Dunne on Wine: More than a merchant: Corti in Hall of Fame

On March 7, 2008, Darrell Corti will be inducted into the Vintners Hall of Fame during a $250-a-plate dinner at the Napa Valley branch of the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena.

Corti is a member of only the second group of prominent wine-trade personalities to be so enshrined – and the first who is neither an academic nor a winemaker.

While he does teach, and while he has made wine, he is principally a Sacramento grocer who stocks his store with foods and beverages rarely found elsewhere: chutneys from Australia, spice blends from Syria, stockfish from Norway, caramels from Montana, marmalade from Sacramento.

But the Vintners Hall of Fame is recognizing Corti largely for his contributions to the understanding and marketing of wine, which he does through writings, lectures, tours and sales.

While he can provoke vigorous debate on the world wine scene with his forthright views on various grape-growing and winemaking issues, he is recognized locally more for his studious attitude, eclectic tastes and generous spirit. He frankly analyzes wines for home winemakers, judges at even small and remote wine competitions, and shares his knowledge and vast library with whoever comes calling, including this reporter on numerous occasions – just one reason I nominated Corti for the Vintners Hall of Fame.

Since he entered the family business full time in 1964, Corti has been an unusually proactive merchant. He has traveled broadly to forage olive oils, wines, teas and other provisions to be found in the United States only at Corti Brothers.

He also began to search out and promote Northern California foodstuffs and wines long before growing and buying "local" had the environmental cachet it enjoys today.

I sat down with Corti not long ago, seeking his long-range perspective on the development of the foothill, Delta and Lodi wine regions just outside Sacramento, and not coincidentally on the role he's played in that evolution.

Much of the discussion centered on Amador County, where in 1963, West Sacramento home winemaker Charles Myers first bought zinfandel grapes from Shenandoah Valley farmer Ken Deaver.

Though the Shenandoah Valley today has a couple dozen wineries, back then it had just one, D'Agostini, and the few growers in the area also were selling grapes to home winemakers and other commercial wineries outside the area.

In 1968, Corti poured a sample of Myers' 1966 zinfandel from the Deaver vineyard for Bob Trinchero of Sutter Home Winery in Napa Valley. Trinchero so liked the wine that he started that fall to buy zinfandel grapes from Deaver, releasing the subsequent wines under the Sutter Home label.

The 1968 Sutter Home zinfandel from the Deaver vineyard gathered so much critical and popular attention that it is seen as a pivotal development in the revival of the Mother Lode wine trade, which slowly had declined since the end of the Gold Rush.

Between 1968 and 1974, Corti also made a commercial zinfandel from the Deaver vineyard, bottling it under the Corti Brothers label.

In 1972, Corti poured the 1971 version of the wine for acclaimed British wine writer and historian Hugh Johnson. At a gathering of the Wine Institute in San Francisco the next day, Johnson raved about the "best California red wine" he'd just tasted.

"They wanted to know whose cabernet (sauvignon) it was," says Corti. "It wasn't a cabernet, it was a Corti Brothers zinfandel from Amador County," he says Johnson told the group.

"The Wine Institute ordered a case of magnums (of the wine), and I've never heard from them since," Corti says.

Rarely is Corti ignored. When Cary Gott was looking for a name for the winery he was establishing in Amador County in 1971, Corti suggested that he call it Montevina.

The name stuck, though today the winery is owned by Trinchero Family Estates of Napa Valley, the same family Corti introduced to the Shenandoah Valley four decades ago.

Corti also has been responsible for persuading farmers and vintners in the Sacramento region to plant obscure alternative grape varieties like nebbiolo, symphony and barbera, grapes he feels would do well hereabouts while providing more diversity to consumers.

About the writer:

• Call Bee wine columnist Mike Dunne, (916) 321-1143. Read his blog at www.sacbee.com/appetizers. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/dunne.