How to Love Wine

Harvest at Matthiasson is officially over! While much of the country suffered extreme heat and storms, we’ve had some of the best weather in years. Spring brought us ideal conditions for pollination of the grapes and fruit trees followed by a summer of nearly perfect weather, and we harvested some of the highest quality and quantity that we've seen in over a decade.

the pantry

Our fruit tree harvest, which began July 1st, went extremely well - demand for the fruit at local restaurants was the highest ever yet we still managed to make a lot of jams. The grape harvest spanned two and a half months and we fermented some exciting new varieties (including Aglianico and our first ever Pinot noir). And last week we picked the first crop of olives from the 55 trees that we planted when we first bought our property five and a half years ago, marking the very end of harvest - it was very exciting to take the olives to the mill for our first estate olive oil!

So this is our life. We mark the passage of time by the agricultural cycle. We grow food and find different ways to process it to preserve the bounty. Making wine is part of that.

In his recent book, How to Love Wine, New York Times wine critic Eric Asimov captured the essence of our life in a passage he wrote about us after a couple of visits. He states, “It’s an almost magical feeling to be sitting with the Matthiasson family around their big, wooden dining table at the center of their residence. Platters of vegetables pickled and jarred by Jill whet the appetite, to be followed by lamb raised and now cooked by the family. Alongside, we drink the wines, both white and red.” He goes on to say, “This is chez Matthiasson, a kind of modern-day ode to the sort of community subsistence farming that defined how generations of Europeans lived their life.” And about our life he states, “It’s a do-it-yourself American ethos that we venerate freely in mythology but rarely in real life….”

He crystallized our effort with our wines by stating, “Most of all, they are alive – not denatured products but living, breathing wines that perhaps achieve this quality by sacrificing predictability.”
It is a great honor to be featured in this book about the author’s personal journey and his commentary about the place that wine fits into all of our lives.

We would encourage you to add How To Love Wine to your winter reading list....we promise that it will make for great reading and will pair nicely with a glass of MATTHIASSON wine!

What’s Cooking in the Garden?

I would be a terrible teacher. In my mind, the best teachers present information in a neutral, non-judgmental way. For older kids, good teachers provide both sides of a controversial subject and let the kids arrive at their own conclusions.

Not me……Every Fall for the last 10 years I’ve been teaching a class to 2nd and 3rd graders at my kids’ elementary school called “What’s Cooking in the Garden.” There is no objectivity when I teach. I am basically a propaganda machine promoting the importance of growing and cooking your food. Fast food and junk food get a bad rap in my class. The other day I had all of the kids pull out the wrappers from their lunches and read the ingredients. I told them if they couldn’t pronounce the ingredients they shouldn’t be eating the snack. Every snack but one ended up in the garbage. Then we made fruit salad with fresh fruit from the school's garden and they were thrilled.

I keep things pretty simple in the class so the kids can make the same things at home. This week I grabbed some Refosco grapes from our property and made grape juice. Every kid in the class claimed they knew someone who has a vineyard. That’s Napa for you!

There's always several kids who hesitate when we start squishing the grapes because they don’t want to get their hands dirty.  By the end the kids who hesitated the most are the hardest ones to get to stop.

getting their hands dirty

juice was flying everywhere

everyone finally gave in

pressing the grapes to extract the juice

the press cake - everyone loves cake, right?

Cheers!

Our Unsung Heroes

We are very excited to be harvesting our home vineyard today. This is the vineyard that we look at everyday; the vineyard that the kids walk out to to snack on grapes; and the vineyard we hope to pass on to them one day. The folks who come to visit us always get a tour of this vineyard.

But when I say “we” are harvesting the vineyard, it means that we got the harvest bins over to the property and we removed the shade cloth covering the western side of the vineyard (a family affair till dusk of last night), but the real “we” is really not the Matthiasson clan, but the work crew that we hire to literally do all of the heavy lifting. These guys are our heroes. They are out there right now, in our backyard, working faster and harder than we could ever even imagine working. This is the time of year when they have to make enough money to get them through the period of time after harvest when they get laid off for a few months. They typically start back in January when it’s time to prune. These are not our regular employees, but a crew that we hire a few times a year for the big pushes in the vineyard.

