Petite Sirah and Petit Verdot

Ain’t Nothin’ Small About ‘Em

By Christine Go

Does size matter? Well, it does if you’re talking about grapes, namely Petite Sirah and Petit Verdot. These varietals produce big, bold wines, so why are they called “petite?”  Give up? Because of the size of the grapes! Apparently both varietals have small berries, so they have a high skin-to-juice ratio. Since color and tannins come primarily from the skin and seeds of the grapes, more skin equals more color and tannins, which translates to tooth-staining wines with lots of structure.

So Petite Sirah isn’t petite, but is it related to Syrah? There’s been a lot of confusion about the origin of Petite Sirah, and it’s taken about a hundred years to figure out the answer to that question. If you check out the timeline on the “P.S. I Love You” website (an advocacy group for Petite Sirah), you’ll see that Syrah first came to California from France in 1878, but some called it Petite Syrah. Then, a few years later, a French varietal called Durif (named after the grape grower who propagated it) was introduced to California, and it was called Petite Sirah, since that was its common name in France.

We now know that Syrah/Petite Syrah is not the same as Petite Sirah/Durif, but they are related. In 1997, Carole Meredith, a professor at UC Davis, did a DNA analysis of Petite Sirah compared to Durif, and discovered that they are indeed the same. It turns out that Syrah and Peloursin, an obscure French varietal, are the parents of Petite Sirah. Syrah is prone to a fungus called “powdery mildew,” something familiar to gardeners in Western Washington, and originally Petite Sirah was developed to be resistant to it; but in humid climates, Petite Sirah is prone to another fungus called “grey rot.” This is why Petite Sirah does well in drier grape-growing regions. Today the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) recognizes Durif and Petite Sirah as synonyms for the same grape. And just to add to the confusion, some wineries label their Petite Sirah as “Petite Syrah” even though it is not the same as Syrah.

A Nefarious Plot

The juicy story of a chick, a couple of guys and a dog

By Erin Thomas

Heather and Dean Neff really are living the dream, as the signs up to their Chelan estate winery suggest. With the green and flourishing Defiance Estate Vineyard overlooking the rolling hills and glistening waters of Lake Chelan, the folks behind Nefarious Cellars are fully aware and grateful for the thriving luxury known as their life.

“We are just a chick, a couple of guys and a dog striving to blow your mind,” the Nefarious Cellars website states referring to Heather, Dean, and their children, George, 4, and Cooper, 9 months.

“The bonus to being the woman in the group is I do notice I tend to smell things a little better than Dean,” Heather said, “That’s my little asset.”

With a bag full of tricks and assets they bring to the blossoming Lake Chelan Valley AVA scene, the chick and the fathering guy have a longstanding history in the industry and as a couple.

The two met in 1996, both striving to crack into the soils of the wine business after attending Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Oregon for enology and viticulture. They then decided to plant a test block vineyard on Dean’s property in Pateros, Washington. At the Rocky Mother Vineyard, named for its soils, Heather said they got a great sense of what they could grow in the Lake Chelan Valley.

The Neffs returned to Oregon, where Dean started working for a vineyard management company, then to study under the uncompromisingly gifted winemakers Isabelle Dutartre of De Ponte Cellars and later with Tony Soter at Soter Winery in Willamette Valley. Heather managed a small tasting room in Carlton, with the intentions of both retaining every aspect of the business but ultimately wanting to start a winery of their own, Heather said.
With the couple having equal parts of formal grape training, they said it was an obvious decision to split production by colors and ultimately give themselves a niche in the industry among giants.

Efeste’s Brennon Leighton: Feral and Unfiltered

By Doug Haugen

Winemakers come in all shapes and sizes, demonstrating as many styles of personality as there are styles of wine. What they all have in common, of course, is the transubstantiation of ostensibly ordinary grapes into that Dionysian elixir called wine, but each winemaker has his or her own approach to making the wines they love.

Brennon Leighton, winemaker for Efeste, has been making his mark on the Washington wine world, practicing a noninterventionist winemaking philosophy with a religious zeal. His hallmark methods, while not necessarily original, are certainly more uncommon that one might expect.

Be Still My Heart

Pacific Distillery and Soft Tail Spirits turn passion into powerful drinks

by AJ Rathbun

On December 5, 1933, the 21st Amendment was ratified, repealing the 18th Amendment, which had banned the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol used for drinking. The Nobel Experiment, or Prohibition (or just a really bad idea) ended on that beautiful day. Except in Washington State.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t just here. There were, and are, other states practicing various forms of prohibition, due to the 21st Amendment’s setting regulation control at the state level. While these prohibitive measures haven’t recently held the heels of the wine industry, they have kept spirits distilleries from becoming established. But on April 10, 2007, Dry Fly announced their intention to be Washington State’s first grain distillery since Prohibition. The Dry Fly folks imported a German still, partook in some serious study, and have since released gin and vodka and will soon release a whiskey. They did run into a snag early on though; due to the existing regulation, they weren’t allowed to sell their products on the premises or to give visitors samples. For most new to a small batch spirit (or wine), the ability to sample product while hearing about it from the creators is a delicious experience.

