Coming soon – Remove sulfites from your wine glass

April 28, 2015 by Joe Becerra

There are many adults in our population, 1 in 100 in fact, who cannot enjoy drinking wine because of the sulfites contained in wine. Virtually all wines contain some sulfites. Even if the winemaker does not add sulfites, sulfites are produced naturally in the winemaking process. People who are allergic to sulfites and want to drink wine without getting sick will soon have a way to enjoy a glass of white, rosé, or red wine without fear of getting ill. With a few swirls of a small stirring stick, the wine drinker will be able to remove all sulfites from an 8oz or less glass of wine.

The sulfite remover is called StiQit. I received a StiQit press release and decided to call the company making it, YourBevCo. I spoke with Alan MacInnes, the CEO of the company and the man behind the development of this sure-to-be-popular wine sulfite removal device. If everything goes according to plan, in September the StiQit will be in wine shops, wine bars, winery tasting rooms, and in the home. Here is what Alan explained to me. The StiQit is a one-time use device. The plan is to sell them in packets with the initial cost to be about $1.25 for each StiQit. Each StiQit is wrapped individually, and once the consumer removes the wrapper it is ready to swirl in a glass of wine. A few stirs and presto, the sulfites are totally removed. The StiQit does nothing to affect the flavor of the wine. The StiQit has been thoroughly tested and all substances used in the StiQit are FDA approved. According to Alan, the hard part is getting the product to market. They have launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo (similar to Kickstarter) to raise funds to develop methods for volume production and packaging. In the works is also a plan to develop a process for removing sulfites from a 750ml wine bottle. That would be even more useful. Alan pointed out that the StiQit will not help those people who have adverse reactions to wine that are unrelated to sulfites. There are a number of wine drinkers who complain of headaches and nausea from wine, but these reactions may be triggered by substances in wine other than sulfites. It will certainly be interesting to follow the StiQit and see how well it will be adopted by the sulfite allergic folks.

If you are interested in the crowdfunding campain, see it on Indiegogo. We will be in touch with Alan MacInnes and will certainly be interested to see how widely the StiQit will be used.

StiQit Video

Wine Country Event Calendar – be ready for some wine tasting fun

April 15, 2015 by Joe Becerra

18th Annual Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Festival May 15-17, 2015

Anderson Valley is Pinot Noir wine county. This is your chance to experience the wonderful Pinot Noir wines of this beautiful and serene area of Mendocino County. Taste Pinot Noir wines from the various wineries in the Anderson Valley, attend a technical conference, and participate in other fun PInot activities.

Tickets to all of these lively events are now on sale at Anderson Valley Wines.

Friday, May 15: 9:00am – 4:00pm
Technical Conference at the Mendocino County Fairgrounds
14400 Highway 128, Boonville, CA 95415
$95 per person

Attend a full day of educational seminars about wine growing and winemaking at the fairground’s Apple Hall. A light breakfast & full lunch are included.

Friday, May 15: 5 – 8:30pm
Post-conference Social BBQ on the Vineyard at Lula Cellars
2800 Guntly Rd, Philo, CA 95466
$50 per person

Saturday, May 16: 11am – 3pm
Grand Tasting at Goldeneye Winery
9200 Highway 128, Philo, CA 95466
Tickets are $105 each.

Sunday, May 17: All Day
Open House events will be held at participating local wineries and will include tastings, seminars, food and wine pairings, and more (a list of winery open houses can be found at www.avwines.com).

Robert Mondavi Winery Summer Concert Series Announces 46th Season

Back for its 46th year is the Robert Mondavi Winery Concert. The series is one of the highlights of the wine, food and music scene of the summer months in the Napa Valley. Grammy Award-winning artists Lyle Lovett and Melissa Etheridge, as well as New Orleans natives Trombone Shorty, Orleans Avenue and more, will be featured in the 2015 series. The Summer Concert Series opens with a bang on the Fourth of July at the winery, with the return of Robert Mondavi Winery’s spectacular fireworks show and concert. The concerts will continue through the summer with additional performances on July 11, 18, 25 and August 1. Food will be provided this year by Off The Grid, Vintage Sweet Shoppe and Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. As usual, proceeds from ticket sales will directly benefit Napa Valley music programs.

