New websites

The Fraser & Hall Wine Company has officially been established and what better way to announce yourself to the world than with a website? It is currently "coming soon" but you can visit fraserhallwine.com and sign up for the Newsletter and be added to our mailing list.

In related news our inaugural vintage and first wine to market, Ebrietas, has also been launched onto the web. This is also in the "coming soon" stage but will be updated this fall with pertinent information about our first years production. You can also follow all of our progress, here through the Ebrietas blog which is now also linked on ebrietas.com as well as the parent company, fraserhallwine.com.

Let us know what you think and be sure to sign up on one of the above websites to stay up to date on whats happening, and to receive our free quarterly newsletter which should be coming out later this summer.

The Garden

Here is a shot of the garden that we have established to attract beneficial insects to the vineyard. The flower bed consists of peony, lavender, dill, coriander, marigolds, allysum and a butterfly bush.

Paycheck Tasting 5-21-08

Welcome to the first ever blog entry of our Paycheck Tasting series. This episode we are tasting the 2003 Saladini Pilastri Rosso Piceno Vigna Piediprato and the 2003 Quinta de Ventozelo Porto (port). The Saladini Pilastri is an Italian Red Sangiovese blend from the Marche region. The Quinta de Ventozelo is a true port from the Douro region grown and fortified with 100% grape brandy.

I selected the 2003 Saladini Pilastri because Italian wine has been neglected among our earlier choices and because it was well advertised at Total Wine as a low cost, highly rated wine.

The 2003 Quinta de Ventozelo was chosen by chance: I happened to be browsing the local (read Virginia) wine aisle of Total Wine and I came across the Port section. After listening to a lengthy Grape Radio podcast on Port, I felt it necessary to give it a try.

















The 2003 Quinta was a 375 mL that stood out because it was a decent price, but was not listed with a rating. Sometimes it pays off to avoid the rating temptation and follow your instincts. Any who, lets move on to some tasting notes.


2003 Saladini Pilastri:

John:
Initially I wasn't getting much on the palate or nose. I continued to get a dusty foot smell which lasted through the bottle. Toward the end I got a rotten apple core smell with an overall flat and earthy tone, certainly no fruit or sweetness. On the palate I got a strong "tongue folding" tannin with a hint of black licorice and greasy finish. Overall this was a good but not great wine with subtleties that I was not able to identify, certainly not a very forward or easy wine to distinguish.

Score: 87 points

Mike:
First impression was zero. This wine was a dud at the start. I got nothing on the nose and the effect on the palate was equally unimpressive. As the wine breathed and opened up a little bit it started to give off a nice chocolate and burnt cherry nose. I never quite figured out the taste, but the wine did have an extremely drying, tannic effect on the tongue. Toward the end of the bottle, the nose gained an uncanny resemblance to port and a give off the smell of a dungeon or the elephant house at the zoo. This wine did not allow itself to be easily identified, which I found interesting, but frustrating. I enjoyed this wine and I think it would show off even more with food.

Score: 88 points

2003 Quinta de Ventozelo:

John:
Having not much experience with port I was impressed with this one. On the nose I got a lot of dried fruit, particularly white raisin and prune. The fruits had a very candied and almost over ripe smell to them. I also got a coffee hazelnut with a hint of caramel and obviously strong alcohol aromas. For taste I was getting much the same as the nose with candied green apple and a syrupy coating mouthfeel. Overall I got a lot more on the nose than on the tongue but was impressed nonetheless. For my limited time with ports, this was a nicely aged low entry port for a good value.

Score: 89 points

Mike:

This port was a nice little wine for 15 bucks. The nose was strong dark chocolate, dried fruits, molasses, raisins and nuts. The nose did not change over the course of several hours. Chocolate is definitely the dominant smell and does not go away with time. At 20% alcohol, the wine is not overpowering with alcohol, but the nose does give off an alcohol smell from time to time. The mouth feel is viscous and very smooth. I tasted dark chocolate and almonds and little else. I think my inexperience with port is obvious in the lack of flavors I got with the taste. Overall I really enjoyed this wine and felt that it was quite a bargain for the price. There will definitely be more ports to taste in the future.

Score: 90 points

Overall:

If you are looking for an a good food wine and don't want to break the bank, pick up the 2003 Saladini Palastri. This wine is interesting enough to easily justify the price.

If you have no idea what port tastes like or have wondered whether port is for you, the 2003 Quinta de Ventozelo is a cheap port that can serve as a solid introduction to the variety. If you find out you hate port, you wont feel bad about pouring it out because it is only a 375 mL bottle.

Irrigation Problem Solved

Our irrigation dilemma has been solved. After talking with a family member who is in the business, we determined that PVC pipe would not work as the drip line in our rows. PVC pipe is not as good as rubber drip line because it cannot be punctured for the drip emitters, but would have to be drilled. The lack of give and take of the PVC pipe, as opposed to the rubber drip line, will leave the PVC pipe susceptible to leaks.

Thus, we set out for Lowes to see what we could find and, alas, Lowes proved to be our as they had everything we needed and at a affordable price.

We purchased two 100ft rolls of 1/2 inch rubber drip line, eight packages of four drip emitters, one 25 PSI pressure regulator, one backflow preventor, one package of three end line caps, two female hose attachments for the front end of the line and two 200 foot 16 gauge wire coils. This was enough supplies for two rows. We decided to do two at a time in case we screwed something up or bought the wrong thing.

