I have read a bit lately on older Zinfandel wines, particularly Ravenswood, Gary Farrell, Rosenblum, Ridge, etc.
For a brief period of time, Joseph Swan produced a “VHSR” Zinfandel. My guess is my own, as I want to see if it can be confirmed here. More importantly, what I believe it stands for doesn’t indicate a single-vineyard Zin site, only a geographical location.
Got to ask Rod about that. He and I once communicated about this wine a number of years ago. He did not think it had the stuff to really age but I found a 6-pack in the 00s that was totally enjoyable.
I thought that I had posted a reply but it is not here! Must of offended someone .
VHSR was the name I gave a small planting of zinfandel along Vine Hill School Road on Laguna Ridge just south of us, some years ago. The owner, Pat Bohn, an HP engineer and his wife bought a parcel of a ranch that had been subdivided. It was an old zinfandel vineyard that got carved up into home sites. They built their house but kept the vines. He never named the vineyard so I just named it after the road. I got really tired of people asking me about the wink, wink,nod, nod secret meaning, fueled by Cecil DeLoach’s supposed “Our Finest Selection” OFS so I started telling people that it stood for “Very Heavy Serious Red”. Along the way Pat planted some chardonnay on the bare ground and, being the good engineer that he was, decided that harvesting grapes at two different times was inefficient, so he had the zinfandel grafted over to chardonnay!
About three years ago I was approached by a fellow that said he had some old vine zin and wanted to know if I was interested. I asked him where it was and he mentioned Vine Hill School Road. I asked him if by chance he knew Pat Bohn. He said he was his next door neighbor. Same original vines, different house lot. We are now making 2-3 barrels a year of that vineyard, and ,in honor of the past history, are calling it VHSR-Redux.
I was away and am just catching up with this thread. To clarify: I posted the link to K & L because the wine is listed as being from the “VHSR Vineyard.” Sounds like single vineyard to me. This is in contrast to the hunch of the original poster. Didn’t mean to provoke head scratching and shaking.
Thanks for the reminder that clarity counts. And thanks, Mr. Berglund, for the history.
I found this thread via Google. I just won a K&L auction consisting of 3 bottles of '93 and 2 bottles of '94. I was the only bidder so I got the lot for $100. Seems like a good deal to me!