26 Jun Please The Palate Wine of the Week: Thacher 2020 Relative Strangers, Homestead Hill Vineyard, Willow Creek District, Paso Robles

Before grape varieties were identified and planted and vinified separately, people made “field blends”. Field blends are made from vineyard plots interplanted with multiple grape varieties that are then harvested and vinified together. While field blends are not as common today, Thacher Winery in Paso Robles has planted two field blends in the vineyards, a white one and a red one. The red field blend is a mix of California heirloom varieties that were dominant pre-prohibition. In 2020, Thacher Winery made their first wine from this field blend, the Thacher 2020 Relative Strangers, Homestead Hill Vineyard, Willow Creek District, Paso Robles, the Please The Palate wine of the week.

About Thacher’s Red Field Blend

In the early years of the California wine industry, the Mission grape was one of the first. Other widely planted grapes included Grenache, Riesling, Gamay, Malbec, Petit Verdot, Muscadelle, Cabernet Franc, Muscat, and Carmenere. But the originally planted grapes in California did not remain the dominant plantings. First came the phylloxera epidemic in the 1860s and then Prohibition from 1920 – 1933. In addition, people’s tastes changed, turning away from red wines of lighter color and flavor or bigger, darker styles. So either the grape vines had been destroyed or were pulled out for other grape varieties.

Thacher Winery, based in Paso Robles, has been making minimal intervention wines from diverse varieties from exceptional vineyards in Paso Robles, Santa Barbara, and Monterey Counties since 2004. Thacher owns two vineyards in Paso Robles. Kentucky Ranch Vineyard, located in the Adelaida District, is a 5-acre estate and Homestead Hill, located in the Willow Creek AVA, is a 23-acre estate vineyard with 16 acres planted to vines. It is in the Homestead Hill Vineyard that the one-acre red field blend was planted in 2018 to eleven California heirloom varieties. There are eleven grapes planted, 9 red varieties and 2 white varieties.

• Grand Noir – a cross between Petit Bouschet and Aramon, it is known as Tinta Fina or Baga in Portugal. This grape is a teinturier grape, which means the grape skins and flesh are both red
• Mencia – originally grown in Spain and Portugal
• Mission – a grape that predates any other wine grape and was planted in California by Missionaries
• Mondeuse – indigenous to Savoie, France, and related to Syrah
• Mourtaou (Cabernet Pfeffer) – a grape brought over from Bordeaux, France in the 1800s
• Negrette – a grape that originates from the south of France
• Valdigue – originally from Languedoc-Roussillon in France, it was known as Napa Gamay in California until 1980
• Peloursin – an obscure grape from France, known to be a parent, along with Syrah, of Petit Sirah
• Trousseau – originally from Jura in southeastern France and known as Bastardo in Portugal, it first came to the US in the mid-19th century
• Traminer – also known as Savagnin, Tramin is a mutation of Gewurztraminer, most likely from northeast France or southwest Germany
• Orange Muscat – an aromatic variety that is a cross between Chasselas and Muscat Blanc a Petits Grains

Tasting Notes

The interplanted fruit is picked together, over three different picks during the harvest. The grapes ferment with native yeasts and in 2022, the wine was 40% whole cluster. The wine then spent two years in bottle before release. On the nose, the wine is compelling with layered aromatics. There are fruit aromas of plum, black cherry, sweet raisins, and pomegranate and floral notes of lavender, violet, and rose petals, as well as notes of baking spices and black tea. On the palate, the wine has grippy, drying tannins around the perimeter of the palate but juicy acidity runs down the center of the palate. The wine has a long, lingering finish.

Food Pairing

With the intense tannins and juicy acidity, this wine needs to be paired with grilled and roasted meats.

Where To Purchase

Only 142 cases were made of Thacher’s first red field blend. The Thacher 2020 Relative Strangers, Homestead Hill Vineyard, Paso Robles retails for $65 and is available on the Thacher website.

Meet The Winemaker

Get to know Sherman Thacher on the Wine Soundtrack podcast.