No Tempest in These Tea Pots – Hawkes Winery, Alexander Valley
(April 2008)

When the hundred or so member wineries of the Russian River Wine Road sent out invitations to the 16^th Annual Winter Wineland weekend, the wine-imbibing public was ready. Not only did the promise of sips of outstanding vintages and varietals lure hundreds of visitors into touring the roads and by-ways that wind their way through the three most prominent valleys in the north coast – Alexander, Dry Creek and Russian River, but each winery had set their chefs to work designing tempting snacks to further enhance the wines.

At Hawkes Winery, the newest tasting room in the Alexander Valley, the décor of the day was brilliant red and gold and the winery staff passed around Oriental baskets filled with hot, homemade dim sum and a number of designated drivers were enjoying cups of tea rather than anything alcoholic.  On two walls, small glass cases displayed part of the remarkable teapot collection of owner Stephen Hawkes.

When he was 21, Stephen, a former musician, had already planned a trip to San Francisco to enroll in the Conservatory of music, then he had second thoughts and set about changing his career path.  He had had an interest in wine for some time so he and his wife Paula started driving around the Napa Valley seeking a spot to plant some grapes and build a home. "Our timing was a little off," he admits. The year was 1972 and it seemed just about everyone was buying land and planting grapes. Even after the young couple had located a great site in the Alexander Valley Stephen couldn't find vines to plant on his acreage.  "I drove down to the Central Valley looking for grapes, and finally settled for boysenberries, not for wine, but just as a cash crop."

"Finally a fine piece of land became available on Chalk Hill Road that had about 40 plantable acres. By the next year I had found another location on Red Winery Road and I bought that. Both pieces were planted to prunes but by then grapevines were becoming more available so I tore out the prunes and planted grapes, starting with Cabernet Sauvignon and later adding Merlot and Chardonnay." 

By 1998 the Hawkes had scraped together the money to purchase another property on Chalk Hill and had added 23 additional acres to their holdings.  As time went by, like many growers, Stephen had seen his grapes going for a good price to several different wineries and he began to think about turning those grapes into wines under the Hawkes label. Two men, rich with experience, joined the team.  In 1980 Alberto Rodrigo Silva-Lopez arrived just in time for the harvest and has been with the winery, tending the vineyards ever since.  Herman Froeb, with a reputation as a premium winemaker brought his talents to Hawkes in 2002 just as Stephen was considering a label of his own.  His son, Jake, encouraged him, saying, "If you make the wine, I'll sell it."  To make this become a reality, they knew they needed a retail sales room. Luckily at just about that time the Hawkes discovered that the lot beside the Jimtown Store was for sale.  After driving past it for several weeks they decided this was an opportunity they couldn't let go away. On Saturday, December 15^th the family celebrated the opening of the new tasting room by releasing their first single vineyard designate Reserve wine - a 2003 Red Winery Road Cabernet Sauvignon.

The tasting room, at 6734 Highway 128, Healdsburg, is open daily from ten am till five pm. There is a $5.00 tasting fee which is waived with the purchase of any of the wines.  More information about the Hawkes family, Stephen's tea pot collection, to join the Wine Club or order the wines, check the net at www.hawkeswine.com.  For directions to the tasting room call 707-433-hawk (4295).

As one of a growing number of wine consumers who bewail the proclivity of many winemakers to produce what are being called "industrial strength" wines with 15 or 16% alcohol in the finished product, I was delighted to stand at the tasting bar at Harvest Moon Winery during the recent Russian River Wine Road Food & Wine Affair and listen to owner/winemaker Randy Pitts state his views on the subject.  They pretty much matched mine, and I can only hope that more winemakers will exhibit their concern and defy the popular belief that high alcohol wines are the wines critics reward with high ratings and gold medals.

So, knowing of Randy's dedication to lower alcohol wines we made Harvest Moon our first stop and accepted our wristbands, a glass, a Russian River Wine Road cookbook and a pour of the off-dry Harvest Moon 2007 Early Harvest Gewürztraminer from office manager/general factotum Susan Dusterhoft.

Randy describes this 100% Gewürztraminer wine as "unique and austere, a great any occasion wine with a very restrained 9.5% alcohol." My tasting buddy, Helen, didn't need to read the cellar notes. She took one tiny sip and began asking Susan about a special event sales price and/or discounts on a case of the wine, she was so impressed.

Originally, as is so often the story told about small wineries on the North Coast of Sonoma County, Bob and Ginny Pitts thought of themselves as farmers when they planted their 12-acre vineyard in 1977and started selling their grapes to a local winery.  It was not till 2000, when their son, Randy assumed the farming responsibilities that the family decided to use their outstanding fruit for wines under their own label, making Zinfandel, Pinot Noir and Gewürztraminer from their estate vineyards, in limited lots of 200 cases or less.

Our tasting journey continued with sampling Harvest Moon's family of Zinfandels, starting with the just-released 2006 Sonoma County Randy Zin – a blend of small lot Zins selected from prime vineyards in the finest growing areas in the County.  Then, a bit close to home, the 2004 Russian River Valley Estate Zinfandel, its grapes grown within four miles of the winery. The next two Zins were vineyard designate Pitts Home Ranch Estate Zinfandel from the 2003 and 2004 vintages, each with a life expectancy of nearly 20 years.

But, facing up to the truth, the real reason Helen and I elected to start our Food & Wine Affair at Harvest Moon was so we could taste again Randy's exquisite Pinot Noir .  It wasn't listed on the tasting sheet, but it was being poured and he even lifted a decanter of bright red wine and titillated our taste buds with his not-yet-released Late Harvest Pinot Noir.  People will be standing in line waiting for this wine when it goes to market.

It is surprising wines such as this that make it a good idea to join the Harvest Moon Wine Club. Members receive first-try of new wines - and discounts, too. Another benefit is the seasonal newsletter.  First presented in 2004, each issue has news of the wines, the people and the activities of the winery.  A recent addition has been the inclusion of a recipe, along with an invitation to readers to share their own food favorites.

Big news in 2007 was the announcement that Harvest Moon is hosting wine and olive oil educational seminars, known as Wine Country Classrooms. These interactive seminars are designed to expand the "students' knowledge" of wine and olive oil. Allowing for the weather, the classes are presented out-of-doors in various vineyard settings.

With all the great things going on at the winery, including Randy's willingness to accept and answer winemaking and olive oil pressing questions, any visit is an adventure. To get involved, Harvest Moon Estate & Winery at 2192 Olivet Rd, Santa Rosa, is open daily from 10:30 am till five pm.  An excellent source for finding out what is going on is the website at www.harvestmoonwinery.com, or by calling the winery direct at 707-573-8711.

Always a resident of northern California, Richard Arrowood began his winemaking career as a chemist and assistant manager at Korbel Champagne Cellars in 1965 after earning his BA in organic chemistry at California State University, Sacramento and continuing his studies in enology and fermentation science at California State University, Fresno. 

He furthered his career, moving on through winemaking assignments at United Vintners, Sonoma Vineyards and finally being selected, in 1974, as the first winemaker at Chateau St. Jean. In his new position, he amazed the wine world by producing seven different Chardonnays from the same vintage, eight Rieslings varying in flavor and four red wines.  He honored the excellence of many of the vineyards from which he selected his grapes by including the vineyard name on the label.

One of his grower sources was Robert Young with whom he signed a contract for Chardonnay and Riesling in the early 1970s.  "I had followed Robert Young's career as an innovative farmer for some time," he recalls, "and I was surprised and honored when the Robert Young family asked me to make the initial wine for the Robert Young Estate Winery."

In 1990 Richard and his wife Alis were ready to take the giant step towards owning their own winery, where Richard continues his adventurous ways, experimenting with various grape varieties and new technologies.  At the present time the Arrowood winery produces 24 different wines from 14 different varietals, all from Sonoma County vineyards in five appellations: Alexander Valley, Dry Creek Valley, Russian River Valley, Sonoma-Carneros, and Sonoma Valley. 

