More than a Taste from the Barrel

With all the notoriety and attention given to Napa Valley from wine enthusiasts and tourists alike, Napa Valley's neighbor, Sonoma sort of flies under the radar as a destination spot.   With this in mind, Sonoma Valley has an extremely organized and cohesive wine community there that many folks from other parts of the country may not realize exists.   Each year, during the first and second weekend of March, the Russian River Valley Winegrowers Association has sponsored an event known as the "Barrel Taste Weekend."

This event is designed to showcase the most recent vintage of wines from the Russian River American Viticulture Area (AVA) right out of the barrel. The involvement of wineries in this event extends beyond the Russian River AVA to all the surrounding Sonoma grape-growing AVA's including: Alexander Valley, Green Valley, Dry Creek Valley, Chalk Hill, Sonoma Coast, Carneros, Knights Valley, and most all other surrounding AVAs. Over 100 wineries open their doors to the public and invite them in with open arms and free-flowing thieves. During this event, wineries offer wine, food, and most importantly stories for only $20 for the whole weekend.  

For me, the real value of the ticket was in the stories. In Sonoma, discovering a true sense of passion for wine can be as easy as simply speaking with the people who have invested their entire lives into growing grapes and making wines. The history of these folks tells a tale of being true pioneers of the wine and grape-growing industry in California. A large majority of these folks come from Italian ancestry whose forefathers immigrated here in the late 19th century and brought the traditions of their craft with them. These second, third and in some cases, fourth generation pioneers are very successfully fine-tuning their methodologies and agricultural techniques to produce the finest wines to their abilities

The most enlightening details I discovered was the amazing advances made in matching proper varietals with the right rootstocks, grafting and clonal selections for the specific soils, micro-climates and terroirs of these areas. They spoke a lot about terroir. Interestingly, I did not hear much about techniques involving over-manipulation in the vinification processes. The manipulation for most of these wines takes place in the painstaking trial and error methods used in the vineyards, in hopes of growing the best grapes for each specific area. It's all about the vines and the viticulture that surrounds it. These farming practices and techniques are evident in today's vineyards. Leo Trentadue who was the patriarchal force behind today's Trentadue Winery in Alexander Valley, was among the first in Sonoma to help bring pioneering experimental practices of dry farming and advanced irrigation to the Valley during the late 1950's.

Ed Lingenfelder, VP of Wine Operations for Chalk Hill, has a number of hillside slopes planted with vertically trellised vines. These plots, fairly large in size, are still handpicked. This method was inspired from Ed Lingenfelder's German roots, where traditionally this method is used in noble vineyards along Germany's grape growing golden corridor. This method has a number beneficial attributes. The cover crop they use help prevent soil erosion and the natural convection of air movement up and down the slopes helps to reduce mildew.

I had the pleasure of shaking Charles Baciagalupi's hand at the annual Crab & Fennel Fest at the Sonoma County Coliseum. Charles is a true farming pioneer of Sonoma and I was introduced to him by his granddaughter Nicole. I met Nicole the day before at Silver Oak. She was a tasting room hostess and was also an instrumental force in presenting her father's new venture wines called, "John Tyler," which features the fruit from their family's Baciagalupi Vineyards.   Baciagalupi Vineyards has been supplying many wineries with their fruit for many years.  

Along with winemaker Tyler Heck, whose family roots go back to Alsace, John Baciagalupi is carrying on the wine making heritage of two families from the old country. The wonderfully sun-kissed, and symmetrically carved lines in Charles Baciagalupi's face telegraphed the decades of time spent in his fields, nurturing the soils, and coaxing the fruit, year after year, to it's magical distinctiveness found in some of today's beautifully crafted wines. By the way, he was in the field earlier that day tending to his pre-budding vines.

At the Crab Fest, I also had a short and interesting conversation with Nick Leras. He comes from a long generational tradition of grape growers in Russian River. He mocks his Greek heritage as one who wasn't supposed to be farming grapes. As a matter of fact, his grandfather was among the earliest growers in Russian River. Nick combines his knowledge, which is steeped in tradition, with an openness to new and unique methods in order to meet the specific requirements of each vineyard. He utilizes a trellis system that is a modified version of the Scott-Henry system. With this system, the canopy is split and by doing this it provides the vines with the correct balance for the fertile soil.   Balanced vines ultimately produce balanced wines. The vines of Leras Vineyard are also dry farmed. The lack of irrigation further concentrates the grapes and adds a depth of flavor to the wine from this vineyard. One example of his painstaking grape growing methods can be found in the nicely crafted Leras Vineyard 2005 Pinot Noir from Papapietro Perry.

Another heartfelt story involves a rural Tennessee girl, whose boyfriend from California, got down on one knee during a gravesite decoration of her grandmother's site, and proposed. Swept off to California, she later became the winemaker for a little known Windsor Oaks. Julie Lumgair and her husband Doug wound up at this winery uniquely situated among three AVA's (Sonoma Coast, Russian River, and Chalk Hill). This tiny winery's property utilizes just over one third of its 700 acres for vineyard growth. Most all of their growth is sourced out to other wineries and only in rare occasions is there enough left to bottle their own. This year they did, and the wines are very impressive, especially this year's barrel sample of a '07 Tuscan blend.

The comic relief of the trip was provided by another immigrant, albeit a first generation immigrant. The man's name is Bill Williamson. His story and philosophy adds richness to the diversity of the area. Based in the Dry Creek Valley AVA, Bill and his wife Dawn hale from Australia where his family goes back a century in making wine. Drawing upon the years of experience that his home family has passed down to him, Bill has instituted a number of planting, grafting, and viticultural techniques to produce some of the most outstanding Sonoma wines not on the market (they are only available through his wine club). For example, he discovered that in the Dry Creek Valley, Malbec was a varietal that was a great "wetland" grape that showed its best expression while developing on the vine in lowland marshy, wet plots. His Malbec is among the most allocated and delicious available.  

So the moral of this story is that when you smell and taste a wine out of the barrel in the Sonoma AVA's, you are smelling and tasting a couple of centuries of pioneering agri-farming. These innovations were brought to our shores by the ancestors of today's very committed family of growers. These growers have taught the rest of us out how to connect with our traditions.

[By the way, the general consensus for the '07 barrel samples is that the Pinot Noirs will be great as will the Sauvignon Blancs (fresh and lively), with Chardonnays and Zinfandels close behind. There is also a small growth movement in what else, Italian varietals.]

Lon Lowenthal
Manager/Wine Consultant
Centennial Fine Wines & Spirits
5709 W Lovers Lane
Dallas, TX 75209