Since stopping at the Twisted Oak tasting room in Murphys this last winter on our way back from cross country skiing at Bear Valley, Pete and I have been wanting to go back and visit other Calaveras County Wineries. We had been talking about making a visit next weekend, but as luck would have it George and Gail had scheduled Award Winning Calaveras County Wineries for the Thursday night tasting at Fine Wines of Stockton this week.
Mike Stange, owner and winemaker at Metate Hill Vineyards (the winery is located in Angels Camp and the tasting room is in Murphys) presented the wines. He is a board member of the Calaveras WineGrape Alliance (CWA) and brought wines from his winery as well as Frog’s Tooth Vineyards, Stevenot Winery, Twisted Oak and Chatom Vineyards. Mike is trying to raise the profile of Calaveras County wines and the CWA is trying to get Calaveras County designated as an AVA separate from the larger Sierra Foothills AVA.
He gave us a great presentation on the area and it’s history. He talked about the various micro climates in the area and how two particular vineyards differ even though they have the same varietal and clone and were planted at the same time. One is higher on the hill and gets more sunlight and the other is down in a little valley where it is more sheltered. Mike also mentioned all the varietals grown in the area and which ones do well and which ones don’t. The area discussed goes from about 1000 feet (300 meters) in elevation to over 3400 feet (1000 meters).
Many of the grapes grown in Calaveras County are Spanish and Italian varietals. They seem to do quite well there, especially the Spanish ones. Mike has been to Spain several times and traveled to many wine regions and tasted their wines. He could describe how the Spanish varietal wines in Calaveras County compared to the same varietal in Spain. Mike mentioned some grapes that do not do well in the area such as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. We always appreciate it when the wineries concentrate on what does well in their area instead of trying to force something just because it is popular.
The first three wines we tasted were whites, the 2010 Frog’s Tooth Torrontes, the 2008 Metate Hill Albarino Acero (un-oaked) and the 2008 Metate Hill Albarino Barrica that was on used oak for several months. The Torrontes at only 11.5% alc. was crisp with a floral nose and great flavor. The Metate Hill Albarino Acero was also very crisp with a restrained nose, crisp flavors that were less floral than the Torrontes. The Albarino Barrica that had been aged in oak was rounder and you could see the influence of the oak in the color and taste it in the flavor. While it was a pleasant tasting wine we both preferred the Acero.
Next we moved on to the reds. There was a 2006 Danza Roja from Stevenot Winery which was a red blend that even included 16% Pinot Noir. This wine was garnet in color with concentrated, dried fruit flavors that were slightly sweet. The tannins were moderate in amount and overall this was a fairly light red. Next we had a 2006 Twisted Oak Tempranillo and a 2008 Metate Hill Tempranillo. The Twisted oak was very nice with dark ripe fruit, smoke, rubber tire and big tannins. The Metate Vineyards Tempranillo in contrast was lighter in flavor and tannins. I think 2008 was just not a good year for Calaveras County and it shows. Because the fruit was so light in the Metate Hill, the oak became predominant. Mike poured a 2008 Metate Hill Vineyards Graciano next. This was a real nice and interesting wine. Very complex with fruit, cloves and allspice in both the nose and flavor. Good acidity, lots of tannins, really a lot of character in this wine!
We moved on to the the 2007 Chatom Vineyards Touriga Nacional. Touriga Nacional is a Spanish and Portuguese varietal. This wine was very well balanced with ripe (but not over ripe) dark fruit nose and flavor. At this point we thought we were finished but as we broke up to re-taste what we wanted, Mike opened his 2008 Metate Hill Garnacha (52%), Carinena (48%) Crianza blend. This was another nicely balanced wine with good flavor but maybe just a little more oak than I would like to see. One nice thing about the wines from Calaveras County is they haven’t gone nuts on the pricing, these wines ranged from $17.00 to $28.00 with most in the low $20.00 price range.
Mike plans on coming down once a month with other wineries products. I believe his next visit will be Italian varietals. We are looking forward to see how they do in Calaveras County.
