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Penny Gadd-Coster from J paid a recent visit to our SRJC
Winemaker’s of Sonoma County class. She gave us a window into
the extensive process of making sparkling wine. It’s truly a
labor of love that for some wines stretches over almost a
decade.
The grapes for most sparkling are harvested quite early and the
wines that they make are correspondingly very acidic. In
drinking sparkling, many of us prize this incredible acidity yet
it needs some tempering to taste balanced. For this we have the
process of adding the dosage. A batch of sparkling base wine is
mixed with sugar, which is then incorporated into each disgorged
bottle of bubbly.
Penny demonstrated the intricate taste impact of the dosage that
sparkling wine receives before the final bottling. She created
three different trials of dosage added to a disgorged bottle of
2000 sparkling: zero, 1.1% and 1.3%. The zero dosage was quite
austere and intensely acidic. The 1.3% dosage was softer and
rounder, more candy like. While the middle level, 1.1% seemed to
embrace the best of both sides of the spectrum, tasting of tart
green apples with explosive ripe fruit.
From the outside, the wine business often looks glamorous. Yet
behind the scenes, winemakers are tasting and retasting, trying
this blend and that, something we got a glimpse of during our
trial tasting in class. It really makes me admire the stamina
these folks have to taste so much wine, especially wine in an
infant state. The magic is how they taste these baby wines and
project in their minds’ eyes what they will taste like after the
bottles are released.
After the youthful bottles of bubbly, we shared a finished wine,
a special treat from 1996, the Vintage Brut Late-Disgorged. This
wine was crafted from grapes harvested early in 1996. Like J’s
other sparklings, the wine went through two fermentations, the
second in bottle as in the French méthode champenoise. The
difference following was that the wine aged for over 5 years en
tirage, or in contact with the lees rather than a sooner
disgorgement. The result is a stellar wine of great complexity.
It smells of caramel, crackers, ginger ale and bread dough. The
taste features a whole palate full of flavors, with a softened
acidity and richness like one finds with Krug Grande Cuvée.
While the Late-Disgorged will probably be sold out by the time
of this publication, you can stop by J to taste their other
sparkling and still wines. At J there’s a special emphasis on
wine and food pairing that you’ll want to indulge in. They’re
open daily, just south of Healdsburg on Old Redwood Highway.
Thinking of food reminds me of the great taste experience our Ag
Marketing class had during a visit to the Joe Matos Cheese
Factory on Llano Road. We met with Sylvia, who with her parents
continues the legacy of a family run, farmstead cheese factory.
Sylvia is now the 5th generation of the family in cheese, which
started on St. George Island in the Azores. They’ve been at
their current location on Llano road since 1979.
With all of their success, they have never once advertised. The
operation has been written about in food magazines and featured
by Sue Conley’s Tomales Bay Foods. Last year they produced about
1800 pounds for orders from the Williams-Sonoma Holiday catalog
in conjunction with Tomales Bay Foods.
A number of wineries and wine bars buy their product, from as
far away as San Diego. They also ship direct to consumers around
the United States.
The product line is one: a cheese called St. George made from
forty-two milking cows, Holsteins, Jerseys and Guernseys. Most
of the cheese ages 60-90 days, though some customers request a
longer maturity. Sylvia says that the work is hands-on and that
“it’s got to be that way for her Mom and Dad, who spoil their
cows. It’s a hard life, but a good life.”
When making the cheese, she says they mix the curds by hand and
you can feel when it’s ready, reminiscent of Brenda Simoneau
describing punching down a fermenting batch of wine. The Matos
family’s close involvement in their cheese-making is evident
when you taste a sample.
You can visit them Monday through Friday and often on weekends.
They’re located at 3669 Llano Road, just off of Todd.
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