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Feature Article
In the fourth annual event, 10 wineries are producing almost 2100 cases from the 2004 vintage.
Coro Comes But Once A Year
Fans of Coro, Mendocino County’s answer to Chateauneuf-du-Pape, should be circling June 22nd on their calendars. That’s when Coro IV hits the market.
by
Thom Elkjer
May 3, 2007
”Coro” is a red wine that must be grown 100 percent in Mendocino County according to a fairly detailed set of blending and aging rules, called a “protocol”. Some renowned European wine regions, including Châteauneuf-du-Pape in France and Rioja in Spain, are governed by such protocols but Mendocino County is the only appellation in America to take up the challenge.
Coro Mendocino debuted three years ago with the release of the 2001 vintage. Eight wineries offered 1300 cases, with every bottle priced at $35. Wine-drinkers found plenty to like at that price, and more Mendocino labels have sought to participate in subsequent years. The bar keeps rising, though. Based on my sneak peak at the 2005 candidates currently in the running for Coro V (to be released in 2008), this blend is still ascending.
Mendo vintners launched the Coro program to showcase the county’s so-called “heritage” red grapes. In their view, this means Zinfandel, followed by nine other grapes with Mediterranean roots: Syrah, Petite Sirah, Grenache and Carignan from France, and Barbera, Charbono, Dolcetto, Primitivo, Sangiovese from Italy.
Zinfandel has to be at least 40 percent of the blend, and no other grape can exceed 40 percent so Zin’s always top dog. On the other hand, at least 30 percent of the wine must come from the other grapes. There’s also a “free
Coro Mendocino wines are released with a single design label differentiated by the name of the winery and the breakdown of the blend.play” allowance for up to 10 percent of any grape grown in the county. Translation: if you want to put in some Pinot Noir, which is the grape that made Mendocino County’s Anderson Valley sub-appellation famous, go ahead. (Almost no one does.)
Any bonded winery in the county can participate, and those that do have been known to swap barrels of unfinished wine to help each other create an acceptable blend. In addition to the blending rules, producers have to age the wine in oak for a minimum of 18 months, and then lay it down for another year after bottling.
Not only that, but in the run-up to the bottling date there’s a series of blind tastings in which all the Coro candidate wineries get together to determine which wines will make the final cut. “In the first year or two we were looking for all the wines to share a family resemblance,” says Casey Hartlip of Eaglepoint Ranch Winery, one of Coro’s ringleaders. “Now the idea is to make the best possible wine under the protocol, and let the flavor profiles fall where they may.”
I recently had a chance to sit in on the third of four such peer reviews of the 2005 Coro. The group of candidates had already been winnowed down to twelve. “We don’t have to actually cut wines in the early rounds,” says Greg Graziano (whose labels include Graziano Family, Monte Volpe, and Fattoria Enotria). “Once we taste everything together, the producers who are furthest outside the quality parameters usually withdraw on their own.”
By the third round, however, most everyone at the table is pretty sure of their wine. In fact, all but one of the wineries represented at the table has successfully released at least one Coro vintage already, so they understand that the next (and last) peer review is known as “pass/fail”. When I ask how many wines have actually failed in the final review, there’s a diplomatic silence. Then Rich Parducci of McNab Ridge Winery clears his throat. “In the final review there should be no wines that fail,” he says. “We should be polishing up the last few facets of our wines and getting ready to bottle them at that point.”
Everyone nods, but later I check my notes from past vintages: no previous Coro release has included as many wines as we’ll taste today.
The blind tasting looks like any other, conducted in two flights of six wines. The difference is that instead of talking about what the wines taste like, the winemakers dig deep into wine chemistry to talk about what each wine needs to get better. No punches are pulled, because no one knows which wine belongs to whom. Even though all the wines are tasty, zesty and interesting, few pass through unscathed.
Winemaker Bob Swain of Parducci Wine Cellars, where several producers make their Coro, usually leads off the commentary. Graziano, a consulting winemaker for a number of Mendocino-based labels beside his own, is often close behind
THE CORO GANG: Some of the winemakers involved in producing the rare Coro blends perform blind tastings of the candidates.with a confirming remark or additional insight. Dennis Patton, another Coro ringleader who makes the Coros for both Fetzer Vineyards and Golden Vineyards, tends to listen to what the others say before weighing in.
When the wines are taken out of their bags, and the winemakers finally can match the group’s comments with specific wines, those with the longest to-do lists don’t conceal their consternation. “I totally thought I had that handled,” mutters one whose wine was unanimously judged to be “reduced.” Another shakes his head slowly, staring at the dregs in a glass. “There’s something missing,” he says to himself. A third relates the steps he took to improve his wine between the second and third review round, but worries that his wine lost something along the way: “The aromas are not all there now.”
The most experienced winemakers at the table are quick to console. “There was some reduction in a number of the wines,” Swain reminds. “It’s not hard to fix, so we just need to take care of it.” A year in the bottle, Patton points out, can do wonders. “That’s why we changed that rule,” he says, referring to the additional bottle time added to the protocol after the first two years.
