Lake County

                             

Heading north out of Calistoga, along a narrow twisting road that dips across low hills, then dropping down to Middletown, you arrive in Lake County, the smallest wine region in California's North Coast.  

Prohibition dealt a devastating blow to the small wine industry in Lake County. Recovery started back in the 1970s and today 24 wineries are gathered around Clear Lake. Grape growers have carefully selected sites, based on terroir, that are ideal for growing wine grapes. 

The result of this selection are eight Lake County AVAs: Red Hills Lake County, High Valley, Big Valley District, Kelsey Bench, Benmore Valley, Upper Lake Valley, Guenoc Valley and Clear Lake.  All Lake County AVAs are under the broad North Coast AVA. 

An Aside:  One of the major differences between American Viticultural Areas (AVA) and French Appellation Origine Controlee (AOC) is an AOC designated area may plant and use only prescribed varieties, such as Pinot Noir in Burgundy. American wineries have no such restriction and thus may plant and make wine from any grape they think will thrive in their area.  Consider the range of grapes grown in Lake County.  

Such viticultural freedom is not valued by all French winemakers. Some believe it is better to concentrate your talents on perfecting one wine (Pinot Noir in Burgundy) then trying to make a line of wines.  American winemakers who make a excellent variety of white and red wines obviously don't agree.

Lake County is a hidden treasure, like Anderson Valley in neighboring Mendocino County.  Hidden is a fanciful way to describe Lake County, as it actually isn't hidden, but more like off the beaten path and for some people that live in Lake County, that's just the way they like it.

The feeling in Lake is that Napa Valley is too touristy, Sonoma, although more spread out, is still too busy for some.  Lake County, especially around Clear Lake where most of the wine action takes place, is laid back. Lake County winemakers are just as serious about growing grapes and making wine, but at a slower, more thoughtful pace.

Most of the major vineyards in Lake County are within the shadow of Mt. Konocti, a dormant volcano and the source of the distinctive rocky red soil that supplies the nutrients for Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Tempranillo, Nebbiolo, Petite Sirah, Mourvedre and Cabernet Sauvignon.  The other major influence is the tempering effect of Clear Lake, the largest fresh water lake entirely within California.

Nearly every winery in Lake County makes Cabernet Sauvignon, but a lot of the winemaking energy and excitement is going into so-called alternative red wines like Tempranillo and Mourvedre, the latter known sometimes by old-timers as Mataro.

Here's a look at the four most important Lake County AVAs and what wines they have to offer:

Red Hills Lake County AVA (2004) could be the sub-appellation of Lake County with the most promise. It has the soil and southwestern position along Clear Lake.  Cabernet Sauvignon and other red varieties are favored by the growing number of wineries in the Red Hills appellation. 

Red Hills vineyard cloaked in autumn color

Clear Lake AVA (1984) is one of the coolest wine regions in California, cooler even than Carneros and Santa Barbara. Half of the appellation is the lake itself,  a major influence on surrounding grape growing.  Sauvignon Blanc is the major variety. 

Big Valley AVA (2013) has a long viticultural history going back to the 19th century.  Today, there are dozens of vineyards and six wineries in Big Valley, with Sauvignon Blanc the major grape. 

High Valley AVA (2005) has vineyards at 1,600 to 3,000 feet planted in red volcanic soils. Cabernet Sauvignon is the major variety. 

Clear Lake not only benefits vineyards, but it supports a thriving water sports industry, attracting players from Napa and as far away as the Bay Area.  Visiting a wine tasting room is a nice diversion after a day on the water, but if you can't get to Clear Lake, ask your local wine merchant for the refreshing wines of Lake County. 

Next blog: Sonoma Series: Dry Creek Valley & Rockpile

Leave a comment of write me at boydvino707@gmail.com

The Scent of Cash Flow

Next month an annual wine event, anticipated by some and ignored by others, will take place.  On the third Thursday of November, Beaujolais wineries will release their new wine into Paris bistros and major world markets. 

                                       

For most Frenchmen and the many wine drinkers around the world anticipating the grapy goodness of Beaujolais Nouveau, November 17 can't come soon enough. But there are those who take a dim view of the Beaujolais Nouveau promotion, reflected in this snarky comment I once heard from a Frenchman: "the scent of cash flow."

