Old Lakeville Vineyard

When I was five I told my dad I wanted to make wine. Figuring that he could simply hold some fruit aside from what he had already purchased he asked me if I wanted to make Zinfandel, Cabernet, or Merlot, i.e. the varietals he was making at the time. Having recently had a sip of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti and being ensnarled in the beauty of it, I told my dad I wanted to make a wine like that. There is no doubt I was probably being contrarian too. “Pinot Noir,” my father grumbled, “where are you going to get Pinot Noir?”

The landlord for the first Ravenswood Winery was the Sangiacomo family—whose large holdings in the Sonoma Carneros included a large amount of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. With 2000 lire in hand, I approached Angelo Sangiacomo about buying some Pinot Noir from him. Without raising an eyebrow he told me that I could have half-a-ton for free. And, for the next 18 years he gave me 1/2 ton of Pinot Noir for the same price. Perhaps, if Angelo had not given me that fruit to play with 21 years ago, I would never have caught the bug to be a winemaker.

When it came to starting Bedrock Wine Co. it seemed absolutely necessary that I find a way to use Sangiacomo fruit. It would seem wrong if the venerable family were not somehow involved in the undertaking. Although I have abandoned making Pinot Noir for the time being, it was with great luck that I discovered that the Sangiacomo’s had planted a stellar Syrah vineyard in the beautiful Petaluma Gap. Put in as a partnership with Bruce Neyers, and designed in part by the talented Ehren Jordan of Failla and Turley (and a one-time Jean-Luc Colombo protégé’), the vineyard is just reaching its considerable potential.

The steep slopes of the natural south-west facing ampitheater are planted with three Rhone clones of Syrah. The Petaluma Gap is cool, and it is a rare day that the wind is not blowing pretty hard. The result is that Syrah struggles to ripen—resulting in long hang-times, thick skins, and well-balanced flavors. In order to ensure proper ripening, the Sangiacomo’s bring crop-levels down to one cluster per shoot—resulting in tiny yields and further intensifying the flavor.

The wines made in the past few years from Neyers indicate how strong this vineyard is. My hope is to offer another interpretation of this fruit. In the same way that so many producers borrow from Hermitage in the Northern Rhone or Hudson Vineyard in Napa, each having a distinct style and expression, it is my hope that my wine, and the excellent wines from Neyers, will exist as two philosophies emerging from the same soils and vines. 

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