There was a massive replanting, but that section was taken out when he was still getting fruit. The old vines at the top are from the original planting and they’ve been among the best performing - so much so the replanted area right below them is now on the same (St. George) rootstock and used material from them. The young vines rival them in quality. From my understanding, what was replaced was younger, with fashionable-for-the-time rootstock and clones. (I’d consider that all blocks of one of the vineyards. There’s another section near the top that has Grenache, plus the Cab Silver Mountain prefers, and there’s a much lower area that other producers prefer. The Cab Franc is down there, as is the CS that’s a blending component of the Kathryn Kennedy Small Lot.)
Gaspar Vyd., which I believe was along Pierce Rd. was the biggest portion (and was sub-divided), but I believe there’s Montebello and Knight-Smith (which was right across from Kathryn Kennedy). Mario Gemello had been sourcing from a couple of the Montebello vineyards when Dave and Fran Bennion started their winemaking. He was a key advisor to them and they began selling him fruit, which continued for over a decade.
When they were retiring a few years back they began to try to empty out remaining warehoused wines. I bought a ton, maybe 5 cases. Still have 86, 91, 2001 and 2002. The wines are pure joy.
Many of us locals bought some. One friend bought a lot of their winemaking equipment, too.
We did a Bates Ranch tasting early 2017, with samples from over a dozen producers and an array of vintages back to the late '70s. Val and Dex Ahlgren came, along with Charlie Bates and Prudy Foxx. Fun event with a lot of good stories.
Cronin is very special to me. Long time fan and managed to go to the last couple open houses. I organized a memorial tasting through the Parker Board, where the half of the attendees who weren’t already close friends became close friends and led to so much. My personal favorite were the Peter Martin Ray PNs.
Sarah’s Vineyard was sold. At first, the new owner’s wines were right in my preference. A decade and a half later we went by and the wines are clearly tailored to the tasting room traffic. Ripe and oaky. Still good, but not my thing. It’s a good location and they seemed to be doing quite well.
I first read about Duane Cronin’s Chardonnays through the ‘Connoisseurs Guide to Wine’ when they went crazy over his 1980 Chardonnays. There were three Chardonnays at the time, all sensational, but I believe it was the ‘Paragon’ Vineyard that was the standout. I immediately looked him up on my next visit and was a yearly customer for years after. Wasn’t quite a fan of his reds (those Pinots seemed to take forever to come around).
Marilyn Otterman at Sarah’s Vineyard was a definite one of a kind. She was elegance personified, as were her wines. I used to love to visit her and even marveled at the way she would wrap each bottle in the most expensive paper available. Her Chardonnays were just wonderful back then in the early 80s (around the same time some of the Northern guys like Fred Fisher and Mark Kistler were hitting the scene). Such a fun time for California wines.
I’ve haven’t visited there in the last few months but they appear to still be in business. Very popular local winery. I don’t see them going out of business.
The winery has gone through different owners from the Congress Springs of old. Victor Ericson bought the property in 1972 and started the winery in 1976 with Daniel Gehrs as winemaker. After bringing on partners and running down the winery the winery was sold and became became Mariani Winery for a short while and then became what they are today Savannah Channel. I don’t count that as being in business as Congress Springs other than taking over the property. YMMV.
Hi Wes, Just wondering what sourcing of Zin By Renaissance you refer to? To my knowledge, they never sourced Zin grapes. Unless it was during the short lived tenure of Eddie as a winemaker perhaps?
I just posted on 1996 Thunder Mountain Cab from Bates Ranch… and as far as vineyard quality, I listed Bates Ranch as #2 in the Santa Cruz Mountains, after Mount Eden. I would put Monte Bello a solid third.
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