Twenty years ago, when Richard and his wife and partner Alis, started the winery, the tasting list in the hospitality room contained just Chardonnay and Cabernet. In the intervening years the portfolio has been expanded to include Gewürztraminer, Malbec, Merlot, Syrah, Viognier, White Riesling, and both a red and a white Rhône blend. With all the growth over the past decades, Richard, the winery's Winemaster, is still a hands on winemaker, greeting the grapes and handling the details of every crush. Dedicated to the consistency of his wines, Richard prides himself on producing wines that offer the best of two worlds - ready to drink upon release yet also improving with age for an additional eight to ten years.

With all the care, time and attention he gives to his winemaking, Richard still finds time to write a newsy report for the First in Line wine club newsletter covering a wide range of topics in a friendly no-mystique manner.

Wine tasting at the Hospitality Room is conducted from ten am till 4:30 pm daily, for a modest fee, and tours may be arranged by appointment.

Arrowood Vineyards & Winery was recently purchased by Jess Jackson and Barbara Banke and is now part of the Jackson Family Farms.

If you want to meet one of the happiest couples in the north coast wine community just head for the Hook & Ladder Winery on Olivet road in Santa Rosa. There you'll meet a man wearing a face-cracking smile.  His name is Cecil DeLoach.  The vivacious lady beside him, often surrounded by three tall, equally smile-wreathed young people who refer to this perennially young woman as "grandma," is Cecil's wife and winery partner, Christine. They are the senior family members growing grapes and making wine at the young (founded in 2003) winery, Hook & Ladder.

For Cecil DeLoach naming his winery Hook & Ladder was not only a way to differentiate his label from all the others in the marketplace, but was a tip of the helmet to all the men and women fire fighters he knew and worked with during his years as a tillerman on the hook and ladder trucks in San Francisco.

While the wines are certainly something to smile about the thing that makes everyone so pleased is that now three generations of the family are working for the winery.  Son Michael heads up the sales and marketing team that includes third generation cousins Sarah and Joshua, while Sarah's brother, Jason is the enthusiastic winemaker.

Cecil and Christine purchased their first vineyards – 24-acres of old vine Zinfandel in the Russian River Valley, in 1969. Now they own and farm 375 acres of grapes. They moved from being growers only to becoming wine producers with the release of their first wines in 1975.

Production holds pretty steady at 20,000 cases a year of about 14 different wines, including Port which escapes the recent government ruling that only Port from Portugal could use that designation, since there has been a Hook & Ladder Port for more than 20 years.  The wines are all from estate vineyards in the Russian River Valley Appellation. Some are as small as six or eight acres, and others are 100-acres or more.  All the young people recall working in the vineyards from the time they were teenagers. "I always wanted to work in the cellar," admits Jason, as he leads the way around the compact working spaces showing off the Pinot Noir fermenting in a row of open top fermenters and describes his program for integrating a new shipment of Hungarian and American oak barrels into his blending program.  French oak is reserved for the Pinot and Chardonnay wines, and The Tillerman White Table Wine is cold fermented 100% in stainless steel.  A red Tillerman has been, through the 2004 vintage, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Sangiovese. With the 2005 vintage Jason has added a small amount of Merlot to the blend, and is introducing a 100% Merlot that he describes as soft and smooth with a nice finish of pepper and chilies.  A remarkable dry Rosé is an alluring blend of grapes from three ancient vineyards – a 1909 Zinfandel, a Carignane planted in 1895 and a splash of rare old-vine Palomino. Lucky visitors to the tasting room can carry home a few bottles for a remarkable sales price of $6.00 a bottle.

The Hook & Ladder reserve wines, a Chardonnay, Cabernet and Zinfandel, are offered in a line called "Third Alarm" and to add further evidence of Cecil's link to his past life, an announcement on the tasting bar advises visitors that firefighters receive a 20% discount on their wine purchases by showing their identification.

The tasting room, open daily from ten am till 4:30 pm, also serves as the bottling room and contains about half of the 1700 barrels used in producing the Hook & Ladder wines.

But wine isn't the only Hook & Ladder product. From an orchard of mature Mission olive trees, planted in the early 1900's and enlarged with plantings of Coratina, Frantolo , Leccino, Pendolino and Manzanilla varieties, the family has produced a richly flavored, jewel-colored Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Hook & Ladder Winery is at 2134 Olivet Road, Santa Rosa. Check for further information on the website: www.hookandladderwinery.com

There are now ten shiny new reasons to visit Suncé winery and all ten are the latest honors to be showered upon Frane Franicevich's award-winning wines.  If you have recently visited the winery at 1839 Olivet Road, Santa Rosa, or the new tasting room at 132 Plaza Street in Healdsburg, you may already have sampled these wines, but warn Frane and Janae, owners of Suncé Winery, "if you plan to add a case or two to your wine cellar you'll want to pay a return visit very soon, since these are all limited production wines, which sell out fast." 

Eight of the ten medals are high silvers.  The others are the 2005 Pena Creek Vineyard Dry Creek Valley Old Vine Zinfandel, saluted by the judges with a double gold award, signifying that the entire judging panel found the wine to be worthy of the golden first place. The much-honored Les Trois Amis Russian River Valley Reserve took home an additional gold to keep company with the gold presented to this dazzling 2005 vintage by the Critics Challenge in June 2007.

A good many of the Suncé Wine Club members have a special reason for wanting to carry home a good supply of the wines. "Throughout the year, " explains hospitality manager Kimberly Harbaugh, "Frane and Janae invite club members to a series of bottling parties. We have our own bottling and labeling equipment, and we turn our bottling days into big all-day parties.  We start the club members off with a big breakfast, give them a bottle of wine to take home and end with a classic barbecue.  Naturally, everyone who has enjoyed the excitement of working on the line wants to take home some bottles of the wine that he/she guided through the bottling and labeling process."

Frane made his first wine in 1988, but it was another ten years before he produced a wine commercially under his own label, "One World." This first wine, a Cabernet Sauvignon started the chain of awards by winning a silver medal at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair. His original plan was to make wine part-time while continuing his career in psychology.  "But it didn't turn out that way," he admits. "I was trying to do everything myself but production rose until I was producing small lots of 14 different grape varieties."

Frane and Janae met in 1994 when they were working in retail stores across the street from each other in Santa Rosa. Now they have three daughters: Zora, Suncé and Zemja, each of whom has a wine named in her honor.

In 1998 the young family purchased a property on Olivet Road that had previously been a stable facility. Frane converted the stables into a compact winery and converted a shed into a small but elegant tasting room.  There is no charge for sampling the Suncé wines and because they are excellent and have a faithful following they sell out fast. New equipment, barrels and tanks have been added over the years as demand for the wines has grown

The tasting room at Suncé Winery is open daily from 10:30 am till five pm. The Healdsburg Tasting Room is open Thursday through Monday, 11:00 am till six pm. News of current releases of the Suncé - Croatian for "sun" - wines and an events calendar are provided on the Suncé website: www.suncewinery.com where the entire story of this young winery is told in family photos and fascinating text.   

Every year, on what almost predictably is a lovely August evening, a traveler driving down Chalk Hill Road might glimpse a gathering of obviously happy men and women holding champagne glasses and making selections from trays of hors d'oeuvres.  To one side of the grassy knoll are rows of round dining tables, and on the other a canopy protects sparkling wine glasses and bottles of the vintage of Mill Creek Vineyards Reflections just going into release.

This coming out party has been an annual celebration since Bill and Yvonne Kreck invited members of the Mill Creek Wine Club to taste the Meritage style wine crafted from the first mature crop of their young Cabernet Sauvignon vines, harvested in1994.  If the tasters liked what crossed their palates, they could purchase a case of the wine, named Reflections, as a "futures" to be picked up (or delivered) in 1997.  Since only three barrels of Reflections had been made, it did not take long to sell out.

This August, the 2004 vintage of Reflections was ready to go home with its purchasers and winemaker Jeremy Kreck, third-generation member of this wine growing and winemaking family, treated attendees to samples of the 2005 vintage he had thieved from the barrels earlier in the day.

At a gala social event there is not a lot of time to catch up with all the news of the winery, so Yvonne and I made an appointment to sit and visit later in the week. The two topics needing elaboration were the winery's first Syrah, and the choice of a name for Jeremy's "port."

