Henry of Pelham 2006 Vintage Report
by Ron Giesbrecht, Winemaker
If you would have spoken to most grape growers or winemakers at about the end of August 2006, you would have heard an unbridled optimism from most (not everyone - remember we’re talking farmers and optimism in the same sentence). The summer was very warm, the rainfall was adequate and well timed, the previous winter was benign and the crop on the vines was (sometimes exceedingly) large. But the harvest period was difficult.
The rain started to come and the sun came in, often with elusive spurts that put the quality, if not the quantity of the harvest to the test. What had appeared to be a harvest rushing to ripeness became a lazy river with lots of bends and a torporous flow. We began to harvest on Sept 7, which for our sparkling grapes, is about normal. Due to the requirement that Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes for sparkling wine are harvested on the lower end of ripeness (earlier) – it was an excellent year for that and we capitalized on the opportunity by making more sparkling wine than we ever have before. We finished our harvest (excluding late harvest dessert wine grapes) about one week into November. This is rather late. We were originally gearing ourselves to be finished that part of our harvest by early to mid October as we did our pre-vintage planning. But good things come to those who wait and by waiting we saw improvements in flavours and tannins of the grapes. What has become a common theme among winemakers in
Perhaps because the vines had been held back from producing their normal average crops by Mother Nature in recent vintages or perhaps because the natural grape “programming” that occurs during the period of spring flowering had programmed or set the capacity of the vines rather higher than most years, it is hard to know. In any case, the vines just wanted to produce fruit and little could stop them. Our normal crop reduction programs that involve leaving less wood per vine, thus lower bud numbers at pruning, and the removal of clusters in August in order to improve grape quality and ripeness, were done as normal procedures and in most cases the vines just seemed to add additional mass to the grapes that remained on the vine, almost compensating for the discarded weight. We are very glad to have most of our vineyards situated on the naturally less fruitful clay soils of the Niagara Escarpment (Bench) zones particularly the majority of our very own Short Hills Bench where our oldest and best vineyards are.
Another quality measure that we employ at Henry of Pelham is maintaining a flexible approach to the type of wines we produce in any given year. For example, we will always produce a Non-Oaked Chardonnay because we are confident that this wine can be produced at a very high quality level under various conditions of weather that we would typically receive, cool or hot. But the Speck Family Reserve Chardonnay may only be produced in 1 of 3 years (after a decade, that’s the pattern) because we would like to see grapes that are much more concentrated and very ripe in that particular wine style. In years that are somewhat cooler, it just makes sense to focus on making wines that have fruit driven aromatics and crisp natural acidity and that’s our Non-Oaked or Reserve Chardonnay. Similar methods of determining whether or not to produce certain wines are always a consideration for us, despite the planning or market needs that we might feel for a specific wine; ultimately it is Mother Nature that has veto rights.
This type of triage at harvest and in the cellars has meant that 2006 has not offered the opportunity for us to make any of our Speck Family Reserve Wines, but on the other hand we are thrilled with the quality that our Reserve and Sparkling wines will have from this vintage as we believe that declassification delivers quality and value at all levels.
One of the kudos that I feel particularly proud to have garnered during this past year, is the acknowledgement by Jancis Robinson, a wine writer that I admire and usually agree with, that our 2004 Riesling Icewine was one of the ten best wines in Canada. Our dessert wines from 2006 are going to be delicious as well. The Special Select Late Harvest Riesling and Vidal are each very concentrated (almost Icewine) dessert wines with strong aromatics and tantalizing acidity. Riesling Icewine is extremely focused with pear, pineapple and tart apple cleansing the palate. While dessert wines are always difficult to produce I am pleased to report that 2006 allowed for excellent quality and substantial quantity. We are well aware of the risks in producing our late harvest wine and Icewines and a positive outcome was very much in doubt as a record warm December melted into a warm January and not until late January were we able to harvest most of our Icewine grapes. My sigh of relief was even more heartfelt because I had foolishly (or not?) booked a week of vacation in as the biggest week of our Icewine harvest materialized. The extra relief was due to the fact that it was done by our crew at the winery, led by Sandrine Epp and Matthew Speck, and while I was on a beach in 32 degree sunshine. The harvest and pressing was done VERY well. I did receive notice of Sandrine’s expectations for vacation time next year though.
I enjoy writing these vintage reports because I can speak about the character of the harvest and how that character can affect a wine or a group of wines. As winemakers, we sometimes fancy ourselves the conductor of an orchestrated effort – but the truth is we are instrumentalists practicing our art or craft within the larger orchestra, conducted by the vineyard and composed by nature. Sometimes we can play a major role – let’s say a first violin sometimes, but it could also be a piccolo. In any case, it all happens at the direction of the conductor and within the framework of the real artist – the composer, who creates the conditions of nature within that year and region. This was recently brought home to me when tasting some of our 2005 red wines from barrel, and some recently bottled, with an acclaimed wine writer. This writer had visited several other wineries already that day and had several similarly themed tastings presented. The wine writer expressed some positive comments on our wines but more telling was the comment that there was a pervasive soft texture and berry-fruit character that was evident from all sources of the 2005 red wines tasted. This speaks of a vintage character, which like the tell-tale sounds of Mozart from one vintage versus Handel from another, can be evident across producers and within a given vintage. That is not to say that the wines are the same, think of high school bands playing the same piece of music as the Berlin Philharmonic and which would be preferred – understood? There is also the interpretation of the vintage on a level which can be manipulated in different but equally interesting and valid directions. I hope that you enjoy our interpretation of 2006.
