Borra Vineyards https://borravineyards.com Wed, 27 Feb 2019 16:04:52 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.1.18 A Good Day for Bottling https://borravineyards.com/2014/03/a-good-day-for-bottling/ https://borravineyards.com/2014/03/a-good-day-for-bottling/#respond Fri, 07 Mar 2014 20:53:00 +0000 http://borravineyards.com/?p=1582

We had the good fortune of welcoming Good Morning Sacramento’s Cody Stark to tour this morning’s bottling (and get a taste of wine, too!). Cody was lots of fun and helped make the four video segments below very entertaining and informative. He even found time to cover the weather.

Markus and the team bottled White Fusion, Chardonnay, Merlot, Old Vine Zinfandel and Petite Sirah, with a total of 1,638 cases produced during one very long day.


VIDEO PART 1 – BACKGROUND ON BORRA VINEYARDS
(Click on the play button to start video. A link to the original video is here.)


VIDEO PART 2 – BACKGROUND ON WINEMAKER MARKUS NIGGLI AND STEVE BORRA
(Click on the play button to start video. A link to the original video is here.)



VIDEO PART 3 – THE MOBILE BOTTLING LINE WITH HARRY
(Click on the play button to start video. A link to the original video is here.)



VIDEO PART 4 – THE WINES OF BORRA VINEYARDS WITH MARY JO FORD
(Click on the play button to start video. A link to the original video is here.)


Steve with Cody and Mary Jo Ford, who heads up our sales and marketing.

Cody said he was looking forward to returning during harvest to see how the whole winemaking process starts. You’re welcome back anytime, Cody!

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Heritage is David Rosengarten’s Wine of the Week https://borravineyards.com/2014/02/heritage-is-david-rosengartens-wine-of-the-week/ https://borravineyards.com/2014/02/heritage-is-david-rosengartens-wine-of-the-week/#respond Tue, 18 Feb 2014 17:12:27 +0000 http://borravineyards.com/?p=1567

Braving sub-zero temps and traffic-snarling snow drifts, Camron King and his team with the Lodi Winegrape Commission has been showing off wines in New York and Boston over the past week.

And it looks like he hit it off with journalist, television personality, and cookbook author, David Rosengarten, who has covered great food products, restaurants, wines, gastronomic travel destinations, and related subjects for over 25 years.

This morning we discovered on his DRosengarten.com Web site that he chose our 2010 Heritage as his Wine of the Week. Here’s a great quote:

“This beauty, from an Italian-Swiss operation, blew my mind: had I tasted it blind, I surely would have guessed that it was very good central or southern Italian wine with the complexity of age. Pretty dark garnet, but not scary-dark. Really really pretty nose of ripe red fruit mixing it up with a whole range of subtle tertiary notes: smoke, miso, Japanese pickle. This flavor combo alone would endear this wine to me…but…it comes across in an elegant package, medium-bodied, supple, soft in the finish…like real wine! It is made from 47% Barbera, 22% Petite Sirah, 18% Alicante Bouschet, and 13% Carignane, a winning combo.”

Alas, the 2010 Heritage is sold out – isn’t that always the case when someone raves about your wine! – but our 2011 vintage of Heritage may still be available, which you can try for yourself.

Cheers!




2011 Heritage Field Blend Red

Lodi Appellation, Proprietary Blend
36% Barbera, 32% Carignane, 30% Petite Sirah, 2% Zinfandel

Generations of winegrape farmers used to grow a mix of interspersed grape varieties in a field of vines then crush them all together on the same day, creating a “field blend” of beautiful garnet red. The result, as with only the best wines we’ve tasted, is almost indescribable. Deep and wild fragrances of rich juicy plums and black cherries shift untamed in a tapestry of smoky bacon and cola with perhaps some leather or earth. Luscious black cherries and the concentrated essence of brambly blackberries deliver a lively tartness as you’d find near the pit of a plum. These flavors dance in an exciting enticing balance for minutes before resolving into cedar and violets. Very versatile with foods, especially great with rosemary roasted lamb, duck or virtually any beef topped with a reduction sauce. In many ways, our Heritage is itself a sauce in a glass. 180 cases produced. (07/17/2013)

Read much more on our blog "The Start of Our New Heritage."

Regular Price: 25.00

 

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Crossing over to the Sweet Side https://borravineyards.com/2013/11/crossing-over-to-the-sweet-side/ https://borravineyards.com/2013/11/crossing-over-to-the-sweet-side/#comments Wed, 06 Nov 2013 17:25:58 +0000 http://borravineyards.com/?p=1447

“We’re always listening to all of our loyal fans, and one thing that kept coming up was, ‘When will you have a dessert wine?’” explained Borra’s winemaker, Markus Niggli.

So when fellow winemaker Brett Koth of Lodi’s Mokelumne Glen Vineyards asked if Markus would be interested in collaborating on a German-style sweet white, Markus agreed, but only if Brett brought his years of experience along to supervise the making of this very different wine.

Every year since 2003, Brett’s been bottling this late-harvest white as Mokelumne Glen’s “Dreirebe” – a made-up name translating to the “three varietals” of Rieslaner, Gewürztraminer and other mystery vines. (Those “mystery” grapevines have never been positively identified, though he thinks they may be Weissburgunder, which is also known as Pinot blanc.)

These vines are picked one varietal each per day over three days in late October – about a full month later than they pick their non-dessert versions of the same wines. By then the grapes are hyper-ripe, with sugar readings for the Rieslaner coming in around the mid-to-high 30’s in terms of degrees Brix, while the Gewurz is between the high 20’s and low 30’s.

Somewhat unusual for white wines, Brett starts by destemming and crushing the grapes into blue plastic 55-gallon drums that are kept chilled for a cold soak that can bring the Brix up another 1-3 degrees. A bit of sulfur in those cold drums keeps unwanted organisms from changing the purity of character of these grapes, and helps combat oxidation. After several days, the three lots of soaked-up must are finally pressed together and allowed to co-ferment. (Note that most white wines have their grapes pressed immediately upon reaching the winery.)

