Lodi’s Bechthold Vineyard named California’s 2014 Vineyard of the Year
It’s taken 128 years, but one Lodi vineyard has just recently gotten its due: Bechthold Vineyard, planted in Lodi’s west-side by Joseph Spenker in 1886 (just north of the present-day Jessie’s Grove estate), was named the 2014 “Vineyard of the Year” by the California State Fair. The honor was bestowed by a committee of a dozen wine professionals; one of them, Mike Dunne, the Chief Judge of the California State Fair. According to Dunne, the criteria for Vineyard of the Year was “choosing a vineyard that has been consistently producing high quality wines for a very long time.” It is ironic, however, that the quality of Bechthold Vineyard – planted and monopolized by the Cinsaut grape – was virtually unknown during the first 118 years of its existence. Up until recently, Joseph Spenker’s heirs had been farming and selling the grapes under the somewhat meaningless (at least to winemakers) name of Black Malvoisie; since this was the name originally supplied by El Pinal Winery, the nursery that sold Spenker the cuttings to plant his first vineyard, way back in the 1880s.
There has never been a demand for grapes called Black Malvoisie. Because of this, most of the Bechthold grapes were shipped out to home winemakers and wineries in other states; those willing to take “anything” from California – especially grapes sold for bargain basement price. Nonetheless, the family continued to lovingly nurture Bechthold Vineyard’s 25 acres; even during the 1980s, when the grapes were going for as little as $45 per ton. According to the property’s second-to-the-last custodian, Al Bechthold, who passed away earlier this year, in the early 2000s the grapes were still barely fetching $200/ton – less than the cost of farming the vineyard! In 2004 Wanda Woock Bechthold, Joseph Spenker’s great granddaughter, happened to mention to Kay Bogart of U.C. Davis that she and her husband Al were seriously thinking about tearing up the vineyard. According to Bogart, “I said, ‘wow, why would you want to do that?”’ So Bogart took leaf and grape samples to Andy Walker, a U.C. Davis plant geneticist, who identified the planting as Cinsaut, one of the classic black skinned grapes of France’s Southern Rhône Valley.
The same day that she learned of Walker’s findings, Bogart contacted Randall Grahm, the winemaker/owner of Bonny Doon Vineyard in Santa Cruz. Grahm, who had been actively advertising for Cinsaut grapes, came out a few days later with a visiting French winegrower, and both proclaimed the vineyard to be the finest block of Cinsaut they had ever seen… in the world! Thus, Bechthold Vineyard was “rediscovered” by the world, at the ripe young age of 118. Today, Bechthold’s Cinsaut grapes sell for well over ten times the price they did ten years ago. Clients include Bonny Doon, as well as a litany of other prestigious wineries; including Turley Wine Cellars, Onesta Wines, The Scholium Project, Michael David Winery, Estate Crush, McCay Cellars, and Odisea Wine Company.
When Al Bechthold finally got too frail to mount a tractor, the vineyard (still owned by Wanda Woock Bechthold) was put into the hands of Michael David Winery’s Phillips Farms. Organic composting and cover cropping has helped to restore the vineyard’s vigor; and all the “dead spots” accumulated over the past century have been filled in with new Cinsaut plants, meticulously watered and babied by hand. Grahm has recently commented on the character of the wines from Bechthold Vineyard, describing them as “feminine, sleek, graceful, savory, seductive, and strong without being tannic or blocky.” Tegan Passalacqua, Turley’s winemaker/vineyard manager, explains, “The beauty of Bechthold is that it defies what a lot of people think of Lodi wines… it makes a red wine that is not heavy, yet with a solid structure and intoxicating perfume.” As with all great vineyards, it is not just the phenomenal quality of the grapes and wines that makes Bechthold Vineyard special.
It is also its story – its long, heroic history. It is a story of one Lodi family who cultivated these ancient vines through thick and thin, regardless of what the rest of the world thought of them or their vineyard. It is a story reflecting the entire Lodi wine region: of families who have always known the value of what they possess – their soils, their heritage, their future legacy – and remain caring and comfortable with that, even when it goes unappreciated.