Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/552044
{ SOMMjournal.com } 71 in on their first vineyard together: Garys' Vineyard, planted to the "Pisoni clone," which is actually a Pinot Noir selection of unknown (wink, wink) origin. About a dozen wineries produce Garys' Vineyard Pinot Noir each year, and arguably, it is the vineyard designation, not the brand names, to which wine geeks pay most attention. Says Mark Pisoni, "I don't know if there's been a stronger partner- ship in the California wine industry than the two Garys. It started on a handshake, and a handshake is still their exit strategy. What you have to remember is part of Santa Lucia Highlands' uniformity has to do with its relatively small size. It's not just the region that's tight, it's the tight-knit relationship between people, from owners on down to the laborers in the fields, and their families." Adds Franscioni, "Gary's [Pisoni's] family has been farming in Salinas Valley since the 1950s. My family has been here over 100 years. Mario Reyes, our Vineyard Manager, has been with us over 20 years, and we have been employing his extended family all this time. We have a rule: Each vine gets touched every 14 days. There's a certain intimacy involved, and it's this consistency that has paid off for us." Gary Pisoni explains it in his way: "The entire AVA consists of farmers who help each other out at the drop of a hat. If we have a problem to solve, we go into the cellar and drink a bot- tle. If we still have a problem, it's two bottles. It never gets to three bottles." Otherwise, Franscioni and the two Pisonis all agree that it is the length of the growing season that accounts for the intensity and depth of the wines from the Santa Lucia Highlands. Because winters are mild, bud-break is earlier than in most of the coastal California regions, and the cool climate (Region I on the Winkler scale) plus the notorious, whipping winds off nearby Monterey Bay contribute to relatively late picking dates. "Vines are active for eight months," says Francscioni, "from bud- break by the end of March, to harvest in October, sometimes November." Whereas the rest of the wine world expects about 100 days of maturation between flowering and harvest, says Franscioni, "Here fruit is on the vine a good 120 days." Mark Pisoni elaborates: "Natural acidity is huge—a charac- teristic of the region, indicative of the long growing season and climate. We're really picking for acid rather than sugar each year." To which Gary Pisoni adds, "But it is the wind that makes Santa Lucia Highlands different from other cool climate regions; this is what gives grapes their tough, thickened skin, and accounts for the high phenolics and flavors in the wines." "A handshake agreement": Gary Franscioni, Gary Pisoni and Mark Pisoni at Garys' Vineyard.