winemaking Archives - Frank's El Dorado wine blog

Estate on the label…

frank — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 17:48:44 +0000

Estate wines are not just every wine you pick up at a winery. What “estate” means is the bottle of wine you are looking at, is 100% from grape to finish. That wine, never left the winery property. There is a certain orientation to a winemaker that does all (or mostly nowadays) 100% estate wines. In 2026, the wine world is more and more about non-estate wines. There are many reasons for this but the biggest is probably there are too many grapes still being grown. Also adding some off property vintages adds to diversity of your portfolio. More and more sparkling, whites and rose is being added to complement a red heavy wine world. That’s all good but when I visit a new winery, I want to understand the flagship, the specialty, the varieties that really make the winemaker excited. Those are typically the estate wines.

So what kind of wineries exist today? Well there is the rather rare, 100% estate and I will feature a few from the Fair Play region below. There is the winemaker that adds some non-estate grapes to add to the portfolio, and then there is the winery that doesn’t have any vineyards attached to them. They are winemakers and they can source grapes from around the region. The 100% estate winemaker is special and I see it less and less these days.

You really want to focus on estate’s and product that you know are well cared for. Poorly cared for grapes will mean less complex and lower quality wine. The estate if it has a team, high standards, great vineyard management, and the processes that produce the style you like then you can get the wine you prefer at a pretty consistent level. Other factors still exist. Does the wine maker track key wine making data, and is the careful process controlled year to year. And of course the weather is a big factor, nobody can control that. So anybody who tells you a wine is the same every year, clearly is not an enthusiast. Every vineyard and winery is constantly changing. One winery owner pretty much lost my business when they told me every vintage is the same. This is simply not true, in fact wine once in the bottle has a lifecycle as well.

Don’t go to the supermarket for “estate” wines. Estates move wines into supermarkets or the national channel when something went wrong, and they can’t sell it direct to a consumer or restaurant (their best shot at the best margins). Perhaps the wine is in decline, or there is simply too much wine for their market. The wine broker will clear it out. Maybe they picked too late and this wine is a bit pruney, or the taste of the oak isn’t really integrated well with the variety or style. Wine is variable. Oak is difficult and doesn’t often enhance the wine properly or is harsh. Even the temperature and what you drink it with are impactful. Most red wine should be opened between 55-60 degrees. Be careful of drinking huge red wines on hot patios in summer, this is not a great combination.

So back to the estate, I was updating the history of the Fair Play AVA wiki and was noticing, what estates are really still intact and producing all on the same property. Lots of things have changed in Fair Play wine AVA since it started the modern era around 1980, almost 50 years ago. Several great wineries still exist and do some great wine from their own vineyards. Here are 5 I can recommend in the very heart of the Fair Play AVA all close to each other where Brian Fitzpatrick first started the modern era around 1980.

Cedarville Vineyard (oldest estate with the original proprietor, mid 1990’s)
Element 79 Vineyards (a large portfolio, estate and locally sourced grapes)
Medeiros Family Wines (all estate winery, no sourcing)
Shadow Ranch Vineyard (10 acres planted, sources off property)
Chateau D’ Estienne (one of the newest estates in Fair Play)

These all have vine to bottle estate wines worth your time. Some of them source varieties such as Sam Patterson, of Shadow Ranch, which has 10 acres planted. I have left out other estates that may have had changes recently, so I can’t recommend.

So much is about hospitality these days, and not necessarily about the wine. This blog was about the very core, why grape to bottle from one team matters. A wine that never leaves its place, till you take it home.

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Learning the wine spectrum

frank — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 18:56:51 +0000

One of the funnest parts of learning wine is learning the spectrum of your favorite variety. How different processes related to wine making can make a Zinfandel more acidic and fruit forward, versus a bomb tannic Zinfandel that should be called dark matter on an oak shadowed lane. Some wines are so ripe, strong and full of oak notes, they can be harder to stomach as well. Or it can be light and fruitful on the other end of the spectrum. Zinfandel can be lighter and more fruitful like an Italian Barbera from Asti. This is an example of the spectrum, in a nutshell.

