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Wine News - Legendary California Vineyards
2008-06-01
SANGIACOMO
Vineyard owner: Sangiacomo Family
Appellation: Carneros & Sonoma Coast
First planted: 1969
Greg La Follette, one of California's most esteemed winemakers,
enthuses that "There is no one in the industry better than any member
of the Sangiacomo family," and he is equally enamored by the fruit they
grow. He buys 12 to 14 tons of pinot noir and 13 to 16 tons of
chardonnay from the family every year.
La Follette contracts the Sangiacomo fruit for his Tandem
label and is extremely pleased with what he gets from every vintage.
"The Sangiacomo Pinot Noir and Chardonnay always, to some degree, have
those sauvage et animale characters that my wife finds so incredibly
attractive, almost sexy," he says. "The Chard has always been downright
sexy, to be blunt. It kind of gets you right in that center chakra. The
Pinot is always our most Burgundian bottling, with lots of forest
floor, mushroom, smoked venison and great Pinot fruit that, as it ages,
takes on a bacon fat element that becomes a dead ringer for a Burg."
The main Sangiacomo Vineyard sprawls across 800 acres in the
cool Carneros region at the south end of Sonoma County and was first
planted in 1969 by Angelo Sangiacomo, the paterfamilias of the family,
and his late brother Bob, his brother Buck and sister Lorraine. In
addition to this large swath, the Sangiacomos farm 100 acres along
Lakeville Highway, subject to the fogs and cool winds coming through
the Petaluma Gap, and 100 acres along Roberts Road in the town of
Cotati.
There's a fair amount of pinot noir, a bit of merlot and a
little pinot gris, but 70 percent of the vines planted in these
vineyards are chardonnay, which has made Sangiacomo Vineyard and its
satellites famous, yet the pinot is of the same high caliber. Of the 65
wineries that buy Sangiacomo fruit, 22 bottle it as a single-vineyard
designate.
Ages ago, the gently sloping land that today accommodates the
big, 800-acre Sangiacomo block that rose from near sea level along San
Pablo Bay to about 30 feet farther inland was bay bottom. Digging down
into the soil about two to three feet reveals compacted bay bottom
clay, like a hardpan, that vine roots have difficulty penetrating. So
the two to three feet of topsoil provides the majority of the vines'
nutrients. "This situation makes distinctive wines," notes Mike
Sangiacomo, one of Angelo's three children. "Because the soils aren't
deep, they reduce vine vigor. Add to that the influence of cool air
from the cold waters of the nearby bay." The result is Chardonnay
that's bright and crisp. Some blocks show more lemon-citrus flavors,
others more tropical flavors. He reports, too, that Barbara Lindblom, a
consulting winemaker in Sonoma County, has undertaken a project to
evaluate the shared bright acid, structure and mouth-feel
characteristics of Sangiacomo Chardonnays, along with their panoply of
flavor elements.
Mike's brother Steve and their sister Mia's husband, Mike
Pucci, share roles in farming and running the family vineyard. It seems
like an idyllic place to work. "We have no titles," Mike grins.
His equally unassuming 77-year-old father has quietly been at
the forefront of the evolution of Sonoma County's grapegrowing industry
for 40 years, and was recently inducted into the Sonoma County Farm
Bureau's Hall of Fame. Of his award, Angelo demurs, "That's what
happens when you get older and stay with it."
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