This month, we present Dehlinger Pinot Noir Estate, a delicious wine that is nearly impossible to find. A darling of the pundits and restaurateurs alike, Dehlinger is a family owned and operated winery that focuses on hand-crafting wines from its Estate Vineyard in Sonoma County's Russian River Valley.
Dehlinger has a national reputation among wine connoisseurs that outstrips its physical size. Critical publications have consistently given strong reviews for over thirty years. Wine writers have praised the winery for its uniqueness, quality, consistency and value.
92 points, Parker: The dark ruby/purple-tinged 2006 Pinot Noir Estate reveals notes of damp earth, underbrush, black cherries, raspberries, and a hint of meatiness. Medium to full-bodied with silky tannins, outstanding purity, and a firmer, richer style, it should drink well for 7-10 years.
Exceptionally high quality as well as remarkably fair prices are the signature characteristics of one of California’s longtime, highly respected wine mavens, Tom Dehlinger. His Chardonnays continue to improve with each vintage. In the challenging year of 2006, he has had no problems with either Chardonnay or Pinot Noir. Dehlinger’s Pinot Noirs are essentially made from the Pommard clone, Dijon Clone 777, and the California Heritage clone known as Martini. Tom Dehlinger turns out two wines from Bordeaux varietals. One always thinks of Russian River for its Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, and Syrah rather than for Cabernet Sauvignon. One of the original Rhone Rangers, Tom Dehlinger fashions two Syrahs.
91 points Tanzer: Vivid red. Deep red and dark berry scents are complicated by smoky Indian spices, black tea and dried rose. Weightier than the Goldridge, and more powerful as well, offering dense, chewy red berry compote and cherry flavors. The finish repeats the cherry and spice notes and lingers impressively, with gentle tannins adding grip.
Here's a great profile of the winery from The Pinot File: The year was 1973. Russian River Valley Pinot Noir was in its infancy. Joseph Swan, who had planted Pinot Noir in the Vine Hill region of the Russian River Valley four years prior using cuttings from Mount Eden and budwood from Burgundy, released his first Pinot Noir. Davis Bynum, working out of an old hop mill on Westside Road, released his 1973 Rochioli Vineyard Russian River Pinot Noir, the first vineyard-designated wine from the Russian River Valley. Russian River Valley Pinot Noir was beginning to happen and into this stage came another visionary, Tom Dehlinger, who, along with his radiologist father, invested in a 45-acre ranch on Vine Hill Road in Sebastopol.
Tom Dehlinger (DAY-leen-ger) was born on the East Coast, but grew up in Berkeley, California, and earned a degree in biochemistry at University California Berkeley. He pursued graduate work in enology and food science at University California Davis for a year, leaving school to work in the wine industry, first as a lab technician at Beringer, then in winemaking positions at Hanzell and Dry Creek Vineyard. He was only 26 years old when, in 1973, he set upon a career as an independent winegrower and winemaker. He met his future spouse, Carole, a few years later, married her in 1978, and she was to become an important contributor to the success of Dehlinger.
Early on, Tom had a well-defined idea of how wine grapes should be grown, and realizing that other grape farmers were not conforming to his vision, he was driven to plant his own vineyard. He spent the spring of 1974 bench grafting and callusing over 10,000 vines in a rented heated basement room in Bolinas in Marin County. By summer, Tom had planted the fledgling vines in a nursery space in Dry Creek Valley. At the same time, he was removing Gravenstein apple trees from his neglected hillside property which had previously been a source of noteworthy Zinfandel at the turn of the century. With guidance from Joseph Swan, Warren Dutton and Forrest Tanzer, Tom planted the first 14 acres of vines on his property in the spring of 1975.
The Dehlinger property is located in southwestern Sonoma County, four miles north of the town of Sebastopol at the intersection of Gravenstein Highway and Vine Hill Road in the Russian River Valley appellation. Tom knew the importance of terroir and choose this particular site in the Laguna Ridge area of the Russian River Valley because of its climate and soils. The site is cool, heavily influenced by maritime fog and receives significant diurnal variation in temperature. The soil is Goldridge type consisting of fine sandy loam and a variant of Goldridge known as Altamont, which is composed of gravelly fine sandy loam with a sandy clay loam subsoil underlain with sandstone. Grapes thrive in these soils, which are well-drained and somewhat lacking in nutrients.
