Monte Rosso's serene setting belies the varied aspect and shape of its many blocks. English translations of some of the nicknames bestowed by the vineyard crew include "the ear," "the goats" and "the television."
Monte Rosso -Memoirs of Sonoma's Grand CruBy Steve PitcherCalifornia is blessed with an abundance of great vineyards, but only a few stand out by name as something special, places of seeming mystical excellence. Most of these renowned vineyards have developed their cachet over decades, and the reputations of such distinctive sites are so compelling that the name of one of their number on a label virtually guarantees a superb bottle of wine. These illustrious, individually named vineyards comprise a category distinguishable from famous estates that are synonymous with their vineyards. For example, Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon, arguably unsurpassed for quality, is made from several prime blocks of the winery's Stags Leap District estate vineyard. By contrast, Diamond Creek Vineyards designates on the label a particular estate vineyard source for each of its four expressive Cabernets: Gravelly Meadow, Lake Vineyard, Red Rock Terrace and Volcanic Hill.
Vineyards such as the latter, and others, like Backus, Bancroft Ranch, Geyserville, Lytton Springs, Martha's, Monte Bello, Stag's Leap Vineyard, Three Palms and To Kalon, are as famous as the wine estates that own them, their names alone resonating prestige. Yet such vineyards are almost always monopoles, totally utilized by the winery in possession. A notable exception in this prestigious category is a vineyard that literally rises above the others, due to its elevation on a flat-topped mountain in the Mayacamas Range overlooking the Valley of the Moon in Sonoma Valley. Historic Monte Rosso Vineyard (MRV) shares the wealth of its bounty - for a price, of course - beyond the wineries under its ownership umbrella with a select handful of other producers who appreciate the privilege. >
Those who make Zinfandel from its grapes are particularly fortunate because Monte Rosso, long owned by Napa Valley's Louis M. Martini Winery, is widely regarded as one of the greatest vineyards for California's heritage variety. Its cabernet sauvignon vines are also the source of superb, vineyard-designated wines; and its mountain-grown Syrahs are a revelation, albeit in small quantity.
The key to Monte Rosso's greatness as a vineyard lies in a unique combination of soils, microclimates, elevations and exposures. A variety of rootstocks, clones, field selections and pruning methods complement the natural factors. All these influences come together to produce wines that are complex and multidimensional.
Exceptional, too, is that Monte Rosso, unlike most of the other great-name vineyards, is home to numerous grape varieties harmoniously sharing space on the mountain. Whereas many of these exceptional vineyards are devoted to one or two varieties, and others nurture a Bordeaux collection of up to five - cabernets sauvignon and franc, merlot, petit verdot and malbec - MRV boasts more than ten, including the aforementioned zinfandel, the Bordeaux five, plus syrah, petite sirah, sangiovese, sémillon and folle blanche.
This diverse mix of varieties harks back to early California winegrowing, when 19th-century vineyards were routinely planted with multiple varieties - red and white, together, sometimes intermixed, sometimes in separate blocks. Monte Rosso, originally planted in the latter format in the 1880s, is a survivor of that era. Old Hill Ranch, sited a few miles away on the Sonoma Valley floor and planted in a different style, is another vineyard legendary for its Zinfandel. The comparison between the two is worth exploring.
Farmed organically today by co-owner/manager Will Bucklin, Old Hill Ranch was originally planted in the 1850s by William McPherson Hill in the fashion of the day with dozens of grape varieties, most vinifera, some not, higgedly-piggedly in this 24-acre plot. In an attempt to bring some order to the chaos, Bucklin spent two years with an ampelographer cataloging the venerable vines. In the end, they identified a viticultural smorgasbord of at least 26 varieties among the collection. Zinfandel is the major variety, sharing space with the likes of grenache, mourvèdre/mataro, carignane, syrah, petite sirah, peloursin, lenoir, tannat, trousseau, French colombard, charbono, palomino, tempranillo, alicante bouschet and several types of muscat. This accounting is still incomplete, however, because other vines remain anonymous. (A detailed and colorful vineyard map, showing each variety's location, pictures and the entire story, can be viewed at www.buckzin.com.)
Bucklin makes an impressive Old Hill Ranch Zinfandel ($30) for his eponymous label, using virtually the entire spectrum of "mixed blacks," and sells half of the vineyard's yield to Ravenswood for that winery's upper-tier Old Hill Zinfandel ($60), which is made predominately (usually at least 75 percent) from old-vine zinfandel blended with a dash of the non-zin juice to taste, resulting in a peppery Zin with a Rhônish attitude. Winemaker Joel Peterson, who knows a few things about Zinfandel, considers Old Hill superb for the variety.
Peterson holds Monte Rosso Vineyard in the same high regard, even though, following the 2002 harvest, Ravenswood's access to the fruit Peterson had been buying since the early 1990s was terminated by Louis M. Martini Winery at the direction of Martini's new owner, E & J Gallo Winery. Inasmuch as Ravenswood had been acquired the year before by Constellation Brands, a major competitor of Gallo, the motivation behind this business decision suggests itself.