Some fixes, though, are not so easy. Several wines, in Swain’s words, “need more guts.” How will winemakers achieve that? “They’ll go back to their winery, look at the wines they have in barrel, and find something with more stuffing,” Hartlip answers. “Remember, this is an intentional wine that should represent your best grapes, your best barrels, and your best techniques as a winemaker. If you don’t have the kind of blending component you need by round three, you go out and get it.”
Still other wines were criticized for carrying too much (or too obvious) oak flavor. The solution? “Fine it,” Graziano says. “Or blend [the same grape components] from neutral barrels,” Patton suggests. “Year by year, I keep using less new oak in my Coros. About 25 percent is all this blend can take.”
Only one wine is judged to be “too soft,” or lacking acid. “A pound per thousand ought to do it,” Graziano says to the winemaker for that one, meaning a pound of citric acid powder per thousand gallons of wine. Adding acid to wine is legal in California, so no one bats an eye. The winemaker in question nods solemnly and writes down the prescription.
Once the tasting is concluded, the serious mood of the morning evaporates instantly and the room is more like a boisterous boy scout gathering than a critical judging of America’s most ambitious regional winemaking project. The fact is that most of the wines on the table were pretty darn good, and the winemakers are both relieved and exhilarated to confirm it. “This project has brought us all closer together,” Hartlip says. “It has made me better at everything I do, from the vineyard to the winery, and I’ve heard everyone in this room say the same thing.”
There will be ten Coros released from the 2004 vintage on June 22nd, 2007 including the original eight producers plus Golden Vineyards and McNab Ridge winery. This release, the fourth since Coro’s inception, confirms a few intriguing themes. For example, the wineries producing the most cases of 
OUT OF THE BAG:Some Coro Mendocino candidates await the final okay from judges who tasted each wine blind.Coro IV, Graziano (395 cases) and Pacific Star (330 cases), are also the wineries best known for making and selling proprietary blends. True to their skills and reputations, winemakers Greg Graziano and Sally Ottoson, respectively, each used seven different varieties in their 2004 Coro. In contrast, half the Coro IV producers used the allowed minimum of three varieties, and two others used just four.
Another trend is toward more Zinfandel in the blend. In Coro II, for example, the average percentage of Zin was 47 percent. In Coro IV, the average is more than 52 percent - and more than half the wines surpass that. This trend is no doubt due to two factors. First, as Coro vintners seek ever-better wine each year, they are turning to Mendocino’s greatest non-Pinot grape, which is Zin. There’s more of it, and on older vines, so when it comes to quality, Zinfandel is inevitably rising to the top. Second, American consumers are having an extended love affair with Zinfandel from every corner of California, so a Zin-based flavor profile is a decided plus for an exotic blending program such as Coro.
Finally, if you’re looking for exclusivity, you’ll want to pick up 2004 Coro from Mendocino’s oldest active winery: Parducci, with just 61 cases. I’ll be reviewing all ten Coros for APPELLATION AMERICA immediately after their release, so stay tuned.
Read Thom Elkjer’s reports on each of the previous Coro releases:
Coro 2001 - Mendocino Raises its Voice
Coro 2002 - The Melody Emerges
Coro 2003 - Third Time’s A Charm
Coro Mendocino debuted three years ago with the release of the 2001 vintage. Eight wineries offered 1300 cases, with every bottle priced at $35. Wine-drinkers found plenty to like at that price, and more Mendocino labels have sought to participate in subsequent years. The bar keeps rising, though. Based on my sneak peak at the 2005 candidates currently in the running for Coro V (to be released in 2008), this blend is still ascending.
Mendo vintners launched the Coro program to showcase the county’s so-called “heritage” red grapes. In their view, this means Zinfandel, followed by nine other grapes with Mediterranean roots: Syrah, Petite Sirah, Grenache and Carignan from France, and Barbera, Charbono, Dolcetto, Primitivo, Sangiovese from Italy.
Zinfandel has to be at least 40 percent of the blend, and no other grape can exceed 40 percent so Zin’s always top dog. On the other hand, at least 30 percent of the wine must come from the other grapes. There’s also a “free
Coro Mendocino wines are released with a single design label differentiated by the name of the winery and the breakdown of the blend.
Any bonded winery in the county can participate, and those that do have been known to swap barrels of unfinished wine to help each other create an acceptable blend. In addition to the blending rules, producers have to age the wine in oak for a minimum of 18 months, and then lay it down for another year after bottling.
Not only that, but in the run-up to the bottling date there’s a series of blind tastings in which all the Coro candidate wineries get together to determine which wines will make the final cut. “In the first year or two we were looking for all the wines to share a family resemblance,” says Casey Hartlip of Eaglepoint Ranch Winery, one of Coro’s ringleaders. “Now the idea is to make the best possible wine under the protocol, and let the flavor profiles fall where they may.”
