I went up to Amador County for the weekend before New Years to spend a day with Vera and to try out the wines of Amador County. She’s been bugging me about the great wines from Amador County almost from the day I met her.
Anyway, force me to go wine tasting, twist my arm.
We went to a number of places in the Shenandoah Valley.
Young’s Vineyard
This was our first stop of the day. They allowed you to choose four wines from their list for a complimentary tasting, or you could pay $5 and try all 11 wines. I stuck with four, choosing some of the varietals I like most. Nothing really stood out, and I passed on buying anything. I think this was the only place we stopped where we didn’t make a purchase. Vera says they used to be better, maybe their current vintage just isn’t the best. It was very crowded though.
C.G. di Arie
This was our second stop and one of our favorites. We both liked the 2009 Rose Di Arie, and Vera really liked the 2008 Vintage Port. One of the things I was most looking forward to on this trip was trying the old vine zinfandels from Shenandoah Valley, in particular, zins made from grapes from the Grandpère Vineyard, the oldest Zinfandel vines in America. C.G. di Arie is one of the three or four wineries that buy grapes from the Grandpère, they bottle it as “Southern Exposure” Zinfandel. It was good, I bought a bottle. Overall, C.G. di Arie was one of the standouts, in the top three wineries that we visited. I would go here again.
Terra d’Oro/Montevina
This is one winery with two labels. Montevina seems to be the budget label, and Terra d’Oro is the label for the next step up. They had the usual Amador suspects, Zinfandel, Barbera, Primitivo. Nothing really stood out to me. They did have a decent Chardonnay without much oak to it. Almost too little oak for my tastes. Vera likes the Montevina Pinot grigio, which was a nice white for a good price.
Cooper Vineyards
Wow. Delicious stuff. I bought two bottles of their Barbera, since apparently Dick Cooper was named the grand poobah of Barbera or something. Plus, it was very good. The Primitivo was also very good. Unfortunately (for me), the Syrah was sold out, and was only available to their wine club members this year due to greater demand and low production. This was the top winery we visited.
Karmère
This place gets the award for a beautiful winery with really great bottle labels featuring really cool art. The wine does not get an award though, I didn’t really like what they made there. I had better examples of every type of wine at other places that day. They did have some interesting flavored sparkling wines, one almond flavored, another raspberry and strawberry flavored. They made a tasty mix of this sparkler with their port. A novelty, but tasty. It was certainly crowded, and seemed popular.
Charles Spinetta Winery
Best Zin of the day! Now, I’m not a Zinfandel fan, and since Amador County is known for the Zinfandel, a lot of the good stuff was not up my alley. The Zin at Charles Spinetta, however, was a Zin that I could enjoy, and I bought a bottle. It was the only bottle of non-old vine zin I bought all day. They also have a Primitivo that they are apparently known for, but they were not pouring it that day. They also had really nice sweet Muscats, Vera says the Orange Muscat is amazing. We also got a great story about a cat that got stuck in the engine of their truck, and managed to survive with little more than a few scratches and scrapes.
Vino Noceto
Sangiovese central. This wine is known for their Sangiovese, they have some vines spliced from Chianti vines, and some spliced from Brunello vines. The Reserve Sangiovese was good, I bought a couple bottles. They had a four-pack of block-specific Sangioveses from the four blocks of vines, but I passed on this set, though it looked very interesting. Vino Noceto is one of the wineries to source grapes from the Grandpère Vineyard, which they market as their OGP (Original Grandpère), which was also very good. They had a Moscato called Frivolo, which was sweet, with light bubbles, and very tasty. I would put this winery in the top three we visited, after Cooper and C.G. di Arie.
Easton/Terre Rouge
There are two labels out of this winery. Easton is for traditional Amador County varieties such as Zinfandel, Barbera, and petite Syrah. Terre Rouge is for their Rhone style blends. I focused on the Rhone style wines, and they were solid, but not spectacular. I bought a few bottles. I would like to try some of their other Syrahs if I get the chance. They were only pouring one of their seven or eight different Syrahs they make each year.
Renwood
Fancy pants! I thought I was in Napa when I went into this tasting room. It is fancy, with a side room where you can buy fancy snacks, food, souvenirs, etc. They had a basic flight of four wines that was complimentary, then several other flights that you could pay about ten bucks for. Good icewein. Their Old Vine Zin was tasty, and I bought a bottle. They made a good Ice Wine too. Nothing else stood out. One thing that’s interesting about this place is that they trademarked the term “Grandpère”, and they use this to signify any old vine Zinfandel, even though none of their grapes actually come from the Grandpère Vineyard. Kind of shady, if you ask me.
Bray Vineyards
Meh. It didn’t help that this was the last stop. I was pretty fried on tasting wine at this point (or, like three wineries ago, really). They had a cool Brayzin Hussy Red, with a neat bottle with a lady taking a bath on the label. They also sell cool 1-liter refillable bottles that get filled out of a tapped wine barrel.
