 |
Trippin' down memory lane in today's BloodyPulpit:
-
I started buying Joe Swan's Zins w/ the '70 vintage, up at LiquorMart in
Boulder. It was probably Calif's first cult wine, though back then in olden
times, the term "cult wine" had not been invented. I first met Joe in about
1974, after having sent him several letters remarking how impressive I
thought his Zins were. The folklore then was that Joe Swan was an irrascible/curmudgeonly/ornery
old coot who made Joe Heitz look like MissManners. So I was scared $hitless
when I showed up at his wnry in Trenton to meet him. The folklore couldn't
have been more wrong. He was one of the most charming/gracious/gentlemanly
hosts that I ever had the occasion to meet in the wine business. Though
I had come to learn about his Zins, it was soon clear that his real passion
was for PinotNoir and we spent most of the time talking Pinot & RedBurg.
This was shortly after I had tasted thru a long set of the Dr.Barolet Collection
from LiquorMart, where Joe had recently purchased a large batch of them
as well, since Phil & Rene wern't price-gouging the wine like most
retailers in the USofA. So he wound up pumping me for my take on the wines
as much as anything we discussed. I eventually started buying my wines
directly from Joe & he'd hold them for me until I'd make my annual
drive out there (this was well before reciprocity allowed shipping) to
pick them up and visit. Along the way, I also met his wife June and daughters
Lynn and Kate(?). Lynn, of course, married RodBergland and they both now
run the winery.
-
Joe was an EasternAirlines pilot flying out of Visalia. He had a small
property up in the town of Badger, NE of Visalia, near Sequoia Natl.Park,
a podunk burg probably about the size of Metropolitan Fiddletown. He planted
a small vnyd up there and started making ho-made wine from those grapes.
According to RodBerglund (via Mike Dunne), the property is still in the
family and the vnyd exists, but the varietal identity of the grapes is
not known. After he retired, he moved to Forestville and planted his vnyd
to what is now known as the Swan clone of PinotNoir. Before those vines
were producing, he started making Zinfandel (about '68?) that were legendary.
Only David Bruce and Ridge and SutterHome (of all people!!) were making
Zin of any stature in those days. He also made a '70 Gamay (Valdiguie?)
that was equally legendary. It would make an interesting project to make
a wine from those grapes (if they're still producing) for a JoeSwan Comemmorative
Red.
-
The first Swan Sonoma Zins came from grapes purchased from the Teldeschi
vnyd. My understanding was that Joe was a tough customer to deal with and
wanted to pay next-to-nothing for the grapes. So, in 1977, someone else
came along waving $$$'s to the Teldeschis to get the famous SwanZin grapes,
and Joe refused to match their price. So he had to scramble to line up
Zin at a price he liked up in Mendocino.
-
I'm still missing one of the '77 Mendocino Zins that I paid Joe for. When
I went up to Forestville in early summer of 1979 (probably) to pick up
my case of Swans, Joe & June were on a trip to Burgundy, but he had
dug them out of the basement and left them upstairs. When I stopped by
the Swan residence to pick them up, I was met by these two hot-chicks in
very/very tiny bikinis...Joe's daughters. The friend who had accompanied
me because he had wanted to meet Joe went sort of gawgaw. Me.....I was
all hot & excited about getting my Swan wines!!! The wines were safely
tucked into the boot of my car and hauled off. When I got them back to
the motel and opened the case to fondle the btls, I found that one of the
Mendocino Zins was missing. Chuck & my suspicion were that the girls
had helped themselves to a btl of TomHill's stash whilst Mom & Dad
were out of town. I've never had the courage to confront Lynn when I've
seen her over my missing Zin. Too late now, probably. But it makes for
a great story.
-
Joe always labelled his wines back then simply as "TableWine". When I queried
him one time on this point, he made it abundantly clear it was nobody else's
damn business what the alcohol levels actually were. Classic JoeSwan.
-
The prices are all what I originally paid for the wines. They were on the
high side for Calif Zin. In the mid-'70's, Ridge Geyservilles and DavidBruces
were going for $6-$8/btl, shockingly high prices. Unlike now, there didn't
seem to be all the whining and bitching over those prices like we see now.
The wines all came from my cellar which runs particularly cold in the wintertime
(presently sitting at 30F). All the Swan btls, save the '74 (which was
ullaged to just below the neck), showed no signs of leakage and perfect
fills. The corks were a bit soft & crumbly in several cases, but all
came out unbroken, no doubt because of my point-control skills with an
epee.
