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Calcareous Vineyard

If you read my blog on a regular basis you’ll know that I’m a sucker for the Rhone varietals.  The Rhone Valley in France is my wine heaven, but Paso Robles is an area that is doing fabulous things with Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre and the rest of the Rhone grapes.

Lloyd Messer and his daughter Dana Brown, both experienced wine distributors in Iowa, founded Calcareous Vineyard in 2000.  They shared the dream of owning and operating a winery of their own and after researching many renowned wine regions around the world decided that California’s Central Coast was where they wanted their dream to come true.  They named their winery “Calcareous” after the Latin word describing the white colored lime deposit soil.  Their goal and motto has been to “Let the Soil Speak”, and you can taste it in their wines.

Sadly Lloyd Messer passed in 2006, so today Dana and her sister Ericka are keeping the dream alive!

I opened the 2010 Calcareous Vineyard Grenache-Mourvedre tonight, which is 57% Grenache and 43% Mourvedre.  After first pouring a glass the oak was overwhelming, so I decided to decant it for a bit.  Ahhhhh … what a difference an hour can make.

On the nose are plum, cherry, black pepper and cinnamon.  The palate confirms the aromas with the cinnamon even more pronounced, but in a good way.  I love it!  There is also some licorice there that adds to the overall taste and finish.  After giving it the time to decant, it is a well-balanced wine with some really fun things going on and a medium-plus finish.  I’m definitely going to be checking out more wines from Calcareous Vineyard!

If you’d like to do the same, here is Calcareous’ website:  http://www.calcareous.com

2009 Mark Ryan Winery Black Love Pinot Noir

November always reminds me of Pinot Noir.  I’m not sure exactly why, but I have a feeling that there are a couple of reasons.  One thing is the change of seasons.  Now here in Florida the change is slight, but it’s still noticeable.  The heat and humidity slowly start to diminish, and the sweet hope of chilly evenings tease us to open red instead of white!  The usual lightness of Pinot Noir is a nice gradual transition to the winter reds!  Another reason I think of Pinot Noir at this time of the year is because I love this varietal for many of my Thanksgiving wines.  Pinot Noir pairs so well with the traditional dishes of the festive November holiday.

The other night my husband and I opened a 2009 Mark Ryan Winery Black Love Pinot Noir from Willamette Valley.   We purchased this bottle at the winery’s tasting room located in Woodinville, Washington. The fruit itself is sourced from Mark Ryan-designated rows in the Lachini Vineyard in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

The wine is a medium red in color and wonderfully aromatic.  On the nose are strawberry, cinnamon and some smoke.  On the palate are candied apple, strawberry candy, cola and lots of pepper.  There is some heat on the end, but otherwise has a nice, long finish!

Overall this wine is a winner and well worth the $50 price tag.

Mark Ryan Winery is doing some very nice wines.  Check out my visit to the winery here: http://www.timetounwine-d.com/tag/woodinville/

If you’d like even more info, go to their website here: http://markryanwinery.com/

Sierra Foothills AVA (Day Two)

One of my favorite things about the Sierra Foothills AVA in California is its quaintness.  It reminds me of what Napa must have been like fifty years ago.  Overall this area is rustic and a bit unpolished, but many of the wines taste like wines from the Sierra Foothills should.  It’s as if the grapes have an awareness of their home.  The terroir is special and evident in many of the wines.  Some of the wines made in this unique area are somewhat generic, but others are gems!

Boeger Winery – Our first tasting on Day Two was at one of the oldest wineries of the region, Boeger.  Gold was discovered only 15 minutes from here, and a flood of wine-loving people followed.  The Fossati-Lombardo family started a winery on this property in the 1850s, and their original house, cellar and distillery are still being used today. 

Greg and Sue Boeger purchased the property in 1972 and opened their doors in ’74.  While preserving the history of the buildings via restoration, using many of them still today, they have also since built a new state of the art winery with a large, lovely tasting room and gift shop.  I especially enjoyed their Zinfandel and Barbera wines.  I got a kick out of their picnic area sign too!

