From a Vineyard planted in 1854!! Now those are some old vines
2017 Sandlands Mission Amador County Wine:
Fruity raspberry candy, spicy nose. Cranberry-raspberry red fruit flavors, big hit of cinnamon stick and hints of sweet orange. Fruit is plenty ripe but not overdone. Low on acidity but not clumsy as there is some tannin to help keep it fresh. 2017 vintage shows here. Fruit is ripe but still staying on the “red” side. Overall, not a profound wine but very drinkable and enjoyable. I can see putting a slight chill on this for the hot summer weather. 12.9% ABV for those interested. After having this I would love to try the 2018 version to see vintage differences.
Thanks for posting your note, Tom. I’d be really curious to try this one. Any info on how the wine was made?
Photo below of one of the old Mission vines at Deaver Ranch, where the fruit for this wine was sourced, from a visit there with Ken Deaver last May. As far as is known, these are the oldest continuously-producing commercial winegrape vines in California.
Thanks for the interest.
The wine making was pretty simple on the Mission wines.
I de-stemmed the fruit and put it in the cellar. I pumped it over once a day.
It took 3 days to start fermenting and about 7 more days to finish fermenting.
I pressed it on the tenth day and settled it in tank for 3 days when I barreled it down
into (2) 5 year old french oak barrels. The wine was racked only once (one month before bottling).
Besides SO, nothing was added to the wine.
Let me know if you have any other questions or thoughts.
Best,
Tegan, thanks for the winemaking info. Always enjoy your insight! As expected, pretty much hands off and I love that the wine spoke of the grape and not anything else.
Tom, I also posted this in the Mission / Pais discussion but thought I’d post it here too.
I wanted to post a brief note on two Mission wines tasted over the past week - Sandlands 2017 and 2018, both sourced from Deaver Ranch in Amador County’s Shenandoah Valley. The vines are believed to be the oldest continuously producing commercial winegrape vines in California, possibly dating from 1853 or 1854.
I really enjoyed both of these wines - both were lighter in color and body and had lots of red fruit. The 2017 showed more herbal notes in support and the 2018 had more floral notes, along with an undercurrent of herbs and maybe a touch of orangepeel. Mission is known for not having high acidity, but both of these had pleasant acidity and fairly mild tannins. Both were made from destemmed fruit, and had no additions other than some SO2. Opened both during bottling days at Broc Cellars in Berkeley and in both cases the wines were slightly chilled, which I think is a good way to enjoy them. The 2018 was the consensus favorite of the two, seemed a bit more pure and focused - most Mission wines are not really built for aging so it may be the younger one had a built-in edge there. The Sandlands 2018 Mission was certainly among the best California Mission wines I’ve tried - nice work from Tegan!
Nice tasting Ken, the 2018 sounds like a bit more complete wine, if that is the right word. There are many times when a grape like Mission fits the occasion, especially with warmer weather here. Also agree that a bit of a chill is recommended.
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