What I Learned About Grape-Growing and Wine-Making From George Hendry
by Ed Young
Frugal MacDoogal's Monthly Guest Wine Letter March, 2006
Photos by Jerry Hall
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Last fall, I took a tour of wine country and had the opportunity to meet some of Napa’s legendary wine makers. One in particular whose wines I have admired invited us for a tour of his vineyard. George Hendry is a Ph.D. physicist who got into wines at an early age- before there was a wine industry in California. He has a more scientific approach to wine-making than others I’ve met, and his total commitment to quality sets him apart from most of his competitors. I learned so much from this experience that I wanted to share it with our readers.
George Hendry’s father bought the present location of the winery in 1939. It was run as a farm with chickens and other livestock when George and his brother were growing up. At that time, only 6 acres were planted in vines (Carignane, Petit Verdot, and Zinfandel). When George took over the property, the 6 acres planted in grapes was the only part of the operation returning a cash flow. For years, the Hendry grapes were sold to Mondavi, and later used in making Opus One, the high-end wine produced by Mondavi and Baron Rothschild. George noticed that grapes grown in one location were fetching a higher price than the same variety of grape grown on adjacent lots. He realized that, for grapes, location is crucial, and that there is a relationship between what you do in the vineyard and how the wines turn out. In order to increase his knowledge, he went to other vineyards, and even to France, to learn all he could from expert winemakers.
George started his own winery in 1992. 2002 was his last year to sell fruit, although he still maintains a relationship with the Robert Mondavi winery, which he respects as the organization that has done the most to improve the quality of winemaking in California. There are three essential parts of running a winery: growing; making; and selling. You can’t give wine character that wasn’t in the grape, so the first task was to figure out how location affects the development of grapes. George divided his acreage into numbered lots so he could observe the effects of soil and topological conditions on grapes in a scientific way. Sauvignon Blanc may not thrive in the same location as Cabernet Sauvignon. Several Hendry lots adjoin a creek, where the soil is alluvial and the vines are sheltered. This location is best for Pinot Noir. Vines on the hillsides are more exposed to wind and sun, and Zinfandel thrives there. The flatter land at the higher elevations on the property seems good for Chardonnay.
The grapes for great red wines can’t be grown where there is too much moisture. When the plant is growing, it is not putting energy into the fruit. When moisture is insufficient for growth, the energy of the plant goes into the fruit. If there are too many berries, there isn’t enough energy to go around. The age of the vines is important also, as older vines have smaller yields, but more intense fruit. In 2005, the Hendry vineyard had 42” of rain instead of the usual 28”, and the resulting longer growing season means that this will be a late harvest with bigger, heavier grapes, producing less intense wine. All the effects of climate, soil, weather, the age of the vines, and how the plants grow, are manifested in polyphenols-those multiple organic compounds that give grapes their character. Sugar is basic, and sugar plus energy produces the phenolics. Weight, color, texture, and flavor are all products of this mysterious process. George says: “It is very complex. You can’t explain all of it. The winemaker should have experience with the growing of the grapes. You know all you can know, and then use intuition for the rest”.
The highest quality wines in Napa have been getting better, richer, and more enjoyable due to what George refers to as “new style” winemaking. The “new style” is to let the fruit ripen longer on the vine until it has reached the apex of its natural development. The old, and still common, practice is to pick the grapes at a specified level of sugar. When berries are left on the vine longer, they begin to lose moisture and shrivel. The grapes may lose 20 % to 30% of their weight in this process. The fruit becomes more concentrated, and more mature, but also more expensive. Grapes are valued by weight, and not all growers can afford that weight loss. Those who can’t afford the cost of late harvesting may resort to micro-oxygenation and/or fining to make the wine taste less astringent, although freshness is sacrificed. Late harvest grapes are more physiologically sound and need less manipulation. The secret is in the seeds. George goes into the vineyard and breaks open several grapes, discarding all but the seeds, which he chews and tastes. If the seeds are bitter, the grapes are not ready to be picked, but if they are nutty and there is no bitterness, they are ready. If there is no bitterness in the seeds, there will be no bitterness in the wine. Not all winemakers use this test. Most still pick their grapes when sugar concentrations reach a certain level, and then have to use fining to mitigate the bitterness and astringency.
There is a higher concentration of sugar in late harvest grapes, and more sugar means more alcohol. This is one reason why “new style” wines are reaching levels of alcohol that are frequently 16%, or more. Too little alcohol is not good, but too much can overpower a wine. The phenolics must be in balance. Wines that are out of balance smell and taste “hot”, or peppery, and lose their fruit complexity. Like alcohol, pepper is fine, but it shouldn’t be dominant. It takes about ten days of fermentation to turn sugar into alcohol. In order to reduce the concentration of alcohol, some vintners add water to the crushed grapes to dilute the sugar. The problem with doing this is that the water also dilutes the phenols that are the essence of great wine. So, quality winemakers will use a process known as “saignee” (from the French “saigner”, meaning to bleed or drain). This involves draining a specified amount of juice from the fermentation tank and replacing it with water. The removed juice is used to make rose. All of Hendry’s red wines are made using the saignee process.
Hendry also utilizes extended maceration for his Cabernets-leaving the seeds and skins on the new wine longer in order to extract more phenols. This results in heavier, denser wines. Barrels are very important to the winemaking process, also. Most wine drinkers are familiar with “corked” wines. This occurs when the cork is tainted by TCA and the wine smells musty, like wet cardboard. Barrels can be tainted with TCA also. George Hendry samples each barrel of wine to make certain that it is untainted before the barrels are merged in the first racking. His nose and palate are so developed that he can detect as low as 3.7 parts per trillion of TCA in a barrel. Hendry uses only Sesel oak barrels, most of which come from France, although Sesel from Hungary and Russia are being tried. American oak is high in vanilla and is not commonly used to make high-end wines. Many people do not realize that barrels “breathe”. As much as 15% of the wine in a barrel will be lost to diffusion through the staves, but the barrel also breathes in oxygen, which enables the wine to mature.
One interesting thing that George Hendry does is called differential tasting. He makes two Chardonnays that are similar, except that one is fermented in steel, and the other in oak. In a differential tasting, participants taste the steel barrel wine first and then the one from oak. The difference on the palate is entirely attributable to the oak in the second one. Hendry makes Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, a red Bordeaux blend, and a Primitivo. The price range is from $25 for the Chardonnay to $48 for the Cabernet Sauvignon.
It is amazing that wine of this quality can be sold at these price points. Hendry has long been one of my very favorite wines. Spending a few hours with George Hendry is equivalent to a semester of study. I have never met anyone more knowledgeable, more devoted to wine-making; so meticulous in his standards; and so absolutely committed to making food-friendly wines. The Hendry winery has nine employees who are all full-time and salaried. Their average longevity is 23 years.
Come into the store soon and let the wine guys introduce you to a Hendry wine. Not everyone can spend half a day with the master wine maker, but everyone can enjoy the benefits of his wisdom and experience. This is Napa at its very best!
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