Founders Ron Pieretti and Wendy Sanda bought a 25-acre parcel in Calaveras County in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, where land is still reasonably priced. Their focus is Rhône varietals, and winemaker Jeff Cohn crafts two wines — The Brat, a Grenache-based blend, and The Brawler, a blend of Syrah and Viognier. Made from Grenache and Syrah, this Rhône-style blend has pronounced flavors of cherries, accented with sweet, vanilla-tinged new oak. It’s bone dry, and the tannins are pronounced, making the palate long for a bite of well-marbled, grilled steak. Best now for freshness.
Winemaker Jeff Cohn supplies his expertise on the Rhône-inspired wines of Prospect 772, located in the Sierra Foothills just outside of Angels Camp.
It is a blend of 80% Grenache and 20% Syrah.
Sierra Foothills/El Dorado - This sweeping inland territory (an AVA on its own right), encompassing El Dorado, Fiddletown, Shenandoah and Amador, has been on the grape-growing map since the Gold Rush. With the exception of high-altitude El Dorado, the vineyards here are sun-baked and hot—in other words, best suited to old-vine zinfandel, petit sirah and Rhône varietals. The cooler climes of El Dorado are ideal for cabernet, chardonnay and merlot.
The Sierra Foothills, southeast of Sacramento, are now making some of California's most exciting Rhone-style wines. Four Vines, with an Amador Bailey Vineyard Syrah, is joined by Prospect 772 among those excellent Rhone variety-based wines from the Sierra Foothills. Prospect 772 is a new label from Ron and Wendy Pieretti with Jeff Cohn, of J.C. Cellars (and formerly of Rosenblum), overseeing winemaking. Prospect 772's two wines are The Brawler (Syrah and Viognier) and The Brat (Syrah and Grenache), and their prices are excellent.
Calveras County is a picturesque and remote area in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Popular with outdoorsmen, the region also serves as a northern entrance into Yosemite National Park. In 1865, Mark Twain immortalized the area in his tale of “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”. Through the 1850s and ‘60s, this was the heart of the Gold Rush. Prospectors of many national origins arrived in the area afflicted with Gold Fever. Those who stayed, notably the French and the Italians, quickly established vineyards and a reputation for producing the best wines in California. Many of these vineyards would long outlive the boom and bust of the Gold Rush and a century and a half later, the red clay and gravelly slopes of Calaveras County are yielding another kind of Mother Lode – the gold medal winning wines of the region. Calaveras County forms the southern third of the broad Sierra Foothills AVA which also covers much of El Dorado and Amador counties to the north. Vineyards here generally lie between 1500 and 2400 ft in elevation – higher and cooler than those in Amador.
According to Wine Spectator: "Ripe, fleshy and full-bodied, with tasty plum and black cherry fruit that has a slight candied edge, ending with a crisp berry aftertaste. Grenache and Syrah. Drink now through 2013. 153 cases made."
Submitted by James Cross
