Mendocino County’s Secret Is Out
As a wine region, Mendocino County is one of California’s prize jewels that simply has yet to be polished and honed so it can be seen in its true glory.
But the folks who live hereabout have no desire to do any shining, and for that reason the multitude of tourists that overrun the Napa Valley will never see the gorgeous valleys and violet hills of Mendocino, or watch the haze of a gray spring morning lift over verdant, quilted hills of vines.
The word about the high quality of these wines is leaking out, however. When Navarro won gold medals for both of its 1987 Gewurztraminers at the National Orange Show competition last month, it brought to mind again that I have always loved this somewhat remote outpost. To many wine lovers who once thought the wine world began in Bordeaux and ended in Napa, Mendocino now represents a new-found joy.
The Word Is Spreading
Of course, any spotlight has its rewards and its drawbacks. A reward is high demand for the wine. But as the demand for this liquid excitement grows, outside interests are stalking the region and sinking roots.
The most recent sign that drama was brewing here came three years ago when Roederer, the respected French Champagne house, built a handsome winery here, acquired more than 300 acres of land, planted it and began an energetic sparkling wine program. The first release, a fine nonvintage Brut, was well-received.
At about the same time, Fetzer began a surge in sales that coincided with a leap in the quality of the wines; Kendall-Jackson began to make headlines with a string of superb Zinfandels from the area; Navarro and Husch hit their stride, gaining long overdue recognition for marvelous wines, and outposts like Hidden Cellars, McDowell Valley and Scharffenberger rose in worldwide esteem.
Yet Mendocino County’s failure to capitalize on its potential as a tourist’s wine country is no failing. It was intentional. The residents of these hills and valleys are quiet folk who love the peace of remoteness. Promotion became a dirty word.
Off the Beaten Track
Moreover, the wineries aren’t easy to get to. Most of the wineries in the county are located off Highway 101 a good two hours north of San Francisco. Most are clustered between Hopland and Ukiah a few miles north. But of these, few are adjacent to major highways, unlike the congregation of Napa wineries you find hard by Highway 29.
Two of the few Mendocino wineries that can be seen from the highway are Parducci and Weibel.
Weibel, however, had its main facility at Mission San Jose, alias Fremont, east of San Francisco in the east bay. Only recently has the Weibel family begun to wind down its facility at Fremont and move operations here. With better grapes, wine maker Rick Casqueiro has improved the line considerably recently.
Parducci, founded in 1932 in Ukiah, remains the county’s classic producer, even though Fetzer has grown much larger in the last few years. (Fetzer will produce more than 1.8 million cases this year; Parducci sold 340,000 cases in 1988.)
A Long and Winding Road
The other group of Mendocino wineries is located to the west, wrapped in the green hills. To get there, one must drive Highway 128 from the south or the Ukiah-Boonville Road from the east, tortuously winding roads that cut northwesterly swaths through moss-filled valleys and rocky hills and apple and pear orchirds to the dramatic Mendocino coast.
The Highway 128 route is a lovely, meandering drive for those with lots of time, but first-timers find it’s slow going, and by the time they get to the “wine country,” a good part of the day is shot.
Once here, only a handful of wineries are on the beaten path (Navarro, Greenwood Ridge, Handley, Husch and Roederer are outside the town of Philo), but the rest are unseen from the highway.
Even though Mendocino has many fewer wineries than either Napa or Sonoma (30 compared with hundreds in Napa and Sonoma, to the south), it hasn’t taken the wine people here long to understand their unique climate and soil. Wine purists will tell you that Mendocino grows more grape varieties well than either Napa or Sonoma. Except Cabernet Sauvignon, and there are a few Cabernet holdouts who take exception to that remark.
Success With a Hard-to-Sell Wine
One classic example: Mendocino Gewurztraminers from such as Lazy Creek, Navarro, Parducci and Husch are superb wines in a drier style. And the national leader in volume of Gewurztraminer is Fetzer which, amazingly, produces more than 100,000 cases of this variety that so many people say is a hard sell.
Also, Mendocino Rieslings rival those of Washington State and Monterey County for depth of flavor; its Chenin Blancs can be stunningly rich and as good as anything produced in Sonoma’s Dry Creek Valley or in Clarksburg in the Stockton delta; its Chardonnays can reach magnificent heights; its Zinfandels (in the hands of Kendall-Jackson, Hidden Cellars and Fetzer) have been marvels of depth and complexity. And Pinot Noir’s potential is simply phenomenal.
