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Mountain or Coast, Two Cabernets Show Napa Has Nothing on Them

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Times Wine Writer

In some ways, there couldn’t be two more dissimilar wine makers than Patrick Campbell and Gary Eberle, but after the superficial elements are discarded, the ways in which these two gentlemen make a similar statement with Cabernet Sauvignon is striking.

Campbell, owner of Laurel Glen Vineyards in Sonoma County, is slight of build, clean-shaven and rather reserved; Eberle, who owns Eberle Winery in Paso Robles, is a big, burly bear of a man with a backwoods beard, a frame roughly twice the size of Campbell’s, and eyes that seem to radiate light of enthusiasm and warmth.

Eberle was a football lineman at Penn State and had offers to turn pro; Campbell, who suffered from polio at age 5 and has little use of his legs, earned a living during and after college by playing the viola with symphony orchestras.

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Both today are wine makers in out-of-the-way regions not heavily traveled by wine lovers, let alone potential wine lovers.

Two Brilliant Men

And yet in their own way, these two brilliant men are making strides with Cabernet Sauvignon that rival what’s being done in the better known Napa Valley. Indeed, if either were in the Napa Valley, his fame would certainly be more pervasive today than it is.

The use of the word brilliant above is not casual, and here the parallels between them begin: Both earned master’s degrees in fields unrelated to wine making, Eberle in zoology (he came within an eyelash of a doctorate in cytogenetics) at Louisiana State University, Campbell in philosophy, at Harvard, no less. And both got into wine making more or less by a side door. For neither wanted to do this for a living, preferring grape growing to wine making.

But both had a sense of the artistic, and both also realized that raising the grape through adolescence and then leaving it to be molded into its final adult shape by another was not very fatherly.

Drawing comparisons between two such disparate souls and regions may be stretching a point, but I felt it unavoidable after visiting with both recently and realizing that often the fame of a wine is in relation to its region, and that the current fad is to praise Napa Cabernet. It’s almost as if that phrase alone defines high quality.

Many Honors

Eberle, however, pointed out that his Cabernets, starting with the first in 1979, have won as many top honors in wine competitions as any other Cabernet in California, and he wondered aloud why he must spend fully 181 days a year on the road, traveling to various American cities to promote his brand.

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And Campbell, who makes a Cabernet to rival anything done in California today, acknowledges that were he in Napa, he’d probably be better recognized.

But both men also point out that if they were in Napa, they could never make the wines they make, and both are extremely proud of the soils in which they have chosen to sink their roots.

Eberle began his wine-making career at nearby Estrella River Winery and actually got his feet wet first in planting various grape varieties in a one-acre experimental plot. Working with the University of California at Davis, Estrella’s owners wanted to see what grapes grew best in this fertile soil an hour’s drive due west of the central San Joaquin Valley.

Eberle made wine at Estrella from 1977 through 1979. Then he and his wife, Jeannie, left to open their own winery. At the time he toyed with the notion of moving to the Napa Valley.

“But I asked myself, where were the best Cabernet grapes I had ever worked with, and they are right here in Paso Robles,” said Eberle, so he stayed. His new winery, on California 46 just east of California 101, opened in 1984.

Meanwhile, Campbell had earned a degree at Cal Poly Pomona, and after two years studying philosophy at Harvard with a religious specialty, he moved back to California and into a Buddhist monastery, Genjo-Ji, on Sonoma Mountain behind the small town of Glen Ellen.

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“I’m pretty Spartan,” said Campbell, adding, “when I saw they had a three-acre vineyard, I jumped into it.” He loved tending the vines (they were Palomino grapes and were sold to Sebastiani for sherry production), and despite his handicap, he handled most of the chores.

Soon after, he and his wife, Faith, found a 42-acre parcel of land less than a third of a mile from the monastery; the name was Laurel Glen. Its Cabernet grapes had long been sold to others, notably Kenwood and Chateau St. Jean, and Campbell felt he would simply continue to sell grapes.