Like other vintner-clients who continue to purchase grapes from MRV, Peterson could count on getting fruit from the same block, or blocks, each year. It's this block system that distinguishes MRV from the intermingled kind of vineyard at Old Hill Ranch. That, plus the vineyard's sheer size and altitude.
On the outskirts of the town of Sonoma, where California was declared a republic (albeit short-lived) independent of Mexico in the Bear Flag Revolt of 1846, just past the sleepy hamlet of Agua Caliente, Moon Mountain Road meets Highway 12 and snakes its way up the western flanks of the Mayacamas range. Midway up the mountain, at about the 700-foot elevation mark, a dirt road jogs off to the right, leading to the entrance of Monte Rosso Vineyard. Along the way, patches of squat, gnarly vines with canopies close to the ground offer a preview of what's in store on a grand scale.
Radiating from the reception area in a broad arc, the 575 acres of the property cradle about 250 planted acres in a free-form, alphanumeric block system that compartmentalizes the vines by variety and date of planting. It's a fascinating collection of rootstocks, field and mass selections, clones and old vines. For the older blocks, and those that are also sources for the MRV-designated wines, the typical profile is of a low-yielding, head-trained vine planted on phylloxera-resistant St. George rootstock.
The oldest vines are zinfandel; nine of the 21 zinfandel blocks (comprising 39 acres - probably the largest collection of old-vine zinfandel in the state) are believed to have been planted in the 1890s and early 1900s after phylloxera wiped out the first plantings from 1880.
No one knows what was going through the minds of the founders of the vineyard, Emmanuel Goldstein, a San Francisco grocer, and his partner Benjamin Dreyfus, when they bought the land in 1880. What is known, however, is that before a vineyard could be planted, Chinese laborers had to be brought in to clear out a tremendous amount of rock and vegetation. The land cleared, and terraced where necessary, the vineyard was planted to multiple grape varieties, as was the then-popular practice, but in the more manageable block system. They called it Mt. Pisgah Vineyard after the mountain on which it stood.
When Dreyfus died in 1886, Goldstein renamed the property "Goldstein Ranch," and built a three-story, gravity-flow winery out of stone pried from the surrounding vineyard by hired labor. A Victorian-style farmhouse was constructed in 1903. Both of these structures survive to this day.
The winery operated from 1886 until the start of Prohibition in 1920, but was not reactivated when Prohibition ended in 1933, and hasn't been operated as a winery since. Goldstein kept the property profitable during Prohibition mostly by shipping grapes to San Francisco for sale to home winemakers. He never made wine on the ranch again, preferring to sell his grapes commercially, which is why his vineyard was one of the few to survive Prohibition intact and productive.
One of Goldstein's customers was Louis M. Martini, the founder of the eponymously named winery, who began buying fruit from the ranch when the chief Martini winery operation - a Prohibition-era grape products company established in 1922 that made sacramental wines and concentrate for home winemaking - was still based in the Central Valley town of Kingsburg. He began construction of a 1-million-case winery in St. Helena just before repeal, with the initial intention of producing red wines to be shipped to Kingsburg for blending into bulk wine. In 1934, Martini reconsidered his plans and moved the family-owned winemaking business to the St. Helena winery, eventually selling the Kingsburg facility in 1940. (A 1934 advertisement for the new Napa Valley winery's product line extolled Louis M. Martini "Burgundy, Claret, Riesling, Sauternes, Chablis and Many Other Varieties.")
After Goldstein's death in 1938, his heirs put the ranch and vineyard property up for sale. Martini, concerned that he might lose this jewel of a fruit source, bought it immediately, and soon renamed it "Monte Rosso" for its mountain location and bright, reddish soils. When Martini acquired the property in 1938, most of the vineyard's 180 planted acres featured head-trained zinfandel bush vines, some dating back to the 1880s. But like Old Hill Ranch and other old California vineyards, there were scads of other varieties in the vineyard block mix, including white varieties burger (a.k.a. elbling and monbadon), a warm-climate wine grape that at one time in the 19th century was the most-planted vinifera variety in California, folle blanche, gewürztraminer, palomino (then inaccurately called golden chasselas), riesling, sémillon and sylvaner.
Martini initiated a reduction of the varietal mix almost immediately, sparing the sémillon and the folle blanche, and leaving the old-vine zinfandel in place, while focusing on new cabernet sauvignon plantings. By 1940, he had increased the planted acreage to about 250.
The oldest cabernet sauvignon in existence today was planted shortly after Martini acquired the vineyard in 1938, about four acres in what is now designated Block E50. Thereafter, in the early 1950s, ten more acres of cabernet sauvignon developed from Louis P. Martini field selections were planted in what is now designated Block E30.
Master winemaker (his official title) Michael Martini, Louis M.'s grandson, considers these 50-plus-year-old vines the best cabernet in the vineyard. "The E30 Block is where Ed Sbragia and I make our top-of-the-line Cabernets for Louis M. Martini and Sbragia Family Vineyards [respectively]," he notes. "For the longest time, under Martini ownership, we called it the I Block."