Ticket are on sale now and prices vary by performance. For complete information on this year’s summer concert series visit the Robert Mondavi Website Or, send an email to: [email protected]

Ann Kraemer, Master Vineyard Manager and Yorba Wines

February 28, 2015 by Joe Becerra

Yorba Tasting Room – 51 Hanford Street in Sutter Creek

Ann Kraemer – Shake Ridge Ranch and Yorba Wines

This is an update to an article I wrote five years ago about our tour through what is now regarded as one of the top vineyards in California, Ann Kraemer’s Shake Ridge Vineyards. Fast forward five years, and Ann Kraemer now has a successful tasting room in Sutter Creek. The Yorba wine tasting room is at 51 Hanford Street. We stopped in Thursday while visiting the Amador wine area and found the tasting room alive and well with a throng of folks tasting Yorba wines, along with catered food from Lucy’s Spice Box. Ann Kraemer sells 80% of her Shake Ridge fruit to various winemakers in California. She keeps 20% for the Yorba label. These wines are held from release at least two years or longer than the average release time for most wineries. The idea behind Ann’s late release is to showcase to winemakers the amazing quality and complexity that is possible from the grapes grown at Shake Ridge Ranch. Not only are these wines excellent in quality, the prices are very reasonable. The tasting room is open Thursday 12-7, Friday to Monday 12-5. If you are in the quaint town of Sutter Creek, stop in at the Yorba tasting room.

Originally posted in March of 2010

A few weeks back we had the chance to visit Ann Kraemer at her beautiful hillside vineyards on Shake Ridge Ranch in Amador County. What a pleasure it was to be with one of the most respected vineyard managers in the world of wine. Ann has been at the business of vineyard management for 19 years. Most of that has been working for others, and now that she’s at Shake Ridge she has fulfilled a dream to run her vineyards and reap the rewards of her vast experience.

Ann took us on a wonderful one-hour vineyard walk through the Shake Ridge Vineyards. Ann and her family purchased the ranch in 2001. It took Ann over a year to plan the vineyard. Soil was analyzed from six-foot deep pits dug at various locations. Which grapes would grow best and exactly where on the ranch would favor the growing conditions for a particular grape? For example, Barbera loves heat, so the orientation for those vines is on west-facing slopes. Petite Sirah was planted in the lower spots of the vineyard where the soil is more fertile and cooler. At the same time, Ann wanted to make sure she preserved the beauty of the ranch. As you can see from the photo, the oak trees have been preserved and add a wonderful attractiveness to the hillside vineyards.

Shake Ridge Ranch in the hills above Sutter Creek

There are 34 acres planted on the 185-acre ranch, with Zinfandel and Syrah making up the largest plots and Tempranillo, Petite Sirah, Monvedre, Granache and Viognier making up the smaller plots. Thirty percent of the vines are used for Ann’s Yorba label; the rest of the grapes are sold to ten different winemakers. Each winemaker has a specific plot and Ann works closely with each winemaker to make critical vineyard management decisions. In a week or so after our meeting with Ann, she was to meet with each winemaker to discuss pruning strategies. Pruning was scheduled for roughly two weeks after our visit. That is a bit late in the year but Ann points out that the longer she can delay pruning the longer she can delay bud break, giving her an added protection against frost. There is no frost protection that Ann uses, just good old Mother Nature. “Cold air runs downhill like water, so at the low spots we don’t plant vines.”

Ann Kraemer – our walk included wine tasting stations

Before purchasing Shake Ridge she did vineyard management for Cuvaison, Clos Pegase, Swanson, Domain Chandon and others. She has consulted for some of the biggest names, such as Stagecoach and Shafer. She is a master at her craft and you really get a sense of her passion and commitment to grow the best grapes for the soil and the land that she cherishes.

