UKIAH/CLOVERDALE (MENDOCINO COUNTY)



Jepson, 10400 So. Highway 101, Ukiah, CA (800) 516-7342. Tasting fee for brandies.

Jepson is located on Route 101 about halfway between Cloverdale and Ukiah. The vineyard is distinctive for two reasons: its winemaker is a woman, Alison Schneider; and in addition to making wine, they also distill brandy and produce a sparkling wine.

The winery produces several traditional varietals - Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, Zinfandel, Syrah, etc. - but they also produce some unusual wines worth tasting. For example, they produce a Carignane, which is commonly used as a blending grape. Some are produced in very small lots, such as their Sauvignon Musque (a Blanc clone; 185 cases), their Screaming Rosé (246 cases) or their Petite Sirah (112 cases). The rest of their wines also have small productions, ranging from 447 to 1984 cases. By comparison, some of the big-name-brand vineyards such as Fetzer and Mondavi produce well over 2 million cases per year. Jepson wines are also very reasonably priced, with their whites averaging $11.50/bottle and their reds about $18/bottle - I considered them my 'bargain gem' find of this trip and will definitely keep their brand in mind when I'm in my local wine shop.

I loved their 2003 Viognier ($16), which was beautifully fruity, yet dry enough that I didn't feel like it was a dessert wine - it would go very well with spicy foods. I also loved the 2004 Chateau d'Alicia, made from 100% French Colombard (traditionally used in cognac), which was an absolute bargain at $7/bottle - but only available for sale in the tasting room. The tasting room host told me that the Chateau d'Alicia is a very popular local wine, and it was easy to see why.

As it turns out, the same grapes used to produce the Chateau d'Alicia also go into their brandies, and they produce three varietals: Rare (aged 7 years); Old Stock (aged 10 years); and Signature Reserve (aged 15-23 years). Although I do not often partake in brandy or cognac, I did sample the Old Stock, which had lovely notes of peaches and dates, with nutty undertones... it was quite nice.



Parducci, 501 Parducci Rd, Ukiah, CA (888) 362-9463 (part of the Mendocino Wine Co. partnership - can also visit the Mendocino Tasting Room at 45070 Main St, Mendocino (800) 860-3347.)

Parducci is one of the oldest surviving brands in the U.S., founded by Adolph Parducci in 1921 just outside of Ukiah. He was able to keep his vineyards open during Prohibition by selling his grapes to home winemakers. Parducci was one of the first California winemakers to produce Zinfandel, and they were the first to bottle wine under the Mendocino appellation.

Parducci is part of the Mendocino Wine Co. partnership, and in addition to Parducci wines, you can taste wines from the SketchBook, Zingaro, Zig Zag Zin, Big Yellow, Tusk 'N Red and Roselle labels here. The tasting room staff is pleasant and there is certainly plenty of items that may catch your eye beyond the wines.

CLEAR LAKE REGION

Clear Lake is an "up and coming" wine region according to the wine industry - the fact is that Clear Lake has vineyards dating back just as long as Napa does, but its local wine industry was heavily affected by Prohibition. It has just recently landed back on the map with the emergence of a variety of talented local winemakers winning plenty of notice - and awards.

If you're planning a visit to this area, I would highly recommend the Tallman Hotel in Upper Lake, and its restaurant neighbor, the Blue Wing Saloon.



Céago Vinegarden, Ceago Del Lago, 5115 E. Hwy 20, Nice, CA [Clear Lake region], (707) 274-1462. Tasting fee $5.

Jim Fetzer, owner and President of Ceàgo Vinegarden, knows wine well: his father owned Fetzer. Fetzer has put the same organic farming and ecological business practices he learned growning up into use here; in fact, the vineyards run on such a proactive organic approach that they were certified as biodynamic by Demeter in 1997. Chilean-born Javier Tapia, Director of Viticulture and Winemaking, also comes from a family history of enology.

Ceàgo is located along the northern shores of Clear Lake, between Nice and Lucerne. The beautiful Spanish-hacienda style building is a splendid setting, surrounded by flowers, with gorgeous views. You also never know who you'll find behind the counter; the afternoon I was there, Barney Fetzer was pouring.

I tried five varietals: the '05 Kathleen's Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc, the '05 Chardonnay Del Lago, the '05 Syrah Rosé Del Lago, the 2000 Winemaker's Blend, and the '05 Muscat Canelli Del Lago. They were all very good wines, but I particularly liked the Muscat Canelli. Muscat Canelli - or Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains as the French call it - is a very old varietal that every 'noble' varietal can trace its roots back to; it generally produces sweet, pleasant wines and is very popular to be made into a dessert varietal.



Tulip Hill, 4900 Bartlett Springs Road, Nice, CA [Clear Lake region], (707) 274-9373. They also have another tasting room in Rancho Mirage, CA (Palm Springs). Tasting fee $5.

Budge Brown was a UC Davis graduate and has spent over 50 years farming in California; in the late '90s, he bought two vineyards, at Pope Valley and Mt. Oso. It is interesting to note that Tulip Hill's first tasting room was actually over 500 miles away from its vineyards, in Rancho Mirage; but in May, 2004, the winery opened its local visitor center on the eastern shores of Clear Lake.

