The State of the Rhone Nation

Last month the Rhone Rangers presented a seminar on the State of the Rhone Nation at City Winery in Washington D.C. The seminar was moderated by local wine writer Dave McIntyre and featured seven prominent American wine growers who specialize in Rhone grape varieties. The Rangers mission is to promote American Rhone varietal wines, specifically, those that include "75% of one of the twenty-two traditional Rhone grape varieties as approved by the French government for the wines of the Cotes du Rhone". The non-profit consists of over 100 winery members with the majority located in the Paso Robles AVA, followed by Sonoma County, Santa Barbara County, and the Lodi AVA. Other regions represented in the seminar and the associated trade-consumers tastings were Monterey County, Santa Lucia Highlands, El Dorado AVA, and the Monticello AVA in Virginia. This latter region was represented by Horton Vineyards where the late Dennis Horton planted Rhone grape varieties back in the late 1980s. And here are the Rhone-inspired backgrounds for each of the wineries that participated in the seminar.

Halter Ranch Vineyard: 2017 Grenache Blanc, Paso Robles ($28)
The property encompassing Halter Ranch Vineyard was first settled in the 1880s with the present estate vineyards established in 1994. Over the years the estate has expanding to include 17 grape varieties with 40% of the estate planted with Rhone varieties. The elevation, excellent water drainage, sun exposure, and limestone-rich soils of the Westside Adelaida District helps create a juicy, fresh, and aromatic Grenache Blanc.

Horton Vineyards 2016 Viognier ($20)
In the 1980s Dennis Horton traveled to the Rhone valley where he realized that the thick skin and loose clusters of Viognier would be perfect for the Virginia climate. Twenty-five years later this insight proved accurate as the Virginia Wine Board established Viognier as the signature grape of the Commonwealth. Horton has continued to be a consistent and reliable producer of Viognier showcasing the old warm charm of stone fruit and balanced acidity.

Tercero Wines 2018 Tercero Mourvèdre Rosé, Santa Barbara County ($30)
Larry Schaffer is proving that Rhone grape varieties can excel in Santa Barbara County mostly grown in the Santa Ynez Valley AVA, Ballard Canyon AVA, Los Olivos District AVA, or the Los Alamos Valley. Each region provides a distinct micro-climate and soil type enabling the disperse planting based on ripening time and soil conditions. This Mourvèdre Rosé is a great example as it is a blend of different vineyard plots and shows a tropical aroma, strawberries and light cherries, and a persistent finish.

Two Shepherds Wine 2017 Two Shepherds Wine Cinsault ($20)
In general, William Allen sources his passion for Rhone varieties from Sonoma's Russian River Valley but in this case, he has access to the oldest surviving Cinsault Vineyard in the world -- the famed 135-year-old Bechthold Vineyard in Lodi. This vineyard still produces excellent fruit as modern sustainable vineyard practices have increased the health and vigor of grape clusters. This Cinsault differs slightly from the several single varietal wines produced by other wineries as Allen utilized minimal wine-making techniques such as native yeast, no additions other than minimal S02, neutral barrel fermentation and aging, whole cluster pressing, and unfined & unfiltered production. The result: a delicious wine with a candied cherry aroma, light and tart cranberries, and fresh acidity

Tablas Creek Vineyard 2016 Tablas Creek Grenache, Paso Robles ($40)
Perhaps the Rhone Rangers owes their actual existence to the pioneering work of Tablas Creek after Robert Haas established a friendship with the Perrin family of Château de Beaucastel and later established the winery in 1989. Clones and rootstocks were imported from the famed Rhone estate and after a USDA-mandated three-year quarantine the Tablas Creek estate was planted. These and other newly imported clones have spread to help establish other Rhone dominated vineyards such as Lodi's Acquiesce Winery & Vineyards. This Grenache is back after a few years hiatus and shows the old world character of soft fruit, spiciness, depth, texture, and chewy tannins.

