Patch spoke with founder and wine maker, Jeff Cohn.
How did you get started in wine making? My first job in the wine industry was with Boordy Vineyards in Maryland. I did everything — picked fruit, cleaned barrels, bottled wine, cleaned toilets — whatever they needed done.
You really started from the bottom up. Oh, I started below the bottom! But I learned. It gave me great opportunities.
Going to Rosenblum was the greatest opportunity. After I got a masters in agricultural chemistry with an emphasis on oenology from Fresno State, I took a job with Rosenblum where I had worked as a harvest intern. I started as a lab assistant, then I became head of lab, then I was in charge of white wine, then red, then both. Finally I became the vice president of winemaking.
I can’t say enough nice things about Kent Rosenblum. As with every wine maker, we wanted to make the greatest wines possible. So we discussed how were going to get to the next level with our wines.
He gave me room to create and play. I thought we should go in a certain direction and Kent was very open to it. We spent a fortune on barrels, did a lot of research and experimentation with yeast and fermentation styles. We achieved some great things. The wines we created were wow! wines — with explosive flavors and aromatics that no one else was doing at the time. It was an adventure! I feel blessed that I had the chance to do it.
What special skills do you need to be a wine maker? I had a pretty decent palate, but I don’t think it’s just your palate. It’s partially your palate, but it’s the ideas in your head.
I think anybody can make wine. To make great wine, there’s something else going on. Here’s an analogy: anybody can play the piano but only a few can make music. Or remember the movie, Ratatouille? Anybody can cook but only a few can make something special.
So what happens when you blend a new wine? It’s not a formula — 75 percent Zin plus this should make this wine great.
In my head, I have a vision of what I’m trying to achieve. I don’t consider myself the most creative person in the world, but I know what I’m trying to achieve. I know what this particular vineyard should be bringing to the table. It’s the potential of that particular fruit, whether it’s got more brambly notes or more chocolate overtones. It’s about combining textures and flavors.
The wine is hitting the front palate, then building in the mid-palate and then flowing to the finish. But maybe something’s missing. It’s my job to make that bridge happen — to make the flavors explode.
After you started JC Cellars in 1996, how long did it take you to establish the brand? About a year. In 1996, there weren’t so many wineries. There are too many out there now. So many of the wines taste the same.
Wine should have a personality. It’s something that should come from the wine maker’s heart.
When did you open the tasting room? In 2007. I really wanted people to come taste my wines. Also, I wanted people to see us working, to be part of the wine-making experience. In addition to this one here in Oakland, we have one in Napa that we share with ten other wineries.
Most people don’t think of Alameda as the heart of the California wine industry. Why did you choose to stay in the area when you launched JC Cellars? I had many choices of places where we could have gone after I left Rosenblum. Even though there’s lots of people on the Island, it’s a very small-feeling community. Everybody knows everybody. I wanted to raise my family in a place that felt small and safe. I wanted my daughters to have a sense of community.
“Caldwell Vineyard sits 500 feet above sea level giving panoramic views of Napa Valley, Mayacamas and Vaca Ranges. Grapes were first planted at the Caldwell site in 1982 with cuttings brought into the country using "creative" means. The weather at Caldwell Vineyards has a lot of similarities to its neighboring AVA, Carneros.” – Jeff Cohn
Tasting Notes
The 2005 vintage genuinely highlights the roasted earth aspect of the Caldwell vineyard. Black, blue and red fruits intermingle with freshly ground espresso beans and a hint of springtime lavender and rosemary. The palate features raspberry and vanilla crème with gentle touches of roasted meat, black olives and white pepper.
Robert Parker's Tasting Notes:
It exhibits a dark ruby/purple color along with notes of animal fur, roasted meats, herbs, chocolate, and cassis. Tightly-knit with jagged tannin in the finish, it is very good.
Sunset Magazine Wine Awards 2009
Top 50 Wines to Buy in the Special Ocassion Bottles category.
2007 Caldwell Vineyard Syrah – Napa Valley l $45 l 91 points
Both rich and fleshy, intense and concentrated, with dark berry, pepper, spice and anise flavors. Full-bodied and expressive, ending with a complex mix of spicy, beefy berry flavors. Drink now through 2016. 104 cases made. –JL
From Coombsville's cool climate, the dense ruby/purple-colored 2006 Syrah Caldwell Vineyard reveals a complex floral, blueberry, and black raspberry-scented perfume, sweet, noble tannins, and a layered finish. Drink this superb Syrah over the next 8-10 years.
