Heart & Hands Wine Company TasteCamp Finale: Finger Lakes Pinot Noir In Its Purest Form

Owner Tom Higgins addressing TasteCamp attendees before the tasting.

by Bryan Calandrelli, Niagara Region Editor

Last Sunday TasteCamp 2010 came to a close with a memorable visit to Heart &Hands Wine Company on the east side of Seneca Lake. We’d all heard about this boutique winery that specializes in pinot noir but most of us had never had the opportunity to experience unfinished wines in the barrel room with owners Tom and Susan Higgins leading the way.

As a home winemaker, I was once again using this opportunity to ask some of the questions that build up over a season of playing with grapes and yeast. In the last few years I’ve become especially intrigued with pinot noir and last Sunday’s visit to Heart and Hands was, for me, one of the highlights of the weekend.

I have to admit that I am confident that the soils of the Niagara region will ultimately be where the best pinot noir on the East Coast will be made. I can’t deny the raw potential in what comes out of the vineyards. I’ve had some extremely well made Finger Lakes wines that I know are the work of passionate winemakers getting the best from their crop but I’ve struggled to describe them as anything but simple, light-bodied fruity reds.

When they’ve been bad they’ve been over-oaked or under-ripe. The good ones have remained true to their cool climate roots, revealing light cherry and strawberry fruit with restrained oak influence, but I haven’t gotten much funk or earthy qualities in Finger Lakes pinots. I’ve also noticed a lack of mid-palate depth that I assumed was partially influenced by lighter soils, but I admit I’m no expert and up until this weekend, I hadn’t had as many examples back to back.

With his flight of pinot noir, Tom Higgins showed what he does best: meticulously controlling each aspect of vinification. From his sorting of grapes to his complete separation of vineyard fruit until bottling, his method seems more like a controlled experiment then wine as art. Need an example? He uses only the best cooperage from Burgundy without exception.

Heart and Hands currently sources its pinot noir fruit from two main vineyards: the popular Sawmill Creek Vineyard on the eastern side of Seneca Lake and Hobbit Hollow Vineyard on the western side of Skaneateles Lake.

The 2009 Sawmill Creek barrels are further divided into two primary fermentation styles: one 50% whole cluster and one 100% whole cluster. Having never done whole cluster fermentation I was eager to taste the difference.

The 2009 50% whole cluster Sawmill Creek sample had a fierce red cherry aroma, reminiscent of the white-fleshed Queen Anne cherries that I love picking in my neck of the woods, and a hint of deeper raspberry fruit. The midpalate was spicy and the finish was chalky. The 100% whole cluster sample showed spicier aromas without such overt cherry notes. The mouthfeel of this one was reminiscent of merino wool: it had just enough grip to let you know its wool, but it was soft enough to make you all cozy and comfortable. It too had a chalky finish.

The Hobbit Hollow barrel sample was also 100% whole cluster fermented had a darker color. There was less spice on the nose then both the previous wines and the fruit profile was more concentrated dark cherry. On the palate this wine was less impressive as it wasn’t as seamless, lacking the mid-palate weight of the first two wines.

With the way these samples were showing last weekend, it’s hard to believe that these are still only works in progress. I was amazed at how well the 2009s are drinking already because I’d hang out with a glass of any three of these barrel samples today.

Next up we tasted the bottled pinots, starting with the 2008. Made up of 60% Hobbitt Hollow with 30% whole cluster, this wine showed pure fruit from end to end. It was filled out nicely in the mid-palate and had just enough oak to frame the fruit.

The heavy-hitting 2007 Barrel Reserve Pinot Noir was next and to no one’s surprise stole the show thanks to its bright fruit, cocoa and vanilla aromas. The perfectly ripened grapes of that vintage in combination with the 100% whole cluster process gave this wine a wonderfully fleshy texture with big fruit and stylish oak.

It seems that Higgins’s deliberate techniques and careful selection of grapes has clearly shot him to the top of the “who’s who” in East Coast pinot noir. His wines are showing such purity of fruit while they also demonstrate a poise on the palate that is not being replicated by anyone else in the region. Unfortunately, I’m still not finding that funky quality or the autumn leaves aroma I get in some pinot and I am looking forward to tasting wines made from his estate vines he is planting this spring on the limestone-rich slope.

In the meantime though I’d really love to see what he would do with Niagara Escarpment pinot noir. From what I can tell, he might be the best person to express what those grapes have to say just like he’s already doing in the Finger Lakes. But if that never happens, I hope winemakers from my area make the trip out to see what he’s doing because they’re bound to learn something about how to get the most from their pinot noir.

I know next fall I’ll be experimenting with whole cluster fermentations myself.

