It’s time for some “Stickies”! You Gotta Love the Holidays!

Very early on in my wine journey, Christmas, 1977 to be exact, my Father-in-law introduced me to a wine that changed the way I thought about wines.  It was a 1971 Huxelrebe, Trockenberrenauslese from the village of Nieder Olm in the Rheinhessen region of Germany.  I don’t remember the winery’s name but the owner/winemaker had given the bottle to his Mother who was my in-laws landlady in Nieder Olm, a small, wine growing village about 10 miles south of Mainz.  She gave the bottle to my Father-in-law on Christmas eve and, after he and I tried it to make sure it was good enough to share, we shared it with the rest of the family.  There must have been 10 or 12 of us but one bottle was plenty to go around.

1971 was, along with 1959, one of the greatest vintages of the last century in Germany.  Now, Nieder Olm in Rheinhessen is certainly not the Mecca of viticulture in the world, not even in Germany.  And Huexlrebe, a bastard offspring of a cross between Gutedel (Chasselas) and Courtillier musque is definitely not the King, nor even Queen of noble grape varieties.  But this wine blew me away and I can still clearly remember the taste and feel of it.

“Trockenberrenauslese” translated is dry berry select harvest.  The Germans love to run their words together.  These “grapes” are really raisins, covered with the grey mold Botrytis Cinerea, which lives off of the liquid in the grapes.  When you dump a tank of these “dried grapes” into the press, a cloud of grey spores from the Botrytis blows up.  The grapes don’t look pretty but, man do they taste great!  By German wine law the juice coming from the grapes has to have at least 34 Brix = %sugar by weight.  These puppies are sweet and concentrated.

The wines made from such grapes are always lush, sweet and golden in color due to the Botrytis.  The alcohol rarely exceeds 8% because the yeast simply can’t ferment any more sugar than that in such a high concentration.  It’s all of the residual sugar that makes the wines so sweet and rich and lush and causes the Aussies to refer to them as “Stickies”.

Vineyard Manager & Aussie, Paul Dalese, Pruning Vineyard

Another way to produce stickies, though not in Australia, is through concentration by freezing the grapes on the vines; Ice Wine.  Most of our Stickies in cool climates are produced from frozen grapes.In either case, these are memorable wines.  You probably wouldn’t ever want to drink more than a couple of ounces at one time so make sure you have some family or friends around when you open the bottle.  Last year at Christmas my daughter brought a couple of ice wines from New York State.  I had one from Germany and a couple of older ones from Michigan (1986 and 1997).  They’re not for everyday drinking and they don’t go well with food but, wow! what a treat for that evening with family and friends.  We even talked about Opa and that Huxelrebe back in Nieder Olm.

I encourage you this year to splurge a little and create some new memories.  Happy Holidays!

Mark

Winemaker’s 2012 Harvest Report

Whew!  We’re finished!  What a great harvest.  We started on Sept. 12^th , which is the earliest start since 1991.  This means we were in harvest for just 2 days short of 7 weeks.  Average for us for the past 20 years has been about 4 weeks of harvest.  We usually start around the first of Oct and finish around the first of Nov.

While 7 weeks seemed like a long time, it did allow us the time to be more selective about when we picked which varieties.  There was not nearly the stress of having a short window of opportunity to get everything into the cellar before the snow came.  We were able to wait until every variety in every vineyard was just right before picking.

And almost everything was JUST RIGHT.  Most vintages I try to single out the wines that I feel will be exceptional.  Well, I can’t do that this year because everything looks great.  We had, by far, the longest growing season we have ever seen.  Remember March?  Six days in the 80’s!  Virtually all of the fruit in Michigan came out of dormancy during that time, juice grapes in SW Michigan as well.  Fortunately, wine grapes needed just a little bit more to completely break dormancy and remained just closed up enough to be able to withstand the upper 20’s we received during the next 6 weeks.  We spent a lot of sleepless nights, just like all of the other fruit farmers, worrying about damage but wine grapes made it through.  When the vines really started to grow in late April there was still cause for concern as we rarely get through May without a hard freeze but, this year we did!

The warmer than normal weather continued and we ended up with the warmest year on record in Michigan.  Not only was it warm but it was dry as well, as documented almost nightly on the evening news with the “Drought of 2012”.  Vines just happen to be very deep rooted and, thus, drought tolerant.  Fungal diseases are our biggest pests during the growing season and they were virtually nonexistent this year.

