EPISODE #5 ROOKIE BUYING WINE IN CALIFORNIA

This Episode shares a firsthand account of some of my early wine-buying visits to top California wine producers in 1981 & 1982. It is just a small sample of what I encountered at a time when the early wine producers were just beginning to become well known on the East Coast, thanks to my and my best friend Jim Arseneault's efforts as we introduced them to our respective wine-loving consumer clients in Washington, D.C.

I profile 3 wineries, Mayacamas Vineyards, Kistler, & La Crema Vinera. The latter is not to be confused with the wine producer known as La Crema today, which is owned by Jackson Family Wines.

I know you will find this snippet informative and entertaining at the same time. 

Listen below or read the transcript.

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Transcript

EPISODE # 5 WINEBUYING IN CALIFORNIA AS A ROOKIE

SPEAKERS

Fred Reno

 Fred Reno   Well, hi folks. Fred Reno, here, your host of the Fine Wine Confidential book podcast, with the latest snippet from my upcoming book. This is episode #5. This excerpt will give you a brief look back at history in the California wine industry as I share some of my early wine-buying trips from Washington, DC to California and several of the upcoming wineries I visited with my best friend at the time and industry legend, Jim Arseneault. In this case, it was Mayacamas Vineyards, Kistler Winery, and the original La Crema Vinera before it became what is known today as La Crema. Unfortunately, none of these wineries is owned today by the folks that I knew then. That's the historical piece of this story, and I can't believe I was only 29 years old when I made that first trip in 1981. Take a listen

 Fred Reno  

During my early retail wine merchant days in January of 1981 my best friend and industry legend, Jim Arseneault, who at the time was the California wine manager at the esteemed Addy Bassin’s MacArthur Beverages, we made our first joint California wine buying trip together, as we had made a pack to share when we could wine brands that we had exclusive from California in each of our stores. The first winery we had an appointment on this trip was at Mayacamas Vineyards, the historic winery that Bob Travers had purchased in 1968. He produced superb wines in limited amounts, which were hard to obtain. In today's language, he had developed an early Cult following among California wine aficionados. We were warned, though, that Bob was not the most personable fellow, and there was no guarantee that we would be welcomed warmly. Indeed, we were not. As we headed up the steep climb of Mount Veeder, I noticed that the fuel gauge on the car Jim was driving showed empty. Jim had space and forgot to fill up with gas. We decided we had no choice but to continue. Keep our fingers crossed that we do not run out of gas. Besides, once we were at Mayacamas, we could just coast downhill to the nearest gas station in Napa, or so we thought.

 We ended up arriving 10 minutes late, knocked on the office door, but Bob used that as an excuse not to see us. Jim and I looked at each other, and I said, Well, we came all this way. Why don't we just look around for ourselves? We started to look inside what we thought was the winery, and out came a fellow who introduced himself as Lore Olds, asking how he could help us. We introduced ourselves, let him know we had come from the East Coast, but because we had arrived late, Bob would not see us. He just shrugged his shoulders and said, Well, that is the way the boss is. Why don't I show you around? We smiled and said, “That would be great. We proceeded to barrel sample everything in the cellar, discovering before anyone in the market or press even knew that Bob had decided to discontinue producing Zinfandel (One note on that, my Mayacamas 1968 late harvest Zinfandel was legendary), and replace it with a quest to make Pinot Noir, beginning with the 1980 vintage, for the first time. When I asked him why he stopped making Zim, Lori just replied, “Well, the boss doesn't like it really, and he wanted a new challenge. I said, Well, Pinot Noir will provide that. Lore continued and let us know that he and one of his cellar people had started a project up the hill several years ago. We now get the grapes and are going to call our Zinfandel brand SKY Vineyards because of our proximity to the sky at the top of the mountain. Sky eventually became a very well-known small producer of top-flight Zinfandel, and still is today, with Lori Olds at the helm, worth checking out and trying to find a bottle if I were you. We finished our visit, started to pull out of the winery parking lot, when Jim slowed down as he drove by the office, a window shade was pulled back ever so slightly to view our exit. It was Bob. Jim flipped him the bird, stepped on the gas and roared out of the winery with dust and rocks flying in every direction as we reached the road. 

I reminded Jim we had next to no gas, and to slow down as we were headed down the mountain to yet another iconic Mount Veeder property and producer, aptly named Mount Veeder Vineyards, to meet Mike Bernstein, the owner. Our visit to Mount Veeder was far and away more cordial and warmer as we were leaving. I noticed a large gas tank behind the winery, which was for fueling tractors and other equipment. I explained to Mike our fuel situation. He graciously offered us a couple of gallons from his storage tank, which should get us to Napa with no problem. I was very grateful and relieved, as I had no idea how far we were going to be able to get with the fuel we had. Jim, of course, thought all this was funny, as he was apt to do when he screwed up and just said, Oh, Fred, why are you worried? I told you we would make it. I said Sure, Jim, Sure.

