Braving the Heat in Support of Preserving CA Historic Vineyards

Yesterday we braved 104° temperatures in the Sonoma Valley to tour the iconic Pagani Ranch in Kenwood followed by dinner and some amazing wines. It was the 7th Annual Historic Vineyard Society Tour and Dinner. In past years it has been touring 3-4 vineyards followed by a dinner featuring wines from said sites. The event is set up as a fund raiser for the Non-Profit HVS but the expense involved in shuttling attendees from venue to venue in air conditioned tour busses was cost prohibitive. This year they went more indepth into the farming, soils and other aspects of the business while keeping us in one place.

Mother Nature was having hot flashes yesterday and the mercury topped out at 104°. It was tough going standing out there in the heat but we did our best to stay hydrated and learn some interesting things about grape farming. We started out learning about the soil diversity on the ranch. Dino Amentite who runs the farming at Pagani dug a couple 4’ deep trenches between rows on different parts of the ranch. David Gates, viticulturalist for Ridge Vineyards, climbed in the holes with a screwdriver and poked into the soil at different depths showing us the top soil, clay, rock, gravel layers and how each effects how the vines grow.

Next Bob Biale of Robert Biale Vineyards gave us an in-depth look at how pruning and canopy management of these dry farmed head pruned vines is critical to having a successful crop. Selective leaf thinning to create airflow within the goblet of spurs on the vine keep mildew in check. The importance of which way the sun passes over the vines and how to leaf prune more on the sunrise side of the vine rather than the sunset side encourges proper ripening while protecting from sunburn was discussed. He also talked about how they manage clusters based on the vintage. Some years have large clusters wth wings where they will remove the wings in order to prevent mildew/bunchrot issues while in other years where the clusters are smaller they will not have wings. When and what fruit to drop and other aspects of the vine management were discussed at length while we baked in the afternoon sun.

Next we got a crash course in grape vine ampelography from Mike Officer of Carlisle Vineyards. Mike is a vine geek and loves talking about how he maps out old field blend vineyards and identifies all the dfferent varieties planted side by side. He showed us how to identify a vine by the shape of the leaf. How many lobes, how they are spaced, wheher they are shiny or matte, which way the leaf curls if at all and how some of these vines came to be planted in the mixture and/or where they originated. Always interesting listening to Mike geek out. His passion about the subject just oozes from his being.

After the tour we retired under the massive oak tree and enjoyed dozens and dozens of wines. I brought some bubbles for starters.

There were various white wines.

And scores of reds. Most from Pagani fruit. Here are a few that passed by my lips.

A very special bottling

Some dead soldiers, the backdrop didn’t suck either.

We needed all the wine to wash down the excellent meal.

Oh look, it’s the Godfather if Zinfandel, Joel Peterson.

And lots of happy Berserkers!

The scenery really sucked too.

Sunset on massive Pagani Alicante Vines

California Viticultural Royalty. From left to right. Ned of Seghesio, Bob Biale, John Olney Winemaker Ridge Lytton Springs, David Gates, Dino Amentite, Mike Officer, Joel Peterson, Tegan Passalacqua, Morgan Twain-Peterson, Mike Dildine, Emily Rasmussen event organizer.

Just another typical Saturday in Sonoma County
If you haven’t done this before you should really think about attending one. Educational, entertaining, memorable and tax deductible!

Man, thst was just an awesome report Brian and I really appreciate you taking the time to post it. About as close as I can get to actually being there until the kiddos are a little older.

Lots of amazing wines obviously but did any in particular stand out?

Also…how the he’ll do I get my hands on a magnum of Once & Future???

Great report and thanks for posting. I would have loved to been there among those vines and icons.

Personally the white wines were rocking since the weather was so hot. The O&F Petite was great but just too much on this day. Some of the older vintages were showing well. The 97 Mataro was delicious. The Nalle was really good. The Old Hill was probably the best vintage of that wine I have tasted. Most of the recent vintage wines were still pretty primary and that much fruit on this day wasn’t the best mix.

Also…how the he’ll do I get my hands on a magnum of Once & Future??? >

Buddy up with Joel I would suppose.

It’s an annual event. Just sayin.