Crystal Basin Cellars – Jack, one of the owners of Crystal Basin, was behind the tasting bar pouring for us.  Jack seems to be very proud of the fact that, according to him, all of their wines are over 15% alcohol.  For me it simply meant a lot of hot wines that pretty much all tasted the same.   The gal working with Jack (who told us about 10 times that she “works for wine”) was very excited to see that he was opening a bottle of their 2009 El Dorado Grand Reserve Triumphant.  A Right Bank Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Petit Verdot, Jack was very proud as he boasted that this wine tasted just like an Opus One, but for half the price!  What?????  I have a feeling that Jack’s never tasted an Opus, as there were no similarities between the Napa Bordeaux blend parented by Robert Mondavi and Baron Philippe de Rothschild (of Château Mouton Rothschild) and the hot, huge, fruit gunk that he poured into our glasses.  This wine tasted pretty much just like all of the other reds he had poured for us.

Another interesting moment was when the gal “who works for wine” jumped about 10 feet into the air and made a loud shrieking noise when my husband and I spit our first  taste into the dump bucket.  We were alarmed and asked her if she was okay.  She stated that she couldn’t bear watching people spit out wine.  At first I thought that she meant that she was repulsed to see anyone spit their “fine” wines out and not consume them.  I then realized that it was the act itself of spitting into the spit bucket that caused her so much pain.  My thoughts?  She should probably find another way of “working for wine” than in a tasting room, where generally speaking a lot of spitting occurs!

I always buy when I taste, and this was one of those places where I found it difficult to find a wine I liked well enough to buy even one bottle.  I ended up purchasing their RouMarNier, which is a blend of 33% Roussanne, 33% Marsanne and 34%Viognier.  It’s kind of a clever name, and the best wine of the bunch.  Interestingly, and much to Jack’s surprise I would think, it comes in at 13.5% alcohol.  Thank God!

Sierra Vista Winery – This winery is set on a little piece of paradise.  Appropriately named, Sierra Vista is set high in the foothills with gorgeous views of the Crystal Range of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  Vines and lovely fig trees surround the tasting room.  The day we were visiting, 81-year-old John MacCready, owner and winemaker, was perched high on a ladder tending to his fig trees.  Inside we met Gail, the tasting room employee, and a somewhat cranky older woman who I assume was Mrs. MacCready.  Luckily she pretty much ignored us and we were left in the very ample care of Gail.

There are some very interesting things about Sierra Vista Winery.  Firstly, many of the vines in their vineyards are growing on their own rootstock.  I was VERY impressed with this information.  Most Vitis vinifera grape vines around the world have been grafted onto American rootstock since the 19th century, when an outbreak of phylloxera destroyed vineyards around the world.  It was determined that American rootstocks are immune to phylloxera.  After conducting tastings of wines made with grapes from their original rootstock compared with grapes grafted onto American rootstock, MacCready decided that the former made better wines.  To reduce the risk of phylloxera contamination in his vineyards, MacCready only allows his own equipment in his vineyards and does not allow tours, which can bring risk of infestation.

Secondly, he was the first person in the Sierra Foothills to plant Rhone varietals, which are now, along with Zinfandel, considered to be the main varietals of this region.

His wines are very good.  I especially enjoyed the 2012 El Dorado 60% Viognier-40% Roussanne, the 2008 Reeves Vineyard Zinfandel, and the 2011 Lynelle Reserve, a Châteauneuf du Pape blend.

Holly’s Hill – I was looking forward to this tasting.  Holly’s Hill Winery focuses exclusively on Rhone varietals, and I’m a lover of all wines Rhone. Connie in the tasting room was awesome!  They have a large selection of wines to sample, and she did a great job of helping us pick and choose.  We were spitting, so we tried a lot of them!  We ended up buying a few, including the 2009 Wylie Fenaughty Reserve Syrah.  Although Holly’s Hill grows most of its own grapes, the Wylie Fenaughty grapes are bought from two different growers.  The Wylie vineyard is a steeply terraced vineyard (about 2,500 feet elevation) in the Sierra foothills in an area called Georgetown. The Fenaughty vineyard is at about 2,700 feet, but in the Apple Hill district. Both are planted to the same clone of Syrah, but the soils are different, therefore producing different styles of wine.  Together, they produce a lovely wine that has great fruit, a nice earthiness and is reminiscent of some wines from France.  That’s probably why I enjoyed it so much!

My only regret at Holly’s Hill is that I didn’t snap a picture of their wine dog Drake!  He was a very loveable Golden Retriever who helped relieve the longing I had for my puppies at home!