The only real problem we had this year was from animals.  We had to hire one person for two weeks, 13 hours per day to drive around one of our vineyards with a “starter’s pistol” to keep the birds from eating everything.  For the first time ever we had deer damage early in the season from them eating the young shoots on the vines.  Later in the year, they became much more interested in the fruit.  We had to use more netting on more acres that ever before and still lost a good 9% to the incredibly large populations of our winged and four legged friends.

So, here we are on Halloween.  The smells in the cellar are beautiful.  It’s cold and raining outside, but, we don’t care!  Now all we have to do is allow the magic in the clear work it’s wonders.  We’re monitoring our little one celled yeast friends as they complete their transformation of the sugars in the grapes into alcohol and carbon dioxide (fermentation).  We still have a few of the later harvested reds to press and put into barrels.  We’re tasting a lot, it’s our job.  (But also because everything tastes sooooo good!)

I’d like to end with a little story written by Larry Walker, a wine writer, in 2006.  It’s appropriate every year.  Enjoy.  Link to Larry’s story here.

Mark Johnson, winemaker

2013 Cooking Class Schedule Released!

Top 50 US Culinary Destination Announces Cooking Class Schedule for 2013

Named a Top 50 US Culinary Destination by author Joe David in his book, Gourmet Getaways, Chateau Chantal Winery & Inn released their popular cooking class, winter wine dinners, and wine boot camp schedule today.  Spurred by the popularity of culinary tourism, Chateau Chantal’s cooking classes are an annual hands-on experience that allows guests to share in their hard work during class, while enjoying wines from Chateau Chantal’s estate.    

Led by Chateau Chantal Wine Dinner Chef Perry Harmon, guests experience a wonderfully entertaining and educational afternoon of hands-on preparation.  All classes are approximately four hours and cost $90 per person.  Guests are asked to bring an apron and a favorite chef’s knife.  Reservations can be made by calling the winery at 1-800-969-4009 or at www.chateauchantal.com. 

Chef Perry Harmon has 20 plus years of experience as a professional chef in restaurants, corporations, classrooms and in private homes. He was the chef on Traverse City TV 7&4’s “The Peninsula Kitchen with Stacey Skrysak and Chef Perry Harmon,” creating original seasonal recipes focusing on local ingredients and products. He was the only local chef with Learn Great Foods, an organic food tour company operating in 4 mid-west states for the past 6 years.

His former gourmet foods company “Way North Foods” produced artisan gourmet baked goods and other handcrafted edibles. Both he and his products have been written up in Traverse Magazine, Hour Detroit Magazine, NM3 Magazine, The Nibble, Draft Magazine, Condé Nast Traveler, Northern Express, Traverse City Record Eagle, Grand Traverse Insider, Edible Grand Traverse and Fancy Foods & Culinary Products.

Several professional photographs of the class and meals are available upon request.  Please peruse the selection online at: www.chateauchantal.com/media. 

 

Class/Dinner Schedule Summary – Details Follow

January 19, 2013  6:00pm	Winter Comfort Food Wine Dinner	Chef Les Hagaman of neighboring B&B, Tesoro Inn
January 26, 2013 12:30 – 4:30pm	Warming Winter Soups	Chef Perry Harmon
February 9, 2013 12:30-4:30pm	Valentine’s Menu Cooking Class	Chef Perry Harmon
February 16, 2013 6:00pm	Valentine’s Day Wine Dinner	Chef Les Hagaman of neighboring B&B, Tesoro Inn
February 23, 2013 12:30-4:30pm	Slow & Savory	Chef Perry Harmon
March 2, 2013 12:30-4:30pm	Vegetarian Cuisine	Chef Perry Harmon
March 16, 2013 12:30-4:30pm	Bistro Cooking at Home	Chef Perry Harmon
March 23, 2013 12:30-4:30pm	French Country Cooking	Chef Perry Harmon
April 6, 2013 12:30-4:30pm	Paris, Texas	Chef Perry Harmon
April 20, 2013 12:30-4:30pm	Pizzas with Pizzazz	Chef Perry Harmon
April 27, 2013 11am-Dinner	Wine Boot Camp	Winemaker Mark Johnson and Chef Perry Harmon

