A Viticultural Visitor

Though it was rainy and windy Tuesday at the Tasting Station with few wines to taste and fewer to get excited about, a ray of vinous sunshine came our way midday-ish when we were visited by Jason Tosch, the Director of Viticulture for Anne Amie Vineyards in Oregon. While it is fairly common to have regional "reps" from wineries visit us and a rare treat to have the actual winemaker make the trip, it is extremely unusual to have the viticulturalist presenting wines.

A viticulturalist is the guy or gal in the vineyards, the "farmer", the steward of the land - in other words, the "soul" of a winery. Jason was a wonderful ambassador for his trade and a wealth of well-articulated information. 

One thing he made very clear was that the viticulturalist doesn't simply hand off grapes to the winemaker for vinifying; at least in the case of Anne Amie, they are partners in the entire process. Which grapes are for the single varietal wines? Which will go in the Cuvee A blends? How long should the riesling hang? What should we plant next and where? These are all decision that the viticulturalist is instrumental in making.

A couple of interesting tidbits from our conversation:

1. Jason mentioned that the Riesling vines were over thirty years old. I asked how much their production had fallen off due to their age. He described a process where they actually send an auger deep into the soil between the vines and cut the spreading roots of the Riesling vines. This process puts the plant into "production" mode and insures regular yields.

2. Anne Amie is certified sustainable though LIVE (low input viticulture and enology). Jason noted that a sustainable certification is much less expensive than an organic one and leaves him more room to use modest amounts of mild chemicals in the event of extreme circumstances (such as spraying SO2 to fight mildew in wet years).

3. He also explained that when vinifying their white wines they would ferment them until they were "bone dry" (leaving zero residual sugar) and then add back unfermented grape juice called muté to balance the wine.

Incidentally, the entire line-up of Anne Amie wines was stellar. (Of course this should come as no surprise since we carry almost all of them!)

Is a sustainable certification like LIVE "good enough" for you or do you prefer to see a full organic certification?

Score Card
Total wines tasted: 39
Wines that made “the short list”: 1
One old favorite that was tasting GREAT: 08 Anne Amie "Cuvee A" Amarita White (Oregon)