Funny how this “dirt detective” biz works. In our effort to, essentially, drink our way through our neighborhood, Kathy and I have been trying to identify who grows what grapes from the 100+-year old vines around here, and which winemakers they sell ‘em to. Sometimes, the leads double back on themselves, and you get confirmation that you’re indeed on the right track.

The Napa-based Orin Swift winery is one that has popped up on our CoCo County grape radar before, as recently as last month. Kath and I tasted their “Saldo” Zinfandel, sourced from various vineyards around the state, but showing some specific love to local plots such as Evangelho and Duarte. Then, when last week I chatted with local grower Rich Pato, and he told me that this year he’s selling his Zin and Mourvèdre to Orin Swift, I figured that lightning striking twice was something even I couldn’t ignore. You don’t have to tell me six times; five is plenty. (Fool me once, I’m a fool. Fool me twice … uh, screw it, I’m gonna clear some brush on my ranch.)

After a bit of telephone- and e-tag (during crush, no less), I was able to have a great, spirited chin-wag with Tom Traverso, marketing pooh-bah and O.G. (Original Grunt), one who was yelling “Push!” when Orin Swift was birthin’ its babies.

Years ago, he and OS winemaker Dave Phinney, a couple of Cali dudes, were college roommates at U of F.

I’m talkin’ University of Florence. Italy. No kidding. After class, Tom and Dave would visit a local wine shop around the corner, asking about what’s good, and bringing that day’s selection back to the crib to drink on the courtyard overlooking the local soccer field. Wine fever took hold: Gooooooooooooaaaaaaaaal!

Stateside, they both embarked on a series of internships, from wine retail to cellar rat. Tom landed on the sales and marketing side of the biz with a gig at Gallo; Dave Phinney worked an apprenticeship everywhere from Mondavi to Whitehall Lane. Wine fever was rising: It wasn’t too long before Dave got the itch for his own label. Through winery contacts, he scored baby’s first batch of Zin, Cabernet and Charbono. A generous gift of a Goya etching provided the inspiration for the nomenclature and label design of Dave’s “The Prisoner,” a funky-fresh Zin-Cab blend, currently comprising mostly Napa fruit.

“Saldo” exists to showcase their great Zinfandel contacts. Vineyard sources vary year to year, but CoCo fruit seems to always be a nice bit of the mix.

“Sourcing is key,” Tom Traverso insists. And others seem to have noticed: Both “Saldo” and “The Prisoner” were acquired earlier this year by ultra-premium “Quintessa,” a $pendy, heretofore-Bordeaux-blend concern. Dave Phinney still makes the new portfolio wines (no name change) for the new bosses, though it seems that Tom Traverso’s cubicle is now on the Quintessa side of the carpet.

And Orin Swift — the name, BTW, a cool mash-up of Dave’s mom’s maiden name and his dad’s middle name, not necessarily in that order — continues to look to CoCo for taste-tay fruit.

We dip a toe this week into the Hot Tub Time Machine in order to taste a past Rosenblum bottling made from Pato Vineyard varietal fruit that is, this year at least, all being sold to Orin Swift. Check out the photo above depicting the Pato property post-2010-harvest. In 2007, Rosenblum Cellars made a Pato Mourvèdre, and it’s another stunner from this grower/vintner team. In the glass, it trades in the inkiness of the 2007 Pato Petite for a lighter, plummy, garnet hue. In the nose it’s all clove, dusty smoke and tar, with a mouth-feel that’s smoothly weighty and unctuous. It’s not an overly fruit-forward wine, but the medium-long finish gives up just a hint of raspberry sweetness. There’s some real old-vine elegance and complexity at play here.