And most everything here is affordable. Prices for wines bearing the Mendocino name typically are 10% lower than those of Napa and Sonoma.
Marks of Parducci’s Style
The prototype producer is crusty John Parducci, whose wry humor has pervaded almost every moment of his work that spans more than a half century. Long a foe of aging wine in oak, and a man who believes that the fruit of the vine is everything, Parducci has never bought membership in the “more is better” club and his wines retain amazing freshness long after they are supposed to be over the hill.
His new releases prove the point. The ’87 Parducci Sauvignon Blanc ($6.50) is a delightful wine with melony, lemony, leafy complexity, with oak playing no major role; the 1988 Chardonnay ($8) is an amazingly fresh, zesty, spicy wine, a great value; the 1986 Zinfandel ($6.50) is ripe, chewy and spicy.
I also loved the new 1987 Chenin Blanc, a wonderful soft, spicy wine with a trace of residual sugar that would do well at any picnic or brunch. At $5.50 (less at discounters) it’s a bargain.
Perhaps Parducci’s best effort is the soon-to-be-released 1987 Pinot Noir, an amazingly complex wine with a pale pink cast to an otherwise light red wine. The aroma is similar to a grand Beaune from France, with cherry and strawberryish fruit and a deep, sweet aftertaste.
Comparing California Prices
The wine sells for $7, less at discounters. Parducci knows it’s worth more, but he figures that its lighter color will confuse some merchants (and writers) into thinking it’s a light, simple wine. So the price reflects his attempt to persuade them to try it.
I tasted a bottle of Parducci’s ’69 Pinot Noir the other day and it was still perfectly sound, truly varietal and totally enjoyable. And it came from a half bottle, and half bottles usually don’t hold up under long-term cellaring.
Parducci, 72, bristled a bit at the likely reaction to his Pinot Noir.
“I’ve been doing this (making wine) for 57 years and I still don’t know a damned thing about making wine,” he said with mock seriousness, pointing out the irony of a business in which he can make great wine and have it rated as mediocre by people who don’t understand it.
I asked John about rumors he might soon retire. “Andre Tchelistcheff (one of California’s greatest wine makers) once told me that if you work all day and you haven’t learned anything, that’s a wasted day,” he said, adding, “I haven’t wasted any days and I don’t plan to.”
Foreign Investors Move In
A member of Mendocino’s younger set is 30-year-old John Scharffenberger, who opened his sparkling wine cellar in 1980 and who recently sold a majority interest to a major French company.
The deal announced April 4 in which BSN S.A. of France, one of Europe’s largest food and beverage conglomerates, acquired Scharffenberger Cellars Inc. proved once again that Mendocino is a region worth investing in.
BSN, owners of Dannon yogurt, Kronenbourg beer, Evian mineral water and Mother’s Cookies, among other enterprises, is a $7 billion corporation. One of its two Champagne houses (Pommery; the other is Lanson) made the Scharffenberger acquisition. Scharffenberger, who retained a 45% interest in the company, will remain as president. At the same time, Scharffenberger, using Pommery’s funds, bought a 640-acre sheep ranch and intends to plant grapes for sparkling wine.
Scharffenberger said production will grow slowly during the next few years from 20,000 to 60,000 cases per year. A deal signed recently naming Fetzer as the company’s marketing agent will remain in force.
If further proof was needed of Mendocino’s value as a wine-growing region, it is that successful Napa Valley wine producer William Hill recently bought acreage here, as did Domaine Chandon, another sparkling wine maker from the Napa Valley. Moreover, rumors are strong that Parducci may soon be sold. The owner, Teachers Management Inc. of Newport Beach, has reportedly been entertaining offers from some big names in the international business community.
Wine of the Week: 1988 Barton and Guestier Beaujolais Nouveau ($6) -- Yes, I know this wine was brought in last November just for the celebration of the first wine of the new vintage. But a few days ago, in the midst of a heat wave, I wanted a chilled wine and I wanted red, so I bought a bottle of this ($4.79 at a discounter), and got an explosion of flavor. The wine hasn’t lost a thing and if anything has improved: a load of cherryish flavor and wonderful crisp taste. B&G; has improved many wines in its line in the last few years, and this wine is a great bargain.