1985-03 March 1985 Newsletter

In the span of a short 8 years an Idaho winery has started making waves! Good waves… mind you, not bad ones. (well... I guess it depends on where you are coming from. Many a California vintner thinks there already are too many wineries. For the wine enthusiast however… the more the merrier. Always a new chance to find that better wine!).

Bill Brioch used to be a busi¬nessman and part time apple grower in Emmett, Idaho. He took up ama¬teur wine making somewhere along the way. Penny, his wife, became equally engrossed. To do it right, they spent the 1974 harvest season in the wine country of France.

Zap…in the short six weeks of their stay, they got the bug. Bill decided to give up everything else and become a full time commer¬cial wine maker.

Meanwhile a few years prior, in 1971, with no winery anywhere in the vicinity, the owners of the Symms Fruit Ranch in Sunny Slope, Idaho, decided to plant three va¬rieties of vinifera grapes. They wanted to test a simple hunch that wine grapes could be grown success¬fully among the apple, pear, peach, and cherry orchards. Their first crop was harvested in 1975 and the majority of it was sold to a winery in California. Part of their 1976 crop was purchased by Bill Brioch for his first crush of his new Ste. Chapelle Vineyard.

In 1978, The Symms' folks and the Brioch's merged, and a new winery was built amidst the vineyards in Sunny Slope. The inspiration for the winery architecture came from the ancient church of Ste. Chapelle in Paris, which Bill and Penny had visited in France.

The marriage must have been just the right move. Ste Chapelle produced 600 cases in 1976. Last year, they released in excess of 150,000 cases. In the world of wine, that is pretty good growth! Despite the size, the quality has been preserved. Meticulous produc¬tion techniques and exceptional growing conditions of climate and soil, coupled with good management was responsible for this success. Medals every year at worldwide competitions are testimony. The waves of wine from this landlocked state are good!

The home of the Chenin Blanc grape is the Loire Valley of France. It has adapted itself well to our vineyards in the United States. Relatively easy to grow, and rather prolific in yield per acre, it is the second largest varietal grape crop in California. Typically it produces a fresh, delicate, fruity, light white wine, with the sugar content varying from bone dry to definitely sweet ver-sions. The winemaker decides what style he wants to make the wine. I really think wine author Hugh Johnson's statement about Chenin Blanc is a classic. He calls it a "hammock wine".

Ste. Chapelle Chenin Blanc is pale gold in color. It has a fresh, fruity aroma, with a characteristic Chenin "sweetness" to the nose. Charming, even before you taste it! The taste is light, refreshing, and well balanced. There is good acid present which hides the sweetness this wine could demonstrate. A good example of the interesting inter¬play of these two elements in wine. Flavorful. Serve well chilled to anybody who is on a hammock, or anywhere else on a lazy afternoon. Great accompaniment for fruit sa¬lad, cream cheese canapes, or a chicken salad sandwich.

Cellaring Notes: Consume in the next 12 months. Not far ageing.