The vineyards and wines of Calaveras County

Bruce Shore

Those who tour through the southern portion of the Mother Lode gold country along state highway 4, or who seek the high Sierras adjacent to state highway 4 over Ebbetts pass, or who visit the towns of  Arnold, Angels Camp (think Jumping Frog), Copperopolis, Mokelumne Hill, Murphys, San Andreas, Vallecito or West Point,  will have noted a number of hillsides where the native oaks of the foothills or the pines at higher elevation have been replaced by orderly rows of grapevines. With each year come new rows of vines, some adjacent to the major roads, other that can be seen only after a rough journey over a dusty single-lane road. These vineyard produce the excellent wines of Calaveras County — some 20 wineries and numerous vineyards.

Each year the growers and winemakers  hold a one day Vineyard Tour and BBQ, during which time those who are interested visit half a dozen of the vineyards, where owners comment on their operation and a  viticulturalist from UC Davis, Dr. James Wolpert,  offers comments and advice.

This year the growers from some two dozen vineyards participated in the day long tour, interrupted by a lunch at the lush Ironstone Winery and concluded with a salmon barbecue at the Broll Mountain Vineyard. My wife and I, along with our Livermore friends Bill and Jane Nebo, were amongst the participants, though our connection with vineyards is only indirect: Jane’s daughter Adrien Sheridan is one of the owners of the Parcel 17 vineyard which, with the harvest this year, will become a producer of wine grapes (but not the winemaker — that will be done by Twisted Oak Winery.)

The vineyard on the tour, and their hosts to us,  were:

Some, but not all, of the tour vineyards were part of wineries: the growers and winemakers are not always the same. Their grapes went into both white and red varietals and blends. We tour participants were provided with very detailed instructions for finding each of the vineyards, yet even so we made several wrong turns: typically the vineyards were at the end of a long dirt road, through scenic hills, with few dwellings to be seen except at the end.

The tour participants were clearly knowledgeable about growing grapes — they were growers, after all — and at each stop had detailed questions: how often do you water?  What sprays do you use and when?  What do you do for mildew or birds or gophers? How to you tell what needs to be added to the nutrients and what product do you use to add it? It was clear from the questions and answers that grape growing is as much an art as a science.

Gophers pose a universal problem. They destroy roots and thereby stunt or kill a vine. To eliminate these pests, two views seemed to prevail. Many people preferred to try to encourage barn owls to take up residence, and had placed welcoming homes for them on poles above the vines. Evidently these birds are rather picky about where they live, and so they are not always a reliable nemesis to burrowing animals. Eagles are good too, but nobody suggesting building eagles nests. Poison seems to be one solution, though it was disputed whether this was a good procedure if you were trying to encourage owls.

Canterbury Vineyard (Brett Keller, winemaker)

The vines of Canterbury Vineyard lie over small hills, formerly
dotted with oaks, at the end of a narrow dirt road; this setting is
typical of Calaveras County vineyards.

Canterbury Vineyards, our first stop, did have a winery and stacks of oak barrels outside a tasting area, where winemaker Brett Keller poured samples (of Viognier and Cabernet Sauvignon) after participants had visited the vines.  His first crush was only in 2006, and his tasting room proper will be opened soon in the new Town Square shopping center of Copperopolis (discussed below). He has some 6 acres of Viognier.  Additional acreage of Malbec and Zinfandel will come.

Winemaker Brett Keller of Canterbury Vineyards describes his Cabernet
to visitors within the large storage barn that has served as
temporary tasting area. His wines will soon be available for tasting
in a less remote venue.

Vallecito Vineyard (Lori Kautz, owner)

Vallecito Vineyard, our second stop, was closer to the main road (Highway 4). This was just a vineyard; the grapes go to half a dozen wineries, including Hatcher, Newsom Harlow and Ironstone. There our host Lauri Kautz gave one of the most fascinating talks of the day; she made soils sound actually interesting.

Owner Lori Kautz guided visitors through one of her vineyards at Vallecito Vineyards. 

The oldest vines here date from 1999. Along the hillside most visible from the parking area she has four distinct soil types: an organic loamy soil that needs special supplementation of calcium and magnesium and which produces a slightly minty flavor; a soil with lots of cobblestones and lots of iron, a very organic black soil that originated in years of grass decomposition; and the ubiquitous Calaveras red clay. Each soil type requires different attention , with careful chemical analysis to determine what needs to be added for each particular type of grape. As I learned, it is not enough just to know the grape variety: one must know the particular root stock (very seldom are vines grown without grafting one variety onto a sturdier root stock), and even then there can be variations. Scattered around the premises were an assortment of old farm machinery, remnants of an ancestor’s collecting.

Newly planted vines at Vallecito Vineyards are protected from insects and the elements by cardboard boxes until they can fend for themselves.

Ironstone  Vineyard (Mick Rotersen, vineyard manager)

Ironstone Vineyards, just outside Murphys, is by far the largest and oldest winery in the county. It was begun by John Kautz and his family who, in 1988 extended their vast holdings in the Lodi area up into the foothills.

The entrance to Ironstone Vineyards alerts visitors to the upscale
surroundings that make this a popular destination for winetasters and
event-seekers.

The concert area at Ironstone vineyards hosts such performers as
Willie Nelson and Boz Skaggs.
 

