The First Harvest Of The New Millennium At Saucelito Canyon Vineyard And Winery | Part Three

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2000: Fall Newsletter – First Harvest Of The New Millennium 

Dear Friends,

It has been another busy summer for us; we were the featured vintners in the KCBX Central Coast Wine Classic. We participated in a vertical Zinfandel tasting with Doug Beckett, founder of Peachy Canyon Winery. We hosted the vineyard symposium to showcase our historic vineyard. We then slipped away to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary with a trip to Big Sur and came back to find we were named Vintners of the Year by the California Mid-State Fair! This is an honor we certainly were not expecting. 

We are getting ready for the first harvest of the new millennium, and things in the vineyard are looking good. Our 1999 wines are still in the barrel, and we are pleased to say that we are making our first-ever barrel select 1999 Zinfandel. It is delicious. We tasted through the 1999 Zinfandel vintage (a tough job, but somebody has to do it) and chose the two best barrels, and then put the wine in the newer oak. This special wine, when bottled, will only be available for Wine Club members.

– Bill

2000 Release: 1998 Saucelito Canyon Zinfandel And Late Harvest Zin

We are very happy to send you our two new releases: The 1998 Zinfandel and the 1999 Late Harvest Zinfandel.

Tasting Notes: 1998 Zinfandel

In 1998, we experienced the El Niño, which gave us one of our most frustrating and rewarding vintages. We had an unusually long growing season because of cool temperatures and fog during spring and much of summer. We leaf-pulled twice to keep the sun on the grapes and to ensure even ripening. After playing the waiting game all autumn, we finally harvested our grapes in mid-October. The extended “hang time” and warm, dry October days made this vintage fleshy with ripe raspberries and dark plum fruit up front. Crop load was very low, but fruit quality was very high. This deeply layered Zinfandel has already won praise at pre-release tastings. The estate-grown 1998 Saucelito Canyon Zinfandel is full-bodied with dense color and opulent flavors of ripe mixed berries. It harks back in style to earlier vintages such as those of 1993 and 1995.

Here is what Robert Parker had to say about the 1998 Zinfandel: “A dark ruby color is accompanied by a sweet cherry liqueur, blackberry, fruit-driven bouquet. This 1998 possesses a ripe medium to full personality with notable glycerin as well as jammy fruit. Drink this hedonistically-style Zinfandel over the next several years.”  – Robert Parker Jr., The Wine Advocate

This Zinfandel has already won an array of awards, including a Gold Medal at the Monterey County Wine Tasting and a Silver at the Orange County Fair.  The ‘98 Zinfandel was released on the first of September, 2000. This is a limited vintage (only 1,234 cases) due to a wacky El Niño winter, but the small amount we do have is one of our best! The extended hang time and warm October days made this vintage fleshy with ripe raspberries and dark plum flavors up front.

Our second release is the ‘99 Late Harvest Zin, which is like blackberry preserves with 15% alcohol, and you don’t have to put it on toast. Just drink it. We produced 74 cases. The winery produces a total of 2000 cases of wine each year.

Tasting Notes 1999 Vintage Late Harvest Zinfandel, the best we have made to date.

While the 1998 El Niño brought a long, wet winter and spring, 1999’s La Niña delivered a dry winter and the coolest spring and summer in memory. April and May were consistently below normal, and March was the coldest since 1952. All this cool weather meant a late bud break, so harvest was late again. A hot Indian summer during the time of harvest dehydrated some grape clusters, making them too high in sugar for our Estate Zinfandel. Therefore, we hand-sorted these raisined clusters over the course of harvest and collected them in a stainless steel fermenter. We left the whole berry clusters in the tank, and displaced all the oxygen, a process called carbonic maceration. This process allows fermentation to take place slowly while traces of many aromatic compounds are formed. The wine fermented slowly for three months and was finally pressed off in December. This extended formation has resulted in a wine deep in color and structure, but with a fanfare of fresh berries. The wine was aged in stainless steel to retain the freshness, and wine spirits were added right before bottling, which created a seamless sophistication. The wine is silky on the palate, but bursts with a fusion of fresh ripe berries.

Saucelito Canyon Soundbites: A Temporary Tasting Room

Saucelito Canyon shares the Tasting Room with the Talley family. It is located near the Talley Vineyard in their historic Rincon Adobe near Lopez Road.

Saucelito Canyon Soundbites: Vintage Zinfandels

And speaking of vintage Zinfandels, we sat down and did a little taste test; we tasted through our Zins of the ’90s. In tasting our Zins from 1990 to the present, we found as the Zinfandel aged, it became more delicate. The farther we went back, the softer the wine became – in other words, instead of complementing a hearty steak, these wines would pair nicely with more delicate flavors, such as Asian cuisine.

