Domaine de Nizas, 2006 Languedoc-Roussillan, France

The Domaine de Nizas was acquired in 1998 by John Goelet with the collaboration of Bernard Portet, co-founder of Clos du Val in Napa Valley. A visionary, who had by the 1970s the idea of ​​making great wines using the world's best soils. John Goelet an American of French origin, a direct descendant of the family Guestier (traders in Bordeaux), has always had a traditional wine-based finesse and elegance. He had already created Clos du Val in Napa Valley (California), Taltarni in Victoria (Australia) and Clover Hill in Tasmania.  

Domaine de Nizas is located in the South of France, on the outskirts of the village of Nizas near Pézenas in the heart of the Languedoc region. Located 20 miles from the Mediterranean Sea, the exceptional terroir of Pezenas as ideal for creating high quality wines, the traditional way, which express the character Mediterranean climate with low rainfall and dry, warm summers.

On a manually tended 200-acre vineyard, the estate is known for handcrafted limited-production wines. Their goal is to serve as a model in terms of elegance, complexity, balance and aging ability among Mediterranean wines. The winery crafts boutique-style, artisanal wines and emphasizes sustainable agriculture.

Winemaking in the Languedoc region in the south of France began as early as the 5th Century B.C.E., when Greeks planted vineyards along the coast near the city of Narbonne. Those ancient vintners no doubt realized that the region’s soils were special. The winery’s terroir offers a unique mosaic of three soil types. These soils are deep and provide excellent drainage while retaining moisture at root level, ensuring vines fully ripen without water stress.

The Villafranchian (pebbles, river gravel soil), often found in the Chateauneuf du Pape area of the Southern Rhone Valley, preserves the freshness of flavors and produces elegant and velvety tannins.  This soil type brings finesse and structure to the wines grown at Nizas, as well as a good acidity that allows the wine to age. It produces aromas of chocolate and coffee in Syrah.

The Basalt, a type of volcanic flow unique to the Pézenas area, creates fine, mineral aromas and elegant structure with flavor sensations of spice and licorice.

The Marne Calcaire (limestone-clay) when planted with Syrah, results in more powerful wines with red berries aromas.

70 percent of the Domaine de Nizas acreage is classified as Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée Coteaux du Languedoc. The average age of the vines is 20 years, ranging from recently planted Syrah to 60 year-old Carignan. The varietals used in Domaine de Nizas wines include Syrah, Mourvèdre and Grenache in the AOC category as well as Syrah, Carignan, Viognier and Muscat Petit Grain in the Vin de Pays category.

Domaine de Nizas has been certified by the Bureau Veritas, an independent government bureau, which strives to protect the health of consumers and respect the environment. Domaine de Nizas obtained its sustainable agriculture certification in 2003 as a result of pioneering efforts to farm sustainably since their inception in 1998.

Domaine de Nizas practices sustainable agriculture by:

The vines are worked manually and a decisive approach is taken towards pruning, bud removal, lifting the wires, and if required, removing excess grapes.

The plantation of the vineyard with a long term view, conserving old vines with high quality potential such as our Carignan of 55 years old.

Favoring the biological life of the soils by using ploughing and grass rather than herbicides

Tracing each bottle of wine to a specific vineyard plot in order to more effectively control quality and segment any bottle variances to its origin in the vineyard

Minimally using selective fungicides and insecticides to conserve natural predators of vine parasites

WINEMAKING PHILOSOPHY

Grapes are harvested at optimum ripeness with a good balance of sugar and acidity. The trellised vines are machine harvested, however, the young vines and old vines are hand-picked. Transport of the grapes in tipping trailers or small crates for the hand-picked fruit to assure good condition of the grapes from the vineyard (white grapes are protected from oxidization).

The cellar is situated at Usclas d’Hérault (5 to 10 km from the vineyards), this former apple warehouse transformed into a winery offers a well-adapted solution for vinifying, ageing and warehousing wines. Located on 3000 m² on the edge of the village, the 1300 m² building was renovated and transformed in May in time to receive the harvest in 2001.

