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.

Jack Ass

Lee Martinelli Sr., on Jackass Hill

The Martinelli family has been involved with wine in Sonoma, specifically the Russian River Valley, for over a century and no, the title of this article is not a reference to them. The name refers to Jackass Hill. Planted on a ridiculous 60% slope, Jackass Hill, tucked into a narrow valley, is hardly the place you’d expect people to be farming over 100 years ago. Hell, it’s remote now, and must have been obscure back then. The three-acre, non-terraced parcel was planted to Zinfandel in 1887. Nothing much has happened here in all those years. “The only thing that has changed in 85 years is my house,” Lee Martinelli, Sr. says to me. What’s amazing is that this family farm has not changed hands. “I’m so grateful to the Martinelli and Bondi sides of my family who tended, worked and respected this land,” Lee tells me on a warm January day as we stand on Jackass Hill; Lee standing straight and tall, and me trying not to wobble and teeter. It was so named because only a jackass would farm this stupidly steep piece of dirt.

The view from the top of Jackass Hill

I have visited many vineyards across the globe, from vineyards in Crete to, Cognac, Oregon and Mexico, to Burgundy and Nova Scotia and countless vineyards in the U.S., some as historic a s this one. But very few have a palpable feeling to them, a sense of purpose and lineage. “I feel the spirit of my ancestry here,” Lee says. And I believe him. Not everyone can walk amongst the courageous and knotted vines on Jackass Hill, but you can drink the wine from them. You need to.

The 2012 Jackass Hill Zinfandel is an impressive, crazy good wine: spicy, with loads of mature blackberry, pepper, almost a sweet cedar; it’s rich, earthy and with great acidity, defying most jammy versions of this grape. It also has incredible balance and the higher alcohol comes as a surprise because you simply do not taste this. Is it pricy? Yes, but it is also unique; a one of a kind wine with only 48 cases made (less than 600 bottles), which makes it the kind of rare, historical American wine you really need to try, because, at the risk of sounding like a Hallmark card, you authentically can drink history. Martinelliwinery.com

ORIGIN: Russian River Valley, Sonoma

PRICE: $120 / 750/ml

ALCOHOL: 17.5%

BOOZEHOUNDZ SCORE:  92 POINTS