Honest question: is it still enjoyable to drink wine at 104F?

I think I would wanna stay in the shuttle

Awesome report and photos tho!

Honestly? No. The bubbles and whites were great. We started putting the reds on ice just to keep them drinkable.

Thanks Brian!

why not earlier in the year when cooler? Nice report.

It’s usually held in May. Last year it rained, two years ago it was warm in Lodi, the year before it rained, both years before that it was in the 90s. You just never know. Triple digits generally doesn’t happen here until Sept or Oct.

I’d love info on dates when next year’s event is planned.

What a great report! thank you

Great report Brian!

I have to make it happen next year.

Thanks for sharing. Would love to attend one year.

Great job, Brian!!!

I failed to realize that the event had come…and gone…already. The photos are always welcome!

I am perhaps most envious of the Ridge Mataro and Ali Bou varietally-bottled Pagani Vineyard wines. Common sense does yield to your preference for the whites and BS Rosé - given the insane temperatures!

I am also fascinated by the way Mr Amantite dug holes in the middle of his family’s vineyard to help explain the varying soil types across the property. Sonoma Valley typically means red clay plus ancient soil/rocks that tumbled from the surrounding mountainsides in my simple mind.

Risking a heat stroke in the name of gaining a little more wine knowledge is appreciated by this reader.

Brian, great post and excellent job capturing all of the greatness that went down during the event. I knew when I saw a trench dug out and a winemaker standing in a hole to show us exactly how the soil was composed and what that meant for the vines that we were in for something special. Of course, with Pagani and 129 year old vines that alone was a treat, but the vineyard tour and 3 mini sessions were really fantastic.

I agree that the 1999 Ravenswood Old Hill was a highlight, as were the 1997 Ridge Mataro and a few of the 2014 Turley zins (101, Fredericks stood out for me). I worked to focus more on the older wines that were floating around, since the 2014s were heavier and mostly young with tannin, as you’d expect. The whites were great and included a chasselas from Pagani, which is pretty rare on this side of the world. I was surprised more of the folks who attended didn’t bring bottles - I brought up a 2007 Ravenswood Dickerson from Napa and a 2011 Bedrock Pagani and they were both good, one very red fruited, layered and balanced (Dickerson), and one with more power, grip and overall majesty, even in a cool year, coming together well but with plenty of tannin still along for the ride (Pagani). Drinkable now, for sure.

It was a really great event. I would encourage anyone interested in old vines, how they are worked and preserved, and what they have to offer in the form of vino, to look out for it next year.

Brian, I looked for you to thank you for your great and useful Sonoma County visit “sticky” post, but I lost track in the wines and conversation. Next time!

Yeah, I wish more had brought bottles as well. I brought the B-S Rosé, Sandlands Chenin and Nalle Zin. Never saw any Turley on our table but David Gates kept coming by with fresh bottles of Ridge so I wasn’t complaining. When I opened the bubbles and poured for my friends all kinds of folks started walking up saying, “I hear you have Champagne. B-S is my favorite!”
Mike Stoneking brought some old Martinelli Jackass Zins left over from our dinner the previous evening. A guy came over and asked if he could try some and proceeded to drain the contents of the bottle into his glass. Glug, glug, glug, sediment and all. Mike was beside himself.

Easy to get sidetracked with all the activity going on. Glad you enjoyed it.

Brian, thanks for the write up and terrific pics!

Postings like this are my favorites and make this forum so invaluable. I really appreciate living vicariously through the experiences of WBerserkers when I can’t find the time to plan a trip to Sonoma and Napa.

Great report. I was invited to attend with some friends (Biale connection) but declined and was regretting it until hearing about the heat. I’m used to hot weather having lived in Phoenix and Las Vegas, but I don’t know as I’ve seen 100 in wine country. I looked through the photos and could not find my friends. They really liked the event except for the heat, and mentioned there were a lot of white wines being poured. I can see why. After leaving the hot temps in Sonoma and Sacramento, their reward was a trip back to Vegas yesterday as we tied the all time record of 117. “But it’s a dry heat.” Right.

In the recently defeated Santa Barbara County Winery Ordinance, the Planning Department and Planning Commission banned vineyard walks, hikes and charity 5K runs.