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Dateline April 1, 2009
On Your Mark, Get Set,
Go:
Spring has sprung and we are excited to be off and running
on the new 2009 Vintage. All varieties are pushing buds
and the older non-irrigated Zinfandel vines have already been cross cultivated
2 ways to conserve moisture. Although we have had good rainfall in
February, January and March were dry and it appears we are in for
another year of below normal rainfall as we have only accumulated 27"
to date whereas our norm is 40 inches. This will make 3 years in a row
of < 30 inches unless there is a major change. Aside from
this we remain optimistic to have a good year providing we can dodge spring
frosts and avoid triple digit heat close to harvest. We like to have
long hang time to balance the chemistry of sugar, acid, ph and tannin and
you
don't get that with 100+ degree temperatures in late August Demand
for grapes is good and that is encouraging.
In the winery it is a going to be a challenging year as long as the
economic crisis and high unemployment rates remain with us. In spite of this
recession we see new wineries sprouting up all around eager to bring out new
brands. I
believe the economy will recover, but it will take time and we must
make adjustments during this period. Our plan will be to watch spending, manage our inventory,
not compromise on quality, and
continue to offer premium wines at attractive
pricing. We are grateful
to have a good customer base and faithful wine club members. We are
also in a good position to sustain this downturn as
we use only estate grown grapes from our vineyards and produced and
bottle the wines on premise with our equipment.
Two Gold Medal Zinfandels For Your Dining Pleasure:
We have 2 Gold Medal current release old vine Zinfandels
available for purchase. In
addition to the heavy gold these wines have received some excellent reviews and ratings by the
wine media. These two Zins are both exceptional buys at Case discount and even
better buys at Club Member discounts. If you like our wines Carla's
Club Membership is the best way to buy them:
05 Zinfandel, Dry Creek, Proprietor's Reserve
Gold Medal -Professional Wine Buyers Wine Competition
Gold Medal - Riverside International Wine Competition
92 Points - Wine Enthusiast Magazine, April Buying Guide
06 Zinfandel, Dry Creek, Proprietor's Reserve
Gold Medal - Sonoma County Harvest Fair
Gold Medal - Jerry Mead New World International Wine Competition
88 Points - Highly Recommended, California Grapevine
87 Points - Wine Enthusiast Magazine, April Buying Guide
What Is This Mad Love Affair About Old Vine Zinfandel?
Some input
on Old Vine Zinfandel I prepared for a Washington State wine club in
December 2008:
Zinfandel is not a noble grape i.e. it is not planted in France so
there is no blue blood lineage like a Cabernet. Pinot Noir or
Chardonnay. I use to refer to it as Little Orphan Annie because no one
knew where it came from or who were her parents. We now know
after extensive DNA study over the past 10 years by UC Davis, the
original old clone Zin has been traced back to the Dalmation Coast of Croatia.
Davis discovered a very close relationship between Zinfandel, Dobricic,
Plavic Mali, and the Primitivo grape of Apulia, Italy, however, it was
concluded the Croatian grape Crljenak was the exact match and the true
parent of Zinfandel.
Many historians have studied the origin of Zinfandel
and its introduction to the
New World
. It was earlier thought Count
Agoston Haraszthy brought it to
California
in 1861 under commission to the State of
California
when he went to
Europe
and returned with some 1,000,000 cuttings for propagation.
It is somewhat concluded Zinfandel was not part of that package.
Historians have traced the vine's introduction into California
around 1850. How it got it's name is still somewhat uncertain,
but It is known it came into
San Francisco
and
Sacramento
ports as part of a European grapevine package from nurseries on the East
Coast. Gold miners & immigrants coming into
California
during the mid 1800s bought these cuttings from commercial nurseries in
San Francisco
&
Sacramento
and the vine spread quickly throughout
California
.
