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Slug Gulch Wine Club

When John and Susan Smith first heard in 1989 that a vineyard was for sale on Slug Gulch Road, they were intrigued by the name, and after buying the vineyard, they immediately set out to learn the name’s origin. Like almost all of California’s gold rush, the truth is clouded by countless retellings of oral history, but the prevailing version is that a prospector was poking around an old river bed at about the 3,000 foot elevation of southern El Dorado County when he came across a piece of gold the size of (pick one) a man’s thumb, or a man’s fist. Gold comes in dust, flakes, nuggets and slugs, with slugs this size being very desirable, indeed (the $50 gold piece of the late 1800’s was known colloquially as a “slug” as well). The name was applied to the mine that was developed at the site, and then to the road that led from the settlement in Fair Play to the mine. The town blacksmith, John Barclay, lived about halfway up toward the mine, and his house, many times remodeled, still stands on the property next to Oakstone Winery.

When Oakstone Winery opened in 1997, most of the 1995 vintage was still in barrels, and the owners were preparing for their first bottling on July 4 (they use a mobile wine bottler, and the new kid on the block gets the least desirable dates). 1995 was extremely unkind to area grapegrowers, and much of the crop never really ripened, so they were left with estate cabernet sauvignon, heavy with the distinct green bell pepper aroma of unripe cabernet, and a zinfandel that had not fared much better. Surprisingly, when the two wines were blended 50:50, the combination was much better than either one alone, so seeking to capitalize on the memorable name of their road, they prepared to bottle the first Slug Gulch Red.

An amazing total of 740 cases (it seemed like an awful lot to them at the time) was put into the bottle, and a couple of months later, the first sample bottle was opened. John swirled, tasted and exclaimed “This @%#%& stuff is carbonated!” Sure enough, in his haste to get the wine bottled, he had neglected to check for residual malic acid. When malic acid is present, as it is especially in cool years like 1995, it can ferment inside the bottle, leaving wine with a little “spritz” and sometimes a faint aroma of sauerkraut (Every winemaker does this once, good ones don’t do it twice). Undaunted, he prepared a written disclaimer warning people not to store the bottles on their side (for fear of popping corks which might disgorge wine onto the carpet), reduced the price to $3.00 per bottle, and sold it at a prodigious rate. When sales lagged, the tasting room staff would prepare Sangria by combining the wine with fresh fruit to inspire customers to find even more ways to use it up.

The years that followed, 1996 and 1997 were both excellent, and with the winery’s rapid growth, no wine was available for Slug Gulch Red. (That’s not exactly true. John was so unhappy with the final quality of the 1995 Cabernet Sauvignon that he “declassified” it to Slug Gulch Red, slapped a tacky sticker over the label, and sold it all for $6.00 per bottle.) Then the el niño year of 1998 hit, and more than enough uncertain wine appeared. The second version of Slug Gulch Red combined under-ripe syrah (harvested November 5, 1998 at 21.4% sugar) and over-ripe zinfandel. Once again, the two wines compensated for each others’ deficiencies, and the wine was a hit. The unmarked lot #3 combined Carignane, Sangiovese and Cabernet Franc, each of which was quite hard to drink alone, but when blended in the right proportions proved to be an immensely enjoyable wine and a huge commercial success.

As people started to take note of the “good red wine with the funny name,” the winery began to speak of it, tongue-in-cheek, more and more in terms of its “mediocrity.” They advertised it as “the best mediocre red wine in California,” and decided it was time to designate the different versions. The next edition, now labeled as “Slug Gulch Red Lot #4,” combined Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese, and was described in the winery’s newsletter as “A Terrible Mistake.” they realized they had created a wine that was much too good, but the winery lived up to its commitment to sell the wine for $8.00 per bottle, and 914 cases sold in less than three months.

Lot #5 followed, known to the winemaker as the “Rhone blend,” combining Syrah, Carignane and Sangiovese. Its introduction was marked by an entire busload of wine lovers attending the El Dorado Winery Association  Passport Festival, who were seen and heard leaning out of the bus windows, chanting “Slug Gulch! Slug Gulch!” as the bus made its way slowly up the steep hill to the winery. Lot#5 sold equally briskly, and disappeared just before the Fair Play Wine Festival in June of 2002. Realizing that they could not participate in a major wine festival without Slug Gulch Red, the owners borrowed a page of history and created an interim version called Slug Gulch Red Lot #5.5 by “declassifying” the remaining 1998 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon and selling it all for $8.00 a bottle, complete with another tacky sticker to slap over the label.

Additional lots have followed, and with Lot #9, introduced in early 2004, a new label was added which depicted the whimsical nature of the wine. It shows a miner who looks remarkably like a winemaker pushing a mining cart full of grapes out of the "Slug Gulch Wine Mine," while another, white-bearded miner stands nearby, leaning on a long-handled shovel in the classic "DOT" posture.  The symbolism, which was not lost on many, is that Steve now has to do all the hard work while John takes the credit, but--he did dig the mine!

The winemakers admit to spending more time perfecting the blend for each lot of Slug Gulch Red than many of the other, more expensive wines we produce. The results have not gone unnoticed, and the wine has received gold medals at the El Dorado County Fair, the Long Beach International Wine Competition, the Calaveras County Fair, and the Mother Lode Fair, as well as many silver and bronze medals. In three successive years, it has been recognized in the California State Fair Competition as the “Best Red Table Wine with a California Appellation.” All in all, not a bad showing for “The Wine that Made Mediocrity Famous.” John Smith insists, “Anyone with the experience and resources should be able to make a really good $20 bottle of wine, but the real challenge, as well as the real satisfaction, comes in making a wine that everyone can enjoy, which only costs $9.95 per bottle, and which brings some enjoyable notoriety to the funny-sounding street weary miners once trudged in their search for the area’s elusive bonanza.”