Temecula

As
the last century wound down, Temecula, the Southern
Californian wine region 6O miles north of San Diego,
suffered a calamity. With one notable exception, Temecula’s
wineries picked themselves up and moved on.

The calamity was
an outbreak of Pierce’s Disease, caused by a bacterium
called Xylella fastidiosa, that destroys vines in about a
year. The bacterium is carried by various hosts, but the one
that struck Temecula was the glassy-winged sharpshooter,
which showed up in 1998 or 1999. This one is larger and more
energetic than the blue-green sharpshooter, which was blamed
for extensive damage earlier in Santa Cruz and other areas.
The glassy-winged bug (hereafter GWSS), when feeding on the
juices of grapevines, can consume 1O times its own weight
within an hour. (Don’t try this at home.)

By 2OO3, between
3O and 6O percent of Temecula’s vines had been destroyed –
the extent of the damage depending on who made the estimate.
But the devastation speeded up a trend that had already
begun: planting grape varieties that are more suited to
Temecula’s Region III, ie, relatively warm climate. Those
varieties, mostly from southern France and Italy, happen to
be more in vogue with consumers today, and judging from
those I tasted in a very brief visit to Temecula last year,
the results are extremely promising.

Also flourishing
is what I call eno-tourism (a term I’m sure others have
coined). All of the 24 wineries in Temecula have tasting
rooms, where they can sell at retail, so much more
profitable than selling at the bottom of the three-tier
market. Some also sell food items, as well provide picnic
areas and often sites for events like weddings. Four of the
wineries have full restaurants (with restaurant markups for
their wines). South Coast Winery goes a step further, and
has a resort where people can not only taste and eat but
stay overnight and engage in various sports.

All this
benefits from the proximity to San Diego and Los Angeles.
Those guys from Sideways could have driven fewer miles and
gone to Temecula, but they wouldn’t have found much Pinot
Noir; it’s one of the varieties most susceptible to Pierce’s
Disease.

Viticulture in
California, as we know, started in the south, at San Diego,
and worked its way north. Los Angeles had commercial
wineries in the mid-19th century in places that are now
paved or covered with buildings. Temecula’s origins,
however, are much more recent. It started with the 87,5OO
acre cattle ranch, the Vail Ranch, that in 1965 was sold to
a real estate conglomerate, Kaiser Aetna Corporation. Rancho
California, as they named it, was developed for housing,
light industry and agriculture, including
avocados.

A demonstration
vineyard was planted that year, too. Vincenzo and Audrey
Cilurzo planted the first commercial vineyard in 1968. Their
original vineyard was quickly sold, and the Cilurzos later
planted another elsewhere. In 2OO4, they sold the winery,
which is now called Bella Vista Cilurzo Vineyard and
Winery.

The winery most
identified with Temecula, however, is Callaway, named for
its founder, Eli Callaway, a Georgian who bought 71O acres
and planted 134 acres of grapevines in 1969, in anticipation
of his retirement in 1973. He had taken note of the gap
between the Santa Rosa and Santa Margarita Mountains, which
brought in cool air from the Pacific Ocean, 24 miles away.
(Callaway chose to call it “Rainbow Gap” after the Rainbow
Pass, which was just south of the actual, larger Santa
Margarita Gap.) Whatever you call it, the gap is important;
the cool climates of western Santa Barbara show that it’s
not so much how far north or south you are in California,
but how exposed you are to the cold, deep waters of the
Pacific. Temecula’s elevation is 12OO to 14OO feet. In the
morning there is mist over the vineyards; in fact, the
region derives from the Indian word Temeku, meaning “land
where the sun shines through the white mist”.

“In the late
summer and early fall, when the grapes are coming into peak
maturity,” said Don Reha, winemaker at Thornton Winery, “the
temperatures here can change as much as 5O degrees from
daytime high to nightime low, although I would say the
average is probably closer to 4O degrees difference. We get
this effect from the coastal fog that blows over the Santa
Rosa Mountains and into the valley most evenings during this
time. We have the valley heat in the day and coastal effect
cooling at night. This allows the fruit to become much more
evenly mature, and experience a substantially longer hang
time.”

One of the
features of Temecula is that its granitic soils are not
hospitable to the root louse that causes phylloxera. Growers
have been able to plant grapes on their own
roots.

Callaway planted
Chardonnay, of course, as well as Chenin Blanc and Riesling.
His 1975 Riesling was served to Queen Elizabeth, who loved
it. The winery was among the first to embrace unoaked
Chardonnay, “Calla-lees”, so named because it got its
complexity from stirring the lees instead of wood, and it
also pioneered with the Rhone variety, Viognier.

In 1981, Eli
Callaway sold the property to Hiram Walker, and it was
purchased by Allied Domecq. Callaway Coastal, as it’s called
now, is by far the biggest winery in Temecula – selling a
quarter-million cases a year – but as a grower it hardly
exists. In the early ‘9Os, Allied Domecq sold the vineyards
but then leased and managed them. Callaway had been heavily
committed to Chardonnay, which is one of the varieties most
susceptible to Pierce’s Disease. So when the vines were
decimated, Callaway’s parent declined to replant. There are
six “sister wineries” around California that provide juice
or finished wine to Callaway to bottle under its label. The
winery also has been making tiny amounts of Viognier,
Roussanne and Dolcetto from Temecula fruit. I managed to
taste those wines when I was in California, and they are
very good, especially the whites.

