San Juan Island, San Juan Vineyard, Madeleine Angevine and Siegerrebe vertical.

San Juan, San Juan Vineyards, Siegerrebe and Madeleine Angevine verticals.

The island: San Juan

This island, as the archipelago in which it is located, got their name in 1791 by the navigator

Francisco de Eliza, in honor of his protector the count Juan Vicente de Güemes Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo, New-Spain viceroy.

Separated by the Canadian border, the archipelago is part of a bigger one which includes the southern Gulf islands, located between the continent and Vancouver island, forming a geological and archeological whole.

Situated at 48⁰ 32’ N and 123⁰ 5’ W, San Juan island is the second larger island of the archipelago with an area of 55 square miles and reaches a height of 1080 feet on Mount Dallas. It is daily

connected to the continent by ferries like the three other major of the 172 archipelago’s islands.

6,800 residents live on it all year long and the only two hot and sunny months, july and august, brings 13,000 more that are mostly retired Californians. Rain prevails the other ten months and if june and September are too humid the harvest does not even happen like in 2011.

It is Vashon’s glacier, 2 millions years old and 3,000 feet thick, that shaped Puget sound and its islands. Moving south from the 15th to the 10^th millennium B.C., it sculpted the surfaces with the end of the ice age. Because of this south direction, most of the slopes are in east and west direction, making it hard to find south facing slopes better for the vineyards.

We find on this island with a vineyard’s extreme weather 7.5 acres of vines, most of it is owned by the San Juan Vineyards and a quarter of an acre of the Ortega varietal is planted on the grounds of Bellevue Farm.

The winery: San Juan Vineyard

Ungrafted vines of Madeleine Angevine, Siegerrebe and 1 acre of Pinot noir are growing since 1996 on one of the rare south facing slopes with a mostly sandy soil containing pebble, part of it also is clay.

It is the owners themselves, Yvonne Swanberg and her husband that nurses the vines in their  greenhouse. They planted 2,400 per acre and are trained in a simple guyot system. With an average yield of a quarter of ton per acre, each of these tons makes 130 gallons of wine.

Being almost farmed organically, the vineyard is protected from the deers by high fences and white nets are covering the vines when the berries are almost ripe to keep them away from starling voracious appetites. Usually a problem on the Pacific north-west islands, rabbits and bacterias like crown gall are not a threat here. There are occasional potassium fertilizing done.

The winemaker and vineyard manager Chris Primus is working all year long since 2006 with a team of part time helpers. The harvest usually takes place beginning of October for the Madeleine Angevine and mid-october for the Siegerrebe grape. Pinot noir rarely makes it to ripeness. The last harvest took place in 2009 which was an exceptional year for Washington State vineyards.

The winery’s profitability is provided by making wines with purchased grapes that are coming mostly from Yakima Valley and Horse Heaven Hills. 70% of the wine production is made with varietals that are better known like Riesling, Pinot gris, Merlot or Sangiovese. These are easier to sell than lesser famous and hard to pronounced Siegerrebe and Madeleine Angevine.

Fortunately for the winery, the regulation in the American Viticultural Areas system allows wineries to make wine of a said appellation outside of the delimited territory, the condition being that the grapes come from that indicated zone in a proportion of at least 85%.  Interestingly, if there is a grape mentioned, it only has to be to a minimum of 75%. More restrictively, if there is a vintage or a vineyard mentioned on the label, then it should be accurate to a level of 95% minimum. Then if the mention “Estate Grown” is showing, 100% of the grapes have to be harvested on the winery’s vineyard. That said, if you have a Merlot 2010 Estate Grown, then 25% of the grape could be different as 5% could have been harvested in the earlier years.

Chris is now using only French barrels of at least one year old. Bottling is done in april an in june with the help a mobile bottling unit.

The wines: Verticals of Madeleine Angevine and Siegerrebe made September 7 2012.

Each Year, Chris verifies how his wines evolve. I had the chance to do it with him this year.

Madeleine Angevine 2006: Time has killed this vintage in which aromatic strength was lost on the nose, even though in mouth there was still a bit of pear and chalk but dominated by oxidation expressed by the over-ripe apple scent.

Madeleine Angevine 2007: One of my 2 favorites. More aromatic and complex than the 06, we can detect melon, pear and peach. Added to that fruit expression, an herbaceous and mineral dimension last quite long in the mouth.

Madeleine Angevine 2009: We can see green hues in the pale yellow wine. A lot of freshness in this vintage and complexity with flint, white pepper, turmeric and pear scents.

Siegerrebe 2006: Quite aromatic, this round and velvety wine with mostly confied citrus zest. Final with an oxidized weft.

Siegerrebe 2007: This vintage suffered of a third degree reduction and exhale garlic and onion aromas from the ethanethiol (mercaptan)

Siegerrebe 2008: Aromas of peach and orange peel insidiously infiltrated with that previous garlic smell. Wine is round in the mouth and abruptly stops.

Siegerrebe 2009: Fruit and aromas already fading in this vintage.

Siegerrebe 2010: This vintage demonstrate that Siegerrebe is best in its youth revealing all of its aromatic strength as much on the nose than in the mouth. Turmeric, melon and ripe pear create a luscious set that will pair well with a firm flesh white fish or a raised poultry breast with a medium spicy fruit chutney and curry rice.