This release letter is an ode to Contra Costa County because we think this magical region is one of the most distinctive and, in the right hands, one of the best terroirs in California.
"Contra Costa County: The name signifies 'Opposite Coast,' and the county is so called from its situation opposite San Francisco, in an easterly direction. It is undoubtedly one of the most fertile counties in the State, possessing rich agricultural lands, which embrace an interior coast of thirty leagues, extending in the Bays of Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Pablo, the Straits of Carquinez, the Bay of Suisun, and the San Joaquin River; a circumstance which, united to its mild climate, will render it very important."
- Report of Mr. Vallejo on the Derivation and Definition of the Names of the several Counties of California, 1850.
Contra Costa County (or CoCo, to those in the know-know) is home to one of California’s most striking viticultural sights – own-rooted vineyards planted in the Oakley Sands, a soil type first named and mapped in a 1933 soil survey prepared by E.J. Carpenter for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Chemistry and Soils. The Oakley Sands are directly adjacent to the San Joaquin River on its south bank, just a mile before its junction with the Sacramento River; thus, the vines are planted, effectively, in coastal dunes comprised of weathered granitic sand blown and washed out of the Sierra Nevada over millennia. These sandy soils are very deep and somewhat excessively drained, lacking stratification and having almost no clay and loam. Sandy soils are easy for vine roots to penetrate and fortunately very hostile to the root louse phylloxera, so the vines thrive on their own roots. Own-rooted vineyards in most of the world’s wine regions are extraordinarily rare; the practice is a relic from the time before phylloxera. These sandy soils imbue the wines with distinctively suave and fine-grained tannins.
"There is a strange region lying between Oakley and Brentwood. The soil is sandy and was originally covered with chaparral and scrub oak. Useless land, said many men who tried to farm it and made a failure. About 1887, however, James O’Hara came to the region. He bought some of this land and was laughed at. But he had ideas. He planted fruit trees on this sandy land and in doing so transformed the region. Nowhere else does the fruit ripen so early or prove so sure a crop."
- JP Munro Fraser, History of Contra Costa County, California With Biographical Sketches of the Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified With Its Growth and Development From the Early Days to the Present, 1926.
Vineyards planted in the Oakley Sands, encompassing portions of the towns of Oakley, Antioch, and Brentwood, have a unique climate as well, thanks to the winds that blow through on a recurring daily basis. The growing season in the region begins early - budbreak is reliably two weeks ahead of our other vineyards, owing to moderate spring temperatures and dry, sandy soils that warm quickly, thereby initiating root pressure and sap flow. The warmth of the summer sun is tempered by the onrush of coastal winds that begin a little before lunchtime each day, averaging 10-12 mph and often exceeding 20 mph in the late afternoon. Far across the Delta from the Oakley Sands, the Central Valley begins heating up in the morning as soon as the sun crests the ridgeline of the Sierra Nevada. This regional warming results in a low-pressure area that pulls cold, marine air from the coast far inland, through the Petaluma Gap and the Golden Gate, across San Pablo Bay, and through the Carquinez Strait. This daily wind stress alters the vines’ respiratory rates: to avoid excessive transpirational water loss, the vines close their stomata when the winds pick up around noon, halting photosynthesis. This produces grapes with low pHs (3.3-3.5) and fresh, vibrant flavors.
- Map of the Fresh Water Tide Lands of California, 1873.
2018 EXPERIMENTAL SERIES #2: FRED’S HOME BLOCK MOURVÈDRE, CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
Five years ago, before we even had a name for Desire Lines, our wine brand started with an experiment: one ton of Syrah from a mountain vineyard in Mendocino. When and if that little wine lot is released, it’ll be Experimental Series Number 1, but for now, it’s slumbering peacefully in bottle in the cellar.
Which brings us to Experimental Series #2. The series gives us an opportunity to—stick with us here—experiment on some wines we’re excited about but that may not yet fit our single-vineyard model. New vineyards, individual blocks, experimental fermentations, or single barrel selections – things that give us the chance to really geek out. Each Experimental Series wine will be consecutively numbered and necessarily very small in production.
