This review of Vidon courtesy of Doc Ed:
"Very few wineries are willing to produce clone-specific wines, and I love it when I find one that does. The vineyard has been around approximately 20 years, and changed ownership about five months ago.   (The old winemaker is staying on and providing continuity.)  New owner Dru Allen provided me a big “peek behind the curtain” as he answered all of my questions and provided samples of excellent wine to emphasize his answers.   This was accomplished in a beautiful outdoor setting, with dramatic panoramic views of the region."

​"Vidon wines are 100% estate grown.  They make pure varietals from three clones.  Mirabelle 2016 ($60) was pure Clone 115 and was finished with 30% new French oak.  It was a delightful, fruity wine.  The Pommard 2016 ($60) was a distinctive, bold example of that varietal.  My favorite was Clone 777 2016 ($60) which had a ten day contact with the skins, producing a moderate extraction of color and spicy flavors.  The finish was outstanding.   I understand they also have Clone 95, and there are plans to grow Clone 667.  I can’t wait to taste them!  Vidon also makes a blend of their Three Clones ($50), which was made with no new oak.  It was also enjoyable.  The tasting finished with a surprise.  They grow a Syrah (clone 470)($40) and blend it with a small amount of Viognier,  producing an excellent Cote-Rotie styled wine.  They also produce Chardonnay, but I didn’t try it."

This from Doc Ed:
"Wow, it is a real pleasure to find a winery that understands the mechanics of wine production and also provides a great customer experience.  As I drove up to the property, I saw that the vines were pruned very tightly, suggesting I was about to experience some wines that had intense concentrated flavors.  Before the car was parked, family member Sara greeted and welcomed us.  This looked like the start of a great visit!"

​"Owner Saj, an architect in his former life, clearly pays a lot of attention to detail.  He sipped each wine before it was offered for tasting.  He adjusted and supplemented the tasting menu to answer our various questions.  I learned that his 6.5 acres contain a blend of Pinot Noir clones Wadenswil, Pommard and 777 that are approximately 30 years old.  Unlike many other vineyards, he field blends his grapes which helps mingle the various flavors.  He also has white wine grapes, and shared an excellent Pinot Gris."

​"On the red side of my tasting, I had two Pinot Noirs from the property.  The Estate 2017 ($65) had intense fruity nose, complex mid-mouth flavors, and a surprisingly long finish.  The Reserve 2017 ($75), containing the same grape blend, and was similar but even more satisfying.  Also tasted were several Pinot Noirs sourced from other vineyards, and a Cabernet Sauvignon which were also very pleasant."
Editors note:  They have a two-level wine club.  The low level calls for 12 bottles per year at 15% discount on all wine and complementary tasting for up to 5 guests.  On the high level the bottles per year go to 24, discount to 20%, and guest number goes to 9.

​I am very happy to report that Chuparosa Winery in Ramona has reopened for wine tasting!  I am even happier to report that we spent a very lovely afternoon on their patio tasting their latest offerings! 
We were not alone – most of the tables were filled as it was a perfect day for wine tasting outside, as opposed to the last time I was wine tasting in Ramona where we had to hand on dearly to our glasses with frozen hands to keep the cold wind from blowing wine all over the place.
Chuparosa for those of you new to this site is a boutique winery growing just five grape varieties – Albariño, Zinfandel, Sangiovese (Brunello clone), Malbec, and Cabernet Franc.  The produce varietals from all of these, and combine the Sangiovese, Malbec, and Cabernet Franc into a super-Tuscan blend with the moniker North Block Blend.  More on this later.  As you can see from the tasting menu below, they’ve added Semillon and Chenin Blanc from grapes obtained from another Ramona winery, Kohill.  Not on the menu is a Bordeaux blend also made from Kohill grapes.
I tasted all of their standard Estate wines for about umpteenth time and I am happy to report that these latest vintages are for the most part the best they’ve made.  The wines made from the Kohill grapes were good, but they were up against very stiff competition.  By the way, the wine in the glass is Albariño.

