Last Train to Clarksburg

Kathy and I gassed up the “Lisa Marie” last weekend and motored east along the Delta levees to The Old Sugar Mill in the town of Clarksburg, CA, for the release party of two 2008 CoCo Zins from Matt and Erin Cline’s 3 wine company.

I’ve mentioned this previously, but over the last decade or so, Kath and I have belonged to dozens of winery-specific wine clubs. At one point, when we lived in San Francisco, I suspect that our deliveries were singlehandedly paying the UPS guy’s salary. But moving up and down the West Coast over the years, our affiliations with particular terroir often altered, and then, no longer being natives, the sense of pride of membership in a truly “local” wine club dissipated. We often canceled after leaving the area.

Seattle was a wild wine club ride for us. For starters, this last Seattle return, like a Cher “Farewell Tour,” was the longest we’d ever spent at one address in years. Pre-computer-address-book, anyone looking up our phone number in their personal log would have been met by a Dead Sea Scroll of paper fibers barely holding together under the rigors of eraser and deletions. But when it became apparent that we might just stay put up here, visiting wineries, and signing up for their clubs (still kind of a Washington state novelty in 1999), became a logical extension of our Cali experience.

For Kathy and me, the subscription always began with an inaugural visit to a tasting room hosted by someone who was chill, funny and knowledgeable. Hell, yeah, we’re going to buy a bottle from you; might as well get the 20 percent disco right now, in exchange for your hitting the credit card every quarter! And then, as a club member, you make a return trip, expecting the love, and that exact same pourer sees you. But not only do you get no greeting, but he/she is working so hard to avoid eye contact with you that you swear you can see saline solution squirting from their sockets.

And don’t get me started on the wife of the Woodinville-based-winery owner who actually telephoned me to ask if we would cancel our reservations to their winemaker dinner, so that she could make room for guests of her choosing. I gladly canceled both reservation and membership in their wine club.

The coolest wine club north of Seattle? It’s actually the one run by a huge conglomerate. Chateau Ste. Michelle knows how to do it right, man. They are big, but we have been seeing the same friendly faces — hello, Margaret; hello Mary Kay — greeting us for years. Doing something correctly for customers and employees, ya think? Kath and I moved back to Seattle in ’99, and we did not have a car until 2002. One of our signature moments at that time was to phone Ste. Michelle to say that we’d like to cancel UPS deliveries and go “Will Call.” It was the perfect excuse to taste and tour around Woodinville, but CSM was always the civilized spot: private tasting area for club folks, tours if you wanted, your guests welcomed wholeheartedly, and an annual, wine-soaked, free concert (recent performer Natalie McMaster) for club members.

But please don’t get me started on the wife of the other Woodinville-based-winery owner who actually telephoned me to ask if we would cancel our reservations to their winemaker dinner, so that she could make room for guests of her choosing.

OK, so where am I going with this wine club thang? Well, I know that I posted a while back about our financial boot to the head, and how we canceled ‘em all, including, regretfully, CSM (maybe part of that “we don’t have ties to WA state anymore” vibe I alluded to earlier). But, a couple of months ago, Erin Cline invited us to a release party, and Matt’s wines are so evocative of his ties to our new CoCo ‘hood, that we had to join their “Dirt” wine club.

They are 3 wine company; we are now members of only 1 wine club. Theirs.

The 2008 three Zinfandel Old Vines Contra Costa County is a local ‘hood blend comprising a bissel Carignane, Mataro and Alicante, but a double-digit-dose of Petite. At 18 bucks, it jams with youthful blue color, baking spices (Kath is talking clove, cinnamon) and we both hipped to a white pepper vibe. I got a bunch of dried fruit, acid and pepper on a good finish.

So now, Matt has released a 2008 Zin from Frank Evangelho’s property. I love when we see the same vineyard names cropping up; it makes me feel that it’s real property, unlike “Driving Range.” Man, that would have been such a great moniker if someone had actually staked it out. Das Frank exhibits some inky raisin, with a nose of spicy blueberry and a touch of eucalyptus, with pepper grains and a bit of tannin on the finish.