Robert Sinskey Vineyards

Pinot Noir, The Next Generation… A Cycle of Death and Renewal!

The anti-hero of my teen years killed Captain Kirk - and it wasn’t his most significant role. In his youth, he was the ultimate everyman rebel in “If…”, the prescient 60’s film about a bullied British school boy who stages an armed revolt against the establishment. Then, in the early ’70’s, he played the sociopathic leader of a violent gang of “droogs” in Clockwork Orange - who is arrested and “cured” only to be released into a society that relishes victimizing their now defenseless attacker. As iconic as these roles were, it’s ironic that Malcolm McDowell is probably best known as the man who killed Captain Kirk in “Star Trek Generations” - serving as the vehicle to finally hand the torch to the “new” Captain. Though it was a painful transition to some, it had to be done. Kirk was getting old and paunchy, no longer convincingly seducing the gorgeous alien or throwing an effective right hook.

Now, we are killing off selected blocks of our Pinot Noir before the fruit gets paunchy and can no longer seduce… at least until we can pass the torch to the next generation. These just might be the last two releases of Capa and Vandal Pinots for awhile.

A healthy vine has an effective life span. It possesses an exuberance of youth that matures into stable predictability at about age ten, hits its stride and gains complexity into the 20’s and then, when wisest, around 25 years old, begins to lose productivity. The Capa and Vandal Vineyards were planted in the late eighties and early nineties to a mix of French clones and heirloom massal selections. They’ve served us well but certain blocks, though producing incredibly complex fruit, are no longer achieving viable yields. It is time for a generational revolution.

The Capa vineyard is a sentimental favorite, even if a royal pain in some years. It is my home and was named after my loyal Border Collie who, after 16 years, rests amongst the trees on the hillside. The vineyard has four selections of Pinot Noir: two French Clones, Dijon and Pommard, and two massal heirlooms that we refer to as the C and H selections. When young, this vineyard produced big jammy Pinot Noir but, as we learned its eccentricities and as the vines lost some vitality with age, the wines became more complex. However, it gets to a point that no matter how good the fruit is, if there isn’t enough to support the cost and effort to farm it, we need to move on. The two blocks of C and H selections are slated for removal this year.

The Vandal Vineyard is a diverse vineyard with not only Pinot Noir, but Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel. However, the Pinot Noir has always been special here with massal cuttings from our first plantings, known as the “S” selection, as well as the Pommard clone. The earthy, cranberry like “S” selection Pinot combined with the plum-like character of the Pommard created some immediately likable, yet incredibly complex Pinot that aged gracefully, but like the heirloom blocks from Capa, the “S” selection is ready for retirement. It’s time for the torch to be passed to the next generation.

But all is not lost. Like a good sci-fi story, we’ve come up with an improbable solution to connect the past with the future. A few years ago, we took cuttings from the heirloom “S” selection of Pinot Noir and began the process of microshoot tip culturing to create our very own disease-free “Sinskey” clone of Pinot Noir… a clone we feel ideally suited to become the next generation of elegant, balanced Carneros Pinot Noir.

Curious about the Vandal Vineyard Pinot Noir?

The Art of Fermentation

Wine and cheese are born from fermentation. When the art of fermentation was discovered everyone exclaimed hallelujah! Finally a method was found to preserve or prolong the life of foods that would otherwise decay. Good cheese reflects its sense of place in the same way as carefully grown wine. Artisan wine and cheese reveal their true character and many facets as they age. They achieve greater complexity the longer they are left on their own. It is no cliché that they are meant for one another. Presented together, simply or more elaborately, they are pure pleasure.

After the big plates have been cleared, I love to enjoy the remaining wine in my glass with a little cheese. The Perfect Circle Pinots are far too good to waste, so a little cheese with the last few drops makes sure everything comes out even. Personally, I’d rather have cheese than dessert. When dining out, once I have spied the cheese cart, I am impatient throughout the meal until it is presented. I’d rather skip the courses that came before and feast solely on cheese.

I’ve included my recipe for baked Brie below. The addition of a bit of rosemary and ground black pepper tames the mold of the velvety rind and makes the cheese wine friendly, as does encasing the soft buttery cheese in flaky puff pastry dough. The golden puffed orb makes a decadent appetizer or grand finale to a fine meal. I oppose the addition of any sweet element to the Brie, such as dried fruit, as this tends to clash with dry wines of any sort.

Whether I serve cheese before, after, or in place of a meal, it is an important part of our wine culture and our lives. Life is too short to drink bad wine and eat bad cheese. Always stick to your standards and never dip below unless life and limb necessitate.

Until the Next Wine....
Maria

EAT: Baked Brie

EAT: Pulling Together Wine & Cheese

The Capa Vineyard is on the Napa side of northern Carneros with a southwestern exposure that can be challenging in warmer vintages but is sublime in cooler ones, like we had in 2012. The combination of French clones and heirlooms provide a complexity rarely found in New World Pinot Noir.

RSV’s Carneros Estate vineyards are picked in the cool of night and delivered to the cellar door before the sun rises for a crack-of-dawn crush. The grapes are de-stemmed and each lot is fermented separately. Some see open-box fermenters and others open-top stainless fermenters. All of the lots kick off fermentation on native yeast and see a combination of punch down and/or cap irrigation.

The wines are then aged in 100% French Oak barrels (of which about 30% are new) for one year in the caves before bottling and continued cellar aging before release.