Winery Analysis

My Winery Analysis is about Red Hook Winery. The North Fork of Long Island is dominated by the sea, in every sense. The growing region is situated on a narrow “fork” of sea-level land that is sandwiched between the Great Peconic Bay on one side and by the wide Peconic Sound on the other. (https://www.redhookwinery.com/) 

This is where the cashier is and where to pay for your products

It was a little annoying to find Red Hook Winery because one, the roads were very bumpy and two, there was a warehouse that was so big and everything looked the same on Pier 41. The windows of the shop were I believe very tinted to the point you can’t see the inside. From the outside, the shop seems huge, but when you walk in it’s pretty small for a winery.

 

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This is an outside view/look of Red Hook Winery

 

Red Hook winery has many grape varieties grown, such as Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, etc. (http://www.winethirtyflight.com/blog/2016/7/27/red-hook)

This is a tasting room inside Red Hook Winery

Red Hook Winery’s tasting rooms have a lot of wood and barrels around, seems like rooms to have great conversations and drink wonderful wines in. Your table to drink on is a barrel, which I liked because it’s different and creative than just a normal table.

 

This is some of the wines on sale for $25 in Red Hook Winery

Their prices weren’t so bad, they ranged from $25 to $60. Customers can also do a tasting of four selections for $18, 2 oz pours, of a party of 6 or more, and also you can receive a 10% off a single bottle with tasting.

This is some barrels with wine and the equipment used to make them

 

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This is Red Hook Winery’s vineyard and grape vines

Red Hook Winery’s vineyard is huge and beautiful and it grows grapes, such as Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot and many more.

The Winery has 3 winemakers that have different vinifications. One is Abe Schoener that prefers to make wine with limited control and interruption to the fermentation process. Another is Robert Foley, that is more traditional in his winemaking approaches, such as he tends to resemble Napa Valley reds and French whites and all of his wines are aged in old French oak barrels for an extended period of time. The last one is Christopher Nicholson, that allows the terroir to speak through the wine, and his goal is to interpret what a single property tastes like through the wine and his methodology varies based on the grape.

 

This is Me inside Red Hook Winery

The staff in Red Hook Winery were very friendly and greet you once you enter, sounded very knowledgable about wine and winemaking. A Yelp user named Ashley P. said “This is my absolute favorite local wine shop.” (https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/the-red-hook-winery-brooklyn?select=1nByNS6-LMHELVBXKYlQjw)

Reference List

The Red Hook Winery Website, https://www.redhookwinery.com/vineyards

  • This is Red Hook Winery official website, which talks about the Winery’s Story, wines, vineyards, and Island Hope.

Jennings, K. (2016), Red Hook Winery showcases New York State viticulture in an urban on-water setting, http://www.winethirtyflight.com/blog/2016/7/27/red-hook

  • This article is about how Red Hook Winery makes its wine, how to get to Red Hook Winery, and Red Hook Winery’s Tasting lineup,

Ashley P. (2014), The Red Hook Winery, https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/the-red-hook-winery-brooklyn?select=1nByNS6-LMHELVBXKYlQjw

  • This is a Yelp review by Ashley P about her experience with Red Hook Winery

Paso Robles

Names: Noha Mahdi, Chris Raghubir, Amanda Ashwood

Country/Region/Appellation

USA/California/Paso Robles

Grape variety

Zinfandel: Zinfandel was the first commercially viable grape to be planted in Paso Robles, back in 1914. It is known for its sweet-fruited jammy raspberries, wild bramble berry, raisins, prunes, licorice and black tea spices and plush tannins.

Cabernet Sauvignon: The Paso style strives to Big and Bold, making more richly textured, opulent, ready-drinking Cabs and Bordeaux blends with flavors of anise, cola, peppercorns, finishing with textured minerality and bright acidity.

