SYRAH HISTORY AND MAGNIFICENT MONTEREY

From a 1998 article written By Doug Meador,
Winegrower, Meador Estate Wines,
and Author of The New Viticulture

Only a few short years ago (1974) Walter Schug - then winemaker at Joseph Phelps - saw the potential in a tiny portion of one of Christian Brothers' Napa vineyards. Brother Timothy was kind enough to part with some of those grapes he called ''Syrah "(1). Thus, the first modern, straight ''Syrah'' labeled wine in California was produced from that vintage. Those grapes previously went into a blend and - sadly - the blocks have all been long ago torn out. That block was not ''pure''.

Comes then the next mqjor player in the Syrah drama - one Gary Eberle of Paso Robles fame (and offensive tackle of Penn State fame). Gary was a member of the ''great'' class of graduate winemakers from Davis. Among them was an Australian. At their informal gatherings said Australian kept bringing bottles of some southern red wine he called ''Shiraz'' (Syrah in Australian). Gary(2) became enamored of the wines eventualfy and studied the variety intensivefy. Later (1973) in the real world - Gary was tasked with pioneering, to a large degree, the Paso Robles area with the large ''Estrella Vineyards"project. Given the moderately warm Paso climate, Gary was adamant that some Syrah be planted. He prevailed - it was. In conjunction with, and help of, the late Curt Alley, Gary was able to acquire some wood from a non-released test vine referred to by Alley as the "Chapoutier" clone of Syrah. At that time Chapoutier had only the one vineyard above TAIN in the Rhone Valley so we assume the vine came from there. Gary gave me the wood to expand out for him - that is, grow in pots as ''mother vine", then cut green runners into segments, mist - propagate those snippets into viable individual plants growing in small pots and return them to him - for a fee, of course! And thus, in 1974 Estrella was the first major modern planting of the Syrah grapevine. Gary Eberle was the single driving force behind this planting and the visionary who recognized the variety's potential.

To the extent that Americans thought about Syrah - which was nearly nil except for Schug and Eberle - it was construed as a warm climate grape variety. This was because the Rhone Valley, Cotes du Rhone, Chateauneuf du Pape, and the southern areas to the Spanish border and even in the area of Toulouse were its home and those were viewed - superficially - as hot.

Eberle's fixation attracted my attention. In Monterey we are much colder than Paso Robles and we have a driving cold wind nearly every day directly off Monterey Bay (Pacific Ocean). The winds were shredding the leaves of some varieties - particularfy a block of California Petite Sirah I had. I thought about the Syrah off and on. One day it occurred to me that Syrah's finest performance historically (at least - reputation) was in the Rhone Valley itself and the Rhone has a very famous, sometimes violent, wind called the "Mistral". Thought: this grape variety had evolved in this wind. Perhaps it was ''wind tolerant'".

The second subsequent thought was the source of the Mistral. It didn't blow up the valley from the warm south! It blew down the valley - beginning in the Alps. It is often a cool wind!

From these two thoughts of mine came the conclusion that Syrah MIGHT - just MIGHT - be amenable to Monterey's "Mistral" which was hard and cold. Testing had to be done it was clear, it happened in 1974 at Ventana. A trivial few vines had made it into the ground - culls - and a few survivors were transplanted in 1976. However, these were subsequently removed (damn!) in favor of clonal "purity". In 1978 at Ventana we put the first serious planting of Syrah in the ground and it wasn't until 1989(3)that the next planting developed in Monterey County. Now many more wineries in Monterey are committed to growing Syrah. Our vines in Ventana are now over twenty-two years old.

In 1977 I contacted the Foundation Plant Material Service (FPMS) - our repository of varietals at University of California, Davis - and inquired about Syrah. In the interest of wide-spreading of plants, commercial nurseries have first call on plant material from FPMS - growers only second if any remains of a year's harvest of wood. No nursery had asked for any wood from the FPMS' released selection of Syrah (called Shiraz / Syrah by FPMS as it came from Australia). It was certified clean of known viruses within the limits of then current testing capabilities. However, no commitment could be made to me until nursery "season" was over. I could have all the wood as no nursery had requested any. We still have the 'Purple" tags which were attached to the bundles - purple tags designating wood taken from the "mother" plants.

