Slamdance Koöperatieve Wines - 'Native Wine of California' - Californian Blend - California, USA - 2020

"A wine project that abandons the fetishization of single vineyard designations and varietal labelings, committing itself instead to the humble missions of regional articulation and historical reference.

The wine is predicated on the so-called “generic wines” of yesteryear, modeled on the old “California Burgundy”-type that was once a staple of California’s wine industry. Dating back as early as the 1880s, the old California Burgundies were stylistic blends of grapes that are now mostly lost to history: Napa Gamay, Black Malvoisie, Pinot St George, Cabernet Pfeffer, Crabb’s Black, Bastardo, Mission…. As such, the wine is a blend of 12 varieties, each of which has a history in California that can be traced back to before Prohibition.

The winemaking is similarly old-fashioned: Fermentations are performed by native yeasts with whole cluster inclusion, and without the use of sulphur. The cool fermentations and long macerations occur in old oak casks. Cap management by literal human hands, promoting careful infusion into the wine, rather than brute extraction. One careful racking and a light sulphuring in the springtime are the only winemaking maneuvers performed, and the wine never encounters something so brutal as a mechanical pump or automated bottling line.

The decision to make a multi-vineyard blend, rather than a series of single vineyard/varietal wines, comes from a desire to make a regional wine. In order for the single vineyard wines of the Central Coast to make sense, the territory first needs to be defined for the consumer: The consumer needs the context of a village-level wine before you can understand the Grand Crus. So, the wine is sourced from vineyards ranging up and down the Central Coast, concentrated in San Luis Obispo County. None of the vineyards are very old, ranging between 6 and 35 years. But, more important than vine age, the genetic material planted is very old, with some of the varieties having been present in California for almost 150 years.

Importantly, these vineyards are also very well-farmed, coming from sites that are either certified organic, or farmed without chemical inputs (read as: uncertified organic)."