Vino Noceto Cracks the Sangiovese Nut

12/1/2005 California Wine and Food.com

Jim and Suzy Gullett would seem an unlikely pair to master a famed, notoriously fickle Italian grape variety that has bedeviled hundreds of grape growers and vintners throughout California.

In 1984, the unassuming San Francisco Bay Area couple purchased 21 acres of land in Amador County, heart of California’s historic Sierra Foothills winegrowing region. If locating far from the epicenter of North Coast wine tourism weren’t challenge enough, the Gulletts, with no formal viticulture or enology training, decided to devote their new vineyard to a noble Italian grape variety then little known in California: Sangiovese. Six years later, they produced their first Sangiovese under the Noceto label, named for their property’s walnut grove. In 1995, the Gulletts moved permanently to Amador.

Surviving the Cal-Ital Craze
“Suzy and I fell in love with Sangiovese during a trip to Tuscany,” says Jim Gullett, a retired computer systems executive, “and Amador County reminded us a lot of southern Tuscany, especially the areas around the towns of Montalcino and Montepulciano. Both regions boast rolling hills, plenty of sunshine, and well-drained hillside vineyards.”

The Gulletts’ quixotic decision to focus on what was then an esoteric variety in California seemed less questionable by the mid-1990s, when a so-called "Cal-Ital" wine craze swept the state, impelling scores of growers and wineries to plant and vinify classic Italian grape varieties, especially Sangiovese.

However, unlike the “Rhone Ranger” movement that preceded it and has blossomed into a thriving segment of the California wine business, the “Tuscan Trooper” initiative faltered. During the late 1990s, a preponderance of California’s new-wave Sangioveses proved to be over-cropped, over-oaked, over-blended and over-priced, souring consumers, trade and wine media on the “Cal-Ital” phenomenon.

“Sangiovese can throw a heavy crop,” says Rusty Folena, Vino Noceto’s current winemaker. “Many California Sangioveses from the 1990s were made from young, over-cropped vines, so they tended to be light in color and somewhat thin.”

Wineries compensated by blending their Sangioveses with Cabernet Sauvignon and other dark-colored, strongly flavored varietals and aging them in new oak.

“Sangiovese soaks up oak like a sponge,” says Suzy Gullett. “Combined with the blending, a lot of the wines didn’t smell or taste much like Sangiovese. They were all over the board in quality and style.”

From their study of the finest Italian renditions – Chianti Classico, Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile de Montepulciano – the Gulletts knew that clonal selection was key to producing a quality Sangiovese, a variety which sports dozens of different clonal variations. They set about securing the best low-yielding, small-berried Tuscan clones – Sangioveto (from the Chianti region) and three selections of Sangiovese Grosso (known as Brunello in the Montalcino area) – and planted them in
advantageous sites on de-vigorating rootstocks. Careful vine management further ensured low yields, and gentle treatment in the winery, including the use of larger-format oak containers for aging, preserved varietal character. From the outset, the Gulletts were committed to producing 100% Sangiovese wines that would showcase the variety’s delicate raspberry, dark plum, and cherrylike fruitiness, racy acidity and
supple tannins.

Thus, while many other California wineries got desultory results from their Sangioveses and, consequently, saw trade and consumer interest wane, Vino Noceto’s wines kept getting better and attracting more attention from wine lovers and
leading wine writers.

Prominent wine writer Dan Berger has said that “Vino Noceto is the only California producer that consistently captures the true Sangiovese fruit character.” And Mike Dunne, long-time wine writer for the Sacramento Bee, describes Vino Noceto Sangioveses as “all about clarity and spirit . . . . All their Sangioveses are delightful.”

Today, Vino Noceto, which recently completed its 15th harvest, produces 7,000 cases of Sangiovese annually, the lion’s share of its small 9,000-case production. (The balance is made up of Barbera, Zinfandel, and a lightly sweet, frizzante Muscat Blanc called Frivolo.) The Gulletts offer nine different sangioveses, including their flagship Chianti Classico-style bottling, a Riserva, a Rosato, and limited-production renditions from designated vineyard lots with names like Hillside, Dos Oakies and Marmellata.

Vino Noceto’s deft touch with the variety is evident in its recently released 2003 flagship bottling, which Sacramento wine merchant Darrell Corti, arguably America’s foremost expert on Italian wine and food, has called “the most accurate Sangiovese ever produced in California.” A superb choice for holiday meals, it also would make an excellent gift for the adventurous wine aficionado yet to discover the small Amador County winery that has mastered the noble grape of Tuscany.