Copain Viognier, 2009 Tous Ensemble, Mendocino County

Copain Wine Cellars was founded in 1999 by Wells Guthrie and Kevin McQuown with just 200 cases of Pinot from Dennison Vineyard in Anderson Valley. Wells started his career working at the Wine Spectator’s San Francisco office as a tasting coordinator. It was during these first few years that he fell in love with Syrah and moved to the Northern Rhone. Wells worked for Chapoutier for two seasons in both the winery and vineyards learning about the Northern Rhone varietals and Biodynamics. Outside of Chapoutier, Wells spent as much time as he could with Jean Louis Chave, who he feels had an equally important impact upon his experiences in the Rhone. Following Chapoutier, Wells returned to work at Turley Wine Cellars working in both the vineyards and cellar. Today, Wells is the full-time owner and winemaker for Copain Wine Cellars.

Wells Guthrie has taken his Northern Rhone training and appreciation of Northern California's gentle ripening seasons to new heights in his recently assembled winery in Healdsburg. All of the vineyards are organically farmed, as Wells states, "As winemakers we are just custodians of that fruit allowing for the reflection of the site, varietal and vintage." Minimum intervention and organic farming practices allows Copain wines to display the natural balance of flora and fauna inherent in each site to impact the developing vine, fruit and finally the wine. The project is all about balance and elegance, which is achieved on their vineyard-designate wines as well as their multiple vineyard "Tous Ensemble" label.

 

For their first release of "Tous Ensemble" (French for "all together") the Viognier grapes were sourced from McDowell Valley Vineyards in Mendocino County.  However, the third release may just be its last as noted by the winemaker because of difficulty in vineyard commitments.

Copain's 2009 Viognier has captured the classic Viognier aromatics and flavors of fresh apricots, honeysuckle, as well as green papaya, Meyer lemons, apricots, Granny Smiths and hints of honey and fresh flowers (not as floral as most California Viogniers). This pale, lemon-colored wine is light and racy, avoiding the weighty, waxy nature of overly ripe Viognier and is a great white for those looking to enjoy the aromatic headiness of the varietal but with a medium-bodied palate with balanced acidity and a medium-length creamy finish.

Copain is dedicated to producing top-quality vineyard designated wines that are complex, varietally correct, and food friendly without being heavy handed. Winemaker Wells Guthrie believes that quality starts with the vineyard. In pursuit of this, Copaín has created and will continue to seek relationships with growers who are committed to what they believe are the key attributes necessary to produce world class wines: vineyard exposition, clonal selections, and dedication to organic farming practices.

Grapes are night-picked to maintain cold temperatures and whole cluster pressed once they arrive at the winery. This ideology is applied at the winery, where all fermentations occur with native yeast and the goal is to gently extract the flavors given from the vineyard with minimal intervention by replacing punch downs with pumping over just once a day to avoid any hard physical extraction, and using a maximum of 30 percent new French oak. Picking with lower potential alcohols over the past few vintages has let the purity and expression of each site shine: naturally keeping the wines lower in alcohol has resulted in retaining a brighter, more lively acidity and freshness on the palate making the wines more enjoyable with food.  The wine is stainless steel fermented and lightly filtered before bottling.

The Mendocino County AVA (American Viticultural Area) is located in the northernmost part of the North Coast AVA in California. The region, which is one of the state's largest wine-growing areas, is recognized for both its diversity and the quality of its grapes. Viticulture here dates back to the mid-1800s, following the California Gold Rush. As in so many US states, the wine industry was virtually destroyed by Prohibition.  

Located directly north of Sonoma County and about 90 miles north of San Francisco, the Mendocino wine region is bounded by California's Coastal Mountain Range, the Pacific Ocean and the great northern redwood forests. A mountainous region, it is part of the seismically active Coast Range and is also the place where the San Andreas Fault reaches the ocean. Almost 60 percent of the county is blanketed with coniferous forests.

Nearly all Mendocino vineyards are in the southern half of the county, which is divided into two distinct climatic zones by the Mendocino Range. Most of the vineyards are located in the inland valleys in the south and east areas of the region. The vineyards growing white wine grape varieties are located on flood plains and alluvium along the Navarro and Russian Rivers. Most of the red varieties are grown on the bench lands above. However, new areas for winemaking are being discovered further north where there are distinctive microclimates suited to growing grapes.

Wines from this region are often considered to be excellent value for money as they are not as well known as those from other parts of California. Land prices are also lower than further south. Many winemakers concentrate on growing organic grapes, with nearly 20% of the county's total production certified as organically grown – more than any other wine region in California.