I had Easter dinner w/ DarrellCorti ystrday. He informed me that Charlie died on Tuesday, from complications of taking a fall. Charlie had been going downhill the last few yrs w/ dementia and was in a care facility. We tried one of his wines for dessert from Charlie's cellar that Darrell had harvested:
1. CharlieMeyer's Ho-Made BlackMuscat 1963: Med.light color w/ some browning; very fragrant muscatty some MoscatoRosa perfumey very aromatic slight alcoholic some complex very ripe nose; slightly sweet bit alcoholic muscatty/floral/hair oil/perfumed/licorice bit alcoholic fairly complex flavor w/ light/smooth tannins; very long/lingering slightly sweet very strong muscatty/floral/grapey/very ripe bit alcoholic complex finish w/ light/gentle tannins; no signs of oxidation other than the color; a lovely fully mature dessert Muscat that should go on another 10-15 yrs.
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. This was a shiner w/ no label on it. From it's location in the cellar, Darrell surmises it was one of Charlie's early Ho-Made wines from around 1963 or 1964. At that time, he hadn't discovered DeaverVnyd (that was 1964) and was buying his grapes from South of Davis. The wine spoke strongly of MuscatHamburg/BlackMuscat and was obviously a LateHrvst.
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2. Charlie was a legend and is responsible (along w/ Darrell) of making AmadorCnty what it is today. Looking for a source of Zinfandel grapes in 1964, Charlie ventured up into the ShenandoahVlly and found KenDeaver and his old-vine Zin vnyd. Up until then, the ShenandoahVlly was largely a viticultural backwash. Ken was selling a few grapes (as was JohnDowning) to home winemakers, but mostly they went to feed his pigs. Charlie made the wine in '64 and eventually showed the wine to Darrell, who was mightly impressed with it. When BobTrinchero was searching around for cheaper Zin than he could find in the NapaVlly, Darrell suggested that he give Ken a call, who bought a few tons. Trinchero released his SutterHome AmadorCnty Zin '68, it received wide acclaim, and the rest is history.
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3. Charlie was an English professor at SacramentoCityCollege and the office mate of Darrell's partner, John. He got interested in wine and started making wine as a home winemaker before he went commercial w/ HarborWnry in the WestSac Bottoms, out behind Wingo&Sons Upholstery on HarborBlvd. When I started buying at CortiBros around 1974, Harbor wines were some that Darrell encouraged me to try, including the dessert Mission Del Sol, from old-vine Mission on the DeaverVnyd. I fell in love w/ them, especially his DeaverVnyd Zins.
Several yrs later, I made an appt to visit Charlie at Harbor and fell in love w/ him. When Darrell would invite me for dinner, Charlie was usually one of the guests. We shared many a btl around Darrell's table. Charlie had a keen intellect and a wicked sense of humor, always delivered w/ a rather impish grin. I recall his '78 Deaver Zin, which came in very ripe. The fermentation stuck, leaving the wine w/ a fair amount of RS. Charlie lamented that he was really going to have to do a "number" on his customers to sell it off. He eventually labeled it as "Country-Style" Zin, a style that was pretty common in AmadorCnty from the overripe grapes that was common up there. He priced it low and eventually moved it out, but dropped DeaverVnyds after that one. Our group bought 4-5 cs of it at about $3.49/btl. It was actually pretty tasty Zin if you could live w/ the RS.
Charlie was a very special friend and I cherish the many discussions and btls we shared at table at Darrell's. He will be greatly missed, both by me and his many friends.
Tom