Don’t believe I’ve ever tried a wine from Humboldt County. But this thread reminded me of the Josh Raynolds’ tasting note on the 2008 Brewer-Clifton Ampelos Sta. Rita Hills (94pts):
Vivid red. A drop-dead, hugely aromatic bouquet exudes scents of raspberry and cherry compote, potpourri, star anise and cannabis. Sweet, sappy and incisive, with powerful red fruit and floral pastille flavors that reach every corner of the palate. Impressively pure, with outstanding finishing energy and lingering florality. I couldn’t get this off my palate.
First and only time i’ve seen that wine descriptor used.
Well, It’s not very often Humboldt county gets discussed here. Just wish there were more vineyards for others to buy fruit from. There us so much potential being this far north and all the tiny microclimates we have. Lots of places that were too cool or wet years ago are becoming ideal with climate change.
Our experience matches with Johns. That the site can yield very good to great wines even if the vintage or farming are not ideal. To me, this is the Humboldt definition of a superior site.
I think John’s 2015 Elk Prairie is a terrific young wine…tasted it a couple of times over the holiday season. However, I always have to be careful whenever I (relatively rarely) compliment a Cabot wine since Larry gets upset if i don’t divulge my "affiliation !
Well if you drive up the 101 through Mendocino county(a beautiful drive) you’ll come into Southern Humboldt County. Andrews winery, Briceland is just out of the town of Redway next to Garberville right off the 101. If you contact Galen at Whitethorn winery, his mother Tasha has been making outstanding wines for a long time. Worth a stop if you can. Go a little Farther north on the 101 to Meyers Flat and climb 20 minutes up into the hills of Fruitland ridge where Elk Prairie and Septemptrio are farming Pinot and other varietals on the hillslopes. After that you’d want to head up to Arcata/Eureka and find a nice restaurant and stay the night. Humboldt county is BIG. It takes some time to get around. My suggestion would be to book a room at Mark Carters( yes, THAT Mark Carter) Inn and dine across the street at his restaurant 301. It’s definitely one of Humboldt finest restaurants with a mind blowing list of wines from around the world, including a full array of Carter wines. It’s been rated one of the best wine lists by WS. Honestly it’s Mark’s life collection on that list and it runs DEEP. If you want to stay in Southern Humboldt the Benbow Inn is a beautiful large Dutch sytled inn with a great restaurant and wine selection as well. It has a small but decent golf course right across the street as well.
In the Arcata Eureka area you can look up North Story wine. They are making some solid wines from Mendocino and Sonoma(iirc). To get out to the eastern wineries you have to take hwy 299 out to the town of Willow Creek. Look up Will Franklin at Trinity River Vineyards out there as well as Andy Carini. Dave Winnett also has an estate vineyard and winery worth stopping by. To go the extra distance you can take hwy 96 from WC out to Orleans and come visit me. It is an extremely windy, yet amazingly beautiful drive and there are some rustic, but clean cabins with kitchenettes if you want to stay in Orleans. There is a tiny store here in Orleans/Somes bar where you can get some groceries but bringing it in from the coast is advisable. There are no restaurants within an hour of Orleans. When your tired of me you can head north on the 96 and it will pop you back onto Hwy 5 and you’ll be in Oregon soon after. Ashland is a great destination(2.5 hrs from Orleans) with lots of nice inns and restaurants. Theres a plethora of nice wineries around Ashland and Southern Oregon. Look into Applegate and Rogue valley wineries. The whole trip from SF(let’s say) could be a really nice one week trip if you’re up for the adventure.
If anyone wants more details feel free to PM me.
Cheers
What John said. Except, Winnett has been sold, and Galen is not real active in the winery at Whitethorn at the moment, so if you want to catch Tasha, reach out early.
For scale, it is just under 3 hours from Santa Rosa to my place and a bit over 3 hours from my place to John’s. The road to John’s is an adventure all by itself.
There are a number of other wineries but few that produce from Humboldt fruit.
