantly behind the main crop in maturity.
2011 is beginning to show other differences from 2010 as well. As one example, the cumulative degree days are beginning to increase significantly ahead of last year at this time, and the average peak daytime temperatures and average daily sunlight are greater as well. The millerandage in the Burgundian varieties typically indicates years of excellence in the Old World, and are annual characteristics of our favorite Chardonnay field selection, Old Wente (a heritage block of which is used as the base of our Hommage Chardonnay); thus, expectations are especially high for these varieties especially, perhaps even surpassing the excellence we achieved in 2010. However, as anyone even glancingly familiar with winegrowing is aware, the season can never truly be predicted until the fruit is “in the barn,” as the example of the 1999 vintage (the coldest vintage on record…until it wasn’t) makes clear. We can only do everything in our power using our state-of-the-art knowledge to set ourselves up for success, and continue in the complex dance with Mother Nature until the 2011 show is over.
10 Questions – Sanford Theodore
Posted by Colleen | Wine News | Posted on July 5th, 2011
Each quarter, we turn our attention to the employee who has gone above and beyond, earning them our Star Employee of the Quarter and for our third quarter, we congratulate our Controller, Sanford Theodore! Here’s a closer look at our Star Employee…
Sanford Theodore (left) receives his certificate for Star Employee of the Quarter from Founder/Proprietor Jan Shrem
10 Questions
- Name 3 people with whom you’d like to have dinner?
Teddy Roosevelt, Tris Speaker (Hall of Fame baseball player) and Mark Roth (former professional bowler) - When you were seven years old, what did you aspire to be?
“It may come as a surprise, but an accountant. I liked math at an early age and I had family members who were accountants so it was natural and I was just drawn to it.” - What is your favorite piece of art at Clos Pegase?
“You know, I’m really drawn to the piece in my office [Untitled, artist: Kengiro Azuma; 1969].” - What is your favorite restaurant in the Napa Valley?
“I think it would be Ad-Hoc. We enjoyed a great meal with Jan and Mitsuko one time and I really have some good memories of that dinner.” - How do you spend your free time outside of the winery?
“I do a lot of cycling when I can.” - What is something your coworkers don’t know or might be surprised to learn about you?
In college, I was on the San Diego State Bowling team. - What was the first wine you ever tried?
“It was my college roommate that introduced me to wine. He grew up in the Lodi area and I remember it was a Zinfandel from Lodi.” - What was your first job?
“Well, technically my first real job was a paper route but I also worked at K-Mart doing inventory and pricing. I remember coming home on breaks from school and working there while I was in school too.” - What is the one thing you cannot live without?
“That would have to be my wife Sharon. We just complement one another and we always are there to pick the other person up. It’s a true partnership and I don’t know what I would do without her.” - What is the one thing that you hope to accomplish during your life that you have yet to do?
“I think taking the opportunity to travel out of the country and see the world.”
Where’s Richard?
Posted by Colleen | Wine News | Posted on June 21st, 2011
Everyone knows that a winemaker is busiest between August and November. But what, do you ask, do winemakers do in the “off-season”? Well, for starters, in the wine business, there is no true off-season, but there is a “non-harvest” season. Richard Sowalsky, winemaker extraordinaire, is out and about during his non-harvest season, zig-zagging across the country and various locations, hosting wine dinners, where he and the chef work side-by-side developing menus to pair with Clos Pegase wines. His travels keep him busy (he’s our own “Where’s Waldo” of the Wine World) but he would love for you to join him if he is in your neck of the woods.
How do you get in on such an event? So glad you asked!
Here’s a few of Richard’s upcoming wine dinners:
June 21; 4pm at Wine Maniacs Bar & Bistro
W359 N5002 Brown Street
Oconomowoc, WI 53066
Cleveland, we’re headed your way!
June 23; 6:30pm at Chez Francois
555 Main Street
Vermilion, OH
440.967.0630
We are also a part of the University Hospitals Five-Star Sensation, a Sensational Celebration of food and wine benefiting University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center on June 25. Led by Honorary Chair Chef Wolfgang Puck, this culinary extravaganza is the most unique benefit in Cleveland–and a major source of support for UH Seidman Cancer Center.
If you can’t make a dinner or event, fear not! Richard will be headed out again for another round of wine dinners across the country this summer. Stay tuned for stories from his travels!
A Field Trip to Tenma Vineyard
Posted by Colleen | Musings, Wine News | Posted on June 17th, 2011
The weather has been so fabulous lately that I’ve been dying to do anything outside. So when Richard Sowalsky asked if I wanted to head to the vineyard with him, I jumped at the chance!