Comments

[Evan Dawson]

Bryan -

I find much of this piece baffling. The first line of the third graph seemed to come out of nowhere, unrelated to the piece. And the concept of wishing Higgins would make wine with your fruit is almost insulting, no?

Regarding where the best pinot comes from, I'd ask you to think about some vital issues:

1) We're not interested in the pedestrian bottlings; we want to know what the regional pinnacle is, right? Because your focus on the run-of-the-mill Finger Lakes pinots can be said about any region in the world that makes pinot. Yes, even Burgundy.

2) We haven't yet seen the pinnacle, right? We finally have a small handful of pinot-fanatic winemakers who are exploring the best sites and planting on future sites. So declaring a better or best is a tad silly, no?

3) In that regard, NE makes so few wines overall that sample size is so small as to be meaningless, right?

4) I fear you've never heard of the concept of regional bias.

5) You not only live there, but you now make wine there. See point four.

I've had a few bottles of NE pinot but never encountered an autumn leaves aroma. Perhaps it's me.

And regarding art, your conclusion is strange. I'm not one to say that every winemaker is an artist, but isn't it more artistic, not less, to play around creatively with a number of options instead of forcing one set idea on every vintage?

I suppose I sound like a H&H apologist, but that's not the intention. I hope Tom would not be offended to hear me say that as good as his early vintages have been, I hope we still have miles to go with Finger Lakes pinot. I think we do. But I don't expect to know too much about what the real pinnacle of potential is until sometime close to my passing.

[Tom Higgins]

Bryan -

Pinot Noir has always been the most expressive grape varietal of place. That is, the flavors and aromatics can change dramatically from site to site. Obviously, the winemaker can also steer it with some nuances, but the core remains in tact.

I'm glad you had the opportunity to taste many of the Pinot Noirs from the Finger Lakes. I've always found it to be fascinating to see all the differences from winery to winery. I think it is an exciting time in the Finger Lakes as we learn how to work with this finicky varietal.

I'm a little confused by the point you were trying to make in the fourth paragraph when discussing the "lighter" soils. Can you talk about the relationship of the "lighter" soils of the Finger Lakes and how this translates into the glass? Also, since you had mentioned the Niagara Escarpment in the previous paragraph, can you describe the soil differences so we all have a better point of reference?

I'm sorry to say, my heart is in the Finger Lakes and I'm not planning on working with Pinot Noir from other parts of NY. We are very happy how it expresses itself here in the Finger Lakes.

The beauty of wine is that there is always something more we can learn - and every time we think we have it down, mother nature changes things up. I look forward to my lifetime of vintages and learning how best to express Pinot Noir from the Finger Lakes.

Cheers,
Tom

[Bryan]

Evan

With my story I tried to give a unique perspective on the wines I tasted at heart and Hands Wine Company. That perspective comes from only a few years working with grapes in my region, several more years tasting Finger Lakes Wines, a few years of tasting Ontario wines and a few years of writing about Niagara wines for the NYCR.

There will be many other writers that claim to not have a bias that will write about their experience at Tastecamp and I am the first to admit that a bias or preconceived idea is with most of them whether they admit it or not. This is why wines are judged in a blind or double blind setting.

Unfortunately my writing skills are not as evolved as my passion for wine. In the third paragraph I had basically written a disclaimer that I came in with that opinion, right or wrong, but in the editing process I made that less clear.

Spinning my desire to see a winemaker use grapes from another region as something that can be insulting to the winemakers region is indeed baffling. I’ve stated that I am experiencing these wines from the perspective as a curious amateur winemaker. In my view a Niagara pinot noir made by Higgins wouldn’t be seen as the pinnacle of the winemaker, yet just the opposite, the pinnacle of a Niagara grown grape. This is only because of anyone I’ve met I think Higgins would make the best wine from a pinot noir crop.

Tom

I don’t pretend to be an expert on any of this but my journey to learn as much as I can from as many people as I can hopefully makes my perspective interesting.

As far as my reference to lighter soils, I associate them with sandier, gravelly loams with minimal clay content, usually well drained with moderate to heavy vigor. With these soils I have been given the impression that they make for fruit forward wines with intense aromatics. I associate heavier soils with more clay content and less vigor. When aided by a slope for drainage they produce deeper flavored wines with less juice to skin ratios resulted in richer wines. These are generalities and I know a winemaker can either accentuate or diminish.

The soils of Niagara are also extremely diverse and have yet to fully be investigated in the long term sense. I can only point you to the wines of Ontario to really taste the difference in terroir. In the Niagara Escarpment AVA specifically I am using soils like Hilton, Rhinebeck and Ovid as a frame of reference.

Thanks again for having us at TasteCamp. The Finger Lakes is lucky to have you there.

Cheers,
Bryan