TN: 1978 Carneros Creek Cabernet Reserve

[Mel_Knox]

Mike,
I drank a bottle of '72 ZD St Clair Pinot at the winery…fifteen years ago at least.
Time to drink up!

[TomHill]

Mel, Yes Mike was the winemaker for early Truchard.
You are right ZD did make mid 70’s Pinot from Carneros and a couple of other areas. I still have one of them buried in the cellar.

On the highway from the dairy barns in Carneros (RIP) coming into the South side of the town of Sonoma, Gino Zepponi had an Estate
vnyd of Pinot & Chard midway there on the South side of the highway, hard by the road. He & Norm made their wine in a small barn further down the
rd towards the dairy barns. Their first wines came from Gino’s Estate vnyd there. They were quite good.
Gino was a crusty ole guy that used to work in Aerospace over in Sacramento, which is where he met DarrellCorti. When I visited there w/ him at the wnry,
he gave me a btl of his recently bttld SantaMaria Chard, from Byron or Tepesquet vnyd. Darrell hated it. I thought it was pretty decent.
Tom

[Rich_Brown]

Tom,

The ad was in wine industry publications etc. He didn’t have the Paul Masson budget.

Mike, didn’t Havens work at Truchard?? Or was that Ken Bernards??

One answer to the ‘why didn’t CC succeed’ esp with their delicious cabernet is that sometimes the production side gets ahead of the marketing side. And sometimes wineries don’t have enough money to do everything right. Nowadays a winery would have a wine club, a VIP room, etc. I did some research and found that Art Formicelli was also involved. He was the primary owner of Connoisseur Wines. Maybe that’s how they thought they would sell the wine.

It does seem to me that ZD made the first noteworthy Carneros Pinot Noir, then it was Carneros Creek. But Acacia took all the air out of the room and maybe there was only enough air for one or two wineries in Carneros.

Great comments and I appreciate the perspective Mel!

Bummer the winery isn’t still around as I’ve really enjoyed all the bottles that I’ve tried.

Edit, sorry for calling you Mike - force of habit!

[Mel_Knox]

Gino used to say that the Burgundians did buy imported barrels and neither would he. So ZD always used American oak for everything until an experiment with French oak on the Pinot pleased some visiting sales folks. He died in a car accident, but the de Leuze family carried on. Friends who have worked at ZD say they are wonderful people who do everything they can to make the world a better place.

The Tepusquet vineyard always seemed to have H2S issues and maybe that’s what displeased Darrell.

[TomHill]

Gino used to say that the Burgundians did buy imported barrels and neither would he. So ZD always used American oak for everything until an experiment with French oak on the Pinot pleased some visiting sales folks. He died in a car accident, but the de Leuze family carried on. Friends who have worked at ZD say they are wonderful people who do everything they can to make the world a better place.

The Tepusquet vineyard always seemed to have H2S issues and maybe that’s what displeased Darrell.

Isn’t it fun when the old folks get together, Mel, and reminisce about the good/ole days!!
Tom

[Richard_Albert]

I over simplified my initial response regarding Carneros.
In the 40’s UCD, Martini, possibly Krug and the Wente Family explored the potential for the Carneros region at the Stanly Ranch, the east end of the region. They experimented with clones looking at Pinot Noir and Chardonnay possibilities.

Lot of folks seeking the cooler climate migrated there, land which had survived phylloxera.
In the 80’s, I sold Mahoney’s Las Brisas Pinot Noir, Carneros Creek’s line up, Richardson, Truchard, etc, most distributed by Larry Romano, whose teacher, Alexis Lichine, taught him a lot about Burgundies. He applied that knowledge and sought out Carneros producers. It was hard selling against big names such as Acacia and Saintsbury, the Dijon Clone pioneers, but the little guys brought, food friendly Pinots to the market.

Carneros was a big deal, Mondavi jumped in as well. The Napa wineries wanted to produce Pinot Noir. This was before the RRV/Sonoma launch big time and the Central Coast was sparse as well. There was a big vacuum to be filled.

Thirty+ years ago, Taittinger had the vision and Domaine Carneros is one of the most successful Carneros wineries overall.

Tom, you are right, the Carneros Creek Syrah came later on.

[JBrochu]

Just want to say that this is a pretty cool thread with some interesting history and was an enjoyable read.

[Rich_Brown]

Just want to say that this is a pretty cool thread with some interesting history and was an enjoyable read.

Totally agree! I’m always amazed with the infinite knowledge that is shared on this board! Thanks all!

[TomHill]

Just want to say that this is a pretty cool thread with some interesting history and was an enjoyable read.

Totally agree! I’m always amazed with the infinite knowledge that is shared on this board! Thanks all!

Yeah… and some of it may actually be true!!
Tom