Once the grapes arrive at the winery the grapes are de-stalked (with the exception of the Carignan to be vinified under carbonic maceration) and gently put into tanks. Maceration is carefully controlled in order to naturally enhance the work that has already been done in the vineyard shooting for deep colors, intense and pure aromas, full-bodied and soft tannins.

After 15 to 25 days on the skins, the grapes are pressed and the resulting wine is then graded according to the quality of the press. The wines pass into oak barrels to complete the malo-lactic fermentation. The oak ageing of part of the wine to be included in the final blend aims to enhance the Mediterranean character of our wines without dominating it. The wines aged in tanks are regularly pumped over.

After 9 to 12 months, the wines are pumped over and blended in preparation for the bottling, when they are lightly filtered. They are then aged in bottle in our air-conditioned warehouse awaiting their launch onto the market.

Description and praise for the wine:

Domaine de Nizas 2006 Coteaux du Languedoc
This is a blend of Syrah, Mourvèdre and Grenache. This wine is deep garnet in color, with fragrant aromas of blackberries, bilberries (European blueberries) and spices. The distinctive herbal notes commonly found in wines around the Mediterranean called garrigue—lavender, sage, rosemary and wild thyme—speak to the wine’s regionality and terroir. The palate is well-balanced and clean, becoming round and full-bodied, with soft, ripe tannins and a long finish. Enjoyable now or age for up to five years in a cool cellar. 

Wine Spectator - This elegant red, with interesting hints of juniper and savory herb to the red fruit flavors. Well-structured and balanced, with a succulent finish. Syrah, Mourvèdre and Grenache. Drink now through 2014. Score: 90. —Kim Marcus, September 30, 2010.

Copain Viognier, 2009 Tous Ensemble, Mendocino County

Copain Wine Cellars was founded in 1999 by Wells Guthrie and Kevin McQuown with just 200 cases of Pinot from Dennison Vineyard in Anderson Valley. Wells started his career working at the Wine Spectator’s San Francisco office as a tasting coordinator. It was during these first few years that he fell in love with Syrah and moved to the Northern Rhone. Wells worked for Chapoutier for two seasons in both the winery and vineyards learning about the Northern Rhone varietals and Biodynamics. Outside of Chapoutier, Wells spent as much time as he could with Jean Louis Chave, who he feels had an equally important impact upon his experiences in the Rhone. Following Chapoutier, Wells returned to work at Turley Wine Cellars working in both the vineyards and cellar. Today, Wells is the full-time owner and winemaker for Copain Wine Cellars.

Wells Guthrie has taken his Northern Rhone training and appreciation of Northern California's gentle ripening seasons to new heights in his recently assembled winery in Healdsburg. All of the vineyards are organically farmed, as Wells states, "As winemakers we are just custodians of that fruit allowing for the reflection of the site, varietal and vintage." Minimum intervention and organic farming practices allows Copain wines to display the natural balance of flora and fauna inherent in each site to impact the developing vine, fruit and finally the wine. The project is all about balance and elegance, which is achieved on their vineyard-designate wines as well as their multiple vineyard "Tous Ensemble" label.

 

For their first release of "Tous Ensemble" (French for "all together") the Viognier grapes were sourced from McDowell Valley Vineyards in Mendocino County.  However, the third release may just be its last as noted by the winemaker because of difficulty in vineyard commitments.

Copain's 2009 Viognier has captured the classic Viognier aromatics and flavors of fresh apricots, honeysuckle, as well as green papaya, Meyer lemons, apricots, Granny Smiths and hints of honey and fresh flowers (not as floral as most California Viogniers). This pale, lemon-colored wine is light and racy, avoiding the weighty, waxy nature of overly ripe Viognier and is a great white for those looking to enjoy the aromatic headiness of the varietal but with a medium-bodied palate with balanced acidity and a medium-length creamy finish.