Her Yorba wines are made by Ken Bernards of Ancien fame. From our walking tour we are sure that Ken Bernards loves making wine for Ann. The old adage “wine is made in the vineyards”could not be more true is this case. The wines are absolutely delicious, elegant, and nicely priced for the quality of the wines.

Additional Sutter Creek Information

Vineyard Voodoo or New Age Breakthrough? The Scoop on Biodynamic Wine

February 9, 2015 by Joe Becerra

Madeline Blasberg is a Certified Wine Consultant who has spent time in Mendoza, Argentina, where she was surrounded by wine, both personally and professionally. Currently, Madeline works as the Official Wine Commentator & Reviewer for Etching Expressions a company specializing in personalized wine bottles.

The Scoop on Biodynamic Wine

By Madeline Blasberg

The controversial cow horns that many consider voodoo but other say it works.

Have you heard through the grapevine? Wine lovers are abuzz about biodynamic wines and slowly but surely, what began as a fringe moment in agricultural practices has won the attention of mainstream American consumers. With supermarket shelf space more sought after than ever before, biodynamic wines are carving out a place on the rack and in consumers’ shopping carts. But what exactly is a biodynamic wine?

In short, biodynamic farming is a method of organic agriculture, woven together with some astrological claims and homeopathic remedies. Rather than eschewing all industrial chemicals, biodynamic grape growers follow several quasi-religious practices meant to coax out the fullest, most natural expression of the grape itself. They consider moon cycles, positions of zodiacal constellations, and even concoct esoteric homeopathic preparations that are applied to the vines and soil.

Biodynamic farming began in the 1920s with Austrian philosopher, Rudolf Steiner, who was interested in reintroducing spiritual elements into farming – elements that had been all but obliterated during the industrial age of agriculture. Years later Maria Thun, researcher and biodynamic believer, created her first biodynamic calendar in the 1950s. The calendar, and its more recent iterations, are based on the belief that growing conditions are dynamic, linked to the moon’s cycle, and that it is more auspicious to perform certain tasks on certain days. Fruit days, flower days, leaf days, and root days, each are believed to influence how a wine tastes as well as how the grapevine behaves in the vineyard. The calendar dictates when to water, harvest, prune, and pop open a bottle, but it also dictates when farmers should cook up specific biodynamic recipes that are used in the vineyard itself.

These “preparations,” as they are referred to, are introduced to the vineyard at various times throughout the year. Whereas organic farmers are satisfied with compost and manure as fertilizer, biodynamic farmers use time-honored recipes that call for some rather bizarre ingredients. They consist of items such as cow horns filled with manure (Preparation 500), yarrow flowers in a stag’s bladder (preparation 502), chamomile in a cow’s intestine (preparation 503), oak bark in a skull of a domestic animal (preparation 505), and many others that are equally as unappetizing. Preparations may be buried in the vineyard soil, sprayed onto the vines, or placed at strategic locations throughout the farmland. Why all this fuss in the biodynamic kitchen? Preparations are thought to fertilize the soil, protect against pests, and prevent diseases. Nearly every vineyard symptom can be translated into a homeopathic dosage of biodynamic concoctions and practitioners invest a great deal of time and labor in preparing each one.

While biodynamic wines certainly incorporate numerous organic farming practices, the two aren’t considered one and the same. In fact, strangely enough biodynamic principles allow for the use of certain additives that are outlawed by organic winemakers (sulfites, being one of them). Like organic wine, however, biodynamic wine is regulated by certification agencies and the international biodynamics standards group Demeter International.

Numerous studies have been done that pit biodynamic grape farming against standard industrial farming practices, which show that biodynamic farms are superior in terms of soil fertility and biodiversity. However a conclusive comparison of biodynamic and organic agriculture has yet to be done, though biodynamic acolytes insist that the resulting wine should speak for itself. If you’re interested in tasting the impact of the biodynamic calendar and various preparations, visit your local wine shop and seek out a Demeter certified bottle. After all, though biodynamic wine politics and philosophies may be at a standstill – consumer palates will always have the deciding vote.