The blocks are clearly delineated on a modern-day map (pictured above): The youngest, mostly cabernet sauvignon, are 21st-century additions; and although the oldest are shown as having been planted in 1900, the date is more of an approximation, inasmuch as archival records of the time are spotty at best.
Martini sheds some light on the matter, explaining that the original vineyard - amounting to some 300 acres - was planted in the 1880s with phylloxera devastating much of it in the 1890s. "The original vineyard was planted on its own roots. Replanting on St. George rootstock occurred as areas of infestation were removed through the early 1890s and on into the early 1900s. I believe everything was just given a start date of 1900 when some later foreman decided to start keeping records. We've tried to do core samples of the oldest vines, but these old boys are so fragile, and many rotten in the middle, so you can't really count the rings. I had to pick some date when I first started claiming old-vine wines, so I picked the oldest date I would think that they replanted, which would be around 1890." Planting dates from 1940 on are accurate.
Although the absence of heat-treated clones and modern rootstocks creates complications for the vineyard team, it also results in incredibly distinctive wines with character and layers of complexity rarely seen in most wines today. And each block has unique characteristics all its own.
According to Mark Oberschulte, longtime vineyard manager under both Martini and Gallo ownership, "When we were Martini, we had a letter and number system, letters being areas of the ranch, numbers for specific blocks - A01, A02, B03, and so on, up to L07." Under Gallo, each block starts with "E" - the corporate indicator of the vineyard - followed by an assigned number. "It's the same total number of blocks, 64," he adds.
Alphanumeric sounds rather clinical, but some kind of system is required in order to farm the vineyard and assign tasks to the workers. "The same vineyard crew is pretty much still with us post-Gallo purchase," Oberschulte notes, "and they have their own names for many of the blocks, which have evolved over the years." The nicknames are the very antithesis of the corporate system, and, claims Oberschulte, "They work far better than numbers." He provides some telling examples:
"'La Sentinella' - the sentinel - is the first block on the left as you enter the ranch. It has a commanding view of the Sonoma Valley as well as a 'guard station' locale. On the map, it's E10; planted to malbec.
"'El Television' is the E06 merlot-high block that offers a panoramic view - a view no TV could ever match!
"'Surcos largos,' E27 cabernet sauvignon. Pretty simple: long rows.
"'La Costilla,' E60 cabernet sauvignon. A long, descending ridge, with rows wrapped around the 'spine' in rib-like fashion.
"'La Oreja' - the ear - Block E59 petite sirah.
"'El Pozo' - the hole - Block E62 cabernet sauvignon, the lowest block on the ranch.
"'Los Chivos' - the goats - Block E55 zinfandel, above the old goat pen.
"'La Falda' - the skirt - E20 zinfandel. It's a flowing hillside of vines, like a skirt in the breeze.
"'El Laberinto' - the labyrinth - Block E30 cabernet sauvignon, so named because the vines are planted on terraces on the contours that often turn back into themselves as they wind around the hill; a tractor driver's nightmare."
Martini, the third-generation winemaker at the venerable St. Helena-based winery, knows the MRV intimately, as well. He, too, uses nicknames for the blocks, though mostly English versions. Whereas the field workers call the E45 zinfandel block "La Víbora," for rattlesnake, he calls it Rattlesnake Hill. "We usually kill 50 to 60 rattlers a year on the ranch, a lot of them up on that hill," he notes.
Rattlesnake Hill is worth wading through rattlers to farm and harvest, as it is the old-vine source every year, along with anonymous blocks E47 and E17, of Louis M. Martini Gnarly Vine Zinfandel. Vines in these blocks were planted around 1900 and produce stellar wine. The 3.3-acre Block E45 is the pinnacle, literally and figuratively, of MRV, topping out at 1,240 feet above sea level.
Focusing on the block the field crew calls "El Television," Martini explains, "On top of the merlot 06 Block is what we call Eagles' Roost, because at some point that was where they did roost, and sometimes still do. The flats below Eagles' Roost - blocks 05, 04, 01 and 27 - are what I call 'smoky flats' after the 1996 Cavedale fire," he recalls. These were the only blocks at MRV affected by the disastrous fire that started near Cavedale Road, just to the north of the property, sparked by untrimmed tree limbs in too-close proximity to power lines. It burned for some 20 days, and destroyed two vineyards above Monte Rosso: Chalone's Carmenet Vineyard (now the Moon Mountain Vineyard under different ownership) and Hanna Winery's Bismark Mountain Ranch Vineyard, the highest vineyard in Sonoma County. Both were replanted. (For more on the Bismark Mountain Ranch story, including some revealing photography, see "Moving Up the Mayacamas," June/July 2004, page 30.)
Whimsically named "The Thieves" by Mike Martini, the 3.8-acre Block E56 is the last redoubt of old-vine sémillon in MRV. "At maturity, the sémillon's canes are still very flexible," he explains. "The block has six-by-six spacing, and the canes overlap, so when you push them apart to walk through the block, they snap back, and on the way remove things from your pockets and person such as sunglasses, earrings, pens, etcetera, hence the name."
