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Benovia Winery Fall 2011 Newsletter

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Lead Article: 2009 Vintage Fall Wines "May Be Our Best Yet!"

Yields from the 2009 harvest were below average, with stressed vines producing grapes with exceptional color, vibrant acidity, and wonderful balance . . . all leading Winemaker Mike Sullivan to proclaim that the 2009 vintage "may be our best yet!"

Our fall release offers you an exceptionally rewarding collection to choose from-each wine will reward you with a hedonistic drinking experience today, and with a little extra patience and cellar time, a truly magnificent uncorking years from now.

We are proud to introduce Benovia's first Grenache. This very limited production comes from Mike's family vineyard on Sonoma Mountain. We know Grenache doesn't exactly fit into our portfolio of fine Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Zinfandel wines. However, after experimenting with this wine in 2007, we found it to be quite charming and couldn't resist producing a small amount this year. Many who've tasted it say it's one of the best Grenaches in California. We really hope you'll give it a try-and let us know what you think!

The 2009 Savoy Vineyards Pinot Noir is back this fall after a hiatus in 2008 due to vineyard smoke damage. Rich Savoy's renowned fruit returned strong in 2009, and you'll taste the proof in this wine with its "amazing extract and purity of fruit focus."

Mike also proclaims this year's 2009 Cohn Pinot Noir to be our "best yet." The Cohn Vineyard's long history of producing legendary grapes -and wines-make this one a must-have.And of course our 2009 Bella Una® Pinot Noir, La Pommeraie Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast Chardonnay, and Zinfandel are all as good, if not even better, than you remember.

2009 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay
$42 | Very Limited
A wonderfully seductive wine displaying aromas of citrus blossom and green apple with underlying mineral notes. You'll love the tension on your palate between the bright acidity and cool-climate structure, all beautifully framed with flavors of Jonathan apple and honeydew melon.

2009 Cohn Vineyard Pinot Noir, Sonoma County
$62 | Limited
Our oldest estate vineyard produced a painfully low yield in 2009 of just 1.2 tons per acre. As a result, our flagship Pinot Noir is amazing with gorgeously intense aromas of spring flowers, Queen Anne cherries and roasted herbs. Cohn's hallmarks are wines with an ethereally-floral aromatic quality, fine tannins, and a long and complex finish.

2009 Bella Una® Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley
$56 | Limited
You'll love this wine's rich and seductive aromas of baking spice and vine ripened blackberry, followed by a juicy mouthfeel supported by centered acidity and intense fruit through the mid-palate. This wine is an intriguing blend of power and restraint that is both savory and delicately sweet. Bella Una truly is "beautiful as one."

2009 La Pommeraie Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley
$56 | Limited
This extraordinary single vineyard Pinot Noir will immediately impress you with its depth and concentration in the glass, and its remarkably explosive aromas of boysenberry and black cherry. On the palate it's viscous and rich, yet light on its feet, with fine-polished tannins and exceptionally balanced acidity.

2009 Savoy Vineyards Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley
$56 | Limited
A favorite of many, this alluring and hedonistic wine returns this year with amazing extract and purity of fruit focus. Vibrant aromas of wild strawberry, cranberry and raspberry soufflé harmonize with floral and East Indian spice notes. The heady bouquet leads into equally vibrant flavors of Bing cherry, raspberry and brown sugar.

2009 Zinfandel, Sonoma County
$38 | Limited
Our ever-popular Zin displays lively aromas of vine-ripened blackberries and Kirsch liqueur. On the palate the wine's exuberant fruit is balanced centered acidity, building with fruit through the mid-palate to the luscious tannins and a long finish. Estate bottled without fining or filtration, as are all of our wines.

2009 Grenache, Sonoma Mountain
$32 | Very Limited
New this fall, our Sonoma Mountain Grenache is gushing with aromas of currant, black plum and Bing cherry. The lifted aromas are followed by flavors of red fruit and milk chocolate. Sixteen months of oak aging in neutral barrels have brought out hints of savory herbs, grilled meats, and licorice in this complex and delicious wine.

Benovia Winery Spring 2011 Newsletter

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Lead Article: Benovia spring release 2009 vintage tasting notes

We are introducing a new wine for the spring release: the 2009 Russian River Pinot Noir.

As our newer vineyards come into production, and the farming of existing vineyards has risen to a level we think is exceptional, we decided
to introduce our first predominantly Martaella Vineyard estate wine. This wine is delicious and embodies the characteristics of a truly fine Russian River Pinot Noir.

We are also proud to present you, our valued customers, with an excellent Pinot Noir for the best price possible. With the 2009 vintage, we are able to offer the Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir for just $38.

