There has been a lot of publicity about overproduction of grapes over the last few harvests. This can mean lower prices paid to growers for their grapes and more bulk wine on the market. On the plus side, for the consumer, a heavy harvest and more vines coming into full bearing can possibly mean lower bottle prices, better quality wines in low end packaging and, for some emerging wineries, it can mean an opportunity to expand production with grapes from vineyards with a long history of providing quality fruit to the industry.
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When a man has spent more than 60 years guiding grapes to their ultimate triumph as fine wine (usually red!) there is no way he is going to sit back and watch the seasons roll by without having a hand in the winemaking process. So, it comes as no surprise that John Parducci, with partners Jim Lawson and Bill Carl, is now the owner of the former Zellerbach Winery, just south of Ukiah in Mendocino County.
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“The reason I bought this land,” remarks Dave Caparone, founder of Caparone Winery in Paso Robles, “was that I had been experimenting in 1974 and 1975, making wine from Zinfandel grapes from a number of different vineyards. I became convinced that grape maturity was a big factor in quality, so looked for a good site to grow Zinfandel. In 1978, my wife Mary and I bought this piece of about 98 acres. We planted our first vineyards in 1980 and made a little wine. Then I knew I had found the right micro-climate for good Zin.”
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As a result of his classic ” School of Tasting “Pierre Casamayor explores in depth the possible alliances of 88 recipes. Each has a double page where we can find the recipe itself and usually four specific wines, ie for example, not a “Haut-Medoc” but a “Haut-Medoc, Chateau Malescasse 1995″ which he describes the tasting before the meal and the dish.
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With all the national and international conglomerates gobbling up small, independent wineries like so many breakfast sausages, it’s pleasant to stand at the tasting bar, sipping super-wonderful Zinfandels – the wine they are most famous for – with the Demostene clan. Though not anywhere near as well known as those other family wineries, Gallo and Mondavi, the Demostenes can trace their vine roots back farther than either of those big boys.
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Some wine-lovers thrive on seeking out small wineries, with small production of very fine wines. So, here’s one for that list. The winery is Collier Falls Vineyards, located on West Dry Creek Road at the northern end of Dry Creek Valley near Healdsburg in Sonoma, California. Its winery carries the Dry Creek Valley appellation. The first Collier Falls wine, the 1997 Zinfandel (100% estate grapes) was released in spring, 1999. There were only 500 cases, so a good bit of it is already gone. Those who collect numbers will be impressed by the 90 points the wine was given by the Wine Spectator, and the two stars (out of a possible three) granted the wine by Connoisseur’s Guide.
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Among the French wine regions, the Languedoc-Roussillon offers the highest density of cooperative cellars. For hundreds, they are born, mostly in the inter-war years, the need to overcome the domination of trading and equip itself to winemaking performance. Published on the initiative of the Regional Council, the book paints a picture of that heritage is part of the soul of this region.
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Until 1989 Jack and Anne Air had no idea where Sonoma County was. Both were born and raised on the east coast and had always been big city dwellers until they went to visit some friends in Kenwood in 1989. Jack took one look at his friend’s tractor and he pictured himself on the seat riding down a vineyard row.

The Airs’ first purchase was a 160-acre piece of property in Nuns Canyon, not far from the city of Sonoma. Anne and Jack moved onto the land in 1993 and with a lot of hard work transformed an old vineyard, dating from the 1940s, into what became the superb Nuns Canyon Vineyards with wineries clamoring for the grapes.
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If you didn’t know Stryker Winery was up there, sitting on a softly rounded knoll off Highway 128 in Alexander Valley, you’d drive right past it. This is pretty surprising, since the winery, owned by Karen and Craig MacDonald and (Ms) Pat Stryker, is large enough to produce 20,000 cases of wine, when operating at full capacity. Thanks to some very innovative and thoughtful planning by architects Richard Schuh and Amy Nielsen it is not just unobtrusive, but nearly invisible. Even after you have walked past the fermentation and aging cellars, you are not quite ready for the tasting room with a vaulted ceiling soaring nearly two-stories above the glass-enclosed interior. Three of the room’s four sides are glass presenting breath-taking views around Alexander Valley.
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When the ten families growing grapes at high elevations above Lake Sonoma banded together as the Rockpile Growers and petitioned the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) to create the Rockpile viticultural area, the officials thought it was some sort of joke. There really couldn’t be someplace called Rockpile. But the intrepid grape growers persisted, fulfilling all the requirements as to historical significance, soil type, climate, etc. With Jack Florence, Sr. representing the growers, working with Nancy Sutton of the San Francisco BATF office the Rockpile appellation became official April 29, 2002.
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