 

26 January 2013 Warming Winter Soups Chef Perry Harmon 12:30-4:30pm We will make a variety of soups to warm the body and soul paired at the end of class with some wonderful local bread and cheeses along with wines from the Chateau. Chef Perry will help you craft a wonderful French onion soup, fennel and pea soup from our 2012 wine dinner, carrot and caramelized onion soup from the 2011 wine dinner, a New England clam chowder and a host of others.
9 February 2013 Valentine’s Day Menu Chef Perry Harmon 12:30-4:30pm You will walk away from this class with a menu that you can recreate for that special someone in your life on this special holiday for lovers. It all starts with lobster crepes in a champagne cream sauce, fire roasted tomato and roasted red pepper soup with heart shaped croutons, red lettuce salad with cherry vinaigrette, red apples and dried cranberries, filet mignon with Chef Perry’s red onion jam paired with white cheddar smashed red skin potatoes, and finish with tuile baskets filled with lemon crème anglaise and fresh berries topped with lavender sweet cream, accompanied by champagne jells and a red wine chocolate truffle. 23 February 2013 Slow & Savory Cooking Class Chef Perry Harmon 12:30-4:30pm You will create a variety of stews, braises and chili including but not limited to Boatman’s stew, Coq au Vin, Beef Stew with Winter Vegetables, Red Wine and Dried Cherries, braised pork ribs with sausage, tomatoes and red wine, Chili Roja and a few more.

 

02 March 2013 Vegetarian Cuisine Chef Perry Harmon 12:30-4:30pm My wife is a vegetarian, so I wanted to offer more options than just frozen veggie burgers and tofu. You will be creating a wonderful vegetable packed mac & cheese that will blow away the carnivores, make a vegetable stock to use for a flavor base for entrees, sides & soups, make a winter squash risotto, make some wonderful grain dishes, grilled corn and vegetable quesadillas with melted jack cheese, corn ice cream and more.

 

 

16 March 2013 Bistro Cooking at Home Chef Perry Harmon 12:30-4:30pm In this class we will create dishes you might find at your favorite neighborhood Bistro/Bar with a northern Michigan flair. Local Raclette Gougères, smoked salmon and dried cherry fritters with horseradish crème fraîche, classic vinaigrette with local mustard, vinegar and oil over a salad of romaine, bacon and local goat cheese, Perry’s cream of French Onion soup with garlic confit crouton, steak Panini with sautéed mushrooms, roasted garlic, caramelized onions and cheese on local bread with truffled potato frites, oven roasted herbed chicken with apples, artichokes and white wine and a rustic apple and ginger tart with sweetened crème fraîche plus more.

 

23 March 2013 French Country Cooking Chef Perry Harmon 12:30-4:30pm In this class you will make some wonderful dishes like steak with béarnaise sauce, salad Niçoise , smoked salmon paté with baguette, and dessert crepes to name a few.

 

6 April 2013 Paris, Texas Chef Perry Harmon 12:30-4:30pm In this class Chef Perry will draw from two different cuisines to create new flavors for you to experience and recreate at home. Think corn meal crepes à la Mexicana with chorizo, smoked salmon quesadilla with apple & cherry chutney, lavender churros with lemon curd, coffee and pepper infused chocolate truffles dusted with chili powders, parmesan tuiles with tomatillo salsa and much more to spice up your culinary repertoire.

 

 

20 April 2013 Pizzas with Pizzazz! Chef Perry Harmon 12:30-4:30pm You will make dough and sauces from scratch and then create pies using a wide array of toppings some of which you have never thought of using. Some will bake in our ovens and some will go on our grill. We will do ethnic pies and some more traditional pies with new twists, plus a few dessert pies. Wine Boot Camp Saturday, April 27, 2013 3pm-Dinner By attending one of our wine seminars, you will get extensive experience pairing wine and food. You will also learn about wine, wine making, grape growing, and the art of wine tasting. Mark is a great storyteller, a non-intimidating wine instructor, and is adept at getting everyone involved. Sometimes his stories are even true! These are some of the things participants said about past seminars: “You’ve got a great program keep up the good work, Mark makes everyone feel like a participant – great humor and wit! Can’t wait to be back, Terrific all the way around, Wonderful food, wines were complimentary, presentation of food was awesome – fantastic service!” Both classroom style and hands on experience are part of your wine immersion experience. Your day includes a tour of the cellar with an explanation of the wine making process, vineyard walk, short explanation of the art of tasting wine, and multi-course leisurely dinner – all prepared by Chef Perry Harmon! Each course, from the appetizer to the dessert is specially paired with Chateau Chantal wines. The meal is a work of art, worth the price of the seminar on its own, but is included in the overall price of $95 per person.  Reservations made by calling 1-800-969-4009 or online at www.chateauchantal.com