Copain is dedicated to producing top-quality vineyard designated wines that are complex, varietally correct, and food friendly without being heavy handed. Winemaker Wells Guthrie believes that quality starts with the vineyard. In pursuit of this, Copaín has created and will continue to seek relationships with growers who are committed to what they believe are the key attributes necessary to produce world class wines: vineyard exposition, clonal selections, and dedication to organic farming practices.

Grapes are night-picked to maintain cold temperatures and whole cluster pressed once they arrive at the winery. This ideology is applied at the winery, where all fermentations occur with native yeast and the goal is to gently extract the flavors given from the vineyard with minimal intervention by replacing punch downs with pumping over just once a day to avoid any hard physical extraction, and using a maximum of 30 percent new French oak. Picking with lower potential alcohols over the past few vintages has let the purity and expression of each site shine: naturally keeping the wines lower in alcohol has resulted in retaining a brighter, more lively acidity and freshness on the palate making the wines more enjoyable with food.  The wine is stainless steel fermented and lightly filtered before bottling.

The Mendocino County AVA (American Viticultural Area) is located in the northernmost part of the North Coast AVA in California. The region, which is one of the state's largest wine-growing areas, is recognized for both its diversity and the quality of its grapes. Viticulture here dates back to the mid-1800s, following the California Gold Rush. As in so many US states, the wine industry was virtually destroyed by Prohibition.  

Located directly north of Sonoma County and about 90 miles north of San Francisco, the Mendocino wine region is bounded by California's Coastal Mountain Range, the Pacific Ocean and the great northern redwood forests. A mountainous region, it is part of the seismically active Coast Range and is also the place where the San Andreas Fault reaches the ocean. Almost 60 percent of the county is blanketed with coniferous forests.

Nearly all Mendocino vineyards are in the southern half of the county, which is divided into two distinct climatic zones by the Mendocino Range. Most of the vineyards are located in the inland valleys in the south and east areas of the region. The vineyards growing white wine grape varieties are located on flood plains and alluvium along the Navarro and Russian Rivers. Most of the red varieties are grown on the bench lands above. However, new areas for winemaking are being discovered further north where there are distinctive microclimates suited to growing grapes.

Wines from this region are often considered to be excellent value for money as they are not as well known as those from other parts of California. Land prices are also lower than further south. Many winemakers concentrate on growing organic grapes, with nearly 20% of the county's total production certified as organically grown – more than any other wine region in California.

Owen Roe, 2010 Sinister Hand, Columbia Valley

Owen Roe winery is named after Owen Roe O'Neill, a 17th century Irish Patriot from County Cavan, Ireland where winemaker David O'Reilly, one of 12 children, was originally from. Despite an age-old clan rivalry between the O’Neills and the O’Reillys, the two families were united in the opposition to Oliver Cromwell’s English tyranny over Ireland in the 1600’s. The photographs on all of his wine labels commemorate sites in Ireland where O’Neill lived, fought, and died. 

Adorned on the label is a giant picture of a severed left hand which turns out to be his own family’s crest. It tells a story of a rowing competition between the O’Reilly’s and the O’Neills. Whoever touched land first after rowing across the lake was to be rewarded with the land he touched. Lagging behind, one of the kinsfolk grabs his sword to cleave his hand and tosses it ashore to touch land first. He won the land and later ruled over it as king.  Each wine and each label depicts a different chapter in the Owen Roe saga, utilizing the back label to convey the story.

Owen Roe is committed to practicing the highest standards of winemaking. Since the first vintage in 1999, Owen Roe winery has been working to produce exceptional wines from fruit sourced from small vineyard sites in the Willamette Valley in Oregon and the Yakima Valley in Washington State, a place where the fruit ripens slowly and fully, resulting in excellent acidity and balance, in an effort to showcase the best expression of each variety.    