Until the Gallo purchase five years ago, Louis M. Martini Winery made a varietal Sémillon from these vines that, while relatively inexpensive, was one of the most distinctive white wines ever produced in California. (It's a pity to lose such a mountain wine treasure; perhaps one day it will make a comeback.)
Locating the blocks, however designated, is instrumental in the work of the vineyard team in preserving the natural habitat. Vineyard manager Oberschulte explains, "A soil regeneration program using turkey manure is in place, and cover crops such as brome grass, vetch and wild barley grow throughout the vineyard." Vineyard managers can do this with commercial fertilizers, but a natural approach just seems more appropriate for this site that's a true gift of nature.
In addition to rattlers, Martini notes that "wild turkeys, red-tailed hawks, wild boars and coyotes are commonplace in this mountain environment." What's rugged now was infinitely more intractable and remote in the 19th century, and carving the land into vineyard blocks was a heroic challenge for the pioneering Dreyfus and Goldstein, who relied on mule, horse and human power to groom it. Martini's grandfather, however, enlisted surplus U.S. Army 4-wheel-drive vehicles, purchased after World War II, to more efficiently navigate and farm the steep terraces. Remarkably, a few of these old timers can still be seen on the property, but their working days are over.
In the intervening decades, cabernet sauvignon has become the MRV's dominant variety, accounting for just over 115 out of the nearly 250 planted acres; it is laid out in 20 individual blocks, ranging in size from 1.5 acres to 10.8 acres. Zinfandel occupies 75.5 acres in 21 individual blocks, ranging in size from one-half acre to 11.2 acres. These two big guns are followed by three blocks of merlot (9.3 acres), two blocks of malbec (3 acres) and one block each of syrah (4.1 acres), sangiovese (3.9 acres), sémillon (3.8 acres), folle blanche (3.6 acres; the original 1890s vines were replaced in 1998 due to phylloxera), petit verdot (3 acres) and petite sirah (1.9 acres). Another six blocks amounting to 16 acres are designated as open and available for planting.
In spite of such diversity, MRV's enduring reputation is firmly rooted in zinfandel and cabernet sauvignon. A bird's-eye view aids in understanding why these varieties are particularly well suited to the location.
Draped over the terraced slopes of Mt. Pisgah, MRV basks in the sun above the fog line of the Valley of the Moon, while benefiting in the afternoon from the cooling influence of breezes drawn northward across western Carneros and through Sonoma Valley from nearby San Pablo Bay, the northern extension of San Francisco Bay. The combination results in a moderately cool climate typical for a Region 2 on the UC-Davis heat-summation chart (1 being the coolest, 5 the warmest). Exposure on the terraces runs from southeast to northwest, at an elevation of 700 feet to 1,240 feet.
The vineyard's geography was shaped some 50 million years ago by volcanic activity when lava spewed out of the side of Mt. Veeder and flowed down the western flanks of the Mayacamas toward San Pablo Bay. Over eons, lava at the surface decomposed, leaving a soil type called Red Hill Loam that contains some volcanic ash and is rich in minerals (particularly high in iron and potassium), which can impart a subtle, attractive, ferrous-dusty mineral component to a wine's bouquet. Beneath this red-colored, volcanic clay-loam are layers of shattered shale, which itself is a type of clay that is well drained and porous, containing miniscule water pockets that act as water reservoirs for the vines' root hairs. The fissures in the shattered shale provide access for larger roots to burrow down to depths of 20 or more feet in search of water. This unique setting has allowed some vines to survive, dry farmed, for over a century. Drip irrigation is occasionally used today for younger vines.
The undulating vineyard expanse is made up of a series of plateaus and hillsides, with deeper, richer soils gathering on the plateaus, and thinner soils and fractured rock covering the hillsides. "The vines at Monte Rosso are subject to stress factors typical of mountain vineyards," Martini notes. "Crops are small - averaging less than three tons per acre for younger vines, and at most one-and-a-half tons for the old vines - but the fruit is intensely flavored with balanced acidity, making for complex wines with notable aging ability."
The first vintage-dated and varietally labeled Louis M. Martini wines were released in 1940; significantly, an early-effort Monte Rosso Vineyard-designate label debuted in 1945. "Frank Schoonmaker [the influential mid-20th-century wine writer and importer] and Alex Lichine [who then sold wine for Schoonmaker and would later become a major figure in the French wine world] talked my grandfather into it," Martini recalls, "but he was about 50 years ahead of his time, and didn't continue with it."
Winery founder Louis Michael, the family patriarch, anointed his son, Louis Peter, winemaker in 1954. Although he was a fearless experimenter - Louis P. perfected the system of using large propeller fans for vineyard frost protection, now commonplace in the wine industry - he decided against vineyard-designating his wines. Instead, during his regime, the winery used the designation "California Mountain." It was an oblique reference to Martini's only mountain vineyard, Monte Rosso; a Louis M. Martini wine bearing this designation was made entirely or mostly from Monte Rosso Vineyard fruit. Among these were some delicious, deftly balanced Zinfandels from ancient, head-trained vines, and high-end Cabernet Sauvignons additionally designated as either "Private Reserve" (deserving extra bottle age) or "Special Selection" (from the best lots).
