WINE TOWN CELEBRATIONS

Cloverdale has been a wine town since the nineteenth century. We aren’t as well known as Healdsburg, St. Helena, or Yountville, but we have a rich wine history. In fact in 1962, at its peak, the Italian Swiss Colony tasting room had 400,000 visitors a year.

Being a wine town, wine is a part of almost every charitable benefit, celebration, and public event. Every organization includes some vintners willing to donate for a good cause. At some events the wine is available at a modest cost. At others, including the Cloverdale Kiwanis Crab Feed, and the unsurpassed Alexander Valley School Spaghetti Feed, the wine is included in the cost of admission.

The Cloverdale Citrus Fair began in 1893. Even then, the name was a little strange. Although the Reveille, our local paper, tried to promote the orange growing potential of the area in the 1890’s, commercial citrus production never became established. But year after year we select the Citrus Fair Queen from the high school, and pick Orin Orange and Lillie Lemon from the younger kids. It always rains for the fair, although not always for the parade. One year they moved it from President’s Weekend to May, but it didn’t seem to work. Too dry, maybe.

The Fair is open from Friday to Monday. The parade is on Saturday, and Saturday is a traditional day for people who have moved away to return for a visit. The parade has the car clubs, bands, floats from all the service organizations and charities, and horses that you’d expect from a small town parade. In years past when Cloverdale was a lumber town, the giant lumber trucks would blast their way down the boulevard. Now there are still several big rigs, John Deere tractors, and a pickup truck with wine barrels in the back.

The biggest attraction is Humboldt State Marching Lumberjacks, a college band from two hundred miles up the coast. The parade route is short enough that they can march as the lead unit of the parade, and still run back to the start, to ride on a truck as the last unit. After the parade, they play their way around the fair grounds, and then go to Ruth McGowan’s Brew Pub for the post-parade party.

Befitting a wine town, there is a wine competition. However, it is now too big for the town. Naming rights were sold to the San Francisco Chronicle, so the public event has moved to Fort Mason. Judging still takes place at the Citrus Fair, and it’s traditional for the organizers to leave some of the wine submitted, but not consumed in the judging, for us to sample at the fair.

The Citrus Fair wine tasting takes place on Saturday and Sunday. This year, three local wineries, Cellar 8, Ramazotti, and Lone Oak, were pouring. In addition, there was three tables of left-overs, two of red, and one of white, each with about 10 bottles a piece. The wines change as the bottles run out, so there is a lot to taste.

Usually, you pay by the taste, but this year, they couldn’t find the tickets, so $20 got you as much as you wanted. Naturally, we worked are way through most of the reds. Being a very nerdy guy, I always take my notebook to these affairs. This often elicits curiosity from the pourers, and this year I kept up a running commentary on thumbs up versus thumbs down, with a particularly sociable volunteer.

These are the wines we liked the best. (Note: the wines were served in very small tasting glasses, left over I think, from the days when the main tastings were held in Cloverdale. The glasses made it hard to smell some of the wines.)

Peters Family 2006 Sonoma Coast Sonoma Stage Vineyard Pinot Noir
Brownish red color.
Very nice coffee smell.
The first time we tried it, the flavor didn’t exactly match the smell. It was a little sour, with fruit underneath. When we tried it again, it had opened up, and was one of our favorite styles of Pinot. We first went tasting in the Willamette Valley in 1994. The 1992 Pinots they were pouring had this taste: that classic New World soft Pinot taste, with coffee overlaying a very subtle fruit. Most Oregon wineries have moved to a more fruity style, but we really enjoy the old one.

Balletto 2006 Russian River Valley Zinfandel
The red is a little gray, with maybe a hint of brown.
It smells of raspberry, almost like a Carignane.
The taste has jammy strawberry fruit. This not a complex wine, but it tastes very good.

Bluenose 2005 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel
The color is really dark and obscure. It’s even dark around the edges.
I couldn’t smell it.
The flavor has very ripe fruit. A classic Dry Creek Valley Zin.

Macchia 2007 Lodi Old Vine Zinfandel
I wanted to try this at ZAP, but forgot.
I have to modify my opinion of Lodi Zin. This was very good, so it can be done.
The color was a dark, beautiful red. It was opaque, but bright magenta around the edges.
I couldn’t smell it.
The taste was very ripe fruit, mildly cherry. Very enjoyable to drink. I want to try a bottle to see how it evolves.

Ramazotti 2005 Sonoma County Raffinto
The wine was made in a Super-Tuscan style. I tried it at the Harvest Fair in October, and had a positive impression then, as well.
I couldn’t smell it.
The flavor was strong and full of chocolate. There was just a little acid bite at the end. A powerful wine, Carolle rated it her favorite, along with the Peters.

Ramazotti 2005 Ricordo
A field blend Zinfandel, this has 75% Zin, 15% Petit Sirah, 5% Alicante, 2% Syrah, 2% Carignane, and 1% Chasselas Dore.
Color is dark red; it is cloudy.
A light fruit nose.
It had ripe fruit, with clove and cinnamon on the top. Carolle was only mildly enthusiastic. When we had it in November, she thought it smelled grassy. It’s safe to say this is a split decision. I like it more than she does.

After all this wine, and a couple of Cloverdale Ales at Ruth McGowan’s, we were happy to have some down time before out next big event.

Each year, on Saturday night during the fair, the Italian Catholic Federation holds its Barbecue Chicken and Spaghetti Feed at St. Peters’ Catholic Church. Many of you have heard of St. Peter’s. It is the namesake of one Rosenblum’s flagship Zins. Out behind the church are four acres, half of which are planted to old, gnarly, head trained vines. The other half had to be replanted a few years back.

We bought the 2005 St. Peter’s on sale at Rosenblum Tasting Room in Healdsburg a couple of weeks ago. It is a strong, robust wine, a big California Zin. There a lots of things going on beside the fruit. When you open the bottle, there is heat from the alcohol (14.8%), and the tannins, while not rough, aren’t velvet either. Maybe course watercolor paper. At the beginning it smells a little pruny, with coffee underneath.

As the wine opens up, the heat dissipates, the tannins soften, and the prune fades into a strong fruit smell. There may be some clove on the sour fruit aftertaste. There is nothing static about this wine. It takes you for quite a ride.

There was quite a crowd at the dinner. Over 300 people bought tickets, many of returning visitors from out of town. One never knows at St. Peter’s whether you pay by the drink, or the wine is included in the ticket. This night it was included. The wine was left over from a donation by Trinchero to the Knights of Columbus Cioppino Feed: a South Australian Shiraz, and an Amador Zin.

One of the people we were eating with is a friend of Richard Mounts (they took enology classes together), so we brought a Mounts Syrah, a wonderful big fruity wine. A great topic of conversation. Good times.