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Feature Article
Bill Knuttel is deeply involved in the winery's five-year plan for streamlining production, raising quality, and, above all, getting back to the appellations and terroir where their roots were deepest.
Refocusing on Appellation
and Terroir at a Flagship Winery
An engaging interview with Dry Creek Vineyard winemaker Bill Knuttel reveals how the winery has grown and returned to its original core mission.
by
Thom Elkjer
June 22, 2007
Thom Elkjer (TE): The owners of Dry Creek Vineyard clearly wanted to change direction, and you obviously didn’t hesitate when you took over the winemaking. What was the major hurdle you had to get over?
Bill Knuttel (BK): You remember what happened in the 1990s. The market got hot, and big successful wineries like this one felt they had to expand. As they expanded, they lost
focus. When I got here in 2003, we had a regular Cabernet and a reserve Cabernet, a regular Merlot and a reserve Merlot, the Endeavor Cabernet, and a Meritage. And that was just the Bordeaux programs. We also had a bunch of Zinfandels and Sauvignon Blancs, a huge Sonoma County Chardonnay program, and a Chenin Blanc. It was obviously too much.
TE: What steps did you take first?
BK: The main thing was focusing in on what we could do well. In the Bordeaux program, for example, we eliminated the reserve wines, which meant that a lot of good fruit was available to make other wines better. That gave the whole Bordeaux program a big shot in the arm. The Chardonnay program was sprawling all over Sonoma County, so we pulled that back to Russian River Valley and focused on our own vineyards rather than contract growers.
All our Sauvignon Blanc and Zinfandel comes from Dry Creek Valley now, and the fruit has to earn its way into the bottle with some particular quality. Examples of that include our DCV3 [vineyard] Sauvignon, the Somers and Beeson Zinfandels, and the old-vine Zinfandel. The vineyards behind those wines have something unique to say about their terroir and about Dry Creek Valley, so they deserve a bottling of their own.
TE: You dropped a lot of contracts with outside growers, yet the Somers and Beeson vineyard-designated Zinfandels both come from contract growers. Can you explain why you decided to hold those contracts and make specific wines out of those vineyards?
BK: First off, they’re both in Dry Creek. That’s part of the master plan, and these vineyards fit the plan perfectly.
Let’s start with Somers Vineyard. George Somers has property all over the place, but this particular vineyard is a little piece of paradise, with perfect soil and perfect drainage. It’s one of those classic Dry Creek vineyards, big enough to give you some interesting variations and good tonnage but small
Dry Creek Vineyard winemaker Bill Knuttelenough that you can farm it with real attention. The main block is up on a hilltop where the grapes ripen beautifully every year. I love the place, and I love the guy. He’s very business-savvy, but at the end of the day, he’s all about farming his grapes.
Beeson Ranch was originally planted sometime before 1893 and has some of the oldest vines in the appellation. It also has a lot of red soil, good sloping exposures, and excellent drainage. A lot of the vines are younger now, but they have been propagated from the original vines and they’re still head-trained and dry-farmed, so the expression of the site is consistent over time.
It’s hard to find ten-acre vineyards with that much old-vine material in such good health, even in Dry Creek which is known for old-vine Zinfandel. The family that owns it is committed to keeping it in production for us, and the wine is wonderful. So we have plenty of reasons to keep that contract vineyard as well.
TE: Why did you maintain the two white wines that come from outside Dry Creek Valley?
BK: Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay both have a long heritage at this winery, and they’re also very popular with our customers. So we’re keeping them, but we’re sourcing them from places where the fruit is outstanding, not just available or inexpensive. That means Russian River Valley for the Chardonnay and Clarksburg for Chenin.
These appellations are well-known to me and our vineyard team. We like our locations within the appellations and we think we can make world-class wines from them. Remember, we’re focusing on the things we can do well, and these wines should be good examples of that.
TE: At the same time you were changing things in the vineyards, you were also overhauling the winemaking equation. What went into that?
BK: There’s no substitute for great fruit, so that’s where we put a lot of emphasis at first. I walk for miles in the
Beeson Ranch is one of the vineyards in Dry Creek Vineyard’s appellation investment. vineyard every day during harvest to make sure we’re picking at the right times, and Duff Bevill, our vineyard manager, is one of Sonoma County’s most experienced viticulture guys.
On the other hand, the way you handle that fruit makes a big difference in the finished wine. It’s like a chef in the kitchen: even with great ingredients, someone has to do the cooking. Now scale that up to a winery making over 100,000 cases a year. You can’t overhaul everything all at once. So before we started changing out the infrastructure, I tried to set a new attitude about how we brought the fruit in, how we handled it, how carefully we culled out the dross, and so on. That made a difference right away. Just a shift in attitude, but one that got people’s attention.
TE: What kind of infrastructure changes did the winery need?
BK: We invested in a new bottling line, we bought a new microfilter system, and we more or less completely turned over the barrel program. Those are all big-ticket changes, but they were fundamentally necessary. The winery had been running on older American oak barrels for a long time, and the wines reflected that. They had gotten a bit generic and uninteresting.