So it was, in 1978, that I had enough wood to graft over certified Cabernet vines of 1.5 Acres of old-style vinryard (518 Vines/Acre). These vines were immediately adjacent to my block of California Petite Sirah.

The Syrah vine absolutely LOVED it here! Vigorous, wind-tolerant, ripe fruit, beautiful flavours, easy to farm - a dream for a winegrower. The California Petite Sirah? Shredded leaves, prone to mildew and botrytis, difficult flavours, hard to ripen, etc., etc. Not a dream - well, maybe one kind of dream.

Oh - it wasn't all pure joy. There is a learning curve on how to farm it here and there are some difficulties but all within normal farming difficulties. We are still learning.

At Ventana we made many "test" wines commencing in the early eighties. These were lovely rascals though mainly for "learning" and for show and tell. Subsequently, River Run Winery worked with me over the years making many gold medal wines from the grapes beginning, I think, in 1985. In 1988 I was so enamored of the grape that I cast all caution to the wind and said "no guts no glory" and decided to increase my production 100%. I planted another 1.5 acres! Heroism is hell. Later we planted about 12 more. Ventana is providing serious wines from these as the vines mature.

We just recently released our 1997 Syrah which we made 1400 cases. This wine shows a unique Black Pepper and Spice quality that is inherent in Syrah grape from Monterey County. Watch for this new vintage!

I am of the opinion - and have been for a long while - that the Syrah may become Monterey's first truly great red grape. In our cold climate it tends to retain a charming "black pepper" component that it loses in warmer climates. We shall see.

The exploratory development period is over and expense occurred. Today, 1998, we see the grape becoming more widely planted throughout our county. For some years now vineyards have been producing and a few commercial wines being made. Ventana has provided wood for grafting to winegrowers. Wineries of Sonoma and Napa and elsewhere are paying outstanding prices per ton for this Monterey County red grape. The demand far exceeds our region's current supply. I believe that this grape - from throughout California - will become a VERY important variety for the American market. The flavour components are appreciated by our people, it matures sooner than Cabernet, it has a rich softness in its texture, and it develops grace with age. Besides - it tastes good.

But it will be in the cooler growing areas that it will achieve its greatest potential - in most years. Some years - it will not. And in Monterry it has demonstrated that sometimes - sometimes - it is truly a grape to behold

1) Verbal to me from Walter Schug
2) Verbal to me from Gary Eberle
3) Verbal statement by Rich Smith on year of his first "few vines"


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"OWN ROOTS"

by J. Douglas Meador

Author of The New Viticulture

Prior to about 1867 all European grapevines were grown on their "own roots" - i.e., there was no grafting of varietals to "rootstocks". In that time frame both amateurs and professionals imported "American" grapevines - wine varieties native to North America - for study. Unknown to them, they also brought along in the root mass a little bug native to North America - the Phylloxera. North American vines had evolved in the presence of this rascal and had developed resistance to it. Vinifera - the European vine had no such resistance! The bug loved the environment, loved the buffet lunch of vinifera and spread like wildfire - most likely from the area of Marseilles in the South. It was devastating.

The French tried everything to save their precious vineyards. Hybridizing - crossing vinifera with American - was tried diligently to no avail. However, some of these "French Hybrids" became of use in the Northeast of the U.S. The French soon discovered that using American roots and grafting vinifera on top provided the only resistance to the bug. Subsequently, hybridizing "rootstocks" was found useful for various purposes and soil types. It was also found that any vinifera in parentage reduced resistance to phylloxera. Most - not all - but most European vineyards were replanted to vines on American rootstocks.

The resulting vines (and wines) were nearly true to the original - not completely but "nearly". This "nearly" business is because the rootstocks interact with their soils differently than pure vinifera varieties on their own roots in a given soil. This is a mechanical thing and affects the associated results. The rootstocks do not cause genetic changes in the top - or "scion" as it's called. The resulting wines are Chardonnay or Cabernet or Pinot or whatever has been grafted on the root.

Many European writers of times past who have tasted current wines of before and after grafting have asserted differences. Many have bemoaned the necessary transition, asserting loss of certain subtleties and complexities associated with a given terroir - in essence, a loss to some degree (apparent to them) of distinctiveness of terroir.

