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JOEL PETERSON: AN ‘OLD WORLD’ ZINFANDEL PRODUCER
by Millie Howie
In 1976, when Joel Peterson and his business partner, Reed Foster,
founded Ravenswood, the first crush for the new winery was 327
cases of Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel. At the time Joel remarked
that he liked Zinfandel “because it had qualities which resembled
fruit grown in the great vineyards of Europe, and Zinfandel, more
than any other grape variety, was the most truly California grape.
It just had so much going for it. The early growers had planted
Zin in the right locations, and everything about the grape
indicated that a great California wine could be created from
Zinfandel.” He then went on to prove the accuracy of his statement
by making not one fine Zinfandel, but an entire parade, which
today includes nine Single Vineyard Designate Zinfandels.
Wine, though not necessarily Zinfandel, had always played a role
in Joel’s life. As he recalls, “When I was growing up there was
always a bottle of good wine on the dinner table. My dad’s theory
was that wine was a beverage that was meant to be smelled and
tasted and it just happened to have alcohol in it. Sharing a
bottle of wine was a document of a place, a time and a person, and
I was brought up in that atmosphere.”
But while wine had a place and played a role, Joel’s professional
goals lay in the medical field. He continued studying for his
degree as a medical technologist and exercised his interest in
wine by tasting about 200 wines a week, serving as a consultant to
several retail stores and writing about wine.
“It finally dawned on me,” he says, “that much of my life had been
focused on this one subject. I had a strong chemistry/biology
background, a wide tasting knowledge, and I love to be outside
growing things. I had also been making some pretty good homemade
wines.” It was apparent that it was time to take a serious step in
wine’s direction. Over the years he had become acquainted with the
late Joseph Swan, so he approached Swan with the idea of serving
an internship at his winery. As an apprentice Joel spent weekends
and vacations learning the basics of winemaking while continuing
to work on cancer research at Mount Zion Hospital in San
Francisco.
As his skills increased so did his enthusiasm and, as often
happens with enthusiastic young, winemakers, eventually the desire
to see his wines on restaurant wine lists and on the shelves of
prestigious wine shops pulled Joel into the commercial field.
The first Ravenswood wines were made at the Joseph Swan facility
and later early vintages were crafted at Mark West Vineyards,
Martini and Prati and Topolos. By 1981 Ravenswood had its own
winery in a small building in the City of Sonoma, but its use
permits did not include either a sign or a tasting room. The
partners were ever on the alert for a larger and more appropriate
spot, with the dream of creating a small winery like Haywood
Winery on Gehricke Road at the edge of town. In an amazing stroke
of good fortune, when the Haywood Winery came onto the market in
1991, Joel and Reed were in a position to buy it. In the winery’s
current total production of 650,000 cases a year, approximately
70% is Zinfandel. The 30% of total production which is not
Zinfandel consists of blended and unblended variations on Cabernet
Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, along with some experiments
with early and late harvest Gewurztraminer, Petite Sirah, Muscat,
and a bit of Chardonnay.
Joel and his staff refer to the Ravenswood style of winemaking as
“stubborn and impractical Old World practices.” The grapes are
fermented in small wooden tanks with natural yeasts. The caps are
punched down three to five times a day, and the wine is aged in
small French oak barrels. The resulting wines, they say, are rich,
complex and fully varietal–and well suited to aging, reaching a
peak in seven to ten years.
In the early 1990s, as Zinfandel producers were seeking ways to
make the public aware that Zinfandel was a RED wine, Joel became
one of the original founding members of Zinfandel Advocates and
Producers (ZAP). Where previous attempts at creating societies or
organizations to promote Zinfandel, or other single wine varieties
had never succeeded, ZAP took off like a shot. Today’s ZAP
membership has passed the 6500 mark for Advocates, from all around
the world, with 310 Zinfandel producers. Wineries large and small
have thronged to ZAP, as have some of the most raved-about growers
in prime Zinfandel producing areas. Advocates come from every walk
of life, every age group (over 21!) and the four corners of the
globe. Dues, set at $25 for individual membership, $30 for dual
membership remain the same for those joining today as they were in
the beginning.
Those seeking more information about ZAP can get all the details
by clicking on the website: www.zinfandel.org. The site includes a
form for joining the group. New members are welcomed with their
own official ZAP tee-shirt. Members also receive a quarterly
newsletter filled with Zinfandel-specific information, notices of
events at Zinfandel wineries, recipes and quotes. |
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