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| With Mike Waller, Calera winemaker, with some very old (emptied Saturday last) bottles including the very first wine, a 1975 Zinfandel, that Josh Jenson made while he was waiting for his Pinot vines to grow) |
What a treat to spend a Saturday afternoon at Calera, celebrating the winery's 50th anniversary.
I have become more and more entranced by this "remote" farming region–from Paiscines Ranch to the San Benito Health Clinic (started by farmworkers–I wrote a story about its pioneering solar powered everything for The Guardian).
There is something wild and free about the area...a throwback that is also modern at the same time (just look at the traffic and road construction projects) with retiring urban refugees flocking to its gated retirement communities.
Now owned by Duckhorn–Jensen sold it to them a few years before his death, seeking someone to carry it forward–the hospitality team put on a grand sushi menu with other lovely Japanese dishes (sweet potatoes, for instance) and, best of all Bluefin Tuna bonbons. Bluefish Tuna bonbons? I have never heard of them before but now I dream of them at night, paired with Calera's classic estate wines.
Before I arrived, I listened to a few podcasts that mentioned Jensen's name. But I already wanted to know more about Jensen...why did everyone think he was a pioneer, when Chalone was on limestone just over the hill and making Pinot? How did he get the money to start the winery in the first place? How does a guy from Orinda, son of a dentist, get to Yale? and then to Burgundy?
Years ago a fabulous writer wrote a book about this place and about Jensen and the other leading talents who created this place and this wine. That book is The Heartbreak Grape, written by Canadian writer Marq de Villiers, It isn't so much about the grape as it is about Jensen and Calera. People don't write - or get to write - books of this caliber much any more, and more's the pity because this book is a masterpiece, not only about Calera, but also as an explanation of how wine is grown and made–the triumphs and the tribulations. I had read it years ago, but forgot most of it, until Mike Waller graciously gifted me a new copy at the winery which I spent the next day reading from cover to cover.
It's not only a great story, it's also a diplomatic critique about the weird anomalies of the wine industry. And its wine writers. (I refer you to page 168 in the book where de Villiers reviews many different reviewers' impressions of the same vintages of Calera wines, for a start.)
But that is not really what I want to talk about.
The 50th anniversary event itself was lovely.
At these gatherings, I am as interested in the fans who come (and sit next to me on the outdoor picnic tables). Where do they come from? What attracts them to wine and these wines specifically?
The assembled multitude ran the gamut from confirmed wine club members to newbies to Waller family members and other locals for whom this was home turf. (Yeah, home turf with spectacular views of the nearby cosmic bluffs.)
Across from me were a local Hollister couple (not related to the Wallers) who had never visited the winery before. The woman grew up here; the guy was originally from Holland. They'd met at their place of work. It was his birthday and this was the special birthday outing. Later on the way out, I ran into them again. He had scored an empty magnum of his birth year wine.
After they left, another couple joined the table–gay vacationers from the East Coast on a five day trip to the Bay Area. One guy's last name was Jensen so they figured they just HAD to come here. They were captured by the views and the wines. Definitely a California dream.
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The winery paid homage to its large base of Japanese Calera fans, who first made the brand popular there from a manga character. Twenty percent of its wines are sold to Japan. Still. |
Another couple from Santa Clara (who work in tech) were the best foragers at my table, continually collecting plate after small plate of the various Japanese inspired goodies offered up.
Sweet potatoes, sushi tacos, spicy tuna rolls, the infamous bluefin tuna bon bons (damn, I did not get a good picture of them) and more. I could always gauge when something new hit the buffet tables by their endless haul. (After all, it cost $175 to be here and that was the discount for wine club members). They were a great culinary alert system.
The Wine
As for the wine, the winery did its job of bringing forth old magnums that caused fans to swarm those carrying big bottles–magnums being a sign that old vintages were contained within.
I met one diehard old fan who recalled wilder parties back in the day, associated with Jensen and Grateful Dead concerts and New Year's Eves. Party hounds. He scooped up the last little dregs of the near empty 1975 Zinfandel bottle I clutched in my arms, a gift from Waller (it was almost empty by the time I got to it). It was the first wine Jensen made at Calera, while he was waiting for the Pinot vines to grow.
Of course the current releases were also poured and were in top form.
I started thinking about California's Pinot pioneers a lot on the way home in the car (a two hour drive).
After all, I've just been visiting a number of them in my Slow Wine USA circumambulations of late. (Every summer we [12+ writers] of SWG make site visits to about 300-450 wineries).
The previous week I had just visited at DuMOL, a fave, and Porter Bass and Porter Creek. Faves all in fact. In past years, Hanzell and others.
The initial terroir search motivations were varied. Pioneers like Hanzell in Sonoma Valley/Moon Mountain and Porter Creek in Russian River had no limestone. They went by temperature.
As did Richard Sanford (later of Alma Rosa)...him hanging his thermometer out the window of a car (or a VW bus if you prefer the mythic story). He was looking at temperatures more than limestone, he told me in an unpublished 2016 interview. Like Jensen, he had to buck local naysayers. Farmers told him you could never grow grapes there.
The Davis family bought their Russian River estate in 1978. "Pinot Noir was so underappreciated at that time that George Davis [Alex's father and the founder] was actually forced to plant more Chardonnay and less Pinot Noir than he wanted to by his banker and farm advisor, who saw no future in Pinot Noir is the Russian River Valley!" writes Alex Davis. "Apples were the proven cash crop at that time."
The Heartbreak Grape tells a similar story about Jensen and the history of Calera.
In the Here and Now
At the 50th, winemaker Mike Waller, who worked for more than a decade with Jensen, gave a tribute to the enduring vision and wines, praising Duckhorn for keeping the Calera culture and spirit alive.
The vineyards were first certified organic in 2008.
Additional events celebrating the 50th anniversary are planned for this fall for trade.
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