Fermentation takes place in one small stainless steel tank set to 55° F over a period of about 10 days. The cold temperature not only holds in otherwise volatile desired aromas, it also makes it easier to stop the working yeasts with a shot of sulfur at the desired sugar level of 12 to 14 degrees Brix. Deep-chilling the tank below 30° F also prevents any yeast from waking up before bottling.

The yeast are then given until the following March to settle out before the delicious nectar is filtered and corked into precious few half-sized, 375mL bottles. (Brett insists on as little winemaking intervention as possible, so that the wine is not fined or heat-stabilized.)

CREATING A NAME

I asked Markus the same question I always ask when I see a new name on one of his labels, “How did you come up with the name ‘Crealto’?” to which he quickly responded, “I have no idea.”

Pressed further for a more-marketable answer, he said, “Crealto was meant to be part of the Artist Series, that is all about the creation of something different. You don’t want to use just plain English for a label. You try to find another word for this joint venture between Brett’s family’s vineyard and the winery.”

And regarding the label artwork, if you look carefully at the labels for all three 2012 wines in the Artist Series, you might just be able to make out a “W8872MKB” – for Weesen and its postal code, where Markus grew up in Switzerland, and for the first letters of the names of Markus and his brothers Konrad and Bernhard.

TASTING AND EATING

If you are a fan of peaches and pears, then you must stop reading and just hit the Add to Cart button (below) right now, because you’ll find loads of those two stone fruits in this straw-colored, concentrated, light syrup nectar. The low 11.4% alcohol makes this mouth-enveloping blend very easy to drink. And what comes across as some fig and a gentle squeeze of orange juice rounds out the complexity and keeps the wine balanced, not cloyingly sweet. Don’t miss inhaling the cold-fermented aromas of honeyed yellow peaches with lingering orange blossom and vineyard dust.

You can practically drink it straight from the half bottle, but if you’re hungry, Brett recommends a peach pie. Markus goes a little more elaborate, “It’s great with dried figs, nuts and Havarti cheese.”

My wife and I stumbled on a leftover chunk of a good friend’s smoked salmon, which made a surprisingly fantastic pairing. The richness of the smoked flavor nicely interplayed with the sweetness of the wine, such that neither dominated. All we needed were a few capers to push it over the edge.

And as for age-ability, Brett says, “We’re still selling our 2009 Mokelumne Glen Dreirebe, and we’ve got one 2005 left. It should age very well, like a Sauternes.”




2012 Artist Series Crealto

Lodi Appellation, Proprietary White German Sweet Dessert Wine
Rieslaner, Gewürztraminer and grapes from mystery vines

Our first dessert wine is a team effort by winemakers Markus Niggli and Mokelumne Glen’s Brett Koth. In a departure from standard white-wine winemaking, Rieslaner, Gewürztraminer and grapes from mystery vines all soak on their skins for three days before a 10-day cold fermentation, resulting in loads of peaches and pears in this straw-colored, concentrated, syrup-like nectar. The low 11.4% alcohol makes this mouth-enveloping blend very easy to drink, and what comes across as some fig and a gentle squeeze of orange juice rounds out the complexity and keeps the wine balanced, not cloyingly sweet. Don’t miss inhaling delicate aromas of honeyed yellow peaches with lingering orange blossom and vineyard dust. If you’re hungry, go for a chunk of smoked salmon with capers for a surprisingly super wine interplay. 60 cases produced. (11/05/2013)

Read much more on our blog "Crossing over to the Sweet Side."

Regular Price: 25.00

 



2013 Artist Series Kerner Blend

Lodi Appellation, Proprietary White German Varietal Blend
50% Kerner, 25% Riesling, 25% Bacchus

"Borra now produces the most 'contemporary' style wines grown in Lodi today, period." – Randy Caparoso in his blog

Our winemaker, Markus Niggli, nicknamed this Kerner-based blend “Vinho Verde” after the popular Portuguese style of bottling wine so quickly after crush that not all the natural carbonation has dissipated. This is a no-holds-barred intense shot of pure lime and gorgeous kiwi fruit layered in minerality that is incredibly refreshing. And that carbonation brings a sizzling spritziness that will make your mouth water for Fettuccine Alfredo with Shrimp, Chicken Cordon Bleu, or a decadent Triple Cream Cheese. The lively limes will keep dancing on your tongue for the better part of an hour – no kidding! (Steve Borra calls it “Zipcode” because the label secretly contains the postal code for Markus’s hometown in Switzerland.) 42 cases produced. (03/08/2014)

Read much more on our blog "The Most Contemporary Collaboration."

Regular Price: 18.99

 



2012 Artist Series Riesling

Lodi Appellation

For those who like a touch of sweetness, our new Riesling offers just the right amount. There is a soft delicacy to the scent – perhaps juicy peach with lime and apple blossoms. What blows us away about this wine is the zingy super long finish of lime and orange that follows unctuous honeysuckle, white peach, oils of citrus and who knows what else. But watch out, you’ll have emptied the half bottle before you figure it all out! 60 cases produced. (4/24/13)

Read much more on our blog "The Most Contemporary Collaboration."

Regular Price: 15.00 for 375mL

 

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Redefining Lodi https://borravineyards.com/2013/09/redefining-lodi/ https://borravineyards.com/2013/09/redefining-lodi/#respond Sat, 14 Sep 2013 02:00:24 +0000 http://borravineyards.com/?p=1390

Borra Winemaker Markus Niggli with German whites at Mokelumne Glen Vineyard.
Photo: Dan Evans/Special to The Chronicle

This past weekend, a few hundred thousand Bay Area readers of the San Francisco Chronicle were treated to a full-color re-introduction to Lodi in a special section tucked inside Sunday’s paper.

It was the second annual feature exclusively on Lodi organized by Visit Lodi, and included a run-down of some of our top restaurants, as well as a profile of our revitalized downtown, and an eye-opening report on how Lodi has become the home of many cycling events with our picturesque winery-laden, easy-riding roads.

But what we in the wine biz anticipate most is another appraisal of the state of the local industry by respected wine writer, Jon Bonné.

