Forget the late model pickup truck that just passed you in the opposite direction: Blink, look around, and it’s 1937.
One must travel more than ten miles southeast of Hollister on two-lane country roads to arrive at Enz Winery, and the decades seemed to turn back with every bend, every set of hills.
There is no more pristine view of Old California than in rural San Benito County.
Most of the residents here, ranchers and farmers, couldn’t be more pleased with the area’s preservation. Their battles are waged weekly at city and county planning meetings.
Traveling in early morning light, I can only imagine this road after sundown. I have a map, a cell phone, a sight line and a destination, and I still feel an unfathomable sense of being lost.
Enz Winery, with 80- and 100-year-old head-pruned grape stock, is cradled by eleven high peaks, most without names. It receives some maritime influence during the summer, but the hills dictate the area’s temperatures: hotter in summer and colder in winter than surrounding areas.
The ancient roots support Zinfandel, Mourvédre, Orange Muscat and Pinot St. George, all varietals that could be found on the planting list of a vineyard immediately after the turn of the previous century.
Irrigation, too, mimics an age gone by, as these tough, established vines are dry farmed.
Weather this year played a larger than usual role, as the entire state experienced a very dry winter. This alone would not create havoc, because the grapes, or berries as the vintners call them, can take on surprisingly delightful characteristics when stressed.
Of greater unease are the two very early rainfalls, sending temperatures plunging and deluging the grapes with water, readily absorbed through tender skins.
Harvest will be delayed. The sugar levels must rise again. A very late Indian summer, with extended warm days, can rectify the impact of tepid fall weather on the grapes.