Speaking of the port first, Yvonne explained that Jeremy had always loved port and when he took over the reins as winemaker for the family winery he had his chance to make his own version of the wine.  Everyone agreed that he had really captured the beauty of port, so a label was designed and sent off to the TTB (Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) for approval.  On Christmas Eve the reply came back. Due to an agreement with the European Union United States wineries are forbidden to release new brands with wine names that have been protected in Europe. Even terms such as "port-like" and "port style" were forbidden, so, what to do? Jeremy says he had nearly 50 suggestions from friends and visitors to the winery and that when a Healdsburg artist suggested they call the wine "Left of Starboard," it had a whimsical ring to it that they all liked.  For those not conversant with boating terms the phrase, Left of Starboard, translates out to "port." The wine, from the 2004 vintage, is available only at the winery tasting room, and only 180 cases were made so there may not be much left.

The 2004 Syrah is a happier story, and there is more of it – 400 cases – also available at the winery and at a select few local restaurants. It was also Jeremy's decision to try Syrah. The grapes were grown in the Krecks' Dry Creek Valley estate vineyard called "Corner Pocket."  Yvonne describes the grapes as being very happy and doing really well in the Dry Creek Valley. The Syrah, unlike the port which is not open for tasting, may be sampled as part of the group of small production, library and reserve wines for $5.00 per person.  The Reflections wines will be poured on weekends during September and October and Yvonne plans to feature different vintages each week.  The tasting fee will be $10.

Tasting room hours at the winery, 1401 Westside Road in Healdsburg, are from ten am till five pm daily.  For more information about the Kreck family, Mill Creek winery or the wines click onto the website: www.millcreekwinery.com.

"When you have made wine for a very long time for other people there is a strong desire – a passion – that grows within you to have your own winery and your own label," Daryl Groom admits. "Groom Wines is the culmination of such a dream that, for me , started in 1996."  Prior to that he was with Penfolds Wines in Australia for a number of years and since 1990 has worked in the United States, currently serving as vice president of winemaking & operations for Peak Wines International.

At a family dinner with his wife, Lisa, and in-laws, David and Jeanette Marschall, the foursome began to explore the possibilities.  The first step both David and Daryl agreed , was to have their own vineyards, grow their own grapes, and protect that source forever. They took that first step when they purchased 87-acres of bare land in the Kalimna appellation of the Barossa Valley, directly adjacent to the Kalimna vineyard owned by Penfolds where the grapes used to make the famous Grange wines were grown.

"We formed a family partnership and planted 42-acres of Shiraz vineyard in 1997. Next we researched extensively to find the best place to grow Sauvignon Blanc and in 2003 we found the proper climatic conditions near the town of Lenswood, in the Adelaide Hills appellation, where we purchased a 20-acre apple orchard and planted the grapes in 2004.

With a typical Groom grin, Daryl launches into the story he had originally invited me to hear: "In 1999 I got a crazy idea.  I woke up in the middle of the night and thought  'with my experience with Zinfandel, I should be a pioneer of Zinfandel in Australia.'  At the time, there probably were no more than 20 acres of Zin in the whole country.

"That year I planted Zin on the Lenswood property. The soil is similar to the soil in Cucamonga where I had been purchasing Zinfandel grapes for Geyser Peak. The climate is like the climate in the Dry Creek Valley with about the same amount of rain, sun and temperature ranges.  The wine is full of warm, spicy, raisiny flavors like Zin from Cucamonga, and it has the same classic, structured fruit as Dry Creek Valley.

"David and I searched all over Australia looking for existing cuttings.  Then we learned that in 1967 the University of California at Davis had sent three cuttings to Australia's Scientific Research Organization.  In 1971 the cuttings were propagated and planted. We have continued to check UCD's records hoping to find out where the cuttings came from originally."

When Daryl planted eight acres of his Zin in 2000 he decided that he didn't want to grow his Zinfandel on wire, but wanted to use traditional head pruning.

"I told David, a third generation viticulturist, I wanted head-pruned vines, forgetting that in Australia those are called bush vines and are only 18" tall. When he planted those short vines everyone thought I was crazy.  We decided to call the piece where those vines were growing our Bush Block. This decision caused a problem, but the sort you laugh about. When the label for Groom Wine from the Bush Block was presented for approval the authorities rejected it saying they could not use the name of a living president. Eventually it worked out fine, but it took some explaining that bush was a plant, not a politician.

"We made Zinfandel every year, but it wasn't until the 2006 vintage that we did our first bottling.  That was the year everything came together and we got really great fruit. We made 440 cases.  220 have been released. This is our first Zinfandel release into the United States. It is available on our website, but the only retail source is 34 North in Healdsburg where we also have some of our Shiraz."

"It's been a fun project, Daryl comments, and now when I lie awake at night I have a smile on my face."

The website is excellent and the wine club, Groomy's Mates is typical of the Aussie sense of humor http://www.groomwines.com/

Much of the advertising for the Kendall-Jackson family of vineyards and wineries takes the form of a personal letter from Jess Jackson, the founder, who enjoys talking about the four branches of Jackson Family Wines. As tallied up and incorporated into the presentation speech at the recent ceremony naming Jess Jackson the winner of Wine Enthusiast's 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award, the largest division is the Kendall -Jackson Wine Estates, with an annual production of 3.5 million cases. The other 1.5 million cases, in total sales of five million cases, is composed of White Rocket; Jackson Wine Estates International, with wineries in France, Italy, Chile, and Australia and Artisans and Estates, a collection of small, premium wineries, that offer top quality vineyard designate or site specific wines. Still looking at the numbers, Kendall-Jackson has 14,000 acres of vineyard land and sales, in 2006, topped $500-million.

A native Californian, Jess Jackson was born in 1930 and grew up in San Francisco's Sunset district.  He attended college at the University of California at Berkeley on an academic scholarship and earned his law degree at Berkeley's prestigious Boalt Hall. He passed the bar in 1955 and built a long career specializing in land use and property rights law.  By 1974 he was thinking about retirement. His first attempt at the leisure life found him tending a small ranch his family had purchased near Lakeport in Lake County.  Before he became involved with exploring the special terroir of Coastal California appellations that made those locations so special for grape growing, he stayed busy selling the pears and walnuts growing in the family orchards.

In 1974 the first hints of the incipient K-J wine empire poked its nose above the horizon when Jackson converted his family's property from pears and walnuts to vineyards of premium winegrape varieties. In 1978, with his parents, he made a red wine from three tons of Cabernet Sauvignon harvested that year from the young vineyards. In 1980 and 1981 the winery produced its first Chardonnays bottled under the Chateau du Lac label.

Then in 1981 Jackson opened the handsome new 150,000-gallon Kendall-Jackson Winery on the vineyard site. By then, the wine industry had suffered a severe downturn and in the wine glut that followed Jackson could find no home for his grapes. It then became imperative to turn to wine production to save his crop. In what may be described as a stroke of genius or, as Jackson himself says in his 25^th Anniversary Letter from Jess Jackson, "The flavor profile we created for Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay may have been a result of a stuck fermentation, but however it might be explained, the wine that resulted was exactly what the consumers wanted.  We've always worked hard to ensure that our winery stays one step ahead of cultural tastes and two steps ahead of our competition. Kendall-Jackson has built its reputation on consistency and quality. This is something that has not been lost on those wine-lovers who have contributed to our success."

"To make world-class wines," Jackson says, "we needed world-class vineyards, so over the years, my family and I have acquired vineyards in premier, maritime-influenced wine growing regions along California's cool coast."

With the acquisition of thousands of acres of premium vineyard land, Jackson has turned his attention to sustainable farming, fostering the use of soil erosion controls, cover crops, decreasing dependence on herbicides and pesticides and creating wildlife corridors and riparian beaks along the major watersheds.

"We are very proud of our environmental stewardship in the vineyards," he remarks. "There is still much to learn and more vineyards to walk," he admits. " And my wife, Barbara and our children, in celebrating the first quarter century of Kendall-Jackson wines and land stewardship look forward to the next 25 years."        
 