And without these hardworking guys, we would never be able to grow and harvest the grapes. So a big THANK YOU goes out to all of them, especially today, for being a key part of us being able to do what we do.

harvesting Ribolla gialla

the bins they are carrying weigh about 60 pounds when full

Jack, who works for us year round, has been
another invaluable part of our harvest this year

The Forbidden Fruit

From the very beginning the ancients were truly enamored with fruit.  Stories and traditions about human's origins connect him to a garden of paradise filled with fruit trees. The stories are essentially the same whether it be the Semitic Adam, the Teutonic Iduna, the Greek Hesperides, or the Celtic Avalon, in ancient times our idea of paradise centered on an abundance of cultivated fruit, its sensual irresistibility and the consequential calamity of its seduction.

Pink Pearl Apples to be made into Apple Butter

Apples, traditionally recognized as the forbidden fruit, have long been associated with love, beauty, health, comfort, pleasure, wisdom, temptation, and fertility. Apples became involved with many tales of love, bribery and temptation ranging from the abduction of Helen of Troy to the defeat and marriage of Atlanta. The romantic connotations of the apple were powerful reasons why apples came as dessert at the end of the meal.

Genesis depicts Adam and Eve leading the plush life in Eden. They may eat fruit from any tree except one, "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." However, in the Hebrew text, Genesis doesn't mention apples, only “fruit.” In fact it is unlikely that apples grew in the Middle East during biblical times. It seems that the early Christian scholars took the forbidden fruit to be an apple possibly because the Latin word “malum,” means both "apple" and "evil.” A contributing factor was that apples were a lot more popular in Europe than in the Middle East, where it's generally too hot for them to thrive.

It has been suggested that the forbidden fruit was actually a fig and not an apple. The apple was the favored representation of the forbidden fruit in early Christian art in France and Germany, but Byzantine and Italian artists tended to go with the fig, with Michaelangelo depicting Adam and Eve taking fruit from the forbidden fig tree on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

Right now our fruit orchard is filled with several varieties of ripe apples and figs. On any given day it’s hard to say which would have been considered the more forbidden. However, in the end I have to vote for the fig. There is something simply luscious about biting into a fresh fig. (See our previous post The Sensuous Fig).

We produce Fig Jam and Apple Butter from our fruit trees for our Wine Club members. Taste these two delicious treats and you can come up with your own conclusion about which of these fruits is the more forbidden.

Grafting: Part 3

It's the beginning of September, four months after three varieties of grape budwood were grafted into our vineyard (see previous posts about the grafting: Grafting our Grapes and Grafting Part 2). The amount of growth is pretty amazing in such a short time. Next year we will be able to harvest a small crop off of the newly grafted vines and by the following year, we will get a whole crop.

May 11, 2012 a few days after the vine was grafted

June 11, 2012. the graft has taken and is starting to grow

September 4, 2012. The same vine 3 months later
has grown from 2 inches to 3 feet from the site
of the graft.

Both sides of the vine on September 4

The Dog Days are over (we hope)

The Old Farmer's Almanac lists the traditional period of the “Dog Days” as the 40 days beginning July 3rd and ending August 11th, coinciding with the ancient heliacal (at sunrise) rising of the Dog Star, Sirius. These are the days of the year with the least rainfall in the Northern Hemisphere. Dog Days were popularly believed to be an evil time "the Sea boiled, the Wine turned sour, Dogs grew mad, and all other creatures became languid; causing to man, among other diseases, burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies." according to Brady’s Clavis Calendaria, 1813. Without sounding too smug, I have to admit that as many of you across the country experienced some form of these hot summer scourges, we here in the Napa Valley had a summer of nearly perfect weather.

at the Napa Farmer's Market

In my last post, all the way back in June, I talked about the glories of the Santa Rosa plum. Though not a great year for plum yields in general, the great weather yielded us amazing crops of white and yellow nectarines, peaches, apples, blackberries, and a few pluots (a cross between a plum and an apricot). The warm, sunny days in the Napa Valley are perfect for bringing out the sugars and the coastal-influenced cool nights are key for bringing out the acidity and unbelievable flavors of the fruit!

an heirloom plum variety called "Howard's Miracle" it has a very floral
 smell and tastes a little like grapefruit.

