Madrona Vineyards

Camino (Placerville), CA

In all the years we have tasted wine around the sierra foothills for some reason we had never been to Madrona Vineyards.  Madrona is just up the road from the areas most popular winery Boeger which we have been to countless times and have now stopped going there because it has become too popular.  Madrona has remained in the same family since it opened in 1973.  Today it is run by the husband and wife team of Paul and Maggie Bush.  We had stopped at our favorite Camino (5 miles east of Placerville) winery, Bumgarner, and were headed back to Placerville and then on to volunteer at our friend Rob Swain’s Motherlode Century, a 100 mile annual bike ride.  I passed by the entrance to Madrona, and then knowing that we were going to be pouring some of their wine at the post-ride party the next day figured we would go back and learn a bit about their wine. 

We drove down their long driveway past many different businesses (christmas tree farm, pumpkin patch, apple business) and arrived at the 1970’s era wood sided winery tasting room surrounded by Madrona and other trees.  The facility is built into the hill with the winery on the lower level and offices and the tasting room up top.  The tasting room probably looks somewhat similar to what it looked 30+ years ago.  Matt, a long time club member and one year employee of the tasting room was our host.  There is a complimentary tasting and an enhanced $5.00 tasting.  We said we wanted to taste everything.  Everything appeared to be about a dozen wines and they were arranged from Red to White.  Matt said the style of their wines really led to that order of tasting.  It seems a bit odd but when starting to taste the red wines which in general were very restrained it made sense I guess.  Reds are generally what we drink so this worked in our favor.   

Zinfandel and Chardonnay seem to be there specialty and the wines are grouped into the Hillside and Signature lines with some additional Single Vineyard bottlings.  The list starts with the Hillside which are the more standard, mixed vineyard and vineyard appellation wines.  They were at first taste very light but I think well balanced and easy drinkers.  I think the grapes may be picked a bit earlier or at lower brix than many of the wines we are used to.  We had the Zinfandel, Shiraz/Cab, Merlot, and Nebbiola from the Hillside line and then we had the Zinfandel, Cab Franc, Cab, Malbec and Quintet (five wine blend) from the Signature line.  I liked all the wines other than the Nebbiola and no doubt the Signature wine packed a bit more punch than the Hillside group.  They were appropriately priced with the Hillside wines below $20 and the Signature wines in the mid $20 range.  We also tried the $12 El Tinto- Lot 34 Red Blend and it certainly has its place with us.

While we were tasting we did meet the owners Paul and Maggie, who had been meeting with a couple of members of a local wine related marketing organization and had come out to pour a special ‘not on the list’ wine.  We too tasted the refreshing Rose and chatted with the group.  We did not taste any of white wines because we had really had enough.  My guess though is that Red wines are what Madrona does best. 

Over the course of the next couple of days we have revisited the Hillside Zinfandel and I think it is a pretty nice $18 (or cheaper at a local wine shop maybe) bottle.  We did pour the Hillside Zin and Chardonnay after the bike ride and unfortunately not enough people got to taste it.  For some reason people riding 100 miles, or 66 in the case of a metric century, prefer to drink a cold beer which was also being poured.

I think if you are in the area or want to stop at one or two wineries right off of Highway 50 on your way up to Tahoe that Madrona should be a stop.  They have been there a long time which says something and the wines are pretty good.  There are many wineries within 5 to 7 miles of Madrona so you can certainly make a day out of it.  I think it is also great to support wineries that support local events, such as the Motherlode Century bike ride.  By the way the beer had been donated by Sierra Nevada of Chico which we also support.

What we liked- Low key, fairly priced wines, a nice area.  It is also always nice to meet the owners.

What we bought- The Quintet at $28 and the El Tinto at $12.  The El Tinto is in the ‘drink now’ pile and won’t be around long.

Madrona Vineyards

2560 High Hill Road

Camino, CA  95709

(530) 644-5948

www.madronavineyards.com

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.

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.



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

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

www.shadowranch.com

 

Palissandro Vineyard

7449 Fairplay Road

Somerset, CA  95684

(530) 620-2063

www.palissandrowinery.com

Sierra Oro Farm Trail- Passport Weekend

Chico & Oroville, CA

We spent last weekend in Butte County.  For those of you who know us, we have a long association with Chico, CA and there has never been a year in the last 35+ years that we have not visited Chico. Even better, we now have family living in Chico, which gives us even more reason to visit.  We hardly go anywhere without searching out the wine tasting possibilities and when the opportunity to taste in the Chico area presented itself, we jumped at it.  2012 marked our third year at this event and I think it was the best so far. 

A non wine stop (But Sierra Nevada Beer)
 

 This is a Farm Trail event, so in addition to wineries, there is an array of other venues along the trail.  These include rice and rice products, a mandarin orange farms, olive and olive oil producers, nut producers and one of my favorites, The Worm Farm.  For the most part we stick to the wineries but we always make it a point to stop at Maisie Jane’s, which sells various locally produced food products but also samples a specialty made Passport Weekend beer produced jointly by Sierra Nevada Brewing.  The event runs both Saturday and Sunday and since there is a bit of distance between some of these stops two days is required to make a pretty good dent.  There are four wineries in the Oroville area and eight wineries in the Chico area including New Clairvaux which is actually a pretty good ride north of Chico.  Along with these twelve wineries there is about another fifteen of the non-wine businesses open.