The interest in these areas is further enhanced by the remarkable diversity of soil types within each region; allowing them to create wines with distinctive and unique personality, even within the same varietal. They employ as natural practices as possible in the vineyards.  The principle of good earth stewardship is very important to everyone they work with, so no herbicides or pesticides are used in these vineyards. David O'Reilly is a firm believer in the principle that great wine comes from great grapes. All of the grapes are hand harvested, handled with minimal processing, small-lot fermented, and aged in French Oak barrels. 

Typically they are racked only once after malolactic fermentation. Once in the winery, only minimal and traditional handling practices are employed to gently coax the most authentic expressions of each varietal.

"Everything we do is meticulous," said O'Reilly. "What we do is totally uncompromised. It is a lifestyle that includes hard work, but the product is thoroughly rewarding."

As someone who believes in working with the best, O’Reilly insists on feeding his crews in Oregon and Washington at lunchtime with fresh food. He hires a cook to serve lunch daily. The crew sits down for the meal and talks about the work of the day or things they hear in the industry. If O’Reilly is in town, he joins them for a meal.

Everything O'Reilly does is also thoroughly Irish. "I like to tell people that I got involved in the business to follow an Irishman's dreams," said O'Reilly with a wink and an Irish brogue that comes and goes. "Imagine making a living by drinking!"  He jokes of course, because O'Reilly is dead serious about wine making. Although he enjoys the high ratings bestowed on his wines, O'Reilly says he is more satisfied with great taste.

In a relatively short time these spectacular wines have built an excellent reputation among the restaurants and shops of not only Washington State, but also New York, San Francisco, and Chicago.  His wines generally sell out every vintage, and his beautiful labels are immediately recognized by consumers.

Owen Roe's 2010 Sinister Hand blend is a Chateauneuf-du-Pape-style blend composed of 71% Grenache, 24% Syrah, and 5% Mourvedre. A small crop of intensely flavored fruit in 2010 means fewer bottles than usual of an especially big Sinister Hand. Deep purple. Dark fruit aromas are accompanied by juicy raspberry and cranberry preserves, with herb and savory spice accents. The first sip of this wine surprises the palate with soft, supple flavors of raspberry jam and currant. The mid-palate opens up to a complex layering of minty eucalyptus, black pepper and leather and finishes with a structured backbone of earth and spice. The overall palate is vibrant and lush, with fine tannin structure and a medley of earth, hint of coffee and baking spice accenting the layers of fruit.  Syrah adds pepper, Grenache adds raspberry jam. Medium to full-bodied with crisp acidity, smooth tannins, and a long finish.

It's not an unfamiliar sight to see O'Reilly touring the hills surrounding the Yakima Valley in his Ford Explorer, scouting out vineyards. Although a designated appellation, the Yakima Valley has been under the radar for many years, with the Walla Walla and Columbia Valley appellations garnering most of the attention. O'Reilly, a stickler about fruit, is convinced that the Yakima Valley has yet to yield all its gems in the hills surrounding the desert floor. With a cool, dry climate and shallow soils on top of volcanic rock, Yakima Valley vines produce smaller grapes with high acidity and lower pH levels - exactly what O'Reilly wants for a balanced wine.

There is no shortage of grapes here, but at times it has been a battle to convince local growers that less fruit of higher quality will be their best fiscal bet. Eastern Washington crop farmers are used to big yields - 5 to 10 tons of fruit or more per acre.

The Columbia Valley AVA is Washington's largest viticultural region covering just over 1/3 of the land mass of Washington state. Within the Columbia Valley AVA lie all of the AVAs of Washington except the Puget Sound AVA and part of the Columbia Gorge AVA. Many different micro-climates are found within this larger region and these influence quite heavily the Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Riesling and Chardonnay grown here. The arid soils, warm days and cool nights provide perfect conditions for fruit forward balanced wines.

