Someone said that you cannot get just one new thing in your living room, or kitchen, without adding other new things, because the new thing can make the old things look bad by comparison. So please consider the leap you might be taking in becoming fond of late harvest wines. And we promise you, it is very easy to become attached to these jewel-toned beauties.
By Dianne Boate and Robert Meyer
Published: August, 2005
Someone said that you cannot get just one new thing in your living room, or kitchen, without adding other new things, because the new thing can make the old things look bad by comparison. So please consider the leap you might be taking in becoming fond of late harvest wines. And we promise you, it is very easy to become attached to these jewel-toned beauties.
Late harvest wines go very well with certain salads, cheese and bread, and desserts. Their very elegance demands an appropriate high quality wine glass. We don’t think you would want to drink champagne out of a paper cup, but you could, and we have.
Late harvest wines were created hundreds of years ago in the Old World: France, Germany, and Hungary. The techniques were brought to the New World where, year in and year out, vintners and the public keep rediscovering the priceless heritage. Our own first experiences with late harvest happened in this way:
Twenty years ago we were about to go to Germany for the first time. Robert found out about a winemaker in Amador County, named Scott Harvey, who had trained in Germany. We made an appointment and drove there to see him.
At that time, he was finishing some late harvest wine and told us that he had noticed a vineyard of Riesling in Amador County where the grapes had not been picked on time and were just sitting there, more or less rotting. He offered a fair price for the "useless" fruit, and made something spectacular. He has gone on to earn acclaim for his wine production, which includes a late harvest zinfandel, German style.
You can start a whole new wine career specializing in producing or serving late harvest wines. But they can be expensive ($25 to $400), so be prepared. Why is this wine expensive? It requires playing the waiting game, and taking great chances — vines may yield less than half a crop of fruit, or they may yield nothing.
Late harvest wines are made from grapes that remain on the vine past normal picking time, pucker up and become raisins. With good fortune, the damp evenings in autumn create a welcome mat for botrytis cinerea, commonly known as called "noble rot," a fungus that causes grapes to become thin skinned, to lose water content and gain sugar concentration.
When the time is right, selective picking begins. Then the raisin-like fruit is destemmed and crushed. The grapes soak in their own juice, then are pressed and transferred to barrels for fermentation to begin.
"At this point," Gregory Blake of Renaissance Vineyards and Winery in Yuba County, said, "The process may take a long time, since yeast finds high sugar concentrations hard to ferment - some yeasts being better able to cope with sugary juices - but sometimes the process can drag on for months." Renaissance makes 3 late harvest wines, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, and Semillon.
Christopher Weir, of Firestone Vineyard, which makes Late Harvest Riesling from Santa Ynez Valley (Santa Barbara County), said, "Fermentation proceeds over several months, and the result is this balanced nectar-like wine, truly the essence of a Riesling grape. It enchants the nose with ripe apricot, peach and honey... nuances of citrus and mango ... we recommend enjoying this wine with light desserts, or fresh fruit, or as a dessert unto itself."
We have The World Atlas of Wine by Hugh Johnson, published in 1971. In one of the sections devoted to the most famous late harvest wine - French sauternes - he notes: "The days when Russian archdukes would drink nothing but Chateau Yquem - and ordered it bottled in cut-crystal decanters lettered in gold - are over … but there is a revival on foot ... given sunshine in October before the vintage, the 70s will see Sauternes come back to the height of fashion."
And thank God, we are living to see the day.
Late Harvest Wines We Like
"Dolce" from Far Niente, Napa
"Eugenia" Lolonis Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc from
Redwood Valley
Dianne Boate is a free lance writer, photographer, and designer of millinery. Her photos can be seen at www.danielakart.com. Robert Meyer is a consultant to the wine and spirits industry. For 27 years Dianne has been late, according to Robert. She explained to a friend driving them to the airport on the way to Germany that she had a lot of stress. The friend replied, "Dianne, your stress is sitting right next to you."
