{"id":976,"date":"2018-05-23T13:17:59","date_gmt":"2018-05-23T20:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/?p=976"},"modified":"2018-05-30T14:49:37","modified_gmt":"2018-05-30T21:49:37","slug":"monterey-jazzed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/?p=976","title":{"rendered":"Monterey Jazzed"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is not often that Your West Coast Oenophile<\/strong> finds himself retreating on a position taken here. Actually, Sostevinobile<\/strong><\/span> has never not held the wines of Monterey County in high regard, but, in the past, I have taken some issue with what I perceived as an over-reliance on conformity, particularly within the Santa Lucia Highlands<\/span><\/a><\/span>. This AVA is not alone in producing a plethora of wines from its predominant vineyards\u2014how many Napa labels produce a George III or To Kalon Cabernet? But, in the past, I have been hard-pressed to find an SLH Pinot Noir not heralding from Garys\u2019 or Pisoni or Tondr\u0113 or Sobranes or Doctor\u2019s, etc.<\/p>\n

And so, it was most welcome to discover nearly all the wineries pouring at this month\u2019s 26th Annual Monterey Winemakers’ Celebration<\/span><\/a> focused on estate bottlings. Additionally, the array of varietals here encompassed far more than the preponderance of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay that I had anticipated. Among the most striking offerings I discovered were the 2013 Estate Bottled<\/strong> Mourv\u00e8dre <\/strong>from Shale Canyon<\/span><\/a><\/span>, both the 2015 Syrah <\/strong>and 2015 Marsanne<\/strong> from Michaud<\/span><\/a><\/span>, an alluring 2014 Carmel Valley Estate Syrah<\/strong> from Silvestri<\/span><\/a><\/span>, and the 2014 Grenache<\/strong> from Scratch<\/span><\/a><\/span>, which also poured one of the most focused Pinots of the afternoon, their 2013 Pinot Noir KW Ranch Vineyard<\/strong>. Both Testarossa<\/span><\/a> and Hahn<\/span><\/a> offered a captivating 2016 Pinot Noir<\/strong>, while the decidedly understated Blair Estate<\/span><\/a> contrasted their excellent 2013 Pinot Noir Delfina\u2019s Vineyard<\/strong> with an equally compelling 2013 Pinot Noir The Reserve<\/strong> from the same proprietary vineyard.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Winemakers\u2019 Celebration afforded me my first opportunity to explore a number of wineries lining Carmel-by-the-Sea\u2019s cordoned-off 7th Street. Jackson Family Wines\u2019 Carmel Ridge<\/span><\/a><\/span> is probably best noted for its joint venture in producing Drew Barrymore\u2019s\"Barrymore\" wines after her less-than-stellar vintages originating from Italy at the beginning of this decade. Now calling Monterey home, these wines included her 2017 Ros\u00e9 Of Pinot Noir<\/strong> alongside Carmel Ridge\u2019s 2015 East Bend Chardonnay<\/strong> and their 2014 First Row Pinot Noir<\/strong>. Another collaboration, Seabold Cellars<\/span><\/a> had included the late Peter Figge at the helm;m his deft topuch was evident in their 2015 Monterey County Chardonnay<\/strong> and 2015 Monterey County Pinot Noir<\/strong>, as well as the newly released 2017 Riesling <\/strong>and 2017 Ros\u00e9<\/strong>.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

An old pro with a new label, Ian Brand has folded his acclaimed Le P\u2019tit Paysan<\/strong> and Marea<\/strong> labels into I. Brand & Family<\/span>. Needless to say, I was equally impressed with a crisp 2017 Albari\u00f1o Kristy Vineyards<\/strong>, the 2016 Jack\u2019s Hill Chardonnay<\/strong>, his 2015 Grenache Brosseau Vineyard<\/strong>, and the 2017 Ros\u00e9<\/strong>, a predominantly Mourv\u00e8dre blend , with Grenache and Cinsault. <\/span><\/p>\n

In a resurrection of a different sort, Big Sur Vineyards<\/span><\/a>, which was lost to the 2016 wildfires, has arisen like the phoenix with its Carmel Valley facility. Owner Lenora Carey poured a generous selection of her vintages, starting with her 2015 Monterey County Chardonnnay<\/strong>, the 2016 Ros\u00e9<\/strong> vinted from Cinsault and Grenache, a robust 2013 Pinot Noir <\/strong>from the slopes of the Laureles Grade in Monterey, a 2015 Syrah<\/strong>, and her proprietary 2015 Big Sure Red Wine<\/strong>, a delightful m\u00e9lange of Grenache, Syrah and Petite Sirah. All in all, it was good to have her back and running strong once again. <\/span><\/p>\n

As it was so good to see Monterey evolve so nicely. I was first introduced to the region in the mid-1980s when Ernest Gallo flew over the 10,000 acres he had under contract here in a prop plane and announced \u201cwe\u2019re not buying any of these grapes this year.\u201d Following that scramble came the nadir of the Coastal labels for brands like BV<\/span><\/a> and Robert Mondavi<\/span><\/a>. Fortunately, the evolution of the Santa Lucia Highlands turned Monterey\u2019s fortunes around, but with a terribly monolithic focus. The current expansion of both varietal selections and estate properties holds even greater promise for the Monterey AVA; I was more than jazzed I could partake in it.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is not often that Your West Coast Oenophile finds himself retreating on a position taken here. Actually, Sostevinobile has never not held the wines of Monterey County in high regard, but, in the past, I have taken some issue with what I perceived as an over-reliance on conformity, particularly within the Santa Lucia Highlands. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,16,45,7,15,12,14,41,82,3,1],"tags":[531,527,528,526,530,524,522,529,521,523,525],"class_list":["post-976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-albarino","category-chardonnay","category-cinsault","category-grenache","category-marsanne","category-mourvedre","category-pinot-noir","category-riesling","category-rose","category-syrah","category-uncategorized","tag-big-sur","tag-blair","tag-carmel-ridge","tag-hahn","tag-i-brand-family","tag-michaud","tag-scratch","tag-seabold","tag-shale-canyon","tag-silvestri","tag-testarossa"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=976"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":993,"href":"http:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions\/993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}