Miraflores Winery– This state of the art winery is a lovely Mediterranean style building set amongst the rolling foothills of the Sierra Mountains.  In charge of pouring our wines was Cheri, a delightful woman who was fun, but also full of info.  And the wines were great.  This was probably my favorite tasting of the trip.  It’s difficult to know where to start with the wines, so I’ll tell you a few of my favorites. 

The 2009 Estate Zinfandel is a lovely food friendly wine.  It’s not too big and jammy, but well balanced and would be perfect will many types of food.  Personally, I’m thinking pizza!  This wine received glowing scores from some well-known and reputable publications.

The 2010 Méthode Ancienne Syrah is also a great wine. Méthode Ancienne refers to the process of foot stomping the grapes!  One of many examples of Miraflores’ winemaker Marco Capelli doing a splendid job here, this wine is reminiscent of a Northern Rhone.  It’s a delicate and very flavorful Syrah that comes in at 13.5% alcohol.  This was my favorite of the tasting, so I had to buy a couple of bottles.

Miraflores also does a beautiful job with some sweet wines.  The 2010 Borticelli and the non-vintage Black Muscat were lovely.  My husband’s favorite was the non-vintage Angelica, which is made from the Mission grape. On the palate are caramel and vanilla.   We bought a bottle of this as well.

Day two was full of much adventure!   We were lucky enough to taste some fabulous examples of truly great Sierra Foothills wines, along with some that were more educational than enjoyable.  And that’s okay!  That’s why I love to travel to winemaking regions.  I want to taste them all!!!!

Sierra Foothills AVA (Day One)

Of all of the California wine regions I’ve visited, there was one AVA in that great state yet for me to explore.  I crossed that off my list last month.

The Sierra Foothills AVA is located about two hours northeast of San Francisco and 45 minutes east of Sacramento.  One of the largest AVAs in the state of California, the Sierra Foothills AVA contains portions of eight California counties including Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Mariposa, Nevada, Place, Tuolumne and Yuba.  We focused on Amador and El Dorado, so that’s what I’ll focus on here as well.

Grapes have been growing and wines have been being made in this region since the California Gold Rush in the mid 19th Century.  A lot of the folks who set out to make their fortunes in gold were of European decent, and brought their love of wine and skills of winemaking with them.  They planted grapes, but when the gold was gone and the gold mines closed, the wine industry pretty much collapsed.  A revival began in the 1970s, and in 1987 the Sierra Foothills region was recognized as an official American Viticultural Area (AVA).

While visiting the region last month we visited 11 different wineries.   Most were pretty good, some were excellent and one … ?  Well, let’s just say that it was very interesting and educational.  I’ll talk more about that in my next blog.

Here are the wineries we visited on Day One:

Story – This winery has a cute little cabin that is used as its tasting room.  Story is located high up in the foothills with a nice little picnic area next to some ancient Mission grape and Zinfandel vines and overlooking the Sierras.  The wines were good too, especially their 2010 Quartz Zinfandel. 

Turley Wine Cellars – Just over a year ago Turley bought well-known Zinfandel producer Karly Wines.  This gave Napa based Turley, long respected for their winemaking, a presence in Amador County.  Turley had been buying grapes in this area since 1996.  They’ve renovated the Karly tasting room and are slowly weaning off the Karly label.  It is very exciting for the Sierra Foothills AVA to have such a well-known producer in their region.  Allison in the tasting room did a great job walking us through their many wines. I especially enjoyed the 2011 Turley Judge Bell Zinfandel.  This was a wonderful representative of the zinfandel grape.  It’s not over-done.  Instead it’s a medium-bodied delightful wine with a long finish.

Karmère Vineyards and Winery – This winery is located in the Shenandoah Valley and has a beautiful French-style chateau tasting room with lovely picnic areas outside.  We were fortunate to have Hayley, one of the winery owner family members, guide us through the wines.  She was VERY knowledgeable and a wonderful gal.  All of their still wines are estate grown with the exception of their Sauvignon Blanc and their Barbera.  My favorites included the 2009 Morgan Nebbiolo and the 2010 Hayley (named for the gal pouring!) Zinfandel.

