Mendocino Dreaming: Surfing and Sipping Parducci Wines

Cold, remote and rugged, the Mendocino Coast is full of empty (and sharky) surf spots.

Wine and waves are two of my favorite things in life. On a recent trip to Mendocino County, California, I got to enjoy both in the same day.

I was visiting with friends and family in Potter Valley, a small inland enclave that’s home to an increasing amount of vineyards. My mother, father, brother, sister and I all got up well before dawn and loaded up the car. My brother drove us up steep mountain roads lined with redwoods until we reached the coast. I’ve spent a lot of time in Mendocino — it’s one of my favorite places on the planet so far — but each time I catch a glimpse of the rugged, rocky coast, my stomach knots up with excitement.

The remote beach we chose was populated only by a handful of sleeping hippies. My brother and I suited up and paddled out into 50-degree waves. We surfed some frigid five-to-six foot beauties as the sun rose over the mountains to the west. After a few hours, I couldn’t feel my feet or move my lips, but I was in a state of complete bliss. Later that morning we hit up at a beach break at the mouth of the Big River and caught another hour’s worth of solid waves. When we couldn’t surf any more, we packed up the car and head inland.

A hillside Sauvignon Blanc vineyard in Potter Valley, Medoncino.

The next stop was Ukiah, home to one of my favorite Mendocino County winemakers, Parducci. I’ve spent many hours in the Parducci tasting room, sipping from their wide array of wines, touring the vineyards and winery. Still, Parducci is one of those places I’ll always come back to. Even though Parducci is a large producer, their tasting room is totally Mendocino: laid back, rustic, calm. I wore sandy flip-flops and a death metal T-shirt while others wore dusty boots and tank tops, and no one gave a damn. My tasting crew had grown to ten, including a baby in tow, and we all crowded around the bar to taste through Parducci’s portfolio. The tasting room attendant took care of our group like a pro, serving up decent-sized pours, answering questions, telling stories.

We started off with a few wines from Parducci’s Paul Dolan label, which is focused on organic and biodynamic fruit. Generally, the winery strives for organic grapes in most of their wines, but Paul Dolan wines fully embrace organic viticulture and winemaking. Paul Dolan also embraces the Potter Valley appellation on some of their labels. Much of the fruit from Potter goes into blends that sport a simple Mendocino County label, so it’s nice to see a producer trying to get the name of this appellation out there. I may be biased because I’ve spent a lot of time in Potter Valley and loved every minute of it, but I really think this is a special winegrowing region. Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir do very well here in the dry climate and long growing season. It gets hot during the summer, which allows the fruit to grow plenty ripe, but during my July trip the temperature dropped 45 degrees at night, which helps the wines maintain crisp acidity.

Here are my thoughts on the Parducci wines I tasted…

N.V. Paul Dolan Vineyards Brut - Mendocino County ($27)
Paul Dolan’s done a great job making a Mendocino Brut at a very reasonable price. This blend of 55% Pinot Noir and 45% Chardonnay smells of lemon, lime and freshly baked biscuits, a hint of butter. The palate is loaded with minerals and acid, backed up by crisp lime and green apple fruit. Very focused with delicate brioche and lemon butter undertones. Brisk, long finish. I’m impressed. (90 points)

2011 Paul Dolan Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc - Mendocino County, Potter Valley ($18)
It’s nice to see Paul Dolan embracing the Potter Valley label. This Sauvignon Blanc is a good example of what Potter can do with this grape. The wine smells of guava, honey, some flowers and just a whiff of chive. Juicy guava on the palate but the grapefruit and lemon flavors are zesty. I really appreciate the zippy acid and high minerality in this wine. Just a hint of grass, but this isn’t your average lawnmower New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. (88 points)

2011 Paul Dolan Vineyards Chardonnay - Mendocino County ($18)
Aromas of white flowers, brisk lemon and honey. Creamy on the palate with notes of whipped honey and nougat, but the citrus fruit keeps it tangy and balanced. A nice mineral tinge to the finish. Aged for five months in 15% new French oak and 85% stainless steel, giving the final wine a combination of richness and crispness. Well-done stuff. (88 points)

