Hank Beckmeyer of La Clarine Farm

Hank Beckmeyer is a vigneron in Gold Rush country, the Sierra Foothills. Though a winemaker for others, he entered the commercial wine scene with his La Clarine Farms 2007 vintage. At the time, he and his wife Caro balanced cheese making and wine. Now  the commercial cheese biz is laid to rest, but the goats remain as well as the vines and wines.  I've been a supporter from my first taste of LCF. He was a reader of my blog and asked me if he could send me some samples. I was nervous. I liked this man but would I feel the same about his wines? They came. I gave them a week to settle. I sat on the floor and sampled.  To my taste, Hank, along with Duncan and Nathan (Arnot-Roberts) and Abe Schoener are among the finest of the new generation of US winemakers who are forging forward with bravery,  talent and thoughtfulness. They are recasting the paradigm of modern Californian winemaking and so with this in mind, I posed some questions to Hank, and he was kind enough to send along some answers.  1)What were your major wine influences? First, early on, Domaine Tempier, particularly the wines in the 80's and 90's.  Such a strong series of wines, such expressions of terroir!  Later, Puzelat.  The whites in particular have a glowing quality to them which I admire.  Very gentle and very pretty.  Lately, I've become fascinated with Dupasquier's gamay from Savoie.  Again, really pretty, wonderful flavor, gentle. I'd also have to include Frank Zappa, for his unwillingness to compromise on what he felt was good.  If it's good, it's worth doing.  And John Cage, for teaching me that it is okay to play, and that surprise is a desired outcome. 2) In your opinion where does most of the New World when it comes to wine, get it wrong? I don't know if I'd use the term "wrong".  For most people, wine is simply a beverage of pleasure.  A social lubricant.  There are plenty of wines crafted to achieve this goal.  I'm interested in wines which are not made for mass appeal.  Wines which are made because someone felt absolutely compelled to make them.  Not because of money, but for deeper reasons. In my opinion, one of the failings of the "New World" is too much emphasis on the status quo and not enough rule breaking.  One of the advantages we have here is that we have so few rules (especially when compared to European wine regions), and yet we (as an industry) seem loathe to even bend them a little bit.  3) Can you take me through harvest to the bottle? all technologies you use and why?  I use pretty common technologies: hands, feet, brain, and a really nice, gentle pneumatic press.  Some of the folks from whom I buy grapes also use tractors. Specifically, I prune in the late winter (using a device called pruning shears), and then watch what happens.  After a time, I may go back into the vineyard to remove some excess shoots to allow some sunlight and air into the vine's canopy.  I rarely remove any fruit.  Then I watch some more, and wait.  When the grapes taste good, and they still have very nice acidity, I pick them, stomp on them and let whatever yeasts are around do the alcoholic conversion.  When that is complete, I press the new wine into tanks or some old barrels, and leave them alone.  I do taste the wines occasionally, just to see where they are "at".  I rarely rack any of them off of the lees, as I find the lees protect and nourish the wines.  When I think the wine is ready, I'll rack it into another tank, add a very small amount of SO2 (often its first encounter with a sulfur compound), and bottle straight from the tank. 4) What is your feeling about cold-carbonic fermentation?  I have no direct experience with it myself, though I suspect that some of my fermentations, which I carry out outdoors and are at the "mercy" of the prevailing weather patterns, have been semi-carbonic. Sometimes they are cool and slow. I've found pockets of completely uncrushed, intact grape clusters in my fermenters.  I guess that qualifies to some extent.  But it wasn't planned so maybe it doesn't! I find that many carbonic fermented wines tend to taste somewhat the same, don't you?  I think that sometimes, the technique overwhelms the process, and becomes too visible. 5) Tell me about your relationship with sulfur? Brings out terroir or obscures it?  I don't really use much at all.  Never at harvest.  I don't see the point in killing off my ambient yeast populations.  Almost never during aging. My wines don't seem to need or want it, so should I just add some anyway, to make me feel "better"?  No.   Almost always though, at bottling.  I want my wines to arrive to those who want them in good shape, and a touch of sulfur dioxide right before bottling helps that happen. I have found that sulfur can "focus" a wine, sometimes.  Just a touch of it can snap a fuzzy wine into shape.  It also can dampen aromas, so you've got to be careful about using it.  I rarely add more than 20 ppm.  To put that into perspective, many winemakers from the mass appeal school of thought routinely add 30-40ppm on a regular basis during aging. 6) As the proud father to own-rooted vines, what are you seeing as the difference? any observations?  They grow differently.  A little freer, maybe.  They use water differently, and I suspect they have different nutrient needs than grafted vines.  The grapes tend to be slightly higher in acidity. Having said that, I have some grafted vines which are a pleasure to grow. 7) What do you think is the most non-essential technology overused by most California winemakers? Packaged yeasts.  Almost everyone could do without them, but everyone feels they can't live without 'em.  They're yeast junkies.  That would be the easiest thing to change, and it might result in an explosion of interesting textures and flavors in many wines.  But that would also mean straying from the "norm"... 8) What is your feeling about 'unripe' stems. Well, I wouldn't want unripe stems in my wines, but I guess it depends on what you consider "ripe" and "unripe".  Most people, I suspect, would consider my stem inclusion (100% whole cluster, a.k.a. all of them) to be pretty weird, but I like they way the stems counter-act the sometimes extremely fruity wines we can grow here in the Foothills.  It seems to temper the exuberance a bit.  I've found, to answer your question, that when my grapes are ripe, the stems seem to be too. Lots of great herbal, peppery flavors.  If I waited until the stems were brown and lignified, as some people think you need to do, the grapes would be overripe.  But maybe that's what some people are after anyway. 9) So, nebbiolo? Why up there, climate so different than it's home town of Piemonte. Soil, granite instead of limestone. What are the Sierra Foothill characteristics?  There's a small patch of it growing in the vineyard where I get some syrah.  It intrigues me, I guess, because its hard to find a good one made in California.  Its growing at almost 3000 feet, so the climate is tempered a bit, and it seems to do better in our cooler years.  Granite?  Just a different expression, I guess.  I love its floral overtones, its acidity, and its deep structure.  I love the way that such dark, beautiful grape clusters can make such a lightly colored wine!  I also like the way it evolves so much in the cellar.  I'm never sure of what I am going to end up with!  And, I like the way it plays with other wines when blending.

 

Comments

[Joseph Di Blasi]

Great post Alice, again!

I just purchased 3 bottles of Hank's very limited 2010 Home Vineyard for my enjoyment when I am back in CA this summer! I will very likely publish a tasting note! I am looking forward even more now!

Cheers!

[Alicefeiring]

You'll really love them. The Home Vineyard has a very distinct voice.

[Jared Brandt]

Great post. Totally agree with Hank on the myth of lignification.

[Alicefeiring]

Yes, Jared, I totally agree. The myth of lignification is indeed a myth.

[A Facebook User]

One thing is for sure, I will vigorously test the myth of lignification in my 2012 Grenache Carignane. Thanks for helping me tip the scales in my decision to go whole-cluster.

[Alicefeiring]

Oh, that Myth! We eagerly await 2012.

[A Facebook User]

Just to correct a little misinformation, the first encounter your wine has with a sulfur compound is during fermentation. Even those beloved wild yeasts produce SO2.

[Alicefeiring]

Thanks for pointing that out, but as that's not an 'add' we all assumed.