Vertical Tasting: Saucelito Canyon And Peachy Canyon Present Vertical Tastings

If you are interested in a vertical tasting, we are getting together with Peachy Canyon at the KCBX Wine Classic for a vertical tasting. This should be both fun and educational (especially for those of you Zinophiles who have some older vintages waiting for you in the cellar).

Upcoming Events 2000:

• Wine Club Members BBQ at the Vineyard – May 7, 2000
• KCBX Central Coast Wine Classic July 10 – 16
• At the KCBX Wine Classic, we will be pouring our Zin at Zinfandel and Zydeco and participating in a vertical Zinfandel Tasting with Doug Becket of Peachy Canyon.
• Vintners Association Harvest  Celebration – November 4
• Saucelito Canyon Open House at the Vineyard – November 5
• We will be open out at the vineyard for wine tasting, appetizers, and the musical talents of Jill Knight.

Saucelito Soundbites: An update On The Talley Tasting Room

Because of the short vintages in 1998 and 1999, Saucelito Canyon wines will no longer be available in the tasting room at Talley Vineyard. We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause. Although our wines are no longer available in the tasting room, our Wine Club is still open on a space-available basis. To sign up or receive more details, please call us at the office phone listed below.

2000 Release: 1998 Saucelito Canyon Zinfandel And Late Harvest Zin

We are very happy to send you our two new releases: The 1998 Zinfandel and the 1999 Late Harvest Zinfandel.

Tasting Notes: 1998 Zinfandel

In 1998, we experienced the El Niño, which gave us one of our most frustrating and rewarding vintages. We had an unusually long growing season because of cool temperatures and fog during spring and much of summer. We leaf-pulled twice to keep the sun on the grapes and to ensure even ripening. After playing the waiting game all autumn, we finally harvested our grapes in mid-October. The extended “hang time” and warm, dry October days made this vintage fleshy with ripe raspberries and dark plum fruit up front. Crop load was very low, but fruit quality was very high. This deeply layered Zinfandel has already won praise at pre-release tastings. The estate-grown 1998 Saucelito Canyon Zinfandel is full-bodied with dense color and opulent flavors of ripe mixed berries. It harks back in style to earlier vintages such as those of 1993 and 1995.

Here is what Robert Parker had to say about the 1998 Zinfandel: “A dark ruby color is accompanied by a sweet cherry liqueur, blackberry, fruit-driven bouquet. This 1998 possesses a ripe medium to full personality with notable glycerin as well as jammy fruit. Drink this hedonistically-style Zinfandel over the next several years.”  – Robert Parker Jr., The Wine Advocate

This Zinfandel has already won an array of awards, including a Gold Medal at the Monterey County Wine Tasting and a Silver at the Orange County Fair.  The ‘98 Zinfandel was released on the first of September, 2000. This is a limited vintage (only 1,234 cases) due to a wacky El Niño winter, but the small amount we do have is one of our best! The extended hang time and warm October days made this vintage fleshy with ripe raspberries and dark plum flavors up front.

Our second release is the ‘99 Late Harvest Zin, which is like blackberry preserves with 15% alcohol, and you don’t have to put it on toast. Just drink it. We produced 74 cases. The winery produces a total of 2000 cases of wine each year.

Tasting Notes 1999 Vintage Late Harvest Zinfandel, the best we have made to date.

While the 1998 El Niño brought a long, wet winter and spring, 1999’s La Niña delivered a dry winter and the coolest spring and summer in memory. April and May were consistently below normal, and March was the coldest since 1952. All this cool weather meant a late bud break, so harvest was late again. A hot Indian summer during the time of harvest dehydrated some grape clusters, making them too high in sugar for our Estate Zinfandel. Therefore, we hand-sorted these raisined clusters over the course of harvest and collected them in a stainless steel fermenter. We left the whole berry clusters in the tank, and displaced all the oxygen, a process called carbonic maceration. This process allows fermentation to take place slowly while traces of many aromatic compounds are formed. The wine fermented slowly for three months and was finally pressed off in December. This extended formation has resulted in a wine deep in color and structure, but with a fanfare of fresh berries. The wine was aged in stainless steel to retain the freshness, and wine spirits were added right before bottling, which created a seamless sophistication. The wine is silky on the palate, but bursts with a fusion of fresh ripe berries.

Saucelito Canyon Soundbites: A Temporary Tasting Room

Saucelito Canyon shares the Tasting Room with the Talley family. It is located near the Talley Vineyard in their historic Rincon Adobe near Lopez Road.

