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T HE Gold Medal Wine Club Newsletter: Vol. 10 No. 10 Zaca Mesa Winery Edition In This Issue RRHONEHONE WWINESINESTTAKEAKE CCENTERENTER SSTAGETAGE ATAT ZZACAACA MMESAESA WWINERYINERY ZACA MESA WINERY Page 1 John Cushman thought it was just beautiful Santa Ynez Valley. The land was another real estate deal. After all, by virtue reasonably priced, and the way things THIS MONTH’S of owning a successful commercial real were going in California, any land was WINES estate business, he had been involved with good land. Lou was convinced this new Page 2 thousands of land investment opportunities. venture was sound, based on two main This one was supposed to be another premises. He saw a resurgence beginning SPOTLIGHT PROFILES passive investment, with little or no active in the California wine industry that would Page 3 involvement. Little did he know then how create more demand for grapes than the differently it would turn out. available supply. He also knew that Santa Barbara’s fertile soil and agreeable climate LATE BREAKING In 1972, John’s friend Lou Ream, who had huge grape growing potential that was NEWS was Executive VP at Atlantic Richfield virtually untapped. What he didn’t know Page 5 Co., assembled a group of high profile till soon after acquiring the property, was investors to buy land in Santa Barbara the extent of his prognostication. County for the purpose of growing grapes. FOOD FOR THOUGHT Page 6 The property was 1,500 acres of primarily This group of investors was not a grazing fields, located in the heart of bunch of amateurs, mind you. Besides Continued on page 4 JUDGE-THE-WINES Page 7 REORDERS Page 8 “With Gold Medal Wine Club, The Road to Great Wine Begins at Your Door.” www.goldmedalwine.com Perhaps it was a day like this that inspired the Zaca Mesa label design. 1-800-266-8888 Gold Medal Wine Club • 3463 State Street # 280 • Santa Barbara • California • 93105 Page 1 Gold Medal Wine Club features two wines each month from only the best small wineries of California. Featured wines include those which have earned medals in the top wine-industry competitions or have been highly rated by a respected national wine publication. On occasion we feature a wine which is of high medal-quality, but due to its very limited availability or by preference of the wine producer, may not be submitted to these venues for review. Each and every selection is a superb wine made in small quantities and with limited distribution. There are over 1,000 wineries in California producing thousands of different wines. Only wines fitting the above criteria are considered in choosing the featured selections each month. 1997 SYRAH 1999 ROUSSANNE A Gold Medal Wine Club exclusive offering! Zaca A sip of Zaca Mesa’s 1999 Roussanne (pronounced Mesa is known throughout the world as a top quality roo sahn' ), is like a blast of liquid sunshine! This incredible producer of Syrah. This delicious wine is immediately wine is so full of bright fruit flavors bursting onto the approachable, the perfect medium-bodied, spicy, juicy palate that one could almost mistaken it as a sweet wine. Syrah. The aromas are suggestive of cassis, red currant and But it is dry, dry, dry—no Residual Sugar at all. Fascinating chocolate, with overtones of wild-west roasted meat and aroma of apricots, peaches and nectarines surrounded by sagebrush. Background aromas offer a slight truffle and honey and almond with a kiss of lime. The flavors are rich gamey character so desirable in great Syrah. The wine has and mouthfilling, yielding a lush array of honeydew melon, a juicy intensity and suave middle palate kept bright by pear and honeysuckle. A smooth, silky texture, full-bodied lively acidity. A harmonious and rich amalgam of smoked and very concentrated; full-flavor, clean and crisp finish meat and spicy black fruit flavors. This Syrah is perfect for that lingers well beyond expectation. Just released in tender meats such as roast duckling, beef tenderloin, or August 2000; 1997 and 1998 vintages have earned ratings rack of lamb cooked over a wood fire. Enjoy now or watch as One of the Top 50 Wines from Around the Globe by Bon it grow in complexity over the next 5-8years. Appetit magazine. WINE CREDENTIAL HIGHLIGHTS 1997 VINTAGE: Gold Medal Special Selection. This estate 1999 VINTAGE: Gold Medal Special Selection. Just bottled Mariposa Vineyard Syrah is an exclusive offering released in August 2000 so reviews and awards are to members of the Gold Medal Wine Club and visitors to forthcoming. the Zaca Mesa tasting room. Not entered into competitions. LEGACY : A leader in the production of Rhone wines, LEGACY: Zaca Mesa is one of the world’s premier Syrah Zaca Mesa’s Roussannes have earned more medals and producers. The 1993 vintage placed sixth in the world in high ratings than any other U.S. winery. Wine Spectator’s Top Wines of 1995. Just the facts: Just the facts: pH . 