Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
I have committed a second excursion to Temecula wineries.
Since my last visit, four years ago, Science has come to Temecula. Every vineyard now touts a whole pile of numbers for every wine: brix at harvest, TA, pH, rs, alc %. But, for all that, little has changed. Most wineries are concerned about having a good spot for wedding photos and offering some kind of lunch, while the wines routinely are too ripe and sit in new oak for 24 months.
Knowing what to expect, I have come prepared to pay for tastings with two-for-one coupons. I discovered them through a wine site written by local moms who find places for the kids to play while they have a couple afternoon slurps.
Oak Mountain Winery
Also the host for Temecula Hills Winery due to past entanglements. The website offers 21 wines for sale, not including the Library wines. This is a pattern around here... a zillion wines at every place, all mediocre. Anyway, my eye was drawn to this winery because they offered an interesting-looking sangiovese and a blanc de noirs of counoise.
At the tasting room, neither of those wines was available.
Here's what we did try:
NV "Frisson" - sauvignon blanc sparkler, quite dry, varietally correct, and boring
2012 Viognier - lightweight, green grapes and barely-ripe peaches, not bad
2009 Mourvedre - oaky and squeaky clean
2010 Tempranillo - cherry fruit, better acidity than the mourvedre, also squeaky clean
NV Raspberry "Champagne" - muscat and raspberries, as plebeian as it sounds
NV "Tenacious" - GSM blend, heavy on the M (2-19-79), horrendously oaky
NV Port - grenache, but only 4.5% rs, crisp and light; we're shocked and we buy a 375ml
The pourer was a nice guy. After demonstrating my geekiness he began discussing his dreams of opening a brewery.
Cougar Winery
Even more geeky detail here: which clone, which rootstock, etc. I chose these folks because they had the widest assortment of Italian grapes (19 varieties!) under cultivation. In fact, the fellow at the tasting room was so generous that I could not keep track of all the wines we tasted. A few were awful but most were simple and agreeable. He did include one Library wine (I think it was a sangiovese) that showed some potential to be a fine wine but the price was too high.
We did try and buy a bottle of their Brachetto - frizzante, lightly sweet, with a slightly candied/exaggerated cherry fruit flavor but also a slight resin note that adds some interest. They are probably the only US maker of brachetto.
Footpath Winery
Finally, I chose these folks because it is clearly a family-run property. We made our way up the driveway, past various kinds of tractors and other equipment, to the steel barn with the side door open. Inside, to the left is a counter with estate-grown citrus and to the right is a steel framework with barrels resting three or four high. A fellow is plugging a hole caused by an oak borer beetle and another fellow - the winemaker - is standing at the tasting table, in front of a walk-in refrigerator.
He's got 16 wines for sale but only 4 are made from estate fruit (so those are the ones I tried). And we chat. The purchased fruit is all local. He picks the estate fruit at 24 brix, no ifs ands or buts. Due to the size of his walk-in fridge, he bottles only one barrel at a time, even if he has more than one barrel of a given wine(!). His wine-making philosophy is to "give Nature a shove in the right direction" and then let whatever happens happen.
Well, what happens, in the case of these 2010 wines, is some rugged tannins and a dose of VA that obscure some otherwise 'correct' wines. That said, I thought the 2009 Zin/Syrah blend was sufficiently lively to buy one. I also admit to a certain envy for the estate Malbec because, after the tannin and the VA go past, there is a final flourish of flowers and cool fruit that might betoken good development ahead.
Since my last visit, four years ago, Science has come to Temecula. Every vineyard now touts a whole pile of numbers for every wine: brix at harvest, TA, pH, rs, alc %. But, for all that, little has changed. Most wineries are concerned about having a good spot for wedding photos and offering some kind of lunch, while the wines routinely are too ripe and sit in new oak for 24 months.
Knowing what to expect, I have come prepared to pay for tastings with two-for-one coupons. I discovered them through a wine site written by local moms who find places for the kids to play while they have a couple afternoon slurps.
Oak Mountain Winery
Also the host for Temecula Hills Winery due to past entanglements. The website offers 21 wines for sale, not including the Library wines. This is a pattern around here... a zillion wines at every place, all mediocre. Anyway, my eye was drawn to this winery because they offered an interesting-looking sangiovese and a blanc de noirs of counoise.
At the tasting room, neither of those wines was available.
Here's what we did try:
NV "Frisson" - sauvignon blanc sparkler, quite dry, varietally correct, and boring
2012 Viognier - lightweight, green grapes and barely-ripe peaches, not bad
2009 Mourvedre - oaky and squeaky clean
2010 Tempranillo - cherry fruit, better acidity than the mourvedre, also squeaky clean
NV Raspberry "Champagne" - muscat and raspberries, as plebeian as it sounds
NV "Tenacious" - GSM blend, heavy on the M (2-19-79), horrendously oaky
NV Port - grenache, but only 4.5% rs, crisp and light; we're shocked and we buy a 375ml
The pourer was a nice guy. After demonstrating my geekiness he began discussing his dreams of opening a brewery.
Cougar Winery
Even more geeky detail here: which clone, which rootstock, etc. I chose these folks because they had the widest assortment of Italian grapes (19 varieties!) under cultivation. In fact, the fellow at the tasting room was so generous that I could not keep track of all the wines we tasted. A few were awful but most were simple and agreeable. He did include one Library wine (I think it was a sangiovese) that showed some potential to be a fine wine but the price was too high.
We did try and buy a bottle of their Brachetto - frizzante, lightly sweet, with a slightly candied/exaggerated cherry fruit flavor but also a slight resin note that adds some interest. They are probably the only US maker of brachetto.
Footpath Winery
Finally, I chose these folks because it is clearly a family-run property. We made our way up the driveway, past various kinds of tractors and other equipment, to the steel barn with the side door open. Inside, to the left is a counter with estate-grown citrus and to the right is a steel framework with barrels resting three or four high. A fellow is plugging a hole caused by an oak borer beetle and another fellow - the winemaker - is standing at the tasting table, in front of a walk-in refrigerator.
He's got 16 wines for sale but only 4 are made from estate fruit (so those are the ones I tried). And we chat. The purchased fruit is all local. He picks the estate fruit at 24 brix, no ifs ands or buts. Due to the size of his walk-in fridge, he bottles only one barrel at a time, even if he has more than one barrel of a given wine(!). His wine-making philosophy is to "give Nature a shove in the right direction" and then let whatever happens happen.
Well, what happens, in the case of these 2010 wines, is some rugged tannins and a dose of VA that obscure some otherwise 'correct' wines. That said, I thought the 2009 Zin/Syrah blend was sufficiently lively to buy one. I also admit to a certain envy for the estate Malbec because, after the tannin and the VA go past, there is a final flourish of flowers and cool fruit that might betoken good development ahead.