“In Lodi, it is the grape that reigns,” writes Bonné, giving credit to Lodi’s multi-century experience with winegrape growing, but significant use of “Lodi” on wine labels is little more than a decade old. So Bonné dug deeper for examples of those who are making progress in taking the fruit of the land and, “giving Lodi an identity in the bottle:”

“There have been quiet signs of interest from outside, as vintners from elsewhere circle back to Lodi – this time, respectfully so. They have been drawn by sites like the Bechthold vineyard, whose organically grown Cinsault has, thanks to labels like Scholium Project and Turley Wine Cellars, become as fashionable in SoHo and SoMa as Warby Parker eyewear.”

Turley’s winemaker, Tegan Passalacqua, demonstrated his faith in Lodi by purchasing for himself the 1915 Kirschenmann vineyard near Victor. Per Bonné, “It contained exceptional Zinfandel, of course. But Passalacqua, improbably, sees white wine as the great hope for the area, enough that he is keeping old Pinot Gris vines and adding other varieties.”

With all the focus on Lodi as the Zin Capitol of the World, it surprises some to learn that the resident winemakers have become almost secretly fond of the refreshing whites we can make. It’s those very wines that are right in line with the more recent trend toward higher-acid, lower-alcohol wines, at least in some small way shaped by Jon Bonné’s own writing. Though the average everyday drinker is happy with big jammy Zins, there is practically a backlash against that style amongst hot sommeliers and critics.

So it was no surprise when looking in our own backyard for “Lodi natives” showing this style of winemaking that he gravitated to a short list, including Markus Bokisch (Bokisch Vineyards), Mike McCay (McCay Cellars), Kyle Lerner (Harney Lane) and Borra Vineyard’s own Markus Niggli.

He cites the collaboration between Borra’s Markus and Mokelumne Glen Vineyards as, “A perfect example of Lodi wrestling with its identity. The Koth family, longtime growers, decided to honor their German heritage with an astonishing range of grapes: Kerner, Dornfelder, Blaufrankisch, Zweigelt and more. They once bottled these themselves, but now sell to Niggli, who turns out efforts like a lightly spritzy Artist Series Kerner meant to approximate Portuguese Vinho Verde, and a white field blend called Intuition, a mix of Kerner, Riesling and Gewurztraminer (puzzlingly aged in all new oak).”

Bonné includes a summary quote from Markus: “There is a Spanish trend going on here, there is a German trend going on here, there’s a Portuguese trend going on here. We can grow whatever we want.”

The S. F. Chronicle Lodi section is a very welcome acknowledgement that we have taken another positive step forward on our journey to wider acceptance by wine critics. It’s also nice to see those working hard to blaze new trails – such as Markus with Steve’s support – being recognized for their work.

And, best of all, with the America’s Cup Challenge bringing visitors from all parts of the world, the Chronicle printed an extra 150,000 copies of the paper, meaning more than a quarter million people will now be aware of what a special place we have here in Lodi.




2012 Intuition Field Blend White

Lodi Appellation, Proprietary White German Varietal Blend
60% Kerner, 20% Riesling, 20% Gewürztraminer

The last 2011 vintage was described as, "This is a great wine, one of the best California white wines I've tasted this year. It's delicious. And complex. And constantly interesting. Every sip was worth savoring. And it was even more delicious the second day." - W. Blake Gray, The Gray Report

Boldly turning the pre-conceived notion about Lodi on its head, our winemaker’s personal experiment has proven to be a racy, refreshing success. A beguiling arrangement of honeyed vanilla peach custard scents with traces of white pepper and lemonness turn vivid and alive with a sip, revealing lemons, limes and peaches concentrating into a finish of intense juicy pineapple and oil of orange zest. All of these work together in excellent dry harmonic balance to please even the most demanding chef. We’ve got a white to marry with all those spicy foods that normally vanquish the best cellar selections. Spice up a simple baked potato, or go for shrimp spring rolls dipped in spicy peanut sauce – anything spicy and Asian. 200 cases produced. (07/16/13)

Regular Price: 22.00

 

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Summer Whites from Lodi Live https://borravineyards.com/2013/08/summer-whites-from-lodi-live/ https://borravineyards.com/2013/08/summer-whites-from-lodi-live/#respond Fri, 16 Aug 2013 20:25:21 +0000 http://borravineyards.com/?p=1351

Just last Wednesday evening, Borra Vineyards winemaker, Markus Niggli, had the honor of being invited to co-host an installment of “Lodi Live” produced by the Lodi Winegrape Commission and their PR agency, Charles Communications Association on brandlive.

The Commission has now put on several of these successful private “taste-alongs” streaming from the Visitor Center to selected groups of wine writers and bloggers from across the country. Each writer receives in advance a set of the wines to be tasted, along with notes and other information.

As the tasting proceeds, the Twitterverse is filled with #LodiLive hashtags and @Lodi_Wine handles, significantly boosting interest in Lodi. And within days, bottle shots and wine reviews pop onto the radar of new consumers and other wine writers and geeks.

So it was quite a privilege for Markus to be seen in the presence of high-profile Camron King, Executive Director of the Lodi Winegrape Commission tasting through “unique and delicious white wines” including the 2012 Acquiesce Winery & Vineyards “Belle Blanc” (SRP $24), 2011 St. Jorge Winery Verdelho Seco (SRP $18), 2012 Watts Winery “Upstream” Chardonnay (SRP $15), and Borra’s own 2012 “Intuition” Field Blend White (SRP $22).

Here’s a particularly passionate portion of their tasting of the Borra Intuition from the 51-minute mark of the hour-plus live stream, which can be reviewed above or at http://cca.yourbrandlive.com/c/lodisummerwhites/:

Camron King:
I love this. This is such a fun and a different blend in so many ways. I mean you get the fruit and you get the ripeness and some of that almost citrus, but then that Kerner has a minerality to it that you get kind of midpalete – mid- to back-palate – that I absolutely love that’s different from a lot of wines.

Markus Niggli:
Kerner is for me the body. The Kerner is for me the minerality, is for me the structure. I have the Gewürztraminer which adds the spice. And then the Riesling which adds the floral aspect pushing out here. The oaks are giving all the layers.

