Friendly divorces are a good thing. I say this after having my wife's ex-husband's niece and her boyfriend as houseguests for the last week. They're a delightful young couple from the Liverpool area, just graduated from college, and are doing a tour of the US for the summer. As part of their American education, we took them up to the Shenandoah Valley in Amador County for a lesson in non-Napa wine tasting. We went to a number of wineries, but I only took detailed notes at two of the newer ones.
Bantam Cellars
Bantam is an offshoot of Karly. Buck Cobb is the proprietor of Karly and his son, Garth, has followed in his footsteps. Or maybe slightly outside the actual footsteps. It was explained to us that as Garth developed his own sense of winemaking, he and his dad began to have different ideas on how to handle some of the grapes. They finally decided to split up the duties, with Buck maintaining control over the Rhone varieties at Karly while Garth goes off on his own with Italian varieties at Bantam. (They'll continue to bicker over the zinfandels.) We tasted four wines -
Viognier (didn't get the vintage) - This has 7% orange muscat blended into the viognier. Even at 7%, the muscat dominates the flavor profile. Behind that is the body and backbone of a leaner white wine. Struck me as a strange combination.
'06 "Coop D'Ville" - A blend of italian varieties, it came off as a bit austere to my taste. Perhaps it needs a bit of time.
'05 Zinfandel - Again, on the lean side but this time with a good core of berry-cherry zin fruit. Nice.
'05 Primitivo - Very nice. Definite oak presence, but I didn't find it overbearing. More earth and smoke than the zin but still some nice fruit to keep it pleasant. Very appealing if you get past the oak.
Amador Cellars
This was a bit of a trip back to the old days of Amador. The building is a big funky room made of stacked straw bales coated in concrete (and eminently practical for a winery). There was a black lab and a golden retriever there to greet us. We were served by Larry Long, the winemaker, grape grower, bug killer, and general proprietor. It was really nice to hang out and shoot the breeze with him. I found the wines a bit inconsistent with some surprises.
'03 Chardonnay - This was surprise #1. Chardonnay grapes from Calaveras County, tank-fermented, with no M-L. This was very lean and crisp, with some minerality and fruit that you had to hunt around a bit to get. Chablis in Amador??!!
'04 Chardonnay - Surprise #2. Chardonnay grapes from Calaveras County, barrel fermented, full malo. 8 months on the lees in neutral French oak. And what a nice wine. Very harmonious, with crisp acidity, nice fruit character, a bit more viscosity than the '03 but nowhere near heavy. This is probably the best chardonnay I've ever had from this area. OK, that's a pretty nasty thing to say. Instead, I'll just say that this is a really good bottle of white wine.
'02 Barbera - This was a pretty tight wine with some strawberry fruit and a solid helping of screachy barbera acidity. Would have to try it with food to really evaluate it, though.
'03 Syrah - This one had a bit more charred oak in it than I care for. The varietal character was a bit lost in that. Still some fruit there, though.
'03 Zin - Tannins dominate, with some zin fruit lurking back there.
'03 Rapscallion - A blend of the two preceding wines, this was a great example of how blending two wines can result in a third with a completely unique and superior character. This was very nice, with good fruit character, some grippy tannins, a touch of heat. Leaned a little more towards zin than syrah.
'02 Zin - This was more of a classic Amador zin. Heavy bodied, smooth, good zin fruit character, tongue-smacking tannins to finish.
'04 Zin, Rocky Point Vineyard - This was a huge, big fruit monster with a 16.2 alcohol level. Thick, fruity, slightly sweet, but not hot. The sugar and alcohol gave it a decided late harvest character and as such, it was a good example. I liked it, but you'd want to know what you were getting into ahead of time with this one. Very tasty, but keep it down to one glass.
We went to several other wineries including Vino Noceto (along with Terra Rouge, the class of the Shenandoah Valley), Shenandoah Vineards, Sobon Estate (still one of the best QPR wineries I've ever encountered), and Nine Gables. A word of warning on Nine Gables: They make high alcohol wines and they'll pour a bunch of them for you. They don't do a style that will appeal to the majority on this board, but I found them to be pretty decent wines. But if you go, either have lunch at the winery right after tasting or have a designated driver. You'll know you've had a drop or two by the time you leave that place!
So overall, I think our two young English friends had a great introduction to Amador. Beautiful day, nice wines, picnic under an oak tree in a vineyard. They were calling their parents halfway through to rub it in....
Mike