Well, like any Sam Spade-styled Pinkerton agent on the case, I guess it’s time to report our progress on the case to sleuth out owners of, and winemakers using fruit from, the century-old, gnarly vines cropping up everywhere in our little city of Oakley, California.
Truth be told, the only thing hard-boiled about my detective work is the egg on my face. Oh sure, we’ve had a few small breaks with some Cline properties (e.g., Big Break vineyard, ironically enough), and we’ve been able to pinpoint a few local properties which appear on some wineries’ labels as vineyard designates.
They say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and it’s true: Ignorance does indeed have a certain blissful quality to it. Kath and I started by noticing ancient wine vines everywhere we turned; an Internet search for Contra Costa County narrows down a list of local vineyards by name: Some appear on wine labels, some don’t. The puzzle is to locate the vineyards that do; and for the ones that don’t, figure out not only their location, but which wineries buy their grapes.
Either way, the aim is to find the wines, and drink our way through our local acreage.
Then there are the complications. In one instance, we have a list of local vineyards that we’ve never heard of (Ghidossi? Madruga?); in another, we have a tip about what an intriguing location is planted to, but no owner/vineyard name (a plot of old vines directly beside the Oakley post office is, according to Erin Cline of Three Wine Company, planted to Alicante Bouschet, a juicy, old-skool blending fave). Who grows it? Who buys it? Where can we purchase wine made from it?
These two instances were the exact circumstances precipitating our “Mission to Massoni” caper. Kathy had downloaded some tasting notes for Cline Cellars’ 2008 “Cashmere,” a Rhone-style blend of Mourvèdre, Grenache and Syrah. According to Cline’s notes, the Grenache is sourced from both Big Break and Massoni vineyards, both in Oakley. We had no idea where Massoni was located, so we motored up to Cline’s Sonoma tasting room to solve the mystery.
No one on staff could tell us where the Massoni property was.
Ah well, the 2008 Cashmere offered up a look of bright cherry and a great nose of inviting, typically Grenache bright fruit with a whiff of smoke. The zippy acid paired with black fruit on the front nine mingled with just a touch of earthiness. Long on the backstretch, too.
Cashmere was a cozy diversion, but Massoni was still MIA. Our Riedel empty, we were back on the case.
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