History, some important figures and top producers. Of course a lot more could be written, but then it’d be a book. Interesting about the blanket damning condemnation from Wine Spectator. What a grossly ignorant steaming pile that was. Sure, there were many underwhelming Sangioveses in the early days. But, that was due to the grape being so different than what the winemakers were used to, being so prolific with huge clusters of huge grapes. Not addressing that is why there were thin wines with poor flavor development.
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As I was reading about Santa Ynez I kept thinking “what about Mosby, can’t believe she hasn’t mentioned Mosby”
I didn’t know Mosby was sold and renamed Vega.
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We spent a delightful afternoon at Unti last May yakking with Mick Unti about wine and baseball. He really did “walked the walk” as far as planting what they felt were the most appropriate varietals for the micro-climate.
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They’re doing such a great job with their Italian grapes, and it’s always fascinating to talk to Mick.
Last summer, I served the Unti 2011 (difficult vintage) sangiovese along with a 2010 Mastrojanni, and the Unti held its own. Moreover, by day 2 the refrigerated leftovers had really converged and were hard to distinguish. Both excellent wines, even on day 2.
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I recall reading somewhere that lots of Sangiovese and Barbera were originally planted in California and many of those vineyards were ripped out during Prohibition. It was the post-Prohibition planting wave that resulted in the main French varieties we see today. Imagine how different the vineyards and wines of California would be had it not been for that zealous legislation.
Agree. Unti wines are all excellent. I got hands-on experience with the high quality of their fruit sorting Grenache and Syrah for Rocks and Gravel one year.
I liked the choices of producers the author highlighted. (Where was she when Harrington was still going?) Sam Bilbro is a genius winemaker. With everything I’ve tried, he’s really getting the best out of what each grape has to offer, making that the focus. Love Giornata. I’m sure others can chime in with favorites. Fogarty makes a great Neb from their Gist Vineyard. Ghostnote makes the best Corvina I’ve had.
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A few notables for Sangiovese in Sierra Foothills.
Shingle Springs-Slate Ridge and Cielo, although vintages can be hit or miss.
Chicago Park-Montoliva.
Amador-Vino Noceto.
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My only Until tasting note. I’ve had others.
Yes, immigrants brought grapes plus their multi-generational winemaking heritage from the places they came from. Nurserymen brought in every grape variety they could get their hands on. There was a lot of experimentation to see what grapes performed best where…and that very much included intentional interplanting for the optimal field blend for a given site, when necessary. That started in the mid-19th century.
Of course French grapes were in the mix. A few producers in the Cupertino area, from in and around what is now the Stevens Creek Reservoir and up Montebello Rd got early international acclaim starting in the 1880s or so. Burgundian Paul Masson and Emmet Rixford followed with their wines around the turn of the century. But really, I think that follows the perception French food was the best in the world, which has been there consistently in the restaurant world until very recently. I think that allowed an elevation of wines from certain French grapes, while peasant family traditions made more modest wines. The daily drinkers of their time.
Prohibition left some vineyards abandoned while others were replanted to grapes that shipped well, and new vineyards were planted to that sort of grape. I’ve read planted acreage increased with the home winemaking boom across the country that came with Prohibition.
A move to bring higher quality saw the sea change to varietal wines in the '70s, with the perception certain grapes were the best. That’s a lodestone carried forward. It’s very difficult to sell a blend or a varietal from a less known grape. Some once successful grapes fell out of favor, but would make equal or better wine than what replaced them. Sometimes a blend is better than the sum of its parts.
And, of course a lot of Italian and other Mediterranean grapes can excel in places that are too warm for their French counterparts. Part of our shift at Harrington was that meant we could buy less expensive grapes from sites that were ideal for those grapes, and make $25-30 wines that were as good as the $45 Pinots they replaced (which would’ve had to be $55-60 in later years). A lot of these producers are in that same situation, where the low prices reflect the low real estate value of the land they’re on, not the quality of the wines.
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Idlewild started in 2012, and I have been following them closely since 2013. The wines keep getting better and better. Sam Bilbro trades places with Hardy Wallace for winemaker I drink the most from pretty much every year.
If you like racy whites that still show California sunshine, then Massican is for you. Another producer I have been following from pretty much day 1.
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I think they’ve pulled back on the new oak a bit on the barbera. The grape flavors show through more now. With the right dish, the Unti barberas really hit the spot.
