State of the Wine Union Address. Take 2.

Aaaaannnnnnndddddd we're BACK!  Welcome to the updated state of the winery address.  With you here is your local enologist updating all you oenophiles on all of this years.....enos?  Yeah that's not a real word but it seems like it should mean wine.  Anyway, I join you now with a belly full of sloppy joe nachos and a test bottle of sparkling La Crescent.  When you work at Four Daughters and eat lunch here every day, you really have to pace yourself because there are so many good options available.  The sloppy joe nachos are my guilty pleasure, and i rarely have them except as an occasional treat.  But, when you consume a bottle of sparkling wine beforehand in the name of science, your judgement gets a little cloudy.  Did you all know that the carbonation in sparkling wine causes the alcohol to enter your bloodstream faster than still wine, and that just two glasses of bubbly can significantly impair you?  Well its true, i just tested it out.

I've said it before that everything in the winery is subject to change, and this year is no different.  Below you will find my assessment of the wine from a couple months ago, and in parenthesis you will find my current assessment.  My how things have changed...    

1. Brianna – Different this year, it’s lighter, a little drier (less sweet), a little more complex, more tannin.  It still has that hallmark Brianna taste, but after 2 years, I’m just trying something a bit different.  Available December 2013.  (This is still forecast to be the same wine, but due to some issues beyond our control, the bottling date is somewhere in the end of February.)

1. Currently unnamed – This used to be Edelweiss, it is now an Edelweiss based blend of 4 wines, and possibly a 5th.  It is the driest white wine we’ve ever had at 4DVW and I think it could be a candidate for some hardware at the next cold climate awards.  I always try and balance the sweetness and acidity of my wines, and it is pretty rare that a cold climate wine could be dry and not acidic, but this is one of those wines.  Available December 2013.  (The wine is now named Chad's Folly, come on in to find out why its called that.  This will be bottled end of February as well, and i think its one of the better wines we've had here.)

1. Frontenac Gris – I know many of you love our current Frontenac Gris, and we have several thousand bottles still available of that, but our 2013 Gris will be different.  I think we have some of the best Gris growers in the state, and this year I got some really apparent peach aromas out of those grapes.  So think of our 2011 LaCrescent, aka” the grapefruit wine”, only this time its Frontenac Gris, aka “the peach wine.”  Available January 2014.  (The Frontenac Gris has turned into Nude Etude II.  If you liked Nude Etude, you should really like this.  This years version is slightly more mellow, i sometimes feel i can retain so much varietal character of Frontenac Gris that it almost becomes too much.  This years wine just seems to be nicer than last years.  Coming out end of February.) 

1. Frontenac Rose – This wine will always be about the cherry flavors, but this year I’m trying to introduce tannin and a couple other rose’ wines in to create some complexity and a little more interest for the drinker.  Available February 2014.  (Blended into polygon)

1. Sparkling Marquette Rose – A new one for 2013, I’m hoping this reads somewhat similar to traditional rose’ sparklers that are blends of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.  No clue when this might come out.  (Blended into polygon)

1. Sparkling LaCrescent – Think Moscato, but with LaCrescent.  Sweet and lots of citrus, I think this will be a popular one. Available Feb 2014.  (This is looking good.  It is going to be a champagne style wine, made in the traditional methode champenoise.  This is going to be a nice wine, probably a contender for some high awards, but it will take time.  I wouldn't expect this until summer.)

1. Sparkling Moscato – Don’t fix what isn’t broken…not too much new here!  All Moscatos start with a base wine, and this year’s base wine tastes better than it ever has in the past, which should mean an even better finished wine.  Available January 2014.  (I would push the bottling date to March)

1. Rose’ Blend Sparkler (unnamed) – Think Moscato, but add cherries.  I really like where this wine is at right now—big aromas and lots of fruit.  This will be a popular wine.  Available February 2014.  (This wine will be apart of new brand to be rolled out before memorial weekend in liquor stores only.  We'll keep you updated)

1. Zinfandel – This wine is a bit of a mystery to me.  It’s got some good things going, but I’m unsure exactly what this wine will turn into. It’s reading like bing cherry as opposed to black cherry, so perhaps it will be the heir to our Sparkling Pinot Noir, or it will go on to carry the Big Boy torch.  Available late summer 2014.  (The flavors of this are developing and deepening nicely.  Still a ways off though.)

1. Marquette – Marquette is always a tough one to evaluate before the malolactic fermentation is completed, and that is what is going on here.  Marquette is always at best a light to medium-light bodied wine.  I can always get bigger flavors out of Marquette that are usually associated with bigger bodied wines.  This year though, I’ve tried a few new things and the Marquette is looking pretty thick, so I may have actually bumped this wine into a higher “body” bracket, if you know what I mean.  No clue when this might be out.  We still have plenty of 2012 Marquette which will give this more barrel time, which improves the quality.  ( This is still my big unkknown.  I know its going to be good, but there are so many directions i can take it, i just don't know what the finished product is going to look like.  To make a great wine takes time, it has to start out pretty harsh and then soften up, and that's what i've got going on here.  Its  going through the processes required to become exceptional later on.)

1. Cabernet Sauvignon – These are high end grapes from a high end vineyard in California and so far, it’s producing a high end wine.  I have high expectations for this wine; the crummy part though is it may be a 2 year aging process.  Don’t worry, when this wine is ready, we’ll definitely let everyone know.  The Vikings might have a decent quarterback by the time this wine is released. Until then it’ll be relaxing in French oak.  (No changes here) 

1. Last but not least exciting, we are going to bottle the cider this year.  2012 was a terrible year for apples, but 2013 is much better, so we’re gonna hit the cider hard this year to ensure it will always be available.  Expect a big announcement when the cider is finally ready, probably in the first few months of 2014.  (no changes here either)

The big obvious change is that most of our rose wine has been axed and blended into a single wine that we are calling Polygon.  It is 6 separate wines blended to make one exceptional rose.  This is easily our best rose ever, an in house favorite, and something we're excited about. Look for this wine to be released  the same time as the Brianna, Chad's Folly, and Nude Etude II.  I know the International Cold Climate Wine Competition is trying to focus more on rose' wines, and I'm quite sure they'll be focusing on this one plenty.

Lastly, I've been doing some experimenting with our Marquette, Zin, and Cab, as well as a few leftover barrels of 2012 syrah, 2012 petite syrah, and 2012 Zin to come up with another vintage of the Big Boy Blend.  So far, it looks promising.  The code name for these trials is BB3.    

Thanks for reading everybody!  

Justin