Spinelli Doctor

Well, our success rate at identifying specific vineyards pictured in Kathy’s photos is pretty low. It’s dawning on us that any local vineyard designation appearing on a wine label is either made up, meant to honor the family that originally owned it but no longer does, corporate-owned, family-owned, leased, left to rot, or any possible permutation of said.

Compounding the frustration is that, with very few exceptions (Frank Evangelho’s eponymous vineyard, for instance), one very rarely sees the same vineyard name appear on multiple wineries’ labels: another frustrating thing about Oakley’s lethargy toward branding this area as a wine destination. Of course, with the city’s police department proudly touting its stats as the burg with the county’s highest number of DUI arrests, any wine tourism advocates probably shouldn’t hold their breathalyzer.

Another dead end for our Mystery Machine has been the preponderance of family names on everything from tow trucks to tire shops. Cutino Tires hails from the maiden surname of Carla Cutino, she of Rosenblum’s “Carla’s Vineyard” beside the Kmart. We blogged earlier about a Massoni Vyd., whence the Grenache for Cline Cellars’ “Cashmere” blend comes; at the Brentwood Farmers’ Market a few weeks ago, Kath and I bought some produce at the Massoni Farms stall — blank stares when asked about Massoni Vyd: no relation.

Which is why we didn’t bother pulling over to the Spinelli Trucking big-rig that had been parked near the Oakley/Brentwood main drag for weeks.

“Spinelli” is one of the Oakley vineyard designates that Kath has been running into for months. Both Three Wine Co. and Trinitas have been giving the love to this formerly family-owned, now contracted-out, parcel.

Who ya gonna call to get to das bottom of this? The usual suspects!

Keyser Sőze ain’t got nothing on Matt Cline.

Matt, formerly of Cline Cellars with brother Fred, lately of Trinitas with wife Erin, and most recently of his and Erin’s Three Wine Company, called me back to clarify Kathy’s photos of vineyards in weird spots around our hamlet. Between his decades at his various projects, this cat definitely knows who’s doing the do. I asked him to clarify the Spinelli Vyd. location.

“Matt, nice to hear from you; how are you?”

“Up to my elbows in grapes.”

At least, I think that’s the body part he referred to. We have two Spinelli Vyd wines in the cellar, and I suspect that Keyser, uh, Matt, has his fingerprints all over both.

There’s the Three Co 2007 Spinelli Mataro (his, for all kinda reasons, not the least of which is his insistence on eschewing the varietal synonym “Mourvèdre”), but also a 2005 Trinitas “Spinelli Live Oak” Zinfandel, with the new owners’ signature on the bottle. Since Matt and Erin sold Trinitas on Christmas of 2006, with no vyd contracts as part of the deal, I’m surmising that the sale included some inventory from the previous vintage, made by Matt, and that when the time came for Trinitas’ new owners to bottle the 2005, they were able to put their names, as proprietors, on the bottle.

Between Matt’s long-term relationship with the Spinelli growers, and the little historical blurb on the Trinitas label, we were able to solve the Great Spinelli Caper, leavened with a little extra Matt Cline insider flavah.

Assuming the history to be accurate, the current property was planted over 100 years ago by Portuguese settlers named Azevedo. In 1955, a Gustavo Spinelli and his family began managing the vineyard for the Azevedos, purchasing the 18-acre property outright in 1970. Apparently a mere 5 acres of vines remain, and Matt now leases vineyard acreage at Spinelli from a corporate owner.

Matt was indeed able to pinpoint the vineyard location for me, as one that Kathy had photographed months ago, when we were marveling at the juxtaposition of ancient vines and modern buildings. Few were more jarring than the west side of Highway 4 at Live Oak Avenue, and confirmation of corporate ownership came when Matt colorfully hipped me to the fact that smack dab in the middle “of some of the greatest Zin in” CoCo, some developer erected an absolute “monstrosity” of an apartment building. He also told me that the shopping center at the west end of Big Break Road (the eastern side featuring a venerable Cline Cellars property), anchored by a Raley’s supermarket and our veterinary clinic, was formerly the site of a great Mataro vineyard.

Three wine Company’s 2007 Spinelli Mataro is blended with 6% Petite, 2% Carignane and 8% of an old-skool blender, Black Malvoisie. It exhibits a youthful tinge of blue on the rim of translucent plum, and a nose of violet, rose petal and cinnamon or clove. In the mouth, it’s all acidic fruit: cranberry, blueberry and the like, with a nice tannic grip. It’d be great with food.

I have a call in to the folks at Trinitas; when we get the scoop, we’ll taste some of their juice!