SacBee: MikeDunne on CharlieMyers Zin

Very nicely done article by MikeDunne in the SacBee:
CharlieMyersZin

on a resurrection of the old 1965 CharlieMyers Zin. This was the wine that impressed BobTrinchero and brought recognition to ShenandoahVlly/AmadorCnty w/ the SutterHome '68.
I, of course, followed CharlieMyers from the very start. He gifted me a (Burgundy) btl of his '65 Zin, with a piece of masking tape as a label that said "1965". Charlie went commercial in 1972 w/ his HarborWnry in WestSacramento on HarborBlvd, right behind Wingo & Sons Upholstery.
He made his Zins from DeaverVnyd grapes. In those days, Amador Zin grapes, at Deaver and Upton/Downing/GrandPere vnyds were mostly fed to their hogs, with a little bit sold to home winemakers, one of whom was Charlie. The last year Charlie took Deaver Zin grapes was 1978...when they came in very overripe & the fermentation stuck at 16% alcohol and some 3-4% RS. Charlie lamented that the wine was really doing a number on his faithful customers, so he labeled it as "Country Style" Zin and sold it off at $3/btl. My group wound up buying some 4-5 cs and it was actually pretty good.

Anywho...a nice piece of history in Mike's article. Charlie was quite a guy whose friendship a valued dearly and we shared many a meal around Darrell's table.
Tom

[Jenise]

Thanks for the post. It was a jolt to read the bit about Bob Trinchero..."laid the foundation for what today is the nation’s second largest family-owned winery, Trinchero Family Estates, home to 45 brands selling 28 million cases annually". I had not realized that Trinchero was THAT big.

Thanks for the post. It was a jolt to read the bit about Bob Trinchero..."laid the foundation for what today is the nation’s second largest family-owned winery, Trinchero Family Estates, home to 45 brands selling 28 million cases annually". I had not realized that Trinchero was THAT big.

Well, Jenise.....actually Trinchero/SutterHome once made pretty good wines. From '68-'76, those Zins were darned good. And those first 3-4 WhiteZins were pretty good. But they discovered the economy of scale and things went South fast. The wines are not "bad"....just not very interesting.
Tom

[Jenise]

Oh I do remember the days when Sutter Home was considered a premier zin producer. I just hadn't realized that the family business was still a family business (almost no one else from that era is) and that they'd gotten so big.