Somm—O—Logue 1: Champagne Comes From Champagne! (A Somm—O—Logue is like Psalms from the Bible, but by a Sommelier)

Wedding season is upon us…

1. Champagne Comes From Champagne!

This sommelier will argue that Champagne growers and producers are the most passionate vignerons in the world. Their vineyards have been the battlefields for many wars, including a pair of worldly ones. Napoleon even had a mountain top leveled there to have a banquet at Vertus. Champagne is actually a village or region about 90 minutes northeast of Paris. The sparkling wines from Champagne are highly regulated by the French Government. They are very protective of the secondary fermentation that occurs in the bottle giving Champagne its famous bubbles!

Methode Champenoise, or Champagne Method, is very arduous and labor intensive. Champagne can only be made from three grapes chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier. Chardonnay is a white varietal and the pinots are red varietals. There are many styles but two common ones are “Blanc de Blanc”and “Blanc de Noirs.” Blanc de blanc literally means white from white and is made exclusively from Chardonnay. Blanc de noirs literally means white from red and is made from the red varietals.

Most Champagnes are blends and the grapes come from multiple vintages, hence NV or non-vintage. Chardonnay brings a crisp acidity to the blend. Pinot Noir brings richness and texture. Vintage Champagnes, like Cuvee Dom Perignon, are declared usually three times per decade and the grapes all come from the same year. Most Champagnes in America are labeled brut, which are dry, and there are dessert Champagnes, which are labeled demi-sec or doux.

Sommelier Humor—I did not come up with the following, but stole it from a sommelier I use to work with/trained me how to be technical. My favorite Grand Cru Village is Bouzy—and—my Favorite Premier Cru Village is Dizy! Yes, these are actually classified wine growing villages of Champagne. What Champagne do Sommeliers drink? Krug! Krug does make the greatest Champagne in the World.

There are many cost effective alternatives to Champagne like Spanish Cava or Italian Prosecco. Many traditional Champagne Houses have purchased vineyard land in California and built wineries. They are producing sparkling wines using Method Champenoise, but at half the cost. Mass produced sparkling wines are essentially still wines pumped with CO2 gas and bottled. (Just like Coke—Yikes!) So remember—Champagne comes from Champagne!

Willamette Tour Part 3—Know Your Potstill

I became completely lost on the back roads trying to find Ransom in Sheridan at the very southern end of the Willamette in the foothills of the Coastal Range. Several dirt and hilly roads later I had arrived to a forty acre farm and distillery. I was greeted by the winemaker/distiller Tad Seestedt and his team with pizza topped with locally foraged mushrooms and local red wine. Life doesn't get any better then this.



There were two barns—one for the wine and one for the pot stills per Federal regulations. You can't make wine and spirits under the same roof. Honestly, I am more intrigued with the gins Tad and his team produce then the wines—they are amazing. I am constantly trying to understand the entire process from start to finish. Meeting the artisans that distill the spirits I admire is always inspiring and helps me find my passion for what I do.



They are currently making two gins. The first and most famous is the Old Tom. A gin style light brown in color from its oat/corn based mash and is then aged in oak casks. I got to barrel taste some of the gin and taste the oat based mash. The mash tasted just like oatmeal. Old Tom is a style that would be common during the Civil War Era. The other Gin they produce is called Small's, an American Dry Gin that would be common before 1850's. This particular gin is clear and has Oregon raspberries and leaves in the botanicals.



At the restaurant we are currently making two cocktails with Ransom Gin. The first is a classic Old Tom Martinez. It is argued to be the original martini with Sweet Vermouth and Marischino Liqueur. The second is made with Small's Gin and is called the Toad's Cup, a play on the British cocktail the Pimm's Cup. We take Small's Gin, add fresh raspberries, top with our housemade ginger beer, and garnish with a cucumber. It is refreshing and clean for the upcoming patio season.

Willamette Tour Part 2—Smell the Soil

I first stumbled across the sub-AVAs of the Willamette Valley in 2005. The real reason I went to the Willamette is to collect soil from all of its sub-AVAs. McMinnville, Eola-Amity, Yamhill-Carlton, Dundee Hills, Chelahem Mountains, and Ribbon Ridge—I think that’s all of them and I collected soil from them all—It took a couple days, wondering aimlessly from winery to winery.

At SugarToad, I have two mason jars full of terrior I am quite fond off to represent the Pinots from the 2008 vintage . The first is from the Red Hills of Dundee. The J. Christopher “Dundee Hills Cuvee” 2008 represents the volcanic red jory quite well. Dark Cherries with a barnyard to cedar quality is quite prevalent in the wine. In conversations with the winemaker Jay Somners, I learned how Pacific Northwest Salmon perhaps is not the best pairing—or maybe overdone—and the salmon brings out a metallic quality in the wine. A better fish pairing might be Alaskan halibut or diver sea scallops with a secondary pork element with pinot from Dundee.



The other mason jar consists of a more loamy soil from the Chelahem Mountains from the Bergstrom Winery***. Though the Bergstrom “Cumberland Reserve” Pinot Noir 2008 comes from several vineyard sites, one can definitely smell and taste the juicy black cherry to cola notes in the Missoula Flood influenced soils. (That childhood trip to Yellowstone is all making sense now.) After tasting this alongside some grilled blackmouth salmon, I found this to be a better salmon pairing then the pinots from Dundee.

***For sake of argument of the Armitage Crew, Bergstrom is Ubaldo's favorite Pinot of 2006-7.

Willamette Tour Part 1

First Stop—a pilgrimage to Eyrie. David Lett started it all by planting pinot noir in the Red Hills of Dundee back in 1966. With the sun setting, the landscape of the Dundee Hills looks like a Martian landscape. The red jory soil has literally rusted over the years. The wines of Eyrie are rustic and the bottle I purchased I unwittingly left in the hotel room—Yikes!

Second Stop—A trip through Eola-Amity Hills on a clear day will yield great scenic panorama with Mt. Hood as a backdrop. This was just outside Brooks winery who recently had one of their rieslings served at a Whitehouse State Dinner...the one that was crashed...

Cheese Anyone? This Bears Fan is still bitter about the NFC Championship game and is attempting to boycott all Wisconsin cheese and dairy products. Oregon is a great understated dairy state. I visited two cheese companies. The Willamette Valley Cheese Co. produces organic cheeses at the southern end of the valley in Salem and Tillamook is a coop right on the Oregon Coast...the Tillamook Highschool mascot is a cheesemaker...