Additional resources

Trading wine at Robert Mondavi winery and strange request at Domain Chandon

August 15, 2014 by Joe Becerra

This is a rewrite of a fun wine country adventure I had with my wine friend Mike Beltran at the Robert Mondavi Winery in St. Helena and at Domaine Chandon in Yountville. I found this in my archives and I feel it is very worthy of a post on the new WCG Blog.

My friend Mike Beltran and I headed off on an early Friday morning to the wine country. Mike has invited me to tag along with him on a very unusual mission to two wineries. The main purpose is not to buy wine but to trade, barter, and ask for favors at these wineries.

A trade with the Robert Mondavi Winery

The first destination is the Robert Mondavi Winery, where Mike has arranged a 9:30 a.m. meeting with Glenn Workman, V.P. of Productions at Robert Mondavi. Mike is a wine consultant and has been a collector of fine wines for 35 years. Some months back, Mike discovered five bottles of Robert Mondavi 1966 Unfined Cabernet Sauvignon deep in his wine cellar. Mike and Glenn have agreed to discuss a trade for these historic bottles. At that time, it was the 40th anniversary of the Robert Mondavi Winery.

We meet Glenn in the offices of Robert Mondavi. After some chitchat, Mike and Glenn get down to business. Mike puts a cash value on the Cab. Then he rattles off the names of five cases of Mondavi wines he would like in exchange. I’m thinking to myself, “No way this is going to happen,” but to my surprise Glenn agrees without hesitation. Fifteen minutes later we are packing five cases of Robert Mondavi wine into Mike’s SUV.

Mike and his wine trade haul

Afterwards, Glenn invites us into the Reserve Tasting Room. This is a beautiful room where visitors to the winery can enjoy the tasting of many special Mondavi wines for a fee. We taste five wines. We begin with a delicious single vineyard Sauvignon Blanc and then a Carneros Pinot Noir. We then compare a 1994 and 1996 Reserve Cab. The 1996 is a delicious and exceptional wine, but the 1994 is spectacular. The aroma is so elegant that you almost feel that there is no need to drink the wine. The last of our tasting is the Sauvignon Blanc Botrytis, a wonderful dessert wine.

The Robert Mondavi Winery is a popular tourist attraction. Thousands of people visit the winery each week to taste wines and enjoy the beauty of this winery created by the iconic Robert Mondavi.

Domaine Chandon Dosage

We now head back down Highway 29 to Yountville and to Domaine Chandon for another crazy wine adventure. Mike has a most unusual request for the sparkling winemaker at Chandon. Mike has a bottle of 1990 Philipponnat Blanc de Blanc Champagne that he had acquired from Pacific Wines, a fine wine shop he worked at until it closed its doors in the mid 90’s. The bottle was used to demonstrate fermentation in the bottle, the main step in making Champagne. Mike’s bottle is still capped and contains the residue of dead yeast cells. Mike’s request is to have someone at Domain Chandon disgorge the bottle and add a dosage and a fill to make it a finished Champagne wine. Mike had dropped off the bottle at the winery a couple of weeks before our visit.

We meet sparkling winemaker Tom Tiburzi and he is more than happy to accommodate Mike’s request. Ever since Mike delivered the bottle, Tom has been storing the wine upside down to move the yeast residue to the neck of the bottle. We work our way to the assembly line area of the winery where Tom places the neck of the bottle into a solution used to quickly freeze the residue in the bottles passing through the assembly line. Today, Mike’s bottle is the only bottle in the solution. The solution is not quite cold enough so while we wait for the residue to freeze Tom leads us on a private half-hour tour of Domaine Chandon. This is an exciting adventure for both of us.

Dosage goes into Mike’s wine

At the end of the private tour, Tom leads us to the tasting room to taste four sparkling wines. Tom tells us how he has developed the characteristic of each wine. It is very enlightening to hear how he has done this and to feel the passion and enthusiasm that Tom has for making each of these sparkling wines. We head back to Tom’s lab where he disgorges the frozen yeast residue and then adds the proper dosage. Mike’s Champagne is as good as it is going to get. It is a dry Champagne and one that will go with a good meal and better yet with the story of how it came to be. Here is a link to how sparkling wine is made.

