Proprietor’s Blog 8/26 We’re all Wine Enthusiasts
Hello winos,
I know, so unconventional of me to be writing to you on a Friday instead of a Wednesday, but I wouldn’t be doing so if what I’m about to share wasn’t extremely important and newsworthy.
Yesterday I had a surprise visit at the vineyards by none other than Matt Kettmann, editor of Wine Enthusiast Magazine and wine reviewer for the Central and South Coast of California.
I’ve been sending our wines to Matt for several years now, and we’ve always been excited to share what he has to say about them. Thursday morning I got a call from Mark Blatty, owner of Byron Blatty Wines, as I was leaving the dentist’s office. He said, “Matt Kettmann wants to come visit your vineyards. He says no to a lot of my suggestions, but he said he wanted to come see you and meet you. Make yourself available.” I said, “Great, when?” He said, “10:45-ish sound good?” It was 9:30am.
So I packed up my stuff and headed back to the vineyards. I had a cooler of Sauvignon Blanc grapes in the back of my car that I’d picked at 6:30am that morning to test sugar levels at the winery. Sorry, Sauvy-B, you’ve gotta rest on ice a little bit longer.
It was such a pleasure chatting with Matt and Mark. As we tasted our 2021 Sauvignon Blanc from Eds’ Vineyard, Matt thought it was even better than the 89 points he’d previously scored it. He also enjoyed our 2021 Rosé as we walked the vineyards and I shared more about our process at AJA.
Matt, thanks for the great conversation and coming to visit. Mark, thanks for coming by and tasting alongside us. Mark runs a vineyard about a quarter mile down the road from us, and it’s always great to taste our wines side by side: they’re so different, yet made from the same varieties, planted right next to each other. It’s all in the winemaking style.
Now onto the second piece of this.
After spending time with Matt and Mark, I went over to the winery to test our sugars, and guess what time it is? It’s harvest again. Monday morning we’ll be harvesting Eds’ Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc for our second vintage. I’m so excited to get this wine back into tanks, since we’re down to just four cases of the first one. Everyone loved this wine, and I hope people keep enjoying it through the winter.
I made this wine in the “fumé blanc” style, coined by Robert Mondavi himself. A fumé blanc is a Sauvignon Blanc made in a style similar to the Sauvignon Blancs of Pouilly-Fumé in the central Loire Valley, France: aged in oak barrels, neutral oak in our case, which gives the wine a beautiful texture and softness. When Sauvignon Blanc is fermented and aged in steel with no manipulation, like our Happy Canyon Sauvignon Blanc, it’s bright and grassy, often tropical and zingy with a refreshing finish. When it’s aged in oak, it becomes less zingy and more refined, less driven by pyrazines (the chemical component that makes a Sauvignon Blanc taste green and vegetal) and more driven by stone fruit and citrus, with a more velvety texture.
This year we’ll likely do the same, though it truly depends on what the grapes want. As you know, at AJA we’re very minimalist: our winemaking approach is to let the terroir show through in each bottle without overdoing anything. But I do believe this fumé blanc approach is the way to go for our estate fruit.
Anyways everyone, I hope you have a fabulous AJA wine-filled weekend. Grab your glass, and enjoy the weather as we count down to fall.
All the best,
Amanda Greenbaum, Proprietor