The North Block Blend was particularly noteworthy, which made me suspect that the wine was field blended.  Field blending, as discussed in my earlier blog about Viognier, entails picking and fermenting the different grape varieties together.  According to Chuparosa’s winemaker (and owner) Andy Harris, “Co-fermentation yields significantly different (and better in my opinion) flavor profiles than simply blending wines fermented previously and stored for some time prior to blending.”  Andy points out that he follows the techniques learned from Tuscan winemakers.
My understanding is that many American winemakers take a very different approach to wine blending.  All of the wines are picked, fermented and aged independent of each other.  Now not all barrels are identical, so there will be differences in the wines after aging.  Some of the wines will be very good, and will be bottled with such monikers as “Special Reserve”.  Others will be just good, and will be bottled as pure varietals.  The wine that is not all that good, that is somehow flawed, is saved by correcting the flaws by blending.  Hence, the blending laboratory where the flawed wine is mixed with wine from other varietals until a saleable wine is produced.  Of course, winemakers often skip the barrel screening step and go straight to blending with varieties chosen to overcome weaknesses of the pure varietal wine.
As a final note, we came home with a lot of wine....

From Doc Ed:
​Nebbiolo is an uncommon grape, but several San Diego County vineyards have recently started to grow it.  Worldwide, there are only 15,000 acres (23 square miles) planted, and less than 10% (less than 3 square miles) exist outside of Italy.  The grape naturally produces a large amount of acid, and a very large amount of tannins in the skin and seeds.  You might think that a grape that rare might not have many variations and is easy to describe.  Not true!  This tasty wine has many presentations, mostly due to variations in winemaking techniques including extraction and barrel storage.
 
The two main presentations of Nebbiolo that I would like to focus on are the New World and Old World.  Old World Nebbiolo comes from northern Italy.  The New World grows Nebbiolo in several countries including USA (Southern California), Mexico (Guadalupe Valley), and New Zealand. 
 
Nebbiolo from the New World produces a wine that is light to medium bodied, transparent, full of flavor, and has a variable amount of soft tannin.  The flavors usually are fruit (red fruit dominant, such as strawberry or cherry) with some herbal (rose) aroma.  Nebbiolo has many flavor similarities to Pinot Noir, particularly Pinot from cooler climates such as Oregon or Burgundy, France.  Nebbiolo wine can differ from Pinot Noir by having more acid (crisp flavor, comes from slow ripening of the grape) and more tannin (dry mouth sensation, comes from exposure to grape skin, seeds and oak barrel).  New World Nebbiolo wine commonly is made with limited exposure of the grape juice liquid to the grape skin and seeds (7-10 days typically), in order to control the extraction of tannin into the juice.  New World winemakers may further control tannins by limiting the exposure of the young wine to oak barrels (typically 10-12 months).  The net effect produces a wine that is fruity, has variable amounts of tannin, and has flavors somewhat similar to Pinot Noir.  It is designed to be consumed within a few years of harvest, and is unlikely to have extensive ageing potential.
 
Old World Nebbiolo wine is made in northern Italy, and the best-known region is Barolo.  The Old World style (which includes Barolo, Barbaresco and several other Italian DCOGs) produces a wine that is very different from the New World style.  While the wine will be medium bodied, transparent, and very aromatic like the New World version, the similarities end there.   During fermentation, Old World wines usually have over three weeks of contact with skin and seeds, resulting in maximal extraction of a massive amount of tannins.  In addition, the young wine must then be aged in barrels for at least 18 months which adds even more tannins and other flavors.   Because Old World wine have so much tannin from the extraction and barrel time, it is difficult to drink it unless it is at least 10 years old.  During that lengthy ageing process, the tannins slowly chemically change to produce a totally different taste that includes herbal and earth flavors and a very smooth lubricating glycerol sensation.  The net effect produces a unique wine that needs at least 8-10 years before opening, and many will last 20-30 years or more.
 
Whether you have access to New World or Old World Nebbiolo, the wine’s inherent characteristics of acidity and tannin make it an ideal pairing for roasted meats or high fat cheese.  This is because the proteins in the food will bind with residual wine tannins, reducing the drying sensation in your mouth.  Enjoy your young New World wines, or aged Old World wines, or experiment with those few New World places that are attempting to bridge the gap and produce an age-worthy masterpiece.

