skip to main content

Lodi Winegrape Commission

  • Home
  • Wineries
  • About
  • Visit
    • Visitor Center
  • Club
  • Events
  • Store
    • LODI RULES Sustainable Certification
    • White Wines
    • Rosé Wines
    • Red Wines
    • Sparkling/Dessert Wines
    • Old Vine Wines
    • Merchandise
  • Blog
TOP

Letters from Lodi

An insightful and objective look at viticulture and winemaking from the Lodi
Appellation and the growers and vintners behind these crafts. Told from the
perspective of multi-award winning wine journalist, Randy Caparoso.

Randy Caparoso
 
March 1, 2012 | Randy Caparoso

Ursa Vineyards discovers Basque roots in Lodi grown Tannat

Ursa Vineyards winemaker/proprietor Deborah Elissagaray

 Ursa Vineyards is made up of the husband and wife winemaking team of Greg Stokes and Deborah Elissagaray, who founded their own winery in the Sierra Foothills sub-AVA of El Dorado in 2001.

Yet a large part of Stokes and Elissagary’s book comes from grapes grown by Ron Silva of Silvaspoons Vineyards, located in Lodi’s Alta Mesa AVA.  Particularly one that pays homage to Ms. Ellisagaray’s Basque heritage:  the black skinned grape called Tannat.  They also produce varietals from Silvaspoons grown grapes of Portuguese origin; including Verdelho for white wine, and Souzão for a smooth, bouncy table red as well as a sweet Port style red.

Tannat grapes, Silvaspoons Vineyards

Stokes and Elissagaray met while they were both part of the winemaking team at David Bruce, during that storied Santa Cruz Mountains winery’s resurgence in the nineties.  Stokes is also a highly regarded viticulturist. who has been supplementing the family business with consulting gigs for numerous vineyards in California as well as in other states, like Texas and Georgia.

Says Elissagaray, “before we got together, I had been working on a Basque blend that I had hoped to emulate Irouléguy” – a historic region in South-West France that makes predominant use of the Tannat grape, known for its powerful tannin and dark pigmentation.

“The idea,” adds Elissagaray, “was to honor my father’s Basque roots.  He came to the U.S. from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (a Pyrénées Mountains town on the French side of the border from Spain, near the Bay of Biscay) when he was about three years old.  My father’s family settled in San Joaquin Valley, but they always remained very Basque, keeping to themselves in their own community.  Growing up and spending my summers there, I came to appreciate those ties.

 

“After I got into winemaking I began looking for Tannat, and the only source in California that I could find at the time was Silvaspoons Vineyards, owned by Ron Silva.  At first we thought of blending the Tannat with Cabernet Pfeffer (an extremely rare crossing of Cabernet Sauvignon and another Vitis vinifera of unknown identity) and Sangiovese, but that project never really got off the ground.”

Stokes tells us, “we bought Tannat for our first vintage in 2001 – I think we were one of Ron’s very first customers.  The Tannat never made it into Deborah’s Basque blend, but we fell in love with the grape anyhow, and have been making it every year since.”

The 2006 Ursa Vineyards Lodi Tannat ($18) is indeed a thing of beauty – as exotic, iron clad maidens with grips of steel and wicked, untamed ways go:  aromas of sweet blackberry mixed with roasting meat and an earthy, elemental, almost fromage-like pungency; coiling out from a thick, musclebound, full body with stiff jabs and lethal uppercuts.  Elissagaray describes it as “all about lamb… it needs that chewy meat,” while adding that “it is not a fruity varietal like Zinfandel or even Cabernet Sauvignon… the fruit is plummy, but always tinged like a smoky room, often with leather, tobacco, and in some vintages, anise notes.”

Elissagaray credits Stokes for Ursa’s increased mastery of the grape, which is known for often bruising tannin – the phenolics derived from the bitter seeds and skins of grapes.  “Greg is very good at pulling fruit out of the vineyard at just the right moment (ideally at sugar readings of 24.5° to 25° Brix), and also at pulling it from the skins before it finishes fermentation.  Tannat is not like other grapes – if you don’t separate the wine from the skins before the wine ferments all the way, you’re left with too much bloody tannin.”

Ursa's Greg Stokes

Impressed by Silva’s viticultural prowess, Stokes and Elissagaray began making red wine from another one of Silva’s favorite grapes:  the little known black skinned Portuguese grape known as Souzão.  The 2009 Ursa Vineyards Alta Mesa-Lodi Souzão ($18) is also a delicious alternative to the Ursa Tannat:  a much friendlier, slinky, sleekly textured red wine with an intoxicating black cherry/strawberry perfume and suppleness – a rendering of provocative flesh against a black, delicately strapped backdrop, like Sargent’s Portrait of Madame X.

Says Stokes, “the Souzão really fits in with our program.  It makes a huge wine like Petite Sirah, but much softer in the tannin department.  It’s one of those varieties that people resist because they haven’t heard of it, but once they try it they love its sheer drinkability.”

At the Ursa Vineyards tasting room, located on Mount Aukum Rd. in the little Foothills hamlet of Somerset, you’ll also find a rather exotic, if peculiarly barrel fermented, white wine also grown in Silvaspoons:  the 2009 Ursa Vineyards Alta Mesa-Lodi Verdelho ($17) – a lemon peel scented dry white suffused with toasted, hazelnutty notes and a drop of vanilla, the citrus qualities coming together in a zesty, bracing, light-medium body.

You’ll also find a sweet, fortified (19% alcohol), dessert style red:  the 2007 Ursa Vineyards Vinum Dulcis Alta Mesa-Lodi Souzão ($24) – plummy with raisined, Christmasy spiced, caramelized black fruit flavors, bouncing across a soft yet springy palate like a wet lipped, perfect sleeping Joey Heatherton.