 There were several other entertaining encounters on this trip, and I would be remiss if I did not share with you my first visit to Kistler Vineyards. Now, at this time, Jim had the exclusive in Washington, DC, for the wines from Kistler; he had made a connection through one of his customers to Steve Kistler’s father and had secured an allocation of the first commercial vintage Kistler produced.  The wines hit the market with a lot of fanfare. They consisted of three Chardonnays from the 1979 vintage, one each from Winery Lake, Dutton Ranch, and Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards. They were an instant success. I was excited and intrigued. I was going to be visiting this property. I knew that the vineyard had been planted with budwood from Mount Eden Martin Ray's vineyard, and Kistler had taken emulating his labels by using the California appellation in contrast to a more prestigious or precise geographic location for their wines. At that time, they were in Sonoma Valley, high up on the Sonoma side of the Maya Thomas mountains, overlooking Kenwood, just off of nuns Canyon Road. It was quite a trek up a very rough and ragged private road. When we arrived, we looked around but could not see anyone. Just as we started to walk around the back of the building, out came a fellow who had long, unkept hair, a whitish T-shirt with some holes in it, in boots, and jeans. He very quietly introduced himself as Steve Kistler and wondered who we were and what we were doing there. Jim explained who he was and that we were there to meet Mark Bixler, his partner. Steve said Mark had gone into town and was late coming back after a few rather awkward moments, and he finally began to show us around. We proceeded towards a nondescript entrance into the building. As we went through several smaller rooms, I noticed wine barrels wrapped with electric blankets. I wasn't sure what to make of it, but Steve did mumble something about stuck fermentations. The cellar was so small and cramped that you had to duck your head to get around most of it. He explained what was in the barrels and the 1980 harvest that they had experienced; never once did he offer us a taste of the wine. I found this very odd, as that was accepted practice to taste your wine with trade people when they had visited, especially coming all the way from the East Coast. Additionally, Jim was one of the largest customers outside of the state of California. After a straightforward and boring tour, we left the cellar, and Steve just turned around and left us standing in the driveway. I didn't know what to make of all this, but I thought, Oh, well, it's Jim's brand, if this is the way they treat their customers, good luck to them. At that moment, though, the gate opened up to the winery, and up came a pickup truck, scattering rocks and dust all the way out of the truck popped Mark Bixler, he introduced himself and apologized for being late. Jim told him that we had met Steve and he had given us a brief tour of the winery. It seemed like that was going to be the extent of the visit. At that juncture, I spoke up and said, Mark, it's my custom when I travel to California to bring several bottles of wine with me to share with vintners whose wines I admire. I continued. I have a bottle of 1978 Marquis de Laguiche with me in the car, if they had the time to taste. Out of nowhere, Steve Kistler appears, and all of a sudden they're both inviting us in to the house with huge smiles on their face, corkscrews gleaning in the sun. We sat down on the couch in the living room, and once we had enjoyed a bit of this Burgundian nectar, we were conversing like we were their best friends. Steve offered to open any of their wines we would like to try. Mark was trying to pull together some bread and cheese. It was a stunning turn of events at the end of what looked like yet another less-than-satisfying visit. I couldn't help but be amused by this and always enjoy sharing the story years later, as I'm doing now.

 Well, let me add to this episode another very interesting visit Jim and I had, but it was in 1982, a year later, when we returned to California, we had an appointment to meet the boys at La Crema Vinera. Of course, today, the brand is well known as La Crema and owned by Jackson Family Wines. This winery, at that time, was a young upstart group of six partners who had ventured out to produce Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from several well-known vineyards, most notably Winery Lake and Dutton Ranch. They were also the first North Coast winery to produce a vineyard-designated Pinot Noir from Ventana Vineyard in Monterey. Later, they would go on to develop Arrendell Vineyard, which is now owned by Hartford Court Family Winery. Their wine-making facility was in a warehouse located in an industrial park off the 101 highway in Petaluma. They were the first visit of this 1982 trip, and it was nothing short of hilarious. When we got to the warehouse, we were introduced to one, then two, then three partners in rapid succession. There were six partners in all, and a young fellow, Rod Berglund, was the winemaker. Rod would later be rated as one of the top winemakers in Sonoma County and go on to be the head of the legendary Joseph Swan winery, where he still crafts outstanding wine today. We proceeded to taste any number of wines out of barrel throughout the warehouse. Jim and I nodded our approval and were surprised that the wines were uniformly Excellent. Toward the end of the tasting, they had another wine they were eager to show us. With a smile, Rod asked if we wanted to taste their Gonzo Chardonnay. I looked and thought, Gonzo Chardonnay? What the hell could that possibly be? The wine turned out to be a very ripe, thoroughly extracted Chardonnay that you could cut with a butter knife. It was wacky to say the least. This wine was a better rendition, though, of today's ridiculous trend of what is referred to as “Orange Wine. Once we had finished the tasting, as they were preparing for us to leave, I interjected, you know, Rod, when I travel to California, it's my custom to bring along several bottles of the best white burgundy I am currently selling back in DC. I have a bottle of 1979 to Domaine Leflaive Chevalier Montrachet, if you would be interested in tasting it. I never saw so many people come out of the woodwork. They were coming down from ladders and appearing from around barrels while one of them was fumbling with getting a dozen glasses set up on a barrel head. As I watched several of the glasses tumble onto the floor, Jim and I could hardly contain ourselves from laughing. They opened the bottle and poured it in the glasses. It was obvious this was no Gonzo Chardonnay. It was sublime with great minerality, just utterly fantastic. They were blown away. As we left that day, they confirmed that we could continue to buy wine from them on a direct basis. As Jim and I headed back south on 101 to San Francisco, we thought, mission accomplished. 

 Well, this snippet from Episode #5 from my wine past should have given you a sense of the innocence and adventure of the early days in the fine wine industry in California as it was beginning to blossom These three wineries represented a good cross section of what I saw and learned about during my visit as a young wine buyer from the east coast in the early 1980s I still find it hard to wrap my head around the fact that I was just 29 years old when I started on those trips. 

Stay tuned for more episodes to follow. Thank you for being a listener.