Story compiled from excerpts from Christina Kelly at AvalonWine.com, and other sources found on the web including;
http://www.avalonwine.com/Owen-Roe-Winery-New-Vineyards-New-Winery.php, 
http://www.northwest-wine.com/owen-roe-winery.html
www.winepeeps.com
www.owneroe.com

Anthill Farms Syrah, 2009 Peters Vineyard, Sonoma Coast

Anthill Farms is a collaborative effort between three guys who met while working at Williams Selyem in the Russian River Valley. They joined forces in 2004. The three young winemaking partners, Anthony Filiberti, Webster Marquez, and David Low, focus on extreme cool climate sites on the far coast of Sonoma and Mendocino counties. The emphasis at Anthill Farms is on the vineyards and have named their winery Anthill Farms to emphasize the many tiny individual vineyards that form “the link between place and product.” The trio avoid calling attention to themselves, preferring to bring notoriety to their winegrowers. Wine & Spirits magazine wrote that the team produced two of the most exciting syrahs that they tasted in 2011. 

The 2009 Sonoma Coast Syrah comes from the Peters Vineyard. The Peters Vineyards sits right outside Sebastopol in western Sonoma County. Randy Peters and his father-in-law, Tom Mukaida, farm this vineyard outside of Sebastopol in western Sonoma County. The southern slopes of these hills form the northern edge of the Petaluma Gap, which rushes cool, marine air from the Pacific Ocean inland. These Syrah and Viognier vines, which Randy planted for them just a few years ago, occupy less than an acre at the lowest edge of this cool, foggy vineyard.  Originally an apple orchard, this vineyard was replanted in the early 80's, has lots of hot, daily sun exposure but is close enough to the coast to get morning and evening ocean fog. This cool, foggy vineyard produces dense, meaty fruit that is fully developed and loaded with complexity for an Hermitage-like expression. This vineyard's soil composition is a rich Goldridge Sandy Loam. 

Though Anthill Farms focuses on producing exceptional pinot noir from a broad range of North Coast vineyards, their last few releases of syrah caught our attention. The properties are managed with intensive and meticulous farming practices, with minimal ecological impact. As for winemaking, there *are two unchanging goals: to make wines that express the growing site and the characteristics of the vintage above all else, and to make wines that, simply put, taste good. These goals require gentle handling from crushing to bottling, judicious use of oak, and, perhaps most importantly, leaving the wine alone as much as possible.

The partners themselves farm many of the small plots where they buy their grapes, and the results of this labor of love are remarkably seductive wines that combine concentration and finesse. Because of the demand in their highly sought out wines, the company has grown from producing 200 cases in 2004 to 1,800 in 2009 to over 2700 in 2011. In 2009 Food & Wine Magazine named Anthill Winery the Most Promising New Winery.

The dark purple fruit, though rich, does not sit on the palate at all heavy or flabby, but is expressive and keeps you digging your nose back down deep into the glass again and again for another whiff of that black pepper spice.

This wine’s nose exhibits pronounced resinous aromatics alongside a bouquet of morello cherry, violets, river stone, and meat. The mid palate is simultaneously powerful and weightless.

The experts weigh in:

97 points - Wine & Spirits:
'The body of this wine is straightforward. It's stemmy and meaty, what Syrah should taste like,' commented Eric Railsback of RN74... .The aroma of the wine is what kicked several tasters into overdrive, trying to capture their reaction in words. Taking a step back from the pure sensuality this offers as it plumps up with air, it's possible to imagine that stemminess evolving into the scents of green peppercorn, black peppercorn, basil and thyme, a high note of meadow flowers, intoxicating to smell. Meanwhile, the texture of the wine is about as luscious as it could get while the flavors remain savory. The tannins are fine, without any spike, creating a kind of effortless friction as if rubbing against the nap of velvet." (10/11) 

