U.S. Winemakers - What Overseas Wines do you Drink?

[Cody_Rasmussen]

Love this question! We drink 90% Old World at home, and of that probably 60-70% is French. Germany second, followed by Italy and Spain.

All of our wines are influenced in some way by producers we admire abroad. When we choose various techniques in the vineyards and cellar, we do so with an understanding of how other folks are using those techniques, and to what ends. Winemaking as craft.

Like Marcus, I too love Riesling fermented in neutral wood, rather than stainless. I generally like the spice and texture that come from stems in the Northern Rhone and Burgundy, so we use them in varying degrees - more in Syrah (50-100%), less in Carignan (30-40%), with Mourvedre somewhere in the middle. Old vines, large format barrels, less new oak, fewer rackings - all variables that we dialed in early on based on what we liked to drink.

But, I do find that my attention shifts every couple years. Sometimes I think it’s analogous to writing: you read one author for a month and find that your writing suddenly sounds like theirs, and then it changes when you start reading someone else. I drank Riesling to the exclusion of all else initially (Donnhoff, Lauer, Koehler-Ruprecht, Keller, Becker, Shafer-Frohlich, and Willi Schafer), and then had an infatuation with Cote Rotie, Cornas, and St. Joseph (Jamet, Levet, Gonon, Gripa, Pierres Seches, Gilles, Robert Michel), followed by crunchy Beaujolais (Thivin, Tardive) and then more recently realized that I adore Saumur, Montlouis, and Chinon. I hated oxidative white wines initially but Fino has really grown on me, as has the Jura. It all makes me wonder if I’ll one day wake up and suddenly love bretty wines

[Vincent_Fritzsche]

A follow-up question for the thread: are there certain overseas wines you find that really influence your house style? I know Hardy said that he takes an opposite approach in winemaking to old world mourvedre, but curious what others have to say.

Missed this earlier. I might have expected to say yes to this question but the truth is no. I guess it turns out I make my wine the way I do and that’s it. I love wines from all over, and honestly from a lot of different approaches. I don’t really taste other wines and think, I want to do “that.” It can feel like reaching, like trying to be something else than these wines are. That said, of course there’s influence. Perhaps more on what not to do or what not to be worried about. The old masters seem to take most things in stride. That influence I’m very open to.

This is an interesting question. Depends upon whether you mean specifically in the cellar vs stylistic influence.

Almost all of my wines are directly influenced by the overseas wines that I admire.

I admire the restraint of Merkelbach and their disassociation from modern pressures toward opulence in wines. I admire the precision and clarity of Hexamer, and the texture and tranquility of Donnhoff and Molitor(which is why all of my Riesling based wines are done in wood). All of these things are a focus in what I seek for my own wines.

For Chardonnay, I admired Cameron’s Chardonnays locally and many white Burgundy producers. My move into Chardonnay in Oregon was 100% based upon the belief that I could make the quality of wine that I was tasting in my favorite Burgundian producers. My vineyard choices are 100% influenced towards moving the fruit to mature flavors at low brix, better dry extract, and maintaining higher levels of tartaric and modest levels of malic acid in the fruit. That’s definitely influenced by the entire array of my favorite overseas producers.

My choice to use high amounts of whole cluster was heavily influenced by Steve Doerner at Cristom. But he was heavily influenced by Dujac. Chandon de Briailles and De l’Arlot also influenced my choice to stems. And to my aspiration for red fruited wines both silky and structured.

Last, the Willamette Valley obviously has it’s own terroir, and farming is a big impact in fruit ripening. My choice to be 100% dry farmed is influenced by French producers who lose their AOC if they irrigate.

You make good points, of course. I’m seeing a distinction between the tradition I work in and influence of specific wines and the specific techniques of those makers on my approach. What I’m getting at is that I don’t have any particular wines that I’m aiming for in my making. I remember talking to a wine geek about Lapierre’s Morgon and they suggested, you must make your Gamay the same way, right? And no, not at all was my answer. I was a little let down by my answer tbh. Maybe I should do more of that he does? But I don’t know anyone who’s making Gamay the way I do - not that I’m so different and better for it, rather I’m not thinking of anyone’s Gamay when I make mine. I’m following a broad tradition yes, but really I’m after what the wine is from the grapes here, in an open top natural fermentation without lots of mixing. Honestly sometimes that seems to sound stupid or anti intellectual or I don’t know. But any time I think - maybe I should do what XYZ does, I just come up blank, not inspired, feeling more karaoke than inspiration. Hope that makes sense. And I don’t mean to suggest that you or others ARE doing karaoke. Not at all, just to be clear. Rather I think we largely agree and I’m revealing a possible gap in my wine approach that time may fill in.