Clap your hands and say congratulations to our wonderful neighbors on the other side of the hill. I personally think the money (lots of it) was very well spent! So what am I talking about? I’m sure most of you at least heard about the Napa Valley Vintners’ fight to protect Napa’s name—which may be the single most important word in the wine business. The world knows it produces some of the best Cabernet anywhere.
But when a large winery operation from the San Joaquin Valley bought a couple of trade name labels that included the word Napa and proceeded to produce California (San Joaquin Valley and probably Lodi) wine to sell under these labels, confusion arose. Napa Ridge is just one example of these deceptive labels that the Bronco Wine Company has been using. (This is the same company that produces Charles Shaw or “Two-buck Chuck.”) The label itself is not illegal from a federal law standpoint, but it does violate a California truth in wine labeling statute that became law in 2000.
In a nutshell, this law simply states that wine brands cannot represent themselves to be something they’re not. In other words, a “Napa Ridge” label should only be used if 85 percent of the fruit was grown in the Napa Valley. The law is designed to prevent misleading consumers. You and I are probably not the only ones who would see Napa Ridge on the label and assume it’s a Napa wine when, in fact, its only relationship to the region is it might have been bottled there.
This case has been battled for a couple of years, but it’s finally over. The Napa wine industry emerged victorious when the United States Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by the Bronco Wine Company. What brought all of this about is that the Napa growers and wineries wanted to protect their name and reputation. Whether it says Napa on the label as a brand name or an appellation, it should deliver true Napa wine to the consumer.
To back the importance of this, a recent survey indicated that 57 percent of American wine consumers believe that where a wine is from is the single most important factor in choosing a wine to purchase. In other words, if Napa is somewhere on the label, it damn well should be Napa wine. Again, my hat is off to the Napa wine industry for putting its money where its mouth is!
Most of you out there are probably wondering why I’m being so wonderful to the Napa growers. What about Sonoma County? Well, we have no guts first of all and apparently do not give a damn about the name “Sonoma County.” A significant number of wineries in Sonoma County do not even put the name on their label. Perhaps they assume everybody who buys wine is a geographer. Isn’t each and every one of our 13 appellations known by all wine buyers? I guess we also assume they know where the other 169 United States appellations are.
What has brought me to that conclusion is a recent trip to Tip Top Liquors in Healdsburg. I spent about an hour just looking at various appellations that are on the labels of Sonoma County wines. To my astonishment, a very large number of local Sonoma County wineries do not put “Sonoma County” on their labels and only use their own smaller appellation area. Are we not proud of where we produce our wonderful wines? It’s well understood that many AVAs (American Viticultural Areas) in Sonoma County—and the state—are more an ego trip than a statement of quality.
Here are some examples that, hopefully, will give you the idea of what I’m trying to get across: Cyrus 2000, Alexander Valley; Forchini 2002 Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley; Mauritsen 2002, Dry Creek Valley; Preston 2003, Dry Creek Zinfandel; Jordan 2003 Chardonnay, Russian River Valley; Murphy-Goode 2002 Alexander Valley Chardonnay; and Mill Creek 2003 Dry Creek Valley Sauvignon Blanc. There are another two pages I have, but I won’t bore you with them at this point. Are these wines ashamed to use Sonoma County on their label? With the winery association in disarray and far too many AVAs, perhaps leadership is missing, unlike our neighbors on the other side of the hill. Even Mendocino County is getting organized with a commission vote coming up soon. How many consumers outside of California even know where Sonoma County is, let alone one of our smaller AVAs?
When traveling either in the United States or overseas, if you say you’re from Wine Country the reply is, “Oh, that is nice. Where in Napa do you live?” When you say Sonoma County, they get a very big blank look and say, “Where is that?” Sound familiar?
From the following list, in which North Coast county are the following AVAs located? 1-Cole Ranch, 2-Howell Mountain, 3-Benmore Valley, 4-Wild Horse Valley, 5-Guenoc, 6-Potter Valley, 7-McDowell Valley, 8-Green Valley, 9-Knight’s Valley and 10-Chalk Hill. Now that you’re in the swing of things, how about a few more that aren’t in the North Coast but are in California? Remember, you’re a wine groupie and are expected to know all of these AVAs—or at least the winery people think you should: 1-Chalone, 2-Cienega Valley, 3-Yorkville Highlands, 4-Edna Valley, 5-Ben Lomond Mountain, 6-Clarksburg, 7-Edna Valley, 8-Dunnigan Hills, 9-Temecula and 10-York Mountain. Well, how did you do? Winery people expect you to get 100 percent correct on this test or you will hurt their egos.
Answers: North Coast: 1-Mendocino, 2-Napa, 3-Lake, 4-Napa, 5-Lake, 6-Mendocino, 7-Mendocino, 8-Sonoma, 9-Sonoma and 10-Sonoma. In California: 1-San Benito, 2-San Benito, 3-Mendocino, 4-San Luis Obispo, 5-Santa Cruz, 6-Yolo, 7-San Luis Obispo, 8-Yolo, 9-Riverside and 10-San Luis Obispo.
Richard Kunde and I started the Sonoma County Grape Growers Association and the Sonoma County Vineyard Technical Group, and we were very instrumental in getting the Sonoma County Harvest Fair as a Sonoma County showcase. Our singular goal was to promote Sonoma County as one of the finest winegrowing areas in the world. I’m beginning to see some of that gloss we tried to put on Sonoma County becoming a little tarnished. When the wineries in a given area stop using its name on labels, I begin to worry. (Should I also mention that Sonoma County wineries aren’t doing nearly as well at the bigger wine judgings around the country as they have in the past? And, by the way, Lodi, which is really kicking butt, has very strong growers and winery associations that definitely promote its own larger area.)
OK, back to the business at hand—Have you had your bottle yet today?
Rich Thomas is professor emeritus, Director of Viticulture at Santa Rosa Junior College. He is also a vineyard consultant in the North Coast. You can reach him at rthomas@northbaybiz.com.