The same thing happened in a lot of wineries this size: production went up but the production system didn’t get better, and the wine suffered. The difference is that the people who own this winery didn’t let that continue. They told me the goal was quality, not quantity, and they meant it.
TE: You cut case production in half in 2003, from more than 140,000 cases to around 70,000. That must have been a shock to everyone.
BK: I didn’t intend to go that low, but you know what? We bounced back even faster than I thought. We got back to 100,000 cases in two years, and we’ve had to bottle three vintages in two years to keep up with demand.
TE: What about the Endeavor Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon – did you make changes there as well?
BK: Absolutely. That is our highest-priced wine – though I believe it’s an incredible value – so it should show us at our best. Because of the whole change in our barrel program, I dialed back the barrel aging, from three years in American oak to around 20 months in new French oak, which is plenty for a high-end Cabernet. We vinify a lot of different blocks from the Endeavor vineyard separately, and then make a barrel selection for the finished wine.
The Endeavor Cabernet Sauvignon used to be 100% Cabernet. After the 2002 vintage, we’re adding Petite Verdot – but not to make the wine bigger or structure it more. It actually softens the wine because the Cabernet from Endeavor vineyard is so massive. You don’t want to overdo it with Verdot, so I add only two or three percent and that makes a nice difference.
TE: I’m going to guess that you dug into the Meritage program as well.
BK: I think we dug into everything, and the Meritage was no exception. One key is that we’re making that blend
in concert with all the other Bordeaux varietal wines, so that all of them are as good as they can be. If I have to tear apart the Meritage blend to make another wine better, I will – I just have to find a different blend that keep the Meritage at the same level of quality. Everything has to shine. That’s where we are now. No short-cuts.
TE: What kind of specific changes can we expect in the wine or its flavor profile?
BK: The 2004 blend includes all five Bordeaux red varieties for the first time since 1985. Dry Creek Vineyard was one of the wineries that launched the Meritage concept 22 years ago, so the family takes the program seriously as an artistic opportunity to create something unique with the family of Bordeaux reds.
That’s why we gave our Meritage a new name, “Mariner,” and why we took a fresh look at the blend. My goal is to make a plush, velvety version of a French-style Bordeaux blend that’s also concentrated and intense enough to age beautifully. It will be about 85% Cabernet and Merlot in most years, with the vintage determining the ultimate blend. We’ll age about 50% of it in new oak, most of it French.
TE: Are there other aspects of the turn-around that consumers haven’t seen yet?
BK: Ultimately, we would like to identify certain blocks of the Endeavor vineyard that go into the Endeavor Cabernet every year, so we can start farming those blocks for the flavors we want in the finished wine. We’re making around 800 cases of the Endeavor Cab, and we’ll probably stay at that level.
Endeavor vineyard also produces both Zinfandel and Petite Sirah, so we can take the same approach we do with the vineyard-designated Cabernet and produce an Endeavor Zinfandel with some Petite in it. That’s a classic Dry Creek Valley combination, and we’re looking forward to exploring that kind of program a little further down the road.
Get a taste of Dry Creek Vineyard wines. Read Thom’s reviews at APPELLATION AMERICA
Bill Knuttel (BK): You remember what happened in the 1990s. The market got hot, and big successful wineries like this one felt they had to expand. As they expanded, they lost
focus. When I got here in 2003, we had a regular Cabernet and a reserve Cabernet, a regular Merlot and a reserve Merlot, the Endeavor Cabernet, and a Meritage. And that was just the Bordeaux programs. We also had a bunch of Zinfandels and Sauvignon Blancs, a huge Sonoma County Chardonnay program, and a Chenin Blanc. It was obviously too much.
TE: What steps did you take first?
BK: The main thing was focusing in on what we could do well. In the Bordeaux program, for example, we eliminated the reserve wines, which meant that a lot of good fruit was available to make other wines better. That gave the whole Bordeaux program a big shot in the arm. The Chardonnay program was sprawling all over Sonoma County, so we pulled that back to Russian River Valley and focused on our own vineyards rather than contract growers.
All our Sauvignon Blanc and Zinfandel comes from Dry Creek Valley now, and the fruit has to earn its way into the bottle with some particular quality. Examples of that include our DCV3 [vineyard] Sauvignon, the Somers and Beeson Zinfandels, and the old-vine Zinfandel. The vineyards behind those wines have something unique to say about their terroir and about Dry Creek Valley, so they deserve a bottling of their own.
TE: You dropped a lot of contracts with outside growers, yet the Somers and Beeson vineyard-designated Zinfandels both come from contract growers. Can you explain why you decided to hold those contracts and make specific wines out of those vineyards?
BK: First off, they’re both in Dry Creek. That’s part of the master plan, and these vineyards fit the plan perfectly.
Let’s start with Somers Vineyard. George Somers has property all over the place, but this particular vineyard is a little piece of paradise, with perfect soil and perfect drainage. It’s one of those classic Dry Creek vineyards, big enough to give you some interesting variations and good tonnage but small
Dry Creek Vineyard winemaker Bill Knuttel
Beeson Ranch was originally planted sometime before 1893 and has some of the oldest vines in the appellation. It also has a lot of red soil, good sloping exposures, and excellent drainage. A lot of the vines are younger now, but they have been propagated from the original vines and they’re still head-trained and dry-farmed, so the expression of the site is consistent over time.