Winemaker Mark Johnson’s Five Summer Michigan Wines to Pair with Food

We all in Michigan should consider ourselves among the luckiest people in the world.  I don’t think that there is anywhere on the planet where you can find a large number of great, food friendly wines! 

What makes wines food friendly is their ability to bring out the best flavors is the foods without overpowering them. Big, blockbuster, high alcohol, high tannin, knock your socks off wines get the high scores from wine writers but usually don’t work well with food as they over power the food.  Ask any good chef and you will hear that the most food friendly wines are the lighter ones with good, bright acidity that gets the taste buds active.  These are exactly the style of wines that we grow in Michigan.  I say “grow” because this isn’t something that the winemakers do, but rather characteristics that come naturally from the varieties of grapes we grow and the climate in which we grow them.

Five wines which I consider to be most food friendly are:

1. Sparkling.  I don’t write “Champagne” as that is a region in France but we make fantastic “champagne style” wine in Michigan.  As is often quoted, “Champagne is not just for breakfast anymore”.  Too often, sparkling wines are only used for festive events but they make fabulous pairings with many lighter foods.  Our Tonight sparkler at Chateau Chantal is a blend of Chardonnay and Riesling with just a splash of Gewuerztraminer thrown in to lift the flavors.  It’s the acid from the cool climate grown grapes along with the carbonation in the bubbly that makes it such a natural with food.  Try Tonight with anything from fruit to fish to poultry or all by itself.
2. Semi-dry Riesling.  Michigan’s signature grape variety is a no brainer with many foods.  Again it’s the acid that makes it work.  Because Riesling has naturally high acidity, the wine maker has the option of leaving a little (or even a lot) of residual sugar in the wine.  The acid allows the wine to stand up to the protein in the food and not appear flat.  A slight amount residual sugar takes the edge off of the acid and can marry well with many foods which contain small amounts of sweetness.  The wines slight sweetness also pairs very well with smoked foods such as smoked white fish or smoked pork tenderloin.
3. Pinot Grigio.  Most Michigan wineries are making wonderful Pinot Grigios.  Made in the classic Italian style with low alcohol and stainless steel fermentation, these wines are very fruit forward, light and fresh.  They are beautiful with fruit, cheese or any white meat or fish.
4. Pinot Noir. If Riesling is Michigan’s signature white grape, Pinot Noir is our red.  This is the classical, cool climate, red.  It’s said that a good Cabernet Sauvignon with “knock your socks off” while a great Pinot Noir will “ease your foot into a silk slipper”.  If the steak is burned or tough, serve the big Cab and no one will notice.  If you have a really fine cut of meat, prepared just right, compliment it with a warm, soft, rich medium bodied Pinot Noir from a cool climate growing region.  For a more full-bodied wine, we make a single vineyard, reserve Pinot Noir which is even more of a good thing!
5. Late Harvest Riesling.  The greatest dessert wine known to man.  Again, the natural acidity of the Riesling grape allows it to  handle some residual sweetness without being cloy.  These rich, lush wines pair exceptionally well with fruit and cheese (especially blue cheese!) and fruit based desserts or crème’ brule’.

A First Taste of the 2011 Harvest

A few staff at the winery were treated to a tasting of the fresh wines from the 2011 harvest before Thanksgiving last week – here’s a few pics to share from the afternoon! 

Most of the whites have gone through fermentation, but are still unclarified and cloudy.  It was fascinating to try the different tank samples of Riesling, each fermented with a different yeast.  Some were more fruity, some held a smoother mouth feel.  By the time these wines are ready to go, each of these different components will be blended together to improve the sum of the parts. 