The Nebbiolo grape has found its way to Southern California and Baja California’s Guadalupe Valley.  The wines made from this grape are very highly regarded.  Indeed, Italy’s premiere wine is Barolo, “the king of wines, the wine of kings”, made from the Nebbiolo grape.  This grape also makes the highly acclaimed wine Barbaresco.  Yet there are only around 15,000 acres world-wide planted with this grape.  In comparison, world planting of Cabernet Sauvignon exceeds 700,000 acres.  So why aren’t there more Nebbiolo grape vines, and why is the grape being successfully grown in our part of the world?  I set out to find the answers to these questions by going directly to the source.  That’s right – I sought to get the answers by hearing from the grapevines.
The biggest problem I encountered, as might be expected, was how to communicate with the grapevines, or at least get them to tell me something other than the latest gossip.  Fortunately, I had portrayed a California Raisin many years ago for Halloween, and, being essentially a method actor, in preparation for the role I spent a few nights among the vines.  While this was not of much help in my Halloween role, it gave me some insight in how to approach the vines.  Of greatest import, I discovered that the vines do not actually talk.  They spread their gossip by rustling leaves and stems in such a manner as to create music.  For example, if they have info on a younger man fooling around with an older, married woman they will offer up the appropriate tune, i.e., “Mrs. Robinson”.
I began my query by asking these Nebbiolo grapes why they wanted to be to Southern California.  After a bit I could pick out strains from the “West Side Story” song “American”, mixed in with Neil Diamond’s “America”.  OK, not what I was hoping for.  I had to change my approach.
So, I asked them to tell me by song what there is about our area that allows them to grow such very fine grapes, ones that could make a wine competitive with Cabernet Sauvignon.  Well, mentioning Cabernet was a bad mistake, as they then went into a rendering of “Bottle of Wine”.  If you don’t know the song it is about a wino having trouble coming up with the loose change to purchase a very bad bottle of wine.
Then it hit me how to proceed.  They would play a tune relating what makes them like this area.  If I guessed what they were trying to say, they would offer up Neil Diamond’s “Red Red Wine”.  If I was wrong, I would hear “Bottle of Wine”.
The first number they put out was “I Heard if from the Grapevine”.  This really puzzled me.  The song seemed to go on and on, so I began to think they were just mocking me.  Then it hit me -- they were presenting me with the CCR’s long version of the song.  Could they be saying that they like the long Southern California growing season?  “Red Red Wine” was the answer.
Next, I seemed to hear the music to the song “It Never Rains in Southern California”.  So, you like drought, I asked them.  “Bottle of Wine” was the answer – no, they don’t like drought.  I asked for a second clue, and they came back with CCR’s “Born on the Bayou” followed immediately with “Bottle of Wine”.  It took a bit, but if you assume that “Bottle of Wine” is a no, then one can assume that they do not like bayou-type terrain.  And what’s the opposite of swampy land?  Very dry land, of course.  Could it be that the vines don’t like sitting water?  Bingo – and an offering of “Red Red Wine”.
Without asking, they then offered up Johnny Mathis’ song “Misty”.  Nicely done, I might add.  Now San Diego is on the Pacific Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean is pretty cold, even in the summer.  As the climate is also very dry, the temperature on the land drops very rapidly, lowering pressures and pulling damp air in from the ocean.  This damp air results in a mist that settles on the vines.  Nailed it – and my reward was more “Red Red Wine”.
The next tune was pretty straight forward – John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain High”.  The Nebbiolo grape is grown primarily in the mountainous Piedmont region of Italy, i.e., well above sea level.  The inland valleys in Southern California where one finds most of the vineyards are more than 2000 ft above sea level.  I nailed it again!  “Red Red Wine”.
I knew my interview with the vines was over when they went into the California Raisin’s version of “I Heard it through the Grapevine”.  But I came away with great insight into the Nebbiolo vines.  First, they like the long growing season that we have here in Southern California.  Second, they don’t like sitting water.  We have very little rainfall, and our very dry climate evaporates standing water rather quickly, especially when temperatures push up over 100 F, so there is little chance of standing water if the vines are grown on any kind of an incline.  Added to this is the clay-cobble nature of our soil which keeps water from soaking in (and leads to flooding even for relatively mild rains).  Third issue is mist – they like it, and we have it in the inland valleys and even in the mountains.  As for the fourth issue, well, our terrain goes from sea level to around 6,000 ft.
On my way out of the vineyard, the Nebbiolo grapevines suggested that I steer clear of the Tempranillo grape fines with two tunes – “Man of La Mancha” and the theme song from “The Godfather”.  Seems the Tempranillo grapevines are not too thrilled with my bashing them every chance I get.
Anyway, it appears that Nebbiolo grapes have a great future here in Southern California!  Now if I can just find a way to replace all of the Tempranillo vines with Nebbiolo vines….

