Forget what you think you know about big winery names, namescommonly found on supermarket shelves and on your average wine lists.  One thing I learned years ago, at bothBeringer and Mondavi in Napa, is that you shouldn’t judge a winery solely byits White Zinfandel or supermarket label, but, instead, judge it by itsestablished old vines, and reserves – ifthat’s what your own palate prefers.

I chose to visit J. LohrVineyards and Wines in Paso Robles as I had tried some of their wines mentioned aboveat an event and wanted the back story. Lo and behold, I got the front, back and side story, as my tour was bookedwith none other than Lawrence Lohr, son of the winery’s founder, Jerry Lohr.

Lawrence is the Director of Wine Education at J. Lohr, aposition that the company designed for him that “bridges the gap betweenwinemaking and marketing.” Lawrence normally spends his time creating educational marketingprograms for the 42 J. Lohr sales representatives but today, he and his wife,Emily, gave us the grand tour of the company’s Paso facility.

Lawrence’s father, Jerry Lohr, began a career as acustom homebuilder Northern California in the 60s, making enough of a profit tostart up a winemaking enterprise in Monterey County.  Because he grew up on what would now be considered an organic farm in South Dakota in the 40s and 50s,when diversity was standard, he decided initially to grow reds and whites side by side. 

J. Lohr later added significant acreage in both MontereyCounty and Paso Robles, began making wine at their downtown San Jose winery in1974 and began construction on a second winery in Paso Robles  in the late 80s. Jerry eventually realized that in order to growboth reds and whites successfully, he would have to grow the grapes where theygrow best. That means Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in Monterey County’s coolerclimate, and Cabernet and Merlot in the Bordeaux-like climate of eastern PasoRobles.

Fast forward to the new millennium and Jerry Lohr’s threechildren, Steve, Cynthia, Lawrence, are now all working in the familybusiness. 

While Lawrence was explaining the history of J. Lohr andPaso I asked him to clarify what had been nagging at me long before I had traveledto there, and what other wineries wouldn’t answer: Why the feud between thewines from the east side verses the wines from the west side?

“Simply put, East Paso is better suited for Bordeaux stylewines (editor’s note for wine 101ers: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot) while the West is showing success in growing Rhone varietals (Eve here again: Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre – GSMblends),” Lawrence began.  “Andhere at J. Lohr we like to grow small amounts of other Bordeaux varieties such as Malbec,Cabernet France and Petit Verdot to give us a ‘spice rack’ for blending.”

The many varieties mentioned by Lawrence stretched as faras my naked eye could see, and were very impressive.

At J. Lohr, of all of the winery tours we took in Paso, we were also faced the biggest stainless steeltanks we were to see  – tanks holding just some of the juice used to make all four tiers of estate grown J. Lohr wines – and we were growing anxious to taste the results.  Here is your virtual pour:

The J. Lohr Red Winemaker, Steve Peck, crafted all the wineswe tasted that day:

Following a relatively dry winter, the 2008 growing seasonbegan with an early bud break in mid-March. A troublesome arctic cold front inApril brought frost damage and limited crop size in winegrape vineyards,blueberry fields and cherry orchards from British Columbia to SouthernCalifornia. Typical summer heat accumulation came sporadically and Brix levelsrose while the fruit retained its natural acidity. The quality of the 2008vintage is apparent in the wine’s density and strong regional expression offresh fruit character.

2007 was a very dry year in Paso Robles, with the seasonaltotal for rainfall registering a scant 4.4 inches. Fortunately, temperatureswere mild and did not exacerbate the extremely dry conditions. Vine canopieswere small, as were cluster and berry size, resulting in some of the lowestyields we have seen in the last ten years. These natural limitations imposed onthe vines resulted in remarkably good Cabernet Sauvignon fruit quality, withoutstanding color and flavors. For the second consecutive year, we incurred nosignificant heat events after veraison and had very mild weather conditionsstraight through harvest, allowing each block to be picked at optimal flavordevelopment.

The 2008 growing season presented significant challenges onour ranch as well as vineyards across California. Spring and autumnfrosts–coupled with heat spikes, which impacted flowering andmaturation–claimed much of the prized crop. Yields for Petite Sirah were just3 tons per acre, which was still much better than many of the Bordeauxvarieties on the ranch. 2008 was the second consecutive vintage of drought inthe area, which limited vine growth and reduced cluster and berry size significantly.The result was high-extract, intensely-flavored wines like this wonderful thirdrelease of Tower Road. Our winemaking techniques have evolved as we havelearned to perfect the extraction of this highly phenolic grape variety. 2008is the first vintage of Tower Road that is 100% Petite Sirah. The quality ofthe vintage is apparent in this wine’s density and its combination ofblackberry fruit and dense, supple tannin.

2006 J. Lohr CuvéeSt. E
The 2006 vintage saw a return to below-average rainfall for Paso Robles,and with it came smaller vine canopies, smaller clusters and smaller berries. Unlike the previous three growing seasons, once veraison started, we had verymild weather conditions straight through to harvest, allowing color, flavor andfragrance ripeness to come together simultaneously. Cabernet Franc is one ofthe first Bordeaux varieties to ripen, and although finicky, continues tosurprise us with its consistent finish each year as one of our top wines. Thedistinctive Franc is a mixture of two fermentation lots offering coffee,raspberry and chocolate flavors.