Wine Each Week - Sidebar 2018 Kerner

Odd by nature, Kerner may not be a well-known grape, but this iteration will make it well-liked. With fruit coming from vineyards in Lodi, Sidebar creator and Chardonnay expert Dave Ramey has created this second label to pursue wines like this that are out of the norm. This 100% Kerner offers a bright upfront acidity that gives way to mild notes of lemon, honeysuckle, lime zest, white pear, peach and a slight mango. Though it sounds like a lot of summer fruits, this is a fully restrained wine. It was sur lies aged in stainless steel barrels for two and a half months. This is a great change of pace from both Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, and offering more flavor than many Pinot Grigios, Kerner can be your next best white wine.

329 cases.

ORIGIN: Lodi, California

ALCOHOL: 14.1%

PRICE: $25 (750ML)

SCORE: 90 POINTS

Sidebar

Old Vine Cline: “Ancient” Wines from Cline Cellars

We all know that some wines are meant to age. But in the plant-based world grapes can be an outlier in that they can live for well over a century and still produce quality fruit. A few years back I was in Portugal and visited head trained vines that were 136 years old and still a workhorse. So when Cline Cellars released their Ancient Vines series it intrigued me because this allows you to literally taste history. That their wines are priced between $18-$23 also offers an incredible value for the experience you can have. In California there are very few vineyards that are truly historic properties, meaning the vines have been in the ground for over 100 years, and are own-rooted, as opposed to being grafted. The Historic Vineyard Society (HVS) group is dutifully reviving and preserving these historical vineyards. For example, in California, Sausalito Canyon Vineyard (San Luis Obispo County) was planted in 1880 and still produces fruit today. Other HVS registered and non-registered vineyards from the 1880s include Bechthold (Lodi), Cazas (Temecula), Martinelli (Russian River Valley) and the truly one of a kind Grandpere vineyard from Deaver Winery in Amador County planted in the 1860s! What this means is that you can experience fruit that still makes wine, and a wine you can drink. Maybe most of us can’t drink a wine that is 100 years old, but we can certainly drink wine that is made from 100-year-old grapes. Now, the term “ancient vines” has no real definition, but typically refers to vines that are over 75 years old. Just like us humans, vines lose their vigor (strength, vitality) as they age and many of these wines have some complexity to them, but are less powerful and robust than younger wines. The complexity often comes from roots that are 30 – 40 feet deep as most of these historic vineyards have always been dry-farmed, meaning no irrigation is provided, the vines themselves need to seek out water.

Cline offers their 2017 Zinfandel, Mourvèdre, Carignane, and their 2018 Mourvèdre Rose from Contra Costa County, the northern portion of the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay area. These are uniformly lighter style wines but definitely show characteristics familiar with their grape type, and all provide that most unique of pursuits – a sense of immortality.

July 4th Bad Boy

The 4^th of July is a time to celebrate and in America we do that by drinking what we damn well please. The 2015 Freelance Wines Coup de Grace Proprietary Red Blend is one wine to consider. Never mind the fact that none other than George Washington is on the label, this wine unites different grapes – e pluribus unum - out of many, one…wine! From Lodi, this is comprised of Old Vine Zinfandel, Cabernet Franc, Petite Sirah and Petite Verdot.

Much like the founding fathers of this country, this is a big boy, bold brash, in your face kind of wine, one that is not shy, but happy to announce itself. There’s tons of blackberry cobbler, blueberry compote, raspberry and plum with back notes of tobacco, licorice. It’s been barrel aged for just over a year and a half. It’s thick and viscous, like a oil coating your throat with jammy, ripe fruit and unashamed to be a crowd pleasing wine. $29.99

Oh Lord, Stuck in Lodi, Again: Cinsault’s Long Road

Bechthold Cinsault vine - winter

Thanks to Creedence Clearwater Revival, Lodi has suffered from an image problem. Lodi is not a fairytale wine destination; it’s blue collar, a working ag town and there are over 80 wineries here, but a tremendous history. Lodi is one of the older wine regions in California. Best known for Zinfandel, Lodi is home to many own-rooted (meaning they have not been grafted on to other root systems) historic authentic “old vine” vineyards, like the Bechthold Vineyard planted to Cinsault in 1886. Ah, Cinsault. One of the coolest grapes most consumers don’t know about. Often used a blender in Rhone wines this high-yielding, hot-weather red grape is half the genetic cross (along with Pinot Noir) behind Pinotage (which I adore) and it came to California in the 1860s. It typically holds flavors of plum, strawberry, raspberry and spice; it’s bright with full round body and soft tannins.

