Feature Article : Alsace Heritage

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Striking a Balance, or Striking Out

Bigger is not always better, especially in wine. Balance may be.

Several IPNCs ago, with three Burgundian winemakers including Veronique Drouhin-Boss on a panel with me, vintage ageability arose as a topic. What is the prerequisite for ageability? Veronique and I concluded that truly ageable, timeless pinot noirs must begin in perfect balance. I still believe it, and extend it to all varieties of wine.

Great wines should have an excellent and appropriate fruit component, bright acidity, appropriate and finely structured tannin (reds), palate weight and texture, great breadth and palate length, and complexity of flavors and spices that continue to unfold.

An Argument for Balance in Wines

A well-balanced wine is one that is not obvious in any one of these components-a spherical wine, smoothly contoured, without lumps on the surface, without extremes that in their intensity mask detail. Nothing should jump out except the general excellence of the wine. You Rion Reserve label shouldn't be aware of specific wine characteristics, like acid or barrel or tannin or fruit or spice, without focusing intently-the wholeness of the wine should impress, its integration being seamless, the specifics of the wine blended well, with no deficiencies showing. Balance is like a multi-faceted gemstone-no matter which direction it is turned, it looks the same-as brilliant, as complex, and unflawed.

The 2000 Rion Reserve Pinot Noir speaks volumes to the concept of balance. It is a wine of elegance, depth, extreme length, extremely fine tannin, a firm but controlled acidity, and spice and fruit and barrel flavor complexity layers. T'ai Chi symbol As a counterpoint to 1999 Rion, the blockbuster dense, black, extracted masculine favorite from last year's releases, it is remarkable. Together they are the Taoist T'ai Chi-the circle divided by a curved line into light and dark, or male and female, halves that are equivalent and complementary, but could not be more different. The 1999 wins with brutish size and power, the 2000 wins with perfectly controlled and refined beauty. Which is better depends on preference and is the reason volumes are written about wine.

Balance in Growing Grapes

To make balanced wines, you start with a huge dose of restraint in the vineyard. So much so that "moderation in all things" could be our motto in the vineyards. There must be great care taken to ask enough but not too much of each vine-to feed, water, protect and harvest, but never too much, lest they become overindulged and dependent, and always with a consideration for future vintages. In a cool climate vines must struggle, but a struggle develops character in grapes as well as in humans, so long as we don't allow them to fail. There are considerations from planting on-how many vines per acre, to irrigate or not, how much crop to permit it to bear, how much to spray and what, fertilize or not and how. There are more.

The complexity and finesse we receive in fully mature vines is intricately determined by vine balance, that optimal point where plant, soil, canopy vigor, fruit set, moisture, amendments etc. come into equilibrium.

There is great hooey made about terroir and yet it is fact that not all sites can achieve that equilibrium and that, when they do, the results are unique site-to-site. The greatest complexity comes from a moderately-stressed plant with mature root systems, able to access trace minerals from underlying parent rock, not overburdened with crop or vigorous leaf canopy. You best see the drive to manage balance in the precise dropping of crops to loads that yield optimal quality, variety-by-variety, block-by-block-leaving half the fruit on the ground. But balanced.

Philosophically, we-and most of Oregon-are committed to eschewing extreme agriculture, the "better living through chemistry" approaches used for years in lots of crops that have been replaced by Sustainable or Organic methods. The balance here is environmental, forcing healthy respect for biodiversity and light footsteps on the land-farming practices reconsidered, whether regarding chemicals, irrigation, cultivation, fertilization or other issues.

There is an organized middle-of-the-road approach called LIVE (Low Impact Viticulture and Enology) that espouses standards used internationally to guarantee "responsible stewardship" of the land, while focusing on high quality and economically viable grapegrowing. Oregon Tilth also certifies as Organic those going a step further and avoiding entirely petrochemically-based sprays as well as embracing other holistically balanced farming approaches.

Going a step further still and wrapping a religious or mystical packaging around Organic is a branch known as Biodynamic, based on philosophies developed by Rudolph Steiner in the 1920s (my first introduction to his philosophy was in Saul Bellow's 1975 novel Humboldt's Gift) and using eyebrow-raising astrological aids and teas made from compounds buried in cow horns in the vineyard. I am committed personally to organic approaches as good for the environment, and farm Ridgecrest organically under Michael's guidance, but find it challenging to embrace "eye of newt" viticulture. But then, I'm older and less flexible than I used to be. Others at Chehalem have a more open mind and I respect that.

Sphere of Effluents

Benefits of balancing can, of course, extend beyond the vineyard and winery. Conservation versus development balancing acts are performed in almost all areas of the world, the most visible to us being a hovering sea of tract houses, each roof a wave lapping around the agricultural resources that we value today, and our heirs should value even more tomorrow. In Oregon we wisely have behind us decades of Land Use Planning that halted widespread engulfing of prime farmland.


	Balancing Rural and Urban Land Uses: Corral Creek Road (running vertically, lower left) feeling urban expansion pressure. Corral Creek and Rex Hill Vineyards shown, Chehalem winery facility in the center.

However, even here we are currently fighting ongoing petitions for Urban Growth Boundary expansion, the most recent assault to extend Newberg to Corral Creek Road, which abuts the bottom of our vineyard at the winery. There has to be a balance of conservation and development, of short-term gain versus long-term loss, of personal interests and the greater good, of human good versus the rest of nature.

That said, world environmental issues underscore the precarious balance we have even more. Not to be Cassandran or pessimistic, because at heart I am an unrepentant optimist, but issues such as global warming, loss of greenspace, resource depletion, wasteful and polluting habits, and volatile "haves" versus "have nots" world politics are a bubbling caldron of imbalance. We, as the richest and therefore having the most to lose short-term, refuse to join the battle to understand and protect the environment, much less lead it-which we should be doing. We swagger with arrogance and forget we have even more to lose long-term, if we don't act to effect balance. This should be apparent, even to the most conservative.

Personal Balance


	Harry, who admits, "I am worse than most..." in embarrassingly personal introspection.

Personal balance is almost as hard to achieve.

Balance is an indicator of wine ageability. But perhaps it is an indicator of age also, since as we come to a certain point in life, pushed by the accelerating race of raising families, pursuing careers, accumulating the detritus of a life's capital purchases and experiencing the electricity of a frenetic, in-your-face, cell phone and Palm pilot and email and TV/VCR/DVD/CD/BFD existence, we begin to seek simplicity and a turning down of the volume.

Balance comes more easily at a more mature age as we ironically return to the simple wisdoms with which we were born (Wordsworth's "child is father of the man"), both in people and with vines as the metaphor-vines have reached an understanding with their environment, having explored regions of soil and years of weather; there is a building of reserves and a wisdom from history's lessons to support future plans. Balance demands considering all aspects of life, not just those dictated by the pace. We need to slow the pace, become more introspective and less reactive, seeking the internal drumbeat more than responding to external high RPM noises.

I am worse than most in an extreme dedication, focus and drive. I have rationalized their merits under the banner of accomplishment, failing to see that the beautiful façade is a false front Hollywood set. Like complexity in wine, one or two overwhelming features can mask the richness of life. Balance, commonly called a well-rounded life, is necessary. Balance requires a heightened sensitivity, eschews force, is more feminine than masculine, is less sacrifice and more sense, is a blend of grays not black and white.