jill of all tirades

If you decide to go wine tasting in the South Bay, a must stop winery is Sycamore Creek.  This is a very young winery, only about 3 years under the current owners, but they have a very mature taste for all of their new-ness.  To get to the winery, take Watsonville Road until you get to the turn for Uvas Road.  The winery is right after you get onto Uvas Road; they usually have a sign on Watsonville Road pointing you in the right direction. 

When you enter the tasting room, you are going into the barrel room/warehouse.  The tasting counter is made of old wine barrels (which I really liked) and allows for small groups and couples to share one barrel for their glasses; I can see where this would be limiting for a overly large group that is tasting together.  I personally liked the intimate setting that the wine barrels encouraged even though the tasting room was in a large warehouse.   Being the youngest people there (by FAR) I was surprised when we received just as much attention as the other, older couples.  The winemaker spent about 45 minutes pouring our tastings and discussing the wines, the winery, and the wine making business with us.

We tasted many wines there, as is the norm for my tasting expeditions, and two really stand out in my mind: Uvas and Malbec.

The Uvas is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon: 67% and Chardonnay: 33%.  When I first read the description of this wine, I though “Ummmm, ookkkaaaaay???”  Normally, I only get a Chardonnay and Cab blend like this when I am switching what I am drinking without rinsing my glass.  I have to admit that despite my reservations, I was pleasantly surprised by this wine.  Light and yet it still had the flavor I require in my wines.  I would recommend this wine to amateur wine drinkers as a good stepping stone into the full bodied red wines.

The other wine that I remember as being exceptional is the Malbec.  I am very pleased with how many Malbec’s I have been able to taste recently, and this one is the best.  That day Jack and I had tasted twoother Malbec wines and this one was the best.  This one was also the only one that was a pure Malbec, the other two had small amounts of other varietals in them.  If you like Italian wines, I would recommend driving to Morgan Hill just for this one.

The final comment about this winery is the wine club.  Talking to the winemaker, we learned about some of the events that this winery offers for its club members.  The one that impressed me was the chili day.  In the winter months, when no one is really doing anything, the winemaker makes a giant pot of chili and invites the club members to the winery to hang out and have chili.  I thought that this sounded like a lot of fun.  Many wineries have very pretentious events, like caviar and cheese pairings, which are cool but not my style.  I do not enjoy going to events where other club members look at me and wonder if I work there because I am in my 20’s.  I think Sycamore Creek is much more age open and welcoming of every type of wine drinker.

Driving out to Fresno, CA by way of Highway 99-South, you drive through a little town called Madera.  This town has an abundance of wineries for such a small population; and while some are “ehhhh”, there are a few stellar examples of uniqe, small batch wines.  One of these such wineries is Birdstone Winery.  It is off Avenue 9 (most of the exits in Madera are Avenue Some-#) almost all the way to Highway 41.  There is one small wine trail sign near the turn for the winery, but make sure to bring a map and watch the streets you drive by.

This winery produces mostly red wines, with a very nice Chardonnay for those wimps who cannot take a good red.  Their bottles are mostly under $20, which makes this our favorite stop for everyday and gifting wine.  Jack and I are still debating on which wine we like the best, but our three favorites are: Sangiovese, Barbera, and Tempranillo.  Last time we were there we got to meet the owner/winemaker and do a barrel tasting of a Cabernet Sauvignon.  My first barrel tasting, YAY!  They also have a worker there named Matt, who was very nice.  He also “forgot” where we were in the tasting list and had to start us over again.  Three times!  If you happen to go there, ask for the story about the Red Headed Step Child Chardonnay; it is a great story even if the wine is all sold out.

Sangiovese – This is a lighter red wine, as the afficiandos already know, but unlike most Sangio’s that you buy at BevMo, this one has flavor.  It is not watered down at all, and has a nice and light finish for how much flavor is on the tongue.  This is our favorite Sangio that we have ever tasted, and we prove that by buying a couple bottles each time we go there.  Those couple of bottles are usually gone within a week.

Barbera – This is the first time that we tasted a Barbera, and we liked it.  It reminded me alot of a good Pinot Noir on the body and finish, but a blended Grenache on the lightness of the overall taste.  It did not leave a chalky feeling on my tongue; this surprised me when it tastes so heavy.  I could not drink this wine everyday, Jack can, but it would go great with a rich pasta or a red meat.

Tempranillo – I was hesitant to try this wine because I have been dissatisfied with them in the past, but this one was a nice middle ground between the Sangio and the Barbera.  If I didn’t know better, I would think it was a blend of the two.  Lighter yet stronger, it was a very nice wine.

In the beginning of April, Jack and I went wine tasting at Bonny Doon Vineyards in Santa Cruz.  When I say “in Santa Cruz”, I mean only in SC by a techicality.  It is really far up in the SC mountains, which is a beautiful drive.  Bonny Doon is known for its non-standard wines and creative wine labels.  If we could be members at another winery, this would be our pick.

