Growing Up Organic
Yorkville Cellars Specializes in Uncommon Wines with Respect for the Planet
by Dawn Emery Ballantine
As a serious bookworm and a lover of mysteries, one might think I’d be a fan of surprises. Sadly, I am not! Those chocolate boxes with unidentified centers fill me with dread, never knowing what I might be about to bite into. I would rather go without, thanks all the same. But receiving Yorkville Cellars’ latest email broke that long-entrenched pattern with a click of the mouse. Perhaps the COVID-19 shutdown played a role and we’re all thirsty for something out of the ordinary, but their recent promotion, “Celebrate the 4th of July with Special Pricing on Mystery Cases,” had my wallet out in a hot second and has been something lovely--and mysterious--to come home to after a hard day’s work these past weeks.
Mendocino County is bountiful with great wineries, and the Anderson Valley area is arguably a shining star in the firmament. Traveling via Highway 128 West from Highway 101, the first tasting room and the gateway to Anderson Valley is Yorkville Cellars, whose vineyards are part of the Yorkville Highlands American Viticultural Association (AVA). There could hardly be a more fruitful beginning to one’s area wine exploration. Indeed, Deborah and Edward Wallo first discovered and fell in love with the now-Yorkville Cellars site while on their own wine journey inspired by a Sunset magazine article in the early 1980s.
The gates to Yorkville Cellars open along the vineyard-fronted highway, and driving through the vines toward the beautiful redwood tasting room is just the beginning of an immersive experience. Since they first purchased the property in 1984—with structures only half-built and a few acres of aged and neglected sauvignon blanc— Deborah and Edward have been very hands-on and clear about their vision. Their vineyards are located at the headwaters of Dry Creek and Rancheria Creek, so they felt called to be “guardians of the watershed,” minimizing any damage or contamination from chemicals and run-off. They were also raising three children and wanted a healthy environment for them. So Yorkville Cellars became one of the first vineyards in Mendocino County dedicated to organic vineyard and winemaking practices. Though the decision to operate under organic certification was a simple one, it has not always been easy in practice.
Deborah muses that “ . . . we have so much more knowledge now . . . we’ve grown up with it [organic farming].” But in the beginning, all the work was manual, and she likens it to maintaining “an enormous backyard.” They had to hand hoe and weed (wild blackberry is still their biggest pest), use push-mowers, and apply natural fertilizers such as fish emulsion by hand (the memory of that particular odor is one that lingers years later). These days, there is irrigation tubing which can handle the load of organic fertilizers and other nutrients which are necessary to maintain the vines at their peak, not to mention newer, more mechanized mowing and weeding options, though a fair bit is still by-hand only. As Deborah says, “Our wines are made in the vineyard,” so they continue to use primarily old-world methods to craft their luscious vintages, with minimal intervention in the winery.
Yorkville Cellars farms thirty-one acres comprising two estate, organic vineyards, CCOF-certified since 1986, and holding designation as a Certified California Sustainable Vineyard. They are one of few wineries outside of Bordeaux, France to grow all six of the “noble reds”: Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Petit Verdot, and Carménère (a quite rare grape thought to be extinct in France but which found new life in the hills of Chile—and now Yorkville). They also cultivate two of the Bordeaux whites—Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. They produce and bottle each of these as single-varietal wines, enabling their customers to clearly enjoy and explore the distinctions between them. Deborah reports that Yorkville is very similar to the Bordeaux region in terms of climate, most specifically heat and rainfall, and this has been one of the reasons for their success with these particular grape varietals.
The hotter highlands, where Randle Hill Vineyard is situated, and the cooler lowlands, occupied by Rennie Vineyard, provide them with multiple microclimates, which enable them to support this wide variety of grapes. All of them have largely flourished here and allow Yorkville Cellars to produce a broad range of wines, some of which are very hard to come by outside of France. Of local wineries, only Navarro Vineyards
in the Anderson Valley AVA comes close to the sheer assortment of wines produced.
Deborah explains that the diversity of vines spreads out both the risk of pest infestation or crop failure as well as the timing of harvest, the latter often stretching out over six weeks instead of the more typical 2-3 day push. Each variety has its own peculiarities and issues, but good canopy management addresses the bulk of them. Deborah notes that the vines are aging, as this is their 26th year. They are becoming less productive and require more attention to keep the vines strong, and some years there is not enough fruit to bottle a particular vintage.
In addition to their regular bottlings, Yorkville Cellars creates some surprises from time to time. Amber Folly, first bottled by them in 2013, is an “orange wine” that dates back at least 5,000 years in winemaking history and is as established as red or white wines. Deborah and Edward began reading about these wines in 2009-2010. A very old style which originated in Georgia on the slopes of the South Caucasus—“the cradle of wine,” semillon wine grapes are harvested and all the skins are left on after crush for the fermentation process, creating the deep golden color. The grapes are fully fermented in open-top bins to capture wild indigenous yeasts. The ancient Georgian technique involves burying the fermented grapes in kveri clay pots, covering them with soil and leaving them in the ground over the winter. Yorkville Cellars prefers to blend the old-style technique with newer trends, mixing the “murkier” traditional result with clearer wines for a happy combination of the ancient and new.
The winemakers first attempted a Sweet Malbec in 2006. Fermentation is stopped earlier than is typical for red wines, leaving more sugar in the grape. It is then slow-fermented in a cold tank, with fermentation stopped when the sugar is at 6%. This creates a lovely wine, somewhat sweeter than usual but in no way cloying. I inadvertently put a bottle in the refrigerator (mistaking it for a rosé), but after a long, hot day of work, it was amazingly refreshing.
In 2013, they produced a Malbec/Petit Verdot blend, unique to them because they had grafted both varietals onto the same vine. The grapes were harvested and fermented separately, blended together, then barrel-aged for 3 years prior to bottling. They have also crafted both a Sparkling Malbec and a Sparkling Petit Verdot, most recently bottled in 2016. And they create their famous gold-medal wine, Richard the Lion-Heart, which is a blend of all six of the noble red Bordeaux varietals, mixed at various percentages based on the vintage and aged for 21 months in French oak barrels. This unique, limited production wine is so popular that the best way to obtain it is by purchasing the “futures” for next year’s release.
A happy customer of Yorkville Cellars for nearly 20 years, I look forward to receiving their newsy emails, especially when accompanied by one of their occasional specials. My personal favorite is their End of Prohibition sale in early November—no mysteries there, just a wide selection of their wines at half price with $1 shipping. Join the list on their website, where you’ll also find more in-depth information about the crafting of these special wines. You will also be treated to some lovely prose, such as: “While so much is on pause for so many right now, we invite you to have faith in the lesson of the vine, while enjoying the lesson of wine. Pull out the good vintages, the good memories, and revisit them. And know that the vine promises there will be more to come. And when this worldwide winter is over we will grow and flourish and enjoy our time in the sun all the more.”
Everything about the wines produced by Yorkville Cellars reflects the bounty and abundance of their organic vineyards, carefully nurtured through the years. Visit the tasting room (appointment only during COVID), where the sheer knowledge and friendliness of the owners and long-time staff create a singular tasting experience. Let yourself drink in the variety and depth of flavor embodied in their wines, making your own bright memories.
Yorkville Cellars | 25701 Highway 128, Yorkville
707- 894-9177 | YorkvilleCellars.com
Currently open for tasting and curbside pickup by appointment. Order online for shipping or pickup.
Dawn Emery Ballantine lives in Anderson Valley where she curates and sells books at Hedgehog Books, edits this magazine, and finds that she can enjoy a surprise, particularly if it’s a great bottle of wine.
