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Urban Wine Tasting! Two Berkeley Wineries

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Brian K Miller

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Urban Wine Tasting! Two Berkeley Wineries

by Brian K Miller » Mon Apr 22, 2013 10:32 am

At the tail end of an East Bay bicycle ride yesterday, I stopped at two of my favorite California wineries, which happened to be within 15 minutes by bicycle of my parking place: Donkey and Goat and Broc Cellars.

The 2011 Donkey and Goat Mouvedre (El Dorado County) is really coming out of bottle shock now. Wonderful earthy, funky dark plum fruit with a delicious kick of acid. fantastic stuff. Zack says you should wait to drink this, but....

Around the corner is Broc Cellars. Their 2011 Mouvedre, from Paso Robles, was simply amazing in its aromatics. The fruit was deep and rich with plenty of delicious acidity...and only 12.6% abv. This wine is half with stems and half not, and I enjoyed the brashness and sheer deliciousness! The Santa Barbara County Grenache was also a revelation. Dark, rich strawberry fruit with a blast of white pepper and refreshing, tangy acidity. I picked up one bottle.

These two wineries remain among my favorites....I may be skeptical about biodynamics and I know the "natural wine" movement can be controversial, but when it works....
...(Humans) are unique in our capacity to construct realities at utter odds with reality. Dogs dream and dolphins imagine, but only humans are deluded. –Jacob Bacharach
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Mark Lipton

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Re: Urban Wine Tasting! Two Berkeley Wineries

by Mark Lipton » Mon Apr 22, 2013 11:16 am

Brian K Miller wrote:At the tail end of an East Bay bicycle ride yesterday, I stopped at two of my favorite California wineries, which happened to be within 15 minutes by bicycle of my parking place: Donkey and Goat and Broc Cellars.

The 2011 Donkey and Goat Mouvedre (El Dorado County) is really coming out of bottle shock now. Wonderful earthy, funky dark plum fruit with a delicious kick of acid. fantastic stuff. Zack says you should wait to drink this, but....

Around the corner is Broc Cellars. Their 2011 Mouvedre, from Paso Robles, was simply amazing in its aromatics. The fruit was deep and rich with plenty of delicious acidity...and only 12.6% abv. This wine is half with stems and half not, and I enjoyed the brashness and sheer deliciousness! The Santa Barbara County Grenache was also a revelation. Dark, rich strawberry fruit with a blast of white pepper and refreshing, tangy acidity. I picked up one bottle.

These two wineries remain among my favorites....I may be skeptical about biodynamics and I know the "natural wine" movement can be controversial, but when it works....


It's amazing, but Berkeley is becoming one of the more fascinating places in CA to taste wines. All that brings to mind an old ad campaign: vines... in Berkeley??? :mrgreen:

Mark Lipton
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Brian K Miller

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Re: Urban Wine Tasting! Two Berkeley Wineries

by Brian K Miller » Mon Apr 22, 2013 9:13 pm

Yes. Oakland and Alameda, too. Rock Wall is not as much to my palate, but they make some unique varietal bottlings.

I LOVE Dashe wines, and they are such nice people.

Even Cerutti (i.e., Tudal) have a newish tasting room in Jack London Square that served up a warm and earthy and distinctly old school cabernet that was very fairly priced.
...(Humans) are unique in our capacity to construct realities at utter odds with reality. Dogs dream and dolphins imagine, but only humans are deluded. –Jacob Bacharach
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Brian Gilp

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Re: Urban Wine Tasting! Two Berkeley Wineries

by Brian Gilp » Tue Apr 23, 2013 5:50 am

Brian K Miller wrote:Around the corner is Broc Cellars. Their 2011 Mouvedre, from Paso Robles, was simply amazing in its aromatics. The fruit was deep and rich with plenty of delicious acidity...and only 12.6% abv. This wine is half with stems and half not, and I enjoyed the brashness and sheer deliciousness! The Santa Barbara County Grenache was also a revelation. Dark, rich strawberry fruit with a blast of white pepper and refreshing, tangy acidity. I picked up one bottle.

Thanks to you and a few others making these types of posts, I finally ordered a mixed case from Broc. Especially interested in the Mouvedre.
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Howie Hart

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Re: Urban Wine Tasting! Two Berkeley Wineries

by Howie Hart » Tue Apr 23, 2013 7:27 am

When I was in Santa Cruz last year I was pleasantly surprised to find about 5 wineries all grouped together in a building complex - some very nice wines. McMinneville, OR also has a large building where several wineries share wine making resources. I've never seen this type of thing around here. They are all separate locations with vineyards attached.
Chico - Hey! This Bottle is empty!
Groucho - That's because it's dry Champagne.
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Howie Hart

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Re: Urban Wine Tasting! Two Berkeley Wineries

by Howie Hart » Tue Apr 23, 2013 7:27 am

When I was in Santa Cruz last year I was pleasantly surprised to find about 5 wineries all grouped together in a building complex - some very nice wines. McMinneville, OR also has a large building where several wineries share wine making resources. I've never seen this type of thing around here. They are all separate locations with vineyards attached.
Chico - Hey! This Bottle is empty!
Groucho - That's because it's dry Champagne.

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