2010 Paul Dolan Vineyards Zinfandel - Mendocino County ($25)
Lots of stuff going on aromatically: a burst of wild strawberry and blackberry, mocha, pepper and an aroma that reminds me of dried hay or a briar patch or something. Anyway, it smells good. Loads of plums on the palate, a bit raisined perhaps, but not too much. Creamy tannins and medium acid come together to make this easy to sip and enjoy. Big, but not too overbearing. (87 points)

2010 Paul Dolan Vineyards Pinot Noir - Mendocino County, Potter Valley ($38)
Hey, this looks like Pinot! Light ruby color. A cranberry focus on the nose, along with spicy pepper notes, earth and sweet lavender. Beautifully aromatic and deserving of more than a tasting room sniff. On the palate, the acid is wonderfully brisk. Fine, creamy tannins support the fresh cranberry and cherry fruit. This shows some really interesting savory and earthy tones, and a bacon note lingers on the long finish. Elegant and light (with a moderate 13.5% alcohol content) but not simple in any way. I know Anderson Valley gets all the love, but I’m really digging Potter Pinot Noir. This wine is aged 19 months in 23% new oak barrels. (91 points)

I appreciate the way Parducci produces a range of wines at all sorts of price points. Their cheaper labels like the Small Lot Blends and Sketchbook are frequently good buys. I was also happy that the True Grit Petite Sirah made a showing at this tasting, as I’ve enjoyed previous vintages. In fact, it’s high up there on my list of best California Petite Sirahs.

2011 Parducci Pinot Noir Small Lot – California ($14)
I rarely recommend $14 Pinot Noirs. Well, here’s one. Light cranberry color is the first good sign. On the nose, strawberry jam mixes with rhubarb and subtle pepper. Fine tannins, crisp acid, a light and tangy approach. Strawberry and raspberry fruit with notes of vanilla and caramel. It’s not the most complex Pinot, but it does what it does very well. Harmonious and crowd-pleasing, it seems everyone at the tasting enjoyed this wine. (87 points)

2010 Parducci Cabernet Sauvignon Small Lot - Mendocino County ($14)
A combination of black and green pepper kicks off the nose, but there are also some saucy black cherry and currant aromas. Very creamy and silky on the palate with soft tannins for a Cabernet and medium acid. Currant and plum fruit is dusted with loam, bell pepper and toasty notes. Easy-drinking and a good Cab for $14. A blend of 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petite Verdot. (85 points)

2010 Parducci Grenache Reserve - Mendocino County ($27)
A cranberry-plum color with thick legs in the glass. Dense on the nose, rather closed at first. I let it sit, swirled it around, and started getting raspberries, caramel and spice notes. Rich but juicy on the palate. Nice mix of blueberry and cranberry fruit, along with hazelnut, tobacco and loam. This wine tasted riper and more forward than the other wines in this tasting, but it holds its ripeness well. Huge flavor packed in here. This is a really young wine that could benefit from a long decant or some cellar time. Aged 20 months in seasoned French and American oak. (88 points)

2010 Parducci Petite Sirah True Grit - Mendocino County ($29)
This is the best True Grit Petite Sirah I’ve tasted so far. Inky black-purple color with thunder thighs in the glass. Huge nose of blackberry puree and boysenberry but there are also some potpourri and lavender aromas that rock. Dense and lush on the palate with firm, grippy tannins. The plum and boysenberry fruit is rich and pure, and accented by notes of grilled steak, earth and charcoal. Long, dusty finish. This is a really young wine that would benefit from a decant, but it’s beautiful stuff. One of the best Petite Sirahs I’ve had in a long time. (91 points)

2010 Parducci Port Reserve - Mendocino County ($30)
Big and sweet on the nose, with prunes, plum cake, vanilla wafers and rich mocha. Actually quite silky on the palate, with medium tannins. Fig paste, prunes and brandied plums on the palate, with notes of caramel and nuts. A little heat from the alcohol, but it’s not too bad. Everyone at the tasting enjoyed this wine. Bring on the bleu cheese. A unique blend of 50% Souzao, 20% Tinta Cao, 17.5% fortified brandy and 12.5% Touriga Nacional. (88 points)

See you in Mendocino!

Shot-in-the-Dark Wines - $12 or Less

I’m always trying to get decent wine on the cheap. It’s been a mantra of mine since the wine bug bit me as a 21-year-old, broke-ass writer.

