Eggs, Piggies and Hippos: Sauvignon Blanc at Rudd Vineyards & Winery
Posted 05/06/2008 at 07:05 PM by Cathy
Eggs I'd seen before. Piggies and hippos were something new.
Viader winery in Napa uses egg-shaped concrete fermentation tanks as part of their initiative to farm and process grapes biodynamically. Rudd Vineyards in Oakville aren't biodynamic, but they use the egg-shaped tanks to ferment part of their Sauvignon Blanc harvest. (The pigs and hippopotami look like the eggs rolled on their sides, with legs added for stability.) The challenge today, for the Mastering Wine class I was taking at the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena, was to gauge how fermentation tanks made of different materials – concrete, stainless steel, and oak – affect various samples and clones of their 2007 Sauvignon Blanc.
Rudd had harvested grapes from three distinct versions of Sauvignon Blanc: Clone 1, Clone 530, and the Musque selection. We tasted these samples in relation to samples from different fermentation tanks. Just like yesterday's tasting at Franciscan, we sat down to taste wine samples which are unfinished, unblended and would never be released commercially.
At Rudd, we also had the opportunity to focus on the nuances that concrete, stainless steel, and oak impose – even in very subtle ways – on the wine samples.
Concrete, for example, is a porous material, which means some oxygen seeps through the walls of the egg-shaped tank. It is also a basic material, which means it doesn't have the neutrality of stainless steel but it also doesn't impart the toasty or vanilla-type characteristics of oak.
The other variable, aside from the tank material and clone or selection, was the location of the vineyard where the grapes were grown. Grapes grown in Oakville, on the Napa Valley floor, were planted in deep soil that tends to retain water. Grapes grown on Mt. Veeder, on the other hand, were planted in shallower, low-vigor soil.
It was a complicated tasting, but we were able to tease out some ideas.
Grapes grown on Mt. Veeder would tend to have smaller berries and be of a better fruit quality; they are perhaps best able to handle the power of oak barrels and integrate that oakey character into its own.
Stainless steel tanks help preserve the delicacy of Sauvignon Blanc's aroma. Clone 1 Sauvignon Blanc, which originates in Bordeaux, expresses the grape's most pure aromatics.
Musque, as in the Musque selection, derives from the Greek word for musk, which means floral. This selection, especially when blended with a different clone, tends to lift the characteristic "green" aroma of Sauvignon Blanc. The musque lifted it aromatically, and I think it also lightened the body of the sample we tried that had been fermented in a heavy oak barrel.
The end result of this tasting, for me, was insight into what Sauvignon Blanc can be. Sophisticated, nuanced, subtle, and generally beyond what your typical $12 bottle from New Zealand can offer.
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