Louis P.'s son, Michael, the first Martini to graduate from the winemaking program at UC-Davis, worked alongside his father before taking the reins as winemaker in 1977. He preferred to capitalize on vineyard designation and lost no time in doing so. "I did my first one in 1977 with a Monte Rosso Zinfandel. We label-designated MRV for three years through 1979, but our sales force couldn't figure out how to sell vineyard-designated wines in those days, even though there was Ridge doing vineyard-designations and Sutter Home had Deaver Vineyard Zins in the marketplace making a lot of hay."
Undaunted by the perceived inadequacies of his sales force, Martini inaugurated the Monte Rosso Cabernet Sauvignon series of wines in 1979. "I still do those," he says, "all designated Monte Rosso Vineyard."
And what of sharing this wealth? "Ravenswood opened up the concept of [selling] somebody else the fruit for the purpose of promoting the vineyard and enhancing its reputation," Martini notes. "Joel [Peterson, owner/winemaker] talked me into it. I thought to myself that, as a marketing concept, it worked for Rene di Rosa at Winery Lake Vineyard, so let's give it a whirl." Both Ravenswood and Louis M. Martini produced a 1993 MRV-designate. "It took several years to build the reputation after that." Thereafter, several other producers lined up for Monte Rosso fruit. Some have since come and gone, but all of those involved contributed to fostering the vineyard's cachet.
Peterson recalls, "When I was using Louis Martini Winery as a custom-crush facility in the early '90s to make Ravenswood Vintners Blend, Mike Martini consented to sell me Monte Rosso zinfandel - we also did a little cabernet. I recall Mike later telling me that he began selling more Monte Rosso zinfandel to other wineries, in part, because I had helped to build a reputation for the vineyard and, in part, he found that he could actually make more money selling grapes than he could make by selling wine. That, of course, has changed as the reputation of this vineyard has grown." He notes, too, that "the Gallo/Martini engine is able to maintain a comfortable profit margin."
Through the 1990s, two particular blocks were sources for Ravenswood. Vineyard manager Mark Oberschulte explains that "Joel acquired his fruit from E16 - planted in the 1960s - and E32 - planted in the 1890s." Adds Peterson, "We consistently got around three tons per acre. The red volcanic soils, the slope and the cooler situation due to the air flow at this elevation make this a special site in Sonoma Valley."
When he lost MRV as a fruit source, Peterson recalls "having some, probably misdirected, anger at Mike for not arguing the case for maintaining a Ravenswood presence more forcefully." He admits to being "saddened and disappointed," given his involvement "in building the Monte Rosso Zinfandel reputation." But the new owner had plans for those blocks under its Rancho Zabaco label, a Zin-only brand that directly competed on the retail shelf with Ravenswood's formidable Zin lineup (the last vintage of Monte Rosso Zinfandel was 2002).
Although at least 14 other producers offer MRV-designated wines (see "Progeny" sidebar on page 36) today, indeed, the chief beneficiary of the MRV acquisition by Gallo, other than Louis M. Martini Winery, of course, is undoubtedly its Rancho Zabaco brand, which takes its name from one of California's oldest Mexican land grants, the Tzabaco Rancho in Dry Creek Valley. The Healdsburg-based Zinfandel specialist, whose mission statement declares it intends to become the country's leading quality producer of Zinfandel, offers a full range of styles at prices ranging from $10 to $50. The top tier consists of three small-production, single vineyard Zins: Stefani Vineyard in Dry Creek Valley, and the Toreador and Monte Rosso bottlings, both made from Monte Rosso Vineyard fruit; at the AVA-designated level are Zins from Russian River Valley, Dry Creek Valley and Lodi, and a regional Sonoma Heritage Vines bottling; for the bargain seeker, Rancho Zabaco makes a Dancing Bull California Zinfandel.
Eric Cinnamon is in charge of winemaking at Rancho Zabaco; the 34-year-old earned a Bachelor's Degree in Fermentation Science at UC-Davis, later went to work for E & J Gallo and was quickly promoted to winemaker at Frei Bros., also based in Healdsburg, before making the switch to Rancho Zabaco in 2001. For such a young winemaker, his wines already exhibit consummate craftsmanship, particularly the Zins he makes from MRV fruit.
"Both wines - Toreador and Monte Rosso Vineyard Zin - are really a blend of old blocks throughout the vineyard. The Toreador is primarily from the 120-year-old vines, while the Monte Rosso incorporates some of the 30- and 50-year-old blocks. The block selections change from year to year, as we are always looking for the best fruit for these wines," he says. "We also use different oak, pump-over and extraction regimes each year to suit the character of the wine."
The 2004 Toreador earned "Zinfandel of the Year" honors in my annual "California's Best of 2006" feature (December/January 2006-07, page 58) against some very tough competition. "Wickedly rich and extracted," I noted then, "the essence of old-vine Zinfandel."
