Dry Creek Valley vintners pour wines for the day’s panel talk and tasting.

Forty years after federal authorities designated Dry Creek Valley an American Viticultural Area, the appellation’s signature wine has emerged – Grenache!

Balderdash, will protest Dry Creek Valley vintners who for decades have been saying that either Cabernet Sauvignon or Zinfandel will be the black grape and red wine to distinguish their region.

Lake Sonoma flanks a table of stemware for the walk-around tasting.

That amiable competition and debate continues, but in the meantime Grenache quietly has been insinuating itself with character and charm on the floor and hillsides of Dry Creek Valley.

Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel still dominate the scene, with around 3000 acres of the former and 2500 acres of the latter planted in Dry Creek Valley. That’s more than half of the approximately 9000 acres of wine grapes in the appellation.

By comparison, the land given over to Grenache is miniscule, but it’s growing, however slowly.

My hunch that Grenache will be the wine to raise the profile of Dry Creek Valley on the relief map of California’s wine regions is solely subjective, and not exactly based on a mountain of evidence.

Nevertheless, here’s my case: The wine-trade group Winemakers of Dry Creek Valley threw an earnest and energetic party the other day to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the enclave’s status as an officially sanctioned American Viticultural Area.

Panel moderator Chris Sawyer.

Panelists representing vineyards and wineries from the long-standing to the comparably new walked guests through a tasting of 10 wines chosen to show the nature and diversity of grapes and wines originating in the valley. “It’s all about diversity here,” declared panel moderator Chris Sawyer at the outset, and then proceeded to interview panelists on the valley’s landmark styles (Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, Zinfandel) and the willingness of appellation vintners to stray from the established with the likes of Sangiovese, Barbera, gutsy blends and, yes, Grenache.

This was followed by a walk-around tasting of even more Dry Creek Valley wines on a sunny slope of a ranch overlooking Lake Sonoma.

My take-away: The few Grenaches on the agenda constituted the most vital and layered pours of the day.

At the top of that short list was the youthful and playful Quivira Vineyards 2019 Dry Creek Valley Wine Creek Ranch Grenache ($42), which with its unassuming delight reminds us foremost of wine’s first responsibility – to provide pleasure.

Hugh Chappelle of Quivira Vineyards.

The Quivira Grenache is a truly fun wine, delivering more character and interest than its light color would suggest. All on its own, it is a veritable picnic in a meadow wild with wildflowers and wild strawberries. Tannins, the rattlesnake of big wines, don’t dare intrude on this bright and inspiring tableau. The wine’s fresh fruit and dash of pepper provide excitement enough.

Winemaker Hugh Chappelle applied his signature meticulousness to the wine, partially fermenting whole clusters to preserve keen fruit and zinging acidity, and aging the wine in French oak foudres to temper the impact of wood.

Quivira, appreciating its Grenache and sensing that other varieties of the southern Rhone Valley have a future in Dry Creek Valley, is expanding its planting of grapes identified with the French region, adding Cinsault to its spread for the first time this year.

Similarly impressive was the Domenica Amato 2019 Dry Creek Valley Estate Grenache ($49) – fragrant, peppery and persistent. It was a touch weightier and a bit longer than the Quivira, perhaps because slightly more than a quarter of it was aged two years in French oak barrels. Still, it was equally as vivid, with half its juice fermented whole cluster, helping to account for its pizzaz.

Domenica Amato is a brand of Emmitt-Scorsone Winegrowers – Palmer Emmitt and Michael Scorsone, who also are smitten with the prospects for Grenache in Dry Creek Valley. They sensed the future in 2016, and grafted Grenache to what had been rootstock playing host to Syrah.

Grenache also played a role in the billowing and silken Ridge Vineyards 2020 Dry Creek Valley Lytton Springs Vineyard Syrah Grenache Mataro ($42). Grenache doesn’t make up much of the blend – 14 percent – but that’s enough to enhance the wine’s flowery aroma and springing flavor.

I hadn’t gone into the day’s tastings with any preconceived notions concerning Grenache or any other grape varieties grown in Dry Creek Valley, but as the day progressed I was surprised and then disappointed by the absence of two valley wineries that have developed faithful followings in part for their way with Grenache – Preston Farm and Winery and Unti Vineyards. They are destinations to put high on the list to visit next time we venture into Dry Creek Valley.

None of this is meant to downplay the profound nature and significance of Dry Creek Valley’s Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc and Zinfandel, all of which continue to yield wines of substance, definition and value, as the day’s tastings reaffirmed.

