Popped an '07 Woodside Vineyards Estate Cab at lunch today. Kick-ass.
The old legendary Hallcrest Cabs were from the coast side down in the Ben Lomond district, where no sane person would grow Cab. The Chaine d’Or Vyd is about as cool as you can get for Cab. Their old Cabs had significant, but lovely, green peppercorn sort of pyrazine expression. They really popped - I never got what I’d call bell pepper. When (my friends) Stefania Wine took over making their wine, they picked 6 weeks later, in November. It cools down enough that late in the season the sugars and acids don’t move much. That gave them more fruit and much less pyrazine at moderate ripeness with good acid.
Lee-side Pinots from the likes of Mount Eden and Woodside Vineyards do show darker fruit at moderate ripeness, have good acid, good tannin. Much better aromatics than most Pinots from elsewhere with the same fruit profile.
I would have never thought of Chalone, SCM, SRH, as underrated. Some great recent and past examples there. I love the Sierra Foothills. Huge untapped potential!
I have been trying to get more information on the vineyards, varieties, and wineries of Chalone and Santa Barbara County’s Ballard Canyon. Yes, they are far apart, but most of my studies of wine regions are 2 at a time (Sonoma’s RRV & Contra Costa’s Antioch/Oakley area, San Benito & Santa Clara).
I hope to see more exciting news emerging from efforts like those of Stolpman’s plantings of Enz Vineyard Mourvedre cuttings, Tercero wines from various SBC Mourvedre vineyards, and bottlings from I.Brand & Family Wines.
