Pinot Noir as a sex pheromone?

Wine aromas, especially those in Pinot Noir, are very similar to human sex pheromones. An article published by Wine X Magazine details the connection.

They state: “All those smells you get in the pinot noir grape - spices, earth, musk and the slightly feral, barnyard notes - are very similar smells to those associated with the principal male smell, androstenone. Truffles and the sort of oaky smells in so much wine fermented or matured in new oak barrels are similarly androstenone-like.”

Combine these strong subconscious messages with the effect of wine’s alcohol, and all bets are off.

2008 Portland Indie Wine Festival

The 2008 Portland Indie Wine Fest is just around the corner. This year, 3 of our single vineyard Pinot Noir’s were selected by a national panel of 12 judges. Our selected wines include:
- 2006 Pinot Noir – Hawks View Vineyard
- 2006 Pinot Noir – Bishop Creek Vineyard
- 2006 Pinot Noir – Coleman Vineyard

64 wineries submitted 173 wines for this year’s festival. The top 57 wines from 40 wineries made the cut. We’re excited to be selected and to participate again, and we look forward to seeing you there. Details and tickets can be found here.

The 2008 judging panel:
- Rebecca Murphy, Founder, Dallas Morning News Wine Competition
- John Paul, Winemaker, Cameron Winery
- Toby Cecchini, Journalist and Bar Owner, NY Times, GQ
- Luisa Ponzi, Winemaker, Ponzi Winery
- Randall Grahm, Winemaker, Bonny Doon Vineyard
- Tina Caputo, Journalist, Harpers UK
- Erica Landon, Sommelier, Ten 01
- Lynn Grundmeier, Wine Buyer, Whole Foods
- Dan Beekley, Retailer, Square Deal Wine
- Randy Goodman, Restaurateur, Avignon
- Kevin Ludwig, Restaurateur, Beaker and Flask
- Andrew Turner, Chef and Journalist, Northwest Bounty

Wine Barrels Breathe…

It may seem obvious, but wood is porous. New barrels absorb wine, and all barrels loose wine to evaporation through pores in the barrel’s wooden staves.

This explains why we’re spending time topping barrels this time of year. Depending on the relative humidity, the wine level can drop and inch or two a week.

This in turn creates head space in the top of the barrel and exposes the wine to air. Air oxidizes wine and allows Acetobacter to start transforming wine to vinegar (in addition to other possible aerobic processes that harm wine). All of these things are undesirable, so air exposure must be minimized.

Five months into barrel aging our 2007 vintage, we’ve used about 4% of our red wine to top the remaining barrels. This usually involves racking wine out of a barrel into our special topping tank.

Picture a tall cylinder of nitrogen with a hose feeding the gas into a retrofitted 15 gallon stainless steel beer keg. Coming out of the keg is another hose carrying the wine. A nozzle lets us carefully fill each barrel. Nitrogen is used to prevent the wine from contacting air/oxygen, and we regulate its’ pressure to push the wine out of the keg.

We top our barrels every two weeks or so.