On the Way (1932)

Had a great, enlightening telephone chat the other day with Dave Parker, winemaker and partner with his wife, Shari Simon, of Parkmon Vineyards, a super-small winery run, literally, out of their garage. They’re located in Moraga, California, a tony suburb a few klicks east of Oakland, and, by extension, San Fran just west of the bay.

When a consultant pointed out that the one-acre hillside behind their house would be great for grapes, Dave’s home-winemaker chops kicked into commercial gear in 2005: Today, he’s the prez of the Lamorinda Winegrowers’ Association, a band of small farmers, home winemakers and commercial grape growers numbering around 85 at last count. All tending miniscule parcels within the area encompassing the suburban cities of Lafayette, Moraga and Orinda. (BTW: Orinda’s beautiful old Streamline Moderne cinema is the new home of the California Independent Film Festival, and recent special events have included a Q&A with Tippi Hedren after a screening of “The Birds,” Mary Badham (“Scout”) post-“To Kill a Mockingbird,” and last night, Oscar-nommed Candy Clark was scheduled to do the honors after “American Graffiti” unspools.)

But what really intrigued Kath and me was the discovery that, among their 15 or 16 bottlings sourced from grapes up and down the state (the Rosenblum model was a big influence, notes Dave), Parkmon has vineyard-designated a few varietals sourced from our ‘hood.

Oakley, Brentwood and Antioch are nowhere near Moraga, but Dave bottles some tasty juice from … Evangelho! Previous posts and photos have shone the light on Frank’s vineyard, but check this out:

Dave Parker has always loved Rhone varietals, and grooved to Napa-based winery Jade Mountain’s forays into Mourvedre and Rhone blends. Now, Napa is Cabernet country, so it’s obvious that this branching out was due to its winemaker, Alison Green Doran. And where did she source her Rhone varietals for these bottlings? Frank Evangelho! Oh, another thing, strictly FYI: Alison has moved on from Jade Mountain, and Jade Mountain no longer does an Evangelho Vineyard designate. I’m just sayin’.

So, Dave boldly calls up Alison, explains his sitch, and Alison hooks him up with Frank Evangelho! Frank agrees to give him a few rows of Carignane and Zin, and they have been operating on this deal for a couple of years now. As Dave told me, “We agree on terms in May, then Frank calls me when his bigger clients are picking. I show up with my micro-bin; they pick my fruit in 45 minutes, then spend the rest of the day picking for the big boys.”

Kathy and I have a few Jade Mountain notes to post soon: an ’06 Evangelho Mourvedre, and both the ’06 and ’07 “La Provencale” blends (available at Cost Plus World Market at a bargoon price), all of which, I’m pretty sure, were made under Green Doran’s regime.

And what has Dave done with the legacy of Evangelho fruit for his and Shari’s label? An elegance that I would never have thought possible from old skool vines. Parkmon’s 2007 Evangelho Carignane exhibits a nice, rare blueberry color on the robe, furthering the adjectives on the nose --- blueberries and violets--- (Kath even noted Gummi Bears) --- with a great mouthfeel of elegant acid and hints of cloves and tar (not a bad thing!).

The corkscrew is on deck for the Parkmon 2007 Evangelho Zinfandel.