Wrotham Pinot Sparkling Wine
2000 years of history in a glass

This is the extraordinary tale of a new Napa Valley sparkling wine with a most unusual pedigree. It is made from grapes that trace their roots back to a grapevine planted over 2000 years ago by Roman armies occupying the British Isles. Surviving more than twenty centuries of damp weather, disease and war in a humble churchyard of a small English village, the original grapevine has now become the ancestor of the newest, brightest star of California bubblies – Wrotham Pinot, Napa Valley Sparkling Wine, Blanc de Noir.

Such an unlikely migration defies belief unless you know the man behind it. Dr. Richard Peterson is one of California's most talented, sought-after enologists. Among his feats was successfully filling the very large shoes of André Tchelistcheff, the famous Dean of American Winemaking, when he retired from Beaulieu Vineyards in 1968. Asked to name his own replacement, Tchelistcheff selected Dr. Richard Grant Peterson, then head of E. & J. Gallo Winery’s New Product Development and Research division. When asked why he chose Peterson as his successor, André said simply, “When a normal person is pricked with a pin, they bleed blood. Like me, when Peterson bleeds, he bleeds wine.”

Serving as Winemaster at Beaulieu Vineyard from 1968 through 1973, Dr. Peterson oversaw the production of both the 1968 and 1970 vintage BV Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernets, considered among the greatest wines ever made in America to date.

The Wrotham Pinot is not his first notably ingenious innovation. His adventurous accomplishments go far back. Not one to rest on his laurels, after leaving BV Peterson went on to serve as Winemaster and President of The Monterey Vineyard from 1973 to 1986. Among his benchmark setting creations there were several California firsts, including December Harvest Zinfandel, Botrytis Sauvignon Blanc, Botrytis Pinot Noir, and January Harvest Gamay Beaujolais.

From 1986 to 1990, Peterson was Winemaster and President of Atlas Peak Vineyards. He pioneered California's largest Sangiovese planting to date encompassing 450 acres of new vineyard. He designed and supervised excavation of California's most extensive winery storage caves (40,000 sq. ft.), oversaw construction of a 960 acre-foot reservoir and produced the first three vintages of Atlas Peak wines.

He led a group of investors in purchasing the Folie a Deux Winery in St Helena, Napa Valley, California in March 1995 and remained Chairman there until the winery was sold in 2004. He continues today as viticulture and enology consultant for several high quality winery operations in California.

His inventions and technical contributions to the wine industry are well known, including designing a steel barrel pallet that is now used by virtually all California wineries and many around the world. He published the "Peterson Pallet" design, giving it to the wine industry (WITS Proceedings, 1974) rather than patenting it. He is an expert in combating Pierce’s Disease. He has served as Director and President of the American Society for Enology and Viticulture, long time director of the Wine Institute, past Chairman of WITS, and a founding member of the American Institute of Wine and Food, AWARE, Society of Wine Educators, and the International Wine Academy.

A highly sought-after consultant, Peterson has developed many new wines for U.S. wineries in California, Oregon and elsewhere as well as international vintners, including Lancers Vinho Branco in Portugal, the J. Wile line of varietal wines, Seagram's first wine cooler and all the original Taylor California Cellars varietal and generic table and sparkling wines.

Peterson first became aware of the Wrotham Pinot grapevine while judging at the International Wine & Spirits Competition near London in 1980. Local winemakers told him about an unusual looking grapevine that was growing wild against a stone wall in the village of Wrotham in Kent, England. Its leaves were especially strange looking with tiny white hairs growing on the upper surfaces of all the leaves. It was like nothing Peterson had ever seen before.

Local vintners reasoned that the vine was a natural seedling of the Pinot Noir vines the early Romans brought to England 2000 years ago! The village of Wrotham has a long history of Roman influence. The Wrotham Historical Society has records and artifacts that show the area was populated for many centuries by Romans and their descendants.

Peterson was invited to taste a wine that had been made from the Wrotham grapes by local winemakers. He immediately recognized its potential. Taking cuttings from the mothervine, which was very near to dying at the time, Peterson imported the cuttings to Napa, California. For the next twenty-five years, as his pet project, Peterson painstakingly propagated new vines from this bud wood to develop a full two acres of vines in the rich soil of the Napa Valley.

Curious to establish their true identity, Peterson arranged to have the vines’ DNA analyzed at the University of California, Davis, at one of the most famous enology departments in America. They reported that the DNA of the Wrotham vines is identical to that of Pinot Noir. This meant that the local winemakers were right about the source of the vines. They were indeed the descendents of Pinot Noir vines brought to England by the Romans over 2000 years ago.

Remarkably the vines had survived twenty centuries of harsh weather and the Phylloxera plague that nearly destroyed all European vineyards in the mid to late 1800’s. Working with the vines in California, Peterson soon discovered that the Wrotham vine had developed a natural resistance to powdery mildew and other vine diseases, surely a factor in its ability to survive two millennia of English weather.

The disease-resistant characteristics of the vine enabled Peterson to grow the offspring vines without chemical fungicides or insecticides, qualifying the Wrotham Pinot vineyard as organic.

The original vine is gone today. It was nearly dead when Peterson took his cuttings in 1980. But its offspring are flourishing today in a Napa Valley vineyard, lovingly nurtured by one of the smartest, most talented winemakers in California wine history.

The 2000 vintage is the first public release of Richard Grant Wrotham Pinot Blanc de Noir Sparkling Wine. The wine was made with exceptional care. For example, it was allowed to age on the lees, en tirage, for more than four years prior to disgorging. Wine lovers know that this extended yeast aging is crucial in developing the classic champagne flavor ('gout de champenoise'). Crisp and clean, RG Wrotham Pinot is impeccably structured, with impressive finesse and balance.

At $60 a bottle, Wrotham Pinot is a bit of a splurge but its refreshing sparkle and elegant taste are unsurpassed among the leading sparkling wines and champagnes produced anywhere. Our experts found it compares favorably to Clicquot, Taittinger, Perrier Jouet, Mumms and Bollinger. A beautiful pink color with thousands of delicate bubbles to delight the eye, Wrotham Pinot is surely evidence of nature’s best. It's almost as if the vine survived generation after generation against all odds, waiting for the right person to discover its virtues for the world to enjoy.

Richard Grant Wrotham Pinot 2000 Reserve is now available from Richard Grant Wines – Grant being Dr. Richard G. Peterson’s middle name. Only a few hundred cases were produced and they will sell quickly. We encourage our true wine loving readers to order soon before it is gone. This beautiful pink sparkling wine is perfect for weddings, graduations and all memorable meals and occasions. It is gorgeous drinking now but is certain to last at least until 2010 in the cellar. To order Richard Grant Wine's Wrotham Pinot, visit the Richard Grant Wine website at http://RichardGrantWine.com, and partake of 2000 years of history in a glass!

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