Almost completing harvest

[Craig Winchell]

For anyone interested, I seem to be recovering. I got my chest tube removed, but I'm still on IV antibiotics, administered at home. With things getting somewhat back to normal, I'm hoping to finally be able to drink some wine, and maybe even taste something new. Sorry I was not able to get down to Andrew's place for that tasting.

We've been crushing grapes, as the weather was not cooperative. We had a long heat wave, and almost everything is in, except Cab. We just crushed the Zin today. Cab next week. Lots of raisins, which the pickers have not been picking. Unfortunately, not a lot of hang time, but each vintage is different, and this will have its merits as well as its disappointments. Syrah and Sangiovese should be pressed next week. We'll be through with crush well before Rosh Hashana, assuming that we get the Paso fruit earlier than last year.

[Gabriel Geller]

Happy to hear that you're doing better Craig. I'm pleased that you are growing Sangiovese at Agua Dulce, how is this variety doing in California generally speaking?

[Daniel Kovnat]

Havhlama mhirah v' Shabat Shalom.

Dan Kovnat

[Craig Winchell]

Sangiovese is a variety that showed initial promise in CA which has not materialized in reality. Most has been budded over. I think a) it's not a widely praised variety for the more casual wine drinker, and b) the dry, high acid style is not tremendously popular even among wine lovers. We grow it, as a legacy from the previous owners (we haven't changed the vineyard to reflect either the marketplace or the varieties most promising for the climate), as they planted quite a bit. It makes good if uninspired wine, but since I have it, I'm trying to make a more inspired style. It has heavy tannin and light fruit. In the past, they overoaked it, probably in the hopes of softening it. I'll probably try to fine the tannin away, keeping the fruit. All in all, not a variety which justifies widespread planting, but can make a decent, higher acid wine.

Good Shabbos!

[Isaac Chavel]

it's not a widely praised variety for the more casual wine drinker

Hi, Craig, hope you are doing better,

Did you mean, "the more casual wine drinker" or "the more than casual wine drinker?"

Shabbat shalom,

Isaac

[Craig Winchell]

Yup, feeling a lot better. What I mean is that casual drinkers typically like big, thick and sweet, not thin and acid. Sangiovese goes really well with rich food precisely because of the acidity, and it's guzzleable because of it's leanness, with enough fruit. But those qualities preclude its use as a sipper for anyone except an avid wine drinker. Plus, it's not one of the grapes that is widely talked about. People tend to order what they have heard of or encountered before.

[Elie Poltorak]

Last time I was in Israel I had the 2008 Gamla Sangiovese (GHW) and it was off the charts. A bit heavier than you expect from this varietal (this being GHW) but very elegant.

[Gabriel Geller]

Last time I was in Israel I had the 2008 Gamla Sangiovese (GHW) and it was off the charts. A bit heavier than you expect from this varietal (this being GHW) but very elegant.

In short, I wouldn't have described it better than you did Elie. Other options are available in Israel with this grape such as Lueria Rosso and Tzuba Harmony both being excellent Sangiovese-based blends albeit the currently available vintage for the Rosso is 2008 shmitta-heter mechira. Tzuba makes/made also a varietal Sangiovese which I haven't had the pleasure to drink in years, I recall having purchased and enjoyed 2 bottles of the excellent 2006 vintage for a very reasonable 60 shekel ($15) a bottle about 4 years ago following Rogov's TN and score of 90.

[Isaac Chavel]

It makes good if uninspired wine

Not to pile on Craig, but I am still scratching my head, here. Are we talking about all sangiovese, including Chianti, or are we just talking California or just kosher?

[Craig Winchell]

Pile on me, if you like. I personally was talking about California Sangiovese and the US consumer. Of course, Chianti and to a lesser extent Brunello are names that most people have heard of. But varietally, Sangiovese is not. Among the casual wine drinkers in the States, people go for what they have heard of.