BROC CELLARS / CALI

This week we have a visit from Tim Gagnon, national sales for Broc Cellars, who in my opinion has made some of the best wine in California for two decades.

Chris is a native of Ohama Nebraska who made his way to Oenology school at Fresno State because he was fascinated with old bottles of Zinfandel he had drank but could no longer find, so he decided to make the wine he wanted to drink himself.

Zinfandel is perhaps the most California of all the grapes. Brought to America by presumably Italian immigrants (it's known as primitivo in Apulia, where it's grown in tiny qualities) it flourished in California until prohibition, when most wine production was shuttered and vineyards were either ripped up or lay fallow. Zinfandel was largely ignored in California as a single variety bottling until by chance a stuck fermentation caused a lot of "white zinfandel" (a light rose made from the grape) at Sutter Home to be bottled with residual sugar. The wine exploded in popularity and Zinfandel was reborn and began to be widely planted again.

A few producers however kept serious Zinfandel alive, chief among them Joseph Swan, a small winemaker in Sonoma who became synonymous with the grape. Zinfandel itself is a bit of a chameleon. It can make light, elegant wines if handled right, and it can take on lots of sunshine and produce massive, high alcohol wines if left on the vine. Joseph Swan's wines always tended towards the latter, as did most winemakers trying to make quality wines from the grape. By the 90s however, when huge, tannic, overoaked wines came into fashion elegant Zinfandel all but disappeared. 

The wines Chris fell in love with were old bottles of Joseph Swan and if he couldn't find wines like that anymore he was determined to make them himself. Starting in 2002 with a single barrel of purchased fruit he has expanded his tiny backyard Berkeley operation to a serious winery, one of California's finest. He has been committed since the beginning to natural winemaking, both in the care of vineyards and in the cellar.

His national sales manager Tim Gagnon used to work with me at Selection Massale. He's one of America's foremost experts on vintage spirits and a metalhead. 

I'll give a full rundown of the wines tomorrow after the meeting.

Until next time,

Cory