Urban Wineries- Part 2
East Bay
We had a need to drive through the tunnel into Berkeley
and Oakland so made a couple of stops at three of our favorite Urban
Wineries. This week we’ll talk about two
of them, JC Cellars and Dashe Cellars and later we’ll review the third along
with another one of our East Bay favorites.
JC and Dashe share a facility and tasting room in the
Jack London Square area visible from the freeway. Both wineries are located in this area by
choice and I am sure I mentioned in Urban Wineries- Part 1 there are a lot of
reasons why a winery can be as easily located in the cooler parts of the east
bay as it could be in the areas you would normally expect to see a winery. These two wineries are not run by first time
winemakers. Both Jeff Cohn of JC and
Michael and Anne Dashe have pretty full resumes.
I am finding out that when you write a blog about wine
tasting experiences, even if your focus is not involved with the detail tasting
aspects, that you really need to pay a little more attention than you would
normally if you were just out with a group of buddies hitting four or five
tasting rooms. Sometimes we are more
successful than others paying attention to the story and philosophy of the
particular winery. When we have visited
these wineries before we just kind of did the tasting at one side of the bar
before sliding over to the other side and doing the second tasting at the other
winery. We listened a bit more on this
trip but honestly I’m not totally sure we completely absorbed the different
winemaking philosophies. We do know that both operations turn out some
pretty nice wine.
 |
| The inside of an Urban Winery |
The facility is a fairly large with a long tasting bar to
the right of the entrance. Each winery
maintains their own tasting host. The two
of us were the only tasters when we arrived.
There is no particular order. You
can taste with one winery or both but each tasting is a separate experience. The fee for each tasting is $5.00 and at each
you receive a fresh glass. We started at
Dashe but I think the next visit we would start at JC because JC was pouring a
couple of white wines. It is probably
best to check first.
Michael and Anne Dashe have wine resumes like few other
couples. Michael is UC Santa Cruz and UC Davis educated and Anne received her enology degree
from the University of Bordeaux. I
mention UC Santa Cruz because while working on his undergraduate degree in
Santa Cruz, Michael worked part time at Roudon-Smith, a winery we used to frequent
back in the early 80’s. While and after
obtaining his master’s degree at Davis, Michael worked at Schramsberg and Far
Niente. Not too shabby. After these stints he went on to work at
Cloudy Bay in New Zealand and then Chateau Lafite-Rothschild in France before
returning to California with Ridge Vineyards eventually becoming in-charge of Ridge’s Lytton Springs
Winery. Anne’s background is similarly
impressive with her initial position at Chappellet Winery and then on to Seavey
Winery and before moving to RMS Brandy Distillery in Carneros.
Dashe is known for its Zinfandel and on this day was pouring three Zinfandels,
as well as a Cabernet and a Petite Sirah. We liked all three Zins with two from the Dry
Creek area of Sonoma and the third from The Todd Brothers Ranch in the Alexander
Valley, again Sonoma County. The
Cabernet and Petite Sirah were also from the Todd Brothers Ranch. The Cabernet was our favorite and at $35.00
we thought a pretty good value.
Certainly you could not go wrong with any of the wines we tasted. I think if we would have not moved right into
the tasting at JC we would have more distinct impressions of each wine tasted. I guess this is one of the few downsides of a
side by side tasting room.
JC Cellars is owned by winemaker Jeff Cohn. Jeff took a little different path to winery
owner than the Dashe’s. Jeff’s initial
studies were in culinary arts and then hospitality. His initial wine related position was that of
an intern at Boordy Vineyards in Maryland.
After college though while working in hospitality related positions he
realized his passion was wine. He moved
to California and enrolled at Fresno State and eventually earned a master’s
degree in agriculture chemistry with emphasis in enology. Jeff’s first position was in the enology
group at Rosenblum Cellars. Within a few
years he was in charge of the white wine program and then in 2004 was named
vice president of winemaking and production at Rosenblum. Again, not too shabby. While at Rosenblum Cohn started his own label
but before he left Rosenblum the 2003 Rockpile Zin placed #3 on the Wine
Spectator’s Top 100 list. This was the highest
a Zinfandel had ever placed on this list.
In 2006 Cohn left Rosenblum to focus full time on the JC label.
JC had quite a few bottles open for tasting. The only one that I was not a fan of was the
Viognier from France that is made in collaboration with a friend from France
although the gal now tasting next to me thought it was terrific. We liked the Rose (Grenache, Syrah &
Mouvedre). We really liked the
Zinfandel’s, one from Rockpile and one from Paso Robles. I had thought that Dashe had the great Zins
but JC matched them here. Syrahs are
where JC really stands out. We tasted a
couple and they were both big and fruity.
The last wine we tasted was called The Impostor which was a blend of
mostly Rhone varietals along with Zinfandel.
Again like most of the wines this was a big. Obviously Jeff Cohn is not traditionalist and
enjoys some experimentation with different varietals that you don’t see at most
places. The wines ranged from $16.00
for the Rose, $35.00 for The Impostor and the Syrahs being the highest priced
ranging from $35.00 to $85.00.
We had a really good time visiting these two
wineries. Both the tasting hosts were
great and very easy to chit chat with and both of them were very knowledgeable
about their operations, owners and wines.
As we left we thought that this easily matched many of our better wine
experiences in Napa and Sonoma. Both
wineries have second tasting facilities with Dashe pouring at the Family
Wineries in Healdsburg and JC pouring at the Vintner’s Collective on Main
Street in Napa.
What we liked- We like supporting the East Bay
wineries. The wine was excellent and the
hosts were great.
What we bought- Dashe Cabernet (gift), the JC Rose (gift)
and the JC Impostor (for the cellar).
Vitals-
Dashe Cellars
(510) 452-1800
(510) 465-5900
55 4th Street
Oakland, CA
Note: Wineries are
normally open Thursday-Sunday 12: 00 to 5:00