Here’s what I learned while I was visiting our Tenma Vineyard:
Seasonal Winegrowing Update
Posted by Colleen | Musings, Wine News | Posted on June 16th, 2011
Recently our winemaker, Richard Sowalsky, put together a brief update on what’s going on around the Clos Pegase Vineyards and Winery. Here’s what Richard had to say:
A Sense of Style
Embarking on my 20th year in the wine world (18 harvests plus a couple of years at UC Davis earning my Masters Degree in Wine Science), I have developed a sense of personal wine style, an internal guide that I use in crafting the best wines possible from the grapes I receive in any given vintage. Although it may seem like one of the more obvious responsibilities of my job, the continued development and nurturing of the skills required to achieve results that not only satisfy me, but also our supporters, is an ongoing and highly challenging process. As we finalize our 2009 Bordeaux varietal blends at Clos Pegase for bottling in a few weeks time, I thought this might be a good opportunity to provide a glimpse into the complex decision making required to succeed in achieving great winemaking results.
Wine style, first and foremost, begins with a detailed understanding of the raw materials at hand, namely varietal wine grapes. A precise knowledge of where the grapes are grown, how the grapes are grown, which variants (or clones) of each grape variety are present together with their inherent characteristics serve as a basic first step in planning overall wine style goals for fermentation, aging and blending. One may think that once a winemaker has established his or her personal sense of style, it results in a static set of preferences and ways of working, yet that is far from the truth. In order to achieve the best possible results with any given vineyard during any given vintage, my sense of style must be dynamic, with the ability to adapt based on the fruit sources and conditions. At its most simplistic, this is because a particular terroir, although potentially similar to a given vineyard situation I have previously experienced, is never exactly the same. The fruit of an Estate winery, such as Clos Pegase, has its own unique profile. Therefore, my goals in previous winemaking undertakings cannot be the same as my goals with the Clos Pegase Estate grapes, despite the fact that wines created are from identical varieties grown in Napa Valley.
In previous vintages, the Sauvignon Blanc with which I worked was grown in the Stags Leap District of Napa Valley and bears only a slight family resemblance to our Mitsuko’s Vineyard Napa Carneros Sauvignon Blanc; similarly, bold and powerful Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon differs radically from our fleshy and finely structured Tenma Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. In each case, knowing what is intrinsically possible with the fruit, as it exists on the optimal date of harvest, provides the clearest guide of the best approach to subsequent winemaking, and this knowledge can only be gained over time and with much practice.
Although all decisions in the vineyard and winery can, to a lesser or greater extent, influence the final wine style, there is perhaps no more important single factor than the decision of when to harvest, if the goal is to achieve the ultimate expression of site-driven grape expression in the finished wine. The myriad choices which influence date of harvest are staggering, including current and impending weather patterns, fruit development (such as tannin development, sugar accumulation and acid balance), knowledge of the site and varietal performance on that site, together with more mundane considerations such as daily picking and fruit processing capacities. Again, it takes years of training to taste for acid and tannin changes in grapes against a background of essentially 25% sugar (it’s like assessing the future sourness or bitterness of highly sweetened lemonade or sweet tea knowing that soon the sugar will disappear). It takes years of training to know how to decide when to pick Sauvignon Blanc (acquiring the skill to taste for a flavor precursor “bloom” about 30 seconds after tasting the fruit itself), Chardonnay (highly clone-dependent with respect to optimal picking parameters to achieve desired textures), Pinot Noir (balancing fruit, earthy and mineral elements in a variety prone to rapid late season dehydration) and all other varieties in a manner that will give optimal wines. And, it takes years of experience to be able to predict how the balance of extract, textural elements, flavors, acids and final alcohol will work in tandem to produce balanced wines that are both fully expressive and gracefully refined. In essence, it is a very highly educated guess where the guess gets better and better every year based on experience.
From the time of harvest forward, the wine style goals are in the hands of the winemaker. At Clos Pegase, we are committed to presenting the essence of our Estate fruit in the bottle, as we feel this is what makes our wines unique. Thus, I take an approach in the cellar that enhances vineyard fruit characteristics while minimizing any interfering winemaking imprint, such as heavy oak flavors. I essentially “mentor” the grapes into becoming the best wine they have the potential to be rather than manipulating the grapes into a showcase for my parlor tricks. I believe that this intelligent yet restrained approach in the cellar compliments our learning in the vineyard to achieve the highest expression of Estate wines possible from our land, the totality of which is our signature Clos Pegase style.
