In the picturesque foothills of the Sierra Nevada in Northern California is a winery that defies convention. Right in the heart of the mother lode country of Amador County, where America’s oldest zinfandel vines are still producing high quality fruit and hoards of hopeful souls once braved all the elements to find gold in those hills, there is another pioneer leading the way.
Renwood Winery has established itself as a driving force in this little-known Californian appellation, which is constantly being overshadowed by the flashier Napa Valley and much more accessible Sonoma Valley.
Robert Smerling, who chased his passion for zinfandel from the boardrooms of Wall Street to the back roads of the Shenandoah Valley, established Renwood Winery in 1993. A maverick by every definition, Smerling has taken Renwood and the entire Amador County appellation and put it on the map with his brand of salesmanship, dogged tenacity and unobstructed vision.
I recently paid a visit to the Renwood Winery and spending a couple of days getting to know Smerling and his tremendous team of professionals. Having the opportunity to be involved with the winery’s annual “Brand Champion Tour,” where wholesalers and distributors from around the country converge for a weekend of “illumination,” was a gas and highly educational. I hadn’t been to that part of California before and was blown away by the rugged beauty of the rolling hills dotted with oak trees and the occasional old-growth “head-pruned” vineyard. The sharp contrast between the young uniform modern “trellis style” vineyards of the valley and the old, snarled, gnarly vines was fascinating.
One of the many highlights of this junket to wine country was sitting down with “Roberto Smerlino,” as many of his confidants refer to him due to his penchant for Italian grape varietals. We had breakfast one morning, and I had a chance to listen to just a few of his great stories about the history of Amador County. “Did you know that at the turn of the previous century there were more people in Amador County than in the city of Los Angeles and San Francisco combined?” he asked as we sipped our much-needed coffee. “There were just about a million people in the county during the height of the gold rush and over a thousand licensed brothels,” he added with almost a sense of pride.
The history of the area is obviously very important to Robert and it’s the foundation on which Renwood was conceived. Evidence of that can be seen all around the winery specifically with the “Heritage Room,” where old photos of the vineyards and harvests past line the walls and people attending winemaker dinners or just visitors to the tasting room can enjoy.
The conventional theory is that American zinfandel was brought to this country by Italian immigrants with clippings of the native primitivo vine of southern Italy. Smerling, on the other hand, believes otherwise – that zinfandel is truly an all-American grape varietal and that it was from these clippings that the genetically similar primitivo evolved. And, in truth, zin has been in America longer that primitivo has been in Italy.
But DNA studies recently determined that both grapes probably found their respective ways from Croatia. Zinfandel and primitivo are descendants of Croatia’s relatively obscure crljenak kastelanski grape.
Given the fact that Amador County is where some of the oldest zinfandel vines in America still exist, it stands to reason that Smerling’s Renwood Winery would be founded in this California appellation and that such homage would be paid to this grape.
There is a local connection to Renwood in that their winemaker, Dave Crippen, used to be a Washington resident as the winemaker at Covey Run Winery. Crippen and I shared a morning swinging sticks and chasing little white balls, and I got a chance to discuss the goings-on behind the scenes at Renwood. I asked him his thoughts on the direction of the winery and what it was like working with such a dynamic person as “Roberto.”
“It’s very exciting to see what has evolved just during my tenure here at Renwood,” he said. “Robert is extremely passionate about the quality of our product and that it is reflected in every bottle produced. We are currently at about 100,000 cases of production and have the capacity to go to 300,000 with the facilities to maintain the standards of quality that we all strive for, and I’m looking forward to directing the winemaking aspect of that growth. Oh, and as for working with Robert? It’s just about as rewarding as it is challenging!”
Renwood Winery produces six proprietary and vineyard-designated Zinfandels: Old Vine, Grandmere, Fiddletown, Grandpere, D’Agostini Bros. and Jack Rabbit Flat. They also produce a syrah, sangiovese, barbera and viognier under the Renwood label and a line of affordable wines they call the Sierra-Select Series that has really catapulted them into the broad global market. There is a Sierra-Select barbera, viognier, pinot grigio, syrah rose, syrah and zinfandel that both reflect outstanding values and the direction of the winery.
But one of the most interesting and unusual wines Renwood produces is a wine they like to call Amador Ice Zinfandel. This is the only wine of its kind made anywhere, and just plays into the unconventional nature of Renwood and its founder. They use a process called cryo-extraction, where the fruit is picked at its height of sweetness and then frozen for nearly two months to obtain maximum concentration. Once pressed, the syrup goes through an extended fermentation before it is allowed to age in the barrel for one year.
The result is something that has to be referred to as heavenly. We had a chance to sample a few bottles of the 2003 that Crippen made, and it was simply bottled magic. We actually ventured into one of the Estate vineyards of Renwood and picked the zinfandel grapes that would be used for the 2004 vintage of Amador Ice and proceeded to have a grape stomping competition. Let’s just say that was sticky business, but oh, what fun.
Renwood is leading the way with their viticulture, winemaking and marketing practices in Amador County, and I think with the direction that they seem to be heading, they certainly will hit the “mother lode.”
Jeff Wicklund, wine consultant and writer, is the proprietor of Colby Hospitality in Everett. He can be reached at 425-238-0722, or wick@colbyhospitality.com.
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