Unfinished Riesling

 

Next we moved on to the 2011 Pinot Blanc from the Hawthorne Vineyard – another very promosing fruity and floral white wine – can’t wait to get these finished and in the bottle!The 2011 Pinot Grigio is looking terrific and is expected to be released early 2012 – and with this record setting harvest year, highest tonnage on record, we won’t be running out as with previous vintages!

 

Unfinished Riesling

Chateau Chantal CEO and Winemakers

HPB = Hawthorne Vineyard Pinot Blanc

Winemaker Brian Hosmer Gives some Riesling a Whiff

 

Chateau Chantal Harvest 2011 Winemaker Update

Chateau Chantal, Sept. 9^th, 2011

It’s almost that time of year again!  Paul, Brian and I are anxiously watching the weather, counting clusters and scrambling to get ready for the 2011 harvest.  As of Sept. 6^th we were at 2,147 growing degree days, base 50.  The 21 year average for Old Mission Peninsula is 2,055 so we’re ahead of that but still behind last year when we were at 2,414 for this date.  Growing Degree Days (GDD) are a little like pH, nobody really knows what they are, but they are the only objective way we have in agriculture of comparing one year to all of the rest of the years.

Bird Protection Netting

 

 

 

The bottom line is that we are quite excited about how things in the vineyards look this year.  I’m estimating the crop size to be almost 30% higher than last year and that’s good because we need to build up our stock again after last year’s small crop.  The challenge will be in getting that size crop to the proper ripeness; the larger the crop, the longer it takes to ripen.  The number one question in the Wine Shop is:  “when are you going to start harvesting”.  That’s easy to answer, tell me what the weather each day is going to be for the next 4 weeks and I’ll tell you when we’ll start.

This has been a beautiful week with plenty of sun and warm temperatures.  The red varieties are changing color quickly now and the whites are starting to go from green to a little more yellow.  We have been eating the Himrods,( table grapes) outside of the Wine Shop for a week now and they are tasting really good.  Things are looking good through Monday but then it looks like rain and much cooler temps. for a few days.  Who knows after that?  In all likelihood, we’ll probably start harvest around the 3^rd of Oct. which is just about average.

We have been busy putting bird netting up on many of our vineyards and installing electric fences in an attempt to keep raccoons out.  If you come around you will also be treated to the melodic sound of propane, bird scare cannons and Avalarms, which broadcast bird distress calls.  (If you don’t believe they’re ‘melodic’, just ask the neighbors who occasionally have to remind us when we forget to turn them off at night!)  Everything wants our grapes because they are so darn good!

In the cellar, our hugely expanded cellar which already feels like it’s too small; we are frantically trying to get everything we will need for sale before the end of the year bottled.  We also have been distilling cherries for Eau-de-vie, cherry wine for brandy for Cerise and Cerise Noir and 2010 grape wine for our grape brandy.  Speaking of grape brandy, we will be releasing our first brandy around the Christmas holidays.  It has been in barrels for 5+ years.  Marie-Chantal can write all about the name and packaging and price but I’ll just let you know that, as a brandy drinker, this stuff is REALLY good.  Stop by after Thanksgiving and we’ll try a little.  You won’t be disappointed.

So, that’s going to have to do it for now.  Wishing all of you a beautiful fall season and all of us a great harvest!

Mark

Harvest 2011 Update

The 2011 harvest season is coming upon Northern Michigan – our grapes have been ripening nicely in the warm summer weather, tempered by cool evenings of late. 

Verasion – the beginning of the ripening process is well under way.  Here’s a shot of our Estate Pinot Noir – you can see some clusters turning purple while other still need more time. 

 The other item we’re keeping an eye on right now are growing degree days. Growing degree days (GDD) are a measure of heat accumulation used by horticulturists, gardeners, and farmers to predict plant and pest development rates such as the date that a flower will bloom or a crop reach maturity.  We can see by the chart below this varies much depending on the season and how much heat gain we obtain per day.  2011 is represented with the white line which ends September 1st as that is how far we are in the growing season.  We had a slower start than most years, but have caught up to a mid-level year. 

There is still about another month of ripening to go, we expect harvest to begin the first of October.  The vineyard crew is busily working to put up nets on some vines to protect them from hungry birds, prepping the harvest machine, and hoping for continued good weather.

Check in with us during our Harvest Day on Sat. October 1st for an update – we’ll be having an open house from 12-4pm, including the option to get in a barrel and stomp some grapes!