The tasting room was very busy the Friday that we went up there.  Luckily, our attendant was only dealing with us and another couple.  The other couple were wine club members and they were just finishing up their tasing and deciding what to purchase when we began at the top of the list.  The attendant gave most of her attention to the other couple at first, and I don’t blame her because they were making a large purchase, but I was releved when they finally left and I could ask questions about the wine.  I liked just about every wine that we tasted, and Jack actually enjoyed a white wine!

2006 Ca’ del Sol Albarino – I have never tasted an Albarino before, but it is now on my list of white wines that I really like, and Jack likes too.  I found it to be a light and refreshing white wine, lighter than a Chardonnay but still with more flavor than a Pinot Grigo or a Sauvignion Blanc.  If you are wondering what the hell is on the label, as I was, here is the golden moment of enlightenment.  It is a sensitive crystalization of the wine.  They take a drop of the wine, let it crystalize and then take a picture of it.  Isn’t that neat? (Science can be art too!)

2003 Le Cigare Volant – This was a red blend that I found very enjoyable and fast drinking.  ::grin::  This is a Rhone style blend of : 35% mourvèdre, 32% syrah, 26% grenache, and 7% cinsault.  It has flavours of raspberry dominating, with spice and pepper as a close second.  It has a slightly dry finish and a lingering taste on the palate that would go greate with a cigar.  The last time that the made a blend of this type was in 1995, and it was great from the start and aged beautifully.  They are expecting this wine to just keep getting better over the next 15 years, and I am looking forward to it.

The same day that we went tasting at Pietra Santa Winery, we also stopped at Calera Wine Co.  This winery is located a little further down Cienega Road and has a very utilitarian look to it; the tasting room is in a warehouse.  We arrived there at about 4pm and the couple that arrived before us were just leaving, so in contrast to the crowd at Pietra Santa, we had the tasting to ourselves.  The tasting room attendant was very knowledgeable about the wine, the history of the vineyard, and very friendly.  They make mostly Pinot Noir at this winery, but they have a few Viognier, Chardonnay and one dessert Viognier.  There are 2 wines that I remember as being exceptional; both are Pinot Noir, which this winery has become famous for.

2004 Selleck Vineyard Pinot Noir and the 2004 Mills Vineyard Pinot Noir were both very similar in taste to an untrained Pinot palate like mine.  These Pinots are not your typical California variety, these are more similar to the ones that you would get from Burgundy.  I thought that the Mills Vineyard one was a little fuller in body that the Selleck Vineyard, but both had a lighter flavor and a clean and slightly dry finish.  They did not taste watery, as some Pinots do.  We picked up a bottle of the Mills Vineyard Pinot Noir, and I will be going back to this winery to get some  more of their wonderful wine in my “cellar”.

After re-visiting Leal Vineyards to introduce Robert to their wonderful selection of red wines, we drove down Cienega Road to Pietra Santa Winery.  You turn off of Cienega and travel down a wide road with vines on either side until you reach a building that could be and old church or mission.  This winery, like Leal, has huge wooden doors.  You enter in the winery and see racks of barrels; then walk up a small staircase to the actual tasting room.  The tasting room is in one of the lower floors of the belltower, and has 2 balconies that you can enjoy the view and wine from.  The tasting room was verybusy when we went, so busy that we had to elbow our way to the counter.  I would like to visit again when there were fewer people; I did not get to ask any questions about the wine because they were so busy.  That made my experience of the wine limited and not as enjoyable as it could have been.  We did taste about 8 different wines, 2 kinds of chocolate truffles, and 3 different olive oils.

2001 Pietra Santa Dolcetto - This was my second favorite wine that I tasted.  It was a lighter red wine, with medium body and a clean finish.  It did not give a dry lingering taste on the tongue, which I really appreciated.  I could see drinking this wine with many different foods, or just enjoying it by itself.  So we got a bottle!

Pietra Santa Vache Red Blend (Signature Collection) – This was my favorite wine that I had at Pietra Santa.  Normally, they do not have it available for tasting, but they were offering three of their Signature Collection wines for tasting that day.  This was a heavier red blend than I normally like, but it was very smooth for how heavy it was.  Unfortunately, it was above our budget for that day, so we will have to buy it some other time.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil – They had some very nice olive oil for tasting also.  The extra virgin was my husband’s favorite; I liked all of them.  The olive oil tasting was so popular, that we only got to taste it with breadcrumbs!

Because of the crowd at the tasting room, I felt that I did not experience the wines as fully as I would have liked.  Another thing I noticed about the Pietra Santa tasting room crowd is that we were the youngest people there by far, and received a few looks from other patrons for it.  Even though the environment was less that I would have liked, the wine was good.  I want to go back and give them another try, probably on a weekday though.