Wines & Vines

Collector's Edition WINES&VINES 47 COLLECTOR'S EDITION keep the vineyard clean and apply pest man- agement appropriately. Spotted lanternfly (SLF) The newest invasive pest is the spotted lanternfly. It was originally detected in Berks County, Pa., in 2014, and the area was im- mediately quarantined by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. SLF prefers Tree of Heaven and grapevines as hosts but will feed on fruit trees, hardwoods and approxi- mately 70 other species. It pierces the vines and feeds on the phloem, reducing the vine's health and vigor, and excretes honeydew, which causes a sooty mold to form on leaves. All of southeastern Pennsylvania is now under quarantine, but SLF has also been found in New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Virginia. Home of the Clones Livermore Valley had European vine selections ready for the wine renaissance The two most popular wine types made in California — Chardonnay and Cabernet Sau- vignon — might not hold those positions if it weren't for vineyards in Livermore Valley. The clonal selections from which the vast majority of today's grapevine plantings descended origi- nated at Wente Vineyards (Chardonnay) and Concannon Vineyard (Cabernet Sauvignon). Livermore Valley wine pioneers went to France to procure prime plant material from Château Margaux, Château d'Yquem and other famous properties, then planted and preserved them in Livermore. When the dry wine revolution began slowly after World War II, excellent vine selections were waiting in Livermore to provide the raw material. Well over half of the state's 100,000 Chardonnay acres are planted with vines descended from those introduced to the Wente family's property in 1912. These vine selections include Clone 4, Clone 2A and other "Wente clones" that trace their lineage here. For Cabernet Sauvignon, Clones 7, 8 and 11 came from Concannon in the 1960s, and the winery estimates that 80% of the Cabernet vines growing in California derive from those clones. George W.B. Hostetter Established vinifera grapes in Ontario Brights Wines in Niagara Falls, Ontario, or- dered a shipment of vines from France in 1946 that included three vinifera varieties — Pinot Chardonnay, Pinot Noir de Bourgogne and Perle de Csaba –along with 20 French hybrid varieties. George W.B. Hostetter (1922-2003) had just been appointed director of viticul- tural research, and he was put in charge of supervising the new plantings. While Hostet- ter had a degree from the University of To- ronto, much of what he had learned about viticulture came from his father, Jake Hostet- ter, who was chief viticulturist at Brights. The younger Hostetter believed that the proper application of modern sprays and fungicides would allow vinifera grapes to grow in the East and in Ontario. He instituted a spray schedule for the new vineyard that used sulfur as a dormant spray before the start of a season and as a cleanup spray after harvest. The re- sult was a notable improvement in the control of powdery mildew. Hostetter also experi- mented with different methods of pruning and thinning to control overcropping. Based on the success of the trial plantings, Brights put in 10 acres of Chardonnay on various rootstocks in 1952. This was the first com- mercial planting of vinifera in the East and the first successful vinifera vineyard. A Brights Pinot Champagne in 1955 and a Pinot Char- donnay in 1956 were the first commercial vinif- era wines produced in the East. Jackson Family Wines The house that Chardonnay built took risks that paid off Under founder Jess Stonestreet Jackson (1930-2011) and now under his wife and longtime business partner, Barbara Banke, Jackson Family Wines has disrupted the wine indus- try status quo in numerous ways. The family's oldest and most famous brand, Kendall-Jackson, produces the No. 1 best-selling Chardonnay in America, Vintner's Reserve, which made its debut with the 1982 vintage and did much to make Chardonnay the best-selling U.S. varietal today. It was unusual in being a premium-priced, off-dry Chardonnay with a California AVA designation at a time when most California AVA Chardonnays were "fighting varietals" at about $6 that included a lot of San Joaquin Valley wine in the blend. Jess Jackson had owned a vineyard in Lake County since 1974, but the wine was soon being blended from coastal counties up and down the state, proving to consum- ers and the industry how high quality the grapes were in places as far-flung as Santa Maria and the Russian River Valley. Jackson successfully sued his former winemaker Jed Steele in 1992 to prevent him from revealing the Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay "recipe." In 1986, the family began buying vineyards and winery estates along the coast when most big wineries simply bought grapes and bulk wine. Today, a large percentage of the family's annual 775,000-case production is estate-grown. Along the way, the family added properties in Australia, Tuscany, Bordeaux, Chile and recently in Oregon. Other innovations include purchasing their own oak barrel stave mill in France, partly because they barrel-fermented the Vintner's Reserve, starting their own distribution company and being in the forefront of many winery and vineyard energy, water and land-conservation issues. John Concannon and the still thriving "mother vine" of Cabernet Sauvignon.

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