Archive for "Nov 2010"

Bogle’s Phantom Red from the heart of California

In the realm of the “Old Ghost” from Klinker Brick I posted about a couple of weeks ago, this “Phantom” from Bogle flirts with the same sort of “out of the past” branding for an old vine wine. Bogle is a family winery located in the Sacramento River delta, near Clarksburg, California. Initially famous for [...]

Fish Rock Road vines, long forgotten islands in time

California State Route 128 winds from Cloverdale through the Anderson Valley to the Mendocino Coast. You can turn west off 128, between Yorkville and Boonville, onto Fish Rock Road, and follow it to the Pacific at Anchor Bay. But not many people do. It’s almost 28 miles of windy, only marginally improved roadway, that meanders [...]

Do old vines yield better grapes and wine? Matt Kramer says, “Yes.”

Do old vines yield better grapes and wine? Matt Kramer, writing in WINE SPECTATOR addressed this issue in a June 15, 2010 column. Read that column HERE. Mr. Kramer answers that opening question with “Yes,” and makes several interesting points: 1. The age of “old vines” (how old is old?) varies by region. What’s “old” [...]

Old Vines, Somatic Mutation, Chimerism … a little (too much?) terroir science

I’m not a plant scientist, and I don’t want to frighten anyone away with either the science involved here, or my incomplete grasp of the concepts involved. So this short post is intended just to plant a seed for thought. Planting a seed is a good introduction to this thought, since wine grapes don’t grow [...]