Thanks to an electronic glitch that erased my name from the Sonoma County Winegrape Commission's (SCWC) mailing list, I missed all five of the regional competitions in the Eighth Annual Pruning Contest. I would have missed the finals as well if during an interview on another subject, Chuck Hussey of Verite Vineyards hadn't concluded our visit by saying, "See you Friday." What was happening Friday, and where? Hard as it was for me to believe, that was the first I had heard of this year's pruning contest, one of my very favorite wine country events.

In its eight years of existence, the Sonoma County Pruning Contest has been conducted in pouring rain, on days so chilly I could barely hold my pen to take notes, and then this year, like a special gift from heaven, everyone enjoyed sunny springtime temperatures in the windless 60s.  Good weather may have helped swell the crowd of spectators, which the contest's hard-working organizers, Nick Frey and Judy Tuhtan of the SCWC estimated to be about 150 men and women.

In preliminary prune-offs in the five major appellation areas of Sonoma County, held the week of January 29^th through February 2^nd, as many as 40 eager hopefuls at each site had taken shears to vines, hoping to advance to the finals. The top two in each locale were invited to the championship trials.  Representatives from Alexander Valley were Samuel Campos, Vimark Vineyards and Salvador Gomez, Stonestreet Winery. From Dry Creek Valley, Gustavo Rico and Joel Gonzalez, both of Seghesio Vineyards. Knight Valley's pair was Alejandro Ceja, Fosters Wine Estates and Pedro Figuenoa, Vyborny Vineyard Management. Rosendo Avila of Annapolis Partners and Joel Robledo, Freestone Vineyards came from Russian River Valley and the Sonoma Valley duo were Atenedor Paz, Wildwood Vineyards and Ezequiel Rojas, Enrique's Vineyard Management. As contestants and spectators gathered at the edge of the Chardonnay vineyard at Santa Rosa Junior College's Shone Farm, each man (there were no women competing) stood by his three vines, waiting for Frey's call of "Vamonos," and the click of the timers' stop watches.   

The contest does not have a simple goal of finding the fastest shears in the west, but is evaluated for a balance between the speed of the trimmer and the quality of his cuts.  Each man starts with 100 points, and when the judges examine the pruned vines deductions are made for pruning faults.  Only 40 of the 100 points are awarded for speed, even so, the first man finished with his vines has usually completed the job in four to six minutes. "They are all good," says Frey, "and they are all aware that their attention to the vines is setting up the yield and quality of that year's vintage. Our intent in sponsoring the event is to showcase the expertise of these true vineyard professionals.

"This is the biggest pruning event we have ever had," comments Frey, president of the SCWC.  "The quality and speed of the pruning was exceptional.  The contest is a tough one, with the most meticulous judging any of the observers has ever seen in any 'sport'".  The four judges, Andrew Avellar of Sonoma Valley Vineyard Management; Keith Horn, Clos du Bois; Daniel Robledo, United Agri Products and Jason Saling, Sonoma Cutrer, take pride in being described as "very picky".

When the results were tabulated the winners were announced at a typical Sonoma County barbecue while being entertained by the mariachi music of Elegancia Nortena. Samuel Campos of Vimark Vineyards won first place in the Championships, followed by Salvador Gomez from Stonestreet Winery in Alexander Valley, and third place went to Rosendo Avila of Annapolis Partners.  All received cash prizes from the SCWC which were matched by winery associations in each appellation, and their arms were filled with donations of logo wear and wine.

As you greet the wines of 2007, you might want to send a silent thank you to these men whose talent and skill help make each vintage more delicious and outstanding.

It was in 1884 that Bartholomew Lagomarsino left Genoa, Italy and acquired about 30 -acres of land on Piner Road, about a mile west of Fulton, CA where he began planting Zinfandel and Petite Sirah grapes. As the vines came into bearing, he built a winery, and as the vineyards matured he expanded the facility until he had the capability of making and storing 130,000 gallons of wine. Now, 115 years later, the vines are being tended by another Italian gentleman, Joe Battaglini, who is making wine in his small, modern winery, which was once a barn for stabling work horses, just across a patch of grass from Lagomarsino's huge old winery.

Joe, who was born in Casa Blanca and grew up in Lucca, Italy, remembers vividly his family's trip across the U. S. from New York to California by train. "There were the four of us, my dad, my mother, my sister and me, and none of us knew a word of English. I still recall my dad trying to order breakfast in the dining car, miming the cracking and breaking of the eggs into the pan. Fortunately, a kind gentleman a few tables away noticed the problem, and since he spoke Italian, he translated for us."

In 1988, Joe and his wife Lucy, purchased the Lagomarsino property and restored the vineyard. He made his first wine from the 1994 vintage, and in 1998 he changed the winery name from Battaglini Winery and Vineyard to Battaglini Estate Winery.

The estate boasts vines that are over 120 year-old and were first planted in 1885. They produce only about a ton and a half per acre, but with exceptional fruit. The results are delicious, rich, deep, fruity wines that have gained the winery several awards including a Double Gold Medal for their 2003 Proprietor's Reserve Zinfandel at the 2006 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.

Although production has doubled since 1998 – going from 1200 to 2400 cases, Battaglini Estate Winery is still a family-owned and operated wine producer. Visit the winery at 2948 Piner Road, Santa Rosa, CA or call ahead 707-578-4091. More to know is at http://www.battagliniwines.com/

Winemaker Profile – Diane Wilson, Wilson Winery
(June 2007)

When one of your hearty Zinfandels has been named as the sweepstakes winner in the red wine category at the 2005 judging at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair, it doesn't occur to you that lightning can strike twice in the same place. So, says Diane Wilson, co-owner and winemaker at Wilson Winery, Healdsburg, CA, while she was watching the results of the 2006 competition on the large screen it didn't bother her too much that she could not hear the announcement of the 2006 red sweets winner because of crowd noise. After all, she had carried home the award the previous year, so how could she possibly be the recipient again?

However as friends and other wine enthusiasts gathered around her, complimenting her on her win, she realized another of her Zins had swept the field.

When Diane and her husband Ken Wilson bought their Dry Creek Winery vineyard and winery property in 1982 they thought of it only as a good investment because the location was known to produce wonderful red grapes.  From 1994 until 1999 they produced only estate grown Cabernet Sauvignon, then they expanded their portfolio by adding their first Syrah, some Merlot and Zinfandel. "Now, each year, we are producing about 500 cases each of Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petite Sirah, and Cabernet Franc, but 80% of our production is now Zinfandel, and our total production has grown to 5,000 cases a year," says Diane.

Diane's passion for cooking stands her in good stead when she greets each load of grapes as it arrives at the crush pad each fall. "From cooking," she says, "I have learned my sense of smell and taste are my strongest tools.  I walk each block in each vineyard with our vineyard manager, Juan Rodriguez, to check on how the vines are doing and by early August or September I start following the ripening of the crop, tasting individual berries and taking sugar readings."

The limited bottling wines are offered first to members of the Wilson Winery Wine Club.  There are three levels of membership: members opt to receive two wines each quarter, semi-annual shipments of six wines or a full case of Wilson Wines each March and November.  Generous discounts are offered to members, along with private parties and reduced shipping charges.

One of the great favorites at Wilson, timed for release in late spring is the Blushing Flamingo Rosé of Merlot.  Tasting hours daily at Wilson Winery are 11:00 am till five pm and the winery address is 1960 Dry Creek Road, Healdsburg.  For detailed information about the winery, the Wilsons and all the events, check www.wilsonwinery.com or call 707-433-4355.
 

Wine Education and Educators
(May 2007)

A good many years ago, and for a good many years, I was a member of the Society of Wine Educators.  Oddly enough I did not consider myself an educator. Educators were people who taught wine appreciation classes at community colleges and such sites.

Recently, I have found that more and more wineries now have a person with the official title of "Educator" and in just talking to a few (three) of them, and exploring the scope of what they teach I am convinced that the wineries who employ them are getting their money's worth.

The first thing I found out was that each of the three had a different focus though the overall aim was to improve the wine consumer's bank of knowledge about wine. Kim Caffrey, wine educator at the yet to be named winery (formerly Chateau Souverain) sheltered under the Francis Ford Coppola Presents (FFCP) umbrella, points out there are different avenues to follow in the wine world. "My main interest," she says, "is to plant a seed so people can go off along the avenue that interests them the most. Learning about wine can be so much fun and one of my goals is to make wine more user friendly."