Camron:
That’s beautiful. Now tell me about the oak. Because we’ve gone from unoaked… You’re not heavy on the oak at all, but it provides some structure.

Markus:
Well, I’m above normal on oak. I have once-filled barrels, 50% French, 50% American. So I have a fairly decent amount but I don’t keep it on too long. So it’s nine months and it will be bottled. I can go a little bit less on oak. But I think oak has a very very crucial part in the wine. It’s different. So that’s what I want to bring out. It’s different. I don’t want to copy-paste anybody. And I know no one else is doing this kind of wine here. I think it’s fun and that’s what we’re here for.

Camron:
It’s fun and it’s different. I absolutely think this is different and it’s different than what anybody else that I’ve tasted is doing. In fact, I took this wine to a conference with me just two weeks or so ago that had a number of master sommeliers and wine educators from throughout the country and even some international folks. And I tasted this on them blind. I said, “Tell me what this is. You know it’s from Lodi. You know what we’re known for (because of the level of understanding that these folks have). Taste it and tell me what you think.” And each and every time they were stumped on it. And I think it’s because who would think German varietals in Lodi, California? And then, who would think of the blend. And Kerner? I mean, I don’t think it even enters the thought process. So, again, this harkens back to what I was saying earlier. We can grow a world of wine here in our little region. I mean German, French, Iberian, Spanish… We have Pinotage growing here. We can grow anything. And it’s so much fun to be able to show that to people.”

Markus:
It’s the story needs to be told. And that’s really winemaking is fun. It’s great. Everybody thinks I have a great job. But on the B-side, it’s really tell everybody who gives this a try, if you don’t know what Kerner is – if you haven’t heard of it – why would you choose it? Why would you pick it and try it out? And as soon as you touch the bottle and you try the wine, I think you get a grip of it. But our job really to get this out that there is all these unusual not-Chardonnay/Merlot/Cab varietals. They’re fun. They’re exciting, and it makes a very good dinner conversation if you have it in the bag and nobody knows what it is. Believe me, that’s what’s going on.

Camron:
And nobody knew what it was. And that was fun.

Markus:
I put a hundred bucks on it.

Camron:
And I stood there and it made me smile every time. So thank you. It was really fun for me to stump the master sommeliers.

A bit later…

Camron:
When folks like yourself give me fantastic varietals to go out there and to share with the world and to dispel the generalizations that have been out there for so long about Lodi, it makes it fun and exciting and easy for me, because the misconceptions about what Lodi is and what Lodi has been are all exactly that: they’re misconceptions. And it just means that we have the opportunity to share things with people to show them what we can do, and what the quality is that’s coming out of Lodi. And that we make wines for everybody to be proud of on their dinner table, with family and friends to share every night of the week. Again, I think this is a beautiful fun wine, and you have it priced at $22, I mean that is a fantastic price for such a unique and fun and beautiful wine.

Markus:
I made 200 cases of it – fairly limited – but my goal, again, is to be out of it by as soon as it cools down. And I will. It’s my job and I will be out.

Camron:
Well, I better hurry and get over and get some. I better pick up all these, actually. That is one of the tough parts about working with all of these fantastic wineries, we have to make the sacrifice sometimes to make sure we know what’s going on in Lodi and try some beautiful, beautiful wines.

SELECTED TWEETS DURING THE LIVE STREAM AND THEREAFTER

From D Vine Wine Time @dvinewinetime, Castle Rock, CO:
Borra Vineyards Intuition field blend white is terrific! Meyer lemons; fruit & hints of Butterscotch – Amazing!

From Dezel Quillen @myvinespot:
Borra Intuition 2012 Field Blend White: Kerner based blend that moderately complex and very intriguing. Rich yet racy.

From Brian Freedman @WineUpdate, Philadelphia, PA:
BorraVineyards Intuition: Kumquat, lime, white peach, flowers, honey, coconut. Exotic and bracing. Riveting. Great evolution of the Borra Intuition as the chill of the fridge diminishes.

From Jenna Francisco @thismyhappiness, Sacramento, CA:
I love that the winemaker took an unconventional approach to making this wine. I love innovators :)

From Cliff Brown @cliffordbrown3, Pewaukee, WI:
I would NEVER guess the Intuition was from Lodi. The Borra Intuition is the most distinct and unusual wine I’ve had in a long time. The Borra is a steal at $22.

From Martin Redmond @martinredmond, Union City, CA:
Borra is charming, dry and fresh with appealing orchard fruit, white flower, spiced honey vanilla character. I’d pair Intuition with Seafood Gumbo!

From Meg Houston Maker @megmaker, NH:
I’d go with shrimp on this Borra blend. Something in a butter sauce would also work.

From Sherrie Perkovich @sperkovich, SF, CA:
Love the Borra Intuition. Smells like Kiwi, Kerner is showing nicely. Good finish.

BLOG POSTS AFTER THE LIVE STREAM

Review of Borra’s Intuition
@MyVineSpot on Tumblr by Dezel Quillen

Lodi Summer Whites w/ Watts Winery, Acquiesce Winery, Borra Vineyards, St. Jorge Winery
My Vine Spot by Dezel Quillen

Borra Vineyards Intuition 2012
Wine Harlots

Cheers!


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The New Guy https://borravineyards.com/2013/08/the-new-guy/ https://borravineyards.com/2013/08/the-new-guy/#comments Thu, 01 Aug 2013 23:21:26 +0000 http://borravineyards.com/?p=1309

Our new cellarmaster has been through quite a ride over his lifetime, and it was one particular ride that brought him eventually to Borra.

Move that clock back to Christmas the year before last and you would have found Vince Zalutka cruising unemployed along River Road in Clarksburg on a 2001 Harley Davidson Sportster he picked up for $3,000.

Vince had been a career pre-press manager in the newspaper business, having worked for such publications as the Ancorage Daily News in Alaska and the Sacramento Bee. His days were commonly spent glued to Quark and Photoshop, and before that he had become quite proficient at old-fashioned paste-up layouts and color separations.

All of us saw that technology was going to make the spread of news easier, but that didn’t make the process of losing the real jobs any easier.

