Johnson first came across Lodi old-vine Cinsault in 2004 while working with Randall Grahm at Bonny Doon. Together, they picked 130-year-old-plus Bechthold Vineyard Cinsault for the Vin Gris de Cigare rosé. “I didn’t even know the age of the vines back then,” Johnson says. “It was just these gigantic berries, and it made killer rosé. [...]

This is what makes wines like the 2011 Onesta Bechthold Vineyard Lodi Cinsault ($28) so unusual, even exotic – coming from a historic vineyard so ancient that they can, and usually do, produce a stand-alone red Cinsaut unlike any in the world.  A Bechthold red typically comes across with the delicacy of a Pinot Noir, the [...]

But what really turns Grahm on is “that such an elegant wine can come from a warm climate region like Lodi.”  Jillian Johnson Phoenix, of Napa Valley’s Phoenix Ranch, concurs; telling us that “more and more people are liking the lighter, fruit forward style of wine that Bechthold Vineyard produces, so you can say that [...]

From Bechthold’s middle and north sections, where lower yields produce smaller clusters and berries of more intense flavor, a number of cutting-edge winemakers are now producing a red wine that is strikingly Pinot Noir-like in its delicacy and length of soft tannin structure, with deliciously perfumed flavors that winemaker Jillian Johnson likes to describe as [...]

According to Jillian Johnson, who produces Bechthold Vineyard Cinsaut under the Phoenix label (for the unreleased 2011 vintage, transitioning to her new Onesta label), these grapes will probably be ready to pick by Labor Day (September 3) or soon after. In fact, Bechthold’s Cinsaut has always been one of the first red wine vineyards picked. [...]