Brad Widelock
Brad Widelock
School is almost out for summer! In order to celebrate this temporary return to near-sanity in our two-teacher household, tomorrow I will open a couple of wines that I purchased last Saturday at the Marin Wine Growers Association tasting. This annual event is a benefit for the Marin Agricultural Land Trust and is organized by the husband and wife owners of Devil’s Gulch Ranch, Mark Pasternak and Myriam Kaplan-Pasternak. The tasting is held on the old Escalle winery in Larkspur. This is a hidden gem that hundreds of people drive by daily and have no idea is even there. All you can see from Magnolia Drive is an abandoned outbuilding.
The vast majority of the wines poured were Pinots, but there were a couple of Chardonnays, a rosé, a Riesling and two Cabernet blends. All of the grapes were grown in Marin County. I tried wines from the 2006, 2007 and 2008 vintages, and some yet-to-be-bottled 2009 and 2010 wines.
Only one bottle of wine that I tasted was labeled Marin County, from DeLoach that was made from Corda and Kendric vineyard fruit. The rest were from vineyard-designated sites. These included wines from Stew Johnson of Kendric Vineyards using fruit from his eponymous vineyard planted on land leased from the Corda family. (I love his wines.) Most of the other wines were made from grapes grown on either the Devil’s Gulch Ranch (Sean Thackrey, Dutton Goldfield), or the Chileno Valley Vineyard (Easkoot, Couloir, Vision Cellars, Willowbrook Cellars). Skywalker Ranch was there pouring their estate grown wines. The reserve was $70. Skywalker also had a rosé saignée cofermented with 5% Chardonnay. De Loach also poured a very enjoyable Chardonnay made from Stubbs Vineyard fruit. (Stubbs Vineyards was not there.) There were others pouring, including Pey-Marin and Point Reyes Vineyards, and several more I don’t recall.
I would feel foolish trying to offer more than an overall impression of the wines I tasted. In general I can say they were medium bodied, earthy and most seemed to be made with a light hand that gave clear voice to the vineyards where they were made.
The vast majority of the wines poured were Pinots, but there were a couple of Chardonnays, a rosé, a Riesling and two Cabernet blends. All of the grapes were grown in Marin County. I tried wines from the 2006, 2007 and 2008 vintages, and some yet-to-be-bottled 2009 and 2010 wines.
Only one bottle of wine that I tasted was labeled Marin County, from DeLoach that was made from Corda and Kendric vineyard fruit. The rest were from vineyard-designated sites. These included wines from Stew Johnson of Kendric Vineyards using fruit from his eponymous vineyard planted on land leased from the Corda family. (I love his wines.) Most of the other wines were made from grapes grown on either the Devil’s Gulch Ranch (Sean Thackrey, Dutton Goldfield), or the Chileno Valley Vineyard (Easkoot, Couloir, Vision Cellars, Willowbrook Cellars). Skywalker Ranch was there pouring their estate grown wines. The reserve was $70. Skywalker also had a rosé saignée cofermented with 5% Chardonnay. De Loach also poured a very enjoyable Chardonnay made from Stubbs Vineyard fruit. (Stubbs Vineyards was not there.) There were others pouring, including Pey-Marin and Point Reyes Vineyards, and several more I don’t recall.
I would feel foolish trying to offer more than an overall impression of the wines I tasted. In general I can say they were medium bodied, earthy and most seemed to be made with a light hand that gave clear voice to the vineyards where they were made.