Last Vestige Of Sacramento-Area Vintage Heading To Papal Meeting
By Kelly Ryan
WEST SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A special vintage with Sacramento ties will be served at a reception on Thursday from a winery most people didn't know existed.
The wine is 28 years old and is considered the last vintage of its kind. But what's most remarkable is where it came from.
It's a small building sandwiched between a trucking company and a car repair shop in West Sacramento. It's likely most people drive by it without noticing it's there.
But the small building is getting a lot of attention, with a direct connection to Pope Francis' first visit to the United States.
Most people don't know that West Sacramento even had a winery.
"Charles Myers was an English teacher at Sac City College, and perhaps the best home wine maker the state of California has ever known but very under the radar," said Rick Mindermann, the store director at Corti Brothers.
Myers began making wine at Harbor Winery in 1972.
"When he was done teaching people said, 'You should open up a winery,'" Mindermann said.
The last vintage he produced was in 1987, but it wasn't bottled until 2014.
"This 1986 Harbor Mission Del Sol is a high a high alcoholic fermentation dessert wine," Mindermann said.
When Daryl Corti of Corti Brothers Market learned that Father Ken Lavarone of Sacramento's St. Francis of Assisi parish would be assisting the pope, he knew it was the wine to send.
"Daryl thought it would be very appropriate to send this particular wine which is singularly unique possibly in the world," Mindermann said.
The wine was made from mission grapes from Amador County that were brought over by the Franciscans and used in sacramental wine.
"That is going to be served at the luncheon following the mass of thanksgiving for the Franciscans," Mindermann said.
The 28-year-old wine is the last vintage of this production and there are just 60 cades left of the wine. When it's gone, it won't be seen again.
Myers died earlier this year and his winery is in the process of shutting down, while Corti Brothers is selling the last 60 cases.