Kim's charge, when she first joined FFCP was to work with the sales staff. "The procedure is to tailor the instruction in such a way that we answer any questions the staff my have. It is important for them to recognize what the wine is and is not supposed to be like. To achieve that the education has to be on-going.  Because consumer taste can change so suddenly and emphatically, those serving and selling wine always need to follow new areas of learning. 

A great many of the wine education programs were, and still are, designed for the wine company's own employees.  "In the 1990s," Steve Hosmer, director of wine education – west, for Beam Wine Estates recalls, "we were concerned with educating our distributors and sales staff in the field. As other entities such as retail chains, hotel and restaurant food and beverage directors and a growing number of wine consumers heard of our programs we had to expand and with the hiring of Evan Goldstein, Master Sommelier, we launched a Wine Academy in 2003. We created 65 different classes with subject matter that covers all facets of winemaking from the most basic to the very definitive. We need about an hour to an hour and a half to deliver the information and allow plenty of time for questions and answers."

"Wine education is becoming an imperative for companies, large and small," he states.  "It is an important investment of time and space with a plan that helps you do it right."

That investment is made where customer is king, at Verite Estate Winery where hospitality manager/educator Chuck Hussey keeps coming up with new ideas for increasing enjoyment along with knowledge in two educational sessions each day; the first at 10:30 am and the second at 2:30 pm. Class size can range from one to twelve persons.

The presentations are structured, but not stuffy, dull or pedantic.  The session begins when Chuck or his associate educator Carol Muelrath hands a glass of dry rosé wine to the visitor and suggests they carry their wine into the vineyard where he starts the story of the grape's journey to the bottle.  Time in the vineyard will range from ten minutes to 30, depending on the questions the group has. If he is around, Pierre Seillan, vigneron/winemaker, will add a few anecdotes from his years in France and California.

Back in the tasting room a table is set with glasses, dump bucket and place mats.  The tasting may be designed to show differences between wines from the same vintage or similarity of wines produced in a single year. 

When you spend an hour or more with Chuck and Carol you know you are going to go home with increased confidence in your own wine decisions, and, of course you can always go back for a brush-up course.

If it is true that many wine shoppers carry home bottles of wine they have selected because they like the animal on the label, then Dr. Ernest A. Bates, internationally known neurosurgeon, chose wisely when he selected the silhouette of a coyote for his new wines.

If Cabernet Sauvignon is still the king of reds, as it is, then Dr. Bates also made a wise choice when he filled a few hundred bottles with outstanding Napa Valley Cabernet and , in another astute move, sent those bottles out into the world with some savvy marketing support.

Still, one of the most exciting things about Dr. Bates' Black Coyote wine came about quite accidentally, when he gave a bottle of his 1998 wine, made simply for his own enjoyment, to a friend who was so impressed with it that he, in turn, asked wine evaluator, Robert Parker, if he would like to taste it.  Although the friend had passed the wine along only as a matter of interest, Parker tasted it, gave it a rating in the high 80s and included it in a laudatory wine article.

Dr. Bates' reaction to all this was an enthusiastic, "Wow!! I'm in the wine business." But before making the final decision to enter the wine scene Dr. Bates asked his friend Tom Klein, owner of Rodney Strong Vineyards, "What are the opportunities for African-Americans in the wine business?"  Tom's answer was an enthusiastic "Go for it."

Until then Dr. Bates, who had wanted to be a doctor since early childhood, had little interest in wine.  He was even surprised to learn there was a small 15-year-old vineyard growing on the property he had purchased in 1997 as a retirement home.

By 2000 Bates, with Art Finkelstein of Judd's Hill winery, had produced his first commercial wines, commissioned African-American artist Benny Andrews to create a label, featuring the resident black coyote, and was judiciously selecting national competitions into which to enter his wines. His efforts were rewarded when the 2003 Vintage of Black Coyote Cabernet received double gold awards in both the San Francisco Wine Competition and the Tasters Guild tasting. 

When three of Dr. Bates' colleagues and directors of the American Shared Hospital Services, founded by Dr. Bates in 1977, expressed an interest in becoming part of the winery, he added Dr. Olin Robison, Jack Ruffle and Stanley Trotman, Jr. as partners in Black Coyote Wines and Bates Creek Vineyard. Then, on the recommendation of his new partners he hired Marco DiGiulio as winemaker and Chardonnay wines from grapes purchased in Monterey County and the Napa Valley became part of the portfolio. With the harvest of 2007 a Sauvignon Blanc may join the line, and by 2008 Black Coyote could also be producing a special Reserve.

Dr. Bates is thinking that over long and hard. It has been suggested a Black Coyote Reserve could retail for as high as $80 a bottle, but says Dr. Bates, "We want to make wines that our families and friends will enjoy. What's the benefit of making an $80 bottle of wine if your friends can't afford to buy it?"

In 2002 Dr. Bates became one of four founding members of the Association of African American Vintners, which serves to unite its members in an exchange of ideas and resources through seminars and tastings around the country.  Membership, however, is not limited to African Americans or vintners. Anyone interested is invited to join.

Dr. Bates' medical ties are still strong, and he serves on the Board of Trustees for his alma maters, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Rochester School of Medicine.  He is active in leading professional medical societies and is a contributor to an array of medical publications.

For company in his strolls around the ranch, checking the vines, he has two charming young ladies. His companions, whom he scolds when they roll in his freshly planted flowerbeds, are Sally and Cindy, a pair of large and loving two-year-old Newfoundlands.

Nearly 20 years ago, in 1997,on a chance visit to the Dry Creek Valley, Gerry and Jann Forth began a romance that would lead them to become grape growers, and, a few years later, producers of the kind of red wines that take home gold medals from every competition they enter.  They had happened upon a rare piece of property – a broken down old ranch with just the right combination of rough, rocky soil and sunshine to produce magnificent red wines. They knew they had found their home and never looked back.

Though neither of them had a strong agricultural background, Gerry had grown up in the Pennsylvania farm country and, at age 11, had already tried his hand at winemaking using wild grapes and berries.  Jann, a native Californian, grew up in a family that enjoyed spending time in the kitchen and at the table exploring fine foods along with good conversation.

As is common among those moving from a successful non-farming professional career to the world of agriculture, Gerry and Jann started their new life selling their Syrah and Cabernet grapes to large wineries until, as Jann says, "We became a bonded winery because we knew the vineyard would not pay for itself just from the sale of grapes."

By the harvest of 1998, with a healthy ten acre vineyard taking shape on a steep hillside slope and two years of cellar experience at Pezzi King Winery behind him Gerry felt he had pretty well developed his own sense of place and he was ready to make a couple of barrels of Cabernet Sauvignon to release under the family name. Yield from the small vineyard is about two and a half tons per acre for a total of 25 tons in a good year.

"The soil on the ranch is composed of seabed that lifted up and hills that eroded," says Gerry.  "The soil is red sandstone, clay and shale. The soil differences offer some great challenges.  Portions of the vineyard grow lush and luxuriant and others are very lean with low yield. The two areas seem to alternate as you move down the hill and when grapes from the various areas are blended they make a great wine.

"We have vineyards named for each of our children: Rebecca's Vineyard is a 14-year-old Cabernet vineyard at the top of the steep hill. Josh's vineyard is the middle portion and Ben's vineyard is behind the house. Rebecca, her husband and their two sons live in Healdsburg where she is the pastry Chef at Barn Diva. Josh, an art major at Sonoma State University lives in San Francisco where he handles our wine sales to restaurants and wine shops, and Ben and his wife and their sons live in Arcata where Ben plays drums and manages organic produce at Wildberries Market."

Forth Winery is one of the consortium of wineries with tasting rooms on the site of the old Timbercrest Farms plant off Dry Creek Road. Someone from the family is present at the tasting room every day from 11:00 am till 4:30 pm, ready to pour samples of the wines. The "All Boys" Cabernet, named for the Forths' two sons, four grandsons and the five brothers at the next-door farm should not be missed.  Production has been growing with each vintage, with an ultimate goal of 22,000 cases a year. Production of individual wines lies between 300 and 650 cases each. 