Many of our favorite Napa restaurants, including Oenotri, Zuzu, Norman Rose, Pizzeria Azzurro, and ABC Bakery, used the fruit on salads, in desserts, as pizza toppings, and as a topping for French toast. We also sold fruit at the Napa Farmer’s Market.

The harvest was so bountiful that I was also able to make LOTS of jam, including Peach Raspberry and Heavenly White Nectarine-Ginger, Pink Pearl Apple Butter, and soon I will be picking Mission Figs for a round of Fig Jam.

Baring any unforeseen calamities, we are expecting a great 2012 grape harvest. We will be picking the Sauvignon blanc for our White Wine blend this week. Growing conditions were close to perfect this summer, and we’re looking forward to fantastic quality wines!

The Santa Rosa Plum

In addition to the 5 acres of grapes that we farm by our house and 20 acres of grapes that we farm on leased land, we also farm two fruit orchards on leased land. We planted the orchards in 2006 and 2007 with peaches, plums, nectarines, pluots (a cross between a plum and an apricot) and cherries, along with apples, Asian pears, figs, berries (strawberries, blackberries and raspberries), quince, lemons and grapefruits. We sell the fruit to local restaurants and at the Napa Farmers’ Market and make jam for our Wine Club members.

orchard in bloom last winter

We planted about 10 varieties of peaches, 5 varieties of nectarines, 10 different types of plums, and 4 different types of pluots. Choosing the varieties was a challenge, and we got advise from friends who were already growing these crops. At least two of the varieties that we planted, the Santa Rosa plum and the Fay Elberta peach, were bred by a brilliant horticulturalist name Luther Burbank.

Santa Rosa Plums

Born in 1849, Luther Burbank, famous for breeding the Russet Burbank potato, the Freestone peach (any peach which comes away easily from the pit or stone), and the Shasta daisy, introduced more than 800 new varieties of plants. Though he is most famous for the potato that bears his name, fruit lovers might argue that his crowning achievement was the Santa Rosa plum. Introduced in 1906, the Santa Rosa is still the gold standard for farmers market plum flavor, though it has fallen out of favor commercially. As late as the 1960s, the Santa Rosa still accounted for more than a third of California's plum harvest; recently, it had dropped to only a percent or 2, as growers have abandoned it in favor of bigger, firmer and often blander fruit. And after you bite into a rich, tangy Santa Rosa, almost anything else tastes insipid.

Besides just eating the Santa Rosa plums when their juices drip down your face, they make the most delicious jam and tarts.

Santa Rosa Plum jam

For the jam, I remove the skins and seeds and put them in a big pot with lots of sugar (to taste). The plums need the sugar to balance their tartness. Add some lemon juice,  cook them down, and put the plum jam in jars….yum…the jam actually tastes a little like our wine!

Plum tarts are magical. Here’s a great recipe:

Poached Santa Rosa Plum Tart

Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar (4-5 Santa Rosa plums)
Superfine sugar for dusting (or finely ground sugar)
Prepared pâte sucrée tart shell (see below)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Make simple syrup by combining the sugar with 2 cups boiling water, stirring well to dissolve. (1) Cut the plums in half from stem to bottom, twist halves to separate, place skin-side down in a skillet, and (2) cover with simple syrup. Poach over medium-low heat until tender, approximately 6 or 7 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes, then remove gently onto a plate. Carefully remove the plum skins, keeping them intact, and lay on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Spread each skin flat and sprinkle with superfine sugar (or sugar that has been powdered in a small grinder). Bake at 300 for about 6 minutes, until they start to harden, then flip skins and sprinkle the opposite sides with sugar. Continue baking for another 6 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool, and raise oven temperature to 350. (3) Slice each half-plum into moons and fan over a baked pâte sucrée shell in a rectangular 4-by-14-inch tart pan. Sprinkle top with sugar and bake for 10 minutes at 350. When cool, remove from pan and cut into slices, topping each with a piece of candied skin.  

