An interesting experiment...

I'm going to try to attend.

In 2006, Ken joined fellow winemakers Terry&Ted Casteel (Bethel Heights Vineyard), Steve Doerner (Cristom Vineyard), Lynn Penner-Ash (Penner-Ash Wine Cellars), and Laurent Montalieu (Solena Cellars) in a test to see what would happen if they shared grapes and each made wine from the same lots of Pinot Noir.

Does the hand or the land have more impact on the expression of the wine?

On June 26th, Ken and friends will share about their winemaking processes and TASTE the results of their experiment

with members of the Ronald McDonald House's Tanner Society

[Jenise]

How fun. And don't you think the hand will win? Compare it to cooking: give four chefs the same ingredients and the same recipe, and they'll produce dishes that don't disguise the raw ingredients but will each have the indelible imprint of certain decisions made along the way.

Does sound like a fun tasting. Like Jenise, my guess that "the hand" would be more apparent, at least if the winemakers are stylistically different. I'm assuming from description (same lot) that grapes were picked together, so there's one winemaking choice that won't differ.

Kudos to these guys for doing this. I hope their next experiment is to each pick a lot of their grapes (to the ripeness they desire), divide into 5 parcels, distribute 4 to the others, then each make 5 bottlings. That tasting, they'll need to spit.

I am ITB here in Oregon and I seem to remember tat some of these people participated in a similar experiment. I don't think that Steve or Laurent were i on that one. I seem to remember Harry from Chehalem as one with Casteels and Lynn Penner Ash. I can't seem to remember the 4th one. It was very interesting to taste some of the differences. Back then their vines were much younger.

Just realized I didn't make it clear who the "Ken" is. It's Ken Wright.

Any constraints, like using identical barrel types?

Chef you say Ken Wright? Forget about what barrels are going to be used. Is Ken going to use the “evaporator”? If you truly think about it Ken’s ideas about winemaking, are not really that “new”, but the methods he uses to do basically the same thing the “ancients” did is very “modern” and “high-tech” and besides he gets better results. (Well I never drank the “ancient’s” wine).

Salute

There's something similar going on here in Central Otago, New Zealand and the Calvert Vineyard in Bannockburn. Parcels of grapes from this vineyard are taken by Felton Road, Craggy Range and Pyramid Valley.
Unfortunately I have not been to a comparative tasting of the three and have only tasted the Felton Road wine, but I would suspect the winemakers hand gives more expression to the wines from these young vines.

There's another experiment taking place this year with 12 winemakers each taking 4 tonnes of fruit off the same Riesling vineyard in Waipara to make a Riesling in any style they like. I 'd love to get an invite to that tasting this coming October when the NZ Riesling Challenge is unveiled.

Those of you asking me questions will have to wait. I posted everything I know about it.

Looks like I won't be attending.

http://www.rmhcoregon.org/pages/help_tanner_society.php

However, I'm sure there will be a more public tasting. I'll keep an eye out.

There's another experiment taking place this year with 12 winemakers each taking 4 tonnes of fruit off the same Riesling vineyard in Waipara to make a Riesling in any style they like. I 'd love to get an invite to that tasting this coming October when the NZ Riesling Challenge is unveiled.

I'm looking forward to the outcome of this exercise too Sue. I got to taste the juice prior to inoculation at one of the participating wineries last month, it was stunning!

Do you know who the 12 are?

cheers

Andrew

There's another experiment taking place this year with 12 winemakers each taking 4 tonnes of fruit off the same Riesling vineyard in Waipara to make a Riesling in any style they like. I 'd love to get an invite to that tasting this coming October when the NZ Riesling Challenge is unveiled.

I'm looking forward to the outcome of this exercise too Sue. I got to taste the juice prior to inoculation at one of the participating wineries last month, it was stunning!

Do you know who the 12 are?

cheers

Andrew

Yes.

Ant McKenzie - Te Awa Wines, Hawkes Bay
Larry McKenna - Escarpment, Martinborough
Mike Brown - Golden Hills Estates, Nelson (Mike left Waimea Estate last year)
Paul Bourgeois - Spy Valley, Marlborough
Jules Taylor - Jules Taylor Wines, Marlborough
John Forrest - Forrest, Marlborough
Simon Waghorn - Astrolabe Wines, Marlborough
Patrick Materman - Pernod Ricard NZ, Marlborough
Simon McGeorge - Waipara Hills, Waipara
Matt Donaldson - Pegasus Bay, Waipara
Duncan Forsyth - Mount Edward, Central Otago
Matt Dicey - Mt Difficulty, Central Otago

Cheers,
Sue

Back about 10 years ago when they did this I seem to remember tha the idea was for miimal intervention. The styles certainly came through. Some were more forward while at least one was very tightly wound. I will try and e-mail a couple of the winemakers and try to get more specifics, especially the vintage.

I got an e-mail back from Ted Casteel of Bethel Heights. The vintage was 1996 and it involved Lynn Penner-Ash from Rex Hill, Bethel Heights, Chehalem, and Bill Fuller from Tualatin Estates. The wine scene was very different 14 years ago.