Comparatively Speaking

Working for a winery is tough business.

Stop laughing. I mean it. Ok, it's only tough part of the time; we DO get to do some fun things now and then.

Like yesterday, when Rawley, Clarissa, and I met for our quarterly comparative blind wine tasting. Four times a year, the four of us get together to taste wines from all over the world blindly. Usually, I slip a Riverbench wine into the mix to see if we can identify it without knowing. We focus on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, but this year we plan to include Riesling, Rose, and maybe even sparkling wines into the mix.

For evaluation, we use an adaptation of the fabulous Mr. Olken from The Connoisseur's Guide's tasting sheet to look at color, body, aroma, and flavors. Then we rate the wines in order of our preferences. The great thing about wine is that you can never be wrong; it's more about practicing using our palates and identifying flavors along the way. It's a super fun and challenging exercise.

Yesterday's tasting was unusually difficult. We tasted four California Chardonnays, and they were all very different. We left with a few interesting takeaways:
- It IS possible to identify wines made from one vineyard. I have gotten better and better at this for Riverbench, having tasted and contributed to our wines for almost 7 years now. I think if you spend that amount of time examining wine, you can definitely learn to do this. The trick is doing that for every vineyard in the world, which is virtually impossible.
- Once again, Riverbench wines make me happy. Seriously. The Chardonnay that turned out to be Riverbench had comments like "fruit jumps out at you" and "happy nose!" I remind you, we were tasting blindly.
- Finally, Riverbench wines are well priced. Our Chardonnay came in first in the lineup (our retail price: $26) among wines priced $30 to $40 a bottle Wowza! A perfect illustration of our wines being approachable.

Now, I better get back to the tough parts of my job.

Taste Testing

I always love it when Clarissa lets me tag along on her frequent grape tasting expeditions during harvest. She's got such an amazing palate and it's absolutely fascinating to hear her talk about certain flavors in ripe grapes and not-so-ripe ones. She likes to walk a whole row at a time, tasting grapes every 10 to 15 steps. She says she carefully but randomly grabs them off each cluster, but I end up choosing the prettiest one each time because I like pretty. (Which is probably why I should never be a winemaker. That and the whole "gotta be patient" thing. Ugh.)

We tasted the blocks she uses for Rosé. She noted that color seems lighter than normal this year, so she might have to soak the juice with the skins a little longer to make sure our rosé is pink. The grapes weren't quite ready: they were still rather simple tasting and lacking that "hint of rose petal" Clarissa looks for in riper Pinot Noir.

Next, we headed to the Tributary block, where we get rows 12-16. She noted the drying leaves around the fruit zone, which is a sign that the grapes are ripening. She anticipates picking these grapes early next week, so she has already asked Jim to cut off the water so that they don't get diluted. The flavors here were lovely: That rose petal and some red cherry. She pointed out the slightly dimpled berries, and a few areas of botrytis, which seems to be more common this year than most. That means she's planning to sort the grapes not only in the vineyard but also on a table once they get to the winery. Extra work, but it's worth it to get all of that botrytis out.

We checked out the Riesling and some Chardonnay, too, neither of which was quite ready. She did mention that the Chardonnay tends to be ripening right there along with the Pinot Noir, which is rather unusual considering we typically have about two weeks between the two varietals. 2013 is shaping up to be a different harvest from years past, which is always what keeps us on our toes. :)

My favorite vineyard block, where our Clone 115 grows. Love that view!

And here is me as an excellent gate opener for your viewing pleasure:

Rock Star in Kansas City

Sometimes, selling wine can be a drag. There's so much competition and so many reps on the road these days, so you’ve got to try to stand out. I’m not very good at that, as I have a knack for being unable to kiss ass. What I am good at, however, is absolutely completely truly and terrifyingly loving what I do.

It’s a jolt to stumble onto people who appreciate that, and many of those people live, unexpectedly, in Kansas City, Missouri. Without exaggeration, talking wine with folks there is a pleasure because they’re passionate, too. My bud Jason Burton (The LAB) tells me it’s because they can appreciate artisans, and I think that’s part of it. The other part might be that they’re genuinely fun folks who love to have a good time and appreciate really special things.

My opinion of those outstanding KC folks was elevated and cemented thanks to a tasting at Lukas Liquors hosted by Jodi Dyer and Dennis Schaefer. I already have a soft spot for Dennis, because he was the first journalist to write about Riverbench when we first opened four years ago. The rest of the group was just as cool; they asked awesome questions about food pairings (my favorite thing) and who puts the pink wax on our rose (our vineyard manager’s dad, Fred, who deserves a post solely dedicated to him). I don’t think I stopped talking the whole time, but the time flew by because it was just so darn fun.

I think Sean and Michael (QED Wine Purveyors) who sell our wines in KC must only take me to the good places, because every account is friendly, excited about the wine, and supportive. I do think that good people should surround themselves with other good people, as it promotes that positive energy. Seems like that’s what these guys do. They’re the epitome of a small business, a two man sales team who are working hard to spread the story of California’s artisan winemakers. It’s not an easy task, but they do it and they do it well. They treat me rather like a rock star, which is an incredible ego boost, but it’s because they love what we’re doing at Riverbench, and respect the blood, sweat, and tears that goes into it. It’s probably largely because of them that I’ve fallen a bit in love with Kansas City.

So KC, and all the charming and wonderful people there, thank you. Thanks for “getting” it, supporting it, and living it!