Remediating ground water and soils for northern California gas stations based out of an office in El Dorado County’s Cameron Park became the next focus for Vince, as he shifted to being an environmentalist.

MOVING ON

That position was to also be cut short, and Vince found himself with time to get a motorcycle license and that Harley with some of his savings and bonus money.

Which gets us back on the road to winemaking.

River Road led him along past Miner’s Leap Winery in Clarksburg, where he went in for a taste, got to talkin’, then was put to part-time work.

The next step toward Borra came during a routine delivery of cases of Miner’s Leap wine for cold storage to Elite Wine Shipping on Turner Road in Lodi. Seeing another opportunity for tasting and checking things out, he walked across the parking lot to m2 Wines and wound up picking up more cellar hours with owner/winemaker Layne Montgomery.

The intersection with Borra occurred when another Borra Team member, Lisa Vaccarella – who you may have met behind the counter in our tasting room – was spreading the word about an open position in our cellar to Layne. He simply pointed across the barrel room to a busily working Vince. Vince was introduced to Markus Niggli, Borra’s winemaker, and Vince had himself a new position as of May 1, 2013.

CELLARMASTER VINCE

“I like Vince because he has a different level of work ethics. He really enjoys the cellar work, even being new to the wine industry. He finds answers to problems and has good ideas for how to fix things. He is careful with the barrels and very clean. Being clean and working carefully are very important in winemaking,” explains Markus.

Vince relates, “Markus started me with Manuel in the field for a few weeks, so I could get to know the vineyards. That’s been very valuable to me.”

Now pretty badly bitten by the winemaking bug, he’s working on a Winemaking Certificate through U.C. Davis to further hone his skills while he learns hands-on alongside Markus.

“Now I’m working with Vince on developing his palate,” says Markus. “He’s learning that with Syrah, for example, there are many different styles and wine faults. I’m helping him learn how to figure out how a Syrah was made, as far as oak, sweetness, etc. based on what he can taste in the wine.”

Summing up, Vince says, “I love working here. Markus knows the wine business well and openly shares his knowledge. He is also a patient man.”

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Wanna Get Away? https://borravineyards.com/2013/06/wanna-get-away/ https://borravineyards.com/2013/06/wanna-get-away/#comments Mon, 24 Jun 2013 23:21:32 +0000 http://borravineyards.com/?p=1260

I’m kicking back in a lounge chair, sipping on some Intuition as I watch vineyards climbing up rolling hills, passing by. I can barely make out a medieval, almost storybook castle up ahead, perched on top one of those hills, and I think, “Life doesn’t get much better than this.”

That’s, unfortunately, only in my imagination, triggered by this entrancing video from AmaWaterways cruise line that will be hosting Borra’s winemaker, Markus Niggli – and possibly you, too – next March, 2014:

So, yes, this is an unashamed plug for a pretty amazing cruise down the Rhine that won’t be cheap – starting at $2,469 per person – but it will be full of great food and wine times.

The journey starts in Markus’s homeland of Switzerland – not far from his birthplace of Weesen – where we’ll board the brand new, vintage 2013, AmaPrima for a course all the way down the Rhine river, through France and Germany to Amsterdam:

The AmaPrima isn’t one of those huge cruise high-rises that looks like something about to tip over and crammed full of a population equal to twice that of Woodbridge. It’s more like a double-decker private hotel, carrying all your personal possessions, that moves smoothly along the vineyards with no chance of wavy sea-sickness.

And with only room for about 160 people, crowded claustrophobia is pretty much out of the question. In fact, you’ll bump into a limited number of other Borra fans that get to monopolize time with Markus. So you’ll learn more than you may care to know about winemaking with perhaps a bit of German thrown in.

Here’s another teaser:

Markus will bring along plenty of Borra wines, especially whites, so you won’t go thirsty. Plus, since he’s sort of a games player, during the scheduled “wine lectures” he’s going to be conducting blind tastings so you can see how Borra’s Kerner and Riesling compare with local Kerners and world-famous Rieslings.

Early in the journey, as the Rhine courses along the border between France and Germany, you’ll come to Strasbourg, in the heart of the Alsace. It’s here where you’ll find some of the wines that have inspired our latest whites, along with the sparkling Crémant d’Alsace, about which Markus observes, “They’re absolutely gorgeous.”

Markus had me try this sparkling Crémant Rosé, which was full of nice strawberry with tart fruit and good acid balance which made for a very refreshing experience at about $20 per bottle. I’d gladly smuggle a couple of those onto the ship.

You can grab a bike off the deck and tool around the many little towns, villages and castles with or without a tour guide, be fed like a king, and – best of all – make a bunch of new wine-loving friends.


So hopefully we’ve tempted you enough to check out the full details at AmaWaterways.com.

And if we’ve won you over, join us by contacting our personal travel agent:

Terry Normington
Segale Travel Service
2321 W March Lane, Ste A
Stockton, CA 95207
209-952-6606 x525
TerryN@SegaleTravel.com

But hurry, because Terry is holding only a few more cabins.

Plus, click here for a PDF of our travel plans.

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The Most Contemporary Collaboration https://borravineyards.com/2013/04/the-most-contemporary-collaboration/ https://borravineyards.com/2013/04/the-most-contemporary-collaboration/#comments Fri, 19 Apr 2013 22:16:46 +0000 http://borravineyards.com/?p=1120

You can’t believe how much I enjoy pulling up behind a winery crush pad and being greeted with, “Here, try this.”

Markus Niggli, Borra Vineyards’ winemaker, offered up a glass with a nearly clear liquid inside, presumably wine.

“What is it?” I said, before even smelling, as we went through a routine we’d played out many times before.

“I’m not telling you,” he said, practically on cue.

Whatever it was had pure green apples and limes bouncing amidst the fun fizziness of tiny bubbles and minerality. It was warm that day, and I could easily have gulped it down to quench a parched thirst, but I thought it rude at the time.

There was a flatbed truck blocking the driveway serving as a makeshift table conveniently next to a small stainless steel tank holding the mystery wine. Kyle Luke, Markus’s former protégé/assistant winemaker, had been pouring samples into a couple of graduated cylinders to create blends. He and Markus stopped everything and stared at my face to get my first most honest impression of their creation.

