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Warm weather is here and this means fresh dishes, lots of vegetables and fruits. Dishes get cooler rather than warmer. It is a time for lively wines with fragrancy, to be served cool or even cold. We again have HPO for sipping anytime. Biancardo is back for anointing delicate greens. They are all described in the newsletter. Summertime is for carefree abandon. Hopefully, you will find some items that will make the abandon more memorable.
Darrell Corti
Harold Olmo: His Grapes, Early Muscat and Ruby Cabernet and their Wines
H.P.O. 2004 and Dickerson Vineyard Ruby Cabernet
This is the second time Corti Brothers has labeled a wine made from the early muscat variety, under our own label calling the wine H.P.O. for Harold Paul Olmo, the 97 year old emeritus (but not retiring) professor of viticulture at the University of California, Davis, who is the variety’s creator. This wine proved to be successful in the 2001 vintage, and with the fine 2004 vintage I decided again to bring Professor Olmo’s work to our customers’ notice. This time, it is accompanied by a red variety, ruby cabernet, another of Olmo’s creations.
Creating new grape varieties is not for the faint of heart. From the time a cross is made, to the time when the result is released, decades may pass. But this is Olmo’s work. Early muscat was bred in 1943 and introduced in 1958. It was created as a table variety for California, but in Oregon it produces a delicious aromatic wine. Its parents are two table varieties, one black--Muscat Hamburg--and a white Hungarian variety--Muscat Queen of the Vineyard. The genealogy of these varieties is fairly complex with French, Italian, Scottish, Hungarian and smatterings of unknown provenance in the blood lines.
Sylvan Ridge, known also as Hinman Vineyards in Eugene, Oregon, vinifies early muscat planted in the Willamette and contiguous valleys as a low alcohol, slightly sparkling wine similar to Piemontese Moscato d’Asti. The cool climate of Oregon allows this variety to be vinified as a fine wine, rather than being used for raisins, as happens in California.
I like this wine very much. Our changing its name to H.P.O. is not to disinform our customers, but to acknowledge, once again, the life’s work of a dedicated scientist, who works quietly and doggedly to produce better grapes for both wine and table. There is nothing showy here, just dedicated hard work.
Low in alcohol, 6%, scented with the musky perfume of nutmeg, pear, and white peaches, it has lively acidity and a slight sparkle that provides both palate refreshment and piquancy. Made to be drunk while young, fresh, and lively, it should keep well for 2-3 years and honors the creator who crossed it, the winery that made it, and those of us who get to drink it. This is the perfect summertime wine and probably the perfect anytime wine.
Dickerson Vineyard Napa Valley Ruby Cabernet: End of Production
Another of Professor Olmo’s crosses, ruby cabernet, is perhaps his most famous red wine variety cross. It is carignane x cabernet sauvignon, crossed in 1936, first fruited in 1940, and introduced in 1948. While similar to cabernet sauvignon, it has a more intense color, slightly more “cabernet” scent and was created to be planted in regions too hot for best quality cabernet sauvignon. It is now grown in at least eight countries on four continents. Less and less is being produced in California. Needless to say, it is future generations that will have to weigh in on the viability of this variety.
One production, in fact the last Napa Valley production of Ruby Cabernet, is that of Dickerson Vineyard. With the 2001 vintage, the original vines planted in the late 1940s, were pulled out. On December 26, 2004, the owners of Dickerson Vineyards, Dr. Bill and his wife Jane, died in the tragic tsunami that hit Phuket, Thailand. Bill Dickerson was a good friend of mine for forty years. We traveled and dined together innumerable times. He was an esteemed psychiatrist, engaging writer, and passionate wine lover.
Bill had a wonderful palate and it is to him and his first wife Ruthanne that we owe the interest of Harry Waugh in California. They were his first hosts here. (For those of you who don’t know California wine history, it is Harry Waugh, the British wine taster and merchant, who first actively promoted California wine in England in the mid/late 1960s with his books – Bacchus on the Wing, and then various editions of Diary of a Winetaster, on his California experiences beginning in 1964.)
Bill Dickerson had often spoken about doing a tasting, a retrospective if you will, of Ruby Cabernet since he had produced the variety since 1972 and was justifiably proud of his own. The Dickerson wines have always been vinified from estate grapes by Joel Peterson of Ravenswood fame. ( Joel’s father, Walt Peterson, was the early giant of wine consumerism in the San Francisco Bay area with his San Francisco Wine Sampling Club.)
Although the ruby cabernet vines have been pulled, I am privileged to offer a range of vintages, which when gone will be gone forever. They are: 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1999, 2000, 2001. They come directly from cellarage at the production and are in perfect condition. This would be a wonderful opportunity to taste the fruits of both Olmo and Dickerson’s labors.
