Wines with Altitude: Lake County Wine Tasting
The Winery SF, Treasure Island, San Francisco, California
Tasted Saturday, August 20, 2011 by rjonwine@gmail.com with 1,116 views
Introduction
I've become rather fascinated with Lake County these days. It's California's newest region, with a bunch of brand new sub-appellations, and it's all a little mysterious yet. I've made three trips to Lake County over the last few years, but found it difficult to get a real handle on the area from those visits--in part because of the long driving distances between sub-appellations. There are only a tiny handful of producers that were around even 20 years ago--most of them have gotten started in the last 10 years. As the San Francisco Chronicle reported last year, "Since 1997 the number of wineries in Lake County has increased from four to 32, at least doubling in the past four years. Total vineyard plantings have gone from 5,000 acres to 8,800 acres - up by almost 80 percent." I was therefore very much looking forward to this event as a chance to compare a wide array of Lake County producers. And I'd also sampled wines from another potentially major producer in the area the week before, Brassfield, which I will report on separately.
The Lake County appellation surrounds California's largest natural fresh water lake, Clear Lake. Although the area is well inland, where temperatures run high, the large lake does tend to moderate conditions some, particularly for vineyards located near the lake. The Mayacamas Mountains lie to the south and west of the lake. Even closer to the lake, at the center of its west side, is Mt. Konocti, a dormant volcano that rises to nearly 4300 feet. To the north of the lake lies the Clear Lake AVA; to its east is the High Valley AVA, which runs from 1600 to 3000 feet in elevation; and to the south is the Red Hills AVA. Guenoc Valley is its own tiny appellation far to the south of Clear Lake, within Lake County but lying just above the border with Napa County.
The Lake County Winery Association was founded in 2007 and now comprises 36 members. This tasting event was held at The Winery SF, on San Francisco's Treasure Island, and included a total of 107 wines from 25 of Lake County's producers.
I came away from the tasting thinking that a lot of these new producers need to find their way yet. I don't expect that much from producers with only two or three vintages behind them. Nonetheless, five of the 25 producers stood out for me, with at least one wine that I scored 90 points or higher. One of these, Steele, has one of the longest track records in Lake County, so I'm not surprised a few of their wines showed quite well. Another, Sol Rouge, has shown well for me at other tastings, and I continue to be quite impressed by what winemaker/owner Bryan Kane is doing. The last three are new producers to me, and I find what they're doing quite interesting. Those are Chacewater, Rosa D'Oro and Snows Lake.
The wines I rated 90 points or higher are as follows:
2009 Chacewater Syrah - 20 points
2009 Chacewater Petite Sirah - 91 points
2009 Rosa D'Oro Barbera - 90 points
2005 Snows Lake Vineyard Two - Red Hill - 91 points
2007 Sol Rouge Syrah - 92 points
2008 Sol Rouge Petite Sirah - 91+ points
2006 Sol Rouge Cabernet Sauvignon - 90+ points
2007 Sol Rouge Cabernet Sauvignon - 92 points
2006 Sol Rouge Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve Mayacamas Mountain - 91+ points
2010 Shooting Star (Jed Steele) Sauvignon Blanc - 90 points
2009 Steele Wines Zinfandel Century Old Vines Catfish Vineyard - 91+ points
2007 Steele Wines Merlot Stymie Founder's Reserve - 90 points
For more details on the producers that stood out for me, and my detailed tasting notes, see below.
Flight 1 - Beaver Creek (3 Notes)
Flight 2 - Bell Hill (3 Notes)
Flight 3 - Bullion Creek (3 Notes)
This couple, Richard and Gail Brand, is only producing Cabernet, and the quality has steadily increased through the three vintages I tasted. I applaud this improvement, and particularly liked the 2007.
Flight 4 - Cache Creek (3 Notes)
Flight 5 - Ceago (6 Notes)
Flight 6 - Chacewater (7 Notes)
Mark Burch, pictured above, has been consulting winemaker to Chacewater, drawing on his experience with Sebastiani and Kendall-Jackson, where he was assistant winemaker. Paul Manuel is the owner and general manager, and the name of the winery is a tribute to his miner forebears in Chacewater, England. In 1993 he and wife Kellye negotiated what turned out to be a ten year relationship selling their grapes to Fetzer Vineyards in Hopland. In 2004 Paul and Kellye began taking their grapes to Lake County for custom crush processing. This year, 2011, is the first release of their professionally made wines, and these are wines worthy of attention. The Petite Sirah, with 6% Petite Verdot, is particularly good, and the 2009 Syrah is a value at $18. The "0-Eight Headache" is also a witty and good use of fruit from the weather and fire/smoke plagued 2008 vintage.
