Appellation El Dorado – Family Grape Growers Feature More Offerings to Consumers and Trade at 2013 Family Winemakers of California Tasting

There it was, proudly denominated in the tasting program, “Appellation: El Dorado”.  More wineries than ever before featured wines made from El Dorado grapes. With a tradition of families involved in El Dorado wine grape growing (see recent blogposts on this topic),   it just seems right that they’d be pouring their wines at the Family Winemakers of California tasting.  Among the El Dorado wine grape growers/winemakers who featured their wines were  Auriga Wine Cellars, Lava Cap Winery, and Madroña Vineyards.

And then there were the sleepers.  Taste taste taste and then I’d make an inquiry:  “Did you use any El Dorado grapes to make this wine?”    The El Dorado sense of place is distinct, flavorful and unmistakable.  Kudos to the winemakers at  Frog’sTooth Vineyards, and Urban Legend Cellars, among others.

FEATURED WINES from El Dorado Grapes

 

Diane Stading, Auriga

Diane Stading of Auriga Wine Cellars poured their 2010 Zinfandel among other wines.  This wine, made from grapes grown on 35 year old vines on the ridge of the Sumu Kaw Vineyard near Placerville, features an intense fruitiness.  The Stadings work closely with the Sumu Kaw Vineyard manager, Diane noted.   David and Sheila Bush, also El Dorado WineGrape Growers Association members, own this well-known vineyard.   The Auriga 2010 Zinfandel is $24 the bottle.

 

Charlie Jones, LavaCap

 

Charlie Jones of Lava Cap found that their Petite Syrah and Grenache were popular with tasters.

Richard and Paul Bush,
Madrona

Among the Madroña wines poured by Paul and Richard Bush was the 2012 Riesling “Hillside Collection”.  A delicious wine, just introduced.  At $14 a bottle, it was a hit with the crowd.

 

Larry Aderman and taster,
Frog's Tooth

Larry Aderman of Frog’s Tooth Vineyards, Murphys, CA, poured the 2010 Zinfandel made from grapes sourced from El Dorado’s Gold Hill Vineyards.  $26/bottle.   He also sources grapes for his Barbera from Gold Hill Vineyards…but this is sold out. “I like the grapes from El Dorado,” Aderman said.  “The volcanic component of the soil gives them a dramatic flavor.”

Marilee Shaffer,
Urban Legend Winery

Marilee Shaffer of Urban Legend Winery poured a 2010 Dolcetto made with grapes from the LBS Ranch/Lava Cap vineyards.  The first Urban Legend Dolcetto made with El Dorado grapes was the 2009 vintage.  This 2010 Dolcetto, of which 125 cases were produced,  sells at $25 a bottle. 

The Family Winemakers of California annual tasting in San Francisco is a first-class tasting event, with many good contacts made and old friends greeted.  I even saw a bottle of Lava Cap Barbera pass over the table en route to a late summer Taste-Off at the Wine Coop with members of the Bay Area Wine Society.  I bet they will be thrilled. 

p.s.  I particularly enjoyed the quip shared with me by an out-of-county winemaker who employs a harp player for events.  Said harpist has a trucker husband who hauls grapes during crush.  The trucker said: ”There’s a lot of El Dorado Old Vine Zinfandel that turns into Napa Old Vine Zinfandel as soon as it crosses the county line.”  Sounds like magic to me!

Great Wines are Made with El Dorado Grapes: Tempranillo and Tempranillo Blends, for example

Image courtesy
WineAccess.com

Our kudos to Baiocchi Wines & Vineyards for carrying the El Dorado Grape torch to the Grand Tasting "TAPAS" in San Francisco in midsummer. Baiocchi was the only winery pouring our El Dorado grapes in the form of Tempranillo.

This tasting is an extremely well-promoted event in the wine world, attracting a large media contingent and lots of follow-on publicity. TAPAS, which is short for Tempranillo Advocates Producers and Amigos Society, also has other El Dorado members. They have recently instituted a Wine Trail on their website at http://www.tapasociety.org/trail/sierra .   

Several other El Dorado Wine GrapeGrower Association members proudly grow Tempranillo in their vineyards.  They are:

• Alvarez Vineyards
• D’Artagnan Vineyards
• Grace Vineyards
• Kingsgate Farm
• Pasto Vineyards
• Pineoak Vineyard
• Shadow Ranch
• Shaker Ridge Vineyard

 

We'll talk more about El Dorado tempranillo growers in future posts, why it's grown in El Dorado, and how it fares...besides making good wine of course!