We highly recommend a visit to Domaine Chandon. They have one of the better sparkling wine tours, magnificent gardens, and they are the only Napa winery with a restaurant. The chef, Perry Hoffman, and the winemakers meet regularly to determine the best possible wine and food pairings.

Van-based Wine Tours vs Limos

July 29, 2014 by Joe Becerra

This is a guest post by H. Bruce Smith who runs Dry Creek Valley Wine Tours. Bruce suggested that I did not have enough consumer information on WineCountryGetaways.com about the Van-based wine tours vs Limos. Upon review I agreed with Bruce and asked him to provide us with a comparison.

Van tours vs limos. Who has the best for the wine country traveler?

There are many benefits to booking a wine tour with a van-based service. While there are many sizes of vans, the smaller (8-15 passengers) are more likely to be of a personalized experience. Most tour companies of this size are either operated by the owner or knowledgeable staff to perform the tour.

The key word here is “knowledgeable.” Often limo drivers know little or nothing about wine, while van drivers usually are well versed, not only in wine but the region itself. You should choose an experienced tour company if you want to get a better understanding of the wines of a particular wine region.

Some van touring companies go one step further and offer wine tasting tips in order for their clients to better enjoy the tasting experience. While a limo driver may simply wait at the car, a van driver often accompanies the tasters into the winery. They often will introduce you to the winery staff, and if you’re lucky the winemakers themselves.

Much of the fun of wine touring is enjoying the vineyards in a beautiful country setting. Vans are built for this purpose. With large tinted windows and an elevated seat height, you can take in the wine country surroundings. This is in comparison to the low riding limos with small dark windows.

Finally, van-based tour companies are likely to offer complete packages. This can cover everything including a full lunch and all tasting fees. Your one cost for the tour can cover all expenseses, save any gratuity you deem appropriate and, of course, any wine you buy.

More information on hiring a touring company

The Secret of Ballard Canyon AVA

July 20, 2014 by Joe Becerra

I shot this photo Monday, July 14. It was a strange day, very humid and overcast. I used a Photoshop filter to emote the beauty of Ballard Canyon on this unusual summer day.

The secret of the Ballard Canyon AVA is the Syrah. The grapes from this AVA produce spectacular Syrah wines, and very few people seem to know about it. I am a big fan of Syrah. I purchase Syrah regularly from two small family-owned wineries: Montemagiorre in Dry Creek and Cedarville in Fair Play in the Sierra Foothills. Those two have become my standard for judging other California Syrah wines. At the recent Wine Bloggers Conference in Santa Barbara, I attended a seminar sponsored by members of the Ballard Canyon AVA. This was my first opportunity to taste and compare Syrah wines from this region. I came away totally impressed. We tasted 7 wines in a side-by-side comparison, three from the 2012 vintage, the other four all 2010’s. These wines were beautifully balanced Syrahs, with complexity and a rare elegance in the mouth. The 2010s showed that Syrah wines can age gracefully, becoming more intense and polished. These are wines to be savored and enjoyed with good food and friends. My favorite 2012 Syrah wines were the Lerner, the Rusack and the Beckman; for the 2010s, it was the Stoplman. These wines are priced in the mid-thirty-dollar range.

Ballard Canyon is a new AVA in the Santa Barbara wine country. It was approved in October 2013. It is a sub-appellation or AVA of Santa Ynez Valley AVA. The region is very small and the surrounding mountains form a triangle, with the open end facing the Pacific Ocean. This accounts for dramatic diurnal shifts in temperature. Most days in the growing season begin with fog, which burns off in the late morning. As Janelle and I were driving the Ballard Canyon Road, we were surprised that so few acres were planted with vines. I would say that 90% of the land is grassland and oak woodland. There seems to be so much room to grow. There are only nine producers making Ballard Canyon AVA wines, and only one of these wineries has an actual tasting room located in the AVA. It is Rusack Vineyards, one of the most beautiful wineries found in any wine country. Picnicking at Rusack is as about as peaceful and serene as it gets.