Ridge Vineyards 2015 Ridge Red-Blend, Sonoma ($36) - 54% Syrah, 30% Grenache, 16% Mataro
In 1991 the Lytton Springs vineyard formally became part of the Ridge family when the winery acquired the property because of its acclaimed Zinfandel fame. As a collateral benefit, this Dry Creek Valley estate is also a suitable host for Rhone varieties such as Syrah, Grenache, and Mataro - the Californian name for Mourvèdre. And these Lytton Springs Rhone wines are known for their barnyard, leather, and tobacco characters.

J. Lohr Winery 2016 J. Lohr Syrah (South Ridge) Paso Robles ($15)
When Jerry Lohr decided to enter the wine industry, he searched the best sites in California to produce Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet and settled on Paso Robles to plant his Cabernet vines. Like Halter Ranch's experience, the vines benefit from elevation, excellent water drainage, sun exposure, limestone-rich soils, and the dramatic diurnal swings of  50-degrees. These conditions are also conducive to Syrah which are grown in the estate's South Ridge -- a large vineyard encompasses the warmer Estrella and San Miguel districts as well as the cooler Creston, Adelaida, and Willow Creek districts.  The grapes are sourced equally from these two warm-cold groups which according to current CEO Steve Lohr "the warmer areas tend toward black tea and camphor while the cooler districts provide aromatic white pepper and blue fruit notes.  An excellent wine - and value.

#WBC14 Paso Robles Excursion: Tablas Creek Vineyard

One of my favorite experiences of participating in the Wine Bloggers Conference Paso Robles Pre-Excursion was our visit to Rhone Ranger favorite, Tablas Creek Vineyard. Although Gary Eberle of Eberle Winery was the first to plant Rhone varieties in Paso, Tablas Creek was the first to make their Rhone styled wine commercially viable in the Paso Robles AVA.

Tablas Creek Vineyard is a joint venture between Château de Beaucastel and Robert Haas, as they planned to create a Châteauneuf-du-Pape style vineyard in California. The partners eventually found a site in Paso where the elevation and limestone soils (a rare soil type in Paso) resembled those at Beaucastel. In 1990 the winery imported a substantial number of Rhone vines (Mourvèdre, Grenache Noir, Syrah, Counoise, Roussanne, Viognier, Marsanne, and Grenache Blanc) and handed them over to the USDA. Three years later the vines passed the quarantine testing program and Tablas Creek began propagating their nursery. The vines from this nursery were eventually sold to many well known California Rhone producers.

Robert Haas' son Jason is the current winemaker and a former Wine Blogger Awards winner. His Tablas Creek blog won in the Winery Blog category in 2008 and 2011. On our arrival to the winery he briefly described to our group the winery's history and the vineyard's physical characteristics - demonstrating how the limestone soil absorbs water that the vines can then access later. Afterward he lead the group past the popular baby llama - llamas are used as "guard dogs" to protect the weed eating sheep from coyotes to a rootstock grafting demo. Rootstock and vines do not have to be taped together in the modern era.  Pretty informative.

Small Viniferia Nursery

Rootstock and vines grafted

Rootstock

After the rootstock demo, we headed inside to sample the wines from Tablas Creek, as well as three other Paso Rhone producing wineries: Calcareous Winery, Écluse Wines, and Caliza Winery. My favorite Caliza wine was their 2011 Azimuth, a delicious GSM (Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre) blend. The 2010 Lock Vineyard Syrah from Ecluse madee a powerful statement of "here I am and don't forget me"; whereas the Calcareous Lily Blanc (Viogner, Greneache Blanc and Roussanne) and Tres Violet GSM were more subtle but equally tasty.  The Tablas Creek Esprit Blanc was the first American Picpoul Blanc for me, although it incorporates only 5% to the majority Roussanne and Grenache Blanc blend. And it was also a thrill to taste my first 100% Terret Noir - usually a blending grape - but this barrel sample show promise with its tart cherry flavors. Cheers to Paso Robles, Tablas Creek, and Rhone styled wine.

