Last week Morgan mentioned that the Chronicle would be doing a story on Ravenswood and his dad Joel Peterson, the winemaker and co-founder. Well, he wasn’t kidding. The Chronicle pulled out all the stops for the feature and even threw in a podcast. Nice!

There’s a bunch of interesting info in the article that, in a round about way, is related to Pinot as well. For instance, I’d known that Joel Peterson started his career with our neighbor Joseph Swan making Zin, but the advice that Joe gave him about making Pinot Noir (for which Joe is deservedly famous) surprised me:

Though Zinfandel was not well regarded in 1976, Peterson was interested in it from the beginning; he had prepared for entrepreneurship by helping Zinfandel pioneer Joseph Swan make five vintages.

“Joe told me not to make Pinot Noir,” Peterson says. “I’m a Europhile, and I believed that older vines planted in the right location make the great wines. The only grape that filled the bill in California in 1976 was Zinfandel. The vines were old. They were dry-farmed, and they had to be planted in the right places to be dry-farmed. Cabernet was expensive, and I wasn’t a rich guy. It was better for me to be a tiny fish in a small pond.”

I also didn’t know that at the ripe ol’ age of five Morgan decided that, despite Swan’s admonitions, he was not only going to make Pinot Noir, but that he was going to make DRC quality Pinot Noir:

“Morgan wanted to make Pinot Noir. He told (grape grower) Angelo Sangiacomo he was going to make wine like Domaine de la Romanee-Conti,” Peterson says, of the revered Burgundy producer. “Angelo says, ‘If you’re going to make Romanee-Conti, I’ll give you some grapes, but you’re not going to get them for free. You’re going to have to give me some of the wine.’ Morgan thinks for a minute and says, ‘That’s OK, I can’t drink it anyway.’ “

While I can’t say I blame him the ambition, judging from the passionate tour he gave me of their 150 acre Bedrock vineyard planted to mostly Rhone varieties, I think his passion for Pinot may have been usurped by a new love affair with their 120 year old Zin and Mourvèdre vines.

Anyway a great story, great photos, and a great podcast = a fantastic piece of PR. I knocked Constellation one post down for being shady and inauthentic, but they certainly made a good move acquiring Ravenswood.

Cool Folks