Well, the warm weather made the grapes bud early this year, catching everyone by surprise. Suddenly there was a huge push to get the pruning done, and so our Saturday tasting date fell through. Denise invited us over one evening after work to pick up a couple bottles so we could do our own tasting anyway.
WEDNESDAY:
Gail and I headed over, expecting to pick up a bottle or two of wine, and to see the vineyard. Well, our "quick stop" turned into an hour and a half, tasting and visiting, before leaving with several bottles to share with Kathy and Steve the following Saturday.
The vineyard is on one side of a dirt road just off Churn Creek, with the tasting room and production facilities just across the road. They have several varieties of grapes planted, which they use to produce Fat Basset label wines, their "estate" wines. We had a great time looking around, learning about pruning and seeing the production room from top to bottom. Their grapes are sourced from all over Northern California, and they tend to make whatever strikes their fancy. Each variety of wine is dedicated to someone, or to anyone whom Denise decides it is dedicated to.
Along the way we got to taste some of their wines: two Muscats, a Port and a Cabernet.
First up was an Orange Muscat, which really surprised us. It had a very flowery aroma, and was not sweet; very fruity and sure enough, citrusy. I thought it might be great chilled, perhaps with an orange slice (like a margarita), by the pool in the 110° summer heat. It was really refreshing, and not at all syrupy-sweet like many muscats. I am going to buy some when it is bottled.
For comparison, we had a Golden Muscat, which was good, perhaps more traditional, but served well to really highlight the orange muscat.
I got to barrel taste a Cabernet, which was not ready yet, but coming right along. Once the taste develops, it should be a keeper.
Then, a real treat: Layne made a birthday Port for Denise, which is (unfortunately) not for sale. He lucked into some late harvest grapes, almost had enough to fill a Hungarian barrel, decided on the spur of the moment to top it off with some Zinfandel and POW! There it is. It is almost a perfect port: not too sweet, not sticky syrupy, but full bodied and bold, with that great "cedar" taste slash Hungarian Oak finish. We had just a sip, but the taste lingered well after the swallow, in fact after wrapping up, and driving home I still had the residual taste on my tongue almost an hour later.
Well, based on the initial meeting and tastes, we were sure looking forward to Saturday.
We gathered up a bunch of berries, fruits, cheese, salmon and turkey and vegetarian wraps and settled in for an afternoon of work. As we tasted, I scribbled notes on the wine labels themselves. As you can imagine, by the third bottle the notes were becoming a little "messy."
We started in with a 2012 Pinot Grigio. Chilled, it went really well with cold cucumber, tomato, avocado and cream cheese wraps, and for some reason blackberries were a nice complement. A nice, crisp summer wine.
We opened the 2012 Tehama County Zinfandel with our fingers crossed. Layne told me the grapes were sourced from the Burnsini Vineyards, and I don't like the Burnsini wines. To me they have sort of a peppery aftertaste; not a great finish, and not enough nose and up-front taste.
Well, the old adage that the winemaker makes the difference must be true, because the Churn Creek Cellars Zin was pretty damn good. It needed a little while in the glass to open up; at first the nose wasn't there, but after sitting and a good swirl or two suddenly it blossomed. This wine was excellent with strawberries. Then I did an experiment: the Zin first, then a blackberry... POW! It just popped in my mouth. However, eating a blackberry first, then drinking the wine did not work at all, in fact it made the Zin have a bitter aftertaste. The Zinfandel was excellent with sun dried tomatoes and roasted garlic. It was really good with marinated artichoke hearts, olives and smoked peppers, in that order. It did not complement the salmon or turkey wraps at all.
With two wines down, and three to go, we opened the 2012 Shasta County Syrah next. This wine had a great smell right out of the bottle, and it just got better the longer it sat. A big bold taste, we all felt it was not just a "drinking" wine, but a great food wine, and so we dug right in.
Slamon wraps: no. Turkey wraps: big score. Then Kathy discovered it went well with the roasted garlic. BINGO! This would be a great wine for Thanksgiving dinner, turkey and garlic-mashed potatoes. Tomatoes, olives, peppers: no. Strawberries tasted rancid with it. We had a split on the blueberry and blackberry tasting. I thought the blueberries were excellent with it, Steve preferred the blackberries. We all agreed it went well with blue cheese. Then Steve made the discovery of the night: he popped in a clove of the Jack Daniel's infused roasted garlic with a chunk of the blue cheese, and SHAZAAM! It was a "come to Jesus" moment. Steve just could not stop smiling; I actually laughed out loud.
Seriously. I said right then, "If I didn't want to get pulled over for drunk driving, I would just go get a couple more bottles right now."
Steve added, "I can sit back and take a nap, and know this is the best wine I've had today."
So we called it quits right there. We still have a bottle of the 2012 Sangiovese, and 2012 Master Craftsman Red Wine to try, but that will be another day. In the meantime, I have to go get some more of that Syrah, and see if I can reserve some of that Orange Muscat.