Wine Tasting: Artistry in local winemaking

It’s a tradition. For more than 10 years now, wine and art have come together for the annual Les Bourgeois “Collector Series Wines.” It started out as a way to introduce mainstream vinifera (common European grape) grapes into the winery’s high-end wine portfolio and then morphed into a terrific collaboration between grape grower, winemaker and artist. The Columbia Art League, along with winery staff, jury original art submitted just for the purpose of being chosen one of the three labels that will appear in this series. Winemaker Cory Bomgaars sat down with me on a beautiful afternoon and shared how it all comes together.

He explains how each year they source grapes from California specifically for this series. It allows the winemakers to experiment with smaller lots and create the highest quality and most unique wine possible. The wines chosen for the Collector Series are the best of the best. Throughout the season, winemakers will be evaluating these wines to see if they make the cut. The selections are made in December. For the 2009 series, the wines chosen were a 2008 Syrah, a 2007 Vignoles-Traminette and a 2008 Vidal Blanc. These wines were the cream of the crop of the current vintage and at retail will demand approximately $24/bottle. Case production for the Collector Series will run anywhere from 150 to 500 cases, which is a small portion of Les Bourgeois’ total case production of 47,000.

These top-end wines need beautiful labels, so each year a “call for entries” is made for artists to submit a painting or a photograph, free of charge, that can become the series’ label art. The deadline for entries is December 31 and coincides with the final wine selections. The winning artists get great exposure from the sale of the wines, and they get the opportunity to hang their work at the winery restaurant as well as sell prints in the gift shop. This year’s winners were: Jennifer Weigel from St. Louis, whose “Missouri Magic” acrylic on canvas was used for the Vignoles-Traminette; Gloria Gaus of Rocheport, whose “Country Road Wildflowers” oil on canvas was used for the Vidal Blanc; and Peg Hurley of Columbia, whose “Trust the Branch” watercolor was used for the 2007 Syrah.

The whole package gets unveiled at Les Bourgeois’s popular “Release Party” which used to be in April but has now been moved to mid-summer to accommodate more time for wine aging. Usually more than 300 people attend.

The wine and art combination usually blends nicely except in cases where mother nature steps in. Bomgaars and the winemakers need to be absolutely pleased with the quality of the wine come December, and if the quality is not there, they’ll pull the plug and go to Plan B. In fact, a couple years back, during the inconsistent harvest of 2007, a Vidal Blanc was slated for the series. Artwork had been chosen for the label and postcards had been printed, but at the final hour, they scratched it. Winemaker Jacob Holman explained how in this instance they instead produced an outstanding blend called “2468” of 25 percent each of Chambourcin, Merlot, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon, which passed the “Collector Series” test and satisfied expectations.

In addition to the Collector Series, there is another way Bomgaars and the winemakers also show off their creativity through the “Winemakers Select” program. You’ll see these wines on the shelf only if the winemakers have been inspired to experiment with the juice and create a completely separate wine. If all goes well, small lots are made, and you can enjoy these wines by purchasing them from the Tasting Room.

Marilyn Ellsasser has been the Tasting Room Manager at Les Bourgeois for many years. She tells me that even with a higher price point, these wines are an easy sell. The Collector Series isn’t distributed, so the majority of the selling will be done from the tasting room, the winery’s A-frame or restaurant. FYI, Les Bourgeois has more than 30 acres of grapes planted on its own property and another 30 acres scattered in Boone County. Their biggest selling wines are the well known “Riverboat Red” and “Riverboat White,” which are held to a completely different standard than the Collector Series.

We start off tasting the 2008 Vidal Blanc. It’s made with 100 percent Vidal Blanc grapes grown in a shady block. The shadier planting helps keep the fruit fresh and doesn’t encourage over- ripening, which tends to give this grape a slightly oxidized, apple character. It’s crisp and delicate with lots of grapefruit and reminded me of a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

Our next wine is the 2007 Syrah. With 100 percent Syrah grapes from Lake County California, this wine reminded me of some of the California Syrahs that I so dearly love: complex and full-bodied with rhubarb, fig and white pepper characters. This Syrah is a nice wine that would be terrific with roast meats.

Last of the series was the 2008 Vignoles-Traminette. This wine is a 50/50 blend of the Vignoles and Traminette. Vignoles is a hybrid grape that makes a wine taste sweet and flowery with a clean, crisp pineapple flavor. Traminette is similar to Gewürztraminer. Bomgaars likes to cold soak the Traminette, not the Vignoles, during fermentation to give it its lemon peel character. Cold soaking is a production tool that aids in increasing the aromas and the body of the wines. This wine had some tangerine, pineapple and grapefruit characters and was nicely semi-sweet. Serve this one chilled on a hot summer afternoon, and you’ll love it.

After all this fun, I was inspired to go home and bring out my inner Picasso while sipping a glass of wine.

Wine, art and passionate people….what a great combination. We are blessed here in mid-Missouri to have such talented artists that visually inspire us and good wines that inspire our taste buds. Enjoy!