A Visit w/ Charlie Tsegeletos at Cline (6/15)
Earlier this year, I found out about JacuzziFamilyVnyds making a Nebbiolo, so extended an invite to
their winemaker, Charlie Tsegeletos, for NEB#6 down at DomenicoWnry in April. Meanwhile, I ordered a
mixed case of the Jaccuzi wines, we tasted thru them w/ my group, and I liked a lot of what we tasted.
When I met Charlie at NEB#6, I was quite taken by his enthusiasm for Italian varieties.
Charlie is also the winemaker at ClineCllrs, just across the hwy from Jacuzzi. Back when Matt & Fred
started ClineCllrs, I used to try them a lot, especially when Matt & Erin visited SantaFe. When Fred & Matt
parted company, and Fred kept the Cline name, I sorta lost track of the Cline wines and they just fell off
my radar. After meeting Charlie at NEB#6, I figured I should revisit the Cline wines.
ClineCllrs relocated to the town of Sonoma way out on the south side, near the Raceway. Within view
of SanPabloBay, in the Carneros. Fred purchased this old/historic ranch and began planting classic
cold-climate grapes. He retained the old family vnyds over in Oakley. And also planted a vnyd across
the ridge in the PetalumaGap area. They have even planted a vnyd way up North in TehamaCnty.
He & Nancy opened a tasting room in an old 1853 restored farmhouse on the property.
I had stopped some 10-12 yrs ago into the tasting, tasted thru their Rhone wines, liked what I tried,
and that was sorta it w/ Cline. I decided on this trip I should revisit Cline and made arrangements for a
visit and tour that morning with Charlie. It was certainly an eye-opener....the grounds are very/very impressive.
Surrounding the old farmhouse are 5-6 large ponds, one of which is loaded w/ carp. The stone-walled ponds are
fed by a spring supplying warm water. They have constructed a replica of an old Mission on the property.
They also have a large museum that has a complete model collection of all the Calif Spanish Missions,
a lot of old Indian artifacts, and a beautiful rebuilt church stained glass window (forget the story
on it). And a pen w/ a few burros. And a complete menagerie of birds. And lots of picnic grounds. Clearly,
Cline takes advantage of being the gateway to the SonomaVlly and does a thriving tourist business. That
said, the property is tastefully done and avoids the Disneyland aspects of some such wnry operations, I feel.
And behind all this is a pretty large, industrial-scale wnry that Charlie led us thru. Plenty of
stainless steel tanks and another facility for small-barrel aging. What I found that was of particular
interest is that Charlie has brought in a bunch of terra-cotta large-size amphora, manufactured in Italy.
Must have been frightfully expensive. Of particular note is that he's got 4 of the amphorae buried in
the ground a la Friuli/Slovenia/Georgia. These are the first buried amphorae that I've heard of in Calif.
What Charlie's intent w/ these amphorae is not clear, but he'll have a lot of fun playing around w/ them.
We returned to the tasting room and I briefly tasted thru only a few of the current Cline wines.
The Viognier was as good as I recall it being, definitely not in the DollyParton-style. The Estate
Syrah was pretty classic Carneros/cold-cimate Syrah w/ loads of pepper/black olive tapenade character.
I was particularly interested in trying the TehamaCnty Cab...but danged if I could pick up anything that
I could describe as that distinctive TehamaCnty terroir. I'll do a more extensive tasting of the Cline
wines in the near future.
Tom
