Berger: Winemaker Carol Shelton created memorable carignane

We still have a few bottles of 1972 Simi Burgundy, a medium-weight red wine that captured my heart long ago.

I'm sure it has faded since the last time I tasted it but it probably still has some of the same earthy, “dusty” aroma that marked red blends back then, since they weren't treated with much respect.

That wine was mostly made of carignane, a grape native to both France and Spain (as Carinena) and which has long been called the workhorse variety in such blends.

The grape was widely used in California in the days following Prohibition, well before the 1970s, when the public became so fixated with varietal wines. Burgundy was the go-to red wine of the 1950s and '60s, and most wineries had one.

Northern Sonoma County was awash with carignane, the lead grape for burgundies, because it was so prolific, resisted maladies and was hardy enough to make a decent dark red even under poor conditions.

And so for many years it was the most widely planted red wine grape in California. The aroma of young carignane can be non-distinct, and by the 1970s many wineries didn't like its somewhat modest fruit.

As a varietal wine, especially if produced from older grapevines, carignane could exhibit charm and often made a delightful everyday sipping wine to go with hamburgers, hot dogs and ribs.

Among latter-day carignanes of distinction are Ravenswood and Ridge in Sonoma County and Greg Graziano in Mendocino.

My first experience with high-quality carignane came in the early 1980s when Windsor Vineyards, affiliated with Rodney Strong, began to turn out a string of sensational carignanes that received gold medals annually at wine competitions.

It was made by winemaker Carol Shelton, a rare breed since she was one of the few to find superb, older-vine carignane fruit and to treat the grapes with respect, including aging the wine in small oak barrels rather than giant upright tanks. She went on to establish her own winery in Santa Rosa.

I missed the audacious personality of Shelton's rendition of the grape until she brought a bottle of her latest carignane, from the 2013 vintage, to an industry function. What a fabulous wine.

The secret was that after 12 years of having no access to the vineyard, she has finally been reunited with her original carignane fruit source. The Oat Valley Vineyard in Alexander Valley, owned by the Cooley family, has been expanded and some of the older vines have now reverted back to Shelton.

The 2013 wine is marvelous, with such high acidity that it even has an aroma reminiscent of some Italian grapes. Plums, berries and violets pervade the aroma and the aftertaste is distinctively aimed at the dinner table. At $28, it's a good value, not only because of its taste, but also because of its historic place in Sonoma County history.

Its assertive acidity is one of its charms, but may make it a bit tart for novices. Carignane lovers, on the other hand, may want a case or more.

Dan Berger lives in Sonoma County. Write to him at winenut@gmail.com.