Jann sums up the Forth spirit that infuses each bottle of the family's wine: "From harvest to fermentation, to barrel to bottle, the labor and the love is our own." The best way to join in this love fest is by putting your name on the Forth mailing list. Sign up in person at the Family Wineries tasting room, 4791 Dry Creek Road, Healdsburg, or call Forth Winery at 707-473-0553 or at the group tasting room, 707-433-0100.

One of the most beautiful and interesting gifts Old Santa left under the tree this year is a coffee-table-size book called, "Concannon", which chronicles the adventures through hard times and good times of the Concannon clan from the winery's founding, in 1883, to the present day.  "Concannon" is filled with real stories about real people who took chances, pioneered new fields and earned every nice word that has been written or spoken about them in the nearly 125 years since James Concannon, grandfather of the current Jim Concannon, became the first Irish vintner not just in California, but in the entire United States.

That was the first of a collection of "firsts" for the family which virtually put the Livermore Valley on the map of premium wine producing regions in the New World.  As Jim says, the story really begins with a suggestion from San Francisco's Archbishop Joseph Alemany that James buy some land and grow grapes to make into sacramental wines for the church.  Undoubtedly James decided that sounded like a better pursuit than traveling around the country selling rubber stamps, so he invested in a 47-acre ranch in Livermore, built a home and planted grapes.  The first full crop in 1886 was so well received that James bought more land and planted more grapes. By 1895 Concannon Vineyard was producing 100,000 gallons of wine annually with hundreds of gallons sold in bulk, and a growing portion becoming available for public sale.

A lesser-known chapter of the Concannons and their dedication to the wine industry has to do with James' involvement with improving and enlarging the vineyards and wineries of Baja California - a venture cut short by the violence of the Mexican Revolution.

When James Concannon died in 1911, his son, Jim's Dad, Joseph, was called home from his career as a cavalryman in the United States Army, to take over operation of the vineyards and winery.  Then Prohibition struck and, had it not been for their established position as suppliers of wines for church sacraments, the Concannon story may well have ended less than half a century after its founding. Fortunately the winery stayed vibrant through Prohibition, reestablished its leading position in the industry after Repeal and maintained its leadership role though the vicissitudes of World War II.  Sadly, shortly after the war's end Jim's uncles, Tom and Robert both died and James was left alone to keep things running.  He freely admitted he was not a winemaker and broke ground in another direction by hiring Katherine Vajda, one of the first female winemakers on the California wine scene.  Jim admits that, like his Dad, he was not a winemaker, and he credits Vajda with teaching and mentoring him until he followed her into the cellar and lab in 1960.

There are many voices speaking in "Concannon", Jim's, in which you can almost hear an Irish lilt, carries the narration, moved along by author Tim Patterson.  Many of the story-tellers are women, a good many are dignitaries and celebrities and dozens are members of the family who had a role to play in the story.

Throughout the book are dozens of photographs. Many are historical family shots, but most are dramatic and dazzling full-page pictures of grapes, unfolding leaves, fermenting grapes and undulating lines of grape vines captured by photographer Andy Katz.  There are probably wine lovers out there who will buy two copies of the book, simply to have the ability to cut out the pages with the most artistic photos and frame them as part of their décor.

The narrative portion of the book concludes with a time-line of the first 125 years of Concannon Vineyard, and, nicest of all is the Old Irish Toast presented on the final page: May the road rise up before you, May the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and the rain fall softly on your fields, and until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.

Concannon is available at most bookstores and the price is $49.95 or from the winery.

http://www.concannonvineyard.com/onlineStore.html
 

After the hustle and rush of the harvest has passed, a stillness settles in the vineyards that make up the Carneros Viticultural Area with its hundreds of vineyard acres lying within the boundaries of both Napa and Sonoma Counties.  The vines lay a soft gold blanket across the land. Then the rainy season begins and the golden leaves drop. Skilled crews of vineyard workers position the canes for the next year's growth. After a few months of rejuvenating sleep, the tender leaves creep out and the growth cycle begins anew.

This idyllic setting is not exclusive to the Carneros, but there are more vast spreads of uninterrupted vineyard there than in most other viticultural areas and one visit to Bouchaine Winery, on Buchli Station Road, will reveal the best vantage point for watching this miracle unfold, and the perfect guide to lead you to it.

A knoll on the southern end of the Bouchaine estate vineyards provides a 360 degree panoramic view which, on a clear day, includes San Francisco.  The visitor cannot drive to the knoll on his/her own, but in what PR maven Lee Hodo calls "off-the-cuff-hospitality" it is a common occurrence for winemaker Mike Richmond to pop through the door of the tasting room and call out, "Anyone for a ride through the vineyard?"

"We enjoy doing the unexpected," Lee explains. "Particularly for the 700 members of the Bouchaine Bacchus Club," adds Donna Burk, retail sales manager who has helped the Club grow from 90 members just months ago to almost ten times that number today. Bacchus Club members receive four wine shipments a year – nearly always including some wines made exclusively for the club.  A call ahead to Donna results in a special tray of cheeses, matched to four or five current releases and small lot production wines being offered to the group on the patio or deck.  An extra plus is that Dee Ferris, who assembles the food trays, is a former restaurateur and her gifted touch lifts a cheese sampler into the realms of culinary excitement. Dee's artistic touch may also be seen (and tasted!) in the gourmet picnic presentation "Table for Two," which will resume in the spring. 

Bouchaine Vineyards is the oldest continuously operated winery in the Carneros.  It was established in 1928 by an Italian immigrant, Johnny Garetto, and the long legacy of family ownership has been continued since 1981 by Gerret and Tatiana Copeland of Wilmington Delaware. Though their primary home is in Delaware, Gerret and Tatiana spend considerable time at their Napa Valley property visiting with neighbors, catching up on Carneros events and actively bidding at the Napa Valley Wine Auction.

Their focus is on their own two favorite wines: Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Their goal, which they share with winemaker Mike Richmond, one of the pioneers in grape growing and winemaking in the Carneros, is to combine time-tested winemaking with new vineyard techniques to create exceptional wines that express the elegance of Burgundy, the exuberance of California and the nature of Carneros. One very special wine is Michael's Bouche d'Or – a Late Harvest Chardonnay, not influenced by botrytis .  "The grapes grow in a low, boggy spot.  We allow them to hang a month or more beyond ripening so they develop natural sugars which give the wine its deep honey-like flavor."

Also unique to Bouchaine are the wood sculptures created by facilities manager, Kenny McDonald.  Look for his silver-grey spheres, made of old barrel staves, stacked by the patio and hanging as gigantic mobiles in the fermentation room.

For more news about the friendly, relaxed welcome you'll receive at Bouchaine including the joyous "Dog Day Saturday," attended by dozens of dogs and their humans each August, check the attractive website, www.bouchaine.com where you can also order wine and sign up for the Bacchus Club.  Tasting room hours are 10:30 am till 4:00 pm daily and for a tour call ahead for an appointment: 800-654-9463.

When they were young newly-weds, Lise and Vincent Ciolino shared a dream.  That dream was to grow and produce exceptional red wines and olive oils from their own land.  Lise, born in Denmark, had lived in France, Switzerland, Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island gathering the influences of diverse cultures as her love of wine grew and finally led her into a brand-new career as a winemaker when she and Vincent purchased a small property on a hillside above Sonoma county's Dry Creek Valley.

Although Vincent was born in Chicago, he credits his passion for the land to his forefathers who were all farmers living off the land. "The name of the winery," explains Vincent, "is the name of the small hillside village of Montemaggiore in southern Italy where my father was born.  This name, translated, means 'great mountain', which reflects the steep hillsides of our vineyards while paying homage to our Italian heritage."

Lise's career was in the software industry and Vincent also followed an educational path to an overseas position in the computer software industry.  On his return he and Lise married and moved to California.

A lot of people they knew were involved in home winemaking, so Lise decided they could do it, too. "We started in the garage," she says, "then I took classes at the University of California at Davis. Our first wine was a Zinfandel made with grapes from Amador County. We were very excited when that first wine received a silver medal at the Los Angeles County Fair. Our spirits were a bit dampened however when our second wine was absolutely undrinkable.