The original 1975 Dehlinger Pinot Noir 4-acre plantings were UCD 4 (Pommard) and UCD 13 (Martini) with a smaller selection of cuttings from Joseph Swan’s vineyard which was also planted on Goldridge soil in a nearby section of Laguna Ridge. Chardonnay (8 acres) and Cabernet Sauvignon (2 acres) completed the initial planting. Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Syrah were later additions. The original 4-acre Pinot Noir block consisted of two acres of Swan selection and two acres of mixed clonal origin, part Pommard and part Martini. After a few years, it was evident that the three clonal types were quite different in their growth patterns and therefore were eventually picked and processed separately. In addition, significant soil differences within the vineyard were recognized and the soil distribution of the vineyard was mapped and vine stakes painted to indicate soil type. The lower elevations of the vineyard had Goldridge soil which was deeper, richer and more fertile. The hilltops contained Altamont soil, a variation of Goldridge with a redder color, different mineral content and low vigor. Irrigation in different parts of the vineyard was customized according to soil type and vigor. In recognizing differences in terroir within the vineyard, Tom became an early champion of separately picking and vinifying small lots of grapes from different portions of the vineyard.
The original vines were planted on AxR1 rootstock using 10‘ x 8‘ spacing which was in vogue at the time. Irrigation was achieved with overhead sprinklers. The vines were trained on a single wire and pruned to two fruiting canes. It was soon evident that vine growth was too vigorous and drooping. The vines lacked balance, particularly on the lower elevations with the growth of leaves far outstripping fruit production. The result was vegetal flavors in the finished wines.
For many years, all the vineyard work at Dehlinger was performed by Tom and Carole and one or two field workers. In 1988, Marty Hedlund, who had a horticulture degree from Washington State University, was hired as vineyard manager. Hedlund supervised the planting of the last one-third of the land, bringing total plantings of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Syrah and the three Bordeaux varieties (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc) to close to 50 acres. He also instituted a program to overcome the vine imbalances in the Dehlinger vineyard. A new split-canopy vertically shoot-positioned Lyre trellis system derived from Bordeaux was retrofitted by 1993, converting 37 of the acres (photo below in 2008). This movable trellis lifted shoots and leaves up and away from the bank of grapes allowing more light exposure, permitting more precise hand work to manage the shoots and clusters during the growing season, reducing the risk of mold and mildew, and permitting the vine and grapes to dry out quickly if rain occurred before harvest. By 1997, a crew of four managed the vineyard full time with an additional four workers from May to October. The dedicated farming created a vineyard that displayed, according to Tom, “A level of vine care unmatched in intricacy in Sonoma County.” Noted viticulturist, Dr. Richard Smart, was to say at the time, “The Dehlinger Vineyard is one of the best examples I’ve seen anywhere in the world of careful vineyard management with the aim of maximizing quality.”
Pinot Noir acreage currently stands at 16, consisting of 5.5 acres of Swan selection, 8.5 acres of Pommard clone, 1 acre of Martini clone and 1 acre of Dijon clone 777 obtained from neighbor Steve Kistler in 1996 and grafted onto Cabernet Franc. Of the 16 acres of Pinot Noir, 5 acres are planted in the lower parts of the vineyard in Goldridge soil (referred to as the Goldridge Vineyard) and 11 acres are in hilltop areas featuring Altamont soil. The fruit from the low-lying part of the vineyard was not originally as good qualitatively as fruit from the hilltop sections. An inexpensive wine was made from this fruit before 1993 and labeled “Lot #2,” which also included second crop grapes. By 1993, the grapes had benefited from careful vine work and the new trellis system, and the grapes from the low-lying portions of the vineyard were bottled as Dehlinger Goldridge Vineyard Pinot Noir. Paul Root, a long time wine retailer in Healdsburg, who sold Dehlinger’s first vintage and placed Tom’s wines in local Safeway stores in the late 1970s and early 1980s, tells a humorous story about the origins of the Goldridge Vineyard Pinot Noir. Tom had two barrels of Pinot Noir that vintage that were not up to the level of the primary estate bottling. He called Paul and asked him to taste the wine, saying that he would custom bottle it for Paul’s store. Paul couldn’t taste that day because a baby sitter could not be found. Tom called him later and said he decided to bottle the wine as Goldridge Vineyard Pinot Noir. Over the years, the quality of this wine has improved dramatically and Tom has stated, “Neither the Goldridge nor the Estate Pinot Noir is inherently superior to the other.” Critics and consumers alike sometimes prefer the Goldridge Vineyard bottling over the Estate bottling.
A special 3.5-acre plot of Swan selection was planted in 1982 around the original octagon-shaped house on the top of the property. This site is referred to as Octagon Vineyard. The 900-square-foot eight-sided house (photo below) was built in 1975-76. Tom lived with 3 children in this tiny house but was to later move. The house on Octagon Hill has become a Russian River Valley landmark. Since the inaugural vintage in 1994, when the quality warrants, Dehlinger releases a limited amount of Octagon Pinot Noir. In other years, the fruit from this vineyard is included in the Estate or Reserve bottling.
