The Story of Trio

The 2007 Trio is a collaborative winemaking venture between Allegro Vineyards, Manatawny Creek Winery, and Pinnacle Ridge Winery.

What started as just an off-the-wall idea has matured into an imminently drinkable and ageable wine.  The 2007 was a wonderful vintage, producing some of the best wines of this decade.  We thought it would be an interesting concept to take the best of what we had in our cellars and blend it together. It turned out the blend is about as different as we are.

Each one of us--Joanne from Manatawny Creek, Brad from Pinnacle Ridge, and myself--contributed 4 barrels each to the blend.  (This mean there's not much of it to go around.)  I contributed Merlot and Cabernet Franc, Joanne added Syrah and Cabernet Franc, and Brad brought in his Syrah and Merlot. So, it's basically one-third each of all the varietals.  The wine was aged for about a year and a half at each one of our respective wineries, and then blended at Joanne's place.  It was just recently bottled, and it already is showing well.

The wine is about as fruit-forward a wine as you'll ever see associated with Allegro.  The oak is very tame, and the tannins are very supple.  The wine has a core of dark fruit that lingers.  It's hard to imagine how drinkable it is, and it still hasn't come out of the shock of being bottled yet.  This is a Cadenza-quality wine that should deliver numerous years of drinking pleasure, as long as you’re one of the lucky few who is able to get it before it's gone.

The Allegro Chardonnay Story

John was known for his Cadenza, the Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon wine that he made from Allegro’s old vines. Cadenza is a wine that is bigger than the winemaker....you’re just along for the ride. The Chardonnay, on the other hand, was where John’s talent really showed through.

Bill Ridomsky first planted an acre and a half of Chardonnay—called the “Upper Chardonnay”—at this site in 1973 (along with the Cabernet.) The original clone was Wente 3 on an unknown rootstock from California, a strain that produces a thin trunk and smaller, honeyed berries. The following year, he planted another acre and a half of Chardonnay on SO4 rootstock from Wiemer. That block—called the “Lower Chardonnay”—developed a leaf-roll virus. John used to make the regular Chardonnay and his bubblies from it. The ripeness was always a Brix or two lower than the upper block. When I finally pulled it out in 2003, the yield was a disastrously low .26 tons per acre.

 

The upper block was always the source for the reserve Chardonnays through the years. In the early 1980’s, John and Tim replanted some of the dead vines with some Martini clone (California 4). This vine produces a thicker trunk with larger, golden delicious flavored berries. In the early 1990’s, more replants were added—this time a Colmar clone (earlier ripening and lower acid.)  Finally, in 1999, some Dijon 96 clones were added.

The vineyard is laid out with 12 feet between rows and 8 feet between vines. This spacing comes out to 454 vines per acre, a very wide and open spacing typically use when planting vigorous sites primarily in California. In the early 1970s, it was standard practice to apply California methods to Pennsylvania. (The well-respected Philip Roth Vineyard in Adams County was also planted to the same specifications in 1974.)

The vineyard was typically trained to a vertically shoot-positioned trellis system (VSP) with two arms (cordons) pruned with spurs. Normally, around 45 to 50 buds were left at pruning time. Over time, the yields seem to fall off from what began as low yields. My theory is that the Chardonnay on this soil was not vigorous to handle the elevated bud-count and the wide spacing. Combined with that is the fact that weed-control was through cultivation under the vine, and that very few soil and foliar amendments. Overall, the vineyard seems to be tired.

In 2004, we began cane-pruning the Chardonnay. This overcomes the apical dominance of the buds.(“Apical dominance” is the trend of unfruitful canes developing from the first and second buds on a spur or cane.) The canopy became a little more open due to the more even spacing of the buds. We expect yields to be up 25-30% due solely to this pruning method. Additionally, we cut back on the bud count, allowing the vines to put more energy into the smaller number of buds (and fruit) left.

2004 also saw us interplant 500 new Chardonnay vine (clones 95, 124 and 548). This will double our vine spacing to 908 vines per acre, and train each vine to fill only 14 square feet of canopy rather than 28 square feet. New trellis wires were also added to help maintain the integrity and function of the canopy through the season. Old endposts were also replaced, and the fruiting wire moved down to 36” (where the loose wires had allowed the vines to sag to anyway.)