Pure, rich and complex, sleek and focused, full-blown yet well-proportioned, with a medley of ripe blackberry, spice, mineral and sage all woven together and ending with firm, minerally tannins. Drink now through 2014. --J.L.
Exhibits a scorched/volcanic earth-like character along with notions
of roasted herbs, espresso, cassis, and blackberries. This heady,
Hermitage-like effort is distinctive, it should benefit from another
year or so of bottle age and drink well for a decade or more.
From its dramatic, intensely peppery aromas of blackberries and ripe
plums to its plush, positively mouthfilling flavors, the wine simply
oozes concentrated berries and spice while getting a big boost from its
very rich oak. Yet, for all of its mass and evident stuffing, it is
remarkably well-balanced and buffers its heat with extract to spare. As
this very deep wine and its impressive mates clearly attest, winemaker
Jeff Cohn understands richness when it comes to Syrah.
This Syrah boasts a deeper, darker, blue/purple color as well as a
big, sweet nose of blueberries, black raspberries, licorice and crushed
rocks. Full-bodied and harmonious, with sweet tannin as well as
expansive richness, this beauty can be drunk now and over the next
decade.
A bold, dark, rich and delicious Syrah, with tiers of blackberry,
wild berry and chocolate brownie flavors shaded by smoky, toasted oak
and chicory. Intense, firm and concentrated, with anise, licorice and
chewy tannins folding together on the palate. Decant. Best from 2007
through 2012.
Intensely aromatic and redolent of fresh raspberries with a good bit
of oaky sweetness, hints of cocoa and a touch of peppery spice, this
ample wine is unabashed in its ripeness but avoids the palate sprawl
that can affect such wines. Its solid sense of wild berries holds well
into its slightly hot finish, and its fine-grained tannins suggest that
it will be drinking quite well by the time of its third or fourth
birthday.
If a tad less sizable imposing than Cohn's Rockpile bottling, this
wine is just enough more refined to rate very highly on its own. Its
sweet, jammy, concentrated aromas are certainly keyed first on ripe
blackberries and chocolate, and it picks up peppery and richly oaky
characteristics along the way. Plush and coating in feel, it is not
unexpectedly hot at the finish, and it asks for a few years of quite
cellaring to come into its own.
Medium-dark purplish ruby color; attractive, complex, spicy, herbal,
earthy, plumy, dark currant and black raspberry fruit aroma with notes
of vanilla (though not quite as intense as some of the other top rated
wines in this group); full body; big, dense, concentrated, highly
extracted, cedary, jammy, creamy, very rich, ripe black cherry and
blackberry fruit flavors; well balanced and structured; lingering
aftertaste. Shows distinctive varietal character and developed with
airing in the glass too. Should reward a few more years of bottle
aging. Very highly recommended.
From the southern Napa Valley, this wine (from the sol-called Aiken
soils, primarily reddish soils with volcanic ash and rocks) is a
French-styled, Côte Rôtie-like effort offering notes of crème de
cassis, dried herbs, black fruits, flowers, underbrush, subtle toast,
and roasted meats. This dense, full-bodied beauty reveals admirable
purity, a wonderful texture, and a long finish. It should drink well
for 7-8 years.
Dark, plush and deeply concentrated, with a pure, rich, syrupy core
of amazingly complex blackberry and wild berry fruit, yet it manages to
retain a sense of elegance and finesse, finishing with potent vanilla
and espresso bean flavors. Drink now through 2009.
A spectacular effort, the full-bodied, layered, serious 2001
Caldwell Vineyard Syrah exhibits notes of truffles, damp earth,
blackberries, licorice and a hint of pepper. This full-throttle, young
but accessible Syrah should hit its stride in 2-3 years, and last for
12-15.
Pushes ripeness to the max, with plush, jammy wild berry, licorice,
sage and dusty berry, finishing with ripe, smooth tannins and fine
length, along with some heat. Drink now through 2009.
Ultrarich and unctuous, with lots of depth to currant, cola, beef,
roasted herb, cassis and black cherry flavors. Ripe tannins carry
through the finish, along with nicely integrated toasty oak. Drink now
through 2006.
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Robert Parker's Tasting Notes:
Sunset Magazine Wine Awards 2009 
