TN: Some New Whites & Reds...(long/boring)

TomHill · July 16, 2019, 4:31pm

We made Angelica at Harrington in 2015 and 2017 (the 2015 is not vintage-dated though). Unlike most Angelicas, these were only in barrel for about 18 months and never topped or otherwise touched while in barrel. They remind me of Tawny Port, but sweeter since the fortification takes place just as the fermentation is beginning, which is traditional for Angelica.

Is there any left?

A photo below at Somers Vineyard from 2015 - Bryan Harrington standing next to some of the tallest Mission vines there. As Adam noted, we don’t know how old the vines are but we figure they’re probably pretty old since it’s not likely that anyone would have been planting Mission vines anytime recently (at least until the recent minor resurgence in interest - I believe that Skinner in El Dorado County planted some not too long ago).

somers vineyard - big vines.jpg

Worth checking out are the Angelicas from Deaver and Miraflores in the Sierra Foothills, both made by Marco Cappelli, who is among the very top winemakers for sweet wines in California. Both sourced from Deaver’s old Mission vines, which may date back as far as 1853-54. I visited Ken Deaver in late May and posted some notes and photos on the board: Sierra Foothills Wine Visits, May 2019 – Deaver Vineyards and Sumu Kaw Vineyard: old vines and mystery vines

I know, they’re crazy big those Missions! When I look at the size of the trunks, they somehow look older than the supposedly 70’s planting. But maybe they just grew strong there so close to the river. The one problem I had last year was a low YAN number, meaning there wasn’t much nutrients in the soil towards the end of the harvest. Probably because they’re so vigorous. Could also be a lack of fertilization in soil.

You winemake at Harrington, right? I’ve emailed a bit with him and told him how much I love the wines you guys are making. Just had the Corvina the other night. Very nice.

Thanks for getting back on this, Adam.
As for Angelicas…there used to be a lot of old ones around. EastSideWnry in Lodi had some very old stocks of Angelicas. Dating back to the
late 1800’s. Heitz used to btl one from them. Amazingly complex wines a bit like old Madeira. Alas, those stocks are gone. SutterHome (back when SutterHome made
good wines) used to make a TripleCream Apertif based on that EastSide stuff that was flavored and amazing stuff.
Of current Angelicas, the GypsyCanyon outside Lompoc is probably about the best around. Deborah discovered a very old block of Mission buried in the
underbrush on her horse ranch, probably planted by the original padres who came to the area, revived the vnyd, and now makes an Angelica that comes in a hand-blown
Mexican glass 500 ml btl. Quite expensive, though.
You might want to order some of the Harbor Mission del Sols from CortiBros. Grapes are ancient Mission from the Deaver Vnyd. And LeeSobon/ShenandoahVnyds
has made some dessert Mission from ChetEschen’s (now the Rinaldi vnyd) ancient Mission vines. There are other scatterd patches of Mission up in AmadorCnty.
And I would guess there’s still some old-vine Mission down in the Cucamonga area. All great old-vine stuff available to anyone crazy enough to be interested
in making a Mission wine.
SanMartinWnry used to sell an old-vine old Angelica labeles as “Montenico”. There still may be some of this around.

Thanks for tips! I think I might have talked to Deborah during my early hunt for Mission grapes. It took a long time to find anyone who had it or were selling it.

Not Ken…but I play him on The Apprentice!! Until I was fired!!
Ken works a lot w/ Brian on bttling and actually he & several others make their own wine there.
I’m pretty sure, you & Bryan being birds of a feather, would make some of the Angelica available to you. Like everthing he
does, usually in pretty small lots.
Tom

Ken_Zinns · July 16, 2019, 4:41pm

We made Angelica at Harrington in 2015 and 2017 (the 2015 is not vintage-dated though). Unlike most Angelicas, these were only in barrel for about 18 months and never topped or otherwise touched while in barrel. They remind me of Tawny Port, but sweeter since the fortification takes place just as the fermentation is beginning, which is traditional for Angelica.

Is there any left?

A photo below at Somers Vineyard from 2015 - Bryan Harrington standing next to some of the tallest Mission vines there. As Adam noted, we don’t know how old the vines are but we figure they’re probably pretty old since it’s not likely that anyone would have been planting Mission vines anytime recently (at least until the recent minor resurgence in interest - I believe that Skinner in El Dorado County planted some not too long ago).

somers vineyard - big vines.jpg

Worth checking out are the Angelicas from Deaver and Miraflores in the Sierra Foothills, both made by Marco Cappelli, who is among the very top winemakers for sweet wines in California. Both sourced from Deaver’s old Mission vines, which may date back as far as 1853-54. I visited Ken Deaver in late May and posted some notes and photos on the board: Sierra Foothills Wine Visits, May 2019 – Deaver Vineyards and Sumu Kaw Vineyard: old vines and mystery vines

I know, they’re crazy big those Missions! When I look at the size of the trunks, they somehow look older than the supposedly 70’s planting. But maybe they just grew strong there so close to the river. The one problem I had last year was a low YAN number, meaning there wasn’t much nutrients in the soil towards the end of the harvest. Probably because they’re so vigorous. Could also be a lack of fertilization in soil.