One thread that ran through them all, despite variations in vintages and vintners, was their clarity and freshness in expressing the grapes from which they were made. Cabernet Sauvignon tasted like Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel like Zinfandel, and so on.

Dave Stare of Dry Creek Vineyard.

David Stare, a pioneer in the modern rise of Dry Creek Valley as prime wine-grape territory, starting 50 years ago, was on the panel. He acknowledged an early mistake in planting Chenin Blanc, but he quickly regrouped, replacing the Chenin Blanc with one of his other inaugural grapes – Sauvignon Blanc – and shepherded it to its current standing as one of the valley’s three most significant varieties.

Any given vintage, his Dry Creek Vineyard will release five styles of Sauvignon Blanc. The one he brought to the anniversary tasting was the Dry Creek Vineyard 2021 Dry Creek Valley DCV3 Estate Sauvignon Blanc ($32). If livestock still were run in the valley, this Sauvignon Blanc could double as the electric fence to keep them corralled, it is that jolting with invigorating citric fruit, pointed acidity and a current of jalapeño chile pepper. It was clearly modeled on the brisk and refreshing style of Sauvignon Blanc with which New Zealand has gained such respect for the varietal.

The Cabernet Sauvignons and Zinfandels of Dry Creek Valley long have stood for a claret take on the varieties, meaning they represent a lean, dry, nuanced, gently tannic interpretation of the varieties – wines eminently suited for the dinner table.

Zinfandel was the first grape to draw widespread attention to Dry Creek Valley, and it remains the appellation’s most articulate delegate to the outside world, especially when it is rendered with such refinement as captured by the Nalle Winery 2018 Dry Creek Valley Estate Zinfandel (sold out; the current 2021 sells for $48). The Doug Nalle family, also early adapters to Dry Creek Valley’s potential as fine-wine territory starting in the 1970s, produced in 2018 the sort of Zinfandel with which they long have been identified – sunny raspberry and blackberry fruit with a liberal sprinkling of black pepper, all hanging on a wiry frame pretty much sanded of splintery tannins.

Other impressive Zinfandels at the gathering included the fragrant, floral, spicy and sweetly fruity A. Rafanelli Winery 2021 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel ($49), the polished and balanced Dry Creek Vineyard 2021Dry Creek Valley Old Vine Zinfandel ($40), and the hefty yet floating Quivira Vineyards 2019 Dry Creek Valley “Black Boar” Zinfandel ($55).

Julie Pedroncelli St. John of Pedroncelli Winery.

Interpretations of Cabernet Sauvignon to show why the variety has surpassed Zinfandel in vineyard acreage in Dry Creek Valley included the fragrant, darkly fruity and solidly built Pedroncelli Winery 2019 Dry Creek Valley Wisdom Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon ($48), which demonstrated that Dry Creek Valley is just as capable as neighboring Alexander Valley to yield Cabernets of both weight and grace, and the rich and ardent Emmitt-Scorsone Winegrowers Judge Palmer 2019 Dry Creek Valley Estate Terrace Cabernet Sauvignon ($85).

Dan Teldeschi of F. Teldeschi Winery.

The proprietary blends on hand showed a more rustic and blusterier but no less friendly side of Dry Creek Valley. An older but still remarkably fresh release in that vein was the F. Teldeschi Winery 2011 Dry Creek Valley Estate Cata’s Reserve Terraluna ($80), in which the muscle of Petite Sirah is cut by the sweet berry fruitiness of Carignane and the bright bite of Valdiguie. An even older pour from the winery, the F. Teldeschi 2003 Dry Creek Valley Terranova ($48), also balked at showing its age, thanks to the precise layered and intense fruitiness of its four grapes – Carignane, Valdiguie, Zinfandel and Petite Sirah. It’s a mouthful, still rigid with tannin, but the jollity of its fruit and the tang of its acid make it a fitting companion whenever one of the bigger meats – baby back ribs, lamb chops, tri-tip – are on the menu.

Dry Creek Valley is just 16 miles long and two miles wide at its widest, stretching northwest from the confluence of Russian River and Dry Creek south of Healdsburg to Warm Springs Dam. It is home to around 150 winegrowers and some 70 wineries, only a few of which are corporate owned; many remain in the hands of families whose history in the valley goes back generations or who played instrumental roles in the revival of the valley’s wine trade in the 1970s.

Some planted Grenache. Others will.

For more information about my book “The Signature Wines of Superior California,” visit the website SignatureWines.us.