Nickel and Nickel and the Gleason Barn

Originally built circa 1770 in Meriden, New Hampshire by the Gleason family, the 3,000 square-foot pre-Revolutionary War-era hay barn was spared demolition by its purchase in 2001. After two years spent dismantling the barn, designing blueprints, restoring and saving the wood beams, the barn was shipped in pieces to Nickel & Nickel and was reconstructed at the winery in 2003 to house offices and a laboratory for the winemaking staff. The elements include:
original hand-hewn, white pine and hemlock beams, fashioned in post-and-beam, wood-pegged construction; the beautifully rough beams show centuries of wear
century-old, barn-red exterior siding, weathered to a lovely, aged patina, the barn’s interior is re-adapted to winery use, without compromising its architectural integrity,
the haylofts and animal stalls have been turned into glass-walled offices and lab space, retaining the floor-to-ceiling open feeling of the barn, new, double-folding, divided light doors recreate the barn’s original breezeway creative engineering enabled this 250-year-old barn to meet seismic building codes, while preserving its original interior and exterior elevations.

Paul Hobbs Winery

A little bit about Paul Hobbs: The focus is small production, single vineyard wines from properties which are the most distinctive in their appellation. The winemaking begins with constant, meticulous care in the vineyard in order to cultivate in the resulting fruit the richest yet most nuanced expression of terroir. Soil is prepared, vines are pruned and crops are thinned throughout the growing season to maximize concentration and flavor development in the grapes. They strive to achieve what is called physiological ripeness, which takes into account not only the fruit but the stems, skins and seeds, all of which must be fully ‘ripe’ to make a truly superior wine.They also harvest and sort the grapes by hand, allowing them to go through primary and secondary (malolactic) fermentation using native, or wild, yeasts that come in on the skin of the grapes. Skin contact is maximized during winemaking and the whites are pressed whole cluster and stirred sur lies, which allows for increased complexity in the resulting wine and imparts phenolics and textural components particular to each vineyard site. Wines are aged in hand selected French oak barrels until seamless integration is achieved. They are then bottle unfined and unfiltered to assure that nothing is lost in the translation from vine to glass. You might describe our winemaking as modern classic. Making wine, like living well, is a balance of experience and intuition, discipline and discovery. Paul Hobbs believes he can make the best wines by keeping his roots firmly planted in traditional winemaking principles, while availing ourselves of modern techniques which allow him to constantly improve the quality of his wines.

Meet Tim-Tim

January 30...Meet Tim-Tim. No, Tim Farley is not with us, he is in Costa Rica on vaca as well. Tim-Tim is our GPS tracker "Tom-Tom". He is really quite remarkable. He is British, so we drive on the "motorway" instead of the freeway, but other than that the language barrier is fine.

I started the day off in the lobby of the hotel at 4:45 am (7:45 ACK time) waiting patiently for coffee service. It begins at 6 if you are wondering. Jet lag is a bitch. But the girls (finally) woke up, and after I had consumed 4 cups of coffee, and advised the lady in charge of the contenental breakfast how to shave her food cost, we were off for the first appointment: Paul Hobbs.

We are greeted and shown into this amazing hospitality suite at the winery. We (private tasting, as PH does not allow visitors) did a tasting with the rep, and even tried a lovely Syrah which will be released (not in Massachusetts) in the Fall.

Lunch was at the Oakville Grocery, where Kelly and Kim opted for sandwiches while I dined on my favorite fat kid classic: A wedge of triple creme brie, sliced salomi, and a freshly baked loaf of bread.

Off to Nickel and Nickel, where we are shuffled into the civilian tour, with who could only be described as the cheesiest tour guide ever. An amazing production, after which a price sheet of the wines was not-so-discreetly slid under our napkins.

After N & N, we took a 30 mile (read: 60 minute) drive up to Alexander Valley Vineyards, who will be hosting us for the next 2 evenings. We are installed in a lovely 3 bedroom ranch style 1950's-ish home. After promptly popping open 2 bottles: one local Semillion and one Alexander Valley Vineyards Syrah, we sat on our terrace and toasted our lives (which we decided, are amazing).

Kim still has no luggage, and is involved in an exciting game of phone tag with the good people at United Airlines. She walks out to the front porch, and a darling puppy (Mattie) is standing in the front yard. The puppy seems to be holding something in her mouth, which Kim assumes is a toy. Sadly no; Mattie was offering Kim a recently deceased bird in lieu of her luggage. Mattie was very cute, Kim was distraught, and Kelly and I took pictures.

Off to dinner, at Ravenous, which came highly recommended. Dinner was rather uneventful, sans 2 possibly gay gentlemen (Kelly: there were no indications of this fact other than one kept pouring water for the other, subtle yet strong evidence) next to us who "didn't realize wine was big" in Massachusetts (K: they also tried to tell us that Silver Oak runs $1000 a bottle, and boasted of blind frizzante Lambrusco tastings at one's home in Amsterdam.)

Back home, and to bed by 11 pm (2 AM IN ACK).