We started out by wrapping and stapling the wire to an end post one foot above the ground. We then walked down the row trying to straighten out the wire as best as possible and stapling it to each midpost. At the second end post we tightened the wire as best we could by hand, stapled and clipped off the wire.

Next we unrolled the rubber drip line and walked it down the row attaching it to each wooden post with a plastic U shaped holder that we screwed into the wood. At the front end, we left a foot or so of slack in case we want to attach it to a pipe that we run underground and just in case we need a little wiggle room. At the back end, we tied off the drip line by folding it over and
securing it with an end line cap.

The next step is to puncture the drip line with a puncture tool above each vine and snap in the drip emitters. One per vine.

Finally, we walked down the row and fastened the drip line to the wire with plastic fasteners; think the type of fasteners that are used as handcuffs for prisoners.

We repeated the same process for the second row.

We attached the pressure regulator and backflow preventor to the outdoor spigot and then turned on the water. The drip line and emitters worked perfectly and the water drips out at a rate of 1/2 gallon per hour.

The next step is to finish up the last two rows and decide if we want to use PVC pipe to connect all four drip lines together to make watering a one step process instead of the four step process of connecting the hose to one row, watering for an hour, disconnecting and attaching to the next row, watering for an hour, etc.

Irrigation Problem Solved

Here is a close up of the front end of the drip emitter with the female hose connector.

A wider shot of the same front end of the drip line.

A shot of the end of the drip line.

This is a close up of the drip emitter.

Attachment at a midpost. You can see the wire behind the drip line.

Wide shot to show the drip line going down the row.

On a related note, we are attending a rain barrel seminar on Saturday, June 7 in Orange, VA. The purpose of the seminar is to learn the art of building rain barrels and then the technique of using them to catch rain water. We will leave the seminar with heavier brains, lighter pockets and two fully adapted rain barrels to start using to build water reserves for future irrigation.

Paycheck Tastings

To coincide with Mike and I's semi-monthly paychecks, we have decided to start a recurring post appropriately titled "Paycheck Tastings". This will usually involve one or two finer selections of wine from an array of regions and varietals. We have tested the approach without making any blog posts, but have now concurred that an online review would be both enjoyable and hopefully informational for our loyal readers.

Most of these postings will be made during our tastings, so try to ignore our meager attempts at humor and ill wit. We will try to include as much about the wine as possible including the name, vineyard, winery, grape variety, region, tasting notes and price.

We think it will be a great way to try new wines and broaden our tastes. So feel free to make any suggestions in the comments section on any upcoming wines we should enjoy.

Would a wine by any other name taste as sweet?

It was brought to my attention by more than one person that they would like to suggest a name for the new winery. I guess Ebrietas is not the fan favorite that we thought. Being men of the people, we are happy to oblige and entertain some suggestions.

Please leave a comment with your suggestions for a winery name.

Quick note: vineyards and wineries are two different things. The name of the vineyard should designate the source of the grapes used to make the wine. The name of the winery can be different from the name of the vineyard or vineyards that they use to source their grapes or it can be the same if the winery grows its own grapes or does not wish to note the source.

Example: Loring Wine Company 2004 Pinot Noir, Durell Vineyard.

We are looking for a name for our winery. This is the name that will go on the bottle no matter where the grapes are from.

Choose wisely.

New pictures and news from the vineyard

This weekend was blessed with plenty of rain. This was important for two reasons: one, the young vines need their 2 inches a week and two, on Sunday morning, May 11, I applied beneficial parasitic worms to an acre of grass around the vineyard and house.

The parasitic worms, called nematodes (they have a fancy latin name as well, but I'll stick with nematodes), are used to control beetle populations. Beetles are a huge problem for grape vines because they love to eat the leaves and because they usually have few natural predators; especially in newly developed land that was once forest. Our vineyard is located on a site that was developed only three years ago.

A quick digression about beetle habits: Adult beetles deposit their eggs into the ground and those eggs develop into beetle larvae that stay in the ground eating the roots of grass until they emerge as beetles later the next year. For that reason, beetles flock to healthy lawns that will provide sufficient nutrition to their larvae and thus not to spots located in the middle of the woods. Newly developed sites provide the best of both worlds for a beetle: new, healthy grass and no predators because they had no incentive to be present.

Nematodes are a biological solution to controlling beetle grub populations. Biological because they impact the environment as little as possible. Pesticides can control beetle populations, but they invariably affect the environment in undesirable ways. Many times chemicals kill beneficial insects and this can cause other problems as other pests may start to flourish. The only long term solution is to create a predator-prey balance that is sustainable.

Nematodes are delivered as a powder in a small package. The powder is mixed into water and applied. I used a two gallon pump-action sprayer. I needed approximately 10 gallons of water to apply the nematodes over a one acre plot. The nematodes need to be applied very early morning or late in the evening to eliminate heat and hopefully accompanied by rainfall. The nematodes use the rain to travel into the soil and to seek out beetle grubs.

Enough about parasites! Here are some pictures of my most recent time there on May 11, 2008.

Grass is starting to grow in and around the vines.

A great shot of how tall some of the vines are getting. This one is almost out of the grow tube.

And now for the bad news: I took off one grow tube on Saturday to discover one fat caterpillar and no leaves. Hopefully this little guy will rebound.

Dusty doing what she does best.

New Photo May 4, 2008

A Cabernet Franc vine as of may 4, 2008. The vines have been in the ground for one month and a handful of days.

Some of the vines are quickly approaching a foot. The growth is spotty and there doesn't seem to be a pattern for where growth has been most vigorous or most lacking. Sunlight seems to be the culprit for some of the vines located nearest to the woods.