Tom Dehlinger (DAY-leen-ger) was born on the East Coast, but grew up in Berkeley, California, and earned a degree in biochemistry at University California Berkeley. He pursued graduate work in enology and food science at University California Davis for a year, leaving school to work in the wine industry, first as a lab technician at Beringer, then in winemaking positions at Hanzell and Dry Creek Vineyard. He was only 26 years old when, in 1973, he set upon a career as an independent winegrower and winemaker. He met his future spouse, Carole, a few years later, married her in 1978, and she was to become an important contributor to the success of Dehlinger.
Another special part of the vineyard planted to Pommard clone in 1982 gave birth to the Dehlinger High Plains bottling starting with the 1999 vintage. Tom describes this quiet part of the vineyard a place of contemplation. He said that during one of his many visits to this quiet retreat, “I must have imagined I was Clint Eastwood riding alone as the High Plains Drifter and the name just stuck.”
Tom made his first wines in 1975 in rented space at Joseph Swan’s winery on Laguna Road. His first vintages were crafted from purchased Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel. Tom’s brother, Dan, built the original Dehlinger winery on the vineyard property in 1975-1976. The first commercial wine from Dehlinger estate grapes was vinified here in 1977, and ever since, the emphasis has been on estate grown wines. Production has increased slowly from less than 1,000 cases in 1983 to 7,000 to 8,000 cases per year of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Noir Rosé, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. Some estate grapes are sold to other producers. Despite the high demand for Dehlinger wines, Tom has steadfastly refused to increase production beyond present levels.
Winemaking at Dehlinger has evolved through the years. Fred Scherrer was an assistant winemaker at Dehlinger from 1988 to 1997. He was a strong advocate of reducing or eliminating red wine filtration and Dehlinger’s wines have not been filtered since 1995. Scherrer also helped develop the Dehlinger style by employing longer hang times and longer periods of maceration in the fermenter.
By 1997, the popularity of Dehlinger wines had reached a pinnacle and the tasting room, which by then had little wine to offer visitors, was closed, the futures program was discontinued, and the mailing list topped out at 2,000 customers. At the end of 1997, there were over 1,000 names on a waiting list. Robert Parker, Jr., gushed about Dehlinger in the June 30, 1996, edition of the Wine Advocate: “Given the consistently high quality that emerges from this winery, owner/winemaker Tom Dehlinger might be the least intrusive and most humble winery owner I have met with. In a profession often dominated by towering, over sized egos, Dehlinger seems totally content to let his wines do the talking..........Dehlinger’s wines have consistently received laudatory reviews, but the quality level appears to have been pushed higher over recent years. Moreover, these wines remain among the most modestly priced, especially for a superstar California winery.” James Laube, writing in his book, California Wine (1999), said, “When it comes to Dehlinger’s wines, the advice is simple: If you see his name on a wine bottle, buy it.” Several years later, noted wine writer, Matt Kramer, wrote in New California Wine (2004), “Dehlinger wines represent an impeccable standard regardless of vintage.”
Upon Scherrer’s departure, Eric Sussman joined Dehlinger as an assistant winemaker after six years of experience making wine in Washington State and France. He was the associate winemaker from 1998 to 2001. Tom Klassen was the enologist at Dehlinger from 2005 to 2008.
The current winemaking regimen is outlined as follows. Each one-fourth to one-half-acre subsection of the vineyard is fermented and aged separately for the first 6 to 10 months and is then either blended or directed to distinct single bottlings for additional 6 to 18 months of bottle age before release. Grapes from the low-lying portions of the vineyard go primarily into the Goldridge Vineyard bottling, while the superior grapes from the hilltop sites go into the Estate or specially designated bottlings (Reserve, High Plains, Octagon). 5% to 30% whole clusters are included, depending on the vintage and the source of grapes within the vineyard. After a period of cold soak, all punch downs are performed by hand in open-top fermenters. A small amount of clear juice is bled off after placement of the grapes in the fermentation tanks. This is to increase color concentration and flavor intensity. The press wine is sold in bulk because it lacks the color and aromatic projection of free run juice.
The very personal biannual newsletters written by Tom Dehlinger contain a wealth of information, not only about Dehlinger wines, but the basics of winegrowing and winemaking. In the February 2001 newsletter, Tom wrote the most lucid explanation of punch downs that I have ever read. “The work of punching is one of the keys to making a rich and robust red wine. All the color and many of the flavor elements of a red wine are in the skins of the grapes, and these elements must be extracted into the initially colorless juice during fermentation. If crushed red grapes were left to ferment on their own without attention, the result would not be as appealing. The skins would be lifted upward by the evolving fermentation gasses and have little contact with the bulk of the juice below. They would also support faster microbial growth and develop an excessive amount of heat which could lead to spoilage. All red wine fermentations need some means of periodically mixing the rising skins (called the “cap”) and the juice to equalize the temperature and promote the extraction process. The hand punching method, which we have used exclusively since 1975, involves positioning oneself on a stepladder next to the tank and pushing down on the rising skins with a wooden disk attached to a hoe handle. The aim is to turn over the entire tank so that skins which had been on top are revolved to the bottom and vice verse. Servicing each tank takes about ten minutes and is done two to three times daily.”