Over the years, Nouveau (new) has had its ups and downs.  The popularity Nouveau enjoyed throughout the '80s, waned in the '90s, but has finally stabilized. Today, whether or not you're a fan of Beaujolais Nouveau, it is here to stay.

Americans finding a place for Beaujolais Nouveau or Beaujolais-Villages on the Thanksgiving menu has helped. Beaujolais Nouveau is one of the few wines that can stand up to the array of flavors and textures commonly found on an American Thanksgiving table.  But more on that match later.

The Beaujolais Difference 

The region of Beaujolais is in east-central France, south of the Maconnais region of Burgundy. Administratively, Beaujolais is considered part of Burgundy, but the two regions are quite different in terms of climate and soil types, not to mention grapes.

Beaujolais is a red wine made from the Gamay Noir a Jus Blanc grape, commonly referred to as Gamay.  At one time, Gamay was permitted in Burgundy, often drawing comparisons to Pinot Noir, the red grape of Burgundy. A minuscule amount of Beaujolais Blanc, made from Chardonnay, tastes similar to Macon.

                                                  

Beaujolais-Villages is narrowed further with ten wines known as Beaujolais Crus. In the French system of classifying wines, sites such as villages and specific vineyards, are recognized as being the best of the breed.  For Beaujolais, the best are these Beaujolais cru (vineyard) wines: Moulin-a-Vent, Brouilly, Cote de Brouilly, St- Amour, Chiroubles, Chenas, Julienas, Morgon, Fleurie and Regnie. In 1988, Regnie became the most recently added Beaujolais Cru.  

Today, mature Beaujolais Grand Cru (Gamay), like Moulin-a-Vent, is sometimes favorably compared to a Volnay or Pommard (Pinot Noir) from the Cote de Beaune. A step up are Beaujolais-Villages and Beaujolais-Villages Blanc. The red wine is roughly between Nouveau and the cru wines, in quality and price.

Credit Carbonic Maceration

The very essence of Beaujolais, and in particular Beaujolais Nouveau, is the result of a wine making technique known as carbonic maceration.  Whole clusters of grapes are placed in a tank, carefully so as not to break the skins of any of the grapes, in an oxygen-free atmosphere, usually by using carbon dioxide.  

The use of carbonic maceration allows each berry to become a mini-fermenter.  However, achieving 100% CM is impossible since the grapes at the bottom of the tank are crushed by the weight of the grape clusters at the top of the mass, starting a natural fermentation.

Nearly all Nouveau is made by carbonic maceration, but CM is not used in the production of Beaujolais cru wines.  Carbonic maceration is also not generally used for white grapes.

Expect to pay about $15 or less for Beajolais Nouveau and $14 to $18 for a cru wine.  Here is a half-dozen Beaujolais producers to watch: Domaine Jean-Michel Dupre, Domaine Laurent Gauthier, Chateau de Julienas, Yvon Metras, Antoine Sunier and Georges Duboeuf.

Beaujolais and Food

For Americans, the time to break out a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau or Beaujolais-Villages, is at Thanksgiving or Christmas.  A traditional holiday meal usually consists of turkey and a variety of side dishes with a range of flavors and textures. Some people forgo the bird in favor of baked ham or prime rib.

                                          

The choice of meat is easy to match with a wine, but problems arise when choosing a wine that won't battle with cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole and seasoned dressing (stuffing?) to name but a few side dishes. 

And my last piece of advice for holiday wine and food pairing is to save that special bottle for an occasion when the food is more likely to merit it.  

Enjoy the day and the meal and make it easy on yourself by opting for Beaujolais Nouveau. The up-front fruity flavors, soft tannins and moderate acidity go nicely with the cornucopia of flavors of a holiday meal.  

Next blog: Lake County: A Hidden Treasure

Leave a comment or write me at boydvino707@gmail.com

 

Sonoma Series: Alexander Valley & KnightsValley

For the next several weeks, the 19 AVAs in Sonoma County will be featured in the Sonoma Series. Most of the attention will be focused on Sonoma's major regions like Alexander Valley, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma Valley and Carneros. 

Sonoma is one of California's most important wine counties. In the late 18th century, missionaries build a series of coastal missions along what is now California, ending their work in the town of Sonoma.  

Franciscan friars brought with them a black grape, known in Chile as the Pais that in time became known in California as the Mission grape, an important variety  until Prohibition became the law of the land in 1920. 

