John Steinbeck would have no problem finding Hollister, California, or making his way through the nearby Cienega Valley to taste the fruit of the vines that grow upon the slopes of the Gabilan Mountains or in the valley of the Salinas River.  But, how many of the wine tourists that crowd the tasting rooms of Napa Valley would know where to begin to look for Hollister or the Cienega Valley?

Off the beaten path and under the radar of the masses who travel to more trodden wine destinations, Hollister and the Cienega Valley offer the thirsty traveler in search of fine wine a trove of affordable treasures.  Located on the San Andreas Fault in the northern half of California’s Central Coast AVA, Cienega Valley may well be the most unspoiled wine country in California.

Calera is perhaps the region’s most recognizable name and the most lauded winery in Steinbeck country. Year in and year out, Calera’s wines are consistent favorites among critics and consumers, especially its award-winning Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays.  Who knew that Calera wasn’t in Napa or Sonoma?

Pietra Santa is another Cienega Valley jewel.  Pietra Santa’s Tuscan-born winemaker, Alessio Carli, possesses a magic touch with Sangiovese, as the estate’s recently released 2010 Pietra Santa Sangiovese will attest.  Equally compelling is Pietra Santa’s Sassolino, a delicious, age-worthy super Tuscan red consisting of a blend of Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Recent Pietra Santa Signature Selection Pinot Noirs merit special attention, too, as does the 2014 Pietra Santa Estate Chardonnay and Amore Pinot Grigio, easily one of California’s finest Pinot Grigios. In addition, remember that Léal and Derose are two other noteworthy Cienega Valley wineries.

If you are in search of a wide variety of high-quality California wines at affordable prices, wander the road less taken and beat a path to Cienega Valley.

For nearly a half century Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon have captured America’s palates and become its most beloved wines. It’s not that other wine varietals or blends have not enjoyed their ascendency and even ridden tides of popular demand (i.e. Merlot, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Zinfandel, etc.). Rather, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon have never fallen out of favor as the United States Department of Agriculture will attest. According to USDA records, California alone had 300 grape varietals and 496,313 acres of wine grapes under cultivation in 2014, of which 185,798 acres were either Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon. These two ever popular varietals account for more than 37% of the total wine grape plantings in California, the source of the vast majority of wine consumed in the United States.

Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon immigrated to the United States more than a century ago from their native France. Chardonnay hails from France’s Burgundy and Champagne regions where it gained fame as the world’s most prestigious white grape varietal, while Cabernet Sauvignon is indigenous to southwest France and Bordeaux, in particular, where it figures predominantly in many of Bordeaux’s greatest red wines (Châteaux Haut-Brion, Lafite, Latour, Margaux and Mouton among others). From its native France, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon have traveled the world, gaining adherents everywhere, but nowhere more than in the United States where the names Chardonnay and Cabernet have become nearly synonymous terms for white and red wine.

California remains the source of most of America’s greatest Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon wines, with Napa and Sonoma counties enjoying top billing. However, savvy consumers need to know that some of California’s most compelling and often most affordable Chardonnays and Cabernets emanate from small family owned wineries in the big two appellations as well as from wineries outside of Napa and Sonoma. Anderson Valley in Mendocino County, Arroyo Seco and the Santa Lucia Highlands of Monterey County, as well as many areas of Santa Barbara County all fashion outstanding California Chardonnay, while Lake County in northern California and California’s Central Coast (Paso Robles in particular) are increasingly sources of exceptional Cabernet Sauvignons at prices some of us can still afford, so enjoy!

Salud!
Don

Rosé wines seem to be all the rage once again.  Gone is the stigma of the pink drink and memories of sweet, low alcohol, innocuous White Zinfandels, which weren’t white and barely rosé, either.  Today’s rosé wines come in all shades of pink, from a barely perceptible blush from leading Provencal rosé producers, to deeply colored concoctions made from Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.  Rosés can be made from any number of grape varietals, and they can range in residual sugar from bone dry to quite sweet.  Today’s consumers tend to eschew sweet rosé wines in favor of dry versions, which have been popular among Europeans for generations.  In fact, the French drink more dry rosé wine today than white wine.

Methods for Making Rosé

Rosé wines can be made in several ways.  They can be made exclusively from one or more red grape varieties that spend just enough time on their skins after crushing to impart color and a bit of flavor (remembering that it is the skin of the grape that determines a wine’s color, not its juice).  The longer the red varietal’s skins remain in contact with the juice or must, the greater the wine’s color.  When red skins are removed soon after contact, rosé rather than red wine results.  This is the most common method of producing rosé.

Rosé can also be made by adding a small amount of red wine in the form of a completely fermented wine or as unfermented juice to white wine. This practice is rarely done today, except in Champagne, where small amounts of Pinot Noir or Pinot Meunier are often added to white Champagne to create rosé Champagne.  The two then marry in the bottle as the wine undergoes secondary fermentation.

Almost any red grape variety can produce rosé.  Some of the most common grape varietals are Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Cinsault (Rhône and Southern French varietals known for producing the bone dry rosés of Provence and nearby Languedoc), Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Zinfandel. Almost all wine-producing countries make some rosé wine from local or international varietals.  Garnacha (Grenache) and Tempranillo in Spain produce excellent dry rosés, as do Sangiovese and Nebbiolo in Italy.  Cabernet, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Syrah and Zinfandel based rosés predominate in California, many of which are deliciously dry.  So pick your pink pleasure, indulge yourself and enjoy!

Don