You winemake at Harrington, right? I’ve emailed a bit with him and told him how much I love the wines you’re making. Just had the Corvina the other night. Very nice.

Hi Adam - yes, I’ve been working with Bryan Harrington for a number of years. Glad you’ve enjoyed the wines, and I look forward to trying yours!

It sounds like everyone had similar issues last year with the Somers Mission. We had not run into that before so hopefully Mike is able to take care of that in the vineyard this year. I believe the farming is heading toward organic so perhaps that contributed to last year’s issue, although it doesn’t seem like that’s a big change from the way the vines had been farmed previously.

We were also told - by both Mike and Marco - that the Somers Mission vines were supposedly planted in the '70s (though never clear which century!) and that the proximity to the river is why they’ve gotten so big. But I’ve always wondered why anyone would have planted Mission in the 1970s. Hard to believe there would have been a demand for it at that time, though perhaps it was expected the fruit would just go into some large blend like most Lodi fruit back then.

I’m pretty sure that Bryan still has some of the 2017 Angelica available, though I think the 2015 is sold out.

Wes_Barton · July 16, 2019, 7:51pm

The vineyard manager saw a date somewhere and extrapolated from there. He told Bryan he thought they were planted in 1968 (or 1969?). I think he either saw '68 or saw 1868 and didn’t think that made sense. But, historically that does make sense. That’s the end of the era the settlers were planting it, as plantings of other grapes were well on their way and sites with Mission were beginning to be replanted. (As a data point, the oldest Deaver vines are 1853 Mission. Right next to that is 1867-ish Zin, where they’d already begun replacing most of their Mission.)

Adam_Frisch · July 17, 2019, 12:12am

Wow, it would be amazing if they were 1868! It does make sense historically, just crazy if true - means they’re right up there with the oldest known vines in the country! I’ll have to investigate a bit more when I talk to Mike next.

Wes_Barton · July 17, 2019, 1:40am

We visited Deaver recently. Their Mission vines are the oldest continuously producing vines in California, planted in 1853.

Wes Hagen tends a vine planted in 1818, mentioned at the bottom here: https://www.noozhawk.com/article/laurie_jervis_wes_hagen_j._wilkes_wines_20160228
I’m sure you can find some articles focusing on that. He’s a board member here and active on facebook.

Ken_Zinns · July 17, 2019, 2:21am

Ha! I do a lot more than bottling with Bryan…and actually on bottling days there I spend much of the time sanitizing hoses and cleaning out tanks after each small lot is bottled. I do help with bottling for a number of other urban Bay Area wineries. I actually made that first Harrington Angelica and mostly made the second one - it was my interest in making a Mission Angelica that led us to Somers Vineyard in 2015, thanks to a great tip from Marco Cappelli.

Markus_S · July 17, 2019, 11:42am

Was this the old Story property? They had some really old Mission circa 1996.

TomHill · July 17, 2019, 12:30pm

Nope, Markus. Different vnyds.
The old Story Mission block, planted in 1894 (what remains of a larger planting), is over on BellRd, next to the wnry, sloping down
towards the CosumnesRiver below. The DeaverVnyd is about 5 miles away over on ShenandoahSchoolRd, on the West side of
the road, across from the old Zin block. The other big block of Mission is in the ChetEschenVnyd (now RinaldiVnyd) over on OstromRd
coming into Fiddletown from the North. Don’t know if the Mission block on Eschen still exists or not.
Tom

Adam_Frisch · July 18, 2019, 2:58pm

Has anyone tried Rajat Parr’s Pais? He made it for his wine club a year or so back, but not sure where he got the grapes or if he’s still doing it.

Ken_Zinns · July 18, 2019, 3:40pm

I tasted it (the 2018 Pais) at the Brumaire event in March. The fruit was from Deaver Vineyard, and not sure whether he’s making it again this year. It was ok, with distinctive Pais/Mission aromatics, but I didn’t think it was one of the standouts at the event (or even at his table). Raj told me that the fruit was 100% destemmed.

I believe that Dani Rozman of La Onda is continuing to work with old-vine Pais and Cinsault from Chile. I tasted his 2015 Cinsault–Pais a few years ago - this was about a 70%/30% blend and was very good. The Pais component was unmistakable and really stood out.