"I had always wanted to live in Sonoma County," Lise confesses, "and Vincent wanted to live in an agricultural area that was comfortably close to San Francisco."  They filled both of those requirements when Vincent found the 55-acre Healdsburg property while surfing the web. The young couple purchased the land in 2001. There were ten acres of vineyard 750 feet above the valley floor: two-and-a half acres of Cabernet that had been planted in 1994 and 1996, and 7 ½ acres of Syrah, planted in 1999 on 4x4 spacing. Vincent's 800 olive trees came later. 

The Ciolinos' first harvest was in 2002, and their first commercial wine release, the 2002 Paolo's Vineyard Syrah, was named as one of the Top Ten Syrahs by Wine & Spirits Magazine.  Total annual production at the present time ranges from 1000 to 1500 cases.

In 2004 they built their winery inside an enormous barn that was on the property but had never been used for making wine.

They hand pick about four tons a day, starting on the hilltop where the grapes ripen first.  Usually Lise and Vincent finish picking by nine, take a break, de-stem and sort and clean up in the afternoon. All the activities of the crush are conducted inside the winery building.

Montemaggiore produces just two wines each year – Syrah and a Cabernet/Syrah blend called "Superiore." In exceptional years, they may also make a Reserve Syrah.  "We specialize in Syrah because it is our own favorite varietal and because the terroir of our vineyards yields Syrah grapes with exceptional flavors," says Vincent.  "All the wines are made exclusively from our estate vineyards in Dry Creek Valley, and the Paolo vineyard is named for our three-year-old son."

Those desiring a tour or tasting and wine purchase should call 707-433-9499 for an appointment to visit Montemaggiore at 2355 West Dry Creek Road, Healdsburg. A well-maintained website is worth a visit at any time: www.montemaggiore.com.
 

There is a clone of Sauvignon Blanc called Musqué. Several California wineries use this clone as a blending component in their Sauvignon Blanc releases.  Most use a ratio of about 75% Sauvignon Blanc to 25% Sauvignon Musqué.  Some also add minute quantities – usually less than 5% - of Semillon and the resulting blend is usually bottled and sold with a Sauvignon Blanc label.

Until a year or so ago Dry Creek Vineyard was one of those who followed this practice. Then Dry Creek Vineyard vice president Kim Stare Wallace; general manager Don Wallace; founder (and retired president) David Stare, and winemaker Bill Knuttel took a long, hard look at the growing number of wines being released as "Reserve" wines.  Originally wineries applied the term Reserve to wines that displayed superior qualities that set them apart from even the finest of the wines in their sales portfolio because of a particular terroir, clonal selection or a particularly spectacular growing year. Now, Knuttel and the rest felt the word Reserve had become just another arrow in the marketing quiver, with no special qualities needed for any wine to be saluted as a Reserve. The more they studied the situation, the stronger the Dry Creek Vineyard team was convinced that the former luster of the word Reserve had been diluted and stripped away until it was virtually meaningless.

At that point the group decided to move away from labeling any of their wines as Reserves in favor of using single vineyard designations on wines they identified as having special properties of excellence due to their terroir.  Drawing on their estate vineyards and the vineyards of growers who had been supplying premium grapes for Dry Creek Vineyard wines for decades they created the first Single Vineyard releases, one of which was the 2004 Taylor's Vineyard Sauvignon Musqué.  Because the Federal Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) does not officially recognize Musqué as a true varietal, Dry Creek Vineyard could not simply use the words Sauvignon Musqué on the label so identified it as Sauvignon Blanc, Taylor's Vineyard Musqué. The grapes all come from the 3.3-acre vineyard planted in 2000 and named for Kim and Don's daughter Taylor.

It was winemaker Bill Knuttel who suggested the Musqué be bottled on is own since the selection is so truly unique.  "Its flavor profile does resemble Sauvignon Blanc," says Bill, "but it has more tropical and heady aromas and a touch more viscosity."

The first Sauvignon Musqué harvest, in 2003, yielded approximately four tons to the acre from which Bill produced a few over 500 cases of wine.

The Sauvignon Musqué is an addition to not a replacement for the trio of well-regarded Sauvignon Blanc wines made by Dry Creek Vineyard: the benchmark Fume Blanc; the Estate DCV3 Fume Blanc and the Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc Soleil.  Adding the Musqué to the line simply continues the winery's history and tradition with a grape everyone told Dave Stare would not flourish in the Dry Creek Valley.

Web-site: http://www.drycreekvineyard.com/

Strangers before the judges
(October 2006)

A month or so ago, when I received an invitation to judge at the Calaveras County Fair, I did not know I was going to be introduced to three wines I had never even heard of before.  This mini-revelation occurred when a flight of seven wines, identified simply as "Other Red Varieties," was poured for my panel. 

Four of the wines I had a fair familiarity with: Malbec, Carignane, Refosco and Mission. The other three were total strangers, not just to me but to all the judges at my table and even to Professor Ken Fugelsang of Fresno State University, who joined us and sniffed and sipped but could give us no leads as to what we were tasting, or what it was supposed to taste like.  Some research, after the fact, identified all three as products of Montevina Winery in the Mother Lode town of Plymouth.  The next question was why was Montevina Winery growing these grapes and making wine from them.  For that enlightenment I had to go to Jeff Meyers, vice-president/general manager/winemaker of Montevina Winery, which is owned by the Trinchero family of Sutter Home Winery fame.

The three grape varieties I was curious about were Aglianico, Teroldego and Freisa.  "Those three," Jeff told me, "were all products of what I believe is one of the most thorough, in-depth commercial research projects that anyone has done in California.  Starting in 1990, the Trinchero family planted over 40 different Italian grape varieties, with a total of over 70 different Italian clones at their Delta Ranch in the Courtland area. Every one of those 70 different clones from every vintage for a decade was vinified in small lots – some as small as five gallons and nothing larger than a barrel of each."

Taking each of the three separately, Jeff told a fascinating story about the experiments with the three varieties. "The Freisa was planted because Bob Trinchero's father's family used to grow it in Italy," he told us.  "Teroldego was a variety that everyone at the winery loved from the 1992 vintage forward, and Aglianico is just a treat to make and one of the oldest, if not the oldest wine grape variety in the world, dating back to Roman times.

"The main source of all the experimental clones was the USDA Germplasm in Woodland, just outside of Sacramento," Jeff remarks. "Freisa is one of the red grape varieties grown in the Piedmont region of Italy and is often made in a frizzante style. We have two acres of Freisa planted in 1995, from which we make 200 to 500 cases of wine each year.  Because it has a dark, cherry-raspberry character and high acidity it is an excellent food wine."

After many years of trials, Jeff developed what he considers an ideal clone for this wine. The grapes are crushed into half-ton bins, punched down four times a day then, after pressing, racked to American oak barrels for 17-months aging before bottling. The finished Freisa is a big wine with a powerful, lingering fruit finish.

"We planted just one acre of Aglianico in 1990, then expanded to four acres in 1997," Jeff explains. "Only three tons of Aglianico were harvested from the 2004 vintage.  The grapes were crushed directly into six macro-bins for fermentation and punched down by hand three times daily. The resulting wine, usually about 200 cases from each vintage, is well balanced with a black cherry and wood smoke finish.

"We have 3.5 acres of Teroldego planted in 1999, and we usually produce about 600 cases. It took 11 years from our coming up with the idea of planting a Teroldego vineyard to the release of our first varietal bottling.  A consumer's first impression of Teroldego is the intensity of its color followed by a nose packed with pomegranate aroma and rose perfume and a mix of rich brambly flavors."

These three historic wines rated very high with our panel, which awarded the Freisa a gold medal, and the Teroldego and Aglianico each a silver. The wines are available only at the winery at 20680 Shenandoah School Rd., Plymouth. An excellent website is filled with good information at www.montevina.com.  For directions to the winery, call 209-245-6942.

