To quote the Replacements "What's that song?"
For those who don't know who Alex Chilton (he died a little over a year ago), he was a legendary singer/songwriter for the Boxtops (classic soul knock off called the Letter) and then as a recluse recorded several albums as Big Star. These albums were favorites at my college radio station, yet were commercial failures. Alex Chilton was forgotten until The Replacements sang about him in their 1987 song celebrating this reclusive, yet very influential artist.
What does this have to do with wine? For many years I have heard about Sean Thackrey. Robert Parker has written "One of California's most iconic and mystical winemakers, Sean Thackrey has logged in 20 or more vintages of consistently stunning wines that perhaps say it all with the simple quote on his label Sean Thackrey, Bolinas, CA." Every one of his wines is rated 90+ and above. The Wine Spectator wrote that his winery is as far from the glamour of Napa as is humanly possible, yet still in California. Above all, he has no tasting room, and no one sells his wines. In short, after 25 years of traveling in most of California's wine regions, he remained an enigma.
So when the Marin Winegrower's Association and the Marin Agricultural Land Trust sponsored a wine event focusing on Marin County wine grapes, in small print, along with the other producers, was the name Sean Thackrey. I had to go.
Now I hear the skeptics, Marin is a suburb of San Francisco. This is true only as far as it goes. Over 60% of the county is agricultural, rural, and extremely remote. All I have to do is make a right on to Lucas Valley Road, travel about 3 miles and I am definitely in rural America. I also pass George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch, where some of the grapes from yesterday's event were sourced. The other areas are Devil's Gulch, which is near Nicasio (Check out Rancho Nicasio, one of the great bars in Marin, and top of the line musical talent plays there as well), and the northernmost area in Marin, Chileno Valley. They are all extreme wine growing areas with more in common with the Sonoma Coast than the warm areas of Napa or Sonoma. And some of the wines were really delicious, and proved to be serious values as well.
Some of the standouts were Pey Marin who poured a very nice Trois Filles blend Pinot Noir that had a wonderful structure, showed great acid, and nice fruit. Their star was their Riesling, which was dry, but extremely fruity. I loved it, as it compares with a good German Spatlesse. This wine begged the question, why not more Riesling in Marin. The answer is economics, if your getting $50 a bottle for Pinot, why grow a graped where you only can get $25. It's a pity that Riesling is not appreciated by most Americans.
Dutton Goldfield was pouring several vintages from Devil's Gulch. Again, great acid and structure and some very nice fruit. A fine effort. Another large winery, DeLoach was pouring a Pinot from Skywalker Ranch, as well as 2 pinots from elsewhere. The Marin County blend was a standout, with bright acidity and fruit, nice tannins and great structure.
Then we got to the reason I went to this event, to finally try wines from the wine enigma Sean Thackrey. OMG, the 2008 Andromeda was a great, not good, but great wine. This was a wine with personality as well as a sense of place. There was a funkiness that I've really come to love, as well as fruit, great acid, light and elegant tannins. There is no other place in the world where this wine could have come from but a climate challenged area. This was a wine for the ages, and it should be spectacular in 10 years, if I can lay off drinking it before then.
Yes there are some really interesting wines from Marin County. The common element is that they are very well structured with great bright acidity, which means they will go great with all types of food.
And I was invited by Sean Thackrey to visit him at his winery so I can taste his whole portfolio. I can't wait.
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