When I’m not sure what I’m tasting, I hedge my bets with a safe, but truthful response: “It’s nice. Nice balance of acid with sweetness that comes off as being slightly off-dry. What is it?”

“Vinho Verde!” Markus blurts out, which doesn’t help me much, because I’ll admit I don’t know every wine made by man, though mentally I was google-earth rotating the globe around to somewhere on the coast of Spain that seemed to be associated.

“But isn’t Vinho Verde a super-acid, green style of winemaking in Portugal?”

“Yes, but we’re doing it with Kerner and Riesling from Mokelumne Glen fruit. We’re tweaking the blend, because I like what the Riesling is bringing to the Kerner.”

“Is this going to be another Intuition or something?” I ask, thinking of the blend he started last year of Kerner, Gewürztraminer, and Rieslaner.

“No, this is completely different. It’s got apple and pear with a slight carbonation. And this time we’ll have a student from the university [Stockton’s University of the Pacific] designing the label,” he explains in his excited Swiss accent.

THE ARTIST SERIES LABEL IS BORN

Just a few weeks later, Markus met up with University of the Pacific Professor Michael E. Leonard to review his students’ artwork. Markus and Professor Leonard had hoped last year to have a student design the label for Borra’s Heritage and Intuition labels, but time ran out before bottling, so the professor stepped in and rendered his own design (which you can read about here).

Professor Leonard was happy that Markus kept his promise to come back, “I was excited that this was not a one-time deal. It’s a long-term collaboration between the school and Borra Vineyards,” the professor said. “I try to marry the instructional material with practical experience through competitions, and this was a tremendous opportunity for the illustration class. Students have created movie posters and the University’s Summer Sessions course catalog covers in the past, and I knew it would be a strong competition with lots of talent.”

Markus gives the ground rules for the competition: “I’ve got a lot of connections in Switzerland [where he grew up], and I wanted to create a label that would work for the Euro market. I wanted the pure mindset of an art student. So the only guidelines I gave them were that it was a greenish wine, and I gave them some numbers and letters, and they didn’t know what those numbers and letters meant. I didn’t want to limit their creativity.”

What he got was a whole conference room table full of artwork mounted on black mattes. After carefully making sure that the final designs would work with existing silver Borra Vineyards capsules, Markus was particularly impressed with the work of junior Sheng Moua.

Sheng’s concept was chosen, and she admits, “I was a little confused, at first, by the combination of numbers and letters that we had to use for our design ideas. I knew I had to adapt my ideas to something the winemaker would like on his bottles.”


The youngest of seven children and majoring in graphic design, Sheng is the first in her Hmong family to attend college and has the goal of owning her own design firm. She found the project both exciting and challenging. After doing extensive research online of wine labels and contemporary design, she submitted a few different ideas.

A pleased Markus relates, “This whole process of collaboration worked out just great, and I call the wine ‘Artist Series’ because I’ll be coming back each year to the university for new artwork from new student artists.”

But the process of developing the new label was still nowhere near complete. Only industry insiders know of the love/hate relationship between graphic artists and printers, especially with wine labels, where designs deliberately push the envelope of what can technically be done with ink, printing plates and steel dies. There is much behind-the-scenes skill involved with prepping the artwork to look great when it’s printed. And that’s where MPI Label Systems in Stockton stepped in with their print prep artists.

The result allowed Sheng’s original artwork to come completely alive. For you print geeks: the labels were printed digitally on dull silver foil so that the silver highlights in the design would match the screwcaps and capsules Borra used on the bottles. The central part of the design was embossed to enhance the core art of the design – the letters and numbers.

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

But what finally makes it into the bottle behind that label still needs to be equally inspired.

The proof is in the pudding, and it sure doesn’t hurt when your boss becomes a new wine’s first fan. Steve Borra quickly took a particular liking to the new creation, keeping a private stash in his home refrigerator and admitting to grabbing a cold one after a long day in the field.

I asked Steve how he liked it when I was getting my own stash for purposes of writing tasting notes (translates to “drinking”).

“Oh, you mean the Zipcode wine?” he said, which made almost no sense to me at first.

Steve suffers from a common ailment in Lodi: an almost reflexive giving up when we see a word we’re not going to try to pronounce. (Sort of like how all Lodi winegrowers call the Carignane grape “Kerrigan,” which makes no sense either.) But once you take a look at the front label, you’ll either give up, too, or start trying to solve the puzzle.

Looking at the label, I, myself, can make out “M” and “B” and a “2”, but everything else seems to have fallen to pieces.

Markus explained that he gave the students only “MKBW8872,” not this handy decoder that you’ll want to keep around when you twist open a bottle:

M = Markus (winemaker)
K = Konrad (Markus’s brother)
B = Bernhard (Markus’s other brother)
W = Weesen (where Markus grew up in Switzerland)
8872 = the postal code for Weesen

And that’s what triggered Steve’s nickname, because here in the U.S., of course, we use the term “Zipcode” instead of postal code.

EXPERT OPINION

But what does an expert think of it?

Markus gave noted wine writer Randy Caparoso a sneak taste of the Zipcode wine (and two more that we won’t talk about yet, but will release later in the year).

Fortunately for Borra, Randy was so sparked by excitement from the new Artist Series and other new wines to proclaim:

“Borra now produces the most ‘contemporary’ style wines grown in Lodi today, period.”

(Check out his dedicated blog post with the great title, “Borra’s amazing Spring releases” on LodiWine.com. Here’s a PDF.)

By “contemporary,” Randy’s referring to a not-overripe, but natural-acid style that is exactly what cutting-edge sommeliers and wine writers are looking for right now.

Randy continues:

“Mr. Niggli has crafted a mouth wateringly crisp dry white wine that is as light as a feather on a Southern breeze. The nose is effusively fragrant, like Pippin apple and orange peel, with soothing touches of rising bread dough. The acidity is lemony fresh without being sharp, and rounded out by just a whisper of sweetness. The acid still high enough that the wine finishes dry, with a definite minerally feel to go along with the citrusy fruit.”

