April 2024: VOON Updates and Grape Varietals 101
April 2024
Have you ever wondered why wine places so much emphasis on the grape varietals used to make it? What, specifically, differentiates a Pinot Noir from, say, a Cabernet?
In this newsletter, I’ll unpack why grape varietals matter in wine. But before we dive into that, I want to share some updates on VOON:
Starting off with the biggest (and best) news first, Cameron and I got engaged in March! We spent an absolutely incredible weekend at Meadowood resort in St. Helena (highly recommend the visit). On our way up, we stopped for an unforgettable wine tasting and meal with our dear friends Joey and Jeff of Gentleman Farmer Wines at their new Bungalow tasting room in downtown Napa.
Newly engaged and cheesing with some Krug
An actual photo Cameron took over Napa Valley early Sunday morning
2. We just bottled three wines!! New vintages of our Sta. Rita Hills Chardonnay (2023) and Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir (2022), and a new wine — VOON ‘NADA Pinot Noir (2022), from the Sta. Rita Hills. We bottled our Sta. Rita Hills Grüner Veltliner in March and it’s definitely a crowd favorite. If you haven’t tried it yet, order some today! And we have one more new wine coming out later this summer… stay tuned!
3. In our last newsletter, we mentioned we were working on some partnerships. We’re thrilled to share that we’re having our next VOON event at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco next week! When it was built in 1875, the Palace Hotel was the largest luxury hotel in the world. Today the Palace is most known for its stunning “Garden Court” courtyard, which is breathtakingly beautiful with a giant stained glass skylight. I cannot imagine a more beautiful place to enjoy some VOON wines. Given our limited capacity, invites are limited to VOON wine club members and capacity is already full. However, sign up today to be guaranteed invitations to all future VOON events!
4. We’ve updated our wine club to have three different tiers! Each club tier still ships twice per year, generally in April and October. However, now you can sign up for a 4-bottle, 6-bottle, or 12-bottle membership.
5. If you don’t follow us on Instagram, give us a follow @voonwines! That’s our most up-to-date place to learn about all things happening in the world of VOON.
Okay… to the matter at hand!
How are wine grapes different, and why does that make different wine?
The differences in how a wine tastes comes from the differences in the grapes' chemical & biological structures, and also different winemaking styles (often culturally associated with grapes).
Almost all wine today is made from one species of grape, Vitis Vinifera. Vitis Vinifera grapes are much smaller than table grapes.
Like all grapes, they have a skin. Usually greenish-yellow or purple-black. Inside of the skin is a pulp, which is mostly water and acid, which ripens into sugar during the growing season.
Unripe wine grapes have a lot of acid, primarily tartaric and malic acid. Malic acid creates the sour sensation found in tart green apples (looking at you Granny Smith). As the grapes ripen, the acids turn into sugars, primarily glucose and fructose. These sugars are what ferment into alcohol during fermentation with the help of yeast.
Trivia: As grapes ripen, their glucose and fructose levels generally rise at similar rates. If grapes become overly-ripe, they will have a higher ratio of fructose, which is harder for yeast to ferment than glucose and may result in a wine with residual sugar (sweetness).
Wine grapes also have seeds — generally between one to four per berry — which make eating the wine grapes a little crunchier than table grapes. Although, if you ask me, ripe wine grapes taste a lot better…
And the berries are connected to the rest of the plant, in clusters, by a stem. While not technically part of the grape, the stem is sometimes included in winemaking so it’s worth mentioning.
Now that you know the structure of wine grapes, let’s talk about how they’re different!
First, let’s start with what you can see — the color. Most white wine grapes are made from yellow-green-brown grapes. Red wines are generally made from purplish-black grapes. The longer you leave the skin contact on during the winemaking process, the more color you get from the skins.
Now let’s look at the first two white wines VOON offers today: Grüner Veltliner and Chardonnay.
Both wines were made from yellow-green grapes farmed organically within a few miles of each other. Both wines have very similar winemaking styles, were fermented with native yeasts, daily pumpovers, and aged in neutral oak (although there is a little stainless steel on the Grüner). And yet, they are completely different wines.
So, why are they different? Let’s look at the grapes!
Grüner Veltliner grapes have a slightly thicker skin than a Chardonnay, are a larger berry, and ripen later in the growing season. The larger berry provides a higher ratio of juice to skin, so it’s a “juicier” wine than the Chardonnay. Because the Grüner ripens later, you get more tropical flavors than you do on the Chardonnay. And yet, it also has a slightly higher malic acid profile.
When we bottle our 2023 Sta. Rita Hills Grenache later this year, I encourage you to taste it side by side with our Pinot Noirs to appreciate how different they are, all due to the grapes!
If you want to read more on winemaking choices, I encourage you to revisit our newsletter from October 2023 on how wine is made. Simply put, there’s a lot of influence that a winemaker can have on how a wine tastes. So far, all of our wines have been minimal intervention. We want the grape and the terroir to shine, which means the varietal really is the star. However, we may start playing around with that ethos a little… strictly for academic reasons, of course.
Are there any grapes you want to know more about? Let me know by replying to this email and I’m happy to nerd out.
What else?
We’re listening to:
Our VOON 2024 playlist! If you come to any VOON event, you’ll likely hear these groovy tunes playing, hopefully with DJ’d live by our very dear Max Elder.
Best bite:
The food we had at the Gentleman Farmer bungalow, in downtown Napa. Seriously, go! And say I sent you…
Favorite San Francisco moment:
A bit of a twist on this, but after our engagement, Cameron and I took a hot air balloon ride over Napa Valley. The balloon ride started in Yountville at 6am, and it was chilly, but the views and serenity were truly unforgettable.
Mantra of the month:
Rule #1: No rush! Take life slow and enjoy the journey.
Be well,
Evan & Cameron