Eat, Drink, Savor: Taste traveling at DeRose Winery

DeRose Vineyard, can lay declare to the oldest French vines in California, with negrette grapes planted in 1855 by pioneer winemaker Theophile Vaché. The vineyard, on Cienega Street past Hollister, sits on a piece of the oldest business winery within the state, and it’s nonetheless going robust.

“This vineyard has by no means been shut down in 170 years,” winemaker Al DeRose stated. “It has gone by means of a number of arms, but it surely has all the time been an operational vineyard. They stayed open even throughout prohibition after they made sacramental wine for church buildings.”

DeRose Vineyard was based in 1986 by the DeRose and Cedolini Households, when the unique winery was cut up up and offered by Heublein, Inc. shortly after they acquired it from Almaden. 

Pat DeRose, Al’s father, had labored in gross sales earlier than turning into the vineyard’s first winemaker.  Winemaking for him was, at first, only a pastime he shared along with his brothers. The household purchased the Cienega Valley land primarily as an funding. However after they began clearing out the overgrown areas of the property, they found over 40 acres of outdated vines planted by Vaché and subsequent proprietor William Palmtag a century earlier than.

“After we began, we didn’t even know the outdated vines have been right here,” Al stated. “Frank Solano, who was in his 80s, was once the winery supervisor for Almaden a decade earlier than and he supplied to assist us determine what was right here.”

“What was right here” turned out to be three acres of Viognier planted earlier than 1900, fifteen acres of zinfandel vines planted within the Nineties and eight acres of negrette planted earlier than the Eighteen Eighties. The outdated vines assure exceptional wines, although they produce significantly lower than the 3-5 tons per acre of newer vines.

“Older vines begin to decline, and the manufacturing goes down,” DeRose stated. “However the high quality of grapes you get, particularly with sure varietals, will increase because the vine naturally balances itself and retains rising. Because the roots preserve trying to find water, they cross an enormous array of soils. You find yourself with all these totally different nuances from the totally different soil profiles.”

DeRose grew up serving to his father have a tendency the winery, and he takes his accountability for tending to the outdated vines very significantly, working to maintain them alive and producing.

“It will not be a wise enterprise choice, however we’re saving historical past and holding it alive,“ DeRose stated. “I’m much less involved about yield and extra involved with high quality. I feel we’re doing a reasonably good job, and I plan to proceed it so long as I can.”

The Wines of DeRose
On a current go to to DeRose, we have been supplied the prospect to style a number of DeRose vintages with the winemaker and get his impressions of every one. In addition to providing wines drawn from the unique Vaché/Palmtag winery, DeRose additionally carries a line of wines they produce in Chile, which might be profiled in an upcoming “Eat, Drink, Savor” article.

The 2016 Sharknose Chardonnay ($18) sports activities a picture of a Graham-Paige “Sharknose” car that’s within the DeRose Automotive Museum, at present closed as a result of COVID restrictions.

“We’re not making an attempt to make a buttery chardonnay,” he stated. “We wish it to be extra Burgundian in type. You may drink a ten-year-old bottle of our chardonnay, and it might nonetheless have life in it.” 

It will go nicely with one thing buttery or creamy, like sole meunière with buttered child potatoes or roast rooster with béarnaise sauce and mushroom risotto.

2017 Cabernet Franc ($28). It’s dry-farmed and is from one of many youthful vineyards on the property, planted in 1985.

“I really feel cabernet franc does higher in a local weather like this than cabernet sauvignon,” De Rose stated. “Cabernet doesn’t work out right here.  Merlot doesn’t work out right here.  The cabernet franc was already right here and rising, so we knew it might do nicely. We’re lucky that we’ve got an extended historical past of rising right here —  we’ve got had 150 years of earlier house owners doing a whole lot of the analysis for us.”

It’s a wealthy, approachable wine with gentle tannins, which might make it a terrific steak wine or an ideal pairing for chocolate.

Hollywood Pink #19 ($28) was one other named after a automobile within the museum, the 1940 Graham Hollywood Convertible. The whimsical label belies the very severe wine within the bottle.

The wine is a mix of seven totally different varietals, predominantly zinfandel from vines planted within the late 1800s. Alicante Bouchet and Rose of Peru, from the identical period, are added together with negrette, syrah, and Cabernet Pfeffer. Every is harvested, fermented, and aged individually.

“We made our first Hollywood Pink in 1995,” DeRose stated. “After we made the 1997 Hollywood Pink, we didn’t bottle all of it. The subsequent yr we blended the brand new one with the leftover ‘97, and it made a terrific bottle of wine. So we began doing that yearly — we bottle half of the mix, and we preserve half of the mix for the subsequent yr.”

It comes collectively in a fancy deep wine with an aroma of pepper and ripe berries, an easy wine to drink that catches you on occasion as you decide up on hints of the numerous layers that come from the varietals and the mixing historical past. It will be a wonderful dinner wine, maybe with beef or pork tenderloin together with a sundried tomato pasta dish or arrabbiata.

DeRose considers the 2018 Previous Vine Zinfandel ($28) to be their flagship wine, with grapes coming from vines planted in 1905— the identical grapes used as the bottom of the Hollywood Pink.

“That is my child; that is what I’m most captivated with,” DeRose stated. “Zin grows so nicely out right here, with the right quantity of warmth and no fog at night time. About 40% of our land is planted with zinfandel. 12 months in and yr out, the grapes are constant”

The modest yield from the outdated vines, lower than a ton per acre, limits manufacturing, holding most of this classic reserved for his or her wine membership.

The Previous Vine Zinfandel is about as clean and as elegant as a wine can get; a fragile wine with intense fruit, and a balanced, pure acidity. It’s a wine you need to savor, at twilight with a cheese and charcuterie board, or by candlelight with duck or lamb. 

And if you happen to shut your eyes and let your thoughts roam, you possibly can nearly sense the time, a century and a half in the past, the horse and buggy days when these vineyards have been first planted.

The place to seek out De Rose Wines:

The tasting room at DeRose Vineyards, situated at 9970 Cienega Street in Hollister, is now open every day from 11 a.m. to five p.m. It closes at 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sundays. 

DeRose wines will also be bought at Diaz Liquors (1709 Airline Freeway, Hollister),  Larry’s Liquors & Microbrews (570 Tres Pinos Rd, Hollister), Nob Hill Meals (1700 Airline Freeway, Hollister) and Windmill Market (301 The Alameda, San Juan Bautista).

Wine by the glass could be loved at Bear’s Hideaway (402B Third Road, San Juan Bautista).