McDowell Valley Vineyards

The goal of McDowell Valley Vineyards is to be the leader in producing California-grown Rhône varietals: Syrah, Grenache, Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne. Basically, to continue to produce “America's Best Syrah!”

McDowell Valley Vineyards are located in McDowell Valley, an American Viticultural Area in Mendocino County on California's prestigious North Coast. Approximately 100 miles north of San Francisco, McDowell Valley sits nestled between the Mayacama Mountains that rim Clear Lake, and a series of little hills that separate the area from the famed Russian River Valley. The area is blessed with a warm Winkler Region III climate, with an average heat summation of about 3200 degree days per year. Cool, wet winters give way to a long, sunny, dry and warm summer. The soils of the region were formed from sediment deposited from uplifted marine sandstones along with basaltic and other igneous rock formations as they weathered and eroded from the surrounding mountains. The soils are deep, adequately fertile, and very suitable for red wine grape culture. In fact, the primary soil found in our vineyard is a "Redvine" soil as described in the SCS Soil Survey of Mendocino County.

Located near the ancient Pomo Indian village of Shokawa, the land in McDowell Valley has been good to its inhabitants for thousands of years. (The ancient village is gone, but the Pomos now feature a new casino of the same name.) Wine grape culture began on our ranch in the 1890's, and has been continuous ever since. My family has farmed 360 acres in the valley since my parents purchased our property in 1970.

During that time, we had three or four wineries that purchased Petite Sirah from us that grew in four separate blocks. Each of the wineries preferred the Petite Sirah from the block of the old Gibson Ranch, which had two blocks. One block was planted in 1919 on its own roots. The other block was propagated from that old vineyard in 1948, budded onto St. George Rootstock. In 1979, we opened our winery, and made our first crush. Our original winemaker George Bursick suspected that our old block of "Petit Sirah" was something different. He thought that the fruit from the old Gibson block was bigger and softer than all of the other Petite Sirah blocks. He sent samples to Dr. Lucy Morton, noted viticultural consultant and ampelographer trained by Dr. Gallet at the University of Montpellier in France. She identified our vines as Syrah. Where and how that wood was selected for the original 1919 vineyard block is a mystery to us. (We do know that there were Syrah vines in nearby Lake County at Guenoc Valley during the 1890's, planted by the famed actress Miss Lily Langtree, so Syrah certainly is not new to the North Coast. Dr. Harold Olmo from UC Davis identified a very old vine growing in an abandoned vineyard for Orville Magoon in the area where Miss Langtree planted her first vines.) Now that we knew what was in our original block, we began to bottle Syrah, and we were among the first wineries in California to produce this wonderful varietal.

The 1948 Gibson block was examined again by Dr. Carol Meredith in 1998. Using DNA analysis, she found true Syrah, along with Peloursin, Durif, Aubun, Alicante Bouschet, Carignane and Grenache all in the same block. Most of these varietal differences are fairly obvious; however, even Dr. Meredith had trouble distinguishing the differences between Durif, Peloursin, and Aubun. Whoever originally planted our vineyards in 1919 certainly knew and believed in Rhône wine grape varietals. We still farm another very old block of Grenache planted in that era, from which we make our Grenache Rosé.

The 1919 vineyard eventually succumbed to phylloxera and old age, and before we pulled the vineyard in 1984, we propagated a new block using wood sourced from the old vines. We made our “McDowell” Syrah clonal selection from this vineyard. This was our second generation of Syrah vines, which were propagated on St. George rootstock.

By the late 1980's, we felt that our future belonged to making Rhône styled wines, and we began to actively search for new plant material selections to increase the quality of our wines. We added new clones to our existing fields by t-budding onto older Carignane vines. This was our third generation of Syrah plantings. We chose the UC Davis Shiraz clone, the Estrella River Clone (rumored to be from Chapoutier and the famous Hermitage vineyard), and Syrah noir, obtained from Joseph Phelps. These vines performed somewhat differently from our old clone, and were welcomed additions in our wine making programs.

Finally, our fourth generation of Syrah plantings is our most recent, starting with just a few vines planted in 1997. We have obtained ENTAV selections #877 and #174. More recently, we have added ENTAV selections #383 and #470. These four clones are considered to be "A" grade clones by ENTAV on a scale of A to D, with A being the highest grade, indicating the best potential for top quality. We are now using all of these clones for replanting as we remove older blocks of Bordeaux varietals that we are no longer vinifying. We are quite excited about the intensity and quality of the wines made from the newer Syrah clones, and we believe that when blended with wines from our older vineyards, they will allow us to make excellent and complex estate bottle wines with classic Syrah aromas, good color and structure, and flavor.

In summary, we are pleased with our progress, and are considered to have the longest history of Syrah growing in the United States on one property. We agree with whoever first planted Syrah in McDowell Valley - this varietal is exquisitely adapted to our site. There is still much more to learn: how do factors such as vine age, soil and site differences, crop levels, irrigation practices, organic farming, vine spacing, fruit maturity, trellis and spacing affect both vine performance and wine taste? We are pleased that we are beginning a new experimental vineyard with the assistance of UC Cooperative Extension to directly compare new clonal material, and we hope to continue on our quest to make the best Syrah wines in California. Cheers, and enjoy your glass of McDowell Syrah!