Saucelito Canyon Soundbites: Vintage Zinfandels

And speaking of vintage Zinfandels, we sat down and did a little taste test; we tasted through our Zins of the ’90s. In tasting our Zins from 1990 to the present, we found as the Zinfandel aged, it became more delicate. The farther we went back, the softer the wine became – in other words, instead of complementing a hearty steak, these wines would pair nicely with more delicate flavors, such as Asian cuisine.

Vertical Tasting: Saucelito Canyon And Peachy Canyon Present Vertical Tastings

If you are interested in a vertical tasting, we are getting together with Peachy Canyon at the KCBX Wine Classic for a vertical tasting. This should be both fun and educational (especially for those of you Zinophiles who have some older vintages waiting for you in the cellar).

Upcoming Events 2000:

• Wine Club Members BBQ at the Vineyard – May 7, 2000
• KCBX Central Coast Wine Classic July 10 – 16
• At the KCBX Wine Classic, we will be pouring our Zin at Zinfandel and Zydeco and participating in a vertical Zinfandel Tasting with Doug Becket of Peachy Canyon.
• Vintners Association Harvest  Celebration – November 4
• Saucelito Canyon Open House at the Vineyard – November 5
• We will be open out at the vineyard for wine tasting, appetizers, and the musical talents of Jill Knight.

Saucelito Soundbites: An update On The Talley Tasting Room

Because of the short vintages in 1998 and 1999, Saucelito Canyon wines will no longer be available in the tasting room at Talley Vineyard. We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause. Although our wines are no longer available in the tasting room, our Wine Club is still open on a space-available basis. To sign up or receive more details, please call us at the office phone listed below.

2001: Spring Newsletter

Dear Friends,

We hope you are enjoying this beautiful spring. We are as busy as ever, and things are looking good out in the vineyard. The exuberance of the season is upon us: the wild flowers are blooming and the vines are brilliantly verdant. Meanwhile, the 2000 ages quietly in oak barrels.

We are very excited to announce the release of the 1998 Cabernet Sauvignon. Until the spring of 1999, we had just one acre of the Cabernet, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc, so as you can imagine, quantities of the 1998 were extremely limited. The 1998 vintage was even more limited due to the aftermath of El Niño. The vines produced very small amounts of this Cabernet, just 65 cases – the result was an aromatic, concentrated fruit which has produced a lovely, well-balanced wine.

We look forward to hosting the First Annual BBQ event at the Saucelito Canyon  Vineyard.

– Bill

2001 Saucelito Canyon’s Latest Release – The Award Winning 1999 Arroyo Grande Zinfandel

The 1999 Arroyo Grande Zinfandel is already receiving attention and awards. The highly regarded Vintners Club of San Francisco, whose members include wind industry professionals and master sommeliers, recently gave the 1999 Saucelito Canyon Arroyo Grande Zinfandel the highest score among Zinfandels selected throughout California. Sauceliton scored 1 point higher than the next rated wine. According to Archine McLaren, co-founder of the Central Coast Wine Classic, “This is a very important award both for Saucelito Canyon and the entire San Luis Obispo County winemaking community. The prestige of this group, combined with the method in which the wines are selected and then analytically judged, clearly demonstrates the sophistication of the wines coming out of the area. The Greenough family should be very proud of this vintage.” Archie was Chairman of the Edna Valley/Arroyo Grande Valley Vintners Association.

Source: New Times, August 30 to September 6, 2001, page 52.

2001: Letter To The Saucelito Canyon Wine Club

Dear Members,

Happy Spring! We are delighted to send you two bottles of our first-ever Barrel Select Zinfandel. We tasted through all the barrels of 1999 Zinfandel in the cellar and found two barrels of superb quality. We transferred this wine to newer American oak barrels for more aging, and the result is a wine bursting with bright cherries, ripe raspberries, rich plums with subtle hints of vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg mingled in a lingering finish. We only made two barrels, approximately 40 cases.

Be sure to join our second annual Wine Club BBQ on Sunday, May 6.

– Bill

2001: Wine Of The Week At Tastings.com

The Sausalito 1999 Zinfandel was chosen as “Wine of the Week” on August 12 by Tastings.com, the official website of The Beverage Tasting Institute of Chicago, after receiving a score of 90/100 (exceptional status) at the Institute’s 2001 Wine Competition.

Source: New Times, August 30 to September 6, 2001, page 52.

2001: Newsletter A Berry Good Year for Mr. Bear

Dear Friends,

As in 1998, we had a cool spring and a small berry set in 1999. We took great care of each of each cluster – first, by pulling leaves to ensure adequate exposure to sunlight and second, by netting each row to keep the birds from eating the small amount of grapes we did have. While this latter measure foiled attacks on the grapes from the air, another local predator arrived on the ground.

