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Put Some Altitude in Your Glass
3: Colorado Grapes and Paul's Winemaking Style.
Feb 16, 2018
3: Colorado Grapes and Paul's Winemaking Style.
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FULL TRANSCRIPT
0:00
[upbeat music] Denver Wine Radio with Paul Bonacquisti and Cha Cha Chavez, presented by Bonacquisti Wine Company and Cha's Back in the Day Cafe. 21st night of September.
0:17
Love was changing the minds of lots of guys while chasing the clouds away. That's what we're doing, chasing the clouds away in the Mile High City. Ring-a- Might actually be working. It is.
0:30
That's, that's known as- See, you put an Earth, Wind & Fire song on and, uh, you know, good things start happening. [laughs] So, hey, it's Denver Wine Radio. I'm Paul Bonacquisti.
0:39
Doug Caskey from the, uh, Colorado Wine Industry Development Board in studio with me. Also, my son, Vincent, Vinny B, helping us out, uh, doing some, uh, video production for us. And then Jake
0:54
running, uh, running the show here behind the glass. So, um, hey, a little bit about Denver Wine Radio.
1:00
It's just something, uh, uh, I've been kinda had going in the back of my mind and, uh, we got a little website called denverwineradio.com.
1:08
You go to that now, you're gonna actually, um, we have a online radio station playing music, [laughs] and playing stuff like Earth, Wind & Fire and, and, uh, old school music.
1:17
And, um, and then this is kind of the, uh, talk portion, uh, of the, uh, programming. Okay, and we're gonna talk about Colorado wine, wine in general.
1:25
Uh, if you have a wine question, uh, feel free to, to dial up the hotline here. It's the Vinny No Neck hotline, 303-831-1340. Love to talk to you.
1:35
Could, uh, pop a question for me, a, uh, winemaker in the, uh, wine business here in, uh, Colorado, or our executive director of the Wine Board, Doug Caskey. He's got, uh, a lot of...
1:46
He's got a big wealth of knowledge, so. Well, I'll ask you a question as a winemaker. Yeah, sure. So you get grapes every year. They're a little different, different, uh, different chemistries, different ripeness levels.
1:56
How do you, uh, how do you decide what you're gonna do with those grapes every year? Well, that's a, that's a good question.
2:03
So, um, and as, so I would say in general what I, what I've developed is, um, I, I know my customer base, uh, fairly well now after, uh, 11 years, and, uh, and I know- And by the way, congratulations- Thank you...
2:16
on 11 years. [laughs] All right. Um, so, um, so my style of winemaking has changed since I've opened, uh, since I opened the door. So in the beginning, I m- I made wine, I would say very traditionally.
2:27
Um, uh, I was, I was putting, like my Cabernet Sauvignon was, uh, a two-year project.
2:34
So I w- it was aging, uh, uh, uh, 12 months in, in barrels, and then I'd leave it in the tank for another, for another 10, and then I'd blend with some Merlot and blah, you know?
2:44
[laughs] And then you, you know, that breaks the bank, okay? So [laughs] Yeah... I'm not a former lawyer with, you know, or whatever, one of these retired guys that's launched a winery.
2:52
So, uh, so cashflow became very important, and, uh, and along with that, I, my style of winemaking changed to get wines ready to drink sooner than later. Mm-hmm.
3:01
So when I, when I take a look at wines, um, or, I mean, I'm sorry, with grapes, I get them...
3:06
You know, I'm, I'm looking for a, a, a specific harvest point where, um, it's gonna, it'll lend itself to, to, to that style of wine that I make, so.
3:15
And then I shorten the, I try to shorten the fermentation, the maceration time. Uh, I try to keep things within like a seven-day to, you know, 10-day max.
3:23
Um, and that just keeps the wine, I keep them in stainless, uh, more so than doing long-term barrel aging- Ah, yeah... to keep the tannin structure down, and, uh, it makes wines, uh, I mean, ready to drink.
