On Starr Rd in the Russian River Valley was the Clopton Vineyard, planted to old vine, 12 x 10 foot spaced, Zinfandel with Alicante Bouschet and maybe a little bit of Palomino.
Inizi, Wine Guerrilla, and other wineries bottled the Zinfandel. Wine Guerrilla even has a varietal bottling of Ali Bou from the Clopton Vineyard.
I no sooner discovered the existence of this site than found out that no wines will be made beyond the 2014 vintage.
The vines, according to two winery websites, have been ripped up to make space for a… CASINO???
Clopton is part of the 007 008 parcels in the attached map. The Lytton band of Pomo Indians bought up property with the help of gaming developers. A casino is not yet proposed but we all know that once they get in there a casino is inevitable since it is tribal land and we have no authority over them. The politicians are getting greased, the County is getting their payola and it’s business as usual. Been a real hotbed issue out here and has been in the works for 15 years. Homes along Windsor River Rd are already empty and boarded up.
I’ll do a drive-by at the vineyard and see what the truth is about vine removal.
A shame but there was a lot of pristine land that was destroyed to make way for shopping malls, fast food shops, vineyards, etc. It’s not like the Indians got a great deal either. Too bad that their go-to so often seems to be casinos though. It would be nice if they’d let it remain vineyard land and maybe do like Beckstoffer - farm it for quality.
In the grand scheme of things, vineyards are low on the importance scale. They do provide some farming jobs, but little social utility as opposed to more generally useful crops. It never shocks me when a vineyard gets torn up.