Over the years I’ve found lots of great bottles for less than $20. It's harder to find good wine under $15, and searching for good bottles that cost $12 or less borders on palate masochism. In this price range, I’ve found a lot of quaffable juice, but also some downright nasty vino. I buy up a lot of bargain-priced wines from different sources, paying much attention to the producer, region, vintage and storage conditions of the wine. But I buy such wines knowing that there’s no way to know exactly what I’m going to get in my glass. Especially when dealing with aged wines, there are simply too many variables in play to accurately predict how a wine is going to show. Of course, that’s part of the fun.

To illustrate my point, here are some recent shot-in-the-dark wines I’ve explored in the past few weeks, with varying degrees of success.

2004 Margerum Sauvignon Blanc Purisima Mountain Vineyard (California, Santa Ynez Valley)
An apple juice color in the glass. The aromas are unique, to say the least: honey, oil, grape seeds, melon rind. At first I could barely take a sip of this wine. It was sharp with bitter acid. I mean, it's not like I was expecting much from this wine. If anything, I was expecting an eight-year-old domestic sauvignon blanc to be undrinkable. That green bitterness is really strong at the start, but it slips away after two hours open. And, get this... it turns into a decent wine. There's some green apple and lime flavors, along with some hay. Medium-bodied, with some nougat and wax flavors that remind me of some aged chenin blanc. It’s not totally spent after all. A shot-in-the-dark wine I picked up for $8 with low expectations, it turned out to be a fun wine experience. 85 pts

1999 Homewood Winery Chardonnay Odmann Vineyard (California, Carneros) Well, this was definitely a shot-in-the-dark wine. I bought this $9 bottle with a strange curiosity and no expectation that it would be any good. Well, it wasn't any good. The nose smells like dried paint. I drank this with my parents, who both described it as smelling like a Crimean wine called massandra, and that makes sense because massandra an oxidized and off-dry white wine. The palate tastes sweet and oxidized as well. The acid is still present, and it's actually drinkable. But the brandied raisin flavors are strange, and probably not appealing to any normal human being. Interesting, but not "good" in any sense of the word. Score? I have no freakin' idea... no score

2005 Alma Rosa Pinot Gris La Encantada Vineyard (California, Santa Rita Hills)
Not much on the nose to start, some golden raisins, lemon. On the palate, this wine tastes a bit thin, the fruit a bit faded. This wine was bottled under screw-cap, which could've affected the wine as it aged for seven years. Flavors of apricot and nutshells, but the acid is really emhpasized. It's an odd enough wine to buy and try, and it's intellectually stimulating, but ultimately not a fully enjoyable experience. My girlfriend said, "This tastes like cheap wine that my dad would buy." Maybe this pinot gris had something going when it was released, maybe not. For $10, it was an interesting experience.
70 pts

1996 Parducci Cabernet Sauvignon Vineyard Select (California, Mendocino)
I've been a big fan of Mendocino, CA-based Parducci wines since I visited the winery in 2009. I've been a member of their wine list for a long time and drank many of their wines. So I was excited to find an older estate cabernet sauvignon at auction for a whopping $8. Cranberry-cassis color in the glass. Nose: creamy currants, some subtle dried leaves and oak. On the palate, the tannins are still firm and solid at sixteen years of age. Fresh currant flavors, as well as dried rose petals, vanilla. There is some creamy oak in here, but the flavors are well-integrated. I was really surprised by the power and youth of this wine. Delicious. My mother guessed it as a California cabernet from the aromas alone. I was quite impressed! What a unique find.
89 pts

A Chorus of Mendocino County Wines

My brother Zeke and his wife Bekah have been on a cross-country road trip from California to the East Coast by way of Utah, Chicago, Detroit and Ohio. After a weekend at Belmar Beach, the New Jersey town my brother and I grew up in, we came down to DC for a wine party I organized. The theme: "Mostly Mendocino."