The growers and winemakers are very passionate about this AVA. In our seminar, they bemoaned the notion that Syrah sales are bleak and that consumers are shying away from this wonderful wine. They blame it on the fact that many wine regions produce Syrah wines that are too fruit forward, too high in alcohol, or unbalanced, all because the Syrah is not growing in the proper terroir. I also got the feeling that they might be a little envious of the “wine press” that a few winemakers and wineries in Paso Robles are receiving. It is like, “Hey, you guys, we make great wine too. Come and taste!” These Ballard AVA folks are so convinced that this AVA is producing a unique Syrah that they officially unveiled a specific wine bottle for Syrah wines produced solely from the Ballard Canyon AVA. They believe that there are no other Syrah wines in the world like the Ballard Canyon Syrahs. The wines of the Rhone region in France all have unique bottles that specify their appellation.

If you are in the Santa Barbara wine country, you should take the time to drive the scenic seven miles or so on Ballard Canyon Road and stop in at Rusack and taste the Syrah. The Ballard Canyon AVA Association has a complete list of growers and wineries and other places where you can taste these delicious Syrah wines.

Rusack is the only Ballard AVA winery to have a tasting room in the AVA.

Wine Bottle Art

June 29, 2014 by Janelle Becerra

Diane Selmi – Wine Bottle Art

If you’re looking for a special gift for one of your wine lover friends, an original wine bottle art painting by Diane Selmi might just be the perfect choice.

Diane started painting unique wine bottles 10 years ago when she retired after a long career as a travel agent. She saw a picture of bottles in a magazine and was taken by the explosion of colors and reflection. She had just added a small studio to her house and was starting to paint other subjects, when she put everything aside and began composing wine bottles. She enthusiastically experimented with shapes, placement, light and color.

Each label is chosen very carefully and is a painting in itself. Diane began giving her paintings as gifts, and as they were seen by others, she started to get requests for commissions. The idea of personalizing the labels came to her very early on. Diane has included the names of family members, pets, boats, favorite places, as well as favorite wine bottles in the compositions.

It’s hard to believe that Diane has had no formal training in painting, but she says she recognizes a future painting when she sees a subject that has the light and color she loves. She has sold many of her paintings and has made notecards to sell or give as gifts.

Diane paints with acrylic and has painted on canvasses 24X24 to 48X60. The paintings are unframed and prices range from $500 to $2500. She does not currently have a website but can be reached on Facebook or by emailing: [email protected]

Wente Vineyards: A tour de force in Livermore

April 6, 2014 by Joe Becerra

It has been a long time since we last visited Wente Vineyards. So long in fact that it was then called Wente Bros. When fouth generation family member Carolyn Wente became the CEO, the winery’s name changed to reflect the fact the Wente woman were fully involved with winery operations. Wente boasts that they are the oldest continuously family-run winery in California, with a starting date of 1883. I will have to dig into that. I was under the impression that Gundlach Bundschu in Sonoma Valley (1868) had that distinction. Wente certainly has one important claim to distinction. They were the first to plant Chardonnay in California. In fact, the Wente Clone Chardonnay flourishes today in many California vineyards. Wente’s Website has a complete timeline of its history of introducing and working with Chardonnay.

Tasting at Wente Vineyards

If you head out to Livermore wine country and explore the area you will discover that Wente Vineyards has two tourist destinations. On Tesla Road is the winemaking facility, a very busy tasting room called the Estate Tasting Room, an outdoor area and garden, and a Bocce Court. Over on Arroyo Road is another tasting room called the Vineyard Tasting Room. In addition, this venue has a golf course, a wedding site, a gourmet restaurant and a concert center. We took a look at both places last Saturday afternoon and each venue was packed. A steady stream of wine country tourists was so large that we had to wait to get up to the tasting bar. The tastings are very reasonable, including a $5 tasting and a more elaborate $10 tasting.

