Adam Saake
“Come Over October” is upon us. This has nothing to do with Halloween and trick-or-treaters, though bogeymen are involved.
The inspiration of a small if vocal and creative group of wine-trade influencers, “Come Over October” is meant to tell people not obsessed with wine that it is the beverage most historically, effectively and nobly associated with conviviality, the craic of a Dublin pub notwithstanding. Kombucha, coffee and cocoa also can stir conversation when folks gather on patio or around table, but it might not be as spontaneous and passionate, and almost certainly not as loud.
If sharing wine as a way to connect has been recognized and embraced since the first grapes were fermented 6000 or so years ago, why “Come Over October” now? Several reasons: Wine sales are sluggish, vineyards are being dug up, wineries are folding, younger people are choosing oher mood-altering options, abstinence whether as sporadic or permanent commitment is being widely adopted, and medical researchers are vigorously debating whether alcoholic beverages really enhance rather than jeopardize well being, a belief that has helped drive the popularity of wine since Morley Safer’s breezy and shallow report on the “French Paradox” on “60 Minutes” 34 years ago.
So, “Come Over October,” a potentially lively as well as risky party, coming on the eve of a particularly acrimonious election. Nonetheless, we signed on, and asked fellow Sacramentan Adam Saake to drop by. He not only brought the wine – several bottles marketed under his brand Perch Wine Co. – the latest vintages of which are to be released Tuesday – he brought fresh and creamy deviled eggs based on his mother’s recipe. Our pal Dr. Ron Jan joined the tasting with Mongolian beef and potstickers. A shiitake-mushroom pizza also was in play. So were spit cups. We were set for “Come Over October.”
Saake is a big, dynamic and personable winemaker who over the past five harvests has shouldered his way into today’s highly competitive wine market with wines notable for their effusive aromas, fidelity to grape, sense of place, caressing textures, abiding balance, and value for the craftsmanship and individuality they represent.
He doesn’t make things easy for himself. He has no vineyard of his own, diligently searching out plots customarily consisting of old vines, or vines planted in small cherished enclaves, or both, usually in Amador County or Lodi. On occasion, his ambitions have been sidetracked by seeing older vines pulled out, or by seeing bigger producers outbid him for fruit he had been exploiting. As I wrote a year ago, Saake simply loves to find grapes growing in unusual and under-appreciated terrain and then transform them into wines of transparency, moxie and value. He is adaptable and persevering, as his newest collection of Perch wines shows.
An especially notable wine in his new lineup is his only blend, the Perch Wine Co. 2023 Lodi Kestrel Red ($25). Among other things, it shows the length to which he will go to realize a wine original and daring. Each of the four grape varieties that he wove into the sinewy, spicy and snappy wine comes from a different Lodi sub-appellation – Carignane from Jahant, Cinsault from Mokelumne River, Zinfandel from Alta Mesa, and Petite Sirah from Clements Hills. The upshot is a wine that in its fresh fruit, threads of cherries and beets, lean structure, and peppery spice belongs in the section of the wine shop devoted to Beaujolais. It is as bright and lively as a children’s birthday party, complete with bounce house, water slide, and a clown spinning cotton candy. In short, fun.
Why Kestrel? Well, Saake is a birdwatcher, thus Perch as his brand and the birds that he draws to illustrate his
labels. An exception in that regard is the mountain lion he drew for his Barbera, his homage to a mountain lion that hangs out at the Sierra foothill vineyard where he has been gathering grapes for the wine. The Perch Wine Co. 2023 Amador County Barbera ($28) shows Saake’s eagerness to explore, to see if he can come up with an even better interpretation of a grape that he already seems to have mastered. His 2022 Barbera, his first take on the variety, was bright, lean and fresh, animated with sweet, juicy, layered and refreshing fruit. So is the 2023, but while he retained some of the same practices he used for the 2022, including fermenting the wine with native yeasts and aging it in neutral oak puncheons rather than toasty barrels, he introduced whole-cluster fermentation for half the grapes in the 2023. With that, and with the nature of the vintage, the 2023 packs a bit more aroma, weight, complexity and persistence than the 2022, yet stilll grips the brisk acidity for which Barbera is recognized.
Saake’s fall releases also include two Zinfandels, the Perch Wine Co. 2023 Amador County Zinfandel ($28) and the Perch Wine Co. 2023 Lodi Old Vine Zinfandel ($30). Both are fresh and nimble takes of a vareity that too often gets weighed down with too much ripeness, alcohol and oak (the Amador comes in with 14.5 percent alcohol, the Lodi with 14.1). Both possess a fullness in texture that while generous isn’t weighty, thanks to their radiant fruit and hospitable acidity. Both are fragrant and elegant, their aroma floral, their flavor running to boysenberries in the Amador, raspberries, olives and Indian spices in the Lodi. The 2023 is the last that Saake will make with grapes from the Shenandoah Valley’s old Massoni Ranch, given that another producer now takes all the vineyard’s fruit. The 2023 Lodi was made with grapes from a 1909 vineyard managed by Tegan Passalacqua, who owns the neighboring Kirschenmann Vineyard; the cherries dangling from the beak of the Swainson’s hawk on the label is a nod to “Kirschenman,” German for “cherry man.”
With his Perch Wine Co. 2023 Lodi Petite Sirah ($28), Saake has applied the touch of an especially astute and sensitive masseur, kneading the grape’s
typically knotty tannins into compliant suppleness while retaining the variety’s usual inky color, floral aroma, peppery spice, and deep and lasting dark fruit flavor. Again, Saake used whole-cluster fermentation for half the fruit that went into the wine, helping account for its gentleness and freshness. It is a Petite Sirah exceptionally approachable, especially this young. From its suggestions of violets in aroma to its lush and refreshing juiciness, it is one agreeable Petite Sirah.
Saake used entirely whole-cluster fermentation for the Perch Wine Co. 2023 Amador County Syrah ($28), resulting in an interpretation with the kind of fresh perfume, jaunty fruit, peppery spice and insinuation of bacon usually associated with the variety when it is grown in climates cooler than the Sierra foothills. It’s a Syrah uncommonly flamboyant, more contagious in its raucous glee than inhibiting.
While Saake concentrates largely on red wines, he also includes a white wine in his portfolio, the newest being his Perch Wine Co. 2023 Amador County Sauvignon Blanc ($25). Saake worked industriously and precisely with grapes off Oleta Vineyard at Fiddletown – barrel fermentation, stirring on lees, partial malolactic fermentation – to come up with a highly distinctive Sauvignon Blanc: Broad, complicated, dry, spicy and elegant, its fruit from the papaya, mango, kiwi and lime families, all cleanly involved. This is a Sauvignon Blanc exceptionally flexible at the table, pairing as easily with potstickers as with the shiitake-mushroom pizza. It weighs in with just 12.8 percent alcohol.
With the month only half over, there’s still plenty of time to join “Come Over October.” There’s even enough time to land some Perch wine for guests to savor, just visit the shop dropdown tab at Adam Saake’s website: https://perchwineco.com/
To find copies of my book “The Signature Wines of Superior California: 50 Wines that Define the Sierra Foothills, the Delta, Yolo and Lodi,” please visit my website SignatureWines.us.