Indeed, toward harvest, we began to notice large areas of fruit loss from under the nets and long streams of partially digested grapes on the ground.

What now? Mr. Bear! Mr. Bear dug under the deer fence at night, ate his fill of ripened grapes, suddenly developed horrendous diarrhea, then disappeared. Hopefully with a stomach ache. The solution? None! We hoped that Mr. Bear would tire of feeling awful from night after night of gorging on some of the world’s best Zinfandel and leave for good. Finally, he did, and we picked the grapes a week later, from October 11 to 16. It is a good thing Mr. Bear left because the ‘99 Zinfandel is truly exceptional. Dark ruby color, lots of up-front ripe fruit, good middle complexity, and a long finish of plum, berry, and oak. The nose is clean, pure Zinfandel, deep and complex. Let’s hope Mr. Bear doesn’t have a corkscrew. Enjoy!

– Bill

2001: Fall Newsletter – Embarking On Harvest While Embracing Our Inner Luddite

Dear Friends,

As we write, a warm autumn sun sets in the canyon. After an excellent growing season, we now find ourselves in the midst of a picture-perfect harvest week, with comfortable temperatures and not the slightest hint of troublesome weather on the horizon. Five days ago, we picked the old vine Zinfandel, which is now entering the final stages of fermentation. As always, Mother Nature could suddenly throw us a nasty curveball. But so far, so good!

Harvest 2001: I can personally assure you that there will be new, exciting wines from Saucelito and that you, our wine club friends, will be the first to know about them.

The big news around the cellar is the addition of two new hot rods to the otherwise low-tech machinery mix. Specifically, a small Pulio Vega 10 steamer-crusher and a Waukesha pump. Bill was so enchanted after first firing them up that he nearly entered an irreversible Zen state. You see, during the first vintages our wine was crafted, as Bill puts it, “with buckets and sticks.” Over the years, Bill and his crew have risked life and limb to perform punch downs while straddling a board stretched across the gaping mouth of an open-top fermenter. And not long ago, Bill was forced to entomb our basket press in shrink wrap after a couple of our cellar rats got pelted with streams of high velocity Zinfandel. So can you blame a guy for indulging in a new must pump?

Nevertheless, we still maintain a healthy skepticism when it comes to “progress.” As Dan Berger recently wrote, “Modern winemaking is both the blessing and the curse. In some cases, technology allowed for the elimination of components of authenticity that made some wines interesting. But it has also permitted some wines to reach their full potential.”

At Saucelito Canyon, our mission has always been to achieve the best of both worlds, to maximize the potential of our fruit while preserving its authenticity. This objective always favored manual labor over high-tech gadgetry. The bottom line? We’re not going to let a couple of state-of-the-art pieces of winemaking invention foul up a good thing – just as long as we don’t have to rely exclusively on buckets and sticks.

– Bill

Saucelito Soundbites: The Staff Is Expanding

We have two full-time employees to help with all aspects of the business. Brad Peterson, who grew up in Lodi, brings years of knowledge and experience to our vineyard management team. Katharine Taylor, a recent Cal Poly MBA graduate, will be assisting Nancy in sales and marketing.

2002 Spring Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Happy Spring. We are excited to release our best Bordeauxs yet, the 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon and our first-ever 2000 Cabernet Franc. The 2000 Cabernet Franc is our first estate bottling, and we hope that you will enjoy this wonderful cousin of Cabernet Sauvignon. Both of these came out of our very own Bordeaux triangle in the Saucelito Canyon Vineyard, and they are delicious. 

They are both limited in quantity, 143 cases of the Cab and 74 of the Cab Franc. For those of you with a sweet tooth, our 2000 Late Harvest Zinfandel is available in very small quantities (six-bottle limit). And if you run out of Old Faithful, we have a limited amount of our award-winning 1999 Zinfandel. We are pleased with our current lineup, and are always looking for ways to produce the best wine possible from our little vineyard.

Back at the vineyard, things are running quite smoothly. Brad Peterson, my right-hand man, and I enjoy working together. Brad cares for the vines, and I take care of the wine. Come out and see the results of Brad’s efforts in the vineyard and taste wine in the winery. Saturday, May 4, we are open for Roll Out the Barrels. On Sunday, May 5,  the Sauceito Canyon Wine Club will enjoy the second annual BBQ at the vineyard and barrel tastings, the newly released 2000 Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Late Harvest Zinfandel.

