WINE:BURGUNDY, BEWARE!
By Mark Criden
Unlike many of my brothers and sisters in the local chapter of the food hack writer’s union, it doesn’t bother me that much that Western New York isn’t considered a hotbed of fancy gastronomy. Oh, you’ve got your Oliver’s, your Rue Franklin, your Tsunami, your Siena—but when folks in Oakland or Miami think of Buffalo cuisine, visions of chicken wings dance in their heads. Which may be why the thought of “World Class Pinot Noir from the Niagara Escarpment” isn’t causing Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl’s heart to beat much faster.
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Von Heckler is an unlikely pioneer. Recently retired from Lockheed Martin, an electrical engineer by trade, the intelligent, wine-savvy Von Heckler seems more of a professor than a farmer. The wine bug bit him back in the mid-1970s when he was living with a gourmet chef and found it difficult to contribute meaningfully to what emerged from the kitchen; wine became his route to partnership. After many years as an enthusiast—von Heckler and his wife, Diane, are fixtures on the local vino and haute chow circuit—he began training as a wine judge and studying for the prestigious Master of Wine degree, which he hopes to finally earn this summer in San Francisco. He’s nothing if not determined: the MW chase has taken eight years.
All of this tasting, all of this preparation, all of this study —he pulls out geological and climatic studies, sticks spectrographic analyses under your nose, cites statistic after arcane statistic—convinced him and his financial backers that the Niagara Escarpment will one day produce fabulous pinot noir. To this end, beginning in the late 1990s, Von Heckler sold off a significant chunk of his cellar, raised a million dollars, and cobbled together cornfields in Northern Niagara County where he now has forty acres planted with vines that he believes will yield wines easily competing with the best from California’s Russian River Valley, Oregon’s Willamette Valley, New Zealand’s Cloudy Bay and, dare I say it, the holy mount of Pinot Noir, France’s fabled Burgundy region.
Having heard all of this before meeting with Von Heckler, naturally the first question, framed in my best objective-journalist style, was, “Are you nuts?”
Well, no, he didn’t think so. Von Heckler told me that the scientific studies have demonstrated that the limestone-based soil on the Niagara Escarpment and the weather-tempering effect of Lake Ontario is especially suited to producing four grape varieties: Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, and Pinot Noir. The world’s awash in Chardonnay, so he ruled that out. Riesling, despite its passionate defenders, remains a tough sell in a world where Blue Nun is still regarded as its apotheosis. And Sauvignon Blanc is hard to peddle at the price required to produce a sufficient return on investment.
So that left Pinot Noir. But, as they say in the wine biz, bon chance. Not for nothing did California’s Josh Jensen call Pinot Noir “The Heartbreak Grape.” Jensen knows a thing or two, having crafted dozens of beautiful examples at his Calera Wine Company. But he knows it’s heartbreaking, both because its thin skins are fragile and prone to disease and, more prosaically, because Pinot Noir makes thin, pinched, and dilute wines in too cool a climate, and fat, flabby, boring ones where the weather’s too hot. Bunch for bunch, Pinot Noir is the world’s most fickle grape, and producing wine from it is usually a hazardous endeavor—a high-wire act where a single misstep can mean disaster.
But if done right, if grown in the right soil at the right temperature, with the right amount of rainfall, pinot noir produces the most elegant, sensuous, and hedonistic wine experience of all. And Von Heckler is convinced he and his dirt are up to the task. “This is natural Pinot Noir country,” he asserts. If I had any doubts as to his ambition, he added, “We can and will make wines as great as the Premier and Grand Crus of Burgundy.”
Well, there’s one of the more reckless claims I’ve heard this year, I thought, as I got ready to sample the Warm Lake 2002, the only wine available to taste. And damn if the young wine didn’t show class: cherry and cocoa aromas, a lush palate, and a lingering finish to a sumptuous wine. The wine showed definite breed, the result of Warm Lake’s careful and considered practices—chemicals eschewed wherever possible, sophisticated vine-tending and grape-ripening techniques, new French barrels for aging along with state of the art equipment for fermentation. There was a slight acidic edge on the finish, no doubt from all of the limestone in the soil, but that should recede with future vintages as the vines mature and more of the funky, earthy elements of Pinot Noir appear.
So Von Heckler answered the first question: can he do it? The second was more problematic: will anyone care? With the current world-wide wine glut, who’s going to be interested in some pretender, no matter how good, from New York? In most parts of the country—hell, in most parts of the state—wines from New York can hardly get arrested.
Von Heckler thinks he has the answer. Bottles of top red Burgundies—Musignys, Chambertins, Richebourgs—are rarely available for less than $100, often for many times that. Even top pinots from California and Oregon rarely appear for less than $50 and top labels from cult favorites like Marcassin and Kistler are well into three-digit territory. If Von Heckler produces quality at that level, and markets the hell out of it, producing an “Icon” brand at a bargain price, he’ll have a hot wine. Think Chambertin for $40 and you’ve got the company’s strategy.
In the meantime, unfortunately, you’ll be hard pressed to try a bottle for yourself. The 2002 and 2003 are both sold out (optimists can buy Pinot Noir futures for $24 a bottle). In the meantime, Warm Lake’s tasting bar is open almost every day, and normally features sixty different New York State wines to taste and purchase. To entice customers, Warm Lake often runs special tastings and events—check out warmlakeestate.com.
Will Von Heckler’s strategy work? Was the compelling 2002 a fluke or a harbinger? It’s clearly too soon to tell, but Von Heckler’s got his game, and he’s studied long and hard. He and those who have staked him believe he’s going to beat the odds.
What I’m drinking this winter
When an icy gale bears down on the vineyards of Niagara Square, my thoughts turn to another, even mightier wind, the mistral, which blows hotly throughout Southern France, concentrating the wine grapes and driving men insane. The grapes—primarily Grenache, with some Syrah and Mourvedre—ripen into the hearty, soulful Chateauneuf du Pape, a wonderful cold-weather wine.
These robust, hairy-chested reds, chock full of cherry, herb and Provencal spice flavors and aromas, are classic examples of French country wines, perfect with stews, soups, and roasts. Like a roaring fire, a thick blanket, or an hour and a half of Bikram Yoga, they’ll make short work of any chill you suffer, warming you from the inside out.
This region has just come off four wonderful vintages, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001, so it’s hard to go wrong in the marketplace. Wines from Les Cailloux, Marcoux, Bois de Boursan, Domaine du Pere Caboche Vielles Vignes Elisabeth Chambellan, Grand Veneur, Bosquet des Papes, or Le Vieux Mas des Pape should be available for under $30, especially from 1999, a slightly less-hallowed year.
They’re so delicious and so unpretentious, even your beer-drinking buddies will love them.
Mark Criden is the former chair of the Buffalo Branch of the International Wine & Food Society.
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