Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/804714
April 2017 WINES&VINES 37 VIEWPOINT perience can decipher how that acidity plays with the other components. Our best white vintages are wines that are ripe and dense with high levels of acidity. While some of Hardscrabble's white variet- ies were ripening too early, the opposite was true with late-ripening red varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot. The blocks planted on heavier clay-based soils were eventually removed. These cooler soils delayed ripening well past mid-October, and the wines from those soils were green, tart and thin. Water The Mid-Atlantic is one of the wettest viticul- tural regions on the planet. We have fairly consistent rainfall every month of the year. Until recently, I was an apologist for our water, but now I see the advantages. Much has been written about the negative side of rain: disease, excessive vigor, dilution. However, if the site is right and the viticulture precise, there are positive sides that can result in wines that have balance, complexity and poise. Cloud cover and the haze of humidity filters sun intensity. This has a tremendous impact on sugar (and the wine's potential alcohol) and wine style (with more mineral/savory characteristics and less obvious fruit). With the current trend of lower alcohol, more balanced wines and the overused word "minerality" now firmly entrenched in our lexicon, our hazy days are becoming an advantage. Our canopy management has to be very, very good. Any vineyard resembling "sprawl" will pay a steep price with regard to fungal disease and ripening. Rain during the growing season commonly produces high-vigor vines. Rigorous vertical shoot positioning, lateral and leaf removal, and aeration cluster thinning are often mandatory. Over the decades, I've tried every fashionable option to tame an unbal- anced vineyard: Lyre, GDC, T-bar, excessive leaf pulling, kicker canes. But Band-Aid viti- culture is rarely sustainable. Eventually one needs to surrender, pull the vineyard and start over. If the vineyard would have been correctly planted, vine balance could have been natural without a lot of help. Rain at harvest is common, but not all rains are equal. The agonizing decision to pick or not to pick as rain threatens depends on the kind of rain. A warm rain from the south can bring lingering humidity and rot, while a cool northwest rain is often followed by ideal drying conditions. If skin integrity is sound, clusters can handle rain, but it doesn't take much to damage grapes with thin, fragile skins. Soils Rain is the reason why our soils have a signifi- cant impact on wine quality. In maritime and continental Europe, it is common knowledge that soil drainage and water-holding capacity dictates wine quality. Because the bulk of the U.S. industry and research is in the arid west, it has taken us easterners too long to come to this realization. We receive an average of 3 or more inches of rain per month. It is a challenge to achieve the hydric stress required for high-quality red wines under these conditions. Vines planted in high water-holding-capacity soils continue their vegetative cycle well past véraison. This scenario leads to under-ripe, green, vegetal characteristics—especially in Cabernet Sauvi- gnon and Cabernet Franc. Often in early Au- gust I can walk a Cabernet vineyard block and see where that vintage's wine quality problems might arise. Actively growing shoot tips in certain more water-retentive sections will not yield the highest quality red wines and may be picked separately. In 1985 Hardscrabble was planted with little regard for soils. It took about a decade of observation to see the relationship between vigor (vine balance) and wine quality. The physical characteristics in the diversity of soils were producing very different wines. Water evacuation is the key to growing high-quality reds in the Mid-Atlantic. At this stage in our development, it is relatively easy to start to get a read on a site's potential simply by looking at landscape form. Convex, steep slopes have the best chance of shedding water, both superficially and internally. We've always recognized that drainage was important for vine survival. Beyond drainage, low water- holding capacity (a.k.a. plant-available water) of a soil is critical for high-quality reds. Over the past 15 years, most of Hardscrab- ble has been replanted. Soil water-holding capacity has dictated what is planted where. A combination of observation and extensive soil mapping has guided the process. Cabernet Sauvignon is put on the warmest, droughty soils. Earlier ripening Cabernet Franc can handle a bit more water availability. Merlot needs good drainage, but also more continual access to water (more clay). The whites in general do well with more available water and prefer cooler slopes and soils. Terroir winemaking A terroir-driven winegrower limits winemaking signatures to better reveal place in a wine. How can we learn about our terroir if we continually add stuff to juice and wine? The goal of wine- making based on terroir is to express the vine- yard site by reducing winemaking influences. It is safe, conservative and boring. It is based around three aspects: input reduction, picking decisions and healthy fermentations. All three go hand in hand. Concerning input reduction, the more that is done in the cellar, the less the wine is about the vineyard. Most of our wines consist only of grapes, SO 2 and yeast, but we also are aware that we cannot be dogmatic. There occasion- ally need to be exceptions. Bentonite is added to Sauvignon Blanc juice given the variety's tendency to haze in the bottle. When Cabernet Franc is harvested with a potential alcohol of more than 14% and a YAN less than 100, it will probably not finish fermentation without yeast nutrients. Chardonnay needs a lot of TLC (heat and stirring) to coax it to complete the final 20 grams of sugar. A winemaker's greatest signature on wine is the picking decision. In order to reduce inputs and have healthy fermentations, grapes need to be harvested at a correct sugar (potential alcohol) and acid balance. If juice requires "ad- justments" in the majority of vintages, then one can only assume the wrong grape has been planted for the site. With today's viticultural knowledge, it is rare that sugars are too low. Excessively high sugars are our biggest concern when it comes to healthy fermentations. Because of soil differences and vine age as a result of replants, very few of our blocks are homogeneous. This requires precision harvest- ing, especially for the red varieties. I always have surveyor's tape in my truck to mark off corners, edges or rows that are to be picked separately. We often do "special" rosé pickings in parts of certain blocks in advance of the red wine harvest. After picking decisions, a winemaker's most important job is to have healthy fermentations. Counterintuitively, we have abandoned the prac- tice of risky uninoculated fermentations. We have gone back to cultured yeast because the more robust, problem-free fermentations better express terroir. Unintended residual sugar, high levels of volatile acidity or overt sulfides in wine are not an expression of terroir. My hope is that I have laid some ground- work for the next generation to build upon. At this point, we have a better handle on some of the basics, but great wines are distinguished by the finer details. We understand the theory and mechanics but are still far from under- standing specific soil influences on wine style and quality. I've remained committed to the well-known "international" varieties that have done remarkably well here, and I will continue to fine-tune my vineyard. Future generations will need to explore the hundreds of other varieties that ultimately may be better adapted to our terroir. Sometimes I get frustrated that we aren't evolving fast enough. Fortunately, as the Virginia industry matures, there are more like-minded growers who are finding potentially great sites and then making the hard decisions as their vineyards begin to express themselves. Jim Law is the owner and winegrower at Linden Vineyards in Linden, Va. Located approximately 65 miles west of Washington, D.C., Law's vineyard now consists of 20 acres. His winery produces 4,000 cases of wine per year.