– Bill

Tales From The Rancho – Navigating The Bordeaux Triangle

As you meander inland from the coast, past Lopez Lake and into the far canyons of the Arroyo Grande Valley, strange phenomena begin to stir. Your cell phone ceases to transmit, the FM radio signal fades to nothing, and by the time you get to the winery, you are perilously adrift from the information age. Welcome to the Bordeaux Triangle…..

We jest, of course. But one of the best-kept secrets of the Saucelito Canyon Vineyard is our quiet commitment to Bordeaux varietals, a limited-production program that complements our estate focus on Zinfandel and occupies a triangular swath of vines that we have christened the Bordeaux Triangle.

The lineage of our Bordeaux varietals dates back to our initial planting of Cabernet Sauvignon in 1976. A second planting of Cabernet Sauvignon, along with small blocks of Cabernet Franc and Merlot, followed in 1990. This second vineyard proved to be superior to the original Cabernet Sauvignon block, as it was rooted in sandy, low-nutrient soil, which naturally tames vine vigor and results in better sun exposure. The heavier clay soil of the original Cabernet block is more appropriate for Zinfandel, so we converted it in 1995.

In 1999, we extended our Bordeaux plantings into the narrowing canyon with additional rows of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc, as well as Malbec. The terminus of this vineyard is a short row consisting of only fifty vines. It is the endpoint of our Bordeaux Triangle.

And so the Bordeaux experience spans three separate plantings over 25 years for a grand total of 4.2 acres and approximately 300 total cases of wine per vintage. As we’ve said before, there’s the easy way, there’s the hard way, and then there’s the Saucelito way.

The inspiration for such labors is not that Bill is a closet Francophile (who started that rumor anyway?), but simply the excellent performance of Bordeaux varietals on our estate. The same climate attributes that benefit our Zinfandel–a warm inland growing season tempered by a coastal influence–also benefit Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc. The results are ripe, fruit-forward flavors with depth and complexity across the palate.

We are excited to release our latest bottlings from the Bordeaux Triangle–our inaugural  Cabernet Franc from the 2000 vintage, of which a total of 80 cases were made, as well as our 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon.

– Bill

Saucelito Soundbites: The Vine Whisperer

Recently, a group of Japanese wine buyers toured the Saucelito Canyon Vineyard with our distributor, Masaki Inoue, of Nakagawa Planning Company. The group of seven surrounded Bill, holding his left hand on an ancient vine and his right hand high in the air – a blessing perhaps? After this expressive moment, Bill is now known as “the vine whisperer” in Japan.

Saucelito Soundbites: The KCBX Wine Classic and Central Coast ZAP

The 2002 KCBX Wine Classic will run from premier week-long (July 9 to 14), featuring tastings, dinners, auctions, and concerts. On August 16-18, the Central Coast ZAP (Zinfandel Advocates and Producers) Festival will hold three days of tastings, entertainment, tours, and Zin galore.

2002: Wine Club Membership Has Its Privileges

Dear Friends,

We invite you to become a member of the Saucelito Wine Club. Special bottlings, library wine, and rare reserve wines are available exclusively to our wine club members. As a wine club member, you will receive three to four bottle shipments twice a year, delivered to your door, and enjoy….

• 15 % off all bottles.
• 20% off all case orders.
• There is no charge to sign up, and you may cancel at any time after your first shipment.

– Bill

2002: Fall Newsletter 

Dear Friends,

As I was walking through the 1880 Zinfandel Vineyard, tasting berries and looking at clusters and vines, trying to decide when to harvest, I realized that twenty years ago, I was doing the same thing for our first harvest. Margaret was a year old, and Tom wasn’t born yet. Nancy had her wine lab set up in the ranch house kitchen, and I had just finished building the winery. I had a hand-cranked stemmer crusher, one stainless steel fermentor, and 30 whiskey barrels. I made 500  cases, then bottled and labeled them myself, and hit the street to sell our first Zinfandel. It was easy to sell. It was just damn good.

In many ways, the world is a different place today, but many things at Saucelito Canyon haven’t changed. I still strive to make the best wine at a fair price. The scant harvest of 1998 and 1999 imposed on us to raise our prices, but as promised, with an ample harvest in 2000, we returned to our traditional price. The 2000 Zinfandel is a stellar value for wine from our highly regarded Heritage Zinfandel vineyard. 

– Bill

New Releases 2002:

• 2000 Zinfandel, Estate, Arroyo Grande Valley
• 2000 Zinfandel, Reserve, Arroyo Grande Valley
• 2001 Zinfandel, Late Harvest, Arroyo Grande Valley

Tales From The Rancho From Bill And Nancy 

Bill and Nancy wrote the following Saucelito Story – 2000 Zinfandel in their new brochure. When the cork is pulled, aromas of plum, earth, and chaparral drift out from the bottle. The deeply colored wine tells a story of a homesteader’s cave, 120-year-old Zinfandel vines, and a rugged place hidden for years in a forgotten canyon. The tale includes abandoned vines and an older generation trusting a young man to restore what had long been neglected but never forgotten. The wines with flavors of rich raspberries and spice speak from our Heritage vineyard. We bottle at our vineyard, once a year, a long, colorful history–dedication required, experience earned, a legacy to share. Here at Saucelito Canyon, we have never done anything else.

