Our Malbec is sourced from a vineyard that experiences blistering daytime temperatures that plummet at night, with average daily temperature fluctuations of fifty degrees. “They asked, ‘How did you do it?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know.’ ”When asked about the future of his label, Ginn quips, “As long as it remains fun and I don’t go broke, I’ll keep going.” David Ginn and his newly released Swirl Cel
lars 2010 Lockwood Oaks Malbec. Sourced from a single vineyard in the San Antonio Valley – Monterey County’s newest (2006) and southernmost AVA (American Viticultural Area) – the wine is 100-percent Malbec and a pure expression of the varietal. Surviving 100-degree days and 50-degree drops nightly, stressed vines yield robust grapes with richly colored skins, concentrated flavors and ample tannins, making for rich, full-bodied wines. Like his favored grape, Ginn is a relative underdog among established local heavyweights, yet the affable DLI graduate (who speaks Russian) and self-taught oenologist will tell you he’s enjoying the challenge. That’s surprising given Ginn is truly an “accidental winemaker.” While living in Salinas and working as a financial analyst for UC Santa Cruz, Ginn’s housemate Jimmy Gipe received a call from a friend who had taken a job in SoCal – and was abruptly leaving six barrels of wine, aging in a ramshackle shed off Highway 101, in their care. Ginn, then a beer guy who rarely drank wine – and certainly knew nothing of winemaking – decided to look into it. After purchasing the book From Vines to Wines, the two began a quick study that Ginn describes in retrospect as an OCD-driven, head-butting process of trial and error. Three barrels so bad even their creators wouldn’t drink them, and the other three produced two gold medals and one silver at the 2002 Sonoma County Harvest Fair. “People loved them,” Ginn recalls. “They asked, ‘How did you do it?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know.’ ”When asked about the future of his label, Ginn quips, “As long as it remains fun and I don’t go broke, I’ll keep going.”