-
Joe's early Zins were pretty huge/extracted Zins for that time, though
not compared to the extraction levels we sometimes see these days. Around
'79, who started to use a fraction of whole-berry fermentation, much as
in his Pinots, in his Zin fermentations. It made the wines much more fragrant
& perfumed, but I felt he was gutting the structure of them. I complained
to Joe like bloody hell that he was gutting his Zins by that practice,
but my pleas fell on deaf ears. After the '82 vintage, I pretty much quit
buying his Zins, though I continued with his Cabs/Pinots/Chards. The way
the '81 & '82 showed in the tasting reflect, I feel, his use of the
WBF with them. It wasn't until Rod Bergland came along that the Swan Zins
returned to their former glory, IMHO. This was, of course, the period when
everyone was lightening up their Zins to make them food wines, mostly in
response to criticism from the wine writers over alcohol levels (I've never
forgiven Charlie Olken for his labeling these wines as "Monster Zins with
shabby table manners".... may he burn in hell for that!!). That trend pretty
near killed the Zin market until the late '80's. After Joe died ('88??),
I had pretty much given up on the Swan Zins by then. Then, about in the
early '90's, I happened to taste one of RodBergland's Joseph Swan Zins.
All I could think was that JoeSwan Zin was back, and have continued to
buy them thru the '90's, even as my passion for Zin was waning. The still
remain some of my favorite Zins, especially the Frati btlg, partly out
of sentimental reasons I suspect. But I think Rod&Lynn have done a
mighty fine job of keeping Joe's (original) vision for Zin alive.
-
I also have a pretty complete selection of Joe's Chards from this era,
save the original '75 weirdo. His Chard were always some of my favorites
from Calif because of their high acidity levels. Very much in the style
of Hanzell or Marcassin. His first, I believe, was the '75, from his estate
grapes. Always one to save a nickle or dime, Joe bought some used whisky
or brandy barrels (at a very attractive price, no doubt), knocked them
down, scrapped out the inside layer, and reassembled them to be used for
his first Chard. Alas, he didn't shave them down quite far enough and they
picked up this really weird burnt/vanilla/cognac character that pretty
much obliterated the Chard fruit. Joe hated the wine and sold it for a
song. Though a pretty weird wine in its youth, it actually matured into
a very interesting, though atypical, Chard, a bit like an old WhiteBurg.
-
When we tasted the '74, one of my tasters commented that she was in JrHigh
when that wine was made. Then this young AirForce major who tastes with
us HAD to point out that he wasn't even born yet!!! JUST what I needed
to hear!!
-
Milano: Back in '76-'80, Jim Milone and Greg Graziano made some absolutely
stunning Zins/Cabs/ Petite Sirahs under the Milano label. They were huge/big/extracted
w/ lots of toasty/charred oak, but they never struck me as over-the-top
like some. They've all held up amazingly well. Still have one SanelVlly
Cab '79 left. Some of the greatest Mendocino reds ever made.
-
Mendocino: Back in the '70's, some of Calif's greatest reds were coming
out of MendocinoCnty; under the Fetzer, Edmeades, and Milano labels. Wines
as good as anything you could find in Calif. JedSteele (Edmeades) went
to K-J, Jim & Gregg parted ways at Milano, Barney Fetzer expanded into
mediocrity. And then they seemed to start this long/slow slide into oblivion;
dragged down to the depths by the likes of Fetzer Sundial. Yet...it's no
secret that some of Calif's greatest grapes are grown in Mendocino. Their
Pinots/Rieslings/GWTs from the Anderson Vlly are as good as any in Calif.
Every so often, you'll see those bright bursts of a white dwarf (the astrophysical
kins) in a Mendocino red....the Rosenblum Rhodes Zin, the Copain Eaglepoint
Syrah, the Eaglepoint Zin & Syrah (the Grenache is also terrific, in
a slutty sort of way). The grapes from Eaglepoint and AlderSprings (a vnyd
to watch) are as good and well- farmed as any in Calif. It's an area waiting
to return to those glorious days of yesteryear. There's a lot of NorthernCalif
winemakers who are missing a sure thing by not going up to Mendocino to
buy grapes.
-
My expectation for this tasting of Zins from the archives was very low;
I was expecting most of the wines to be dead&gone, or on their last
legs. So I let people pay whatever they felt the tasting was worth, rather
than try to recover my costs. The wines turned out much better than any
of us expected. Generally, old Zins like these will be more intellectual
experiences, rather than sensual experiences. They will have interesting/complex
old Zin noses, but be very dried out & tired on the palate. In this
batch, there were a number that were genuine pleasures to drink. The Swan
Mendocino '77 was one of the best mature Zins I've ever had the pleasure
to try.
TomHill
Return to the Tom Hill Archive Index |