Today the winery area includes a large open-air concert area (Willie Nelson and Boz Skaggs and Bonnie Raitt will appear there), a large “jewelry shoppe” featuring custom-designed pieces and collectors pottery, a museum that prides itself on a 44 lb gold nugget amongst other things, meeting facilities, and a gourmet delacatesson, all in addition to complementary wine tasting in a splendid high-ceilinged room. The landscaping, with stream and pond and lawns, make this a popular place for outdoor weddings.

A vast carefully tended lawn, and manicured hedge, give evidence to
the reason why so many weddings take place outdoors here.

The Rotary sign displayed at Ironstone vineyards is evidence that the
restaurant here serves some of the best food in the area.
 

Brice Station Vineyard (Stuart and Dolores Mast, owners)

Brice Station vineyard, adjacent to Highway 4,  takes its name from a former stagecoach stop along the road to the mountains. It has root stock dating back to 1993. They make their own wine, available for tasting in a small rustic building. They run sheep through the vineyards to keep down the weeds, and so the leaves and the grapes are to be found at a greater height above the ground than in other vineyards.  They fertilize with fish meal.  We learned that leaf hoppers, often quite numerous, should not be considered a really serious pest until they have destroyed some 20 or 30 percent of the leaf. This vineyard was said to have the highest elevation, and this brings special problems.

Owner Stuart Mast proudly shows off a bottle of his port wine, in the
small tasting room of Brice Station Vineyards. His silhouette appears
on the label, which was designed by his wife; her paintings are
visible behind him.
 

Amongst the buildings at Brice station is one devoted to making and displaying pottery, made on the premises. The pottery works is an integral part of the family activities.

Delatreca Vineyard (Larry and Diane Cornish, owners)

Deatreca Vineyard was the most remote of all the vineyards, located in a field reclaimed from pines. Birds are a particularly active pest here, and the owners have had to use vast rolls of sturdy netting to prevent a repetition of the complete crop loss of an earlier year.

The Delatreca Vineyard is located at the end of a very narrow dirt
road that wends its way above the oak trees and into the pine forest.
Here birds have been such a threat that netting has had to be used.
 

This too is only a few years old. Although there is no tasting room per se on the premises, the owners brought out a few bottles of their Cabernet Sauvignon,  for tasting; it was excellent.

Broll Mountain Vineyard (Bill and Betty Broll)

Our final stop of the day, at Broll Mountain Vineyards just outside Murphys, where we enjoyed a barbecue that included delicious salmon and corn on the cob. The environment includes a large lawn, atop the hillside, where the tables were set up. One has a lovely view out over a canyon, over oak covered hillsides.  Normally one would not see any of this, for their tasting room is in town.

Wine sampling

A table by the preliminary snacks provided numerous bottles of red wines, from the local wineries, help yourself. Typically people would ask “which one is yours?” and I would have to admit that I was just there as drinker not a grower. The favorite wine of our group bore a very unlikely label: Paulines Pizza Red 04 Meritage. This made by a gentleman who owns a Pizza restaurant in San Francisco, to which he commutes two days a week; his wife runs this.

My own second favorites were True Frogs Lilly Pad Red and  BZ Cellars 03 Cabernet.

I also liked Tanner 06 Syrah , Windwalker Vineyards 04 Merlot, Indian Rock 05 Coyote Creek Red,  Fluer de Lys 04 Barbera and Ciracella -6 Old Vine Zinfandel.

In addition I sampled  Avery Rock 06 Syrah, Broll Mountain 04 Merlot,  Wind in the Oaks 07 Tempranillo, William Gordon 03 Cabernet Sauvignon, Zucca Mountain Vineyard 96 Cangiovest, and Broll Mountain 04 Cabernet.

It was a day filled with facts about soils, leaves, watering, pests, and all the infirmities that can affect grapes. Clearly they require every bit as much care and attention as do livestock, and are subject to as many illnesses that, even after centuries of cultivation and study, still defy the diagnosis of experts — so I learned.

Typically tourists to the Calaveras wine country would be looking, not for education about the life of a grape and its vine, but for man-made structures, merchandise  and events, such as are to be found in towns or in event centers such as Ironstone Vineyards.

Murphys

The town of Murphys looks to be the best destination of the county. It is but a single street, as are the other old mining towns, but along it one finds numerous gold-era buildings, now nicely restored and purveying a nice variety of merchandise, both antique and modern, under a canopy of trees.  Some dozen wineries have tasting rooms along the main street.  I am told that the half dozen restaurants are all excellent. There is the wonderful old Murphys hotel (nine rooms) in which to lodge — as did Ulysses S Grant, Mark Twain and Charles Bolton (better known as Black Bart the stagecoach robber).  Very definitely worth a journey.

Incidentally, there is no apostrophe in the town name: it is the plural, not the possessive of Murphy, having taken the name of two Murphy brothers who, following a dispute over possession, agreed to joint title.

Copperopolis

Although the town of Copperopolis is not, to my eyes, particularly noteworthy, outside the town is a remarkable new development, a shopping center that seems to have been modeled after the Main Street section of Disneyland. That is, it is not at all in the style of a typical Mall, but instead it consists of numerous small buildings that mimic the architecture of the rather eclectic  styles to be found in towns of the latter years of the 19th century. The two-story buildings will, in time, house a variety of shops, restaurants and wine tasting rooms, though only a few of these are occupied at the moment. There are as yet no homes nearby and no place for a visitor to stay overnight. We were one of a very few cars there on a Saturday. But within a few years it will no doubt be an interesting stop — though not as authentic as Murphys or Sutter Creek — for what locals expect to be a vast assortment of residences and county offices.

 See You at the 2009 NAPLES WINTER WINE FESTIVAL!!

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