Start in one of California’s most unique and historic vineyards, add a young winemaker with a penchant for swimming against the current, and what do you get? This fantastic California red from the fabled 19th-century Enz Vineyard in Lime Kiln Valley.
Ryan Stirm is widely known for his California-grown, Austrian-inspired Rieslings (several of which we’ve offered here), but that’s not the only club in his bag. Featuring old-vine fruit—1895 & 1922—from Enz that includes Mataro (Mourvèdre), Carignan, Mission (!), Zinfandel, and several others, today’s red blend is not only an homage to California’s immigrant winemaking heritage but a nod to the tumultuous period that followed the US’s annexation of California in 1848. The mustachioed rogue pictured on the wine’s label is
Tiburcio Vasquez, an infamous Mexican bandit who roamed Northern California in search of people to rob, kill, and, apparently, charm and seduce, too. He didn’t much like being annexed, and it’s his rebellious spirit that Stirm channels not just in this eclectic red but in everything he does (remember: his specialty is California Riesling). Stirm farms all the vineyards he works with himself; is a committed non-interventionist in the cellar; and is one of several rising stars (Ian Brand is another) finding gold in San Benito and Monterey Counties. This is a brambly, richly fruited, appealingly rustic red that veers way off the Cabernet/Pinot Noir superhighway. That alone is a reason to like it, but there’s also deliciousness and authenticity working in its favor. Fellow wine geeks: Get on board!
Like many new-generation California contemporaries, Ryan Stirm prides himself on being a farmer first and a winemaker second. Most of the best young vintners out there these days source grapes from an assortment of far-flung vineyards they don’t own, but take care of as if they did. It is not the “Château” model: It’s all about hands in the dirt, human-scale winemaking, and the desire to express purity and soil character without excesses of extract or oak. Before setting up his own shop in 2013—in a repurposed warehouse in Santa Cruz—Ryan gained experience by working with Austria’s Tegernseerhof and California’s Tyler, and while his first love is Riesling, he’s got a deft touch with just about anything. Today’s is one of the wines Stirm bottles under a subsidiary label called “Los Chuchaquis,” which he created with a friend and which is derived for a colloquialism meaning “one who is perpetually hungover.”
As is clear from the first sip Stirm’s Tiburcio Vasquez is a special wine from a special place, with a beautiful core of brambly berry fruit and terrific freshness. The Enz Vineyard, nestled in the limestone-rich foothills of the Gabilan Mountains, is the only vineyard in the Lime Kiln Valley AVA, one of a string of Gabilan-situated wine zones that includes Chalone and Mount Harlan. Located in San Benito County, near Hollister, it was planted by homesteaders in the late-1800s and purchased by Bob and Sue Enz in 1967. This area is one of the few pockets of limestone in California and source of some of the state’s most ‘Burgundian’ Pinot Noirs (Chalone; Calera), but Enz reaches much further back into California wine history—to a time when newly arrived immigrants from an assortment of places put their indelible imprint on the California wine culture. The legend of Enz is that this dry-farmed, “own-rooted” vineyard contains varieties that haven’t been precisely identified, which is just fine with Stirm and the others who eagerly vie for fruit from the site. Enz is the ultimate old-school field blend, even incorporating the uniquely Californian/Latin American Mission grape.
The Enz Vineyard feels the cooling influence of the Monterey Bay through a break in the Gabilans created by the Pajaro River, and it shows in Stirm’s “Tiburcio Vasquez”: All the grapes in the blend were harvested and ‘co-fermented’ with 100% of their grape clusters intact, lending the wine grip and snap without any bitterness. As you swirl, sniff, and sip this wine, you’ll detect shout-outs to Bandol and Faugères in southern France; Cannonau di Sardegna and other Mediterranean reds from Italy; and Monastrell from Jumilla in Spain. In the glass, it’s a deep ruby moving to magenta at the rim, with an evocative aromatic mix that includes ripe black cherry, blackberries, plums, lavender, violets, and notes of underbrush. It has a refreshing mix of soft, silky-smooth tannins and mouthwatering freshness, finishing with the floral notes and delivering a big, round, utterly delicious mouthful of ripe fruit. If you’re so inclined, decant it about 15 minutes before serving in Burgundy stems at 60-65 degrees, or slightly cooler if you get it outside with some barbecue—which is what I intend to do. Some char and a hint of BBQ sauce sweetness will be killer (no pun intended) with this outlaw wine. Enjoy!