"I am very excited to be working with world-famous, old-vine zinfandel," Cinnamon says, adding, "I like to take winemaking to the limit, and I think the resulting wines are unique because of it." One of his techniques is the use of small fermenters that allow him a more hands-on method of working with individual lots.
Cinnamon's style emphasizes lively fruit, and his Zins spend less time in the barrel and on the skins in comparison to those of some of his colleagues. For those who appreciate such nuance, his MRV-designated Zins exhibit remarkably lower-than-average pH levels - 3.40 to 3.44 for the 2004 vintage, compared to the more usual 3.85 to 3.95 - which has the effect of balancing Zinfandel's inherently higher-than-usual alcohol without sacrificing any textural richness. >
Robert Biale Vineyards, second behind Ravenswood to gain access to MRV zinfandel, struck its agreement in 1995 and continues to source fruit here twelve years later. Dave Pramuk, a partner in the winery, offers, "Ever since the first bottling, Biale Monte Rosso has become something of a Zin classic and a 'must have' for Zin collectors."
Biale winemaker, Al Perry, enthuses, "The conditions on this lofty site add up to something of a 'perfect storm' for Zinfandel flavor development: 1,200 feet elevation, all-day sun, moderate climate, rocky-minerally soil and ancient vines. The trick with Monte Rosso, as it is with most zinfandel vineyards, is knowing when the fruit is ready to come off the vine. While numbers are important, [Brix] don't tell the whole story. The real key is in the tasting - recognizing when the grapes have reached perfect ripeness, the peak of flavor. It can be an easy mistake to misjudge and pick zin too soon. The optimal result is a highly distinctive wine redolent of ripe wild berries, minerals and a signature grind of black pepper. Adding to the excitement is a bolstered foundation of crisp acids, low pH and mountain tannins."
Rosenblum Cellars, which bottles at least a dozen vineyard-designated Zins, not surprisingly makes one labeled MRV. Proprietor Kent Rosenblum notes, "The particular blocks that produced grapes for our 2005 Monte Rosso Zin also contain a small amount of alicante bouschet, carignane and an unidentified variety we call 'U.V.O.' - an unidentified vinous object - which adds a mystique to the field blend of grapes." Rosenblum doesn't hold back, describing it as "a pure example of what mountain fruit can produce - Zinfandel at its finest! Blackberry pie oozing out of a cinnamon piecrust topped with vanilla ice cream. Truly a Zin lover's dream."
Rosenblum and other clients pay top prices for these grapes but no one's complaining. Ed Sbragia, Beringer's winemaster and owner/winemaker of his own brand, Sbragia Family Vineyards, says, "Thankfully, my good friend Mike Martini has continued to share a couple of blocks with me from the Monte Rosso." He and Martini are members of a rock band named "Private Reserve." That will likely keep Sbragia in the loop.
Greg Brown, owner-winemaker at T-Vine Cellars in Calistoga, has been producing MRV-designated Cabernet Sauvignon since the 2000 vintage, and has a special regard for the property. "The first vineyard-designated wine I had growing up - 29 years ago [he turns 50 this year] - came from Monte Rosso, and it made a lasting impression on me. In the winemaking community, Monte Rosso is regarded as a truly great vineyard, and as a winemaker, I could only dream about making wine from its grapes. So when [vineyard manager] Mark Oberschulte offered me some Monte Rosso fruit in 2000, I couldn't believe I was getting this opportunity."
His cabernet comes from the E49 block, coincidentally planted 29 years ago. "Oberschulte told me the vineyard workers call this the 'Beer Block,'" Brown relates. "It must be because after each harvest, I bring up lots of Miller Lite for the guys to enjoy - they really appreciate it." Brown cherishes each berry - "I won't let them drop any crop"- and manages to get an average yield of about four tons per acre.
He's obviously in awe of the place. "For me, making the T-Vine Monte Rosso Cabernet Sauvignon is like a professional fantasy. It's difficult to describe the feelings I get when I arrive at Monte Rosso - like a spiritual haze, a timelessness, a sense of Old World, which is so rare in California." The T-Vine 2004 Monte Rosso Vineyard Cab ($55) was just released, and Brown couldn't be prouder. "I hope wine lovers take the opportunity to experience a dream that manifested into a bottle of art. It's like a fantasy that juices up your life and inspires you towards stepping outside your perception of reality. It inspires me." Cost of fruit clearly has little relevance in such a relationship.
Martini explains that the biggest factor in the cost of the grapes (actual price is proprietary information and thus not disclosed), "is that we only get one ton an acre - in a good year, maybe a ton and a half from the oldest and best blocks. The buyers buy the block, but pay for the weight that comes off that block. That allows the vintner to call his own picking shot. The prices on the bottles are very reflective of the price of the fruit." These are not inexpensive wines, to be sure, with the Zinfandels starting around $35, but averaging $45, and the Cabernet Sauvignons priced from $50 upward.
