Leroy’s Finest

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This year marks our fifth year anniversary since planting the vineyard. If you have been reading our Diary of a Start-Up Winemaker series on The Daily Meal, you will have come across this — I posted one year each day last week. If you have not, it’s all right here for your reading enjoyment. Hold on, here we go.

2011 marks the fifth anniversary of our little vineyard on the frontier. It’s been five l-o-n-g years since we took the plunge and transformed a steep and distinct hillside out in the middle of wild, windy Oregon wheat country into a vineyard going on its 4th vintage, to make wine like no other from only the grapes we grow. Can that be right? We planted in 2006; at the end of our third growing year in 2008 we had our first harvest; then 2009, 2010, and holding our breath for 2011, which is our 6th growing year. Yes. This will be, if all goes well, our 4th harvest.

We thought you might enjoy a tiny peek in on those five years, for what happened along the way—to us and to our land—is as much a part of the wine as the grapes we make it from.

2006 : The Planting, and the Big Freeze

After months of preparation that began pretty much the day after we stepped off the plane in October, 2005, from Scott’s 2-year work assignment in Ireland, we planted The Grande Dalles vineyard. We had already found water and dug the well in 2005, so that was off our to-do list. But early 2006 was busy, busy, busy, as we laid out the vineyard, walking that hillside and holding up markers, person unseen because the terrain was so curved in areas.

Scott put in weather stations, a deer fence went in, we had a surveyor out to help us set rows evenly, 3-phase electricity was brought in from miles away, and Scott placed numerous orders for the supplies we would need for the vineyard, the grapes not the least of it. The bigger things we collected were drip line, wire, end posts, and center posts, and between Scott’s squabbling with our vineyard manager over inches of ground (Scott’s a farmer at heart, and does not like to waste a bit of land) we decided on the vineyard’s boundaries. In April 2006 the end posts were set, Scott holding every single one of them as they were tamped 5 feet into the earth on a terribly cold and blustery day.

If you want to get a decent first growing year, you have to plant as early as you can, and every day you lose is every day less for the plants. The big pressure for us was getting water to the top of our hill before the plants arrived. We sort-of made that deadline, and the plants arrived. But to make absolute sure water could successfully reach our hilltop again and again meant we had to stage all 17,000 starts for a week or so, securing them behind chicken wire so local deer couldn’t feast. As soon as we knew we could depend on bringing water up a good 400 feet from the well down in the valley below, we were ready to plant, and plant we did, in early June, 2006.

It was a joyous time, for the most part, as we placed all our hopes and dreams into that hillside. But Stephanie was beginning her slip away, as relationships and characters, and all the weeding we did by hand, began to take their toll. And by December, all our jubilation was soon dashed when we got the news that our vineyard was most likely dead from that unexpected freeze in October. To add to that, our then vineyard manager, our one and only with no ulterior motives who believed in us, had emergency open-heart surgery. It was around Christmas, and we thought we had lost both of them, Leroy, and the vineyard. What would 2007 hold? Read the rest of this entry »

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Our latest installment on The Daily Meal. We (mainly me, Stephanie) write a bi-monthly piece called “Diary of a Start-Up Winemaker.” What we(well, I)’ve written to date are HERE.

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We’ve only been “in business” for just under a year, and are working on finding like-minded wine adventurers who appreciate wine like ours, as well as our endeavor. It’s a crowded, crazy market these days, as you all know, but we’re slowly reaching some of you individuals who dare to step off the well-worn route, or should I say, you’re discovering us, as true adventurers are apt to do.

Carl found us through Scott’s parents, out in Missouri. He was so interested in The Grande Dalles that he purchased six bottles of our inaugural wines: two ’09 Leroy’s Finest, our bone-dry Riesling; two ’08 Gampo, our sangiovese blend; and two ’08 Home Place, our tempranillo blend, just like that. Since his order, we’ve exchanged a few chit-chat messages, so imagine our surprise, when he told us he’d be out in the Pacific Northwest (a rare visit, he said) and wanted to meet! Our first fan from afar wanting to come and learn more! We were thrilled.

So off Sam and I went — Scott had to stay in Portland, holding down his day job that keeps this dream alive — to meet Carl.