The New Sommes of Seattle

By Doug Haugen

Your average dictionary, for better or worse, tends to give the most concise denotation of a term, and perhaps nowhere, depending on your interests, is that more inadequate than when defining a sommelier. Many people flail around just trying to pronounce the word (for the record, it’s sum-ul-yay), let alone actually knowing what a somme really is. Even when pulling out the Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary (you know, the big bug-squisher), you read that a sommelier is “a waiter, as in a club or restaurant, who is in charge of wines.” This is true, in a way—a sommelier is someone who may approach your table to discuss the wine list—but what this fails to capture is the sheer scope of what a sommelier is.

To be a sommelier requires intensive education, disciplined self-study, and a significant financial investment. There are two organizations that certify sommes, the International Sommeliers Guild and the Court of Master Sommeliers, and while their approach is different, in both cases, the process is grueling, the required skills are exacting, and candidates must have the passion and the fortitude to fulfill mind-boggling expectations.

It’s not uncommon for a somme to hear a customer say something like, “Wow, you have the best job in the world—you get to drink wine all day!” The somme would probably agree wholeheartedly, but not for the reasons the customer is thinking. For a somme, drinking wine all day involves sipping wine and spitting it back out, pouring half-full glasses into the spittoon and moving on, evaluating each wine on as many as twenty different factors, classifying and reclassifying it according to style, region, varietal and more, and adding the wine to his or her broadening knowledge base. For them, tasting wine is more than casual enjoyment; it’s academic, systematic and disciplined. And why? Much of it is for their passionate love of the subject, but more than that, it’s so they can help you, the consumer, find a single glass or bottle of wine that you will enjoy on a single visit to their place of employment. When you talk to a sommelier in a restaurant, you’re not merely getting advice from a “waiter who is in charge of wines,” but rather, you’re tapping into thousands of hours of draconian education.

The dedication of the sommelier is well-demonstrated in a loosely formed alliance of young wine professionals, calling themselves

Thirsty Pagans

An intrepid trio takes Communion to a whole new level

By Doug Haugen

When I first saw, online, a bottle of “Communion” by a winery called Thirsty Pagans, I thought that this must be one more clever marketing trick to sell cheap wine to thirsty college kids on a lite-beer budget like so many that are starting to don the shelves at local supermarkets and corner stores. But, trick or no, I was intrigued by the irreligious nature of the winery’s name, and clicked my way over to their website.

With a flashy label featuring three monks and a wench drinking together, I was surprised to learn that “Communion” is not a jug wine, mass produced and sold for under ten bucks. It is, in fact, a limited production red blend hailing from the Alder Ridge Vineyards in the Horse Heaven Hills AVA, and retails at a $26 price point. Not only that, but it’s made by Rob Chowanietz, the Washington State winemaker for Corus Estates & Vineyards, whose Cabernet Sauvignon from their Alder Ridge Winery label won a Double Gold at this year’s Seattle Wine Awards. Why would an accomplished, award-winning winemaker launch another project in an industry where risqué often equates to risky?

To find out, I sat down with Rob Chowanietz (Chief of Fermentation) and his wife Jeanie Inglis-Chowanietz (Sales & Marketing Wench), who along with Crandall Kyle (Chief Bean Counter), went balls-out into uncharted territory.

Terroir Matters

By Doug Haugen

A trained geologist with degrees in Earth Science and Soil Science including a Ph.D from UC Davis, and a résumé that includes a professorship in geology, agriculture and soil science, years of scientific research, consulting on a majority of the AVA petitions in the State of Washington and finally starting a vineyard consulting company called Vinitas, it seemed a natural matter of course for the legendary Alan Busacca to dabble in the wine side of wine. Dabbing, however, just isn’t his thing, so he cannonballed right in.

Having worked so closely with vine and soil, Busacca understands the influence and impact of terroir on the finished juice, so it makes sense that his debut in the winery business emphasizes just that, and how.

The Thing About Vineyards

On a challenge, we headed out into the dirt to talk to the guys who grow some of the best fruit in the world.

By Doug Haugen

“Wine is made in the vineyard.” This is a common adage in the wine world, perhaps trite, maybe cliché, but probably one of the most succinct ways of communicating the importance of the virgin fruit in the overall lifecycle of wine. Another way to phrase it is, “You can make bad wine out of good grapes, but you can’t make good wine out of bad grapes.” The phrase is ubiquitous among winemakers, viticulturists and professional tasters. No doubt you’ve heard it in tasting rooms or wine parties.

Here’s why: Winemaking is a much more complicated process than just leaving a pitcher of Welch’s in the fridge for too long. Nearly every stage of it is an effort to bring aspects of the fruit out in some way. The acids, tannins, sugar and alcohol, let alone all of the nuanced flavors that can be drawn out and expressed, all of these things are only there but by the grace of the grape.

Vin et Robe: A Pictorial

Photos by Kyle Goldie.
Dresses by Sabrina Del Rey.
Locale DeLille Estate, Woodinville, WA.

Trade Route Brewing Company

Ain’t nothin’ but a Chi thing, baby

By Cody Ellerd

When customers are drinking like fish and having a splashing good time, some Buddhists believe that it is the Laughing Buddha (a.k.a. the Patron Saint of Bartenders) who is responsible for all the fun.

It is precisely this figure, with his gleaming golden skin and proud beer belly, who welcomes visitors to the Trade Route Brewing Company, a small, two-year-old craft brewery in South Seattle that is becoming a local favorite among fans of unusual beers and Asian cuisine.

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