Professional writers have angels, editors
and publishers that keep them in touch with
their muse. Winemakers have a different muse
and we are quite happy to stay in touch with
him without any outside help, we do however
have distributors that keep our fingers to
the keyboard. To our new and first
distributor, Drake and Mary, we dedicate
this chapter of our story.
After more than two years of making every
known mistake in farming, Christian was
fortunate enough to meet one the original
stars of the Paso Robles area, Richard
Sauret. He is one those farmers that are
organic to an area. His roots run so deep
that he has become part of the terroir of
the area. His knowledge of the Paso Robles
area is so through and extensive that is
able to intuitively make adjustments to his
farming practices before he, or anyone else,
realizes that an adjustment is needed. He is
a scary good farmer. He is also the best
Zinfandel farmer ever.
Christian meet him in the fall of 2003 and
things worked out well for him and Richard.
Richard wanted to slow down after fifty plus
years of farming and Christian needed more
land and a teacher. Christian Lazo soon
bought a ten acre piece of head trained Zin
from Sauret VineyardsTM. The
vines were planted in 1980 and were just
beautiful! Over the next couple of years,
Richard guided Christian in how to farm
Zinfandel in the hot dry climate of Paso
Robles. He explained how water is the most
precious resource. Richard pointed out that
we were blessed with chalky clay soil that
holds the winter rain, so the vines can
thrive in the summer furnace without adding
water and diluting the flavor of the grape.
In spring of 2005 Christian Lazo bought
another fifteen acres, evenly divided into
Zinfandel and its two bad boy friends
Barbera and Petite Sirah, from Sauret
VineyardsTM.
Both the 2003 and the 2004 Christian Lazo
Zinfandel are 100% from the ol’ McGillis
place that we bought in March 2002. Most
people in tasting the 2003 and the 2004
version comment on the difference in flavor
and boldness. Some of this divergence is due
to the long process of bringing the vines of
the ol’ McGillis farm back into balance
after years of neglect. Some is due to using
the farming techniques of an old master. How
much is due to each factor? Well, only a
wine sage could truly answer such a
question. As for us, we are just happy to
have been blessed with the good fortune to
become stewards to awesome zinfandel
vineyards and to have been taught by the
best farmer ever to have farmed a head
trained vine.
Christian Lazo