​Jim and Ed’s Excellent Adventure
We went up to this place up north that rhymes with Dracula which we thought was really cool, and they had this circle we could drive around and after we got bored we found this restaurant (Vineyard Rose) in a winery just near the circle and, like, Ed says that this is an awesome place and that we had both been there and had this great tri-tip sandwich.  No, it wasn’t like you know made from the tips of that thingy the fish guy carries but pieces of steak and caramel onions.  They gave us a wine list so we had some wine with fancy names, you know, Ed going for the Zorro wine cause I guess he likes Zorro, and like I went with one with a really fancy name Toursomething National, only they spelled National with a c not a t.
Now after we ate and as we were in a place called South Coast Winery Resort & Spa but, like, they didn’t have that name on the bottles.  Instead, they had this really excellent name – Wild Horse Peak.  So naturally we looked around for the spa and the wild horses but got lost and hey, wouldn’t you know, finally wound up at the door right next to the door to the restaurant where they do the wine tasting and they took us out on their porch which is really big and we thought we would drink some more wine. Tthey had both the Z wine and the Toursomething wine on a list so we got that and, like, they brought the wine out in this really cool spirally thingy.

​So we tried the wine and I got to try the Z wine and it had this cherry-like taste and then they really liked us and maybe it was because they thought Ed looked like Mr. Carter, some big muckity-muck for the winery so they brought us more wine, like Petite Sirah and Syrah and Cabernet Souvenir.  I think Petite means small in French but the Petite Sirah was the same size as the Syrah.  I liked it better than the Syrah and Ed liked the Syrah better than the small Sirah and Ed is bigger than me so maybe it’s not the size of the wine but the size of the wine drinker???

​I took some cool pictures of the place with all of these awesome medals and lots of neat other stuff.  They had this other room that we couldn’t go in because of the virus but I got an awesome picture.

​They have this really awesome club any dude or dudette can join (if you are over 21) where they pick 3 bottles of wine for you per quarter and you get an awesome 25% off.  And, like the best, most excellent, part is that you can drop by there four time a month and get free wine!!!  They also will let you stay at their hotel for a 15% discount and you can eat at their great restaurant for 10% off.  That guy Carter must be something because they have this other place called “Carter Estate” that they own and club members get to drink there for 50% off.  He even has his name on some of the wines…

OK, it was not a particularly perilous journey.  In fact, he had a great time and tasted great wines.  His report:
"Perhaps you are considering a wine trip near San Francisco.  You have heard of Napa Valley, but are open to other choices.  Did you know that Sonoma County, just west of Napa, has nearly twice as many acres of vineyard compared to Napa?  Sonoma has more vineyards than Napa (450 compared to 390).  And it has much more diverse climate, as indicated by its 18 different AVA’s (American Viticulture Area).  The largest Sonoma AVA is Russian River, located north of Santa Rosa, and south of Healdsburg.

​Sonoma County, with its cooler climate, specializes in Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Zinfandel.  I only had a long weekend to visit, so I focused my search on a few vineyards that excelled in my red grape favorites.  I tend to like clone specific varietal wines that show complex flavors and that come from small boutique wineries.  I found several treasures.
Pinot Noirs from the Sonoma region are, in general, halfway between the elegant light-bodied wines of Oregon and the full-bodied giants from California’s Central Coast.  I found the Sonoma pinots to be medium bodied, fruit-forward, and with very soft tannins.  They will easily pair well with a wide variety of foods.  New favorites I discovered on this trip came from Bucher Vineyards and Benovia Winery.  Bucher’s single clone Pommard Pinot ($55) was particularly well balanced, with prominent dark fruit flavors and a strong smooth finish.  I was also intrigued by their clone 943 which is very fruit-forward and intense, and is grown by only a few vineyards.  Benovia had a large selection of well-made wines, and they presented them in a beautiful tasting room with a great view of their property.  My favorite was the LaPommeraie ($65), a blend of clones 777 and 828, which was aged for a long 16 months in new French oak.  Wow, the flavors were wonderful!  Benovia Winery also caught my attention with their Zinfandel ($42), a flavorful and complex wine that was a great value.

