WINE PRESS Perry Creek Winery Gold Medal Wine Club Newsletter: Vol. 22 No. 02 erry Creek winery At an altitude of 1401 feet, PPerry Creek’s wines reach the top of their game. Perry Creek’s winery offers an inviting, elegant setting to enjoy their premium mountain wines. Operations manager and winemaker Stefan Tscheppe proudly presents the fruits of his labor. Perry Creek specializes in Rhone varietals and Zinfandels, grown at unusually high altitudes in El Dorado’s Fair Play appellation. GOLD MEDAL WINE CLUB - AMERICA’S LEADING INDEPENDENT WINE CLUB SINCE 1992 2009 ZINFANDEL Perry Creek’s ‘Altitude: 2401 Legacy’ 2009 Zinfandel is a special pre-release wine available exclusively for Gold Medal Wine Club members! This premium wine comes 2009 VINTAGE: from a remarkably high growing altitude of GOLD MEDAL SPECIAL SELECTION 2401 feet at Perry Creek’s own Fair Play - NEW RELEASE; ACCOLADES FORTHCOMING Farms vineyard in El Dorado County. Its unmatched spicy elegance and its rich complex body makes it the winery’s most LEGACY: treasured Zinfandel, carrying forward the ONE OF THE CHARACTERISTIC WINES OF century-old Zinfandel legacy of the El Dorado PERRY CREEK, PREVIOUS VINTAGES OF appellation. The wine is lively and vivid THE 2009 ZINFANDEL HAVE EARNED RATINGS with elegant aromas of dark berries, spices, AS HIGH AS 93 POINTS WITH PRESTIGIOUS fine smoke, and raspberry jam followed by DOUBLE GOLD MEDALS AND BEST OF flavors of dark chocolate, lush earth-tones, APPELLATION AWARDS. strawberries, coffee, and vanilla on the palate. This is what Perry Creek Zinfandel is all about! Since this 2009 Zinfandel has been pre-released to our members, the wine has not yet been rated by the top periodicals, but with a colorful history of ratings from past vintages we are confident it will garner what Just the facts: the wines have achieved in the past – 90+ points pH. 3.52 and numerous Gold Medals. The ‘Altitude: Alcohol ......................... 14.8% 2401 Legacy’ 2009 Zinfandel is a beautiful Total Acidity ...................... .50 g/100 mL mountain-grown Zin that will pair deliciously Aging .......................... 18 months in oak with gnocchi and pancetta mushroom sauce Cases Produced. 625 (see recipe page). Aged 18 months in oak. Drink Now or Up to Year ............. 2018 100% Zinfandel. Enjoy now until 2018. erry Creek winery It can be accurately explained that Perry Creek Winery of Fair Play (who couldn’t trust wines from a place with that name?), California has a dichotomous existence; something that could also be termed the winery’s past and present. In 1989, New York-born Michael Chazen spotted some property while driving to Las Vegas and was immediately Pbitten by the wine bug. He planted some 20 acres and built a winery that eventually reached more than 20,000 cases, no mere feat for a startup winery in the Sierra Madre Foothills during the early 1990’s. Chazen eventually planted more acreage but a nasty divorce and settlement forced Chazen into an absentee ownership position. He departed California for Florida and the winery was put up for sale just after the advent of the millennium. Page 2 2009 SYRAH Perry Creek’s ‘Altitude: 2401 Dark Forest’ 2009 Syrah comes from the winery’s own Fair Play Farms Vineyard in the El Dorado 2009 VINTAGE: Appellation. Situated at 2401 feet of GOLD MEDAL SPECIAL SELECTION elevation in the Sierra Nevadas, the Fair - NEW RELEASE; ACCOLADES FORTHCOMING Play Farms site is a uniquely high parcel and the Syrah comes from an outstanding block within the vineyard named Dark Forest. LEGACY: Here, the roots of a 500 year-old oak tree ARGUABLY PERRY CREEK’S TOP-NOTCH forest help compete with the vines for water SYRAH, THIS 2009 VINTAGE FOLLOWS A HEAP and nutrients, and in turn, promote some OF 90+ POINTED WINES WITH DOUBLE GOLD of the appellation’s finest grown Syrah MEDALS AND WORLD WINE CHAMPIONSHIPS grapes. The ‘Altitude: 2401 Dark Forest’ AWARDS. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! Syrah is a truly distinctive representation of terrior at the Fair Play Farms vineyard, and the winemaker terms the 2009 vintage “our best Syrah from the Fair Play Farms vineyard yet.” Velvety aromas of blackberry, milk chocolate, mint, earth and cherries are lively on the nose, and set the stage for intense flavors of fruit, exotic spices, caramel, dark nougat, and Just the facts: cassis on the palate. Ripe and juicy tannins pH. 3.52 support the smooth elegance of this one-of-a-kind Alcohol ......................... 14.8% Syrah – we know you will enjoy! This special Total Acidity ...................... 0.50 g/100 mL pre-release wine has not yet been rated, but with Aging .......................... 18 months in oak previous vintages earning 90+ Points and Cases Produced. 775 Double Gold Medals, its reputation speaks for Drink Now or Up to Year ............. 