It was while I was doing some research about labels designed for special events that I discovered the "holiday" called Festivus.  If I had ever watched the TV show "Seinfeld," which I never did, I would have known about Festivus a long time ago.  According to those who designed what they call "the holiday for the rest of us" Festivus was introduced in an episode called "The Strike," aired December 18^th 1997.

The special wine to honor this occasion is usually a Cabernet Sauvignon with a label that incorporates the logo of Grape Ranch – the skull of a long horn steer decorated with Christmas lights on the horns and a glowing red grape nose. Grape Ranch is a vineyard and winery located six miles south of Okemah in Okfuskee County in Oklahoma.  The owners, Dan and Jack Whiteman, and their wives Erika and Katie, refer to their property as the newest and possibly the largest Oklahoma vineyard and winery.

A little checking shows that there are about two dozen wineries in Oklahoma. Grape Ranch was bonded four years ago, and now produces approximately 3500 cases of wine annually. In July, 2004 they opened their tasting room and began some off-beat advertising, including billboards that poke fun at their international competition with messages such as: "Like the French, without the attitude," and "Like Napa Valley only closer."

While waiting for the grapes in its own 14-acre vineyard to mature, Dan and Jack advertised on-line and contacted wine brokers in California to purchase wine in bulk. On buying trips to California for winery equipment, trellis wire and other necessities, they transported their wine purchases back to Oklahoma in 330-gallon "totes." 

Jack and Katie also make frequent trips with their four-year-old-twins, Pierce and Jackson, to visit Katie's Mom, Dorothy Pierce, who lives in Oakmont with her 101-year -old Mother, Tutu. Dorothy, through her wine country friends and acquaintances was able to put Jack in touch with growers and soon he had contracts with outstanding vineyards in Sonoma County, Carneros, Suisun, and Monterey.

"At Grape Ranch," says Jack, "we've always tried to infuse humor into our wines. When we decided to call our holiday red 'Festivus' we had no idea the Festivus community was so large.  As soon as word spread that there was a Festivus wine, local retailers became inundated with requests for the wine, the glasses and the posters, anything that was Festivus related."

The more you find out about Grape Ranch, the greater the inclination to head across country and arrive in time to share in devouring the 300 pounds of crayfish Dan and Jack truck in from Texas for their crawdad feeds.  The tasty crustaceans are probably even more delicious when enjoyed along with a glass of Grape Ranch Country Rose – a tempting white Gamay.

There is lots more to learn about Grape Ranch and the Whitemans and the facts are pretty well covered on their website: www.graperanch.com.  There's a map and directions if you find yourself yielding to the siren call of festivals and fun at Grape Ranch on RouteThree, Okemah, OK. Want to talk to one of the bosses? Call 918-623-2250 or tap out an e-mail: info@graperanch.com.  Be prepared for a completely relaxed and joyful conversation about wine.

It's pretty surprising how long you can know someone, and not know them at all.  As an example, it came as a rather large surprise to me to learn that long-time acquaintance Glenn Proctor is the fourth generation of a venerable Italian family to plant, grow and tend Zinfandel grapes in the Dry Creek Valley. The family name is Puccioni and it was Glenn's great-grandfather, Angelo, who put the first vines into the ground in 1904.  Some of that sturdy vineyard is still producing limited but distinguished crops every year and those grapes are now going into the first Puccioni wines to be bottled since 1935.

Members of the third and fourth generation of Puccionis are now tending the land.  Sharing in the redevelopment of the vineyard are Glenn's uncle, Angelo and Angelo's daughter Allison, and Glenn's sister, Deneen.  Glenn and his wife Laurie are the most visible, on-property family members and not quite big enough to join the work force is Joshua William, Laurie and Glenn's nine-months-old son.

Following his own good advice, "Only do what you are comfortable with," Glenn made just 96 cases of Puccioni Zin from the 2003 harvest.  It has been completely sold out for several months.  Production the following year rose to 230 cases, and, when the 2005 vintage goes into the bottle, Glenn expects the case count to remain at about 230. All the Zinfandel comes from the Puccioni Ranch. "The first year," says Glenn, "we blended in about 9% Alicante Bouschet, also from vines at least 100 years old." 

Glenn makes his wine at the Benziger Family Vineyards in Glen Ellen, encouraged by Mike Benziger, with whom he worked in his first job in the wine industry in the late 1980s. The label, designed by Philippe Becker Designs in San Francisco, memorializes Prince, the last of Glenn's grandfather's mules to work on the ranch. Prince is shown kicking up his heels against a shadow portrait of the ranch property.  "Although the wine was released just about the time Australia was getting a lot of attention for its animal labels," maintains Glenn, "we were not joining the crowd by using Prince's picture." The mules (there were four that worked the ranch with Louie over the years) are further saluted by the Puccioni wine club which is called the Puccioni Mules because, says Glenn, "our customers are as stubborn as mules in their affection for our wine."

The ranch, which is breathtakingly forested with towering redwoods, is about 200 acres overall.  The vineyards fill about 16 acres on west-facing slopes.  The vines run up and down the steep slopes rather than across on terraces.  The original spacing was 7'x7' which worked just fine since the vineyards were farmed with mule power until Prince died in 1968.  Glenn recalls his grandfather teaching him to use a walking plow, pulled by the mule, when he was only four years old. The small John Deere tractor Louie bought to replace his faithful animal is still "stabled" in the barn and Glenn knows he'll tune it up and use it one of these days. The new 13-acre Zinfandel vineyard is old clone Zin, planted on St. George and 1103 rootstock. Most of the vines are head pruned although Glenn has installed drip irrigation and the vines are no longer dry farmed.  Sustainable agricultural practices are used exclusively. 

Alongside the small family house is a new block of Alicante Bouschet, and Glenn has created an experimental block of 20 vines each of six clonal selections to help him identify virus-free vines for future development of the vineyards.

As if watching over a heritage vineyard, planting new vines and making wine which is already earning medals, were not enough to keep him busy, Glenn is also a member of the Joseph W. Ciatti Co., wine brokerage where he is a broker for wine and grapes.  "I was a little uneasy when I went into tell Joe I wanted to split my time between the job and the vineyard," Glenn recalls, "but he just said, 'Go for it, and more power to you!'"
 

Russian Hill Winery really has nothing to do with the country of Russia or its people, although Yuri Ushakov, the Russian Ambassador to the United States once made Russian Hill wines the official wine of the Russian Embassy in Washington DC.  Ellen Mack, president of Russian Hill Winery, smiles with delight as she recalls the story of how the Sonoma County winery got its name.

"The three of us, Ed Gomez, my husband, his nephew, Patrick Melley, who is our winemaker and I were trying to come up with a name for the new entity. We didn't want to use one of the family names, and Tara, which some of our neighbors called the property, wasn't at all what we wanted. Then Ed said, 'well, we're on a hill in the Russian River Valley, so how about Russian Hill?'  We all liked it, and it seemed particularly appropriate since Russian traders and trappers settled in this area in the early 19^th Century and even planted some vineyards."

Like many young wineries, the story of Russian Hill starts with home-winemakers, who became garagistas making very small quantities of such elegant wines that their friends talked them into going commercial. The first wines were Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon made from Napa Valley grapes in an industrial complex in Benicia.  The enthusiasm with which the wines were greeted propelled them into thoughts of finding a vineyard property which might also contain a winery.

"We looked for two years," says Ellen. "Every weekend we were on the road and found nothing. Then one day when we were looking at a piece of property the realtor pointed across the valley and mentioned that on that ridge there was a piece that might be possible.  It didn't look too promising. There was no vineyard and no winery. What there was, was a large, falling-apart house and 20 acres which had been a commercial dog kennel.  We took a second look at it and in 1997made an offer. The next year construction was begun on the winemaking facility and with crews working around the clock, it was ready when the grapes began to arrive from the 1999 harvest."  Much of the equipment at Russian Hill, from the fermentation tanks to the pneumatic punch-down tools, was designed by Ed specifically for creating the Russian Hill wines.

Russian Hill Winery now has 30 acres of estate vineyard containing, for the most part, Pinot Noir, Viognier and Syrah. Patrick makes ten core wines, all with vineyard designation: five Pinot Noirs, four Syrahs and a Chardonnay. There are also some fun wine