Lodi and farming go back to the mid-1800s

The Bechthold Vineyard yields just 77 tons, about three tons per acre and it was named ‘2014 Vineyard of the Year’ by the California State Fair. “It’s a complete and utter sand pit,” says Kevin Phillips who farms it. But many vines crave these kinds of porous soils: they don’t hold water, they stress the vines, and they don’t allow for phylloxera (the louse finds it difficult to migrate through sandy soils). So a recent tasting with four different versions of Cinsault all from this same historic vineyard shows just how remarkable a plot of land with vines on it can be. The Cinsault’s I tasted were:

Onesta - has a spicy and earthy berry note, with minimal blueberry, some acidity.

Michael David - bright raspberry, strawberry and rhubarb, earthy with a nice spice.

Estate Crush – comprehensive lively strawberry and a balanced acidity.

Turley - a minimal, simplistic expression, my least favorite actually, basic bright strawberry compote but lacking much structure.

The point of this exercise is to examine how a plot of land can give up different and varied expressions of fruit. Sure, the winemaker has their stamp on the wines, but it’s clear from tasting these four iterations side by side that the consistent quality of the fruit shines through, and a vineyard farmed with respect, like Bechthold, will continue to produce quality fruit for decades. And ultimately wine is that singular food that can last for years, constantly evolving so that each bottle is a unique tasting experience. That wine lovers can have the opportunity to sample wines like these is a magical thing. These wines are limited to availability to their tasting rooms in Lodi, so, oh Lord, you might get (happily) stuck in LODI.

Tasting With: Joe Lange of Lange Twins Winery – Lodi, California

There are about 60 wine tasting rooms and 80 wineries in Lodi, a lot more than when Credence Clearwater Revival opined about being “stuck in Lodi again” in 1969. Yet most people either,

a) have never heard of Lodi, or,

b) have no idea even remotely where it is (just north of Stockton if that helps). 

So when Joe Lange and his lovely wife, Amanda, came to Santa Barbara in July, 2013, we met for lunch to taste some of his wines and to talk about Lodi, Lange Twins and leverage.

 

Joe is not the winemaker, but he and his four siblings do run the operation. The first vintage was 2005 and this is a family ideal, seeing as how the Lange’s, originally from Germany, are 5^th generation Lodites (I don’t think that’s the correct term, but I like it). The land they currently grow grapes on - much is sold to other wineries under contract- was, back in the day, dry farmed watermelon. Joe’s grandfather planted grapes and made some wine, but it wasn’t really a business enterprise until Joe’s father and his twin brother, Randall and Bradford, decided to get serious about wine. 

Joe & Amanda Lange

Currently Lange Twins growing 23 different varieties, and growing them as certified green and sustainable - after all, we need to respect our earth. But it took borrowing money from the bank and fully leveraging everything they had to create their winery however Joe tells me the Lange family is totally committed, an “all hands on deck,” philosophy. And since Lodi isn’t on the radar for most people, they have more work to do than a winery located in a known wine region. But Lodi is working towards a more wine-centric core with new places to stay and new restaurants coming on line. Currently it’s a stop on the way to or from someplace else: drive in off Highway 99, visit a few wineries, then leave. But places like Lange Twins will encourage folks to stay a little bit longer. The great thing about Lange Twins is price to quality, something I constantly look for and promote. Aside from Joe’s favorite, the Petite Verdot, try the wines and discover your personal preference. LANGE TWINS

Caricature is one of their most popular wines

What We Tasted Together

2009 Midnight Reserve ($30) a Bordeaux blend of Cab, Merlot, a wee bit of Petit Verdot and an even wee-er bit of Malbec. There’s cocoa and blackberry: a meet n’ greet of bright red fruit, followed by darker, deeper notes on the mid and back palate.

2011 Sauvignon Blanc – Musque Clone ($13) a mild non-grassy Sauv Blanc, the Musque gives it a more floral element and it’s aged sur lie. This is not an aggressive herbaceous wine, but a soft and restrained one.

2011 Moscato (13) a super wine with just 4% residual sugar so it hints at sweet but isn’t candy. Love the beautiful nose of pear, lemon and honeysuckle. It’s easy to drink this like water – you’ve been warned.

2010 Zinfandel ($15) is all bang for the buck here. It’s blueberry and spice, raspberry and pepper, and has some 103 year old-vine Zin in this vintage. All about quality.