Rhône Varieties: The term “Rhone-Zone” was given to Paso because it hosts the largest acreage of Syrah, Viognier, and Roussanne in California. The Rhone is actually a region in France that lies along the mighty Rhone river. Red Rhone wines are traditionally blends dominated by Grenache, then Syrah, Mourvedre amongst 10 others. These wines have flavors of both red and black fruits (strawberry and blackberry), licorice, herbs, a full body and soft plush tannins. White Rhone wines can be 100% varietal-based from Viognier and literally taste like you bit into a dried apricot, or blends that include Marsanne and Roussanne along with 8 others, making wines that are richly textured viscous wines.

Cal-Italians: Vine cuttings from Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, Barbera, and Montepulciano grape varieties were brought with Italian immigrants from as far back as 1861 to the USA. However, it wasn’t until the 1980’s that these grapes found their home in Paso. Although Italian grapes lack the plushness of texture of other styles, their uniqueness lies in their ability to retain high levels of acidity, despite the heat. This allows them to be some of the most food-friendly wines in the world.

Innovative Blends: Adding to the sheer diversity of grapes and styles explored above, we are now seeing producers add Spanish grapes like the white Albariño, or Verdelho, red Tempranillo and the Portugese Touriga Nacional (the main grape of Port wines) to their repertoire. These grapes are being made into single varietal styles that showcase their unique attributes but are also found alongside Italian and French varieties in innovative blends as well.

https://winefolly.com/review/understanding-paso-robles-wine-w-maps 

Climate

The temperature varies from day and night, Diurnal and Maritime Climate becoming more continental to the east with growing de-gree-day.

https://pasowine.com/paso-robles/geography-climate/

Soil

These are primarily bedrock (the hard layer of rock beneath looser rocks and soil) derived soils from weathered granite, older marine sedimentary rocks, volcanic rocks, and younger marine sedimentary rocks of the Miocene-age Monterey Formation featuring calcareous shales, sandstone, or mudstone. Soil diversity is the norm and a vineyard block may commonly contain several different soil types.

https://pasowine.com/paso-robles/geography-climate/

Viticulture

Chateau Margene – Creston: A producer of highly sought after luxury Cabernet Sauvignon & Cabernet Franc under the Chateau Margene label, luxury Pinot Noirs under their Mooney Family label and port style wines under their Roxo Port Cellars label. Chateau Margene is a small family-owned winery located in the Creston District AVA. The initial year of production was 1997. Farming practices are organic and sustainable and the focus is small lots of ultra-premium grapes that are hand picked, hand sorted and then gently moved through our gravity flow grape processing system.

Austin Hope & Treana Tasting Cellar: At the Austin Hope & Treana Tasting Cellar, we offer a unique blend of eclectic décor, cozy lounge style seating and a fun, casual approach to world class wines. We are proud to be family owned and operated with four unique brands: Austin Hope, Treana, Troublemaker and Liberty School. The Tasting Cellar features our small production wines from the Treana and Austin Hope brands, which represent Austin’s passion for artisan winemaking.

https://pasowine.com/member/austin-hope-treana-tasting-cellar-hope-family-wines/?refer=winery

Vinification

Once the grapes arrive at the Paso Robles winery they are again inspected for quality. For our white wine program, a whole cluster press is used to extract the juice. After a gentle pressing, the juice is immediately transferred to stainless steel fermenters for a 24-hour cold settling. The white juice will ferment for approximately 30 days at 55F until dry, yielding no residual sugar. Post primary fermentation the whites are fined and filtered before being botted the following spring to preserve the aromatic qualities in each variety.

Red grapes are de-stemmed and pumped directly into the fermentation tanks. We utilize both static and open top fermenters in our program. During fermentation the must is allowed to reach temperatures up to 85F to extract the intense color and flavors the Donati wines are known for. The red varietals will ferment for 7-10 days, then the wine is racked to another tank and the remaining skins, seeds, and pulp is gently pressed.

