The Paso community’s loss appears to be a gain for the Santa Cruz Mtns…
According to grape grower Marty Mathis, Jon & Jody Ahner are establishing a field blend of whites, à la Gemischter Satz, in the mountains - one acre, ~8 varieties.
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That vineyard is badly diseased with Red Blotch, which spreads easily to neighboring vineyards. The way I heard it was that it was being ripped out because it’s badly diseased. The folks that are buying fruit from there, a few of them with whom I have spoken recently about this site, all told me yields were way down because of the bad Red Blotch there. They assumed it would need to be ripped out. So blaming the Daou’s for now doing so seems disingenuous at best.
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Thank you for providing important context. I was too quick to judge. That said, I would dearly appreciate it if they replanted the Italian varieties.
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Let’s be real though… this vineyard was going to be grafted over at minimum, but most likely replanted entirely to Daou’s Cabernet/Bordeaux program no matter what. (I’m sure they have their preferred rootstock, and thus far have had no issues selling $150-300+ wines off 6-10 year old vines). I can pull a Tom here and say I was “there at the beginning!” with Daou when they first built and opened their tasting room - long before the parking lots were full of Ferraris and Lambos. It is indeed a beautiful site with pretty stunning views, but undeniable that they’ve been a fairly disruptive force and truthfully they’ve always made a style of wine outside my preference.
I would push back a little bit on Brian’s sentiment about how Paso Robles has changed however. I do think that Rhone varieties have undoubtedly been a critical part of Paso’s identity, but there’s always been an eccentric character to what Paso did and could grow. Zinfandel, Syrah and Cabernet were all incredibly prominent when I first starting tasting in Paso around 2007/08 (and your occasional Pinot and Chardonnay vineyards). Justin, Adelaida, Rangeland, L’Aventure all had pretty significant Cab vineyards. Some of the older, larger westside wineries like Peachy Canyon, Castoro, Opolo, Halter Ranch, Vina Robles, Robert Hall all grew Cabernet and/or Zinfandel.
Those truly doing true “Rhone” programs seemed the exception, although I think it’s quite easy to say that it was these producers who really put Paso on the map. Syrah was always extremely prominent in the area, but those who could make long-lived or even balanced Syrah were rare, and I think the value of Grenache and Mourvedre became clear to most producers. The quality of a lot of wines really improved from 2012 or so on, and critical acclaim seemed to keep building. White Rhones really took off around 2015/16 too (if you include Vermentino as Rolle). So while many of the best wines coming from those with strong Rhone programs, I can’t say that these were ever really the majority of wines being produced.
Right now I think you can look at Adelaida, Viking Estate (and HMR at one point) were planted to Cabernet off Hidden Mountain Road back in the early 90s. Daou is located right along this area, with their estate vineyards on the east side of the crest, while Adelaida is on the west (I believe). Luna Matta is just southwest of this area and recently Sixmilebridge which is also doing a Bordeaux program with Anthony and Hillary Yount right next door. It may prove true that this is a uniquely good site for Cabernet - the Viking Estate Cabernet did hold up over time in bottle better than many of their wines from the early 2000s.
Regardless - I think we all knew that Paso was going to change and become more like “Napa” over time with big prices. I’ve been surprised at how fast that happened given its distance from LA and SF. The success of Rhone wines in the area is certainly what made Paso unique in the American wine world - and I don’t think that will ever go away, but it’s a diverse area that will likely continually evolve over time. Although if I had to guess Rioja and Ribera Del Duero are probably a better analogue to Paso than Bordeaux.
It looks like Red Blotch is spread by an “Hopper”, just like Pierce’s.
That doesn’t sound good.
Using traditional insecticide techniques, you’d have to kill all the insects in the New World to get rid of the “Hoppers”.
God only knows what that would do to The Biome.
Before I read about the Hoppers, I was thinking that a Cab blend with Aglianico could be a way for Daou to distinguish themselves from the rest of the market.
I don’t know anything about blending wines, other than that it’s infinitely complicated, and just about impossible to do successfully, but something like an 85%-Cab/15%-Aglianico strikes me as something I’d like to experiment with [if I were a winemaker].
I agree. We just got back from there and too many blended wines. I wonder how often a winemaker blends to the point where they all taste alike. We bought plenty of blends but still like 100%+/- Syrah best.
And the blending trend is towards what I’ll call “new age” vs traditional Rhone or BDX.
It’s the “prisoner model”. Little bit of everything from everywhere in a highly extracted and big ABV package.
That’s fine, it sells, just of no interest to me.
My issue with a lot of current blends on the market - they remind me of the color brown. You start with all of these beautiful colors and hope to create something equally beautiful with it - but that’s not always what happens . . .
Cheers.
And thanks Sao for the insight - my guess is that vineyard is not alone with that predicament in that area unfortunately . . .
I’ve had a fair amount of respect for the Daou family and their story, but this one changes my mind. Sitting at Giornata right now and tasting the Luna Matta Nebbiolo and Anglianico, I have to say we’re about to lose a piece of viticultural history in California.
Not a fan of any of them.
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paso cab. fücking stupid. anyone thinking of doing this please don’t.
I believe the vast majority of wine consumers, including many on this board, would disagree.
Bottom line is that cab is still king, almost everywhere, and they can grow it a lot cheaper and with more crop load than many other regions in Paso . . .
Cheers.
i know the latter is true. and if i want cab i know where to find it. ask my bank account.
in terms of growing cheaper and crop load, yea the sky is blue. from a consumer perspective (mine) i just think the proliferation of the variety in paso is anything but a good thing.
paso and the central coast barely know how to grow the rhone grapes and pinot in terms of longevity. i hope growers and makers stick to advancing viticulture in terms of already established varieties before moving on to cab just because it can be sold at a generic steakhouse in middle america for a price that doesn’t offend the wife or accountant.
Steve,
Note that they have been growing cabs for 50+ years in the Paso area IIRC. I do believe that they have been growing Zin longer.
In the SBC area, NOTHING had been growing longer than 60 years or so, and most Vineyard sites are less than 40 years old. We have a very young region - one difference between our area and Paso is that we truly do have cool climate sub regions to goalong with warmer climate areas like the Happy Canyon AVA.
Cheers.