June 29th, the day we visited Cayuse Vineyards for a tour.
We, being a group of Canadians plus one American on a Bio Dynamic Workshop setup by John of
Marquis Wine Cellars and Brad Cooper who works for
Township 7 and has his own label now
Black Cloud, a Pinot Noir label.
Philippe Armenier led the workshop which started a day before at Hedges Vineyard, but that is a post for another day.
The first thing that stands out is the Terrior,"galets roules", and here is a direct quote from the website "Experts on the terroir of Cayuse vineyards describe vine roots snaking through an accumulation of cobblestones of varying sizes, a layer hundreds of feet thick in places. This soil, called “Freewater very cobbly loam,” sits atop 10,000 feet or more of pure basalt" And the wines, they do show power, and with the wine making skill finese. I remember scoffing at the Grenache based wine that he made, thinking Grenache in Walla Walla, then you enter Walla Walla its like the Okanagan but warmer less water to cool it, and then his vineyard with the stones of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, then you taste the wine, God Only Knows, and you connect it instantly.
I will talk a about Biodynamic farming methods later from what I gathered from the trip, but to answer one question, my mom asked me when I came back, did the wines taste different. I sat there for a bit thinking on it, did they taste different? Well they were amazingly good, was it Biodynmaic or the care to detail in everything, the use of no pesticides, the low yields? Also what about his Terrior its unreal maybe the explains it but for me Biodynmaic must be working, I mean if the Christophe notices the difference in the health of his vines then yes it is working!
Without further ado here are some vineyard pictures and tasting notes
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