Let me give an example on the technical side how this will occur. A wine is the integrated result of a 'grape" and the winemaking techniques. Lets hold the winemaking procedures constant (historically normal) and discuss the "grape". In a given terroir (which is everything about location - not just the "soil") a self-rooted vine will interact in a fashion unique to itself. The associated grape will reflect its foliage-to-fruit ratio, vine vigor, its ability to extract (or not) micro nutrients (if present), minerals (if present), moisture, etc., etc., etc.

If we now insert into the equation a rootstock under the vines we have changed the vine/fruit relationship. By definition - a rootstock is different than the variety on top. Thus, the entire relationship of the plant to the soil is different than if the plant were on its own roots. Notice that there is no assertion of necessarily "better" or "worse" - just different. It very well may be that in a very weak dry area a moisture scrounging rootstock could improve a grape in a dry year with no irrigation!

Another example would be the utilization of a rootstock that has a definite difficulty in gathering zinc leading to small leaves and set problems on the top. One major rootstock has - we now know - exactly such a problem. Absent corrective additions of zinc this rootstock would create substantially different fruit.

Most rootstocks are of native American varieties (or hybrids thereof). However, even with vinifera roots - but different variety - I have seen differences in the appearance of the top. One example is Chardonnay grafted onto Zinfandel roots. The Chardonnay clusters appear bigger and longer - more in the shape nature of zin! Yet - they are definitely Chardonnay in every other way - apparently.

At Ventana, for a variety of technical reasons with which I will not bore you, most of our vines are in the ancient way - on their own roots! We have been conducting rootstock exploratory trials since 1974 and do not yet have definitive answers. So far, our observations are that by far the best and most unique quality comes from vines on their own roots. We have also learned that we must match certain varieties to certain soil characteristics - a process that we have persued for a very long time. For example, some varieties have very high natural vigor and these we plant on soil with the most rock and least nutritional aspects. Thus, the vigor is restrained, the berries are smaller and, therefore the skin-to-juice- ratio is higher. As red wines acquire their "essence" and "extracts" from the skins, smaller berries yield wines of more depth.

Conversely, we like to grow varieties of less natural plant vigor on soils of more nutritional character - or feed them more. This works toward balancing the foliage and fruit. We also plant these types closer together thus asking less of each individual plant.

All of these viticultural procedural differences allow us to maximize and express the full range of characteristics unique to a given variety - from its roots through its fruit. The resulting wine is a full expression of the given variety within the Ventana terroir.

This pure expression of the varietal is not widely sustainable in the United States or Western Europe today. The phylloxera bug has changed all that. The Ventana Vineyard is one of the very few locations where the old-world pre-phylloxera vinifera grapevine thrives. In some support of the "own rooted" merits, might be the observation that Ventana Vineyards is now more than twenty consecutive years of gold and silver medals on its Chardonnay and Riesling grapes. Other varieties also have long strings of awards.

This would tend to indicate merit in the views of those observers of long ago something was lost with grafting.

It is the "location" - or terroir - of the Ventana that allows us to bring to you the pure experience of each of our varietals. Enjoy!

Doug Meador, Author of

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MEA CULPA --- APOLOGY --- ERRATA

In writing THE NEW VITICULTURE, I wrote the science facts from a memory acquired more than fifty years ago. Unfortunately, memory can fail and, also unfortunately, I failed to check a fact. Happily, that “fact” does not affect actual substance of the arguments.

In the text, I attributed the conceptualization and the naming of “QUANTA” to Einstein in 1905. In fact, it was Max Planck in Berlin in 1900.He also opined that the contained energy in a given quanta was of a definite size and was proportional to the frequency. The proportion is constant. Thus, the higher the frequency, the greater the energy in a packet {the quanta}. The quanta of light came to be commonly called “photons “.

In 1905, Einstein elucidated the photoelectric effect for which he received The Nobel Prize – not for relativity. The photoelectric effect utilizes Planck’s quanta assertions in its analysis.

Of course, who postulated what, and when, has no bearing on the application of those amazing concepts. Those concepts have far reaching implications in understanding plant physiology- much further than those presented in THE NEW VITICULTURE . While it may seem that the nature of light , quanta, photoelectric effect, etc., belong to the exotic world of theoretical physics , I do point out that we farmers work with the one category of organisms that use these very things to manufacture the life sustaining and enabling product----PLANTS.

I apologize for the error.
…jdm