It’s hard to find ten-acre vineyards with that much old-vine material in such good health, even in Dry Creek which is known for old-vine Zinfandel. The family that owns it is committed to keeping it in production for us, and the wine is wonderful. So we have plenty of reasons to keep that contract vineyard as well.
TE: Why did you maintain the two white wines that come from outside Dry Creek Valley?
BK: Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay both have a long heritage at this winery, and they’re also very popular with our customers. So we’re keeping them, but we’re sourcing them from places where the fruit is outstanding, not just available or inexpensive. That means Russian River Valley for the Chardonnay and Clarksburg for Chenin.
These appellations are well-known to me and our vineyard team. We like our locations within the appellations and we think we can make world-class wines from them. Remember, we’re focusing on the things we can do well, and these wines should be good examples of that.
TE: At the same time you were changing things in the vineyards, you were also overhauling the winemaking equation. What went into that?
BK: There’s no substitute for great fruit, so that’s where we put a lot of emphasis at first. I walk for miles in the
Beeson Ranch is one of the vineyards in Dry Creek Vineyard’s appellation investment.
On the other hand, the way you handle that fruit makes a big difference in the finished wine. It’s like a chef in the kitchen: even with great ingredients, someone has to do the cooking. Now scale that up to a winery making over 100,000 cases a year. You can’t overhaul everything all at once. So before we started changing out the infrastructure, I tried to set a new attitude about how we brought the fruit in, how we handled it, how carefully we culled out the dross, and so on. That made a difference right away. Just a shift in attitude, but one that got people’s attention.
TE: What kind of infrastructure changes did the winery need?
BK: We invested in a new bottling line, we bought a new microfilter system, and we more or less completely turned over the barrel program. Those are all big-ticket changes, but they were fundamentally necessary. The winery had been running on older American oak barrels for a long time, and the wines reflected that. They had gotten a bit generic and uninteresting.
The same thing happened in a lot of wineries this size: production went up but the production system didn’t get better, and the wine suffered. The difference is that the people who own this winery didn’t let that continue. They told me the goal was quality, not quantity, and they meant it.
TE: You cut case production in half in 2003, from more than 140,000 cases to around 70,000. That must have been a shock to everyone.
BK: I didn’t intend to go that low, but you know what? We bounced back even faster than I thought. We got back to 100,000 cases in two years, and we’ve had to bottle three vintages in two years to keep up with demand.
TE: What about the Endeavor Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon – did you make changes there as well?
BK: Absolutely. That is our highest-priced wine – though I believe it’s an incredible value – so it should show us at our best. Because of the whole change in our barrel program, I dialed back the barrel aging, from three years in American oak to around 20 months in new French oak, which is plenty for a high-end Cabernet. We vinify a lot of different blocks from the Endeavor vineyard separately, and then make a barrel selection for the finished wine.
The Endeavor Cabernet Sauvignon used to be 100% Cabernet. After the 2002 vintage, we’re adding Petite Verdot – but not to make the wine bigger or structure it more. It actually softens the wine because the Cabernet from Endeavor vineyard is so massive. You don’t want to overdo it with Verdot, so I add only two or three percent and that makes a nice difference.
TE: I’m going to guess that you dug into the Meritage program as well.
BK: I think we dug into everything, and the Meritage was no exception. One key is that we’re making that blend
in concert with all the other Bordeaux varietal wines, so that all of them are as good as they can be. If I have to tear apart the Meritage blend to make another wine better, I will – I just have to find a different blend that keep the Meritage at the same level of quality. Everything has to shine. That’s where we are now. No short-cuts.
TE: What kind of specific changes can we expect in the wine or its flavor profile?
BK: The 2004 blend includes all five Bordeaux red varieties for the first time since 1985. Dry Creek Vineyard was one of the wineries that launched the Meritage concept 22 years ago, so the family takes the program seriously as an artistic opportunity to create something unique with the family of Bordeaux reds.
That’s why we gave our Meritage a new name, “Mariner,” and why we took a fresh look at the blend. My goal is to make a plush, velvety version of a French-style Bordeaux blend that’s also concentrated and intense enough to age beautifully. It will be about 85% Cabernet and Merlot in most years, with the vintage determining the ultimate blend. We’ll age about 50% of it in new oak, most of it French.
TE: Are there other aspects of the turn-around that consumers haven’t seen yet?
BK: Ultimately, we would like to identify certain blocks of the Endeavor vineyard that go into the Endeavor Cabernet every year, so we can start farming those blocks for the flavors we want in the finished wine. We’re making around 800 cases of the Endeavor Cab, and we’ll probably stay at that level.
Endeavor vineyard also produces both Zinfandel and Petite Sirah, so we can take the same approach we do with the vineyard-designated Cabernet and produce an Endeavor Zinfandel with some Petite in it. That’s a classic Dry Creek Valley combination, and we’re looking forward to exploring that kind of program a little further down the road.
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