Gerard Thoukis, marketing manager of premium wines at Gallo, adds further insight: "Monte Rosso Vineyard is owned by Gallo and any fruit sold off the ranch is sold at market price to all wineries that purchase fruit, including Louis M. Martini and Rancho Zabaco. With LMM and RZ the transaction is more of a 'cost center' shift of funds within company budgets, rather than a cash transaction, but they do pay market price and each winery has independent financials and budgets."
As one might expect, a wine's price is based on more than just grape cost. "Although vineyard blocks within Monte Rosso may have slight variations in price due to concentration and quality of fruit," Thoukis continues, "other factors, such as labor, old versus new barrels, winemaking techniques employed, glass, labels and production levels all will influence the final price of a bottle of wine. In general, one can assume that a more expensive wine has sourced premium quality fruit and employed superior winemaking techniques - resulting in a higher cost of goods - with the goal of producing a higher quality wine."
Cabernet Sauvignon commands a commensurately higher price in the market than Zinfandel, especially when sourced from an illustrious vineyard like Monte Rosso. Sbragia notes that "This vineyard produces refined, mountain-grown Cabernet - elegant and rich, with intense flavors and good acidity with round tannins, a velvety texture and a juicy finish."
No one knows this better than Mike Martini, who not only makes a Louis M. Martini Monte Rosso Cabernet Sauvignon, but also an MRV-designated Cabernet Sauvignon under his own label, M Squared. His style contrasts with Sbragia's in that his Cabs tend to exhibit more restraint on release. His personal winemaking style, clearly intended for long-term aging, sets him apart from many California Cab producers. In fact, the Martini style has always been distinctive. "When I was developing my own personal style as a winemaker," Martini explains, referring to the formative 1970s, "my goal was to bring balance and texture to Cabernet Sauvignon." His style doesn't depart much from the house style, familiar to many connoisseurs of a certain age. "My father's wines are silk," Martini says. "Mine are velvet."
MRV Syrah is a fairly new development; the vines in the 4-acre Block E52 were planted only in 2000. Nevertheless, the three examples currently available - Hill Climber from Robert Biale Vineyards, Louis M. Martini (tasting room only) and Oberschulte Mountain Wines (crafted by Monte Rosso's vineyard manager) - are as impressive in a different varietal sense as the Cabernets and Zinfandels from older-vine neighboring blocks. Production is, however, still tiny: no more than 200 cases of any of the three, and only 75 cases of Hill Climber.
Yet all of the MRV-designated wines are basically limited production, aimed at the connoisseur who enjoys drinking wine with a solid sense of place and a track record for quality. With such a magnificent view from any vantage point in the sprawling Monte Rosso Vineyard, it's easy to expect the wines to be as big and beautiful as the scenery.
Producer diversity clearly adds to the appeal. Martini sums it up neatly while surveying the vineyard from a prominent ridge: "It has been an honor to be the steward of a property where the cross hairs come together to give such an exceptional environment for some of the best fruit in the world. Monte Rosso produces wines with rich elegance that speak of origin no matter who makes them."
Something one would expect of a grand cru in its third century of production.
Based in San Francisco, Contributing Editor Steve Pitcher can be reached via e-mail at wine2words@aol.com.
Monte Rosso's Progeny
Amapola Creek (Zinfandel)
Arrowood Winery (Cabernet Sauvignon)
August Briggs Winery (Cabernet Sauvignon)
Charter Oak Winery (Zinfandel)
Hill Climber by Robert Biale Vineyards (Syrah)
Louis M. Martini Winery (Cabernet Sauvignon; Zinfandel; Syrah)
M Squared (Cabernet Sauvignon)
Moon Mountain Vineyard (Zinfandel; Zin Port)
Oberschulte Wines (Syrah)
Rancho Zabaco (Zinfandel)
Robert Biale Vineyards (Zinfandel)
Rosenblum Cellars (Zinfandel)
Sbragia Family Vineyards (Cabernet Sauvignon)
Stryker Sonoma (Cabernet Sauvignon; Bordeaux Blend called E-1-K)
T-Vine Cellars (Cabernet Sauvignon)
Watkins Family Winery (Cabernet Sauvignon)
Tasting BAR
The following wines were tasted by the author blind in San Francisco by varietal group. Decanting is strongly recommended for near-term enjoyment.
