Tom & Marie brought this as a mystery wine last night:
KennethVolkVnyds Negrette CalleriVnyd/SanBenitoCnty (13.4%; www.VolkWines.com) SantaMaria 2012: Med.dark color; some Am.oak bit herbal light peppery/black pepper/Negrette slight chalky nose; lightly tart light Negrette/black pepper bit earthy/chalky light toasty/Am.oak flavor w/ light gentle tannins; long light black pepper/Negrette some earthy/chalky light toasty/oak finish w/ light tannins; a rather mild-mannered/understated expression of Negrette and not as good as some of his early ones. $30.00
A wee BloodyPulpit:
Negrette: A grape that is mostly grown in the Cotes du Frontannais near Toulouse. It is a direct descendent of Mavro, a grape grown on Cyprus. In Calif, it was once cultivated under the name Pinot St.George, primarily in the CienegaVlly of SanBenitoCnty.
When Kenny was originally at WildHorse, I liked to scout around up in SanBenitoCnty for some lesser known/old-vines grape varieties. Negrette (and Cabernet Pfeffer) was one he happened upon. Back in the 1960’s, as Almaden was expanding and moving South out of SantaClaraCnty, they conived a bunch of people into planting grapes for them. Mostly for use under their top-end Charles LeFranc (the founder of Almaden) label. And, of course, as Almaden went under, these growers were left holding the bag. Some of these old vnyds still exist. Where the grapes go is anybody’s idea.
Kenny originally got his Negrette from the DeRose Vnyd. The Calleri vnyd is a new source of Negrette for him. I presume DeRose is keeping all the Negrette for themselves now. They make some interesting wines. They make Viognier from 100+ yr old vines that they advertise as OldVine Viognier. In point of fact, in the late '90’s, they grafted over a block of old Zin vines to Viognier. OldVine Viognier?? Beats heck out of me.
Negrette makes a rather interesting wine. In France, they wine often has a distinct black pepper character. Clearly, it is a variety they should be planting all up&down the Coast of Calif.
Tom
The best Pinot St. George I had was a mature ('78?) one from Sonoma. Would have to sleuth around to remember the producer.
Have you had that DeRose OV Viognier? The one I had was kick-ass! As one well regarded blind taster put it: “Wow! This is great! Um, California. Rhone. Hmm, Marsanne? Maybe Grenache Blanc. Definitely not Viognier…” It certainly did have that intense OV quality. Why not? The parts of the vines responsible for that were OVs.
Yup, Wes…I’ve had two vintages of the DeRose Viog. Rather underwhelmed by them. It didn’t have the perfuminess I like in Viog,
rather understated I thought. No OV character that I could pick up.
To me…OV means a complete vine that’s been in the ground for yrs & yrs. I would think that T-budding an old vine to a new scion
would be like drinking from a fire hose. You have this enormous root structure trying to pour all these nutrients & stuff into a small/
undeveloped scion.
I just think their describing their Viognier as OV Viognier is a bit …disingenuous. Implying something that may not really be.
Tom
Interesting. Their wines can be hit and miss, so not surprising other vintages might not have been as good. Or, if less expressive due to an earlier pick, might have just needed a little more bottle age.
To me, the best Viognier have a backbone and aromatics that are reined in a bit. Not green and inexpressive or over-the-top and flabby.
I have not tasted anything from Kenneth Volk (always wanted to), nor have I had a wine from DeRose Winery. To my understanding, the DeRose family is basically managing the fruit sales for the increasingly-popular “Enz Vineyard”.
I don’t believe I have had a wine from the “Calleri Vineyard”.
Here’s an older vid-jo of Mr Volk among the Negrette vines of the “Calleri Vineyard”:
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+1
Just as with Chardonnay and a few other grapes, there is a considerable amount of unimpressive Viognier from California. There happens to be some excellent wine produced from the variety as well.