Upcoming Events 2002:

• November 1 San Luis Vintners 12th Annual Harvest Celebration Weekend
• November 3 Saucelito Canyon Annual Open House at the winery 12-4 PM
  • We will be pairing our wines with appetizers made by our old friend Ray Cattaneo – he was Bill’s first friend when Bill moved to Saucelito Canyon. Ray is a small and dedicated producer of the finest sausage around.
• November 13 Family Winemakers of California, Fort Mason, California

Saucelito Soundbites: Saucelito Canyon Designs A Color Brochure

The new marketing team produced a four-page brochure with Bill’s letter to “Dear Friends,” color photos, recipes, an events calendar, wines for sale, new releases, open house dates, the Saucelito Story, and the wine club order form.

Saucelito Soundbites – A New Home, Tasting Room, And Tours

Bill is now working on the final plans for a tasting room adjacent to the Greenough home in the Edna Valley on Biddle Ranch Road. The tasting room won’t be open for a couple of years, so Bill and Nancy are opening the winery and vineyard in Saucelito Canyon more often for tours and tasting. Saucelito is a special place. Please come visit.

2003: Spring Newsletter

Dear Friends,

As the weather warms, we get the last rainstorms. The buds begin to swell and push out new leaves, and a new year begins. This makes the 21st year that I have been a grape grower and winemaker; the changes the vineyard goes through during the season–from bud break through berry coloring to ripe fruit–never cease to amaze me. It is wonderful to see Saucelito Canyon Vineyard go through this change year after year. I wonder if the big wineries have this same feeling.

Over the years, there has been a disturbing trend in the wine business: the big wineries are getting bigger and small wineries are either being bought out or having a difficult time surviving. This makes the role of a small winery like Saucelito Canyon even more important. As a small winery (I consider 3,000 cases as being small), we control everything from the vineyard to you, the customer. We don’t waste time and money on advertising, big staff, or corporate jingles. All our effort goes into growing grapes and making wine that reflects on our unique sense of place.

Over the last 20 years, Saucelito has produced consistently excellent wine. Each year is a little different, but that is as it should be. We are not part of a company; we are the company. We strive to only give you the most flavorful expression of the vineyard each year. We look forward to opening our tasting room on our Biddle Ranch Road property, until then, you are always welcome to visit the vineyard anytime to taste and buy wine, just call ahead.

Our wines for sale at the winery are the 2000 Zinfandel from the Heritage vineyard. Wine and food critics alike remark how well this lovely wine complements food. Anthony Dias Blue, Wine Editor for Bon Appétit magazine, selected our 2000 Zinfandel from an entire roster of new Zinfandels as one of the four real standouts. Price is $20 per bottle.

– Bill

Bill’s Tales From The Rancho – Navigating The Bordeaux Triangle

As you meander inland from the coast, past Lopez Lake and into the hinterlands of the Arroyo Grande Valley, strange phenomena begin to stir.

New Releases 2003:

We have two new releases:

• 2001 Dos Ranchos Zinfandel and 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate. The 2001 Dos Ranchos Zinfandel was first tasted by our Wine Club members, and their response was phenomenal. “It’s an extravaganza of  big blackberry fruit, sweet oak, violets, and plums.” We think it is pretty good, too. Bill combined a lot of grapes from Rancho Saucelito (our Saucelito Canyon’s homestead name) with grapes from our neighboring vineyard, Rancho Arroyo Grande, to produce this dry-farmed, head-pruned “Dos Ranchos” Zinfandel. Price is $24 per bottle.

• The 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate represents our commitment to Bordeaux varietals. Part Merlot and part Cabernet Franc, our Cabernet Sauvignon is an athlete in its own right. Strong and supple at the start, the 2000 Cabernet has what it takes to go the long distance: cherries, currants, olives, oak, and briar mingle with hints of anise and spice. Enjoy it for its youthful pleasures today, its complexities and gracefully aged tannins tomorrow. Price is $23 per bottle.