3.53 pH . 3.48 Total Acid . .60 g/100 mls Total Acid . .76 g/100 mls Alcohol . 13.5% Alcohol . 14.0% Cases Produced . 2,000 Cases Produced . 1,905 Aged in French Oak . 23 Months Aged in 3 and 4 year-old French Oak Drink Now or Up to Year. 2008 Drink Now or Up to Year . 2003 1-800-266-8888 Gold Medal Wine Club Page 2 GGOLDOLD MMEDALEDAL SSPOTLIGHTPOTLIGHT acclaimed Advanced Management be done to save their “passive John Cushman Program (AMP). investment.” John Cushman took control of things just in time. He was only It was after his completion at John recruited his twin brother a passive investor of Zaca Mesa Harvard that John decided to start Lou to help buy out the other Winery before he saw it beginning his own firm, Cushman Realty investors and assist in turning things to falter in the late 1980s. He knew Corporation. Aside from buying around at the winery. After a few he’d better act quickly or risk losing and selling commercial properties, years at the helm, John put together his entire investment. his new company began developing the current and final pieces of his and managing properties as well. management team to run the Twenty-five years earlier, John By the mid-1980s he had solidly operation on a day-to-day basis. graduated from Colgate University positioned Cushman Realty into with a degree in Economics without one of the most successful John Cushman, Jeff Maiken, the foggiest notion he would ever commercial real estate firms in Jim Fiolek and many others along in his life own a winery. After the country. the way have helped cement Zaca graduating, he decided to enter Mesa’s reputation for fine into the family commercial real So you might premium wines and for estate business. surmise that by this developing innovative date John still had winemaking John’s Grandfather and Great little idea he would techniques. Uncle started Cushman & Wakefield soon be It is apparent in New York, in 1918. Their business operating they are was a hugely successful enterprise by a winery. But committed to the time John joined the firm in by 1989, it the long-term success 1963. After just four years under his became apparent to of Zaca Mesa—and belt, he led the company’s expansion him and his other their efforts show up to the West Coast, moving to Los fellow investors in beautifully in their Angeles to head up the huge ARCO the Zaca Mesa wines. Plaza development project. It was a project that monumental undertaking—twin something 52-story towers in the middle of had to downtown L.A. Cashing in on their holdings, Cushman & Wakefield sold the company to RCA in the early 1970s. They, in turn, sold to the Rockefellers several years later. Through both transitions, John stayed with the company. In 1977 and ’78, he was invited into and completed Harvard University’s internationally Winery owner John Cushman relaxes after a day at the ranch. 1-800-266-8888 Gold Medal Wine Club Page 3 Continued from page 1 During those early years it With tremendous opportunity became increasingly apparent that coming into focus, the logical Lou Reams and John Cushman, the location was special, and indeed evolution was to start a winery. They other original investors included, Joe prime for grape growing. This fact named it Zaca Mesa Winery and, as Harnett, President of Standard Oil; was confirmed by the wine label tells you, the name viticultural experts comes from the early Spanish who analyzed several settlers who affectionately called the successive harvests. As area “La Zaca Mesa,” or “the restful it turns out, the area’s place.” The scene on the label is a topography is a unique montage depicting the elements of factor in promoting sun, wind, earth and rain that extremely healthy and combine in just the right mix, to productive vineyards. produce the area’s unique climate. Along the coastal area of Santa Barbara The winery’s first wines were County lies the only produced at other facilities while east/west running their own winery was under A picture perfect Spring day at Zaca Mesa Winery mountain range on the construction. A blended red table in Santa Barbara County. entire length of the wine was released in 1976, followed United States West by a Zinfandel in 1977. By 1978, Coast. On either side of they had completed construction of Ruben Metler, former Chairman Santa Barbara, the mountains pick their own winery and added their of TRW; and Walter Pearson, up the usual north/south pattern first Chardonnay to the line-up.