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With some days now between our return from the Empire State (my home state) and our James Beard Foundation “Columbia Valley Terroir” event, we’ve had a chance to actually think about how good it all was — the weather — not too cold, not too warm; our hotel, the Affinia Shelburne in Murray Hill fresh and comfortable; the Flower District and our hunt for table decorations a good jaunt and fun peek into the day-to-day of that busy city; Sarge’s Deli on 3rd Ave now Scott’s #2 for best sandwich ever (the first is a sandwich shop in Brooklyn, near Flatbush Ave, I believe) ; fresh bagels with whitefish spread for breakfast; an outing to Central Park and to the American Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaur bones recently discovered by Sam in a Curious George book; but most importantly, our James Beard Event. Up until we showed up that evening, we wondered, “How would people like our wines and their food pairings?” We found out: They LOVED them!
The two things that we heard the most, specifically about our wines were:

1.  “I never liked Riesling until now.”
We’ve heard this many times before. Seems like people we’ve run into have an aversion to the sweet sweet, because with no residual sugar, Leroy’s Finest is far from it. Still fruity, but bone dry.

2. “We can’t believe wine like this is already coming from a young vineyard.”
People were amazed at the how such interesting/complex wines (THEIR words) could come from a first harvest/vintage. Most memorable was when Scott spoke to one avid drinker/collector of First/Premier Growth Bordeaux/Burgundy at length, and after dinner he came up to us, looked Scott in the eye, and with some astonishment told him he couldn’t believe this wine was just our first vintage, adding that our future potential was tremendous. He said it two or three times.

All in all, a great evening, a refreshing weekend, even if it was mostly business.

I posted some pictures on facebook (don’t need to be member for this link) on The Grande Dalles page (need to be member for this link), if you’re interested –I didn’t get too many, since Scott and I were “working the room.”

Thank you everyone who attended — it was a great evening. We love New York!

 

 

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At least that’s what we’d like to think it was, The Grande Dalles’ Inaugural Release Party at the James John Cafe. People came, people stayed, no-one tasted our wines and then nervously hustled out, and no-one was spitting, except Scott, who had been “tasting” all afternoon/eve.

First on our tasting list was Leroy’s Finest, our riesling; which many people first declined, imagining it to be sweet, until we told them it was bone-dry. And weren’t they pleasantly surprised by it! Many imagined how Leroy’s Finest would do with oysters and seafood (excellent, of course -just ask David Rosengarten!). Moving along to our reds, there were camps that preferred one over the other, but we expected that. Both have their own qualities and flavours, Home Place maybe more robust, Gampo not so much, but critic/journalist feedback reinforced the wines’ integrity: structured, well-made, fine wines. And with the food that evening: roasted pig and some good home fixins to go with it, everyone seemed to be rather happy.

A big THANK YOU goes out to Joe and Lana: Joe was our pourer, and Lana, his wife, got rounded up for the “Welcome” table. And of course a big THANK YOU to everyone else, for making the event a lively time, and for all the kind words and sales (!). Your support is absolutely priceless.

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How golden the sun on December’s last day,
Not rainy like last year’s —now faraway.
A brisk winter’s afternoon light fills the sky
And the colored bulbs wait for the moment when night
Descends all around us, a new year’s fresh start
As we all celebrate in the bright of this dark.

Happy New Year, One and All – Stephanie, Scott, Samuel, and Jack

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2010 Top Ten Highlights (in no particular order)

  1. Sold some wine!
  2. The Grande Dalles’ wine and story are getting out.
  3. David Rosengarten told us he found Leroy’s Finest the best American Riesling he’s ever tasted.
  4. Proper sleeping arrangements are now in order.
  5. Sea turtles.
  6. We got an up close look inside The Machine.
  7. Thankfully, our grapes ripened just right.
  8. Our third harvest, and Sam turned two!
  9. Samuel started asking for his own glass of wine at dinner.
  10. Little House on the Hill Project takes a shape.

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Tasted our wines at World Class Wines store the other day down the road in Lake Oswego, Oregon. It’s a nice little wine shop with a rather eclectic and interesting offering. The owners, who are actually there running the place, are friendly, personable and real. I decanted our two reds in the morning and poured them back into their bottles before I went to work. My take on what they thought of the wines is this: they didn’t exactly know what to make of Leroy’s Finest but liked it, they flat out didn’t know what to make of Gampo (admittedly it was still pretty closed), and they quite liked Home Place. That said, they do want to buy some wine for the store, and they’d like me to come in for a winemaker’s tasting, as well.

