Santa Clara & San Benito Wine Heritage

[Drew_Goin]

I shared a video featuring San Martin-based Creekview Vineyards a couple of years ago in this post.

I was recently reviewing older email exchanges with Ms Bev Stenehjem (regional author & expert on Santa Clara Valley winemaking). She referred me to Creekview as a source of old-vine Mourvedre.

Creekview Vineyards’ Facebook page includes a handful of photos highlighting prior harvests and vineyard shots.
Several views of the +120-year-old Santa Clara Valley Zin vineyard are posted. The winery appears to be more reserved with respect to its Mourvedre source, only sharing photos of filled harvest bins.

2019 Creekview Old-Vine Zinfandel Harvest:


Creekview Vineyards website:
https://www.creekviewvineyards.com/home.php

…The old vine Mourvedre for Creekview comes from a plot east of the 101 in San Martin. It’s a 2+/- acre vineyard of old vines, with some Mataro, Zinfandel and other things, on the corner of a couple of side streets just a couple block off the 101. It’s owned by a old gentleman, whom I spoke to a couple of years back when I was driving by. He was difficult to understand, so I didn’t glean a lot of information from the conversation.

Ian

After years of head-scratching, I believe I have determined the physical location of San Martin’s old-vine Mourvèdre (and Zinfandel) vineyard.

A comment from the venerable Mr Ian Brand reinforced my suspicions that some small parcel of ancient Mourvèdre from the Valley of Heart’s Delight must still exist.

On Cellartracker, there is an old-vine Santa Clara Valley Mourvèdre/Zinfandel from Cronin Wines. The Cronin “Wolfinbarger Vineyard” single-vineyard red wine included the 1997 and 1998 vintages.

Santa Cruz Mountains-based winemaker Duane Cronin primarily focused on Burgundian varieties, but a few oddities were bottled as well. Production of Cronin wines ended with the 2000 vintage, and Duane Cronin passed away in 2007.

Mr Dave Tong’s old blogspot site includes a map of several Santa Clara vineyards, including the “Wolfinbarger Vineyard” in San Martin, CA.

David Tong’s Santa Clara Valley Vineyards Map:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=37.132403%2C-121.678391&spn=0.463665%2C1.056747&z=11&mid=1pbDRq2oLIE8avy2amagQpNxCPg4

The reported location of the “Wolfinbarger Vineyard” squares neatly with the details mentioned above in Ian Brand’s comment.

I cannot be certain whether this vineyard is the same as the source of Creekview Vineyard’s “Old Vine” Mourvèdre.