A two-writer blog about local wine

Homeless Winemakers Pitch Tent Together

By Alan Minskoff & Paul Hosefros, 3-26-09

The Year of Drinking Locally by Alan Minskoff
Don’t let the name fool you; the only thing pink about The Urban Winemakers Cooperative in Garden City are the Rosés they handcraft on the premises. Here in a utilitarian warehouse, wines from Cinder, Syringa and soon-to-be-released Vail are blended, gestated, aged, sampled and sold. In December 2007 Cinder’s Melanie Krause spearheaded this group of three homeless winemakers to join together and share space and equipment costs; they did their first crush in the fall of 2008.

Melanie Krause, co-owner with her husband Joe Schnerr, makes Cinder’s wines. A Boise native, she studied biology at Washington State, speaks Spanish (“which helps in the vineyards”), taught English in China and, most importantly, worked for five years at Chateau Ste. Michelle in Washington where she started in the vineyards and ended up as assistant winemaker at a facility that produced a prodigious 400,000 cases per year.

She wanted to return to Idaho and began scoping out the Idaho vineyards. In 2006 she came home and did some wine consulting and thoroughly studied the local vineyards. She’s committed to local vintners. “I am buying all my grapes in Idaho. I totally believe this area can produce world class wines.” Cinder just released her second vintage of Viognier, Rosé and Syrah. She chooses her Viognier from three different vineyards and uses several winemaking techniques—up to six different yeasts and blends from neutral oak as well as stainless steel barrels.

Cinder began with three hundred and fifty cases divided among Viognier, Rosé and Syrah, which sold out.  In 2009 she’s releasing a thousand cases, and next year she plans to release 1400 cases of five different wines.

Her varitals come from Williamson, whose grapes produce wines that have “a lot of body and backbone” and Skyline, where the grapes produce “more aromatic but lighter bodied wines,” and Sawtooth, which is the “complete package” full bodied and aromatic. She blends her Syrah and Viognier from grapes from three vineyards. She’s also gotten grapes from Emmett’s Rocky Fence Vineyard. “It’s a tiny vineyard. He doesn’t have a lot planted. I only got one barrel of Viognier and two of Tempranillo but they’re so good.” She likes Idaho’s sandy loam soil with its basalt layers—and cinder. She named her wine as a tribute to this volcanic component in the region’s soils.

A young woman with strong opinions (she asks her growers for about four tons per acre of reds—a higher amount than some Idaho winemakers) and big league experience in the industry, Melanie Krause has made an immediate impact in Idaho’s wine world.  She loves to talk about varietals and their characteristics—“Malbec’s a really vigorous vine that has lots of potential here, can be planted in more depleted soils; Syrah’s adaptable.” She plans to replace her Cab blend with lesser-known varieties and believes she will be able to sell them.

She loves Rhone style and “really likes Washington style wines because I learned to make wine there…but mostly I like wines that are well balanced.” Melanie Krause sees the Urban Winemakers Cooperative as truly beneficial and collaborative. They share costs, “help each other out, it’s a great tool for marketing and selling our wine. It’s such an interesting story…. We share ideas and it’s much more fun to make wine with other people than isolated. We all have our different styles and none of our wines taste alike. And in the course of winemaking you make a thousand different choices.”

Alan Minskoff lives in Boise, teaches in Caldwell and wears a black hat that reads “Wineaux.”

VANTAGE POINT by Paul Hosefros
Rambling along Chicken Dinner Road, a rumbling, hilly two-lane road at virtually the epicenter of the Snake River Valley Appellation, not only spurs thoughts of a plump and tasty roasting hen, but what wine might be the perfect complement.  The search for that perfect complementary bottle was a matter of care for Melanie Krause, winemaker and owner of Cinder.  After a tasting with Pamela Hoevel and Lauren Ianniciello at Pamela’s, a bakery and café in Eagle, three hors d’oeurves were chosen for a party celebrating the Spring release of Cinder’s 2007 Syrah, 2008 Viognier and their 2008 Dry Rose.

The search was to discern “what food matches, contrasts or counterbalances” each wine.  Food that seems to mirror the flavors and textures of a wine is fairly straightforward:  for the Syrah, a “spicy” expression that match the richness of meats and spice in marinades, such as the cumin in Pamela’s Moorish marinated grilled pork loin kebabs.  Cleverly, and almost unnoticed, the kebabs were deliberately constructed so the first bite took in grapes and pork, sweet and smoky; the second bite, honeydew melon and pork, sweet and exotic.

But in contrasting tastes and textures, perhaps it is the very “gap” of taste experience, the expectation of one thing, the sudden awareness of another that makes us smile with contentment. The Viognier 2008, because it has a “fruity, aromatic” bouquet and exhibits rich body and texture, was paired with sweet lime-glazed shrimp, perched on pineapple salsa, Camembert cheese and a crostini. “The cheese,” said, Lauren, “coats the tongue with a flavorful fat,” (I knew there was a reason for all those wine and cheese plates!) and “the crostini gives texture and crunch,” and it’s all sweetened sharply by some crystallized ginger.  The whole morsel is united “thematically,” by using some Viognier in the salsa.

The Dry Rose, however, is a surprise that Melanie suggests is “exploding with contrasting flavors. It balances a fruity, crisp” texture, and “wipes the palate clean, yet because of some SO2, there’s a little spark and sparkle to it.” Indeed.  And the hors d’oeurve?  Grilled asparagus wrapped in prosciutto.  To Lauren, “it felt like summer!”

PAMELA’S
360 S. Eagle Road,
Eagle, ID 83616
(209) 938 6585

Paul Hosefros, an international playboy, takes snapshots for his hard-living friends.

Like this story? Get more! Sign up for our free newsletters.