2019 itself. Aged 18 months in oak. 98% Syrah, 2% Petite Sirah. Enjoy now until 2019. Perry Creek remained in that finally succeeded in buying status for several years until Dieter the entire place.” Juergens arrived on the scene and Since the Perry Creek became interested in the property. name was basically intact Juergens was already a property and came with the purchase, owner and grower in the Fair Play Juergens decided to go fast region who had even used Perry forward in resurrecting the Creek’s facilities for his first custom cozy winery. He bulldozed crush fruit from his own vineyards. a lot of the area around According to Juergens, “Perry the winery proper and Perry Creek manages 40 acres of prime vineyards Creek was exactly what I had been created a large area park located in the highly elevated Fair Play Appellation looking for, and maybe hadn’t that literally jumped out in El Dorado. realized it at that point. It had been at visitors. He also installed on the market for a while and there a new deck with sufficient space for was literally no movement. I knew events and made ample use of the that the price would be right and I existing river and creek to create an Page 3 idealistic destination for winery goers. winery. He is currently the head Perry Creek sprinted ahead under winemaker for Perry Creek, with its new ownership and the aggressive assistance from Scott Johnson as well. he Current annual production stands management team that was assembled. T near fifteen thousand cases, a level that Stefan Tscheppe was hired from Austria is comfortable for the small winery to Wine where his family had owned VINO continue producing at the standard of quality they are proud of. Wizard Perry Creek’s wines are also a product of a wide variety of opinions, 1) What is “free run” wine? a sort of wine-by-committee approach that seems to be working with amazing 2) What is the technical results. Practically everyone involved with the winery, from operations difference between crushing manager to vineyards manager, along and pressing in the with the tasting room manager winemaking process? thrown in for good measure, has a say in the final blends that become 3) What is the process of Perry Creek wines. racking in winemaking? “I firmly believe that everyone who Visitors to Perry Creek have fun stomping has a hand in developing the wines the grapes at annual harvest festival parties. See Page 7 for Answers. should also have a say in what becomes of our final blends,” stated Juergens. Tscheppe for many generations. “That way, everyone puts everything About The Winemaker Tscheppe serves as operations manager they have into the process and feels like they are part of the final product. With and assists on the winemaking team, Perry Creek’s diverse winemaking the awards that we have been able to bringing a wealth of knowledge to win, I would say that the process seems team of Garrett Buckland, Stefan Perry Creek in the high-end wine to be working quite nicely.” Tscheppe and Scott Johnson combine It isn’t all that often that established wineries receive a second chance at experience from Napa, Austria and “Perry Creek was success, but in the case of Perry Creek, the Sierra Foothills. They share a this time around seems to be quite vineyard driven approach, developing exactly what I had been rewarding. Cheers to Perry Creek, and looking for, and maybe their new signature style that is present a personality and character for in each and every bottle. hadn’t realized it each wine they produce while incorporating the at that point.” typicity of each varietal in every and international marketing facets of vintage. the business. Also joining the Perry Creek team was Garrett Buckland, a UC Davis Owner Dieter Juergens with graduate and winemaker that brought winemakers credibility and expertise to the boutique Stefan Tscheppe and Garrett Page 4 Buckland. he The T Wine Dieter Wine Wizard Juergens Region The Sierra Foothills wine region is When owner Dieter famous for its Zinfandels and other fierce Juergens first discovered the Sierra Foothills, he was flavored varietals. The area that was home looking for a place to take to the famous California Gold Rush his banking customers from his base in Sacramento, setting in the 1840s also contains a great California. He found the area “to be beautiful beyond amount of complexity as far as soils and belief,” and when he compared the land value there conditions are concerned. Perry Creek’s to both Napa and Sonoma, much more potentially vineyards are situated in the Fair Play affordable. AVA Appellation, at around 2,400 feet “It wasn’t just the price for the land that attracted elevation, an excellent altitude that me,” Juergens confessed recently, “it was much more requires the vines to work extra hard to than that.