I live in Redding, California - top of the Central Valley and looking to plant about 40 vines to make a decent table wine. I don’t have the illusion that I’ll make terrific wine from this area, but am more interested in going through the entire process and possibly making something interesting and enjoyable and learning a bunch along the way. Our biggest problem is that not only does it get crazy hot in the summer, but we often lack the diurnal cooling that so much of CA. wine country gets. We’ll often have August highs in the 105+ range with a low of 70 degrees. Leaning towards syrah and thought about Nero d’avola but don’t think I can find it. Any other suggestions?
Tannat? A combo of Grenache, Mourvedre, Syrah, and Viognier with the Vio being 1 or 2 out of the forty. Petite Sirah does pretty well in Cottonwood/Willows. You can’t be that much warmer. Ever heard of Burnsini winery in Cottonwood? Their Petite is deffinately their best wine.
Oh, and welcome to the board, Scott? Where do you buy fine wine in Redding? Just curious.
John
Touriga Nacional? Or one or more of the other Douro varieties? They’re making some very nice table wines there now using the varieties of Port. Granite schist soils, very hot in the summer.
Nice suggestions gents - does anybody know a supplier who will deal in small quantities?
John- fine wine in Redding is an oxymoron. I’m a teacher and fly fishing guide and end up trading out guide days for wine - (limited disposable income). I have tried Burnsini and, to be honest, have been a little underwhelmed although I do really like their petite syrah - they seem like terrific people. Was just over in the Redwoods 2 weeks ago, stopped at the Co-op in Arcata, (HSU grad) and picked up a Cabot Kimberley’s vineyard - enjoyed it very much - thanks.
My first thoughts for someplace that warm without great cooling are Mourvedre, some of the Douro varietals and some of the S Italian varietals like Nero and Negro. Of those Mourvedre would probably be the easiest to source. Of other easy to source varietals, the suggestions for Petite and Grenache sound solid to me.
I agree with Josh…the first thing I thought of for this was Mourvedre.
Nero D’Avola seems like a great choice too, aside from finding the vines. But Nero is thin skinned and any late season rain ruins it. Also, like most Italian reds, they don’t seem to be very happy outside of Italy.
I’ve had some awesome Petit Verdot from the Lodi area (esp the PV from Hux Vineyards)…I bet PV would do well up where you are as well. PV and Mourvedre probably would ripen at a similar time…not sure how they would be blended tho
Another interesting option would be to plant Tempranillo and Grenache and do a Rioja style wine. Tempranillo, Grenache and Mourvedre would be really interesting…getting them to ripen all at the same time might take some work. I’m guessing that the Tempranillo and Grenache would ripen at a similar time and the mourvedre later. If you pruned the mourvedre early and pruned the others late then that might help sync them up. Or just plant Tempranillo and Grenache.
I think there is some serious clonal variety in Tempranillo in Spain, not sure if it exists here, but the Tinto de Toro and Tinto Fino from Ribera del Duero would be much more suited to warmth than the Riojan clones. However Tempranillo has a lot of problems preserving acidity (outside of Rioja at least) and warm nights might not be a big issue considering that. Toro and Ribera have tremendous temp swings which help preserve a modicum of acidity.
Mourvedre obviously does well in hot coastal climates in Provence and Valencia where the nights just don’t cool off terribly well.
Call Fresno State’s Vit department. They have a large selection of varieties growing out in the vineyard, and probably would let you take some canes for free. If you wanted to graft onto rootstock, maybe the prof teaching the Fall/Spring Vit lab would be willing to have some students graft them for you.
One other thought, on the Portugese varieties, there’s a port maker outside of Madera, Ficklin, that has some of these growing in the vineyard. He would most likely give you a few canes, and might be able to hook you up on grafting them as well…