Mark of the Lucchesi family runs a small winery in Ripon, CA, using fruit grown by brother Alan in Oakley area of Contra Costa County. These folks have been involved in agriculture (grapes, sandcots, nuts) for a long time, and sell most of their harvest to Cline and Matt Cline’s Three Wine Company.
I have read up on Contra Costa Zinfandel, Mourvedre, Carignan, etc, through the blogs of locals (CoCoFermented, Romick in Oakley), and the history of this area is truly fascinating to me. I love most of the red wines I have tasted from Oakley/Antioch vineyards, especially Mourvedre (surprise, surprise).
My question is, has anyone ever tasted the Lucca wines?
It just seems like they would do the best job with their own fruit (although I know of cases where this isn’t necessarily true). Mark has been polite in his email responses, and I want to do business with them. I just wanted to see if you had any opinions or anecdotes to share…