I attended the 6/1/14 Marin County Wine Celebration and wrote a report for the Grape-Nutz.com website. A portion of the report is below – there are more comments on the event, more photos, and tasting notes on over 40 wines from 13 producers here:
10th Annual Marin County Wine Celebration – 6/1/14
Report on the 10th annual wine tasting presented by the Marin County Winegrowers Association, on Sunday, June 1st, 2014, at La Loggia Vinoteca + Café in San Anselmo, California. The event focuses on wines from the Marin County AVA.
The Marin County Winegrowers Association promotes wines from the county, and supports cooperation among growers and wineries. It helps to raise awareness of Marin’s wine history as well as of its current wineries and wines.
Overall Impressions
This year marked some changes in the Marin County Wine Celebration. Past tastings were held in conjunction with the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT) but they were not part of this year’s event. There was some question as to whether the tasting would even be held this year, but thanks to some quick organizing on the part of Kendric Vineyard’s Stewart Johnson and others, the wineries found a new venue that could host their event – La Loggia Vinoteca + Café in San Anselmo. La Loggia provided tasty charcuterie, cheese, and bread to enjoy along with the wines. Considering how quickly the event was organized this year, everything ran very smoothly.
The annual tasting provides a great opportunity to sample wines sourced from Marin County fruit. As always, the producers on hand included many from outside Marin – there are only a handful of wineries actually located within the county. A total of 13 wineries poured at this year’s tasting. A couple of longtime Marin producers didn’t participate this year – Sean Thackrey and Point Reyes Vineyards – but there were also a couple of very promising new producers – Brooks Note and Ernest Bloom – on hand to pour their wines. As usual, Mark Pasternak of Devil’s Gulch Ranch was at the tasting – Mark farms many of Marin’s best-known vineyards in addition to his own.
Mark Pasternak of Devil’s Gulch Ranch with Jonathan Pey of Pey-Marin Vineyards
Pinot Noir remains Marin’s hallmark grape, but each year’s tasting showcases more varieties grown in the county. Chardonnay and Riesling have been grown there for a number of years, and Bordeaux varieties – mostly grown in the warmer eastern part of Marin – have been planted there since the late 1960s. Viognier from Kendric Vineyard is a welcome addition, while small plantings of Viognier, Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèdre, Barbera, Montepulciano, Refosco, and Alicante Bouschet are among recent plantings at McEvoy Ranch. It remains to be seen how some of these varieties will do in Marin, but it’s great to see growers willing to take a chance with them there.
Since the Marin County Wine Celebration is a fairly small event, I was able to taste just about all of the wines being poured, though I may have missed one or two along the way. There’s not that many wines made from Marin County fruit, and the production level of those wines is generally small, with a couple of recent releases already sold out. But to help make up for that, several wineries generously poured library wines at the event to supplement their latest vintages (and there were a few non-Marin wines as well). Current Pinots that were poured were mostly from the 2011 and 2012 vintages, although there were also a few bottlings still available from 2010 and 2009. I’ve found that cooler-climate 2011 Pinots such as those from Marin have taken awhile to develop, but many of my favorites from this year’s tasting came from that difficult vintage. As was the case last year, the whites and Rosés were very good, and I hope to see more of them coming from Marin in the future.
This was another solid showing for Marin County wines, perhaps even better than last year, which I felt was a real breakthrough for this event. The fruit from these few tiny cool-climate vineyards have attracted some high-quality producers, with more coming on board each year. Nearly all of those pouring at the tasting presented strong wine line-ups, and all of them poured at least one standout wine. I included an “Others of Note” section in my Favorites list this time – wines that were just a notch (or even a half-notch) below my other Favorites but still worthy of mention.
Despite the move to a smaller venue this year, the Marin County Wine Celebration has continued its momentum of recent years. Marin, with its very cool climate for most vineyard sites, produces fruit that usually translates into lighter-style wines that display bright acidity. As mentioned above, Pinot Noir has led the way in the region, but it’s become clear from recent tastings that other grape varieties hold promise there as well, and hopefully growers and winemakers will continue to see which ones are suited to specific vineyard sites. Though it’s a tiny growing region in comparison to neighboring Sonoma, Marin shows the potential to approach or even match the high quality of wines from the cooler parts of the Sonoma Coast area. The Marin County Wine Celebration continues to showcase the steady progress that these wines are making, and it’s an event that fans of cool-climate California wines should not miss.
Favorites
Whites and Rosés
Dutton-Goldfield 2013 Chileno Valley Vineyard Riesling
Kendric 2013 Marin County Viognier
Pey-Marin 2013 “The Shell Mound” Riesling
McEvoy Ranch 2013 “Rosebud” Rosé
Viandante del Cielo 2012 Marin County Chardonnay (Skywalker)
Reds
Bailiwick 2011 “Borderline” Pinot Noir
Brooks Note 2012 Marin County Pinot Noir
Couloir 2012 Chileno Valley Vineyard Pinot Noir
DeLoach 2011 Marin County Pinot Noir
Easkoot 2011 Chileno Valley Vineyard Pinot Noir
Ernest Bloom 2011 Marin County Pinot Noir
Pacheco Ranch 2005 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
Others of Note
Bailiwick 2012 “Borderline” Pinot Noir
Brooks Note 2013 Rosé of Pinot Noir
Burning Bench 2011 Moon Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir
DeLoach 2012 Stubbs Vineyard Chardonnay
Dutton-Goldfield 2012 Azaya Ranch Pinot Noir
Kendric 2010 Marin County Pinot Noir
McEvoy Ranch 2010 “Red Piano”
Viandante del Cielo 2011 Marin County Pinot Noir (Skywalker)
