Vintage Update December 2004

December 23, 2004

As we prepare to close out another year, so too are we ready to put the 2004 vintage to bed for it’s long winter nap. You can find the details in the archives, but I will tell you this: Brett, the vineyard master of the Miller Estate took no short cuts dealing with the climate and planning for healthy vines for 2005. Every grape was near-perfect. What we have in house is a hard-won game of chess played by nearly every grower we are associated with.

To summarize, I’d say the vintage of ’04 was a year of being checked by the weather at nearly every move....until fall broke out in brilliant sun and clear dry weather for the last four weeks of harvest. We lost our Queen and maybe a rook and a few pawns, but we made a few lucky calls, took the King, and won a delicious game. Yes, 2004 was a year we had to play like we didn’t need the money....and it will be remembered as the year we grew great wine under very difficult conditions.

A few highlights to look forward to:

• Perhaps the most exciting thing about the ’04 vintage has been taking a new look at old friends. Faced with declining Chardonnay sales (while Pinot Grigio soars out of sight), I am departing from the big-oak, butterscotch & earth, malo-lactic norm of the past 10-15 years and doing a small lot in a completely different style....harking back to my youth in Burgundy....that will be un-oaked and bottled fresh like a crisp clean Chablis. I call it lean, green and clean – not unlike a Pinot Grigio, but with more fruit.
  
• And then there are the two reds that get me up with a smile every day. The Italians, Barbera and Sangiovese. This years “Due Rossi” blend is 50% Barbera (from our Miller Estate) and 50% Sangiovese from the Rohrer Vineyard in Lancaster County, and is now settled in new, heavy-toast, small French and Hungarian oak barrels. It is more complex than the ’02, and currently showing a sweet gritty steely base covered with essence of strawberries, fresh flowers and anise. It will be offered at the ’05 Futures Tastings next July and I hope you do not miss it.
  
• As of today we are building a brand new ’04 cuvee that we call the “Super T”, named immodestly after the great Super Tuscans (that were first irreverently blended in Italy, outside of any established official recognition). Our blend is dominantly Cabernet Sauvignon/Sangiovese (now showing cherry, chocolate, generous tannin and a seriously long finish) with minor notes of cherry and cedar from ridiculously low-cropped Cabernet Franc (100%Miller Estate) and soft rich deep-colored Dornfelder. In fact we took the best ’04 Cabernet Sauvignon, typically used in our prestigious Merican, and put it in “Super T”. So it has the pedigree – we just have to wait and taste until summer to let you know if it will be offered at the Futures Tasting.
   

Eric Miller, Winemaker