2013 Three Wine Company Zinfandel Live Oak Contra Costa County 750 ml

Hubris, Greed, and the Razing of Live Oak

We met Matt Cline in 1988, just six years after he completed his enology degree at Cal Davis. The younger Cline brother had spent nearly half those years in Contra Costa County, where his grandfather, Valeriano Jacuzzi (off hot bubbles fame), owned a ranch outside the sleepy town of Oakley. During that time, Cline had beaten the likes of Randall Grahm (Bonny Doon) and Paul Draper (Ridge Vineyards) to the punch, securing “handshake” grape contracts with the owners of some of the most historically significant Zinfandel vineyards in California — all planted on Phylloxera-resistant Delhi sand dunes in close proximity to the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers.

Over the last three decades, we’ve enjoyed countless meals with Matt and Erin Cline. We’ve traveled together, attended Cal football games, and gone trout-fishing in Idaho. But only once in all that time can we recall Matt even raising his voice, let alone boiling over with anger and disgust. That sole instance took place on a spring morning in 2005, when the 120-year-old Live Oak Vineyard was cynically laid to waste in just a few hours by sheer hubris and greed.

This is the story of the only time Matt Cline’s temper got the best of him since we first met … the story of the razing of Live Oak Vineyard.

When Matt Cline first heard the news, he was dumbfounded. After all, the vineyard the apartment developer planned on razing was one that many on the coast believed to be Zinfandel’s crowning ancient-vine achievement. Planted in 1885 by Italian and Portuguese immigrants, the 120-year-old vines at Live Oak never eked out more than a few tiny-berry clusters per shoot — rarely more than 1.5 tons to the acre. Known for its massive concentration, silken texture, and luscious boysenberry core, Live Oak stood tall in a Zinfandel hierarchy that includes Ridge’s Geyserville and Ravenswood’s Dickerson vineyards.

Now, the Caterpillars were fueled up and Live Oak’s vines were ticketed for a dump truck — for nothing more than crass profit.

Erin Cline says her husband rarely gets sick. But that morning, when he jumped into his truck to drive southeast from Napa, Matt’s complexion was an odd shade of green. “He couldn’t eat,” Erin said. “He just drank a cup of black coffee he probably shouldn’t have had and walked out the door like a zombie. Had he not been wearing work boots, you would taken him for one of the cast of the ‘Night of the Living Dead.’ Given what that vineyard meant to Matt, I guess you could say he was.”

Matt said he drove quickly, but not quite fast enough. When he passed Mac’s Old House, he could hear the roar of heavy machinery. The Live Oak Vineyard was just 10 acres. By the time that patch of pure Delhi beach sand came into view, the better part of eight acres had already been ripped out, leaving nothing behind but a field of mangled, old-vine torsos. That’s when Matt realized he shouldn’t have skipped breakfast.

It would take Matt Cline five years to finally secure the remaining two acres of “Live Oak” that had somehow been spared on that spring morning of 2005. If only to make sure that no one would ever forget the turn-of-the-century labor of families named Jacuzzi, Spinelli, and Lucchesi, Cline would continue to craft just a few hundred cases of “Live Oak” Zinfandel — one of the most spectacularly concentrated yet ethereally complex Zins this side of Paul Draper’s Ridge “Geyserville.”

The 2013 Three Wine Company Zinfandel Live Oak Vineyard is drawn from vines first planted in 1885. Saturated purple/black, with lavish aromas of blackberry, boysenberry, violets, and licorice. Terrifically concentrated in 2013 after that dry yet mild summer, featuring a mouthwatering blend of crushed-black-fruit preserves, black currant, anise, and cardamon. Almost too delicious out of the gate, trust us, handsome dividends will be paid to the patient. With a finished pH of just 3.52, this historic ancient-vine Zinfandel won’t hit full stride until the early 2020s, and should continue to age gracefully until 2030.

A 92-point “Cellar Selection” from Wine Enthusiast. $36 on release. $21/bottle today on WineAccess.