Of course, I had to double-check his notes, so I actually took a swig straight from the bottle, pirate-style, and boy was it easy to chug, but I don’t recommend it. It’s hard to taste all those flavors when its roaring straight down the gullet.

Rather than explaining in detail how it was made, here are the cliff notes that you can scroll past if they look boring:

THE STATS

2012 Artist Series Kerner “Zipcode”
Appellation: Lodi (Mokelumne Glen Vineyards)
Blend: 85% Kerner, 15% Riesling
Harvested: September 12, 2012
Winemaking: 3 weeks stainless steel cold-fermented, native yeast, no acid adds
Cellar: 4 months, 100% stainless steel
Bottled: January 15, 2013
Cases produced: 42
Alcohol on Label: 13.5%
RS: 2.10 g/L, slightly off-dry
pH: 2.98
TA: 7.73 g/L
Price: $18.00/$14.40 for club members
Size: 750 mL

All that translates into the kind of wine you’ll want to always have in the fridge to get your party started with the perfect welcome, “Here, try this!”

AND NOW THE SALES TALK…

Only 42 cases of this quaffer was produced, and all but 15 cases will be shipped back to Switzerland for distribution there.

We’ve got an inside bet that at $18 per bottle, but only $14.40 for Borra’s La Dolce Vita club members, each and every bottle will probably be spoken for by ZinFest, May 18th.

MAY 10, 2013 UPDATE:
Sure enough, we have sold out before ZinFest! Thanks for your support!

Download Tasting Notes Borra Vineyards Heritage

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The Start of Our New Heritage https://borravineyards.com/2012/10/the-start-of-our-new-heritage/ https://borravineyards.com/2012/10/the-start-of-our-new-heritage/#respond Thu, 04 Oct 2012 18:42:17 +0000 http://borravineyards.com/?p=987

There was a time when local winemakers didn’t really care what grapes they were growing as long as their wine tasted good. They’d have maybe Zinfandel, Carignane and Petite Sirah planted, perhaps all mixed up, on whatever land they weren’t using for watermelon, almonds or corn.

When the birds started to feast on the vines, and a random grape tasting showed at least some sweetness, the whole field was picked and fermented together in the family’s biggest wooden vat. That process of throwing everything in at the same time is known as a “field blend.”

Nowadays, we’re able to instantly read the sugar and acid of grapes as they ripen to pick a tiny section of a particular vineyard – perhaps because it ripens earlier than the rest – and make a very specific wine of that certain clone of grape. There’s all kinds of control, but sometimes you lose the romance.

That’s why Borra has been making an old fashioned Field Blend exclusively for their La Dolce Vita Club members over the past few years. And now Borra is bottling that romance under a new label called “Heritage” to capture the tradition of grape growing handed down from one generation to the next in Steve Borra’s family.

PICKING DAY

The 2012 Heritage began its trip toward wine on the first Thursday of October. I was fortunate to tag along with the picking crew, led by vineyard foreman Manuel Maldonado, as they arrived in the barely-visible vineyard before the crack of dawn.

What we call “vineyard,” Steve Borra’s daughter, Gina, calls her front yard, because all those vines are sitting along her driveway in the space of a few hundred feet between her house and Armstrong Road. Steve’s formal name for those vines is the “Church Block.”

Only a three minute tractor drive down the road from the winery, Church Block was once part of a 60-acre vineyard owned by the Racca family – a brother and two sisters, none of whom married. They sold five acres to the Stockton Catholic Diocese (of which St. Anne’s is a member) for a future church or school. Steve farmed the vines for about ten years before purchasing the property in 1990.

The block was planted back around 1920 – almost a century ago – to an acre each of Petite Sirah, Carignane, Alicante Bouschet and Zinfandel, but the Zin is now gone, because, “That’s where Gina planted her house,” per Steve.

SCARCE BARBERA

“Home Ranch” old vine Barbera makes up the lion’s share of Heritage. The previous day, Manuel and crew picked the last of the Barbera, growing around the winery next to Steve and his wife Bev’s home – hence the name “Home Ranch” for that vineyard.

Borra’s winemaker, Markus Niggli, has to pick the Barbera ahead of the Church Block so he can get an idea of crop size before committing to make either a pure Barbera, Field Blend, or both.

Steve’s Barbera has had a rollercoaster ride in popularity over the years. It went from an unknown red to being very popular with wineries like Napa’s legendary Louis M. Martini in the 1980’s. It hit a slump around the turn of the century, but has become a big hit since then with wineries throughout the U.S.

Markus provides more behind-the-scenes detail:

“We usually have more orders for the Barbera than we have grapes. In hard years we don’t even have enough grapes to make all of our own wines, but 2010 was a very big year and the crops of the different Field Blend grapes for once all got completely ripe. There was a rare perfection of growing conditions. We still didn’t have enough for both a 100% Barbera and a Field Blend, and I wanted to make a Field Blend, so I had to hide six bins of Barbera in the barrel room so Steve wouldn’t know. Otherwise, he would have shipped them across the country. But the new Heritage was worth the risk.”

CELLAR WORK

Fortunately for 2012, the amount of Barbera that came in was sufficient to make a Field Blend as well as a pure old vine Barbera, so Markus gave the order for a handful of bins of Church Block grapes to be added to one of the tanks where the previous day’s Barbera was chilling down. (A couple days of refrigerated pre-soak releases more color and extracts more complexity.)

In terms of percentages (for those of us wine geeks), 2012 will come pretty close to those of 2010, which were 47% Barbera, 22% Petite Sirah, 18% Alicante Bouschet, and 13% Carignane. (And if you want to get super-technical and take into consideration the hundred yards separating the Church Block from the Home Ranch, you could say they weren’t all from the same field, but it’s all pretty much the same terroir in my book.)

The winemaking recipe is about as simple as it gets: no yeast or malolactic bacteria are added during fermentation; the grapes aren’t even pressed afterward, but only drained off. There is no fiddling around. Just natural winemaking so you can taste the vines.

There is, however, always the question of oak. Too little, and a wine can taste just simple and fruity. Too much, and all you taste is oak paving over the vineyard.

Markus felt, “Due to the wine’s heavy structure, we used 45% new French oak barrels for the 2010 – more than usual. We knew the wine would be powerful and rich.”

