Vintage: Zins of the Eschen & Esola Vnyds

And this is an article I wrote for Vintage on
the Zinfandels of the Eschen & Esola vnyds:
EschenEsola.pdf (1.16 MB)
This was one of my most memorable articles I wrote for Vintage. When I was researching it, I made an appt to visit in Plymouth with
Ernie (sometimes referred to as “Ornery Ernie” by locals) and Lena d’Agostini Esola. They were so excited that a “famous” wine writer was
wanting to visit them, that they were all dressed up in their Sunday best. After Ernie & I walked the vnyd, they insisted that I stay for lunch.
After we finished lunch, sat in the living room for another hour visiting. I happened to mention that my car (an old '68 Slant6 Dodge Dart) was making a bit
of a racket & I was worried about it. Ernie, still dressed in his Sunday best, insisted that I pull the car around back so he could look at it. He jacked it up & crawled
under it and told me I had badly worn U-Joints, which I got replaced in Sac the next day. I have little doubt that if metropolitan Plymouth had a Napa
Auto Parts, he would have insisted on replacing them for me. The Esola’s were some of the sweetist/kindest/down-to-the-earth/salt of the Earth, folks I’ve ever
met in my wine travels. I miss them dearly. Alas, Ernie died before his time when an acetelyne tank exploded whilst he was welding.
The Esola vnyd is, of course, now farmed by their daughter, Denise, and the grapes go to Morgan at Bedrock. He does a great job with that wine.
The (Chet) Eschen vnyd is now known as Rinaldi and grapes from there go to Bill Easton.

Tom

This is what I have been waiting for!! [cheers.gif]

Any and all past articles you have written (prior to Grape-Nutz.com ) are much appreciated!