The best scores in wine come from those tertiary bombs that really extract the most fruit aromas, and tannic contents from the wine. On top of that, you get tertiary flavors. Tertiary flavors develop in the aging process in the bottle. Things like smoke, tar, honeycomb, and bread pudding notes, or perhaps forest floor. The wine even can change from sip to sip, this is the art of the highly developed wine, that gets those high awards, and point scores deep into the 90’s.

However the best thing if you like a particular variety, and my favorites are Syrah, Mourvedre, and Grenache in no particular order, is to try their spectrum. Try lots of different ones. Meaning a light version of the variety and a rich, opulent version of that variety. That last kind could be expensive to really see what’s possible. These highly processed wines are what drives up prices.

For me the grape with the widest and most complex spectrum, with lots of choices in the Sierra Nevada, is Zinfandel. I like my Zinfandel spicy and complex with berry magic delivering clove, mediterranean spices, pomegranate with a whole bunch of sweet Italian cherries. Almost all red wines have some notes of cherry. Zinfandel can be very complex and still be a bit rich in the finish, but with almost no oak to infuse it, it can be really something unique. Also a bit less tannic is often better for the stomach as well. It is hard to find this, but I have had several expressions of this kind of amazing Zinfandel and loved every minute of it. The El Dorado AVA often has this higher mountain wine that is a bit lighter and full of lots of grape forward notes and a bit lighter in style.

Another varietal that has a very interesting and diverse spectrum is Merlot. Merlot is really something special, I like it more that Cabernet Sauvignon. If you forced me to choose, I choose Merlot over Cabernet, because Merlot can be really amazing with the its skin tannin, and it can have these complex minty or bay leaf flavors that exist that really shine on the palate, especially with a nice meal.

If you love large, deep, rich and ripe wines and have not had the lighter varietals of that grape, you can try to go to a wine shop and ask for wines that are lighter versions of Syrah (think Crozes-Hermitage) and others come from other parts of France as well (think further north). As far as Merlot , all over Bordeaux you can find Merlot of all capacities across the full spectrum. Pinot Noir is also this kind of grape, it is often oppressed by heavy oak but a lot of vintners realize Pinot is so special as it is, so I find plenty of Pinot Noir that is lightly touched and very Provincial.

In the foothills the easiest grapes are the ones I already mentioned. Zinfandel, Syrah (although most Syrahs are opulent and rich), and Grenache. Any grape variety has a spectrum of lighter to richer and fuller, these are just example varieties that might be more accessible.

So my 4 varieties for spectrum deep diving are:

Zinfandel
Merlot
Barbera
Syrah

You might wonder why Grenache is not on this list, it could be, but very heavy Grenache is not my favorite, so I pass on Grenache here with this theme. California Grenache really does poorly with too much oak. If I wanted to see lots of oak attached to a variety it would be my list above. I give an honorable mention to Pinot Noir since it is so accessible to people, especially here on the US West Coast.

Go out there and learn the spectrum on your favorite variety, since any grape, for example Sangiovese or Tempranillo, and so on, have these characteristics, where the spectrum exists, of elegant to rich. Wine is a human product, it can get highly manipulated, and grape forward wines can still be very complex. The easiest grape to show off a spectrum may be Barbera. In California, these tend to be very opulent and powerful wines, and in Barbera d’Asti they are elegant, cherry filled and so straight forwardly delicious. That is the easiest comparison of how the spectrum works. And if you live in New York City, the easiest to compare, since a store will probably stock both types.

The white varieties that have an amazing spectrum are Marsanne and Roussanne. The artists of the Northern Rhone do amazing work with Marsanne and Roussanne, so this will require a trip to south eastern France of course. Because the heavily opulent whites are not too prevalent or easy to find, especially in the USA. You will need to spend like $80 a or more for the really amazing rich and opulent white wines that are the best expression of what the Rhone valley whites can deliver. These whites are amazing!

Learn it, and love it, with your favorite variety. Go Provincial, then go New World. Or for a US resident or wine lover this order will be reversed. As it was for me.