Tart Pastry (pâte sucrée)
Ingredients
1-1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter, cut in half-inch cubes
pinch of salt
2 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon natural vanilla extract

In a mixer, or with clean hands, work together flour, sugar, butter, and salt until butter is incorporated, and the texture resembles coarse cornmeal. Form a well in the center of the flour-butter mixture, add the egg yolks and vanilla, and with a fork combine ingredients starting in the middle and working outwards until all is uniform. The dough should be soft; if it is sticky add a bit more flour. Line the bottom of the tart pan with parchment and brush with melted butter. Press dough in tart pan evenly. Prick the bottom of the tart with a fork and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Bake at 325 degrees until firm, but not brown, about 12-15 minutes.

Grafting Part 2

One month later and the grafted vines have started to grow and even produce little bunches of grapes. We will pull these off so the vines can put all of their energy into growing.

Though the amount of new growth is different on each vine, they were all grafted on the same day

This variety is called Schioppettino

Schioppettino is typically grown in the Friuli region of Italy

we are the only vineyard/winery growing Schioppettino in the US

Pork and Pinot

Every other year, we host a fundraiser for our kids' school called "Pork and Pinot." The school is a Spanish Immersion school here in Napa, and the proceeds from the event go to supporting arts education at the school. At the event, which was this past Saturday, we cooked a whole pig (this year, the wonderful folks from Oenotri volunteered to cook the pig), we make lots of yummy sides, served strawberry shortcake for dessert (thanks to ABC Bakery) and, of course, had LOTS of great wines.

Thanks to Tyler and Sam for cooking the pig

The funny thing is that we don't even make a Pinot, but several parents at the school are winemakers and are willing to donate....we just love the pairing of pork with Pinot (and it has a catchy name). A local country and western band donates and everyone has a great time dancing!

the band Passin' Through (thanks for the donation!)

the final product

a fun time was had by all!

Grafting our Grapes

When we bought our property five years ago, it was planted with Merlot grapes. After the first harvest, we made a small amount of wine from the Merlot and sold the rest of the grapes to another winery. The quality of the wine from that first year wasn’t very good. We thought that our soil wasn’t a good match for Merlot, and that we would eventually have to graft all of the vines over to another variety.

grafting

Typically when grapes are planted, the bottom half of the grape vine, called the rootstock is planted first. Then the top of the vine, or the budwood, is grafted on. Grafting is an age-old practice that allows you to plant rootstock that is resistant to pests and diseases and/or grows better in drier conditions. However rootstock produces grapes that don’t make good quality wine, so it’s necessary to graft the variety of grape that you want for your wine onto the top.  The variety that is grafted onto the top of the rootstock (the budwood) doesn’t take on any of the flavors of the rootstock.


The first spring after we bought our property, we grafted a small section of the vineyard with the variety Ribolla gialla (an ancient variety brought to California from Fruili, Italy) onto our home vineyard. Ribolla gialla is one of the varieties in our White Wine blend. In 2008 we made a 100% Ribolla gialla from that small planting and it was part of our first Wine Club shipment.

this tiny piece of a stick will turn into a grape vine

Since then we have grafted more of the Ribolla into our vineyard as well as Refosco  (another variety brought to California from Fruili, Italy), Cabernet franc, and Petit verdot. We made small amounts of wine from these limited graftings, and they turned out so well that we decided to graft some more. We also grafted another variety typically grown in Fruili, Italy called Schioppettino. So more, fun, unusual wine to come from our vineyard!

the results from last year's grafting

And this week was the week of grafting. Because it’s a highly trained skill, we hire professional grafters who travel around the world following the grafting season. It’s a pretty amazing process.

Our Spring 2012 Wine Release and Some Great Press

bottling

We are very excited to announce the release of our 2011 MATTHIASSON Napa Valley White Wine and our latest Wine Club shipment.

