Wine & Spirits - April 2012 - (Page 24)

CLASS OF 1972 MAKING THE LIST 1972 AlumnAe RAYMOND T. DUNCAN, FoundeR, silveR oAk CellARs this year, according to our Restaurant Poll, domestic wines accounted for more than half of the most popular wines in us restaurants, but that didn’t used to be the case. in the late 1960s, Bordeaux ruled the dining room aer a round or two of martinis. With the beneﬁt of hindsight, many observers point to steven spurrier’s paris tasting of 1976 as the event that put California wine on the world stage. But the groundwork for that event was laid in the late ’60s and early ’70s. it was 1972, in particular, when Warren Winiarski made his ﬁrst vintage from stag’s leap vineyard, the wine that took paris and helped make napa a household name. that same year, Jerry lohr planted his ﬁrst vineyard in monterey County, sally and tom Jordan purchased a 275-acre vineyard site in Alexander valley, and an uncanny number of perennial Restaurant Poll standout wineries were founded. We asked key ﬁgures from the “Class of 1972” to speak about how they eﬀected the sea change that convinced restaurants to carry the upstart wines from California. —Luke Sykora BRUCE JONES, FoundeR, sonomA-CutReR vineyARds SALLY JORDAN, Co-FoundeR, JoRdAn vineyARds JERRY LOHR, FoundeR, J. lohR BERNARD PORTET, Co-FoundeR, Clos du vAl DAVID STARE, FoundeR, dRy CReek vineyARd ANTHONY TERLATO, oWneR, RutheRFoRd hill WineRy CHUCK WAGNER, FoundeR, CAymus vineyARds WARREN WINIARSKI, FoundeR, stAg's leAp Wine CellARs A BAd ReputAtion The perception at the time was that the Californian wines were thin, had no middle, wouldn’t age, and were neither elegant nor powerful. The French wines dominated the market, and they were inexpensive and world-renowned. —Anthony teRlAto The dry wine category was still behind the fortiﬁed category in the early 1960s. I don’t think that changed until the late ’60s or early ’70s. California dry wines were a category apart, not perceived as worthy of the top of the list, especially on the East Coast, especially in New York. —WARRen WiniARski We didn’t drink California wine. Our private cellar, such as it was in Denver, was French Bordeaux. California wine? Certainly we couldn’t do that! SALLY JORDAN Co-founded Jordan vineyard & Winery with then-husband tom Jordan, purchasing a 275-acre prune orchard and future vineyard in the Alexander valley in 1972. 2 W i n e & s p i R i t s A p R i l 2 0 1 2

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - April 2012

Wine & Spirits - April 2012
Editor's Note
Happenings
Contents
Fined & Filtered: Patrick Comiskey on pairing wine with molecular gastronomy
Extreme Values
Spirits: Lou Bustamante on cocktail bitters
Wine Superheros
Port without Serra
The Class of ’72
Brightliners in the Deep End
The Restoration of Austria’s Noble Red
New & Notable New York City Restaurants
23rd Annual Restaurant Poll
Tastings Overview
American Pinot Noir
Austrian Wines
White Burgundy
Loire Wines
Portugal Reds
Tuscan Wines
American Wines
Imported Wines
Lost Commandments Howard G. Goldberg rewrites Exodus

Wine & Spirits - April 2012