I recently had a chance to sit in on the third of four such peer reviews of the 2005 Coro. The group of candidates had already been winnowed down to twelve. “We don’t have to actually cut wines in the early rounds,” says Greg Graziano (whose labels include Graziano Family, Monte Volpe, and Fattoria Enotria). “Once we taste everything together, the producers who are furthest outside the quality parameters usually withdraw on their own.”
By the third round, however, most everyone at the table is pretty sure of their wine. In fact, all but one of the wineries represented at the table has successfully released at least one Coro vintage already, so they understand that the next (and last) peer review is known as “pass/fail”. When I ask how many wines have actually failed in the final review, there’s a diplomatic silence. Then Rich Parducci of McNab Ridge Winery clears his throat. “In the final review there should be no wines that fail,” he says. “We should be polishing up the last few facets of our wines and getting ready to bottle them at that point.”
Everyone nods, but later I check my notes from past vintages: no previous Coro release has included as many wines as we’ll taste today.
The blind tasting looks like any other, conducted in two flights of six wines. The difference is that instead of talking about what the wines taste like, the winemakers dig deep into wine chemistry to talk about what each wine needs to get better. No punches are pulled, because no one knows which wine belongs to whom. Even though all the wines are tasty, zesty and interesting, few pass through unscathed.
Winemaker Bob Swain of Parducci Wine Cellars, where several producers make their Coro, usually leads off the commentary. Graziano, a consulting winemaker for a number of Mendocino-based labels beside his own, is often close behind
THE CORO GANG: Some of the winemakers involved in producing the rare Coro blends perform blind tastings of the candidates.
When the wines are taken out of their bags, and the winemakers finally can match the group’s comments with specific wines, those with the longest to-do lists don’t conceal their consternation. “I totally thought I had that handled,” mutters one whose wine was unanimously judged to be “reduced.” Another shakes his head slowly, staring at the dregs in a glass. “There’s something missing,” he says to himself. A third relates the steps he took to improve his wine between the second and third review round, but worries that his wine lost something along the way: “The aromas are not all there now.”
The most experienced winemakers at the table are quick to console. “There was some reduction in a number of the wines,” Swain reminds. “It’s not hard to fix, so we just need to take care of it.” A year in the bottle, Patton points out, can do wonders. “That’s why we changed that rule,” he says, referring to the additional bottle time added to the protocol after the first two years.
Some fixes, though, are not so easy. Several wines, in Swain’s words, “need more guts.” How will winemakers achieve that? “They’ll go back to their winery, look at the wines they have in barrel, and find something with more stuffing,” Hartlip answers. “Remember, this is an intentional wine that should represent your best grapes, your best barrels, and your best techniques as a winemaker. If you don’t have the kind of blending component you need by round three, you go out and get it.”
Still other wines were criticized for carrying too much (or too obvious) oak flavor. The solution? “Fine it,” Graziano says. “Or blend [the same grape components] from neutral barrels,” Patton suggests. “Year by year, I keep using less new oak in my Coros. About 25 percent is all this blend can take.”
Only one wine is judged to be “too soft,” or lacking acid. “A pound per thousand ought to do it,” Graziano says to the winemaker for that one, meaning a pound of citric acid powder per thousand gallons of wine. Adding acid to wine is legal in California, so no one bats an eye. The winemaker in question nods solemnly and writes down the prescription.
Once the tasting is concluded, the serious mood of the morning evaporates instantly and the room is more like a boisterous boy scout gathering than a critical judging of America’s most ambitious regional winemaking project. The fact is that most of the wines on the table were pretty darn good, and the winemakers are both relieved and exhilarated to confirm it. “This project has brought us all closer together,” Hartlip says. “It has made me better at everything I do, from the vineyard to the winery, and I’ve heard everyone in this room say the same thing.”
A Preview of Coro IV
There will be ten Coros released from the 2004 vintage on June 22nd, 2007 including the original eight producers plus Golden Vineyards and McNab Ridge winery. This release, the fourth since Coro’s inception, confirms a few intriguing themes. For example, the wineries producing the most cases of OUT OF THE BAG:Some Coro Mendocino candidates await the final okay from judges who tasted each wine blind.
Another trend is toward more Zinfandel in the blend. In Coro II, for example, the average percentage of Zin was 47 percent. In Coro IV, the average is more than 52 percent - and more than half the wines surpass that. This trend is no doubt due to two factors. First, as Coro vintners seek ever-better wine each year, they are turning to Mendocino’s greatest non-Pinot grape, which is Zin. There’s more of it, and on older vines, so when it comes to quality, Zinfandel is inevitably rising to the top. Second, American consumers are having an extended love affair with Zinfandel from every corner of California, so a Zin-based flavor profile is a decided plus for an exotic blending program such as Coro.
Finally, if you’re looking for exclusivity, you’ll want to pick up 2004 Coro from Mendocino’s oldest active winery: Parducci, with just 61 cases. I’ll be reviewing all ten Coros for APPELLATION AMERICA immediately after their release, so stay tuned.
Coro 2001 - Mendocino Raises its Voice
Coro 2002 - The Melody Emerges
Coro 2003 - Third Time’s A Charm
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