The 2011 White Wine, a blend of Sauvignon blanc, Ribolla gialla, Semillon, and Tocai fruilano, is our most complex vintage to date. It's almost Reisling-like at first, and thanks to the extremely long and cool growing season there is tremendous natural acidity tempered with a lot of flesh and ripeness. Flavors include white peach, kafir lime, lychee nut, grapefruit, and pineapple, along with stones, oyster shells, and freshly baled straw.

You can order your 2011 White Wine by clicking here

*orders of 12 or more bottles ship for free

We have recently received a lot of great press about our wines, and the wines are selling fast. The blog Vinography, considered by many to be the top wine blog in the country, recently posted a detailed story of who we are and how we came to be, and gave great reviews of our wines! In the article, blogger Alder Yarrow states “If Napa is going to evolve and change as a wine region…. it will do so in the hands of people like Steve Matthiasson. His two flagship wines are so unlike anything else being made in Napa Valley at the moment that they are enough to stop any seasoned Napa wine lover in their tracks. Not just that, though. They are also phenomenally good.”

Matthiasson wine in a keg (for restaurants)

You can also buy our wines by joining our Wine Club where you will get access to our tiny production "passion wines." The May Wine Club shipment will include our newly released 2011 White Wine, the 2007 MATTHIASSON Red Wine, the 2009 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay, described in the blog Vinography as "a nerve-tingling wine that nearly knocked me out of my chair," and the 2011 MATTHIASSON Rosé.

 Join our Wine Club now by clicking here

Wine Club Member benefits:

• Allocation of our flagship, Matthiasson Red and Matthiasson White wines
• Discounts of a maximum of 20% on all our wines for every order you place
• Access to our “Passion Wines” (unique, tiny production lots)
• Access to Matthiasson home-made goodies from our organic fruit orchard (such as jams, jellies, olive oil, home-made vinegar, etc…)
• Invitations to Matthiasson exclusive events

As always, we thank you for your support!

Steve, Jill and the boys

Spring in the vineyard - big changes every day

Photos by Harry Matthiasson

Our Sonoma Coast Chardonnay Vineyard: Part 2

Duncan Meyers (left) talking to Steve and Jack

Last week in our blog we talked about the trials and tribulations of planting our Chardonnay vineyard in the Sonoma Coast because of the incredibly rocky soil. The silver lining has been that the wines that have resulted have been worth the effort! The type of soil in a vineyard can have a huge influence on the quality of the wine. In a vineyard where the soil is as rocky as our vineyard in Sonoma, the grapes are forced to struggle to produce the grapes. The rocks also help the roots reach down very deeply, and the rocks carry the warmth from the sun down to into the soil. The presence of the rocks and the amount the vines struggle bring out all sorts of interesting flavors in the wine.

Nathan Roberts (left) and Jacky and Jim Young

A few weeks ago, the owners of the Chardonnay vineyard, Richard and Susan Idell, who have named the vineyard
"Michael Mara" after their children, hosted a tasting with all of the winemakers that make wine from the vineyard.  On hand at the event were: Duncan Meyer and Nathan Roberts, of Arnot-Roberts; Kevin and Todd Roland and Stephen Tebb of Rowland Tebb; Johanna Jensen of Scholium Project (winemaker is Abe Schoener); Jacky and Jim Young of Young Inglewood (with winemaker Steve Matthiasson); as well as the the Chardonnay made by Idell Family Vineyard (with winemaker Steve Matthiasson); Kesner (by winemaker Jason Kesner); and Iconic Wine (by winemaker Dan Petroski), plus our own Matthiasson Sonoma Coast Chardonnay.

One of the remarkable things about the vineyard is the distinctive flavors that are produced from the grapes there - terroir often shows itself in the finish, and all of these wines have a stony, rock dust flavor in the finish. They also have an eerily similar texture in the mouth, a weight that is hard to describe, but is almost like ground oyster shells or sea salt. But they all had a certain uniqueness to them that made them very special.

The Wines