Laurie Daniel: Big anniversary year for Northern California wineries
It's been a big year for winery milestones. Wente Vineyards and Concannon Vineyard in the Livermore Valley are celebrating their 125th anniversaries this year, and they are joined by several other California wineries observing important birthdays.
Gundlach Bundschu
Sonoma Valley's Gundlach Bundschu, founded 150 years ago, is marking the longest history, although the winery hasn't been in continuous operation. Jacob Gundlach started planting his Rhinefarm Estate in 1858. For years, grapes were shipped by barge to San Francisco, where J. Gundlach & Co. had its headquarters. The company, which was eventually renamed after Jacob's daughter Francisca married Charles Bundschu, thrived until the 1906 San Francisco quake leveled the headquarters.
"It was a big operation that basically ceased overnight," says the winery's current president, Jeff Bundschu, the sixth generation to be involved in the business.
The family moved to Sonoma and continued limited wine production, but Prohibition shut down the winery. After repeal, the family continued to grow grapes and sold them to other wineries. Jim Bundschu, Jeff's father, started replanting the vineyard in the late 1960s; before long, he persuaded his father to reopen the winery. In 1973, Gundlach Bundschu produced its first wine since Prohibition, a zinfandel.
Today, Gundlach Bundschu has 320 acres of estate vineyards. Jeff Bundschu has cut production and focused on estate wines and "maximizing the expression off the estate vineyard," as he puts it. The vineyard, which borders the Carneros appellation, has a variety of exposures, soils and elevations, so there are spots that are cool enough for chardonnay and pinot noir, and others that are warm enough to ripen cabernet sauvignon.
One of my favorite Gundlach Bundschu wines is the 2007 Gewürztraminer ($25), which is dry and very fragrant, with lychee, rose petals and a hint of peach. The 2005 pinot noir ($38) is also very good, with dark cherry and crushed strawberry flavors, some spicy notes, a hint of roasted meat and a supple texture. The 2005 cabernet sauvignon ($40) exhibits some cooler-climate savory characteristics, along with ripe black cherry, lively acidity and firm tannins.
Jeff Bundschu thinks Rhinefarm is a good spot for merlot. Despite the hit that merlot took in the wake of the movie "Sideways," "we're pretty excited about what it does for us," he says. The 2005 merlot ($30) shows good concentration, with ripe black cherry, a hint of anise and fine tannins.
"Towle's Hill," a one-man play that celebrates the history of Gundlach Bundschu, is in the middle of a two-month run at the Marsh in San Francisco. It will be performed Friday nights (except for Oct. 31) through Nov. 21. For information, go to www.themarsh.org.
Bargetto
The end of Prohibition, in 1933, saw the establishment of several well-known California wineries. Locally, John and Philip Bargetto, brothers from the Piedmont region of northern Italy, set up shop in the old lumber town of Soquel, at the base of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The Bargetto family had operated a winery in San Francisco in the early part of the century, but it closed before Prohibition.
For years, Bargetto Winery was probably as well-known for its fruit wines and Chaucer's Mead, a honey wine, as it was for table wines. About 15 years ago, all the fruit wines began carrying the Chaucer's brand, and the Bargetto family started focusing more on higher-end Santa Cruz Mountains wines from their Regan Vineyards near Corralitos, where planting began in 1992.
The flagship wine these days is a blend from Regan Vineyards called La Vita that features grape varieties that are traditional in the Piedmont region, including nebbiolo and dolcetto. The 2003 La Vita ($50), a blend of dolcetto, nebbiolo and refosco, offers plenty of spicy berry flavors, a hint of green tea, mouthwatering acidity and firm tannins.
Although the majority of Bargetto's production still involves wine made from purchased grapes, director of winemaking John Bargetto says that there's room for increased production of the estate wines by keeping more of the grapes they grow instead of selling them. "I see us going more upscale as we go forward," he says.
E.&J. Gallo
Also in 1933, Ernest and Julio Gallo founded their eponymous winery in Modesto. The company for many years was best-known for inexpensive generic blends like Hearty Burgundy and fortified wines like Thunderbird, but it transformed itself in the early 1990s, when it started producing higher-end varietal wines from Sonoma County. Today, E.&J. Gallo is the largest family-owned winery in the world, reportedly producing nearly 70 million cases of wine a year. Julio died in 1993, and Ernest died in 2007. The winery now is in the hands of the next generation of Gallos.
In addition to the Gallo brand, the winery makes wine under brands such as Rancho Zabaco, Frei Brothers, MacMurray Ranch, Redwood Creek and Turning Leaf. The company also has a large import portfolio. In recent years, it has acquired other family-owned wineries like the Louis M. Martini Winery in the Napa Valley, Bridlewood Estate in Santa Barbara County and Mirassou in San Jose, which is now just a brand, not a brick-and-mortar winery.
Louis M. Martini
Coincidentally, Louis M. Martini Winery also was founded in St. Helena in 1933 and is marking its 75th anniversary. Actually, Louis Michael Martini started making wine before Prohibition; during Prohibition, he operated L.M. Martini Grape Products near Fresno and sold sacramental wines as well as grape juice and concentrates for home winemakers. But the era of Martini as a Napa Valley winery began in 1933.
Louis M., who died in 1974, was considered a pioneer in the California wine industry. He was among the first vintners to make a substantial investment in the Carneros region, and also one of the first to produce varietal and vintage-dated wine in quantity. His son, Louis Peter, who died in 1998, was an innovator, too: He experimented with many grape clones and produced the first varietally labeled merlot in the United States.
Mike Martini succeeded his dad as winemaker, and the Gallos acquired the winery in 2002. Mike Martini now concentrates on the winery-within-a-winery known as Cellar 254, which is focused on producing small lots of cabernet sauvignon, zinfandel and a few other wines.