93 points - Rhone Report:
"Very peppery and gamey, the 2009 Anthill Farms Syrah Peters Vineyard has knockout cool-climate aromatics of peppered beef, violets, black raspberry, sappy herbs, and crushed rock like minerality on the nose. Similarly textured to the Sonoma Coast, with beautiful polish to the tannin, and a suppleness that keeps you coming back to the glass, it firms up nicely on the finish and should age for 7-8 years, if not longer. I'd like a touch more depth through the middle here, but this is still one solid bottle of wine. (Dec 2011)"

92 points - Josh Raynolds (International Wine Cellar):
"Opaque purple. Shows a compelling array of red and dark berry and floral scents, with complicating spice and mineral nuances and an intriguing hint of apricot. Spicy, precise and energetic, with sappy raspberry and blackberry flavors, a jolt of cracked pepper and slow-mounting smokiness. The spice and floral qualities carry through an impressively long, insinuating finish, which leaves sweet red fruit notes behind. (May/Jun 2011)"

Sonoma Coast
The Sonoma Coast AVA in California is an extensive wine region stretching from San Pablo Bay to Mendocino County and covering an area of 500,000 acres (202,000ha). The Pacific Ocean is the main influence on the cool climate here, bringing lots of rain and foggy mornings. There was a time when the region's climate was deemed too cool and marginal for growing grapes. However, most vineyards are planted on ridges, keeping them above the fog and exposing them to the ripening forces of the sun.

Urban Legend, 2009 Mourvedre, Amador County

Steve and Marilee Shaffer are the owners of Urban Legend Cellars, established in 2009 at 621 4th Street in Oakland.  With their pit bull, Sunshine, they are one of three wineries in the relatively new Jack London Square area. Steve and Marilee Shaffer make the wine and do just about everything else as well.  

The couple, who emigrated from the East Coast to the Bay Area, caught the winemaking bug by experimenting in their garage before turning professional. In the winery there is no formal tasting room. Steve and Marilee said they did most of the work themselves, with lots of help from friends.  (sourced from: http://fthorsberg.wordpress.com/tag/urban-legend/)

 

Urban Legend sources certified organic components and keeps their winemaking pretty simple—grapes, yeast, and not much more. Their Mourvèdre is a recent addition to our wine list and offers some different nuances than the other Mourvèdre wines on the list. The wine has very floral aromatics. Notes of rose hips, violets, and dusty herbs may be a product of the vineyard; Wine Tree Farm, located just outside Amador City.   

Wine Tree Farm is located on over 100 acres in Amador County, on one of the historic farms, known as the Torre Ranch. The old farmhouse was built in 1902. The farm was uninhabited for at least 20 years before it was purchased in 1998 by Corinne Moore.

Amador County seems to be well suited to Mourvèdre, also known as Mataró and Monastrell, it is hilly and warm.  The Shaffers describe the taste and the texture, “In the mouth, the ’09 offers soft red fruit—raspberry and cherry with a little red licorice. It’s light in the mouth, but a touch of Grenache rounds out the mid-palate. It’s structured, but soft, without overly drying tannins that are often its bad dog characteristic.”

In 2011, the Mourvèdre won a Silver San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.

Appellation: Amador County
Blend: 97% Mourvèdre, 3% Grenache
Alcohol: 13.5%
Acidity: 0.55 g/100 mL
Residual Sugar: < 0.1%
pH: 3.55
Malolactic Fermentation: Complete
Barrels: 2 and 3 year old French oak
Harvest Date: October 20, 2009
Bottling Date: August 23, 2010
Release Date: October 31, 2010
Total Production: 70 Cases

More about Amador County:

In the heart of old gold-mining country, in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, lies picturesque Amador County, bathed in history and filled with the promise of a growing wine industry. Part of the larger Sierra Foothills AVA (American Viticultural Area), Amador County is located 40 miles (64km) east of California's state capital, Sacramento. 

