Winemaking talent

Over the past five plus years we have had the honor and privilege to work with some of the most talented winemakers from many of the North American Appellations. We have done tastings and winemaker dinners with these creative geniuses from Oregon, Idaho, Washington state, and many of the growing areas of California. During that time we have had winemakers up for repeat appearances only a handful of times, and this coming week we will be welcoming back not only one of the true winemaking talents from Walla Walla but also one of the most generous and genuinely nice people in the wine business.

Don Redman owner/winemaker at Mannina Cellars in Walla Walla will be here for a winemaker dinner on Friday, June 28 at 6:30 p.m. at Scratch Restaurant. Like always chef/owner Jason Rex will be at Scratch to prepare four specially designed courses to go with Don's fabulous wines. Don will also be joining us at the shop for a tasting on Thursday from 4:30-7 p.m. You can reserve a spot for either or both by calling us here or by email at info@thedinnerpartyshop.com .

At Mannina Don Crafts a small allotment of really great wine including a dry rose and 4 reds including Sangiovese with the remainder being the more traditional Bordeaux varietals and blends based on those grapes. We have known Don for nearly all of the five and half years that the dinner party has been open. Over that time we have made countless requests for Don to host customers at his tasting room, to enter wines into the North Idaho Wine Rodeo, and to donate tastings and tours for a number of charitable donations. Don in short has never declined, and always meets every request with a smile, making him as we said one of the nicest folks in the wine "biz."

While his generosity is unrivaled his winemaking skill is equally impressive. As many of the regular readers of this column know we prefer well balanced wines where all of the factors are evaluated each year varietal by varietal, the wines from Mannina are crafted just that way vintage after vintage. A big part of winemaking is knowing not only how to adjust variables like yeast, oak ageing time and the selection of barrel type and toast levels but first recognizing that every vintage is different for every varietal and understanding that these changes need to be made.

Accounting for the sensitivity of each varietal to the unique growing conditions of each year represents the "lion's share" of the art successful winemakers like Don must possess. There are no formulas of how to deal with the changes that occur each year, there is no winemaking tutorial that says when you have a cool short growing year like 2010 or 2011 you need to change your oak barrels from American to French or to use lighter toast on those barrels. Similarly there is no place to look up the consequences on the end product of using a faster or slower fermenting yeast strain. Simply put there is no way to know what to definitively do with your wine as you go through the thousands of decisions.

Winemakers like Don Redman just navigate this process with the scientific knowledge they need but also with the artistic judgment that is equally important to create really good wine year in and year out even in the toughest of years. The Mannina wines are delicious to be sure but also posses all of the underpinnings necessary to pair well with foods, and to make them age worthy so consumers can feel comfortable buying them and "laying them down" for enjoyment over the years to come.

You might imagine that wines tended so carefully and skillfully might be "spendy", but this is where Don's fairness is on full display with prices from $15 to $32, which we find more than fair in this day of aggressive pricing structures. Between the tasting and the dinner we will be trying Don's full portfolio including his dry rose of Sangiovese perfect for summer, as well as his Cali red blend, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and his fully colored and aged "Sangio" as well. With some of these wines too we will be covering multiple vintages between the two events, overall spanning the years from 2008 through 2012.

For wine consumers these events are the best chance to not only experience great food and wine paired together, but also to hear from master wine craftsmen like Don Redman what is involved in putting these wines together from the ground up. We hope you can join us!

If there is a topic you would like to read about or questions on wine you can email George@thedinnerpartyshop.com or make suggestions by contacting the Healthy Community section at the Coeur d'Alene Press.

George Balling is co-owner with his wife Mary Lancaster of the dinner party - a wine and table top decor shop in Coeur d'Alene by Costco. George is also the managing judge of The North Idaho Wine Rodeo and is the wine editor for Coeur d'Alene Magazine (www.cdamagazine.com). You can learn more about the dinner party at www.thedinnerpartyshop.com. You can get all of these articles as well as other great wine tips by friending us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/dinnerpartyshop.