Bigger is Better, NOT Badder

Written by Rusty Eddy Saturday, 10 October 2009 09:27

News

Clayhouse farms a lot of grapes.  At our estate Red Cedar Vineyard outside Paso Robles we have approximately 1500 acres of everything from Chenin Blanc to Primativo.  And the fact is, having a large pool of grapes from which to choose gives us a mucho flexibility in winemaking.

I was reminded of this last week while showing around Ben Weinberg, winewriter from Denver.  Ben gets it.  He was suitably impressed with the Red Cedar vineyard as we drove from the Petite Sirah and Malbec blocks on the lower benchlands, up to the Bordeaux varietals planted on terraced hillsides that rise up to 1500 feet in elevation.  There's a commanding view of the Estrella River valley from the top.  And while it's clear that the vineyard is large, bigger isn't always "badder."

Ben kept saying, "wow."

Of course the view is impressive, but what Ben picked up on was the soil variation, from loam to almost white calcareous.  And he noticed the topographical differences, not just the elevation gain, but the rolling hills above the benchlands, and the shaded, eastern sides of the hills where cooler afternoon temperatures allow for production of great Sauvignon Blanc.  There's nothing at all flat about the Red Cedar vineyard.

Clayhouse doesn't use all of the fruit from Red Cedar, there are many other wineries that buy Red Cedar grapes.  But having a vineyard of this size and diversity at our disposal gives us the flexibility to choose exactly the blocks we want, to pick at exactly the time winemaker David Frick dictates, and to make quick production decisions based upon sales or consumer demand.

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