Most vineyards here are planted at altitudes of 1200 to 2000ft (365–609m), on sun-drenched hillsides. The hot days cool down considerably as night falls and breezes blow down from the Sierras, cooling the grapes and enabling them to retain the acidity that is essential for balanced wines. Decomposed granite soils are iron rich and laced with sandy clay loam, making them able to retain some of the limited rainfall. These are ideal conditions for cultivating high-quality wine grapes. A high percentage of the area's vines are also grown organically. Wine growing is an important part of the local economy, representing 50% of the region's agriculture.

Baxter Carignan, 2006 Caballo Blanco, Mendocino

One of  best kept secrets in Mendocino County is the many vineyards of old-vine Carignan scattered among the newer plantings.  The Caballo Blanco Vineyard is a prime example of the terrific quality of fruit found in these unique forgotten vineyards.  Nestled on the gentle slope leading up from Robinson Creek in a small valley near Ukiah, these vines are nearly 70 years old. Aldis and Nancy Baltins show their commitment to the quality of the vineyard by dry-farming and using Organic practices to enhance the terroir and intensity of these old vines.

Known for bright red fruit and high acidity, Carignan is typically used in its Southern Rhône birthplace to enhance blends.  However, with natural low yields and balance that come with age, the Caballo Blanco Carignan produces a wine of immense depth and flavor from this nearly forgotten varietal.  The nose is powerful and intricate with aromas of rose petal, Violets, cherry syrup, tobacco leaf.  Equally as intense, the mouth is layered with black cherry, raspberry, plum, and cola.  A rich round mouthfeel, balanced with bright fruit and acidity, give this wine the duality of being enjoyable young as well as the ability to age.  (from their website)

In 2002, two generations of our family came together to create BAXTER, highlighting the very best in North Coast viticulture. Winemakers by trade, Phil Baxter Senior and Phil Baxter Junior, produce handcrafted single vineyard wines focusing on the Anderson Valley and surrounding Mendocino appellations.

Known primarily for their Pinot Noir, the pair combine over fifty years of experience, producing wines naturally, applying instinct and using old-world techniques. Together, father and son strive to craft wines with the greatest expression of ‘terroir’ and purity of fruit, reflecting the unique identity of each vineyard source. The Baxter family purchased 24 acres on Greenwood Ridge about ten years ago, and the first thing they did was put in a winery. This is noteworthy because it’s not often that someone would buy property and outfit the winery before planting grapes. But the Baxters have a long tenure of winemaking. Phil’s father, also named Phillip has been in the wine business in Napa Valley for nearly 40 years. He first worked at Krug and then Souverain when it was in Napa and he helped start Rutherford Hill Winery, where he was chief winemaker for ten years. Phil, Sr. has had his own brand Philippe-Lorraine in Napa Valley since 1989. Phil, Jr. grew up in vineyards.

The Baxter’s entree into Mendocino County came when they leased the Mendocino Hill vineyard on Old River Road south of Ukiah. About ten years ago the Baxters found this lovely spot with a 120 year old farmhouse and a 1400-square foot redwood building.

Phil, Jr. studied winemaking at the University of California at Davis. He is Influenced by the flavors of  the Northern Rhone and Cote Roti,” says Phil, “I let the wines make themselves as much as possible.” For the most part Phil ferments the grapes on their natural yeasts and leaves the wines unfined and unfiltered. He wants to take advantage of the grapes from each vineyard and “let nature do its thing, allowing the individual fruit characteristics to shine.” Baxter makes about 3000 cases of handcrafted wines

Carignane is a grape that originated in Spain and was later transplanted to the New World. Carignane is predominately used in blending with Grenache, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Mourvedre, and Merlot. This grape is noted for high alcohol, high tannins, and a deep purple color.

Donelan, 2009 Venus, Dry Stack Vineyard

Donelan

“Venus” is a refreshing, lovely blend of 90% Roussanne and 10% Viognier, once again primarily from Dry Stack Vineyard in Bennett Valley. 