Fred’s Home Block Mourvèdre is from a small parcel of magnificent Mourvèdre planted in the 1880s in Oakley. The vineyard was for many years a core piece of the Bonny Doon Cigare Volant, and for good reason, we’ve discovered: the wine is incredible. The vines are planted on the eastern edge of the Oakley Sands three miles east of Evangelho Vineyard. The wine was fermented with 30% whole cluster for 30 days in tank (we typically drain and press our Evangelho Carignan around 18-21 days) and raised in a single neutral 600L barrel. The wine smells like our local Watmaugh strawberries baked in a cobbler, with orange citrus, a hint of Mourvèdre’s distinctive gaminess, and a plush mouthfeel.
2018 EVANGELHO RED WINE, CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
Evangelho has always been a vineyard we admire greatly, and it was a huge thrill to release our first wine from this amazing place last year. What was even more amazing was to hear everyone's response to the wine. (Especially me, Emily, who practically did cartwheels in the sand when we found out we were able to make a Desire Lines Evangelho wine). The pride and joy we felt seeing so many people adore this wine has been second only to how we feel when random strangers tell us how cute our son is.
Our 2018 Evangelho Red Wine is a blend of roughly 90% Carignan and 10% Mourvèdre. Like the 2017, the wine was fermented with 30% whole cluster under a submerged cap and aged for ten months in neutral 400L barrels. I (Cody) love the 400L barrel size for Carignan – it retains freshness and builds tension like all large format barrels, but with a less reductive tendency than the 500L and 600L barrels that I prefer for Syrah and Mourvèdre. The Carignan from Evangelho gives a juicy wine that smells of flowers and red fruits, with a soft tannin profile and vibrant acidity. The inclusion of cluster adds spice to the nose, while the small portion of carbonic maceration and Mourvèdre add flesh to the palate. The winemaking style is inspired by our love for the great cru Beaujolais of France (and in our book, that’s Clos de la Roilette’s Cuvée Tardive and the old-vine single parcels of Château Thivin): wines that are a joy to drink while young and age gracefully as well.
2017 SHAKE RIDGE SYRAH, AMADOR COUNTY
There are so many aspects of Shake Ridge we could talk about. Just last weekend Cody and Golden Retriever #2 Maya went to the vineyard to sample, and we were reminded about how every visit to Shake Ridge is like our very own miniature Corporate Wellness Retreat. A beautiful drive through the Sierra Foothills: check. An intensive lesson on some obscure yet fascinating aspect of viticulture: check. Dogs frolicking through the vines while Cody tastes the delicious Syrah: check. A great conversation with rockstar farmer Ann Kraemer about everything from powdery mildew indexes and crop projections to our family and the best places to grab breakfast on the drive back to Sonoma: check.
The wine itself is our richest, most intense yet – at tastings, we pour it last, after our Griffin’s Lair Syrah. Our 2017 Shake Ridge Syrah was fermented with 60% whole cluster and aged for 14 months in large-format 500L barrels, including a single new light-toast Taransaud barrel. We attribute the 2017's density and decadence primarily to the growing season (warmer than 2016's), but also in part from the inclusion of 2% Viognier co-fermented with the Syrah. We get fruit from two different blocks on the front of the ranch, from the first vines planted at Shake Ridge in 2003. Both blocks run from the crown of a ridge down into the colder swale, giving us a range of flavors to work with – textbook Syrah game and funk from the top, acid and fresh blue fruit flavors from the bottom. The wine is exotically perfumed with firm tannin and a sweet core of fruit that runs through the center of the wine, fitting for a wine from the foothills.
And that concludes the fall Desire Lines release. (You didn't really think we'd get all the way through a release email without including at least one baby photo, did you?)
As always, from our entire little family and wine brand, thank you so much for your support. We can't wait for you to try these wines!
Love,
Cody & Emily
