Alt+Wine

While the day I spent in Santa Maria, CA at Cambria’s vineyard & winery this week was generally awesome, my mind was blown by the story of a clone.

photo by Leah Hennessy © 2010 All Rights Reserved

As a good-to-know before reading on, grape clones are cuttings of existing vines that share identical genetic make-up. Meaning: take a famous vine in France, cut a piece off of it, stick it in the ground, grow a new vine from that. That new vine is a clone. Basically. (If you REALLY care to learn more about grape clones,  here’s some more info.)  Different clones have different characteristics, so producers that are planting vines pick clones based on what kind of wines they ultimately want to make. Got it?

While up at Cambria, I was able to learn quite a bit about the clones they chose to plant in their Pinot Noir vineyard (aka Julia’s Vineyard). I was able to learn this stuff because I kept interrupting owner Barbara Banke and winemaker Denise Shurtleff with questions. LOTS of questions. Fortunately, they were happy to answer. Or at least very patient with me. (I like to think it was the former.) While Cambria has several different clones planted throughout the vineyard, I was drawn to the story of clone 667.

I had the opportunity to try the Cambria’s 2007 Clone 667 in the tasting room - that’s when I fell for it. Barbara said her son has decided it should be called clone 666, and I have to agree. There really is something tempting and a bit sinful about it.

In the glass, I smelled what I would describe as a faint smokiness and ripe cherries -  maybe a cranberry or two. There was something I was smelling in the glass that made me stop and think for a second to try and identify it: sugar cookies. I swear. Well, I was ready for all of that when I took a sip but WAIT. The first thing I tasted in my mouth was the fruit - especially ripe blueberries! As it rolled around in my mouth I also picked up more of the cherry flavor, but also got some dark fruit, like blackberries, as well. It was very smooth, and the slight drying sensation of the tannins gave the wine a velvety feel. Just when I thought I had gotten everything this wine had to offer, I swallowed it. AND THERE IT WAS. The bacon. Just a teeny bit, and only once the wine had left my mouth, but it was definitely there. To add to everything, the finish (aka aftertaste) was pretty long and delicious. A wine with this many layers would be described as “complex” by the Wine Powers That Be. I was hooked.

After this tasting I heard the story of clone 667 at Cambria. Pinot Noir clone 667 tends to be a go-to for grapegrowers these days, and everyone at Cambria had high hopes for it. They first planted the 667 vines in 1998, and in 2002 they began their experiments with it as a wine. Back then, Denise described the wine as “animalistic.” In the glass, it smelled like meat - specifically bacon. “You would smell bacon, smoke, barbecue, even bacon fat,” she says. And though she loved what it brought out when blended with other clones in wine, it did not seem destined for the spotlight.

Until 2006. That’s when it grew up. All of a sudden, the wines made from grapes harvested in 06 started showing a fruity sexiness that simply wasn’t there before. After that, clone 667 was a star, complete with its own label and releases.

You gotta love a celebrity that remembers her roots - and the 2007 Clone 667 shows us where she comes from with that little bit of bacon at the finish. Once you know the story behind it, tasting Cambria’s 2007 Clone 667 is like listening to an underdog’s acceptance speech after winning the Oscar. You know what I’m talking about. When the brand new A-list celeb is clutching her statuette, marveling over the fact that 2 years ago she was living out of her car, and she’s thanking the manager at the 7-11 that let her park there overnight and use the bathroom. It’s like that. Only delicious.