For the TAPAS tasting, Greg poured his G minor, a blend of Grenache-Syrah-Tempranillo, and his Orellana, a blend of Tempranillo-Grenache.  He also used this opportunity to pour two Grenache-only Baiocchi wines, Sharon's Vineyard Grenache and Neophyte Rose.  All Baiocchi wines are produced from estate fruit.

Greg Baiocchi supplied this info on his Vineyard’s Tempranillo Specs:

 

1 Acre

Clone - FPS 02

Rootstock - 101-14

Soil - Decompsed Granite, well draining

Trellis - VSP North/South

Spacing - 4X7

Training - Unilateral

Attitude - West

 

Baiocchi stated:  “Tempranillo is a vigorous varietal that loves sun / heat and well drained soils. The vines will produce up to 6 tons an acre if allowed. Our site in Fair Play at 2300' has all of the Terroir to resemble sites in Spain in which it’s a native.

 

"The decomposed granite, rootstock, training & spacing was all designed to de-vigorate the vines. We challenge them, stress them a bit and create an environment where they will produce superb wine grapes. We train them to do what we as winemakers want them to do, instead of just re-producing as they were bred to do...

"We do our best to crop this acre at 2.5 tons, which creates much handwork thinning the shoots and clusters at specific times during the growing season. With this management, though, we are able to harvest fruit with incredible concentration of phenolics and flavors.

"Tempranillo's personality and character is dark and brooding. Great fruit is complemented by earth and leather which makes for a great partner blending with Grenache and Syrah = GST,” concluded El Dorado grape grower and vintner Greg Baiocchi.

The One That Got Away: Growing Wine Grapes in El Dorado

WHAT A DIFFERENCE TEN YEARS MAKES!  EL DORADO WINEGRAPE TOTAL CROP VALUE INCREASED 67%

It’s a lot like my other “shoulda” investments.  You know, the ones that got away.  Why didn’t I invest dollars and time in vineyards in El Dorado County ten years ago instead of going to conferences and tastings and deciding to write about the wine industry?  Dummy me.

HERE’S THE SOURCE OF MY REGRET:  Not only did bearing acreage of vineyards in El Dorado County, CA, increase more than 40 percent over the ten year period 2002-2012, but so did the total crop values.   They increased 67 percent.  To repeat: El Dorado county wine grape total crop value increased 67 percent!

The El Dorado Wine Grape Growers Association website has references to the Gold Rush days in El Dorado county;  after all, the Gold Rush began in 1848 at Coloma on  January 24, when James Marshall discovered gold in the tailrace at Sutter's Mill.  But it appears from these basic figures on wine grapes that there is a new kind of gold in the vineyards of El Dorado County.  Pretty much, although wine grape cultivation began here before the Gold Rush, the Wine Grape Gold Rush began in earnest in 1967.

Over the course of this blog, I’ll talk about some of the pioneering vineyard owners, their victories and travails as they work the sometimes-challenging Sierra Foothills terroir, the wineries that use these grapes, the wines, what wine grapes are for sale right now (click here for a quick peek) and why these El Dorado wine grapes are worth a premium price if you are intent on making good wine.

The chart below is courtesy of statistics gleaned from the El Dorado County Ag Commissioner.  These folks, along with the farm adviser from the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources group, work hard in the wine grape sector.  You can dig deeper if you want into decades of Annual Crop Reports at the Ag Commission website: click here   

WHAT’S THE FUTURE HOLD?

Well, I’d say, more of the same.  In just the past year statistics show that in 2012 the El Dorado wine grape industry continued to grow and increased its total value from $5.1 million in 2011 to $7.8 million in 2012.   And what I’m hearing about the 2013 harvest … Whoopee!  Stay tuned!

By the way, wine grapes are a significant contributor to the financial picture of El Dorado County: in 2012 they were 16.5% of the total gross agricultural value of the County.  Pretty impressive.  And pretty important.

	2012	2011	2010	2009	2008	2002
Total Acreage	2404	2282	2207	2007	2220	2147
Bearing Acreage	2060	2010	1946	1760	1901	1464
Production per Acre (tons)	2.75	2.12	2.40	2.93	2.20	2.77
Production Total tons	5,675	4,269	4668	5165	4182	4060
Value per ton (avg price, all varietals)	$1322	$1295	$1279	$1267	$1265	$1199
Total Value  Per Crop Values reported in the El Dorado County Wine Grape Surveys	$7,823,538	$5,137,223	4,494,612	5,885,447	$5,229,088	$4,680,000