Upcoming Events 2003:

• January 25:  ZAP (Zinfandel Advocates and Partners) Festival, Fort Mason, San Francisco
• March: Sisters of the Vine Winemaker Dinner, crafted by Executive Chef Jose Garcia.
• May 3rd: Spring in the Vineyard at Saucelito Canyon – A Roll Out The Barrels Spring Case Special
• May 4th: Third Annual Wine Club BBQ at the historic Saucelito Canyon Vineyard. A delicious feast will be prepared by our old friends Ray and Nina Cattaneo.
• April 1-30: Saucelito Canyon Zin has been invited to be the Cliffs Resort featured wine for the month of April. Our delectable Zinfandel will be available by the glass or the bottle and paired with a specially selected menu.
• June 1: Afternoon of Epicurean Delights, Chapman House By The Sea
• July 8-13: KCBX Wine Classic
• August 1: Great Escape Day and Grand Tasting at the California Mid-State Fair
• August 30: 20th Annual Central Coast Wine Festival in Mission Plaza
• November 5: Open House at Saucelito Canyon Vineyard and Harvest Celebration

2003: Fall Newsletter

Dear Friends,

The winery supply catalogs are piling up, Mr. Bear is back, and the foxes are working overtime. I know harvest can’t be far off.

Autumn is one of those seasons that just sneaks up on me. It blows in with a warm, dry Santa Ana wind. One day it’s summer, the next day it’s fall. The grapes suddenly seem riper, the days shorter, the shadows longer. There is a sense of familiarity and anticipation in the air.

Fall announces itself inside the winery, too. Among familiar sights of the season are the boxes of yeast and ML culture in the lab, the stacked empty barrels in the winery, and the dusty crush equipment waiting outside. Even though much of the equipment has not been used for a year, all it really needs is a good cleaning and inspection. As harvest approaches, I look around the cellar, making sure that all the bits and pieces are there. Apparently, this makes me a moving target for tree squirrels. They bomb me and the tin cellar roof with acorns, which are always plentiful in the live oaks this time of the year. It must be harvest time for them, too.

In the past, I have told you about Mr. Bear, one of the largest creatures to frequent our vineyard during the harvest. Sure enough, he is back this year. The wily foxes are back, too. They climb up the vines, walk along the cordons (the vine arms), and feast on our Zinfandel. They can do a lot of damage in a hurry, so we have to gently chase them off the vineyard. I think they have good taste in fruit, but there is only so much I can spare.

These things are all part of the Saucelito landscape, part of the balance between nature and farming. I like to think that, in their own way, they impact the harvest and ultimately shape what is in the bottle. Please come see for yourself at the upcoming Open House.

 – Bill

Saucelito Soundbites: A Family Affair

When your children go off to college, you are always grateful when they can take a break from their studies to return home for a spell, and even more grateful when they can pull it off at the same time. Such was the case for us recently, when our son Tom and daughter Margaret returned home before the start of the fall quarter. We enjoyed a getaway in the mountains, but harvest was looming. So, as always, Tom and Margaret were pressed into service. They rode off on the winery’s four-wheel Mule with two 55-gallon drums to water the replacement vines scattered throughout the estate. Along the way, they pulled weeds and dropped crops, such as green, unripe clusters or “second crops” that seem to put a drag on the ripening process.

I am also reminded that our estate was a family affair long before we came along. As many of you know, I purchased this land from the granddaughters of Henry Ditmas, who, along with his wife Rosa, planted the first vineyard here more than 120 years ago. The best things in life are timeless, which must be why farming, winemaking, and family fit so well together.

Saucelito Zin: Built To Last

Over the past 30 years, we’ve pretty much seen it all from our little corner of the California wine world – boom times and lean times, crazy harvests and quiet harvests, extended drought and El Niño storms. A few years ago, the economy was flying high, and so-called “cult wines” were flying off the shelves at $150 per bottle. Now we hear there is a glut and the new wine is Charles Shaw (a.k.a. Two Buck Chuck), which has made quite a splash with its @1.99 price tag at Trader Joe’s.

At Saucelito Canyon, we don’t always blow with the prevailing wind. We grow our own grapes, so our supply is stable, though some harvests yield more than others. Our first order of business is to make Zinfandel, not worry about what’s going elsewhere in “the industry.”

– Bill

Saucelito Soundbites: KCBX Wine Classic

Matt Kramer, wine writer, author, and columnist for the Wine Spectator, visited our estate while down here for the KCBX Wine Classic. He is also updating his book on California wine. Like us, Matt is a proponent of wines that capture an authentic sense of place, wines that are unique and distinctive from the perspective of terroir. We talked about a lot of things, including his and Bill’s shared appreciation for classic motorcycles. He told us that if people come to visit our estate, see the vineyard and the landscape, it will forever change the way they drink our wine. We hadn’t really thought of it that way, but we think Matt is right. Another good reason is that we hope to see you at our Open House on November 2nd.

