In the past vineyards were not planted to solely one variety (or organized blocks of various varieties), nor were they trained on trellises in perfectly straight, aesthetically pleasing formations. In Sonoma they were largely planted with one of various clones of Zinfandel, and perhaps there were a few Mourvedre and Petite Sirah vines here and there, and likely other varieties which I’ve never even heard of.
The Mystery Vine
Back in 2008 Darek Trowbridge of Old World Winery seized an opportunity to produce wine from a vineyard in the Russian River Valley which was said to be planted to Abouriou, or “Early Burgundy”. This grape has fallen out of favor so much that it doesn’t even appear on the list of the Wine Century Club application.
The vineyard, Sheri Martinelli Ranch as we call it, has been in existence for somewhere between 60 and 80 years – nobody seems to know. Besides that, nobody knew until yesterday what it was planted to – back then it seems people didn’t blog their experiences or create Excel spreadsheets, so to get to the bottom of what is actually planted on this site we asked Andy Walker of U.C. Davis to come take a look. Andy is one of the world’s experts in ampelography – the identifying of grapevines. Some people design ridiculous outfits for the runways in Milan, others work in factories creating iPhones, but Andy spends his days walking in vineyards and identifying grape varieties vine by vine.
After the short ride in a beautifully restored 1946 Mercury woody wagon we proceeded to walk the rows of head-trained vines, some the size of small trees. I don’t know what was going through Andy’s head, but after snatching many leaves and tasting many grapes he came to his conclusion (drum roll, please) that the vineyard is indeed Abouriou. This was actually disappointing to me, all of this buildup to discover it’s exactly what we thought it is. As Dennis Green would say, “The [vines] are what we thought they were!”
The strange thing about this vineyard according to Andy is its consistency. There were no other varieties to be found, save for the single row of whites which included two vines of Semillon and a few more of Muscat of Alexandria. In the end, the vines are no longer shrouded in mystery, but the next challenge remains: getting the TTB to recognize Abouriou as a grape variety, and I have a feeling that will take more than a 20 minute stroll.
Terroirists - probably the best wine blog in the world 
So, is this being bottled as a single varietal/vineyard? If yes, I don’t recall tasting this one. Have you had it? If yes, what is it like?
the 2008 was blended with a zin… the 2009 is in barrel and will probably be bottled stand alone. In Darek’s words it’s a spice bomb. Hard to describe – maybe like a cross among petite sirah, cabernet franc, and pinot noir.