The tasting room is small, but it focuses on what a tasting room ought to: the wine. (And if you love flowers, you should stop by just to look at their stunning garden displays outside.) The staff here was absolutely lovely, very knowledgeable not just about their own wines but about the local history of winemaking.

I tried three of their whites - the '04 Reserve Chardonnay, and the '05 Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, as well as their '01 Mt Oso Cabernet Sauvignon. The '01 Cab was beautiful - silky, fruity, rich - making me wish I had somebody I could bring a bottle to! But the wine that I tried here that really knocked my socks off was their '05 White Mirage - a 50/50 blend of Merlot and Syrah, which was only fermented on the skins long enough to give the wine a bright ruby coloring, and was rich with the flavors of strawberry, rhubarb and candy apples, without being dessert-sweet. Outstanding - I brought a bottle of this home, but I suspect it's not going to last very long!



Steele Wines, 4350 Thomas Dr. at Hwy 29, Kelseyville, CA [Clear Lake region], (707) 279-9475. Tasting fee $4; you get to keep the glass.

Open since 1991 under the direction of owner/winemaker Jed Steele, this winery makes a wide variety of varietals (although heavy in the reds) produced from grapes grown in Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake counties, labelled under three brands: Steele, Shooting Star, and Writer's Block. The tasting room staff was fantastic.

I tried their 2005 Steele Pinot Blanc, the 2005 Shooting Star Sauvignon Blanc, the 2005 Writer's Block Grenache (red), and the one which surprisingly was my favorite, the 2005 Steele Mount K Alegre Rosé -- I say surprisingly, because I'm not usually into rosés.

NAPA VALLEY



Grgich Hills Cellar, 1829 St. Helena Hwy., Rutherford, CA (800) 532-3057. Tasting fee $10; you get to keep the glass.

Grgich is the first winery I can recall visiting in Napa Valley, circa 1989. At the time, the tasting room was a tiny, cramped room at the front of the Grgich property - the same room as today, only much smaller - and I remember an older man talking to us with great enthusiasm about their wines. I have no idea if the older gentleman I remember from that trip was Miljenko "Mike" Grgich, the legendary patriarch of Grgich Hills. It probably was, as we were visiting the winery at a "quiet" time of the year.

If you don't know who Mike Grgich is, then you don't know much about the history of California winemaking. Grgich was born in Croatia and came to America to make wines; he worked for several notable wineries in the Napa region before finally being able to open his own winery in the mid-70s. Grgich catapulted to fame in mid-1976 when the 1973 Chateau Montelena chardonnay he had produced won top honors at the historic 1976 Paris tasting, which pitted top American wines against France's finest in a blind tasting. The French wine experts - much to their own chagrin - selected Napa wines over French ones for top honors (a 1973 Stag's Leap cabernet took top red honors).

Grgich has also embraced biodynamic farming methods. They produce six varietals, and you can usually taste all of them in their expanded tasting room.

What I like about visiting Grgich is that their tasting room is all about the wine: the room is almost entirely bare aside from some rather modest displays of wine. Like Mike Grgich himself, the tasting room focuses you entirely on the wine, with nothing to distract you.

For an excellent history of Mike Grgich's impact on the Valley, as well as extensive information about the Napa region, I would highly recommend James Conaway's Napa: The Story of an American Eden, and for information about the Paris tasting, I'd recommend George M. Taber's Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine.




PlumpJack Winery, 620 Oakville Cross Road, Oakville, CA (707) 945-1220. Tasting fee $5.

PlumpJack's vineyards date to 1881, and their winemaking facility originally used to house Villa Mt. Eden Winery (now located in Yountville). PlumpJack was started in 1973 by James and Anne McWilliams with one goal: to make an outstanding Cabernet Sauvignon. They certainly have achieved that, consistently producing some really lovely reds - including a Syrah and a merlot - but they also make a lovely reserve Chardonnay. Their tasting room is very modern, with seating space outside where you can take a bottle and enjoy the views.



Michael Pozzan Winery, Available to taste at the Napa Wine Company's aka "Cult Wine Central" - located at the corner of Oakville Crossroad and Highway 29, Oakville, CA (800) 848-9630. Tasting fee (varies).

I really loved the Michael Pozzan "Annabelle" white varietal they had for tasting when I stopped in at Cult Wine Central. I hope to get the opportunity to try their wines again sometime.

Although I tried a few other whites - including a Pahlmeyer that was going for $75 (and which I didn't think was worth the price). Napa Wine Co. is where the small wineries who do not yet have the space to do their own crushes come to do their crush, and often their wine fermenting/storage, as well as their cellar sales. There are a lot of small production, pricey wines here, and I was definitely standing next to a wine snob at the bar here. However, if spending well past the $50 mark is out of your pocketbook's reach, the Cult Wine Central tasting room is a good place to weigh in your own opinions on just how good the cult wines really are.