Following Repeal, the wine industry turned a corner with expanded plantings of Vitis vinifera varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon that were the standard in France. The intent was not to emulate Bordeaux Cabernet-based reds, but to create a unique California style.  

Sonoma Series begins with profiles of Alexander Valley, an early benchmark for Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignon, and Knights Valley, one of Sonoma's smaller AVAs.

 

                                   

Alexander Valley (AVA 1984)

Looking back at the rise in popularity of Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, it's a bit ironic that one of the major forces behind the success, was a Napa Valley icon. And this at a time when he had already established Beaulieu Vineyard as one of the major wineries in the Napa Valley, if not California.

Andre Tchelistcheff, the Russian-born enologist who once claimed that Pinot Noir was one of his favorite red wines, led the Beaulieu team in creating BV Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. 

In 1976, a couple of years after Tchelistcheff retired from BV, Tom Jordan hired Tchelistcheff as consulting enologist at Jordan Vineyard and, in turn, he  recommended that Jordan hire Rob Davis, as Jordan's first winemaker. Together, Davis and Tchelistcheff developed and fashioned Jordan's first 1976 Cabernet Sauvignon, from Alexander Valley grapes.

The Alexander Valley is a short distance northeast of the gateway city of Healdsburg, a mecca of wine tasting rooms and smart restaurants. Before Prohibition, the area was known more for prunes and hops than it was for grapes, although a few black varieties like Alicante were planted for bulk red wines.  

Not until 1970, with the rebirth of Simi Winery, did Alexander Valley enter the modern age of winemaking.  Chateau Souverain followed and then in 1976, Jordan Winery and Vineyard brought elegance to the winery scene, on a hilltop outside Healdsburg. 

By 2013, there were 50 wineries in the valley and by the 1990s, Kendall-Jackson and Gallo, purchased large tracts of land.  Alexander Valley had arrived as the source of one of California's premiere Cabernet Sauvignons.

Despite the solid reputation for AV Cabernet Sauvignon, some Cab fans still leaned more toward Napa, where Cabernets are more berrylike than herbaceous. The occasional trace of an herbal character in AV Cabernets can still be found, but AV winemakers have worked their way around the problem.  

Alexander Valley Sauvignon Blanc has had limited success, while AV Chardonnay has taken its place in the lineup of desirable California Chardonnay.

Noteworthy Alexander Valley wineries include Simi, Jordan, Peter Michael, Seghesio, Robert Young, Geyser Peak, Lancaster, Silver Oak.

Knights Valley (AVA 1983)

At the far southern end of Alexander Valley and the far northern end of the Napa Valley is a small enclave known as Knights Valley.  Visitors would be excused if they thought that KV was part of Napa County, because since the 1960s, Napa's  Beringer Vineyards had farmed a large vineyard there and for years were about the only vineyard owners in the valley. 

A tasting of Peter Michael red wines

In 1982, British businessman, Peter Michael, purchased land and planted a vineyard, hired a string of star winemakers (Helen Turley for one) and released a line of highly acclaimed and expensive wines with French names, like Les Pavots, a Bordeaux-variety red blend. 

A varied range of grapes is planted in Knights Valley, although the reputation of the valley rests on Cabernet Sauvignon.  Beringer has had a Knights Valley Cabernet since the 1974 vintage, Peter Michael's red blend and Kendall-Jackson sources a Cabernet Sauvignon from its Knights Valley vineyards. 

Compared to many of the major wine regions in the world, Alexander Valley and Knights Valley are relative newcomers.  But in that time great progress has been made in the vineyards.  So far, Peter Michael is the only winery in Knights Valley. 

Today, both valleys are producing distinctive Cabernet Sauvignon and red blends that are considered among the best of California's stellar red wines.  

Next blog: It's Nouveau time!

Leave a comment or write me at boydvino707@gmail.com

Eucalyptus Part 2

There is a lot of talk circulating in wine circles about terroir: what is it and how does it affect wine?  Terroir is one of those untranslatable French terms that Americans grapple with. And opinions differ about how terroir applies to a vineyard environment and if the influence of terroir moves through the grape to the wine. 

Not to worry; this is not an essay on terroir. But it is an attempt to understand how external factors (eucalyptus trees near vineyards) can influence the growth of grapes and the taste of wine, even with or without the intervention of winemaking.    