Terra d’Oro – The magic at Terra d’Oro was the tasting room manager Steve!  His knowledge and likeable personality made for a very fun tasting; and the wines weren’t half bad either!  This winery also pours the Montevina labels, their more affordable California appellation bottlings.  Their Zins are big and jammy.  Our favorites were probably their Port style wines, one made with very old vines.  They also have some fun, lesser known Italian varietal wines.  One is Teroldego, a grape grown primarily in the northeastern region of Trentino-Alto Adige.  Another is Aglianico, grown in the Basilicata and Campania regions of Italy.

It was a very fun day of tasting, and it was only the beginning!  We had two more days of exploring this rustic and unpretentious wine region ahead of us!  And explore we did.  Next up:  Day Two  Some gems and some duds!

Carmel and Big Sur!

My husband and I headed to Carmel recently for some R&R.  We wanted to explore Point Lobos and Big Sur, and therefore knew that we wouldn’t have much time to explore some of the many wineries scattered about in this region.  We did, however, want to stock up on wine for our room and for our forthcoming picnics, so we headed to a couple tasting rooms located right in the heart of Carmel.

Our first visit was Wrath.  I’d had some of their wines before and knew that we would be able to find a good Pinot Noir there.  Wrath’s tasting room is located at the Carmel Plaza, right next to The Cheese Shop!  How convenient!  A one stop shopping experience for picnic supplies!  The gal pouring for us was great.  She was helping out that day in their modern tasting room, and works in Wrath’s Marketing Department. 

We started with a couple of Chardonnays, one aged in stainless steel and the other aged in oak.  The 2012 Ex Anima Chardonnay was fermented in stainless steel and rested on the lees for four months.  With no oak influence, this wine has tropical fruit aromas and pear on the palate.  At only $19 per bottle, this wine rocked.

The 2011 3 Clone Chardonnay was aged in new French oak (60% new).  There was baked apple, cinnamon and butterscotch on the 3 Clone, with nice acidity.  The name comes from the fact that this wine is a blend of three old-vine Chardonnay clones (Mt. Eden, Wente, and Clone 4) from Wrath’s estate vineyard.  The Chardonnays were both delicious, so we bought some of each.

We then moved on to their lovely Pinot Noirs.  Our favorite was the 2010 Swan/828 (again, a blend of those two Pinot Noir clones), which has fresh red fruit as well as a wonderful earthiness that I love so much.  We bought some of these too!

Morgan was next up.  Located in the Carmel Crossroads shopping center, they have a cute tasting room called “Taste Morgan”, but the personnel weren’t very warm and fuzzy.  The wines are pretty good though.  I’ve had some of their Rhone blends in the past, as well as some of their Pinot Noirs.  We bought a couple bottles of their G17 Syrah, as well as their Lee Family Farm Tempranillo.  They had a Highland Chardonnay and a Rosella’s Chardonnay that I liked a lot too, as well as an interesting Albarino.  This could be a really fun place if only the staff had a more pleasant outlook on their job.

Our lodging was a return visit to the beautiful Tickle Pink Inn in Carmel Highlands.  This oceanfront hotel sits dramatically above the rocky Pacific coastline, each room having a private balcony with spectacular views.  We spent most of our time on our balcony with a glass of wine and a plate of cheeses!  We were in heaven!  We had some lovely seagulls drop in for visits as well.  If you have plans to visit Carmel, I highly recommend staying here.

On our last full day in the area we had a fabulous 3-hour lunch in Big Sur.  We dined at Nepenthe, a casual but wonderful restaurant with amazing views.  The food was great, the service wonderful, and the wine list awesome!  Not only is their list extensive, but also the prices are great.  The sommelier explained that once the wine is placed on the list it is priced.  That price never changes.  The wines are well stored, so one can find some gems.  We enjoyed a bottle of 2005 Domaine du Pégau Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée while watching waves of the Pacific Ocean crash into the mountains.  Be sure to check out this wonderful restaurant that won’t set you too far back financially!

The next day, on our way out of Carmel and headed toward the Sierra Foothills, we stopped for a tasting of McIntyre wines.  A friend from France who works for a winery in Châteauneuf du Pape suggested we try their wines, so we didn’t want to miss them.  After googling them, I discovered that one can experience McIntyre’s wines in the lobby of the Hyatt Monterey Bay. This is the first time I’ve ever experienced a wine tasting room in the lobby of a hotel, but it worked!  They do some nice wines, especially their Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

It was hard to leave this beautiful region, but it was time to move on to visit the Sierra Foothills.  We had more areas to explore and more wines to taste!

 

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