Some further reading on wine flavor spectrums can be found in this article at Wine Folly.

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Why so much oak?

frank — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 22:34:25 +0000

A lot of premium wines (> $20 a bottle) are often packed full of oak flavors. How can you tell? Just go to the nose. Think about it, smell the glass before swirling. Is a pine, cedar, or wood nose coming in, on the “front row” so to speak. This is a balance issue between the fruits and the “oak” that is in the wine thanks to excessive oak used in the wine making. Also the aging of wine (anything over say 3-5 years old), will diminish the fruit flavors over time. Maybe the strawberry notes, turn to dried strawberries with age. What dominates over the fruit flavors with time are tertiary flavors that happen in the bottle. What are tertiary flavors, those are things from mushroom, and forest, to tar and smoke, and everything in between. Heavier oak usage is most common in the Sonoma, Napa, Paso Robles areas of California where as a group they are striving for that $100-$500 wine. It often goes along with the “big wine” phenomenon which is also (too) common, where wines are 14-16% alcohol. Oh how we should yearn for more complex, artfully made, 11.5-13.5% red wines.

One of the most memorable wines I have ever had was “free run” Syrah from a natural wine maker here close to my house. It was just outstanding, and you best drink it young. Because the fruit in the wine and its complexities (the many phenols) that come out with the fermenting grapes is so exceptional. So much incredible Rhone varieties grow here in my region because of the soils, climate and geography. Often crushed mountain granite, mixed with volcanic, iron and mineral rich earth. There is a lot the grapes can give, just from the crush, maceration, and fermentation processes themselves. It can be amazing. A free run wine can be very complex, and totally fruit drenched as well, in aromas and taste.

Don’t get me wrong, oak is a vital part of wine making I know, but you will so often find it dominating the nose and palate, and influencing the finish as well. This is sad, all these $1,000-2,000 barrels getting overused so I can take my $40 wine to $80-$200 and beyond. Really? So I suggest if you love fruit forward wine, to take a step back and maybe find a good wine store that understands natural wine making. This is the category that will open the door to possible access to less invasive wine making. Don’t assume you can find free run readily at these stores, these kind of wines are very hard to find. Exceptionally hard, but the sommelier will understand your needs and get you a swathe of these types of wines that are closer to what free run can provide.

Here is a natural wine store that does really well in San Francisco, if you want some unoaked or less oaked wines, call them or send them an email and I am sure they will derive a case or small mix for you, that will be exciting if not life changing. Ok, maybe not life changing. 🙂

San Francisco’s Flat Iron is one of the best at this art.
https://sf.flatiron-wines.com/collections/natural-wines

Also two winemakers that I have drunk excessive amounts of their wine and know they will not oak you out are:

https://hollyshill.com/ – A Rhone centric pair of seasoned winemakers that know all about “not” over oaking their Rhone varieties. Which is sadly very rare in my region, but a few have gotten it, and continue to deliver like Carrie and Josh can. Always finding balance before oak indulgence.

https://belongwines.com/ Belong wines is a Napa company that actually smartly sources a lot of amazing fruit from El Dorado AVA, and this gives many more people the chance to try mountain spice. This wine company will delight you with the open, fruit forward, lightness of their wine. They make an amazing mountain spicy Mourvedre. A wine that really delights. Try some of their wine and see if this beautiful style works for you. Never overpriced, and always a very cleanly made varietal is what you can expect. They can reliably be found at K&L. Who will ship them to you.

Remember, there is not a lot that the bottle’s label reveals, so ask some open ended questions. You can also get some details on the wine making process in the winery’s details pages. This is all varied of course, but an expert winemaker wants to import some important details on their site. Here you can see a methodology of letting Grenache be Grenache, ok light skins, means lighter color, so maybe some blending was done for color. But anyway these type of descriptions should make you want to try this wine. Based on the thesis of this blog.

I still remember when Lava Cap was on allocation for their Grenache. There is a distinct reason there is a second block of Grenache on this property now. The soils, the elevation, Grenache loves it…

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