Nevada/Washoe County NV - Harvest Notes PART TWO

Professor Grant Cramer at University of Nevada-Reno provides this updated information.

We dodged the frost bullet once again (35°F low) and the outlook for the week of October 9 is great weather!

Our Gewurztraminer was nearly perfect with a Brix/TA ratio of 3.4 (22.4 Brix and 6.6 TA).

The Pinot Noir grapes were quite ripe with a Brix/TA ratio of 4.4 (22.6 Brix and 5.1 TA).

We'll be harvesting Semillon and maybe Merlot of October 9.  Still have Pinot Gris and Chardonnay to harvest...maybe later this week.

To follow harvest progress, go to
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nevada-Wine/238589812856937

Nevada/Washoe County NV - Harvest Notes

This succinct harvest report from Grant R. Cramer, Professor and head of the wine program at University of Nevada, Reno, where a small demonstration vineyard exists.  Lots of eager UNV students and home winemakers in Washoe County are learning about Nevada wines via full-time classes and Dr Cramer's Tuesday evening tasting program.

We harvested our first grapes, Gewurztraminer on Tuesday, October 4.

We harvested Pinot Noir today (October 6).

11 more varieties to go!



More about this UNR program:

There’s a groundswell of interest building in Nevada wines, and this is in part due to the work being done by Dr. Grant Cramer  at University of Nevada-Reno, and in part by intrepid vintners and winemakers in Fallon and Genoa.  Here's  a glimpse at the wonderful work in UNR.  

What can be done on 2 acres of vineyards in arid Reno?  A lot.  That’s being proven by Dr. Cramer’s eonology  and viticulture crew.  Each Tuesday from 4 to 6 p.m., you too are invited to the wine tasting and study at UNR's Experimental Winery.  It is in a blue metal building behind the NV genomics center at 910 Valley Road, Reno.  When the sliding gate is open, go on in.

In the winery, you’ll find 30-40 folding chairs set up on the winery floor, and a smiling Dr. Cramer and his student assistants.  No doubt you will be greeted by Kitty Spreeman, an extremely knowledgeable lab technician who makes it all run smoothly.  Take a seat as near to the front table as you can.  Pay your $10 class fee,  and take a little extra cash because you’ll no doubt want a Nevada Wines baseball cap or polo shirt.  Barbar Keck did, and she's proud to wear it too!

Settle in for a wonderful tasting experience of 12-14 different bottles each week.  The Experimental Winery makes its own wines and blends right there on site.  They have a “library” of wines going back to 2003, and they often do vertical tastings of the same wine from different years, and  comparisons of wines from well-(sufficiently)-watered vines and drought-stressed vines.  Sometimes the event features blind tastings or comparisons to commercial wines.  Regardless of what you taste, you’ll be asked to fill out a tasting sheet so that the Winery can collect evaluation data of the wines as they age.

The wines are all estate wines; they come from grapes planted as long ago as 1995 on the two acres on Valley Road at the Agricultural Experiment Station.   The wines made include reds such as Pinot Noir, Lemberger,  Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet  Sauvignon, and Pinot Meunier,  and whites, such as Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Semillion, and Sauvignon Blanc .

The vineyard is itself an experiment.  Vines are growing under conditions of well-water, and drought-stressed.  There is an ongoing study to see if drought-stressed vines increase the amount of resveratrol, which is now considered to be a heart-healthy element of red wines.  “Resveratrol might be a key ingredient in red wine that helps prevent damage to blood vessels, reduces "bad" cholesterol and prevents blood clots,”  says a news note from the Mayo Clinic.   The grapes from these vines at UNR are tested for many things (Phenolics, brix) and the buds of the vines undergo scrutiny too, including testing for different hormone levels.  It’s all very sexy for the wine lover!

If you want to taste these wines, you must come to the Winery.  By Nevada law, the college is not allowed to sell its wines in Washoe County.    In addition to tasting these types of Nevada wines, you’ll be treated to a discussion on such topics as pruning and trellis design in the vineyard, and vineyards of the world.

Dr Cramer, Kitty and the crew would love to see you there!  For more information, go to http://www.ag.unr.edu/cramer.  Or email  Kitty Spreeman for more information: spreeman@unr.edu.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

© 2010 Barbara Keck

They are Serious About Nevada Wine

This just in from the intrepid Dr. Grant Cramer: "Nevada Wine tasting class this Tuesday April 5 at 5 pm at the UNR Valley Road Greenhouse Complex. The first half hour we will continue a series of lectures on vineyard plant, management and pruning. We will also continue our training on aroma analysis of wine. At 5:30 PM we will be tasting an assortment of red wines, including UNR wines, locally grown and fermented Frontenac (hybrid) and a few commercial wines for comparison.