​Dry Creek Winery was another great discovery.  They served five different Zinfandels (and had several more for sale) in a beautiful outdoor patio setting.  I knew I was in for a treat when they poured the samples, and I could smell the floral nose while the glasses were still on the serving table!  Dry Creek’s zins were medium bodied and filled with complex flavors of blue and black fruit.  My favorites were Somers Ranch ($44) and Farmhouse ($42) which was made from their Heritage clone grapes.
Of course, there are many other great wineries in Sonoma County.   Check the internet to find other treasures, and add them to my list to create your own tasting tour.  You won’t be disappointed!"
Doc Ed

​It is probably not a good idea to go wine tasting on a very windy winter’s day, especially now that all of the wine tasting is done outdoors.  Well, we did just that and it turned out to be a fortunate trip.  Our first stop was to visit one of Ramona’s best wineries, Edwards, to check on the release of their Syrah clones and generally shoot the breeze.  Well, the breeze shot us instead, so we headed off to Ramona Ranch.  Ramona Ranch is located on the same road as Edwards (same side), though much closer to the town center.  Anyway, the winery boasts an award-winning Tannat.  This was my second trip, but like the first the Tannat was not available for tasting.  So, I bought a bottle.  More on this wine below.
The winery does not have much of an indoor wine tasting room, so you sit outside on a very nice patio a listen to music as you sip their very nice wines – see below.  They are building a new facility – foundation has been laid – just behind the parking lot.  Now the wind was still blowing when we arrived at Ramona Ranch, and I can assure you that it was pretty cold on that back porch, yet there were plenty of people there (all of the seats in the sun were taken), so, yes, this is a popular winery which I have been very late to discover.  Sorry guys, but I was waiting to taste the Tannat and the dog ate my homework….

​They make tasting very simple -- $2 per taste (3 minimum), you choose what you want off of their menu (shown below).  They pour the first taste in a glass, then send you out on the porch.  The rest of the wines you selected are brought out in plastic cups so you refill your tasting glass yourself.  I like the method because it allows me to do parallel tasting so I could readily compare their two Sangiovese offerings.  Also tried the Viognier and the Aglianico, both of which are quite nice and have been added to my wine hoard.

​Now on to Tannat.  This French grape has found its way to South America where it is grown in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and especially Uruguay, where it is the most popular wine.  This grape yields a wine with the highest level of antioxidants of all red wines, so it is the healthiest wine you can drink.  On the down side, high antioxidants mean high tannin levels, and this grape makes wines that are right up there near the top.  One of the advantages of growing this grape in Southern California is the long growing season, i.e., the wine makers can let the grapes ripen longer, softening the tannins and making the wine drinkable after only a few years aging.  I can’t say too much about the Ramona Ranch version as this was only the third time I’ve tried Tannat, and one was a sample that has yet to be released.  But it is a very nice wine even without proper aging….
Ramona Ranch has wine club, as noted on the picture of the big board.  Standard 20% discount on 2 or 4 bottles four times a year, with two free five-sample tastings or a glass of wine with your visits to the winery.  Of course, wine club members get access to their best wines, including their Tannat and some wines that are never available to the general public.
Really worth a visit – but not on a cold, windy day….