In 2001, the Dehlinger winery began a major upgrading which included the creation of an underground cellar for natural cooling which can hold 15,000 cases of wine. The project was directed by Tom’s brother, Dan, who, by then, was a licensed architect. Seven separate temperature-controlled spaces are now available allowing the winery to hold back wine for re-release when the wine is in its prime (Each year in the first week of January, Dehlinger releases for sale on the website library wines that have aged 3 to 5 years).
In the fall of 2008, one-third of the original 14 acres of vines were removed and a chipper was used to return the vine trunks to the soil. The soil will remain fallow for two years during which time it will be treated with organic compost and annual crops to rejuvenate it. The plantings to follow will be on low-vigor rootstocks, will be trained closer to the ground with 6’ to 7’ row spacing and 4’ between the vines creating a vineyard with three times as many vines as before. A single vertical shoot positioning trellis will be used. As each new section of the vineyard begins production, older sections will be removed and reborn as part of an ongoing process.
Over the nearly 35 years that Dehlinger has produced wine, quality and consistency have been the hallmarks. This stalwart winery has never wavered from the vision upon which it was founded. The emphasis has always been on quality and Tom never pushed volume or prices. During the eleven vintages from 1996 to 2006, the Dehlinger Estate Pinot Noir had a modest price increase from $32 to $48. The simple label has remained unchanged and Dehlinger has never resorted to heavy bottles to glamorize the wines. Today, 80% of the wine is sold through a faithful following on the mailing list with small amounts distributed to long time restaurant and retail store customers (I have seen the wines at Bottle Barn in Santa Rosa). Some wine is held back every year, to be released as library wines each January as noted above. There still is no tasting room, but visitors are welcome for tours and tasting by appointment on Fridays from January through August conducted by Tom’s daughter, Carmen, and visitors may be offered some wines for sale if available (707-823-2378). A winery open house is held both in the spring and fall. The website is www.dehlingerwinery.com and the address is 4101 Vine Hill Rd, Sebastopol, CA. You may not get the chance to meet Tom, for although he is a personable guy, he is fiercely independent and private, akin to his winery business colleagues in the Russian River Valley, Tom Rochioli and Gary Farrell, and shuns the public eye.
RECIPE
Coq au Vin Serves Six
If you prefer, you can make this classic dish with just chicken thighs. Either way, this great dish will pair beautifully with the dense, rich, spicy and chewy berry flavors of the Dehlinger pinot noir.
3 cups red wine
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
3 cloves garlic (1 whole, 2 chopped)
2 ribs celery, thinly sliced
1 medium carrot, thinly sliced
1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 5–6 pound chicken, cut into 10 pieces
3 tablespoon olive oil
8 sprigs flat-leaf parsley plus 1 tablespoon chopped leaves
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs thyme
1⁄2 pound slab bacon, cut into 2"-long slivers
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups Chicken Stock
2 shallots, chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons butter
18 pearl onions, peeled (see Pearls of Wisdom)
1⁄2 pound button mushrooms, quartered
Bring wine, peppercorns, whole garlic, celery, carrots, and yellow onions to a boil in a pot; reduce heat; simmer for 5 minutes. Let cool, pour over chicken in a bowl, and drizzle with 1 tbsp. oil. Cover and marinate overnight
Heat oven to 325°. Tie parsley sprigs, bay leaves, and thyme together; set aside. Remove chicken from marinade; pat dry. Strain marinade; reserve liquid and solids separately. Heat 1 tbsp. oil in a wide pot over medium heat. Add bacon; cook until crisp, 6–8 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer bacon to a bowl; increase heat to medium-high. Working in 2 batches, brown chicken, 6–8 minutes; transfer to a plate. Add reserved solids; cook until soft, 10–12 minutes. Sprinkle in flour; cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Whisk in reserved liquid; boil. Simmer for 1 minute. Stir in remaining garlic, stock, shallots, and salt and pepper to taste; nestle chicken and herb bundle in vegetables. Bake, covered, until tender, about 1 1⁄4 hours. Transfer chicken to a plate; cover with foil. Strain sauce; keep warm.
While chicken is cooking, heat 1 tbsp. butter and remaining oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add pearl onions; cook until golden, 4–5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook, covered, until tender, 8–10 minutes. Combine onions with bacon. Heat remaining butter over medium-high heat; cook mushrooms until tender, 4–5 minutes. Arrange chicken on platter; top with sauce, bacon, onions, mushrooms, and remaining parsley.
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