Keep David Girard Vineyard Counoise 2016
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Winemaker Notes
Keep Wines is a collaboration between husband and wife team Johanna Jensen (Scholium Project & Broc Cellar Alum) and Jack Roberts (former Matthiasson Wines Assistant Winemaker). Based out of Napa California, the pair makes interesting varietals from small vineyards all over Northern California. Jack is currently farming organically a few vineyards himself and the other grapes they buy are from mostly certified organic vineyards. The focus of their winemaking style can be described as minimal intervention wines. No yeast or additives are used (with the exception of sulfur in small quantities) and the wines are almost never fined or filtered. With roots in France they have recently planted a vineyard in Gascony and have purchased another vineyard site to expand in the coming years. Their future plan is to make wine in both California and in France.
If you are wondering where the name ‘Keep’ came from, look at the crest on the label. It is a depiction of Beverston Castle, an 11th century Norman stronghold in Gloucestershire, England where Jack’s father was born and raised. All that remains of Beverston today is what you see, the moat and the tall ‘keep’, (from the middle English’ kype’, or barrel) which was the defenders’ last resort in a siege. It was also where they stored their most precious possessions, especially their wine.
Counoise shows a light color, and characteristics of plum and cherry fruit, along with anise, licorice and pepper. It is a natural pairing to foods like lamb, duck, insalata niçoise, jambalaya or lentil stew. It is most often found in the southern Rhône Valley, where when blended, balance the strong tannins and high alcohol of Syrah. A few small-production vignerons make high quality single varietal Counoise in France as well.
As home to California’s highest altitude vineyards, El Dorado is also one of its oldest wine growing regions. When gold miners settled here in the late 1800s, many also planted vineyards and made wine to quench its local demand.
By 1870, El Dorado County, as part of the greater Sierra Foothills growing area, was among the largest wine producers in the state, behind only Los Angeles and Sonoma counties. The local wine industry enjoyed great success until just after the turn of the century when fortune-seekers moved elsewhere and its population diminished. With Prohibition, winemaking and grape growing was totally abandoned. But some of these vines still exist today and are the treasure chest of the Sierra Foothills as we know them.
El Dorado has a diverse terrain with elevations ranging from 1,200 to 3,500 feet, creating countless mesoclimates for its vineyards. This diversity allows success with a wide range of grapes including whites like Gewurztraminer and Sauvignon Blanc, as well as for reds, Grenache, Syrah, Tempranillo, Barbera and especially, Zinfandel.
Soils tend to be fine-grained volcanic rock, shale and decomposed granite. Summer days are hot but nights are cool and the area typically gets ample precipitation in the form or rain or snow in the winter.