Sharing the background behind a wine and winery can enhance any dinner party or wine tasting event. As you pour the wine, the story can even augment the taste of the wine for your guests. When considering wines for your next dinner party, consider the wines of Arbios Cellars. A red wine club favorite, this winery offers a Lagrein with an interesting archaeological story. This article looks at sharing the tale of Arbios Cellars at your next party or event.
The Climate And Wine
Along with every other winemaker in California, Bill Arbios is worried about the impact that the economy may have on his business, but he's also concerned about the effect that changing temperatures might have on his vineyard as the climate gets warmer and drier. Since grapes have a range in which they're comfortable, the quality isn't there when temperatures surpass that range. The good news is their Cabernet vineyard is perched on the steep slopes of Pine Mountain at the north end of Sonoma County's Alexander Valley where it's six to ten degrees cooler than the valley floor.
The vineyard is located at an elevation of 2,000 feet and the slopes are 30 to 40 degrees. In order to prevent soil from sliding or washing away, the winery was proactive and installed a lot of sub-soil drainage. Vines have deep roots so if temperatures get hotter, vines can grow deeper into the soil to search for moisture, but grape varieties mature properly at different temperatures. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir like a really cool climate, which means suitable climate and soils for these varietals are extremely limited in most of California. Warmer climate varieties like Merlot and Cabernet continue to flourish, even with climate changes.
The History Of The Winery
Bill Arbios is the fifth generation of his family to be farming in California but in 1973 the first to graduate from the University of California, Davis in Fermentation Sciences and Bacteriology. Bill and his wife Susan started the winery in 1993 and their prices have remained nearly the same since then.
Under the Arbios label, Bill makes 2,000 cases of Cabernet Sauvignon from his Pine Mountain vineyard and he buys grapes for another 5,000 cases of wine under his Praxis label, the word praxis coming from the Greek meaning "practice".
Archaeology And Winemaking
Susan Arbios, Bill's wife and an archaeologist, explains that Praxis was also an early 19th Century philosophy relating to the unattainable search for perfection, in this sense now most commonly used to refer to a doctor or lawyer's "practice". For Bill, Praxis wines allow him to play, to keep his creative impulses honed, making different wines with diverse styles from different vineyards. How he came to make Lagrein, a 14th Century cross between Pinot Noir and Teroldigo from Alto Adige in northeastern Italy, best describes his Praxis label.
Bill and Susan traveled to Bolzano, Italy for a visit with Utzi, the Iceman, Europe's oldest mummy from about 3300 BC, housed in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology. Bill says that seeing the Iceman was a reverential experience. Visitors see the artifacts that were found with him, his medical kit, hunting tools, weapons, his clothing, including his winter shoes. After 5,000 years in a chunk of ice, you can still see his tattoos. For Bill, the local wine was nearly as fascinating as the Iceman was.
In Love With Lagrein
After returning to California, Bill found only one Lagrein vineyard in the state, seven miles inland from the coast in Santa Maria. Bill makes over 1,000 cases of wine from that vineyard and is now the largest producer of American Lagrein.
Whether you choose the red wine club favorite, Lagrein, or one of the other wines of Arbios Cellars, you are sure to provide a fascinating wine with a fascinating story behind it.
