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Shadow Ranch Vineyard and Winery
Sam Patterson, owner and winemaker
Sam Patterson knows what he likes—snowboarding and Zinfandel. He was very matter of fact about these two points during our enjoyable interview.
Seated in a back room of his 1888 renovated farmhouse/tasting room, chocolate-covered walnuts and other goodies were out to enjoy. Once settled into our conversation, Sam spoke excitedly about his and wife Kimari’s new business. Shadow Ranch Vineyard and Winery opened in July 2007; in essence, they are the new kids on the winery block. But that didn’t phase him at all. This young winemaker knows what he’s doing, and isn’t afraid to run with the big dogs.
---------------------------------------------------
What
brought you to the Sierra foothills?
I’m an avid snowboarder so we spend a lot of time
in the snow. We were living in Napa and commuting to our family’s home
in Mammoth (ski area found in the
southern Sierra Nevada). This was before kids, so we’d go at least
three times a month. Now we have kids, and I’m lucky if we go three
times a season! But moving to the foothills, Tahoe is now in my backyard
and my drive to Mammoth [was cut] in half, which was one of the big
motivations of moving out here. Oh, and the Zinfandel, too!
You
are one of the younger wineries, opening in 2007. Why did you open a
winery?
I’d been in the wine business a long time. Actually
I’d worked for one of the largest wineries in California and one of the
largest in the Sierra foothills. I decided I was done and after building
wineries and planting vineyards for other people, I was going to do it
for myself.
So
you went to UC Davis?
I went to Davis, through their program for viticulture and enology. But my background was in viticulture so I’ve spent most of my career developing vineyards as a viticulturalist and vineyard manager. Planting a vineyard here was not much of a stretch for me. I was trained as a winemaker, but hadn’t practiced as a winemaker, until I started making the wines here.
You
make Sauvignon Blanc, which is interesting. In the Sierra foothills most
people focus on the reds. Is there a reason for your focus on a white
wine?
I do the Sauvignon Blanc because as much as we’d like to think we’re in the wine business, we’re actually in the hospitality business, so having a white wine and a port “bookends” our red wines. We do have something for everybody. You’d be surprised how many people come in here and say, “Finally, a white wine.” There are plenty of wineries up here making great white wines and I’m not going to have a whole portfolio of white wines. We’ll make Sauvignon Blanc, probably only Sauvignon Blanc, albeit it’s my favorite white wine so I’ll make something I like.
Why
is Sauvignon Blanc your favorite white wine?
I like it because you usually get a real pure
expression of fruit in the wine. It’s not a processed wine. You have
Chardonnay with the oak aging and the malolactic fermentations; Pinot
Gris is just kind of a nondescript white wine. Sauvignon Blanc has so
many different styles; there’s no defined style that we all expect from
that wine. Whether it’s a Bordeaux style or the citrus style of a New
Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, or even your California style. Ours is non-oak
aged, but we do put it through malolactic fermentation so it’s a bigger,
fuller-bodied wine.
Can
you explain malolactic fermentation?
In the general winemaking process, red wines,
almost all of them, go through malolactic fermentation spontaneously.
It’s a bacterial conversion of malic acid to lactic acid. Lactic acid is
a softer, more approachable acid. It’s not technically a fermentation,
but a bacterial conversion, whereas in the primary fermentation we’re
consuming sugar and producing alcohol and CO2.
Do
you do make all of your wine on-site?
Our winery is right here. We do store barrels
off-site. We’ve been increasing the amount of production we do here each
year. We make all the red wines here. The only one we didn’t make here
is the white wine.
You
said you opened in 2007, but you started making wines earlier than that,
didn’t you?
Yes, we made wines in 2004, Cabernet Sauvignon; didn’t do anything for 2005. I purchased all my grapes then, so none of what we have now is made from grapes grown here. I’m anticipating a limited crop next year (2009) off the vines. Out of our planted acreage, we have more Sauvignon Blanc than anything. Not many growers are paying close attention to it. We have a good grower now, and I’m real happy with the fruit we’re getting, almost to the extent that I’m not sure why I planted any myself! But I guess I figured that if I farmed it myself, then I could put all the attention and energy into it that I wanted and therefore get the quality and characteristics in the fruit that we’re looking for.
Are
you doing anything different with all of your Sauvignon Blanc?
We may end up doing different styles of Sauvignon Blanc, more like a Fumé style and a New Zealand style, and also continue with the style we have now. And we’ll probably do a late harvest at some point.
We
have a walnut tree in our backyard and we get plenty from that small
tree. Here, there are walnuts all over the place. What do you do with
all of yours?
We have about an acre of walnuts. The first year,
we kind of collected walnuts, then the crew helping me plant vines asked
if I was going to harvest the walnuts. I already had a five-gallon
bucket full, so how many did I really need? They asked if they could
have some and when I said “yes,” they showed up with ten people and
harvested the walnuts.
After
a hard, hot day of work, you go home and relax, what do you drink?
I do drink a lot of Shadow Ranch wine, but I don’t use a wine glass. I’m not swirling and sniffing—there’s a whole other goal there.
You
drink it right out of the bottle?
If I’m gonna drink that whole bottle, why dirty a glass? (Laughs and is joking—we think.) Zinfandel is what brought me up here, so I do seek out Zinfandels. I drink a lot of Zinfandel. I drink a lot of my competitors’ wines, although I’ll stay clear of saying who my favorites are. But when I go home after a hard day, I do drink wine, primarily white wine. We keep it in the refrigerator; all the bottles with misfit labels go to the house!