February 4, 2022 – Jerold O’Brien never thought it would take 40 years to achieve the financial success he had in mind when he started out. But, he’s certainly glad all that hard work finally paid off. “I had a tiger by the tail, and just couldn’t let go!” he says.
He defined success in two ways: making great wine at fair prices and being profitable. The first box got checked off very early on. “I think we’ve achieved the goal of creating wines that people enjoy at very reasonable prices,” O’Brien says.
O’Brien has been working with winemaker Tony Craig for 20 years now and is really glad he listened to Craig’s advice to enter the San Francisco Chronicle Competition this year. “I used to enter many different ones, but hadn’t entered many in the last 10 years. Tony talked me into it!” And the result was a Best of Class for the 2014 Silver Mountain Syrah, which comes from two different vineyards: Muns, for the mountain fruit that ripens at 2600ft and retains some pepperiness that O’Brien likes, and the softness of the fruit from a warmer climate, in this case the Weideman Vineyard in Santa Clara County.
“I think all of our Syrahs are really full flavored, because they are a blend of different climates,” says O’Brien. “You get the contrast of flavors that the different diurnal swings bring. It’s cooler at night at Muns. There’s a dramatic diurnal swing at that elevation. A cool climate Syrah has a pepper character that is lost in a warm climate. It’s similar to Zinfandel. Zin loses its character and flavor in warmer areas, like Paso.”
He used to love making Zinfandel and his first vintage of wine back in 1979 was 350 cases of Zin from Butte County, from a high altitude vineyard. He made Zin every year until 2001. “It was my go to grape and then I turned to Chardonnay. I’ve only made two Zins in the last 20 years.” Much of this has to do with climate change. He’s been trying to find cool climate Zin for years, and thinks he’s finally found one in Ormsby Vineyard, at 2,000 feet in the Santa Cruz Mountains. He’s encouraged by the grapes he got in vintage 2021: it has much more spice and pepper.
But back to the Syrah. I asked him if he thought the judges were impressed by an older vintage being entered, as most of the other entries were 2018s and 2019s.
“I personally don’t see it that way. People release wines way too young in California. I follow the European style, which is to hang on to red wines for 5 or 6 years until I think they are ready. So the 2014 is our current vintage.”
O’Brien says he’s been using Syrah from Gali Vineyard since 2018. Stay tuned for that one.
The primary oak used on Silver Mountain Syrah and Pinot Noir is Hungarian, and in this case, it is 80% Hungarian, 5% French and 15% American. He’s been making Pinot Noir since about 1995, and has a mix of clones on his estate vineyard. “I got the Swan clone from Joe himself, who I met in the late 1960s and began palling around with, and suitcase clones from the SLH and Rick Anzelone planted some traditional clones.”
But climate change is impacting his every move these days. “One reason I planted what I did, was that I was close friends with David Bruce in the early days—I think it was 1972—along with Dave Bennion at Ridge and Bob Mullen at Woodside. I went to David’s a lot, and I noticed it was always a good 5 degrees warmer there than at my place. It must be more protected from the ocean. He had a block of Cabernet that only ripened one year out of 10. He said, ‘Don’t plant Cab!’ But I did plant Merlot, and it barely ripened at first but it ripens now. I am really happy with it. I might plant more.”
O’Brien’s vineyard started in 1981 with Chardonnay cuttings from Mount Eden Vineyard, which was managed by Dick Graff of Chalone fame before Jeffrey Patterson came aboard. In fact, Graff, with whom he developed a deep friendship due to his involvement in Chalone, a winery in which O’Brien was initially an investor, called him up one day in 1974 and asked him to come to dinner. Turned out Graff was interviewing for a new winemaker to replace his brother, Peter Watson Graff. “That was the first time I met Jeffrey, and he told me about his experiences. He seemed to be a really straightforward guy. He was so thoughtful in the way he spoke. I just loved listening to Dick and Jeffrey compose their words and sentences.”
Those Mount Eden cuttings went directly into the ground at Silver Mountain – no messing about with rootstock – and have made amazingly intense and concentrated wines ever since. “The Mount Eden Chardonnay has very small berries and small clusters, so the skin to juice ratio is very low.” The estate Chardonnay is memorable for its viscosity, and if you’ve ever tasted Mount Eden’s Chardonnay, you understand. It’s barrel fermented, the way Patterson makes his.
Silver Mountain also makes a Chardonnay from Tondre Vineyard, but this one is done in steel to create two very different wines.
“In 2000, we started using Tondre for Pinot Noir. It was the second year they had grapes available. Greg Stokes was at David Bruce and he told me about how much he liked it. I went to talk with Joe Alarid and have been buying fruit from him ever since. At one time, we were making four Pinot Noirs: Muns, Miller Hill, Tondre and estate, but we’ve discontinued Muns and Miller Hill. I think SCM Pinot has more mineral and has more depth of flavor and complexity: I feel it’s a premier area for growing Pinot Noir. However, I’m taking nothing away from the SLH. They have a complex flavor that is fruitier and more flowery: very approachable. SCM fruit creates a wine with a longer maturity cycle.”
The issue O’Brien has with both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir is that the picking times keep getting earlier and earlier with climate change, a trend he doesn’t think portends well for these varieties. “Thirty years ago, it used to snow here every year up here. Sometimes three or four times. About 15 years ago, it tapered off and now if we get one snow, it’s remarkable. Global warming is real. Early on in the 1980s and 90s, harvest time for Chardonnay was generally the last week of October or the first week of November. Now it’s the first half of October. The Pinot we planted 20 years ago on the coolest slopes we have, with global warming, it’s too warm for both these grapes, especially Pinot, for sure.”
Hence, he’s planning on planting more Bordeaux varieties at the estate.
What would David Bruce think?
About the author
Laura Ness is a longtime wine journalist, columnist and judge who contributes regularly to Edible Monterey Bay, Spirited, WineOh.Tv, Los Gatos Magazine and Wine Industry Network, and a variety of consumer publications. Her passion is telling stories about the intriguing characters who inhabit the fascinating world of wine and food.