Sometimes, people buy a bottle of wine without knowing anything more about it  than, "It's a wine I know and like."  Fair enough, but a more discerning drinker will ask about the wine's provenance, the background that helps round out a tasting experience.

A vineyard in Monterey County

                                 

The Folly of a Bad Decision

Which brings us to the former Mirassou Vineyards and Monterey County. In a previous blog (9/17/22) on Monterey wines, there was mention of the so-called "Monterey veggies" and how similar that distinct flavor was to the eucalyptus component in some red wines, a notable example, some say, being Heitz Martha's Vineyard Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.

In the late 1970s, Joe Heitz told me that he had never detected eucalypt flavors in wines he made then in the Central Valley.  Not long ago, I opened a Heitz 1999 Martha's Vineyard Cabernet and marveled at how well the wine had matured.  But I didn't smell or taste any eucalyptus in the 1999 Martha's I had.

I did mourn the fact that a case of the '99 Martha's was not gathering dust in the back of my wine closet.  

Thinking back to that conversation with Joe Heitz, I remembered another event about vineyard soil imparting a distinct flavor to wine. In the late 1970s, Steve Mirassou, a member of the noted Mirassou wine family, and a friend of mine, was then in Mirassou sales, when the whole Monterey veggie brouhaha broke in a newspaper wine column. 

Mirassou Vineyards, then in San Jose, farmed an 80-acre vineyard in northern Monterey County, called San Vicente Vineyard. The vineyard was planted next to three windbreaks of eucalyptus trees.

"I remember parking my pickup truck next to the windbreak to help the guys move sprinkler pipe," recalls Mirassou.  "When I came back to my truck there was sap from the trees all over the windshield.

"It dawned on me then that the first five or six rows of vines would probably have a lot of sap on them...one eucalyptus tree can 'flavor' 50 acres of grapes," he explained. 

"And the Chenin Blanc, Gewurztraminer, Reisling and Chardonnay that we produced from the San Vicente Vineyard were all absolutely delicious,"  Mirassou said.

He explained that the whites didn't have a eucalypt character, "because unlike the red (varieties), the whites are pressed and only the juice is fermented.  The reds are fermented with the juice and the skins and the skins are coated with the eucalyptus oil."

                        

Mirassou said the only problem (we had) was with Cabernet Sauvignon.  "And it was unfortunate for us (Mirassou Vineyards) that in the late 1970s, as Cabernet Sauvignon went so went your reputation." 

ADD ABOUT SOIL COMPOSITION

Recalling the marketing nightmare that came with that kind of vineyard problem, Mirassou added, "No one cared about how good your reasoning was at that time. Had we focused on Pinot (Noir) and grafted it over to Cabernet (Sauvignon) then we would probably still be in business as Mirassou."  The Mirassou brand is now owned by Gallo and most of the San Vicente Vineyard is now a subdivision.

In Steve Mirassou's opinion, the San Vicente Cabernet was so spoiled from the off  smell and taste that the wine was undrinkable.  Anthony Dias Blue, then writing for the Los Angeles Times, picked up on the Mirassou Monterey problem and wrote about it in his wine column. Blue faulted Mirassou for planting Cabernet Sauvignon in a part of Monterey County better suited to row crops.

"My sales team and I were getting crucified in the market at the time," recalls Mirassou.  "I went to my uncle about the problem and his comment was 'Well, maybe, but I kind of like it!'" 

"Would you like 60,000 cases of it?" I replied, astonished.

Steve Mirassou said that the encounter with his family was as far as he ever got in his quest to replant a lot of late ripening varieties in the San Vicente Vineyard, so he quit and eventually started Steven Kent Winery with his son, in Livermore. 

 Some 40 years later, Mirassou's memory of the event remains clear about the impact of eucalyptus on San Vicente Cabernet; a very different account from Heitz's memory of wine and eucalypt character in Central Valley wines.

The take away for consumers

The recollections of Steve Mirassou and Joe Heitz, although years apart, point to the problem of subjective impressions about wine and how that may influence a person's buying habits. 

Both of the observations are just that, observations and not based on science. Hopefully, Heitz's and Mirassou's impressions will inform your next wine tasting evaluation and purchasing decision.

 

Next blog: Sonoma Series: Alexander Valley & Knights Valley

Leave a comment or write me at boydvino707@gmail.com 

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