Sauceito Soundbites: The KCBX Wine Classic is truly a “classic” on the Central Coast. We remember it twenty years ago when our local wine industry wasn’t yet really an industry. All of the winemakers would show up for the Thursday night barrel tasting. The Wine Classic has grown in step with the wine industry over the years. The barrel tastings still attract a lot of illuminati, both the well-known and the new on the scene. This year, it was 104 degrees in Avila, and I had to ice down our Zinfandel. But the heat did not dampen the good spirits of seeing dear friends, greeting guests with enthusiasm and goodwill. I ran into our longtime friend Bruno D’Alfonso of Sanford Winery. His warmth and enthusiasm never wane. People have moved around, we’ve all been through ups and downs, we don’t see each other as often as we would like, but we’re still here, making wine, having fun, and being friends.

New Releases 2003:

• 2001 Zinfandel Estate
• 2001 Zinfandel Reserve

Upcoming Events 2003: 

• Join us for Harvest Celebration and our Annual Saucelito Canyon Open House on October 30 to November 2.

2004 Spring Newsletter:

Dear Friends,

This year is my 30th out here in Saucelito Canyon. My initial goal in 1974 was to craft an estate-grown, limited-production Zinfandel that would truly stand apart. Looking back, I like to think that we have achieved that goal. But the years have passed more like a journey than a plan-every journey has its detours. For example, each of the three new releases featured in this newsletter represent a detour of its own. Thirty years ago, I did not envision making a Cabernet Sauvignon or Late Harvest Zinfandel, or merging our estate Zinfandel with fruit from the neighboring rancho for a wine that we call Dos Ranchos.

Our philosophy is that the vineyard should tell the winemaker what to make, not vice versa–and it seems that every decade or so, the vineyard, the vineyard speaks up and tells me something new. The result is, over the years, our estate Zinfandel has been joined by these unique bottlings that are now woven into our winery experience.

For some people, Saucelito Canyon itself represents a detour, a stop on a larger journey. In December, I said goodbye to Brad Peterson, my right-hand man for the past few years. He is returning to Lodi, where he will work with his family’s Peterson Vineyards, with the goal of starting his own label. He knew a lot about grapes when he first came to Saucito Canyon, and he learned a lot about winemaking while he was here. I will miss him, but I think he made a great choice for his future. Brad is one of many who have made their mark on Saucelito Canyon over the years. Some have drifted off, never to be heard from again, while others have remained close to us, including some who remain in our local wine industry. A few have gone on to become full-fledged winemakers. Regardless, each of these people has, in some way, made an imprint on our wines and our story.

Spring is now upon us in the vineyard, and with it comes a sense of newness, even after 30 years. I don’t know what the next detour will be, but I am looking forward to it.

– Bill

New Releases 2004:

• 2002 Zinfandel Dos Rancho: Our 2002 Zinfandel Dos Ranchos merges with our estate Zinfandel with fruit from Rancho Arroyo Grande, a neighboring vineyard whose connection to Saucelito Canyon dates back to the 1880s. This fruit-forward wine shows a complex bouquet of black fruits and fresh herbs. Ripe flavors of blueberry and black cherry anticipate accents of raspberry, coffee, and clove spice. The texture is chewy and expansive with viscous notes of boysenberry on the finish. Price is $24 per bottle.
• 2002 Late Harvest Zinfandel: The story of our Late Harvest Zinfandel dates back to the scorching harvest of 1989. Hot weather combined with the stress of dry farming resulted in some shriveled, ultra-sweet clusters that we had to sort out from the rest of our crop. I figured we would just discard them, but my winemaking assistant Richard Henswood said, “Can’t we do something with these?” We tossed them into a handy plastic barrel until it was full. We thought about it for a while, then poured some of the fermenting juice over the clusters to get things started. We sealed up the barrel and left it alone as the wine fermented on native yeasts all the way through the end of December. We were shocked by the results of our experiment. The wine was delicious. We have been making Late Harvest Zinfandel ever since.
• 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate: In 1976, Michael Benedict of Sanford and Benedict asked me if I wanted some young Cabernet rootings (he had determined that the location of his vineyard was too cool for the varietal). These rootings had been propagated from cuttings in Napa Valley’s famed Mont La Salle Vineyard, and he was just giving them away. How could I say no? I planted an acre with these rootings, but the soil in my chosen spot proved to be too vigorous. It turned into a jungle of canes measuring up to 24 feet long. So I took cuttings from this acre and planted them in less vigorous soil. And that’s when I got the results I was looking for. Over the years, to encourage complexity, we have planted Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Malbec to add to the blend.