Slamdance Koöperatieve Wines
California, USA
A native of Virginia, Daniel Callan started his winemaking career in the Commonwealth. After working his first harvest under the guidance of Nate Walsh in 2012, Callan began travelling abroad to seek out winemaking apprenticeships around the New World, working in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Paso Robles and Chile. Working a furious schedule of 2 or 3 harvests a year, he would rack up 20 vintages in half as many years, learning from the likes of Chris Alheit, Pedro Parra and Raj Parr. The Covid years brought his travels to an abrupt end and Callan, settling in Paso Robles, California, would turn his attention to his own project. Inspired by the “California Burgundy” wines of Pre-Prohibition (a tradition that was continued up through the 1970s by legendary producers like BV, Sebastiani and Louis Martini), Callan sought to resurrect a forgotten style that hearkens back to California’s earliest winemaking traditions. The wine is built around the old workhorse grapes of premodern California, often misidentified and sometimes now existing only in California: Napa Gamay (aka Valdiguie), Cabernet Pfeffer (Mourtaou), Pinot St George (Negrette), Black Malvoisie (Cinsault), Crabb’s Black Burgundy (Mondeuse Noir), Zinfandel and Petite Sirah and others. All the genetic material has been in California since before Prohibition began, in 1920. The winemaking is similarly old-fashioned: whole bunches are thrown into wooden vats, trodden underfoot to release juice, fermented with wild yeast and no additions to the must. Punchdowns are done by hand and the only machinery used is a basket press. The wine is racked by gravity and respectfully sulphured before bottling. Slamdance Koöperatieve Wines only produces 240 cases of this singular wine, which is equal parts beverage and historical artifact.