I’m a southern Cali boy originally. Grew up in Pasadena(La Canada Flintridge)in a mortuary family. My brother went to high school with the writer of Six Ft Under. The show was taken from our family story(no joke). I moved up to Humboldt when I was following the greatful dead around in my teens and ended up staying up in Humboldt for college, and never left. I was an organic produce farmer from 93- 2001, growing up to 28 types of vegetables for farmers markets and wholesale accounts. I planted my first vineyard at the age of 25 in 1998, started my label in 2001 and hand build my tiny winery on a rocky quarts and schist laden slope on the northwest facing slope of Whitey’s gulch. We planted two estate vineyards that are almost identical to the soils found in Cote Rotie. There is 3 acres of Syrah(noir clone), some mixed BDX varietals, Zinfandel(Grenache of the north), and Viognier. We farm using strictly Organic methods and beyond. Our estate vineyard in front of the winery is all own rooted vines in hopes of catching the most pure expression of the site/soil/varietal character. It’s been a fun ride.
I vaguely remember a trip through there as a young kid with my father on a timber cruising survey, not a grapevine around, but there was a town called Weed which always gave us a chuckle. Loved that drive through the valley on the way to SF, into Jazz back then before the Dead and the Haight. The Siskiyous are a lovely area, equally distant from SF and Portland for wine tourism, but slowly coming on and fishing is another draw to replace timber. More wine and fruit are sourced north of the border all the time. It could be similar to WW valley where some of the best wines are from south of the border.
It’s true. Whitethorn is definately part fo the story.
It was because of the fact that we picked up Tasha hitchhiking that my mother bought our land from Tasha’s dad, Bob McKee. Tasha started Whitethorn under our bond in I think 93. We have shared equipment and several of our best workers for years.
There was a time when both Briceland and Whitethorn were well represented in the Bay Area’s top restaurants. Before my wife and I had our daughter, Rosie was offering our wines and got us into Chez Panise, Greens, Jardiniere among others. Of course, without enthusiastic maintenance, things fade.
I spoke with Tasha the other day. Galen is getting married. At least for now, he is taking a less active role in the winery. Tasha plans to keep things going on a small scale, like 2-500 cases, going forward.
Over the years, Whitethorn’s wines have always been interesting, age worthy and distinctive. Over the last few years, the winery has been moving towards producing from Humboldt grown fruit. I look forward to seeing how their winemaking style works with some of the vineyards which might become available to them.
Other wineries that have been part of the story include Fieldbrook, the longest producing winery in the county. They started in 76 I think. Bob Hodgson has had an impact here and on the industry more broadly. Recently, they have made some movement towards making wine from Humboldt grapes. Bob and Judy’s daughter has taken over. It will be interesting to see in what direction it goes. Hardisty is making sulfite free wines some of which have shown very well when I have tasted them. Winnett changed ownership recently, but those wines have been interesting and well suited to aging. There may be some of those around still. There are several newer wineries also focused, at least in part, on Humboldt fruit. We will see what emerges over time. Of course, Cabot is well represented here and Trinity River has come on to the scene with some nice wines which nicely showcase the vineyards. Some humboldt fruit has been made into very nice wines by non-humboldt wineries including Joseph Jewel, headed by Adrian Manspeaker, a So Hum native. He and I share Alderpoint vineyard by agreeing on a pick date and taking alternate rows.
There is a lot of flux in ownership and newer producers which hopefully will lead to a community of producers working together as more consistent styles emerge.
I was just on a road trip through Humboldt and stopped by Riverbend Cellars (as well as picking up a bunch of Cabot and Briceland in the grocery stores of Arcata). The couple who own the winery and make the wine were charming and extremely accommodating, opening the closed tasting room in the midst of a construction project to sell me a couple bottles. I like their wine but never see it mentioned.
2014 Riverbend Cellars Coquette- USA, California, North Coast, Humboldt County (7/11/2018)
Cool jasmine, lemon-apple, sea breeze, earthy, lightly herbaceous-musky aromas. Pronounced salinity on the palate, with sharp “steely” acidity, like a salted lime. Light honey. Highly characterful and enjoyable wine; I always like the stuff from this very under-the-radar producer on the Avenue of the Giants.
![[rofl.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/a/a7452fcd8e675af869f8da01174474a545b03944.gif "rofl"){kind=small}
if i don’t divulge my "affiliation ! ![[pillow-fight.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/3/365d4ae6de5fe0cd9e7345760c12ceae1ed5e206.gif "[pillow-fight.gif]")
![[berserker.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/8600bbd4810d342b8fbd4ffb62b4f0026275fd37.gif "berserker"){kind=small}
![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}