Now Leasing!

I revisited the Live Oak plot that Cline Cellars has been using for years. It’s a real study in contrasts; I could not believe the turf on the return trip. Entire blocks of old vines ripped out willy-nilly, replanted with nothing.

Matt Cline hipped me to the location of the site, and directed me to the grapes. Here’s the deal: They ripped out some old vines to put in an apartment complex, and a public storage facility. Cline Cellars obviously thinks enough of the fruit to designate the vineyard on a label, but the romance ends in a really jarring juxtaposition of ancient and new: a boxy stucco cube stuck in the middle of old vines, right on Oakley’s main drag. It’s yet another example of old agricultural parcels being sold off like a crazy quilt.

I also talked to grape broker Mike Parker the other day. He’s the cat who will meet buyers at the Oakley ARCO gas station, then hook them up with local growers who want to sell any excess fruit they may have. Although harvest is over for this season around here, Mike has seen an uptick in the deals he’s been brokering with home winemakers. It seems that that we may have a lot of garagistes bringing their game to the local market. CoCo growers have the goods, some Napa and Sonoma growers messed up with the sun/heat gamble this year, and hobby winemakers seem to be getting extra access to some prime old-vine fruit.

And I’m sure that any winemaker would love to get their hands on some of that Live Oak Zinfandel. Part of the decision to revisit the vineyard was the discovery of a 2007 Cline Live Oak Zin in our stash. As noted in earlier posts, Cline Cellars was one of the first leads we had when beginning our local vineyard identification project. They’ve been a presence in town for decades, and many of their vineyard designations on their labels are named for the cross-street which they abut. Despite the fact that the Live Oak parcel has slimmed down to make way for storage and apartment buildings, its fruit, as handled by the Cline team, comes fully furnished with a deep garnet hue, and a plush nose of tar and molasses. Amazingly complex and rich, this Live Oak Zin hints at blueberry juice and spicy tobacco notes. It’s huge, and totally unlike anything I’ve tasted from an Oakley site. First month, last month, and deposit, indeed!