Our winemaker, Mike Sullivan, has always been conservative when it comes to handing out praise for vintages. He has been making wine for over 20 years and knows well the ups and downs of the quality of grapes each
year. However, just one month into the 2009 vintage, he was singing its praises. As you can read from his notes, he believes the 2009 vintage may the BEST yet for Benovia Winery.

Mike Sullivan's notes on the 2009 vintage:

"The Russian River Valley experienced its third successive drought in the winter/spring of 2009. The colder-than-average temperatures in the spring pushed the season back by almost three weeks at flowering and fruit set. The summer was cool and dry, with low mildew and rot pressure. Temperatures warmed in July and August, helping to create a very even veraison and set the stage for a great vintage. Although yields were below average, stressed vines produced grapes with exceptional color with vibrant acidity and exceptional balance. We are very excited about the 2009 vintage -- maybe our best vintage yet!"

2009 Sonoma Mountain Chardonnay
$32 | Very limited
These grapes are from Mike Sullivan's family vineyard, and the wine is bursting with aromas of orange marmalade, nectarine and ripe tropical
fruits. Barrel fermentation and oak aging for 14 months produced a complex and delicious wine.

2009 La Pommeraie Chardonnay Russian River
$48 | Limited
This intense and concentrated single vineyard Chardonnay entices with vivid aromas of citrus blossom, honeysuckle and white peaches. The vibrancy of the wine's aromas is matched by its opulent texture, layered flavors of candied citrus, Anjou pear with a mineral laden finish and exceptional complexity.

2009 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir
$45 | Very Limited
This outstanding vintage provided the raw materials to produce a truly outstanding Russian River Valley Pinot Noir. Aromas are clearly dominated by bright red fruit tones of Bing cherry and strawberry, while black fruits
dominate on the palate. The bright aromas expand and give way to candied orange peel and East-Asian spice notes. This wine is beautifully proportioned with a sweet middle and a delicate earthy finish.

2009 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir
$38 | Limited
Bright and detailed aromas of black cherry, red raspberry and autumnal spices introduce this complex and intense Pinot Noir. On the palate, the wine's juicy mouthfeel is supported by centered acidity, building with intensity through the mid-palate to the fine grain tannins on the finish. This wine is balanced and precise.

2010 Rosé of Pinot Noir
$18 | Very Limited
This wine is just what you want on a summer evening when your desire is for something refreshing and not too heavy. Rosé goes with a variety of foods, especially dishes spiced with peppers. This Rosé has vibrant strawberry and late-summer watermelon aromas, echoing flavors which are all supported by good acidity and a citrus-like finish.

Benovia Winery Fall 2010 Newsletter

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Lead Article: Balance in Benovia's Wine

It is the experience all of us wine lovers long for.

You taste a new wine for the first time and it is like a symphony for your taste buds, with all parts playing harmoniously together.  It is one of those "ah-ha" moments when you truly get what exceptional wine is all about.

It is why you visit tasting rooms and chase down wines friends rave about searching for that special moment when time seems to stand still and your palate is treated to a virtuoso performance like none other.

In addition to the bouquet of fine wine, one of the most important aspects of the experience is what happens when the wine swirls around in your mouth.

Does it feel and taste good, delicious, yummy-or is something not quite right? Does it taste acidic and dries your mouth out? Is it too "hot" with alcohol? Or does it feel like it lacks fruit? A wine achieves balance when all of its parts complement each other in your mouth.

Perfect harmony is indeed sweet music to your taste buds.

One of the outstanding qualities Mike Sullivan's wines possess is balance. When you sip a Benovia wine, there is harmony there. While you may prefer one wine's taste over another, exceptional balance is a hallmark of all Benovia's wines. Many people who have tasted our wines at the winery often say, "I like them all." We believe that is because the wines show superb balance-and that naturally produces a sensation of liking the wines.

So how does the balance get there? That is a very complex subject which we can only scratch the surface of here, but one we think you'll find very fascinating. The basic components of wine relating to balance are: acid, tannins, alcohol, fruit, oak, and sugar.

All of our wines are dry, so sugar does not play a part. So let's look at the other elements.