The farmhouse at Emerald C

In general the wines are not going to be as good as the wines you are going to find in Napa and Sonoma.  I think there are probably a lot of factors and certainly weather is key.  Chico tends to run in the 90’s and low 100’s through much of the summer and does not get much of the cooling influences from the fog that you get in other areas.  The hillside vineyards of Oroville are really the northern extension of the gold country of Amador and El Dorado counties so I would think they probably have a lot of potential for creating good wine. I think partly because this area if off the main path of the wine industry, it may mean that the wineries do not get some of the same winemaking talent you are going to find in areas south.  Still we tasted some pretty decent wine.

This year we visited just two wineries in Oroville and most of us went to five wineries in the Chico/Valley area.  Grey Fox was our favorite Oroville stop.  We had last visited this winery two years ago and since then they have built a large tasting room and outdoor patio.  The Oroville wineries are in the hills at about 900-1,000 feet and have nice views of the central valley.  We liked the Sauv Blanc, Sangiovese and Cabernet ($16.00). 

 

In the Chico area we visited-

 

Roney- Really the best wines to be found. Roney has a bit of an advantage as they tend to have great sources of outside grapes.  They were pouring a Cabernet made from Howell Mountain (Napa) fruit as well as a Stags Leap District Cabernet ($38.00) from the same vineyard Nickle and Nickle (a well-known Napa winery) sources from (and sells for about $100). They also had two Zins, one from Amador County and one from Butte Country.  We really liked the Butte County Foothills Zin and plan to open it side by side a Napa/Sonoma Zin because we think it will do just fine ($17.00). 

Bertagna- Specializes in Italian varietals.  We like the light bodied Sangiovese. Pretty consistent wines here.

Emerald C- We have become fans of Emerald C over the past year.  Steve and Ned are great guys and striving for quality wines and I think they are starting to get there.  The winery is located in the basement of a beautiful 30’s-40’s farm house and surrounded by 65 acres of Kiwi fruit and five acres of grapes.

In the heart of the valley at Gale Vineyards
 

New Clairvaux- Located on the grounds of a “Trappist” Monastery about a half hour north of Chico in Vina, CA.  In the late 1800’s this was the home of the world’s largest wine operation (seriously).  This winery has hired a professional winemaker and I think will be better and better wines.

 

Gale Vineyards- Gale is located in Durham just seven miles south of Chico and is located in an oasis of oaks, sycamore and bamboo (yes, smack in the middle of the Sacramento valley).  The owners are Steve and Creasia Gale.  When we visited, Steve was handing out food samples and Creasia was pouring the wine.  The wines include Tempranillo, Sangiovese, Primitivo, Cabernet and a blend and all were pretty good.  Even if you are not a wine drinker this is a good stop just to see the grounds.  This day there was a local artist displaying her paintings in one of the small rental buildings on the property.

 

Check out the website for information on all the wineries (and other spots)

www.sierraoro.org



Bumgarner Winery     
Camino, CA (Placerville)
                                            

One our favorite stops on the way to South Lake Tahoe these days is Bumgarner Winery which is just off the freeway at Carson Road in Camino (five mile past Placerville).  Brian Bumgarner with previous experience with sierra foothill wineries opened this facility in the past year or two.  And he makes some pretty nice wine and quite a variety of wine.  He also has at times wines available on tap and has a program

developed for locals where they can return their bottles and receive a discount on the refillables.  We have stopped at the winery over the course of the last year or two and have tasted Chardonnay, a rose, Petit Sirah, Tempranillo, Pinot Noir, Mouvedre, Barbera and Cabernet.  On a recent visit the Chardonnay, Rose and Mouvedre were available from the tap.  Also a hard cider is available.

The tasting room from the outside and as you drive up appears to be not much more than a shack but it really is quite pleasant inside and there is a nice lawn area outside with seating.  This is a small winery and you are going to run into Brian, Brian’s wife Jennifer or Nicole.  Nicole has poured for us the last couple of visits and you can tell she really has some kind of food background as she has a great way of describing the wine she is pouring for you but not in a way that makes you feel like a dummy because you don’t get as much out of it as she does.  The wines across the board are good and I think are very restrained.  We have tasted the Pinot Noir, actually made from foothill grapes, and been pleasantly surprised.   The Cabernets also.   I don’t think you would immediately identify these as being from foothill grapes.  I believe the tastings are free but if not they can’t be more than $5.00. 

There are several tasting rooms in the area and even a couple within walking distance of the Bumgarner parking lot.  Chateau Davell, an organic winery 75 steps away, is quite interesting and we enjoyed their cheese and wine pairings.

What we like- The owners and Nicole
What we bought- It was a warm day and we bought the Rose

Vitals-

3550 Carson Road
Camino, CA  95709
(530) 303-3418
www.bumgarnerwines.com