That was in 1976. Campbell started taking wine-making classes at Santa Rosa Junior College and by 1979, a homemade wine from his own property turned out so well he decided to make wine commercially. The first, in 1981, was a hit, winning all sorts of awards and gaining instant fame for the modest fellow.

The soils that Eberle and Campbell till, and the climates in which they work, are widely different, leading to different styles of wine.

In Paso Robles, Eberle works calcareous, sandy clay soil on gently sloped vineyards. And the climate offers very warm summer days and cool nights. Huge temperature swings are common, giving Eberle very cool nights even when daytime temperatures soar near 100. This is due to an ocean breeze that wafts over a low-sitting mountain to the west.

Sonoma Mountain is a small, remote appellation sitting above the lush Sonoma Valley where Jack London wrote “Call of the Wild” and other novels. Few wineries make wine from these grapes, and the reason is that production is fairly limited in these rocky, sloped vineyards.

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Rocks of every sort, from volcanic to petrified wood, fill the variegated soil and make certain areas of the property better than others for wine. And the climate here can be a little dicey, with temperatures in some years not truly warm enough to get grapes fully ripe.

The wines of these two wineries are, thus, quite different. The Eberle Cabernet tends more toward a combination of herbal and chocolate, with hints of pine and tarragon. They are very consistent from year to year and appear to age best within 10 years of their production.

The 1981 Eberle Cabernet, one of my favorites, sampled again recently, is reaching a point of drinkability, though it will surely age well into the 1990s.

Laurel Glen wines have thus far been a little less consistent, and they tend to be a little more tightly knit and less open when released. However, they are also a little more approachable when first out because of an intriguing red currant lilt to the otherwise raspberry-ish fruit. As the wine ages, hints of mineral and dried basil smells are released.

The 1981 Laurel Glen, the first made by Campbell for commercial release, tasted for comparison last week, was spectacular. The fruit has not only stayed around for the ride but has opened further to reveal a slight anise quality to add to the remaining “curranty” smells. It may be found on some restaurant wine lists and is a grand experience.

Overall, the Laurel Glen wine is a bit more classic, needing perhaps 10 to 12 years in the bottle before it begins to open up fully. It is also a very limited production wine (about 4,000 cases in a good year but far less in a poor one) and now sells for $20 a bottle.

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That may be a lot of money, but Cabernet was hard hit by weather problems in 1988 and Campbell has but 1,200 cases of that vintage for a market that is increasing its demand for his wine as they discover it.

Eberle offers his Cabernets for $12. The wines are more California-like and have a broader appeal, though they have the tannins needed for the aging, and the ’81 has now smoothed out sufficiently, indicating that seven years from the harvest is what’s needed.

Lots of Tannin

Both Campbell and Eberle admit that their growing regions are not the target of NASA-type research, so each vintage for them is a new experience and they are still experimenting. Laurel Glen’s 1982 Cabernet, for instance, was not particularly engaging, and Campbell admits he could have done much better with it had he known then what he now knows.

To guard against problems like 1982 in the future, Campbell has developed a second label, Counterpoint, that will be a lower-priced wine comprising some of the barrels that don’t add anything interesting to the Laurel Glen wine.

Both men also make other wines, with Eberle’s Chardonnay another medal winner, and a lovely, balanced effort every year. The 1986 ($12) is an excellent example of fruit and richness not overdone. Laurel Glen made a small amount of dessert-style wine similar to a Sauternes in 1985. The wine, called Cochino de Oro, is superb (it sells for $12.50 a half bottle), but it’s available only by mail from the Winewright’s Register. For details, call (800) 321-4300. Only 30 cases remain.

Handsome Tasting Room

Those interested in learning more about Eberle may visit his handsome tasting room on California 46 four miles east of Highway 101.

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As for Campbell, his small operation is located off a remote trail on Sonoma Mountain and is hard to find. Moreover, Campbell still does most of the vineyard work and wine-making himself, so he usually has little time for visitors and consequently has no tasting room. Moreover, he and Faith have three growing daughters, which makes him as much a family man as anything else.

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