​Viognier is a white French grape, found mostly in the Rhone region.  The grape is used to make a varietal with the same name (duh!) and as a blending grape, but with the red grape Syrah.  This unusual combination is supposed to produce a very nice wine which some day I hope to get my hands on.  As far as Southern California is concerned, to date Viognier only shows up as a varietal or in a blend with other white grapes.  I say “to date” because at least one winery (Edwards) is growing Viognier to blend with their Syrah.
While Viognier is considered an uncommon wine, it is grown just about everywhere – in the US, Australia, South Africa, Italy, Argentina, Chile, New Zealand, Portugal – you get the idea.  Now, back to the blending of this white grape with Syrah grapes.
As you may or may not know, to make white wine the grapes are crushed and the juice pressed out.  The juice then is fermented.  OK, crush, press, ferment.  To make red wine, the sequence is crush, ferment, then press.  Crush, ferment, press.  So, if you are making a blended wine using both white and red grapes do you blend after fermentation, or do you ferment them together?  If you ferment them together, do you press the white grapes first and add the juice to the red grape must, or crush and ferment them with the red grapes?  Must, by the way, is the name for the fermenting crushed red grape mixture.
To answer this question, I quote from the Ridge website:
“The idea of co-fermentation isn’t new, we see greater complexity and color develop when zinfandel co-ferments with field varietals such as petite sirah, carignane, alicante bouschet, mataro etc.   In the northern Rhone valley, viognier has been used in small percentages to co-ferment with syrah to aid in stabilizing the abundant color of syrah and to temper tannin extraction.  This has been successfully done for hundreds of years.  I would also say that viognier has a few extra weeks of ripening ahead of syrah, so in the northern Rhone valley, on a cold year, the viognier might bring ripeness to the wine….
Chemically, there are non-pigmented phenolics within the viognier skins that have a strong affinity for bonding to side-groups of the anthocyanin pigment of syrah.  Once these bonds are formed, they remain soluble and stable within the wine and provide a deep blue/purple spectrum of color.  Viognier also has a beautiful pungency of apricot, peach, and white flower which helps lift the total aroma of syrah which tends to be dark and gamey.“
I should add that Ridge did quite well in the “Judgement of Paris” wine tasting competition, i.e., it is one of the great American wineries, so if they say the grapes should be field blended I have to go with it….

I first encountered Montepulciano about six years ago.  I had never even heard the name, and had trouble remembering it after first tasting the wine at Ponte in Temecula.  It was love at first sight – well, actually first taste.  I have selected this grape variety and the varietal wine made from it as my second to review because it was this wine that made me realize that there are very good red wines not made from Cabernet Sauvignon or Pinot Noir grapes.
So, another rare Italian red grape variety?  Not exactly.  I mean, it is an Italian red grape variety, but not quite a rare grape.  Uncommon, then?  No.  In fact, it is quite common in Italy -- Montepulciano is the second most grown red grape grown in Italy.  So, wines made from the grape must not carry the varietal name, yes?  No, actually the grape is commonly used to produce a wine called Montepulciano.  So why hadn’t I run into it before?  While I might have but not remembered it, fact is that after we first tasted this very nice wine, we began looking for it.  Did not find it at the supermarket, Costco, Trader Joe’s, or any restaurant wine lists.  Lots of Chianti, Barbera, Valpolicella, Chianti Classico, and Barolo, but no Montepulciano.
One explanation that I have read is that the while the grape has its origin in Montepulciano, it is now grown extensively in Abruzzo.  Abruzzo is not an area of Italy that gets a lot of tourists, hence, few outside of Italy know of its existence.  Not sure if I buy that explanation.  My view is that the Italians drink the better wines made in Italy and export the ones they don’t particularly care for.  The answer may be in the numbers – while Montepulciano plantings cover less than half the acreage of Sangiovese, much of the Sangiovese crop is used to make cheap Chianti for sale to America.
Now for an anecdote.  One of the restaurants we frequent is Pernicano’s (on Mercy Road just west of Interstate 15).  Our standard fare always included a glass of Chianti.  Then, one night not too long ago, a new wine appeared on his wine list – Montepulciano.  We had it that night, and our next visit as well, but on the subsequent visit he had sold out.  It has become very popular, and is now near the top of his wine list.
As a final note, we did order Montepulciano at a restaurant in Rome.  I am happy to say it was as delicious as any produced in our area of the world.
My next wine to be reviewed was going to be another red wine.  News of this blog somehow reached the white, sparkling, and dessert wines in my wine chiller, setting off protests and even threats of violence.  Other grievances came to the fore, such as always being put in the bottom of the chiller and seeing the reds come and go while they remain untouched.  This latter complaint died quickly when they were informed of what happens to wines that leave the chiller, as we demonstrated by uncorking their leader, a wonderful Viognier from Europa Village.  While the white and sparkling wines will remain at the bottom of the chiller, I have decided to meet them part way by making Viognier the subject of my next blog.