Never say Never. Greg produces a Cabernet Sauvignon under the Graziano label.
Those of you who know me would swear, “Greg would never produce a Cabernet Sauvignon” under the Graziano Family of Wines umbrella. Well, guess what, I did. Whether you know it or not, Cabernet Sauvignon was one of the first wines I produced professionally when I started Milano Winery way back in 1977. My partner’s father Frank Milone had a really nice patch of Cabernet Sauvignon that was planted in shallow, gravely clay soils (perfect for Cabernet) in the Sanel Valley around the town of Hopland. Back then if you were producing Cabernet in Mendocino County you were somewhat of a maverick! Remember, back then there were only 7 wineries in the county (can you name them?) In reality, even back then I was listening to a different drummer. I loved the older traditional varieties grown here like Chenin Blanc, Petite Sirah and Zinfandel; the varieties we focused on at Milano. Even though my heart was not totally into Cabernet we made a very nice wine from that vineyard. I still have bottles of the 1977 and it is aging well, one of the gifts of this prolific, worldly variety.
My next romance with the variety came in the mid 1990’s when I was hired as the winemaker for the legendary Martin Ray Winery which was originally located in Saratoga in the hills above the Santa Clara Valley and the city of San Jose. Martin Ray purchased the Paul Masson Winery from Paul in 1936 then sold the winery to Seagram’s in 1943, who eventually trashed the reputation of this historic winery. After the sale Martin Ray soon purchased land above the Paul Masson Winery which was located in what was called the Chaine d’Or, or the chain of gold. These hills have produced many great Chardonnays, Pinot Noirs and Cabernet Sauvignons for decades. As a wine historian I was honored to be able to produce these wines for 6 years at our winery. We sought-out some of the finest mountain and benchland Cabernet vineyards in Santa Cruz Mountains, Napa Valley, Sonoma Mountains and the eastern hills of Mendocino County. The owners of the brand let me spend tons of money on the finest French oak and we let the wines rest in them and in the bottle for a minimum of three years before release. Here I learned the many nuances to produce great Cabernets. All that time, money and dedication was rewarded by many 90 to 97-point rated wines in the Wine Spectator magazine. I still have a selection of many of these wines, which are aging nicely.
So why the history lesson you ask? Well, it takes many years to learn a craft such as winemaking and like many things in life, experience matters. So, when I produced the Graziano Cabernet Sauvignon I enlisted many of these old-world techniques and things I learned in the past to produce this splendid wine.
So how did I come across this old-vine Cabernet vineyard? The owner of this vineyard, Diane Nauman, contacted us because the winery in Sonoma County who was taking care of this vineyard no longer wanted to do it. She asked that if we managed the vineyard, we could have the grapes. I always knew of this vineyard because it was next to the original Larry Pacini Zinfandel vineyard, a plot of vines we also managed for a few years. These huge, gnarly old vines stood like monsters traversing the landscape. Even though I was not really interested in Cabernet Sauvignon I knew we could sell the wine on the bulk wine market and I hate to see old-vine vineyards abandoned. The first year we made the wine we were impressed with the quality and it sold easily in bulk. The next vintage, which was 2018 was fantastic so I decided to keep the wine for ourselves and placed 50% of the wine in new French oak barrels and bottled the wine under the Graziano Family of Wines umbrella. Because Cabernet Sauvignon was not Italian or a Pinot family member, the only brand that made sense for it to grace was the Graziano brand.
Unfortunately, this will be the only vintage of this wine because too many of the vines were ripped out after this harvest to make way for a mobile home. So, there you have it. Please read the wine description on page #3 to learn about the making of this fine wine.
All the best,
Gregory Graziano