Antioch, Oh Antioch

It’s a rare drizzly day here in the Northern Cali East Bay city of Oakley. Kitty Taz had just been on my lap staring at the computer monitor, before going downstairs to the kitchen, then to finally puke in the living room.

I never believed in paper towels before, but now would never be without ‘em. Green is good, but it’s also sometimes the color of the stuff she heaves.

A few weeks ago, we talked about our jaunt farther east to the Central Valley town of Lodi, long a fertile mainstay vineyard region for bulk wine producers. Kathy and I were so impressed at the region’s turnaround: Farmers were building their own wineries and committing to put their own labels where their grapes were, instead of, as one grower/owner told me, “being dictated to by the ‘big boys’.” Reading between the lines, I connected “big boys” and “Central Valley” and came up with “Gallo.” Not much of a stretch there, Dr. Watson.

So Kath is channel surfing last week, and comes across an episode of “Biography” spotlighting Ernest and Julio Gallo. Now, a 60-minute overview can not even scar the surface of the fam’s secrecy, scandals, lawsuits and sales tactics. But when we heard Harry Smith’s narration that, before the family built their inland Modesto fortress, their old man forced the bros to work a swampy vineyard in Antioch, effectively treating his sons as slave labor (beatings included), we pulled our noses out of our Riedel and started to reassess our neighboring burg to the north.

Antioch:
On the plus side:
Home to Evangelho Vineyard
Randall Grahm buys fruit from here
Echelon thought enough to bottle a “Driving Range Vineyard” designate Zin

Minus:
The “Driving Range Vineyard” designate is a bogus, made-up name
Jaycee Dugard was held captive for 18 years in an unincorporated part bordering Antioch, mere miles from our house

Kath and I dipped into the cellar, and lo and behold, if we did not unearth a bottle of Gallo reinvention. Not sure if it was one of the bros dying in a car wreck, a third generation winemaking regimen, or just plain marketing, but there have been strides, maybe evanescent, attempted on their winemaking tip. OK, Thunderbird and Carlo Rossi ain’t going away anytime soon; they’re too profitable.

Gallo of Sonoma: The label made some tasty juice. Then you find out that they used their mu$cle to bulldoze hills to manufacture their own terroir.

What Kath and I found in the stacks were a couple of bottles dated to the “Gallo Family Vineyards Winemaker’s Signature” series, a label which the pourer at their Healdsburg tasting room in Sonoma indicated was doomed. Or maybe it was just the varietal bottlings that would be history.

Either way, the following baby is gone.
The “Gallo Family Winery Winemaker’s Signature 2004 Tempranillo Russian River Valley” has a color of deep black, reminiscient of Bing cherry. There’s an earthy nose of mocha, and a dark, rich tannic, plummy long finish. Too bad the family decided to drop this varietal bottling; it was very tasty.