Shadow Ranch/ Palissandro Vineyards
Fair Play AVA- El Dorado County
We were in El Dorado County for a Bike Ride (the
Motherlode Century) put on by our old friend.
We don’t ride. Instead we help
out by volunteering at an Aid station along the route and other such
tasks. The Ride was Saturday so we got
to do just a bit of wine tasting on Sunday.
El Dorado County wine country is a big area. There are a few wineries in the Coloma area
where we were staying, more wineries in the Camino area just off Highway 50 and
just past Placerville and then even more wineries in an area south of Highway 50
first in Pleasant Valley and then into Somerset and Fair Play. We like the Camino area because it is very
close to the highway and really easy to get to but since we were already up
there we decided to head to the Fair Play area.
Fair Play is a separate AVA (American Viticultural Area) and the
vineyards lie between 2,000 and 3,000 feet in elevation in deep decomposed
granite soils.
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| Old House and Tasting Room- Shadow Ranch |
We have visited the area infrequently over the past 30+
years. The first wineries to the area
arrived in the early 80’s but it seems like in the past 5-10 years the number
of wineries has flourished. There are a
few known wineries in the area, Perry Creek probably being the most well known,
but most are small probably most producing less than 10-15,000 cases per year. We headed this way planning on making two or
three stops and only one that we had targeted because we are wine club
members. Our first stop was to be Palissandro
Vineyards, a small family winery that opened about two years ago and we just
happened along the second weekend they were open and liked the family so joined
their club. More on Palissandro later as
their gates were closed when we drove by.
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| 1888 Barn at Shadow Ranch |
So we stopped instead at Shadow Ranch. My wife liked their sign and their
entryway. The winery is up a long well
maintained road and near the top of a hill.
Here you find a large home and a barn.
The buildings date to 1888 and have a Gold Rush era feel. The tasting room is built into one side of
the house and includes the original fire place and flooring. It is a small but very tasteful room. There is also a really nice outdoor area that
could be used for tasting on a nice day or for just hanging out.
We were the first tasters of the day and I could hear
loud music blaring as we got out of the car.
Our host later told us it was the new Justin Timberlake which apparently
is not too bad. There is a nice variety
of wines from Sauv Blanc to a Port. Our
host, a nice looking youngish gal, poured us the list starting with the Sauv
Blanc. Nice sized glasses were used
which is always nice and not something you necessarily always see in these
areas. We could tell all the wines were
well made as there was not a stinker in the group. The winery sources from three main vineyards,
two down this way and one in northern El Dorado County. We especially liked the
Zinfandel and Syrah and of course the Sauv Blanc. We were off our game a bit because we did not
find out too much about the winery, winemakers, owners, etc., but they have a
pretty nice thing going here. The wines were priced from $16.00 to $32.00
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| Tasting Facility at Palissandro |
Next we went back down the street to Palissandro. As I mentioned above Palissandro is a new
winery concentrating on Italian Varietals.
The owners, Shaun and Jeannie Blaylock, moved to the area in 2009 with no
particular winery experience. The
property had become available through a foreclosure and the Blaylocks were
looking for a new lifestyle/passion. With help from their neighbor and winery owner
Robert Van der Vijver, they were onto their first harvest in the fall of the same
year. I think what struck us on our
first visit here was that for one, the wines were not bad for a first vintage,
and we kind of liked the whole story of how they got into the wine
business. Shaun had had a couple of
earlier successful careers so I thought maybe this guy has the magic touch a
bit.
So we arrived at their somewhat funky tasting room and
were greeted by a couple of young gals.
One of them is the best friend of the Blaylock’s daughter who is
currently away at school learning the business aspects of the wine
business. They were very eager to make
sure we were comfortable and get us tasting some wine. Also as we arrived they had just taken some
Cheese-on-Bread out of the oven which smelled and tasted great. We started with the Rosa, a Barbera
Rose. I like Rose’s and it seems like
everyone is making one now, mostly because of the quick cash flow and this one
was nicely priced at $15.00. We then tasted the Vino Da Tavola (Wine of the
Table), a blend which was also nice at $14.00.
But where I think Palissandro will make their mark is with the
Sangiovese and Barbera and some of the blends made with these wines. These were
all priced in the low to mid $20.00s.
They also make a Cabernet, yes not Italian, under the Carus label. So I think we were pleasantly surprised and
happy to see that Palissandro is coming along ok. While the grounds may not be as nice as they
were at Shadow Ranch, there is ample porch seating and there is a bocce ball
court available for guests.
After two wineries, yes, what has happened to us, we
decided to head home as we were pretty happy with our two stops. My one tip for this area is that it helps to
follow a map. If you make one wrong
turn, which we did, you can be headed up to the higher country of El Dorado
County. At least this day the pine trees
looked and smelled really nice.
What we liked- Casual and quiet tasting. It was Mother’s
Day, but we were the only tasters at both spots.
What we bought- A Syrah and Zin from Shadow Ranch and
from Palissandro we brought home two club shipments which included a Barbera, a
Sangiovese, a Sagiovese blend called Felice and a Carus Cabernet.
Vitals-
Shadow Ranch Vineyard
7050 Fairplay Road
Fair Play, CA
95684
(530) 620-2785
Palissandro Vineyard
7449 Fairplay Road
Somerset, CA 95684
(530) 620-2063
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