We're pretty excited about Steve Heimoff's write-up of Paso Robles in the October 2009 issue of Wine Enthusiast Magazine. Here is an exerpt on the Templeton Gap where our vineyard sits:

"Whether Paso Robles someday divides into 12, or 15, or whatever the number of new appellations will be, remains to be seen. But one thing is predictable: there will be high-rent districts, and one of them will be Willow Creek, in the western elevations of the Santa Lucias, and a beneficiary of the Templeton Gap maritime influences. Here are the vineyards of Saxum, L'Aventure, Cerro Prieto, Linne Colodo, Jack Creek and Villa Creek, among others.... All produce red wines with a recognizable signature: lush and decadent in fruit, yet controlled and balanced."

Cerro Prieto is a small family vineyard in the heart of the Templeton Gap, off of Willow Creek Road, that produces premium Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, and Pinot Noir grapes. The consistent ultra-premium grapes produced are due to three things:

First, extremely low crop loads, (or low yields) of 1.5 to 2.5 Tons/acre allow for maximal air flow and light exposure, because no two clusters are touching. A normal or more standard crop load of 5-6 Tons/ acre would ripen, but would have grape quality vastly inferior to the 2 Ton/ acre grapes. Think about it: a nectarine or apple tree can produce prodigious amounts of fruit. But if one were to cut the crop load by half or two-thirds, imagine all the energy going into the half or one third of the remaining fruit. The apples/ nectarines are bigger, sweeter, juicer, and of infinitely better flavor and taste.

Some of the uninitiated still argue there’s no difference in the taste and flavor of 5-6 Ton/acre grapes vs. the flavor of 2 Ton/acre grapes, but they are absolutely, positively wrong! Next time you enjoy a truly superb wine, you know you are drinking wine made from well cared for grapes of very low yield (1.5-2.5 Tons/acre). With extremely low yields grapes can achieve maximum hang time because they will ripen evenly and earlier than over-cropped vines. You hear a lot about benefits of maximum hang time. In a word, it is all true.

Second, consider terroir, which includes the gestalt of grapes. Is the soil limestone and well drained? Are vines growing on steep hillsides/ mountainsides? Is the vineyard laid out with maximal (southerly facing) exposure to sun? Is the vineyard climate characterized by not only high temperatures but low lows? A day/nite temperature split of 55 to 60 degrees is ideal for Cab, Syrah, Merlot, as well as Pinot. When hot and sunny, lots of photosynthesis occurs and the grape stores sugar. When temps drop 55-60 degrees or more at night, the grape tends to want to put on a protective thicker coating of pulp to protect its seed. Is the vineyard air pure and clean as opposed to the smelly smog often found in vineyards in the San Joaquin Valley?

All the above relate to terroir , and as noted in a national wine magazine review, wine of grapes from Cerro Prieto suggests real vineyard terroir.

Third, and not to be underemphasized, is the loving individual care given to all vines in a small boutique vineyard. When someone produces 100,000,     1 million, or 4 million cases of wine, it becomes virtually impossible to impart the care and individual vine attention we afford our vines. Pruning, thinning, hedging, harvesting…all are done by hand. Additionally, we can do taste sampling of grapes within a very localized, well defined microclimate within individual blocs. We taste sample from each sub microclimate, hence we actually can identify by tasting small portions within a bloc, those particular vines or rows (or partial rows) which are ripened to perfection.

If a small segment of a bloc is ready, we harvest it then and there. A large winery generally has to wait for the entire bloc to be ready, but they are harvesting an average, whereby some grapes may be under ripe, some just right, and some overly ripe. In a small vineyard we can virtually guarantee that when we harvest, every grape we take is truly READY for harvest. Grape by grape we are harvesting for maximal ripeness and flavor. Once you get big, you can’t .

So, low yield, vineyard terroir, and individual vine attention---boutique, if you will---are why grapes from Cerro Prieto consistently result in beautiful wines, with lovely bouquet, and soft, velvety tannins. In summary, low vine yields with loving hands on, individualized vine care, in the perfect site…tell the tale. It is why Cerro Prieto will continue to produce red wines of inky black color, with intense flavors of blackberry, cherry, raspberry, black currant, and cassis, encased in finely ground tannins.

You might want to remember all that next time you pop the cork on a Cerro Prieto wine. The perfect grape truly can make the perfect wine.

Read the Going Green Article