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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One winery that has significant love towards both Portuguese and Spanish varieties is St Amant. This winery is worth a visit as they have scored a plethora of 90+ scores from Wine Enthusiast over the years and across the collection. With their Tempranillo you’ll be drinking Amador County (technically Foothill grapes) in the process. Their Spencer vineyard is their largest vineyard and that is located just on the western edge of Amador County. Another winery out of Lodi that sponsors a Tempranillo tour in November, is Bokisch Winery, and they helped sponsor the Lodi Spanish wine tour, that hit 8 wineries just for their Tempranillo. If you are looking for a list to do your own tour use the page I just provided.

Within Amador County I have to mention a relative newcomer winery that has lots of potential. Casino Mine Ranch has a good amount of (Tempranillo) grapes planted in Amador more along Shenandoah Road, which is the heart of Amador County wine country. I can’t say Tempranillo is their flagship grape, this winery takes a lot of pride in diversity, but the Marcel flagship blend uses Tempranillo to its perfection. This wine is both very bold and highly complex in its characteristics so you get what most people are looking for in this wine. Marcel is a bold wine, and a very complex wine. I see that Casino Mine Ranch also doesn’t release the Marcel till its ready, a few years on, and even then you can tell it needs some more time (at least 2 more years) to develop into something tremendous and perhaps a bit softer.

Tempranillo varietals in the Foothills (Amador/Lodi) regions is often big, high in tannins and simply “strong, bold wine”. If you prefer a more medium bodied wine I advise that you be patient and look around more, to find that balance that this variety can provide. It is both exceptional and truly noble in a way only a many generation Spanish wine-making family can truly understand. To take a closer look with great graphics about Tempranillo, step into the world of Wine Folly and their comprehensive, yet easy to consume guide on Tempranillo. My takeaway is that this grape and wine provide medium body and color, and do best when the wine is crafted in the middle of that elegant to bold scale, where the fruit can really show its many faces in the glass.

So glad that Tempranillo has begun to shine out from under the excellent and dominant Old Vine Zinfandel shadow of the southern parts of my (favorite Foothills) region.

You’ll need to figure out what kind of (Tempranillo) you really like.

Cheers!

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Bill spoke briefly of the 10 sites that give him a lot of cultivation diversity to work with Syrah, in the highly varied elevations of the Sierra Foothills. His epiphany for Ascent came when he tasted some of these fruits out of the fermentation tank in the late 1990’s. He then realized elevating some of this wine was a long term goal to work up to. It took years is the takeaway, and I am sure he still tries different design tweaks to this day. His only request of his clients was, don’t drink an Ascent young. Let the fruit integrate to 10 years and beyond, and this was going to become evident as we went through the tastings.

Bill relaxed and sharing his journey.

He answered several questions from the audience including what makes a grape noble. Ultimately, in Bill’s words a noble grape needs to have the small berries to start, and the characteristics towards making very diverse and palate pleasing wines. In California, these would be Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, and Syrah. The long road is often the work to attaining many unique flavors on the palate from one sip, and then the long finish is what all expert wine tasters are especially attuned to. The long pleasing integrating finish is the differentiating factor in most cases, to what elevates a wine above 94 points.

How did we like the wines? They were amazing. We started with a youngest 2018 Ascent, that still had lots of acidic structure clearly in the back of the mouth, and wild, diverse flavor notes all across the palate. A truly amazing mouth feel. The acids were both large and pleasing at the same time, tannins there, but not at all gripping, and definitely not in the front row. That wild fruit flavor that comes with Syrah was still rather fresh and the mouth felt creamy but cut with pepper and more so a diverse Mediterranean spice box. Wow it is just getting started was my thought. To be honest the nose, was subdued, there like a light spice coming off a French food dish, nothing overpowering, or any single dominating note, more spices than any dark cherry or single fruit. An enticing mystery was the first thought. Always breath in the wine before doing a swirl. I notice many wine lovers make this mistake, immediately gyrating the glass with their hand. You must breath the wine in deeply, before swirling to see what is dominant in the air of the glass. Take time to calculate, then swirl and take more notes as the flavors have now integrated and surfaced more fully. This change will go a long way to understanding the wine. No wine is easy to evaluate in just a few minutes either. No expert taster evaluates with only one sip, a tasting always includes two or three sips.