Flight 7 - Cougar's Leap (3 Notes)
Flight 8 - Diamond Ridge (3 Notes)
Flight 9 - Dusinberré (1 Note)
Flight 10 - Glamazon (2 Notes)
Flight 11 - Gregory Graham (6 Notes)
Flight 12 - Hawk and Horse (2 Notes)
Flight 13 - High Valley Cellars (2 Notes)
Flight 14 - Langtry/Guenoc (4 Notes)
Flight 15 - Lavjor (3 Notes)
Flight 16 - Rosa D'Oro (6 Notes)
The Buttitta family have been growing grapes in Sonoma County since 1953. In 1991, they moved to Lake County. Nick Buttitta is the winemaker/owner, and son Pietro is pictured above. I was really delighted to see the Southern Italian varieties this family is growing--particularly the Aglianico--as I think that California needs to be looking a lot more at grapes that do well in hot climates, like those of Southern Italy, as we transition into the global warming version of grape growing at these latitudes. The Barbera and Aglianico are the most successful wines they are producing at present. 
Flight 17 - Shannon Ridge (11 Notes)
Flight 18 - Shed Horn (3 Notes)
Flight 19 - Six Sigma Ranch (5 Notes)
Flight 20 - Snows Lake (1 Note)
There was only one Snows Lake wine poured at this event, but it was stunningly good, with style and balance. Snows Lake Vineyard is in the Red Hills AVA, owned and farmed by a family in its third generation focused on agriculture. At 2,000 to 2,500 feet in elevation, Snows Lake is one of the highest vineyards in the North Coast. Grapes from this vineyard have gone into wines from Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, Cakebread Cellars, Rosenblum, La Famiglia and Dynamite Vineyards. The Snows Lake One, which I didn't taste, is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. The Snows Lake Two is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. This wine is aged in 100% French oak barrels, 1/3 new, for up to 18 months. The wines are well priced at $35. I look forward to following this producer.
Flight 21 - Sol Rouge (10 Notes)
Prior to this tasting, Sol Rouge was the one winery, besides Steele, sourcing from Lake County grapes that I knew, from experience, was doing a really good job in producing tasty and ageworthy wines from Lake County. In this tasting, Bryan included wines he's making from Russian River and Napa grapes as well, but the 2007 Syrah and 2008 Petite Sirah, from Lake County grapes, still stood out. Sol Rouge is based in the Red Hills, and takes its name from the French for red soil. This 70-acre estate is currently planted to Grenache, Mourvèdre, Syrah, Counoise, Petite Sirah, Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Bryan Kane is co-owner and winemaker, and he wears a lot of hats (including co-owner and winemaker at Vie, board member of Winery Collective and VP of marketing and business development at Clinks). Once again, Sol Rouge gave me hope for where Lake County wines might be going, and this is a great lineup of wines overall.
Flight 22 - Steele/Shooting Star/Writer's Block (9 Notes)
Jed Steele was the one winemaker represented here who has been making wines from Lake County for many years (20 years now as Steele Wines), and the experience shows. Jed started as a cellar worker at Stony Hill in Napa Valley in 1968, then obtained his master’s in enology from UC Davis before starting Edmeades in Anderson Valley. He was also the first winemaker at Kendall-Jackson and worked there for its first nine vintages. He started Steele wines in 1991. My favorites in this lineup were the 2010 Shooting Star Sauvignon Blanc, the 2009 Old Vine Zin Catfish Vineyard and the 2007 Merlot Stymie Founder's Reserve.
2007 Beaver Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Horne Vineyard 84 Points
USA, California, North Coast, Lake County
Medium dark red violet color; lifted, slight VA, tart red berry nose; very upright, dried berry, dried basil palate; medium finish
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2008 Beaver Creek Zinfandel Lake County 88 Points
USA, California, North Coast, Lake County
Medium dark red violet color; VA, dried berry nose; tangy, tart dried berry, tar, plum palate; medium-plus finish 88+ points
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2008 Beaver Creek Petite Sirah Horne Vineyard 85 Points
USA, California, North Coast, Lake County
Dark red violet color; deep roasted plum, light VA, tar nose; tart black fruit, tar, balsamic palate; medium-plus finish
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