The two owners
of the original Callaway vineyards recently sold the
properties, and the new owners tore out the old vines
(including the Dolcetto, which Callaway won’t be able to
make anymore). Because zoning requires the land be used for
vines or citrus, at least part will probably be replanted to
vines, but they won’t be in production for a long time.
Callaway got its small amounts of Viognier and Roussanne
from other growers.

Except for
Callaway, Temecula’s wineries are generally committed to
either raising their own grapes or purchasing from other
growers within the 33,OOO acre AVA (American Viticultural
Area). Among the exceptions is Zinfandel, which is often
purchased from Cucamonga Valley not far away in Southern
California (though slowly succumbing to development). As Joe
Hart, of Hart Winery, put it, you can’t replicate those
1OO-year-old vines.

When Temecula
was first planted, it seemed that American consumers
couldn’t get enough Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, so
those were the dominant plantings in their respective
colors, but there was also considerable Sauvignon Blanc,
plus Chenin Blanc and Riesling.

Peter Poole, the
President and General Manager of Mount Palomar Winery,
credits his father, John, who founded the winery in 1969,
with planting Temecula’s first Rhone grape, three acres of
Syrah, in 1974. That was before Mediterranean varietals
became chic. (Before that, they were planted in older wine
regions, including Cucamonga, and were the basis of everyday
wines. I am old enough to remember buying Grenache Rose by
the gallon.) Peter Poole says the next move was in 1989,
when he grafted some vines to Sangiovese.

I was impressed
by Mount Palomar’s Sangiovese in the tasting room, and even
more by the bottle I brought back with me and opened a few
months later. I have never tasted a California Sangiovese
that reminded me so much of Tuscany. I suppose that in a
blind tasting with Chiantis, Mount Palomar’s Sangiovese
could be picked out, but at least it doesn’t taste like weak
Zinfandel. It’s not merely close to the obvious benchmark,
it has a fruity quality that makes it superior to many
Chiantis.

After the
release of the first Sangiovese, Poole relates, interest in
the Mediterranean varieties picked up. Most of the plantings
today are in Syrah, Sangiovese and Viognier, but there is
also Nebbiolo, Mourvedre, Cinsault, Grenache, Tempranillo,
and Roussanne. Mount Palomar makes an excellent Cortese, the
grape from which Gavi is made. In Temecula, Cortese ripens
more fully than in the cooler Piedmont.

Thornton Winery,
one of those with a fancy restaurant, makes a wide range of
sparkling wines, as well as a lot of still wines. There I
tasted a massive Nebbiolo, even more concentrated than
Barolo, that should take years to mature. Thornton’s
Roussanne was also particularly memorable.

Despite the
interest in Mediterranean grapes, especially as part of the
replanting after Pierce’s Disease, Poole said that
traditional grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot,
“which truth be told, also like warmer climates,” still
represent more than half of the grapes growing in
Temecula.

Possibly the
most striking wine I tasted in Temecula, however, came from
just outside the AVA. At South Coast Winery, where a full
resort is under construction, winemaker Jon McPherson let me
taste from barrel a Syrah from grapes grown on Wild Horse
Peak Vineyard, which is in the larger South Coast
appellation. South Coast’s owner, Jim Carter bought the 4OO
acre property in the early 199Os and has 16O acres under
vine, with Syrah, Sangiovese, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon,
Cabernet Franc, and Petite Sirah.

Carter started
out as a grower, selling his grapes to Temecula wineries. He
saw his Wild Horse Peak grapes mixed in with the others,
without any recognition of their special qualities. That
irked him, and when he also lost a contract, he decided to
start his own winery. Work began in 2OO1, and the first
crush was in 2OO3. In addition to Wild Horse Peak, South
Coast now has three sites in the Temecula AVA: a 1OO acre
plot, of which 3O is planted; 26 acres all planted; and 4O
acres around the winery, of which 15 is planted.

Right now,
McPherson said, they buy all their white grapes, which
represents 3O percent of what they crush. All comes from
Temecula growers. By five years, South Coast expects to use
estate grapes for nearly all their needs.

All this
commitment to growing grapes in Temecula flies in the face
of predictions that the arrival of the glassy-winged
sharpshooter meant the region was finished. The owners of
the Callaway vineyards may have felt that way, but others
did not.

Pierce’s Disease
has a long history in California. It was named after a
researcher who discovered it in Southern California in 1892.
It was known for a while as Anaheim Disease, because of the
damage it did to vineyards there. It also affects citrus
trees, so it’s not surprising that it’s found in Florida, as
well as other states including Texas and
Virginia.

But growers are
not defenseless. They watch the vines carefully and prune
out sections that are affected. They can inject a pesticide
called Admire into the vines, which makes the sharpshooter
lose interest in them. There are also biological controls:
tiny wasps that prey on the sharpshooters.

Growers received
federal assistance to pull out diseased vines, and
government researchers continue to work on better
controls.

If you’re in San
Diego or Los Angeles, visit Temecula. It’s still
there.