It was the wedding of Zeke and Bekah that first brought me to Mendocino County, California. Since then, I've fallen in love with the region. I've toured many vineyards and tasting rooms: Breggo, Parducci, Roederer Estate, Nelson Family, Tahto, McFadden,Yorkville Cellars. I hiked through vineyards in Potter Valley and helped the maker of Tahto wines crush his chardonnay. I explored the redwoods and the rugged coast. Mendocino County is an enchanting place, and many wine producers seem capable of bottling that enchantment. So, I figured, since my family was in town, I'd open some Mendocino County wines. I was surrounded by great people and great wines, so it was obviously quite a night.

2007 Syrahs

I had two 2007 syrahs from Mendocino, both from producers I know, visited and loved. I figured it would be fun to open them together. These wines were drained quickly.

• 2007 Parducci Syrah - Mendocino County
  this was the first wine of the evening, and the crowd loved it. it smells like earth and bright red fruit. the palate is fresh and lively, with plum and spicy red fruit. candy apple red and licorice on the finish. zeke and bekah really liked this wine. i love parducci wines, and this is a great bargain at $20 (89 pts.)
• 2007 Breggo Cellars Syrah - Anderson Valley
  this wine showed really well and was a great contrast with the 2007 parducci syrah. aromas of spiced clove, bacon and plum sauce. the palate has great acid and smoothness. wonderful balance. delicious plum flavors and some earth on the finish. (90 pts.)

Coros

Coro means chorus in Italian and Spanish. The term sums up the idea behind this collective group of wines: producers working together with common goals and grapes to make delicious wines, each with its own distinctiveness. Coro is kind of like a winemaking club. If you make an amazing wine with zinfandel, syrah, grenache and a few other grapes, and you submit it to this organization, you just might be able to label a bottle of your wine "Coro." The labels are striking similar, even from different producers and vintages. I love zinfandel and Rhone varietals like syrah and grenache. These wines were all very different, but all intriguing in their own right. They paired wonderfully with a wide array of creamy cow cheeses, although, to be honest, the Parducci Coros would have gone well with chocolate or dates and nuts.

• 2005 Parducci Coro Mendocino - Ukiah Valley
  the first coro of the evening impressed a lot of people. the nose is gorgeous: dates, port, prunes and raisins. the palate is absolutely gushing with fruit. it's like chocolate pie and raspberry tart. smooth finish. this is a really fruit-forward, unashamed wine. it is what it is, but this hit the spot. 60% zinfandel, 25% syrah and 15% petite sirah. (89 pts.)
• 2006 Parducci Coro Mendocino - Ukiah Valley
  the 2006 coro was much different than the 2005. the nose showed raspberries, plum cake and cinnamon disk candies. this is bright and tangy on the palate. shows great smoothness. the 2006 is made up of 55% zinfandel, 20% syrah, 15% petite sirah, and 10% grenache. (88 pts.)
• 2007 Guinness McFadden Coro Mendocino - Mendocino County
  the 2007 guinness mcfadden coro was also very different. lots of vanilla on the nose, along with a medley of fresh red and black fruit. fresh and silky on the palate. smooth and lucious with bold fruit. the acid and solid tannic structure in this wine keeps it balanced. very impressive effort. thanks, zeke and bekah, for bringing this great bottle. 60% zinfandel, 27% syrah, 13% petite sirah. (91 pts.)

Three California Reds

Well, we didn't just stick to Mendocino. I've been a fan of the Sonoma Coast and Paso Robles, and this flight showcased three solid wines.

• 2007 A.P. Vin Pinot Noir Kanzler Vineyard - Sonoma Coast 

  

  

  Three Bakers: Zeke (left), me, and Priscilla (right)

  
  i had this in 2009, but this wine has softened down since then. the nose is absolutely intoxicating with its ripe, gushing fruit. it's a bit candied, but i still enjoy it. zeke, bekah, me and a whole lot of others really loved this wine. (90 pts.)
• 2007 Tahto Petite Sirah Limited Production Reserve - Potter Valley
  this bottle was another one of zeke's contributions to the tasting. the nose is inky and dark. i love the boldness of this wine, its dark fruit, and the meaty note on the finish. (90 pts.)
• 2009 J. Lohr Cabernet Sauvignon Seven Oaks - Paso Robles
  this wine wasn't from mendocino, but we threw it into the tasting. this wine is always a solid, fruity cabernet. smooth tannins and some toasty oak. never great, but always crowd-pleasing. (85 pts.)