Dry Stack Vineyard is a cool vineyard that ripens the Roussanne very slowly. The grapes were harvested at a potential alcohol of 12%. Viognier from Kobler Family Vineyard was added to bring a “lift” to the aromatics along with a touch more depth to the mouth feel. Those looking for low alcohol offerings will love the 2009 Venus. One would never believe that based on the intensity of flavor.  

Named after Venus, the goddess of both love and fragrance, this wine had a lot of great floral flavors.

This wine, with its aromas of beeswax, lily, and freesia, is complexly flavored but without the overbearing weight of a typical Roussanne. The 2009 Venus exhibits crisp, fresh, delicate but impressively intense notes of lychee nuts, caramelized citrus, spring flowers, fresh pears and honeysuckle. Medium-bodied with lively acidity as well as an exotic perfume and a dry, zesty style, I would recommend drinking it on the early side because of its exceptional aromatics. Great dry finish and a minerality on the back end.

The moderate 2009 season promoted freshness and structure, placing the fulcrum (point) of the mouth feel in the support of acidity. The Donelans’ describe their philosophy of tension in winemaking in the following way; “This season, more so than many recent vintages, allowed us to preserve tension without sacrificing substance. Tension is the wire from which all in wine is hung; tension without substance is tart, light, and wanting; substance with no tension can be obtrusive, if pleasurably broad. But tension with substance is structured, supple (even plush), and produces a more enticing wine than any other combination.” 

From QLI website: Not that it is a problem, but a winery in a business park in Santa Rosa really seems far far away from the multi-million dollar palaces of Napa. However, a walk into the "winery" makes you realize that there is actual work going on here. Its not just perfectly polished casks and shiny floors. People go about tasting and assembling wines and whatever else needs to be done. What you probably would not imagine is that these wines are some of the highest rated Rhone Rangers to come out of California.

However, things here started with a different name about 10 years ago. Pax was the name of the winery, named after Pax Mahle the previous winemaker. He made wines that were rather big, if not over the top and quite delicious. However, since around 2007 things have changed drastically. The name of the winery has changed to Donelan Wines, the owners' name and a new winemaker has come on board. The young man now in charge is Tyler Thomas, who makes wines that would astonish more than one of us. 

Bennett Valley & Dry Stack Vineyard

Bennett Valley's climate, soils and history, make it totally unique in California - and probably the entire new world. Bennett Valley is one of the newest and smallest AVA's in the US. The cool, marine climate, combined with volcanic soils, give the wines produced from Bennett Valley a unique personality not found anywhere else.

For 3,000 years Bennett Valley was occupied by the Miwok and Pomo Indian tribes. They lived and hunted in the area, collecting obsidian from Bennett Peak and used it to make tools or to trade with other tribes.

As European settlers grew in number (and the Native Americans were wiped out by European diseases) Bennett Valley became an important agricultural center for Sonoma County, growing a wide variety of crops- including wine grapes. it's hard to think of now of sleepy Bennett Valley as a thriving area, but in 1850's even Jack London was drawn to the area for its beauty - and its wine.

 Isak de Turk was the most famous of many vineyard and winery owners in Bennett Valley producing over 100,000 gallons of wine a year in 1900. There were twice as many acres of grapes in production in Bennett Valley in 1900 than there are now and at least 6 times as many wineries. Phyloxera and prohibition ended grape production. Most of the farming moved away as transportation improved to the point they could no longer compete with larger farms. Farm crops were replaced by cattle in the 50's and 60's and today all that is left of Bennett Valley vibrant past are the foundation of a winery, the Grange Hall, the post office building and a few other odds and ends.

Eventually grapes returned to Bennett Valley in the 1970's when Dave Steiner planted his ranch on Sonoma Mountain. though the late 70's and ealry 80's several vineyards were planted and Matanzas Creek Winery was established. There was a long lull in planting in until a mini-boom of planting occurred in the late 1990's and early 2000's.