3:34
It, it, you know, and let's face it, that's what most of us want. Yeah, every once in a while you put a bottle in the cellar and forget about it, but- Sure...
3:40
generally, you buy a bottle of wine, you bring it home, you drink it, and, uh- That, that's right... that's true of what, is it 95%- Nine- I'd say 95%... of the wine? Yeah.
3:48
Yeah, and I always tell people 95% of the wines on the shelf are, they're, they're made to drink in the first five years. Yeah. I mean, for sure. Yeah. A lot of them are made to drink in the first year to two.
3:58
[laughs] Yeah. Yeah, even sooner. I think I, I might have heard this statistic, if you look at wine consumed all the way around the globe, um, more than 90% of it is consumed within the first year of, of its manufacture.
4:11
So, uh, you know, that, that's wine that doesn't get to age at all. It doesn't- Right... it barely sees the inside of a tank.
4:16
And that, and that's something I learned in the, um, in the first few years, uh, when I was open.
4:21
And, um, some people were buying my wine, and I would tell them, "Hey, you should sit, you know, sit on this one for a couple of years or, or if you can, or three years, and it's really gonna be good. It's gonna hold."
4:31
And then, uh, they came back in, like in, you know, in a couple of weeks and they'd drop- [laughs]... me the empties and said, "Well, Paul, I drank it." I said, "I told you to hold on." [laughs] And, uh, okay, so.
4:41
Gee, you'd, you'd have to sell them another bottle. That's, that's- So that's, yeah, that's the way we, uh, make wine and, and, uh, which, which led me to, uh, launching a growler program. Oh, perfect, yeah.
4:51
So we do, uh, we do wine and, and wine on tap, and we put it in refillable growlers. Uh, so why, you know, beer guys don't get to have all the fun. [laughs] We, we get to have some as well. Good for you. Good for you.
5:02
And you know what it does is it takes the, uh, it takes that mystique out. Yeah. Um, it, it, get it out of the se- I mean, it's, you know, drink it tonight with dinner.
5:10
It's just part of, it's part of the culture I grew up with. Just my, my Italian heritage, and, uh, wine was on the dinner table for me to drink any night. Uh, my dad always said, "Hey, it's for anyone to drink."
5:19
That's how he grew up. So it doesn't mean- That's great. That's great... we, we didn't drink it, we didn't like it. [laughs] Yeah, yeah. You know, my, my daughter's the same way.
5:26
She's in college now, but, you know, she hates wine. [laughs] Part of it's the, you know, having to be dragged around to wineries all of her life, but, um, I'm, I'm perfectly happy with that. Yeah.
5:35
What do you, what do you think about that, Vin? Yeah, we, we drug you around to a few- [laughs]... you and your sister, huh? And still dragging.
5:40
[laughs] So, hey, so, um, we were, uh, talking about, um, like the, the grapes grown in Colorado and, uh, a lot of the up-and-coming grapes, which I've seen, and, and, and, and this is kinda market wide, people learn about new grapes somehow.
5:54
Sure. And, and yeah, we wanna, we wanna make those wines too.
5:58
So like m- like Malbec for example- Uh, has, uh, has gained some steam Mal- Malbec's coming on strong and, and, you know, there are five red grape varieties that are allowed by law to be grown in Bordeaux in France, and Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc are the ones people know about the most.
6:16
Right. Malbec is actually a- a- grown in Bordeaux quite a bit even though we think of it as the grape from Argentina. Correct. Um, but that also does very well here.
6:26
And the other one that you don't hear, you hardly hear about at all by itself, is Petit Verdot, and we're able to grow that very well here even though there's not a lot of it.
6:36
Um, Colorado Petit Verdots that I've had are just gorgeous.
6:40
Um, so, you know, all five of those grapes would often get blended together, and are blended together here in Colorado, but we're able to grow all of them and, and grow all of them distinctively and successfully, and so Malbec is coming on really strong here.