Zinfandel is
planted extensively all over
California
, but Dry
Creek Valley
is noted for its' reputation in high quality Zinfandel, particularly
from old vines that were planted turn of the century after the Phylloxera
blight and are non-irrigated and head pruned trained.
The first notable planting of Zinfandel in
Dry
Creek
Valley
was around 1864 by a man named
Galloway
and the first commercial winery in Dry Creek was built by Bloch in 1872 and
produced 5000gals of bulk wine.. By 1883 some 375 acres of Zin were
growing in Dry
Creek
Valley
. One of the largest blocks of Zinfandel in northern
Sonoma
County
was Italian Swiss Colony in
Asti
where they had 150 acres planted by 1883. I strongly believe the ISC
nursery, located on the
Asti
property next to the old
Mt.
Carmelo
church, was instrumental in the distribution of Zin throughout
Sonoma
County
. Emigrant workers at ISC likely obtained cuttings from this nursery
for their home vineyards which later made available budwood for propagation to
other local growers . This practice was still being used in 1970 when
I first entered the business as growers
would obtain clean budwood in the late fall from other vineyards and
graft to St. George rootstock. This clone would now be named after the vineyard
in which the cuttings were obtained. You hear the names Pedroncelli's
Mother Clone, Seghesio , Mazzoni , Prati and even sometimes Forchini clone
but my belief is they are all decedents from the old original clone of the
1860s which was propagated at Asti. This is why you see such parity in the characteristics of the clusters and
leaf from old head pruned vines around Cloverdale, Geyserville, and
Healdsburg.
Believe it or Not!
What is this
romance of the old vine Zinfandel? My
feelings ….when you walk among the vines, it is like a sacred cathedral
with a religion all to its own. Solitude,
faith, reassurance, a living testimony to what is good about life.
Walk among the vines and you go back in time.
What stories they have to tell. You can hear the voices and imagine
the pioneers that cleared the land and dug the holes and carried buckets of
water to establish these vineyards. Here they are year after year waiting
for your careful attention to be maintain so they can continue to bear fruit.
They talk to you. You hear their
message. They have had a multitude of custodians caring for them over the
many years. Some have been
kindly, others have burdened them with careless tractor damage and stressful
crop loads. Broken, battered and
bruise from tractor blight they have struggled to survive by sending out new
growth to be trained into a new arm or vine.
Growers become attached to
these older vines like they are family. They could pull them out and replant
for higher return with other varieties, but it wouldn’t have the same
love. Growers respect their
history. How could you possibly
remove them? It would be like
destroying a historic landmark. Who
wants to be guilty of that? Not me!
Now you know everything you need to know about Zinfandel and why it is no
surprise Zinfandel is considered California's native grape. We believe
our
limited production of estate
grown & bottled Zins are among the best.
They are made from
100 year old vines. aged 20 months in small oak barrels, lightly
filtered and then bottled in our winery under winery supervision for maximum quality
control. They
reflect the unique terroir of Dry Creek plus the complete dedication of our family to
winegrowing and wine production. Our footprints are all over the
vineyard and our fingerprints are all over the bottle!
Special Events:
If you are lucky enough to have a Passport to Dry Creek Valley,
we will be participating on April 25 & 26 along with many of our
Dry Creek peer wineries. We have engaged renown Sonoma County caterer
Randy Hope of Qui Cater who will be serving fabulous food to be paired with
our delicious wines. We will also have the Steve Albini Trio to
provide music and fun if you are in the mood for dancing, singing or just
want to listen to the Italian pop & standards Steve is known for. Plan
to visit Forchini during this popular event, you will be glad you did.
If you are not coming to Passport, we hope you might stop by if in our area to taste our wines in our tasting room or outside in
our relaxing picnic area. Bring a lunch and enjoy the scenery. You will be surrounded by our rose gardens,
beautiful vineyards and the views of Dry Creek Valley.
Hope we might have the pleasure of seeing you soon.
J. Forchini, Editor
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