A Model of Consistency

Sonoma’s Rodney Strong Vineyards
continues its winning ways.

Richard L. Elia

There’s confidence in the wines of Rodney Strong. And by no means is it of the quiet kind. Rick Sayre, director of winemaking, is unshy about himself and his accomplishments, and, as the vineyards and wines have matured, he has a right to be. In fact, over the last few decades, Sayre has virtually everything to do with the success of the winery, a place he has worked since 1979. Because of this longevity at the winery (it’s rare in California that a winemaker stays with the same winery for nearly 30 years), he has been able to oversee the evolution and development of the winery’s 1,000 acres of vineyards in Alexander Valley, Russian River Valley, Chalk Hill, and Sonoma Coast. He has given the wines assurance, certainty, consistency.

We’ve been tasting Rodney Strong wines since the mid-1970s, when owner Rodney Strong was around. Strong, a proverbial character, a veritable charmer, was a former Broadway dancer in the 1950s who worked with Martha Graham. In the 1960s, he turned to wine because, as he often remarked, he knew he couldn’t be an old hoofer, but he could be an old winemaker. By 1968 Rodney Strong was producing wine. In 1970, Strong bought a new winery. Several years later, he hired Sayre, one of the best wine moves Strong made. Strong and Frank Prial, then the wine writer for The New York Times, were friends, and Prial liked the wines as much as the man. Prial was not known as a California wine advocate. His columns in those days sang the glories of BBC — Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Champagne — as did most wine writers. Prial, moreover, was a Times correspondent based in Paris, with an understandable predilection for the bons vins of France. With Prial, the most important wine voice in the country, writing about Rodney Strong wines, the winery gained cachet and notoriety, which few had and which many envied in those early days of the California wine industry.

While Rodney Strong took credit for the wines, it was actually Sayre who did much of the work. Taking fame and publicity from legendary Rodney Strong, who knew how to market himself, was never an easy thing. Sayre, a former wine assistant to another legend and charmer, André Tchelistcheff, labored in the vineyards and in the cellars, and, in due course, made the winery take more notice. By the late 1980s the wines became infinitely more serious, and by then (1989) Tom Klein had bought the winery. It has been serious ever since.

Klein spares no expense and has spent serious capital — $90,000,000 in vineyard purchases — at the old winery, creating a second winery within the old winery, where small batch lots of Reserve wines are made with the guidance of Sayre (now V.P. and director of winemaking), Gary Patzwald (winemaker), David Ramey (consultant), and Douglas McIlroy (director of wine growing). The Reserves and small batch wines are decidedly the winery’s future. Rodney Strong’s name lingers in respectful memory of an important past.

The striking thing about Rodney Strong is how, over the years and cliché notwithstanding, the wines have retained both their quality and their price. The facts are these: the wines remain some of the best value in Sonoma, with prices in the $14 to $30 range; even their Reserve wines are a “buy,” falling within the range of $35 to $55. Further, with regularity, several of Rodney Strong varietals make the cut for our annual “Best of The Best in California,” blind tastings of major varietals we have been conducting for a quarter century. Yet another striking factor: Rodney Strong wines, Estate and Reserves, compete with and often win against wines double and triple their price.

The latest releases of Rodney Strong wines remain impressive. The various Cabernet Sauvignons and red blends below exhibit structure, richness, and harmony, and chiefly come from the excellent 2004 vintage. The wines, especially the heavy-hitting Reserves, are focused and built for the long haul. Nonetheless, with proper aeration, they’re delicious and satisfying. We prefer, however, to cellar most of our Rodney Strong big reds, and were rewarded when, for this article, we opened several older wines, like the 1978, 1985, and 1990 Alexander Crown Cabernet Sauvignon. The wines were triumphant — immense, rich, deep, meditative.

The Wines

• 2005 Rodney Strong Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma County, $19. The 2005 vintage was good, but lacking the tannins and gusto of the previous vintage. Aromas of berry and chocolate, cocoa, and oak, with more of same in the flavors, along with laces of anise and cassis. Good texture and weight. Very nicely priced.
  
  
• 2004 Rodney Strong Vineyards Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley, $25. Big plum aroma. Boysenberry (raspberry, blackberry) flavor on the palate. Spice, chocolate notes, and tannin are just beginning to round. Cellar for a year or more. Impressively priced.
  
  
• 2004 Rodney Strong Alexander’s Crown Vineyard (Single Vineyard), Alexander Valley, $30. A standard and respected wine at the winery. Boysenberry, raspberry, plum aromas, with more of the same on the palate and finish, with mint, spice, and soft oak. A generous wine with as yet softly unrounded tannins. Drink now, but let it breathe for a while; otherwise, it’s worth the wait.
  
  
• 2004 Rodney Strong Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Sonoma County, $40. The best Cabernet the winery has made in recent memory. Big, textured, intense. Aromas of anise, cassis, licorice, black fruit, richly layered flavors, olive notes and coffee. Nicely structured, with long finish that’s still in need of rounding. Put it away for a few years.
  
  
• 2004 Rodney Strong Vineyards Symmetry (Meritage Red), Alexander Valley, $55. Made along the lines of the above Reserve. Big, powerful, engaging. Generous wine that’s still evolving. Blackberry, oak, sweet spice, deep rich chocolate, mint — complexity everywhere. If you open now, give it lots of time. The wine has a persistence of its own, and awards anyone with patience.
  
  

Rodney Strong Vineyards, www.rodneystrong.com