From the 2018, we moved to the 2013’s. We did two tastings, the Ascent, compared to the Terre Rouge DTR Ranch, which was the most wild of the tastings. These 2013’s were tremendous, and many of us thought the 2013 at 10 years was best of show, but in the end we purchased the 2008 Ascent. In a simple sentence, the 2008 was the best for its tremendously long finish and a further smoothness of that spice that is the pinnacle of what California Syrah can achieve. No single unpleasant phenol note whatsoever, simply joy of a finish that you question yourself. “How long did that really last”. Is it still going on? The 2008 wasn’t the most powerful, but it was certainly the most elegant. Some people I know loved the DTR Ranch, for its strong flavors. You hear a real mix of ideas across the audience. That is wine, everyone has their ideas of what flavors makes for them a perfect wine.

And as an important note, all wine ferments rather quickly and then is simply wine, known as free run wine. The elevation happens in pressing and the barrels. Syrah and all wine grapes are susceptible to oak and its strong tannins, especially new oak, which can impart a lot of change in a wine. This is where wine makers often forget to go easy. Grenache especially does not like too much new oak, Pinot Noir can be over-oaked. Part of it is a style thing. Of course Syrah can handle oak, but the oak here may sometimes be a blend of new and neutral oak. The quality of that oak, and the process used is what is key. I have seen a number of long-time winemakers speak and show me that great oak, such as the Francois Freres barrels, which is one major component of the Ascent magic. The Freres barrel staves have been air dried for 3 years before they are coopered, softening them. Other quality barrels can cost just half as much, and the oak used in these barrels is very special within France. The wine is allowed to integrate in the barrels for 22-24 months . As the vines age, the wine becomes more capable of integrating with the oak. Anyone who loves Syrah needs to buy one of these wines, or simply come to one of Bill’s “sold out” seminars and see what a truly amazing wine tastes like. The more you learn the more you enjoy.



Cheers Bill, and thank you, and your amazing team for sharing your life’s work with all of us!

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Boeger Winery (founded 1972)

Madrona Vineyards (founded 1973)

Many experts in El Dorado County consider these two wineries founding wineries of the modern Sierra Foothills wine region and specifically the El Dorado AVA. Both wineries are also pioneers in cultivating a lot of different varietals, from Riesling, to many Italian varietals, and of course Rhone varietals (Syrah, Grenache…) and Bourdeaux (Cabernet S. and F., Merlot…) favorites. Both wineries pay a special focus on a great foothill varietal, Barbera.

I considered using both of these wineries in one blog in that they are both many decades old, both wineries are still family run, and they cultivate well over 20 different varietals each. I am not sure of the exact total but cultivating 20 to 30 varietals is a large quantity for a family business.

Madrona for example owns the core estate winery which has about 34 acres planted and they have two other vineyards which produce excellent wine grapes for other wine makers namely, Sumu-Kaw, and Enye. So well over 60 acres of grapes.

What varietals are most awarded at Madrona. Well most evident on the nose and the great austerity in the glass is probably the Zinfandel, although their Nebbiola and Cabernet Sauvignon are also exceptional wines that will do well in your cellar, and dinner table. Outside of the excellent and varied reds, there is something else that is special.

Not too well known in El Dorado County which produces quite a few white grape varietals, is the quality of the Riesling grapes at Madrona. They make excellent Riesling, a standard one that has a bit of residual sugar, maybe a bit semi-dry for most palates, to one that is more bone dry. A classic “Dry Riesling” in English, you can look for the word “trocken” or “Kabinett” on German wine labels. If you have not had a very dry Riesling, I would invite you to try one, they are exceptional food wines, as the acids do wonders to cleanse the palate. These wines are often lighter on your palate in total, having less alcohol. A Riesling often has 8 to 13%, most red wines are between 12 and 16% in alcohol. If you are local to the El Dorado wine area you can come in to Madrona Vineyards or Boeger winery, as they both make Riesling. Madrona is higher up on the hill, and is tucked behind the High Hill Ranch that is famous for fall harvest festivities.

Serious Riesling’s pair extremely well with spicy snack foods, charcuterie, big fowl meals such as a turkey dinner, or some Mexican or Thai foods. I often drink a Riesling when I go out for spicy Indian foods, as the high quantity of acids in a good Riesling will do wonders to clean your palate and refresh you. It will even cool you down, as you eat a spicy meal.

Riesling will never be a big player in the California wine scene like it does in the center of Germany, but it enjoys steep mountain slopes and with the right cultivation and wine making care, you can find some excellent Rieslings both in El Dorado County and across a few corners of California as well. In fact the tasting room, at Madrona told me they removed all their Gewurztraminer and grafted on Riesling to that root stock to improve their more popular and excellent Riesling. Give it a try when in our region. You won’t find it in stores, it is pretty much sold out at the winery every single year.

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