Zinfandel
Robert Biale, 2005 Zinfandel, Monte Rosso Vineyard, Sonoma Valley - $45 (500 cases): Very attractive, appealing scents of blackberry, black raspberry and cracked black pepper spice. Boldly flavored and richly textured with medium-full tannins, this complex, mountain-grown Zin delivers great extract of black fruit and maintains exquisite balance for all that richness and depth, finishing with a flourish of black pepper. Score: 93
Charter Oak, 2005 Zinfandel, Monte Rosso Vineyard, Sonoma Valley - $45 (375 cases): Fresh, fruity, spicy scents of sour cherry and raspberry that have a liqueur-like richness that translates to the palate, where the wine is luxuriant, rich and supple with medium tannins and lively, delicious red fruit and subtle brown spice; long, cherry hard candy finish. Score: 92
Louis M. Martini, 2004 Gnarly Vine Zinfandel, Monte Rosso Vineyard, Sonoma Valley - $50 (500 cases): The complex, mineral-infused nose of brambly black fruits is truly captivating and deeply aromatic. On the palate, the minerality is quite evident, a combination of crushed granite and ferrous ore, enhancing fresh, lively raspberry-cassis fruit and subtle spice held within a frame of fine-grain tannins and judicious oak; prolonged, juicy, vanilla-tinged close. Score: 91
Rancho Zabaco, 2005 Toreador Zinfandel, Monte Rosso Vineyard, Sonoma Valley - $60 (270 cases): Stylish and exuberant in aroma and flavor, this classic, old-vine Zin offers deep, ultraripe, kirsch-like blackberry scents that even smell extracted and positively stunning. Bright, lively and luscious in the mouth with copious berry fruit that is deep and concentrated, exhibiting medium-full, supple tannins and exciting plate presence. The marvelous flavors linger in the extended close, where some black pepper spice emerges. Score: 93
Rancho Zabaco, 2005 Zinfandel, Monte Rosso Vineyard, Sonoma Valley - $45 (500 cases): Forward, intensely spicy nose of ripe blackberry and raspberry, with notes of crushed-stone minerality and vanilla bean. Lusciously smooth and seamless, with plush, ripe tannins, this heady Zinfandel is fairly bursting with spicy, ripe blackberry fruit underscored by sour cherry and recurrent minerality, which persists into the long close, that features a spicy flourish. An intense, yet focused, Zin that borders on liqueur-like richness, resulting in glorious drinking. Score: 93
Rosenblum, 2005 Reserve Zinfandel, Monte Rosso Vineyard, Sonoma Valley - $45 (1,800 cases): Attractive aromas of fresh lavender, dusty minerality and ripe, dark berry fruit, accented by spicy American oak and a note of smoked meat. Big bodied and plushly textured, with supple, fine-grained tannins, this super-expressive Zinfandel delivers all the flavors promised by the nose, and finishes long with a gentle spiciness. Score: 92
Cabernet Sauvignon
Arrowood Winery, 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon, Unfined/Unfiltered, Monte Rosso Vineyard, Sonoma Valley - $85 (479 cases/Fall 2007 release): Violets and cassis define the slow-to-open nose. Big, bold and built for the long term, with firm tannins and mint-tinged black currant fruit along with sweet oak spice from extended barrel aging, this is a very young mountain Cab deserving of several years in the cellar. Score: 89
Louis M. Martini, 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon, Monte Rosso Vineyard, Sonoma Valley - $85 (1,000 cases): Fresh, bright, fruity aromas of sour cherries and cassis are replicated on the rich palate, which displays excellent acid balance, polished tannins and deep, complex flavors of copious fruit underscored by earthy, leathery notes and complemented by a bit of sweet vanillin oak. This is a firm, well-stuffed, well-structured wine with excellent aging potential; revisit after eight years or so. Score: 90
Sbragia Family, 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon, Monte Rosso Vineyard, Sonoma Valley - $50 (686 cases/Fall 2007 release): Very fragrant, appealing scents of dried lavender, glove leather, ripe cassis-black cherry fruit, white smoke and a touch of mocha. Smooth and velvety (helped by the vintage), this classic mountain Cab offers loads of expressive cherry-cassis fruit with a pleasant varietal herbaceous component, a touch of glove leather, excellent acid balance and a prolonged, kirsch-like finish. Score: 92
Syrah
Robert Biale, 2005 Hill Climber Syrah, Monte Rosso Vineyard, Sonoma Valley - $56 (75 cases): Forward, exuberant scents of chocolate chip cookies, quite ripe wild blackberry, raspberry, roasted meat and white pepper. Rich and succulent on the palate with loads of kirsch-like berry fruit, a bit of forest floor and iron-red minerality, this gentle giant of a wine is years away from optimum drinking, given its enormous palate framed in a tight structure of medium-full tannins. Score: 93
Louis M. Martini, 2004 Syrah, Monte Rosso Vineyard, Sonoma Valley - $40 (120 cases/tasting room only): Deep, brooding aromas of blackberry-cassis fruit enhanced by notes of game and mocha with a little earth-iness. Luscious and juicy on the palate with great structure and depth of flavor buoyed by refreshing acidity and medium-full tannins, the wine offers copious, ripe berry-black cherry fruit and spicy, gamey nuances that persist into the finish. Excellent aging potential. Score: 91
Oberschulte, 2004 Syrah, Monte Rosso Vineyard, Sonoma Valley - $34 (198 cases): Fragrant, appealing scents of vanilla, ripe blackberry and black cherry, with sour cherry and dark chocolate notes emerging with air. Bold and powerful on the palate, this take-no-prisoners Syrah delivers copious, ultraripe blackberry-raspberry fruit tinged with dried lavender, medium-full, supple tannins and fine acid balance, yet in the close the wine picks up even more red fruit and caresses the palate as the flavor impressions slowly fade into memory. Score: 92 - SP
