Two remarkable reds fueled by Lodi grapes
The name "ratZINger" rang a bell, but not until I turned the bottle around and read the back label did I realize that the wine indeed is named for Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, better known these days as Pope Benedict XVI.
Who would dare exploit in such a whimsical and commercial way the name of the pontiff? That would be Tim Busch, who with his wife, Steph, owns Trinitas Cellars, a wing of their posh Meritage Resort & Spa on the southern end of the Napa Valley.
Tim Busch is an Orange County entrepreneur long active in Catholicism. He donates generously to church programs, he collects religious icons, and when he founded the winery in 2000, he chose the Latin term for "Trinity" for his brand, which also produces a white wine called "Psalms" and a rosé called "Rose'ary."
The pope appears delighted with this devotion, even the unorthodox practice of naming a wine for him, says Busch. On pilgrimages to the Vatican, the couple have presented the pope with bottles of their wines, including "ratZINger," which received a notable papal blessing.
On that occasion, Busch recalls, the pope paused while taking his leave of an audience of about 100 to ask an aide to retrieve the bottle, the only gift of several that day that he took to his apartment.
"It's probably still there on a shelf," says Busch, noting that Benedict isn't known to consume much wine.
Maybe he's letting it age, though right now, it's a readily agreeable zinfandel, dry and lean, with suggestions of fresh raspberries seasoned with a dash of peppery spice. Though the grapes that went into "ratZINger" were from Lodi vines more than 100 years old, the wine doesn't display Lodi's frequently chewy tannins, dense weightiness and high alcohol.
Busch is donating all profits from the sale of the wine, an anticipated $50,000, to the Papal Foundation, which funds seminaries, convents and schools in Eastern European and less-developed countries.
TRINITAS CELLARS 2006 LODI "RATZINGER" ZINFANDEL ($18)
By the numbers: 13.9 percent alcohol; 1,927 cases; $18.
Context: Busch says he wants his winemaker, Kevin Mills, to make wines that can be drunk as aperitifs, and the "ratZINger" has the fruit so it can, though it isn't sweet and plump like many cocktail wines. It also has the structure and persistence to accompany beefy winter stews, short ribs, steaks and pizzas loaded "with everything."
Availability: Trinitas wines are available at the Market at Pavilions, Nugget Markets and Corti Brothers, but call first to confirm that the "ratZINger" specifically is in stock. The wine also is sold at the Lodi Wine & Visitor Center, 2545 W. Turner Road, Lodi, open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily.
More information: Meritage Resort & Spa, 875 Bordeaux Way, Napa, includes the Trinitas Cellars tasting room, which is in a cave 40 feet under the "Grape Crusher" sculpture that greets visitors to the Napa Valley; it is open 11 a.m.-7 p.m. daily. Wines also can be ordered at the winery's Web site, www.trinitascellars.com.
A family's burden of proof
As winery names go, Onus doesn't project the most upbeat of images, not with its heavy suggestion of challenge, obligation and sacrifice.
But that's the nature of farming, and that's how Lodi's Peterson family has made its living through four generations and more than 100 years, so why not acknowledge that heritage with a compact and frank brand?
Besides, when they began to make wine commercially a few years ago, the Petersons liked the Latin phrase "onus probandi," or "burden of proof," confident that consumers would be won over by what they put in their bottles.
Traditionally weighty definitions of "onus" don't apply to the family's wines. For one, the Onus Wines 2007 Lodi Chardonnay ($18) is an example of an unusually agile interpretation of the varietal. Unoaked, it's all zesty fruit, mostly Granny Smith apples and tropical things like pineapple and mango.
Even more impressive is the Onus Wines 2005 Lodi Cabernet Sauvignon, also fine-boned in build but with a complexity rare for Lodi versions of the varietal. Like the chardonnay, the cabernet is all about the fruit, herbs and other elements that a varietal can suggest when both the growing of the grapes and the making of the wine are carried out with diligence and equilibrium.
Swedish native Carl Peterson and his wife, Hannah, arrived in Lodi in 1904 to start raising Bing cherries, grapes and hogs on the 10 acres they'd bought sight unseen. Their sons, Willard and Carl, eventually took over the acreage, and they and subsequent generations expanded the holdings while becoming more active in the Lodi vineyard and winery trade.
Today, brothers Brad, Phil and Marty Peterson are applying their university educations in viticulture, enology and agricultural economics to the old family place, now up to 100 acres of wine grapes and 20 of Bing cherries.
With the harvest of 2003, they established Onus Wines. Their initial goals are modest, limited to a "three-car winery" with no tasting room and just a few hundred cases per varietal. Their standards are high: If the quality of the grapes in any particular vintage doesn't measure up, they won't release the wine under their brand, preferring to sell it off in bulk. Thus, they didn't have a 2004 cabernet sauvignon, nor will they have a 2008.
The 2005, incidentally, was one of just four cabernets from that harvest to win a gold medal in the $25-$50 class at the New World International Wine Competition; all the others were from North Coast wineries, two of them in Napa Valley.
ONUS WINES 2005 LODI CABERNET SAUVIGNON ($27)
By the numbers: 14.5 percent alcohol; 405 cases; $27.
Context: The Petersons recommend that the wine be served with stuffed pork chop, flank steak or a filet that virtually has been burned on each side.
Availability: Corti Brothers.
More information: Onus Wines has a Web site, www.onuswines.com, but it is more cumbersome and dated than helpful.