6:54
We just did a, a tasting last month where, um, Paul Hobbs, who, um, is a California and Argentinian wine maker that Forbes Magazine called the Steve Jobs of wine.
7:06
[laughs] He's, he's a big deal and a, and a really talented guy. But he came in, we tasted some of his Malbecs from both Argentina and France, and, um, and then we did some blind tasting with Colorado Malbecs.
7:19
And Colorado Malbecs held up really well against these great wines from around the world. See, that's fantastic. Yeah. I missed out on that, uh, that particular tasting, but, uh, I wish I woulda been there.
7:31
Uh- It was, it was a great tasting. Yeah. That's awesome.
7:33
And then the- we did the- and that's what, that's what the Wine Development Board is doing for, uh, the Colorado wine, uh, the wineries here in Colorado, that, uh, you're putting on master classes, these cultivar clinics for us, and, uh, we really appreciate it.
7:46
I really, uh, I went- the last one I went to was the Cabernet Franc session, uh, a couplea months back and, uh, which was phenomenal. Yeah.
7:54
That, that was great, and we were lucky, uh, you know, we had, uh, Colorado's first Master of Wine, Ashley Houseman Votters, who, um, uh, should be on the show by the way. [laughs] She is.
8:04
She- We're gonna- I'm working on that. Yeah. [laughs] All right. She's, uh, she worked for years to pass that test.
8:09
That's- many people consider that a harder test to pass than the Master Sommelier test, which is really hard. Um, but yeah, she's Colorado's first and we had her come and, uh, and I thought she did an amazing job- Yeah.
8:22
I did too... really connecting with, with what it's like to make wine here in Colorado versus what they're doing in France and elsewhere. Yeah.
8:29
And she, um, she actually opened, uh, my mind a little bit to, uh, some of the- 'cause of the styles that she presented, uh, that I wasn't aware of.
8:37
But, um, a couple of the wines, uh, that were Cabernet Francs were kind of, uh, made in a Pinot Noir style and- Yeah... uh, at least that approach to it, and I thought, wow. [laughs] And, um- Yeah, yeah.
8:49
I mean, you can take a grape like that and do so many different things with it. Yeah. It doesn't have to be that big powerhouse. But, so I've implemented that for the 2017 vintage to t- uh- Okay...
8:57
try to make it a, uh, an, a little different style and approach than what I have done traditionally with it, so. Great. Yeah. Fun to see what that's like. Well, yeah. [laughs] All right.
9:06
I shoulda brought a barrel sample in today. [laughs] So, hey, all right. Um, anyone, uh, uh, wanna, uh, dial us in, Cha Cha's in the studio now. The hotline's open, 303-831-1340. It's, uh, Mile High Sports Radio.
9:23
And, um, how we doing, Jake, on time? We got a minute. Oh. Oh, we can still yak it up. We got a minute. We talked about high alcohol wines.
9:31
Uh, and the reds in Colorado are kinda high alcohol, but you know, a lot of times that'll go better with food. Um, you know, if you have a big, heavy, uh, steak or something that's- Well, yeah...
9:41
that, that, that's a, a heavy food I mean, this- Uh- How many, uh, hamburger- I mean, hamburgers are big in Denver. Oh, yeah. I mean, every- Oh, yeah... there's a lot of burger places. That's what you need. Yeah.
9:51
It's perfect. Perfect. You need a big healthy Colorado red to go with it. And, uh, you know what? That reminds me, we need to- we should mention a few Colorado-friendly, uh, locations that have really good wine lists.
10:03
Uh-huh. Don't look scared- [laughs]... 'cause I know who they are. Oh, good. Oh good. Okay. All right. We'll, we'll talk about them coming up right after this. Mile High Sports Radio.
10:12
How you gonna do it if you really don't wanna dance? By standing on the wall
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