We opted for the $5 tasting and found all the five wines we tasted to be very enjoyable. We tasted a Pinot Noir Rose that was absolutely delicious. Only 300 cases are made and within a few months of release the wine is sold out. We also enjoyed the Reliz Creek Pinot Noir, a very tasty Pinot Noir from Wente’s Arroyo Seco vineyard in Monterey County. We also recommend the Rivas Chardonnay from Arroyo Seco. It is a very popular Chardonnay, nice on the oak, but with enough fruit to be a moderate Chardonnay and very food friendly. 90,000 cases of the Rivas are made and the wine is distributed widely. It’s $22 at the winery, but Costco and Trader Joe’s carry the wine for much less. By the way, all the vineyards at Wente’s Livermore and Arroyo Seco locations are sustainably farmed.

At the Wente Tesla center, soon to open on May 15th, will be the Winemakers’ Studio. It will be a cooking school and a wine-blending center. The blending activity will be by appointment only and promises to be very enjoyable. Guests will have seven different red wines they can experiment with and make into their own blend. In other words, each guest can be a winemaker for the day.

There are many other wineries to visit in the area. The Spring and Fall are the best times to visit; the Valley is usually cool and comfortable during these seasons. Check our Livermore wine section for wine trails, lodging, restaurants, and things to do in the Livermore area.

The two Wente Vineyards tasting rooms are open daily 11 to 5 pm. The Estate Tasting room on Tesla has free tours at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. One can also arrange for a private cave tour. Check the Wente Website for compete visitor information.

Gwinllan Estate Vineyard and Winery

March 18, 2014 by Joe Becerra

On the road to the wine cave

Gwinllan Estate

Gwinllan Estate is one of the latest wineries to establish itself in the wine Region of Fair Play. Fair Play is a very small geographic area, at approximately 2000 to 2500 feet in elevation in the Sierra Foothills of El Dorado County. This was our first visit to the Gwinllan Estate.

We meandered our way from the Cedarville Winery along Fair Play Road to the entrance gate leading to the Gwinllan tasting room. From there you travel about a third of a mile up to the Gwinllan wine cave. It is a very pretty and scenic road through the vineyards. You are at 2500 feet and the views are excellent. The tasting room has been dug into the side of the hillside and thus called a wine cave. It is just the right temperature and humidity for aging wine in barrels. Once we were in the tasting room, owner Gordon Pack and son Jonathan Pack, winemaker extraordinaire, were there to greet us. That is what we love about visiting wineries in far out wine country. You will not get this type of reception anywhere in the Napa Valley.

Owner Gordon Pack

We learn from Gordon Pack that he once tried to make wine is his native England. No matter how hard he tried, he was not successful. Eventually, he and his wife Chris found their way to California and began a search for the ideal winemaking area. They felt that Fair Play would be the ideal place to establish their winery and make wine. The high altitude, the decomposed granite, and the vineyard management techniques all add up to a unique terroir. Their first vintage was 2009.

We tasted through four wines. For now, only one white wine is produced, a Chardonnay. It’s a mellow Chardonnay, aged elegantly in French Oak barrels. We tasted three reds, the Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, and the Winemaker’s Selection. The wines are all well made and very tasty. We thought the best wine was the Winemaker’s Selection. This is a blend of Grenache and Syrah, a blend common in the Southern Rhone of France. The Pack Family plans to slowly increase production over the next several years. It is a winery to watch.

Winemaker Jonathan Pack

Perhaps the only negative for us is the price of the wines. They are steep compared to most wineries in Fair Play. Part of that can be attributed to the low-grape yield per acre of vineyards. According to Jonathan, the grape yields are small. The Packs want to stress the vines and give the remaining grapes more intensity. Still, back up at Cedarville, where the wines are equally impressive, the prices are much less.

If you would like to visit Gwinllan and the other wineries in Fair Play, we have mapped out a wine trail leading to our favorite wineries. You might also consider heading towards Plymouth and visiting wineries in Amador County and in the Shenandoah Valley. Wine tasting is available at Gwinllan Estate every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm.