In 1942, the first amateur rodeo and horse racing event was held in Clements, California, and it was a big event with more than 1,500 people gathering to watch. The Stampede vineyard is next to the venue. Stampede means rodeo in California. In 1942, the first amateur rodeo and horse racing event was held in Clements, California, and it was a big event with more than 1,500 people gathering to watch. The Stampede vineyard is next to the venue. Stampede means rodeo in California. The Zinfandel trees planted in Stampede Vineyard in the 1940s are still rooted. This vineyard is located in the Clements Hills AVA, located in the southeastern part of Lodi AVA, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The soil is weathered granite, and when you look down the hill, you can see the area that was once the seabed and the place where the rodeo was held long ago side by side. The vineyard is managed by Jeff and John Perlegos and their son John. It was Morgan Twain Peter of Bedrock Wine Company who introduced them to the vineyard.
Morgan Twain-Peterson is the founder of this winery. The model and inspiration for this Zinfandel is the style of Paul Draper of Ridge Vineyards, the greatest influence in the history of California wine. By making good use of field blends and old vines, Paul has created a style of Zinfandel that is "elegant and well-balanced, typical of California." The grapes were harvested on August 28th, and fermented in an open-top container with indigenous yeasts, mixing whole bunches and destemmed grapes. The wine was aged for 14 months in 500L puncheons and bottled unfiltered and unclarified. Alex Pitts, who was an assistant winemaker for the Scholium Project, a pioneer of the California nature movement, became independent and teamed up with Martin Winter, who studied winemaking at Leo Steen and was a sommelier at the three-star Michelin restaurant Meadowwood in Napa, to establish the brand in 2012. In 2019, they were selected as Winemakers to Watch by the US national newspaper San Francisco Chronicle, and are the most dynamic young duo right now. Their motto is to make high-quality, unique, "California-like" wines while minimizing human intervention and striving to bring out the individuality of the vineyards to the fullest. Using their own network, they find not only organic cultivation, but also old rooted vines and irrigated vineyards that have not yet been noticed, and brew using only indigenous yeasts to firmly reflect the flavor and individuality of the grape varieties in the wine. "Maître de Chai" is a French word (mainly Bordeaux) that means winemaker. Now they are independent and can make a living just by managing their own winery, but when they first started "Maître de Chai", both of them worked as winemakers and assistants at other wineries. The brand name expresses their gratitude to their mentor who gave them the opportunity to work in the cellar and shared his knowledge of winemaking and cultivation with them, which is why they are who they are today. In other words, "Maître de Chai" is the job title that led Alex and Martin to enter the wine industry, and it is their origin. The label features an illustration drawn in 1883, showing the Statue of Liberty in Roman mythology, "Libertas", and a grizzly bear, the symbol of California, making a toast. California adopted the grizzly bear as its state flag in 1911, so this picture was drawn before that. The side of the barrel depicts a sailing ship and a worker holding a hoe that reached the west coast of America after a long journey during the Gold Rush (1848). The original illustration had the word "Eureka" written on the side of the barrel, meaning "Found!", and the sides of the wooden wine crate had "Mission," "Pineau," "Riesling," and "Zinfandel" written on the sides, respectively. However, the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau did not approve the designs as they were, so the word "Eureka" was removed and the side of the wooden crate now lists the grape varieties used in the wine inside.