ABOURIOU

Gibson-Martinelli Vineyard
It’s one thing to say ‘I will not make Merlot’, but I just might be taking my proclivity for esoterica a little to far with this wine. In truth I had never even heard of this variety before seeing the vineyard. All I could find in print was the odd single sentence ‘minor dark skinned variety from the Cote du Marmandais’. Not a whole lot to go on. But once I saw the vineyard itself, I wanted this fruit. Located about a quarter mile south of the Russian River on Martinelli Road. It is the first vineyard at the north-west end of what some locals call ‘Martinelli Valley’. Effectively it is the foot of ‘Jack Ass Hill’ and enjoys a gentle south-east facing exposure and good air circulation. The vines are planted in rows wide enough to be worked by horse and plow, as they were for many years. They are pruned in a vertical cordon reaching a height of around six feet. Even though they are dry-farmed they still achieve an impressive girth.

My friend Eva Martinelli has filled me in on some of this vineyard’s early history. Her father had first planted this site to Zinfandel but later uprooted it in favor of Abouriou, a.k.a..‘Early Burgundy’. I was surprised to learn that “Early Burgundy’ fetched a higher price than Zinfandel or Cabernet in 1940's Sonoma County. If you were to dine at the historic Hotel La Rose in Santa Rosa, and asked for wine, you would have your choice of ‘burgundy’ (a rosé from this vineyard) or ‘claret’(the same rosé mixed with Zinfandel). More recently, according to Eva the fruit had gone down the road to a producer of high-end single vineyard Zinfandel. This variety gives plenty of color and was being used as ‘medicine’ for the more anemic Zin. Still, I could not find any specific advice on how to approach it in the cellar, or even what its basic character was.

Fortunately for me, Abouriou’s character makes itself known without much prompting. It behaves very much like Syrah during fermentation. The color comes very fast and with impressive depth. It tends to ‘reduce’ easily and thus needs frequent aerobic pump-overs. What I find most interesting about Abouriou is that for all it’s imposing color and brooding blood and black fruit aromatics, it has a very gentle mouth-feel and only a hint of tannin. I often say it has the aromatics and flavors of Malbec but the structure of Dolcetto. The only change I have made since the first vintage is that I now stir the lees in barrel every few weeks. As the wine only sees two year and older wood, I find that this gives a bit more mid-palate richness without interfering with it’s more subtle aromas.

2002: I pushed the ripeness a little further this year and it really paid off. Completely saturated color, almost black to the rim of the glass. Brooding and slow to emerge aromas of licorice and blackberries fill my head in a hypnotic way. Seared duck breast, pork with roast fennel and ‘Roaring Forties’ blue cheese have all been very happily paired with this wine.