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Thanks for posting the article, Wes. There are a number of people in there I hadn’t heard of. Nice to have some leads on things to try.
Now I’d like an article with a little less of the personal history and a bit more on the actual grape-growing and wine making. You know, geeky Berserkers stuff. What have they learned about sangiovese, barbera, nebbiolo with a couple of decades experience under their belt?
The NEB group producers sessions I attended were fascinating. Especially the second one I went to, which was my introduction to Idlewild, and Steve Clifton and Jim Clendenen came. The owners of Lago Lomita Vyd. in the SCM came with Prudy Foxx. Unfortunately, the Fogarty folks had a conflict, though they’d hosted the year before. As we tasted each small flight the growers or producers of those wines gave a presentation then fielded questions. It’s a challenging grape. In the vineyard, it’s very vigorous, wanting to put its energy into foliage growth. Different people had their solutions to stem that. Then, there’s still an issue of reducing fruit to a level it will ripen. On the winemaking side, there’s the acid and tannin to deal with. The grape is unusually low in malate, so ML doesn’t do much. To mitigate tannin, approaches ranged from pressing early to avoid harsher extraction to going around 8 years in barrel. Or, some sites just yield less tannic grapes. Tasting a barrel sample of 100% whole cluster from Fogarty was a revelation. I don’t think most people used any, so a view of a top quality component. I think about 20% wc is good as a baseline. French oak is a distraction, so if that’s all you have you want it to be completely neutral.
Sangiovese does great in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Santa Clara Valley. I think another mistake people were making was picking too early. So, if you’ve got a great site and the vines are aptly trained, watch the flavor development. At the site I got both Cab and Sangio from, there was a dramatic change from when I picked the Cab to picking the Sangio about 6 days later (in moderate weather).
We made wine from quite a few Italian varieties at Harrington. I’ve mentioned how well Falanghina takes to skin contact, developing amazing aromas. I’d love to play with Teroldego again. When we pressed it there was an amazing fresh green hops smell, like vacu-sealed hops pellets. The wine wasn’t harsh at that point, as many are, so that could’ve gone straight to a keg program. If that could be preserved to persist in bottle would be interesting, as that stuff really popped. It pretty much went away in barrel, though a hint of hops is a good blind tasting tell for Teroldego and Lagrein. Foradori leans ripe, I think, to get rid of that. I’d rather embrace it.
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Sounds like I should hang out with you more the next time I’m in California.
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Forgot to mention Lost Slough Falanghina from Clarksburg. Fantastic white.
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That, incidentally, is one of my favorite of Steve Matthiasson’s bottlings. Great combination of saline and tart citrus.
Thanks for the link Wes. I still have some Harrington Nebbiolo. It’s the thing that intrigued me about him in the first place. One of my B-Day purchases last month was Sagrantino from CA, which I’ve not had before.
I remember the WS back in the 1990s saying that Italian grapes were not worth doing in CA, and on the Parker board there were many disparaging comments.
But I always felt those were stupid. Moreover, if the CA wine industry were waking up today, as it did in 1966, my guess is that there would be a lot more focus on Italian grapes, and even Spanish and Greek grapes. At the time, the wine industries in many countries wasn’t chugging along, and the French stood almost alone when people in the US and England talked about great wine. So we modeled on France as the benchmark. But there are so many grapes world-wide, and CA has such a diversity of microclimates, that the last thing I want is another Cab/Pinot Noir/Chardonnay. People like Bryan and Nicole Walsh and some of the others are a real blessing for the CA wine industry. And you too of course!
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I met with Marty Mathis (Kathryn Kennedy) today. He’s been making small from Italian and Spanish grapes for awhile, and has been planting more at various sites. What he just released is his first vintage of pergola trained Albarino from the front of the estate. I thought that was really cool making use of an area that couldn’t be conventionally planted. There, it’s equipment storage and a picnic area, nicely shaded. Trellised up high enough the forklift can drive under the vines. The reasons for the method is the fruit hangs down below the foliage, as the grapes show best being fully shaded. It also minimizes disease pressure, since air passes unimpeded through the fruit zone. I’ll be trying a bottle tomorrow.
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This sounds weird. Why grow Nebbiolo if high acidity and ample tannins are seen as a problem to be mitigated? If anything, the variety is known for acidity and tannins!
Having a Nebbiolo with modest acidity and smooth, easy tannins in always one of the world’s biggest disappointments.
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Common in Trentino Italy.
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