The aging process for our red wines begins in a combination of both French and American oak barrels from a select group of coopers. The red wines are barrel aged for 12-18 months. During this time, a continuous sensory assessment of each lot gives us the ability to designate the premium lots for our higher-end wines. When those lots are selected the wine is racked and blended and stored in barrels until bottling. The red wines are bottled un-fined and unfiltered to preserve natural flavors and aromas the grape varietals have to offer.

Overall, the winemaking team brings hands-on experience, analytic knowledge and a strong dedication to the industry. We are here to make the best wines possible to share with you. Please visit our online store detailing the varietals and blends that we have to offer or you can visit our tasting room in Paso Robles.

Add additional notes about the regions/appellations/labels during.

How to Read a Wine Label

Vintner Rob Murray created Stasis, Tooth & Nail, Force of Nature and Amor Fati to showcase his vineyards in Paso Robles and Santa Barbara. The Possessor ($26.99), is a big, spicy cabernet sauvignon blend. The label is a mid-1800s John James Audubon print, featuring a red-tailed hawk swooping down on its prey. “There’s a little death and destruction in all our labels,” Murray says.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/06/22/five-awesome-paso-robles-wine-labels/

Interesting fact

Today, Paso Robles is still considered by many as thewine industry’s wild west, characterized by that same rule breaking diversity and innovative spirit in which the town was founded. “Paso Robles is the wild west of California wine.” Factoid: Paso Robles is California’s fastest growing AVA.

https://winefolly.com/review/understanding-paso-robles-wine-w-maps/

 

Retail Wine Shop Analysis

Grand Wine & Liquor

This is a photo of the outside store view of Grand Wine and Liquor.

This is a photo of the outside store view of Grand Wine and Liquor.

I didn’t really like the outside view of the shop because it doesn’t look like a wine shop. In my honest opinion, It looked like a boring looking grocery store, until you look up to the writing and see the “Grand Wine and Liquor” and the little wine bottles drawing.

But as I entered the store, I can see that the shop was huge, has a lot of space and friendly employees. All the employees greeted me and smiled, which I loved because not a lot of shops actually have employees that nice nowadays. I first took a look around the shop, then I was approached by an employee asking me if I needed any help, I told him I wanted to speak to the owner or someone in charge, he said sure and walked to the back room. A few seconds later a man in a suit stepped out and greeted me and I told him about my analysis and if I could ask him a few questions, he said yes of course. And I went on by asking him, how did this shop happen/open? He said his great grandfather, Jake Battipaglia, opened this shop 75 years ago, and it is still up and running. His great grandfather was an immigrant from Greece, who came to America for a better job and life for him and his family. I also asked him how long did he study wine and why did he, he said he’s been studying wine for all of his life because he grew up with it being the family business and that he has a wine doctorate. Another question I had for him was “if a wine was not selling as you wanted it too, what would you do?”. He said that they would discontinue the wine or mark it down or put it on sale to get all the remaining wines out of the store and then he would never order that wine again.

After he answered my questions, I asked him to just show me around the shop and to show me the wines I had to take pictures of. The shop’s wines were organized by country and within each country, the red and white wines were separated.

 

This picture is what you see once you enter the shop. Also shows you some of the countries and their wines.

This is one of the shop’s sections for Greece and its wines.

Wine # 1 – Shelf Talker

These wines with rectangle paper, that has the red and blue writing on it are "Shelf Takers.

These wines with rectangle paper, that have the red and blue writing on it are “Shelf Takers”. They are because customers can easily see what’s inside of the wine and how the wine tastes.

Wine # 2 – Red Wine from Spain

This wine is called Goru Verde and it is a red wine from Spain

This wine is called Goru Verde and it is a red wine from Spain.

Wine # 3 – Sparkling Wine not from France

This is a sparkling wine not from France but from Italy called Cannonau di Sardegna.

Wine # 4 – Red wine from a region I did not know made wine. 

This is a red wine called 19 Crimes from Australia, which I did not know made wine.