It’s interesting learning what people do and don’t like about our wines. Most people view Leroy’s finest with intrigue, but some have disliked it outright because it doesn’t taste like riesling, or at least riesling from the US. The World Class Wines folks liked Home Place, but I think they were skeptical of Gampo. Conversely, an acquaintance and winemaker advisor of mine, who is a long time wine figure in Napa Valley (started/owned a winery, sold it to Mondavi, worked along side the late Robert Mondavi, refers to him as Bob, and is a wine industry educator) was very excited by Gampo, and said it tasted like it came straight from Italy. Go figure.

My gut feeling about the wines we would, and now do, grow and produce is they would not appeal to everyone because they are wines of composition and not performance as Matt Kramer has so eloquently described in a recent post.

This is my current take on our wines over a 24 hour period of tasting:

’09 Leroy’s Finest – lime, bay leaf, pine, capers and acidity that will remind you you’re alive

’08 Gampo – raspberry compote, cherry cordial, cooked beets, clove, grilled bread, fine tannins

’08 Home Place – crème de cassis, English fruit cake, wet earth, tobacco, cocoa powder, toasted coconut, chewy tannins

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Still contemplating how the “pedigreed sommelier” so matter of factly believes that riesling must be made with some residual sugar (RS). Like it came down to Moses along with the Ten Commandments or something. Leaving RS has been historically practiced and appreciated since riesling is naturally high in acidity and has its agricultural beginnings in the cooler spots of central/eastern Europe (like Germany). These cooler areas generally could not ripen riesling enough to get the acid levels down to a palatable level so they did the smart thing and left RS to achieve a pleasing, sweet-acid balance.

We grow riesling for Leroy’s Finest just east of The Dalles, Oregon, and albeit we have a whopping two vintages under our belt (2009/10), we have ripened riesling to the point where the acidity is in the range of what you’d want for a dry white wine, with sugar concentrations such to yield reasonable alcohol levels. Plus, contrary to what “pedigreed sommelier” said about a dry riesling being less flexible with food pairing, I want to make a riesling to drink with seafood, not Thai or Chinese.

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I tasted our wines with probably the most pedigreed sommelier in Portland the other day. As usual we started off with ’09 Leroy’s Finest and the first comment was “Bone dry? Why would you make it bone dry? Don’t you know that riesling should have some residual sugar (RS)?….” He went on to lecture me on the virtues of RS and how I should change what I’m doing to make a wine with broader appeal and more flexibility with food. Now, I’m quite familiar with off-dry or semi-sweet riesling paired with spicy food, but to say a dry white wine somehow is less food-friendly than one with RS is frankly just stupid. The problem is he had a preconceived notion of what riesling should be, and Leroy’s Finest was unexpected and therefore wasn’t “right.” And he even said, “This doesn’t taste like riesling from the Northwest, it tastes French or Austrian.”

Then came ’08 Gampo and ’08 Home Place. He liked the wines a lot, but thought they were too young, too structured, too much tannin. “Bring them back in 3-4 years.” He went on to say that if we were known like a few of the original famous Napa wineries making similar style wines (i.e., not fat and not jammy) then he could sell them. But not from someone new and not wines that don’t taste like they came from the NW.
As a side note, one of the most celebrated chefs in Portland tasted and loved Gampo and Home Place. He conceded,“There are some tannins there, but nothing that a little fat and protein won’t take care of.” He got it, but was trumped by his wine buyer who said pretty much the same thing as the “pedigreed sommelier.”

People talk a lot of talk about wanting new and exiting things, but when it comes right down to it, people want what they’re used to. The expected is comforting and it reassures us in our assessment of the world. Our wines are the unexpected and may cause one to rethink things.

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Before Summer gets away from me and it’s too late, I want to share a few recipes from Saveur’s First Annual Summer BBQ, eats we imagined when sampling them out on Chelsea Pier last month in New York that would pair wondrously with our wines. So no, we have not actually had this food with our wine, not yet. Why not, you ask? Well, it’s not like we could bust out our bottles at the fête (although I had considered the idea, some guerilla marketing, but then someone suggested it might be, well, tacky), and really, we gotta sell our wine, not just sit around drinking it – although we HOPE those days will soon be here.

Back to this recipe – the whole Saveur event showcased some of the best chefs from across the country, this one from four-star Italian restaurant chef Tony Mantuano of Spiaggia in Chicago. We’d want to drink our bone dry Leroy’s Finest Riesling with it.

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