I think it’s safe to say that if you’ve got a Pinot Noir clone named for you, you’re doing something right. The late Joseph Swan was obsessed with doing things right, and was, by all accounts, never quite satisfied—even as he was garnering international acclaim for his silky Pinot Noirs from the Russian River Valley.
I vividly remember Swan’s early wines from the ’70s—not just groundbreaking Pinot Noirs but Zinfandels of great finesse and balance that still drink well today—and today’s 2014 “Cuvée de Trois” is a testament to great heirloom vineyards and the considerable skill of Swan’s successor/son-in-law, Rod Berglund, who has run the show along with his wife, Lynn, since 1989. Like Joe Swan, Rod is a hands-on vintner who prefers to work at an artisanal scale—this is the ultimate in family-run, farmstead winemaking and it shows in the wines, which remain so modestly priced I find it a little hard to believe. It’s a California Pinot Noir icon and one of the great examples of domestic Pinot with a true Burgundian spirit (not just Burgundian technique—there’s a difference!). How do they manage such affordable prices? Longevity certainly plays a role—2017 was the estate’s 50th harvest—and humility, too, but whatever the reason, taste this superb 2014: It's a perfect expression of Swan’s perfumed and sublimely supple style. It’s a benchmark and a necessary exploration for any serious Pinot lover.
At the heart of all things Joseph Swan is the original 13-acre vineyard on Laguna Road outside Forestville, which, when Swan bought it in 1967, contained old Zinfandel vines. At one time, the property had been part of a small (and now defunct) town called Trenton, which Lynn and Rod Berglund later began referencing on labels—their flagship Pinot Noir is now labeled as the “Trenton Estate Vineyard” bottling. The Trenton estate vineyard is planted predominantly to Pinot Noir and now includes a variety of different Pinot Noir clones, including the now-famous “Swan Clone” that Joe Swan propagated back in the early ’70s, using the traditional French séléction massale method (using cuttings from the best-performing vines to propagate new plants). Most reports I’ve seen suggest that the “Swan” clone likely evolved from plant material originally supplied to Swan by Mount Eden Vineyards in Santa Cruz, another California Pinot pioneer.
Joe Swan really was a viticulturist first and a ‘winemaker’ second, and he took frequent trips to Burgundy to talk vineyards with the great minds over there (he often traveled in the company of Bay Area importing legend/Francophile Kermit Lynch). And, like so many California vintners of that era, he came to wine from somewhere else: A former airline pilot, he started out as a hobby winemaker but quickly got more serious about his craft, enlisting the help of no less an eminence than André Tchelistcheff, who urged Swan to plant Pinot Noir (and Chardonnay) in the cool, foggy hills of the northwest Russian River Valley. Swan later encouraged Berglund, himself an enthusiastic amateur when the two men met, to become a winemaker—and now Berglund has as many vintages under his belt as his late mentor. The consistency and assurance of the Joseph Swan Vineyards lineup is no accident.
“Cuvée de Trois” originated as a barrel selection of lots that didn’t go into one of the Swan single vineyard bottlings, which include not just “Trenton Estate” but several others sourced from some of Russian River’s “grand crus,” including Ritchie Vineyard and Saralee’s Vineyard. As its name implies, Cuvée de Trois is a multi-vineyard blend (originally three, but the ’14 contains fruit from seven sites) and is designed to provide more of an “overview” of Russian River Valley terroir. Each block of each vineyard was harvested and fermented separately, with 15%-20% of each lot incorporating whole grape clusters and the remainder destemmed. Skin maceration during fermentation lasted an average of 25 days, with the ‘cap’ of skins punched down manually three times a day; the wine was then transferred to French Burgundy barrels for 10 months of aging before bottling.
The Swan Pinot Noirs always have a unique appearance: A pale ruby/pomegranate-red hue that suggests a lighter wine than what’s in the glass. The 2014 Cuvée de Trois is true to form in that regard, and offers up all the other Swan hallmarks as well: perfumed aromatics and lush, velvety, yet sneakily firm structure. The nose is a riot of wild berries off the bush (strawberry, raspberry) along with pomegranate, damp violets, sandalwood, and underbrush. It has a very delicate, ethereal affect, and yet it persists on the palate—a ‘walk softly but carry a big stick’ kind of Pinot Noir, and fascinating because of it. It is delicious to drink now—decant it about 30 minutes before service in Burgundy stems at 60 degrees—but also has the kind of pitch-perfect balance for cellaring (it should continue to evolve nicely over the next 7-10 years). To me, it’s a Pinot Noir well-suited to bridging the meat-seafood gap, and thus a perfect wine for the kinds of mixed-bag summer potlucks we’re all having. Try it with a grilled pork tenderloin rubbed with warm (not hot) spices and watch them work hand-in-glove. What an enduring classic!
