Uniquely Californian

It's early October, just after dawn, and Carlisle winemaker Mike Officer watches as his picking crew rushes through Papera Ranch vineyard in Russian River Valley, playing beat the clock against the looming rain. He leans over a bushy Zinfandel vine covered with leaves that look like red and green stained glass. It's crooked and knotty, also old. The year it was planted, Franklin Roosevelt was taking his first oath of office and Prohibition was repealed. "This was all going to be ripped out a few years ago and planted to Pinot Noir," Officer says of the 76-year-old vineyard.

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