Sunday, November 7, 2010

IGRO ZIN


That license plate on the white Ford Explorer was confirmation that I had indeed arrived at the Oakley workshop/office of local grape grower, vineyard manager and self-described “landscaper,” Dwight Meadows. He had invited me to drive out for an interview, and I was getting nervous as I found myself leaving the acres of old vines to snake the streets of a newly built, posh subdivision in search of his “shop.”

Finally, I made the turn onto the final cul-de-sac to find the suburban pavement and sidewalks yield to a small area of grapevines, tractors and the aforementioned Explorer. After intros, Dwight Meadows led me into a nicely appointed office, put his feet up on the polished wooden desk, and explained the incongruity of the location …

In 1972, Dwight, with his wife, the former Carla Cutino, moved to Carla’s hometown of Oakley and began working for her dad at Cutino’s Feed and Tire Store downtown on the main drag, eventually purchasing the business from pater Tony Cutino. As time passed, they got involved in the grape and wine business, acquiring, bit-by-bit, land and vineyards around the area. They built a house and workshop/office compound surrounded by acres upon acres of old vines, which Dwight farmed for years, supplying grapes to Kent Rosenblum and the Thomas Coyne winery in Livermore.

Dwight and Carla sold the Feed and Tire Store to an employee about a dozen years ago, and the grape biz became the cornerstone of his umbrella company, Diablo Vista Vineyards.

But then, a few years ago, the school district erected the spanking-new Freedom High School adjacent to their property, and about a million California regulations automatically kicked in to protect kids from pesticide use. Dwight told me that it got to the point where he could pretty well farm only between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. The final straw came when the contractor hired to install the school’s soccer field used a weed killer that wiped out an entire year’s crop of Dwight’s grapes. That’s when he threw up his hands and sold all but a few acres of vines surrounding his house and shop to a housing developer. Which explains why this little island of rurality exists amid shiny new houses and freshly mown lawns on paved streets that didn’t exist a few years ago. Even the address of Dwight and Carla’s existing house changed; it now has a new number. And a completely different street!

Dwight isn’t particularly bullish on recent enthusiasm by some local officials to establish a “trust” to preserve Oakley’s old vines. “It works in Brentwood,” he says, because their agriculture is around the development. Unlike Oakley, with new development plopped right in the middle of agricultural land; it seems that the very thing that kindled Kathy’s and my fascination with Oakley grapes — their appearance in the craziest suburban settings — is the same thing that could jeopardize preservation efforts. “Vines around here are doomed,” Dwight opines. I hope he’s wrong, but once bitten …

These days, Dwight Meadows keeps his hand in by managing his reduced vineyard holdings, as well as other properties owned by others. He’s not much interested in expanding his ownership role in other plots. Kath and I posted recently about the Duarte/Jesse’s vineyard site currently owned by a housing developer. Dwight farms that parcel for Seeno Homes — he calls his vineyard management style “farming as landscaping” and “weed abatement” — and sells the Zinfandel from Jesse’s (named for his 91-year-old father, whose new beekeeping venture has added a line of honey to the Diablo Vista Vineyards portfolio) to Rock Wall Wine Company, and to Diageo for their vineyard-designate Rosenblum bottling. He seems happy just to mange the piece: At 20 acres yielding a scant 14 tons of Zin, “you couldn’t even pay the taxes,” he says.

“Carla’s Vineyard,” located over by the Kmart and named for his wife, is another site he tends. He also looks after a 37-acre vineyard, planted two-thirds to grapes and a third to olives, and located at Trilogy, a 55-and-older residential community that offers dozens of lifestyle options including membership in a winemaking club that uses the on-site vines. There’s a 5-acre piece over on Live Oak that he manages for an individual whose dream of a “ranchette” went sour when he couldn’t keep up with the weeds and overgrowth. He used to farm 40 acres in nearby Knightsen, but the boron in the water was too much to battle.

With a tight client list of Diageo, Rock Wall, Thomas Coyne and a few home winemakers, Dwight Meadows seems content. “Wine has gotten to be a pretty rough business,” he says, and I can see his point. An ongoing surplus of California wine, corporate consolidation, growers being squeezed on grape prices: It’s easy to understand when Dwight, a man who laughingly admits to drinking maybe two glasses of wine a week, swears, “I will not plant another vine on my own. Fifteen years ago, that was my business. Not now; the return on investment just isn’t there.”

Dwight Meadows graciously gave me a bottle of Thomas Coyne 2007 Mourvèdre made from grapes harvested from the remaining then-82-year-old acreage surrounding his house. With a garnet-accented color a little darker than cranberry juice, it’s lighter than a lot of textbook Oakley expressions of Mourvèdre, but the nose gives up whiffs of smoke, tar, bits of toffee and even a touch of spearmint gum. It’s soft in the mouth, with a suppleness that seems to fold in on itself with light, bright acidity and cherry and pomegranate flavors. Even a hint of butterscotch in there somewhere.

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