At Benovia we engage in a type of farming we call "farming with balance." That means that our farming on a technical level yields grapes that will produce a balanced wine. We accomplish this in different ways. For example, during the growing season, we manage the canopy of the vines to strike a balance between light and shade. Too much shade can produce a vegetative wine, while too little may result in a wine with cooked flavors or grapes that lose some of their acidity.  We also strive for a balanced crop load. Too small of a crop may produce wines that are too tannic, while a large crop may produce wines that are thin or offer only diluted flavors. We strive for a smaller crop load that is balanced with great flavors and ripe tannins. Ripe tannins come through taste. That is why Mike Sullivan walks the vineyards during harvest time, tasting the grapes until they display the ripeness of tannins he is looking for. There are many other decisions made during the processing of the grapes at the winery that add to great balance.

First, we sort the grapes thoroughly. Any under-ripe or over-ripe clusters are discarded, as well as those with mold or other problems. We strive to achieve a consistency of ripeness from all our grape clusters before they go into the fermentation tank.

Punchdowns (pushing the cap of grape skins down so that it contacts the underlying juice) help with how much extraction and texture a wine exhibits. Punchdowns normally occur two to three times a day, depending on what Mike is tasting in the juice.

We also cold-soak our grapes to bring out the roundness and richness of the wine, and to help give the wine a richer, aromatic character.  We also use native yeast which adds to the complexity of the wine. And we use French oak barrels to frame the fruit in the wine and add some spice characteristics. Mike makes the oak decisions for each individual wine based on what he is tasting as the wine undergoes fermentation.

And finally, we don't fine or filter the wine so that all of its natural beauty is preserved when it is time to bottle at the winery.

Mike is a very hands on winemaker. He interacts with the wine starting in the vineyard, through fermentation, and while it is in the barrels. He does not follow a set formula, but rather he listens carefully to the wine, taking into account the vineyard and vintage, and then makes his winemaking decisions based on what the wine tells him. His experience and instincts contribute immensely to the balance of each wine.

So now the next time you taste one of Benovia's wines, you will have a much greater appreciation for how all that yumminess and balance got in your glass.

 

Benovia Winery Spring 2010 Newsletter

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Lead Article: Sustainable farming at Benovia

Call us lucky to live, farm, and make wine in Sonoma County where natural beauty and agricultural diversity make it hard not to be environmentally conscious. But it's going to take more than luck to keep it that way.

"We practice sustainable farming," says vineyard manager Chris Kangas, "and that means we are environmentally sensitive and socially responsible when it comes to grape growing."

Benovia is farming 72 acres of vineyards on three incredible sites within Sonoma County. Fifty of those acres were just planted in the last three years. With vineyard development behind us, we've turned our attention to farming and the responsibility that comes from being stewards of the land. Leading Benovia's sustainable farming program, Chris is well aware of the old axiom that great wines can only come from great vineyards. At the same time, he understands that farming practices, even by a winery as small as Benovia, can have a huge impact on the future.

"We embrace our role as custodians of the land and seek to integrate environmentally sensitive practices into all aspects of our wine growing," says Chris.

Benovia Winery's sustainable farming program includes:

• Composting - We utilize organic mulch/fertilizer for improving soil health and build organic matter.

• Cover Crops - Each fall we seed our vineyard rows to prevent erosion and improve soil structure.

• Soil Management - We match rootstock with varietals to prevent soil nutrient depletion, and utilize no-till farming to retain carbon and avoid soil compaction.

• Beneficial Insects - We encourage the presence of beneficial insects to prey on vineyard pests.

• Owl Boxes and Raptor Roosts - We have erected 10 owl boxes to encourage native barn owl populations as predators for gophers and moles.

• Water Conservation/Dry Farming Techniques - Careful irrigation practices allow us to control vineyard canopies which ensure small berries and concentrated flavors that yield the highest quality fruit. We allow for many vineyard blocks to be nearly dry-farmed as part of our efforts to conserve water.

• Erosion Control - Each fall we "winterize" our vineyards to prevent erosion. This involves the use of cover crops, straw mulching, installation of water bars on roads and maintenance of drainage systems.

• Frost Protection - We use wind machines instead of water, a dwindling natural resource, to ward off frost.

Benovia winery owners Joe Anderson, Mary Dewane and Mike Sullivan embrace the concept of sustainable farming at all of their vineyards but have taken it a step further by farming the Cohn Vineyard organically, without the use of even limited herbicides and pesticides. By farming with integrity and sensitivity to the environment, Benovia is expressing its responsibility to its neighbors, as well as future generations. It's also making a commitment to customers, who care about how grapes are grown, where their wine comes from and how it's made.

Click on the thumbnails below to download past Benovia Winery Newsletters in Adobe® PDF format (listed by calendar year):

2009 FALL RELEASE

 

 

2009 SPRING RELEASE

 

 

2008 FALL RELEASE

 

 

2008 SPRING RELEASE

 

 

2007 SPRING RELEASE