One of my favorite ways to spend a Saturday morning is finding a good estate sale, preferably with oodles of mid-century items. Estate sales take dedication though – they typically start at 7 or 8 am and there is almost always a line at the front door at go-time (and even a sign up list for those that get there ultra early). Now with a little one that rarely sleeps past 6:30, we are motivated to make being up that early seem worth it, so our estate sale trolling has increased quite a bit the last 5 months. Santa Rosa seems to have a plethora of good mid-century estate sales, especially in the Oakmont neighborhood, and I’ve scored some great finds such as a pristine set of Julia Child’s French Cooking cookbooks, a 1960s light up globe and vintage kitchen gear galore.
A few weekends ago, the boys and I hit up another sale in Oakmont for lack of better things to be doing at 7am on a Saturday. I didn’t find any treasures for myself, but the boy happened upon these 1975 bottles of Windsor Vineyards wine. Windsor Vineyards still does custom labeled wine to this day and apparently back in 1975, John Brown of Santa Rosa ordered some wine for his retirement party. We hope he had a fabulous time. Now I’m pretty sure this wine is going to be vintage vinegar as I’m thinking Windsor Vineyards wine in 1975 wasn’t exactly made for aging and I’m pretty sure even if it was, these haven’t been stored in proper conditions for 36 years. But for a $2 donation to charity per bottle, the boy decided to bring these home for a fun tasting experiment.
What we ‘purchased’: California Petite Sirah, Barbera, Pinot Noir & Grey Riesling. All 1975. All Windsor Vineyards, custom labeled for John Brown’s 1975 retirement party.
Some interesting facts: Windsor Vineyards was started by Rodney Strong in 1959 in Tiburon (hence the Tiburon Vintners logo on these) and is one of the oldest wineries in the US, as well as the first winery to ever direct ship to consumers. The alcohol level on these wines is listed as 12%. Is it even possible to get that low alcohol of wine in California any more? I’m thinking no.
Stay tuned as we discover what our vintage vinegar has to offer. 36 year old Grey Riesling anyone?? Yummmmmm…..
Eve,
What a great find! You are probably right about the drinkability of these wines, but there’s only one way to find out ; )
It’s cool to come across “vintage” items like this especially with custom labels that tells you a little something about the person and the time.
Believe it or not, by the way, you still can make wine at 12%, but unfortunately the palate of the average American for big, bold wines (perhaps guided by influencers like Mr. Robert Parker) demands something higher… however, there are many producers looking to get back to lower alcohol wines with more focus on the fruit and acidity. We have several in the 13% range.
Thanks for the sharing this piece of history. Cheers!
Ed Thralls
Windsor Vineyards
Hi Ed! Thanks so much for the reply – we actually tasted our first Vintage Windsor a few weeks back and it was very surprising – not at all oxidized to red wine vinegar like I had assumed it would be. Our tasting notes will be my next post, so stay tuned. And we’ll be sure to check out some of your more current vintages soon!
-eve