 George and Anne Eckert moved to Plymouth, California in 1986 where they built their unique home, with geodesic domes making up part of the structure. Anne and George 'fell into' the wine industry about 7 years ago when they were picking up a wine club shipment from Driven Cellars. The owner, Chris Chinco, had a tasting room full of guests, one of whom dropped her glass of wine, shattering the glass and spilling wine all over the floor. Chris cleaned up the mess and continued to serve his guests. After the guests had left, George mentioned that we live just a few minutes away from the winery, and, if he ever needed help, just let him know. That was Sunday. On Tuesday, George received a text from Chris asking if he'd like to help out, 'and the rest is history.' George and Anne have been volunteers at the winery ever since. Driven Cellars had a history before this though: In 1993 Rudy Chinco purchased 41 acres of rolling farmland in Shenandoah Valley. Rudy, his son Chris and daughter Cathy, worked side by side, planting their vineyards and laying plans for the winery, which opened 10 years later. More than 60 antique cars and trucks and 40 tractors seemed to make their way to the winery and the family decided to build a home for the collection and create a destination for others who share their enthusiasm for wine and vintage cars. In 1998 the first vines of Primitivo were planted, and in 2005 Driven produced its first wine. Primativo is genetically identical to Zinfandel, but it ripens earlier and is juicy, well-structured and heavy with pigments, aromas and flavors of ripe berries. George described the process for deriving the recipe for their red blends, a job that he and Anne supervise. They start a new harvest's blend by using the recipe that worked in a past year using 3-4 red varietals. Since each year's grapes are different, they adjust the formula from there, depending on what their taste tests reveal. In addition to the grapes grown on the property, Driven Cellars obtains many of its grapes from other sources, including white wine grapes from the Lodi area. Although not officially having the "organic" label, there are no pesticides or fertilizer used on the Primitivo grapes in the Driven vineyard. |
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