Last week's UNR Drought-Stressed White tasting was very good!"

Want to attend? Get on the list by dropping him a note at cramer (at) unr.edu

For more information on the program, see my previous post, http://mountainhighwines.blogspot.com/2011/03/nevada-wine-industry-gets-huge-boost.html

Nevada Wine Industry Gets Huge Boost from UNR's Grant Cramer

I've been getting updates from the University of Nevada at Reno's intrepid Dr. Grant Cramer for a while. He is leading the charge in the wine industry there, with test plots in Reno and a series of tasting/educational seminars in the pilot winery on campus. Sadly, due to Washoe County's restrictive alcohol-beverage rules, the wine from there can't be sold in the county. If it could -- wow, a nice few vintages would hit the local markets!

A while ago, I reviewed some of these UNR Estate wines on my blog, winebiznews. Click here to take a look at that review. And here's the latest dispatch from Dr. Cramer: "Just a reminder that we will hold a Nevada Wine tasting class this Tuesday at 5 pm at the UNR Valley Road Greenhouse Complex. The first half hour we will continue a series of lectures on vineyard plant, management and pruning. We will also continue our training on aroma analysis of wine. At 5:30 PM we will be tasting the UNR Drought-Stressed White wines (an assortment). Last week's UNR Drought-Stressed Red tasting was very good! Hope to see you there. We will go out to the vineyard to look at the vines how they have survived the winter, so be there on time. There is a $10 class fee (cash or checks) Checks can be made out to the Board of Regents."

He also blogs at http://wineatunr.blogspot.com/

Dr. Cramer is officially a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology,University of Nevada, Reno, but somewhere along the way, his love of wine led him to spent part of his time investigating the prospects for the wine industry in Nevada. I was lucky to participate in a session a while ago when he and his wife had just returned from a summer's holiday in Burgundy. Many local wine lovers attend these Tuesday afternoon classes, and the enthusiasm is palpable.

His longtime assistant in this venture is Kitty Spreeman. You can get on the newsletter list by emailing to cramer (at) unr.edu If you are interested in Nevada wines, it's a good thing to do.

225 Sierra & Its Foothills Wineries: Growing in Numbers and Thriving via Quality

In the summer of 2010, I spent months on the mountain roads of the Sierra and its Foothills, visiting 40-50 of the 225 wineries there.  People are always astounded at those numbers -- even those in the wine business who ought to understand the economics and allure of vinifera-friendly land that doesn't cost a fortune (um, Napa and Sonoma come to mind...). 

In the process, I met wonderful people who are truly dedicated to grapegrowing at altitude, and who are producing Mountain wines that are incredible: intense, unique, sometimes even experimental in terms of blends and varietals.  It's certainly not about the numbers here in the Sierra, but in case you are interested, let me answer, to the best of my ability, the most frequently asked question:

So what's the current count?

In alphabetical order by county:
CALIFORNIA
48    Amador
39    Calaveras
74    El Dorado ..   oops, 75
6      Mariposa
20    Nevada
23    Placer
1      Sutter
5      Tuolumne
6      Yuba
NEVADA
3 - Washoe County

So the number is currently 226... and additions are being made all the time.  Let me know of the newcomers, please!

For example, just yesterday, I was talking to Doug Noble, Food and Wine Writer for the Mountain Democrat Newspaper, which circulates widely in El Dorado County.  He was raving about a dinner he'd had recently that featured wines from Nello Olivo.  Don't know how I missed that one, but that raised the El Dorado County winery number to 75.   The new Nello Olivo Wine Tasting Room opened fairly recently.   It is in the historic cellar of the Sequoia Restaurant (the restored Bee-Bennett Victorian mansion) in downtown Placerville.  The Winery is located in Cameron Park. They produce Barbera, Cabernet Sauvignon, Claret, Merlot, Petite Sirah, Primitivo, Sangiovese, Toscanello (a blend that is primarily Sangiovese), and a Super Tuscan.

More about the winery: (a few remarks cribbed from their website,  www.nelloolivo.com/ ) 

The Olivos have chosen to grow old-world style grapes—particularly those common to regions of Italy, Nello's ancestral home—which flourish in the California Sierra Foothills terroir and climate.

"A lifelong dream of mine," says Nello, "has been to grow my own grapes and produce my own wine. That's exactly what my grandfather did who came from the old country. It's a passion in me. It's probably in my blood. When I'm doing that, I feel like a happy little kid!"

Rancho Olivo Vineyards is a true boutique winery, producing less than 100 cases of each varietal annually. This makes Nello Olivo wines true sought-after treasures by those who have discovered its qualities.

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