BARELY-DESCRIBABLE FLAVORS OF 2010

Borra’s official winemaker notes describe this almost indescribable wine as:

“Wild fragrances of rich black cherries or black currant, bathed in a tapestry of an incredibly-reduced demi-glace of beef broth, shift untamed with perhaps smoky bacon or cloves or scorched earth. Luscious tangy black cherries and the concentrated essence of blackberries with molasses and coffee strike a powerful and exciting balance that is always enticing, but couldn’t be termed sweet. The flavors dance for minutes before resolving into cedar and textured deep rose petals. Very versatile with foods, especially great with rosemary roasted lamb, duck or virtually any beef topped with a reduction sauce. In many ways, our Heritage is itself a sauce in a glass. 250 cases produced.”

Off the record, Markus says, “It’s hard to keep it in the bottle. It screams to get out. The glass just pops.”

We gave noted writer Randy Caparoso a taste back in September, and in an excellent profile titled “Mystery wine for the ages: the 2010 Borra Heritage red(PDF), he wrote:

“It is unequivocally, deliciously and deliriously fantastic – a red wine for the ages – from its almost psychedelic purple colored head down to its deep, saturated toes: compact, concentrated black cherry/raspberry liqueur-like fruit aroma tinged with caraway and whiffs of animal skin and organic, loamy undertones; luscious flavors barely contained by zesty yet viscous textured, medium-full bodied sensations, flowing like proverbial rivers of Babylon.”

May Borra’s Heritage bless you and yours over the coming holidays! Cheers!

OFFICIAL 2010 HERITAGE RELEASE

The official release of 2010 Heritage was held at the winery Saturday and Sunday, December 1st-2nd, 2012 from 12 noon to 4 p.m. Please visit us for a taste of our current vintage!




2012 Heritage Field Blend Red

Lodi Appellation, Proprietary Blend
55% Barbera, 14% Carignane, 17% Petite Sirah, 14% Alicante Bouschet

Generations of winegrape farmers used to grow a mix of grape varieties in a field of vines then crush them all together on the same day, creating a “field blend” of beautiful garnet red. The result, as with only the best wines we’ve tasted, is almost indescribable. Probably because there is much more Barbera in the blend this vintage, the whole arrangement of flavors are so very “red” this time: luscious tart red cherries and dense pomegranate, along with savory slices of roast beef and bacon and a pinch of thyme. (If so moved, feel free to fire up a cigar now.) “Concentrated roundness with mouthwatering acidity of juicy fresh fruit” could sum-up this delicious experience. And for you pro’s, using your nose, you’ll detect those same flavors in the vapor, along with other spices, like cinnamon and anise. Very versatile with foods, especially great with thyme roasted lamb, duck or virtually any beef topped with a reduction sauce. In many ways, our Heritage is itself a sauce in a glass. 180 cases produced. (01/13/2015)

Regular Price: 25.00

 

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Zin Pick https://borravineyards.com/2012/09/zin-pick/ https://borravineyards.com/2012/09/zin-pick/#comments Fri, 28 Sep 2012 21:49:27 +0000 http://borravineyards.com/?p=931

ZIN AT THE CRACK OF DAWN

I pulled through the north gatepost at Borra’s Gill Creek Ranch Wednesday morning just before dawn, knowing the picking crew was already building up a sweat.

Though not quite as challenging as finding a needle in a haystack, when you’re dealing with 40.7 acres of Old Vine Zinfandel, it can take time to find a bunch of hunched-over pickers. It’s sort of like finding your mother down a supermarket isle when you’ve become stuck in the candy section a bit too long.

Sure enough, I caught up with about ten familiar faces dropping pristine bunches of dark purple grapes into yellow lugs faster than I could ever manage. If you’ve picked grapes, you quickly become reacquainted to seldom-used lower back muscles – what with all the bending over, squatting and twisting to dump those lugs into half-ton, chest-high white Macrobins.

A near-perfect cloudless morning in the fifties made for a pleasant photo shoot. And the ability to randomly reach out and snag a snack of a delicious berry of Zin was a convenient bonus. The berries tasted rich, but not sugary, with hints of something more exciting going on that was definitely not raisin. These are the sorts of flavors you know are going to taste special in the bottle.

VINTAGE VARIATION

Being the 26th day of September, timing of the pick was within a week of the last two, cooler years. 2010 Zin was picked on the 28th and the 2011 was picked on the 21st. Sugars are a bit higher at 26.3˚ Brix, compared to 24.9˚ B in 2010 and 26.2˚ B in 2011, but that’s to be expected in a consistently warm growing season, where temps seemed stuck in the upper 90’s all summer – several times crossing the 100˚ mark.

The main difference in vintages is that the acids are lower this year: pH’s for this year and 2010 and 2011 were 3.82, 3.54, 3.56, respectively, with TA’s at 4.7, 5.8 and 6.3.

THINGS ARE LOOKING UP

I chatted with Borra’s winemaker, Markus Niggli, today, two days after crushing, and he said he’s happy with this year’s Zinfandel: “We were worried about the amount of crop we were going to get, but it turned out pretty well. We got 3 tons per acre. Last year we only got a ton and a half per acre.”

Describing the season and the results, he said, “Fruit set was good. And this year we had pretty heavy foliage, giving us a better ratio of leaves to grapes. The heat gave us much more fruit, and it’s all pristine and clean with no bugs and absolutely no sign of rot. We see smaller berries and bigger clusters, and the grapes have a good typical Zin flavor profile.”

CHALLENGES PRODUCE COMPLEXITY

One of the challenges in farming Borra’s Gill Creek Ranch Zin is a swale and subtle rise running through the vineyard that creates complexity simply from a range of ripeness along each vine row.

Another challenge is that these 46-year-old vines regularly produce maybe only a quarter of the output of their younger counterparts – but what you do get tends to be more interesting than the huge fruity horsepower young vines provide.

Of the entire yield only 11.1 tons were crushed and destemmed into tank #5 specifically for Borra. The rest will be shipped off to other wineries eager to make their own award-winning Lodi Zin.

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