The Rhone Rangers Ride to DC

If you are a Rhone wine lover, I hope you are familiar with the Rhone Rangers. This is a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of American made Rhone varietal wines. The organization consists of close to 200 winery members, 110 Professional and Grower Associates, and 800 Sidekicks - consumer fans like you and me. In order to become a winery member, the winery must produce a wine where 75% of the wine’s content must contain one or more of the twenty-two Rhone grapes the French government has approved for growing in the Cotes du Rhone. Syrah is the most common red grape, followed by Grenache, Mourvedre, Cinsault, Carignan, and Petite Sirah ("The Rhone Rangers have adopted Petite Sirah, a French cross also known as Durif, due to its extensive interplanting with traditional Rhone varietals in Calfiornia."). Viognier, Roussanne and Marsanne are the most common white grapes, but you can also find some Grenache Blanc produced in California.

Twenty-three Ranger wineries came to Washington D.C. June 4th in order to promote the organization and Rhone varieties. These wineries poured close to 80 wines at The Long View Gallery that day - during two session. All the wineries were from California except Horton Vineyards from Gordonsville, Virginia (just outside of  Charlottesville). Dennis Horton introduced Rhone varieties into the Commonwealth over 25 years ago and now Viognier is designated Virginia's signature Grape. In addition to their dependable Viognier, Horton offers a tasty sparkling Viognier - one of the few produced in the country. Another notable Virginia Ranger, Tarara Vineyard & Winery, was absent for the tasting because of a shortage Rhone wine, but provided the Riedel stemware for the event. The California contingent represented several wine growing regions as well as original Rangers such as Bonny Doon Vineyard and Qupe Wine Cellars as well as newbies Two Shepherds Wine and Petrichor Vineyards.

Ridge Vineyards was the first winery on the menu, with their Rhone wines produced at their Lytton Springs Sonoma facility.  They poured the always dependable Syrah and Petite Sirah, but the most interesting of these was the 2012 Buchignani Carignane ($26) - perhaps the only 100% single varietal of this grape produced in American.  I tasted through several very nice wines from Petrichor Vineyards (Sonoma), Mira Winery (Napa), Michael David Winery (Lodi), Guyomar Wine Cellars (Templeton), before spending several minutes with Santa Maria's Kenneth Volk Winery. Definitely looking forward to the 2014 Wine Bloggers Conference in Santa Barbara. Two of the wines from Kenneth Volk were 100% Mourvedre (both $36) - with plenty of red fruit and nice acidity.  They also poured a delicious, easy drinking Grenache ($28). 

 I also spent some time investigating Paso Robles in anticipation to the Conference's pre-tour in that region.Epoch Estate Wines produces several excellent blends ($40-$65) and the Proulx Wines rosés were quite tasty. This winery's red blend. "The Wah" ($54) is also one to look for. Broken Earth Winery was pouring several affordable cool wines including a 100% Grenache Blanc ($20) - very floral with great acidity - and an earthy  Petite Sirah "Diable Negro" ($18).  And another Paso winery, Pomar Junction Vineyard and Winery, had several nice whites such as the 2013 Estate Grenache Blanc ($20), 2013 Estate Viognier ($20) and the 2013 White Blend, "Cotes de Pomar Blanc" ($28) - great acidity to balance the fruitiness of the wine. Ans all nice values.

A few other notable pours were the Qupe Wine Cellars 2011 Grenache Sawyer Lindquist Vineyared ($35) and 2010 Syrah, "Sonnies" Sawyer Lindquist Vineyared ($55); and Rosé of Syrah ($25 & $16) from Cornerstone Cellars and Chacewater Winery. Cornerstone was also pouring a velvety 2011 Syrah "Black Label" ($35) and Chacewater a fruit forward 2011 Petit Sirah ($20). Finally, Two Shepherds Wine had several wines that caught my fancy including another Grenache Blanc - the 2012 Saarloos Vineyards, Santa Ynez ($25)  and a Grenache Noir ($38) from the same vineyard.

After all this writing I'm ready to open another nice Rhone styled wine, the Viognier from Virginia's Corcoran Vineyards. Cheers.