Karly Wines

The story: When we first began planning our winery business in the late seventies, we knew we would be featuring Zinfandel. Not making Zinfandel in Amador County is not an option. So we did a lot of tasting of Zins of that era and talked/visited with a lot of the better known winemakers. We were big fans of the Zins made at Ridge Vineyards and their practice is (was?) to blend a little Petite Sirah in all Zinfandel. It gives the wines a backbone that is often absent.

But Petite Sirah is very bold flavored, so the producer must use restraint. During the initial experiments we discovered some very fine Petite grown in the Sacramento River delta near the town of Clarksburg. A few years later Petite Sirah became available from our own vineyards and we returned to our policy of using only Amador County fruit. In a few more years we had ample grapes for blending and began bottling Petite Sirah as a varietal. It was always popular with our customers, but in time became lost in the mix as we became enamored experimenting with the Rhone wine varieties Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre and a greater number of Rhone whites. It did not help that Petite Sirah vines are very vulnerable to the fungal disease Eutypa. There is no treatment available to counteract this disorder. The growers only option is to watch for sick vine symptoms, and when noticed to progressively cut the top off the vine until reaching uninfected wood, wait for the vine to sprout new shoots, then retrain. It is a never ending process.

Spring rain and wind occurring just after the vines are pruned spreads the fungus spores and efficiently infects new vines. In the El Nino year 1998 we had to prune our vines more severely than usual. Rain continued that year until the end of June and by fall half our vineyard was infected. We tried to save our vineyard but gave up the battle after a puny harvest in 2001. Some of you may remember or have a bottle or two of the 2001 “Last Sirah”. It is tearful how hard dying vines try to the very end, and of course the wine was fabulous. We grieved for a year or two, resolved never to plant Petite Sirah again, and in 2004 we were planting it again. We picked the first few grapes in 2007 and now it is back in the product mix in 2008.

This is a heck of a wine for the first time out of the shoot. It is incredibly dense in texture and flavor for four year old vines.
The blueberries and clove are there allright, but they are almost overwhelmed by coffee, chocolate and cherriesl. What have we started? Our intention is to hold this wine for our Club and on-line customers until July 1st, and then sell what remains in the tasting room.