If all this sounds like the perfect excuse to drive up into the hills of El Dorado County, that’s because that’s exactly what it is:  you’ll be rewarded by some startlingly unique experiences wrought by a pair of immensely talented winemakers.

Ursa Vineyards tasting room

Tweet
Pin It

Comments

Commenting has been turned off.
Blog Search
Recent Posts
  • January 19, 2021
    French students break down Lodi winegrowing, marketing, and its Alta Mesa appellation
  • January 13, 2021
    Alternative style Lodi wines reflecting the wave of the future — part 2, new interpretations of heritage grapes
  • January 11, 2021
    Alternative style Lodi wines reflecting the wave of the future — part 1, an unfamiliar white and red
  • January 5, 2021
    Discerning wines of the immediate future through what we know about the past and what's going in Lodi
  • December 29, 2020
    Lodi 2020: The year in pictures
  • December 27, 2020
    The small steps of Lodi growers led to giant leaps for Lodi wine country
  • December 22, 2020
    Looking on the bright side of fading old vine plantings in Lodi
  • December 17, 2020
    Our list of nice Lodi reds, rosés and fortified dessert wines for Christmas gifting and sipping
  • December 15, 2020
    A Lodi white makes the world's Top 100 list, and other Lodi whites for Christmas shopping and sipping
  • December 9, 2020
    The 1980s and 1990s — start of Lodi wine country's modern era
Our Writers
  • Randy Caparoso (804)
Blog Archives
2021
  • January 2021 (4)
2020
  • December 2020 (7)
  • November 2020 (7)
  • October 2020 (6)
  • September 2020 (7)
  • August 2020 (7)
  • July 2020 (7)
  • June 2020 (8)
  • May 2020 (8)
  • April 2020 (8)
  • March 2020 (8)
  • February 2020 (6)
  • January 2020 (6)
2019
  • December 2019 (7)
  • November 2019 (6)
  • October 2019 (6)
  • September 2019 (5)
  • August 2019 (5)
  • July 2019 (7)
  • June 2019 (6)
  • May 2019 (6)
  • April 2019 (6)
  • March 2019 (6)
  • February 2019 (5)
  • January 2019 (7)
2018
  • December 2018 (7)
  • November 2018 (7)
  • October 2018 (9)
  • September 2018 (6)
  • August 2018 (7)
  • July 2018 (8)
  • June 2018 (7)
  • May 2018 (9)
  • April 2018 (8)
  • March 2018 (9)
  • February 2018 (8)
  • January 2018 (8)
2017
  • December 2017 (6)
  • November 2017 (8)
  • October 2017 (10)
  • September 2017 (5)
  • August 2017 (6)
  • July 2017 (7)
  • June 2017 (6)
  • May 2017 (5)
  • April 2017 (7)
  • March 2017 (6)
  • February 2017 (5)
  • January 2017 (7)
2016
  • December 2016 (7)
  • November 2016 (8)
  • October 2016 (7)
  • September 2016 (7)
  • August 2016 (5)
  • July 2016 (7)
  • June 2016 (7)
  • May 2016 (6)
  • April 2016 (6)
  • March 2016 (7)
  • February 2016 (6)
  • January 2016 (5)
2015
  • December 2015 (8)
  • November 2015 (6)
  • October 2015 (7)
  • September 2015 (5)
  • August 2015 (6)
  • July 2015 (7)
  • June 2015 (6)
  • May 2015 (5)
  • April 2015 (6)
  • March 2015 (6)
  • February 2015 (7)
  • January 2015 (5)
2014
  • December 2014 (8)
  • November 2014 (5)
  • October 2014 (7)
  • September 2014 (5)
  • August 2014 (3)
  • July 2014 (5)
  • June 2014 (6)
  • May 2014 (7)
  • April 2014 (7)
  • March 2014 (5)
  • February 2014 (4)
  • January 2014 (7)
2013
  • December 2013 (8)
  • November 2013 (6)
  • October 2013 (7)
  • September 2013 (5)
  • August 2013 (6)
  • July 2013 (4)
  • June 2013 (4)
  • May 2013 (4)
  • April 2013 (5)
  • March 2013 (2)
  • February 2013 (2)
  • January 2013 (4)
2012
  • December 2012 (7)
  • November 2012 (9)
  • October 2012 (9)
  • September 2012 (7)
  • August 2012 (9)
  • July 2012 (8)
  • June 2012 (8)
  • May 2012 (9)
  • April 2012 (8)
  • March 2012 (9)
  • February 2012 (7)
  • January 2012 (9)
2011
  • December 2011 (7)
  • November 2011 (8)
  • October 2011 (7)
  • September 2011 (7)
  • August 2011 (8)
  • July 2011 (8)
  • June 2011 (9)
  • May 2011 (7)
  • April 2011 (9)
  • March 2011 (8)
  • February 2011 (8)
  • January 2011 (7)
2010
  • December 2010 (8)
  • November 2010 (6)
  • October 2010 (2)
  • September 2010 (6)
  • August 2010 (5)
Additional Resources
  • Media & Trade
  • Lodi Winegrape Commission
  • Donation Requests
  • Returns & Cancellations
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
Contact

Lodi Wine Visitor Center
2545 West Turner Road Lodi, CA 95242
209.365.0621
Open: Thursday - Sunday 12:00pm-5:00pm

Lodi Winegrape Commission
2545 West Turner Road, Lodi, CA 95242
209.367.4727
Open: Monday-Friday 8:00am-5:00pm

Have a question? Complete our contact form.

  • © Copyright 2021 Lodi Winegrape Commission
  • Winery Ecommerce by WineDirect