Do you think it is more relevant to less informed consumers, but not much to people here?
Or, it it just not that important as a source of info on wine?
The folks from Appellation America, including Clark Smith, are arranging to taste as many of the Humboldt County wines as possible to describe the basic traits.
From speaking with them, they are alive and well, even if they are a much smaller organization than they once were.
As I understand it, the story goes that the original team was unable to find a way to generate enough revenue. The site was sold at a loss to a small group of the writers from the site. They are working on a shoe-string budget to try and maintain and add to a 20-30K page website.
I gather that they are working out the kinks of a regionalized financial strategy where if an area of the site is sponsored, then viewers have full access to that part of the site free of charge. They still have a loyal group of subscribers that pay a small fee to have access to the full site. Their mission is still to define and “…celebrate the diversity in wine that arises from each distinctive wine growing area.” I think that the current strategy may be an interim one which is meant to keep the lights on until a new big backer can be found to implements a new financial strategy.
My interest in bring up the topic is that as Chairperson of the Humboldt Wine Association, I arranged for them to do a regional wine review and Best of Appellation Tasting for the wines from our area. Clark Smith and Richard Peterson (yes, that Dick Peterson, of the Monterey wine area and father of Heidi Peterson Barret) were the main wine reviewers. Prior to the tasting, Clark Smith toured the area to visit vineyards and meet some of the characters involved. I arranged that the Humboldt County section of Appellation America be sponsored by our local convention and visitors bureau so unlimited views in that area are free. It might be another week or so before the tasting notes, reviews and articles are posted.
If anyone wants me to, I can give you a heads up when they are posted.
Nice of you to leave a couple slots for the other guys. Congratulations on a strong showing.
This thread reminds me that the one bit of “business” I got from an Appellation America review/listing was when a guy called me one Saturday morning because he had found my contact info there. He was in So. Cal and had a vine in his back yard that wouldn’t produce any fruit. We talked about pruning for a bit and it wasn’t making sense to him, so he said he was getting in his car to drive up to Marin so I could show him. I thought that was pretty far fetched, but 8 hours later he came steaming into the vineyard. We covered the distinctions between trunk, cane and shoot, and he got in his car to head back to LA. The whole thing struck me as so bizarre that, as soon as he left, I wasn’t sure if he had actually appeared or if I had imagined it.
Thanks for looking. Yes, Stewart, we did submit a few wines. They did like many of them. The evaluators asked us (Humboldt Wine Association) to get as many representative wines made from Humboldt sourced fruit as we could, from members and non-members. The HWA did better than we thought: We had over 70 wines, over 60 of which were from Humboldt sourced fruit. To be fair, there are few wines that they liked that are under the Willow Creek AVA, so even though they are in Humboldt, they only show on the AVA list and not the county.
The wines you submitted, were they part of an area evaluation, or single wine submissions?
Honestly, I did not expect it to drive much business to us. It is good for our area to get more things written about us. Also, we can use the tasting notes that they have when we offer our wines. So far, it seems to be helping local retailers to sell our wines more easily, since it give them the talking points of which wines are good examples of what wine from Humboldt is.
Bump this thread, it’s definitely a topic that I support.
I think it is great that Appellation America did a write up on our area. Cheers to Andrew for getting the visitors bureau to sponsor the page so everyone can see it for free. I’ve been wanting a good outsider definition and evaluation of Humboldt wines, and it looks like now we have one and it’s pretty darn good.
I’ve always known the wines to be excellent which is why I started the labor of love that is Redwood Country Wines. Redwood Country Wines represents several Humboldt Wineries in the San Francisco Bay Area, including Briceland. If you are a retailer or restaurant interested in stocking these wines you may contact me through redwoodcountrywines.com or via PM on here and set up a tasting.
I’m representing Humboldt because I love the region passionately.
I’ve had a number of Andrew’s wines. Although a relatively small sample size, for my palate, I preferred Andrew’s wines to the others that I’ve had from Humboldt County.
I know that there was a lot of discussion of his reds in the Featured Winery thread (https://wineimport.discoursehosting.net/t/wine-berserkers-featured-winery-briceland-vineyards/59598/1). The Pinots from Humboldt are truly fantastic (looking forward to tasting the Cabots too). As I understand Appellation America’s mission, they try to pinpoint an appellation’s basic characteristics. Very generally, in my sampling of 6 or so Briceland Humboldt Pinots (different vineyards, years, etc.), I’d say that there’s a common thread of red fruits – Bing cherry in particular – and ample acidity in the wines. They are also relatively lower in alcohol, so the wines don’t seem sweet to my palate.
The whites are quite good as well. I’m not sure that I can speak to what is characteristic of Humboldt County whites due to my limited knowledge of the region, but generally I’ve noticed more acid in his wines than in a typical Napa/Sonoma version of the same grape.
I never entered this into CT:
2010 Humboldt County Sauvignon Blanc
Nose of elderflower, grapefruit, lime, gooseberry, gardenia
Pale gold in the glass.
Tart, grapefruit, ample acidity with some light spritz. Wine is weightless on the palate. Med- finish. My friend commented, “I don’t know wine very well, but I can tell this is a good wine.”
Of course, my favorite of Briceland white was the Arneis, which is from Mendocino (sorry Andrew!).
Yes, I agree, the Arneis is an interesting wine. Sadly, I got 0 arneis last year so I only have a couple of cases left. The 11 Humboldt Chard and 11 Humboldt SB are the two I like best from this last year. Both 0 oak, and not for those that fear acid. Quite a bit tarter than the Arneis. As it cools a bit for shipping, I might post an offer on CC.
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